THIS WEEK something very sad happened, and then something very amazing happened.
You remember last week I went to visit my family in Texas. It was really wonderful to get to see my family there, whom I had not seen since last summer. I love each and every one of them. On Thursday night I heard that one of my aunts has asked my uncle for a divorce.
I won’t name names because I know the Internet is not the proper place for my family’s personal life. But I need to talk about this because God showed me something this week which was very relevant to this situation.
My whole family is very shocked. My uncle is upset. I’m really confused and surprised. What’s happening to my family is like a cracked piece of glass in a lovely stained glass window. I’m losing an aunt, and it hurts.
I lost sleep that night because I was so surprised and upset. I was thinking a lot about how my uncle must be feeling, and about what a bad thing divorce is. If you look at Matthew 5:31-32 you’ll see what I think about divorce, because Jesus (God) is always right. “[31] Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ [32] But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.’” Also Mark 10:6-9: “[6] But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ [7] ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, [8] And the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. [9] Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
So I am sad that this is happening. Divorce is never a happy thing. But let me show you what God did to show me that He not only knows what’s going on in my life and my family, but He also cares.
On Friday, the day after I found out about this whole unhappy situation, I was looking in my devotional book and I followed the Bible reference. Lamentations 3:18-26. I read the whole chapter from the beginning to the end, and I suggest you go ahead and do that right now, because that’s what the rest of this post is about.
Go ahead. Lamentations 3. I’ll wait right here until you read it. It’s there between Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
I used to be just a little frightened to look at this little book, because it’s called, well, “Lamentations.” It scared me because I thought it might be full of woe and destruction and I might not understand it. I think this is the first time I’ve REALLY read anything out of Lamentations, and I’m even more excited about this than I usually am about a nice Bible passage because I KNOW God was speaking when He showed me this. That’s because He made it so that on that day, June 25, 2010, I would read those words right when I need those words. I had prayed to Him only a short while before that He would show me something to blog about this week, and earlier I had prayed He would help my family out because we’re having this little problem. He answered with this chapter. The more I read in Lamentations 3, the more excited I got because there is no denying that God was showing me something, and that’s always very exciting.
Lamentations 3 begins with the author’s groaning account of all the anguish and punishment he is receiving from God. He makes it very clear that his soul is being punished somehow, very painfully and very deeply. It begins “[1] I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. [2] He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. [3] Surely He has turned His hand against me time and time again throughout the day.” I don’t know what was happening to him, but it was real. This man was receiving a punishment from God, and you know that God can do whatever He decides is right. That often means punishment, and it often means reward. The more you read, the more hope you find here.
Verses 1-18 seem pretty hopeless and sad. This is probably how my uncle is feeling. I don’t know, but he might even wonder why this had to happen to him. He might think God has done this just to hurt him. Even if he doesn’t feel that way, I know that that is how many people feel during a time of great loss and pain. They feel overwhelmed and crushed, and they want to give their remaining strength to protesting the apparent unfairness of God’s actions. God is much fairer than people often give Him credit for.
Keep reading. Look at verses 19-24. “[19] Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. [20] My soul still remembers and sinks within me. [21] This I recall to mind, and therefore I have hope. [22] Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. [24] ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’”
And I used to be afraid of this book! This does not sound like a lamentation. This man has his face in the dust, everybody ridicules him, he’s receiving all kinds of punishment and pain, and he has hope in God! Why? Because he knows that God is both just and merciful. He is amazingly, surprisingly, immeasurably merciful. God knows that we’re only little bitty people, and there’s only so much we can take. So He punishes us for good reason (I don’t know what the reason was for this man, but he knew) and then He shows us mercy. He shows His power, then His goodness. I saw a church board this week that said something like “Mercy is an attribute of the strong.” It’s true. God is the strongest and the most merciful. He’s so strong that He can undergo death and then lift it off of Himself again, for the sake of giving us the gift of life-changing, soul-cleansing mercy. And only God can do that. That’s why He did it.
The author of Lamentations advises that if a man is going through suffering, he shouldn’t fight it but take what he’s been given. Why? Because “there may yet be hope.” Verses 26-30 “[26] It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. [27] It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. [28] Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him; [29] Let him put his mouth in the dust – there may yet be hope. [30] Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full of reproach.”
Not all suffering is a punishment. Some is, but some is just to make you stronger. My dad sometimes says “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” That’s good to remember. What the author of Lamentations is saying is that when you have some kind of suffering, you shouldn’t stand on a hill and shout at God about how unfair you think it is. (Verses 37-39) If He’s letting it happen, it must be for some good reason, even if you can’t for the life of you see what reason that might be. He says that the proper response to suffering is to endure, trusting that there may still be hope because of God’s mercy. “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD” (verse 40).
Then the author cries a little more because of the destruction which God has chosen to unleash on his people. God is good, whatever He does. It’s not up to people to decide whether His actions are right, because they are. After all, if He gave us what we deserve we’d all be in hell. But He loves us, so that only happens if we won’t accept His mercy. The man is crying because his people are facing terrible destruction, and because his enemies seem to be victorious against him. But wait! Look at verses 55-57: “[55] I called on Your name, O LORD, from the lowest pit. [56] You have heard my voice: ‘Do not hide Your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help.’ [57] You drew near on the day I called on You, and said, ‘Do not fear!’”
Earlier in this chapter this man was saying (verse 10) “He has been to me a bear lying in wait like a lion in ambush.” Now he is saying that God is coming to his rescue. Skeptics might say this is a confusing contradiction. I say that this is just another amazing thing about God. He reserves the right to punish, but He is also loving. He is like a daddy in so many ways. A daddy can punish his child, and he can also help her. I remember the one time I was spanked. My dad had to take me out of a restaurant gave me a big, red, stinging hand print on my leg. Why? Because I really, really deserved it. I was screaming and being really bad, so that all he could do about it was spank me. And it never meant that my dad hates me: I’ve been shown that he loves me way more often than I’ve been punished.
Why did Lamentations 3 totally AMAZE me? Read again verses 22-23. “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. [23] They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” God told me, right when something very sad is happening in my family, that although a bad thing may happen now, He continues to be merciful, and His mercy is a reason to hope for future joy. He knows what’s happening, and He wants us all to know He is not far away. He’s always going to be there whenever one of His children calls on Him, trusting that He really is merciful.
The story accompanying the Bible reference was about a girl finding a starfish missing two arms. Apparently they can develop new arms to replace any lost ones. Isn’t that great? God made His creatures to be able to heal. That’s why our knees don’t stay skinned and our bones don’t stay broken. The girl in the story had just moved to a new place. The starfish was meant to show that through God she has a way to heal and to be accepting of her new situation, like the starfish can grow new arms. It looks like my family is about to lose an arm. That hurts. But we’re not dead because of it. We’d sure like to have that arm back, and we’re going to miss her, but at least we don’t die.
Lamentations 3 made me think of my family in Texas who are closer to the problem than I am. It made me think especially of my uncle. I’m glad God gave me this reminder that even when the whole world is shattering and the ground is pulled out from beneath you, whether or not you understand why, He is always good and always merciful. It’s often hard to see that through the tears in your eyes, but it’s always true. God doesn’t change, and He is always faithful.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
At His Feet
THIS WEEK I was blessed with the chance to visit my family in Texas while my parents went to Seattle to celebrate their 20th anniversary. It was a very fun time: we spent a few nights at the Great Wolf Lodge, which is a large hotel with a water park; we celebrated my uncle John’s birthday by going to the Medieval Times Dinner Theater, and P. F. Chang’s the next day; I saw a lot of my baby cousin Elijah and his mama my aunt Jen, and my uncle Steve and aunt Stacy. My grandpa and grandma like to play Gospel music in the car, and I had a lot of fun with that, especially when we listened to a Casting Crowns CD they bought (“Until the Whole World Hears”). We had such good food, so much fun, and such a good time.
On Friday we visited a college that I have in the past displayed interest in. We toured Rice University and saw its beautiful buildings and heard about its impressive reputation. I am interested in architecture and I hope to find a place to fit into that field, and Rice is actually rated as having the second-best Architecture program in the country. That’s just great, right? I should love this place. But a part of my heart was tearing as I toured that school because my future was suddenly brought way too close to me for comfort.
There are things I like about the school, and things I don’t like so much, but the school itself is not what I want to tell you about this week. Rice is in Texas. The first thing I look at when I receive mail from a college is its location: not Florida or Georgia? Probably not for me. Throw it away. That’s because I love my family, and because I do not feel prepared to go far away. I have never moved in my life except when I was a year old, before I can remember. I began to wonder whether I’d be able to handle it if God wants me to go far away. What if He’s calling me to California or Michigan and I just can’t hear because I’m being stubborn? I realized as I was taking that tour that my whole life is just around the corner: first I’ll go to college (only God knows where), then I’ll graduate and get a job (only God know what field), then I’ll probably get married (only God knows to whom), and one day I’ll have kids and be old and retire and all that. It hurt my heart that afternoon even to talk about Rice’s architecture program. It would have hurt me to talk about any school’s architecture program. I actually needed to take a minute alone to calm down because I was so unnerved.
I don’t know what to do with my life! I don’t know what’s good for me! Jeremiah 17:9 (thanks Rina) says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” I can’t trust myself to figure out my life. I was very, very scared. College used to be too far away to think about. Now it is too close to think about.
I like this new Casting Crowns CD. I count it as a blessing. God speaks to us in many ways, and I think music is one of those ways. There is a song called “At Your Feet” which I strongly recommend you look up and listen to. God knows that we’re no good on our own. He knows we need Him, and He’s not hiding. He’s just waiting for us each to acknowledge that fact.
I know very well that God has a plan for my life. I think about it a lot. I know very well who Jesus is and what He’s done. I think about Him a lot. But this week I needed a reminder, just to make sure I don’t forget, and God gave it to me in this song.
My favorite part of the song (because it’s relevant for me this week): “Here at Your feet I lay my future down. All of my dreams, I give to You know. And I find peace, I find peace. (Chorus) Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet, oh to dwell and never leave! Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet, there is nowhere else for me. There is nowhere else for me.”
This song is about acknowledging one’s need for God’s will to be done while surrendering one’s own ambitions and desires. Surrendering ambitions and desires does not mean locking yourself up inside a church and refuse to think about anything besides the content of the Bible. It means you allow your plans to be very tentative and to make sure your desires match with God’s desires. It means making your plan into an early sketch which is ready to be erased as God draws in the final lines. It means letting Him be on the throne of your heart, the thing that directs every decision and every move, instead of letting the whims and dictates of an evil heart guide you, as you ask God to search you and help you see yourself as He sees you. I ask Him whether I have any idols that need smashing, any bad habit that needs changing, and I ask Him to enable me and empower me with His Spirit so that I can improve and be a better servant. And He responds. He really, really does.
I am grateful for this song because it’s exactly what I needed this week. It reminds me where I belong. The best place to live is at Jesus’ feet. It’s true! Because living at Jesus’ feet means living in humility, in a state of submission to His will and of adoration of Jesus as King. That’s who we’re supposed to be. Our faith is not supposed to be the part of our lives that happens only Sunday. It’s not the part that happens Sunday plus before meals and before bed, when we pray. Our faith is supposed to be our life, because Jesus is the Life. That means that everything we do is done through faith. Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
I want very much to make decisions that will please God. Sometimes I worry that He’ll call me here or there or to this or that person or this or that task or occupation, and I won’t hear because I wasn’t listening carefully enough, or because I just didn’t want to obey because it’s hard to give up what I want. What He showed me this week is that not only does He have a plan which nobody will stop Him from fulfilling perfectly, He makes His call loud and clear. He may not speak directly into my ear with a trumpet, but He is definitely not writing down His command and hiding it under a hat for me to guess. It just doesn’t work that way. He will make me know what He wants, and then I have to make the choice to obey.
For example, at the end of last year I couldn’t help but feel it would be a good idea to create a blog. I had been reading Rina’s blog, and it seemed like something right to do. I asked Rina for her opinion and she said it would be a great way to witness to others. Now I’m looking back at what drove me to create a blog and to keep up with it each week, and I realize that this is something that God wanted me to do. And I pray each week the story I share will glorify Him and that He’ll give me words to share what He’s teaching me, and He shows me it’s working, to keep me encouraged. I love that God is not distant, and that He doesn’t keep us guessing. He’ll guide me to the right thing even before I know I should look. And this time I do know I should look: Where in the world should I go to college? What should I study? Should I ever travel overseas? Who should I marry someday and when? What is God’s plan for me and how do I know?
So He tells me that I do not have to know, because He has all my days mapped out already. It’ll work out before I even notice. It is not up to me to find what’s best for me. Christian life is not a journey to seek knowledge of God’s plan but a journey to seek God and let Him carry out His plan. And if I seek God first I know He’ll work the rest of this out.
I’m grateful that He has not left me all alone, and that He’s still here to take my heart by the hand and turn my mountains into molehills. Jesus repeatedly told us not to worry. In Matthew 6:31-34 He gives us famous words to live by to keep us from worrying, because God doesn’t want His sheep to worry all the time. “[31] Therefore do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [ 32] For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Apply this to yourself. For the first verse plug in your worries: Jesus says not to worry, saying “Where will I go to college?” or “What will I study?” or “What does God want me to do?” or “Where and with whom will I spend my life?” For the second verse notice His response to all these worries, which are more than you have named. “For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” God knows what I need and He knows what’s good for my life. He knows where it’s good for me to be, and when, and with whom, and He doesn’t ever command me to plan my own life. Just to trust Him that He’s got this all figured out, even when it doesn’t look like it could make any sense. Like a Rubik’s cube. I’ve seen people solve it. It never, ever looks like it’s almost solved until it’s totally solved. God knows how to solve every Rubik’s cube. It’s funny. I’ve never been able to solve one of those. He’s going to solve it for me and for you. For the third verse we must write a new purpose onto our hearts. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” This is more than a top priority. This is a way of life. It’s what I was talking about earlier: living by faith in Jesus. It’s keeping God’s desire for righteousness and for obedience as the glass through which we view our lives. We must live first for Him to be pleased. What happens then? “And all these things shall be added to you.” Living at Jesus’ feet is living in a state of perpetual trust that God is going to take care of everything.
Finally look at the fourth verse. Jesus is telling us not to worry. Cool it. Chillax. God’s got you covered, even when it doesn’t look like it. He’s got you in the belly of a fish even when you’re deep in the ocean being eaten by the guilt of disobedience. He’s holding onto your hand even when it looks like the whole ocean is about to empty itself on top of you. He’s embracing you tightly in His grace even when the world hates you. Realize that God is greater than any problem. Sometimes He even uses problems, even huge problems, to make us trust Him more. Even is your relative is sick and not getting better, even if you’re losing everything, even if you’ve lost your purpose, He can turn the whole thing into a way to grow, and to grow closer to Him, if you’ll live at His feet and trust Him.
This week I pray I could be better at living at Jesus feet. I can only guess where I’ll be in five, ten, twenty years, but He doesn’t have to guess. He has always known what I will have for breakfast tomorrow. There is no way I could ever slip out of His hand, and I know His plan involves a happy ending for those who seek Him first and trust Him. The King is in control in my life, and in yours.
On Friday we visited a college that I have in the past displayed interest in. We toured Rice University and saw its beautiful buildings and heard about its impressive reputation. I am interested in architecture and I hope to find a place to fit into that field, and Rice is actually rated as having the second-best Architecture program in the country. That’s just great, right? I should love this place. But a part of my heart was tearing as I toured that school because my future was suddenly brought way too close to me for comfort.
There are things I like about the school, and things I don’t like so much, but the school itself is not what I want to tell you about this week. Rice is in Texas. The first thing I look at when I receive mail from a college is its location: not Florida or Georgia? Probably not for me. Throw it away. That’s because I love my family, and because I do not feel prepared to go far away. I have never moved in my life except when I was a year old, before I can remember. I began to wonder whether I’d be able to handle it if God wants me to go far away. What if He’s calling me to California or Michigan and I just can’t hear because I’m being stubborn? I realized as I was taking that tour that my whole life is just around the corner: first I’ll go to college (only God knows where), then I’ll graduate and get a job (only God know what field), then I’ll probably get married (only God knows to whom), and one day I’ll have kids and be old and retire and all that. It hurt my heart that afternoon even to talk about Rice’s architecture program. It would have hurt me to talk about any school’s architecture program. I actually needed to take a minute alone to calm down because I was so unnerved.
I don’t know what to do with my life! I don’t know what’s good for me! Jeremiah 17:9 (thanks Rina) says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” I can’t trust myself to figure out my life. I was very, very scared. College used to be too far away to think about. Now it is too close to think about.
I like this new Casting Crowns CD. I count it as a blessing. God speaks to us in many ways, and I think music is one of those ways. There is a song called “At Your Feet” which I strongly recommend you look up and listen to. God knows that we’re no good on our own. He knows we need Him, and He’s not hiding. He’s just waiting for us each to acknowledge that fact.
I know very well that God has a plan for my life. I think about it a lot. I know very well who Jesus is and what He’s done. I think about Him a lot. But this week I needed a reminder, just to make sure I don’t forget, and God gave it to me in this song.
My favorite part of the song (because it’s relevant for me this week): “Here at Your feet I lay my future down. All of my dreams, I give to You know. And I find peace, I find peace. (Chorus) Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet, oh to dwell and never leave! Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet, there is nowhere else for me. There is nowhere else for me.”
This song is about acknowledging one’s need for God’s will to be done while surrendering one’s own ambitions and desires. Surrendering ambitions and desires does not mean locking yourself up inside a church and refuse to think about anything besides the content of the Bible. It means you allow your plans to be very tentative and to make sure your desires match with God’s desires. It means making your plan into an early sketch which is ready to be erased as God draws in the final lines. It means letting Him be on the throne of your heart, the thing that directs every decision and every move, instead of letting the whims and dictates of an evil heart guide you, as you ask God to search you and help you see yourself as He sees you. I ask Him whether I have any idols that need smashing, any bad habit that needs changing, and I ask Him to enable me and empower me with His Spirit so that I can improve and be a better servant. And He responds. He really, really does.
I am grateful for this song because it’s exactly what I needed this week. It reminds me where I belong. The best place to live is at Jesus’ feet. It’s true! Because living at Jesus’ feet means living in humility, in a state of submission to His will and of adoration of Jesus as King. That’s who we’re supposed to be. Our faith is not supposed to be the part of our lives that happens only Sunday. It’s not the part that happens Sunday plus before meals and before bed, when we pray. Our faith is supposed to be our life, because Jesus is the Life. That means that everything we do is done through faith. Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
I want very much to make decisions that will please God. Sometimes I worry that He’ll call me here or there or to this or that person or this or that task or occupation, and I won’t hear because I wasn’t listening carefully enough, or because I just didn’t want to obey because it’s hard to give up what I want. What He showed me this week is that not only does He have a plan which nobody will stop Him from fulfilling perfectly, He makes His call loud and clear. He may not speak directly into my ear with a trumpet, but He is definitely not writing down His command and hiding it under a hat for me to guess. It just doesn’t work that way. He will make me know what He wants, and then I have to make the choice to obey.
For example, at the end of last year I couldn’t help but feel it would be a good idea to create a blog. I had been reading Rina’s blog, and it seemed like something right to do. I asked Rina for her opinion and she said it would be a great way to witness to others. Now I’m looking back at what drove me to create a blog and to keep up with it each week, and I realize that this is something that God wanted me to do. And I pray each week the story I share will glorify Him and that He’ll give me words to share what He’s teaching me, and He shows me it’s working, to keep me encouraged. I love that God is not distant, and that He doesn’t keep us guessing. He’ll guide me to the right thing even before I know I should look. And this time I do know I should look: Where in the world should I go to college? What should I study? Should I ever travel overseas? Who should I marry someday and when? What is God’s plan for me and how do I know?
So He tells me that I do not have to know, because He has all my days mapped out already. It’ll work out before I even notice. It is not up to me to find what’s best for me. Christian life is not a journey to seek knowledge of God’s plan but a journey to seek God and let Him carry out His plan. And if I seek God first I know He’ll work the rest of this out.
I’m grateful that He has not left me all alone, and that He’s still here to take my heart by the hand and turn my mountains into molehills. Jesus repeatedly told us not to worry. In Matthew 6:31-34 He gives us famous words to live by to keep us from worrying, because God doesn’t want His sheep to worry all the time. “[31] Therefore do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [ 32] For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Apply this to yourself. For the first verse plug in your worries: Jesus says not to worry, saying “Where will I go to college?” or “What will I study?” or “What does God want me to do?” or “Where and with whom will I spend my life?” For the second verse notice His response to all these worries, which are more than you have named. “For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” God knows what I need and He knows what’s good for my life. He knows where it’s good for me to be, and when, and with whom, and He doesn’t ever command me to plan my own life. Just to trust Him that He’s got this all figured out, even when it doesn’t look like it could make any sense. Like a Rubik’s cube. I’ve seen people solve it. It never, ever looks like it’s almost solved until it’s totally solved. God knows how to solve every Rubik’s cube. It’s funny. I’ve never been able to solve one of those. He’s going to solve it for me and for you. For the third verse we must write a new purpose onto our hearts. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” This is more than a top priority. This is a way of life. It’s what I was talking about earlier: living by faith in Jesus. It’s keeping God’s desire for righteousness and for obedience as the glass through which we view our lives. We must live first for Him to be pleased. What happens then? “And all these things shall be added to you.” Living at Jesus’ feet is living in a state of perpetual trust that God is going to take care of everything.
Finally look at the fourth verse. Jesus is telling us not to worry. Cool it. Chillax. God’s got you covered, even when it doesn’t look like it. He’s got you in the belly of a fish even when you’re deep in the ocean being eaten by the guilt of disobedience. He’s holding onto your hand even when it looks like the whole ocean is about to empty itself on top of you. He’s embracing you tightly in His grace even when the world hates you. Realize that God is greater than any problem. Sometimes He even uses problems, even huge problems, to make us trust Him more. Even is your relative is sick and not getting better, even if you’re losing everything, even if you’ve lost your purpose, He can turn the whole thing into a way to grow, and to grow closer to Him, if you’ll live at His feet and trust Him.
This week I pray I could be better at living at Jesus feet. I can only guess where I’ll be in five, ten, twenty years, but He doesn’t have to guess. He has always known what I will have for breakfast tomorrow. There is no way I could ever slip out of His hand, and I know His plan involves a happy ending for those who seek Him first and trust Him. The King is in control in my life, and in yours.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Being Filled with God
THIS WEEK was the last week of my junior year of high school! Wow! I know God has been guiding me on this school year for sure. There's no way I could have endured a year of Physics class every day without Him making it possible (He also showed me in books like "The Case for a Creator" by Lee Strobel that physics is very interesting, even if it isn't my thing). I'm grateful for a break.
The same day that the school year ended I left for Texas, and that's where I'm blogging from. It's wonderful here. I've seen a few of God's particularly beautiful sunsets, and I spent yesterday afternoon in a pretty place in the country called Segno. I had so much joy walking into the house there and being surrounded by my loved ones that I hadn't seen for almost a year. I miss the people back in Florida, and I miss my parens who just arrived in Seattle a little while ago to celebrate their 20th anniversary. But I'm having a wonderful time, and I have alot of really cool things to tell you this week.
Have you heard the song "Empty Me" by Chris Sligh? This song was stuck in my head for a while earlier this week, and thus it was for a while my theme song. Look here for the lyrics real quick: http://www.uulyrics.com/music/chris-sligh/song-empty-me/
This week I was working on Chapter Eleven in The Purple Book by Rice Broocks and Steve Murrell (I'm almost finished with the book, which has twelve chapters). This chapter is called "Evangelism & World Missions" and it reminded me of the necessity of a disciple's applying the goals of true discipleship to his life. I like this quote, "If we are Christ's body - His presence in the world today - then Jesus' mission is our mission." This means that as followers of Jesus, the Redeemed of God, we have been given a responsibility alongside our joy of salvation. It is our job to keep His commandments. That's what it means to follow Him.
His commandments include things like loving your neighbor, forgiving people as we would like to be forgiven, seeking and loving God first and foremost, sharing with other people both through our words and actions. I've realized that these commandments are only done when we love God enough to obey. Jesus said in John 14:14-15, "[14] If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. [15] If you love me, keep My commandments." When we love God and obey God then people see Him in us because Jesus is in us. You understand that's not just poetic: it doesn't mean Jesus has influenced our mindsets. It's also not physical: there isn't another whole body of the person of Jesus stored inside our own bodies. It is spiritual: the Spirit of God actually fills us up and empowers us to advance His Kingdom. That's how people see Jesus in us. It's not something that depends on us and how we feel. The only thing it has to do with us is our willingness to obey.
Remember that Chris Sligh song? I suggest you go find it. I've been hearing it on 88.1 (The Promise). "(Chorus) Empty me of the selfishness inside, every vain ambition and the poison of my pride, and any foolish thing my heart holds to. Lord, empty me of me so I can be filled with You!" It makes it hard for people to see Jesus in us when we refuse to submit to His will. This means that we agree to lay down every part of our lives and let it belong to Him. It means we let Him sit "on the throne of our hearts." It means that God is not only our first priority, but He directs all of our priorities.
I've heard it compared to being "transparent," like a window. If we cling to things God doesn't like, the window gets spotted and dirty. I made a 'stained glass' (sort of) art piece this past December which stood for a while in front of a dirty window in the art room at school for several months. So I understand the effects of having a bad window. The light didn't come through well enough to show the picture in an aesthetically pleasing way. The yellow was too dark and the whole thing looked discolored and dirty. Now this piece stays in my house in front of a clean window and I really like how it looks. It's not that the piece is badly painted, it's just that it depends on the quality of light. That's how it is with Jesus. How are people supposed to see His loving, humble, forgiving nature through me if I have an idol or a bad habit stuck to me like dry paint on a window, keeping me from imitating Him?
It is not always an appealing thought to think of clearing oneself of such flaws, just because it seems hard to "empty me of me." But it's very worthwhile if it means I get to be filled with God instead. To be emptied of oneself is what it means in the New Testament when we are instructed to "die to the world." In 1 Corinthians 15:31 Paul writes "I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." It's also what it means when Jesus says to "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33) and to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," (Matthew 22) which He says is the most important commandment of all. All of this means to make yourself willing to lay aside anything, no matter how important, even family, even your job, even the things you look forward to or rely on, for the sake of doing what God want you to do. This does not mean you have to walk down the street with only the clothes on your back and leave everything behind to become a missionary leader in the Middle East. It means that God is so important to you that, like another song says, you can say "all my delight is in You Lord, all of my hope, all of my strength." He is the source of your satisfaction, the love of your life, the very most important thing. Your eyes are set upon him to see what He'll do and what He wants. You desire with all your heart, soul, and mind to please Him and to make sure what you do glorifies Him. You conform all of your ways to what He has said is right. And this is reasonable because, as He's been helping me this week to understand, nobody else could ever love us back and bless us back and make our efforts worthwhile the way He can. Everything God does, He does the way only He can. He can make anything work out, even when it seems overwhelming and impossible. It's our job, as His people, to put our faith and trust in Him, especially in the hard times. That's the kind of person I want to be. Nobody becomes that way in an instant, but He gives us that desire from the moment we give Him control and confess our weakness, our lack of self-sufficency, and accept His gift of salvation through the sacrifice He made in His Son Jesus. That desire for God increases over time: it's a lifelong journey toward spiritual maturity in which our flaws and weaknesses are resolved and mended over time by the Spirit. Jenny White once explained it this way: the Spirit never ridicules us for our flaws, but He points them out to us as a friend points out a smudge on a friend's face. God might call us to quit this or start this, and when we make the decisions, whether small and easy or large and difficult, to obey Him, He will strengthen us and bless us as a reward for our trusting Him that He knows what is best.
I heard a man on the radio (still The Promise) say it this way: He comes and fills us up when we confess our weakness, our inability to save ourselves or make ourselves perfect. God has always wanted us to humble ourselves before Him. After all, much of the Old Testament tells about the anger He feels toward those who lift themselves up and trust in flimsy things instead of humbling themselves and trusting Him. He rewards us for our decision to trust Him instead of ourselves by giving us strength and direction so we can improve. I pray to improve continually all my life. I know enough to know that I don't know nearly everything and I can never will, no matter how many books I read.
In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 Paul writes something which I think everyone needs to hear, “[8] Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. [9] And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” He promises to be the source of strength to those who lack it. You see how much joy Paul had after Jesus spoke to him? He had enough joy to face anything, confident that it did not matter what happened to him because he had a source of strength which nobody could take from him.
When I was in Segno yesterday, a beautiful, quiet place with grass and trees and houses built by my family’s hands, I watched my Aunt Jennifer try to help her baby son Elijah understand the best way to fill a toy bucket with water. Elijah had been given a tub of water and things to play with in the water. He stood in the grass with a little blue bucket in his left hand, and he tried to fill it with water by dunking his right hand into the tub and dripping the water into the bucket! You can imagine this was not very effective, but Eli didn’t notice. Aunt Jen took a spongy toy, filled it with water, and used it to fill up the bucket much more quickly. That way makes more sense, right? Elijah watched her and did not complain, but he still wasn’t willing to try it her way. He tried a little more to use the drip technique, and whenever she filled it he just dumped it out – oops! Gravity. He did have fun sucking on the sponge, though.
To me this looks like the way people try to be sufficient for themselves. God’s way is always the best way. Elijah’s attempt to fill the bucket by dripping water into it with his fingers looks like the way we just can’t satisfy ourselves on our own. With absolutely anything you can find in this world, satisfaction is temporary and partial. We always need more, better, smarter, easier, faster, and we can never get enough. Our buckets are never full. When we accept that we are weak and that only God can fill us, we stop dripping water into our buckets. We stop seeking satisfaction in the world. And we let Him fill us up instead so that we’ll be fully satisfied. God has the sponge. It works a lot better than anything this world can offer, and it doesn’t cost money. It costs our decision not to try to do by ourselves what is only possible with God.
One last thing I want to share with you is a poem which my Pre-Calculus instructor James Harper suggested to me. It was written by Admiral Jeremiah Denton, a prisoner of war in North Vietnam who underwent terrible torture and despair but emerged clinging for dear life to his faith in God. It is called "La Pieta," and I found this at http://ironacresnow.blogspot.com/2009/04/he-is-risen.html
"The soldiers stare, then drift away,
Young John finds nothing to say,
The veil is rent; the deed is done;
And Mary holds her only son.
His limbs grow stiff, the night grows cold,
But naught can lose that mother’s hold,
Her gentle, anguished eyes seem blind,
Who knows what thoughts run through her mind?
Perhaps she thinks of last week’s palms,
With cheering thousands off’ring alms
Or dreams of Cana on the day
She nagged him till she got her way.
Her face shows grief but not despair,
Her head though bowed has faith to spare,
For even now she could suppose
His thorns might somehow yield a rose.
Her life with Him was full of signs
That God writes straight with crooked lines.
Dark clouds can hide the rising sun,
And all seem lost, when all be won!"
The last four lines are particularly important. This is what God did for us: He came to the humblest position, though He belongs in the place of highest glory. He was beaten when He ought to have been praised. He was treated as a criminal when He had done nothing wrong. He underwent what we deserve to undergo. He can turn loss into amazing victory, and He can turn chaos into order. He's been doing that since the beginning of the universe, and He is doing it now.
The same day that the school year ended I left for Texas, and that's where I'm blogging from. It's wonderful here. I've seen a few of God's particularly beautiful sunsets, and I spent yesterday afternoon in a pretty place in the country called Segno. I had so much joy walking into the house there and being surrounded by my loved ones that I hadn't seen for almost a year. I miss the people back in Florida, and I miss my parens who just arrived in Seattle a little while ago to celebrate their 20th anniversary. But I'm having a wonderful time, and I have alot of really cool things to tell you this week.
Have you heard the song "Empty Me" by Chris Sligh? This song was stuck in my head for a while earlier this week, and thus it was for a while my theme song. Look here for the lyrics real quick: http://www.uulyrics.com/music/chris-sligh/song-empty-me/
This week I was working on Chapter Eleven in The Purple Book by Rice Broocks and Steve Murrell (I'm almost finished with the book, which has twelve chapters). This chapter is called "Evangelism & World Missions" and it reminded me of the necessity of a disciple's applying the goals of true discipleship to his life. I like this quote, "If we are Christ's body - His presence in the world today - then Jesus' mission is our mission." This means that as followers of Jesus, the Redeemed of God, we have been given a responsibility alongside our joy of salvation. It is our job to keep His commandments. That's what it means to follow Him.
His commandments include things like loving your neighbor, forgiving people as we would like to be forgiven, seeking and loving God first and foremost, sharing with other people both through our words and actions. I've realized that these commandments are only done when we love God enough to obey. Jesus said in John 14:14-15, "[14] If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. [15] If you love me, keep My commandments." When we love God and obey God then people see Him in us because Jesus is in us. You understand that's not just poetic: it doesn't mean Jesus has influenced our mindsets. It's also not physical: there isn't another whole body of the person of Jesus stored inside our own bodies. It is spiritual: the Spirit of God actually fills us up and empowers us to advance His Kingdom. That's how people see Jesus in us. It's not something that depends on us and how we feel. The only thing it has to do with us is our willingness to obey.
Remember that Chris Sligh song? I suggest you go find it. I've been hearing it on 88.1 (The Promise). "(Chorus) Empty me of the selfishness inside, every vain ambition and the poison of my pride, and any foolish thing my heart holds to. Lord, empty me of me so I can be filled with You!" It makes it hard for people to see Jesus in us when we refuse to submit to His will. This means that we agree to lay down every part of our lives and let it belong to Him. It means we let Him sit "on the throne of our hearts." It means that God is not only our first priority, but He directs all of our priorities.
I've heard it compared to being "transparent," like a window. If we cling to things God doesn't like, the window gets spotted and dirty. I made a 'stained glass' (sort of) art piece this past December which stood for a while in front of a dirty window in the art room at school for several months. So I understand the effects of having a bad window. The light didn't come through well enough to show the picture in an aesthetically pleasing way. The yellow was too dark and the whole thing looked discolored and dirty. Now this piece stays in my house in front of a clean window and I really like how it looks. It's not that the piece is badly painted, it's just that it depends on the quality of light. That's how it is with Jesus. How are people supposed to see His loving, humble, forgiving nature through me if I have an idol or a bad habit stuck to me like dry paint on a window, keeping me from imitating Him?
It is not always an appealing thought to think of clearing oneself of such flaws, just because it seems hard to "empty me of me." But it's very worthwhile if it means I get to be filled with God instead. To be emptied of oneself is what it means in the New Testament when we are instructed to "die to the world." In 1 Corinthians 15:31 Paul writes "I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." It's also what it means when Jesus says to "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33) and to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," (Matthew 22) which He says is the most important commandment of all. All of this means to make yourself willing to lay aside anything, no matter how important, even family, even your job, even the things you look forward to or rely on, for the sake of doing what God want you to do. This does not mean you have to walk down the street with only the clothes on your back and leave everything behind to become a missionary leader in the Middle East. It means that God is so important to you that, like another song says, you can say "all my delight is in You Lord, all of my hope, all of my strength." He is the source of your satisfaction, the love of your life, the very most important thing. Your eyes are set upon him to see what He'll do and what He wants. You desire with all your heart, soul, and mind to please Him and to make sure what you do glorifies Him. You conform all of your ways to what He has said is right. And this is reasonable because, as He's been helping me this week to understand, nobody else could ever love us back and bless us back and make our efforts worthwhile the way He can. Everything God does, He does the way only He can. He can make anything work out, even when it seems overwhelming and impossible. It's our job, as His people, to put our faith and trust in Him, especially in the hard times. That's the kind of person I want to be. Nobody becomes that way in an instant, but He gives us that desire from the moment we give Him control and confess our weakness, our lack of self-sufficency, and accept His gift of salvation through the sacrifice He made in His Son Jesus. That desire for God increases over time: it's a lifelong journey toward spiritual maturity in which our flaws and weaknesses are resolved and mended over time by the Spirit. Jenny White once explained it this way: the Spirit never ridicules us for our flaws, but He points them out to us as a friend points out a smudge on a friend's face. God might call us to quit this or start this, and when we make the decisions, whether small and easy or large and difficult, to obey Him, He will strengthen us and bless us as a reward for our trusting Him that He knows what is best.
I heard a man on the radio (still The Promise) say it this way: He comes and fills us up when we confess our weakness, our inability to save ourselves or make ourselves perfect. God has always wanted us to humble ourselves before Him. After all, much of the Old Testament tells about the anger He feels toward those who lift themselves up and trust in flimsy things instead of humbling themselves and trusting Him. He rewards us for our decision to trust Him instead of ourselves by giving us strength and direction so we can improve. I pray to improve continually all my life. I know enough to know that I don't know nearly everything and I can never will, no matter how many books I read.
In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 Paul writes something which I think everyone needs to hear, “[8] Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. [9] And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” He promises to be the source of strength to those who lack it. You see how much joy Paul had after Jesus spoke to him? He had enough joy to face anything, confident that it did not matter what happened to him because he had a source of strength which nobody could take from him.
When I was in Segno yesterday, a beautiful, quiet place with grass and trees and houses built by my family’s hands, I watched my Aunt Jennifer try to help her baby son Elijah understand the best way to fill a toy bucket with water. Elijah had been given a tub of water and things to play with in the water. He stood in the grass with a little blue bucket in his left hand, and he tried to fill it with water by dunking his right hand into the tub and dripping the water into the bucket! You can imagine this was not very effective, but Eli didn’t notice. Aunt Jen took a spongy toy, filled it with water, and used it to fill up the bucket much more quickly. That way makes more sense, right? Elijah watched her and did not complain, but he still wasn’t willing to try it her way. He tried a little more to use the drip technique, and whenever she filled it he just dumped it out – oops! Gravity. He did have fun sucking on the sponge, though.
To me this looks like the way people try to be sufficient for themselves. God’s way is always the best way. Elijah’s attempt to fill the bucket by dripping water into it with his fingers looks like the way we just can’t satisfy ourselves on our own. With absolutely anything you can find in this world, satisfaction is temporary and partial. We always need more, better, smarter, easier, faster, and we can never get enough. Our buckets are never full. When we accept that we are weak and that only God can fill us, we stop dripping water into our buckets. We stop seeking satisfaction in the world. And we let Him fill us up instead so that we’ll be fully satisfied. God has the sponge. It works a lot better than anything this world can offer, and it doesn’t cost money. It costs our decision not to try to do by ourselves what is only possible with God.
One last thing I want to share with you is a poem which my Pre-Calculus instructor James Harper suggested to me. It was written by Admiral Jeremiah Denton, a prisoner of war in North Vietnam who underwent terrible torture and despair but emerged clinging for dear life to his faith in God. It is called "La Pieta," and I found this at http://ironacresnow.blogspot.com/2009/04/he-is-risen.html
"The soldiers stare, then drift away,
Young John finds nothing to say,
The veil is rent; the deed is done;
And Mary holds her only son.
His limbs grow stiff, the night grows cold,
But naught can lose that mother’s hold,
Her gentle, anguished eyes seem blind,
Who knows what thoughts run through her mind?
Perhaps she thinks of last week’s palms,
With cheering thousands off’ring alms
Or dreams of Cana on the day
She nagged him till she got her way.
Her face shows grief but not despair,
Her head though bowed has faith to spare,
For even now she could suppose
His thorns might somehow yield a rose.
Her life with Him was full of signs
That God writes straight with crooked lines.
Dark clouds can hide the rising sun,
And all seem lost, when all be won!"
The last four lines are particularly important. This is what God did for us: He came to the humblest position, though He belongs in the place of highest glory. He was beaten when He ought to have been praised. He was treated as a criminal when He had done nothing wrong. He underwent what we deserve to undergo. He can turn loss into amazing victory, and He can turn chaos into order. He's been doing that since the beginning of the universe, and He is doing it now.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The Bride of Christ, and Life Compared to a Snowglobe
THIS WEEK I have a few different really cool things to tell you about. I like to read at least one chapter of the New Testament per day, and lately I've been trying to read in Isaiah and the Psalms more, too. This week I finished through the end of John again, and I wondered what I should do now. Should I read a chapter a day through the rest of the New Testament? I did that not too long ago. Maybe something different would be beneficial. I remembered a suggestion I had seen or heard somewhere: I could make note cards on every chapter of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and maybe later on I could do cards on others. I decided to do this, and I prayed I could find some note cards somewhere.
I found five note cards in a closet in the kitchen, and I have since used them up on the first four chapters of the book of Matthew. I wrote down what was happening every few verses, and I took note of all the references to other places. It is so cool. If you read this blog alot you might know I really enjoy the book of Isaiah because I've seen a few particularly exciting prophecies in there which I have observed to have come true in Jesus' life. Looking in these references, even in the first four chapters of Matthew, I saw prophecies in Isaiah as well as in Hosea, Micah, and Jeremiah, places I don't look into nearly as often. I particularly like Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting." This is referenced in Matthew 2:5-6. It's amazing that Jesus was born exactly where it was predicted He would be born - in a prophecy that was made hundreds of years beforehand! It's also amazing that God tends to choose such little and low things to bring about greatness. He picked little Bethlehem for God-in-Man to enter the world. He chose fishermen for several of His disciples. He chose the sick and demon-possessed as those whose lives, having been transformed by Him, would spread the news of His great love and mercy. God has been healing people since long before He walked the earth in Jesus.
Besides the prophecies, I also observed commandments which Jesus quoted in defense against the evil one's attempts to tempt Him for 40 days in Matthew 4:1-11. These were found in Deuteronomy 6 and 8. Jesus gives us an example in how to resist the evil one. We're supposed to cling to what God says in His Word, what He has shown us to be true and what He has promised to do. He wants us to obey His commandments, and the best way to do that is to know them AND to make sure we understand them. If we cling to Him and don't get deceived nor confused, the evil one is like "I can't trick this kid," and he does not succeed.
I hope and pray that I may get a big stack of note cards to use. Taking notes is fun and it helps me to look more deeply into God's Word.
Okay, so another cool thing happened. Last week I was blogging pretty late and I finished around 11 o'clock. You remember I was talking about Revelation 21 and the Bride of Christ imagery and the fact that God promises to take away all the pain one day when He gathers all His faithful children to His kingdom. That same evening my sweetiful cousin Rina was dreaming a very important dream. Please go to this URL before you continue reading, or you probably won't understand what I 'm so excited about. http://zee-em-sea.blogspot.com/ . Look under "The Wedding."
I tried earlier this week to explain verbally what the big deal was, but I'm afraid I might not have been completely successful. I'll try harder. I am amazed because in the same evening that I was typing about the Bride of Christ, which is the body of the redeemed brought into God's kingdom to worship and serve Him forever, Rinabean was dreaming about the same thing. She dreamed about this bride who was ruining her own happy time by wandering around outside, and who blamed her husband for not coming and getting her. But the groom came and held her and assured her he had never left, and she realized that it was her own fault, and that he loved her anyway. His love for her and her love for him made her beautiful.
I think God is showing both of us this important idea at the same time, so we can help each other understand it. God wants to be first in our hearts - everyone's hearts! - on the Throne of your Heart, as I've heard it before. He wants to hold us each tightly and bring us close to Him, and He will cast away all of our griefs and fill us up so full of joy that we will not ever have to worry about anything, because now we don't have to deal with things dying and breaking. With God it's all permanent. He wants us to seek what is permanent.
He knows everything about us, and He knows we do really dumb things. To quote my dear Rinabean, "And Jesus doesn't not demand perfection from us. He knows every part of us and still He loves us. He never wants us to sin, but He knew that it would be inevitable - that's why He offered Himself as a sacrifice for us. He loved the world that much (John 3:16)...and not to condemn the world, but so that you could be saved (John 3:17)."
Just to hold us in His arms and assure us, just to make us His again and teach us and comfort us, He came to us through tribulation and pain and death. He did it to pull us out of the pit we were unknowingly getting ourselves stuck into, so that anybody who will trust Him can be with Him forver.
In that same passage from last week, Revelation 21:1-5, the writer reports what God said once the old was all torn down and the New Jerusalem was prepared. "Behold, I am making all things new." In redeeming all His children and in sanctifying us, He is making all things new. In his book "The Applause of Heaven" Max Lucado discusses the fact that many things which were delightful to him once have now grown old and have begun to die, and he can't do anything to change it. It's so amazing that we can be sure that God is going to restore - not the things we fondly remember now - but "He will restore the vigor. He will restore the energy. He will restore the hope. He will restore the soul." He is not about to gather up all the things in the world that are fading and restore them to youth, but He is about to take us to a place where everything is new and fresh and eternal and doesn't get old. Lucado writes, "When you see how this world grows stooped and weary and then read of a home where everything is made new, tell me, doesn't that make you want to go home?" The violence and tedious treacherousness of the world makes me sure that I do not want to stay here forever, and yes, when I'm all done here it will be good to go home.
One night this week I was sitting on my bed about to go to sleep, and I was unexpectedly struck by shock at how fast it is all going to go away. I listened to my brother's radio playing in his room and the air blowing in the air conditioner, and I looked around at the walls and ceilings, and I could not shake the awareness that this is not going to last very long. I am at the end of my junior year in high school, and I know things won't stay quite like this for very long. I almost cried. I thanked God for reminding me of the brevity and soon I was trying to sleep, imagining that I was really forty and that I was visiting my old bed that I had when I was sixteen, one of many nights that I always wish I could come back to. I woke up sixteen.
It's true, we don't belong here. We're going somewhere else. And it's true that what seems new and young now is going to get old. Sometimes I wish I could stay here looking out my window at the trees and birds and spiders and plumbagos and never leave. Sometimes I wish I always had another year left in high school. I wish I was nine and ten with Rina forming clubs that would last one day and playing games that would last for weeks. I wish I could stay here in the months of my first date with Will, and Prom, and my parents' twentieth anniversary. But every day I'm leaving, and God's taking us each somewhere else, somewhere amazing, just not right here and right now anymore.
That's good. Can't stay here forever. But it really sets me straight and makes me realize again that what matters most lasts longest. We're to use our time here to grow closer to God and to advance His kingdom, and then when we're done we can be closer to Him han ever, and we can actually sit forver in His kingdom where everything is always new.
Okay, so last night I was again sitting on my bed before sleeping, preparing to say my prayer for the night, and I picked up this snowglobe that Will got me from Seaworld. It's a very pretty thing with a killer whale perched on a green wave, and shattery-looking glass on the base, and blue-green iradescent sparkles which dance beautifully in the water. So I turned it over and put my eyes very close to the top to watch the sparles fall.
"Is life like a snowglobe?" I asked Jesus right then. He made me understand a few things. He knows I love metaphors. When everything in the world is recent and young and fresh, then the sparkles are newly falling. It's beautiful, and you don't really want it to stop. I thanked God for giving me a good memory for preserving things, as I watched the sparkles descend away from me. As things get older and wrinkle and move aside, then the sparkles have settled. Still pretty, but not as twinkling and sweet. I observed that with God the wonder doesn't have to fade. I get to shake up the snowglobe every day because His mercies are new every morning. He is consistently and persistently amazing. God and all the things God does are never replaced and they never change, get they are always new becuase they never decay. It's eternal.
I'm glad that at the end of my life, having watched a million happy sparkles dance down through the water, I don't have to set the snowglobe down while I see all the sparkles settled and faded on the ground. When I'm all the way done here, I can turn them over one last time and watch how God will spin them forever. Sparkles don't settle in Heaven. The wonder will then never have to fade away.
I found five note cards in a closet in the kitchen, and I have since used them up on the first four chapters of the book of Matthew. I wrote down what was happening every few verses, and I took note of all the references to other places. It is so cool. If you read this blog alot you might know I really enjoy the book of Isaiah because I've seen a few particularly exciting prophecies in there which I have observed to have come true in Jesus' life. Looking in these references, even in the first four chapters of Matthew, I saw prophecies in Isaiah as well as in Hosea, Micah, and Jeremiah, places I don't look into nearly as often. I particularly like Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting." This is referenced in Matthew 2:5-6. It's amazing that Jesus was born exactly where it was predicted He would be born - in a prophecy that was made hundreds of years beforehand! It's also amazing that God tends to choose such little and low things to bring about greatness. He picked little Bethlehem for God-in-Man to enter the world. He chose fishermen for several of His disciples. He chose the sick and demon-possessed as those whose lives, having been transformed by Him, would spread the news of His great love and mercy. God has been healing people since long before He walked the earth in Jesus.
Besides the prophecies, I also observed commandments which Jesus quoted in defense against the evil one's attempts to tempt Him for 40 days in Matthew 4:1-11. These were found in Deuteronomy 6 and 8. Jesus gives us an example in how to resist the evil one. We're supposed to cling to what God says in His Word, what He has shown us to be true and what He has promised to do. He wants us to obey His commandments, and the best way to do that is to know them AND to make sure we understand them. If we cling to Him and don't get deceived nor confused, the evil one is like "I can't trick this kid," and he does not succeed.
I hope and pray that I may get a big stack of note cards to use. Taking notes is fun and it helps me to look more deeply into God's Word.
Okay, so another cool thing happened. Last week I was blogging pretty late and I finished around 11 o'clock. You remember I was talking about Revelation 21 and the Bride of Christ imagery and the fact that God promises to take away all the pain one day when He gathers all His faithful children to His kingdom. That same evening my sweetiful cousin Rina was dreaming a very important dream. Please go to this URL before you continue reading, or you probably won't understand what I 'm so excited about. http://zee-em-sea.blogspot.com/ . Look under "The Wedding."
I tried earlier this week to explain verbally what the big deal was, but I'm afraid I might not have been completely successful. I'll try harder. I am amazed because in the same evening that I was typing about the Bride of Christ, which is the body of the redeemed brought into God's kingdom to worship and serve Him forever, Rinabean was dreaming about the same thing. She dreamed about this bride who was ruining her own happy time by wandering around outside, and who blamed her husband for not coming and getting her. But the groom came and held her and assured her he had never left, and she realized that it was her own fault, and that he loved her anyway. His love for her and her love for him made her beautiful.
I think God is showing both of us this important idea at the same time, so we can help each other understand it. God wants to be first in our hearts - everyone's hearts! - on the Throne of your Heart, as I've heard it before. He wants to hold us each tightly and bring us close to Him, and He will cast away all of our griefs and fill us up so full of joy that we will not ever have to worry about anything, because now we don't have to deal with things dying and breaking. With God it's all permanent. He wants us to seek what is permanent.
He knows everything about us, and He knows we do really dumb things. To quote my dear Rinabean, "And Jesus doesn't not demand perfection from us. He knows every part of us and still He loves us. He never wants us to sin, but He knew that it would be inevitable - that's why He offered Himself as a sacrifice for us. He loved the world that much (John 3:16)...and not to condemn the world, but so that you could be saved (John 3:17)."
Just to hold us in His arms and assure us, just to make us His again and teach us and comfort us, He came to us through tribulation and pain and death. He did it to pull us out of the pit we were unknowingly getting ourselves stuck into, so that anybody who will trust Him can be with Him forver.
In that same passage from last week, Revelation 21:1-5, the writer reports what God said once the old was all torn down and the New Jerusalem was prepared. "Behold, I am making all things new." In redeeming all His children and in sanctifying us, He is making all things new. In his book "The Applause of Heaven" Max Lucado discusses the fact that many things which were delightful to him once have now grown old and have begun to die, and he can't do anything to change it. It's so amazing that we can be sure that God is going to restore - not the things we fondly remember now - but "He will restore the vigor. He will restore the energy. He will restore the hope. He will restore the soul." He is not about to gather up all the things in the world that are fading and restore them to youth, but He is about to take us to a place where everything is new and fresh and eternal and doesn't get old. Lucado writes, "When you see how this world grows stooped and weary and then read of a home where everything is made new, tell me, doesn't that make you want to go home?" The violence and tedious treacherousness of the world makes me sure that I do not want to stay here forever, and yes, when I'm all done here it will be good to go home.
One night this week I was sitting on my bed about to go to sleep, and I was unexpectedly struck by shock at how fast it is all going to go away. I listened to my brother's radio playing in his room and the air blowing in the air conditioner, and I looked around at the walls and ceilings, and I could not shake the awareness that this is not going to last very long. I am at the end of my junior year in high school, and I know things won't stay quite like this for very long. I almost cried. I thanked God for reminding me of the brevity and soon I was trying to sleep, imagining that I was really forty and that I was visiting my old bed that I had when I was sixteen, one of many nights that I always wish I could come back to. I woke up sixteen.
It's true, we don't belong here. We're going somewhere else. And it's true that what seems new and young now is going to get old. Sometimes I wish I could stay here looking out my window at the trees and birds and spiders and plumbagos and never leave. Sometimes I wish I always had another year left in high school. I wish I was nine and ten with Rina forming clubs that would last one day and playing games that would last for weeks. I wish I could stay here in the months of my first date with Will, and Prom, and my parents' twentieth anniversary. But every day I'm leaving, and God's taking us each somewhere else, somewhere amazing, just not right here and right now anymore.
That's good. Can't stay here forever. But it really sets me straight and makes me realize again that what matters most lasts longest. We're to use our time here to grow closer to God and to advance His kingdom, and then when we're done we can be closer to Him han ever, and we can actually sit forver in His kingdom where everything is always new.
Okay, so last night I was again sitting on my bed before sleeping, preparing to say my prayer for the night, and I picked up this snowglobe that Will got me from Seaworld. It's a very pretty thing with a killer whale perched on a green wave, and shattery-looking glass on the base, and blue-green iradescent sparkles which dance beautifully in the water. So I turned it over and put my eyes very close to the top to watch the sparles fall.
"Is life like a snowglobe?" I asked Jesus right then. He made me understand a few things. He knows I love metaphors. When everything in the world is recent and young and fresh, then the sparkles are newly falling. It's beautiful, and you don't really want it to stop. I thanked God for giving me a good memory for preserving things, as I watched the sparkles descend away from me. As things get older and wrinkle and move aside, then the sparkles have settled. Still pretty, but not as twinkling and sweet. I observed that with God the wonder doesn't have to fade. I get to shake up the snowglobe every day because His mercies are new every morning. He is consistently and persistently amazing. God and all the things God does are never replaced and they never change, get they are always new becuase they never decay. It's eternal.
I'm glad that at the end of my life, having watched a million happy sparkles dance down through the water, I don't have to set the snowglobe down while I see all the sparkles settled and faded on the ground. When I'm all the way done here, I can turn them over one last time and watch how God will spin them forever. Sparkles don't settle in Heaven. The wonder will then never have to fade away.
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