Can't

Can’t… I’ve been told many times in years past… ‘Can’t can’t do any thing…’ ( cain’t is the way we say it around here…)………..

There’s a lot of truth in that. If you decide you can’t. You probably can not. You decide up front, decision is made…

I was reading this morning about Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome going to anoint the body of Jesus. On their way they thought about the big stone that would be blocking the entrance. They knew that stones were rolled over tombs. Perhaps they didn’t think about that obstacle before setting out that early morning.

“…who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?’ (Mark 16:3)

The stone was already gone. NOT to let Jesus out… He later appeared into locked room. No, the stone was gone in order for us to enter.

The stone is still gone. If you think you can’t enter, you’ve just decided you ‘cain’t’.

Don’t give me the excuses…I don’t need them. Tell Him your excuses.

“I just don’t have time”
“I can’t comprehend”
“I don’t understand”
“It is too hard”
Add your own excuse for not entering…what stops you?

That empty tomb is a fact. And it testifies to you and me that Jesus did what He said He would do. He IS Who He said He is. He kept His promise to rise from the dead, defeating the ultimate enemy of all mankind. He kept that promise, so we can believe He will keep all the others as well.

Don’t decide to not make the trip because you think there’s a stone in the way. He will see that there is no stone to block your way. But you have to get up and make the trip. If you decide that an obstacle will stop you…. It will.

And the enemy will rejoice.

Groaning

Groaning… ‘anachah’. A moaning or sighing response brought on by physical, spiritual, or mental despair involving both the body and soul.

“I am worn out from groaning, all night long I flood my bed with weeping…” (David in Ps. 6:6)

Bless David’s heart. This is the same guy who stood with only a slingshot and stones to face a literal giant from an enemy army. I just love how God has given us so many people whose lives we can learn from…people who are the same as me. And you. These characters in the Bible aren’t super-heros. They aren’t from another planet endowed with supernatural powers. They just serve a super-natural God…the God I serve. The God you serve.

David had a lot on his mind when he wrote this Psalm. And I am so thankful that he was so brutally honest. He pours his heart out, in tears, completely honest with the God whose love he was so secure in. He didn’t feel inclined to paint a prettier picture and pretend it was real. He didn’t fake it. He didn’t deny what he felt. He faced it within himself and took it to God. All the ugly of it…

Paul teaches this in 2 Cor. 10:5. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive EVERY thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (my emphasis)

This thing doesn’t happen by accident…this taking captive every thought…(or any thought at all!) I believe it is an ‘on purpose’ thing. We have to realize FIRST just what our thoughts are…and we can be wrong !

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9)

We can not know and trust our own heart. For we don’t know what may lie there, Peter certainly didn’t. He, like David, was brave. He proceeded to attack when the soldiers came following Judas, to take Jesus from the garden. Then during the long night ahead, Peter hid like a scared animal and swore he didn’t know Jesus. “Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!!’ ” (Mt. 26:74)

I wonder how many nights Peter might have groaned all night, weeping in his bed. Regret. Sorrow. Shame.

Not many. I don’t think so anyway.. “Don’t be alarmed…you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He has risen !…go, tell his disciples….and Peter…” (Mark 16:6,7)
“…he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” (1 Cor. 15:5)

That is the Jesus I love.

Miserable

Miserable.. Pity party alert ! I am miserable.

It has been years since I’ve felt this misery. Oh, aches and pains come and go. The occasional virus finds it’s way into my body and makes me feel icky for a few days. I get down in the dumps about situations. My body gets tired quicker than it used to and I can’t keep up the pace I once could.

But not like this misery…

Have you ever just considered how powerless we really are? Just stop and think about what can stop us right in our tracks….shut us down like flipping off the electricity. I am reminded that I am absolutely at the mercy of God and His universe….and the whims of my own choices.

I chose to weed my flowerbeds. And I chose to put that little ivy twig in the pile to be picked up ( in my bare arms ) and thrown over the ditch out of my yard. I had the knowledge of that evil…(that pretty little green ivy twig only LOOKS pretty). I have the knowledge of the truth..( the little ivy twig is poison).

So…now I am miserable. One touch and I am slowly becoming a mass of whelps that hinder every aspect of my life.

I thought about Job. “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas..”(Job 6:2)

I suppose I’m being a little dramatic, but there’s a lesson to be learned here…a lesson far deeper than not handling poison ivy.

When I know the danger and warnings about something…pay attention! Don’t think ‘I can handle this…’. ‘I will be really careful’ ‘Just this once..’

As it is with poison ivy, so it is with all the things God has cautioned us about. ‘..let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us.’ (Heb. 12:1)

I pray often to be easily taught. I haven’t had a lesson like this in years….and I doubt I’ll soon forget the misery of this itch that I suffer as a result of my own arrogance and poor choices . Who am I to think that I can change the rules of nature?

And who am I to think that I am ever safe outside the boundaries of God’s will for my life? I can’t even handle a little twig of ivy….

Babbling

Babbling… I fear I’ve done a lot of babbling. I wonder how much harm and hurt I have done with some of them. I wonder if I’ve been in social settings so long that I don’t even notice….

Paul said to shun them. He said they would only increase to more ungodliness. (2Tim. 2:16) Matthew Henry says in his commentary on this passage that error is very productive. Is that not a horrifying thought?! Error…produces itself. And he goes on to say that error can overthrow faith. God forbid.

The NIV calls it ‘godless chatter’ and tells us to avoid it. (vs. 16) The Message always drives home the point in street language… ‘ Stay clear of pious talk….words are not mere words, you know. If they are not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul.’ I sure don’t need any poison injected into my soul, especially by my own mouth!

So my babblings are some pretty serious stuff. I determine to examine the words I speak…and the words I write…and ask God to reveal to me how HE sees it. I can justify my words I’m sure…we all can project the guilt onto someone else, justify our actions and words because of someone else’s WORSE actions and words.

Who gets to decide that? Not me. And not you. It is God who determines, and he sees my heart. And yours.

Let’s make a deal…tomorrow, I’m going to begin to monitor my babblings and see if there is any godless chatter going on. With ME. I am sure the devil will point out a LOT of it coming from someone else’s mouth. But I’m asking God to reveal to me what I am blinded to in myself. For if it is there…it needs to go.

This may hurt.

Re-start

Re-start.. Seems like every time I get in the very middle of something on this computer, it has downloaded upgrades and needs to ‘re-start’…

I’ve wondered what all that upgrade stuff is about, if it’s really necessary. Sometimes I liked things better the old way, before the so called improvements. When things work and fill my needs and requirements, why change it? If it ain’t broke…don’t fix it ! The downloaded upgrades are bad enough, but then I have to stop what I’m doing and let this thing turn itself off and back on.

Then this morning, I was reading over some things I had written a while back, and I realize…there’s an upgrade ! New information.

God will never get through with me. (..or you..) There will be regular upgrades. But we can refuse to download them…and we can refuse to install them…and we can refuse to re-start.

The data that is downloaded onto this computer is useless until it is installed into the brain of this machine. And even then, until the machine is turned off and starts up again, the data just sits somewhere inside the technological mind, doing no good, making no difference.

So what kind of downloads are available? Scripture spills over with truths that are current to my situation and circumstance…‘now‘. And tomorrow, there will be truths that are current for that ‘now’. And next month, next year…every ‘now’ that I walk on this earth in this body there will be truths that are current for that ‘now’.

Just because you may have read the Bible doesn’t mean a thing. The scripture you read for that ‘now’…is not necessarily the scripture for this ‘now’. Every time I open my Bible, seems as if some phrase or concept will leap off the page and I wonder… ‘surely that hasn’t been there…how could I have missed this?’

The truth contained in scripture is ‘living and active. ..it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow…it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.’ (Heb. 4:12) It will never need upgrades, it is complete.

It is US who need upgrades. ‘Study to show yourself approved to God….’ It is us who need to install them.. ‘correctly handling the word of truth.’ (2 Tim. 2:15 KJV, NIV)

I have learned with previous computers that when I don’t keep up to date, it causes problems later on that take more than the few minutes required to install and re-start. I don’t want to live my life like that….want to stay current with the God of the universe.

So…I’m re-starting this morning. Got an upgrade yesterday, installed it, and I’m operating with new attitudes and motives today. He is ALWAYS current…

Consecrate

Consecrate.. This is one of those words that is seldom used anymore, unless perhaps in poetry….

We use words like dedicate and devote. Consecration doesn’t really make a person, place, or thing really holy,(it is GOD who makes holy)... but it declares that person, place, or thing to be set apart, to be especially dedicated and devoted to the service of God. We have ceremonies to dedicate children. In those ceremonies, the parents devote themselves to bringing the child up to know God.

Does all that ‘to-do’ really matter? Does it change the way the future unfolds? Does it really matter what we ‘say’ over a person, place, or thing? What good is ceremony? Words spoken…then forgotten….so what?

Perhaps in some circles words don’t mean much. I regret to say that our culture has lost the sense of value in them. There was a time when a thing spoken could be taken for absolute truth. Vows were said only when they were considered thoroughly and there was intention to keep them.

God spoke to His chosen people, the Israelites, “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I Am the Lord your God. Keep My decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, Who makes you holy.” (Lev. 20:7-8) It was nothing the people did that made the difference…it was GOD Who made the difference in them.

He has spoken to me… “ ..you are a chosen people. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful Light.” (1 Peter 2:9) ‘..from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.’ (vs. 10 The Message)

‘Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live your..life…so that your actions will refute prejudices…they will be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when He arrives. Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens…It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re the danger…exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules.’ (vs. 11-16 The Message)

I am consecrated. My home is consecrated. I work in a place that is consecrated. I live on ground that is consecrated. Some may forget…they may disregard words that spoke vows. They may turn away and go after other gods.

I determine again today that I will not.

Enough

Enough.. What is enough? When is enough, enough? Is there such thing as enough? Who gets to decide? …

Webster says that enough is that which is adequate to the wants. A sufficiency. That which is equal to the powers of abilities.

I am thankful that God doesn’t call enough enough like I do. He has been so very patient with me for so many years. He has done such work in me, and continues to do so. He didn’t throw up His Hands like I am prone to do. “ I have had enough, Lord” (Elijah in 1 Kings 19:4)

However, I sometimes seem to hear Him say, as He did to Moses, “That is enough, do not speak to Me anymore about this matter” (Deu. 3:26) When God says something, He means it. When He answers my prayer, He has answered. And I must accept His answer.

When I have had enough… that which is equal to my power and ability, He is sufficient. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in (your) weakness.”(2 Cor. 12:9) “I can do everything through Him Who gives me strength.”(Phil.4:13)

I wonder that perhaps enough is not about a moment in time. Perhaps it isn’t about a requirement to be fulfilled. It is about content. “..you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans do…” (1 Peter 4:3)…. “ You’ve already put in your time in that God-ignorant way of life, partying night after night, a drunken and profligate life. Now it’s time to be done with it for good.”(Peter 4:3 The Message)


“You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Hag. 1:6)

“You have made your way around this hill country long enough….” (Deut. 2:3) “..the Lord your god has blessed you in all the work of your hands…He has watched over your journey…you have not lacked for any thing…” (vs.7)

“I know that You can do all things..no plan of Yours can be thwarted.”(Job 42:2)

He is Elohim, Mighty Creator God, Jehovah Jireh, the God Who provides, and Yahweh Shammah, the God Who is there….

That is, and will always be…. enough.