Thoughts from Camp - Day 3

"Seek God until He breaks your heart, and then preach from the bottom of your broken heart." This 

is what I often say to those I mentor. So with seven weeks of speaking, writing devotions and heading up ministry at a summer camp, I anticipate being challenged, stretched and broken as the weeks roll on. Each day I will post some lessons to be learned from the devotions and messages we have studied as a camp.

Whenever someone starts preaching on sovereignty, let's get real – all the Bible college grads groan. No one loves having their free will stamped on, seeing Calvinism flaunted, or having a predestination discussion in the foyer after church. But God's sovereignty, like all of His attributes, gives us much cause to celebrate.

Consider Esther – a story that unfolds all too perfectly. Esther happens to be the one girl chosen just at the right time. Haman happens to roll past the king's bedroom at just the right time so that he has to parade Mordecai around the city. And then poor Haman ends up throwing himself on the queen just as the king walks back to the banquet table. It's a too-perfect plot with a kicker-twist ending as the good guy steals the bad guys throne and the bad guy gets hung on his own gallows.

Its a story about God's sovereignty. When someone's not in charge, chaos reigns. That's why the last few chapters in Judges contain some grisly stories we don't talk about in Sunday School – no king means sinful chaos. Our hearts are depraved, and if depraved man ran the Earth, depravity would be law.

So praise the Lord that He's in charge. You can fight about free will if you wish, but God's hand always intervenes in time to see His purposes accomplished. Consider Mordecai's words to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Est 4:13-14). Essentially what he is saying is this, God is far too good for His plans to fail because of your fear, failure or incompetence. Your mistakes do nothing to slow down the will of God.

And what is the will of God? It is incomprehensible as a whole, but He has revealed His desire to see the redemption of the lost and the sanctification of the church. He didn't just have a master plan to save the Israelites from Haman, He had a master plan to bring His Son Jesus to the world to provide forgiveness of sins to all men, and to bring his children closer to perfection.

When God is king, depraved man no longer reigns. Which is why the earth still functions and global anarchy hasn't made our world a Lord of the Flies set. But more than that, it's why the depravity of our own hearts isn't consuming us, and why we trust the Lord life's crazy situations end up making us more godly and not more discouraged. God's good when you're not. When the storms of life rage, the God of the weather is sanctifying you. When the battle seems overwhelming, the God of victory is ready to intervene. When the need looms near, the God who provides is ready to give His children all that they need.

So the lost continue to be drawn in. And the redeemed continue to be made holy. Because God is sovereign. And His sovereignty is worth celebrating. As the Christmas carol goes, 'He rules the world with truth and grace.' And when we let Him rule our hearts, the dark shadows of our own vileness begin to flee away and our good king begins to see His will accomplished in our lives. May we praise the Lord today for the goodness of His sovereignty.