I know I am not, but I know I AM

BIG GOD, little me

Can we comprehend that we are not the centre of the universe? How many times have we tried to be the centre of attention with God? The peer pressure around us keeps us wanting to be bigger, to be known, to be on top and even to leave a legacy.

God's Top 3
God is committed to His glory
God is committed to our redemption purpose
God is committed to our best

My Top 3
Me and my happiness
My happiness
My happiness

Louie Giglio, in the third part of the Canvas DVD, said that we need to put God back into perspective. I am tiny, miniscule, transient and microscopic compared to the creator of the universe, the BIG GOD who put it all together. Everything in this universe is all about God whose name is "I AM" which comes from the verb "to be".

HE MUST INCREASE, i must decrease

God is not trying to deflate us; it is just that we have made ourselves bigger than God. God can't work with us if we are full of ourselves. If we can do it in our own power then we don't need God. It is only when we see just how tiny we are next to Awesome God, then God can work through us and none of us can get in His way. This is God's story, and He chose for us to be in it. It does not matter how small we are for "I AM" says he would go with us. He is all we need.

I am not, but He knows my name.
I am not, but He has pursued me in His love.
I am not, but I have been purchased and redeemed.
I am not, but I have been invited into The Story.
I am not, but I know the Creator of the universe.
I am not, but I know I AM!

If your problems are too BIG than your God is too small.

To the Glory of God, the Father

The wonderful cross, it removes us as the central player and puts God back in the middle. That is what Andy Stanley conveyed to us in the second part of the Canvas.

Andy started by telling us that when God finished painting the universe, he handed mankind the brush. God gave us a choice of where we wanted to be. We, with the brush in hand, told God we did not like his agenda. We hijacked God's glory and painted ourselves in the middle of creation and God off to one side. Just in reach so if we get into trouble we can bring him out to fix things then put him back when we don't need him. JI Packer, in his book "Hot Tub Religion" wrote "we have recast Christianity into a mould that stresses happiness above holiness, blessings here above blessedness hereafter, health and wealth as God's best gifts, and death, especially early death, not as thankworthy deliverance from the miseries of a sinful world, but as the supreme disaster, and a constant challenge to faith in God's goodness". We want a God that makes us feel good and comfortable. We want the glory.

Get serious.

What if you were God?

After making the whole universe and making a people to bring glory to you, your creation rebels. Wouldn't you want to just swot them aside and start over? That is how we humans would have handled it, but not God. Everything He does is for His glory. God took the tragedy of sin and leveraged it for His own glory. In the middle of time, at a precise point, God stepped in and sent His Son, His only Son to lay aside His birthright and became a man to die a cruel death.

When a king would willingly die for his subjects, it tells us something about the king not the subjects.

Amazing Love by Chris Tomlin

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken,
I'm accepted, You were condemned.
I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me,
Because You died and rose again.

Amazing love,
How can it be
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love,
I know it's true.
It's my joy to honour You,
In all I do, I honour You.

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken,
I'm accepted, You were condemned.
I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me,
Because You died and rose again.

You are my King
Jesus You are my King

Glory to God

Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is and is to come
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is and is to come

Worthy, worthy, worthyi
s the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is and is to come
Worthy, worthy, worthy
is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is and is to come

Glory, glory, glory
To the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is and is to come
Glory, glory, glory
To the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is and is to come

Glory, glory, glory
To the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is and is to come

Last week when we started home cell again with the first part of the Canvas called Glory by Louie Giglio, I was in the busiest week of this year yet. So busy, that I did not have time to spend with God. I had to finish my project at African Defence Systems before the contract ended and at the same time look for more work. I was too busy looking out for myself than looking out for God. I was in the driver's seat of my life.

Louie said that God is working on a canvas of our lives so that we can bring glory to Him. While Louie spoke a lady was painting on a canvas a beautiful picture of the splendour of God's creation. And at the end Louie took his hand and put it in black paint and made a messy smudge on the canvas. He then said that was us, taking what God has created and messing it up, Big Time.

How can we bring glory to God in that?

God has a plan that our minds cannot fathom. A plan to bring glory. But I was not keeping still enough for God to use me to bring glory. No matter how busy we have been, God never takes an eye off of us for a second and is always working on the canvas of our lives.

Your love has captured me,
Your grace has set me free,
Your life the air I breathe,
Be glorified in me.

You set my feet to dancing,
You set my heart on fire,

In the presence of a thousand kings
You are my one desire,
And I stand before You now
With trembling hands lifted high,
Be glorified.

A wise man once said "If you're too busy to spend time with God, then you're too busy!"