Verse of the Day: Isaiah 56:3-8

Isaiah 56:3-8 (English Standard Version)

 ³Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,
   "The LORD will surely separate me from his people";
and let not the eunuch say,
   "Behold, I am a dry tree."
⁴For thus says the LORD:"To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
   who choose the things that please me
   and hold fast my covenant,
⁵ I will give in my house and within my walls
   a monument and a name
   better than sons and daughters;
 I will give them an everlasting name
   that shall not be cut off.
 ⁶"And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
   to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
   and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
   and holds fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
   and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
 their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
   for all peoples."
⁸The Lord GOD,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
 "I will gather yet others to him
   besides those already gathered."



Happy Sabbath! I pray all of you enjoy praising and worshipping our amazing God today and being filled with His spirit. :) ~blessings

God as Judge, a quote by J.I. Packer

"The problem of the psalmist who saw inoffensive people being victimized, and the ungodly "not in trouble as other men" but prospering and at peace (psalm 73), is echoed again and again in human experience. But the character of God is the guarantee that all wrongs will be righted someday; when "the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgement will be revealed" (Romans 2:5) arrives, retribution will be exact, and no problems of cosmic unfairness will remain to haunt us. God is the Judge, so justice will be done.

Why, then do we fight shy of the thought of God as Judge? Why do we feel the thought to be unworthy of him? The truth is that part of God's moral perfection is his perfection in judgment. Would a God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong be a good and admirable Being? Would a God who put no distinctions between the beasts of history, the Hitlers and Stalins (if we dare use names), and his own saints, be morally praiseworthy and perfect? Moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection. But not to judge the world would be to show moral indifference. The final proof that God is a perfect moral Being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that he has committed himself to judge the world."

                                                 ~ J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 143







I highlighted some of the quote that I thought particularly drove some of Packer's points home. I thought this was a refreshing perspective on God as being Judge of the world. Sometimes a lot of what one hears nowadays in regards to God being judge is oftentimes put in a negative light. In fact, it seems, as society tries to continually make everything relative all the time, people tend to avoid the thought of God judging the world. But actually, it is a good thing! It means our loving and compassionate God is in complete control and that true justice will prevail.

~Blessings

Judging Less, Loving more

‎"It is easy to be repelled by false "mortification of the flesh" where people shout against sin and have in their hearts nothing but hardness and uncharity, and really are so busy hating sin that they have no time to love God."

~ Thomas Merton, Run to The Mountain, p. 71

When I read this passage from Thomas Merton's book, Run to the Mountain (his first journal), I couldn't help but think of how his reflections are just as appropriate for the time period we find ourselves in now as they undoubtedly were for the time period Merton found himself in when he wrote it.  Perhaps within humanity we all come equipped with a built-in "pharisee gene". It does seem like people regardless of the time period they are dropped in, and Christians certainly come into this category, never tire of judging others.

Whether it is homosexuality, premarital sex, being guilty of illegal offenses, involved in drugs, or any of the other sins that we think do not contain us in their snares, there are vices and pitfalls aplenty to raise our voices against in today's society. But what good does it do towards the advancement of God's kingdom? How does raising our voices against sin continually build the body of Christ up and add to its numbers? In the process of doing so, do we become blind to the notion of reflecting the love and light of Christ?

I could see in a way how it would build the body up-for when there is something to fight against people find themselves energized and motivated to get organized, to pursue injustice and the wrongs of this world with zeal and great gusto. And sometimes that isn't always a bad thing, sometimes that can be very good, it all has to do with what one is motivated against. Right now I'm talking about the moral and legal infractions of those in society that modern Christians speak out so much against. How does this add to its numbers? I would say the judgemental tone of intolerance that is so prevelant today and getting so much attention from a certain subset of Christians actually turns people off from running towards Christ...for if the very people who are critical, judgemental and damning are supposed to reflect the very nature of Christ...I don't know if that would spur me to run to His throne either!

If Jesus was able to hang out and eat with sinners, so can I! All of us can...and have a witnessing influence to those who don't yet know the love of God.



Some verses to ponder when reflecting on this topic:


Proverbs 10: 12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

1 Peter 4:8 ⁸Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

 

1 John 4:7-8  ⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

 

Titus 3:2 To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy to all people.

 

 

Back to refecting on Merton's quote. I would say instead of judging others, loving God does far more to oppose the darkness of the world than hurtful words flung at already wounded souls. To love God, and realize His reality surrounds us and permeates this world and that even those who we might resist being tender towards were created by the same God who we love, has a way of changing one's attitude and one's heart. Loving God cannot but transform one's heart. And if we are continually being transformed to kinder, gentler, more compassionate people that is going to make a far more difference than angry and bitter words.

 

The Bible makes it clear that God seeks humble hearts. And a humble heart isn't a judging heart because a humble heart has a sense of introspection that, like a mirror, reveals to the saintly sinner their own vices, their own downfalls, their own failures and their own desperate need for God. We are no more worthy of God than those we judge!

 

Mother Teresa once said:

 

We are all capable of good and evil. We are not born bad: everybody has something good inside. Some hide it, some neglect it, but it is there.

Perhaps it would be a wise thing to start looking at the qualities that we have in common with others and not just the differences. Perhaps finding the commonalities would serve as a bridge to understanding and an opportunity towards sharing the message of God's grace and love.
There is a time for anger and a time for action. But I just think, and this is my opinon, it is a blog after all, that a lot of our efforts as Christians against issues are against the wrong kinds of issues.  Let's get angry about the child who is watching helplessly as her mother dies today in some small town in Africa, not knowing what tomorrow will bring because there is nobody else to take care of her. Let's get angry about all the countless people dying because their water is contaiminated. Let's get motivated and spurred on by compassion for this world and feel conviction towards letting the compassion of Christ permeate it! Let's drown this world in the light and love of Christ! Ok..maybe "drown" isn't the best word, but I feel my readers know what I mean! ;)

 

So my unscholarly, unprofessional opinion is this: Let's open our hearts towards God. Let's recieve His spirit within Him. Let's feast upon His words and let them dwell richly within and then take our love, our knowledge and compassion and bring it to a world of suffering, a world of darkness, a world that truly needs it. Let's be a lamp shining in the darkness and let our light bring hope to the hopeless.

 

~Peace and blessings.

 

Verse of the Day: Luke 4:8 w. corresponding Hymn

Luke 4:8 (English Standard Version)
8And Jesus answered him, "It is written,
"'You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.'




Sometimes that's easier said than done nowadays...to worship God only. Even when we don't realize it sometimes we turn towards other things and away from God, giving glory to the things of this world, or even to ourselves at times, and not enough to the Creator of this world. I pray today that the Holy Spirit shines through all our cluttered thoughts and intentions,through all our misconceptions and illusions, letting there be no chance of anything in our lives to try to steal God's glory from Him today.
I end this entry with one of my favorite hymns. I love the hymn "Be Thou My Vision" and I think it fits well with this Bible vers e because it talks about keeping our eyes on God and God only, not what the world has to offer.May all of you walk in His light and love this day. ~Many blessings

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

God's Grace

Yes, I'm still reading J.I. Packer's Knowing God.  It's just so full of truths and insights that it's not a book I want to rush through. While reading it last night I came across a really touching hymn that he shares on his chapter focusing on the Grace of God. He doesn't give the name of the hymn, but the writer is Isaac Watts. I thought the words were beautiful and deep, full of meaning, so I figured I'd share it this morning with all of you :)

But there's a voice of princely grace
Sounds from God's holy Word;
Ho! ye poor captive sinners, come,
And trust upon the Lord.

My soul obeys the sovereign call,
And runs to this relief;
I would believe thy promise, Lord,
Oh, help my unbelief.

To the blest fountain of thy blood,
Incarnate God, I fly,
To wash my soul from scarlet stains,
And sins of deepest dye.

A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
Into thy hands I fall;
Thou art the Lord, my righteousness,
My Saviour, and my all.
 
~ Isaac Watts

I love how he uses the words; run, fly, fall...when he describes himself coming before God. He captures well the desperation of the sinner to be redeemed and to seek the solace and security of God. To be able to run to our God, to fly to Him, to fall at His throne just speaks so much of the trust that the redeemed have in God...I mean we sure aren't running or flying or falling at the feet of a God we fear is going to smite us with His wrath. We know the price has been payed, we know, in our humility that God gave up His perfect son for us...imperfect sinners that will always fall short in our attempts of perfection. He is the God  who works through us to give us the strength we need and without Him we are but a shell of who we are meant to be. He shows that it is essential to be made humble, to admit our weaknesses and fraility, our humanity, to be made whole.

Let's be empowered by God's strength and spirit today and come before Him in humility, confessing our wrongdoings and our weaknesses. Let's be lifted up by His spirit and made whole in a world that continually batters and assaults us with temptations, trials and suffering.

Thomas Keating once said: The winds of Grace are blowing all the time, and it is up to us to raise our sails.

Let's lift our sails today and be carried by the winds of God's grace, may He take us far and may, through His Grace, we bring Him much glory and honor and praise.

~blessings

An Evolution to Prayer?

1 John 5:14-15 (English Standard Version)

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

The cartoon was taken off a great blog, check it out sometime! : http://www.nakedpastor.com/

Prayer is a concept that I feel is widely misinterpreted. I think both non-christians and christians fall into the trap that God is some genie in the bottle and if we rub the bottle a certain way then...*poof* our prayer will be granted! I can't even recall the number of non-christians I've had conversations with that base the reason for their disbelief on the fact that some prayer or another, often spoken desperately in painful circumstances, wasn't answered the they wanted. So....then...naturally, there must have been no God to hear their request...or perhaps God isn't chalked up to be what everyone makes Him out to be...maybe He isn't as all-powerful and all-knowing as some profess.

I'm not going to say I have God figured out (who does?), or prayer for that matter. In fact, I've had my struggles with the concept of prayer myself. Not because what I asked for wasn't granted but because I didn't see the point in asking it in the first place. After all, if God knows the words we say before we utter them (as the Bible states) than why bother utter them at all? ...I know, perhaps that is cynical, but sometimes I can't help myself from allowing cynisicm to creep in and invade my thoughts/attitudes. We all have our faultlines in our faith, our weak points, the concepts or questions we struggle with, and prayer has been my faultline in the past. I guess that's what makes us so human.

This verse though illuminates one truth regarding prayer, giving us some spiritual food to chew on. "If we ask anything according to His will..."....Hmm...according to His will...The Bible also talks about our spiritual maturity and how the deeper we walk with God, the more we start to understand His truths and the more we understand His truths we are are changed by His presence in our life- by fearing Him, by worshipping Him, by praising Him and by opening humble hearts wide to let his light in, casting out the darkness buried shamefully deep in our soul's corridors.  And the more we allow our false illusions to be shed, our attachments to this world to loosen and fall away, the more we are conformed to the likeness of Christ. The more closely attuned we become to the will of God. The easier it is to pray honestly and openly and refreshingly in God's presence.

So that makes me wonder outloud this morning...there surely must be within the history of every believer an evolution of prayer. Where perhaps one first started off with a list of demands or wants or needs to God, expecting them to be met, wondering waiting, sometimes impatiently, for their "wishes'' to be granted. And then perhaps progressing to the point where they were so awed by the magnificence of their Creator that they felt so small in the presence of one so vast and eternal where they felt shamed from asking anything at all. Then, perhaps progressing to the point where, though humbled, they felt the closeness and connection to draw close to God, to share their thoughts, their pains, frustrations, fears, in more of a conversation and less as one making a proposal before God. And then perhaps, as some have experienced, even closer, where words are no longer necessary.

I wish I had more time this morning to reflect on this, but as I don't want this post to become so long as to lose some readers I think I will continue it another time. I guess we can all ask ourselves this morning where along the point of evolution our prayer life stands and in what direction it is going. Are we moving closer to experiencing God personally, or further away? And why? Is it because we imagine God as some genie and feel wounded when our requests aren't granted? Is it because we think God is too far outside us and above us where He can't be approached? (He is much greater than ourselves but the thought that He can't be approached and made personal is nothing but a lie! The Bible tells us to approach the throne of God with confidence! )...or are we in a very comfortable place where we are growing more and more in the truths of God and run eagerly each time we enter prayer into the arms of our Maker, thanking Him, praising Him, and sharing with Him all our thoughts/worries/experiences/pains and seek His will first before requesting anything?

There was a long span of time when I didn't pray at all. Yep, I said it, I had no prayer life. Let me tell you friend, that is a hollow and dark place to be. We need a connection with our creator! So, let me just say that if you find yourself in that place right now just reach out to Him, even just a few honest words coming from your heart opens the gate to His presence. Just say those words and wait...let your soul wait in silence... and God will fill the emptiness of your soul with joy unimaginable. He will provide you with a blessed assurance. 

~May you walk in His light and love this day. Many blessings.

What song would you play at your funeral?

Ok, I'm not trying to add a morbid tone to the day...but do funerals have to always be morbid? I think of this theme because this morning I was listening to some songs by Rich Mullins, one being his song "Elijah". I can't help but  love that song and be struck with the idea of perhaps playing it at my funeral one day. Even if people don't always play songs at their funeral  generally , a lot of people do think of what song or poem or thing they would like to be said- something to convey perhaps who they were as a person, something to help define their nature or whatever message they would like to convey to their loved ones. It's not that uncommon of a thing to think of. (I guess that's my way of having a disclaimer to attempt to bring the point home to my readers that I'm not that strange lol.)

So, here's my song.

Elijah ~Rich Mullins

The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through
My heart is aging I can tell
So Lord, I'm begging for one last favor from You
Here's my heart take it where You will

This life has shown me how we're mended and how we're torn
How it's okay to be lonely as long as you're free
Sometimes my ground was stoney
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be
And now that it's done
Well if they dressed me like a pauper
Or if they dined me like a prince
If they lay me with my fathers
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind
I don't care

But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye

There's people been friendly, but they'd never be your friends
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground
Now that this is all ending
I want to hear some music once again
'Cause it's the finest thing that I have ever found

But the Jordan is waiting
Though I ain't never seen the other side
Still they say you can't take in the things you have here
So on the road to salvation
I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride
And His music is already falling on my ears

There's people been talking
They say they're worried about my soul
Well, I'm here to tell you I'll keep rocking
'Til I'm sure it's my time to roll
And when I do

When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye

'Cause when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye.

Psalm 112:4-8 (ESV)

Psalm 112:4-8 (English Standard Version)

⁴Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
   he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
⁵It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
   who conducts his affairs with justice.
⁶For the righteous will never be moved;
    he will be remembered forever.
⁷He is not afraid of bad news;
   his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.
⁸His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
   until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.

 


What have we to fear, those of us who love and have put our trust in God? What is God compared to man...or even the forces of nature? He who called all of creation into being with His word alone?...Let's not find ourselves in despair when bad news comes our way, lets' put our trust in God, knowing that He has a divine foresight with the blessings of His children in mind. Let's keep our virtues in a world that sometimes scoffs at virtues in its rush to get ahead. Let's keep our eyes focused on Him and let Him be the source of all our victories.
 
Many blessings :)