All It Takes Is a Word

ALL IT TAKES IS A WORD

Have you ever had a word grab you?  Yes, I mean just grab your attention and compel you to look at it.  Maybe out of a conversation or something you are reading?  It startles you and you begin to roll it around in your mind and look at it from different perspectives.  It begins to change shape and fit in different places and you begin to build around it.

This is what writing is to me.  I heard the word “continuing” this morning in a conversation and I don’t know where it will go but I will be expecting God to build on it as I listen quietly for what He gives me to put around it; just as a child builds with Lego pieces, fitting them here and there until they suit what is in his mind.

This afternoon I read another word that halted my reading...”answers.”  I had just finished a devotion in which I used the words “God answered” and I began to remember how many times He had answered me, sometimes long after I asked the question...more words!

Thank You, Father for words.  They are the “things of life.”  They wound; they encourage; they create tears and laughter; they entertain; they reveal truth; they show emotions; they show love and hate.  Sometimes they reveal your age.  They cause trust and distrust.  They prod us on; they convict; they condemn; and they show forgiveness and grace!  They swirl around in our minds like ice skaters.

I love them for what they do in my life.  I am reminded of John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”    Who is this Word that was with God and was God?  It was Christ Jesus!

How appropriate that You, Lord, embody man’s way of communication, with words!  Even sign language has word meanings.  Without them, we are isolated; Without You we are isolated, unable to communicate fully with one another or with You.

Thank You, Lord, for words!!!

  

His Mysterious Ways

His Mysterious Ways

God uses many diverse ways to speak to us to draw us unto Him.  Several years at an all day ladies retreat at my church He allowed me to see myself in a truer light than I had previously been able to admit.

It was a beautiful fall day.  We had listened to a speaker and had fellowshipped around a good lunch.  Then we were given instructions for the rest of the day.  It was to be an afternoon of silence and reflection.  We were to go somewhere on the church grounds and spend the time alone, without any distractions, and write our assignment.  Whenever we felt that had been accomplished we were free to go home.

Our assignment: Write in your own words a description of your relationship with God.

I settled down on a towel I spread out on the grass with my back against a tree.  It was warm; other women were dotted around the grounds, but it was silent, except for the birds.

Where to begin?  I doubted the very existence of God...No, I hoped He was there, but who could be sure?  I had a very hard time believing a lot of the Bible.  I had been taught evolution and that made creation and the miracles hard to swallow.  God?   God?  What is my relationship with You?

Years before, in a high school Sunday school class, I had been convicted by the teaching that God wanted nothing less from us than total commitment.  Was that what I was fighting?  Was that why I argued that the Bible could not be true?

Then as I sat there sorting out my thoughts, a picture began to form in my mind.  God was holding out a large gold cross to me.  But my hands were full.  I was carrying a giant silver “I.”  It kept getting tarnished and I was continually rubbing and polishing it to make it look good.  The gold cross was beautiful and didn’t tarnish, didn’t have to be cleaned up.  I wanted it.  I really did.  But in order to take it I would have to put down my big silver “I.”  I couldn’t.  I was not willing to do that.

I didn’t sit there much longer.  I had done the assignment.  I gathered my things and headed for the car.  At home I stuck it all in a drawer and tried to forget it.

About a year and a half later, I came across what I had written.  What a relief!  In the time since writing that, God had slowly led me step by step to be able to know Him and trust Him so I could put down that heavy tarnished silver “I” and pick up His golden cross....and you know His burden is light!

That is another story in itself.

ENTERING HIS REST

Entering His Rest

Phil 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Are you troubled?  Do you crave rest in your soul?

Unless you make regular time and room for quiet communion with God, it will not be God that leads you.  It will be people, pressures, fears, doubts, and the world’s values.

Don’t misunderstand me;  people, pressures, deadlines, and legitimate responsibilities must be attended to, but they must never drive or motivate you!

You must find inner rest.  What troubles us most is not the outside circumstances, but what we find within ourselves...the inner struggle.

So I urge you, build an island of quiet within yourself; carry the calmness within you.  Hold in your heart this quiet place of God’s rest.  It is only entered into by faith, by knowing His character, and by realizing His great love for you.

The only way you can know of His great love for you is by digging deep into His Word, for He longs for you to know Him well.  He is not hiding from you.  He has opened His heart to you if you will take the time to learn of Him.

Now acquaint yourself with Him and be at peace;

Thereby good will come to you.

Job 22:21 (Webster’s translation)

NECESSARY LOSSES

NECESSARY LOSSES

Malachi 3:6 "For I, the Lord, do not change;

A friend is moving away.  It is hard to lose a likeminded friend.  I have lost several through the years.  So I face another change in my life, another loss.  It seems like a continuous cycle.

I remember a phrase I read years ago when I was young in my Christian faith...”necessary loses” and  I had asked God at that time “Why are they necessary?  What does it accomplish?”

And of course after many years, many loses and many changes, I can answer my own question!  It accomplishes greater trust in Him who never changes and who turns losses into gains.  Have I learned from my losses?  Yes, I have learned that though I do not know the plans He has for me, He does, and they are for a future and a hope.  (Jer. 29: 11  'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.).   I look with great expectation for the next gain He will bring about from this loss.

Hebrew 13:8  Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday and today, [yes] and forever.

Jobs Well Done :The Defense Lawyer

The Defense Lawyer

I John 2: 1  My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2  and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for [those of] the whole world.

As a defense lawyer in God’ service, my job is to provide defense for the accused.  My part is not to sit in judgment, that belongs to Another. But somehow judgment is part of my sin makeup.  I pray for impartial reasoning as I seek truth and try to see my fellow men who are accused as You see them.  In the back of my mind is the fact that we all are guilty before our heavenly Judge and He provided for us (at His own expense) our Advocate, who also paid our penalty.  As the prosecution lawyer presents all the charges against my client, I am reminded that we also have an “accuser” before God.  But our Advocate tells Him “I have paid their penalty.  Release them in My custody for My Spirit will become their Parole Officer.”

 Father, help me do my job as defender with diligence so that I will hear Your words  “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

God's Psychiatry Chapter

God’s Psychiatry Chapter (part 1)

Phil 4:6-9 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  8  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.  9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.

How many of us are anxious, fearful, doubting or complaining? God never intended for us to be miserable in our Christian walk.  His plan is for us to live with peace, joy and contentment in all our circumstances.  How do we do this???

It all comes down to our thought life!  Where do your thoughts take you?  Into dark places, into fearful “what if” places?  Or into the abundant life God intends for us.  I have had to practice taking every thought captive and putting them through the sieve of Phil 4:8.

It has bought about a radical change in my outlook, in my ability to pray, to see good in everything, and to be thankful in situations that look impossible. The world we live in is full of discouragement and we must choose to break the old thought patterns and control our thought life.

II Cor 10:4  for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  5  [We are] destroying speculations (and vain imaginations) and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and [we are] taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,