A Love That's Better than Life

Psalm 63:1-8 (ESV)

¹O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
   as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
²So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
   beholding your power and glory.
³Because your steadfast love is better than life,
   my lips will praise you.
⁴So I will bless you as long as I live;
   in your name I will lift up my hands.

 ⁵My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
   and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
⁶when I remember you upon my bed,
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷for you have been my help,
   and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
⁸My soul clings to you;
   your right hand upholds me.

I once felt troubled by the verses "your love is better than life". These verses are in a song that we sing at church too. Whenever I heard it, I couldn't help thinking, "What could be better than life?". I couldn't help but think that sometimes it seems like a lot of Christians focus more on the afterlife than life here on earth, and that's the filter I looked through when I heard these verses. That it was minimizing in some way the beauty and gift of our life here on earth.

I was going through a difficult time spiritually. Some of you might be able to sympathize or relate, or perhaps you are going through such a time right now. When questions about God, about the Bible, about one's faith, seem to infinitely outnumber any of the answers that we might have. When the coldness and darkness of the world and our personal experiences in it has penetrated our thoughts so much that arising within us easily is cynisism and doubt and pushed down, far beneath the layers of our souls, is the simple childlike trust and faith that God calls us to have.

It was only after I sought God, with all my strength and heart and received the outpouring of His Spirit, and felt the peace that only He can provide-the peace that surpasses all understanding, that I began to understand those verses. God's love is His reality and it is infinite. God is outside of time and His love will continue on forever. His love for us is deep and intimate, for He has the love for us that a father has for a child, yet it's deeper because he doesn't carry with Him the emotional baggage our earthly fathers do that inhibits their perspective, experience and expressions of love.

When one opens themselves up to God's love and feels it thaw the most distant and hidden corners of one's soul, bringing with it hope and joy and peace, than these verses come alive. When the power and glory of God manifests itself in one's life then one truly knows what it's like to have one's soul be "satisfied as with fat and rich food."

 God's love is transforming. And if one opens oneself up to the reality of God's love one can be continually transformed in the light and power of the Spirit. It enriches our lives and becomes our lives. God's love illuminates areas in our lives that need to be changed while giving us the strength to change them. God's love gives us the strength to face adversity and the endurance to pass through it unhindered. God's love gives us the courage to break the chains of the world that binds us to misery, grief and guilt. God's love is infinite and amazing...God's love is here with us during our earthly lives and with us forever throughout eternity. God's love is truly better than life!

No person could have convinced me of that truth. That was a matter I had to seek God on. I can't convince you of anything...but God can reveal this and many other truths to you if you've not yet experienced His peace and His love. Let's be seekers. Seekers of God's truth, of God's presence...let's ascend the hills to Mt. Zion, enter His holy sanctuary and lift up our hands and hearts in praise and bless His holy name. Let's bring glory to God!

Let's give thanks to God, during this special time of year of Advent, for the ultimate love He showed us-through giving this world His only son which they scorned and beat and ultimately hung on a cross. His only son, who became the means in which we could enter into God's love unhindered through the glorious grace of our Father.

~Many Blessings

Proclaiming Freedom

Isaiah 61:1

 ¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
   to proclaim freedom for the captives
   and release from darkness for the prisoners

http://www.integrallife.com/

With the coming of a tiny baby, wrapped up and bundled in an obscure corner of the world surrounded by animals in a dusty hay-filled stable, came the coming of hope for all mankind in the world. With Jesus, we have redemption, we have forgiveness, we have new beginnings. He truly is the good news that the world needs.

Have you been set free from that which holds you captive? That which bars you from experiencing abundant joy and peace in our Lord?  It is true that we are continually assailed with distractions vying for our attention, trying to pry our seeking eyes off of Jesus, taking our attention from truth and devotion, and casting our thoughts on things much less signficant...and frankly cheap, considering the richness there is in the Lord. Have you bought into the world's lies and settled for a cheaper imitation of Jesus and the life that can be found in him? Or do you live fully for the Lord, proclaiming the freedom you've found in God to friends, to family, openly living as a disciple of Christ?

It's not easy sometimes, especially in today's society, to express a genuine devotion towards God and a reverence towards His written Word to others in our lives. It seems like now, especially in our American culture, when one speaks up, proclaiming the Word as the truth and light of God, with that proclamation, quite a number of stereotypes rise up to define one, sometimes unfairly. And that limits the potential of really getting the true, genuine message of Christ across effectively.

Maybe though, to proclaim God's truth in our lives, we don't have to use words all the time. Maybe words can limit our message to people in how God has changed our lives. Maybe words themselves can be like walls, barriers, between us and our message and other people. Maybe just living our lives; changed, free from the yoke of this world and full of the peace of God, is enough to make people start reflecting, start questioning, start seeking. I'm not an evangelist. I don't think I ever will be. I'm just not good at that kind of thing. But In Isaiah, it says to "preach good news to the poor"...to "proclaim freedom for the captives"...and I do think that is important. (It's God's Word after all! )

How can we do that without using words, or "evangelizing" in the traditional sense? I'm putting out a thought here, I'm not saying I'm entirely right, and of course each circumstance warrants particular varying responses, but there are some before me that have had the same notion that are much more qualified than I am, so I think there is some merit in this idea.

I am coming to believe that one of the best ways of proclaiming the freedom that we have found in Christ to a fallen world is through acts of service and through living out our lives, free from bondage, glorifying God and thus, serving as a living testament to His mercy, grace and to the power of the Spirit.

St Francis of Assissi once said, " Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words."

Language is limiting, actions say so much more. Words just symbolize concepts, actions display and live them out. Let's live out God's Word! Let's live out a life rich in Christ. Let's not just talk about Jesus but let's take to heart what he came down and taught us. To go out and serve others, to not let socio economic statuses define us spiritually. To reach out to others, both rich and poor, and help them. Let's find ways to lift others up through our actions and through our Love, the love that God puts in our hearts, and let's show grace and love to those around us. That will say so much more about the God we love and serve than anything words can express.

Consider Mother Teresa. She is respected by so many, Christians and non-Christians alike. She is someone that lived out her life with reverence towards God, service to mankind and great love towards people that most of us find hard to love. The lepers, the poor, the dying. And through her actions of love, through displaying the character of Jesus in a dark world, she shined a light brighter than anything words could create. She lived out her faith and through her gentle spirit, others could see the spiritual freedom she had with God. And that makes one really think deeply about things. We can't "save" anyone...that's God's job, that's the workings of the Spirit. The Bible tells us it is the Spirit which "awakens faith" in believers. But we can introduce hope, love, and compassion and inspire others to question what they believe and to reach out to seek the same freedom we have found and are finding in Christ.

As we prepare our hearts during Advent and anticipate celebrating the coming of Christ in the world, let's reflect on ways we can express the life of Christ in our own lives, without words, but through living out the gospel. Let's also reflect in ways that the world still binds us to it and ask for God to release us from those chains so that we can be more effective servants and live more fully in Him. Let's be free in Christ and proclaim that freedom to others through living in the love and light and Spirit of God! :)

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for helping us find freedom in you. Thank you for breaking the chains of slavery that bind us to the world and for vanquishing the darkness that threatens our peace, inundating our spirits with your light and love. May you continually work in our hearts so that we can experience you in deeper ways and enlighten us in the areas of our lives that need you and that need our attention and prayer in breaking free from.

 May our lives be living testaments to the power of your Spirit which makes such freedom and peace possible. May we seek ways in which we can serve you and speak of your great love, your grace, the hope that is found only in you, through our actions and through our lives. May we be the bright lamps in the world, shining our lights, (not speaking of light but actively shining it!) being the beacons of hope, that you call us to be.

Thank you for your son, for without him, we would have no hope. We praise you and give you all glory and honor.

In Jesus' name,

Amen

God Welcomes Seekers

Luke 11:9-10

⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for^[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

God welcomes those who seek the truth about His reality and seek, with all their hearts, to experience Him within, with arms outstretched. For those of us that can't find rest until we rest in the fullness of God's reality, He is there, waiting, waiting for us to knock at the door of His holy gates. For those of us that want more truth than the world has to offer, He is there. And I would suggest to not walk timidly towards the gateway of truth but to run, with all fervor and to knock with fervor, as one with a thirsty and hungry spirit. God will flood us with His Spirit when we do that, with the fullness of His joy and we will be refreshed with His eternal water, receiving inight, truth, joy and peace. We will no longer be hungry or thirsty but filled with spiritual manna and waters that give life to the soul.

I pray that those of us who are weary and  lack that desire to come before God find the desire to pursue Him with vigor, for He is the only thing that really matters in this life when it comes down to it. Perhaps a good thing to pray would be that God would awaken that desire within us to pursue our Creator, to experience the reality of Him within and all around us. I pray that we all knock continually at the His door, continually being revived, continually being refreshed so that in the strength we receive we can be an encouragment to others to do the same. So that they might see the love and light that we receive from God's holy Spirit through us and might be drawn to seek that same assurance, that same peace. God is waiting, on the other side of the door. It's just up to us to seek after Him and knock.

~many blessings in Christ

The Key To Prosperity

<sup>Jeremiah 29:11-13

11</sup> For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God wants us to prosper, to soar, to reach the heights of our dreams and ambitions, if they are parallel with His will for our lives. For when our life bears fruit it gives glory to God. God wants our lives to be living testimonies of the power of the Spirit that works through His children, so naturally He wants the best for us! He didn't make us to be stagnant, he made us to be active agents of His kingdom, spreading love and light and hope to the world.

He also didn't intend for us to have downcast souls, wounded by the world. If we lift the eyes of our hearts to Him, seeking Him with all that is inside of us, He will lift our weary, wounded souls up into heights unimaginable.

Sometimes we all reach our plateaus in life where it seems like we've been stuck in the same place and hope for change and growth seems like a remote possibility because we've been resting in the same reality for so long. In fact, it's easy to get comfortable in such a place. We know what to expect and what is expected of us. It's also an intimidating thing sometimes, rising above our comfort zones and trying new things, growing in new ways. We have to overcome our internal inertia to do so. But God doesn't want us to fear those things, he wants us to embrace them!

The way to get out of the rut we find ourselves in sometimes? The way to overcome our fears and insecurities? As the verses in Jeremiah tell us...pray and seek God with all of our hearts!...The Holy Spirit is, I've found, the best catalyst of change and the best source of hope and nourishment a weary, tired, or stagnant soul needs in being revived. God gives us the strength and encouragement to move forward. And when we move forward, trusting in Him only and seeking Him with all our hearts we start to see great changes in our lives. I'm not talking about money falling from the sky (though that would be nice!)..but perhaps prosperity also refers to the strengthening and growth and fruitfulness of relationships. When it comes to financial prosperity, that does seem a natural byproduct of an active, fruitful life.

The key I've found to grow with God is to have a regular devotional life of prayer and reading Scripture and meditating. If we do these things mindfully, giving to them while we engage in them our full attention, then we get to know our God better so that our prayers our conformed more closely to His Will. In Scripture it says that if you ask then you will receive. I've heard that misinterpreted though in the sense that people read it as if God is magically transformed into some type of divine genie. You rub your Bible a certain way while praying and...poof! You get what you desire. That just isn't so though. The New Testament over and over again tells us that we are to conform ourselves not to this world but to Christ. When we move through the process of sanctification and the truths and reality of God blossom before us like flowers in a garden, providing beauty and light to our souls, we start to want the things God wants. And when we pray for those things, God is overjoyed in providing them to us!

It is my prayer that all who read this find joy and hope and nourishment in our great God today. It might be a good thing too if we all pray for God to reveal the areas of our lives that need change (I know I have some!) and for God's Will for us to be revealed so that we can experience the greatest amount of joy and peace and prosperity God offers those who are seekers and humble and have open hearts hungrily thirsting for His Spirit. May we manifest His will in our lives so that our God may be glorified for all of man to witness, to draw those who haven't experienced Him closer by witnessing His power working through our lives, bearing much fruit.

~Blessings in Christ