Not in Control

For a long time it has been my belief that the root of all sin is pride.  It is in our human nature to want to be the biggest, feel the best about ourselves.  Pride is fed and developed as curriculum in many school systems.  "Self-esteem" as many would call it is feeling good about oneself.  This is taught on a weekly basis in many schools.  Pride envelops every aspect of human nature.  As believers we know that we are "to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV).  Yet this is still a daily battle.  Sadly a battle I am learning that is being fought within me is rooted in pride.  It is the battle to be in control of my life and circumstances.  In communicating with a brother in Christ I realize I am not the only one fighting this.  To be in control.  Why?

Here is the definition of control as referenced by dictionary.com

Controlling

verb (used with object)

1.to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command.

2.to hold in check; curb: to control a horse; to control one'semotions.

3.to test or verify (a scientific experiment) by a parallelexperiment or other standard of comparison.

4.to eliminate or prevent the flourishing or spread of: to control a forest fire.

5.Obsolete. to check or regulate (transactions), originally bymeans of a duplicate register.

noun

6.the act or power of controlling; regulation; domination orcommand: Who's in control here?

7.the situation of being under the regulation, domination, orcommand of another: The car is out of control.

8.check or restraint: Her anger is under control.

9.a legal or official means of regulation or restraint: to institute wage and price controls.

I believe that we who have this battle in our lives ask the profound question given in the sixth definition.  It is a noun.  WHO IS IN CONTROL HERE?  The answer is simple and easy to give.  God.  God, the one who gave his only son, Christ, to be a sacrifice for our sin is in control.  He has been since before the beginning of time.  I wrote a blog on the complete span of control He is in within our universe.  Yet I still ask this silly question over and over again.  And come to the same answer and yet still fight it.  I fight for control in hundreds of ways.  I fight for control over my sin, my job, my life circumstances, I could go on forever.  It seems this battle against my human nature has such an enormous impact on my life that I don't even realize I am fighting for it until I communicate with a friend who is learning the same thing.  I am like the character I used to love in a children's book I used to read.  Little Critter (he was one of my favorites) had this same issue (maybe not so spiritual).  In one of his books he proclaimed in every situation that he "can do it himself!"  Yet he never seemed to make it through.  I can conquer hard issues in my life myself.  I can control my friendships myself.  I can deal with awful hurt myself.  I can beat sin myself.  All of these are just a fight for control.  

My friend Chris (the one who is learning all this as well)  Reminded me of David and how often he relinquished control (or his perception of being in control) to God.  Because of this I decided for my Bible reading that I would read through the Psalms.  Although they are not in chronological order I do not find it to be coincidence that David shows his reliance on God within the first three chapters.  In Psalm 3 David is being chased by his OWN SON Absalom and this is what he says

I lay down and slept;

I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.

I will not be afraid of many thousands of people

who have set themselves against me all around.

(Psalm 3:5-6 ESV)

If only I could learn to trust God so much that I can sleep even when 1000's of enemies surround me.

Again in chapter 4 David proclaims his trust in God

In peace I will both lie down and sleep;

for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

(Psalm 4:8 ESV)

My prayer is that in the next few weeks I will be giving up ares of my life in which I am still trying to be in control.  This is the beginning and I pray those who read it will be blessed and will give up control in their lives as well.

Love In Christ, 

Nathaniel 

Science...another reminder that God is enough...He is sovereign...and He is in complete control!

Dark Matter and Dark Energy...There have been movies made about it, books written with it as its center (Angels and Demons), and countless debate and research done on it....I LOVE science...it provides clear truth that their is a God over and over again.  The Dark Matter is another proof that God is real.  Dark matter as best I can understand is some sort of focused gravitational force that pulls objects together and keeps them in place within the universe.  (It is believed that unstable dark matter is what forms black holes- Places in space where gravity is so strong that even light is pulled in and cannot exist!)  Dark energy is the opposite of dark matter in that this force pushes objects apart in the universe.  Pretty interesting stuff if you enjoy looking up at the stars and thinking about science!   See...if it were not for this matter then the beautiful constellations we can see like the big dipper and orions belt theoretically would not exist...the starts in the constellations would just drift any which way they chose.  Yet they don't!  Without fail I can look up on a clear night and easily find the big dipper, the little dipper, and may other constellations, in their perfect place...just as they have been since the first book of the Bible was written.  That's right!  Many people believe the book of Job was the first book of the Bible to be written chronologically...and the writer of Job refers to God's total control of the universe...it seems that God is the one who hold the constellations together.  Read this from Job 38

Job 38:31-33

"Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth [fn] in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children?

Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

What do you think Pleiades, Orion, Mazzaroth, and the Bear are referring too?  Constellations!!!  In this chapter of Job, God is rebuking Job for questioning His sovereignty/directions/choices.  So he asks Job who binds/looses the constellations?  INSERT DARK MATTER/ENERGY!!!!  God is the one who is holding the universe together (Cf Colossians 1- God holds all things together)!  He is the designer of extreme gravitational forces that keep our home the milky way from running into the Galaxy Andromeda!  Not only does God control the universe but he also cares for us in the smallest ways.  I take Colossians 1 quite literally!  You see ..you body is made up of oodles of googles of atoms ( a google is a 1 with 100 zero's behind it...random fact...now you understand the inspiration behind the search engine :)  Anyway...these atoms are always working and atoms do 2 big things.  First of all Atoms bond to other Atoms creating molecules.  They also split away from molecules binding to other molecules.  (there are also fusion and fission reactions, fusion is the permanent binding of atoms I believe and fission is the splitting of atoms)  So God has designed 2 hydrogen atoms to perfectly fit with 1 oxygen thus making...WATER!  But see the atoms in our skin SHOULD either bond with things we touch...or...EXPLODE when we touch things.  Anything...water, wood, jello, butter, rock.. ANYTHING. So how come our bodies don't split apart? And how come when I touch a remote it does not stick to my hand?  Because God is truly holding all things together... 

God has created atoms to work in such a way that the electrons create an electro-static field so when they come in contact with other atoms they simply repel from that object because of the field.  Now the one thing keeping the universe from blowing apart is the fact that atoms will actually share electrons as well.  Every keystroke I make should result in a catastrophic reaction and yet God has created electrons to repel from each other or to share with one another in order to be held together.  Colossians 1.


So why...WHY do I struggle so often to trust that God is enough for my life?  WHY is it hard to trust, to have faith, to submit all things to the one who keep the flaming, boiling, MASSIVE stars of the universe holding in their place?  Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall make your paths straight."   Is this too much to ask?  No not really.


There are some things in my life the HURT so bad and are so hard to trust God with, yet...as much as they hurt, are confusing, don't make sense, anger me, sadden me, puzzle me....Well I can trust that God is enough and He is in control of my life!


Love in Christ, 
Nathaniel