Finding God's Plan for Our Lives

Are you teaching your children that God has a purpose for their lives? Are you teaching them to fulfill their destinies? I heard Charles Stanley say that we should tell our children every day that God has a purpose for their lives. Good advice, but do we teach them that God has a specific plan for them?
A familiar scripture, Jeremiah 29:11, says, "I know the plans I have for you...", but what scripture tells us God has a plan for us? Does God have one plan -- one destiny -- for everyone?
The Bible says that God sees our whole lives before they happen. He saw us before we were born, knows everything we are going to say and do, and knows how many days we have. Somehow, God in his Wisdom knows what we are going to do, yet he has given us free will so that it is our choice. He knew you would read this column before you were born, but he didn’t make you read it, that was your decision, he just knew you were going to make it. Perhaps God has given us all certain interests and bents, and then uses them to point us where he wants us to go.
What the Bible teaches is that God's plan is to present us in heaven without fault and with great joy (Jude 24), his purpose for us is to build the Kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20) while we love Him and love each other (Matthew 22:37-38). His will is that we be perfect (Matthew 5:48). Anything short of that just falls, well, short.
So, does God have a plan for my life on earth or not? Does God have a plan for my children's lives or not? I think the right question is: "Am I living in harmony with God's plan?" The right thing is to realize that I am just a pixel in God's big picture. I am just a thread in God's master tapestry. (But God loves me individually.)
My goal, then, is to do my best at what I am, where I am. To grow where I'm planted. To ask each and every day if I am loving God most and building his kingdom on earth. That's where true joy comes from -- knowing that I have that purpose.
I think we put extra pressure on our children if we stress that they have some great job to do. The Bible teaches that we should do whatever we do for God, but it doesn't teach that everyone should preach or go to Africa as a missionary. Yes, we should share our faith, but that may or may not be our vocation.
Whether my children become plumbers, lawyers, teachers, office workers or preachers, they can still live out their purposes. They may do something really spectacular, like curing a disease or becoming an evangelist, or they may just live quiet lives loving God and their families. Either way, I'll be pleased.
We're not God's pets, robots or puppets. He gave us our own minds. Many things shape what we become. God somehow uses that to weave his master plan. Only a God powerful enough to create a universe could do that. I think God's true plan for us will only be revealed in heaven. Any plan for us on earth is stained by this fallen world. Some people are murdered -- could that really be God's plan for them? It's a deep and difficult issue and I'll leave it to God to sort out.
I'm teaching my children to fulfill God's will, sure, but I'm also encouraging them to do what they really want to do. I'm reminding them that they have a purpose, but finding God's plan is a little more tricky. I want them to delight in God, then follow their hearts. If they do that, they will have fulfilled their destinies and somehow fit nicely into God's master design.

Paradise Lost and Restored

If you were God, how would you handle the world and people in it? You are the creator of the universe and have absolute power. What would you do? Me? Well, I would create paradise and walk in person with my people. They would have every need provided, never shed a tear, and have a warm, loving relationship with me forever.
Isn’t that what God did? But there was a problem and he knew there would be. He knew that the people would have to have free will in order to truly love him back. Love cannot be coerced or manufactured, it must be freely given. I can’t make my wife and children love me, it must be their choice. And God wants us to love him. The Bible says it is the most important commandment.
So God gave us free will, knowing full well that we would choose to rebel against his authority. That’s how important love is. The price? Paradise lost. That’s the incredible story of the Bible in a nutshell: Paradise Lost and Paradise Restored.
God knew subsequent generations would need to see and touch him in order to believe he exists. So, he used prophets to announce that he would come and walk among us. And then he did. Because God is God, he is absolute holiness, so he cannot overlook rebellion – if he could he would not be truly holy, and therefore, he would not be God. So, someone had to pay for our sins so we can have a right relationship with him. God took care of that on the cross. How would he prove it was really him walking among us? Miracles and rising from the dead should do it.
But he isn’t going to come to each generation and walk with us. If he did, we would be back in paradise, and paradise doesn’t fit into a fallen world. So, he left witnesses to tell us he came and walked with us. The only question is, are the witnesses reliable? We have two thousand Greek manuscripts, extra-biblical writings, the emergence and growth of the church, conversion of the skeptics, and some 350 internal prophecies fulfilled testifying that the scripture can be trusted.
If you were God, would you come and walk with each generation? Would you die for each generation? Or would you place your Spirit in their hearts? (Remember, you are an omnipotent God)
Nature tells us there is a God. Only a fool would deny that. The big bang is an empirically-proven fact. Something outside the universe had to cause it. The only way a person could not see this is if he refused to. The incredible diversity and complexity of life on earth tells us there is a designer. Only a fool would deny that. Computer code doesn’t write itself and neither does DNA code.
But which god? The internal prophesies that Jesus fulfilled, and the evidence of his resurrection show that the God of the Bible is the right one.
We must experience some suffering now, but God has told us that he will walk with us and that this life is only temporary. Our true existence is back in paradise with him. There, he will walk in person with us in a warm, loving relationship forever.
Again, how would you do things differently if you were God? Would you treat the people you created like pets? Would you treat them like robots? Or would you give them free will and the capacity to truly love you back (more like children)? Would you allow everyone into your heaven – or would you screen out those who chose not to love you?
My mind is finite and God’s is infinite, but I’m trying to understand why he has veiled himself from us so that only the humble will find him – and why we need faith. When I think it through, it really does make sense.

Crown of Thorns Galaxy

1. Have you seen this? What an awesome sight for Easter.

This photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Wow!

B-17 and B-24 Bombers!

I escorted some Palestine High School students out to the airport today to see these awesome WWII Bombers. They also had a P-51 Mustang and Vietnam-era Huey Helicopter. I really enjoyed going through these crafts. We got to watch the pilots fire up the airplanes and take off. This was especially special to me because my great-uncle, Jake Lively, flew in a B-24 over Italy during WWII.

Water Snake

We were at the Palestine Dogwood Trails today and saw this water snake. I'm not sure what kind it is, but I think it's too colorful to be a cotton mouth. We didn't get close enough to make sure, but I'm pretty sure it is a harmless water snake of some sort. It was about 2 feet long. If you know what kind it is, write and let me know.

Dogwood Trees 09

Here in Palestine we celebrate the Dogwood Trails every Spring. Today was the first day of spring and the dogwoods are beautiful. I took this in our Dogwood Trails Park. This is a big jpeg file so you can save it and use it for your desktop if you wish.

Great American Artists

Has America produced any great artists? My son read in a book at school that some critics have stated that America has yet to produce a truly great artist. "But not to worry," it said, "America is still a young country." The book was written in the '70's.
So, do you agree? Michaelangelo, Bach, Beethoven, Shakespeare, and Di Vinci are all European. Has America produced a Shelly or Keats? A Picasso?
First, we must agree that the artist must be appreciated by his or her vertical audience -- by people after his or her death. We might be ga ga about some artist who is hot right now, but how will we feel about him 50 or 100 years from now?
How about Washington Irving? Or Steinbeck or Hemingway or Emily Dickinson? How about Mark Twain? Haven't their works stood the test of time? Then there's the artwork of the Wyeth's. I love their work, but I've seen critics call them too realistic. I think Andrew Wyeth was a great artist -- and not just a great American artist.
To be considered great, an artist would need to influence his peers, and change the culture. That being the case, the early rock and roll artists should be considered.
Still in the area of music, I submit the great hymn-writer Fanny Crosby. I also wonder about Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. I would like to submit Mark Heard as a truly great artist. He died a few years back. My favorite artists are Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, but they are still living. I was a sophomore in high school when my brother brought home "Aja". I was reading "The Great Gatsby" at the time (another great American writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald). I would lie on my bed, reading the book (I had to read it for an English Literature class), and listen to the album over and over. It was an amazing harmony of song and literature. They call that prosody - when lyrics match the music. In this case, the words on the page matched the music in my ears which matched the lyrical tone.
My son read this blog and pointed out that we have movie-making artists these days, too. Should any of them, be they actors, directors, or producers, be considered as great artists?
What do you think about this? Do you think America has produced any truly great artists?