tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69538909241895280722024-02-21T06:21:56.252-08:00In the Shadow of His Wingsmountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-15041316119457743322023-07-20T23:08:00.005-07:002023-07-21T05:18:51.596-07:00Faith That Would Move Mountains <div><i><b>2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."</span></b></i></div><div><i><b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></b></i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div><br></div>Winter continues to wrap it's icy fingers around our mountain village. A light covering of snow has settled on the high places. Neighbours greet each other with wisps of warm breath dancing between them. The cold wind has stripped most trees of their foliage, and the landscape has a clean starkness about it. Tell-tale smoke tendrils spiral up through the trees, revealing where wood fires are keeping a home warm.<div><br></div><div>I have not made time for writing as much as I'd like to. The days just seem to revolve around keeping fires burning, making warming and strengthening meals and drinks, raising a family and caring for our home and animals. These are all rewarding and satisfying tasks and I am deeply grateful for all that we have so lavishly been given here. But reading and studying Revelation recently has brought about a deeper desire to "fix my eyes on things unseen". And as I don't have the clarity or inspiration to write something specific right now, I'd like to share something I read yesterday that resonated with me and made an impression on my mind. I hope it challenges and inspires you to a bolder, more courageous walk with God. He is our Anchor in troubled times, our Rock and Protector who never slumbers or sleeps. This world is but a shadow of what is to come, and where we are heading, determines how we journey towards it. </div><div><br></div><div><i><b>Oh me of little faith, by Greg Morse, staff writer at desiringGod.org</b></i></div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Man is a creature who hardly knows himself. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (<a class="rtBibleRef" href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Jer%2017.9" data-reference="Jer 17.9" data-version="esv" data-purpose="bible-reference" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-style: dashed; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Jeremiah 17:9</a>). Even as a Christian with a new heart, I continue to discover within myself new contradictions, fresh perplexities, strange paradoxes. Take, for example, the cohabitation of a desire for a sturdier faith in Jesus Christ, with a quiet and competing preference for a scrawny faith.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">On the one hand, I grimace as I watch Jesus routinely chide the disciples for their “little faith” (<a class="rtBibleRef" href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Matt%208.26" data-reference="Matt 8.26" data-version="esv" data-purpose="bible-reference" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-style: dashed; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Matthew 8:26</a>). <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord, I am too much like them. Fix my eyes firmly on my King.</em> Strong faith, even when unpossessed, is not undesired.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">But then I discover an Achan in the camp, a Judas among the twelve with his hand in the moneybag. A skulking and smiling and sinister wish that sabotages progress in the faith. C.S. Lewis first warned me of his presence.</p><blockquote style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; max-width: 700px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;"><p style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px;"><i>I’m not sure, after all, whether one of the causes of our weak faith is not a secret wish that our faith should <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">not</span> be very strong. Is there some reservation in our minds? Some fear of what it might be like if our religion became <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">quite</span> real? I hope not. God help us all, and forgive us. (<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Essay Collection & Other Short Stories</span></i><span style="font-style: inherit;">, 137)</span></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">At first, it seemed absurd. Who wouldn’t want to move mountains? Who wouldn’t want to bludgeon unbelief? I tried to move on. I tried throwing my conscience a different bone. But it wouldn't budge.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">"<i>Some fear of what it might be like if our religion became quite real”</i> — that sentence drew the blood. Did I not want all of this to become more real? Was I afraid of what it might be like farther off from the shore? Are you?</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Afraid of True Religion</span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">What might Lewis mean by this dread of strong faith, of a religion too real and near?</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">He means that some of us suspect, deep down, that if we meet the real thing more often, if we galloped too forcefully toward eternal realities, they would unhorse us. And what would follow? If our faith were too solid, we might lose much in this world. We might become the oddities we wish to avoid. They might shackle us and carry us off we know not where, and pressure us to risk more than we would mind losing.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Our relationships would change. Our priorities would change. This world would start to fill with devils, with immortal souls, with warfare. Nature would kneel before supernature.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">“<i>The richness and depth of our world comes from the relationship between ordinary pleasures and transcendent beauty.”</i></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">God would grow. Death would stare. We might hear Satan laugh. Would the weight of it all crush our finitude? It could certainly stampede some dreams. If Christianity became entirely real, which of our Isaacs are safe? What sacrifice would be too great, or trial too burdensome, to endure for his glory? If the roots went all the way to the bottom, then my life really is not my own, is it?</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;"><b>Hell — how could we conceive of it? Heaven — how could we live for less? Gospel — how could we ever withhold it? Time — how could we ever waste it? Christ — how could he be less than all in all?</b></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Such unbending realness, we can now begin to see, might secretly wish to be kept at bay. Jurassic Park is pleasant until the electric fences go out. We have done a fine job today creating our theme park and barriers where forces from the next world might be seen from time to time grazing safely on the other side of our passions and amusements. Yet, for all of that, we fail to realize that the electricity was never on.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">High and Perilous</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Strong faith knocks powerfully as an intrusive and demanding visitor. Is he not the great culprit in Hebrews 11, sending those saints forth to be swept off to otherwise unpleasant, inconvenient, and sometimes fatal adventures?</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">This faith is like pesky Gandalf to our hobbit holes. Austin Freeman comments,</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;"><i>Gandalf intercedes in the culture of the Shire because the hobbits had begun to forget their own stories of daring and danger and therefore their sense of the world’s greatness. They needed to renew their memory of the high and the perilous. The hobbits must be reminded of an element of danger in order to appreciate what they have. (Tolkien Dogmatics, 80)</i></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Haven’t many of us lost much of what we once had? Haven’t we also grown stale, forgetting the greatness of the world — the greatness of this Story that God is writing around us? Too often, we have edited out the high and perilous, the epic and the eternal, the glorious and the numinous. Or at least we relocate dangers to chapters before and after our own page. Not in our doctrinal statements, perhaps, but in our daily sense of what is most ultimate, most urgent.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Freeman goes on to depict how the unpredictability and hazard of such faith actually becomes invaluable to our soul’s happiness.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;"><i>The good things that make hobbit society valuable, such as freedom and peace and pleasure in ordinary life, require a greater and more dangerous world outside their borders in order that they not grow stale. The richness and depth of our world come from the relationship between the ordinary pleasures, such as food, drink, and family on the one hand, and the longing for transcendent beauty, quests, and noble sacrifice on the other hand. (80)</i></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">“<i>Our secret wish for little faith, should we indulge it any longer, will only rob us in the end.”</i></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Domesticity must dance with dragons. The richness and depth of our world comes from the relationship between ordinary pleasures and transcendent beauty. Reality, without consulting us, sings a duet: the ordinary with the extraordinary. This world lodges firmly in the shadow of the next. Yet, the transcendent is often gone — not from our Bibles or from our actual world — only drained from our bloodstream.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Weak faith contents itself to have it so. Weak faith minds the times and stands no taller than is necessary. Weak faith knows that a host of awkward conversations, probable persecutions, and unquenchable sorrows are restrained on the other side of the dam.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Yet without such a torrent, we live half-lives (if that). Again, “The richness and depth of our world come from the relationship between the ordinary pleasures, such as food, drink, and family on the one hand, and the longing for transcendent beauty, quests, and noble sacrifice on the other hand.” Reality will have her vengeance. Remove the spiritual, the beautiful, the sacrificial, and you flush all the wonder and meaning from the superbly ordinary.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">But should we dress in the whole armor of God and war against spiritual powers, when we savor our food and glorify God as we drink, when we raise families and care for neighbors and serve a local church full of normal saints, when we sacrifice and suffer and wait and worship — bowed smilingly beneath the lordship and love of God our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ — <b>we live, really live.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;">Our secret wish for little faith, should we indulge it any longer, will only rob us in the end. Reality, to the Christian, is a best friend to be fully embraced, a captain to be dutifully obeyed. The unseen is more real than we think. Christ is more worthy than makes us comfortable. Death is nearer, hell is hotter, heaven more heavenly, sin more sinister, the body of Christ more dear, the gospel more atomic, the Father more holy, compassionate and just, than little faith wants to imagine. The real thing is the only reality that is, the only reality that will be, and the only reality that Christians will ever truly wish to be.</p><p style="margin: 0px auto 22.4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Merriweather Web", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 700px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.195px;"> ~~~~~~~~~~++++++~~~~~~~~~~~</p></div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-18264076733793751002023-04-04T06:29:00.000-07:002023-04-04T08:47:42.395-07:00Jesus Paid It ALL<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div>31 March<div><br></div><div>The month of March draws to a close. Early mornings are increasingly crisp and when the afternoon shadows grow long, one can hear the reedy voice of Winter calling. It is a time of gathering in firewood and making hearty, strengthening meals. This is also the time of year in which we first arrived in the mountains, our new life still so thrilling and unfamiliar. The daunting task of building our wooden home on a wild and forrested hillside, was tempered by the beauty of Autumn unfolding around us. The scent of Wattle fires, the changing moods of the mountains, bejeweled spiderwebs, Knysna Loeries in flight, the call of a Jackle Buzzard, deep silence, star-spangled night skies... These, and so much more, have all become so part of our existence here, that it is strange to imagine that it was ever different.</div><div><br></div><div>3 April</div><div><br></div><div>After a warm weekend filled with laughter and sweet togetherness, Monday dawns grey, wet and muddy. Distant rumbles and flashes of lightning cause the dogs to cower and the cats to curl up tight against each other. On days like this, with the mist closing in around us, the world and it's woes can feel very distant. The cocoon of our home a ship becalmed on the clouds.</div><div><br></div><div>Celebrating Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry of our humble King Jesus into Jerusalem, reminded me of all the prophesies that were fulfilled and all the promises that God has kept. While it seems so clear to us now, I wondered if there was even one in the jubilant crowd waving their palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!", who knew what was to come for this God-man whom they were hailing as their earthly King. And what it would accomplish, how all of history up to that moment, had been pointing to, and leading up to what was unfolding before their eyes.</div><div><br></div><div>On that day, the Passover Sunday before He was crucified, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a borrowed donkey’s colt, one that had never been ridden before. The disciples spread their cloaks on the donkey for Jesus to sit on, and the multitudes came out to welcome Him, laying before Him their cloaks and the young branches of palm trees. They hailed and praised Him as the “King who comes in the name of the Lord” as He rode to the temple, where He taught the people, healed them; the same people who would condemn Him three days later... </div><div><br></div><div>Jesus’ main purpose in riding into Jerusalem, was to make public His claim to be their Messiah and King of Israel in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. In Matthew we read that the King coming on the foal of a donkey was an exact fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus rides into His capital city as a conquering King and is hailed by the people as such, in the manner of the day. The streets of Jerusalem, the royal city, are open to Him. No longer does He tell His disciples to be quiet about Him, even when the Pharisees ask him to do so. (Matthew 12:16, 16:20) Instead, His response to the Pharisees is: "if these were silent, the very stones would cry out!"</div><div><br></div><div>Sadly, the praise lavished on Jesus was not because they recognized Him as their Saviour from sin. They welcomed Him out of their hunger for a messianic deliverer, someone who would lead them in a revolt against Rome. And even though they did not believe in Jesus as their Saviour, they nevertheless hoped that perhaps He would be a great temporal deliverer. So they hailed Him as King with their many hosannas, still recognizing Him as the Son of David, who came in the name of the Lord. But when He failed in their expectations, when He refused to be their champion against the Roman occupiers, the crowds turned on Him. Within just a few days, their hosannas would change to cries of “Crucify Him!” (Luke 23:20-21). Those who hailed Him as their King would soon reject and abandon Him. And our Lord, who knows the hearts of men, suffered and died for them still.</div><div><br></div><div>He saw <i>me, </i>before I was formed in the secret in my mother's womb, and He knew... He saw all the times I would turn away from Him, all my selfish pursuits, all my defiance, my oft-hardened heart, my busyness, my pride, my cowerdice. And still...</div><div><br></div><div>4 April</div><div><br></div><div>The busyness and distractions of this time of year can easily reduce what Jesus suffered to a formula rather than an event. A method for dispensing forgiveness rather than the horrors my Saviour endured so that I could be free.<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> There is a poem that was written by Christina Rosetti in 1866**, that really speaks to the heart that fears or feels coldness or indifference: </span></div><div><br></div><div>"Am I a stone, and not a sheep,</div><div>That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,</div><div>To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,</div><div>And yet not weep?</div><div><br></div><div>Not so those women loved</div><div>Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;</div><div>Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;</div><div>Not so the thief was moved;</div><div><br></div><div>Not so the Sun and Moon</div><div>Which hid their faces in a starless sky,</div><div>A horror of great darkness at broad noon –</div><div>I, only I.</div><div><br></div><div>Yet give not o’er,</div><div>But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;</div><div>Greater than Moses, turn and look once more</div><div>And smite a rock."</div><div><br></div><div>But through Ezekiel 36:26 God promised: "<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.</i>"</span></div><div><br></div><div>Yes, I am sinful, broken, flawed, but through and with Jesus I too, have passed from death to life, a new creation. And even as I, with pangs of guilt, think that I should "feel" more at this time, I hear Jesus'<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> anguished last words on the cross echo through the ages: "It is done". All He asks of me is that I love and follow Him, submit to Him, be faithful to Him until death. And even if that sounds hard, even impossible to do, just listen to the next verse in Ezekiel 36:27 "<i>And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes..."</i></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div>May you also be encouraged by knowing that this precious blood-bought gift of forgiveness and grace was and is sufficient. Our King and Lord Jesus has paid it all, all to Him we <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">owe. But that does not mean that there is a debt to be paid from our side. All God asks from us is that we love Him, with all our hearts, all our minds and all our strength. And to let our obedience stem from a heartfelt desire to please Him. True service and holiness are the outworking of the Holy Spirit, the overflowing of a life dedicated to the glory of God. Every day of the year.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">David understood what God wanted when he prayed: "<i>You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it, you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, you God, will not despise." </i>~ Psalm 51:16-17</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div> ~~~~~~~~*****~~~~~~~~</div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">** The poem's title is "Good Friday", and the reason why I omitted it, is that the reasoning behind saying that Jesus died on Friday and was resurrected on Sunday, doesn't add up. Even though it does not change our salvation, it is important to me to hold to the biblical explanation of timelines, and to test what we've accepted to be right and true against God's Word. Please feel free to research this for yourself, this is one good resource to use:</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">https://www.christianity.com/jesus/death-and-resurrection/the-crucifixion/on-what-day-did-jesus-die.html</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>Resources: </i>desiringgod.org</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">gotquestions.org</span></div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-54829558942848980602023-03-06T09:12:00.001-08:002023-03-06T20:42:16.073-08:00Sing your Way Through Pain<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>2 March</div><div><br></div>March arrives in the mountains with crisp mornings and cool breezes tickling the treetops. There is a freshness and a little bite in the air that speaks of Autumn. The Bird Cherry trees surrender their leaves, and in the forests there is a hush, as nature quietly shifts towards the changing seasons. We gather the last wild mushrooms with a sigh, inhaling the earthy scent that is so reminiscent of Summer's last fruits. Our thoughts turn to cooler, gentler days, slowing the pace while all around us the countryside prepares for a rest.<div><br></div><div>6 March</div><div><br></div><div>I recently read a post by Joni Eareckson Tada, that really humbled and inspired me. Joni was just 17 when a diving accident left her paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair. But "paralyzed" has most surely not defined this amazing, Godly woman, who has written more than 35 books, accepted a presidential appointment to the National Council on Disability, spoken in more than 45 countries, and established a disability ministry that reaches around the world. She created fine artworks with a brush held between her teeth, and published an honest biography of her struggle to accept her paralysis as part of God's divine plan. She is now 73 years old, and regardless of her own pain and hardship, she continues to encourage others with her unwavering faith and deep love for her Saviour. </div><div><br></div><div>I thought to share her post entitled "I Sing my way through Pain" with you, in the hope that it will be a blessing as well as provide solid, practical and Biblical principles to guide you through your own trials, as well as confirm the beautiful hope and blessed assurance that we have in Christ Jesus.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Article by Joni Eareckson Tada</i></div><div><i>Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joni and Friends</i></div><div><br></div><div>Joy is found in the strangest places. Take this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). When we read this, we may assume the field is attractive, something we would love to purchase anyway: a sun-drenched meadow dappled with wildflowers, or a garden plot with rich soil ready for tilling.</div><div><br></div><div>But life is not like that. We can see the field in this parable as representing what God would have us embrace for the sake of our joy. His lot for you may not be attractive; it may resemble a sandlot with broken bottles, rusty oil cans, and old tires scattered around. It may be a bleak field, with nothing about it even hinting of wealth.</div><div><br></div><div>Until you discover it hides a treasure. Then the scrap of hard dirt and weeds suddenly brims with possibilities. Once you know great riches are concealed there, you’re ready to sell everything to buy it. It’s what happened to me.</div><div><br></div><div><b>- Striking Gold</b></div><div>Early on in my paralysis — and almost by accident — I unearthed an unexpected treasure. I opened the word of God and discovered a mine shaft. I dug my paralyzed fingers into a weight of incomprehensible glory, a sweetness with Jesus that made my paralysis pale in comparison.</div><div><br></div><div>In my great joy, I went out and sold everything, trading in my resentment and self-pity to buy the ugly field nobody else would want. And I struck gold.</div><div><br></div><div>After decades of using the pick and shovel of prayer and Scripture, my field has yielded the riches of the kingdom of heaven. I have found a God who is thunderous, full-throttled joy spilling over. His Son swims in his own bottomless ocean of elation, and he is positively, absolutely driven to share it with us. Why? As he puts it, “[so] that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). <b><i>Jesus is after nothing less than our full joy.</i></b></div><div><br></div><div>But deep in the bedrock of Scripture, my shovel hit something hard and unyielding. God is nobody’s water boy. As the solemn Monarch of everything and everyone, he shares his joy on his own terms. And those terms call for us to suffer — and to suffer, in some measure, as his beloved Son did when he walked on earth (2 Timothy 2:12).</div><div><br></div><div><b>- Rejoice in Hope</b></div><div>No one understands the relationship between joy and suffering better than the Son of Man. My God became human, his love insisting that I not be alone in my struggles. When I hurt, he knows. But Jesus does not merely sympathize with me; he’s done something about it. Through his death and resurrection, he has freed me from sin’s power and, in part, from the suffering that results from it. And he will free me fully in the age to come.</div><div><br></div><div>That coming age is my joyous hope! It’s hope that sees Jesus on his throne with his kingdom filling every corner of the cosmos. Hope that envisions sorrow and sighing erased from the face of the universe. Hope that eagerly awaits the moment when pain and tears will be banished and evil punished.</div><div><br></div><div>But that hope — the better country of Hebrews 11:16 — is still in the future. I’ve likely got miles to go before I sleep, and it’s getting harder to adjust to the harsh encroachments of older age and increasing pain. I could easily throw down my pick and shovel, collapse by the edge of my ugly field, and say, “God, I am so tired of this. Please, no more."</div><div><br></div><div>So I stoke my hope. I am heartened by my precious Savior and the way he endured unthinkable suffering for the joy set before him. I follow him, parking my wheelchair on Romans 12:12: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Now, it’s easy to see why God commands us to be constant in prayer, for it can be a struggle to pray when you’re suffering. And we understand why God commands us to be patient in tribulation, for it’s hard to muster patience when you’re in misery.</div><div><br></div><div>But it’s really hard to rejoice in hope — hope can feel so far off, vague, and nebulous. Yet God commands it. For if Jesus laid aside his robes to put on the enormous indignity of human birth for our sake, then his Father has the right to command our joy. He has the prerogative to call forth in us a happiness that’s commensurate with his Son’s sacrifice. We are to cultivate a joy that’s worthy of Jesus, our Blessed Hope (Titus 2:13).</div><div><br></div><div><b>- Rejoice in Suffering</b></div><div>“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3). I cultivate a habit of welcoming trials because it produces perseverance that results in godly character — the kind of character that easily grasps the appeal of Christ’s loveliness and yearns to see his magnificent denouement with his kingdom completed. This marvelous hope is enlarged every time I choose joy in my afflictions.</div><div><br></div><div>Hope then no longer seems far off, but very near. Not vague and nebulous, but concrete and real. Hope fills my vision with Jesus, making my pain seem light and momentary compared to the glory to be revealed. So when suffering begins to wither my resolve, I stoke my hope by taking several steps.</div><div><br></div><div>I sing my way through suffering. Whenever I feel downcast, I ask a few friends to pray, and then I worship Jesus with robust hymns filled with solid doctrine. Hymns that focus on the worthiness of Christ have enough spiritual muscle to barge into my discouraged soul and shake awake a hopeful response. When my weak mind is too foggy to put two sentences together in prayer, my heart defaults to hymns I’ve memorized, like “Crown Him with Many Crowns”:</div><div><br></div><div>Awake, my soul, and sing</div><div> Of him who died for thee,</div><div>And hail him as thy matchless King</div><div> Through all eternity!</div><div><br></div><div>I busy my heart with good things. I’m no fan of television. If a story does not convey moral virtue or truth that points to God, it will dull my heart before the first commercial. Why yield the precious real estate of my brain to that which flattens my spirit? Instead, I busy my heart with good books and videos, art, memorizing Scripture and poetry, and pursuing uplifting friendships that nourish my soul. “It is entirely fitting that our hearts should be set on God when the heart of God is so much set on us,” wrote Richard Baxter. “If God does not have our hearts, who or what will have them?” (The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, 102-3.</div><div><br></div><div><b><i>When suffering overwhelms me, I crowd my heart with Christ.</i></b></div><div><br></div><div>I serve others who hurt worse than I do. There are always people in worse shape than I am, and my job is to go find them and encourage them in Christ. It’s what Jesus did in his last hours on the cross. In spite of his unfathomable pain, he looked out for the interests of his mother and the thief next to him, and he even pronounced forgiveness on the brutal men who tortured him (John 19:26–27; Luke 23:34, 43). I want to serve like Jesus in the same manner, so I invest my time in Joni and Friends and minister to the world’s families that struggle with disability. It’s always better — and more joyful — to give them relief than for me to receive it.</div><div><br></div><div><b>- Resilient Joy</b></div><div>As we rejoice in our suffering, we experience a joy that’s otherworldly. It never asks, “How much more can I take?” but readily adapts to difficult situations with enough elasticity to spring back into shape if disappointed. Resilient joy makes hope come alive, so much so that we can be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). I can be enjoying a glorious symphony or watching a breathtaking sunset, delighting in my backyard roses, or thanking God for his awesome creation, and still, there will be an accompanying sorrow. Part of my sorrow is related to my paralysis and pain, which never goes away; the other part is a heart-wrenching awareness that my crucified Lord gave his life so that I might enjoy the beauties of this world.</div><div><br></div><div>Suffering has made me hypersensitive to God’s joys. Such joy is an emotion and a fruit of the Spirit — it is deep and profound, yet tickles at the edges with an almost giddy delight over the prospects of its heavenly hope.</div><div><br></div><div>This sort of hard-fought-for joy swells Christ’s heart with gladness. The day is drawing near when Jesus will completely free us from all sin and suffering and present us “before the presence of his glory and with great joy” (Jude 1:24). And when joy becomes a way of life in your suffering, you prove the exceeding worthiness of Christ, which, in turn, will increase his joy in presenting you before the Father. I do not want to diminish that wonderful moment in any way. So joy is not an option. It is commanded for the sake of Christ.</div><div><br></div><div>That crowning day is drawing close for this aging quadriplegic. There’s no time to waste. So, it’s back to my sandlot of broken bottles and weeds with my pick and shovel. Back to the bleak field of pain and paralysis, for which no one would even put up collateral. From the beginning, God had set his eye on that ugly field for me, and I couldn’t be more grateful. And I certainly couldn’t be more joyful.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Joni Eareckson Tada is founder and chief executive officer of Joni and Friends in Agoura Hills, California.</i></div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-73774614520162171522023-02-06T08:55:00.001-08:002023-02-06T09:43:28.680-08:00Courageous Love<div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><br></b></div><b>27 January</b><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">The flanks and ridges </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">of our mountain are etched against a moody sky.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> Clusters of treetops seem to reach up to the billowy clouds, all framed by the window next to me. We have lived in this humble house on stilts for almost fifteen years, but I never tire of the views its situation affords. There is always more for your eyes to find, farther, wider, higher. And as the sapling trees have stretched past our roof, the birdlife has abounded. Brilliantly painted sunbirds visit the pinapple sage bushes outside our kitchen window, and doing the dishes becomes a joy when you have such sweet company. I watch them plunge their arched beaks deep into the red hearts of the flowers, my hands lost in the soap suds.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Another flamboyant visitor is the Touraco or Knysna Loerie, a shy bird that glides into view between the trees with a crimson flash of its flight feathers. A fun fact about the Loeries is that they are semi-zygodactylous, which means that their forth toe can be switched back and forth at will... A large boomslang also lives in the dense folliage, but we only become aware of it when it threatens newly hatched nestlings. The parents raise the alarm, and soon a whole mob of little birds are bravely and noisily defending the youngsters.</span></div><div><br></div><div><b>30 January</b></div><div> </div><div>After a day and night of soft, persistent rain, the morning is a shimmering jewel. I try to write a bit, before the busyness of the day begins...</div><div><br></div><div>During w<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">eek 4 of the "Slaying Giants"* bible study that we're currently working through, this quote by </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Elizabeth Elliot jumped out at me. "</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, I ask myself if I love Him." Elizabeth Elliot is remembered as one of the bravest women of our generation. Several years after her husband and a small team of missionaries risked their lives and were killed at the hand of the Huaorani warriors, the young widow returned to Ecuador with her daughter, to complete the mission to the Auca people that her husband had started. As a result of her courageous faith, she was instrumental in leading many of the Aucas to accept Jesus as their Saviour. (The complete story is told by her in the amazing book "Through Gates of Splendor".)</span></div><div><br></div><div>Courageous faith is a result of love and trust. If I truly love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind, there is nothing He may ask of me that I would not want to do. Perfect love drives out all fear. And where there is perfect love, there is perfect trust. If I truly trust God, I would know beyond a shadow of doubt, that He would never ask anything of me, that is not for my good and His glory. Or for which he would not give me the strength and the courage I needed.</div><div><br></div><div><b>2 February</b></div><div><br></div><div>There is a man who appears in the books of Acts, who's courage truly had far reaching consequences. Meet Ananias, who only appears in chapter 9 of the book of Acts, and is then never mentioned again. Ananias means "the Lord's gracious gift" or "Yah is merciful". It is a wonderful play on words in Aramaic, for God is about to both show mercy to Saul and ask Ananias to live up to his name. The other person in this story needs no introduction. He is the apostle Paul himself, formerly known as Saul, the feared persecutor of the early church, or "The Way" as they called themselves. He was breathing "murderous threats" against the Lord's disciples and was on his way to Damascus to make sure that they were silenced. But then he meets Jesus... Blinded and speechless, he is led to Damascus, where he spends <b>three days </b>without food or drink, praying.</div><div><br></div><div><b>6 February</b></div><div><br></div><div>This is the point when God asks Ananias to go to Paul, to lay hands on him and restore his vision. Just think about that a bit. Why would God need a scared Ananias, when He could just speak the words and Paul would see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, you see, even in the greatest stories of God's salvation, there are people like you and me, content to serve the God we love quietly, without wanting to cause too many ripples in the ocean. Like Ananias, we flinch at the thought of having to go out there, to confront our fears and be brave, bold believers. But God has given us a Spirit of power, love and self discipline, not of timidity or fear. We were made in the image of the living God, and He is the One who enables, He emboldens, He gives courage. Ananias was chosen to go to Straight street where Paul was staying, not because he was bold or brave, but because he loved, trusted and wanted to please the God who called him, with all his heart, and that cancelled out the fear for his own life. Corrie ten Boom said: "It's not my ability, but my response to God's ability, that counts."</div><div><br></div><div>David said in Psalm 56, "But in the day that I'm afraid, I lay all my fears before you and trust in you with all my heart. What harm can man bring to me? With God on my side, I will not be afraid of what comes." (TPT).</div><div><br></div><div>We know that we are greatly loved by God, and that makes us belong and have hope. But in choosing to return that love, over what makes us feel comfortable or brings us pleasure, we say Yes! to our King, regardless of the price. I pray that you and I would love God courageously. That we would share our faith even if it's rejected, speak the truth in love, even if it's ridiculed, show mercy even if it is scorned, give hope even if it hurts, kindness even if it's answered with contempt. God does not need our help to accomplish His perfect will, but He asks it. From the beginning of time, He has longed for a reciprocal, loving relationship with His people, His bride. And in our loving and trusting response to Him, we become part of His magnificent story of grace.</div><div><br></div><div> •~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•</div><div><br></div><div>* "Slaying Giants ~ Finding Courage and Conquering Fear" by Darlene Schacht from timewarpwife.com</div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-74280186547759959352023-01-23T03:00:00.001-08:002023-01-23T05:52:59.932-08:00Take Courage<div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div></b><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">15 January</b><b><br></b></div><div><br></div>Our friend the mist returned for two sweet days of cool respite. It wrapped our wooden cabin in moist tendrils, obscuring the mountains and pine forests that surround us. We drove out to walk beside a lane of venerable oak trees, the sole remnants of a former farmstead. Strange mushrooms sprout from their gnarled, moss covered trunks, lending an otherworldliness to the landscape. A herd of speckled cattle emerged from the mist, to watch our progress with bovine suspicion. As I snuck closer to photograph them, they turned to face me with that stolid dignity of cattle. I admired the sweep and curve of their horns, from what I hoped was a safe distance. I tried cooing some reasuring words, and f<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">or a lengthy moment we just continued to stare at each other. W</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">ith feigned confidence, I raised my arms above my head, and as one organism, the whole herd turned and thundered away.</span><div><br><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div><div><div><div><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">16 January</b><br></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>When the boys were little, they'd run out onto the deck to call the "mist dragon", as the first foggy swirls rose up from the valley. They'd shriek excitedly as it loomed larger and closer, it's swaying jaws gaping wider and wider... Then we'd tumble laughing into the safety of our cabin, swiftly closing the door on "danger".</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>17 January</b></div><div><br></div><div>Pretending to be scared was fun, but full-blown fear or worry is a debilitating, often overwhelming emotion. "Fear is often our natural response. We don't have to think of all the reasons to be afraid, fear comes unbidden. But being strong and courageous doesn't come naturally. Often we have to think through different reasons why we ought to overcome our fears with courage. God calls us to take courage, because it doesn't just come naturally, we have to fight for it. Confronted with fears from every side and even from within, courage must be seized." ~ John Bloom, Desiring God.org</div><div><br></div><div><b>22 January</b> </div><div><br></div><div>There is a man in the Bible whom I feel I've only just "met". He appears briefly in the book of Numbers as "the other" of the two spies who didn't doubt when they were sent to reconnoitre the promised land of Canaan. Twelve scouts were sent out, ten came back full of terror and trepidation.They feared the people living in that land, who were said to be collosal and powerful, not the kind of guys you'd want to meet at night in a dark alley. They feared their numbers and they feared their well fortified city. But then Caleb steps up and says: "Only rebel ye not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us, their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, fear them not." ~ Numbers 14:9 KJV</div><div><br></div><div>(The name Caleb, means "dog", not the most flattering name in biblical times. But God had a plan for Caleb's life...)</div><div><br></div><div>"They are bread for us..." Right there, Caleb saw what I so often fail to see, that trials are the very thing that strengthen us. That the "giants we conquer are as bread to our soul, and so by the power of God working in and through us, we grow." ~ Darlene Schacht, Slaying Giants. </div><div><br></div><div>James, the brother of Jesus said: "Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverence. Let perseverence finish it's work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." ~ James 1:2-4 The word "count" here is a financial term, meaning to evaluate. James encourages us to evaluate the way we look at trials. An athlete or a soldier may look forward to physical and mental challenges because of the benefits that follow. Trials develop our spiritual muscles, giving us the the stamina and endurance to stay the course. I can "count it all joy" in hardship, because in and through them, I learn to fully depend on God and trust Him and His wisdom. Tested faith becomes refined, rugged, courageous, uncompromising. C.S. Lewis said : "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point." <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">I can choose to face trials with courage and confidence, not necessarily for what they presently are, but for the outcome God wants to accomplish through them.</span></div><div><br></div><div>Back to Caleb. He was given the courage to face a seemingly impossible challenge, because He believed that God would fulfill the promise He'd given them. And in the process, their faith in Him, would grow ever stronger. So when we meet him again in Joshua 14, Joshua is dividing up the land between families. As Caleb had been faithful, he was given a choice. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, he chooses to go and live in the land of the giants. And this is what he had to say about his choice: " Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel was moving about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty five years old. I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out, I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." ~ Joshua 14:10</div><div><br></div><div><b>23 January</b></div><div><br></div><div>Israel's warrior Caleb, at 85 years of age, still knew how to take courage. He could have settled on a sweet tract of land and spent the rest of his days sitting on the porch watching the olives grow. But he'd seen God's promises unfold, he'd witnessed God's power and might, his faith had been tested and honed. So, choosing courage over comfort, he walked with "the Lord helping him", into battle once again, confident of the outcome. It's no coincidence that Caleb came from Judah, like our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of Judah! "The more we read the Old Testament as books written by God, through His Spirit, about His Son, the more we grow in hope, in understanding, and in the likeness of our Saviour." Alistair Begg</div><div><br></div></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">The Bible says that faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of God. Is God's Word not the very place we go to for courage and hope? His promises sustain us when nothing else can, because we know that the same God who changed Caleb "the dog" into a roaring lion, still upholds and strengthens us with His righteous right hand.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Whatever giant you may be facing today, remember this; the God of Israel is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Lean on Him, trust in His promises. Be en"couraged" by His faithfulness through all generations. Take captive in the name of Jesus, each anxious thought. The Lord Himself goes before you. The Lion of Judah is your conquering King, and He, will never fail or forsake you.</span><br></div></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>The Lord says: "I will rescue those who love me</i></span></div><div><i>I will protect those who trust in my Name.</i></div><div><i>When they call on me, I will answer,</i></div><div><i>I will be with them in trouble,</i></div><div><i>I will rescue and honour them,</i></div><div><i>I will reward them with long life and give them my salvation." </i></div><div><i>~ Psalm 91:14-16</i></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> ~✓~✓~✓~✓~✓~</span></div></div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-11583132799598946382023-01-13T04:07:00.001-08:002023-01-16T07:35:31.444-08:00You Hem me in Behind and Before<div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></b></div><div><b>9 January</b></div><div><b><br></b></div>A new week arrives in a blaze of heat. The wild wisterias wilt, and the air hums with insects. As the sun climbs to its apex, birds fall silent deep in their leafy refuge. The ginger Tom lies stretched out and limp under the apple tree. Our old dog Shadow crawls stifly into a cool hollow in the soil. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Muddy mountain paths turn to gritty dust, and we long for the cool mists as one longs for an old friend</span><div><div><br></div><div>While the blistering heat causes most creatures to become sluggish, it seems to encourage the cicadas to crank up their buzzy ninety decibel love song. As children we used to call them Christmas beetles or sonbesies (sun beetles). Male cicadas have drum-like structures on their abdomens, and by flexing and popping these " tymbals" in and out hundreds of times per second, they produce the high-pitched sound we've come to associate with the hot, cloudless days of Summer.</div><div><br></div><div><b>11 January</b><br><div><br></div><div>I continue my exercise in "discipline" by writing down some insights <i>gleaned </i>from a Bible study we've started, simply called "Slaying Giants".* (A picture of Ruth comes into my head, meticulously gleaning the life sustaining grain behind the workers in the field.)</div><div><br></div><div>Growing up as the youngest daughter of staunch "Dopper" (Dutch Reformed) parents, we had to go to Katkisasie (catechism or Sunday school) every Sunday after the morning church service. My memory is a bit vague about these classes, but I remember Bible stories as a littly, and being drilled as a teenager by the "ouderlinge" (elders) for confirmation. Part of the discipline and rigour of church life was good, and it established a firm foundation for us to build on. But for me there was always something missing, like warming yourself by a candle, when there is a bonfire beckoning in the distance. Perhaps it was my own heart that was not open and "malleable" for the Spirit of the living God to reveal himself to me. The intimate relationship with Jesus that I inadvertently longed for, did not exist.</div></div></div><div><br></div><div><b>12 January </b></div><div><br></div><div>But God is so patient. And He really has had to be with me, ever prone to wander and procrastinate... </div><div><br></div><div>Back to the Bible study: Most of us know from small the account of Israel's exodus from Egypt, with stern, bestafffed Moses in the lead. The first thing that stood out for me is that they "marched boldly" out of Egypt (Exodus 14:9). They didn't sneak out, quivering in their sandals, they marched, implying that they were focussed, courageous, and of one mind. I know, only a few verses later when they realise Pharaoh and his chariots are in hot pursuit, they're bemoaning the fact that they left the fleshpots of Egypt in the first place, and really giving Moses a hard time.<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> Moses stays</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> steadfast, and just hear what he says to the people of Israel in verse 13, after they'd basically announced that they'd prefer to serve the Egyptians thank you very much! "Moses answered the people, "DO NOT BE AFRAID. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be STILL." Now that is my kind of motivational speech.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">From what I could remember, Israel were happily marching along, when Pharaoh realises he's loosing cheap labour and hops in his buggy drawn by fierce steeds with flaring nostrils and foaming muzzles, and gives chase. (He obviously didn't read David's Psalm about trusting in chariots and horses...). By the time he</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> and his army catch up with them, Israel are camping on the beach. They look up in fright, drop their braaibroodjies (toasted sandwiches) in the sand and start wailing. Moses gives his speech and God tells him to stretch out his staff over the Red Sea to neatly divide the deep, briny waters. The children of Israel recover from their panic and are marching again, mouths agape this time. They stride through the walls of water on dry land, and when Pharaoh tries to follow, he gets a nasty surprise and his chariot becomes the first submarine. But jokes aside, is this how it happened?</span><br></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">This is the account from the Bible, as written down by Moses himself in Exodus 14. After God tells Moses to stretch out his staff over the sea, an amazing thing happens. V19 - "Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. <i>Throughout the night, </i>the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side, so neither went near the other all night long."</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>The angel of the Lord who had been traveling in front of Israel's army -</i> the distinct presence of Yahweh, who had been there with them and leading them, every moment since they left Egypt. Notice that Israel is now referred to as an army - soldiers for the Lord, who had been marching with purpose up to this point.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>The pillar of cloud - </i>God himself had been going in front of the people of Israel "by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they may go by day and by night."(Exodus 13:21). This was no ordinary cloud, it was the visible symbol of God's presence in the midst of His people.</span></div><div><i>Stood behind them - </i>the angel and cloud which have been going before the Israelites to guide them, now shift behind, to protect them. "You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me." Psalm 139:5</div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>Coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel - </i>the cloud obscures the enemy from Israel, as it was the sight of Pharaoh and his men advancing that caused them to be fearful. They took their eyes of God and focussed on the seemingly dire situation instead. Sound familiar?</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">- It also obscured visibility for Egypt's army, so they could no longer pursue. God took an active role in Israel's defence.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">- It would have been a visible sign to Pharaoh that the God of Israel is powerful and there for His people.</span></div><div><i>Throughout the night - </i>God promised deliverance, but they had to wait out the night to receive it. "But they who wait upon 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 be faint." ~ Isaiah 40:31</div><div><i>The cloud brought light to the one side and darkness to the other</i> - we don't need to guess which side was in the dark and which side was bathed in glorious light. "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" ~ Psalm 27:1. "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." ~ 1 John 1:5</div><div><br></div><div>I pray that you may also find tremendous encouragement from this account. God is for you, He is with you, He fights for you, He is mighty to save. He surrounds you with His love and protection. Keep your eyes on Him, there is no pain or problem that you cannot overcome with God. May He transform you through the renewal of your mind. May He give you the courage to slay giants and the boldness to tell the world of His might, glory, goodness and grace.</div><div><br></div><div> ~•~•~•~•~••~•••~••~•~•~•~•~</div><div><br></div><div>* Slaying Giants, a Bible Study on finding your courage and conquering fear, by Darlene Schacht from timewarpwife.com</div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-90568239107341764582023-01-08T21:57:00.000-08:002023-01-09T00:14:31.322-08:00Under a Banner of Love <div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></b></div><div><b>6 January 2023</b></div><div><br></div>It is a drenchingly wet and cold day in the mountains. The silver birches rock in the breeze where a lone forest pigeon sits huddled against the driving rain. Our animals gravitate towards the fire, their muddy paw prints drying in tell-tale paths on the floor. The kettle hisses on a gass flame, a kitten is curled up in a sweet spiral. A day for gentle pursuits.<div><br></div><div>I have been feeling a pull toward starting to write again, needing to push aside the all too familiar feelings of inadequacy and lack of inspiration. Reading can be a gentle pursuit, but writing... Writing is a discipline, at least for me it is.<div><br></div><div>Have you ever noticed how close discipline is to disciple? This got me thinking. Discipline (according to Oxford) is; "the practice of training or being trained to obey rules or a code/pattern of behaviour, where punishment can be used to correct behaviour. Or; a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education."</div><div>The noun "disciple" comes from the Latin word discipulus, which means student, learner or follower.</div><div><br></div><div>One can certainly be disciplined without being a disciple, but to be a true disciple, requires discipline. The discipline of a disciple of Jesus however, is not one imposed by other people. Rather it is self-discipline under Christ. Paul said to Timothy: "Discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness" ~ 1 Timothy 4:7-8.</div><div><br></div><div>So is my motivation to start writing again "for the purpose of Godliness"? I have to be honest and say that I don't rightly know, but what I do know is that God is faithful beyond my doubts, and for that reason I will write. And trust that He will meet me as I walk towards Him on this yet unmapped road.</div><div><br></div><div><b>8 January 2023</b></div><div><br></div><div>To get back into the discipline of writing, I thought to begin with a form or journalling. Simply writing down the things that stand out from each day, whether it be from spending time with the Lord and in His Word, or preparing a meal for my family. Walking our beautiful mountain paths or sweeping the floor...</div></div><div><br></div><div>Part of our weekend routine is to take our motley crew of five dogs for long, leisurely walks. Both the humans and canines adore these outings and we always return with our spirits lifted (the humans), and tongues happily lolling out the side of their mouths (the dogs). One of our favourite walks is around an area called Eureka, where the mountain landscape is truly awe-inspiring. The adjacent forest offers a cool canopy overhead, and a scented floor of pine needles underfoot.</div><div><br></div><div>Today, the Elandsberg was an amphitheatre, where nature boldly declares the glory of the risen God. Here, the display of grandeur can make you want to soar above it all, and yet kneel small and humbled at the Creator's feet. "<i>In one hand He holds the mysteries of the earth, and in the other He holds the highest mountain peaks." ~ </i>Psalm 95:4</div><div><br></div><div>Later this morning we sang with our friends: "My beloved is mine and I am His, His banner over me is love... I'm safe and secure on the Rock of all ages, His banner over me is love." Our self-conscious teenaged son sang it with what seemed like slight embarrassment, but the refrain stayed with me and sprinkled a deep and sweet joy over the rest of my day. How can I not soar on wings like eagles with the certainty of such a love. How can I not step boldly into the new year, this banner of love and protection always over me, regardless of what the days, weeks and months may bring.</div><div><br></div><div>"<i>He will cover you with His feathers.</i></div><div><i>He will shelter you with His wings.</i></div><div><i>His faithful promises are your armor and protection" </i></div><div>~ Psalm 91:4</div><div><br></div><div>May you too, be encouraged by knowing that the God who holds the mysteries of the earth in one hand, and the highest mountain peaks in the other, has you covered. With love and protection, with a strong hand to guide you, a caring heart to comfort you, heavenly stores to provide for you.</div><div><br></div><div><i>"Taste and see that the Lord is good,</i></div><div><i>blessed are those who take refuge in Him.</i></div><div><i>Fear the Lord, His holy people,</i></div><div><i>for those who fear Him lack nothing.</i></div><div><i>The lion may grow weak and hungry,</i></div><div><i>but those who seek the Lord, lack no good thing.</i></div><div><i>~ </i>Psalm 34:8-9</div><div><br></div><div><i><br></i></div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-44635294207666508042021-08-19T03:27:00.013-07:002021-08-20T04:22:45.647-07:00Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. <div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbxjUy2SfKstbVcBBAbhMJUrEp2yMXwfyQrLC8UbhtNyrZ_4RiCJkBCmgFbFNATh6am2jQTRH7WlNIbjfL4OpUblpcdn-O1op6p6OmfiOeJdIFuLDRH6IsRD0jqrm0LkIwkRHD7ial3-E/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="704" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbxjUy2SfKstbVcBBAbhMJUrEp2yMXwfyQrLC8UbhtNyrZ_4RiCJkBCmgFbFNATh6am2jQTRH7WlNIbjfL4OpUblpcdn-O1op6p6OmfiOeJdIFuLDRH6IsRD0jqrm0LkIwkRHD7ial3-E/" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">Watch, </span><span style="background-color: white;">stand fast in the faith, be brave, </span><span style="background-color: white;">be strong. ~ 1 Corinthians 16:13</span></i></span></div><div><br /></div>It is a cold and rainy August day in the mountains. The sound of water is everywhere, dancing on the roof of our wooden home, trickling through the holes in the gutters, overflowing from the water tanks, running in muddy rivulets down the winding paths and lanes of our village. There is a warm fire in the hearth, a singing kettle on the stove and five damp dogs, snoring contentedly on the rugs.<div><br /><div>There is abundance here, such abundance... On a day like this, the horrors of the recent Taliban takeover and the consequences for the people of Afghanistan seem almost unimaginable. But then I read that some Afghan believers are choosing to stay in that place of oppression and persecution, even if it means that they will die. The Holy Spirit has placed it on their hearts not to flee, but to stay and share the gospel and hold out the light of Hope that is Jesus our Saviour.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>I quote this from an unknown believer: "This is how I know I'm not worthy to stand in the midst of so many Christians across this planet. The ones who choose not to run and cower in the face of death, but instead face it head on, if it means showing love to another without compromising on truth and what is godly. This is what it means to make your lamp stand shine brighter in the midst of darkness and why evil will never triumph over good. "</div><div><br /></div><div>Is that not abundance? When all else is stripped away and our God gives the courage and conviction to truly place His Kingdom before our earthly safety and comfort. My prayer is that God will pour out His love abundantly on these faithful warriors, that He will give them His peace that passes all understanding. And that the joy of knowing that should He ask of them the ultimate sacrifice, their faces, like Stephen, will radiate with the glorious vision of heaven before them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is that not abundance? God has always loved generously, through suffering and persecution, He has never abandoned those who are called by His name. And He never will. </div><div><br /></div><div>I pray, with all my heart, that when God calls us to choose Him and His Kingdom above ALL else, that we would also, like Peter, turn from the comfort of the coal fire, jump from the safety of the boat, to walk on water with Jesus.</div><div><br /></div><div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Counted Worthy</b></span><br /><br />This weighty burden thou dost bear,<br />This heavy cross,<br />It is a gift the Lord bestows,<br />And not a loss;<br />It is a trust that He commits<br />Unto thy care,<br />A precious lesson He has deigned<br />With thee to share.<br /><br />Rejoice that He so honors thee<br />And so esteems<br />Of highest worth; the crown of thorns<br />With Him to wear,<br />And all the suffering of that crown<br />With Him to bear,<br />That by and by His glory, too,<br />With Him thou’lt share.</span><br /><br />Annie Johnson Flint<br /><br />Acts 5:41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.<br /><br />Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.<br /></div>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-87337674218851052802019-09-21T02:55:00.000-07:002019-09-23T18:55:59.509-07:00Intended: To the praise of the glory of His grace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is hot and hazy. A cool breeze sweeps mercifully through the wide open doors and windows of our mountain home. The deep, resonant call of an African Olive pigeon brings the forest closer, frogs call in hope of much needed rain. There is a flurry of activity at the bird feeder, while bees and butterflies visit the lavender and pineapple sage with a regularity and <span style="color: #4c1130;">intent</span> that is both soothing and reassuring. A few nights ago I lay awake, trying to pray, while my mind kept wandering into a maze of disjointed thoughts. At some point, a single word came into my head, and I remember thinking: "This seems important, I should explore it when daylight comes." Then daylight came, with all it's busyness and distractions, and the word was forgotten. After I'd served the midday meal and everything was cleared away, I sat down (where we all have to sit down from time to time), and the previous night's time of sleeplessness came back to me. But the word which had seemed so conspicuous then, remained elusive. "Is it important Lord?", I asked. "If so, please help me remember it." And there it was: "<span style="color: #4c1130;">Intentional</span>". The word was clear, but it's meaning and application remained a mystery. So, that is why I decided to look into the deeper meaning of the word, more specifically, relating to the character of God, as well as it's possible application in my life, and perhaps yours...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The meaning of the word <span style="color: #4c1130;">intentional </span>according to the Cambridge English dictionary is: "<i>planned, intended or deliberate</i>" The definition is: "<i>done by intention or design</i>". <i>Purposeful, willed or conscious</i> are a few more synonyms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My first thought, before I even opened my bible, was that perhaps Jesus is asking me to be more <span style="color: #4c1130;">intentional</span> about the way I serve Him, as I know I can be quite haphazard in much that I do. With Him as an example, I thought to look at some of the ways in which God was and is <span style="color: #4c1130;">intentional </span>through His Word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The creation as we see it in Genesis was clearly<span style="color: #4c1130;"> intentional</span>. The <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended </span>reason why, perhaps not always so. The short answer, that resounds like rolling thunder throughout the bible is: "God created the world and everything in it, <i>for His glory"</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Isaiah 43: 6b-7 says: “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” The use of the words created, formed and made, point right back to the original act of creation. This is then clearly why all things ultimately exist and what God had <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended</span> for all things, - for His glory. But when man was created in the image of God, what was His "<span style="color: #4c1130;">intention</span>"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The point of an image is to image. Images are erected to display the original — to point to the original, glorify the original. God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with "reflectors" of God. So that nobody would miss the point or <span style="color: #4c1130;">intention</span> of creation. Then one may ask, if earth is the only inhabited planet and man the only rational inhabitant among the stars, why the whole empty universe? What was God's <span style="color: #4c1130;">intention</span> with all that? Is He perhaps trying to show us that it really isn't about us after all, that we are created to love and know and show Him, and the universe serves to give <i>us</i> a glimpse or hint of what <i>He</i> is like? "His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God". ~ Romans 1:20-21.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are many more verses in scripture that help to press this home, should we loose sight of God's <span style="color: #4c1130;">intention</span> with all that was created. Here are a few:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; . . . And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 40:4–5)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols." (Isaiah 42:8)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel." (Isaiah 44:23)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you. . . . I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another." (Isaiah 48:9–11)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” (Isaiah 49:3)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you." (Isaiah 60:2)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor . . . to give them . . . the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that HE may be glorified." (Isaiah 61:1–3)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I read earlier that our lives are intended to be like "telescopes for the glory of God". We were not only created to see and reflect His glory, be amazed and thrilled by it, but to magnify Him, so that others may see and savour Who He Truly Is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next question may be: "why this world"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Why these thousands of years of human history with a glorious beginning, and a horrible fall into sin, and a history of Israel, and the coming of the Son of God into the world, a substitutionary death, a triumphant resurrection, the founding of the church and the history of global missions to where we are today? Why this world? This history? </i>(John Piper)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The short answer to that question is: <i>For the glory of God’s grace displayed supremely in the death of Jesus. </i>Or to say it more fully: this world, all history as it is unfolding, was created and is guided and sustained by God, <i>so that the grace of God, supremely displayed in the death and resurrection of Jesus for sinners, would be glorified throughout all eternity in the Christ- and joy-filled</i> <i>lives of the redeemed. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“God predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6). In other words, the glory of God’s grace -what Paul calls “the riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7) - is the pinnacle in the revelation of God’s glory. And would the aim of this <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended</span> predestination not simply be, that we live to the praise of the glory of this grace now and forever?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Paul says in Romans 9:22–23, “Desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, God has endured with much patience vessels of wrath . . . in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy.” God planned and <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended</span> this - even His wrath - the praise of the glory of his grace - before creation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/why-did-god-create-the-world#2-god-planned-this-the-praise-of-the-glory-of-his-grace-before-creation"></a>
“God chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:4, 6). Grace did not come as an afterthought in response to the fall of man. It was <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended</span>, the crown of His redemptive work. He <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended</span> the world for the glory of his grace, not as a playground for man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From before creation, it was God's <span style="color: #4c1130;">intention</span>, that the praise of the glory of his grace would come about through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/why-did-god-create-the-world#3-god-s-plan-was-that-the-praise-of-the-glory-of-his-grace-would-come-about-through-the-son-of-god-jesus-christ"></a>
Again, Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:9: “God called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” Before the ages of time began, the <span style="color: #4c1130;">intention </span>was for the glory of the grace of God to be revealed, through Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Before there was any human or sin to die for, God planned that his Son be slain for sinners. We know this because of the name given to the book of life before creation. “Everyone [will worship the beast] whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The name of the book before creation was “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” It is not easy for us to imagine a time before time, a time before Adam, a time when the God of the universe already <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended</span> this unfathomable grace,<span style="color: #4c1130;"> intended</span> the praise of the glory of His grace through Jesus' redemptive death on a cursed cross. But He did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For all eternity we will sing “the song of the Lamb.” We will lift our hands and proclaim: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). We will praise ten thousand things about our Savior. But we will not be able to say anything more glorious than this: you were slain . . . and ransomed millions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I started writing this, thinking that I would find a way in which to "live <span style="color: #4c1130;">intentionally</span>" for Jesus. To overcome a perceived flaw in my character. To understand what He had <span style="color: #4c1130;">intended</span> for me in this messy world. Instead, there is a new lustre in the night sky, millions of stars reflecting His glory back to me. Each crashing wave of the ocean tells it, the forest whispers it, birds sing it out! Each sunrise and sunset a megaphone shouting: "Look, it is Him, the Master!" And once again, the most beautiful realisation of all, is this: It is not about me, about what I do or say or write or make or think or pray... It is about how I show Jesus - by sitting at His feet, learning to know Him, loving Him. By becoming less, so that He can become more. By surrendering what I think I need to be, to the perfection that God is. By living out the freedom that His sacrifice bought. By living in the victory of His resurrection. By walking in the light that is Jesus. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All the while, knowing <i>this</i> to be true: that God chose me and you, before the foundation of the earth... to be accepted in the beloved, His Son Jesus, to the praise of the glory of His grace.</span></div>
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-39963254164697263132019-08-31T02:54:00.003-07:002019-09-01T21:56:17.659-07:00Seek His Face, Continually<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: large;"><b>Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face continually ~ </b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: large;"><b>1 Chronicles 16:11</b></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I</span>t is a crisp new morning. A heavy dew covers our wooden deck and sparkles on the blossom-bedecked Crabapple tree. The Cape Parrots make a noisy fly past across a clear, powder blue sky. New tender growth pushes through the leaf-covered ground and shows on the stark white limbs of Silver Birches. Spring is certainly in the air, but it is a subdued arrival this year. The normal exuberance of the season has been inhibited by an abnormal dry Winter in our mountain village. Dust hangs in suffocating clouds over our roads. Streams dry up and there is a mild panic in the air, as people realise that their once overflowing water tanks are empty and their taps may soon run dry. People gather to pray for the heavens to open, yet others call for rain dances to be performed, to appease the gods, ancestors, or whoever they believe to be with-holding the live-giving water.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The verse that is often used by Christians when praying in a time of drought or upheaval in our country is 2 Chronicles 7:14 ~ "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, <i>then</i> I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." I thought to look briefly into the background, context and deeper meaning of this verse. I looked at a few references besides the Bible and Bible commentary, but have found www.gotquestions.org for biblical questions and answers very helpful. Therefore some of the following was taken more or less directly from this source.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The key to understanding any verse of Scripture is <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/context-Bible.html">context</a>. There is the immediate context—the verses before and after it, as well as the larger context of Scripture—how the verse fits into the overall story. There is also the historical and cultural context—how the verse was understood by its original audience in light of their history and culture. Because context is so important, a verse whose meaning and application seem straightforward when quoted in isolation may mean something significantly different when it is taken in context.<br /><br />When approaching <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Chron%207.14">2 Chronicles 7:14</a>, one must first consider the immediate context. After Solomon dedicated the temple, the Lord appeared to him and gave him some <b>warnings</b> and <b>reassurances.</b> “The Lord appeared to him at night and said: ‘I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.’ When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”<br /><br />The immediate context of <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Chron%207.14">2 Chronicles 7:14</a> shows that the verse relates to Israel and the temple, and the fact that from time to time God sent <b>judgement</b> upon the land in the form of drought, locusts, or pestilence.<br /><br />A few verses later God says this: “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshipping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”<br /><br />No doubt Solomon would have recognised this warning as a reiteration of <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Deut%2028">Deuteronomy 28</a>. God had entered into a <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/Mosaic-covenant.html">covenant</a> with Israel and promised to take care of them and cause them to prosper as long as they obeyed him. He also promised to bring curses upon them if they failed to obey. Because of the covenant relationship, there was a direct correspondence between their obedience and their prosperity, and their disobedience and their hardship. <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Deut%2028">Deuteronomy 28</a> spells out <b>the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience.</b> Again, divine blessing and divine punishment on Israel were conditional on their obedience or disobedience.<br /><br />We see this blessing and cursing under the Law play out in the <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Judges.html">book of Judges</a>. Judges chapter 2 is often referred to as “The Cycle of the Judges.” Israel would fall into sin. God would send another nation to judge them. Israel would repent and call upon the Lord. The Lord would raise up a judge to deliver them. They would serve the Lord for a while and then fall back into sin again. And the cycle would continue.<br /><br />In <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Chron%207">2 Chronicles 7</a>, the Lord reminds Solomon of the previous agreement. If Israel obeys, they will be blessed. If they disobey, they will be judged. The <b>judgement</b> is meant to bring Israel to <b>repentance</b>, and God assures Solomon that, if they will be humble, pray, and repent, then God will forgive them and <b>deliver</b> them from the judgement.<br /><br />In context <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Chron%207.14">2 Chronicles 7:14</a> is a promise to ancient Israel that, if they will repent and return to the Lord, He will rescue them. As the true church - His people who are called by His name - we are part of this covenant and God's dealings with Israel serve as an example to us. But it also means that the promises of this covenant are indeed conditional. There is a popular interpretation that if Christians humble themselves and pray for their nation that God promises to heal their land - often a moral and political healing is expected as well as economic healing. The question is whether or not this is a proper interpretation/application.<br /><br />The first problem that the modern-day, “Westernized” interpretation encounters is that we do not have the same covenant relationship with God as a nation, that ancient Israel enjoyed. Certainly, if a nation is in trouble, a prayerful and repentant response by Christians in that nation is always appropriate and part of what God calls us to do. However, there is another issue that is often overlooked.<br /><br />When ancient Israel repented and sought the Lord, they were doing so en masse. The nation as a whole repented. It was national repentance. There was never any indication that a small minority of the nation (a righteous remnant) could repent and pray and that the fate of the entire nation would change. God promised deliverance when the entire nation repented.<br /><br />When <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Chron%207.14">2 Chronicles 7:14</a> is applied to any modern nation, it is usually with the understanding that the Christians in that nation—the true believers in Jesus Christ who have been born again by the Spirit of God—will comprise the righteous remnant. God never promised that if a righteous remnant repents and prays for their nation, that the nation will be saved. Perhaps if national repentance occurred, then God would spare a modern nation as He spared Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah (see <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Jonah%203">Jonah 3</a>)—but that is a different issue.<br /><br />Having said that, it is always appropriate to confess our sins and pray—in fact it is our duty as believers to continuously confess and forsake our sins so that they will not hinder us (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Heb%2012.1">Hebrews 12:1</a>) and to pray for our nation and those in authority (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/1%20Tim%202.1%E2%80%932">1 Timothy 2:1–2</a>). God in His grace will bless our nation as a result—but there is no guarantee of national deliverance. Even if God did use our efforts to bring about national repentance and revival, there is no guarantee that the nation will be politically or economically saved. As believers, we are guaranteed personal salvation in Christ (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Rom%208.1">Romans 8:1</a>), and we are also guaranteed that God will use us to accomplish His purposes, whatever they may be. It is our duty as believers to live holy lives, seek God, pray, and share the gospel knowing that all who believe will be saved, but the Bible does not guarantee the political, cultural, or economic salvation of our nation.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So how do we then pray for deliverance, whether from regional or national drought or political/economical/moral crises? We know from the above that God judges individuals and areas, but that there is also a judgement of nations. That is how we know that we cannot scorn our responsibility to pray for our country and it's people. No one can really prescribe to another how to pray, whether it is for our country, brothers and sisters in Christ, family, friends or those who do not know or wish to know Jesus. It is in humble submission and drawing closer to Jesus, that the Holy Spirit will help us to pray sincerely and powerfully. It is also in this place of surrender and reliance that we will experience the Lord's peace, grace and strength, in the midst of His judgement on our nation as a whole. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not only a call to prayer, <b>it is call to repentance, for a people and individuals to "get right with God"</b>. It suggests responsibility on the hearer's part. God was saying to Solomon, "You are the man to carry my flame into the world." And, to the nation of Israel, "You are the people. The responsibility of proclaiming my forgiveness and healing is yours.<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span> At the start of the chapter, at the dedication of the temple a fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering (which was rather substantial) and the "glory of the Lord filled the temple". (The temple symbolised commitment to worship and partnership with God.) So there they were, amidst a huge bonfire that simply fell from heaven, the smell of burnt meat all around them. If there was one or two who were not on their knees by now, the glory of the Lord would have brought them face-down with awe and trembling from head to toe. God has always used fire to identify His presence and to purify His people. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">People who are right with God are separated from the world. They are sanctified and made holy. Jesus himself prayed that all his followers would be separated from the world, "I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify Myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth" (John 17:15-19). Jesus used the word sanctify three times. It means to set apart for sacred use or make holy. Remember what Peter wrote, "but, as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16).<br /><br />A person who is right with God is a person made holy. They have separated themselves from the world. They have distanced themselves from sin. They have detached themselves from evil. It shows in how they live, how they talk, and how they think.<br /><br />A law of physics states that two objects cannot occupy the same space. That is also true regarding our hearts. God and sin can never occupy the same space. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">People who are right with God, who have fallen in love with the God of the universe, meet Him in his consuming glory. They long to meet God in worship and prayer. They know that worship and prayer is not a means to an end, it is an encounter with the living God and part of an ongoing relationship with Him.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">People who are right with God are <b>humble</b>. They know that their Saviour Jesus, once humbled himself ultimately on the cross, so that we could be "made right" with our God. They know that there is nothing that we can do to save or sanctify ourselves. We do what we do, out of obedience and for the glory of God, any other reason would be conceited or for our own gain. He longs for us to "seek His face" constantly, spend time with Him, long to know Him and seek the truth in His Word. He does not say "seek my hand", as we so often just want a helping hand, rather than a personal encounter.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The last "condition" that God gives Solomon in this verse, is to turn from their wicked ways. It shows the direction of our walk, away from our sins, towards our God. Repentance literally means to turn around, to <b>change the direction in which the heart is inclined. </b>It is a change of mind that calls for a change of way. It is an act of the will, not just a "saying sorry" or a feeling.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Be encouraged by the knowledge that we serve a God who does not merely want lip service from His children. He wants an all-consuming, ongoing love-relationship with us. He wants to be the fire that cleanses, the fire that sets us aglow for Him. He wants us to not only cling desperately to His hand, but to look for His beautiful face, for there and there alone will we find His perfect presence, His perfect will, and His joyful response to our worship and prayer. </span></div>
mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-18830441034074108342019-05-20T03:45:00.004-07:002019-05-20T21:42:29.379-07:00Who builds your house?<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. ~ Psalm 127:1</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Autumn slips softly into the mountains. At first the changes are subtle. The pale limbs of Silver Birches become exposed as yellowing leaves curl, and let go. Barely breathing or blinking, we spy on a Knysna Loerie. He is perched on a branch flanking the deck, his graceful neck and artfully painted face tilted towards us - frozen-to-the-spot inconspicuous.* In the distance, the first flecks of amber stand out against a green forest canopy. Dawn brings with it a hint of Winter, the smell of Wattle-smoke and a reluctance to leave the sweet warmth of night. I glance furtively at our woodpile, suddenly so insignificant, measured against the long winter months ahead. Outside our kitchen window, the tiny double collared sun-birds flit among the pineapple sage flowers. The male hangs upside down from a swaying stem, his jewel coloured breast shimmering in the sun. A curved beak disappears deep into the cerise heart of a flower. We find the swaying pod of their meticulously constructed nest near the washing line. The female (yes, the woman gets to build the house in this family... ) delicately weaves grasses, lichen, plant matter and spider webs to make a sturdy ball. Her design even includes a small veranda over the opening to shield her young from the elements. The interior of the nest is a cosy lining of soft plant matter, feathers, and fur.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I smiled (and cringed a little) as I remembered all the planning and deliberating that went into our wooden home. I had ambitious ideas of nooks and crannies, a loft for stargazing, carved wooden deck railings, etc... My brother (who was the builder, project manager and practical Dutch-stubborn-perfectionist), had other ideas. Which I eventually, although reluctantly, surrendered to, in order to save family relationships. With the result that we have a well-built, simple, strong and wonderful house that works. I also recall how meticulously the foundation was designed, and redesigned until my brother was absolutely sure that it would be sound, solid, secure, stable and enduring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When setting out to plan and/or build the home that one intends to live in, raise children, be safe from the elements, no-one would want to cut corners or settle for shabby workmanship. As I grew up the daughter of a builder, dusty, raw building sites were often my playgrounds. I have a distinct memory of my dad pushing over a newly built wall with the ball of his foot. I watched in horror as the bricks fell away from us (fortunately...). With his practised eye, he could see at a glance that it was no good. Not enough or too much "daga", the wrong mix of cement and sand in the daga, the bricks not laid properly, inadequate foundation... Whatever the reason, the builder of that wall had laboured in vain, and his efforts were destroyed in a second.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The reason my thoughts have been on houses and their construction, is this verse: "<i>Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain</i>." (Psalm 127:1). I picked it up in a song a while ago, and the phrase has been tip-toeing through my mind ever since. Even though the psalm was probably written by David for his son Solomon at the time when the temple was being built, it is not really our earthly houses or church buildings that God is concerned about. Both David and Solomon understood that the work of man had its place, but was of little ultimate consequence without the work and blessing of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Scripture a dispensation/system/family is called a house. Moses was faithful as a servant over all his house; and as long as the Lord was with that house it stood and prospered; but when He left it, the builders of it became foolish and their labour was lost. They sought to maintain the walls of Judaism, but sought in vain: they watched around every ceremony and tradition, but their care was idle. Of every church, family and every system of religious thought, this is equally true: unless the Lord is in it, and is honoured by it, the whole structure must sooner or later fall in hopeless ruin. Much can be done by man; we can both labour and watch; but without the Lord we have accomplished nothing, and our wakefulness cannot and will not ward off evil.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In John 2:19 Jesus tells the Jews who had been asking him for a sign to prove His authority: "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." Naturally the Jews were bewildered, hadn't it taken 46 years of building to finish the temple! But Jesus was referring to his body, and only after He walked out of that dark tomb, did the disciples understand... Later in John, we see Jesus comforting his disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit who was to come. He says:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, <b>and I in you</b>. 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.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 2 Corinthians 13:5, the apostle Paul asks the Corinthian believers a question: “Or do you not realise about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus is holy God, the Word (Logos) who became flesh, and we are fallen sinners. So how can Christ live in us? To accomplish His desire to dwell within mankind, God took some tremendous steps. First, God Himself became a man named Jesus Christ. This man, Jesus, lived an authentic human life on earth, yet without sin. In His living, His actions, and His speaking, He fully expressed God. After living and experiencing every aspect of human life for thirty-three and a half years, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Through His redemptive death, we can be forgiven of our sins and brought back to God. But this is not all. After three days He rose in victory from the dead, and in his resurrection became the life giving Spirit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul asks: "Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, your were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Temple" refers to the dwelling place or the house of God. The temple Solomon built was magnificent! Many parts of the temple were overlaid with pure gold, including the altar and the inner sanctuary (1 Kings 6:21-22). Why?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our bodies, which are to be the temple of the Holy Spirit are equally magnificent. Made so, only by God's indwelling. Made holy and pure by His presence. The body that receives the gift of the Holy Spirit is precious to God and is to reflect His nature<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: white;">. I </span></span>have been asking myself: Do I live in an awareness that my frail, fleshy body, houses the Spirit of the living Christ? Does His Word dwell in me richly? Do I keep the dwelling place of God clean for Him? Do I allow Jesus to build daily onto the wonderful foundation of His saving grace in me? Or do I labour in vain for "things" that please people or myself, rather than the Spirit that lives in me? Do I care more for my outward appearance than for the sanctuary that Jesus has made inside of me?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">David praised God for His amazing creation - the human body. As I followed the development of our two children in my womb, I could echo those words - fearfully, wonderfully... But why fearfully? The Hebrew word for fearful is "<i>yare</i>", which can be translated as "to be afraid" or "to stand in awe". The way we were made, in the image of God, is not so that we can honour these amazing bodies we were given, striving to keep physically strong and happy. God alone is worthy of our awe. More and more, it is Jesus who I stand in awe off as I watch our children grow, knowing that their precious bodies also, were made for Him to live in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I want to live in the awareness that my body is the temple of God. It is a temporary dwelling, held together only by His grace. In the increasing limitations of my own body, I want to be aware that I serve a limitless God. God who made the perfect way through Jesus, to receive not only forgiveness for sin, but His life-giving Spirit. God who has made a way, for what is decaying, to be eternal, beyond the bonds of bones and flesh... </span></div>
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*<span style="font-size: x-small;">These striking birds (the 10 species of the Turaco and the 2 of the Musophaga) are the only birds to possess true red and green colour. When you look at most birds, the color you are seeing is a reflection produced by the feather structure. The Turaco's red pigment (turacin) and green pigment (turacoverdin) both contain copper. In fact, if you stirred a glass of water with a red Turaco feather, the water would turn pink! The Knysna Loerie is thought to use its red wing feathers to escape predators. Indeed, when it flies, the predators tend to focus on the most visible colour and follow the red patch. As the Loerie lends and folds its wings, the red feathers of the wings become invisible and the Loerie has a chance of escaping unseen.</span></div>
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-2868673870301417182019-02-26T01:14:00.001-08:002019-02-28T10:28:01.207-08:00Be Refreshed!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">He shall come down like rain upon the </span><span style="color: #38761d;">mown grass,</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> as showers that water the earth. ~ </span></i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Psalm 72:6</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is a mercifully <span style="color: #0b5394;">cool</span> morning, with gentle <span style="color: #0b5394;">breezes</span> tugging at the curtains. Everything seems to sigh with relief after the melting heat. Our boys discover an old shoe-box full of photographs and time slips away, as we rummage through the past. The beds unmade, our little cat curled contentedly between us. The year has once again settled into a vaguely familiar rhythm, even if it tends to be a syncopated, abstract beat at times. When <span style="color: #0b5394;">clouds</span> swell and gather, we look longingly towards the horizon for a promise of <span style="color: #0b5394;">moisture</span>...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As parts of our country still thirst desperately for rain, and people become wearied by the pressing responsibilities and realities of the "not so new" year, I thought to turn towards the bible for a little time of <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hosea 6:3 says: "Then we shall know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He shall come unto us as the<span style="color: #134f5c;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">rain</span>, as the latter and the former <span style="color: #0b5394;">rain</span> unto the earth."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Palestine was especially dependent upon <span style="color: #0b5394;">rain,</span> since the people who lived there, cultivated the sides of hills and terraces, which were parched and dry when the <span style="color: #0b5394;">rains</span> were withheld. The "former," or autumnal <span style="color: #0b5394;">rain</span>, fell in October, at the seed-time; the "latter" or spring <span style="color: #0b5394;">rain</span>, in March and April, and it was this<span style="color: #0b5394;"> rain </span>that filled the ears of grain before harvest, <span style="color: #0b5394;">reviving</span> and <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshing</span> the earth to produce an <span style="color: #38761d;">abundant </span>yield. If either were withheld, the <span style="color: #38761d;">harvest</span> failed...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In this we see a wonderful likeness of Him who is the Beginning and the End of our spiritual harvest. To know God is the secret to all wisdom, and for this reason we were created. To know Him as our Saviour, Master, Protector and Friend. It is the source of deep, lasting joy, regardless of the circumstances. The want or lack of this knowledge, can lead to misery and spiritual drought.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Refreshment</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">" means restoring strength, energy and vigour. A light snack is sometimes referred to as a ‘<span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshment’</span>. Rest or exercise can bring physical <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshment</span>.<br /><br />Paul tells Philemon that he has ‘<span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshed </span>the hearts of the saints’ (Philemon 7). Later on in the letter, Paul asks him to ‘<span style="color: #0b5394;">refresh</span> my heart in Christ’ (v.20). But how do we <span style="color: #0b5394;">refresh</span> our minds, hearts and souls?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. <span style="color: #0b5394;">Refresh</span> your mind with the words of God (Psalm 119:121-128)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gold is the most valuable thing this world knows. It cannot be tarnished. It shines with a glow like no other metal. Gold is the one metal that all humankind bows down to. Yet, God’s words are far more valuable than even the finest gold. The psalmist writes: ‘I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold’ (v.127).<br /><br />The source of the psalmist’s soul <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshment </span>is God’s words. Earlier in the psalm he said, ‘My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times … My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word’ (vv.20,28). <br /><br />Nothing <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshes</span> mind, body and soul, like God's Word. <br /><br />2. <span style="color: #0b5394;">Refresh</span> your heart with the people of God. (Philemon 1:1-25)</span></div>
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Paul writes to his friend Philemon to ask for a favour (v.1). Philemon had a slave called Onesimus who had escaped. Whilst Onesimus was on the run, Paul had led him to Christ (v.10).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, in this letter, which is full of grace, humility, genuine love and charm, Paul writes to persuade Philemon to take Onesimus back – not as a slave (the normal fate of a runaway slave was death or flogging and branding on the forehead), but as a friend and brother (v.16). Centuries later, the ripple effect of these words contributed to massive social change. Local history became world history.<br /><br />It is a request that Paul knows will receive a "yes". He is absolutely confident that Philemon will do what he has asked him to do (v.21). It is a shining example for us, and a challenge, to bring love, forgiveness and reconciliation, especially among our brothers and sisters in Christ.<br /><br />Paul goes on to say, ‘Your love has given me great joy and encouragement because you have <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshed</span> the hearts of the saints’ (v.7). And he asks Philemon to <span style="color: #0b5394;">refresh</span> his heart in Christ by another act of love (v.20). His whole appeal for Onesimus is ‘on the basis of love’ (v.9).<br /><br />Forgiveness involves extending love and mercy to someone who has wronged or hurt you. It clears the way to reconciliation and restoration of a relationship.<br /><br />Love <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshes</span> the heart and the soul. Spending time with and edifying people we love and who love us, whether it is family, friends or neighbours,<span style="color: #0b5394;"> refreshes</span> our hearts and souls.<br /><br />3. <span style="color: #0b5394;">Refresh </span>your soul in the presence of God (Lamentations 2:7, 3:39)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We see in this passage that Jeremiah's heart is in great need of <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshment.</span> As he looks out at the devastation of Jerusalem, he is surrounded by the most appalling suffering. There is destruction all around. The people are starving. It has reached the point where there is the possibility of women eating their own children.<br /><br />It is not just that the suffering is all around Jeremiah. It is also in his own heart and soul. He writes, ‘My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground’ (2:11). His heart is pierced (3:13). He feels besieged and surrounded by ‘bitterness and hardship’ (v.5). He is dwelling in darkness (v.6).<br /><br />But he knows that the answer lies in the presence of the Lord. He writes, ‘Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like <span style="color: #0b5394;">water</span> in the presence of the Lord’ (2:19).<br /><br />He goes on, ‘My soul is downcast within me.<br />Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:<br />Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.<br />They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.<br />I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;<br />therefore I will wait for him.” <br />The Lord is good to those whose </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">hope </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">is in him,<br />to the one who seeks him …<br />Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his <span style="color: #38761d;">unfailing</span> love’ (3:20–25,32).<br /><br />Times of <span style="color: #0b5394;">refreshing </span>come from being in ‘the presence of the Lord’ (Acts 3:19). <br /><br />Our God’s mercy truly is <span style="color: #0b5394;">new</span> every morning. You and I have been given the <span style="color: #38761d;">freedom</span> to make a <span style="color: #0b5394;">fresh, new</span> start every single day. Regardless of the mess the previous day may have turned out to be. Every day we may seek Him, wait for Him quietly, <span style="color: #38761d;">hope </span>in Him, ask His forgiveness, and be <span style="color: #0b5394;">fully refreshed</span> by His beautiful presence, His wondrous Word, and His <span style="color: #38761d;">unfailing</span> love.</span></div>
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-39606618253555890512019-01-09T00:53:00.001-08:002019-01-12T07:17:40.126-08:00Selah...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is a new year... Cicadas' buzzing song infuses the heat and the cat is stretched long and limp at my feet. On cool forest walks, we spot the first wild mushrooms, with the Rameron Pigeons cooing in the forest canopy. Bramble berries ripen in the sun. It is a season of abundance, fruit trees bend low under the weight of mellowing fruit, fields of wild flowers dazzle, lush green foliage whisper in the breeze. The call of the seldom seen but often heard Piet my Vrou/Red Chested Cuckoo (called the Christmas-bird by the Xhosa people for obvious reasons) has become more drawn out and less urgent. The glossy starlings amuse us with their friendly chatter. A pair of inquisitive yellow billed hornbills come to perch on our deck-railings, clearly finding us as interesting as we find them. When the sun beats down, we slip into a nearby dam, mud curling between our toes. These long Summer days seemed endless, and "playtime" came to an end all too soon. We shed our childlike skins and square our shoulders to face reality. The pace picks up and time just skips ahead - an impatient child, rather hard to keep up with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As with previous years, I hoped to have a bible verse to make my own at the beginning of this year. A verse which would be like a reminder or promise or a "theme" for 2019. Instead, I got a word: <i>Selah</i>... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is not even a word that is read out loud most of the time. A mysterious little word, with no clear interpretation or translation. In many translations of the bible, it is just spelt out phonetically from the Hebrew. The NIV have removed it altogether. It appears 74 times in the bible, 71 times in Psalms, 3 times in the book of Habakkuk. That makes it more frequent than two other "famous" Hebrew words from the bible, "Amen" and "Hallelujah". So it is an important word. Up to very recently, I just had no idea what it meant, or how I could apply it to my every day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some biblical scholars speculate that it’s a kind of musical notation, maybe indicating something like a key change, or a repeat. Others think maybe it marks a pause, or a shift in subject or tone. But it is still just speculation. The word Selah is, and will remain, a mystery.<br /><br />For me, that’s kind of fitting. Some people may think that the Bible is simple, straightforward, and that they have it all figured out. Psalms, and especially "Selah" reminds me that there are many unanswered questions, many mysteries, "For now we see through a glass, dimly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." 1 Cor 13:12</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Charles Spurgeon (the Prince of Preachers) wrote a beautiful interpretation of the word Selah -<i> Lift up the heart. Rest in contemplation and praise. Still keep the soul in tune... let it be our aim to maintain the uprising devotion of our grateful hearts...</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With that in mind, I thought to look at one Psalm and how "Selah" lifts my heart, moves me to rest in contemplation and praise, keeping my soul in tune, maintaining the uprising devotion of my grateful heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I chose Psalm 46. Two years ago our boys memorised this Psalm verse by verse. Reading it, I still see their faces, frowning with concentration and dramatising the "dramatic" parts with flourish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Psalm 46 is not advice, like Proverbs or Psalm 1. It’s not about me, or you or anyone else. Psalm 46 is about God. It is reassurance about who our God is, where God is, and what God has promised us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.<br /><br />2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;<br /><br />3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. <span style="color: #660000;">Selah.</span><br /><br />4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.<br /><br />5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.<br /><br />6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.<br /><br />7 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. <span style="color: #660000;">Selah</span>.<br /><br />8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.<br /><br />9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.<br /><br />10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.<br /><br />11 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. <span style="color: #660000;">Selah</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">Firstly, our God is a God of <b>Might</b>. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">Selah</span></i><span style="color: #990000;">.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> God is our strength. The one who breaks the bow and shatters the spear, who will, on the wonderful day appointed by Him, make wars cease to the end of the earth. Or, as Martin Luther famously paraphrased this Psalm: </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">A Mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing! </span>(</i>bulwark: a defensive wall, rampart, fortification, protector, guard, defender; or a ship's sides above the level of the deck.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Our God is a God of <b>Might</b>.<br /><br />Secondly, our God is a God of <b>Mystery</b>. <span style="color: #990000;"><i>Selah</i>.</span> Psalm 46 reminds me that no matter how desperately I want to understand why things happen in this world, why God does or does not do the things I may think God should do… there will always be some things beyond my ability to comprehend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I value this mystery because it enables me to feel and trust in God’s love… love that was fully revealed in Christ Jesus. It reminds me that we are the players of life in God's universe, not the playwright.<br /><br />God is always greater than our understanding of Him and there will always be mystery about Him that causes us to fall down in awe and worship. This mystery, which we may try to categorise, keeps causing struggles in our life. Every time we get God tidied up like a ball of rubber bands, another end bursts out and the struggle begins all over again... until we learn to live in faith with untidy ends. If everything was clear, then faith would be irrelevant! We are not called to solve the mystery... but enter it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our God is a God of <b>Might</b>, and a God of <b>Mystery</b>.<br /><br />But finally, and perhaps most importantly, our God is <b>in our Midst</b>. <i><span style="color: #990000;">Selah</span></i><br /><br />Immanuel.<br /><br />God with us, among us, ever present;<br /><br />Before we were born, throughout our lives, and after our days are done;<br /><br />God who stands with us and strengthens us today and for the road ahead;<br /><br />God who watches over us, guides us, protects us, comforts us. <i><span style="color: #990000;">Selah.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Might, Mystery in our Midst...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, as the year and the unknown stretches out before you and I, let us enter into the mystery that is our Trinue God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. With trusting hearts lifted up. Resting in contemplation, with souls in tune, keeping the uplifted devotion of our grateful hearts...</span><br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-86557750885110172972018-04-06T02:30:00.002-07:002018-04-09T21:00:38.911-07:00I believe, help thou my unbelief<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more</span>. (Psalm 71:14)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is Autumn. A mellowness settles over the land as Summer slowly fades. The Maples have amber crowns, flurries of leaves drift from the Silver Birches. The last bounty of wild mushrooms filled our home with their delicious earthy scent. The Loeries visit often. We hear their raucous calls before the telltale burst of red passes overhead. A pair of sun-birds dart in and out of the pineapple sage outside my kitchen window. I watch them hovering over the crimson flowers from the corner of my eye, while preparing our food or doing the dishes. Our boys report the sighting of two rabbits in the forest, shy but inquisitive. We linger outside, relishing the soft golden days, interspersed with grumbling storms and torrents of silver rain. I become aware of a nostalgic kind of longing, most likely brought on by the shift of seasons. Like bitter-sweet memories of a seaside holiday, on a cold, mist-shrouded morning.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span><span style="color: #783f04;">Life in the mountains continues to be both a blessing and a challenge. Little foxes keep nudging at the gate. Causing doubts that distort into knots of fear in the dead of night. But when the first light of a new day seeps through the curtains, a deep breath of hope loosens the cords.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">Reading through the "Easter story" with the boys recently, there were a few things that glowed with new and deeper meaning. It is not always easy to put the beauty of a spiritual truth into words that will convey its depth aptly, but I will try.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Jesus sang!</b></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="color: #783f04;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #783f04;">On the first night of Passover, after Jesus had shared His last supper with His friends, they did one last thing together before they headed out into the night. "When they had sung the hymn," it reads, "they went out to the Mount of Olives" (Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26). My Lord worshipped. Knowing full well what lay ahead for Him, He joined His voice with those of His friends, in a song. A song of praise, a Psalm, the music that rings through the ages in the hearts of all believers. God inhabits the praise of those who love and serve Him. Praising God with singing; even in the darkest moments, means to draw really close. Living out the hope that we have as His redeemed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">"We have this hope that burns within our hearts,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hope in the coming of the Lord.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have this faith that Christ alone imparts,</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Faith in the promise of His Word.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We believe the time is here,</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When nations far and near.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Shall awake, and shout and sing:</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hallelujah, Christ is King!"</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Jesus understands our fears and doubts</span><span style="color: #660000;">.</span><span style="color: #783f04;"> </span></b></span></span><span style="color: #783f04;">Although Christianity is sometimes portrayed as an unthinking, monotonous, and even unrealistic faith, the Bible has quite a lot to say about doubt. Christianity clearly has faith at its core, yet doubt gets very good coverage in the Scriptures. The New Testament’s most prominent doubters are Jesus’ own disciples. That they doubted, does not surprise me, don't we all? It is Jesus' reaction to their unbelief, that takes my breath away.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">On a dusty road, two of His disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, talking about all that had happened. Jesus himself came up and walked with them, joining in their conversation. Emmaus was a little more than 11 kilometers outside Jerusalem. Yet Jesus did not rush them. They were downcast, blinded by their own disappointments, and He simply walked with them, listening, hearing their confusion, their doubts. Then, He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27).</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">"Beginning with Moses and <i>all </i>the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in <i>all</i> the Scriptures concerning himself..." That must have taken a looong time. He did not dismiss them for their foolishness, for being slow to believe. He simply kept walking, alongside two doubting men, giving of himself, explaining all that was written about himself. He wanted them to understand as well as to believe. He still does. Then, after a long, hot day on foot, they urge the compelling stranger to stay with them for the night. There was something about him... Jesus goes with them to their home, has a meal. At the table, after He gave thanks, He breaks the bread and gives it to them. Only then were their eyes opened. Doubt fled as the light of truth flooded the room. They hurry back to Jerusalem, (another 11+km), their hearts burning with what had been revealed to them. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There, they found the Eleven and those with them, gathered together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told them what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. But e</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">ven when presented with eye witness accounts, there was still doubt. Then, a hush fell over the room. Right there, seemingly from out of nowhere, Jesus stood among them and said: "Peace be with you.". And they... thought He was a ghost! It seems ludicrous, but I wonder if I would I have reacted any different...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">How I would love to have been in that room when Jesus said (knowing their thoughts): "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is myself! Touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and blood as I have." There He was, real, tangible, the cruel scars on the skin of his hands and feet, yet fully God. The Conqueror of death. Defeating natural laws. Bewildering those hindered by these same laws. (Our oldest son loved this part. Whenever he is told that something is so, his first request is to see it. Then presented with the evidence, wherever possible, it has to be touched and handled before he is satisfied.) When Jesus saw that they were finding it all too good to be true, He asked them for a bite to eat. I can just see them scuttling to their feet, someone offering a piece of broiled fish with shaking hands. And watching Him take and eat it, their own mouths agape. What a joyful moment it must have been when their minds were finally quickened to accept what was right before them all the time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">This is the Jesus I am coming to know, bit by beautiful bit. Patient, kind, gentle, understanding. Forgiving, caring and just. Always drawing our eyes back to His Word. Now, even more than then, there is so much in the world that would contradict our faith if we let it. Doubt is the unsettling "thing" that happens to us all when we experience "things" that don’t fit with what we understand of God and/or his creation. Jesus, as a perfect Spirit-filled, sinless human being, also experienced contradiction. Christians can expect contradiction to be a real, and difficult experience - one which might well lead to doubt. We only see things "blurrily" now, and we only see in part. But it will surely not be like this forever - the day will come when we will know fully. But while we are waiting, Jesus knows and understands us already. He was the one who started the relationship, not me. It helps me to remember that God knows me intimately, even if I don't always feel I know or understand Him. While we doubt, it is as if our eyes become subtly closed. It will seem dark. But the love of God in Jesus still continues to shine all around you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">There is a poem written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "Who am I". These words sum it up in a simple and beautiful way. He wrote this poem in a Nazi prison, not long before he was killed. He was reflecting on the difference between the impression he gave that he had it all together, and the reality that he was eaten up with questions and doubt. But he finished the poem with words that were both a prayer and praise:</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #783f04;">Who am I? </span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Whoever I am, </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;">The following are the words of a song by Bill and Gloria Gaither, which tells us that even the greatest ambassadors for God's Kingdom, struggle with doubt.</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #783f04;">I believe help thou my unbelief<br />I'd take the finite risk of trusting like a child<br />I believe help thou my unbelief<br />I walk into the unknown trusting all the while<br /><br />I long so much to feel the warmth that others seem to know<br />but should I never feel a thing I claim Him even so<br /><br />I believe help thou my unbelief<br />I walk into the unknown trusting all the while...</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus is neither diminished nor changed by our doubts. He remains the same from everlasting to everlasting. It is in our daily praise and prayer that we continue to proclaim our belief, despite waves of contradiction all around us. Let Him put a new song in your heart, trust, walk into the unknown. For the unknown is known to God. We are known by God and loved; nonetheless!</span><br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-23841113565224111682018-03-08T03:32:00.001-08:002018-03-08T20:06:13.586-08:00Broken for a purpose<div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A bruised reed He will not break, and a smouldering wick He will not snuff out. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Isaiah 42:3)</span></div>
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The following is a post I wrote a few years ago. It was to serve as the final page of a blog book I originally printed as Christmas presents to friends and family. I kept it saved as a draft, and when I rediscovered it this morning, I decided to publish it. I hope it will edify someone, somewhere, who is hurting, or just needs to be reminded of his or her worth.</div>
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The smell of cut grass. When a piece of mountain wilderness is being tamed, it is more than just a hint on a breeze. It swirls around us for hours, lending a fresh sweetness to the day. Summer seems to tantalise us for a few days a week and then the temperature plunges again. Just to remind us that we live "above the tree line" - the highlands. In an Alpine climate. But for now, the day is sweet with fragrance and promise. I read somewhere that it is trauma that causes the grass to release this delicious scent. It is the smell of chemical defences and first aid. The lawn trying to save itself from injury... I prefer to think that it is yet another one of those intricate and beautiful details of nature that the Creator spoke into existence. To form part of the most spectacular symphony composed, the greatest work of art conceived. Created through Him, by Him and for Him.<br />
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When I sat down earlier to write the last page of this "book", I felt a sense of trepidation. Just like a photograph can never quite capture a moment, words can never convey what you truly feel in your heart. There is always a filter. Something that lets through what sounds right and pleasing, but holds back what may give the wrong impression.<br />
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At the start of this blog journey, it felt so honourable, something that could fit in with my role of mountain Mama and housewife. It was an opportunity to witness, truthfully and with an open honest heart. But somewhere along the way, I realised that I had lost sight of that. I had become rather pleased with what I had achieved. But at other times I felt so uncertain about the validity of my efforts. Quite often, I was totally devoid of inspiration or real enthusiasm for what I wrote.<br />
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But looking back I realised, that in spite of me, Christ shines through it all. He is the fragrance that was emitted while I was thrashing out my own issues, my own brokenness and need for recognition. He alone knows the way my heart fits together. And yours. When the words were mine and when they were His.<br />
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Walking alongside a few precious woman in another journey of healing, I have become deeply aware of just how amazingly unique we were made. And how intimate and personal our walk with Jesus can be if we become vulnerable. When we yield rather than shield.<br />
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Often, much of what I wrote was inspired by what our small group have been working through this year. Woman that share the same love for Jesus, but honour this love, each in a totally different way. At our last meeting, as we also reflected on the path behind us, I was struck by how, even though we worked on the same content, the outworking of grace has been so personal in each one of these beautiful women's lives.<br />
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So, yes - this has mostly been underwritten by my own experiences and perceptions. The heartaches, joy, challenges and at times, just the everyday humdrum of life. But the banner over it all remains Jesus.<br />
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At night, when my family are safely tucked in, and their deep breathing slows the rhythm of our home, He is the One that smooths my hair away from my face to get a last look before the light is dimmed. He comforts me when anxious thoughts keep rest away. His name drives out fear and keeps pain at bay when the moon is dark and lies creep into unguarded places. With Him I have overcome and will continue to overcome. We are seated with Him in heavenly places. Now is the time to live it out as a present reality, rather than a future promise.<br />
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Each day, He gently puts a few more fragments of my once broken heart together. Shaping a breathtaking mosaic of grace. Mending it for a higher purpose.<br />
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When Jesus entered our world through the womb of a young girl, He deemed her worthy, even if she did not. When a tainted woman dried His perfumed feet with her hair, he reminded her of her worth, although she had lost sight of it. When a woman without hope, went alone to the well to draw water, he looked into her eyes, talked to her, offered her living water - made her feel worthy. When a condemned woman crouched on the hot sand, waiting for the first stone to hit her, He made the accusers drop their stones. In Him, she had found her worth.<br />
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When in the garden of Gethsemane, praying to the Father for the cup of suffering to pass Him by, God turned His eyes away from His Son. For in His plan, there has always been, and will always be: You. Each man, woman and child, created in His image, made worthy by this amazing love.<br />
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Then, on that dreadful cross, with the weight of all sin on His shoulders, your and my true worth was declared. Remember: You were worth dying for.<br />
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A bruised reed He does not break, a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish (Isaiah 42:3). Picture a slender bulrush, growing by the margin of some tarn or pond; its sides crushed and dented in by some outward power, a gust of wind, a sudden blow, the foot of a passing animal. The head is hanging by a thread, but it is not yet snapped or broken off from the stem. Christ deals tenderly with our hurts, our shortcomings and weaknesses. Where the flame of devotion burns at all, however feebly and dimly, the Messiah will take care not to quench it. Rather he will tend it, and trim it, and give it fresh oil, and cause it to burn more brightly. Our scars can be beautiful relics of a healing grace. We do not need to hide them with shame. When a broken heart allows the light and life of Christ to shine through it, how beautiful it becomes!<br />
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And then, one day, when we breathe our last breath in this marvellously messy, broken world of living as His redeemed, - we shall see Him as He sees us, face to face, the Lover and the loved. The apple of His eye, so precious in His sight. Regardless.<br />
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I thank each of you for sharing and enriching this journey so far. Thank you to my beautiful husband, who has been such a support and a source of insight. Thank you sweet children of mine, for letting me be, all the times when Mamma's eyes have been focused on a computer screen rather than on your precious faces. The way Christ is reflected in the eyes of these three people, is the greatest gift a woman can ask for.<br />
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Your journey is not mine. God has your exclusive race marked out for you, and no one else can claim to know how you should run it. What I do know, is that Jesus has won it for you. You only need to follow Him over the boulders or highways that He wishes to lead you on. There will be fields of green, quiet waters. But there will also be valleys and shadows. He is with you. His perfect love has driven out fear. We can risk returning this love, in the greatest Romance ever imagined.<br />
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May you rest in the Shadow of His Wings. Today, tomorrow and into Eternity.<br />
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With much love and hope<br />
Mariamountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-65498769402869026512017-10-23T07:53:00.002-07:002017-10-24T08:22:51.499-07:00Stand Fast<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is Monday. The beginning of a new week after a weekend of family time. Multiplied. We got off to a smashing start, literally. Earlier this morning, with a warm berg wind billowing the curtains, my husband decanted milk into a glass jug. As he turned around to put the bucket back in the fridge, the sound of shattering glass broke the sweetness of the morning. An oblong marble slab, balanced against the windowsill had somehow tipped over, leaving demolition in it's wake... Milk flowed unchecked from the counter, spreading into a wide white pool around the sharp shards. We stood staring at opposite sides of the pool on vulnerable feet. And then as if on cue, we both sprang into action. In less time than the degree of chaos suggested, the mess was cleaned up, shards and splinters retrieved and peace restored.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Over the last two months, there have been a series of incidents and situations which have decidedly unsettled my composure, challenged our comfort. Each time I considered writing about it, and each time shied away from it. Mostly it seemed too personal, and I had grown weary of exposure. But yesterday a subject came up, which cut to my heart. It was time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At the age of 42, I had accepted that we would not have children. It saddened me, especially since I knew how dearly my husband wanted us to have a baby. I had prayed about it for some time, and I'm sure he did also, so I had to accept that it was not to be. A short while after my 42nd birthday, I started feeling "different". The day before Christmas, the pregnancy was confirmed. We were both elated, although apprehensively so. Carrying life was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. The quickening, the sweetness of another heartbeat under my own, filled me with awe. As the weeks and months progressed, I followed the development of the child in my womb with growing wonder. When our son was born, it was as if God himself had placed this gift of life in our arms. And He did. I was completely in love with this boy, his eyes the hue of a clear winter sky. He consumed my days (and nights) and there was little room for much else but this boy child and his needs. I was 44, completely surprised and overwhelmed by motherhood. The second pregnancy knocked me backwards. I was not up to it, neither emotionally or physically. Yet, there it was, the sweet ripple of life across my belly. I feared for this little being, for the chaos that was our lives at that time, that he/she would be born into. There was one dark night, adrift among the flotsam of my own doubt and fear, when I thought the unthinkable. Would it not be better if this child was never born at all? In the sober light of a new day, the conviction of what I had allowed to enter my thoughts, brought me to my knees. I allowed forgiveness to flow over me. For hope to push away the dark shadows. We still had a long, thorny path to cross, but Jesus, who once bore a crown of thorns on His precious head, would walk it with me now. Our second son was born on a cool April morning, in the warmth and comfort of our cosy home, and with him, came once again, that sure touch of heaven as he entered our world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It could have been so different. Our boys, now aged 8 and 6, continue to be a real joy and a blessing to us. Many wounds have been healed over the years. But after all these years, when abortion is mentioned, I still feel the sting of that thought. When we drive through East London, the nearest city to Hogsback, posters advertising safe, quick, cheap and pain free abortions scream at you from lamp posts and crumbling walls. It is legal, it is justified, condoned. A woman's right to choose, they call it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A website for "Planned Parenthood" encourage woman to "decide on the right way for you to end your pregnancy." There is the option of in clinic abortion or an abortion pill. Both said to be safe and "very common". Their slogan is "<i>Care. No matter what.</i>" In 2015, the same "caring" abortion providers were found to be making fetal tissue (baby parts) available to researchers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The legal position in South Africa is that "any woman of any age can get an abortion by simply requesting it with no reasons given if she is less than 13 weeks pregnant. After 13 weeks, she may get an abortion if her own physical or mental health are at stake, if the baby will have mental or physical abnormalities, she is pregnant because of incest or rape, or if she is of the opinion that her economical or social situation is sufficient reason for the termination of pregnancy..." Quite a wide scope. "A woman under the age of 18 will be advised to consult her parents, but she can decide not to inform them if she so chooses. A woman who has a life partner or is married will be advised to consult her partner, but she can decide not to consult or inform him..." Two sections of the Bill of Rights in our country mention "reproductive rights". Section 12(2)(a) states that: "Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right to make the decisions regarding reproduction..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996 is the law governing abortion in South Africa. This Act has been described by the <i>Guttmacher Institute* </i>as "one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1998 the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court ruled that a foetus is not a person and does not have a right to life. This ruling however, does not have any scientific or religious grounding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is difficult for me to read laws, statistics, personal opinions, and so-called scientific justification for abortion without experiencing a deep sadness as well as anger. Even in a world that has no time for absolutes, for the ultimate reality, truth and decrees of a living, loving God, "thou shalt not kill" is still (arguably) the most basic moral and legal principle in any society. When did it then become "okay" to terminate life in the womb? As the redeemed of Christ, we should ask ourselves: Is an unformed life less precious to it's Creator? Does the bible even teach that human life begins at conception?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Every culture's view of when human life begins changes as society's values, moral standards, and knowledge about the process of embryonic development change. Prior to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed abortion on demand, developing embryos were considered unborn persons. Now, even a foetus that could survive on its own outside its mother's womb could be aborted, under certain medical circumstances. This demonstrates that the world does not consider an unborn child to be a true human being.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Even science tells us that human life begins at the time of conception. From the moment fertilization takes place, the child's genetic makeup is already complete. Its gender has already been determined, along with its height and hair, eye and skin color. The only thing the embryo needs to become a fully-functioning being is the time to grow and develop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Most importantly, God reveals to us in His Word that not only does life begin at conception, but He knows who we are even before then. God says in Jeremiah 1:5:<span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="text Jer-1-5" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-18952E" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-18952E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> "<i>Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations</i>."</span></span></span> King David wrote these beautiful words about God's role in our conception: "<i>For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb . . . your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be</i>" (Psalm 139:13, 16). </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Samson said, “</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">” (</span>Judges 16:17<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). He refers to his unborn self as having already been what God planned him to be - a Nazirite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Society continually seeks to devalue the lives of the unborn, creating its own definitions of humanity based on distorted views of morality. But the undeniable fact is that life begins at creation, and a human is created as soon as he or she is conceived. God is present at our creation; He is <i>the</i> Creator. Our value as human beings created in His image is conceived even before we are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is abortion murder? The Bible considers a foetus to be an unborn child, a planned human being that God is lovingly forming from the moment of conception. This being the case, it doesn’t really matter what human jurisprudence (the theory or philosophy of law) says, or how socially or politically acceptable abortion is. God’s law takes precedence. A mother who decides to abort her child is unilaterally making a decision to end another person’s life—and that is and always has been the definition of murder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some pro-choice advocates argue that they are not pro-abortion. They say they hate abortion, but support a woman's right to choose... This makes as much sense as saying that you personally hate rape, but support a man's right to commit it. The rhetoric sounds nice - the mention of “choice” makes it more appealing - but underneath is a direct conflict with God's Word.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Pro-choice advocates often state that their position is "compassionate" and that pro-lifers don't care about the woman or her child. This argument is a red herring for many. But whether pro-lifers “care” or not is not the issue, just as it is irrelevant whether those opposed to robbery “care” about the banks being robbed. Robbery is against God's moral law. So is abortion. And that’s the issue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Bible is clear: since God is the Creator of human life, only He can determine who lives or dies. And every person who claims the name of Christ has the obligation to make certain his or her views line up with His Word. Is it possible for a born-again Christian to be pro-choice? Unfortunately, yes. But is it likely that such a person will remain pro-choice? Not if he or she is allowing God’s Word to transform and renew his or her mind. (Romans 12:2).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One of the things that nobody talks about is the fact that when women have an abortion, they will incur guilt, and many of them will experience self condemnation. They will begin to feel the need for forgiveness pressing in on them. This is an issue we have to address because so many of us may know a woman or women who have had an abortion. You may be one of these women. Or like me, a woman who in a moment of despair, had one terrible thought of ending her unborn child's life. There was grace for me, there is grace for all of us. In the light of day, I was brought face to face with my own sinful state and how close I came to giving up. We need to minister to one another so we can know what forgiveness looks like in the aftermath of abortion, or even the thought of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Earlier today I read a very honest and touching blog, written by a woman who was persuaded by her parents to abort her baby at the age of 16. She writes: "Its been 19 years since I had my abortion. Even though I have been forgiven and set free from the bondage I was once in, the memories of that time in my life and my fateful decision still hurt so deeply upon remembrance."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She was eager to keep the baby at the time, but pressure from parents as well as grandparents, wore away at a teenager's resolve and she gave in. She writes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"I went to see the doctor who would perform the abortion. He had the nerve to tell me,”only a fool makes the same mistake twice.” He seemed so wise…I wonder how many mistakes he’s performed over his lifetime."<br /><br />The night before the “procedure” I asked the baby to forgive me. I held my tummy and cried."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">During her senior years at college the years of shame and guilt took their toll. She writes:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />"Tears were pouring down my face as I fell to my knees sobbing, crying out to the Lord, “what is wrong with me?! I am at the bottom and can’t go any lower. Please help me.” Darkness crept all over my spirit and I was worn down. My eyes were going dim and my bones could barely hold up my flesh. I was in a pit of despair. Then, “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry…”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She finally had the chance to grieve. She was led to a crisis pregnancy clinic where a kind, loving woman took her under her wing as they went through the bible study, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Forgiven-Set-Free-Post-Abortion-Bible/dp/080105723X">Forgiven and Set Free</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She writes: "I was able to admit my sin, mourn my loss, and accept forgiveness and grace. I finally felt like my feet were beginning to be planted on something…Someone real. “He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand…”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"I am now able to watch pro-life commercials and not leave the room. I can smile when I see little children instead of tear up. I can fully embrace my own children, knowing that it’s okay to enjoy them, God isn’t going to punish me for my sin of abortion – <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjD0lv8hx5o&feature=related">Jesus Christ already took that punishment for me on the cross</a>. I am free. You know what else? I can tell my story. I am covered in grace and protection…I am loved and forgiven. The shame I once carried lies at the foot of the cross; Satan has no power over me. God is the only one who has the authority to tell me who I am…and I am His."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We are His, from before we were formed in the womb. Jesus has chosen us, and we have the choice to choose Him. If we choose Him, we choose his commands. When our feet are set upon the rock that is Jesus, we need to know that on that firm place to stand, we will be called to <i>make </i>a stand. My prayer is that as more and more laws are passed in our country that attempt to take away the freedom wherewith Christ has set us free, that we will not be blinded or afraid. Jesus said in Matthew 10:16 "<i>I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The world was, then as it is now, hostile to believers - not incidentally hostile, but purposefully hostile. Jesus said: “<i>If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." </i>(John 15:18,19) Jesus has chosen us out of the world, and that choice cost Him his precious life and blood. There are choices which we will all have to make, sooner or later. Whether it be pro-life, or how to school or discipline our children. These choices may be very difficult, they may cost you dearly. But:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Be not dismayed whatever betide,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> God will take care of you!<br />Beneath His wings of love abide,<br /> God will take care of you! God will take care of you,<br />Through every day o’er all the way;<br />He will take care of you;<br /> God will take care of you!<br /><br />Through days of toil when heart doth fail,<br /> God will take care of you!<br />When dangers fierce your path assail,<br /> God will take care of you!<br /><br />All you may need He will provide,<br /> God will take care of you!<br />Trust Him, and you will be satisfied,<br /> God will take care of you!<br /><br />Lonely and sad, from friends apart,<br /> God will take care of you!<br />He will give peace to your aching heart,<br /> God will take care of you!<br /><br />No matter what may be the test,<br /> God will take care of you!<br />Lean, weary one, upon His breast,<br /> God will take care of you!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">* <i>The Guttmacher Institute is a research and policy organisation committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally.</i></span><br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-63937251743621743172017-08-22T00:22:00.001-07:002017-08-22T00:22:27.607-07:00Christ in us, the Hope of Glory<br />
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It is a deliciously warm day. Tender green shoots show on the mulberry tree. A Cape white eye risks a dip in the birdbath with kitten keeping vigil close by. Our boys tumble over each other in pursuit of the dog, who is hightailing down the stone steps with a teddy bear held tenderly in his jaws. White winter skin drinks in the sweet warmth. My babies have grown so tall, lean and strong, angles and bones where curves and dimples used to be. But in their birthday suits, feet shod in gumboots, they look vulnerable and dear.<br />
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Two weeks ago I sat down to write a blog. I thought the words would come as they always do. But after grinding out a few sentences, there was just a muddle of thoughts and nothing else. Since then, the days have just somehow swept past. For me there has always been a fine balance between discipline, creativity and obedience in what I write. The first two I mostly manage. But this morning I realised that my hunger to hear God, has been dulled by daily challenges, worry and busyness. I have forgotten how to listen. Forgotten how to be really still. Forgotten how to surrender and be vulnerable.<br />
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But Jesus has not forgotten me. This morning, as I prayed, He reminded of how He prayed for His disciples, how He prayed for me, for us who came to believe in Him. I reached for my neglected bible and re-read John 17, the most incredible High Priestly prayer in all of scripture. The whole chapter is a prayer, it is the Lord’s own prayer.<br />
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What makes this prayer special, is that Jesus did not draw aside as He normally did when he prayed to the Father. He concluded His final teaching to the disciples in John 14-16 with these beautiful words of comfort. "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world!" Then He looked up at heaven and prayed. This happened after they had eaten the Passover and the Lord's supper together. It was an intimate parting prayer, prayed in a closed room. It was a preface to His sacrifice, which He was about to offer here on earth. The eleven, who had become His family on earth, were probably quite unsettled and fearful after all that He had told them. It was the evening of Jesus' arrest, and His final words in front of those He loved and whom had loved and followed Him, was a prayer. The words of this prayer were written down and included in God's living Word, our Holy Bible. So that I may read it today, more than 2000 years later, and know that our Saviour and Mediator still intercedes for us today. But no longer as a man, but as the risen and glorified Christ, at the right hand of the Father. It is meaningful that He begins by praying for Himself. Though Christ, as God, was prayed to, Christ, as man, prayed to fulfill righteousness. These were and still are, His words:<br />
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“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. <b>Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.</b> I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.<br />
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"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. <b>Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. </b>While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.<br />
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I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.<b>They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. </b>Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.<br />
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My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, <b>that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.</b> May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. <b>I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity.</b> Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.<br />
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<b>Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am,</b> and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.<br />
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Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known <b>in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them</b>.”<br />
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There is so much here, too much to take in at a glance. But what really stood out for me, and has been at the back of my mind for quite a while, is the emphasis on "oneness". There has been much talk about "unity" among <i>people</i>, but is this what Jesus meant by being "one as we are one"?<br />
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Firstly, Jesus prays "<b>Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one." </b>By "them", Jesus was referring to those who believed in Him: "They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me." Jesus prays the protection of His own powerful name over those who had come to know and follow Him. In John 15:4, Jesus commands us to "abide" in Him. The dictionary defines abiding as to accept or act in accordance with a rule, decision, or recommendation. Synonyms include obey, observe, follow, uphold, heed, and accept. This definition isn’t far off from what Jesus is telling us to do in John 15. But before he gets to the meaning, he gives us a picture of what it looks like not to abide in him. “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:6).<br />
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Being "one" with Christ, abiding in Him, is His command. "Unity" with those in Christ is what Jesus prays for, knowing how difficult it is, even for believers, to get along and be "one of heart and mind". Being "one" is intended to bring about His glory: "Now may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you harmony with one another in Christ Jesus, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.…" It is the powerful name of Jesus which protects and joins us together. Unity of all people is not God's design. He knew that His followers would be hated, and that "oneness" without great compromise was not possible. Jesus says in Luke 12: 49-51 "I have come to ignite a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division.…"<br />
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Jesus prays for us to be protected from evil in this world, for "they are not of the world, even as I am not of it". Being one with Jesus and our Father God, is a gift and a choice. It sets us apart, His children, heirs of His heavenly Kingdom. Not of this world. Aliens in the true sense of the word. It can be a lonely path at times, friends and even family may oppose or even forsake you. But there is a promise from God in Joshua 1:5, also quoted in Hebrews 13:5 which gives us hope and strength: "No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; <b>I will never leave you nor forsake you</b>."<br />
Us in Him and Him in us. Never alone, our reason for hope and our promise of eternity with Jesus.<br />
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Jesus continues to pray also for those who will believe in Him through the message of his disciples, "<b>that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.</b> May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. <b>I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity.</b> "<br />
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That is the unity that God designed. Christ in us, the hope of glory. "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is <b>Christ in you the hope of glory." </b>(Col 1.27) God chose to bring us into His covenant. In this the body of Christ is united. In Eph 3:16,17 Paul says: "That out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in you inner being, <b>so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."</b><br />
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Jesus ends this wonderful prayer with this promise: "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you sent me. I have made you known to them, <b>and I will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and I myself may be in them. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>The love that God has for His Son, is in us. Jesus himself is in us. Christ in you, the words that changed everything. This is what David calls knowledge too wonderful, too lofty for me to reach or comprehend. The hope of glory lives in me, in you. This hope is the silver thread between God's children. You and me, born into sin, but destined for glory.<br />
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It makes real the prospect of that sweet time, when we shall see Jesus face to face. Face to face... Not only for a little time, but:<br />
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"Millions of years our wondering eyes,<br />
Shall over our Saviour's beauties rove.<br />
And myriad ages we'll adore,<br />
The wonders of His love."<br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-7796875203629668332017-07-14T00:09:00.003-07:002017-07-14T05:02:02.047-07:00Fields of Hope<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After a lull of mild sunny days, the cold has set in. Kitten and boys become frighteningly frisky. The frost shows up. Ice-white and wet, it glistens on the deck. Covering tufts of yellowed grass, wilting the wild rose clinging to the fence. But from my kitchen window, I can see the promise of Spring, held tight in clusters of Jasmine flower buds. Each a small embryo, containing the certainty of new life, even if it is not yet visible. The hope of warmth, which will cause each floret to open its heart to the sun, setting free the scent of Summer. In contrast to the bare treetops and stark landscape of Winter, these little buds are an annual marvel. In spite of the bitter cold, the hint of snow in the air, they flaunt their fragile beauty.<br />
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I came to the end of the journey with Jeremiah*, but somehow the words and themes stay with me. One chapter in particular stood out so much, that I felt the need to share it.<br />
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At the beginning of Chapter 32 we find Jeremiah, imprisoned by King Zedekia because of his prophesies regarding the capture of Jerusalem and Zedekia's exile to Babylon. Jeremiah is confined in the courtyard of the guard, in the royal palace of Judah. At that very moment the army of the king of Babylon was encircling Jerusalem, ready to overtake it. In the midst of the chaos, God tells Jeremiah: "Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say: Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it." It happens as God said, and Jeremiah signs the deed and seals the deal.<br />
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I was raised to be practical. My father claimed practicality to be next to godliness. I was taught to eliminate risks in decision making, to pursue a solid career which would be secure and certain. Jeremiah's life was an illustration of practicality. His ideas and beliefs got turned into actions, and his actions were so on target, that the history of his century was largely a shadow of his personal history. One of the most practical things that he did was to buy this field in Anathoth, his birthplace. But to his fellow country-men, this transaction seemed ludicrous. He was judged and jeered at, as an impractical fool.<br />
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In a small way, it reminded me of the time that we bought the property we now live on. It was a dense Wattle forest in a sequestered mountain village, which, at the time, few people knew to exist. The owners of the land did not accept our offer, the bank would not grant us a loan because of the risks involved, and our families held their breath with apprehension. But somehow it all fell into place. After fierce opposition, tough challenges and debilitating doubt. We bought our field, for it was a risk which God had already calculated on our behalf. After more than a decade of Jehova Jireh's provision, we no longer fear for the future.<br />
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There is much enthusiasm for practicality in our society, but what is seen as being practical is often in opposition to biblical practicality. Jeremiah's sense of the practical conflicted with the impracticality of the people around him. His sense of the practical was built on the belief that God is sovereign, the pivot and reason for our existence. His hope was not a fragile branch swayed by every breeze. It was constant, unquestioning in obedience and trust.<br />
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Jeremiah was asked to invest in a property in the middle of war threatening at the city gates. He was confined in the court area, but his actions were obviously still visible to the people. At the time when the deed for the field was signed, witnessed and sealed, the Babylonian army was camping on it. The enemy was pounding on the city walls and about to take the people off to exile. And at this time, Jeremiah bought land on which he would never plant an olive tree, prune a grapevine, or build a house. Then why did he do it?<br />
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Apart from just being obedient, he did it because he was convinced that the troubles everyone were experiencing at the time, were being used by God in what would eventually turn out to be the salvation of that land. God was using that piece of land as a sign that He would fulfil His promises. C.K. Chesterton wrote: "As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude. It is only when everything seems hopeless, that hope begins to be a strength at all. Like all Christian virtues, it is as unreasonable as it is indispensable." At the moment when judgement was at hand, he speaks the words that evoke hope. "It is the time of distress for Jacob, yet he shall be saved out of it" (Jer 30:7). There was more than Babylonians at the gate, there was God in their midst.<br />
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Judgement was not the last word. Judgement was necessary because of centuries of hard-heartedness. It's real work was (and still is) to open hearts to the reality beyond ourselves. To the inrushing grace of our merciful, forgiving God.<br />
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"The people who survived the sword<br />
found grace in the wilderness...<br />
I have loved you with an everlasting love;<br />
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.<br />
Again I will build you, and you shall be built,<br />
O virgin Israel!<br />
Again you shall adorn yourself with timbrels,<br />
and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers"<br />
(Jer 31:2-4)<br />
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God cries out with the deep love of a parent:<br />
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"Is Ephraim my dear son?<br />
Is he my darling child?<br />
For as often as I speak against him,<br />
I do remember him still.<br />
Therefore my heart yearns for him,<br />
I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord"<br />
(Jer 31:20)<br />
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While the people were prosperous, they supposed that nothing could interfere with their satisfied existence. During those years Jeremiah preached judgement. Now that calamity was all around them, they believed that nothing could make it better. From the prison court (a rather unhopeful place), Jeremiah gives his message: "There is hope for your future, says the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country" (Jer 31:17).<br />
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He backs up his words by weighing out seventeen shekels of silver, finding the required witnesses, signing and sealing the deeds to a seemingly worthless piece of land. He asks his friend Baruch to put the official deeds in a pottery jar to preserve them, that they may last a long time. "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land" (Jer 32:14).<br />
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Buying that field in Anathoth was a deliberate act of hope. Often acts of hope expose themselves to ridicule, because they seem impractical. "Hope commits us to actions that connect with God's promises. Hope acts on the conviction that God will complete the work that He has begun even when appearances oppose it." ~ Eugene Peterson. If we live in hope, we often go against the stream.<br />
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But I believe that this is exactly what God tells us to do, however uncomfortable at times. "And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:2).<br />
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In the flurry and panic of that time in Jerusalem, which is not unlike the time we live in, there was this practical act of hope that stands out from the historical record. Jeremiah bought a field in Anathoth for seventeen shekels. It was an act which made the word of God visible. Jeremiah literally put his money where his mouth is. It showed the way out of the chaos of despair into the ordered wholeness of salvation.<br />
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I am beginning to realise what it really means to be practical. To place my hope in God who is sovereign, and act out this hope from day to day. To hear what God says, and act in an appropriate response to it. To stand strong in chaos, to believe that the God is omnipresent, in everything. To trust that He brings about good through evil, and that evil can no more oppose His will, than Satan can destroy what Jesus has sealed in our hearts. It is not so easy to act in hope, because most often the immediate evidence is against it. It is not easy to accept that God is in the death of an infant, in genocide, in cancer, in the persecution of his children. But if I do not relinquish my understanding in this regard to the Lord's, then I inadvertently attribute more power to Satan than to God.<br />
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It takes courage to act in hope. It will often mean acting in defiance of what is perceived to be sensible and right. But is the only thing that can survive the decay of the moment. Paul encourages us to be "joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer" (Romans 12:2). When our hope is placed in Jesus, then being joyful in all things and acting out this joy and hope becomes possible, since we know the hope to which we were called. "In his great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade" ( I Peter 1:3-4 ).<br />
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I once had a fridge magnet which read: "Be realistic, expect a miracle." But miracles are worked out through blessings and hardship. Jesus is willing. He is the only one who can help us live a courageous life of faith and hope, but we have to reach out and touch His hem. Risk standing out in the crowd. It is the single flower that pushes through the asphalt, that catches the eye. We have a choice: to conform, or to be transformed. God is in catastrophe, in mental and physical agony as much as in times of progress and abundance. Karl Barth said that "hope is having the faith to dance today to tomorrow's music."<br />
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To stay in step with the Holy Spirit, means to step out in faith. To live in the Hope that will never be ashamed. To be transformed. To surrender fear. To give thanks in everything. To praise God in everything. It is not a pious denial of reality. Paul and Silas sang praises to God in a dank prison cell. An earthquake shook the earth, their chains fell to the ground, the prison door swung open. A prison ward and his family were saved. Paul and Silas were absolved from their charges and they walked free.<br />
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There are still fields of hope to be bought. The God of Jeremiah's days has not changed. He still wants to restore his children, even if it means walking them through hardship and heartbreak. There is still grace to be found in the wilderness. There is still God's everlasting love and faithfulness towards his darling child. Be practical - live in HOPE.<br />
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* <i>Running with the horses ~ Eugene Peterson, Blog: 30 June 2017 - "Persistently Persistent"</i>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-1406307533635148142017-06-30T02:59:00.001-07:002017-06-30T06:48:32.487-07:00Persistently persistent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is a new day. The light pushes through the curtains a little earlier, the sky is a little paler, the birdsong a little brighter than yesterday. The winter solstice has come and gone, and with each day the dawn arrives earlier, and dusk is pushed back ever so slightly. A solstice happens when the sun's zenith is at its furthest point from the equator. On the June solstice, it reaches its northernmost point and the Earth’s North Pole tilts directly towards the sun. There is a tenacity in nature, a persistence in the earth's steady orbit around the sun. Seasons follow one another with a certain predictability, varied only by the amazing creativity of it's Creator.<br />
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I am re-reading a book on the life of Jeremiah*, a book simply packed with insight. Page by page, I am given a glimpse into the life of the man whom people refer to as "the weeping prophet". The first recorded words that God speaks to Jeremiah, sets the scene for a life completely set aside for God's purposes. "<i>Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.</i>" ~ Jer. 1:5. Jeremiah was known before he knew. Before he chose to serve God with his whole being, God had chosen him. God appointed/gave (nathan) him as a prophet to the nations. As He gave his Son Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.<br />
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Jeremiah hesitates. He is so young, so inexperienced and without confidence. It would seem that this youth needed learning, or at least some rigorous training to prepare him for what lay ahead. But once again God's words to him, turns human expectation and logic inside out. "... <i>to all whom I send you you shall go and whatever I command you you shall speak. Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you... Behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land.</i>" ~ Jer 1:6-8, 18<br />
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From "only a youth" Jeremiah is transformed into a pillar of strength and confidence. As God spoke, the appointed prophet received the conviction that God is personal, alive and active, and that what was going on in Israel in that exact time in history, was critical.<br />
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Jeremiah was given the task of delivering an unpopular, convicting message to Israel, one that caused him great mental anguish, as well as making him despised in the eyes of his own people. God says that His truth sounds like “foolishness” to those who are lost, but to believers it is the very words of life (1 Cor 1:18). He also says that the time will come when people will not tolerate the truth (2 Tim 4:3-4). Those in Israel did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to say, and his constant warning of judgement annoyed them.<br />
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For twenty three years he <b>persisted</b>. Right there, at the center of the book of Jeremiah, there is a word which has been challenging me for the last few weeks. "Persistently" (<i>hashkem</i>). For twenty three years... When I was 17 years old, I woke up one morning and decided that I wanted to be a vet. A few days later, the conviction changed to dreams of being a fashion designer. Then there was a time when I was convinced that I wanted to be a journalist. I was a fickle youth. When Jeremiah turned 40, he had already been God's mouthpiece for 23 years. There are 11 instances in Jeremiah where the word "persistently" is used. For twenty three years he got up before the dawn to pray, to listen. For twenty three years he went out every morning and spoke God's word to the people. While the people slept in, sluggish and indolent, hearing nothing. </div>
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Jeremiah suffered. There was the personal torment of a prophet who saw what God saw. His obedience cost him dearly. He was ostracised, shunned, mocked and rejected. He was imprisoned, flogged, placed in stocks and in thrown into a dark cistern, with a thick layer of mud at the bottom, into which he sank. He wrestled with discouragement and despair and thought of quitting. God challenged him by saying: "<i>If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?"</i> ~ Jer 12:5. Jeremiah looked up from the pit of despair he had sunk into and once again saw the God who had made him into a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall. He wanted to run with horses. He wanted to live persistently and urgently. He did not give up, for God did not give up. He shows us that the good life, is not necessarily a life lived well. To have the bucket list all ticked off, does not mean that I lived abundantly.<br />
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The word <i>hashkem </i>has a sunrise in it. Jeremiah got up before the sun to do his/God's work. But to him it was not drudgery. Each day there was the anticipation of listening to God, who unfailingly, creatively gave him new words, new ideas of how to take God's message of warning to his people. He did not get up to face rejection, he got up to meet with his God. This I found to be the secret of Jeremiah's persistence. Not thinking with dread about the long road ahead, but meeting each day, each moment with obedient and expectant hope. I used to feel so sorry for Jeremiah. We see him in a painting by Rembrandt, in a dejected pose, his head resting heavily in his hand, with a sombre expression on his face. But Jeremiah does not need to be pitied. He was committed to a purpose, even when it broke his heart. His days add up to a life of incredible tenacity, amazing stamina. He ran with the horses.<br />
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In contrast to his persistent faithfulness, stands the erratic and impulsive nature of the people whom he lived with. They ran this way and that, always after new ways of satisfying their wild enthusiasm for pleasure. But nothing added up. They were like the character in a story I once read. "He wanted Everest in a day; when it took two, he lost interest..."<br />
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Israel had a long history of unfaithfulness. Every attractive promise distracted her from her God. Every new fad was taken up and tried in a burst of short-lived eagerness. For centuries it had been one lover after the other. Meanwhile, God never stopped loving her. And God cannot permit the people he loves and created for glory, to live in such silliness and emptiness. Jeremiah learnt to live persistently toward God, because God was persistent toward him.<br />
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At the very centre of Lamentations (most likely written by Jeremiah), which laments the sin and suffering during and after the fall of Jerusalem, there is this beautiful verse: "<i>The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness." ~</i> Lamentations 3:22,23.<br />
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God's persistence is not a dogged repetition. It has surprise and creativity, and yet all the certainty and regularity of a new day. "Sunrise, when the spontaneous and the certain arrive at the same time" ~ Eugene Peterson. Daybreak is always a surprise to me. There are times of course, when I fail to respond. The repetition of nature is never boring, and so much less so the repetitions in God. This was the source of Jeremiah's living persistence. Rising early, he was attentive and quiet before his Lord. Long before the mocking, yelling and complaining started, there was this time of listening and discovery with God. He had chosen what Jesus called "the one thing needful" and he stuck to it.<br />
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"The mark of a certain kind of genius, is the ability and energy to keep returning to the same task relentlessly, imaginatively, curiously, for a lifetime" ~ E. Peterson. Beethoven composed sixteen string quartets because he was never satisfied with what he had done, and kept trying to perfect it. He put fresh, creative energy into each attempt. The same thing over and over, yet it was never the same, for each time there was that new dazzling creativity put into the repetition.<br />
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Despite his persistence - the life of Jeremiah ends inconclusively. I wish I could know the end, but there is no end. The last scene of Jeremiah's life shows him, as he had spent so much of his life, preaching God's word to a contemptuous people (Jer 44). I wanted to know that he was finally successful so that, if I live well and courageously, I would also be successful. But this is all we get. The image of a man who persisted with "the one thing needful" regardless of personal failure. In Egypt, the place he does not want to be, with people who treat him badly, he continues. Determinedly faithful and courageous. A towering life terrifically lived for God's glory.<br />
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There is only one thing needful. To sit at the feet, and live in the presence of Jesus. Mary chose it, while Martha complained. The "good" part, which would and could not be taken away from her or from you and me. There is only today in which to do it. And then do it again. And again...<br />
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<b>Persistently</b>. Not with mindless repetition - but with all the exuberance of an encore!<br />
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* <i>Run with the horses - Eugene H. Peterson</i><br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-79836734199250991022017-06-09T04:48:00.000-07:002017-06-09T22:59:59.833-07:00Contentment in the In-between<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Godliness with contentment is great gain. ~ 1 Timothy 6:6</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">(I started writing this message almost two weeks ago. Since then life has turned this way and that, and in my clumsy attempts to keep up, I became a bit derailed. Not quite unhinged, just a bit overloaded with stuff that had to be discarded to get back on track literally. So now I return - a bit apprehensive, hoping that this all will still come across as honest and relevant...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> ... </span><b><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">T</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">he end of the season in-between. With the last leaves clinging to stripped limbs, shivering shyly in the breeze. Flower-heads change into seed-pods, new life hiding in death. Life goes underground - resting in bulbs, root arteries, tubers, corms, rhizomes. Call it late Autumn or early Winter. Call it what you may. It is an almost imperceptible holding of the breath, wary of the steam which will rush out, announcing "C O L D" with a ghostly hush. Just as that moment in between dusk and dark. When treetops that were shades of gold on a pastel canvas moments before, scratch against the sky like insects, crawling at the last light. When you wish you did not have to face the inevitable dark that will follow. Until the evening star is called upon as the first guard. Then breath is released and suddenly even the condensation in frosty air becomes as familiar and wonderful as a grandfather's pipe. I am often too weary, or wary of the nip in the night air, to truly appreciate the wonder of our starry dome. But the times when I do allow myself to be pulled outside by a small hand - the reward overcomes both.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We adore sunsets and sunrises... Sunny days and starry nights... Mystical mists and the purity of snow... Blooms in bloom, Autumn grandeur or Winter wonder. But how many travel agencies advertise dream destinations with posters or pictures taken during that in-between, ominous grayness? Or showing dead-heads on fields of flowers, with their withered, leafy skirts slumped around their ankles?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When the shadows grow long, I often softly shut the door to our bedroom, to stretch out an aching back or simply to let the load of the day go. This is always a time that allows for slowing down, as I feel the tension in the small of my back melt into the mattress. Just recently, this happens to coincide with that "scary" time of day, inviting melancholy gloom instead of rest. Last night as I lay watching the uninspiring landscape, my thoughts were turned to so many people who are in the middle of really hard times. I thought of how bravely and graciously they all seem to face these struggles. And of how much harder it seems to be to be gracious, grateful and content when life just seems to offer the ordinary. Neither heights of excitement, nor body and soul bent towards surviving and overcoming. Just every day's going out and coming in, and sitting down and standing up. Difficulties and challenges come in many forms. It is often not the challenges themselves that wears away at my own joy, but the angle from which I view them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We are blessed with two healthy children, with no learning, developmental or other difficulties. God has always provided for us, even though my husband works incredibly hard within that providence. We have had a few "reality checks" regarding our health recently. As we witness each other straining a bit against the marks that time has left. But it brings with it a softening, the lines on a beloved face telling of all the rich encounters with life, in all its extraordinarily, ordinary detail. The luxury of struggling to make ends meet, of not often having the space to reflect or silence to cherish, of the seemingly never-ending lists of chores that pull me along with my one foot hopping ungracefully on the tracks. For it means that there is a husband and father in our family, who faithfully and uncomplainingly earns and provides, while I have the privilege to stay home with our boys. It means that there are children - noisy, boisterous, lively children, who never fail to add splashes of colour, even if it is outside the lines. That there is a home, with sagging, clawed and draped furniture and time-worn rugs, with dogs and cats and cob-webs and "stuff" under the cupboards. Mouths to feed and kiss goodnight, bodies to clothe and cuddle, creatures that purr and greet with loyal, wagging tails, muddy paws and wet tongues.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And; that there is love, which covers it all. Forming a harbour of contentment. Regardless of how "ordinary" it may seem at times...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Everything in life creates opportunities for contentment - or discontentment. Our family and friendships. The career path you are on. The money we make. The vacations we take. Our physical health, or the spiritual health of our church or fellowship. Human tendency is always to want more, better, or different. When the apostle Paul wrote "godliness with contentment is great gain" he wasn't just speaking philosophically (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim.%206.6">1 Tim. 6:6</a>). He had learnt the secret to contentment in every circumstance of life (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Phil%204.11-2">Phil 4:11-2</a>). While that secret eludes most people, it need not elude any true believer. Paul gives us clear and practical guidance to being content. At times we bubble over, at times we simmer slow and low over a sickly flame. Contentment is not being happy. For me it just means to rest in what is, easy or hard. But especially in the in-between. It is here where it is the hardest to keep a healthy perspective, have joy, be content.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I borrowed some perspective from Paul and also from people whom have followed Jesus through the briers and fallow times, as well as through times of goodness and overflowing. I have also borrowed wisdom from those who teach the truth as found in the bible, and hope to learn as I share this with you. (The bible quotes are from the New American Standard bible - which were part of a teaching and have been copied and left as is for this message.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">First, learn to give thanks in all things.</span> Thankfulness is first of all a matter of obedience (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Thess.%205.18">1 Thess. 5:18</a>; <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Eph.%205.18">Eph. 5:18</a>), but it is also a characteristic of a Spirit-filled believer (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Eph.%205.18-20">Eph. 5:18-20</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">Second, learn to rest in God's providence.</span> If we truly know God, we know that He is unfolding His agenda and purpose in our lives. He has sovereignly determined each part of His plan for us so that we'll benefit and He'll be glorified (. <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom.%208.28">Rom. 8:28</a>). I should not be surprised or ungrateful when we experience challenges or trials, because we know that God sees perfectly the end result (cf. <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Pet.%204.12-13">1 Pet. 4:12-13</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">Third, learn to be satisfied with little.</span> In <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%206.6">1 Timothy 6:6</a> Paul encourages a young "pastor" with these words: "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." While I covet, I cannot be content.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">Fourth, learn to live above life's circumstances.</span> In <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/2%20Cor.%2012.9-10">2 Cor. 12:9-10</a> Paul wrote, "Most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Paul didn't take pleasure in the challenges or pain itself, but in the power of Christ manifested through him in times of infirmity, reproach, persecution, and distress. And in the ordinary.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fifth, learn to rely on God's power and provision.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;"> </span>The apostle Paul wrote, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"; and Jesus said He will never leave us nor forsake us (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Heb.%2013.5">Heb. 13:5</a>). We can fully rely on Christ's promise. He faithfully infuses every believer with His own strength and sustains them in their time of need until they receive provision from His hand (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Eph.%203.16">Eph. 3:16</a>).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Finally, become preoccupied with the well-being of others.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;"> </span>Paul summarised this mindset in <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Phil%202.3-4">Philippians 2:3-4</a>, where he wrote: "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A self-centered person is a discontented person. But the souls of the generous, those who live for the interests and benefit of others, will find blessing upon blessing in their lives, even if it is disguised at times. (see <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Prov.%2011.24-5">Prov. 11:24-5</a>; <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Prov%2019.17">19:17</a>; <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Luke%206.38">Luke 6:38</a>; <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/2%20Cor.%209.6">2 Cor. 9:6</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Looking back at the above, I realise how easy it is to become discontent. To take my eyes of the fact that regardless of how mundane or challenging my situation is, or how tough it is when my body won't allow me to do what I long to do with my whole heart - Jesus is greater than my fear or despondence. Almost playfully, He led me back to a joyful place. So simply, that it took me the whole morning to realise that it was happening. I was beckoned outside by the way the sun and breeze played with our kitten's fur. Her languid expression as she lay there - unburdened and completely <b><span style="color: #274e13;">content</span>. </b>I walked away from the unmade beds, the smelly cat-box, the unplanned lunchtime meal. And sat down beside her. An orange cupped in my hands, the warmth of the half-logs of our home melting away the tension in my back. I don't know how many hours I spent there, just watching, listening, tasting, feeling. The boys came looking for me. and at first I wished I could just send them to the furthermost corner of the property to preserve the peace of my little bubble. But I didn't. Together we barked at the baboons, laughed at the kitten's first attempt to climb a "big" tree and ate sun-warmed oranges with the juice dripping down our chins. And then, back in the chilly reality of the living room, as I groped for a way to end this message, a very dear friend turned up on my un-swept doorstep, with a totally scrumptious lunch, spicy-sweet peppadews on top! I'm actually not sure if this last paragraph confirms or contradicts the rest of the message. For me, it just says - I love you, whether you are able to follow six steps to contentment or not. I am here, in the little things as much as in the big ones. Be not afraid. I have called you by your name. You are Mine!</span></span><br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-29101474749454235542017-04-04T06:50:00.002-07:002017-04-05T04:18:37.184-07:00Christ in Crisis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #45818e;">But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love. And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgement. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives. </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b>~ </b>Jude vs 20-23 (NLT)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Autumn slips into Hogsback as subtly as always. First a few leaves change from deep summer green to the earthy jewel colours of this mild season. The pineapple sage has started to flower. Bringing with it the sun birds and giant Monarch butterflies. The vegetable garden slows down and dwindles to a few persistent spinach shoots in the hard soil. Then a wind snaps the washing on the line and the first falling leaves from the Silver Birches are tossed across the deck. I look up surprised and delighted. I love Autumn. So much, that I am tempted to forget what is going on beyond our little paradise. But it seems to hang like a permeating stench over our country, and over the world - and one cannot escape it. Not on this hill, not anywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What do we, children of the living God, lambs of the Good Shepherd, followers of the Saviour Jesus, do in such times? And what not? It is a question I ask myself first of all. And in the process of trying to find the answers, I hope to share some of what my heart is being convinced of. By looking at what God is saying to us in the Bible, and what the Holy Spirit is helping me to put into straight forward, simple words.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I trust that in the process of learning what I "should do", it will not be necessary to spend much time on what I "should not do". When sheep listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, they are hardly tempted to drift into the wrong fold.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Sunday, we got a taste of what it feels like to be despised by someone of a different skin colour. Our dogs happened to bark at a group of people walking on the same path in a leafy park not far from our home. A big Xhosa man lashed out verbally, in a very threatening manner. Our boys ran to hide behind the trees. This may have defused the situation somewhat, and fortunately they decided to move on. However, when we returned to our car a little later, there where mean, deep scratches etched down the entire driver side and a few more on the rear of the vehicle. Those marks have marred our family car somewhat, but they have also cut into my heart. I wanted to be angry, but just felt a deep sadness instead. It is just a car. But to me it represents the stench, the grating sense that people are looking for reasons to justify their resentment of each other. Based on something which may seem "skin deep", but is stirred by something much deeper and much more malignant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most Christians are very familiar with Ephesians 6:12 "<i>For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms</i>." Perhaps too familiar. What does it means not to struggle against flesh and blood? It should be self explanatory: flesh and blood - people, all people of all nations. We are shown not to fight/battle/get into arguments with - people. Even in our thoughts, prayers and attitudes. It may feel good at the time, but it has no purpose for the Kingdom of God. Jesus left us all we need to "struggle" against the <i>powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms</i>, although "spiritual warfare" should also be done in line with God's will and Jesus' example to us in His Word.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first thing I realised when I started thinking about all this was: <b>I am part of the problem.</b></span><br />
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There are areas of my own life which I have to look at:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Is my own walk "blameless" before God - has the gospel message changed my character, my personal integrity, my attitude?</span> "<i>Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."</i> ~ Romans 12:2</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Am I salt and light</span>? "<i>You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven"</i>.~ Matt 5:13-16</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Am I a witness in word and deeds</span>? “<i>You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me". ~ </i>Isaiah 43:10</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Do I see corruption as a threat to my personal and loved ones' safety, financial security and the state of my country? Or as a threat to world evangelism? (In the sense that it closes people's hearts to receive the gospel and be saved for eternity and changed for this life.)</span> "<i>For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." ~ </i>Galatians 6:8</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Do I do unto others as I would have them do unto me</span>? <i>So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets</i> ~ Matt 7:12</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Am I accountable to God in all I do</span>? <i>So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. ~ </i>Romans 14:12</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Do I live out the virtues of a true Spirit filled believer?</span><i> Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with <b>compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience</b><b>.</b> <b>Bear with each other and forgive any complaint you may have against one another</b>. Forgive as the Lord forgave you... And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity. ~ </i>Colossians 3:12/14</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">How do I stand in relation to the government of our country? And what should my attitude towards the rulers of our country be</span>? I looked at Romans 13 to find some answers to the last question: "<i>Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves. 3. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.<br />6. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.7. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour." </i>As always some of this will be interpreted differently by different people. But what is quite clear is that 1) God ordains government, 2) God monitors government, 3) God raises them up and brings them down at his time - not us at ours. 4) Every human government is accountable to God - whether they accept it or not.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Do I worry about the current situation, do I have fears about the future?</span> Corrie ten Boom said: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength." "<i>Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them (enemies or threats) , for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." ~ </i>Deut 31:6</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Do I really still trust and believe that God is sovereign despite the "madness" in the world?</span> "<i>Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him, And He will make your paths straight." ~ </i>Prov 3:5-6 "<i>The LORD has established His throne in the heavens; And His sovereignty rules over all." ~ </i>Psalm 103:19</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">How do I pray for our government and our country?</span> Christians are not given the option of letting their disagreement with their political leaders prevent them from praying for those leaders. The apostle Peter wrote that believers are to "<i>submit yourselves to every human authority for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, as supreme, or to governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and to praise those who do right. ... Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king"</i> ~ 1 Pet. 2:13-14, 17.<br /><br />Similarly, Paul wrote to Timothy, "<i>Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior"</i> ~ 1 Tim. 2:1-3.<br /><br />Who was emperor when Peter and Paul wrote these words? None other than one of the most notorious political leaders of history, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known generally simply as Nero.<br /><br />What kind of ruler was Nero? He murdered his mother and both of his wives, for starters. But his grotesque brutality far transcended his immediate family. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, after fire had consumed roughly half of Rome and his popularity was in free-fall, Nero decided to blame the fire on Christians. Tacitus records that, among other things, the early Roman followers of Jesus "were covered with the skins of wild animals and then torn apart by dogs, some were crucified, some were burned as torches at night" (The One Year Christian History, p. 322).</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we are certainly not the first or last country or people to be ruled by a "corrupt" leader(s). What we can learn from history and from Scripture is that people do not and can not and should not try to alter the course of history by bending it to their own sense of justice. God's ways are not our ways (Is 55:8). He can and will and has victory over and through evil. For us to think that we can "remove" evil from our country or from the world, is as unrealistic as a child who wants to throw his food on the floor because he does not like the taste of it. God is the one who brings about justice and judgement. For everyone, especially his own beloved. His church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is still so much that can be said and so many more scriptures that can be quoted. But this is a very personal and very sensitive matter. I trust that God will search the hearts of each one who wants to trust Him and wishes for His will to be done. It is not comfortable. The church no longer exercises the authority to hold earthly rulers accountable to God. But we still have authority in Jesus to stand in God's sovereignty over evil, rather than trusting the solidarity of men.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"A Christian can never rise higher than his experience of God. God is infinitely profound. As one hymn writer has written, he is an immeasurable sea without a shore, a blazing sun without a sphere. When engulfed in his presence, whom thousand and tens of thousands of angels worship day and night, the soul can only lie in the dust in adoring wonder. This profound knowledge brings eternity to bear on the soul of a believer, so that everything in his life is judged from eternity’s perspective. How I spend my time and money, how I enjoy my recreation, how I relate to the government and other believers and unbelievers, how I handle my work—all these are subjected to eternity. The great Day of Judgement is never far from mind." Pastor Conrad Mbewe</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We continue working out our salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in us to will and to act on behalf of His good pleasure.… (Phil 2:12)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And ... "<i>Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with <b>thanksgiving,</b> let your requests be made known to God; and <b>the peace of God</b>, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." </i>~ Phil 4:6-7</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The reason why I have used so many scriptures today, is because we are so inundated by requests, inciting messages, opinions and persuasions of anonymous people on social media. Therefore, I wanted to confirm for myself and share with you, where we stand in relation to the bible on some of these issues. There are many more, but I am confident that on each of the issues that you and I struggle with in our faith walk - there is an answer in our Bibles, God's living Word. We do not have to be swayed by public opinions or pressures. We have our Rock Jesus, who remains steadfast - even if everything else sinks or stinks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is more than sufficient reason to be hopeful without being ignorant. To be joyful without being callous against suffering. To have grace and compassion without accepting what is wrong in the eyes of God. To fear God, but be closer to my Redeemer than my own skin. To rest beside quiet waters while the Shepherd stands watch, but not to be ignorant of the threat of the wolves nearby.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To sing in the dark and dance on the dew of the new morning. For each moment is precious, and even if times get much harder still, we are <span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>f r e e</b> </span>- and for this reason alone I shall praise until I have no more breath. And on that day, seeing Jesus face to face, I will understand it all. And it will not matter anymore. For there would be Him, every moment of every day - <span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>f o r e v e r!</b></span></span><br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-18235221851446206412017-03-17T03:41:00.001-07:002017-03-17T23:46:27.953-07:00Colourful People made by a Colourful Creator<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him</span><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #e06666;">~</span> <span style="color: #38761d;">Acts 10:34-35</span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><i>... <span style="color: #741b47;">and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times</span> <span style="color: magenta;">and the boundaries of their habitation</span></i><span style="color: magenta;"> </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">~</span><span style="color: lime;"> Acts 17:26</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Many
years ago, while my husband and I were selling sourdough loaves at the local
Bistro, a woman came to our table with an <span style="color: #783f04;">olive-skinned</span>, wide-eyed child on her
hip. We started talking, the smell of fresh bread like a comforting hug between us. She spoke
with a slight guttural accent, reminding me of the way my father formed his
words. We became friends. I guess it was the European connection that drew
us together at first, with us both being so far removed from our “roots”. She now lives down a <span style="color: #783f04;">dusty</span> potholed
road. In the middle of what a lot of
people would classify as “nowhere”. But
to her it is somewhere. It is <span style="color: #990000;">home</span>. Home
between heart sisters and friends, who may not share her skin </span><span style="color: red; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">c</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: purple;">o</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">l</span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">o</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #e06666;">u</span><span style="color: #f1c232;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, but have
become her family. Her name lies softly
on your tongue, like the flowing language of my own parent’s place of birth.
The small country she left behind for Africa, is nestled into a curve on the Southern
border of the Netherlands. As a young woman living in Europe, with Africa still just an evocative image of </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">ochre</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">sun</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> in her mind's eye, she fell in love with a young man. He had a
disarming smile and a</span><span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">heart for people.
He spoke her language with a distinctive accent. For </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">his</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
Mother tongue was a Bantu language with click consonants. Her family did not approve at first. Her
mother especially was deeply concerned that their union would cause her
daughter much hurt. But they respected
her choice. When the decision was made and the time came for the couple to return to his homeland, her family sent them off with constrained grief and a hidden dread.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">They bought a <span style="color: #990000;">wild</span>, wide tract of land from the tribal Chief, a place that causes your eyes to narrow and reach far over the planes, up and into the <span style="color: #0c343d;">mountains</span> standing sentinel in a half moon. All for the price of a bag of groceries or a crate of beer. Just opposite the road lay an established settlement, a typical rural village with its motley collection of dogs, corn growing verdant in their <span style="color: #38761d;">gardens</span>, kraals for ceremonies, old folks on rickety furniture or leaning on cranes as crooked as their spines. A sweet little school for the <span style="color: magenta;">children</span>. A sangoma is firmly established as the one to fulfil different social and political roles in the community, including divination, healing of physical, emotional and spiritual illnesses, directing birth or <span style="color: #4c1130;">death</span> rituals, finding lost cattle, protecting people against rivals, counteracting witches, communicating with the ancestors, and narrating the history, cosmology and myths of their tradition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">With much <span style="color: lime;">enthusiasm</span> they started setting down roots. Became parents of two beautiful
<span style="color: magenta;">children.</span> They shared a dream of making a marked and lasting difference in the local community
they lived in. A hope to uplift the standard of living, education,
infrastructure. Much has been invested into the children, the new generation to whom everyone looks with <span style="color: #0b5394;">hope</span> to overcome and shed the yoke of segregation and poverty. In a sense, they have begun to fulfil this dream. But deep down - the hearts of the people have not changed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
local people mostly embrace her into their community. She is their <span style="color: #274e13;">sister</span>, a <span style="color: #990000;">mother</span> among many. Children <span style="color: #cc0000;">run </span>and <span style="color: lime;">play</span> freely and are welcomed everywhere. They are raised and cared for by everyone in the village. Little ones are like <b><span style="color: #ea9999;">pearls</span> </b>among them, the strings worn, adored and cherished.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Her husband's choice was nonetheless met with suspicion. It has made him somewhat of an outsider among his people. His willingness to <span style="color: #38761d;">serve</span> is often taken for granted, rather than valued. It is naturally assumed that where there is a
white person, there is affluence, bringing with it the responsibility to
<span style="color: #0b5394;">share</span>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The theme of their story is not exclusive. While it is true that actions speak louder than words, even the most honourable actions are not guaranteed to change people’s<span style="color: #990000;"> hearts. </span>The race I belong to, the country of my birth, my vocation or station in life, social status etc. – these “things” will continue to
influence the way most people perceive or treat each other, regardless of what
they say. Unless - there is a <span style="color: #38761d;">renewal </span>of the mind and heart.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
only God can do.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I found my own worth in Jesus, it firstly changed the way I viewed myself. At first I was devastated by what I saw. I saw my <span style="color: #741b47;">pride</span>, my misplaced bitterness about the past, my judgement, my accumulated debt of sin, heaped up accusingly before me. But then I was shown another image. That mountain of debt was placed on the shoulders of <span style="color: #cc0000;">Jesus</span> as He - King of the Jews (his race), hung on a cursed cross for all to spit on, torture and mock. And as He lifted his anguished face up to heaven and cried: "It is done", it had been done for me. He was buried in a sealed tomb, with all my <span style="color: #990000;">sin</span>, shame - all the weight of my fallen state before my heavenly Father <span style="color: #274e13;">removed</span>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The risen glorified Christ walked </span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">lightly </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">out of the tomb. The weight of the <span style="color: #20124d;">sin</span> of mankind buried. My freedom to be who I am and to live for the purpose I was made, bought at the dearest price. To bring <span style="color: #cc0000;">glory </span>to Him, to imitate Him, follow Him. To radiate the very <span style="color: cyan;">light</span> He brought into the world on the first day of creation, for all to see.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have always loved </span><span style="color: red; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">c</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: purple;">o</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">l</span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">o</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #e06666;">u</span><span style="color: #f1c232;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. <span style="color: red;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: purple;">o</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">l</span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">o</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #e06666;">u</span><span style="color: #f1c232;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> in fabrics, textures, the hues of the land that surrounds me. Ever changing, never insipid. And the liberal variation of melanin pigment in a myriad of people who walk the earth - each so </span><span style="color: lime; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">startlingly</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> unique... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The freedom in my own identity has mercifully not made me </span><span style="color: red; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">c</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: purple;">o</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">l</span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">o</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #e06666;">u</span><span style="color: #f1c232;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> blind - it has enhanced the <span style="color: magenta;">vibrancy</span> with which each living thing <span style="color: #0b5394;">hums</span>. I am aware (sometimes painfully) of the privilege of having a white skin. But I am not ashamed of it. It is part of my purpose, my beauty and perfection in Christ. I do not believe in pitying people of a different skin colour, race or creed. They have been fearfully and <span style="color: #38761d;">wonderfully</span> made according to God's plan. No mistake there. The mistake is in assuming to know what they need or want. God shows needs best. I am learning the hard way, that my good intentions are often hollow actions performed with the misplaced need to be charitable or worse: to sooth away <span style="color: #990000;">guilt</span> over being white.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Even with all my "whiteness" - I
grew up knowing that I was “different”. That my family were different. <span style="color: #351c75;">Weird</span>.
Unusual. Not because I looked unlike other children. But because I was treated
differently. I was a “kaaskop”. (Literally
translated – “cheese head”. A slightly derogatory name for people coming from
the Netherlands.) Which carried with it a kind of a <span style="color: cyan;">stigma</span>. Nothing rational,
just a distrust of what was not the “norm”. <span style="color: purple;">Xenophobia </span>– if you’d like to give
it a name.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After almost four decades of a seemingly mis-spent life, it mercifully stopped having a bearing on the way I see
myself. I found that once I could <span style="color: #990000;">love</span>,
like and accept the woman in the mirror, I could do the same with the people
around me. If we could weave a pattern of every mind boggling human facet, containing the image of God - what a <span style="color: #134f5c;">tapestry</span> that would be! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I have come to truly </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: 12pt;">love</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> people. Not in the sense that I want to be around them, rub shoulders and probe their fascinating beings and doings all the time. I cherish our remoteness. I appreciate the </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 12pt;">natural</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> occasional brushes with other mountain dwellers that this life-style affords. The </span><span style="color: cyan; font-size: 12pt;">freedom</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> to still stop my car and offer a ride to workers and wanderers at the roadside without fear. And (at times) to enjoy the intimacy those moments afford, with someone I would otherwise not be likely to have a conversation. I welcome the weekly arrival of the gentle, comely Xhosa woman who uncomplainingly cleans our cabin. Not only for that reason. I have found to my surprise that I have come to love her, and not only because she gets rid of the dust and dirt and dog hair in our home... I want to share my freedom with her - show her the peace of </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">heaven</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> I carry inside me. The lanky, easy going man who helps us tame the
piece of wilderness we live on, makes me </span></span><span style="color: magenta; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">smile</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> inside.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> He is so refreshingly unaffected, so full of willingness and acquiescence. I long for the day that he may walk </span></span><span style="color: lime; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">free </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">of the superstition and false believes which hold sway over his life.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I do still have <span style="color: #783f04;">trouble</span> liking some people, but I have not doubt that there are quite a few individuals who feel the same about
me!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As for all our wonderful diversity - we were made by One loving Creator God through Christ Jesus. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #38761d;">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.</span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> (John 1:1-3). His children.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Breathed on with His love. Children He longs for – continuously. <span style="color: #0b5394;">Acceptable</span> - because of what He did on the
cross. Requiring nothing else, but repentant hearts and acceptance of Him as a
personal Saviour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jesus, given his embedded Jewish culture, could not be </span><span style="color: red; font-size: 16px;">c</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: purple;">o</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">l</span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 16px;">o</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #e06666;">u</span><span style="color: #bf9000;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> blind. And neither should we. God created ethnicity and the various national cultures of the world. But human beings invented "race". "Whites", "blacks", "Asian", "Indians", etc. are the product of imperialism and colonisation. Europeans created "whiteness" and "race". <span style="color: red;">C</span></span><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: purple;">o</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">l</span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 16px;">o</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #e06666;">u</span><span style="color: #bf9000;">r</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> "blindness" ignores the beauty of God's cultural diversity.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By God’s design, you are valuable and uniquely reflect who He is to the world.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Your <span style="color: #783f04;">ethnic</span> background is not an accident. God gave it to you. You may carry your “uniqueness” into <span style="color: #6aa84f;">eternity. </span><br /><br />Just look at this amazing glimpse given to us in Revelation 7: 9-10:<br /><br />“<i>After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they all cried out in a loud voice:<br /><br />“<span style="color: #741b47;">Salvation belongs to our God,<br /> who sits on the throne,<br /> and to the Lamb</span>.</i>”<br /><br />What a picture! What a <span style="color: #38761d;">promise!</span> And each of us fits beautifully into that magnificent <span style="color: #990000;">masterpiece</span>. Not because of the way we were made. </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But for what God intended us to be.</span></span></span>mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-61257818957198054492017-02-08T03:34:00.002-08:002017-02-11T22:55:11.838-08:00Seek and Seek<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.</span> ~ Matthew 6:33 (KJV)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">It rained. And then it rained some more. Branches bowed down dripping, flower heads drooped under the weight of water. With ever more winged visitors to our "garden", the trees literally sing for joy... A recently acquired set of binoculars have brought a few of these into sharp focus. New voices are added to the bird-song. There is the thrill of spotting the owner of a particular song. Noticing it's favourite perches and adding it to the growing family of Inesi inhabitants.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After the last blog I wrote, I have been challenged on quite a few issues. The most pertinent being - <b>Seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness</b>...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If we are to "seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness" - what does that mean and how is it done? And if "all these things shall be added unto you", as a consequence - what are "these things"? (Matthew 6:33)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Almost two weeks have gone past, and I cannot say that I feel enlightened to the point that I have it all logically concluded and that I am ready to share these conclusions. In fact, I feel quite overwhelmed and more than a little over-awed. But also quite excited at a glimpse of something so truly vast and mysterious, that it cannot be dissected.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My first impression was: "Jesus is the centre of the Kingdom of God, so the Kingdom is, wherever He is". Beautifully simple, but was there really no more to it than just that? I realised long ago that <i>this is</i> the wonder and mystery of the gospel and all of God's Word. There are always more layers to be revealed - each revelation more wondrous than the one before. It is, and it is not that simple. It <i>simply</i> depends on your own walk and where you are on the journey with your Redeemer.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But as this blog often serves as a platform for me to unravel certain issues for myself, using Scripture, I thought to share what I find with you as I go along.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I went back to Matthew 4, 5 and 6 to get the context. The "what went on before and what followed after" chapter 6:33, which almost seems like a conclusion of the whole chapter.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Matthew 4 Jesus begins his ministry after being tested in the wilderness and choosing His disciples. In Matthew 4:17 I read: "<i>From that time on, Jesus began to preach: Repent, for the <b>kingdom of heaven</b> has come near...</i>” He touched the sick, made the lame leap, gave sight to the blind, drove out demons. Large crowds start following this amazing man. Curious, hungry and needy people - all wanting a piece of the miracles they had heard of. "<i>... and He healed them.</i>" (v24b)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Chapter 5 follows with the Sermon on the Mount. Starting with the Beatitudes and followed by that incredible all-encompassing sermon on the application of the law, which Jesus came to fulfil, not abolish.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then chapter 6 continues with a warning in v1: "<i>Be careful not to practise <b>your righteousness</b> in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven</i>."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ouch... That spoke to me. It is so easy to be tempted to <i>do</i> right, to flaunt it, to prove that we are good Christian folk. But that adds up to "self-righteousness"...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The dictionary defines self-righteousness as: “confidence in one’s own righteousness, especially when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behaviour of others.” Biblically speaking, self-righteousness, which is related to legalism, is the idea that we can somehow generate within ourselves a righteousness that will be acceptable to God (Romans 3:10). Because of our sin nature, it is a constant temptation to all of us to believe we are, or can be, righteous in and of ourselves. In the New Testament, Jesus and the apostle Paul came down particularly hard on those who attempted to live in self-righteousness.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over and over again in the Gospels, Jesus clashes with the Pharisees and scribes about true righteousness. At the same time, He spends a great deal of time and energy warning His disciples about the dangers of self-righteousness, making it clear that, without Him, they could do nothing (John 15:5).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fortunately, v3-4 gives the alternative: "...<span class="text Matt-6-4" id="en-NIV-23287" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-23287B" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-23287B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><i>do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you</i>."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The righteousness to seek, which I may wear as a breastplate and count as my own through Jesus and the cross, is the righteousness of God. To which I can neither add or take away anything by my own doing.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The next section, from v5-14 deals with <b>prayer</b>. "How not to" (publicly, long-winded etc.) and an example of how I should pray (in an inner room) with the "Lord's Prayer".</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">v16-18 deals with<b> fasting</b> - with the same principles as applicable to prayer, doing good and being charitable. "... <i>and Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.</i>" (v18b).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> v19-21 deals with: <b>storing up treasures and the love of money and possessions</b>: "<i>For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." </i>(v21) and "<i>No-one can serve two masters</i>..." (v24a). "<i>You cannot serve both God and money." </i>(v24b)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The last section deals with: <b>worry.</b> Worry about life, about what I shall eat or drink I will wear etc. "<i>Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?" </i>(v25b)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The birds and flowers are used as a picture of how generously the Father provides. You just need one Bird-cherry tree in your garden and a summer display of wild freesia to see a beautiful example of this providence...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We like to joke about this with the "don't worry, be happy" line from a rather silly song. But worry is sin. Not a nice thought, but true. Being concerned for each other's well-fare and safety and being responsible with what has been entrusted to us, is different. I know when I worry, as opposed to being concerned and responsible. The one results in surrender to God, and/or an appropriate response, whereas the other (worry), most often results in inertia, anxiety and... stress. And honestly - has anyone ever been able to add a single hour to his life by worrying? (v27). Verse 34 reminds us that each day surely has enough trouble of it's own and how futile it is to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. For God has already been there.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">v32 reads, quite soberingly: "<i>For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.</i>"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Father knows. He knows what I need. My motives. My pride. My inability to get it right. But still he loves me enough to say in v33:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"But seek first <b>the kingdom of God</b> and His righteousness, and all these things <b>will</b> be given to you as well".</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sweet, powerful words, which I want to make my own. Day by day. Moment by moment. Not waiting for His Kingdom or looking out for it. Seeking it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Seek </i>- zéteó (Greek) Meaning to: seek, search for, desire, require, demand. To seek by inquiring; to investigate, to reach a binding (terminal) resolution; to search, "getting to the bottom of a matter." (Strongs Greek 2212).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(Chapter 7 continues with the rest of the sermon on the mount - which I have not tried to explore in depth at this point.)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think that I may now have a better understanding of how to "seek", of the right "righteousness" to pursue, and the "things" that will be added as an outflow.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But there remains for me much mystery around "The Kingdom of Heaven/God". This is possibly what is referred to as what we "see through a mirror". A very limited reflection of the whole, a small view of what we will one day see "face to face".</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A few chapters earlier in Matthew 3, we are introduced to John the baptist, who also begins his ministry by saying: "<i>Repent, for the <b>Kingdom of Heaven</b> has come near</i>" - v2. (In Matthew alone the Kingdom of Heaven is referred to 29 times. Luke and Mark seem to prefer to using the "the Kingdom of God" instead.) But the first mention in the New Testament was the voice in the wilderness which Isaiah spoke of, calling: "<i>Prepare the way for the Lord...</i>" John is saying: Look - Jesus (God) has come near! He <i>is</i> both the Kingdom and He proclaimed the Kingdom. "...<i> He </i>(Jesus)<i> said, "I must proclaim the good news </i>(gospel)<i> of the <b>kingdom of God</b> to the other towns also, because <b>that is why I was sent</b></i>." (Luke 4:43) Not an easy concept to get my head around.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I always liked to think that Jesus came just to die for my sins. Which may be true in part, but there is much more to His ministry than our salvation. This I am not going to try to understand right now. Bit by bit, I will hopefully come to a greater understanding of this beautiful mystery. And share with you if it is possible to put into words. It is a tantalising glimpse through the looking glass of things that are and are to come.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is a tension between knowing that I am seated at the right hand of God right now, ("<span style="font-size: x-small;">But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him <b>and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,</b> so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus<i>"</i>. - Eph 2:4-7) </span>and being in this broken world, looking toward the day that Jesus will show us the incomparable riches of His grace, in His glorious presence. I am given the choice to have a world perspective or a Kingdom perspective. One leading to death and one leading to glory and eternal life in and with Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is here, and it is coming. It is Jesus and it is His Dominion. It is the Word which was with God, and was God. The Word that spoke the Universe and everything in it, into being. By Him and for Him. In Him was and is life, and that life was and is the light of all mankind. The light that shines in the darkness, darkness that will never overcome it. (John 1)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As near as His precious name and as beautiful as the freedom which His blood has bought me. Near enough to know my thoughts and whispered prayers. But also omnipresent in every atom of the Universe - the known and unknown. His Kingdom.</span><br />
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-111258464564923462017-01-20T04:41:00.001-08:002017-01-21T03:18:03.074-08:00The good, the bad and the saved<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Heat. An unusual phenomena in our mountains - but it happens. On Monday we made a crackling fire and a hearty stew. On Wednesday we dipped our heads under cool water and sipped copious amounts of chilled lemon water in shady places where the breezes blow. Today we are enveloped in a misty moist embrace and the house is filled with the smell of wild mushrooms roasting in the oven.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I realise that these opening lines may sometimes be a bit misleading. We do not live a fairy tale. Within the sad limitations of words, I attempt to open a small peephole into our daily lives in the mountains. To set the scene so as to speak. And perhaps to share a fragment of the quality of life which we enjoy here. With this, I do not mean to imply that what we have here is better or superior to anywhere else. Or that we have become better people because we live where the air is rare and the horizon wide. This life fits us beautifully, because it is where God wants us to be. It comes with countless blessings, as well as manifold challenges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is one "thing" which has been brought (painfully) close, since we have come to call this place our home. T</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">he crucial aspect of our salvation.</span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Salvation:</span></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. the state of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. a source, cause, or means of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4. Theology: deliverance from the power and penalty of sin; redemption.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I thought to first look at what salvation is not... At what our minds know at some removed level, but what the rest of us have difficulty catching up, or keeping up with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A few weeks ago we entered a new year. 2017. Inevitably, people look at a new year as an opportunity to "do better", change lifestyles, begin "good" habits, lay down "bad" habits. Which is positive, not? So it may seem. But if we take an honest glimpse backward at how many of these previous "resolutions" have lasted, got stuck - it is not a very encouraging picture for the future of the current ones... (Ironically the root of resolution is resolute - which means firm, steadfast, set in purpose). So why do we then get so easily "unstuck"? Why does it seem to be so difficult to be "good". To be worthy of being saved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Before the new year arrived with a crack and a bang, there was Christmas. Lying awake in the city on new year's eve, listening to the cacophony of parties, fire crackers and cars racing and hooting along the freeway, I suddenly heard the desperate longing in it all. The longing for something seemingly elusive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">First there is the lead up to Christmas, end-year parties, bonuses, shopping and more shopping etc. Then there is the actual event. And food. And drink - probably a bit too much of both. Then there is the recovery time. Just enough to provide impetus for the next pinnacle on new year's eve. More recovery time. But at the sober dawn of the actual year ahead, responsibilities, commitments, pressure etc. - G U I L T steps up and takes centre stage. Along with it's crippling friend - GOOD INTENTIONS. The need to earn back that which had been flung to the wind during the festive season.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm not sure how profound these insights were, but the long and short of it is, that intended goals set as a result of guilt, and/or for personal gain, or the need to get "back on track" with God, are all centred in delusion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As is categorising people as "good" or "bad" based merely on their behaviour. "How else then?", you would ask. One truly cannot judge a book by it's cover. The consistency of our story from beginning to end is what counts. But these are all what the clever people would refer to as "hypothesis" - more than a wild guess, but less than a well-established theory... Opinions over what is "good" and what is "bad" vary, for there is no absolute by which we can test our theories and conclusions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What a relief it is to be able to step away from all the philosophising and theorising, which can be confusing at the best of times.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Truth which is absolute and trustworthy and which is the same yesterday, today and will remain so always, is this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am acceptable to God, not because of my good behaviour, but because of the flawlessness of Him who died on the cross in my stead. ~ <i>In him (</i>Jesus<i>) we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.</i> (Eph. 1:7)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus died on the cross, not to help me live a better life, but to reconcile me with my heavenly Father. So that I may receive a life of intimacy with Him. ~ <i>For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. ~ </i>(Rom 5:10)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A "good life" and "good works" are the outflow (fruits) of a "pursuit" of Christ and His kingdom. We do not earn or receive rewards - we are showered with grace. ~ <i>But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you</i>. (Matthew 6:33)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From within myself, no good can come. Every truly "good" act performed or thought conceived, comes from God, for he alone is GOOD. In Him alone can I have pride. ~ <i>But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” </i>(1 Cor 1:30)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The closer I move to Jesus, the less lucrative, cool, or tempting "bad behaviour" will seem. "Not sinning" will become less of a daily battle, a hard discipline. Living right and well in the eyes of God and according to His Word, becomes an offering of love and trust. I don't leave sin - it leaves me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The giant was slain by faith and trust, not by skill or bravery. If Goliath came down with a shudder and a shake, as a result of personal guts and expertise, David would have been no more than a foolishly brave little guy, who got lucky and became the hero of the day. A boy who knew sheep and spent his day practising with his slingshot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But David was indeed "a man after God's heart". Which would be surprising and contradictory if we only considered his track record of "good behaviour".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What endeared Him to God? He was:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><b>Humble</b> – Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. ~ Psalm 62:9<br /><br /><b>Reverent</b> – I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. ~ Psalm 18:3<br /><br /><b>Respectful</b> – Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. ~ Psalm 31:9<br /><br /><b>Trusting</b> – The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? ~ Psalm 27:1<br /><br /><b>Loving </b>– I love you, O Lord, my strength.~ Psalm 18:1<br /><br /><b>Devoted</b> – You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. ~ Psalm 4:7<br /><br /><b>A joyful witness</b> – I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.~ Psalm 9:1<br /><br /><b>Faithful</b> – Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. ~ Psalm 23:6<br /><br /><b>Obedient</b> – Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. ~ Psalm 119:34<br /><br /><b>Repentant</b> – For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. ~ Psalm 25:11</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Amazing, unfathomable, immeasurable grace. It is upside down, inside out, downright illogical and unsolvable. But yet - there it is. As vastly generous as it always has been - available to the murderer next to Jesus on the cross. Available to whoever feels as if the year has just started and they have already "failed". It cannot be earned. Jesus saves. This is true. But not from ourselves and our failings or bad habits, but from a "wrong attitude" towards God. As a result and deep need for, and recognition of Jesus as our Saviour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God looks down on His own and sees a perfect reflection of His perfect Son.</span></div>
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mountaingracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541959076062513248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6953890924189528072.post-73285565577144336532016-12-09T04:49:00.001-08:002019-11-10T20:25:03.305-08:00J O Y to the World!<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of <b>J O Y ;</b> at your right hand are pleasures forevermore ~ Psalm 16:11 (ESV)</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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A mercifully mild morning. Soft hazes drift in and out of view and a hush hangs over the valley where the clouds part. As so many times before, I watched a jackal buzzard slip into a thermal column and spiral upwards on an invisible stream of lift. Children dream of flying, and send kites, soap bubbles and balloons soaring amidst great excitement and laughter. We may still dream of it, but have long since stopped believing in the joy of soaring, of freedom from gravity, from the downward pull of all that is earthbound and weighty.<br />
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There is a small "winged" word, a word that is effervescent, luminous, light, buoyant and blithe.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y...</span><br />
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I had, what I thought to be a relevant, pertinent and important topic in mind for this post, but when the Lord pushed this little word into the spotlight, I felt "light". The cork is being eased out, bubbles are rising to the surface. It is time to explore <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span>, with lightness and freedom from being secular and wordly.<br />
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I'd like to kick off with a few instances I remember experiencing soaring <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span>, which I believe to have been heaven-sent:<br />
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- When our children were born.<br />
- When Jesus first told me in a breeze that he loved me.<br />
- When my (now) husband first called me his princess.<br />
- When I first feasted my eyes on the view from the newly cleared piece of land, which we now live on.<br />
- When I first realised how much freedom the cross has afforded me (us).<br />
- When I first listened to a truly magnificent symphony written by a man who could not hear.<br />
- When I received a letter from a friend's daughter, telling me that God writes poetry about me.<br />
- When I experience moments of deep worship.<br />
- When I took my first light and tentative "free" steps after the confinement of a back brace.<br />
- When I realised that I am God's masterpiece in the making.<br />
- When I woke up one sunny morning and found that I belong...<br />
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There are still many more, and I believe the list will continue to grow with each new day, arriving with fresh mercies in it's dawn. Make your own list, even if it just a mental remembering - it is a joyous thing to do.<br />
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There are other stronger words which I associate with <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span>. Rapture, passion, ecstasy, elation, euphoria, bliss, rhapsody, jubilation, beatitude... And yes - peace and serenity.<br />
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I read the first page of a book recently, just to get a feel for it. The author relates how he never liked or enjoyed jazz, simply because jazz doesn't resolve. Until the day he watched a man on the street outside the Baghdad Theatre in Portland play the saxophone. He stood there, watching, listening, for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes, during which the musician never opened his eyes. I could relate. The wonder and <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the experience, took him away. It changed him, gave him wings to travel to places never imagined.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> is like that. It is contagious. That is, if it is for real. Consistently shiny, happy people can often annoy one with their insistence on bouncing their happiness around like a ping pong ball, while no one else is playing. But see a person enter a room who's eyes are lit with an inner peace and <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y, </span>so beguiling that even the grumpiest old moth is drawn to it. With the difference that the flame never sears or hurts. It is the hearth after the storm, hands around a steaming mug, soaking in a hot tub after a cold day. The play of light and effervescence at the foot of a waterfall, the splendour of the starry dome on a dark night.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> is an infusion rather than an emotion. It is soaked up from the inside and overflows to the outside. It is more than raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Favourite things may add to <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> that is already there, but it does not fade away when the "things" are no longer there.<br />
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Our seven year old (Luke) has just interrupted my writing by announcing that he and his brother are creating a little "world" with their blocks called "Zippylukia". One of those moments which definitely add to my <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y !</span><br />
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A friend of mine once told me that she asked God for a song in the night. This became a source of <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span>, being a rippling reminder of the reason why she sings. I leak out "good intentions", and still sometimes wake up in the night, not with a song, but remembering something I should have done, or with an anxiety about something I am still supposed to do. But my God of mercy knows this also, and He gives me a song regardless!<br />
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Which finally brings me to the "secret"; the three words which precede and follow true<span style="color: #cc0000;"> J O Y</span> :<br />
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"Of the Lord".<br />
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The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the Lord makes me strong. This does not necessarily mean that I have more physical and mental endurance when I feel joyful, although it certainly helps! It means:<br />
- I have strength against the condemnation of the law's just demands.<br />
- I have strength against the assaults of our enemy.<br />
- I have strength in the hope of God's promises.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> comes to me, like sin leaves me - more often and more consistently the nearer I move to Jesus.<br />
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- The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the Lord is the joy that God Himself possesses.</div>
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- The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the Lord follow the tears of repentance.</div>
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- The solid <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y </span>of the Lord is the <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y </span>of sins forgiven and the hope of heaven, which is "under girded" by the grief over sin and our Saviour's consequent suffering.</div>
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- The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the Lord is <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> in God himself.</div>
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- The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the Lord comes from spending time and understanding God's living Word.</div>
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- The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the Lord is the <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of God's forgiveness and covenant love.</div>
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- The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> of the Lord is the second fruit of the Holy Spirit.<br />
- The <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y </span>of the Lord comes from a knowledge that even now, we are seated in heavenly places with Him.</div>
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<i>Weeping may remain for a night - but rejoicing (<span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span>) comes in the morning</i> (Ps 30:5). </div>
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Our hope and <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y </span>is in a Kingdom which is at hand, here - not a faraway, beckoning, golden mirage. The Ruler of this Kingdom is waiting to take you to places never imagined. He will use any means possible to lead you there. A whisper, a shout, a beckoning - all leading to <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y</span> in His presence. Hear God laughing. With you. Because of you. You bring him <span style="color: #cc0000;">J O Y.</span> As He longs to bring you...</div>
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