Tangles… As a hairdresser, I deal with lots of tangles. Some hair is in really good condition and the tangles comb out easily. Some hair needs lots of conditioner and several minutes to soak before the tangles can be removed. Once in a while, I have to cut out a tangle. Some people, especially children, don’t keep their hair brushed. They brush the top layer, leaving the underneath to knot in tangles so twisted that it’s painful to remove them. Maintenance is vital….
Life gets tangled. It is just part of the human condition. There will always be maintenance because ‘all have sinned’ and sin ‘easily entangles us’. (Rom. 3:23 & Heb. 12:1)
Just like brushing hair to keep the tangles out, we must take personal responsibility to ‘walk in the Light’…to ‘confess our sins’. (1John 1:7,9) and ‘put off the old self, to be made new in the attitude of our minds’ (Eph. 4:22-24) ‘…stop thinking like children, …in your thinking, be adults…’(1 Cor. 14:20) I could go on and on with scripture that encourages and instructs us to ON PURPOSE ‘not give the devil a foothold’ to tangle up our life. (Eph. 4:27) Sounds like a daunting task. Impossible really. Believe me, I tried.
My 9 year old grand-daughter has long thick hair. She doesn’t brush it except right on the surface. As a result, it gets matted and tangled underneath. So her mother helps her, I help her. God knows my life is like her hair, matted and tangled underneath. I try to keep it smooth. But the best I can do is keep the surface tangle-free. If that.
So…He helps me. He has sent ‘…The Comforter…to guide me into all truth and show me things to come..’(1 John 16: 7, 13)
He ‘teaches me all things and reminds me of everything He has said…’ (John 14:26)
He ‘guarantees my inheritance..’(Eph. 1:14) ..that I will be ‘acceptable to God (tangle-free)…’( Rom. 15:16 ).
‘God made Him who had no sin (tangles) to be sin for me, so that I might become the righteousness (perfectly tangle-free) of God.’ (2 Cor. 5:21)
He is the very Presence of God within me, ( 2 Tim. 1:14)… helping to brush and keep out the tangles. ( Titus 3;5) It is a daily, hourly, every moment choice, to appropriate either His power or mine. Do you need help with your tangles?
Friday, August 13, 2010
Connection...
Connection…Isn’t it frustrating when you need to make a call, and your phone tells you ‘no service’ or ‘failed connection’? The metal walls of the store you are in interfere with the signal, or the mountains are too high they cut off the signal all together, or you’re simply so far away from a tower, there is absolutely no signal at all. Been there?
Yep…me too. It’s especially frustrating when the call is vital, you need to get an important message thru to someone or you need help. We are so accustomed to our easy communications, but they fail occasionally, and we are shocked and frustrated. Even scared sometimes. Our communications are built around a system… towers, little tiny devices we call cell phones, and invisible things called digital signals. They all work together to keep us invisibly connected to each other.
Ever call God and feel like you’re got ‘no service’? Ever thought you just didn’t know how to pray at all, that you don’t have a contract with Him for ‘service’? Or pray about something and seeing no answer think you just failed to make a ‘connection’, that your prayers don’t reach His ears? Sometimes in prayer time, I find myself NOT praying at all, but thinking about what I need from the grocery store tomorrow or some such thing…I call that a ‘dropped call’ …and I’m the one who dropped. God does not fail. And the truth is, He’s even interested in my grocery list !!
This is not a perfect analogy, but it gives us a reference point. When we use a cell phone, we have to operate within the system. Our location is important. When we want to communicate with God, our location is important. We have to be praying WITHIN His will. THAT is our main problem. We often talk to God about things strictly based on our perspective. What we desperately need is to see from HIS.
Jesus Himself deliberately chose to pray within The Father’s will. “..if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away…may Your will be done.’ (Matt.26:42) He didn’t relish the idea of spikes being hammered thru His hands and feet, but He saw from The Father’s perspective…He saw the big picture, what was at stake overall…save Himself from the circumstances, or save every person throughout time who would choose to participate in His death instead of being responsible for their own sentence of death and separation from God.
‘this is my prayer…that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best….’ (Phillipians 1:9)
This morning, I am again encouraged and filled afresh with love and adoration because of the words of Jesus as recorded by John in chapter 17. I encourage you to read this chapter for yourself. Pay close attention to verse 20...because if you believe in Him, Jesus personalized this for you. Put your name in it…He did.
Yep…me too. It’s especially frustrating when the call is vital, you need to get an important message thru to someone or you need help. We are so accustomed to our easy communications, but they fail occasionally, and we are shocked and frustrated. Even scared sometimes. Our communications are built around a system… towers, little tiny devices we call cell phones, and invisible things called digital signals. They all work together to keep us invisibly connected to each other.
Ever call God and feel like you’re got ‘no service’? Ever thought you just didn’t know how to pray at all, that you don’t have a contract with Him for ‘service’? Or pray about something and seeing no answer think you just failed to make a ‘connection’, that your prayers don’t reach His ears? Sometimes in prayer time, I find myself NOT praying at all, but thinking about what I need from the grocery store tomorrow or some such thing…I call that a ‘dropped call’ …and I’m the one who dropped. God does not fail. And the truth is, He’s even interested in my grocery list !!
This is not a perfect analogy, but it gives us a reference point. When we use a cell phone, we have to operate within the system. Our location is important. When we want to communicate with God, our location is important. We have to be praying WITHIN His will. THAT is our main problem. We often talk to God about things strictly based on our perspective. What we desperately need is to see from HIS.
Jesus Himself deliberately chose to pray within The Father’s will. “..if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away…may Your will be done.’ (Matt.26:42) He didn’t relish the idea of spikes being hammered thru His hands and feet, but He saw from The Father’s perspective…He saw the big picture, what was at stake overall…save Himself from the circumstances, or save every person throughout time who would choose to participate in His death instead of being responsible for their own sentence of death and separation from God.
‘this is my prayer…that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best….’ (Phillipians 1:9)
This morning, I am again encouraged and filled afresh with love and adoration because of the words of Jesus as recorded by John in chapter 17. I encourage you to read this chapter for yourself. Pay close attention to verse 20...because if you believe in Him, Jesus personalized this for you. Put your name in it…He did.
Birthday...
Birthday…if you’re reading this, you had one. Do you remember it? Of course not…but it happened. Obviously. I remember lots of days when a birth took place. Today is my baby sister’s birthday. But honestly, I don’t remember it. I was 15, and on another planet perhaps. But it happened. Obviously….
We are all born from the womb of our mother. ‘Flesh giving birth to flesh…’ (John 3:6) There is absolutely no other way to have a human existence than to be born of a woman. And that existence is more limited than we are comfortable with realizing. “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble…springs up like a flower and withers away..’ (Job 14:1)
But… ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…’ (Ecc. 3:11) . Eternity is in the hearts of men, God put it there. We all have that basic desire to live. That’s why human beings cling to life in the face of devastation. We WANT to live!!
Oh, there are people who exhaust all their fleshly resources, having built their hope on self or other people, or “stuff”… only to be disappointed and let down…and with no hope, they forfeit their life in defeat. Jesus said ‘..the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) Sometimes we believe the enemy’s lies about an escape. There is an escape for the human condition, and it IS death…“we died to sin….all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into His death…buried with Him through baptism into death…raised from death …to live a new life…united with Him like this in His death…our old self crucified…freed from sin…” (Romans 6: 2-18)
I love my life. Oh, I have stressful times, sad times, frustrations come and go. I get weary, angry, disgusted. My life is not all beauty and fun. But eternity is in my heart, and I’m aware of the promises of God, and the power of God to fulfill those promises in me.
See, I had another birthday, different than the one that involved my mother. This birth involved my Father. ‘Spirit gives birth to spirit.’ (John 3:6) ‘ My new life is not like my old life. My old birth came from mortal sperm, my new birth comes from God’s living Word. ..a life conceived by God Himself.’ (1 Peter 1:23 The Message) I don’t recall the calender date. But it happened. I hope it is obvious.
We are all born from the womb of our mother. ‘Flesh giving birth to flesh…’ (John 3:6) There is absolutely no other way to have a human existence than to be born of a woman. And that existence is more limited than we are comfortable with realizing. “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble…springs up like a flower and withers away..’ (Job 14:1)
But… ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…’ (Ecc. 3:11) . Eternity is in the hearts of men, God put it there. We all have that basic desire to live. That’s why human beings cling to life in the face of devastation. We WANT to live!!
Oh, there are people who exhaust all their fleshly resources, having built their hope on self or other people, or “stuff”… only to be disappointed and let down…and with no hope, they forfeit their life in defeat. Jesus said ‘..the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) Sometimes we believe the enemy’s lies about an escape. There is an escape for the human condition, and it IS death…“we died to sin….all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into His death…buried with Him through baptism into death…raised from death …to live a new life…united with Him like this in His death…our old self crucified…freed from sin…” (Romans 6: 2-18)
I love my life. Oh, I have stressful times, sad times, frustrations come and go. I get weary, angry, disgusted. My life is not all beauty and fun. But eternity is in my heart, and I’m aware of the promises of God, and the power of God to fulfill those promises in me.
See, I had another birthday, different than the one that involved my mother. This birth involved my Father. ‘Spirit gives birth to spirit.’ (John 3:6) ‘ My new life is not like my old life. My old birth came from mortal sperm, my new birth comes from God’s living Word. ..a life conceived by God Himself.’ (1 Peter 1:23 The Message) I don’t recall the calender date. But it happened. I hope it is obvious.
Forecast...
Forecast…guess you’ve watched it, know that it will likely get icy around here in a day or two. The stores will probably be packed today. People will ‘stock up’ on things. We won’t want to run out of milk and eggs, or bread, or whatever tops your list of important items. We want to be prepared…right ?…..
We will make all sorts of preparations, buy more groceries than we really need, fill the tanks with gas, bring the firewood in under shelter. After all, the prediction is for snow and ice. Propheteia=prediction in Greek, and nbula=prediction in Hebrew, the original languages of scripture. Predictions. Prophecy. I wonder, do we pay more attention to the weather-man on television than we do to the One Who is Creator and Master over it all.
‘In the beginning, God created…’ (Gen.1:1) ‘ lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do His bidding..’(Psa. 148:8) ‘He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like pebbles. Who can withstand His icy blast?’ ( Ps. 147:16) ‘…the Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet…’ (Nahum 1:3) He changes the times and seasons. (Dan. 2:21)
This is the God we serve. Give Him more consideration than the weatherman. Give His forecast some serious thought. He has gone to such great lengths to help us be prepared. The book we call the Bible is full of predictions and advice. How long since you held one in your hand, how long since you asked Him to reveal the message it contains…and it does have relevant messages for each of us, every day.
Go ahead and stock up…but hear the words of Jesus…’Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths, corroded by rust, or stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe..’ (Matt. 6:19 The Message)
We will make all sorts of preparations, buy more groceries than we really need, fill the tanks with gas, bring the firewood in under shelter. After all, the prediction is for snow and ice. Propheteia=prediction in Greek, and nbula=prediction in Hebrew, the original languages of scripture. Predictions. Prophecy. I wonder, do we pay more attention to the weather-man on television than we do to the One Who is Creator and Master over it all.
‘In the beginning, God created…’ (Gen.1:1) ‘ lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do His bidding..’(Psa. 148:8) ‘He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like pebbles. Who can withstand His icy blast?’ ( Ps. 147:16) ‘…the Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet…’ (Nahum 1:3) He changes the times and seasons. (Dan. 2:21)
This is the God we serve. Give Him more consideration than the weatherman. Give His forecast some serious thought. He has gone to such great lengths to help us be prepared. The book we call the Bible is full of predictions and advice. How long since you held one in your hand, how long since you asked Him to reveal the message it contains…and it does have relevant messages for each of us, every day.
Go ahead and stock up…but hear the words of Jesus…’Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths, corroded by rust, or stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe..’ (Matt. 6:19 The Message)
Stumble...
Stumble…not a desirable thing to do, but we’ve all done it. Stubbed a toe and stumbled…. for absolutely no reason…just stumble. Then, embarrassed, look to see if anyone saw it! In the language the Bible was written in, ‘hamartano’=miss the mark. We miss the mark of our step and down we go.
Our mother has some difficulty moving around, bad knees…and we are concerned about her stumbling. A stumble could result in a fall, and worse. So…we are removing obstacles. I spent part of a day with my sister, cleaning and removing ‘stuff’ from our parents home. What looks like trash to me, looks like a treasure to our mother because of the memory it stirs. She was surrounded by things that witnessed about something pleasant.
We chose the best things. Some of them were ok…colored pages or handmade crafts, gifts from children. Half burned candles. Trinkets from all sorts of places, souveniers. Framed pictures of children who HAVE children now.
Some of the things were better. Figurines of birds and glass candlesticks. Then the best…things that belonged to my mother’s mother…photos of her grown children and her grandchildren, a small chest for jewelry that was a gift from my daddy (she has had ever since I can remember). Best things. Sometimes we have to strip off some ‘good’ things just so we can see the best things. Sometimes we have to rid ourselves of ‘ok’ stuff…just so we don’t stumble.
Life is like that. There are some things we’d be better off to let go of., or at least get off the shelf. Some friends who aren’t as committed to the Lord. Wrong friends who will get us off course. All sorts of activities that crowd in and consume too much of our lifetime. Maybe even too much religious activity. Good stuff…but so much of it that we miss hearing God’s Voice, we forfeit that quiet time sitting at His Feet….and we stumble.
‘..preserve sound judgment and discernment…they will be life for you…then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble…’ (Pro. 3: 21-23) God will give discernment. He will help us to choose the best. Trouble is, we often don’t ask Him to show us the best choices, we choose the ok stuff and miss out on so much. We cling to those ok things, and forfeit moving forward with God in adventuring into the best things He has waiting for us. We stand still and collect dust with all this ’ok’ stuff…and never see the treasures He wants to give us. And often end up stumbling on the clutter.
We all stumble. “..for all have sinned (harmartano)…and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23) None of us walk thru this life without stumbling and sinning…because we are not God. Jesus was the only One who lived a life without sin. He personified the glory of God. In skin. ‘ In the beginning was the Word….and the Word was God….and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ John 1:1,14
You can stay with the ok stuff. You can collect dust on it. Maybe you won’t stumble….maybe. Or you can run with God and ask Him to show you the better stuff, and He’ll give you the best !
‘…we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.‘ Heb. 12:1
Our mother has some difficulty moving around, bad knees…and we are concerned about her stumbling. A stumble could result in a fall, and worse. So…we are removing obstacles. I spent part of a day with my sister, cleaning and removing ‘stuff’ from our parents home. What looks like trash to me, looks like a treasure to our mother because of the memory it stirs. She was surrounded by things that witnessed about something pleasant.
We chose the best things. Some of them were ok…colored pages or handmade crafts, gifts from children. Half burned candles. Trinkets from all sorts of places, souveniers. Framed pictures of children who HAVE children now.
Some of the things were better. Figurines of birds and glass candlesticks. Then the best…things that belonged to my mother’s mother…photos of her grown children and her grandchildren, a small chest for jewelry that was a gift from my daddy (she has had ever since I can remember). Best things. Sometimes we have to strip off some ‘good’ things just so we can see the best things. Sometimes we have to rid ourselves of ‘ok’ stuff…just so we don’t stumble.
Life is like that. There are some things we’d be better off to let go of., or at least get off the shelf. Some friends who aren’t as committed to the Lord. Wrong friends who will get us off course. All sorts of activities that crowd in and consume too much of our lifetime. Maybe even too much religious activity. Good stuff…but so much of it that we miss hearing God’s Voice, we forfeit that quiet time sitting at His Feet….and we stumble.
‘..preserve sound judgment and discernment…they will be life for you…then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble…’ (Pro. 3: 21-23) God will give discernment. He will help us to choose the best. Trouble is, we often don’t ask Him to show us the best choices, we choose the ok stuff and miss out on so much. We cling to those ok things, and forfeit moving forward with God in adventuring into the best things He has waiting for us. We stand still and collect dust with all this ’ok’ stuff…and never see the treasures He wants to give us. And often end up stumbling on the clutter.
We all stumble. “..for all have sinned (harmartano)…and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23) None of us walk thru this life without stumbling and sinning…because we are not God. Jesus was the only One who lived a life without sin. He personified the glory of God. In skin. ‘ In the beginning was the Word….and the Word was God….and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ John 1:1,14
You can stay with the ok stuff. You can collect dust on it. Maybe you won’t stumble….maybe. Or you can run with God and ask Him to show you the better stuff, and He’ll give you the best !
‘…we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.‘ Heb. 12:1
Honor..
Honor…one of the things on that list of Ten things. ‘Honor your father and your mother,’(Ex. 20:12) I notice there are no conditions attached. I don’t get to pick and choose when or if I honor them. I am not told to obey them instead of God,.and.never in disobedience to God. But I am not given the option of deciding they don’t deserve my honoring them.
‘kabed’=to be heavy. This is the word that is translated honor. It carries with it the idea of importance. Parents are important. Even bad parents are important. But how my heart hurts for those who did not have the nurturing they needed. I grieve for those who are alone in their struggles. The mother in me wants to step into those situations and try to make up for it. But there is no making up for it. Not by me, or you.
But there is help. ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.’ (Ps. 27:10) The very best thing we can do for adults who have been let down…disappointed…abandoned…forsaken by parents, is point them to The Perfect Father. Even the most devoted parent among us lets our children down, fails on some point. ‘God is not a man, that He should lie’ (Num. 23:19) Hallelujah.
‘kabed’=to be heavy. This is the word that is translated honor. It carries with it the idea of importance. Parents are important. Even bad parents are important. But how my heart hurts for those who did not have the nurturing they needed. I grieve for those who are alone in their struggles. The mother in me wants to step into those situations and try to make up for it. But there is no making up for it. Not by me, or you.
But there is help. ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.’ (Ps. 27:10) The very best thing we can do for adults who have been let down…disappointed…abandoned…forsaken by parents, is point them to The Perfect Father. Even the most devoted parent among us lets our children down, fails on some point. ‘God is not a man, that He should lie’ (Num. 23:19) Hallelujah.
Lists..
Lists…Do you make them? I do. Seems if I get it written on a list, I can release it from my mind, depending on the list rather than my memory. If I send someone to buy things for me, I make a list. I’m in good company…God made a few lists…
The first one I think of is that list of ten things He wrote. (‘Moses was there with the Lord…and He wrote on the tablets…the Ten Commandments’ Ex. 34:28) THAT is a list…if you haven’t really considered all those ten things, it would be worth your time.
It’s an impossible list to fill though. He knew that when He made it…but we didn’t. We had to learn that it was impossible…that was the purpose of the list. (‘no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law, rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.’ Romans 3:20) Jesus filled that list perfectly. (..I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill..’Matt.5:17) And what is simply amazing is that He is so gracious to credit to us, what He did to fill that list, He did all the work and we can gain reward. Amazing grace indeed.
There are other lists. Lists of behavior that offend God. I find myself listed somehow in all of them. And am so thankful for the Amazing Grace of Jesus Christ and His payment for my offenses.
The first one I think of is that list of ten things He wrote. (‘Moses was there with the Lord…and He wrote on the tablets…the Ten Commandments’ Ex. 34:28) THAT is a list…if you haven’t really considered all those ten things, it would be worth your time.
It’s an impossible list to fill though. He knew that when He made it…but we didn’t. We had to learn that it was impossible…that was the purpose of the list. (‘no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law, rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.’ Romans 3:20) Jesus filled that list perfectly. (..I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill..’Matt.5:17) And what is simply amazing is that He is so gracious to credit to us, what He did to fill that list, He did all the work and we can gain reward. Amazing grace indeed.
There are other lists. Lists of behavior that offend God. I find myself listed somehow in all of them. And am so thankful for the Amazing Grace of Jesus Christ and His payment for my offenses.
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