So, a completely non-RA related topic. The large woodstove in the house has been without fire for roughly a year and a half. This winter was mild, and unless it gets cold enough that the heat pump has to pump a whole lot, we avoid the stove. Too many of us have allergies to the smoke, and the stove is old enough to leak smoke a little.
Now, not to say that I do not love a good fire. There is nothing like sitting before a warm fire on a freezing day with snow outside a foot or two deep, and a good book and cold drink of Pepsi inside. Near perfection. Just add a cat dozing on the back of a couch, and the dog at my feet. Preferably on my feet, to keep them warm. Ah.
But I digress. We are speaking of high summer, the heat higher and longer than it has been in some years. I often sleep in the basement...it is cooler and helps with the pain. Besides, many nights I wake up and read or do art therapy to try and relax and sleep.
Lately as my DH (Dear Hubby) and I watch some TV and talk over the shows about his job, etc., there was the chittering of "birds".
"Oh, those stupid birds," I say, "They've built a nest in the stove pipe."
My DH looks at me, and replies with the calmness men always seem to have about creepy animals, "I think those are bats."
"Bats!" I just about shriek. "Why do you think they are bats?! Oh ick!"
DH looks at his hysterical wife, "They sound like bats. Not birds."
So, for the next few days, I complained to him every time the bats chittered. I did not realize bats chittered so much. And I believe they were inviting all their cousins, second cousins and some irascible uncles to visit. The drunk uncles sang bat songs all night with increasing volume.
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We happened to buy those "sound" things that are supposed to keep away bugs and mice. I assure you, if placed right beside a bat home, will clear bats out in one day. Oh ick.
It is indeed disturbing to sleep less than fifteen feet from a house of bats. I dare not open the stove and make a small fire to smoke them into finding a new home, as the nasty, ugly things might fly out at me. So I shrunk at each new chitter, and complained to myself.
Rheumatoid Awareness
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Rest Provided
J.E Tada's More Precious than Silver
1 Kings 19.4 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
Whether we're terminally ill, on our last legs, or hunch shouldered with a bad case of Monday Morning Blues,a ll of us sometimes say "I've had enough." How did this mighty prophet [I encourage you to read on the starting verse~ 21st Cent. Nurse] surface out of his despair?
God didn't give answers; He gave Himself. He ministered to the prophet, handing him food and giving him sleep....offered a listening, empathetic ear. [Even] the Angel of the Lord agreed that 'the journey is too much for you.'
The Lord touches your life through the people around you. If there are no people [to help you] God will personally come through for you, giving you strength out of no where.
~thoughts from April 1st, 2015: Even with people's help, it is not enough. There must be God's help. I have had many sleepless nights that I cried on God's shoulder. People themselves are great and a blessing, but God is the truest help to ever be found.
I find that thought from months ago true, but harsh. There have been many people that have helped me a lot, and that I feel the combination of those people with God got me through many tough trials.
Now, there was a time in my life where I was not very popular, so my nearest and dearest friend was my mother. I relied on her, but I learned too to lean on God. I got the most strength to survive my hardest trials (to this point) with God.
When a form of anorexia hit me, praying to God through a meal was the only way I could eat.
At our lowest points of exhaustion, whether fighting disease, mental health problems like depression, work, family life....if we tell God we give up, I can't do this, help me!...He will come through. He will give strength for fighting disease, depression and all the other things.
Think that at the time of Kings, Jesus had not yet taken human form, but God still understood him. He knew how tired this poor prophet was, without having taken human form. How incredible is that? How much more so, having lived life in human form, and being our High Priest, can He understand how tired we are from everything on the earth? We were not created to take what this sinful world hands us. The only way to take it at all, is to remember that God is there, He has been in our shoes...and He will provide comfort and strength, love and peace.
The thing is.....you have to want it. Want it with your whole heart and soul. God wants someone who is completely committed to this relationship. After all....who of us would marry someone we knew was cheating on us constantly? We are literally doing the same thing when we become wishy-washy with our faith.
Keep strong in your faith, "be still, and know God." Because it is an amazing, wonderful and indescribably relationship. Peace be upon you.
1 Kings 19.4 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
Whether we're terminally ill, on our last legs, or hunch shouldered with a bad case of Monday Morning Blues,a ll of us sometimes say "I've had enough." How did this mighty prophet [I encourage you to read on the starting verse~ 21st Cent. Nurse] surface out of his despair?
God didn't give answers; He gave Himself. He ministered to the prophet, handing him food and giving him sleep....offered a listening, empathetic ear. [Even] the Angel of the Lord agreed that 'the journey is too much for you.'
The Lord touches your life through the people around you. If there are no people [to help you] God will personally come through for you, giving you strength out of no where.
~thoughts from April 1st, 2015: Even with people's help, it is not enough. There must be God's help. I have had many sleepless nights that I cried on God's shoulder. People themselves are great and a blessing, but God is the truest help to ever be found.
I find that thought from months ago true, but harsh. There have been many people that have helped me a lot, and that I feel the combination of those people with God got me through many tough trials.
Now, there was a time in my life where I was not very popular, so my nearest and dearest friend was my mother. I relied on her, but I learned too to lean on God. I got the most strength to survive my hardest trials (to this point) with God.
When a form of anorexia hit me, praying to God through a meal was the only way I could eat.
At our lowest points of exhaustion, whether fighting disease, mental health problems like depression, work, family life....if we tell God we give up, I can't do this, help me!...He will come through. He will give strength for fighting disease, depression and all the other things.
Think that at the time of Kings, Jesus had not yet taken human form, but God still understood him. He knew how tired this poor prophet was, without having taken human form. How incredible is that? How much more so, having lived life in human form, and being our High Priest, can He understand how tired we are from everything on the earth? We were not created to take what this sinful world hands us. The only way to take it at all, is to remember that God is there, He has been in our shoes...and He will provide comfort and strength, love and peace.
The thing is.....you have to want it. Want it with your whole heart and soul. God wants someone who is completely committed to this relationship. After all....who of us would marry someone we knew was cheating on us constantly? We are literally doing the same thing when we become wishy-washy with our faith.
Keep strong in your faith, "be still, and know God." Because it is an amazing, wonderful and indescribably relationship. Peace be upon you.
Not in Cahoots
From J.E Tada's More Precious than Silver
[Do not imagine that] God and the devil are in cahoots. God must control evil...He does so because He is good [and what evil is allowed MUST serve a greater good than NOT having the evil happen] Imagine a God who didn't deliberately permit the smallest details of your particular sorrows? What if your trials weren't screened by Him? Think of how, by God's grace, you are managing your problems. And consider how it could be worse , were it not for God?
Again, people may counter, God could just fix it all! and I do not even pretend to know the ways that God works. But He does control things...and stops some things from happening.
I was reading last night in another Timothy Keller book about the section in Mark where the woman from Tyre came to beg Jesus to save her daughter from a demon.
It cane to me, then, that it is those of us who stop searching for help out of our mini-gods, or our mini-god self, and are willing to focus 100% in God and leaning on Him.
Sometimes, with the sins of generations piling up on us, each day more toxic than the last with sin....it takes a higher crisis to make us look to God.
We can be mini-gods with so many things. I have been a mini-god in my lifetime so many times. Just going along, never giving God the time of day. There really was less happiness in that time. Just a false sense of independence. You are relying on one or the other; God or the World. One will let you down to the point of destruction, and like it, the other is desperate that none of us be lost.
So choose right. Choose Him. Choose not your mini-god self....because, quite honestly....we are really stupid in making the right choice in life as a god, and we are really at that point choosing someone else who enjoys destruction. We like what looks like a good deal, we can't control anything....and when we are being mini-gods, we are worshiping something we should not be worshiping. Only one Being is worthy of worship. And only one Being is reaching out to you. So step into the light and into His holy arms, and take rest.
[Do not imagine that] God and the devil are in cahoots. God must control evil...He does so because He is good [and what evil is allowed MUST serve a greater good than NOT having the evil happen] Imagine a God who didn't deliberately permit the smallest details of your particular sorrows? What if your trials weren't screened by Him? Think of how, by God's grace, you are managing your problems. And consider how it could be worse , were it not for God?
Again, people may counter, God could just fix it all! and I do not even pretend to know the ways that God works. But He does control things...and stops some things from happening.
I was reading last night in another Timothy Keller book about the section in Mark where the woman from Tyre came to beg Jesus to save her daughter from a demon.
It cane to me, then, that it is those of us who stop searching for help out of our mini-gods, or our mini-god self, and are willing to focus 100% in God and leaning on Him.
Sometimes, with the sins of generations piling up on us, each day more toxic than the last with sin....it takes a higher crisis to make us look to God.
We can be mini-gods with so many things. I have been a mini-god in my lifetime so many times. Just going along, never giving God the time of day. There really was less happiness in that time. Just a false sense of independence. You are relying on one or the other; God or the World. One will let you down to the point of destruction, and like it, the other is desperate that none of us be lost.
So choose right. Choose Him. Choose not your mini-god self....because, quite honestly....we are really stupid in making the right choice in life as a god, and we are really at that point choosing someone else who enjoys destruction. We like what looks like a good deal, we can't control anything....and when we are being mini-gods, we are worshiping something we should not be worshiping. Only one Being is worthy of worship. And only one Being is reaching out to you. So step into the light and into His holy arms, and take rest.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Why Chronic?
From J.E Tada's More Precious than Silver
2 Cor 12 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Why Chronic? Why do some hardships never go away? [The molding process] won't end until we become completely holy...my diving accident was the beginning of a long, arduous process of becoming like Christ. The grace of God mentioned is enough to sustain us through hardships that hang around.
As I said in my last blog....the kindest people who shine the most with God's love....are the elderly, or, actually, often children with untreatable cancers...those who are closest to completing holiness by joining God, to me, often seem to have it the closest to making it "right" on earth of being like Christ.
Why doesn't God just stop it all? Timothy Keller states that He could...but that would destroy all of us who had not accepted Him, and He is waiting for the number and people who will until that destruction.
Until then, we are asked to boast of our weakness and accept the grace and power to live from Him. He has not left us to battle alone, unless we choose to battle alone. We can tell ourselves we can do it (or adversely, tell ourselves we can't) and go along in that thought process. We will not last. Not until we accept His grace and power....we were not created to take in the stress, the evil, the horridly ugly of this world; it destroys us, body and mind, and unless we anchor ourselves to God, we will be in the most adverse agony. By our own choice.
Much like our forerunners did, we make a choice. We can stay away from the "apple" of destruction, being our own mini-god, or we can pick that "apple", and take a huge bite. With that bite, we will feel less and less of God's presence, and more and more of our mini-godness, and become more and more miserable as our plans fall apart left and right----everyone dies, everyone gets sick, jobs are lost, homes are lost. We can't handle it, and we know our mini-godness did not work, so then we move on to other mini-gods. Drugs, alcohol, sex.....whatever will numb us to the fact that that bite of "apple" did not work.
All we have to do is have faith. Abraham's faith was considered righteousness, after all. Faith will bring you back, almost putting that "apple" bite back on the "apple" and the "apple" back on the tree. His great strength, loving arms, abounding grace will help with whatever sorrow there may be, as He trains our hearts to be what they should have been if way back when no one had taken the first bite of forbidden fruit. Our Father loves us so incredibly much that, like any good half-broken earthly parent, He lets us see how much we really need Him. We need Him so much that to live without Him is no life at all.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Strengthening
From J.E Tada's More Precious Than Silver
Eph 1.4 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
God uses suffering to purge sin, strengthen our commitment to Him, force us to depend on grace, bind us together with other believers, produce discernment, foster sensitivity, discipline our minds, spend time wisely, stretch hope, long for truth, teach thankfulness in times of sorrow, increase faith and character. When Christ is revealed in us, it is patience, self-control, kindness and a healthy hatred of sin...
thoughts from April 1st:
The most wonderful people I have met are the elderly Christians. We so rarely listen to their stories, their walk, but they shine with a beauty that makes me jealous. They glow with God's love, and give off that love so freely.
By contrast, there is nothing uglier than an elderly non-believer. Anger and hate seep out from them like a draining wound. No one likes them...and they poison the atmosphere around them.
My life is so different. Yes, I am dealing with a chronic disease, am limited in mobility AND what I can do without making myself flare. Just the other day I did dishes and loads of laundry and had a flare. Having rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia means anything and everything costs much more than it did. And in a way I am relieved to know that the exhaustion I have felt building the last ten years was not in my head after all.
More importantly, my life is different because of the steps made with God. When hard times hit, we do one of two things, or maybe more like four. We hunker down like mini-gods to fight it out ourselves, give up and hide in a hole, rage at God without accepting His grace, and lastly, accepting His grace.
Sometimes we do all of these, so certain that we can handle everything. After all, aren't we told that by the media and any readings we do? Everything should happen as WE want it.
I have had a lot of experience in leaning on God. Giving in to His strength, love, and grace is so much easier. Honestly, life is too impossible to survive without a "god"; life hurts too much. We may choose to numb with alcohol, drugs, porn, movies...whatever can addict us and numb us from the pain of life.
There is a huge difference though. Those things may, as it were, make us "happy" in the passing......but only God can make us happy in the midst of suffering. He alone will give us peace and joy at the hardest of times. Those other "gods" will, if anything, make the hurts of the world that much worse.
So we must lean on the Lord. After all, He took our sins upon Himself, He can most assuredly take our hand in His and help us walk the way to Paradise.
Eph 1.4 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
God uses suffering to purge sin, strengthen our commitment to Him, force us to depend on grace, bind us together with other believers, produce discernment, foster sensitivity, discipline our minds, spend time wisely, stretch hope, long for truth, teach thankfulness in times of sorrow, increase faith and character. When Christ is revealed in us, it is patience, self-control, kindness and a healthy hatred of sin...
thoughts from April 1st:
The most wonderful people I have met are the elderly Christians. We so rarely listen to their stories, their walk, but they shine with a beauty that makes me jealous. They glow with God's love, and give off that love so freely.
By contrast, there is nothing uglier than an elderly non-believer. Anger and hate seep out from them like a draining wound. No one likes them...and they poison the atmosphere around them.
My life is so different. Yes, I am dealing with a chronic disease, am limited in mobility AND what I can do without making myself flare. Just the other day I did dishes and loads of laundry and had a flare. Having rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia means anything and everything costs much more than it did. And in a way I am relieved to know that the exhaustion I have felt building the last ten years was not in my head after all.
More importantly, my life is different because of the steps made with God. When hard times hit, we do one of two things, or maybe more like four. We hunker down like mini-gods to fight it out ourselves, give up and hide in a hole, rage at God without accepting His grace, and lastly, accepting His grace.
Sometimes we do all of these, so certain that we can handle everything. After all, aren't we told that by the media and any readings we do? Everything should happen as WE want it.
I have had a lot of experience in leaning on God. Giving in to His strength, love, and grace is so much easier. Honestly, life is too impossible to survive without a "god"; life hurts too much. We may choose to numb with alcohol, drugs, porn, movies...whatever can addict us and numb us from the pain of life.
There is a huge difference though. Those things may, as it were, make us "happy" in the passing......but only God can make us happy in the midst of suffering. He alone will give us peace and joy at the hardest of times. Those other "gods" will, if anything, make the hurts of the world that much worse.
So we must lean on the Lord. After all, He took our sins upon Himself, He can most assuredly take our hand in His and help us walk the way to Paradise.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Sleeping
From Gurthie's Abundant Life
Deut 11.22 22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—
To know Me, walk with Me, and share life with Me----this is the essence of real blessing...it is the hard things in life that cause you to want to know Me more intimately, walk with Me more closely, and share your life with Me more fully. That is why, in the losses of life, you can find yourself blessed beyond all imagination; because you have found more of Me in these hard places. You've discovered that My Word is true, My joy is your strength, My promises are your hope, My presence is your comfort.
Still on the hard days and nights, when the pain is out of control, nausea rampaging to the point of no longer wanting to eat (a good diet plan, but a little much, really)...I will often remember to ask for help, although lately I have felt His presence so constant, that if I take a millisecond to even think about God, I feel Him there...nearly like a glow that intensifies to say, "Yes, I am. I am He, I am here. Rest easy, My child." I nearly sigh in relief at how close He remains to me.
This closeness is a new experience. I have never had Him so close, so constant...but nearly every day, I can do such a small list of activities that I spend time with Him via the Word or a good, solid Christian author.
A close relationship with God is real. Is possible. He is always there, and wants that relationship. After all, He created us in His image, unlike the animals. Animals were not enough. We were to be friends with a great Being, and we threw it away out of selfishness and desire for what we thought was "more".
Do we not do that today? I do have days and maybe weeks that I don't work on my "work" or studying God. I am distracted away by things I apparently find more desirable than a deeper relationship with my God and King. I may choose TV. A book. A friend. Shopping (if I could wander more thrift stores)...the list is endless, and we all do it. We mean to spend time with God, but often given the chance and time for study and contact with our Father, we pick something else.
I remember being in nursing school, and admittedly I had to read and study a lot....I often said to myself when I saw my Bible by my bed...."I should read that. I'm so tired, though," and I would roll over and go to sleep.
Aren't we just like the disciples in the Garden. We would rather take care of ourselves than be with Him. We roll over and go to sleep, ignoring His call for company. And yet He is always, always, there for us.
Deut 11.22 22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—
To know Me, walk with Me, and share life with Me----this is the essence of real blessing...it is the hard things in life that cause you to want to know Me more intimately, walk with Me more closely, and share your life with Me more fully. That is why, in the losses of life, you can find yourself blessed beyond all imagination; because you have found more of Me in these hard places. You've discovered that My Word is true, My joy is your strength, My promises are your hope, My presence is your comfort.
Still on the hard days and nights, when the pain is out of control, nausea rampaging to the point of no longer wanting to eat (a good diet plan, but a little much, really)...I will often remember to ask for help, although lately I have felt His presence so constant, that if I take a millisecond to even think about God, I feel Him there...nearly like a glow that intensifies to say, "Yes, I am. I am He, I am here. Rest easy, My child." I nearly sigh in relief at how close He remains to me.
This closeness is a new experience. I have never had Him so close, so constant...but nearly every day, I can do such a small list of activities that I spend time with Him via the Word or a good, solid Christian author.
A close relationship with God is real. Is possible. He is always there, and wants that relationship. After all, He created us in His image, unlike the animals. Animals were not enough. We were to be friends with a great Being, and we threw it away out of selfishness and desire for what we thought was "more".
Do we not do that today? I do have days and maybe weeks that I don't work on my "work" or studying God. I am distracted away by things I apparently find more desirable than a deeper relationship with my God and King. I may choose TV. A book. A friend. Shopping (if I could wander more thrift stores)...the list is endless, and we all do it. We mean to spend time with God, but often given the chance and time for study and contact with our Father, we pick something else.
I remember being in nursing school, and admittedly I had to read and study a lot....I often said to myself when I saw my Bible by my bed...."I should read that. I'm so tired, though," and I would roll over and go to sleep.
Aren't we just like the disciples in the Garden. We would rather take care of ourselves than be with Him. We roll over and go to sleep, ignoring His call for company. And yet He is always, always, there for us.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
The Heart
Spirit-Filled Life. C.Stanley
In the heart of a believer who is filled with the Spirit, He reigns supreme over the will, the emotions, the intelligence but with his full consent and cooperation. The Spirit-Filled Life begins once we are absolutely and thoroughly convinced that we can do nothing apart from the indwelling strength of the Holy Spirit.
Times of Job I have decided to call them. I have had many over my life, when the trials were suddenly amplified to a near unbearable level. Each time I leaned closer to God...except for the one trial that nearly ripped my faith by the roots out of my heart. That I think was the hardest trial, the hardest Time of Job.
We often have times when the Spirit is present often, and times when we would hardly be a Christian because of the lack of feeling His presence. That lack is our own fault.
I believe that lack comes by in a few ways.
1) We sometimes get so proud of our "goodness" because the Spirit is within us! We become super people. We are better, smarter, know the Bible better than ANYONE else, and are a better driver with a better car. (Last part mainly for humor, but who knows?) We begin to think this way because we are Christians, and as Christians, especially of whichever denomination we claim to, we are just a little bit (ok a LOT) better than those other denominations. Our pride gets in the way so much that we start to lose Him by deciding that we are those wonderful mini-gods. Just look! We are in the better church, and we got there by the better car! Oh, those dreadful people over there....
2) We just don't make the effort to be godly, to be a vessel in which God would dwell. We are not ready to give up sins that we are already feeling guilty for. We want to keep the pornography in the closet, or continue a sexual relationship regardless of the fact that mere decades ago we would die in shame, or we want to keep up some obsession---gambling, drinking....whatever has grabbed our attention to be more important than nearly anything else in life. We just don't need God, and would rather people do not talk about Him, because we honestly get that same uncomfortable feeling of guilt creeping up on us.
3) The Poison Route. This is the one for you if you are not a mature Christian (I am not sure at what point one is mature---spiritually or personally). This one is hard because it involves others more, and is a poisoning of your growing faith, as through someone dumped triple-strength RoundUp on you (if you were a plant, although I assume even as a human that would not be terribly beneficial...) Some teaching, or argument concerning a topic of faith, how you should believe etc., so confuses your growth, we may as well have tossed a big rock on you (again if you were a small plant). Growth stops to nearly nothing, and as more poisonous lessons are poured on top with the first big rock, your faith begins to switch to that which is not sound.
4) Major hurt, such as illness, deaths, divorces etc....these things are classic for drawing people away from God, because He "allowed it to happen". Yes. He did. And it is a spot to make a choice, just like any other---God or not. He may have allowed it........but if He is great enough to say "Let there be light", and there was, I imagine He has a good reason for allowing it. We are, after all, children to Him...and parents do not let children have a great many things, and allow punishments to befall them when poor choices are made.
So if we are in these situations, what do we do? First, try reading the Bible, or praying. Read the Bible with purpose. For me, that means reading with a pen handy for underlining. Now, at this point, I had read my Bible so much, that the whole thing is circled and underlined...so I now write verses down. And maybe nothing jumps out at you. That happens, try another book. I like to start with John, and if nothing is reaching me by the Spirit, I flip around and see if I can find something that does. Read a good, sound Christian author, take the same approach of underlining etc. (unless a library book, it's rather tacky to do that)
If you have more or less pushed the Spirit away with your actions, He will answer, but it may seem like it takes a while. Would a friend you hurt by refusing to speak to them be super quick to answer? Depends on the friend, some will, some won't. I have found with my trials that He sometimes answered quickly, and sometimes did not--I feel that those cases are still our faults. We are maybe not asking forgiveness for what we have done, or asking for help to stop sinning. God, Son and Spirit are pure perfection, remember. We have our faith that saves us, but I think we still need to pray about our sins, discuss them with our Father. The more we share of the "hard things" to tell a Father, the closer He will get; and that's because you are giving so much of yourself.
In the heart of a believer who is filled with the Spirit, He reigns supreme over the will, the emotions, the intelligence but with his full consent and cooperation. The Spirit-Filled Life begins once we are absolutely and thoroughly convinced that we can do nothing apart from the indwelling strength of the Holy Spirit.
Times of Job I have decided to call them. I have had many over my life, when the trials were suddenly amplified to a near unbearable level. Each time I leaned closer to God...except for the one trial that nearly ripped my faith by the roots out of my heart. That I think was the hardest trial, the hardest Time of Job.
We often have times when the Spirit is present often, and times when we would hardly be a Christian because of the lack of feeling His presence. That lack is our own fault.
I believe that lack comes by in a few ways.
1) We sometimes get so proud of our "goodness" because the Spirit is within us! We become super people. We are better, smarter, know the Bible better than ANYONE else, and are a better driver with a better car. (Last part mainly for humor, but who knows?) We begin to think this way because we are Christians, and as Christians, especially of whichever denomination we claim to, we are just a little bit (ok a LOT) better than those other denominations. Our pride gets in the way so much that we start to lose Him by deciding that we are those wonderful mini-gods. Just look! We are in the better church, and we got there by the better car! Oh, those dreadful people over there....
2) We just don't make the effort to be godly, to be a vessel in which God would dwell. We are not ready to give up sins that we are already feeling guilty for. We want to keep the pornography in the closet, or continue a sexual relationship regardless of the fact that mere decades ago we would die in shame, or we want to keep up some obsession---gambling, drinking....whatever has grabbed our attention to be more important than nearly anything else in life. We just don't need God, and would rather people do not talk about Him, because we honestly get that same uncomfortable feeling of guilt creeping up on us.
3) The Poison Route. This is the one for you if you are not a mature Christian (I am not sure at what point one is mature---spiritually or personally). This one is hard because it involves others more, and is a poisoning of your growing faith, as through someone dumped triple-strength RoundUp on you (if you were a plant, although I assume even as a human that would not be terribly beneficial...) Some teaching, or argument concerning a topic of faith, how you should believe etc., so confuses your growth, we may as well have tossed a big rock on you (again if you were a small plant). Growth stops to nearly nothing, and as more poisonous lessons are poured on top with the first big rock, your faith begins to switch to that which is not sound.
4) Major hurt, such as illness, deaths, divorces etc....these things are classic for drawing people away from God, because He "allowed it to happen". Yes. He did. And it is a spot to make a choice, just like any other---God or not. He may have allowed it........but if He is great enough to say "Let there be light", and there was, I imagine He has a good reason for allowing it. We are, after all, children to Him...and parents do not let children have a great many things, and allow punishments to befall them when poor choices are made.
So if we are in these situations, what do we do? First, try reading the Bible, or praying. Read the Bible with purpose. For me, that means reading with a pen handy for underlining. Now, at this point, I had read my Bible so much, that the whole thing is circled and underlined...so I now write verses down. And maybe nothing jumps out at you. That happens, try another book. I like to start with John, and if nothing is reaching me by the Spirit, I flip around and see if I can find something that does. Read a good, sound Christian author, take the same approach of underlining etc. (unless a library book, it's rather tacky to do that)
If you have more or less pushed the Spirit away with your actions, He will answer, but it may seem like it takes a while. Would a friend you hurt by refusing to speak to them be super quick to answer? Depends on the friend, some will, some won't. I have found with my trials that He sometimes answered quickly, and sometimes did not--I feel that those cases are still our faults. We are maybe not asking forgiveness for what we have done, or asking for help to stop sinning. God, Son and Spirit are pure perfection, remember. We have our faith that saves us, but I think we still need to pray about our sins, discuss them with our Father. The more we share of the "hard things" to tell a Father, the closer He will get; and that's because you are giving so much of yourself.
RA Post: Times of Tears
Today I saw my rheumatologist. It is very hard to see mine, because I always have the feeling he is not really listening to me...and I get so befuddled I don't ask what I mean to ask.
Discussing with Mama on the way home...I am 25% of the person I was before I first got sick, yet 100s of times better than what I was. This is all so true...and good news. But it breaks my heart for the moment. It will be ok. I just want to have more options and mobility in my life.
No med changes, which is good, I suppose. Maybe someday. He asked if I felt different, and like a fool, I said no. Well...I needed an answer right then, I couldn't think of anything to say. I did however refuse to try a different therapy at this time. So here we go.
Discussing with Mama on the way home...I am 25% of the person I was before I first got sick, yet 100s of times better than what I was. This is all so true...and good news. But it breaks my heart for the moment. It will be ok. I just want to have more options and mobility in my life.
No med changes, which is good, I suppose. Maybe someday. He asked if I felt different, and like a fool, I said no. Well...I needed an answer right then, I couldn't think of anything to say. I did however refuse to try a different therapy at this time. So here we go.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
A Life of Faith
The Spirit-Filled Life. C. Stanely.
The Spirit filled life is a life of faith...When feelings of insecurity and fear surfaced, I would remember that God--through the Holy Spirit---was living in me. He was adequate for anything that came my way...I was more aware of my inadequacy. But it was no longer a handicap. The Holy Spirit more than compensated.
The Christian life is a life of faith. We usually don't have much trouble accepting the fact in connection with our salvation. But when it comes to our daily routine, faith is sometimes conspicuously missing. We tend to put matters into our own hands and do the best we can.
Yep. Mini-gods. See? Even when tough things come by our side and are swamping us to the point of not breathing, we don't call out. We want to run the show, because we are mini-gods, and we can do everything.
We forget that this world is so broken, and that our lives are shattered because we are not in the renewed paradise. We HAVE to have God, and give up the mini-god syndrome.
Searching for God during hard times, desperate for a relationship with Him, and feeling the Spirit take a bigger portion of the temple in our Soul is mandatory.
We can effectively shove the Spirit to a tiny portion of the Temple, and fill the foremost section with things....cars, TVs, games, sports, shopping, work. We think we are running the show, with great certainty, because we have all these things! Look! A new car!
Yet the happiness over those things is so fleeting we are immediately empty afterwards. We know what we need, we just don't want to admit it.
I think there is a Job time in all of our lives. A time for a turning point. You will either choose God, or choose mini-god you. It may be that someone managed to "prove" to you that God does not exist. Or it may be a health crisis. Or just depression and fear. Somehow, a Job time will come. Mine was years back....the RA may be horrible, but that time was worse because of that crisis. Now I think I see the purpose of that crisis...that crisis made it possible to lean on God, feel the Holy Spirit surrounding me, and the love of Christ without the single doubt of Him.
Like I said...we will all have at least one "Job" time in our life. Maybe more. They all are a time to say if you are going to love God, or make Him abandon you. Keeping Him is of course the better option...and He will strengthen us through every hard thing, being the Power in us to stand it. Then, truly....things are really not that bad. How could it be, when we have the greatest Being who was, and is, and is to come residing in us. Praise the Lord for His undying love.
The Spirit filled life is a life of faith...When feelings of insecurity and fear surfaced, I would remember that God--through the Holy Spirit---was living in me. He was adequate for anything that came my way...I was more aware of my inadequacy. But it was no longer a handicap. The Holy Spirit more than compensated.
The Christian life is a life of faith. We usually don't have much trouble accepting the fact in connection with our salvation. But when it comes to our daily routine, faith is sometimes conspicuously missing. We tend to put matters into our own hands and do the best we can.
Yep. Mini-gods. See? Even when tough things come by our side and are swamping us to the point of not breathing, we don't call out. We want to run the show, because we are mini-gods, and we can do everything.
We forget that this world is so broken, and that our lives are shattered because we are not in the renewed paradise. We HAVE to have God, and give up the mini-god syndrome.
Searching for God during hard times, desperate for a relationship with Him, and feeling the Spirit take a bigger portion of the temple in our Soul is mandatory.
We can effectively shove the Spirit to a tiny portion of the Temple, and fill the foremost section with things....cars, TVs, games, sports, shopping, work. We think we are running the show, with great certainty, because we have all these things! Look! A new car!
Yet the happiness over those things is so fleeting we are immediately empty afterwards. We know what we need, we just don't want to admit it.
I think there is a Job time in all of our lives. A time for a turning point. You will either choose God, or choose mini-god you. It may be that someone managed to "prove" to you that God does not exist. Or it may be a health crisis. Or just depression and fear. Somehow, a Job time will come. Mine was years back....the RA may be horrible, but that time was worse because of that crisis. Now I think I see the purpose of that crisis...that crisis made it possible to lean on God, feel the Holy Spirit surrounding me, and the love of Christ without the single doubt of Him.
Like I said...we will all have at least one "Job" time in our life. Maybe more. They all are a time to say if you are going to love God, or make Him abandon you. Keeping Him is of course the better option...and He will strengthen us through every hard thing, being the Power in us to stand it. Then, truly....things are really not that bad. How could it be, when we have the greatest Being who was, and is, and is to come residing in us. Praise the Lord for His undying love.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Living Temples
The Spirit Filled Life. C. Stanely.
Paul's reference to believers as temples underscores this point [earlier statement in book telling us that the Spirit takes up residency in us forever]. Having grown up a devote Jew, Paul had a great deal of respect for the temple. To the nation of Israel, it represented the presence of God among the people. ...[God] was free to take up residency in the heart of man. The barrier of sin had been removed.
First off, small issue in the fact that Paul was generally teaching gentiles, who would not have had that thought of the temple; admittedly they could understand the concept that Paul was teaching in general...so in the aforementioned point, I disagree...
One might wonder why the Spirit did not take up residence before--He had in limited times in the past. Those people were faithful to God, such as Abraham being considered righteous because of his faith, and David considered a man after God's own heart for his faith. The lack of a complete sin offering must have kept the Spirit from being as available as He is to believers. Timothy Keller stresses in his books that suffering could not be stopped before Jesus' coming because of our sin being not completely covered...we were still so evil that the only way to stop suffering was to destroy us. By Jesus' coming, we can accept Him and have a covering for our Sin. The Spirit can dwell in us, teach us, lead us closer and closer to God's unbelievable love and light...suffering remains because there is still sin in the world (and the generational sins), leading to suffering today. Suffering will be gone with Jesus' second coming, when evil is destroyed and sent to suffer alone in the dark while we go to Paradise in the light, never to suffer again.
I never realized before this RA hit me how much I did not really think of the Spirit...or perhaps even care. Once the RA hit me...and I got sicker and sicker with the pain...and I cried out to God more and more, I began to revel in the Spirit. He was there, in me...giving me the strength to bear the pain and sickness. He still is. Even as I write this, I feel nauseated, and I have ice packs on my feet, trying to get swelling down. Yet I feel His presence. I almost always do, now, if I just "be still". I feel so happy about having this closeness to God.
We get that closeness from hard times, being alone and not knowing what to do. We get that closeness when we cry out to God with our whole hearts. Many times when we cry out....there is a lingering, squirming worm in our mind, telling us we can actually, probably, maybe do this ourselves. We don't need God! We are so amazing! We went to college! Studied all the new things science says! We just watched on TV how this and that happened, which just goes to show God isn't real.
Yeah. Right. That worm keeps us from crying out fully. A worm of pride. But when the pride worm is killed, which usually means a really hard thing has happened....we can actually call out with fullness...we can "be still" and feel God. And while whatever we go through may just about kill us....it almost doesn't matter. God is right there, His arms wrapped around His child.
Paul's reference to believers as temples underscores this point [earlier statement in book telling us that the Spirit takes up residency in us forever]. Having grown up a devote Jew, Paul had a great deal of respect for the temple. To the nation of Israel, it represented the presence of God among the people. ...[God] was free to take up residency in the heart of man. The barrier of sin had been removed.
First off, small issue in the fact that Paul was generally teaching gentiles, who would not have had that thought of the temple; admittedly they could understand the concept that Paul was teaching in general...so in the aforementioned point, I disagree...
One might wonder why the Spirit did not take up residence before--He had in limited times in the past. Those people were faithful to God, such as Abraham being considered righteous because of his faith, and David considered a man after God's own heart for his faith. The lack of a complete sin offering must have kept the Spirit from being as available as He is to believers. Timothy Keller stresses in his books that suffering could not be stopped before Jesus' coming because of our sin being not completely covered...we were still so evil that the only way to stop suffering was to destroy us. By Jesus' coming, we can accept Him and have a covering for our Sin. The Spirit can dwell in us, teach us, lead us closer and closer to God's unbelievable love and light...suffering remains because there is still sin in the world (and the generational sins), leading to suffering today. Suffering will be gone with Jesus' second coming, when evil is destroyed and sent to suffer alone in the dark while we go to Paradise in the light, never to suffer again.
I never realized before this RA hit me how much I did not really think of the Spirit...or perhaps even care. Once the RA hit me...and I got sicker and sicker with the pain...and I cried out to God more and more, I began to revel in the Spirit. He was there, in me...giving me the strength to bear the pain and sickness. He still is. Even as I write this, I feel nauseated, and I have ice packs on my feet, trying to get swelling down. Yet I feel His presence. I almost always do, now, if I just "be still". I feel so happy about having this closeness to God.
We get that closeness from hard times, being alone and not knowing what to do. We get that closeness when we cry out to God with our whole hearts. Many times when we cry out....there is a lingering, squirming worm in our mind, telling us we can actually, probably, maybe do this ourselves. We don't need God! We are so amazing! We went to college! Studied all the new things science says! We just watched on TV how this and that happened, which just goes to show God isn't real.
Yeah. Right. That worm keeps us from crying out fully. A worm of pride. But when the pride worm is killed, which usually means a really hard thing has happened....we can actually call out with fullness...we can "be still" and feel God. And while whatever we go through may just about kill us....it almost doesn't matter. God is right there, His arms wrapped around His child.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Earning the Spirit
From C. Stanley's The Spirit Filled Life.
I was convinced I had to do something to receive the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. For the past could of years I had done everything...
We all think this--probably more in the lines of salvation, but we all do this. We set up "quiet times", and check them off the to do list. We go to church. We volunteer at church. We have one, two, three Bible studies...we go go go to prove to ourselves that we deserve salvation.
We would never deserve salvation.
It is only by the loving grace of God that we can have salvation and look towards spending so much time with Him in eternity.
Now. I am not saying that the list I made at the opening is wrong. It is only wrong if your spirit is wrong. Why are you doing the things you are doing? Are you honestly doing them to get to know God better and better, to the point of such joy at the mere mention of your Lord and Savior? Or....are you doing all those things to prove to everyone else what an amazing Follower you are? You might fool people. You won't fool God.
To go further with this topic, there are times that you are doing all this out of sheer desperation to see God, to feel His presence. And it may work for you. It seems to me that the best way to see and hear God is to look and listen. To read His Word, pen in hand to underline or write verses that strike you as powerful, to be someplace beautiful to you (or wherever you are) and close you eyes and listen, being still with God. These actions of service and study are great, wonderful things...but not when we are doing them for the wrong reasons. God wants to have a relationship with us. That is why He sent His Son to die for us, that we might have the Spirit and have a relationship of such depth with Him. We have to look for Him, though, amongst all the other things shouting at us day and night. Once you find Him, through study of His Word, being still with Him, or other ways you find to know Him....He will overpower those shouts, and they become the whispers in the background. Those things are totally lost in the shadow of our God. What a wonderful thing He has done, and does, for us.
I was convinced I had to do something to receive the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. For the past could of years I had done everything...
We all think this--probably more in the lines of salvation, but we all do this. We set up "quiet times", and check them off the to do list. We go to church. We volunteer at church. We have one, two, three Bible studies...we go go go to prove to ourselves that we deserve salvation.
We would never deserve salvation.
It is only by the loving grace of God that we can have salvation and look towards spending so much time with Him in eternity.
Now. I am not saying that the list I made at the opening is wrong. It is only wrong if your spirit is wrong. Why are you doing the things you are doing? Are you honestly doing them to get to know God better and better, to the point of such joy at the mere mention of your Lord and Savior? Or....are you doing all those things to prove to everyone else what an amazing Follower you are? You might fool people. You won't fool God.
To go further with this topic, there are times that you are doing all this out of sheer desperation to see God, to feel His presence. And it may work for you. It seems to me that the best way to see and hear God is to look and listen. To read His Word, pen in hand to underline or write verses that strike you as powerful, to be someplace beautiful to you (or wherever you are) and close you eyes and listen, being still with God. These actions of service and study are great, wonderful things...but not when we are doing them for the wrong reasons. God wants to have a relationship with us. That is why He sent His Son to die for us, that we might have the Spirit and have a relationship of such depth with Him. We have to look for Him, though, amongst all the other things shouting at us day and night. Once you find Him, through study of His Word, being still with Him, or other ways you find to know Him....He will overpower those shouts, and they become the whispers in the background. Those things are totally lost in the shadow of our God. What a wonderful thing He has done, and does, for us.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Talking Points
From the Spirit Filled Life. C Stanley
Do you talk to the Holy Spirit?...He is a person just like Christ...He has been sent by the Father to assist you in all practical matters of Christian living.
I figure that when you pray to God the Father, you are praying to all of the Trinity. Somehow, this again strikes me as a dangerous thought---it is good to know of the Holy Spirit, and we are commanded not to grieve the Holy Spirit...but the Holy Spirit is Jesus and Jesus is the Father...if one of the three is grieved, the others are as well. Jesus told us how we should pray: Heavenly Father etc., etc., yet rarely do we pray like that, we tend to pray as Jesus prayed--yet still to the Father.
I adore the Holy Spirit, do not get me wrong, I just think that instructions like our opening statement could cause problems, a creation of three gods, not one God.
During this battle with RA, as I said yesterday, the Spirit was what kept me going. I lost so much weight at first (now after some prednisone I have the opposite problem), and I was in so much pain and so sick. I just lay someplace, asleep or staring with the same movie on repeat. I couldn't even really talk to people from the pain and nausea. Yet He was there with me, holding me, encouraging me, loving me....a piece of God helping me to live, and not become depressed.
God will be there for us in our toughest times...but when we ask for it. There are times still I am do sick to pray more than "help me", or "please,". That is all, no further words, descriptions...and I could feel Him rush in to fill my heart with light in the darkest of times. When we are angry at Him, I think, but I do not know, we would need to release that anger....but I have found in general that anger is intensified by the evil ones around us. Remember, we are waging war, still, on the fallen angels. I find, personally, especially if my anger seems excessive for the cause, if I pray that God banish them from me...my anger drops precipitously, and I can again pray to my Abba, Father. It is difficult to listen to a child who is angry, because the tone of voice and choice of words are hard to understand, making the child angrier. I am certain that we can and do pray to God in anger, but I think it is best to assure that any help making our anger deeper is gone. Like having an angry child take some breaths so you can understand him.
I was not angry with God because I got RA. But I have known people who were. I just knew, as the RA raged on uncontrolled for nearly a year, some purpose would come from it, as purpose came from my anxiety and clinical depression and anorexia NOS. Those times of hardness have been so incredibly useful, and I thought I would die then. Now I face a hard time, and I wait patiently on the Lord. For He rescued me from those bad times, I know He will rescue me from this bad time.
Praise the Lord for this day, a day of comfort and peace for me. Praise the Lord O my soul! Ask Him for help if you feel you are drowning...close your eyes, and be still, knowing He is God. I find that to be the most incredible feeling. Peace upon us all.
Do you talk to the Holy Spirit?...He is a person just like Christ...He has been sent by the Father to assist you in all practical matters of Christian living.
I figure that when you pray to God the Father, you are praying to all of the Trinity. Somehow, this again strikes me as a dangerous thought---it is good to know of the Holy Spirit, and we are commanded not to grieve the Holy Spirit...but the Holy Spirit is Jesus and Jesus is the Father...if one of the three is grieved, the others are as well. Jesus told us how we should pray: Heavenly Father etc., etc., yet rarely do we pray like that, we tend to pray as Jesus prayed--yet still to the Father.
I adore the Holy Spirit, do not get me wrong, I just think that instructions like our opening statement could cause problems, a creation of three gods, not one God.
During this battle with RA, as I said yesterday, the Spirit was what kept me going. I lost so much weight at first (now after some prednisone I have the opposite problem), and I was in so much pain and so sick. I just lay someplace, asleep or staring with the same movie on repeat. I couldn't even really talk to people from the pain and nausea. Yet He was there with me, holding me, encouraging me, loving me....a piece of God helping me to live, and not become depressed.
God will be there for us in our toughest times...but when we ask for it. There are times still I am do sick to pray more than "help me", or "please,". That is all, no further words, descriptions...and I could feel Him rush in to fill my heart with light in the darkest of times. When we are angry at Him, I think, but I do not know, we would need to release that anger....but I have found in general that anger is intensified by the evil ones around us. Remember, we are waging war, still, on the fallen angels. I find, personally, especially if my anger seems excessive for the cause, if I pray that God banish them from me...my anger drops precipitously, and I can again pray to my Abba, Father. It is difficult to listen to a child who is angry, because the tone of voice and choice of words are hard to understand, making the child angrier. I am certain that we can and do pray to God in anger, but I think it is best to assure that any help making our anger deeper is gone. Like having an angry child take some breaths so you can understand him.
I was not angry with God because I got RA. But I have known people who were. I just knew, as the RA raged on uncontrolled for nearly a year, some purpose would come from it, as purpose came from my anxiety and clinical depression and anorexia NOS. Those times of hardness have been so incredibly useful, and I thought I would die then. Now I face a hard time, and I wait patiently on the Lord. For He rescued me from those bad times, I know He will rescue me from this bad time.
Praise the Lord for this day, a day of comfort and peace for me. Praise the Lord O my soul! Ask Him for help if you feel you are drowning...close your eyes, and be still, knowing He is God. I find that to be the most incredible feeling. Peace upon us all.
Friday, July 17, 2015
The Teacher
The Wonderful Spirit Filled Life. C Stanley
And the Holy Spirit imports knowledge to believers. The Holy Spirit, then, is not simply an impersonal force. He has knowledge, and He has the power to impart knowledge.
Sometimes, with this book.....I do not know if I am reading what is written in a way that the author did not intend...or I am reading it right. While I agree with the statements that the Holy Spirit imparts knowledge, I do not, personally, separate the Trinity so much as this. However----there is a large warning in that. Saying "I personally" about God is extremely dangerous, and can lead one down a poisonous path of destruction of the faith.
Which is why I am currently reading more into what others think of the Trinity (with a grain of salt combined with what Bible readings I have stored away), but it seems like they should not be separated so much. And, perhaps it is all description anyway...I think of my Col. 1.16-20 verses that stabilized my faith in a time of crisis seems to put everything together tighter, that the Father, Son are closer than maybe we think...and the Holy Spirit is often so described as Another Comforter (which Jesus was), and then when it is said that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
The separation of these distresses me in some way, as if it is going to be thought that there are three gods, not One. And in fact, during my studies, there are those who believe that there are three gods, not just the One.
While it is important to learn the aspects of these, we must remember that they are one.
The Holy Spirit does indeed teach us. As we read the Bible or discuss with others parts of the Bible, we often know and learn things from Him. We may have read a verse many times, and not seen a portion of it until suddenly the Spirit reveals it to us, in a time that we need it.
I often felt (and feel) so close to God in my suffering. I believe that I am closer to Him than I have ever been before, which I am so thankful for.
We can be close to Him without tragedy and hard times happening, but we have to make steps about it. One must reach out to God with the fullness of heart and hope, with the cry of Peter, sinking in the sea : "Lord, save me!" And just like He did then....He will pull us from the water, and lead us to the boat.
And the Holy Spirit imports knowledge to believers. The Holy Spirit, then, is not simply an impersonal force. He has knowledge, and He has the power to impart knowledge.
Sometimes, with this book.....I do not know if I am reading what is written in a way that the author did not intend...or I am reading it right. While I agree with the statements that the Holy Spirit imparts knowledge, I do not, personally, separate the Trinity so much as this. However----there is a large warning in that. Saying "I personally" about God is extremely dangerous, and can lead one down a poisonous path of destruction of the faith.
Which is why I am currently reading more into what others think of the Trinity (with a grain of salt combined with what Bible readings I have stored away), but it seems like they should not be separated so much. And, perhaps it is all description anyway...I think of my Col. 1.16-20 verses that stabilized my faith in a time of crisis seems to put everything together tighter, that the Father, Son are closer than maybe we think...and the Holy Spirit is often so described as Another Comforter (which Jesus was), and then when it is said that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
The separation of these distresses me in some way, as if it is going to be thought that there are three gods, not One. And in fact, during my studies, there are those who believe that there are three gods, not just the One.
While it is important to learn the aspects of these, we must remember that they are one.
The Holy Spirit does indeed teach us. As we read the Bible or discuss with others parts of the Bible, we often know and learn things from Him. We may have read a verse many times, and not seen a portion of it until suddenly the Spirit reveals it to us, in a time that we need it.
I often felt (and feel) so close to God in my suffering. I believe that I am closer to Him than I have ever been before, which I am so thankful for.
We can be close to Him without tragedy and hard times happening, but we have to make steps about it. One must reach out to God with the fullness of heart and hope, with the cry of Peter, sinking in the sea : "Lord, save me!" And just like He did then....He will pull us from the water, and lead us to the boat.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Needing More
The Wonderful Spirit Filled Life. C Stanley
Acts 1 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus knew they were not ready for the task to which they had been called. They would need more than their human spirit to carry them...they needed help. They needed the Holy Spirit. If [those men] needed...the Spirit, how foolish we are to charge out of the house every morning without giving Him a thought.
Wow. If you really stop and think, just stop and think...the idea that the men who had spent three years with Jesus could not face the world is pretty incredible. It makes us look like the biggest fools in the world to think that we can just march out into the world (maybe worse, march into the world thinking we are mimicking Him and showing others His love) without giving Him a so much as how do you do.
In that regard I, too, am falling behind. With a bit of a relief of my RA, I am living in rapture of the world as far as I can hobble...reading books, watering plants a little...but maybe my joy is in a sense worship to my God. I cannot thank Him enough for giving me the little bit of peace from my disease...as I look in wonder at the broken world we live in. So I am falling short in prayer and Bible research...yet I think my heart explodes in joy with Him at the world. I feel such joy.
Yet, in my past are days that I rushed out of the house to work or school without giving the time of day. Life poisons us into thinking that there will be time for all that later. FOOL. There is nothing of more value than time with our King...Days will slip by, days that could lead to further maturation in our relationship with Christ.
When we get a boyfriend/girlfriend, we would not dare to ignore them with the strength we manage to ignore our Father, pretending that we do not need Him. Maybe we are not even consciously ignoring Him....just swept away. So we must make an effort. An effort to hear Him. An effort to speak with Him. An effort to be still with Him.
He is always right there, waiting. We are, after all, bearing His mark of the Holy Spirit. Pretty poor way to treat the best gift in the world by not listening.
Mini-gods 2.0
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor 12.10
The Wonderful Spirit-Filled life, C. Stanley
Jesus let it be known (Jn 16.7--see below), however, that God was looking for more than our best, He was looking for a lifestyle and attitude that superseded our best, a lifestyle and attitude that we could never attain through our best efforts. The promise of a Helper was Jesus' way of tipping us off to one of the most profound truths concerning the Christian Life----its impossible.
Christianity is not the problem. More than likely, the problem is that you have been trying to live it without the Holy Spirit.
Jn 16.7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
There it is again. We amazing mini-gods rushing around informing ourselves (and everyone around us as well) that we can do it. We aren't spending time "being still and knowing God"---in fact, we hardly stay still long enough to scarf down a meal at the local sandwich shop, grossing out the fellow customers. I, myself, have not spent as much time reading my Bible as I would like---I keep getting distracted by what little things I can do.
It happens. The world is loud and shiny. It shouts out to us as a heavy metal band concert would prevent sleeping next door. We focus on that.
We even ignore the Holy Spirit's nudge. He nudges harder and harder for our attention....and at the same time the evil of the world adds more bass to its concert. It is no doubt hard.
Then, the other spectrum decides to be the perfect Christian. This person usually succeeds for some time....but exhaustion will wear them down. No one in the world can be the perfect Christian, with or without a job on top of it.
Just as we do not have the strength to face the days that are too tough to stand...we do not have the strength to face the world in a godly manner without listening and leaning on the Holy Spirit. Without this, continuing to ignore Him and be mini-gods, we decide all manner of evils are good and deserved. We decide to allow things into our lives that are not helpful to our souls, but poison more and more the relationship we have with Him. It is not that we can't restart and have a good solid relationship with God....but we have to take the step and release the idea of a mini-god...and admit that we are wrong, admit that we need help.
God is so incredibly loving....He will not turn His back on you, and will provide strength, endurance...all those good things. But you have to give up being in control, and letting the Master lead you through green pastures and narrow, dark places. That is the only way you will be able to take it.
The Wonderful Spirit-Filled life, C. Stanley
Jesus let it be known (Jn 16.7--see below), however, that God was looking for more than our best, He was looking for a lifestyle and attitude that superseded our best, a lifestyle and attitude that we could never attain through our best efforts. The promise of a Helper was Jesus' way of tipping us off to one of the most profound truths concerning the Christian Life----its impossible.
Christianity is not the problem. More than likely, the problem is that you have been trying to live it without the Holy Spirit.
Jn 16.7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
There it is again. We amazing mini-gods rushing around informing ourselves (and everyone around us as well) that we can do it. We aren't spending time "being still and knowing God"---in fact, we hardly stay still long enough to scarf down a meal at the local sandwich shop, grossing out the fellow customers. I, myself, have not spent as much time reading my Bible as I would like---I keep getting distracted by what little things I can do.
It happens. The world is loud and shiny. It shouts out to us as a heavy metal band concert would prevent sleeping next door. We focus on that.
We even ignore the Holy Spirit's nudge. He nudges harder and harder for our attention....and at the same time the evil of the world adds more bass to its concert. It is no doubt hard.
Then, the other spectrum decides to be the perfect Christian. This person usually succeeds for some time....but exhaustion will wear them down. No one in the world can be the perfect Christian, with or without a job on top of it.
Just as we do not have the strength to face the days that are too tough to stand...we do not have the strength to face the world in a godly manner without listening and leaning on the Holy Spirit. Without this, continuing to ignore Him and be mini-gods, we decide all manner of evils are good and deserved. We decide to allow things into our lives that are not helpful to our souls, but poison more and more the relationship we have with Him. It is not that we can't restart and have a good solid relationship with God....but we have to take the step and release the idea of a mini-god...and admit that we are wrong, admit that we need help.
God is so incredibly loving....He will not turn His back on you, and will provide strength, endurance...all those good things. But you have to give up being in control, and letting the Master lead you through green pastures and narrow, dark places. That is the only way you will be able to take it.
RA Post: Nursing
I have been upset off and on because I just can't work yet. I do not want to give up nursing. So I went on the search....and found that in my state, I can set my license to "inactive" up to three years and go to work anytime...after three years I have to take a refresher course, and agree to commit to 177 work hours and 15 continuing education hours. There would be a mandatory audit of these two by the nursing board.
I am so happy that there is a solution! I was scared to death that I was just going to have to throw away nursing...and while I have no idea is my RA will ever get under enough control, I have an answer regarding work.
I am so happy that there is a solution! I was scared to death that I was just going to have to throw away nursing...and while I have no idea is my RA will ever get under enough control, I have an answer regarding work.
Leaning
From The Wonderful Spirit-Filled Life, Charles Stanley
God is looking for imperfect men and women who have learned to walk in moment-by-moment dependence on the Holy Spirit. Christians who have come to terms with their inadequacies, fears and failures.
Growing up, graduating, marriage---none of these good things serve as the key to the abundant life we long for.
Learning to walk moment-by-moment with dependence on the Holy Spirit. That is a hard one to reach, and it is a hard one to maintain. There are days I do that and days I do not reach such standards. I have found, though, that the hardest, more horrible trials are the ones that make it the easiest. At that point, we are humble enough to rely fully on God. We will rely on Him at that point for life from cancer, treatment for a broken back, and help when friends turn.
Most of the time, with the help of evil ones showing us the "bright" part of worldly things...we believe we are mini-gods (or even just gods). Not in so many words, of course, but we begin to think we run the world. We pick out a career, spouse, home, pets, every little thing. It is not until nothing goes purely sideways and off the rail that we realize we are not gods.
People then ask, why does He allow even that? Why can't we just stay at the happy point in life?
Because, years ago...we said that having that was not enough. We wanted more. So we took that chance and ever since then, we do our best to get what we had back. Most people I run into use the 'if I am good most of the time, I will be just fine in God's eyes.'
No...not unless you accept the Son as Lord and Savior.
Even after doing that...we still want to run around like little gods and rule the world.
It just does not work well that way. There is so much more stress and unhappiness when you and I try to rule our lives, and is infinitely happier, even in the hardest of times...to let the Lord and Savior be God of us all.
God is looking for imperfect men and women who have learned to walk in moment-by-moment dependence on the Holy Spirit. Christians who have come to terms with their inadequacies, fears and failures.
Growing up, graduating, marriage---none of these good things serve as the key to the abundant life we long for.
Learning to walk moment-by-moment with dependence on the Holy Spirit. That is a hard one to reach, and it is a hard one to maintain. There are days I do that and days I do not reach such standards. I have found, though, that the hardest, more horrible trials are the ones that make it the easiest. At that point, we are humble enough to rely fully on God. We will rely on Him at that point for life from cancer, treatment for a broken back, and help when friends turn.
Most of the time, with the help of evil ones showing us the "bright" part of worldly things...we believe we are mini-gods (or even just gods). Not in so many words, of course, but we begin to think we run the world. We pick out a career, spouse, home, pets, every little thing. It is not until nothing goes purely sideways and off the rail that we realize we are not gods.
People then ask, why does He allow even that? Why can't we just stay at the happy point in life?
Because, years ago...we said that having that was not enough. We wanted more. So we took that chance and ever since then, we do our best to get what we had back. Most people I run into use the 'if I am good most of the time, I will be just fine in God's eyes.'
No...not unless you accept the Son as Lord and Savior.
Even after doing that...we still want to run around like little gods and rule the world.
It just does not work well that way. There is so much more stress and unhappiness when you and I try to rule our lives, and is infinitely happier, even in the hardest of times...to let the Lord and Savior be God of us all.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Difference
From Charles Stanley's The Wonderful Spirit Filled Life.
To an outsider looking in, there is often little or no difference between the lifestyle, thought, life and habits of the Christian and those of his "uninformed" heathen neighbor.
Nothing thrills my heart like watching men and women grasp the goodness and grace of God...nothing is more frustrating than watching people listen week after week, often writing it all down, and then do nothing with what they have heard. The real tragedy is that we have all lost our aility to function in our the way God originally intended...there should be a something in the way we do business [and other parts of our lives that are different from the world.]
Too many times I have seen other people ask Christians if they were one after a passing comment made the non-believer think to ask. And some people never get asked this...because everyone already knows that they are one.
We have to remember that we are almost ambassadors here...to do the best example we can through God's strength of right and wrong.
That is one thing about facing hard times and difficult things. We change as we rely on God more, growing into different people. Better yet is to share what we learn. Admittedly shared lessons are not always remembered as well as lessons we learn ourselves...but I still believe people should share their stories of struggle with others. Once success, by God's grace, is managed to the point of "living" with a suffering, or the suffering no longer exists, you have become a survivor, and have knowledge to share.
To an outsider looking in, there is often little or no difference between the lifestyle, thought, life and habits of the Christian and those of his "uninformed" heathen neighbor.
Nothing thrills my heart like watching men and women grasp the goodness and grace of God...nothing is more frustrating than watching people listen week after week, often writing it all down, and then do nothing with what they have heard. The real tragedy is that we have all lost our aility to function in our the way God originally intended...there should be a something in the way we do business [and other parts of our lives that are different from the world.]
Too many times I have seen other people ask Christians if they were one after a passing comment made the non-believer think to ask. And some people never get asked this...because everyone already knows that they are one.
We have to remember that we are almost ambassadors here...to do the best example we can through God's strength of right and wrong.
That is one thing about facing hard times and difficult things. We change as we rely on God more, growing into different people. Better yet is to share what we learn. Admittedly shared lessons are not always remembered as well as lessons we learn ourselves...but I still believe people should share their stories of struggle with others. Once success, by God's grace, is managed to the point of "living" with a suffering, or the suffering no longer exists, you have become a survivor, and have knowledge to share.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Verses to Touch the Soul
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all out afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 2 Cor 1.3-5
and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 2 cor 1.22
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Cor 3.17
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Cor 4.16-18
but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots,labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. 2 Cor 6.5-7
your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so tat their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 2 Cor 8.14
~ while this verse in context is speaking to the Corinthians about sending funds to another church after that other church has assisted (as I recall)...I was thinking how it nearly applies to us who have/are suffering. We can assist each other in so many ways, if we will just DO so.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every great work. 2 Cor 9.8-9
~We so often have so much to use in our lives, and are blessed in many, many ways, despite our suffering. We just need to sit and think about it....and often the list becomes so overwhelming one has to stop thinking on it.
Theses are just some of the verses I wrote down in my workbook...where quotes from Joni Earickson Tada, Jerry Bridges, Chip Ingrim, and Timothy Keller live...and more and more are added as I slowly read authors and ponder what they say.
and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 2 cor 1.22
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Cor 3.17
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Cor 4.16-18
but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots,labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. 2 Cor 6.5-7
your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so tat their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 2 Cor 8.14
~ while this verse in context is speaking to the Corinthians about sending funds to another church after that other church has assisted (as I recall)...I was thinking how it nearly applies to us who have/are suffering. We can assist each other in so many ways, if we will just DO so.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every great work. 2 Cor 9.8-9
~We so often have so much to use in our lives, and are blessed in many, many ways, despite our suffering. We just need to sit and think about it....and often the list becomes so overwhelming one has to stop thinking on it.
Theses are just some of the verses I wrote down in my workbook...where quotes from Joni Earickson Tada, Jerry Bridges, Chip Ingrim, and Timothy Keller live...and more and more are added as I slowly read authors and ponder what they say.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Delivered
From J.E. Tada's More Precious Than Silver
Jer 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
[This verse is in the context of the exiles being taken to Babylon]
God gave this invigorating and encouraging promise to inspire the captives. One day God would deliver them and bring the nation back to Jerusalem.
In the past, have you assumed that today's verse was your guarantee that God would keep at bay pain and disappointment, trials and tribulations? God's purpose is to make us more like Christ.
Mulling this over...I think we must have lost so much with the Fall. Obviously we left the Garden, but we also lost a walking-and-talking relationship with God for many generations...there is a space in Abraham's life in which nothing is apparently said by God for 25 years! We are blessed to have what we have now in the Holy Spirit...
There is still so much to be learned to mold us into Christ's form. If one fault is fixed, another rears it's ugly head.
I love elderly people...I have worked with them a lot. But I can say that the kindest people on earth are elderly Christians. They have been molded to a near-perfect Spirit. The body may be broken, but it is housing the most beautiful soul, mind...some of these people nearly glow with the near-perfection that only heaven will give them. I wish I was as patient and kind as those dear souls I met...yet someday we all will be. It takes many bumps in the road to iron out our sinful desires and ways, to learn how to fully rely on God and give up those desires. It is possible; I have seen it. And He is always there.
Jer 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
[This verse is in the context of the exiles being taken to Babylon]
God gave this invigorating and encouraging promise to inspire the captives. One day God would deliver them and bring the nation back to Jerusalem.
In the past, have you assumed that today's verse was your guarantee that God would keep at bay pain and disappointment, trials and tribulations? God's purpose is to make us more like Christ.
Mulling this over...I think we must have lost so much with the Fall. Obviously we left the Garden, but we also lost a walking-and-talking relationship with God for many generations...there is a space in Abraham's life in which nothing is apparently said by God for 25 years! We are blessed to have what we have now in the Holy Spirit...
There is still so much to be learned to mold us into Christ's form. If one fault is fixed, another rears it's ugly head.
I love elderly people...I have worked with them a lot. But I can say that the kindest people on earth are elderly Christians. They have been molded to a near-perfect Spirit. The body may be broken, but it is housing the most beautiful soul, mind...some of these people nearly glow with the near-perfection that only heaven will give them. I wish I was as patient and kind as those dear souls I met...yet someday we all will be. It takes many bumps in the road to iron out our sinful desires and ways, to learn how to fully rely on God and give up those desires. It is possible; I have seen it. And He is always there.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Working Hard
From J.E. Tada's More Precious than Silver
The discouraged people that grab God's attention are those who intentionally set out to wait; they watch. They watch because they know God will answer...they are productive, joyful people, knowing God will come in due time.
Wait patiently and eagerly. In the meantime, get busy with what you know is you responsibility.
This one always reads funny to me...I can't tell which direction it is going in. So we will just go from my first thought...hang on.
In hard times...none of us want to wait. We don't want to wait when an ambulance is needed, we don't want to wait for medication to work for a disease. We don't want to wait until a vacation. We are impatient creatures.
Waiting is often "forced" on us...and I can say that waiting so long for medication to have any sort of affect on my RA is extremely frustrating. I, too, waited for God to give an answer...an answer as to why I had to do this, when it was going to stop.
I don't think my questions will ever have answers. And at this point I am ok with that. Because I have learned so much about God's love. If we so much as allow Him, He will gather us under His wing, provide such peace and tranquility, and, it seems to me, show how our hurts hurt Him too. Whatever we are going through in this cursed world...we are not facing it alone. He truly is yoked to us to make light the load, but we HAVE to pay attention. If we bury ourselves in work and worry, illness and grief, and do not take the time to listen for God, hear Him speak in the Word, learn from those around us who have experienced hard times....we will miss the fact that our King is standing with us, ready and willing to help. Too often we forget and forge ahead, literally dying in a mire of suffering...when all we have to do is say to our Lord, "Help me."
We do not always get what we want....I would rather not have RA. But I don't know that I would trade what I have read and learned thus far about my Lord for even that.
So fight the good fight, walk the good walk....and say to our God, "Help". Because even if the answer is not what you want....you will find the King of the Universe is so incredibly loving and wonderful that there really are no words---whatever suffering melts away to the background as He becomes full center in your life.
The discouraged people that grab God's attention are those who intentionally set out to wait; they watch. They watch because they know God will answer...they are productive, joyful people, knowing God will come in due time.
Wait patiently and eagerly. In the meantime, get busy with what you know is you responsibility.
This one always reads funny to me...I can't tell which direction it is going in. So we will just go from my first thought...hang on.
In hard times...none of us want to wait. We don't want to wait when an ambulance is needed, we don't want to wait for medication to work for a disease. We don't want to wait until a vacation. We are impatient creatures.
Waiting is often "forced" on us...and I can say that waiting so long for medication to have any sort of affect on my RA is extremely frustrating. I, too, waited for God to give an answer...an answer as to why I had to do this, when it was going to stop.
I don't think my questions will ever have answers. And at this point I am ok with that. Because I have learned so much about God's love. If we so much as allow Him, He will gather us under His wing, provide such peace and tranquility, and, it seems to me, show how our hurts hurt Him too. Whatever we are going through in this cursed world...we are not facing it alone. He truly is yoked to us to make light the load, but we HAVE to pay attention. If we bury ourselves in work and worry, illness and grief, and do not take the time to listen for God, hear Him speak in the Word, learn from those around us who have experienced hard times....we will miss the fact that our King is standing with us, ready and willing to help. Too often we forget and forge ahead, literally dying in a mire of suffering...when all we have to do is say to our Lord, "Help me."
We do not always get what we want....I would rather not have RA. But I don't know that I would trade what I have read and learned thus far about my Lord for even that.
So fight the good fight, walk the good walk....and say to our God, "Help". Because even if the answer is not what you want....you will find the King of the Universe is so incredibly loving and wonderful that there really are no words---whatever suffering melts away to the background as He becomes full center in your life.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Why Not Everyone?
From J.E. Tada's More Precious than Silver
[Jesus did not heal everyone in the world]...It's not that He didn't care about [the sick]. It's just that their illnesses weren't His focus.---the gospel was. Jesus' miracles were merely a backdrop to His urgent message....sin will kill you; hell is real; God is merciful; His kingdom will change you; I, Jesus, am your passport. Whenever people missed this point---whenever the immediate benefit of His miracles distracted them from eternal things----He moved on.
I have to remember, though, that at the end of one of the gospels (of course my mind has totally forgotten which one) it is written that the miracles described were only a portion of what He did.
It is true, though, that overall, illness was not as important as saving an entire soul.
People of the faith do the most horrible things sometimes to those also of the faith who are ill...they blame and ridicule as though the person either sinned horribly and is being punished, or does not have enough faith to be healed.
it just is not necessarily true...there are times when illness is a better tool than health. There are so many people who have birth defects of illnesses or injuries who are wonderfully used by the Lord to spread His message. The message of those people stands out more, often, than the message of those who are well. The fact that faith was held in adversity shows people that it is worthwhile.
Visible injuries and illnesses are not the only tool...the fact that people have fought depression or other difficult things is also a tool that God can use.
It is so amazing how God can use us. I think, too, that there are many times He uses us and we never even know it. I have heard people worry about such things, that because they are not a missionary in a foreign country that they are not as good...and that is just not true. Our mission field is right where we are. And, I believe that if we strive to live godly lives, and to honor our Lord...we will likely be used by God and never even know it.
I have learned, too, that we should NOT hide the faults we have overcome. I let many people know of my anxiety battle and (mostly) win....because people come to me and ask for help. God was my biggest and best help, but I can share that fact and the other things that help. The things that happen in ur lives are all tools that can be used to help and serve others. Help them in their lives, Christian or not...and hopefully bring the non to a better understanding of Christ.
So...no everything is healed. And yes, that is very hard. But sometimes those very hard things that are allowed by God to happen or be set upon us by evil ones....can work in such a glorious way to make the evil world shudder. So be brave, dear ones...and use those scars for others!
[Jesus did not heal everyone in the world]...It's not that He didn't care about [the sick]. It's just that their illnesses weren't His focus.---the gospel was. Jesus' miracles were merely a backdrop to His urgent message....sin will kill you; hell is real; God is merciful; His kingdom will change you; I, Jesus, am your passport. Whenever people missed this point---whenever the immediate benefit of His miracles distracted them from eternal things----He moved on.
I have to remember, though, that at the end of one of the gospels (of course my mind has totally forgotten which one) it is written that the miracles described were only a portion of what He did.
It is true, though, that overall, illness was not as important as saving an entire soul.
People of the faith do the most horrible things sometimes to those also of the faith who are ill...they blame and ridicule as though the person either sinned horribly and is being punished, or does not have enough faith to be healed.
it just is not necessarily true...there are times when illness is a better tool than health. There are so many people who have birth defects of illnesses or injuries who are wonderfully used by the Lord to spread His message. The message of those people stands out more, often, than the message of those who are well. The fact that faith was held in adversity shows people that it is worthwhile.
Visible injuries and illnesses are not the only tool...the fact that people have fought depression or other difficult things is also a tool that God can use.
It is so amazing how God can use us. I think, too, that there are many times He uses us and we never even know it. I have heard people worry about such things, that because they are not a missionary in a foreign country that they are not as good...and that is just not true. Our mission field is right where we are. And, I believe that if we strive to live godly lives, and to honor our Lord...we will likely be used by God and never even know it.
I have learned, too, that we should NOT hide the faults we have overcome. I let many people know of my anxiety battle and (mostly) win....because people come to me and ask for help. God was my biggest and best help, but I can share that fact and the other things that help. The things that happen in ur lives are all tools that can be used to help and serve others. Help them in their lives, Christian or not...and hopefully bring the non to a better understanding of Christ.
So...no everything is healed. And yes, that is very hard. But sometimes those very hard things that are allowed by God to happen or be set upon us by evil ones....can work in such a glorious way to make the evil world shudder. So be brave, dear ones...and use those scars for others!
Friday, July 3, 2015
Despised
From J.E. Tada's More Precious than silver
God often wills what He despises, because He has two lenses. You can trust Him today that your painful experience is part of a pattern. When the Lord looks at a painful event, He sees the tragedy for what it is in itself, and He is deeply grieved. Ez 18.31: 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
He sees the tragedy in relation to everything leading up to it, as well as everything that flows from it (Rom 8.28)
I am still working on Timothy Keller's Walking with God through Pain and Suffering...and He mentions a thought I had never considered. He, willingly, went to become a human and go through every horrible thing humanly possible. And then, I realized, Jesus spent time on the cross in Hell. Jesus went to Hell. For Hell is what it is to be without God. And He was fully, and I think more than we "think" we are when we feel God is not answering our prayers. God is still there for us, we are just not listening, as we are so frantic in what we are asking for....and yet Jesus was fully in a living Hell. So, by that token...Jesus took more on Himself than we ever will, for we are already fully adopted into the Kingdom, and will never be forsaken.
I can say I have felt those times that make it seem as if God is not there, or not answering our prayers. And for myself, I can say that those were times when I was literally acting like a toddler demanding an entire bag of candy. I was praying...but I wasn't listening.I was so concerned with what I WANTED, not what was necessarily good for me. Prayer is not a one way conversation. It is a two way. But you have to listen enough with your spirit, mind and soul to hear...for I have found that God whispers.
I do not know why we face hard things. Autoimmune, illness in children, gangs...it just happens. I don't think we will ever truly know. But I do know that my Lord is here with me, and while I am doing better with my RA now, He made me get through to this far. Other people have helped too, but my Abba, Father was there holding me all night on the worst nights of despair. Praise Him for all His goodness!
God often wills what He despises, because He has two lenses. You can trust Him today that your painful experience is part of a pattern. When the Lord looks at a painful event, He sees the tragedy for what it is in itself, and He is deeply grieved. Ez 18.31: 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
He sees the tragedy in relation to everything leading up to it, as well as everything that flows from it (Rom 8.28)
I am still working on Timothy Keller's Walking with God through Pain and Suffering...and He mentions a thought I had never considered. He, willingly, went to become a human and go through every horrible thing humanly possible. And then, I realized, Jesus spent time on the cross in Hell. Jesus went to Hell. For Hell is what it is to be without God. And He was fully, and I think more than we "think" we are when we feel God is not answering our prayers. God is still there for us, we are just not listening, as we are so frantic in what we are asking for....and yet Jesus was fully in a living Hell. So, by that token...Jesus took more on Himself than we ever will, for we are already fully adopted into the Kingdom, and will never be forsaken.
I can say I have felt those times that make it seem as if God is not there, or not answering our prayers. And for myself, I can say that those were times when I was literally acting like a toddler demanding an entire bag of candy. I was praying...but I wasn't listening.I was so concerned with what I WANTED, not what was necessarily good for me. Prayer is not a one way conversation. It is a two way. But you have to listen enough with your spirit, mind and soul to hear...for I have found that God whispers.
I do not know why we face hard things. Autoimmune, illness in children, gangs...it just happens. I don't think we will ever truly know. But I do know that my Lord is here with me, and while I am doing better with my RA now, He made me get through to this far. Other people have helped too, but my Abba, Father was there holding me all night on the worst nights of despair. Praise Him for all His goodness!
Thursday, July 2, 2015
An Opal
From J.E. Tada's More Precious than Silver
The opal owes its beauty to a defect....you and I who have broken hearts are sometimes only conscious of the cracks and fissures. But out of all this God is making an opal heart. We must be broken in ourselves before we can give back the lovely hues of His Light, including the fire, the brilliance. Only when my heart is fractured, full of minute fissures, can God's love enter in and refract His own Light.
Have you noticed that the people who have the "perfect life", including being the "perfect Christian"...are somehow lacking in something? While that person seems to have everything...they don't. They are missing that certain light.
When I was in nursing school, it was a requirement to attend some sort of support group. I attended a local Alcohol Anonymous. Those people, while rough around the edges....were some of the nicest people I had ever met. The room was filled with broken hearts, scars, holes miles deep. Yet these people reached out to me, even though I explained this was an assignment for a nursing course. They were kind, concerned, even invited me back, welcoming the fact that all people are broken. Honestly...if I had had the time, I might have.
We all have our alcohol. It may be work. It may be kids. It may be drugs. There are instances where it is even something to do with church---but we are not doing it for our Lord, but for ourselves...to stop the hurt of all those fissures in our hearts.
Brokenness is painful---yet our Savior lives! He understands our pain here on earth. Tell Him about what hurts...journal it out. Talk to a friend who has a mature Christian outlook. But still, most importantly, let it go. Give it away to the Lord God, and do not let it fester in your soul. Believe me, before I had my RA and did not lay on a couch for months, I did not know I was still holding onto hurts. I thought I had let them go years ago. They were still barely hanging on. A festered sliver in my soul that took deep concentration with a magnifying glass to find. The freedom of having that fissure healed is so freeing.
The opal owes its beauty to a defect....you and I who have broken hearts are sometimes only conscious of the cracks and fissures. But out of all this God is making an opal heart. We must be broken in ourselves before we can give back the lovely hues of His Light, including the fire, the brilliance. Only when my heart is fractured, full of minute fissures, can God's love enter in and refract His own Light.
Have you noticed that the people who have the "perfect life", including being the "perfect Christian"...are somehow lacking in something? While that person seems to have everything...they don't. They are missing that certain light.
When I was in nursing school, it was a requirement to attend some sort of support group. I attended a local Alcohol Anonymous. Those people, while rough around the edges....were some of the nicest people I had ever met. The room was filled with broken hearts, scars, holes miles deep. Yet these people reached out to me, even though I explained this was an assignment for a nursing course. They were kind, concerned, even invited me back, welcoming the fact that all people are broken. Honestly...if I had had the time, I might have.
We all have our alcohol. It may be work. It may be kids. It may be drugs. There are instances where it is even something to do with church---but we are not doing it for our Lord, but for ourselves...to stop the hurt of all those fissures in our hearts.
Brokenness is painful---yet our Savior lives! He understands our pain here on earth. Tell Him about what hurts...journal it out. Talk to a friend who has a mature Christian outlook. But still, most importantly, let it go. Give it away to the Lord God, and do not let it fester in your soul. Believe me, before I had my RA and did not lay on a couch for months, I did not know I was still holding onto hurts. I thought I had let them go years ago. They were still barely hanging on. A festered sliver in my soul that took deep concentration with a magnifying glass to find. The freedom of having that fissure healed is so freeing.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Living
From J.E. Tada's More Precious than Silver
God's Word reminds us that humility, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, kindness and goodness are character qualities that tower heads above strong, aggressive of unwavering. The humble and gentle people are those we find ourselves drawn to when we feel burdened or weary. Somehow we know these are the people who genuinely care, who actually pray and who in fact take our load upon them.
In today's society...being many of the things in the aforementioned list is "uncool" and "undesirable". The most wished for assets are those of power. Society demands it in movies, books, magazines, tv shows. Yet while many of us may dream and/or make efforts to become people like that due to desires to be "cool"...I think that honestly none of us really even like people who behave in that manner. At least not if we are being honest with ourselves.
We are more truly drawn to those who imitate our Lord, especially if we continue to seek out people who have one (or more!) of these attributes. These people are soothing to our souls, and give us a glimpse at the shadow of an aspect of our King. Sadly...we will never be perfect in those here, but by asking for help from the Lord each day, I imagine He gives strength to whatever gift(s) we have.
God's Word reminds us that humility, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, kindness and goodness are character qualities that tower heads above strong, aggressive of unwavering. The humble and gentle people are those we find ourselves drawn to when we feel burdened or weary. Somehow we know these are the people who genuinely care, who actually pray and who in fact take our load upon them.
In today's society...being many of the things in the aforementioned list is "uncool" and "undesirable". The most wished for assets are those of power. Society demands it in movies, books, magazines, tv shows. Yet while many of us may dream and/or make efforts to become people like that due to desires to be "cool"...I think that honestly none of us really even like people who behave in that manner. At least not if we are being honest with ourselves.
We are more truly drawn to those who imitate our Lord, especially if we continue to seek out people who have one (or more!) of these attributes. These people are soothing to our souls, and give us a glimpse at the shadow of an aspect of our King. Sadly...we will never be perfect in those here, but by asking for help from the Lord each day, I imagine He gives strength to whatever gift(s) we have.
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