There is a physical pain I can't imagine not having when I see Jesus face to face for the first time and beyond:
When I love Him so much it hurts.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Wrong Side of the Bed
How do you live as a Christian when you wake up to a bad day? I'm not talking about when things go wrong during the day- I mean those days when you not only wake up on the wrong side of the bed, but get up and start you day from there too. How do you give a defense for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15) without giving offense because the hope within you seemed to drain out during your sleep last night?
I'll be honest- that was today for me. And that has been quite a few days over my lifetime. So what do I do? I've been working on that:
1. Be brutally honest with myself first, and God second. We have to admit to ourselves that we are in a foul, depressed, anxious, or ornery mood first, because we often love to throw that blame elsewhere. Then, we need to go to God* with it: It's not like He doesn't know already. There is something about telling Him that in prayer that is a little healing.
*Hint: When going to God about your foul mood, don't fuss at Him for it, like it's His fault. (Oh, you know there are times you do...) Instead ask Him to give you the strength to change it because you obviously can't on your own.
2. Read your Bible. This is the difficult part because it takes time and you're not going to want to since your are already cranky. Do it anyway. Let some of that orneriness be directed into making yourself read it because you "won't take no for an answer".
3. Play the right kind of music. No, I'm not going to tell you it has to be a certain style, but it shouldn't have ungodly lyrics. If you're not sure if it does check it against these verses - Galatians 5:19-21 - or just pick something else. In our house we call Barlow Girl, "Music to calm the savage beast" for my youngest son. I lean toward movie scores and sounds like Enya. God created us to be musical and we will be for eternity (Just read Revelation), so know yourself. Pay attention to how music affects you and use it to your advantage. (Otherwise you just might annoy yourself even further! Proverbs 25:20 )
The most important thing, is don't stew in it. Sometimes I just want to be in a bad mood, but that is not who we are to be for the sake of the Gospel. I've had to ask myself, "Is continuing to be in a bad mood worth deliberately disobeying God?" No.
All this is not to say you - and I - still won't have bad days. They will just be fewer and further between. Also, as I struggle to get out of it, I learn even more how desperately I need Him! Remember, He won't leave you there.
The humble will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise Him.
May your hearts live forever!
Psalm 22:26
Happy are those who keep His decrees
and seek Him with all their heart.
Psalm 119:2
I'll be honest- that was today for me. And that has been quite a few days over my lifetime. So what do I do? I've been working on that:
1. Be brutally honest with myself first, and God second. We have to admit to ourselves that we are in a foul, depressed, anxious, or ornery mood first, because we often love to throw that blame elsewhere. Then, we need to go to God* with it: It's not like He doesn't know already. There is something about telling Him that in prayer that is a little healing.
*Hint: When going to God about your foul mood, don't fuss at Him for it, like it's His fault. (Oh, you know there are times you do...) Instead ask Him to give you the strength to change it because you obviously can't on your own.
2. Read your Bible. This is the difficult part because it takes time and you're not going to want to since your are already cranky. Do it anyway. Let some of that orneriness be directed into making yourself read it because you "won't take no for an answer".
3. Play the right kind of music. No, I'm not going to tell you it has to be a certain style, but it shouldn't have ungodly lyrics. If you're not sure if it does check it against these verses - Galatians 5:19-21 - or just pick something else. In our house we call Barlow Girl, "Music to calm the savage beast" for my youngest son. I lean toward movie scores and sounds like Enya. God created us to be musical and we will be for eternity (Just read Revelation), so know yourself. Pay attention to how music affects you and use it to your advantage. (Otherwise you just might annoy yourself even further! Proverbs 25:20 )
The most important thing, is don't stew in it. Sometimes I just want to be in a bad mood, but that is not who we are to be for the sake of the Gospel. I've had to ask myself, "Is continuing to be in a bad mood worth deliberately disobeying God?" No.
All this is not to say you - and I - still won't have bad days. They will just be fewer and further between. Also, as I struggle to get out of it, I learn even more how desperately I need Him! Remember, He won't leave you there.
The humble will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise Him.
May your hearts live forever!
Psalm 22:26
Happy are those who keep His decrees
and seek Him with all their heart.
Psalm 119:2
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Amazed
There are some days where I just have to sit back in wonder and amazement at the grace and love of our God the Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.
No, nothing unusual has happened. No great "God story" to tell. I am just floored at how mighty and forgiving He is that He could use someone as wretched and weak as me to do so much. Seriously- I know me well. I know what I am capable of and the horrible things I have done: That His glory can shine through in my life is a miracle.
I love that He shows me again and again that He really doesn't think as I do. Just when I believe I've figured out a way in which He works, God switches it up on me! He delights in keeping my faith, not my sight, fresh. How I adore Him for caring enough to do that: Even as I struggle to hang on!
I'm so grateful He allows me to learn lessons at times even before I have to fully endure them. The Spirit is good at chastising my desires and dreams which are being sown in selfish motives. He allows me to ask for forgiveness even before they sprout. I'm just so amazed....
And to think..., He loves you that much too.
No, nothing unusual has happened. No great "God story" to tell. I am just floored at how mighty and forgiving He is that He could use someone as wretched and weak as me to do so much. Seriously- I know me well. I know what I am capable of and the horrible things I have done: That His glory can shine through in my life is a miracle.
I love that He shows me again and again that He really doesn't think as I do. Just when I believe I've figured out a way in which He works, God switches it up on me! He delights in keeping my faith, not my sight, fresh. How I adore Him for caring enough to do that: Even as I struggle to hang on!
I'm so grateful He allows me to learn lessons at times even before I have to fully endure them. The Spirit is good at chastising my desires and dreams which are being sown in selfish motives. He allows me to ask for forgiveness even before they sprout. I'm just so amazed....
And to think..., He loves you that much too.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Keys
For the last two years I've had a key to the fellowship hall at our church. This building which has a gym on the top floor and a kitchen with a dining room and small classrooms off to the side on the lower level, is separate from the main church building. The only connection is a covered walkway for those rainy days. So for the last two years, I've enjoyed access to anything I needed to get in kitchen area for my classes in the main building.
Yesterday, as I was setting up for our final Bible study class this year, I asked if the back door was unlocked to the main building so I didn't have to walk all the way around with my arms full. As we were walking to unlock it I mentioned that I didn't need the fellowship hall unlocked since I had a key. That's when my friend told me, "It's the same key that unlocks the doors in the main building too."
All this time I had the key to the main building! I can't tell you how many times I walked all the way around, waited for someone with the key, or went in search for someone to unlock one of those doors: And it was in my pocket the whole time!
Isn't that how we often treat the Spirit within us?
We have full access to God, but we tend to forget that and rely on others to tell us or lead us in Spiritual matters. Books, teachers, and Bible studies are great tools to encourage and challenge us, but we should never rely on them as our main source of hearing from God. We have the Spirit within us! Read His Word and go to Him in prayer- He will guide us. Jesus promised.
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever......But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit - the Father will send Him in My name - will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
John 14:15-16, 26
For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Ephesians 2:18
Yesterday, as I was setting up for our final Bible study class this year, I asked if the back door was unlocked to the main building so I didn't have to walk all the way around with my arms full. As we were walking to unlock it I mentioned that I didn't need the fellowship hall unlocked since I had a key. That's when my friend told me, "It's the same key that unlocks the doors in the main building too."
All this time I had the key to the main building! I can't tell you how many times I walked all the way around, waited for someone with the key, or went in search for someone to unlock one of those doors: And it was in my pocket the whole time!
Isn't that how we often treat the Spirit within us?
We have full access to God, but we tend to forget that and rely on others to tell us or lead us in Spiritual matters. Books, teachers, and Bible studies are great tools to encourage and challenge us, but we should never rely on them as our main source of hearing from God. We have the Spirit within us! Read His Word and go to Him in prayer- He will guide us. Jesus promised.
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever......But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit - the Father will send Him in My name - will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
John 14:15-16, 26
For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Ephesians 2:18
Monday, November 15, 2010
Bedtime-N-Bible
I realized last night that reading God's Word every day is a lot like going to bed on time/early.
They are both something you fully plan to do everyday, but things just keep coming up. Sometimes - quite often in fact - you don't get to it because of that one last thing you wanted to check online, or read, or watch on T.V. Any way you look at it, and before you know it, it's an hour and a half past when you said you wanted to go to sleep, the day has flown by, and/or you didn't have any quality time just reading His Word to you. That is when we will often read a bit sheepishly and then finally lay down...
But you know what the funny thing is? When you lay down to sleep, it feels so good you wonder why you didn't get there sooner? It's the same reading the Bible. You have finally had your Daily Bread and are feeling pleasantly "full" wondering why you didn't read any of it sooner.
Why do I keep putting them off when I love them so much?
Lord, help me to get to bed early after I have feasted on your Word!
They are both something you fully plan to do everyday, but things just keep coming up. Sometimes - quite often in fact - you don't get to it because of that one last thing you wanted to check online, or read, or watch on T.V. Any way you look at it, and before you know it, it's an hour and a half past when you said you wanted to go to sleep, the day has flown by, and/or you didn't have any quality time just reading His Word to you. That is when we will often read a bit sheepishly and then finally lay down...
But you know what the funny thing is? When you lay down to sleep, it feels so good you wonder why you didn't get there sooner? It's the same reading the Bible. You have finally had your Daily Bread and are feeling pleasantly "full" wondering why you didn't read any of it sooner.
Why do I keep putting them off when I love them so much?
Lord, help me to get to bed early after I have feasted on your Word!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Christian Perfection: by Oswald Chambers
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect . . . —Philippians 3:12
It is a trap to presume that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do— God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements tends to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you accept this concept of personal holiness, your life’s determined purpose will not be for God, but for what you call the evidence of God in your life. How can we say, “It could never be God’s will for me to be sick”? If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son (Isaiah 53:10), why shouldn’t He bruise you? What shines forth and reveals God in your life is not your relative consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your genuine, living relationship with Jesus Christ, and your unrestrained devotion to Him whether you are well or sick.
Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that hits you is the pointlessness of the things you have to do. The next thought that strikes you is that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives may leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary— that through your own human effort and devotion you can attain God’s standard for your life. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in such a perfect relationship with God that my life produces a yearning for God in the lives of others, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants.
My Utmost for His Highest- December 2, by Oswald Chambers
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