Mystery

 Truly my soul finds rest in God;
   my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
   he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

How long will you assault me?
   Would all of you throw me down—
   this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
Surely they intend to topple me
   from my lofty place;
   they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
   but in their hearts they curse.
 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
   my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
   he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
   he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
   pour out your hearts to him,
   for God is our refuge.
 Surely the lowborn are but a breath,
   the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
   together they are only a breath.
Do not trust in extortion
   or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
   do not set your heart on them.

One thing God has spoken,
two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
according to what they have done.”
~Psalm 62

-----

Two things the Lord has told us;
that He is powerful, and He is loving.

And I am living proof.

"How so?" 

You may start to ask.

Two simple things we have all learned in Sunday School, from our parents or from listening to maybe 5 minutes of your youth pastor:

God is powerful, and God is loving.

Again, simple. Everyone knows that. But have we ever closed our eyes, sat back, and really listened to what that means? Have we ever really allowed ourselves to be... 

In awe of that very truth?

This past year of my life I have never been more aware of the fact that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. 

Ever been there? 

This brings me back to those two simple truths.

I know that God is powerful, and that He is loving.
And that simple assurance might just be all I'll EVER need,
especially if I take my own life into consideration:

Because...

I know me. 

I know the desires, and the thoughts, and the passions that no one else sees.
I see the pride and the lust that never dies and I can feel the dark blood that pulses in my veins.

We all know ourselves in this way. 

What do you look like? 

If everyone only knew what really goes on inside our heads, nobody would want to be anyone's friend... let alone hear what we all have to say.

And so, it is an absolute mystery that God would be good to us...

That He would carry us through our own confusion, deceitfulness, and sin and bring us to a place where we have an education, loving parents, health, friends, and if none of the previous... the promise of being just a prayer away. The promise of being all we'll ever need. The promise of being a father to the fatherless. The promise of being the great physician and comforter. The promise of being a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

And that's why God calls us to live in the mystery.

In the midst of the unanswered questions, unanswered pains and turmoils of this world... these two words, these two simple words:
Strong.
Loving.
...can begin to lose it's meaning... BUT when we truly think about it... they begin to help tremendously.

God is not loving toward us, because we have deserved it.
He is loving to us, because Christ deserved it for ALL of us.
He isn’t good to any of us, because we’re really good at saying our prayers and really good at loving other people.
He isn’t faithful to us, because we’re faithful to Him.
He loves us, because that’s who He is.
He is faithful to us, because He cannot deny Himself.
That’s who He is.
That’s what He’s about.
And it’s that knowledge that begins to change us.
It’s changing me.
It’s only that knowledge that will allow us to love Him back
in the way that He desires.

“We love because He first loved us.” ~1 John 4:19

And so truly we can find rest in God...Our salvation comes from him. He is our rock and our salvation; he is our fortress, we will never be shaken. Our hope comes from Him... because His promises remain: He loves YOU. He is Strong. He is loving. He does not fail. We can show Him by loving others, standing up for others and just being a friend to those who need one. And we can pray to know God's love and to live in it... wholeheartedly and intimately. That's what He wants for us.

But then there are verses 5 through 8:

Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
   my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
   he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
   he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
   pour out your hearts to him,
   for God is our refuge.

"My salvation and my honor depend on God;"
Back in Bible times... honor depended upon other people.
A daughter brought honor to her father.
A son brought honor to his father's name and his father's household.
A woman brought honor to her husband and her husband's name.
A man's honor was weighed against the people in his life.

Today, we measure people's honor based off what they have done with their life, or how they live their life.
A soldier lives an honorable life... "Because they stand upon a wall and say, 'Nothing's going to hurt you tonight, not on my watch.'"(A Few Good Men, *Excellent Movie!)

A psychiatrist lives an honorable life because they treat mental illnesses and try to give people their lives back.
A doctor lives an honorable life because they save lives every day.

Must I continue?

But this Psalm tells us that our honor depends upon God... and to trust in Him at all times. To pour out our hearts to Him... Why? Because God is our refuge.

Refuge.

-shelter or protection from danger or distress. (Merriam-Webster)

Danger from comparing ourselves to other people.
Danger from having our self worth defined by other people.
Distress of thinking we have to work for something to have any kind of honor.
God is our refuge... our shelter from those thoughts and feelings.
Because our honor comes from Him.
Mirrors of His image.
He defines us.
He created us.
He pursues us.
He redeems us.


Will we trust Him?
Will we pour our hearts out to Him?

Trust in him at all times, you people;
   pour out your hearts to him,
   for God is our refuge. 

 Let's live in the mystery of what that means.

Satan Fears

Satan doesn’t fear our sin; he knows God can forgive it. He doesn’t fear our depression; he knows God can drive it away. He doesn’t fear our lack; he knows God can provide. He fears our discovery of God’s Word, because our ignorance of it is the most effective weapon he can use against us.

Simple Sunday: Love Never Fails

 

 We know these verses. We use them all the time.

God's definition of love.

But what we leave out sometimes is when we say we love someone... do we mean it? 

I'm not just talking romantically... although I do believe we need to apply this to our romantic relationships.

Love Never Fails.

When we say we love someone... Are we willing to also say that we will never fail them as long as it is up to us?

Are we willing to put everything aside to be there for them?

Are we willing to, as Jesus talked about... die for them?

Love Never Fails.

God Never Fails.

God is Love.

Love Never Fails.

God's love dwells in us.

And so this changes things...

It means we need to act toward others in love... even our enemies.

But it also needs to warn us...

Our society has connected 'love' with romance so closely that when you say 'I love you.'

It usually implies romance.

When you say 'I love you' to your boyfriend/ girlfriend...

Are you saying that you won't EVER fail them? 

And that you will ALWAYS love them?

In fact... with divorce rates so high... maybe engaged couples also need to really think this through... feel this through... and understand this.

Maybe some married couples need to re-commit to this. 

But maybe... we need to start understanding biblical love...

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. -Ephesians 3:16-21

I will have a few future posts on God's Love and how we react and live out the love the Bible seems to talk about.

Ships

A ship may be safe in the harbor, but that's not what it was built for.

It was built to go out in the seas.

We are those ships, and sometimes we park in the harbor instead of letting God be our captains, we tie up in the harbor instead of trusting that He will steer us in the right direction.

It's time to change that. 

It's time to start up the engines. 

It's time to invite The Captain on-board.

Because the truth is: without Him, you'll either waste your life in the shallow, safe waters of life, or you'll sail by yourself and become reckless... shipwrecked.

God is not only our captain, but our designer, our builder, and our repairer. There isn't one ship He will refuse to captain, and there isn't one ship He will refuse to repair if we would only ask Him to and trust Him to do it.

We can be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Let's go on a cruise with Jesus. :)

Day After Day

Men will try to rule the world You made
But we know power is Yours alone to give and take
A day will come when every knee will bow
And every tongue confess that You are Lord both now and forever

Day after day our God is reigning
He's never shaken
My hope is in the Lord
Time after time our God is faithful
Trustworthy Savior
My hope is in the Lord

The fear of man and what they plan will fade
When we know you alone are God of everyday
Like the flowers man will rise and fall
But you are everlasting never-ending God eternal

Let the songs of adoration rise
Our God is reigning up on high
He's worthy to receive the praise and the glory

 

I have been meditating on this song by Kristian Stanfill all day. I have just a simple thought for today: Could we pray this... and mean it? Could we kneel down and say these words and mean them with all our heart, all our mind, all of our strength, and with all of our soul? Do we believe what this song says?

Unbelievable

Simple Sunday: Light

"In the living breathing cosmos, there is a mysterious Something, too wonderful, too awful for any mind to understand. The believing man does not claim to understand. He falls to his knees and he whispers, 'God'. - A.W. Tozer

Did you ever wonder what the universe must have been like before God spoke the first words of creation?

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness." -Genesis 1:1-4 NKJV

I have.

I try to wrap my mind around a substance that isn't light, yet isn't darkness, yet it is. And there was the unformed earth just floating in the midst of it. Void of all life. A giant water blob floating in this... universe. No stars. No moon. No sun. No planets. No anything.

And God speaks.

And the first thing he does is create light.

Light.

And he separates light from darkness. He says that the light is 'good'. But makes no mention of the darkness. He doesn't call it good. He doesn't call it bad. But He separates it from what He deems as good.

It just brings a picture to my mind of Christ.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:1-5 NKJV

In the midst of the incomprehensible emptiness. There was a light that shines in the darkness after God speaks the first words of creation.

And in the midst of our incomprehensible darkness and blindness of sin. There was a light that shines in on us... the Word of God in the form of a man: Jesus Christ.

"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:9-14

I love that God describes himself as light.

This week think about how God has shone in on humanity's darkness... Instead of wondering why the dark is so dark... wonder why we don't mirror, why we don't reflect God's light to all the ends of the Earth.

Even more... it's incredibly humbling when we think about how God has shone in on our own personal lives... our personal darkness.

For us it's as easy as lighting a candle or flipping a switch to light up a room so we can see physically.

But God came down and had to die in order for us to see spiritually.

This week think about God as light. The light of the world.

Live

Proverbs 3:5-6