Capturing a God Moment
Capturing a God Moment
Easter – April 8, 2007
Capture a moment
– moments come along that are meaningful to us and we don’t want to let the
impact of that moment get away from us
There are times in our lives when we capture a moment that
changes everything. Maybe it is a photo,
or a song; it can be a painting or a memory.
We capture this moment and it is never far from our thoughts. I look at this photo and remember the
laughter of the moment and instantly I am back at this significant
experience, I hear that song and in my
mind I remember the fragrance of the moment and my heart is moved again.
It is in these moments that significant things happen and
shape us. They cause us to become the
people we are. These moments influence
how we look at future situations. We
interpret future experiences based on the moments that have shaped us in the
past.
Often these moments occur quiet unexpectedly, you come
around a corner and “ah ha”
There are times when God breaks in and things happen as
well. In those times those who respond
to him are never the same again. And
those who choose not to respond to God work to discount the moment all
together.
Times in humanity when God breaks into our lives and He
shows up. Times when God reveals
himself. These are some of the most
significant moments of our lives because the divine God has just encountered
our humanity.
When these times occur – how do you capture these
experiences.
If we do not capture those times they are lost like a great
Christmas morning with no camera, we can have a great experience but the
memories fade as other experiences take their places in our lives and before
long the joy, impact of those moments are lost.
For us to capture a moment when God breaks in it must be recognized, valued as
significant, make an impression on our hearts & minds and change us – they
way we live, the way we look at life, ourselves God and others.
There are a number of ways that God makes himself known to
us. If you were part of our Build up
this last Thursday, you heard how God reveals himself through General revelation – a revelation
that God is making himself known in ways that every person on earth can
encounter and recognize him
He reveals himself
through nature
Acts
2:19
I will show
wonders in the heaven above
and
signs on the earth below,
He reveals himself through providential circumstances
- Acts
He reveals himself through our conscious
Inner sense of right and wrong
Inner sense of the supernatural
There are also ways he has revealed himself specifically and
specially. Through nature, circumstances
and our conscious we can know God exists and is involved in life, in my life
but these ways are not sufficient for me to know him as I would know another
person.
I may know he is a great and powerful God because he shows
me the power of the ocean, or the deepness of the dark night sky. I may know something of his constancy as he
cares for the forest
I may know he is a God who is involved in the affairs of
life when he intervines in circumstances to show me he is near and cares about
each of us
I may know God because when I look at my child I know I love
them
But none of that really addresses the issue of my
relationship with him. I may know he is, I may know something about him, but I
can not know him like a child knows a Father.
Like I know my friend.
And while I can know something of him through an inner sense
of right and wrong, when I think about my involvement in that right / wrong
process I begin to run into problems.
What about the times I fall on the side of the ‘wrong’. I begin to look for some method to appease
that or justify it. If the judgement of
my wrong is completely up to me I can dismiss it easily enough, but even in
doing that I defy my conscious of what is right or wrong, the right is never
quite satisfied.
And my inner sense that says there is some supernatural God
can never truly be divorced from my inner morality.That is precisely why God chose to reveal himself through the
Bible, His word & his Son.
Jesus is inescapable
Directly south of Yellowstone National Park, and just to the
north of Jackson Hole Wy is a huge imposing fortress of stone called the Grand
Teton Mountains, a long and narrow range, rising to nearly 14,000 feet. They stretch for nearly 50 miles like the
sawtoothed backbone of a half buried prehistoric monster. It is one of the most photographed places in
North America, these mountains rise abruptly from the flat steeps of Wyoming
with a striking beautiful presence in every direction.
The Teton range is virtually impassable. If the summer is warm, there is one pass that
will open for a few weeks and let you travel east and west through the
backbone, otherwise you must drive at least an hour out of your way to get
around one of the largest outcropping of exposed stone in the world. Anywhere you look in the region, the Tetons
dominate the landscape.
The same way, when we scan the horizon of human civilization
for the last two thousand years, we see Jesus, the Son of God, confronting the
traveler like a huge mountain range.
Jesus has an enormous spiritual and historical presence, the dominate
influence in history. The curious, the
earnest or zealous travelers can not ignore or wish away the Jesus’ presence on
life landscape.
You can drive by – or around – the Tetons and recognize
their grandure and beauty, but not really take them in you.
Why is it some can see a master piece like the Sistine
Chapel or listen to Beethoven’s 5 Symphony and enjoy it and then go on with
their day and others are speechlessly moved to tears?
We can recognize something as significant but because we
don’t take it in and let it impact us
There have been many things happen in my life that were
extraordinary at the time but have long since evaporated from having an impact
on my life. Other extraordinary moments
have come along and have had a profound impact on my life, they have become
life shaping moments.
Like the moment I saw my bride standing at the back of the
church on our wedding day, a moment that has lingered not just in my memory but
something significant happened in that moment that changed my life for ever, my
enduring love for Diana was sealed.
Or the moment I held each of my children for the first time
and I realized they came from me and Diana – they were ours.
Or the moment watching my mother die, the woman who gave me
birth, and nurtured me, who guided my life into adulthood and was taken far too
early.
Or the moment when God spoke to me about changing the
direction of my life and calling me to bear lasting fruit for his kingdom.
They don’t all have to be so extraordinary, but can also be
quite ordinary, but still captured and have an impact on my life.
Like – cleaning a bathroom when I was tired and angry
because I wanted my wife to know that I loved her and was willing to put her
concerns ahead of my own.
Like – sharing my heart with a friend until the middle of
the night and seeing how God can bond two friends.
Like – playing basketball with my son and having a great
conversation
But for these moments to be captured and have an impact
several things must occur
- I must recognize them as significant
– my wedding day was significant
- I must ‘take them in’ – I
can drive down the road- Diana will say “pull over, I want a picture” to take it in means I think about it,
reflect on it
- I must allow them to make a
difference – I have to give the moment a place in my life – there
is a difference between taking a picture and putting it on my wall
- I must adjust my life to that
difference – learn – some parents never truly become parents, they
just put up with the rugrats – others allow their lives to be changed
because this child has come into my life.
The same must occur if I truly want to experience and
capture ‘God Moments’
God is at work around us all the time, Jesus said ‘my father
is always at work’, and the things God does is always significant to our human
experience, but that doesn’t mean you or I experience and capture those moments
The same things must occur for me to capture the
significance of what God is doing in and around my life.
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I must
recognize it as significant – coming from God – God breaks in
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I must be
willing to ‘take it in’ – accept it as true, real and for me
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I must be
willing to allow God to make a difference in my life
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I must be
willing to adjust my life to that difference.
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The most
significant thing God has done for each of us happens through His Son Jesus.
Rom. 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we
were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a
righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
If I want to experience God, the God of the Bible, I must
deal with His Son Jesus.
The entire revelation of who God is – what is important to
him, how I can know and experience him is found in Jesus – alone.
Eph. 2:1 As
for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you
followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the
spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at
one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its
desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when
we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and
seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he
might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to
us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is
by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is
the gift of God— 9 not by works,
so that no one can boast. 10 For
we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.
This
Jesus who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
And born
of a virgin
Who lived
a sinless life
Who
performed many miracles
This
Jesus who suffered and was condemned under Pontius Pilate
Was
crucified, dead and buried
Who rose
again on the third day from the grave
Who
ascended into heaven
And is
now at the right hand of the Father
This Jesus who stands incomparably
throughout human history
This Jesus who changes lives and
restores hope and joy and peace
The most significant ‘God moment’
of our lives and we can capture is the moment I enter into my relationship with
Jesus. For that to occur I must
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I must
recognize it as significant – Jesus came from God
Jesus came from Heaven to live
among us as a man
His death reconciles the inner struggle each of us deal with between the
desire to do what is good and right and our inability to live it. His death frees us from the judgment that our
attitudes and actions condemn us for.
Ø
I must be
willing to ‘take it in’ – accept Jesus as true, real and for me
Rom 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved. 10 For it is with your
heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you
confess and are saved. 11 As the
Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
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I must be
willing to allow Jesus to make a difference in my life
He desires to give me the Kingdom of God – to live rightly
as God lives, in the strength of God, in God’s economy of resources of faith
and justice, truth and life
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I must be
willing to adjust my life to that difference.
This is when I become
a child of God , a citizen of God’s kingdom, when I prefer to live as Christ
Rom 6:4 …just as
Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, we too may
live a new life.
To live to God’s glory will require a change in the way I
have been living.
His life gives us the strength to live rightly – to be truly
free.
You can and I emplore you to capture this moment, the moment
when Jesus breaks into your life and sets you free.
Perhaps you have accepted this, you have already captured
this moment at some point in your past, a moment you look now upon as one that
has changed your life. I encourage you
to continue to capture the ‘God moments’ – the experiences when God is breaking
into your life and involve you in what he is doing.