I saw a sign in front of a church recently that said this,
"God loves everyone, but he probably prefers the fruits of the spirit over the religious nuts".
At first I read it and didn't get it, but as I read it over, I began to feel a bit of a spirit of judgement come over me.
I began thinking of all the ways in which I thought the sign was wrong and I began to wonder about the person who thought it up and the congregation that belongs to that church and how they must have some hurts going on etc, etc, etc.
I had to stop myself from judging and in doing so, I am aware at how familiar that spirit of judgment is to me.
The sign suggests that God has preferences.
And yet, if you open up God's word you will find a specific word that says that this thought is a lie
.
The word is "GRACE".
You will find this word well over one hundred times in different books of the Bible. I am challenged this morning to dig deep and find each place "grace" is mentioned and listen with my spirit to God's word about God's word.
Don't worry, I am not about to take that on in this entry, just for my own personal understanding!
Did you know that there is no better authority on God's word than God's word?
I came across these two verses earlier on this year and for whatever reason, I felt compelled to highlight them, wanting to remember this truth.
Romans 2:11, For God does not show favoritism, and Ephesians 6:9, and there is no favoritism with Him(Him being God).
There is NO favoritism in Him!
There is however favouritism in me if I am totally honest.
I judge, I favour, I love conditionally, I pick and choose based on how someone treats me, I ignore and if I am really honest I would have to say, I have hated.
I could go on and on, but I will spare you the details as this is not about me.
This is about the grace that was offered to me on the cross.
If the sign is true and God prefers one type of person over another; then Jesus died for nothing.
Jesus being fully man and fully God(I could spend days just writing about the divinity and humanity of Jesus, but I won't), surrendered to His Heavenly Father and became the substitution, the sinless sacrifice necessary to grant freedom from the wages of sin, which is death, (Romans 6:23) to ALL who call upon the name of the Lord, (Acts 2:21)
If you are so inclined, here are some scriptures that speak into this incredible offer available for all....Psalm 86:5, Psalm 145:18 and Romans 10:12.
There is no one discluded from the invitation.
Does that mean everyone will be with God one day?
Well, that would be a topic for another blog entry.
However, suffice it to say for now, that only God knows the beginning from the end and so it goes without saying that He knows who will accept His offer and who will turn their face from or shake their fist at His offer....and yet He keeps offering the gift.
Back to the sign and to grace.......
Why is it so hard to receive grace from God through Jesus?
Is it because grace is undeserved and humanly speaking it doesn't make sense?
Is it because grace is unmerited and we as humans can't work for it and "working for it" is so familiar to us?
Is it because according to this world it is so..........outrageous?
Grace says, "I love and accept you based solely on grace, not on you!"
God's grace is beyond our comprehension; outside of our human understanding and thinking.
In order to understand God's grace, we need the Spirit of God to teach us; to reveal it to us.
God is Spirit (Jn 4:24) and the Bible teaches us that His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
Jesus is truth (John 14:6), God's word is truth (John 17:17), Jesus is the Word(Jn1:1).
Through Jesus, I am restored back into a relationship with God, which makes a way for my spirit to receive God's truth which comes from God's word, spoken to me by His Holy Spirit.
Without Jesus, God's word, the Bible, is just another book with some good moral teaching, some great poetry, songs and fun stories.
The Bible is God's story....His-story, a love story. (John 3:16)
The fruits of the spirit as written about in Galatians 5:22-23 are (love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness, self control and faithfulness).
These fruits are the very character and likeness of God Himself. God is all of these things and so much more.
For example, He is just, the only just judge, which takes me back to my own issues with passing judgment on people.
Grace teaches that God, with equal fervor and passion, loves a man like Paul Bernardo exactly the same as He loves a woman like Mother Teresa.
And because of that love, offers grace to both without limit.
How do you feel about that?
In other words, there is no favouritism in Him!
None!
Jesus acceptance of me came on the cross, but He does not accept my sin. Jesus doesn't measure sin on a scale as He knows all sin leads to death. It's just in our humanness that we try to justify the world we live in and our own actions by measuring sin on a scale. If I could see sin as God sees sin, I would weep at the lie I told last week. I only did it because I didn't want to hurt someone's feelings (that's me justifying what I did).
I want to be honest today, admitting that I don't really in my humanness understand the "wages" of sin.
"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known"(1Corinthians 13:5).
I do know that Jesus hates my sin and the cross is the measure of that hatred. (Oswald Chambers)
"Greater love has no one than this; that He lay down His life for His friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.....fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. John 15:13-17
Or....maybe you have a message Bible, if so, I would encourage you to look this scripture up in that version, it gives a fresh word on this awesome word. Or, if you are very adventurous you can go to www.biblegateway.com and check it out in hungarian if you so choose!!!!
In closing, I have had to tell God how sorry I am for my default that is so judgemental and ask Him for a greater measure of kindness in my spirit, or maybe I need a greater measure of goodness, or maybe self control, or maybe gentleness or love or joy or peace or faithfulness or patience (now there's a biggie!!)
No matter how I look at my life, I am fully aware that I need God......I need His Son Jesus Christ and I need to be fully surrendered, which simply means to give up or relinquish or yield to His will for my life.
How can I know His will for my life?
Well, I can accept His Son as my Lord and Saviour through the forgiveness of my sin and invite Him to come into my heart and save me.
Then I can pick up His written word (the Bible) and there I can meet the Living Word (Jesus), who will teach me in my spirit what God, who is Spirit, is wanting to say to me specifically for my unique life.
How will He do that??
By His Holy Spirit that has come to live in my heart!
I can't explain the logistics to you, all I can say is this, "For it is by GRACE you have been saved, through faith...and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God...not by works so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9
Today, I think I will ask someone who knows me well, and by that I mean knows me even when I am not at my best, and ask them to do a fruit inspection on me.
Maybe there is the odd piece of bad fruit that is spoiling the rest. The thing about bad fruit, is that you don't know its there until you do a little digging in the fruit bowl. I have occasionally picked out a piece of fruit that looks good and yet because it is sitting next to a bad peice, has become rotten.
Thank you God for your merciful grace.
Thank you.
Love Tracy whom some reading this, might call a religious nut!
Just remember, religion is about rules....faith in Jesus Christ is about a beautiful relationship!!!!!
Its all about GRACE!!
Freedom
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Lessons from a little Bird....
Have you ever got yourself in a bad place...?
Made a decision to do something and before you know what has happened, you are trapped?
I have a gas fireplace insert, and somehow, some way, a bird found himself trapped in the place behind my fireplace insert where there is a small space on either side of and above the insert. The only way into this place that I can see is way up near our roof where there is a crack that a bird could possibly fit into, but why it would want to crawl into this dark place is beyond me.
Yet, I can think of numerous times in my life where I made choices to enter dark places. I say dark, because I was unable to see what was ahead of me at the time.
I found myself thinking about this bird today and about his lack of freedom and even more important, about his inability to save himself.
At first I thought the bird was stuck in the flue and hopelessly going to die in there. We could hear him flapping around from side to side and it was very unsettling. I felt his hopelessness.
But when I investigated I realized that he was not hopelessly stuck, he was just held captive by the trappings of the fireplace insert. Had that insert not been there, he would have been free.
He was trying desperately to free himself, but was completely unable in his own strength to get himself out. He couldn't see what I could see. From my position, I could see that some work needed to be done in order for him to get out. I went and got my tool bag and began the process of taking apart the fireplace yet, with each loosened screw, the bird became more and more frantic. I could see his little legs running back and forth through the 1" crack and feathers were beginning to fly out the sides of the fireplace. The bird was aware of one thing it seemed....he wanted out of his predicament. I thought that when I pulled the last panel away that he would fly out in a panic and I was worried that he would start crazily flying around the house, so first I opened wide the double front doors of my house, along with the screens, hoping that he would head in that direction. I held my breath and watched as he was desperately pressing his long pointy beak out the crack where my hand was. I pulled it away from the brick, bracing myself for a fuss and imagine my surprise when he simply walked out!!! He walked out slowly and carefully, but completely relaxed. He hopped up onto my chaise lounge and had a little look around. He pecked a bit at my wind breaker that was on the chaise, lifting the corner of it like he was searching for something, and then he hopped amazingly toward the front of the house, off the chaise and onto the floor, seemingly in no hurry. And then he hopped toward the open doors only stopping long enough to look back and chirp! Mmmm, I think he was thanking me. He headed down the front steps and onto to the grass where dinner was waiting for him.....he was hungry!
I can't help but make a spiritual lesson out of this.
Sin leads to darkness, which leads to captivity and eventually to death. There have been times in my life when my choices have led me on this path. I had no ability to help myself.
I cannot save myself.
There is only one who can save and His name is Jesus.
Sin (which has infected every single human being on this earth) separates us from God, and according to Romans 6:23, "the wages of sin is death", but Jesus gave His very life and took the punishment for our sin, paid for our sin, was the ransome for our sin, and through this unfathomable forgiveness on the cross, saves us! The rest of Romans 6:23 says, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Like this bird, I was never able to save myself, although I worked very hard to try to. I couldn't see what God could see, just as the bird could not understand or see what I could see.....a way out.
God can make a way where to the human eye there seems to be no way.
This bird taught me so much.
He taught me that freedom is freedom and when I know freedom, I can stop trashing around like a captive bird!
I posted a picture with this entry of a baby resting in what looks like her Father's large capable hands. To me this is a picture of freedom. This baby is free to be exactly who he or she is......a baby! This baby doesn't have to pretend to be anything else, he or she can just "be" a baby.
Do I know this kind of freedom?
Freedom to sit still in my Father's loving, caring, creative hands, knowing that He sees my life from a completely different position than I do. Knowing that He has the ability to do the work necessary in order for me to appropriate the freedom that He has already bought for me on the cross. He has a tool bag the like of which I cannot fathom. He is creator of the Universe....the One who conceived my existence in His heart long before I was ever formed in my mother's womb. The One who carved out the valleys and formed the mountains. DNA was God's idea! Who but God could create so creatively that there are over 380 different shades of green in this world that we are aware of....?
380! Who but God could create the miracle of birth?
Who but God could give a different voice for the purpose of singing to every different bird in the world?
Who but God could have taken the dark places of my life and breathed life into them?
There are some large, wide open doors in front of me right now, and I am so anxious to walk through them, but a lesson learned from a little bird has taught me that there is no rush, I am free to "be" who I am and I will be directed through those doors when the time is right.
Like the bird, I have realized the freedom that has always been mine for the taking, but I was trying to do the work myself and needless to say there was a lot of thrashing around going on in my life. I am learning to rest and as I rest, I have been enjoying the ride as those large capable hands carry me to and fro........
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1Cor 6:19-20
If you have found yourself in a dark place, don't listen to the voice of hopelessness....there is hope.
God can see you, He can hear you thrashing around.
His heart is to give you the gift of eternal life right now, not sometime in the future.
Freedom is right in front of you.
Call to Him from the dark and He will answer you, but understand that He will have to do some work in your life in order for you to undestand, receive and appropriate that freedom.
Don't stay in the dark any longer, you don't have to.
Lord Jesus, I need you to come and save me.
I can't save myself from the dark place where I am held captive.
I need you and I need your forgiveness; forgive me for my choices and my sin.
Help me.
Made a decision to do something and before you know what has happened, you are trapped?
I have a gas fireplace insert, and somehow, some way, a bird found himself trapped in the place behind my fireplace insert where there is a small space on either side of and above the insert. The only way into this place that I can see is way up near our roof where there is a crack that a bird could possibly fit into, but why it would want to crawl into this dark place is beyond me.
Yet, I can think of numerous times in my life where I made choices to enter dark places. I say dark, because I was unable to see what was ahead of me at the time.
I found myself thinking about this bird today and about his lack of freedom and even more important, about his inability to save himself.
At first I thought the bird was stuck in the flue and hopelessly going to die in there. We could hear him flapping around from side to side and it was very unsettling. I felt his hopelessness.
But when I investigated I realized that he was not hopelessly stuck, he was just held captive by the trappings of the fireplace insert. Had that insert not been there, he would have been free.
He was trying desperately to free himself, but was completely unable in his own strength to get himself out. He couldn't see what I could see. From my position, I could see that some work needed to be done in order for him to get out. I went and got my tool bag and began the process of taking apart the fireplace yet, with each loosened screw, the bird became more and more frantic. I could see his little legs running back and forth through the 1" crack and feathers were beginning to fly out the sides of the fireplace. The bird was aware of one thing it seemed....he wanted out of his predicament. I thought that when I pulled the last panel away that he would fly out in a panic and I was worried that he would start crazily flying around the house, so first I opened wide the double front doors of my house, along with the screens, hoping that he would head in that direction. I held my breath and watched as he was desperately pressing his long pointy beak out the crack where my hand was. I pulled it away from the brick, bracing myself for a fuss and imagine my surprise when he simply walked out!!! He walked out slowly and carefully, but completely relaxed. He hopped up onto my chaise lounge and had a little look around. He pecked a bit at my wind breaker that was on the chaise, lifting the corner of it like he was searching for something, and then he hopped amazingly toward the front of the house, off the chaise and onto the floor, seemingly in no hurry. And then he hopped toward the open doors only stopping long enough to look back and chirp! Mmmm, I think he was thanking me. He headed down the front steps and onto to the grass where dinner was waiting for him.....he was hungry!
I can't help but make a spiritual lesson out of this.
Sin leads to darkness, which leads to captivity and eventually to death. There have been times in my life when my choices have led me on this path. I had no ability to help myself.
I cannot save myself.
There is only one who can save and His name is Jesus.
Sin (which has infected every single human being on this earth) separates us from God, and according to Romans 6:23, "the wages of sin is death", but Jesus gave His very life and took the punishment for our sin, paid for our sin, was the ransome for our sin, and through this unfathomable forgiveness on the cross, saves us! The rest of Romans 6:23 says, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Like this bird, I was never able to save myself, although I worked very hard to try to. I couldn't see what God could see, just as the bird could not understand or see what I could see.....a way out.
God can make a way where to the human eye there seems to be no way.
This bird taught me so much.
He taught me that freedom is freedom and when I know freedom, I can stop trashing around like a captive bird!
I posted a picture with this entry of a baby resting in what looks like her Father's large capable hands. To me this is a picture of freedom. This baby is free to be exactly who he or she is......a baby! This baby doesn't have to pretend to be anything else, he or she can just "be" a baby.
Do I know this kind of freedom?
Freedom to sit still in my Father's loving, caring, creative hands, knowing that He sees my life from a completely different position than I do. Knowing that He has the ability to do the work necessary in order for me to appropriate the freedom that He has already bought for me on the cross. He has a tool bag the like of which I cannot fathom. He is creator of the Universe....the One who conceived my existence in His heart long before I was ever formed in my mother's womb. The One who carved out the valleys and formed the mountains. DNA was God's idea! Who but God could create so creatively that there are over 380 different shades of green in this world that we are aware of....?
380! Who but God could create the miracle of birth?
Who but God could give a different voice for the purpose of singing to every different bird in the world?
Who but God could have taken the dark places of my life and breathed life into them?
There are some large, wide open doors in front of me right now, and I am so anxious to walk through them, but a lesson learned from a little bird has taught me that there is no rush, I am free to "be" who I am and I will be directed through those doors when the time is right.
Like the bird, I have realized the freedom that has always been mine for the taking, but I was trying to do the work myself and needless to say there was a lot of thrashing around going on in my life. I am learning to rest and as I rest, I have been enjoying the ride as those large capable hands carry me to and fro........
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1Cor 6:19-20
If you have found yourself in a dark place, don't listen to the voice of hopelessness....there is hope.
God can see you, He can hear you thrashing around.
His heart is to give you the gift of eternal life right now, not sometime in the future.
Freedom is right in front of you.
Call to Him from the dark and He will answer you, but understand that He will have to do some work in your life in order for you to undestand, receive and appropriate that freedom.
Don't stay in the dark any longer, you don't have to.
Lord Jesus, I need you to come and save me.
I can't save myself from the dark place where I am held captive.
I need you and I need your forgiveness; forgive me for my choices and my sin.
Help me.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
STOP!
Does anyone know what "rest" is?
By definition it seems that the world describes the word to means things like; inactivity, breathingspace, downtime, ease, idleness, nap, peace, quiescence, refreshment, relief, respite, standstill, stop, tranquillity and vacation.
I am going to focus on one description because it is the one that I feel God gave me approximately 4 years ago. Four years ago my life looked very different than it does today. Four years ago, my Mom and Dad were alive and well...I was in school, painting, working at Curves and….and….and......
The trouble started with a pain in my neck! Literally!
My neck began to give me trouble and nothing would bring relief. I tried advil, massage, sleep, tiger balm and a number of other rubs, but to no avail. The pain got worse by the day. My doctor suggested that painting at my age was probably not the best thing I could be doing for my neck, and reminded me that school required much reading and writing which would also agravate the condition that was labeled "degenerative disc disease".
I didn't like that label so I refused to accept it and carried on doing what I was doing.
One day, the pain in my neck was so bad that tears were threatening as I was driving to Curves early in the morning. I let the Lord know how absolutely miserable I felt and pretty much yelled at Him in my car, "What am I supposed to do about this stupid neck!!!!!!"
Believe it or not, an answer came immediately. Now whether I heard it in my head or in my car I'm not sure, but I definately heard it...."STOP!"
"Stop the car" I said, "Stop painting for people, stop working....stop studying, stop what!" I yelled.
That was it, just "stop".
I went to work and pouted behind the counter because I could barely stand due to the pain in my neck. I excused myself to the ladies at Curves, explaining my sore neck to them and picked up a book that I kept under the counter for times when it was slow. I held the book with my right hand and my neck with my left, opened to the chapter that I had left off with and proceeded to read a story of a woman who was driving from California to Alaska. She was driving by herself, much to her families chagrin and found herself in the middle of a wicked blizzard. She was scared as she couldn't see ahead of her but didn't want to stop because she didn't know if anyone was possibly behind her. She suddenly heard loudly, the word, "STOP!"
No, I'm not kidding you. I read the paragraph over 6 times to be sure.
She stopped, got out of her car for fear of being hit from behind and saw that she was two feet away from a cliff's edge. She was heading off the road and over the cliff. Her response to the word spoken over her brought her to her knees in the middle of the blizzard. She knew God has stopped her.
I stopped just for a minute that morning and prayed, "Lord, am I heading for a cliff?"
The book by the way is called, "Prepared to be God's vessel,Lessons from the life of Mary", by Henry and Carrie Blackaby.
So, you would think that I would have listened to the voice and did as I was told wouldn't you?
I didn't.....maybe "wouldn't" is a better word to describe what I didn't do.
"Do" is another word that I am very familiar with.
And there are more.....like, "work, keep moving, you'll feel better if you just get going, maybe you should get two jobs (there was a time in my life where I had three!), if you work harder you will get ahead, you can do anything if you put your mind to it"....you get the picture. If you looked up "busy" in the dictionary, you would have seen my name there.
Four years ago, it was suggested to me, by my doctor and naturopath, husband and parents, to "stop". And then, If I am honest, I believe it was a command from God.
I will save you four years worth of the process of pruning and refining that I have gone through and just say this.....I drove off the cliff!......but I didn't know I had driven off the cliff.
It has taken me four years to understand that the command was given to save me, not to stop me from doing what I wanted to do. God said "stop" and I said, "No!"
I didn't say it out loud, but I said it with my actions. It seems that even a picture of driving off a cliff was not sufficient to stop me from "doing".
He let me drive off a cliff, and yet, He has tethered Himself to me in ways that I don't understand, but am beginning to see, and in doing so he has protected me from the jaws that were waiting for me at the bottom of that cliff. (One day I will elaborate on the story of Jesus tying Himself to me)
It is humbling to see that despite your deliberate disobedience, grace is still being portioned out. His gentleness and tenderness is ever before me, rubbing up against the rough edges of who I have been and slowly but surely softening those edges and changing me into the one He has always known me to be.
I have said this many times but will say it again...I have noticed over and over that the Lord never raises His voice to me. He speaks, corrects, rebukes and disciplines, but it is always done under the blanket of His covenental love. I don't understand this love in my humanness, but I am beginning to understand it in my spirit,....in the place where Christ Himself dwells in me. His Spirit in me, helping me to understand who He is and the great love that He has for me.
His words to me never carry an edge. "I told you so" is not in His vocabulary, but it certainly is in mine.
I would have told me, "I told you so!"
So what does one do when one is left hanging off a cliff?
Well, the first thing I did was cling for life to the rope that I didn't even realize was there until I stopped long enough to see it. (That’s code for I panicked!) And then, I asked the Lord a very obvious but pertinent question..."Aren't you going to pull me up?"
He didn't, not right away anyway. First I had to learn to stay still in that precarious position, trusting that He would not let go of the rope. He gave me a scripture as I hung there waiting......
The Scripture came early one morning, as I hung at the end of the rope waiting, as I opened my Bible to the place I had left off in my study of the book of John, where I have been since January.
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."(Jn 10:28,29)
My fear of Him letting go of the rope and me, ended with that scripture. Jesus was tied to me and both of us are held in the mighty hands of God the Father.
A gentleman named Dallas Willard has this to say about busyness.....“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life, for hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our world today.”
The enemy that I saw at the bottom of the cliff, although it looked like it had big jaws and teeth was actually an enemy of my own making. I could blame Satan for where I had been, and I guess to some degree as the father of sin, he is to blame, but I can no longer look away from the choices I have made and continue to have the freedom to make every day.
There is much that I need to ruthlessly eliminate from my life.
I have started at the beginning.
"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." (Genesis 2:2,3)
All I can say is this....if the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God of creation rested, then what exactly is my problem. I asked the Lord one day to show me why it was so hard for me to stop doing and working and I got one of those instant answers that helps me to be patient when an answer doesn’t come immediately. God always answers, but I don't always hear.
His answer?.... "Because this is your identity."
My God given identity is to be found in Jesus Christ and His life that is lived out in me, not in what I do.
There is nothing I can do to make God love me more than He already does at this moment and there is also nothing I can do to make Him love me less.
None of this is even about me, it has always been about Him and His plan for His Kingdom, for His children!
I am called to "Be" not "Do", or as my friend often says, "we are human beings not human doings!"
So I have stopped, but not because I wanted to, it was more about having to. Sadly, it took a physical setback to make me sit down, but however it happened, I am sitting.
Guess what??? I have spent the summer going to the beach early in the morning to watch the sun come up, worshipping on that beach some mornings with a sweet friend, and my husband and I even had the privilege of baptizing another friend on that beach. I have spent more time with my family without running in or out the door. I have never been more aware of how beautiful my daughter is on the inside as well as out and I got to watch as the Lord brought dignity back to my son as he began his first job this summer. (I will be the first one to teach him about boundaries around work).
My husband and I have found the friend that we always knew each other to be. I have cleaned my house because I wanted to, not because I had to. I have played my guitar for hours and hours and hours and am really getting good. I have learned to worship with a new restful spirit and a guitar, which has brought life to my soul!
Who knows, maybe I will even get to paint my own house one of these days......I finally picked a colour!
My soul has an enemy and so does yours.
Do you know about the Son of God who died for your sin and mine?
Have you ever heard John 3:16, Here is the version from the message Bible which feels fresh and clear to me today....."This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
If you're reading this and your heart is doing a little flip, then let me be the first to tell you, that is the Spirit of God nudging you. You are blessed. You can put your faith in Jesus Christ right now by asking Him to come and forgive you of your sin. Open your heart and He will come in, it's that simple and then you will find rest for your soul.
Oh, and don’t forget to go and tell someone. If you don’t know someone to tell, you can write and tell me. I would love to share that with you.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Jn 14:6
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. Psalm 62:1
Love Tracy
By definition it seems that the world describes the word to means things like; inactivity, breathingspace, downtime, ease, idleness, nap, peace, quiescence, refreshment, relief, respite, standstill, stop, tranquillity and vacation.
I am going to focus on one description because it is the one that I feel God gave me approximately 4 years ago. Four years ago my life looked very different than it does today. Four years ago, my Mom and Dad were alive and well...I was in school, painting, working at Curves and….and….and......
The trouble started with a pain in my neck! Literally!
My neck began to give me trouble and nothing would bring relief. I tried advil, massage, sleep, tiger balm and a number of other rubs, but to no avail. The pain got worse by the day. My doctor suggested that painting at my age was probably not the best thing I could be doing for my neck, and reminded me that school required much reading and writing which would also agravate the condition that was labeled "degenerative disc disease".
I didn't like that label so I refused to accept it and carried on doing what I was doing.
One day, the pain in my neck was so bad that tears were threatening as I was driving to Curves early in the morning. I let the Lord know how absolutely miserable I felt and pretty much yelled at Him in my car, "What am I supposed to do about this stupid neck!!!!!!"
Believe it or not, an answer came immediately. Now whether I heard it in my head or in my car I'm not sure, but I definately heard it...."STOP!"
"Stop the car" I said, "Stop painting for people, stop working....stop studying, stop what!" I yelled.
That was it, just "stop".
I went to work and pouted behind the counter because I could barely stand due to the pain in my neck. I excused myself to the ladies at Curves, explaining my sore neck to them and picked up a book that I kept under the counter for times when it was slow. I held the book with my right hand and my neck with my left, opened to the chapter that I had left off with and proceeded to read a story of a woman who was driving from California to Alaska. She was driving by herself, much to her families chagrin and found herself in the middle of a wicked blizzard. She was scared as she couldn't see ahead of her but didn't want to stop because she didn't know if anyone was possibly behind her. She suddenly heard loudly, the word, "STOP!"
No, I'm not kidding you. I read the paragraph over 6 times to be sure.
She stopped, got out of her car for fear of being hit from behind and saw that she was two feet away from a cliff's edge. She was heading off the road and over the cliff. Her response to the word spoken over her brought her to her knees in the middle of the blizzard. She knew God has stopped her.
I stopped just for a minute that morning and prayed, "Lord, am I heading for a cliff?"
The book by the way is called, "Prepared to be God's vessel,Lessons from the life of Mary", by Henry and Carrie Blackaby.
So, you would think that I would have listened to the voice and did as I was told wouldn't you?
I didn't.....maybe "wouldn't" is a better word to describe what I didn't do.
"Do" is another word that I am very familiar with.
And there are more.....like, "work, keep moving, you'll feel better if you just get going, maybe you should get two jobs (there was a time in my life where I had three!), if you work harder you will get ahead, you can do anything if you put your mind to it"....you get the picture. If you looked up "busy" in the dictionary, you would have seen my name there.
Four years ago, it was suggested to me, by my doctor and naturopath, husband and parents, to "stop". And then, If I am honest, I believe it was a command from God.
I will save you four years worth of the process of pruning and refining that I have gone through and just say this.....I drove off the cliff!......but I didn't know I had driven off the cliff.
It has taken me four years to understand that the command was given to save me, not to stop me from doing what I wanted to do. God said "stop" and I said, "No!"
I didn't say it out loud, but I said it with my actions. It seems that even a picture of driving off a cliff was not sufficient to stop me from "doing".
He let me drive off a cliff, and yet, He has tethered Himself to me in ways that I don't understand, but am beginning to see, and in doing so he has protected me from the jaws that were waiting for me at the bottom of that cliff. (One day I will elaborate on the story of Jesus tying Himself to me)
It is humbling to see that despite your deliberate disobedience, grace is still being portioned out. His gentleness and tenderness is ever before me, rubbing up against the rough edges of who I have been and slowly but surely softening those edges and changing me into the one He has always known me to be.
I have said this many times but will say it again...I have noticed over and over that the Lord never raises His voice to me. He speaks, corrects, rebukes and disciplines, but it is always done under the blanket of His covenental love. I don't understand this love in my humanness, but I am beginning to understand it in my spirit,....in the place where Christ Himself dwells in me. His Spirit in me, helping me to understand who He is and the great love that He has for me.
His words to me never carry an edge. "I told you so" is not in His vocabulary, but it certainly is in mine.
I would have told me, "I told you so!"
So what does one do when one is left hanging off a cliff?
Well, the first thing I did was cling for life to the rope that I didn't even realize was there until I stopped long enough to see it. (That’s code for I panicked!) And then, I asked the Lord a very obvious but pertinent question..."Aren't you going to pull me up?"
He didn't, not right away anyway. First I had to learn to stay still in that precarious position, trusting that He would not let go of the rope. He gave me a scripture as I hung there waiting......
The Scripture came early one morning, as I hung at the end of the rope waiting, as I opened my Bible to the place I had left off in my study of the book of John, where I have been since January.
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."(Jn 10:28,29)
My fear of Him letting go of the rope and me, ended with that scripture. Jesus was tied to me and both of us are held in the mighty hands of God the Father.
A gentleman named Dallas Willard has this to say about busyness.....“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life, for hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our world today.”
The enemy that I saw at the bottom of the cliff, although it looked like it had big jaws and teeth was actually an enemy of my own making. I could blame Satan for where I had been, and I guess to some degree as the father of sin, he is to blame, but I can no longer look away from the choices I have made and continue to have the freedom to make every day.
There is much that I need to ruthlessly eliminate from my life.
I have started at the beginning.
"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." (Genesis 2:2,3)
All I can say is this....if the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God of creation rested, then what exactly is my problem. I asked the Lord one day to show me why it was so hard for me to stop doing and working and I got one of those instant answers that helps me to be patient when an answer doesn’t come immediately. God always answers, but I don't always hear.
His answer?.... "Because this is your identity."
My God given identity is to be found in Jesus Christ and His life that is lived out in me, not in what I do.
There is nothing I can do to make God love me more than He already does at this moment and there is also nothing I can do to make Him love me less.
None of this is even about me, it has always been about Him and His plan for His Kingdom, for His children!
I am called to "Be" not "Do", or as my friend often says, "we are human beings not human doings!"
So I have stopped, but not because I wanted to, it was more about having to. Sadly, it took a physical setback to make me sit down, but however it happened, I am sitting.
Guess what??? I have spent the summer going to the beach early in the morning to watch the sun come up, worshipping on that beach some mornings with a sweet friend, and my husband and I even had the privilege of baptizing another friend on that beach. I have spent more time with my family without running in or out the door. I have never been more aware of how beautiful my daughter is on the inside as well as out and I got to watch as the Lord brought dignity back to my son as he began his first job this summer. (I will be the first one to teach him about boundaries around work).
My husband and I have found the friend that we always knew each other to be. I have cleaned my house because I wanted to, not because I had to. I have played my guitar for hours and hours and hours and am really getting good. I have learned to worship with a new restful spirit and a guitar, which has brought life to my soul!
Who knows, maybe I will even get to paint my own house one of these days......I finally picked a colour!
My soul has an enemy and so does yours.
Do you know about the Son of God who died for your sin and mine?
Have you ever heard John 3:16, Here is the version from the message Bible which feels fresh and clear to me today....."This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
If you're reading this and your heart is doing a little flip, then let me be the first to tell you, that is the Spirit of God nudging you. You are blessed. You can put your faith in Jesus Christ right now by asking Him to come and forgive you of your sin. Open your heart and He will come in, it's that simple and then you will find rest for your soul.
Oh, and don’t forget to go and tell someone. If you don’t know someone to tell, you can write and tell me. I would love to share that with you.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Jn 14:6
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. Psalm 62:1
Love Tracy
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