June 6, 2010
Sometimes, God just lets me be profound
God completely opened my eyes through some intensive prayer a month or two ago.
It isn’t until now that I decided to share it.
“My life testimony is my theology. Theology is faith seeking understanding. This is in the sense of seeking to understand the One who in fact brings understanding. Therefore, my life testimony is not about me, it is about God. He is the subject in the narrative of my life. It is His working within me and through me that allows me to even incorporate myself into the story at all.
God works on a richer and deeper realm, far beyond anything we can comprehend. The world we live in is as a pencil sketch of the Reality beyond things temporal. The Divine Reality, the Kingdom of God, is so much more than we can even attempt to see. Things of this temporal world are only insufficient glimpses of the bigger, Real picture. How then, can we try to be so in control of our lives, when in fact all that we know accounts for little to nothing in the vast scheme of all Reality?
God created our bodies as pure and glorious gifts, as physical manifestations of human life. Our physicality is a comprehendible and tangible expression of the life God bestows us. Without the physical, how can humanity, in all its limited understanding, even begin to conceive things beyond the tangible? If we have no concrete, how can we look for the abstract? Without corporeal, there could not be a desire for the greater, deeper, more Spiritual realm of existence. Without the ability to see and touch and perceive physical creation and the bodily representation of life, how can the imprudent and inferior human mind be able to comprehend a Spiritual life such as the Divine Reality of the Kingdom of God!?
My Flesh is not an excuse or a scapegoat for my sin. It is a part of me- a part of my humanness. It is my sin. Sin is a part of me. Sin is birthed where there is an absence of God. It is tragic. It is inexcusable. Yet, praise to God, not unforgivable.
Flesh has a connotation of tangibility and physicality. It is earthly and temporal. It will be eradicated in the spectrum of Eternity. Why do I invest so much into the worry about my physical body? My worry about my body, feeds the sin of my Flesh. I have physical and tangible flesh, but I also have my sinning Flesh. Both will perish. Yet they are different. My physical flesh was created as a glorious gift, but it is only a physical manifestation of human life. It is of no significance beyond the temporal realm where our life exists as spirit. From the moment Eve took the fruit from the Serpent, deception was birthed into creation. Life became defined by the world’s critical eye. Sin became present. This is where Sinful Flesh differs from our once glorious physical flesh. Sinful Flesh is of upmost importance in the Divine realm. It is this sinfulness that separates me from God. I should be invested in eradicating my Flesh, not feeding it by worrying about my completely transient physical body (flesh).
If my Flesh is sinful, tragic, and completely temporal, then why do I allow it to overpower the Spirit within me? For in fact, where the Flesh is, the Spirit cannot be. How many parts within me are occupied by the desires of my Flesh and not the Power of the Spirit!? The only way to relinquish these pieces to the Spirit is complete and utter humility, disgust for my tragic Flesh, and the Power of God to overcome and occupy every ounce of my Being. To allow the Flesh to be my focus is not only against the entirety of God, but it is completely in vain- the Power of God is immeasurably stronger in true Reality!
What I love about myself is God within me. My human Flesh is utterly atrocious. It is vile and appalling. But because of God’s grace, I have His Spirit within me as well, and it is the Spirit that I adore and desire. It is my sinful Flesh that I hate. There is no way I can love myself if I allow my Flesh to win; There is no way I can love God if I allow sin to encapsulate my actions. I learn to love God because of His Spirit working in, through, and around me. As I fall more and more in love with Him, I will learn to love myself more and more because of His Spirit within me.
If my life narrative, if my testimony, is truly about God, and He is the Real, Only, and Ultimate Victor, then how can I be so selfish, sinful, and deceived as to allow my corrupt Flesh to infest parts of my Being!? I cannot eradicate it fully in this temporal earth, for being human is to sin, but I can seek with all the strength in me, through the Power and Grace of God, to defeat it’s grasp. As long as the Spirit is at the center work within me, the Flesh cannot get a full grasp.
Then, when I arrive at Eternity’s shore, how glorious and indescribable will it be when I am completely emptied of all sin, my Flesh is destroyed, and God can fully and completely swarm into my Being and fill me to overflowing! How much love will be given, received, and radiated! To stand in the Presence of the One who is my life and fully engulfs my spirit in union with His- will I be able to comprehend such inexorable love!? Will I even be able to stand at the sheer weight of Glory that will be bestowed upon me? I do not think I could even live through the immensity of such a climactic event! And yet we are granted to live for Eternity. This climax will be the culmination of all that is my life and it will never cease! The God who is the subject, center, and truly everything, will finally bring my Being to be as One with Him! We will be completely overcome in everlasting unity with the God of all Truth, all love, all things eternal, and all things beyond human comprehension!”
It isn’t until now that I decided to share it.
“My life testimony is my theology. Theology is faith seeking understanding. This is in the sense of seeking to understand the One who in fact brings understanding. Therefore, my life testimony is not about me, it is about God. He is the subject in the narrative of my life. It is His working within me and through me that allows me to even incorporate myself into the story at all.
God works on a richer and deeper realm, far beyond anything we can comprehend. The world we live in is as a pencil sketch of the Reality beyond things temporal. The Divine Reality, the Kingdom of God, is so much more than we can even attempt to see. Things of this temporal world are only insufficient glimpses of the bigger, Real picture. How then, can we try to be so in control of our lives, when in fact all that we know accounts for little to nothing in the vast scheme of all Reality?
God created our bodies as pure and glorious gifts, as physical manifestations of human life. Our physicality is a comprehendible and tangible expression of the life God bestows us. Without the physical, how can humanity, in all its limited understanding, even begin to conceive things beyond the tangible? If we have no concrete, how can we look for the abstract? Without corporeal, there could not be a desire for the greater, deeper, more Spiritual realm of existence. Without the ability to see and touch and perceive physical creation and the bodily representation of life, how can the imprudent and inferior human mind be able to comprehend a Spiritual life such as the Divine Reality of the Kingdom of God!?
My Flesh is not an excuse or a scapegoat for my sin. It is a part of me- a part of my humanness. It is my sin. Sin is a part of me. Sin is birthed where there is an absence of God. It is tragic. It is inexcusable. Yet, praise to God, not unforgivable.
Flesh has a connotation of tangibility and physicality. It is earthly and temporal. It will be eradicated in the spectrum of Eternity. Why do I invest so much into the worry about my physical body? My worry about my body, feeds the sin of my Flesh. I have physical and tangible flesh, but I also have my sinning Flesh. Both will perish. Yet they are different. My physical flesh was created as a glorious gift, but it is only a physical manifestation of human life. It is of no significance beyond the temporal realm where our life exists as spirit. From the moment Eve took the fruit from the Serpent, deception was birthed into creation. Life became defined by the world’s critical eye. Sin became present. This is where Sinful Flesh differs from our once glorious physical flesh. Sinful Flesh is of upmost importance in the Divine realm. It is this sinfulness that separates me from God. I should be invested in eradicating my Flesh, not feeding it by worrying about my completely transient physical body (flesh).
If my Flesh is sinful, tragic, and completely temporal, then why do I allow it to overpower the Spirit within me? For in fact, where the Flesh is, the Spirit cannot be. How many parts within me are occupied by the desires of my Flesh and not the Power of the Spirit!? The only way to relinquish these pieces to the Spirit is complete and utter humility, disgust for my tragic Flesh, and the Power of God to overcome and occupy every ounce of my Being. To allow the Flesh to be my focus is not only against the entirety of God, but it is completely in vain- the Power of God is immeasurably stronger in true Reality!
What I love about myself is God within me. My human Flesh is utterly atrocious. It is vile and appalling. But because of God’s grace, I have His Spirit within me as well, and it is the Spirit that I adore and desire. It is my sinful Flesh that I hate. There is no way I can love myself if I allow my Flesh to win; There is no way I can love God if I allow sin to encapsulate my actions. I learn to love God because of His Spirit working in, through, and around me. As I fall more and more in love with Him, I will learn to love myself more and more because of His Spirit within me.
If my life narrative, if my testimony, is truly about God, and He is the Real, Only, and Ultimate Victor, then how can I be so selfish, sinful, and deceived as to allow my corrupt Flesh to infest parts of my Being!? I cannot eradicate it fully in this temporal earth, for being human is to sin, but I can seek with all the strength in me, through the Power and Grace of God, to defeat it’s grasp. As long as the Spirit is at the center work within me, the Flesh cannot get a full grasp.
Then, when I arrive at Eternity’s shore, how glorious and indescribable will it be when I am completely emptied of all sin, my Flesh is destroyed, and God can fully and completely swarm into my Being and fill me to overflowing! How much love will be given, received, and radiated! To stand in the Presence of the One who is my life and fully engulfs my spirit in union with His- will I be able to comprehend such inexorable love!? Will I even be able to stand at the sheer weight of Glory that will be bestowed upon me? I do not think I could even live through the immensity of such a climactic event! And yet we are granted to live for Eternity. This climax will be the culmination of all that is my life and it will never cease! The God who is the subject, center, and truly everything, will finally bring my Being to be as One with Him! We will be completely overcome in everlasting unity with the God of all Truth, all love, all things eternal, and all things beyond human comprehension!”
Aching Joy
Posted on my Tumblr in February:
I find it so overwhelming and so strange that joy and heartache can be joined together.
And blessings can carry with them a curse.
But I think it’s the heartaches that make us appreciate more the joys.
And it’s the power of God that allows us to see the blessings as weightier than the curses.
For it’s in the heartaches that we might find what truly brings us our joy.
And within the curses, we come to understand the with more clarity, our blessings.
I find it so overwhelming and so strange that joy and heartache can be joined together.
And blessings can carry with them a curse.
But I think it’s the heartaches that make us appreciate more the joys.
And it’s the power of God that allows us to see the blessings as weightier than the curses.
For it’s in the heartaches that we might find what truly brings us our joy.
And within the curses, we come to understand the with more clarity, our blessings.
Weaknesses
Posted on my Tumblr in February:
Weaknesses are so hard to discover about yourself. Sometimes they are such blatantly obvious habits that we overlook them as even being problems.
I’ve recognized some of my biggest weaknesses over the past week.
But harder than the discovery of weakness is the acceptance and the application.
I’m reaching the point where I know that I have to accept that I am a person who strives for perfection, in all that I do and in all that I am. I also cannot stand to fail. Small failures make me frustrated with myself, and larger failures eat at my core. I realize I have high standards for myself, even unattainable ones, and I know I need to change that. I just am currently opposed to and even fearful of the idea of lowering my expectations of myself.
I just need to pray persistently that God will work in me, however painful the process may be. I need to reach the place in my life where I can fully accept this about myself and apply new habit, new thought, and new perspective to the way I live.
God, renew my view of perfectionism and help me to humbly accept my failures.
Weaknesses are so hard to discover about yourself. Sometimes they are such blatantly obvious habits that we overlook them as even being problems.
I’ve recognized some of my biggest weaknesses over the past week.
But harder than the discovery of weakness is the acceptance and the application.
I’m reaching the point where I know that I have to accept that I am a person who strives for perfection, in all that I do and in all that I am. I also cannot stand to fail. Small failures make me frustrated with myself, and larger failures eat at my core. I realize I have high standards for myself, even unattainable ones, and I know I need to change that. I just am currently opposed to and even fearful of the idea of lowering my expectations of myself.
I just need to pray persistently that God will work in me, however painful the process may be. I need to reach the place in my life where I can fully accept this about myself and apply new habit, new thought, and new perspective to the way I live.
God, renew my view of perfectionism and help me to humbly accept my failures.
Living in Time
This was posted on my Tumblr in February:
So God just hit me with a ton of bricks last night. Well, actually, last week I prayed that God would speak to me, guide me, give me direction. I just didn’t actually expect him to strike me with such hard things to contemplate and mull over. At Kaleo last night, it was like I was holding a giant basket over my head and He dropped a brick in, then another, and another, until I was completely overwhelmed by His presence, reality and realizations.
I have so many things running through my mind. But for now, I’m just going to touch on one.
Time.
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and I was constantly reminded about how short this temporal life is. From dust we have come, and to dust we shall return. Death is a part of life itself. But what do we do with the living portion? How do we live our lives with the time we have?
Two different thoughts on this came to my mind.
Should we live making every moment count, in the here-and-now, for today and not tomorrow, not putting off anything, now now now; “Live like you’re dying” so to speak?
or
Should we live in patient prayer, waiting for God to give us the green light, faithfully listening for Him to direct in His timing?
This is so hard for me to wrap my mind around. I’ve always thought that the best way to live life is to live for the moment- tomorrow is in no way guaranteed. In fact, people take life so much for granted and take the reality of death so lightly. What if I were to die tomorrow?! How would I want to live today? What would I do? What would I say? How would I live?
But there’s another reality- one that says to wait patiently in prayer. God has a different timing than our own. And His clock is the only one that is on time. What if God doesn’t want me to do that now? What if He doesn’t want me to say that now? Does He want this for me ever? Or just not at this time?
What if I am to die before I accomplish/succeed/finish/do whatever it is that I feel called to do? Is this because I misheard God? Or is this a harsh and bold way of Him saying “no”? But on the other side of the coin, what if I do something today that God did not want me to do at this time? What if He wanted me to wait but instead I was so immersed in living in the now?
I’ve felt called to go to Uganda to work with kids in an orphanage for about five years now. I had an opportunity to go this summer. But with prayer, I felt as though God was saying “no”, at least not at this time. But what if I am wrong? What if this summer is the time and the opportunity God has prepared for me and I just passed it by? What if my life comes to an end before my next opportunity a few years into the future? Does that mean that I just misunderstood my calling? Or does it mean that I was supposed to not wait?
I am not saying that I am going to die in the near future. At least I’m not planning on it. But the reality is that we don’t know how long or short our lives are going to be. No one lives forever in this world. The only conclusion, or at least semi-conclusion, I have reached is that we should live every moment seeking God, furthering His kingdom, and asking how to best fulfill our purpose in His plan. Then maybe we will know with certainty to do/say/accomplish something now, or later, in this temporary life.
So which way is right? Which way is most Biblical? How are we to best live our earthly lives in a way that furthers the kingdom of God for the eternal life that lies beyond death? Does time even matter? Or is it the intentionality of seeking God, for however long or short, that matters more?
So God just hit me with a ton of bricks last night. Well, actually, last week I prayed that God would speak to me, guide me, give me direction. I just didn’t actually expect him to strike me with such hard things to contemplate and mull over. At Kaleo last night, it was like I was holding a giant basket over my head and He dropped a brick in, then another, and another, until I was completely overwhelmed by His presence, reality and realizations.
I have so many things running through my mind. But for now, I’m just going to touch on one.
Time.
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and I was constantly reminded about how short this temporal life is. From dust we have come, and to dust we shall return. Death is a part of life itself. But what do we do with the living portion? How do we live our lives with the time we have?
Two different thoughts on this came to my mind.
Should we live making every moment count, in the here-and-now, for today and not tomorrow, not putting off anything, now now now; “Live like you’re dying” so to speak?
or
Should we live in patient prayer, waiting for God to give us the green light, faithfully listening for Him to direct in His timing?
This is so hard for me to wrap my mind around. I’ve always thought that the best way to live life is to live for the moment- tomorrow is in no way guaranteed. In fact, people take life so much for granted and take the reality of death so lightly. What if I were to die tomorrow?! How would I want to live today? What would I do? What would I say? How would I live?
But there’s another reality- one that says to wait patiently in prayer. God has a different timing than our own. And His clock is the only one that is on time. What if God doesn’t want me to do that now? What if He doesn’t want me to say that now? Does He want this for me ever? Or just not at this time?
What if I am to die before I accomplish/succeed/finish/do whatever it is that I feel called to do? Is this because I misheard God? Or is this a harsh and bold way of Him saying “no”? But on the other side of the coin, what if I do something today that God did not want me to do at this time? What if He wanted me to wait but instead I was so immersed in living in the now?
I’ve felt called to go to Uganda to work with kids in an orphanage for about five years now. I had an opportunity to go this summer. But with prayer, I felt as though God was saying “no”, at least not at this time. But what if I am wrong? What if this summer is the time and the opportunity God has prepared for me and I just passed it by? What if my life comes to an end before my next opportunity a few years into the future? Does that mean that I just misunderstood my calling? Or does it mean that I was supposed to not wait?
I am not saying that I am going to die in the near future. At least I’m not planning on it. But the reality is that we don’t know how long or short our lives are going to be. No one lives forever in this world. The only conclusion, or at least semi-conclusion, I have reached is that we should live every moment seeking God, furthering His kingdom, and asking how to best fulfill our purpose in His plan. Then maybe we will know with certainty to do/say/accomplish something now, or later, in this temporary life.
So which way is right? Which way is most Biblical? How are we to best live our earthly lives in a way that furthers the kingdom of God for the eternal life that lies beyond death? Does time even matter? Or is it the intentionality of seeking God, for however long or short, that matters more?
You Know
Once again,
This failed attempt to say what I want to say.
In the end,
It doesn’t really matter anyway.
You already know, You’ve read my mind.
It’s like my face is a projector screen
Of the thoughts inside.
You know me better
Than the rain knows to fall,
Than the stars know to shine;
You know me; you know it all.
You know my heart
Like a treasure in a trove,
Like a present wrapped in paper;
You know me, you know.
Here I am,
Chasing after nothing like I’m going somewhere.
I need a hand,
To bring me into places I wouldn’t dare.
You already have, you’ve taken me.
It’s like the ride can’t even begin
Unless you turn the Key.
You know me better
Than the rain knows to fall,
Than the stars know to shine;
You know me; you know it all.
You know my heart
Like a treasure in a trove,
Like a present wrapped in paper;
You know me, you know.
Help me quit this petty game.
I don’t even know the goal.
You’ve been longing to reclaim,
This broken heart-
Help me quit this petty game.
I don’t even know the goal.
You’ve been longing to reclaim,
This broken heart that now is whole.
You know me better
Than the rain knows to fall,
Than the stars know to shine;
You know me; you know it all.
You know my heart
Like a treasure in a trove,
Like a present wrapped in paper;
You know me, you know.
I want to know you
Like the rain knows to fall,
Like the stars know to shine;
You are You, but I am small.
I feel your love
Like a bottomless ocean
Like an endless embrace
You love me, this I know.
This failed attempt to say what I want to say.
In the end,
It doesn’t really matter anyway.
You already know, You’ve read my mind.
It’s like my face is a projector screen
Of the thoughts inside.
You know me better
Than the rain knows to fall,
Than the stars know to shine;
You know me; you know it all.
You know my heart
Like a treasure in a trove,
Like a present wrapped in paper;
You know me, you know.
Here I am,
Chasing after nothing like I’m going somewhere.
I need a hand,
To bring me into places I wouldn’t dare.
You already have, you’ve taken me.
It’s like the ride can’t even begin
Unless you turn the Key.
You know me better
Than the rain knows to fall,
Than the stars know to shine;
You know me; you know it all.
You know my heart
Like a treasure in a trove,
Like a present wrapped in paper;
You know me, you know.
Help me quit this petty game.
I don’t even know the goal.
You’ve been longing to reclaim,
This broken heart-
Help me quit this petty game.
I don’t even know the goal.
You’ve been longing to reclaim,
This broken heart that now is whole.
You know me better
Than the rain knows to fall,
Than the stars know to shine;
You know me; you know it all.
You know my heart
Like a treasure in a trove,
Like a present wrapped in paper;
You know me, you know.
I want to know you
Like the rain knows to fall,
Like the stars know to shine;
You are You, but I am small.
I feel your love
Like a bottomless ocean
Like an endless embrace
You love me, this I know.
"I Trust in You"
One of my favorite worship songs of the moment goes like this:
You hold my every moment,
You calm my raging sea.
You walk with my through fire,
And heal all my disease
I trust in you.
I trust in you.
I believe, you’re my healer.
I believe, you are all I need.
I believe, you’re my portion.
I believe, you’re more than enough for me.
Jesus you’re all I need.
Not only are the lyrics completely pertinent to my life right now, but I’ve been mulling of the concept behind them for weeks now.
God is shouting loud and clear that I need to trust him. Trust.
I so easily try to take matters into my own hands- my own hands that have no idea how to shape my life, directed by a mind that has no idea or understanding of anything beyond the trivial. How is that a way to live?! How will there ever be peace in a life led by a fallible human being?!
I’m reaching the point where God has been throwing things into my life that I need to trust him for. The only way to learn this lesson is to be forced to experience it. But I am so excited! I can’t wait to see how God is going to challenge me, break me down, rebuild me, and establish my life with a new center where I am able to fully trust him for every single thing in my life.
I’m not at this point yet. I can’t rightly say “I trust in you”. But my prayer is:
“God, help me to trust you! Give me the courage to let go of all I’m clinging to in vain! Help me to fully believe with every ounce of my soul that “you are all I need” and that you are in fact “more than enough for me”. Put truth to the phrase, “I trust in you”, so that when those words flow over my lips, I will believe wholeheartedly in my very being that you are in control. Lord, let me learn to trust!
Amen.”
You hold my every moment,
You calm my raging sea.
You walk with my through fire,
And heal all my disease
I trust in you.
I trust in you.
I believe, you’re my healer.
I believe, you are all I need.
I believe, you’re my portion.
I believe, you’re more than enough for me.
Jesus you’re all I need.
Not only are the lyrics completely pertinent to my life right now, but I’ve been mulling of the concept behind them for weeks now.
God is shouting loud and clear that I need to trust him. Trust.
I so easily try to take matters into my own hands- my own hands that have no idea how to shape my life, directed by a mind that has no idea or understanding of anything beyond the trivial. How is that a way to live?! How will there ever be peace in a life led by a fallible human being?!
I’m reaching the point where God has been throwing things into my life that I need to trust him for. The only way to learn this lesson is to be forced to experience it. But I am so excited! I can’t wait to see how God is going to challenge me, break me down, rebuild me, and establish my life with a new center where I am able to fully trust him for every single thing in my life.
I’m not at this point yet. I can’t rightly say “I trust in you”. But my prayer is:
“God, help me to trust you! Give me the courage to let go of all I’m clinging to in vain! Help me to fully believe with every ounce of my soul that “you are all I need” and that you are in fact “more than enough for me”. Put truth to the phrase, “I trust in you”, so that when those words flow over my lips, I will believe wholeheartedly in my very being that you are in control. Lord, let me learn to trust!
Amen.”
Heaven?!
Posted on my Tumblr in February:
Have you ever taken time to contemplate the beauties of heaven?
It blows my mind.
Do you think the natural beauty of this world is even comparable to that of divine, heavenly, beauty? What I mean is- do you think luminous sunsets, might waterfalls, racing clouds, even a simple flower growing in the crack of a brick- do you think these things are a little taste of heaven?
Or do you think heaven is something so much greater, far beyond any human comprehension?
If so, then… I don’t even know what to think! How do we, feeble and incompetent human beings, prepare ourselves for the glories of heaven?- For the divine creation of God, not the earthly, and the majestic and utterly indescribable glory and majesty and sheer presence of the omnipotent God of all beauty?!
Just some things to think about…
Have you ever taken time to contemplate the beauties of heaven?
It blows my mind.
Do you think the natural beauty of this world is even comparable to that of divine, heavenly, beauty? What I mean is- do you think luminous sunsets, might waterfalls, racing clouds, even a simple flower growing in the crack of a brick- do you think these things are a little taste of heaven?
Or do you think heaven is something so much greater, far beyond any human comprehension?
If so, then… I don’t even know what to think! How do we, feeble and incompetent human beings, prepare ourselves for the glories of heaven?- For the divine creation of God, not the earthly, and the majestic and utterly indescribable glory and majesty and sheer presence of the omnipotent God of all beauty?!
Just some things to think about…
Omnipresence
This was posted on my Tumblr in January:
I am surrounded by such incredible people that love God.
I see God’s love through them.
How in the world do I deserve this?
Oh wait…
…I don’t.
But God thinks I’m fully worth it.
Thank you Lord for your character.
You give me strength when I am weak.
You fill me with joy when I am hurting.
You instill hope in my soul.
You grant me peace.
You never fail.
You never stop loving me.
I don’t deserve any of it.
I don’t deserve You.
And yet you never let go of me.
Never.
You are always present.
Always.
I’ll just let my words be few.
Thank you.
Amen.
I am surrounded by such incredible people that love God.
I see God’s love through them.
How in the world do I deserve this?
Oh wait…
…I don’t.
But God thinks I’m fully worth it.
Thank you Lord for your character.
You give me strength when I am weak.
You fill me with joy when I am hurting.
You instill hope in my soul.
You grant me peace.
You never fail.
You never stop loving me.
I don’t deserve any of it.
I don’t deserve You.
And yet you never let go of me.
Never.
You are always present.
Always.
I’ll just let my words be few.
Thank you.
Amen.
Experiencing God
This was posted on my Tumblr in January:
D-group was really good today. We talked about a lot of great, deep things. But here is something that I am free and willing to share that I think is fully applicable to anyone at any point in their walk with the Lord:
You were designed to always be in God’s presence- to always be with Jesus. In Christ, we discover that Heaven is more than a place as we understand geographic places. Heaven is not just a spacial reality, it is a life; Heaven is the fact that Jesus dwells there. Heaven is being with Jesus. Wherever He is, there is Heaven.
You were created to always be in His presence in undisturbed communion. Jesus came to restore humanity to that level of communion and to show us that there is a place that exists in the spirit where we can live from Heaven before we die: a place set aside for lovers of God where the Christ-life exemplifies the bare minimum of what our experience can and should be as humans fully redeemed by Jesus’ sacrifice- an experience based on His performance, not ours.
John 14 and 15 paint a vivid picture of how our lives as Christ followers are prioritized. He loves us, and we love Him back with the love He has poured out on us. John grasped something about the nature and character of God that few other new testament writers got a hold of: our preciousness in the sight of God- perhaps this is what gave him the boldness to call himself “the disciple Jesus loved”. He understood the bigness of God’s heart and His ability to deluge a favor that allows us to live as if we were His favorite.
In any event, the purpose of this favor is to draw us up into a place of abiding. Abiding is our permission, our challenge, our battle, and our inheritance. Most people’s spiritual life is riddled with a tug-of-war between what the grace of God might mean for us and the overwhelming weight of inadequacy, failed performance, guilt, shame and insecurity that the enemy tries to keep in front of our vision. We know that Christ’s work on the cross was sufficient to get us out of hell, but most of us fail to take full advantage of the privileges of “Sonship” or “Daughtership”. Ephesians 1 tells us that the unbelievable power of the Spirit not only raised Jesus from the dead, but also lifted Him up to the highest place of power, authority, and glory. Most of us get on the bus of “salvation” but hop off at the first stop in the village of “redeemed”. The lies of the enemy and our unwillingness to succumb to the Love of God keep us from staying on the journey into the town of “deliverance”, the city of “freedom”, the downtown of “authority”, and the metropolis of “more than overwhelmingly victorious by His love and seated with Him in heavenly places”. We have access to not only visit this place, we have permission to abide in this place where we already have every spiritual blessing and everything we need for life and Godliness. What might your life look like if you chose to live in and from this place, instead. What if you actually grasped that you do not live in your circumstances, but rather, you live in Christ?
Our entrance and access to these places are not affected at all be our performance; our performance influences our abiding, not our access at any given moment. In Jesus, the door is never shut, and an moment you can run to this place. You can get into this place in any circumstance through the gates of thanksgiving of through the courts with praise. You abide there because of intimacy. Praying without ceasing is how we abide there; but praying without ceasing is not a religious discipline- it is being passionately caught up in a never-ending conversation throughout the whole day with our lover. Abiding with the Father is about learning relational Joy.
The focus of prayer life that is rightly lived is about crying out for His presence, to literally see His face, to behold His glory in tangible ways. It is the cry for more of Him! This life is about waiting in stillness for Him; it’s about listening. It is about hearing a certain sound and tuning out the other ones. There are many voices that are misleading in our transformation into the image of Christ.
The cry of intimacy is, “Jesus, I want to be with You. Holy Spirit, make me more like Jesus. Papa, deluge me in Your delight, in Your joy, in Your peace, in Your righteousness and in Your love.”
If you want to discover the limitless possibilities of who God is for you, then you need to choose to make fostering intimacy with Him the number one priority in your life.
Through scripture, permission has been granted for us to experience ALL of who He is. The key is to let the truth soak into your spirit, not your mind. Find ways to apply the truths to your circumstances. Let the revelation that is coming to you through the passage impact the way you choose to live, think and interact with others; let it SHAPE the way you live and experience life. Reading the Bible will do you very little. Reading large quantities is even more unhelpful. The only way it becomes meaningful is when we allow a truth to soak in and change us over time.
The whole Bible is a set of invitations into an experience that God wants you to have with Him!- An experience of intimacy with an Almighty and Loving God, filled with overwhelming joy, peace, truth and hope that leads us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in everything!
D-group was really good today. We talked about a lot of great, deep things. But here is something that I am free and willing to share that I think is fully applicable to anyone at any point in their walk with the Lord:
You were designed to always be in God’s presence- to always be with Jesus. In Christ, we discover that Heaven is more than a place as we understand geographic places. Heaven is not just a spacial reality, it is a life; Heaven is the fact that Jesus dwells there. Heaven is being with Jesus. Wherever He is, there is Heaven.
You were created to always be in His presence in undisturbed communion. Jesus came to restore humanity to that level of communion and to show us that there is a place that exists in the spirit where we can live from Heaven before we die: a place set aside for lovers of God where the Christ-life exemplifies the bare minimum of what our experience can and should be as humans fully redeemed by Jesus’ sacrifice- an experience based on His performance, not ours.
John 14 and 15 paint a vivid picture of how our lives as Christ followers are prioritized. He loves us, and we love Him back with the love He has poured out on us. John grasped something about the nature and character of God that few other new testament writers got a hold of: our preciousness in the sight of God- perhaps this is what gave him the boldness to call himself “the disciple Jesus loved”. He understood the bigness of God’s heart and His ability to deluge a favor that allows us to live as if we were His favorite.
In any event, the purpose of this favor is to draw us up into a place of abiding. Abiding is our permission, our challenge, our battle, and our inheritance. Most people’s spiritual life is riddled with a tug-of-war between what the grace of God might mean for us and the overwhelming weight of inadequacy, failed performance, guilt, shame and insecurity that the enemy tries to keep in front of our vision. We know that Christ’s work on the cross was sufficient to get us out of hell, but most of us fail to take full advantage of the privileges of “Sonship” or “Daughtership”. Ephesians 1 tells us that the unbelievable power of the Spirit not only raised Jesus from the dead, but also lifted Him up to the highest place of power, authority, and glory. Most of us get on the bus of “salvation” but hop off at the first stop in the village of “redeemed”. The lies of the enemy and our unwillingness to succumb to the Love of God keep us from staying on the journey into the town of “deliverance”, the city of “freedom”, the downtown of “authority”, and the metropolis of “more than overwhelmingly victorious by His love and seated with Him in heavenly places”. We have access to not only visit this place, we have permission to abide in this place where we already have every spiritual blessing and everything we need for life and Godliness. What might your life look like if you chose to live in and from this place, instead. What if you actually grasped that you do not live in your circumstances, but rather, you live in Christ?
Our entrance and access to these places are not affected at all be our performance; our performance influences our abiding, not our access at any given moment. In Jesus, the door is never shut, and an moment you can run to this place. You can get into this place in any circumstance through the gates of thanksgiving of through the courts with praise. You abide there because of intimacy. Praying without ceasing is how we abide there; but praying without ceasing is not a religious discipline- it is being passionately caught up in a never-ending conversation throughout the whole day with our lover. Abiding with the Father is about learning relational Joy.
The focus of prayer life that is rightly lived is about crying out for His presence, to literally see His face, to behold His glory in tangible ways. It is the cry for more of Him! This life is about waiting in stillness for Him; it’s about listening. It is about hearing a certain sound and tuning out the other ones. There are many voices that are misleading in our transformation into the image of Christ.
The cry of intimacy is, “Jesus, I want to be with You. Holy Spirit, make me more like Jesus. Papa, deluge me in Your delight, in Your joy, in Your peace, in Your righteousness and in Your love.”
If you want to discover the limitless possibilities of who God is for you, then you need to choose to make fostering intimacy with Him the number one priority in your life.
Through scripture, permission has been granted for us to experience ALL of who He is. The key is to let the truth soak into your spirit, not your mind. Find ways to apply the truths to your circumstances. Let the revelation that is coming to you through the passage impact the way you choose to live, think and interact with others; let it SHAPE the way you live and experience life. Reading the Bible will do you very little. Reading large quantities is even more unhelpful. The only way it becomes meaningful is when we allow a truth to soak in and change us over time.
The whole Bible is a set of invitations into an experience that God wants you to have with Him!- An experience of intimacy with an Almighty and Loving God, filled with overwhelming joy, peace, truth and hope that leads us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in everything!
Oh, How He Loves Us
This was posted on my Tumblr in December:
There are no words to describe it. There is no humanly possible way to express it. It is completely inconceivable for the human mind. It is unable to be defined, only experienced.
God’s love.
It truly is “vast beyond all measure”, to quote some honest lyrics. It wasn’t until about 3 weeks ago that God revealed to me his love in a way so much more evident than I ever have experienced in my life.
In the middle of November, I was reading a chapter out of Blue Like Jazz. It was here that Donald Miller says that loving yourself is simply allowing God to love you. Further, you cannot truly express the love of God to others if you don’t love yourself.
At first, I was completely shattered by this. To sum it up, I have battled with a lack of self-confidence for a solid seven years or so. I can honestly say that I haven’t fully and truly loved myself for that length of time. So, to recognize that I have not been fully experiencing or sharing God’s love for this long left me in stunned silence.
From there, I proceeded to do a study of what the Bible defines as love according to 1 Corinthians 13. I would meditate over one part of the verses every day, praying about it, and asking God to show me what is meant by “love is patient” and “love is kind”. Throughout these 2 weeks, God kept persisting in sharing this message to me- in chapels, in classes, in conversation. That in and of itself was sheer evidence of his pursuing love. Then, the final day of this study was Nov. 25- the day I left for Mexico Outreach.
In Mexico, God so visibly and obviously displayed his love. (Details are in my post, “Mexico Outreach”.) God used me to love others. But more than that, the people there that I had gone to minister to and to bless, ended up blessing me and showing God’s love to me. I felt as though I received more than I gave.
Over the next few days after I had returned from Mexico, I did a lot of contemplation over everything that had occurred in the last few weeks. One day, I was deep in prayer, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by something- I realized that I love who I am becoming in Christ. That is the key- in Christ. Nothing else matters. I am allowing God to penetrate my heart; I’m allowing him to love me; I am loving myself; I am radiating his love. For the first time in seven years, I love who I am and who I am becoming. All I can do is give all the praise to God who formed my heart and love him in return!
There are no words to describe it. There is no humanly possible way to express it. It is completely inconceivable for the human mind. It is unable to be defined, only experienced.
God’s love.
It truly is “vast beyond all measure”, to quote some honest lyrics. It wasn’t until about 3 weeks ago that God revealed to me his love in a way so much more evident than I ever have experienced in my life.
In the middle of November, I was reading a chapter out of Blue Like Jazz. It was here that Donald Miller says that loving yourself is simply allowing God to love you. Further, you cannot truly express the love of God to others if you don’t love yourself.
At first, I was completely shattered by this. To sum it up, I have battled with a lack of self-confidence for a solid seven years or so. I can honestly say that I haven’t fully and truly loved myself for that length of time. So, to recognize that I have not been fully experiencing or sharing God’s love for this long left me in stunned silence.
From there, I proceeded to do a study of what the Bible defines as love according to 1 Corinthians 13. I would meditate over one part of the verses every day, praying about it, and asking God to show me what is meant by “love is patient” and “love is kind”. Throughout these 2 weeks, God kept persisting in sharing this message to me- in chapels, in classes, in conversation. That in and of itself was sheer evidence of his pursuing love. Then, the final day of this study was Nov. 25- the day I left for Mexico Outreach.
In Mexico, God so visibly and obviously displayed his love. (Details are in my post, “Mexico Outreach”.) God used me to love others. But more than that, the people there that I had gone to minister to and to bless, ended up blessing me and showing God’s love to me. I felt as though I received more than I gave.
Over the next few days after I had returned from Mexico, I did a lot of contemplation over everything that had occurred in the last few weeks. One day, I was deep in prayer, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by something- I realized that I love who I am becoming in Christ. That is the key- in Christ. Nothing else matters. I am allowing God to penetrate my heart; I’m allowing him to love me; I am loving myself; I am radiating his love. For the first time in seven years, I love who I am and who I am becoming. All I can do is give all the praise to God who formed my heart and love him in return!
Fellowship of the Unashamed
"I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of His and I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secured. I’m done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised, or regarded, or rewarded. I live by faith, lean on His presence, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or burn up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus! I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He stops. When He comes for His own, He’ll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear!"
Dr. Bob Moorehead
Dr. Bob Moorehead
Tumblr
In December I stopped using Blogspot for Tumblr. Now I wish I had kept up with both.
I'm going to link them together, but first, I'm going to post some of my favorite Tumblr posts from the last 6 months.
So here goes nothin...
I'm going to link them together, but first, I'm going to post some of my favorite Tumblr posts from the last 6 months.
So here goes nothin...
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