Examine Yourself

This is an amazing sermon.  I wish more pastors in more churches would preach like this.  These are the things we need to hear and be challenged by, encouraged by, broken by and surrendered to.  I encourage you to take the time to listen but before you do, grab your Bible, a journal, and spend some time in prayer asking the Lord to open your heart, your mind, and your ears to what truth He has to speak into your life and may we all be found, through the strength of His Spirit striving to live lives of faithfulness to the fullness of the person of Jesus Christ!  It is a journey and it is one full of struggle but we must let the struggle drive us to persevere in His ways out of love for Him because He first loved us.

On Love and Obedience

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to Him” (John 14:21).  Our love to God will always manifest itself in obedience to Him and a desire to please Him in all things, not from some self-serving motive but an obedience conceived in the heart that arises from love.  So a couple questions emerge:  If I find it difficult to obey the Lord, do I truly love Him?  If I say that I love Him, why do I continue to do those things that are displeasing to Him?  And how can I develop this love for God and grow in love so that obedience becomes a natural result and one that I delight in?

“We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19).  My love for God can only be a response to His love for me.  If I do not believe that God loves me, I cannot love Him.  Charles Hodge says, “The great difficulty with many Christians is that they cannot persuade themselves that Christ (or God) loves them; and the reason why they cannot feel confident of the love of God, is, that they know they do not deserve His love, on the contrary, that they are in the highest degree unlovely.  How can the infinitely pure God love those who are defiled with sin, who are proud, selfish, discontented, ungrateful, disobedient?  This, indeed, is hard to believe.”

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:4).  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).  “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). 

I must continually preach the gospel to myself and daily take those sins that my conscience accuses me of to the cross and allow the cleansing blood of Jesus to wash over me and purify me.  It is only the blood of Christ that cleanses our consciences so that we may no longer feel guilty (Heb. 9:14; 10:2).  When my sense of guilt or shame is taken away because of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, I am freed up to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Not only am I free to love Him but I am motivated in a positive way so that my love becomes a spontaneous outpouring of gratitude to Him and a fervent desire to obey and please Him. 

“He who has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47).  To the extent that I realize and acknowledge my own sinfulness and the extent to which I realize the total forgiveness of those sins and the unconditional love of my Savior, will determine the measure of my love to Him.  Heb. 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God.  My love for God must arise out of my heart as I, in faith, lay hold of the great truths of the gospel.  This faith in His great unfathomable love for me will in turn express itself in loving obedience to Him as I abide in and feed my soul on all that He is and it is this faith that acts as the very weapon used to battle against the deceitfulness and power of sin.  I may not understand God’s perfect love for me but my lack of understanding does not make His love any less real or true.  It is and will always be.  He wants me to embrace His love, to enjoy it, and delight in Him knowing that no matter what I’ve done or what’s to come, His love remains and makes me worthy of love.

No Angels

What I'm listening to: No Angels, by The Ineloquent speaking on how nothing can separate us from the love of God!  I share it hoping it will speak to your heart as it does to mine.

Romans 8:28-39

We are, we are more, 

we are more than conquerors

Who can be against me if you are with me?

No one can condemn me because you died for me

And came to life for me

No angels, no demons

No thing I've done, no thing to come

No powers, no rulers

No height, no depth, no life or death

Can separate me from your love

My soul is shaking from these wars I'm waging

When the battle is raging

I will stand, I will stand in you, your love will see me through

We are, we are more

We are more than conquerors.

One of those silly (but true) posts

So I am beginning to believe that some of the insects around here have a kind of conspiracy against me.  I usually go out for a jog in the mornings and then try to get in another little stroll in the evenings and I swear, every night, it never fails either a massive bee or an unnaturally large fly is out for blood!  I think it waits for me or at least almost always finds me and then begins some sort of suicide mission and kamikazes straight into my head!!  And not just once….numerous times, what the heck?!  And if its not dive-bombing me, its flying in circles around me making an obnoxiously loud and somewhat intimidating buzzing sound in my ears so that I’m ducking and bobbing my head about trying to dodge its attacks but it never gives up until I go running down the road swinging my pony-tail and waving my hands to shoo it away.  I am sure that to any onlookers, I look like a lunatic running down the lane back and forth seemingly for no reason but so far I have managed to escape every time but it has not been without a fight.  Tomorrow is my last night here and I hope the vile creature is ready because this time I will be prepared, and should it choose to attack once again, it will meet its demise! 

I am what I am

“For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”  (1 Cor. 15:9-10)

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”  I like this statement.  It stood out to me in my quiet time this morning and I love that Paul says this right after he says he is unworthy to be called an apostle.  Paul had been a Pharisee and had persecuted many of God’s people but Paul was created exactly the way God wanted him to be and after Jesus appears to Paul on the road to Damascus his life is forever changed.  Paul gives his life to the one true Lord and the Lord uses Paul’s zealousness for His kingdom purposes and calls Paul a ‘chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.’  When submitted to the Lord, Paul ends up doing many great things and instead of persecuting believers; he becomes an advocate for the gospel.  I find this very encouraging.

A friend once told me that we don’t need to apologize for who we are because we are exactly as God wants us to be and it is all for His glory, though we may not understand it all now, one day it will be made clear.  Yes there is plenty of refining that needs to take place and praise the Lord that He is continually working in us to form us into more of His image.  But we should be confident in who He has made us to be and embrace it rather than trying to be someone or something we’re not. 

I think of my desire for fun, excitement, adventure and passion in my life and of my longings to know and feel love, acceptance, understanding, and intimacy (just to name a few) and how outside of my life with God those things are quite a dangerous combination and can get me into a lot of trouble and lead me far away from how God intends for those characteristics and desires to be used.  But when I see these things in myself and realize that God put them within me for a reason, I am sure I cannot even begin to imagine what God could do if I would yield myself completely to Him and learn to allow Him only to meet each of my needs and desires; what amazing adventures we could go on, what perfect love I find in His presence, and what excitement there is when through His grace and by His power I see others come to know Him too!

I want to do great things for God but I feel I am so often held back by fear.  I want to be able to release all my fears to Him knowing that there is something far more important than the fear and to remember that I belong to Him and am therefore never alone.  Lord, help me to place full confidence in You knowing that You do not make mistakes and help me to know who I am in You and by Your grace to lose all consciousness of anything of self so that Your glory may be seen through me and in me.  Help me abandon myself to You realizing that you are enough and that by Your grace I am what I am.  I have tried many times to manage myself and to make myself who I think I ought to be or who I think others want or expect me to be but I continue to fail and am left feeling dissatisfied.  I want to give myself up to You – to allow You to work in me all the good pleasure of Your will, according to your promise and make me into a vessel for Your own honor, sanctified and useful for You my Master and prepared for every good work (I Tim. 2:21). Help me rest and to trust in You and Your work continually and absolutely.  I want to be a reflection of You my Savior in the unique way You have created me to show forth Your image.  

Passage of the Day

If in reading through the following Scripture you have any interesting thoughts, comments, questions, or insights that come to your mind, please feel free to share!!

Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For he says: "In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you." Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.  We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in a holy spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise. We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

(2 Corinthians 6:1-10)

Meditation and a Vision

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

To meditate:  To be attentive to God in order to see Him as He is and in turn, see ourselves in light of God’s revealed word.  We meditate to give God’s Word the opportunity to penetrate not just our minds, but our hearts, our emotions – the places where we hurt, and our will – the place where we make choices and decisions. 

“Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).

How desperately I need to find myself lost in God’s presence every day and to allow His love to surround me as He reveals Himself to me afresh.  There are times that life is downright confusing and I seriously question if everything is going to turn out all right and God assures me it will if I follow Him.  I tell Him that I need His help and He knows; that’s why He meets with me and asks me just to sit with Him for a while and to remember that He is God. I hear Him ask me if I trust Him.  I tell Him I want to and He says I have to let Him work and that it will require my cooperation; that He will give me the strength, but I have to be willing to set my own will aside.  I ask Him how I do this, for this is not an easy task.  “Come to Me everyday and lay everything at My feet.  Leave your every thought and concern with Me and I will care for you.”  He reminds me through a song that I don’t understand the fullness of His love and how He died upon the cross for my sin; that I don’t realize how much He gives me and how He would do it all again just to be with me.  He has done everything.  There is no price He did not pay; He gave His life away just to be with me.  Why at times do I feel so numb to that breathtaking truth?  Is my heart that calloused?  Have we as believers heard the story so many times that it has lost its depth of meaning?  I am ashamed by my lack of emotion at times when I think about His death and resurrection and feel that if I really grasped its awesome truth, my life would look so very different.

I want to see Him - I mean really see Him.  I want all that His is to penetrate my heart to its core and not leave me unchanged.  Nothing in life should matter as long as I am with Him.  I want Him to be my hearts one and only desire.  I ask Him to teach me how to live and walk with Him - He gives me a picture – a vision of sorts.  We are walking on a road together and I do not know where we are going but I don’t need to because He is there; we are together and that is all I want – all that matters.  But then I see things I want to bring along; things I feel I need on my journey - things I’ve been searching for all my life.  He tells me no – that I need to trust Him to provide; that I am not meant to take these things for myself but I am convinced this is it so I take what I want and it seems so perfect but what I thought I desperately needed soon becomes heavy and slows me down.  I have to work extra hard to try and keep up with my Lord but I find myself quickly falling behind.  I stumble and I fall; I’m so weary but I don’t want to let go - I need these things.  I hear the Lord calling for me - He’s calling my name – He sounds so excited and tells me to come quickly, you must see this; leave everything behind and hurry before you miss it.  I pause and in that moment of hesitation I see a multitude of creatures approaching me from all directions whispering enticing lies vying for my attention and devotion.  They begin grabbing at me and the load I’m carrying.  I try to fight them off but by this time I have little strength left.  Is it too late to escape, I wonder?  I cry out for the Lords help.  I yell out His name telling Him I need courage and strength to let go of what I’m holding onto.  I tell Him that I want Him; that I just want to enjoy His presence again and the freedom that comes from walking in His ways but I’m so weak – I can’t do it on my own.  I see Him come running down the path for me as I continue calling out for His help.  He speaks something I do not understand and shackles of heavy chains fall off my wrists and ankles; the creatures disperse and run for cover and my Lord picks me up in His arms - His eyes filled with both pain and love and asks me in a gentle voice if I’m ready to come with Him – if I’m ready to trust Him.  All I can do is shake my head in agreement as I lay my head against His chest.  As I hear the beating of His heart I feel peace once again – I know that I am where I belong – I am home.

Now to make it more than just a vision...

“Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end.  Give me understanding and I shall keep Your law; Indeed I shall observe it with my whole heart.  Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it.  Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness.  Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.  Establish Your word to Your servant.  Who is devoted to fearing You.  Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your judgments are good.  Behold I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness.  Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD” (Ps. 119:33-41).