Before the Beginning

3 Purposes

Why did God create us? Was it because He needed another automaton to control so He could feel more Godlike? Was it because He thought He something was missing? No.  To understand His purpose we must go before the beginning. Before God created the universe and us, God was not lonely. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–the Three in One– ived in perfect relationship, perfect fellowship, perfect community.

John 1:1 gives us a veiled glimpse into this rich fellowship that God had with Himself:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

“The Word” is Jesus, the Son of God. John writes that the Son of God was “with” His Father. John doesn’t use the typical Greek word for with. Instead, he uses the word pros. In selecting the word pros, John shows us that Jesus was not merely existing alongside the Father but that there was deep intimacy between them. Pros carries with it the meaning toward or facing a thing.

With this language, John paints a beautiful picture for us. Before anything was created, Jesus the Son was always turned toward the Father in intimate, personal relationship. The three persons of the Trinity enjoyed one another. God was fully satisfied in “hanging out” with Himself. He lacked nothing. He had no needs outside of Himself. He didn’t need to create us to be fulfilled or to give Him something to do on a particularly quiet day in Heaven. Thomas Scirghi offers us a beautiful metaphor of what God was doing before the beginning, “In love, the Father and Son [were] intertwined like dancers moving to the music of the Spirit.” God was having a eternal party with Himself.

If everything was perfect as it was, why did God create us?  

God is love (1 John 4:8 mouseover vs) and love always gives of itself. God, in love,  wanted to create the opportunity for us to share in the richness of the fellowship He was experiencing with Himself. If you are a parent, you can relate to this in some measure. You don’t have children because you are unhappy. You have children because you want to share the richness of our fellowship with them.  In this giving spirit, God created the heavens and the earth and put us, humankind, as the centerpiece of His creation. He wanted to multiply the eternal community and offer us the abundant, eternal life He was experiencing.

God’s Original Purpose for Us, Made Simple

3 Purposes, Biblical Insight, Purpose 1, Purpose 2, Purpose 3

God has a purpose for creating us. In the garden of Eden, He tells us that purpose through a narrative of humanity in a perfected state, unstained by sin. This is what our full humanity is to look like. These purposes are what God is moving us towards, even as sin and addiction fights against it. This is what we are battling for  in the beautiful fight.  Many times, we approach Genesis 1-3 as a modern Christians wearing our apologetic sunglasses. Our main purposes seems to be using the text for wrestling with those who are of a naturalistic evolutionary bent. This is a huge mistake, for this is not the prime reason Genesis 1-3 made it into our Bibles. YES, God is Creator of all things. That fact is vital.  (And whether you believe it occurred in six literal days or leave open the potential it happening over billion of years does not matter to me. In fact, for the point I am making here, your view of whether there was one literal Adam and Eve or the first couple were a metaphorical type of humanity doesn’t  matter, though I fall into the first camp.

 God established three purposes for us that are clearly seen in the story of Adam and Eve in Eden.

P1. To fellowship with God as we realize the nearness of His presence.

Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day

P2. To live in authentic community (relationships), and to multiply that community by including others.

Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Genesis 1:28 …And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…

P3. To rule and reign on His behalf, by bearing and reflecting His image (character).

Genesis 1:26-28

    Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
    So God created man in his own image,
        in the image of God he created him;
        male and female he created them.
    And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Throughout The Wretched Saint blog, I will reflect on the 3 purposes and what it means for recovery and the beautiful fight. You can follow this series by clicking on the category drop down category menu at the right. As I reflect on my own brutal yet beautiful fight to be who God desires me to be, I am realizing my processing of what sin–both Adam’s and my own–has done to distort these three purposes AND what God has done, is doing, and will do to restore me to His original perfected purposes is crucial to victory and freedom.

The Serentity Prayer: Reflections

Addiction, Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

–Reinhold Niebuhr

Lord, help me realize the beautiful fight is not fought in years or months or even days, but in minutes, even seconds. Let me swing the sword one stroke at a time. Let me fully and responsibly act on what is in my sphere of change and to release to You, Lord, what is not. Let those who love me do the same, so as not to take ownership of what only I can truly own. Give me the wisdom to see the difference in what is core and causative to the nature of my fight and what are outward manifestations and symptoms, spending my time and energy on core issues. Let me deal with root causes and not merely correlations. Let me take the long-look on the hope of glorification and perfection without need of fight in the next life, and let that hope affect current decisions.  Let me see the fight as beautiful in that it allows me to know I am alive, You are with me, and not abandoning me as you form the image of Christ in me. Let me see it as brutal in knowing their is an enemy who seeks my demise. Let me not miss moments of joy in the midst of the battle.  And mostly, let me trust in You each second. Amen.

Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Victories

Addiction, Note to Self

Don’t let anyone steal my victories–no matter how small they seem.

When you are an addict your failures are highly visible but your victories are not. No one knows the times that I didn’t act out, that I gained a small victory. To them I am just being normal, doing what you should do. But for me, this is a part of the beautiful fight to resist temptation and hold onto victories no matter how small. Don’t let anyone take victories from you. They are key to your recovery and sense of hope.  Don’t let the enemy take them from you, don’t let a slip take them from you and don’t even let well-meaning loved ones take them from you. Those times when I were tempted and resisted, no one knows the fullness of except me and Jesus. No one but God knows the real internal battles won. Others do have a right to speak into my life, to offer challenge and encouragement–and I need to listen intently. But I shouldn’t let challenges or rebuke  override some victories I know I have had–no matter how small they seem to others. Listen to others, yes. But realize God will ultimately affirm and judge me. I shouldn’t overly expect cheers for the small battles won against sin, because rarely are they outwardly visible. And to maintain a proper perspective, help me realize these victories are not to be jewels in a crown of pride, but stepping stones of hope for future victories. Fight on!

My Story: The Event and the Lie, How The Battle Started

Addiction

I heard a teaching recently where a pastor shared that every stronghold in our life starts with an event that we, in our flesh, or Satan, convinces us to distort. We then bite on the lie. I am finally slowing down and asking, what was the lie I bought in to? For me it wasn’t a singular event–at least I don’t think it was. Things happened yes. My biting the bait of a lie was tied to events–plural.

Growing up I never comfortable in my own skin. I felt very comfortable in my own brain. Being touted as Continue reading My Story: The Event and the Lie, How The Battle Started →

Not Just a “Simple” Decision For Josh Hamilton or Whitney Houston (or Me)

Addiction

How does an addict on the precipice of divorce, destruction, or even death keep making poor decisions? To most who watched Josh Hamilton or Whitney Houston make choices, they simply say, “Why didn’t they just chose something different?” If it were only that simple. The choice is still given to us who wrestle with addiction, but it must be realized that there is a brain-chemistry element going on as well. Few who have never wrestled with addiction will ever be able to understand this. Even our closest loved ones get very frustrated with us. They asked, “If you loved us, how you could you could relapse once again? To them the equation is simply:

If love us > love yourself = you won’t relapse.

If love youself > love us = you’ll relapse.

But if you have an addiction, you wonder why this straightforward equation doesn’t seem to work in your own brain. You long for it to work like this. You so wish it were that simple. I have questioned my own soul at this very point. How can I head toward participating in something that I abhor even as I head toward it. At times, my addiction feels like I was heading to put my hand on the stove with a strange mixture of curiosity and fear, yet I went ahead and did it knowing the pain and consequences that might occur. I am willing to bet Josh Hamilton and Whitney Houston thought the same thing as they tipped up a mug or heard the crack of the prescription pill bottle lid, a mixture of dread and delight. That is the wretched part of addiction.

That doesn’t let us out of the decision. It simply makes it more complex one than a non-addict understands. God never promises us an easy escape in 1 Corinthians 10:13 (<-mouseover), but one nevertheless. We DO have Christ’s power available to us through daily and momentary surrender to Him.

My prayers go out to the family of Whitney Houston and to Josh Hamilton and family. Fight on Josh.

Never Too Late, A Lesson for Thieves

Biblical Insight, Repentance

It’s never too late to start heading in the right direction. Seth Godin

See also, the thief on the cross, in the last seconds of life.

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:32-43 (mouseover)

Whether I have one breath left or a little over half my life, it is never to late to start. To fully engage in the beautiful and brutal fight. My particular fight involves addiction among other things. Yours? I must start with no guarantee of outcomes–restored marriage, etc–whether I will engage or rail against my circumstances. I have life in my bones, Lord, so remember ME this day in your Kingdom!

My Prayer, A Beginning

Prayer, ,

If I trust in my own strength for the beautiful fight, I am done in already. I must learn to trust in His strength yet apportion it as my own. Christ in me the hope of glory. Yet this is one of the most difficult things to do. In all honesty, I get lost in this. “Let go, let God” doesn’t seem to work but neither does attempting to willpower my way to victory. I am thinking that this isn’t a continuum between the two, but there exists a third way which I have not truly discovered.

So all I know to do at this point is echo the prayer of Gungor. Mere theological reason, while important, is not of itself sufficient for my victory.

Welcome Wretched Saints to the Beautiful Fight

Blog News

Welcome fellow wretches and saints. Visit the about page to discover the purpose of this blog. I invite you to benefit and bless through your participation in this blog. The fight against our flesh is both brutal and beautiful. The surrender to become who we are declared to be in Christ runs counter to both our sin nature and a world that says, “Why do you struggle so? Just go with what seems natural.” But there is good news–what is also called the Gospel, God calls you a saint even in the middle of your wretchedness. Join fellow pilgrims on the journey to transformation.

So whether you are winning, weary or both–you are welcome here.