The Will of God

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."


I am thankful that He is the Resurrection and the Life and that those who believe in Him will never die. Never.
I am thankful that the Creator God of the universe--the God of omnipotent strength--promises to uphold me with all the strength that I will need for each day--for this day.
I am thankful for the Hope that rests on the eternal promise of the God who... cannot lie.
I am thankful for the rainbow of promise in the midst of the storm, the spring of new life and new growth that follows every winter, and the joy that comes in the morning.
I am thankful for a community that is devoted to prayer today and every day--continually.
I am thankful for a community that loves not just in word but in action.
I am thankful for His joy in my heart in the midst of sorrow.
I am thankful for tears and laughter.
I am thankful that His answer to the question "Why" is always the same, "This has happened because I love you and because in these times and in this place I am going to use you to glorify Me--to make me visible to those around you." And I testify that I have been immersed in His love and seen His presence in these times and in this place.
I am thankful that each moment we are closer to the reunion between the living and those who are now in His presence--"So shall we ever be with the Lord." "Even so, come Lord Jesus."

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."

Anger

As improbable as it may seem, during times of deep sorrow and of grief, there is a feeling, an emotion, that may subtley and insidiously worm its way into our thinking--into our heart.
                                                                  Anger.
We are especially vulnerable when the catalyst for our mourning is a choice made by someone that we deeply love, a choice that not only broke our heart, but the hearts of those we love just as deeply as the one who made the choice. Our tendency is to try to deny that fact that we are angry, to pretend that it's not really in our thoughts, lurking in our grief.
Yes, sometimes it is rooted in self-pity. "How could they hurt me so?" Sometimes it is rooted in a genuine sorrow over the brokenness evident in the lives of those around us. "Look how their decision has crushed the hearts of those I love--of those who loved them." Sometimes it crops up in the immediate; sometimes it crops up in the near future; sometimes it crops up in some distant future. We are surprised--ambushed--by its sudden presence in our hearts. We need to be alert to its danger; we cannot let it fester and destroy our ability to love others; we cannot let it change our focus from others to ourselves.
The enemy--the Destroyer--delights in planting the seed of bitterness in the soil of anger. And the tree of bitterness when it is fully grown and established in our heart is spiritually deadly. Its fruit ripens into a deep self-pity, a tearful self-pity. It ripens into a cold-hearted, loveless spirit that cannot love others, that prevents us from being the comforter God intends for us to be--calls us to be. It even ripens into an anger directed at God and suppresses even the desire to repent. We can no longer discern His heart of love for others in times of sorrow. The only heart that matters becomes our own heart.
Such angry thoughts must be eradicated--as many times as necessary--every time they creep into our thinking. And how do we do that? Through a prayerful, humble, expressed forgiveness rooted in the confession that we too have in our past made choices that hurt those that we love and that grieved the heart of the Spirit who lives within us. We have betrayed the love of others. We have needed forgiveness. Thus, it must be a prayer of gratitude, of celebration as well; for every time that we have done that--every time we have hurt others--He has fully forgiven us. Gladly. When we have grieved the hearts of others, of those who love us, of the One who abides within us, we have been forgiven. We are forgiven. (Oh, if we could just sense in some small way the groaning of the brokenhearted Spirit within us when we inflicted pain on others--on Him--by our hurtful choices!) And without such forgiveness we cannot celebrate our love for that person who is the cause of our pain and for those we--and they--loved. We cannot celebrate the mutual love we have for one another.
Be alert. Be vigilant. If the Advesary is seeking to destroy your ability to love, to plant the seed of anger in your heart, plead for the power of the Spirit to enable you to humbly, lovingly, forgive--and to rejoice in His continual, unconditional forgiveness of you. There is no heart more useless to the cause of Christ than a soul wallowing in a lack of forgiveness, festering in an angry bitterness.
Embrace a sorrow rooted in love. Emrace a sorrow rooted in a forgiving spirit, Embrace a sorrow that produces in you a focus on His heart and the sorrowful hearts of those that He has placed into your life to be your comfort as you in His power comfort them. "Let the beauty of Jesus--the beauty of the God of forgiveness, the beauty of the God of All Comfort be seen in our lives. "Do not let the sun go down on your anger."

Reflections for October 2017

It's not about having friends; it is about being a friend.
It's not about being loved; it is about loving others.


You have a Faithful Friend who loves you unconditionally and has named you as His friend.

Pass it on!
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"Nevertheless, Thy will be done."
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"The greatest terror a child can have is that he is unloved."  (Steinbeck)
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He is the Artist of the "Big Picture."  He is also the Artist of the small details.  Look for His hand at work in everything.
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It's not about you.  Ever.
It's about Him.  Always.
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"You can have all this world, but give me Jesus."
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"Nothing in my hands I bring; only to Your cross I cling."
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We are to be grace-givers--gracious. Yes, some will abuse the grace. That is not an excuse to stop giving grace. How much grace would God lavish on your life day by day, if He only was gracious when you deserved it? Not deserving it is what makes it grace.
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The 'secret" to a life of joy--so much joy that you can't express it with words, but can live it every moment of every day whatever the circumstances. Love. Believe. Greatly rejoice..


"And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory."

A Poem

This is a poem my mother kept in her Bible:


God broke our years into hours and days,
That hour by hour, and day by day,
Just going on a little way,...
We might be able, all along
To keep quite strong.

Should all the weight of life be laid
Across our shoulders at just one place,
And the future, rife with woe and struggle,
Meet us face to face:
We could not go;
Our feet would stop, and so
God lays a little on us every day.


And never, I believe, in all life's way,
Will burdens bear so deep,
Or pathways lie so steep,
But we can go, if, by God's power,
We only bear the burden of the hour.

True Freedom

"Freedom" that is not rooted in God's moral law produces a bondage to sin and self. Those who believe in such a "freedom" will do everything they can to oppress and vilify those who believe in true freedom--a freedom that always acts within the bounds of God's righteous commands. Only the truth can set a man truly free. "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is Truth." "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Self-made Religion

In Him:
The power of the flesh has been broken.
Your old life has been put to death, and you have been indwelt by the Spirit in all His power.
You have been made spiritually alive.
All your transgressions have been forgiven....
He has nailed your sin debt to His cross--paid in full.
He has defeated the enemy--we are victorious through Him.

How should we respond to such love and power and grace? Don't be enslaved by a series of man-made rules foisted on you as a measurement for spirituality--as a way to please Him. They make you a victim of a deceit that will make it impossible for you to please Him, impossible for you to grow spiritually. Such things are idolatry--self-worship, a destructive fallacy of self-made religion. It grieves the Spirit of God who lives within you as the only Power that can transform you into His image. God gives growth. God alone. Don't live as an orphan but as a child.

Drops in a Bucket

Drops in a bucket. That's what our God calls the nations of this world.

"All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless."


They can rattle their sabers, boast, and scheme all they want. "He who sits enthroned in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them."
...

"But the word of our God stands forever."


"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."


"Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs, and carry them in His bosom"


Fear not. Rest in your Shepherd's arms. He is the God of omnipotent strength and omnipotent love.


 "What is man that I should fear him?