You have to come often

While running in the park Saturday, I met two ladies who I knew were not from around here.  They verified my assumption by stopping me to ask for directions… in English.  The park is very big and newcomers upon entering at one gate find it difficult to find their way out by the same gate.  This was their dilemma.  They had tried three different gates and none of them were the needed exit.  I was the first English speaker they had seen.  While trying assist they asked, “How do you keep from getting lost?”  My response, “You have to come often.”  Whether I actually helped find their way I do not know, I did not see them again.

After we parted, I started thinking about my spiritual life.  “How do you keep from getting lost?”  Most of the time, we attempt this by weekly meetings.  Coming together to learn, to worship, to edify.  This is good and necessary, however it is not enough.  Many come to those gatherings exhausted, weary, lost.  “You have to come often” before the Father.

Sunday I started reading a book by Andrew Murray entitled The Deeper Christian Life.  The first chapter is “Daily Fellowship with God.”  Very timely indeed…

10 Points

1.  Fellowship with God is your chief need to Divine Life.  Just as the manna came fresh each day, you must take time to meet with God each day.
2.  Your first act in devotion should be setting still before God till you know he is near.
3.  Take your place of deepest lowliness and seek to be filled with the Spirit of humility.
4.  Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. You have access into the very heart and love of the Father.
5.  Christ is a living person and loves you with a personal love.  He looks every day for the personal response of your love.
6.  You have not only Christ’s life in you as power, and His presence as a person, but you have His likeness being wrought within you.  He is being formed in you, so that His likeness can be seen in you.
7.  This likeness consists chiefly in two things – the likeness of His death and resurrection.  Therefore every morning, “present yourself unto God as those that are alive from the dead.”
8.  All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you.  Seek in God’s presence to have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may every moment be spiritual.
9.  As you meditate on this salvation and seek fellowship with God, and wait on Him to reveal Christ in you, you will feel how needful the giving up of all is to receive Him.  Seek to know what it means to live as wholly for God as Christ did.
10.  “By faith” must be the keynote.  Just yield yourself in the faith of a perfect trust that God’s purpose will be worked out in you.

Begin each day in fellowship with God, and God will be all in all to you.

3-in-1

The Trinity is always difficult to understand and explain.  There have been many attempts to explain it using several different analogies: an apple, an egg, an apple pie, etc.

I am currently living in an Islamic city in Northern Iraq.  All Muslims would love  Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one."  The idea of God being 3-in-1 is blasphemous and the topic is best avoided until a relationship has grown to a deeper level of friendship.

However, after being here a short time, I discovered a product that is in almost every market in our city and possibly most of the Arab world.  To me, this product could be the best analogy for the Trinity.  On the front of every packet is "3-in-1".  There are many varieties/brands.  Nescafe is the most known, so regardless of brand, it is called Nescafe (like Kleenex in the US) or "3-in-1".  The image above shows the brand I prefer.

So here's the analogy:  Each packet contains 3 distinct ingredients: coffee, milk, and sugar.  If you emptied the packet onto a plate, and were given enough time, you could separate the granules into three different piles. However, and this is where I think other analogies breakdown, God is one and inseparable.  Now everyone who enjoys this product adds hot water.  When you add hot water, the 3 ingredients become inseparable, the three truly become ONE (cup of coffee).  The ingredients are still distinct and the flavor of each are contained in each sip of coffee.  So what does the water represent: RELATIONSHIP.  It is the relationship shared by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that makes them 3-in-1.

And the most amazing part... through the life of Jesus, before and after the cross, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can SHARE in this relationship.

Not Finished Yet

This morning I listened to Brandon Heath's song "Wait and See".  Almost everytime it takes me back to when I was 4 or 5 years old and I would sing at church "He's still working on me".  So, after 40 years, He isn't finished yet.  I am still a work in progress.  Some days are better than others.  Some days a little a polishing is needed.  Other days the grinder, or a hammer/chisel, is more appropriate.

HE'S STILL WORKING ON ME

By: Joel Hemphill

CHORUS:

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

1. There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

2. In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.

Wait And See

by Bradon Heath

I was born in Tennessee
Late July humidity
Doctor said I was lucky to be alive

I’ve been trouble since the day that I got here
Trouble till the day that I disappear
That’ll be the day that I finally get it right

There is hope for me yet
Because God won’t forget
All the plans he’s made for me
I have to wait and see
He’s not finished with me yet

I never really was that good in school
I talked too much        , broke the rules
Teacher thought I was hopeless fool alright

I don’t know how but I made it through
It’s one of those things that you’ve gotta do
But I always had a knack for telling the truth

Chorus

Still wondering why I’m here
Still wrestling with my fear
But oh, He’s up to something
And the farther on I go
I’ve seen enough to know
That I’m, not here for nothing
He’s up to something

So now’s my time to be a man
Follow my heart as far as I can
No telling where I’m ending up tonight
I never slow down or so it seems
But singing my heart it’s one of my dreams
All I gotta do is hold on tight

Chorus

Hannah's song

Listened to the book of Luke today and was struck by Mary's song when she met with Elizabeth and shared her "God-news".  She quoted some of Hannah's song after the birth of Samuel.  This song should be on the lips of every believer, every morning.  The same God that blessed them with new life, blesses us with a life that is everlasting.  That doesn't just mean it will never end, but that it cannot be extinguished and it is full of the same power that raised Christ to life again.

I Samuel 2:1-10 -

Hannah prayed: I'm bursting with God-news! I'm walking on air. I'm laughing at my rivals. I'm dancing my salvation. Nothing and no one is holy like God, no rock mountain like our God.Don't dare talk pretentiously - not a word of boasting, ever! For God knows what's going on. He takes the measure of everything that happens. The weapons of the strong are smashed to pieces, while the weak are infused with fresh strength. The well-fed are out begging in the streets for crusts, while the hungry are getting second helpings. The barren woman has a houseful of children, while the mother of many is bereft. God brings death and God brings life, brings down to the grave and raises up. God brings poverty and God brings wealth; he lowers, he also lifts up. He puts poor people on their feet again; he rekindles burned-out lives with fresh hope, Restoring dignity and respect to their lives - a place in the sun! For the very structures of earth are God's; he has laid out his operations on a firm foundation. He protectively cares for his faithful friends, step by step, but leaves the wicked to stumble in the dark. No one makes it in this life by sheer muscle! God's enemies will be blasted out of the sky, crashed in a heap and burned. God will set things right all over the earth, he'll give strength to his king, he'll set his anointed on top of the world!

AMEN!

Becoming Unnumbed

So, I think some have been trying to figure me out the past few years.  It seems I have been "wrecked".  I started reading a book by the same title written by Jeff Goins, and so far it sums things up pretty well.

To be wrecked begins with an experience that pulls you out of your comfort zone and self-centeredness, whether you want it to or not. Your old narcissistic dreams begin to fade in light of something bigger, something better. The process leaves you battered and broken after the “real world” has slammed up against your ideals a couple dozen times. What’s left standing is a new paradigm. It’s hard, but it’s good. It’s incredible and indelible. It’s tough, but only in the way that all things worth fighting for are tough. Being wrecked means everything you believe—everything you know about yourself, your world, and your destiny—is now in question. Because you’ve seen something bigger. And you can’t go back. At first the process is disorienting. It calls out the greatest parts of you, the parts you might be afraid of. It tests your courage, the very fibers of your being. This may very well be why we avoid conflict. It calls into question that which we are most afraid of—ourselves. And in the end, you’re not who you were before. You’re different. You’re changed. Your old life begins to make less and less sense in light of your new priorities. Everything that used to matter now feels arbitrary. And it seems futile to try rebuilding the old way of doing life. As confusing or as difficult as that may be, it’s good.

Then later Jeff adds:

Maybe you and I are hanging by a thread of grace for most of our lives and we’re expected to be humble, not haughty, with the breaks we’ve been given. Maybe we’re supposed to pay good deeds forward. Maybe we’re supposed to think what’s in it for me? far less than we do. Maybe we need to sacrifice more. Maybe it won’t feel like a sacrifice at all, but more like the sensation of becoming unnumbed. 

Unnumbed... I like that word. You know that feeling after the dentist when your lips start getting their feeling back.  You suddenly realize, hey I feel that.  That's kind of like what I have been going through the past few years.

Unwise

I was reading Proverbs 26 and 10 of the first 11 verses talk about fools and their folly.  It seems he doesn't hold them in very high regard.


1 Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.
3 A whip for the horse, a halter for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!
4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.
6 Like cutting off one's feet or drinking violence is the sending of a message by the hand of a   fool.
7 Like a lame man's legs that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
8 Like tying a stone in a sling is the giving of honor to a fool.
9 Like a thorn bush in a drunkard's hand is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
10 Like an archer who wounds at random is he who hires a fool or any passer-by.
11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.


Then verse 12 reveals who Solomon is REALLY talking too...12Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
So if you think fools are bad, be careful you don't think too highly of yourself.

Unloveable

Who is unlovable in your life?  What makes them unlovable?
Across the table...
Across the hall...
Across the street...
Beside you on the bus...
Beside you in the car...
Beside you in the pew...
Behind the turban...
Behind the sombrero...
Behind the pulpit...
Behind the other idea...
Behind the other religion...

Someone said "Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die."

Forgiveness...

Do the impossible!