Sometimes in the shallow, we find the best of the Deep
Swirling! That's my brain! I have shallow thoughts and deep thoughts to share. Don't read this if you don't want to race in a few different directions! But maybe one of these trails will resonate with you? I used to ramble only to my close friends, that was safe. But God doesn't call us to safe. And after we watch 21 men of God give their lives by bowing to none other than Jesus Christ, vulnerability in my blog is no where near dangerous! But that's what I'm wrestling with, is my faith dangerous? Do I live it with any risk? That question makes anything I share incredibly safe. I sit behind a key board in a warm home on an unseasonably cold winter snow day, and write out my heart. That's why I am reading Radical again by David Platt, as well as The Life of George Mueller. I'm hungry, that's good! I want sell "it" all, the "stuff of our culture," and in place of "it" give a message of HOPE.
My heart goes straight to Romans 8, again! Different verses from Romans 8 minister to all my racing thoughts this week. Verses 23-25 remind me that this is a faith walk. "23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."
Until we see Jesus in Heaven, we will face the hard, the ugly, the unbearable at times. We will also have a joy that transcends it all because His grace meets us there. There's a full spectrum of pain I am tracking today. From the recently martyred men of God, to the woman wrestling with "good-bye" because of cancer, to the ones suffering to make ends meet under tyrannical bosses, and those patiently working through the healing of injuries...I could go on and on. Each story has a common need of GRACE. None more than the other. We are tempted to believe that there are degrees of GRACE. But apart from the CROSS, we are all in desperate need of the God who loves us and chose to give His life to show that LOVE.
There's the happy too, and I can feel guilty about the happy. How can we celebrate when so much is wrong? We can because Jesus came to make everything RIGHT. In eternal perspective everything has already been made right. Jesus paid the debt we could not pay to give us the life we could not earn. God wants us to celebrate! We can celebrate the babies, the healing, the birthdays, the wins.
But there is more on my mind. As you know, I feel deeply, too deeply most often. I process relentlessly with my husband, God love Him! God made a space in his heart to absorb all of me. What a gift! So I feel deeply about WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST! If I don't go "there," I may as well go no where! All of the thoughts about risk, hardship, joy, happy, can make this old heart toss about, unless I stay rooted in the CROSS. Because there at the CROSS, all the stories become one. We are all even in our need of pardoning and in our right to claim the REAL NEW US that JESUS died for. The REAL NEW US is described in Ephesians chapter 1. There God, through Paul, tells us that we are LOVED, REDEEMED, ACCEPTED, ADOPTED, BLESSED, FORGIVEN, CHOSEN!
Ephesians 1:9-11
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."
So, that boss that beats you down? That body that doesn't respond the way you want? That family grieving good-bye? Yep, it's all in Romans 8, not only is creation groaning, but we ourselves wait eagerly for this redemption to come fully in eternity. "HOPE THAT IS SEEN IS NOT HOPE. FOR WHO HOPES FOR WHAT HE SEES? BUT IF WE HOPE FOR WHAT WE DO NOT SEE, WE WAIT FOR IT WITH PATIENCE."
This next thought gets shallow. But, how easily I let my worth tank. I long for you to believe WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST...YOU ARE OF INFINITE WORTH TO GOD! Yet, I leave a "normal" annual physical with a good report and too easily the eyes of my heart derail. ( I say "normal" sarcastically, because I've just added interstitial cystitis to my "normal" list of fibromyalgia, endometriosis, IBS, fatigue, and anxiety - things God mercifully helps me handle, not things that define me! I put them in here not for a sympathy vote, but for a "you are not alone" cheer! And I'm going to pause here and say none of these are progressive really. Many of you face the harder diagnosis. But ultimately we must all face that life is progressive, and it leads to either eternal life or death. May it be LIFE! "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" Acts 16:31) I have always said I won't mind aging, and my prayer has always been to age graceful, letting vanity go. I told my husband last night that I was having a "moment." It was a 1986 moment recycled in 2015. Sure, I've learned by the grace of God what matters and what is true and I believe it!
But my slightly underweight body sags now, for a moment I'm tempted to do insane core work...why? I have a pair of reading glasses in every room and still forget where they are. The doctor mentions how some of my conditions may intensify because of menopause. Wait, what? I had a hysterectomy so young, that I never had to really face the "menopause" word. That menopause word, NO BIG DEAL! But, I "momentarily" let fear that my precious husband of 28 years, will soon "settle" for saggy and not attraction, and I let the lie slink in...my worth is tied to my physical. NOT SO! I don't hold anyone else to that standard, so why believe the lie about me?
Because the enemy knows where to jab, how to slash that little girl Julie, who didn't understand worth, and instead I bought the lie of rejection as well as the stupid lies about WHAT DEFINES BEAUTY. Yes, I read Seventeen Magazine back then! And even so, had no ability to put together a fashionable outfit, something I still don't do - oh well! As early as 7th grade I hated my calves, by droopy eye lids, my big lips, and my belly! Praise God I'm so beyond that, but if you can remember where you were sitting in the 7th grade when you had those thoughts, you know the lies were sown deep!!! ( For more on lies and the truth that sets us free see my first post, The God Who Heals!) That's why I love teen girl ministry!!! By God's grace, I'm not about to let them go there for a minute!!!!!!!!!! Whew, that was a rant!
The physical does not define you! NO IT DOES NOT!!! HEAR ME!! If that is true, then what do I offer my son who is struggling to push through a second year in a row of ACL surgery and recovery, my mom who is in week 3 of a knee replacement, my friends who await diagnosis...my friends who are beat down by MAN'S WORDS? ALL THIS WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE FULL REDEMPTION OF WHAT ALREADY IS! THE ALREADY AND THE NOT YET. We who are in Christ are LOVED, REDEEMED, ACCEPTED, CHOSEN, ADOPTED, FORGIVEN, BLESSED now and into "infinity!"
So take heart all who are weary. Matthew 11:28-29 says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.…"
I guess all these racing thoughts point me in one direction, to God. It is good to live in the moment, feel the moment, and embrace the now and not yet. We will feel the blows, we will celebrate the joys, and all without guilt either way. He did not come to bring guilt or immediate answers, He came to bring FOREVER HOPE because we are loved beyond what any human is ever capable of loving us! Words do have power! Let the healing WORD of GOD be truth, not the wounding words of man! Hebrews 4:12, Jeremiah 23:29, just a couple verses about the power of the WORD of God.
As I find my mind disjointed and write it out as such, I am comforted that whether contemplating the deep things, or the seemingly shallow, we serve an Eternal God Who gives infinite love and protection as we travel this earth. Our WORTH is not determined by our story, but by HIS story in us. The reality of this place NOT BEING HOME is sweet and often times hard to grasp. But David finds HOPE in this truth.
Here is some of David's heart in Psalm 27: 1-5
"The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2When the wicked advance against me
to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
3Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
4One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
5For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
And SOMEDAY WE WILL BE THERE!!! Psalm 84:10 AND YET IT IS TRUE NOW!
"Behold our shield, O God, And look upon the face of Your anointed. 10For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.…"
My heart goes straight to Romans 8, again! Different verses from Romans 8 minister to all my racing thoughts this week. Verses 23-25 remind me that this is a faith walk. "23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."
Until we see Jesus in Heaven, we will face the hard, the ugly, the unbearable at times. We will also have a joy that transcends it all because His grace meets us there. There's a full spectrum of pain I am tracking today. From the recently martyred men of God, to the woman wrestling with "good-bye" because of cancer, to the ones suffering to make ends meet under tyrannical bosses, and those patiently working through the healing of injuries...I could go on and on. Each story has a common need of GRACE. None more than the other. We are tempted to believe that there are degrees of GRACE. But apart from the CROSS, we are all in desperate need of the God who loves us and chose to give His life to show that LOVE.
There's the happy too, and I can feel guilty about the happy. How can we celebrate when so much is wrong? We can because Jesus came to make everything RIGHT. In eternal perspective everything has already been made right. Jesus paid the debt we could not pay to give us the life we could not earn. God wants us to celebrate! We can celebrate the babies, the healing, the birthdays, the wins.
But there is more on my mind. As you know, I feel deeply, too deeply most often. I process relentlessly with my husband, God love Him! God made a space in his heart to absorb all of me. What a gift! So I feel deeply about WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST! If I don't go "there," I may as well go no where! All of the thoughts about risk, hardship, joy, happy, can make this old heart toss about, unless I stay rooted in the CROSS. Because there at the CROSS, all the stories become one. We are all even in our need of pardoning and in our right to claim the REAL NEW US that JESUS died for. The REAL NEW US is described in Ephesians chapter 1. There God, through Paul, tells us that we are LOVED, REDEEMED, ACCEPTED, ADOPTED, BLESSED, FORGIVEN, CHOSEN!
Ephesians 1:9-11
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."
So, that boss that beats you down? That body that doesn't respond the way you want? That family grieving good-bye? Yep, it's all in Romans 8, not only is creation groaning, but we ourselves wait eagerly for this redemption to come fully in eternity. "HOPE THAT IS SEEN IS NOT HOPE. FOR WHO HOPES FOR WHAT HE SEES? BUT IF WE HOPE FOR WHAT WE DO NOT SEE, WE WAIT FOR IT WITH PATIENCE."
This next thought gets shallow. But, how easily I let my worth tank. I long for you to believe WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST...YOU ARE OF INFINITE WORTH TO GOD! Yet, I leave a "normal" annual physical with a good report and too easily the eyes of my heart derail. ( I say "normal" sarcastically, because I've just added interstitial cystitis to my "normal" list of fibromyalgia, endometriosis, IBS, fatigue, and anxiety - things God mercifully helps me handle, not things that define me! I put them in here not for a sympathy vote, but for a "you are not alone" cheer! And I'm going to pause here and say none of these are progressive really. Many of you face the harder diagnosis. But ultimately we must all face that life is progressive, and it leads to either eternal life or death. May it be LIFE! "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" Acts 16:31) I have always said I won't mind aging, and my prayer has always been to age graceful, letting vanity go. I told my husband last night that I was having a "moment." It was a 1986 moment recycled in 2015. Sure, I've learned by the grace of God what matters and what is true and I believe it!
But my slightly underweight body sags now, for a moment I'm tempted to do insane core work...why? I have a pair of reading glasses in every room and still forget where they are. The doctor mentions how some of my conditions may intensify because of menopause. Wait, what? I had a hysterectomy so young, that I never had to really face the "menopause" word. That menopause word, NO BIG DEAL! But, I "momentarily" let fear that my precious husband of 28 years, will soon "settle" for saggy and not attraction, and I let the lie slink in...my worth is tied to my physical. NOT SO! I don't hold anyone else to that standard, so why believe the lie about me?
Because the enemy knows where to jab, how to slash that little girl Julie, who didn't understand worth, and instead I bought the lie of rejection as well as the stupid lies about WHAT DEFINES BEAUTY. Yes, I read Seventeen Magazine back then! And even so, had no ability to put together a fashionable outfit, something I still don't do - oh well! As early as 7th grade I hated my calves, by droopy eye lids, my big lips, and my belly! Praise God I'm so beyond that, but if you can remember where you were sitting in the 7th grade when you had those thoughts, you know the lies were sown deep!!! ( For more on lies and the truth that sets us free see my first post, The God Who Heals!) That's why I love teen girl ministry!!! By God's grace, I'm not about to let them go there for a minute!!!!!!!!!! Whew, that was a rant!
The physical does not define you! NO IT DOES NOT!!! HEAR ME!! If that is true, then what do I offer my son who is struggling to push through a second year in a row of ACL surgery and recovery, my mom who is in week 3 of a knee replacement, my friends who await diagnosis...my friends who are beat down by MAN'S WORDS? ALL THIS WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE FULL REDEMPTION OF WHAT ALREADY IS! THE ALREADY AND THE NOT YET. We who are in Christ are LOVED, REDEEMED, ACCEPTED, CHOSEN, ADOPTED, FORGIVEN, BLESSED now and into "infinity!"
So take heart all who are weary. Matthew 11:28-29 says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.…"
I guess all these racing thoughts point me in one direction, to God. It is good to live in the moment, feel the moment, and embrace the now and not yet. We will feel the blows, we will celebrate the joys, and all without guilt either way. He did not come to bring guilt or immediate answers, He came to bring FOREVER HOPE because we are loved beyond what any human is ever capable of loving us! Words do have power! Let the healing WORD of GOD be truth, not the wounding words of man! Hebrews 4:12, Jeremiah 23:29, just a couple verses about the power of the WORD of God.
As I find my mind disjointed and write it out as such, I am comforted that whether contemplating the deep things, or the seemingly shallow, we serve an Eternal God Who gives infinite love and protection as we travel this earth. Our WORTH is not determined by our story, but by HIS story in us. The reality of this place NOT BEING HOME is sweet and often times hard to grasp. But David finds HOPE in this truth.
Here is some of David's heart in Psalm 27: 1-5
"The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2When the wicked advance against me
to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
3Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
4One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
5For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
And SOMEDAY WE WILL BE THERE!!! Psalm 84:10 AND YET IT IS TRUE NOW!
"Behold our shield, O God, And look upon the face of Your anointed. 10For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.…"
Song for our souls, stay hungry!!
Come Alive, Lauren Daigle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuCLqoxigNA
Come Alive, Lauren Daigle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuCLqoxigNA
How Can It Be, Lauren Daigle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt5X91ciE6Y
Better is One Day, Kutless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNNQQGScPS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt5X91ciE6Y
Better is One Day, Kutless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNNQQGScPS4
Your message hit me right where I am at. Thanks for sharing. I praise God for you.
ReplyDeleteyou are an encourager & life giver.
ReplyDelete