David Upton Music

I have been reading the Bible under the YouVersion plan entitled “Eat this Book: One Year Bible with Daily Psalm » 1 Year”… I really like it so far and I am sort of surprised at how new all this information seems to be. I guess it’s true that, over time, we get a fresh perspective… because I feel like quite a bit of this reading is brand new, although I am certain that I have read Genesis many times before. Obviously, there is a ton in there about genealogy with all the so-and-so begat so-and-so, but widdled in between all of that is the ages of all the early descendants of Adam and Eve … some of them living to be 800-900 years old. Much debate over the why/what/how/etc (lots of discussion about whether this means years or figurative phases, etc…)… but to be direct, I’m not sure the debate is even important so I’m gonna leave it alone and just smile.

The most impact-ful thing that I have taken away from my first 5 days of reading is that we often have a fairly blatant disregard for God.

I think we often allow ourselves to put God in a supernatural, fairy tale, mythological place and we forget that he is 100% real, he has emotions, and he is concerned with each of us personally. God is the best thing for us and he knows that, and he gets upset when we don’t realize that … his heart is broken and angered when he sees our wickedness……. and let me say this: We, as a culture of Americans are extremely wicked by God’s definition (which is the only definition that matters).

Most people don’t truly or deeply believe that God is who he says he is (evidenced by the fact that we all seem to forget about him daily, or at least once in a while) … we are self-serving by design and we have become so accustomed to the fact that “everyone else” thinks the things we do are “OK” that we have forgotten the true nature of what God wants for us.

 Let me say the same thing with less words: Most of us (myself included) often think and act in ways that we would NEVER think/do/say if God himself was standing in the room next to us physically present, but we feel like we are “OK” because our culture supports our behavior. We are blowing-off the fact that we are breaking God’s heart and making angry the one that we claim to love more than anything.

There are tons of tee-shirts and bumper stickers that say things like Not of This World, Forgiven, Truth, etc… but I sometimes wonder if we wear that stuff because we want to remind ourselves of who God is and how we should be behaving in front if him? Do we wear it because we want a conversation starter with people who don’t know Jesus? … or … Do we wear it because we want the other Christians in the world to think we are more holy, allowing us to “fit in” with the our Christian friends?

My goal this year is to be much more focused on walking daily with God and caring exclusively about what HE thinks instead of concerning myself with the monumental effort of fitting into culture (yes…even the Christian culture) and remaining politically correct in the eyes of people. In my 40 years so far, I haven’t really seen much advantage to the fact that I know how to fit in with people, I think its time that I start looking very close at how I fit in with God!

So here’s what I want to do, God helping me: I want to take my everyday, ordinary life – my sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for me is the best thing I can do for him. I won’t become so well-adjusted to our culture that I fit into it without even thinking. Instead, I will fix my attention on God and be changed from the inside out. I will Readily recognize what he wants from me, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around me, always dragging me down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of me, develops well-formed maturity in me. (Romans 12:1-2 Upton’s Message Version Paraphrase)

If you are reading this … I beg you to consider aligning with the same goals …

I think God’s gonna like it

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 NIV

Much Love and God Bless!

I posted a remark on Facebook/Twitter today and got a reply from an old friend that caused me to reflect … then it caused me to research … then it caused me to write a fairly long blurb (mostly plagiarized from other smart people on the Internet, Like Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, Billy Graham … and a few pulls from textbooks in my seminary classes) … but it all started because of the recent news about the dead birds in Arkansas.

Here was my post:

David Upton

Dead birds and dead fish…. Earthquakes, floods, war, ruined economy…. Hmmmm GHAP

This Post made a friend of mine think that I was happy that God planned to kill people and hurt animals….

Here was my response after spending the morning researching (my fear is that it sounds too much like a preacher-man talking and not enough like a real person):

I am not sure what happened to those birds, but I wasn’t saying that God hurt them or that he plans to hurt us … quite the contrary:

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

The sad reality is that we live in a world that is not good. God is eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. Why should human beings (not eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, or omnipotent) expect to be able to fully understand God’s ways? The book of Job deals with this issue. God had allowed Satan to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him. What was Job’s reaction? “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21). Job did not understand why God had allowed the things He did, but he knew God was good and therefore continued to trust in Him. Ultimately, that should be our reaction as well.

Why do bad things happen to good people? The biblical answer is there are no “good” people. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that all of us are tainted by and infected with sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 6:23; 1 John 1:8). Romans 3:10-18 could not be clearer about the non-existence of “good” people: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Every human being on this planet deserves to be thrown into hell at this very moment. Every second we spend alive is only by the grace and mercy of God. Even the most terrible misery we could experience on this planet is merciful compared to what we deserve, eternal hell in the lake of fire.

A better question would be “Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?” Romans 5:8 declares, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Despite the evil, wicked, sinful nature of the people of this world, God still loves us. He loved us enough to die to take the penalty for our sins (Romans 6:23). If we receive Jesus Christ as Savior (John 3:16; Romans 10:9), we will be forgiven and promised an eternal home in heaven (Romans 8:1). What we deserve is hell. What we are given is eternal life in heaven if we come to Christ in faith.

Yes, sometimes bad things happen to people who seem undeserving of them. But God allows things to happen for His reasons, whether or not we understand them. Above all, however, we must remember that God is good, just, loving, and merciful. Often things happen to us that we simply cannot understand. However, instead of doubting God’s goodness, our reaction should be to trust Him. ”Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

The fact is that I believe this 100% … I know God loves me and he plans for me to be with him for all eternity and that gives me hope, even when things on this crappy little rock don’t seem to add up.

This is a pretty big deal and a lot of words, but I hope this helps? …