You know I realize way too often how much I try to put something in a container that will not hold it ... ya know kinda of like when you watch your kiddos try really really hard to put the star in the heart shape on their first block toy. They EXPECT it to go in there, because they know somehow someway it will but they cannot force it so what results is either a great big cry or they just stop playing with it for a while... or you as their parent go and show them the difference. {OR possibly all three :)}
One of the absolutely worst packages I try to put myself(and other people) in is the Superhuman role ... you know the idea of "No slack is cut for me because, by golly, I have Jesus ! I'm supposed to be above failure." His spirit within me is one of the ways I know He's real. But it doesn't erase our humanity. And I realize the burden of high expectations and the guilt associated with not living up to them is one of the reasons I end up miserable one tear short of just quitting all together. My daily walk strengthens me, it is where I truly see mercy and grace pour out on me - and others. HOWEVER I have been so drained by a couple of ongoing situations(you ever meet those guys Pete and REpete?) in my recent life I have chosen to distance myself from the reality of mercy and grace. I end up feeling side swiped and slandered, broken and bruised, guilty and condemned which are HUGE LIES all around the table. Quiet time is wonderful - when we are able to go fully before the throne of ENDLESS grace... instead of the dunce seat where we review all our flaws and shortcomings in a check list of how I have failed HIM.
GOD loves us unconditionally and without regard to our failures. Our misguided(enemy guided and interjected) actions/emotions do not erase or stop the love of God - however sin can separate us from His intimate fellowship. I mean sometimes I ask the ridiculous question what does God want from me ?? Silly question ... HE desires for each of us to experience the overflowing perpetual goodness of HIM - Elohim sovereign and majestic - the one that forgives our sins and also restores and refreshes our weary storm-driven lives. The choice is do we dwell on the emotional ick or do we focus on the TRUTH ... until it saturates our soul, and then the next day do it again and the next day we do it again ... until we are with Him face to face... or on our face before Him is really more what I think it will be like. God desires us to walk in truth ... when we know Truth He will set us free, we can also know the truth(that people hurt people, that you just get tired, that junk will build a barrier that you cannot hurdle on your own) I mean have you had that AAHAA moment ... TRUTH IS A PERSON ... His name is JESUS and HIS LOVE is real and eternal ... EVERYTHING else will pass. EVERYTHING .... not one person, place or thing on this temporary earth will be the same when we are in GLORY with Christ. IT just wont ... and He has promised us so much ... help ...not superhero powers(although I would really dig that flame throwing power) ... here as we are in this world. That He will bear our burdens ... HIS yoke(teachings) is light and HIS love is so vast that we cannot comprehend its dutimus power (Explosive, dynamic, energetic; dutimus is the Greek word used for the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit.) to change our current situation by us asking for a change in our current saturation ...from temporary tears to eternal LIVING WATER.
And to quote our pastor ... we ARE saved by accepting Christ, we are BEING saved through sanctification, and we WILL be saved in the Resurrection. Thats it folks... thats ALL of it..
I mean the whole superhuman thing would be pretty cool ... able to love rude people into being unbound... how about shooting webs of love and grace from our hugs ... or maybe even to give grace when it seems to be the dumbest thing to possibly do ... oh wait THAT is the POWER OF CHRIST ... so it is HE who dwells in ME ...My COMFORT, My SHELTER. Now does that mean that you dont need an actual physical person you can cry too? OR to hug and love on you when you are feeling broken? Or to call you to rise up and offer direction(even if it is rejected) No but it does mean that Jesus is the ONLY One that can truly dry your tears and the only One fully worthy of being trusted to do so.
The Jett Mindset
Christ began the ♫♫ m u s i c ♫♫ here in my ♥ causing my soul to rise... this is my story this is my song ♫ Tidbits and rambles of a life changed by the love of God, the redemption of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
What are we WAITING for???
There is a secret I am going to share with you... well its not so much a secret as it is an overlooked promise. The secret of WAITING!
We are a drive through want it now get it now society. Gone are the days when waiting was something you HAD to do, gone are the days when patience wasnt just "a virtue" it was a necessary thing to avoid complete insanity(well I guess it was) I am going to share some scriptures with you... mostly from Isaiah, the great prophet with MUCH to say about waiting on the Lord.
Ok let's start with Isaiah 28:16 "Whoever believes will not act hastily" Yep, its in there... and boy is it HARD to do. I love to act hastily ... fast to love, fast to get dinner together, fast to sleep, fast to point out somebodies faults(not including my own) fast to question authority, fast in and out of where ever, fast to get mad about the details I cant work out NOW RIGHT NOW!!&*##*&!! Um yeah... anybody else live in the fast lane? Well there is no frenetic hurrying in heaven! I guess this another area of "unbelief" God is revealing to me.
Psalm 123:2 " Behold as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of their mistress, so OUR EYES look to the LORD our GOD, until He has mercy on us" That means not letting the distraction of the world interfere with your gaze ... to wait even when the laundry needs to get done, when the kids are fighting about who gets the remote, when everything seems to "be falling apart" OR even when all else is "settled" getting over being bored just waiting on Him. We lack the attention span because we are use to being bombarded with stimuli. It is knowing that we are so desperately longing for the release of His power that we give our full attention to Him until He moves on our behalf. It is probably one of the hardest spiritual disciplines, I have not mastered it(duh!) I have had lots of opportunities to practice it(and will have), I have seen the fruits of it but BOY lemme tell you it is so much "easier" to be like BK and have it my way. BUT it is not ever as good as choosing Him and quieting my brain and flesh when they are saying GO GO GO ... you are insane to WAIT! To wrap it into one sentence
Isaiah 64:4 "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any GOD besides You, WHO ACTS FOR THE ONE WHO WAITS FOR HIM"
Isaiah 30:18 " Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you, and therefore He will be exalted, that HE may have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for HIM."(I think this one points to a characteristic of God that we have shoved into a bottom drawer of our spiritual dresser- we can say He is patient but do we get that it means He waits?)
The enemy will tell you that waiting on God is changing nothing ... he will even say things like "you know God is in control anyway what is the difference gonna be if you just get up, you already prayed and all that stuff on your ""checklist"" he is gonna do what he wants and you are his child so just go do something you actually need to do" he knows Jesus waited 30 years to begin His ministry, He could have waited 75 years, 100 years because the presence and affection of His Father made Him complete. Satan knows that some of God's most powerful angels(His messengers), who burn with zeal for Him, are described in Revelation as standing at their post where they have been waiting for CENTURIES until God signals their release(Rev 8:2, 19:17)
Closing with the most quoted of the WAITING promises ...
Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
I dont know of any other way to have your strength renewed ... truly re NEW ed!!! Only from this intimate personal investment of your time at the feet of Christ can you minister to others in such a way that you will run and NOT be weary.
We are a drive through want it now get it now society. Gone are the days when waiting was something you HAD to do, gone are the days when patience wasnt just "a virtue" it was a necessary thing to avoid complete insanity(well I guess it was) I am going to share some scriptures with you... mostly from Isaiah, the great prophet with MUCH to say about waiting on the Lord.
Ok let's start with Isaiah 28:16 "Whoever believes will not act hastily" Yep, its in there... and boy is it HARD to do. I love to act hastily ... fast to love, fast to get dinner together, fast to sleep, fast to point out somebodies faults(not including my own) fast to question authority, fast in and out of where ever, fast to get mad about the details I cant work out NOW RIGHT NOW!!&*##*&!! Um yeah... anybody else live in the fast lane? Well there is no frenetic hurrying in heaven! I guess this another area of "unbelief" God is revealing to me.
Psalm 123:2 " Behold as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of their mistress, so OUR EYES look to the LORD our GOD, until He has mercy on us" That means not letting the distraction of the world interfere with your gaze ... to wait even when the laundry needs to get done, when the kids are fighting about who gets the remote, when everything seems to "be falling apart" OR even when all else is "settled" getting over being bored just waiting on Him. We lack the attention span because we are use to being bombarded with stimuli. It is knowing that we are so desperately longing for the release of His power that we give our full attention to Him until He moves on our behalf. It is probably one of the hardest spiritual disciplines, I have not mastered it(duh!) I have had lots of opportunities to practice it(and will have), I have seen the fruits of it but BOY lemme tell you it is so much "easier" to be like BK and have it my way. BUT it is not ever as good as choosing Him and quieting my brain and flesh when they are saying GO GO GO ... you are insane to WAIT! To wrap it into one sentence
"To wait on God successfully we must come to a derive more fulfillment by being with Him than by working for Him"Bob Sorge ... Secrets of the Secret Place
Isaiah 64:4 "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any GOD besides You, WHO ACTS FOR THE ONE WHO WAITS FOR HIM"
Isaiah 30:18 " Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you, and therefore He will be exalted, that HE may have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for HIM."(I think this one points to a characteristic of God that we have shoved into a bottom drawer of our spiritual dresser- we can say He is patient but do we get that it means He waits?)
The enemy will tell you that waiting on God is changing nothing ... he will even say things like "you know God is in control anyway what is the difference gonna be if you just get up, you already prayed and all that stuff on your ""checklist"" he is gonna do what he wants and you are his child so just go do something you actually need to do" he knows Jesus waited 30 years to begin His ministry, He could have waited 75 years, 100 years because the presence and affection of His Father made Him complete. Satan knows that some of God's most powerful angels(His messengers), who burn with zeal for Him, are described in Revelation as standing at their post where they have been waiting for CENTURIES until God signals their release(Rev 8:2, 19:17)
Closing with the most quoted of the WAITING promises ...
Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
I dont know of any other way to have your strength renewed ... truly re NEW ed!!! Only from this intimate personal investment of your time at the feet of Christ can you minister to others in such a way that you will run and NOT be weary.
Monday, August 23, 2010
He will wipe away all our tears!!
I have found a lot of comfort in these verses today ... and in my GOD. No matter what circumstances swirl around us, He is steady -- our ROCK!
“Now this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we have asked of Him.” I John 4:17
“For I am persuaded(CONVINCED!) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-23
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. “Matthew 11:28-30
“The Lord is near to those who are broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
Praise God that He is close to those who are suffering. He knows the pain we’re going through and He keeps us from being consumed by it. I rest in the knowledge that God is near and will continue to carry me if I allow Him to. It’s a choice for all of us– a conscious decision you have to make. You have to acknowledge that you need help getting through it, and God is the only answer. When adversity strikes, our human nature wants to curl up in a ball and make the world go away(I know my human nature sure does!!). But the Bible teaches us that although we ARE suffering now, it is nothing compared to the glory we will have in heaven. Our lives here on earth are a blink in time compared to eternity. Christ took all of our sin at the cross so that we might spend eternity with Him (and our children), and He will wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelations 7:17)Jolie reminded me of this yesterday... how is it that my seven year old daughter remembers that God will wipe every tear from our eyes and I could only cry more!??!
From the dust of which we were created, a broken heart expresses the patience of faith that gives God a chance to show Himself faithful. Father in heaven, our sight and our strength is so limited. And we are so often tempted to think that our well-being depends on what we can see or feel. Please help us in this day to look beyond this moment to the love of Your heart, to the suffering of Your Son, and to the promise of the home and future You are preparing for us. —Mart De Haan
“Now this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we have asked of Him.” I John 4:17
“For I am persuaded(CONVINCED!) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-23
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. “Matthew 11:28-30
“The Lord is near to those who are broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
Praise God that He is close to those who are suffering. He knows the pain we’re going through and He keeps us from being consumed by it. I rest in the knowledge that God is near and will continue to carry me if I allow Him to. It’s a choice for all of us– a conscious decision you have to make. You have to acknowledge that you need help getting through it, and God is the only answer. When adversity strikes, our human nature wants to curl up in a ball and make the world go away(I know my human nature sure does!!). But the Bible teaches us that although we ARE suffering now, it is nothing compared to the glory we will have in heaven. Our lives here on earth are a blink in time compared to eternity. Christ took all of our sin at the cross so that we might spend eternity with Him (and our children), and He will wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelations 7:17)Jolie reminded me of this yesterday... how is it that my seven year old daughter remembers that God will wipe every tear from our eyes and I could only cry more!??!
From the dust of which we were created, a broken heart expresses the patience of faith that gives God a chance to show Himself faithful. Father in heaven, our sight and our strength is so limited. And we are so often tempted to think that our well-being depends on what we can see or feel. Please help us in this day to look beyond this moment to the love of Your heart, to the suffering of Your Son, and to the promise of the home and future You are preparing for us. —Mart De Haan
It is important to stay unwavering in some areas of our lives. Prayer is one of those. I read my prayer request for myself. Well I can say that I have had lots of opportunity to walk in the Spirit and in much love and have failed miserably! But His mercies are new each day ... and I know He is the good shepherd(John 10:11)
I am still reading Radical -- almost done Lacey -- I have been feeling like so out of any "safe" place, which in reality I am safe, but emotionally I am not. This book is very foreign mission oriented, which is something in my call, actually it is in every one's call once Jesus becomes Lord of our lives(go into all nations) There is a part of the book that address's the dangerous side of going ...Jesus said we would be sent out like sheep among wolves ... does there seem to be any doubt we would encounter danger? Well, when we are seeking God's will(really his will is that we would forward the kingdom) sometimes you will hear "The safest place to be is in the center of God's will" We think if its dangerous God must not be in it. If it's risky, if its unsafe, if its costly it must not be God's will. BUT what if these factors are actually the criteria by which we determine something is GOD's will!!! I mean you will be betrayed, you will be hated "all men will hate you because of Me" That is Jesus talking, and while He didnt mean every person on earth the picture is clear, you will be hated. And lets face it, we want to be more like Jesus, and the more our lives are conformed to his the more we will receive what he did in this world. But Jesus didnt falter because He saw EXACTLY what the Father saw...He trusted His Father and just did what He was shown. OH man I sooo desire to be that way too. WHAT if we took the conclusion of Matthew 10 and turned it out like this "To everyone wanting a safe, untroubled, comfortable life free from danger, stay away from Jesus." The world likes us to seek the "safe" place because we arent causing much trouble for it there.
'
Just two facts ... pray over these ...
There are 1.5 BILLION unreached(never heard of Jesus EVER) and unengaged(no church or organization) persons in this world. That is almost unreal! But guess who has reached some of them ... a soft drink company from Atlanta -- yep Coke is there Jesus - as the only way to Heaven is not.
More than 26,000 children will breathe their last breath due to starvation or preventable disease today! If this were happening in central Texas that would mean every child 18 years or younger would be dead in two days ...
I am still reading Radical -- almost done Lacey -- I have been feeling like so out of any "safe" place, which in reality I am safe, but emotionally I am not. This book is very foreign mission oriented, which is something in my call, actually it is in every one's call once Jesus becomes Lord of our lives(go into all nations) There is a part of the book that address's the dangerous side of going ...Jesus said we would be sent out like sheep among wolves ... does there seem to be any doubt we would encounter danger? Well, when we are seeking God's will(really his will is that we would forward the kingdom) sometimes you will hear "The safest place to be is in the center of God's will" We think if its dangerous God must not be in it. If it's risky, if its unsafe, if its costly it must not be God's will. BUT what if these factors are actually the criteria by which we determine something is GOD's will!!! I mean you will be betrayed, you will be hated "all men will hate you because of Me" That is Jesus talking, and while He didnt mean every person on earth the picture is clear, you will be hated. And lets face it, we want to be more like Jesus, and the more our lives are conformed to his the more we will receive what he did in this world. But Jesus didnt falter because He saw EXACTLY what the Father saw...He trusted His Father and just did what He was shown. OH man I sooo desire to be that way too. WHAT if we took the conclusion of Matthew 10 and turned it out like this "To everyone wanting a safe, untroubled, comfortable life free from danger, stay away from Jesus." The world likes us to seek the "safe" place because we arent causing much trouble for it there.
'
Just two facts ... pray over these ...
There are 1.5 BILLION unreached(never heard of Jesus EVER) and unengaged(no church or organization) persons in this world. That is almost unreal! But guess who has reached some of them ... a soft drink company from Atlanta -- yep Coke is there Jesus - as the only way to Heaven is not.
More than 26,000 children will breathe their last breath due to starvation or preventable disease today! If this were happening in central Texas that would mean every child 18 years or younger would be dead in two days ...
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