MORNING PRAYER-- Eternal and Loving Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world, feed me on this bread that he may live in me and I in him. Amen.
Psalm 97, Jeremiah 17:19-27, Romans 7:13-25, John 6:16-27
Psalm 97 is full of awesome contrasts between who the LORD really is and how I imagine Him sometimes.
"Clouds and thick darkness surround
him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne."(v.2)
This in no way means that darkness takes over Him, as justified in the very next verse:
"Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side." (v.3)
Sometimes I like to think of God as this being who only reigns in light and shiny things, which is true, but how much more did He come to shine His light within the dark places! He does not stray away from the dark places that we are in.
"I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness." (John 12:46)
The LORD is great at all times and in every nook and cranny of life! So, even though He is surrounded by clouds and thick darkness, fire is always before Him, consuming any and every evil which tries to come up against Him. Here is another verse out of this Psalm that blew my mind:
"The mountains melt like wax before
the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth." (Psalm 97:5)
"The mountains melt like wax....."
Throughout the week, in dealing with the stress of school, and anything else that I may have going on, I very easily become self-dependent. I take everything upon myself, and try to rely on myself to get things accomplished, only to fall short. Then, feeling like a failure, I am forced to have to sit down and figure out what the heck went wrong with my week. Can you guess that I always come to the same conclusion??? I humanize our LORD too much sometimes. Not that humanizing Him is always a bad thing, but only if I never forget just how powerful He is. It seems dumb that I could actually forget, but its not so much forgetfulness as it is doubt. When something overwhelms me, I usually go within my own self and shut down. I don't seek God, I hide, until I can no longer take the loneliness and He rescues me, as usual. This is doubting His power. I get stuck in the rut of thinking He is too busy to deal with me and my small over-dramatic meltdowns which I frequently have. The good thing is that His power never changes, no matter how small the situation. He always cares and has THE funniest and sweetest most intimate ways of showing that to me.
I'm really skipping around today, but these scriptures are too awesome and perfect right now. So, on to Romans 7:13-25. This passage really opened my eyes to what sin truly is, and how in knowing this fact, we are not pardoned, but strengthened with every tool in which to live a life free of this kind of servitude:
"Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that throught the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have te desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." (Romans 7:13-25)
This, to me, seems like the realization of someone who had died to Christ. In realizing his death (surrender) to Christ, he has been given this wisdom in understanding the true nature of sin, and how his life had been given over to it, a slave. But, "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ out Lord!" (v. 25) This section is pretty important to me. In our Ashes To Fire devotional for Sunday it said, "Jesus doesn't settle for the easy way-- this life is so much deeper than that. God doesn't look at our brokenness and sin as a problem but as an opportunity to demonstrate himself to the world. What then, should we continue to sin so that God may be magnified even more-- of course not! Should we take confidence in a God who can take all of our brokenness and turn it into beauty? Yes!"
The Gospel for Sunday was about John 9:1-41, "Blind, but Now I see!" I had never really thought about the words to Amazing Grace until Pastor Chet talked about it Sunday. First, we talked about the healing of the blind man by Jesus. He asked the question: "Why would Jesus put dirt in someone's eyes, and why would someone allow Him to do so?" I have never looked at this story at all in this way! I am going to paraphrase what Pastor Chet told us Sunday, but keep in mind that I could never put it as eloquently as he did. He said that Jesus' use of mud is a very intimate and deep sign of connection for us as humans. As we know, Adam, our father, was made from the earth, translated in Hebrew as Ademah (sp?). Through bringing this back, using it as a healing tool for a blind man, Jesus showed everyone, and is still showing us that He is with us. HE has not forgotten how He formed us, and how much He had to love us to be able to form our intricately woven body from something such as Ademah! Now, being given vision by the ONE who created him, the blind man, as well as we, "Can worship the One whom we formerly couldn't recognize" (Chet Bush). After this powerful message, I couldn't think of anything else that could have been said about this situation, but that's not how God calls us to live is it? He doesn't just bless us and then expect us to keep it to ourselves and sit alone and never tell anyone about it. No, He gives us these opportunities in order that we may spread what we have experienced in and through Him, which our Pastor said is known as the "Optimism of Grace". So that others, when given the true facts about the awesomeness of God, cannot deny Him no longer. Woah! Super powerful.
I am encouraged.
EVENING PRAYER-- Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love . . . Where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Amen.
I'm really skipping around today, but these scriptures are too awesome and perfect right now. So, on to Romans 7:13-25. This passage really opened my eyes to what sin truly is, and how in knowing this fact, we are not pardoned, but strengthened with every tool in which to live a life free of this kind of servitude:
"Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that throught the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have te desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." (Romans 7:13-25)
This, to me, seems like the realization of someone who had died to Christ. In realizing his death (surrender) to Christ, he has been given this wisdom in understanding the true nature of sin, and how his life had been given over to it, a slave. But, "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ out Lord!" (v. 25) This section is pretty important to me. In our Ashes To Fire devotional for Sunday it said, "Jesus doesn't settle for the easy way-- this life is so much deeper than that. God doesn't look at our brokenness and sin as a problem but as an opportunity to demonstrate himself to the world. What then, should we continue to sin so that God may be magnified even more-- of course not! Should we take confidence in a God who can take all of our brokenness and turn it into beauty? Yes!"
The Gospel for Sunday was about John 9:1-41, "Blind, but Now I see!" I had never really thought about the words to Amazing Grace until Pastor Chet talked about it Sunday. First, we talked about the healing of the blind man by Jesus. He asked the question: "Why would Jesus put dirt in someone's eyes, and why would someone allow Him to do so?" I have never looked at this story at all in this way! I am going to paraphrase what Pastor Chet told us Sunday, but keep in mind that I could never put it as eloquently as he did. He said that Jesus' use of mud is a very intimate and deep sign of connection for us as humans. As we know, Adam, our father, was made from the earth, translated in Hebrew as Ademah (sp?). Through bringing this back, using it as a healing tool for a blind man, Jesus showed everyone, and is still showing us that He is with us. HE has not forgotten how He formed us, and how much He had to love us to be able to form our intricately woven body from something such as Ademah! Now, being given vision by the ONE who created him, the blind man, as well as we, "Can worship the One whom we formerly couldn't recognize" (Chet Bush). After this powerful message, I couldn't think of anything else that could have been said about this situation, but that's not how God calls us to live is it? He doesn't just bless us and then expect us to keep it to ourselves and sit alone and never tell anyone about it. No, He gives us these opportunities in order that we may spread what we have experienced in and through Him, which our Pastor said is known as the "Optimism of Grace". So that others, when given the true facts about the awesomeness of God, cannot deny Him no longer. Woah! Super powerful.
I am encouraged.
EVENING PRAYER-- Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love . . . Where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Amen.
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