What does God Need? - 31 Days in Acts

Today is our last Sunday in our 31 Days in Acts and as in the previous Sunday I would like to take one verse and dwell on it for a short time.

We have reached chapter 17 and have 2 more days to go after today so hopefully we will at least leave this monthly challenge at the end of this chapter.  If you know me well you will know that I like beginnings and endings and things in order - not that I have everything in order but it is one of my dreams.

Just picking out one verse from a chapter can sometimes be rather easy and sometimes rather difficult depending on the inspirational writing of that chapter or the story involved in that chapter or the sheer abundance of stand out verses which in themselves can hold a message for us.

Mostly verses which encapsulate the core of the Gospel are ones that draw us to them but I'm not sure that at first glance we could find this verse in that category.

Today I've chosen to look at Acts 17 v 25

We know from reading the Bible that as Christians we are called to serve God so immediately we should not be confused by thinking this verse is telling us not to serve God or work for His Kingdom, because scripture will not contradict other scripture.

God does not need us to do anything because

God does not need anything.

God is self-sufficient    (Why We Worship 21)

and

God is all powerful   (Why We Worship 14)

He does not need us to do anything but He does want us to do something because

God is our creator   (Why We Worship 15) 

 and one of  the things He wants from us is our service.

He wants us to speak for Him, to work for Him, to love others for Him; He wants our service as a means of our worship.

He has given us everything and so we should desire to give Him all that we can because of His love, grace and mercy to us.

Let's remember 

Q:   What is man's chief end?

A:   Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever

So the answer to the question that is the title for this blog post

What Does God Need?

is simply

 NOTHING.  

God needs nothing but He wants our worship.

It is always important that we make sure what we read or believe from a verse is correct by looking at that verse in context so let's read the verse before it

24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 

and the verse after it

26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings

Yes He is our creator and our Lord and deserves our work and worship.

What does God need?

I'm trying to read and write about the Book of Acts for 31 Days so please come back and join me for some notes & some thoughts each day. 

As the month goes on each Day's Link will be added in 

The 31 Days in Acts Page

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 121

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 121 



This is one of the Psalms of Ascent

This Psalm falls into three parts:


V. 1-2
Question
Answer



V. 3-4
God's deeds towards us
God's character for our benefit



V. 5-8
Reassurance & examples of all that God is doing for us

Question & Answer.
I believe that the Psalmist is looking up in awe and wonder because He knows the greatness of God.

The question is not a pleading or desperate one it is one that he already knows the answer to and finds comfort from it.  There is the feeling of the Psalmist resting content in his knowledge that God is in control of everything.

We must recognize the greatness of God

God's Deeds & Character.
Even though God is the great creator of all things He cares about us so much that He is always looking after us.  Continually aware of what help we need and not slacking on the job but ever awake and alert.

The Psalmist uses repetition here to stress just how important it is for us to know that God is always awake.  He doesn't nod off, doesn't take a siesta, doesn't take a cat nap.  He doesn't even let his eyes droop on us.
I have previously written about how encouraging that is for us in Forty Winks


Reassurance & Examples.
Again just to make sure we have taken in the awe and wonder that the Psalmist has of our great God; he gives us examples of what God does and we are left with complete reassurance that YES everything we need will come from God.

Oh how important it is that we see the greatness of God 

and

the One who is in control

but also that 

He cares so much for us 

that 

He is constantly looking after us.

The Cows in the City! - A Dose of Encouragement

I know this sounded crazy to my husband who grew up on a dairy farm and who had often taken me out to the farm and then loved taking the children out to the farm when they came along.

But yes I was saying to him

I want to go and see the Cows in the city.

The city I was referring to was our hometown of Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, which is almost a 2 hour drive from the town of Banbridge, where we now live.

You see when we lived in Belgium I had just missed the cows in Brussels because they had come there shortly before us.  There was an odd cow here and there still in Brussels but I missed out on seeing all the cows that had been there.

Now you probably think I'm crazy because don't all cows look the same?

Well usually any one field of cows you might come across would have all the same breed of cow anyway.

But of course the cows I had wanted to go and see were not real live cows.

These cows were referred to as the painted cows.

During recent years different cities or countries have taken on this idea of having full size models of cows made and then painted by businesses, schools, organisations etc. as a form of advertising.

In Belgium apparently there had been many, many cows all over Brussels and perhaps in some other places too.

A few years ago Northern Ireland had the cows in a few places and one of the major places was in Londonderry.

Again there were cows painted by school children, businesses, charities and other organizations.

But there was one cow in particular that I really wanted to see in Londonderry.

The red one.

The one to commemorate Amelia Earhart (see info. on Amelia here)

Amelia was the first woman to fly the Atlantic and she landed in a field on the outskirts of Londonderry.  She is one of the claims to fame of my hometown and a small tourist attraction has been set up for any visitors who might be interested in learning more about this famous woman and her airplane and the special flight in which she succeeded in making history and showing that women could do some of the things that only seemed to be considered as things that men would do.


Google even celebrated Amelia Earhart's 115th Birthday with one of their Doodles.

Image from Google.com July 24, 2012

So I was thankful it did work out that within the time frame of the Cows being in Londonderry we were able to make a trip there to stay with my sister and her husband and I did have the opportunity to go to see the cows.

And we found the one in commemoration of Amelia,


the red one.

I thought this cow was very cleverly created because it was not just painted to depict Amelia as a famous and respected aviator but had also been shaped in a different way to the other cows.

To me this cow really stood out among the others.
Not just because of the expanse of red and because of the unique shape but also because of the simplicity in which the creator of it had portrayed the airplane and the woman who flew it.


It made me think of two things.

The cleverness of the creator and the respect to the person and their accomplishment.



We have the most clever creator of all.

We have the creator who made us so that every single little part of us works together to form a living being with an intellect and feelings.

How great is that?



We have the greatest creator of all.

We have the creator who respects us and all that we accomplish and has given us the ability to learn and create other things.

How wonderful to be part of such an intricate and planned creation.

How wonderful to be part of such an intricate and planned creation.

We have the best creator of all.

We have the original creator of all things.

I am thankful that God made us each unique and with abilities to do great things in all situations in life.

I am thankful that He respects us and cares about us so much we were not just a "toy" for Him.

I am thankful that we were created to have life and to love and to be loved by God.

We were created to have life and to love and to be loved by God.

I may have had my picture taken beside this clever cow creation but I (no matter how weak, sinful or small I am) am a more wonderful creation than this man-made one.


And so are you.

Why We Worship 15

I am taking time each week to ask myself "Why we worship"

When we were young we looked up to our parents, they were the ones who knew us, they were the ones who looked after us, they were the ones who cared about us, they were the ones who had brought us into this world.

So it should be with God, we should look up to Him and worship Him because He is our Creator and who could know or understand us better than He.

But not only is He our creator but He is the creator of the world and all that is in it.

This is something that is hard for us to fathom because as human beings we cannot fully understand how anyone could create everything.

But we are not meant to understand everything because we are not like God, we are simply asked to believe that

 

                  

 

God is who He says He is,

Are you worshipping your Creator today?

Are you worshipping your Creator today?