November 11, 2010
Anyone who is not walking in God's paths cannot retain or receive any goodness-God alone is good & His path is goodness. Everything else is just destruction & folly.
"Nor do they regain the paths of life-so they may walk in the way of goodness, & keep the paths of righteousness. For the upright will dwell in the land, & the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the earth, & the unfaithful will be uprooted from it." Proverbs 2:20-22
"You will show me the path of life." Psalm 16:11
November 14, 2010
God has promised good to us. The problem is that our eyes, hearts & minds are so tainted that we don't even know what good is anymore. God has to give us new eyes to see real, true goodness. So Lord if this is the only line I'll every sing: may I sing it will all my heart: "The Lord is good.. The Lord is good!"
God your paths drip with abundance , they overflow with goodness. I accept Lord! I wholeheartedly accept, embrace & rejoice in your goodness. Your goodness was all over me in the past, in the present, and will be in the future.
You just keep giving & giving & giving. No wonder why Your path is the path of life. Help me to live in Your goodness & to rejoice in it. That is after all the purpose of man: to enjoy God forever!
"To all who are looking down, holding onto hearts still wounded." joc
April 17, 2011
For 32 years Jesus lived His life unnoticed. The Son of God- unnoticed. Do those two words even belong in the same sentence? Talk about humility. I'm sure Jesus had lonely days: probably didn't have many friends, was misunderstood, belonged to another time: no time really, was rejected, was different. When He spoke of the parable of the lowly seat, surely He knew what he was talking about. He became obedient, He took the lowliest seat, the last one, God became man. How small He became. He was obedient even to the very point of death, and not only death but death on a cross, what shame. Jesus was lonely.
If anyone ever felt alone, it must of been the creator. Going unnoticed by His own creation that He Himself spoke into existence. Why did Jesus go through this? Thirty two years of apparent waste. As Hebrews says, He is a high priest who knows how to sympathize with us. God went through loneliness to reach us. He reached into our loneliness, the loneliness of being forgotten, the emptiness of trying to fill the dark night of the soul. Looking out into a crowd of people hoping to belong, to be someone that matters, to be a part of something.
It's hard to be a reject, just ask Jesus. Jesus was a reject so I wouldn't have to be a reject to the only one that matters: God.
Christ took upon Himself all the rejection, hurt, & pain of being fallen from His birth to His death, so I would be forever accepted. Called. Called by name, taken by the hand, sought out a city not forsaken so echoes Isaiah. God became God-forsaken so we wouldn't have to be-there is now no dilemma so grave that God hasn't been in, that God cannot relate to. Oh God relates! He knows what it means.
March 8, 2008
"The Kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say 'see here' or 'see there'! For indeed the Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20
"You also as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:3,9
"Do you know that you are the temple of God & that the spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16
Because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done by making us Holy through His blood on the cross, we don't have to only go to a place like a church or temple to find God because God dwells in us-the Kingdom of God is within us-we are priests, we are the temple.
We don't always have to be only doing things like reading the Bible, praying, fasting, singing spiritual songs in order to glorify God for now in Christ everything we do, even the most ordinary & dull, becomes a spiritual sacrifice we offer up to God.
A.W. Tozer writes, "the knowledge that we are all Gods will make everything sacred to us." He also writes, "let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds & learn to find him there."
"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord & not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance: for you serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23-24
"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
Whatever you do? Laundry. Brushing your teeth. Teaching tennis. Laying granite. Caring for the elderly. Everything means everything.
Because of Christ everything now has the possibility of being a holy sacrifice of worship that is pleasing to God, even a cup of cold water offered to the thirsty.
"In the mundane tasks of living
In the pouring out & giving
In the waking up & trying
In the laying down & dying
That's a little stone, that's a little mortar
That's a little seed, that's a little water
In the hearts of the sons & the daugthers the Kingdom's coming" -Sara Groves
When we offer everything that we do, even if doesn't necessarily look holy or spiritual, we are actually building God's Kingdom.
This will help me that next time I am flipping a burger or teaching fourteen-year-olds how to write a paper. Understanding that because of Christ my very life lived is bringing God glory. That as I am working, playing, enjoying life, I am serving the Lord Christ. Understanding this will help me understand when Christ says that Kingdom of God is within me.
