I've been dealing with a physical dilemma since July of 2008. Like quicksand, it's affected so many things in my life; my body, aches and pains, mobility, mood, and my livelihood (forcing early retirement). What's more, the sheer length of time involved has been an additional drag. Seems like everything I've always loved to do is in a holding pattern. Painful days have found me limping and gimping around the house and anywhere else. From some unknown somewhere, I picked up a little saying, "Oh, moanie me!" Believe me, it got frequent use.
Then, I realized the "Oh, moanie me's" I've immersed myself in are counter-productive. I'm all too aware of how long I've been in this case, but I'm seeing that dwelling on that aspect only hinders progress in other, more needful areas. All this came in the course of, and as a result of a couple of week's study and ponderfication on the Adult SS lesson I taught yesterday (March 25th) - "The Prayer of Moses." (Psalm 90).
Condensed; God is our Dwelling Place, our Refuge and Shelter, our Portion, and our Reward - there is no safer place to be - it is enough! HE is enough! Wow!
This may seem like no big revelation, sort of a "Duh!"; but when I applied it to my own situation it was like a light suddenly came on in a dark room. If my life exists, consists, and is wrapped up in HIM, I am rich beyond compare - my current (temporal) condition/situation has no bearing on that reality.
Think about it! HE is both Author and Finisher of our faith. "HE who began a good work in you will perform it until the day..." Seeing that in the abstract is way different than perceiving its specific application. It has nothing to do with so-called "eternal security." It has everything to do with Who and What HE is! My circumstances, uncomfortable and difficult though they may be, cannot deplete HIM. I needed to once again realize it never has been, isn't now, and never will be my own grace or strength... Thousands of years ago, Moses knew and fleshed this out in life and in his prayer - the 90th Psalm. Meditating on his perspective brought me to a need to re-commit my life, my health, my hopes, my aspirations - and wrap them all up in HIM.
And as to any current dilemma/s, HIS Word says, "MY grace is sufficient - MY strength is made perfect in [your] weakness," (Okay - I think I've got my part of that equation pretty well covered.)
P.S. I know I may be preaching to the choir on this. Still, it's been an exciting weekend - even had the opportunity to back up what I've said herein with a public declaration/testimony last night during service. Hmm... Here's a bonus thought: It appears there's something very important about making an open statement for which you can be held accountable. Here's a well-known example. After posting his 95 Thesis, Martin Luther was required to defend himself. During that trial, he said, "Here I stand, I can do no other."
Next time you commit or re-commit something to God, tell somebody about it. That's what I just did!
Showing posts with label Knowing God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knowing God. Show all posts
Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday, March 29, 2010
Signature Scent...
God has a signature scent, one that's associated with His very essence. If you spend time in His presence, you know that His love poured out on your soul heightens and affects every one of your senses. Even as a child in an Apostolic church, I remember times when worship rising from the people of God mingled with a blue-ish haze that filled the sanctuary. It was visible, tangible, audible and breathable; satisfying even the taste buds. During these times it was easy to see why the Psalmist said, "O taste and see that the Lord is good!"
In the instructions God gave for the building of the Tabernacle and the gathering of all the things that were to be used in its service, we learn the composition of the fragrance that was to be particularly His. (See Exodus 30.) Associated with burnt offerings and as a holy, anointing oil, these were special recipes - guarded and handed down from generation to generation of priests, only the sons of Aaron could prepare them. They were not to be replicated or used for any other purpose that to be a sweet fragrance to God.
Later, in the Psalms, He let us know our praise and worship is also a sweet savor. God treasures and stores these times of communion. As they fill our hearts, they rise up into His nostrils and prompt Him to pour out many rich treasures and blessings from His vast storehouse. He places great value on obedience, which to Him is more important than even a costly sacrifice. Thus, obedience becomes a vital ingredient in the aroma of wholehearted worship.
This pleasing aroma flows both ways. His presence fills the hungry heart with good things. And His heart is thrilled and leans close to enjoy the lifting of holy hands and hearts heavenward. Praise, worship, sacrifice, and willing offerings are key ingredients of the aroma that pleases the heart of God. Best activated by a close relationship with Him, the word, communion, is an accurate description of what happens when God and man are in sweet fellowship. Before he was saved, the Gentile centurion, Cornelius' steady offerings had piled up into the heavens as a memorial to a man who was seeking after God. Evidently, God couldn't resist Cornelius' hunger. Drawn like a magnet to steel, He dispatched an angel, dealt strongly with the man of God, and opened a new dispensation - all to meet Cornelius' need.
This begs three questions... 1.) What kind of fragrance pleases God? And, 2.) How is it released?
The thing that triggers the release of this fragrance into the presence of God (and others) is brokenness.
In the instructions God gave for the building of the Tabernacle and the gathering of all the things that were to be used in its service, we learn the composition of the fragrance that was to be particularly His. (See Exodus 30.) Associated with burnt offerings and as a holy, anointing oil, these were special recipes - guarded and handed down from generation to generation of priests, only the sons of Aaron could prepare them. They were not to be replicated or used for any other purpose that to be a sweet fragrance to God.
Later, in the Psalms, He let us know our praise and worship is also a sweet savor. God treasures and stores these times of communion. As they fill our hearts, they rise up into His nostrils and prompt Him to pour out many rich treasures and blessings from His vast storehouse. He places great value on obedience, which to Him is more important than even a costly sacrifice. Thus, obedience becomes a vital ingredient in the aroma of wholehearted worship.
This pleasing aroma flows both ways. His presence fills the hungry heart with good things. And His heart is thrilled and leans close to enjoy the lifting of holy hands and hearts heavenward. Praise, worship, sacrifice, and willing offerings are key ingredients of the aroma that pleases the heart of God. Best activated by a close relationship with Him, the word, communion, is an accurate description of what happens when God and man are in sweet fellowship. Before he was saved, the Gentile centurion, Cornelius' steady offerings had piled up into the heavens as a memorial to a man who was seeking after God. Evidently, God couldn't resist Cornelius' hunger. Drawn like a magnet to steel, He dispatched an angel, dealt strongly with the man of God, and opened a new dispensation - all to meet Cornelius' need.
This begs three questions... 1.) What kind of fragrance pleases God? And, 2.) How is it released?
The thing that triggers the release of this fragrance into the presence of God (and others) is brokenness.
- When the circumstances of his life broke Joseph again and again, the result was not bitterness, but the realization that God was in the breaking and used it in the blessing that followed.
- When the woman broke her alabaster box of fragrance over the feet of Jesus, the aroma filled the room, speaking not only of His suffering, but of her adoration and thankful heart.
- When Jesus broke and blessed the little - five loaves and two fish - He gave it to His disciples, who distributed it (in a pattern of what would follow,) and the hunger of many was satisfied.
- And when the sinless body of Jesus was broken and freely offered, it resulted in the salvation of the world!
- Your brokenness allows the perfume of God's presence to fill your world and become a precious ointment that testifies... "O taste and see that the Lord is good... He satisfies the hungry heart... He makes broken things every whit whole..." and releases an irresistably sweet aroma.
The aroma of fresh-baked bread or a hot apple pie triggers mouth-watering images of good things nearby. No wonder God uses this analogy to illustrate both the hunger our heart and His ability to satisfy all who hunger and thirst after His righteousness. His promise is, "they shall be filled!" The question has never been can He? or even will He? The only remaining question has to do with me and you...
3.) What kind of odor does my life present to God - and to others?
- Am I like the children of Israel in the wilderness who frustrated Him with their complaints and murmurings?
- Am I like King David who knew how - and gladly worshiped God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength?
- Have I gone after other gods and other loves, replacing the devotion I owe him for all His kindness, mercy and benefits with a not so secret wandering eye?
- Am I like Josiah, who saw his failures in the Word and turned himself and everyone around him back to God?
- Do my lips say one thing - and my heart, mind, and actions say something else entirely?
- Or am I like Daniel and his three young friends who purposed in their heart that no matter what, everything they did was going to be God's way and for His glory?
I too have a signature scent. The odor I present to God and to those around me is based on the choices I make. It's a unique recipe I put together every day I live. If I choose to please myself; my flesh, its desires and agenda, if I seek after the things of this world and its system - my recipe becomes a stench in His nostrils and to those around me.
But if I choose to please Him and to set my heart and mind on heavenly things; it brings glory to God and makes my world more aware of Him and His goodness. I become a living testimony, and a catalyst of His redemptive plan.
Either way, this "signature scent" reminds Him of what He did at Calvary! (See II Corinthians 2:15.) Disobedience crucifies Him afresh, makes His sacrifice of no effect. But if my choices are born of a willing, obedient heart - the result is:
- an odor that is pleasing to Him,
- the joy of His salvation,
- His smile of approval, and,
- an irresistable force that moves the most obstinate of obstacles!
There is coming a day and a place when and where the fragrance of His joy and ours will combine into a holy, sweet incense, a perfume that will permeate heaven's atmosphere with a communion more perfect and complete than mortal senses can even imagine. We in Him and Him in us! Praise perfected! (No wonder worship is the most heavenly of occupations.) That day will be glorious indeed. But until then - every day - we're putting together our signature scent; the fragrance by which we'll be known throughout eternity!
Note: This thought was inspired by a recent Our Daily Bread devotion.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Love, Trust, Know...
It was just a brief encounter in a local store. One of the clerks there is a child of God who attends a nearby Apostolic Church. As we talked, she mentioned the illness of a mutual friend and then spoke of a recent tongues and interpretation this friend had given... “My people love Me, but they do not trust Me because they do not ‘know’ Me.” Though I did not hear them when they were originally spoken, these words have not left my mind since I heard them.
I wonder, how often is the Lord frustrated by our unwillingness to trust Him? To ‘know’ Him? He counseled us to “learn” of Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart. He promised we would find rest for our souls – yet our human nature is unwilling to invest the time and effort necessary to achieve this kind of knowing. So we struggle on in our dilemmas, living way beneath the power available to us. The Apostle Paul longed to ‘know’ Him in the power of His resurrection and in the fellowship of His suffering. Ah! Our human nature likes the resurrection power part, but we cringe from the death and suffering that precedes that resurrection.
That brings us to the other two words; love and trust. It is a given that in order to trust someone you have to know them. But romance novels are built on the premise of infatuation and instant attraction. Evidently, you can love without trust, but such love is shallow and can’t endure the pressure and heat of time. Anything you can “fall” in love with easily can just as easily be swept away by a new infatuation. Shallow love is easily replaced. But love born of knowledge has a strong foundation and becomes the birthplace of trust.
A child’s trust is built on experience. All they know is that their mother and/or father have been the central point of their existence and so they tend to trust even in the most scary times. We’ve heard the story of the child who jumped into his father's arms from the window of a burning building. A teenager or an adult might have questioned the father’s strength and ability to catch him, but the little child has not learned to doubt, so “what if?” never crosses his mind. He leaps – fully trusting his father to catch him. All he knows is what he’s learned from and about his father and mother. His trust is based on that knowledge. It’s a heavy parental responsibility but one that has made weak men strong.
Is it any wonder why Jesus said, “except ye become as a little child, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven”? The trust a child displays is born of his love and his knowledge. You may say, “Some parents are not trustworthy!” and this may be true of earthly, sinful parents – but if you know God, you know it is not true of your Heavenly Father. “His strength is made perfect in [our] weakness.”
Even when His answer is “No” – He has promised never to leave or forsake you. He goes with you and gets under the yoke with you even in the most difficult of times; when you’ve failed, when you’re sinking, when your body is wracked with pain, when your heart is broken, when your mind skitters about in panic, when the enemy comes in like a flood, when you’re perplexed and don’t know what to do, when you’re between a rock and a hard place. Whatever the circumstance, if you know Him and His Word, your love can anchor itself in that knowledge, and, like that little child, take a leap of faith into His waiting arms.
“Perfect love casteth out fear.” The more experiences you’ve had, the more times you’ve depended on His Word and His promise, the more you have seen His hand at work in your life and in the life of others, the more you know of His Word and His Character; the better you are able to trust Him and obey without fear. Obedience is the measuring stick of trust. Abraham trusted God’s promise and bound Isaac to the altar. Noah trusted God’s Word and built an ark to the saving of his house. Mary trusted God and yielded her body and her reputation to bring the Lamb of God into the world.
Lord, haste the day when Your people love You and trust You because they know You!
Marjorie Kinnee
July, 2009
I wonder, how often is the Lord frustrated by our unwillingness to trust Him? To ‘know’ Him? He counseled us to “learn” of Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart. He promised we would find rest for our souls – yet our human nature is unwilling to invest the time and effort necessary to achieve this kind of knowing. So we struggle on in our dilemmas, living way beneath the power available to us. The Apostle Paul longed to ‘know’ Him in the power of His resurrection and in the fellowship of His suffering. Ah! Our human nature likes the resurrection power part, but we cringe from the death and suffering that precedes that resurrection.
That brings us to the other two words; love and trust. It is a given that in order to trust someone you have to know them. But romance novels are built on the premise of infatuation and instant attraction. Evidently, you can love without trust, but such love is shallow and can’t endure the pressure and heat of time. Anything you can “fall” in love with easily can just as easily be swept away by a new infatuation. Shallow love is easily replaced. But love born of knowledge has a strong foundation and becomes the birthplace of trust.
A child’s trust is built on experience. All they know is that their mother and/or father have been the central point of their existence and so they tend to trust even in the most scary times. We’ve heard the story of the child who jumped into his father's arms from the window of a burning building. A teenager or an adult might have questioned the father’s strength and ability to catch him, but the little child has not learned to doubt, so “what if?” never crosses his mind. He leaps – fully trusting his father to catch him. All he knows is what he’s learned from and about his father and mother. His trust is based on that knowledge. It’s a heavy parental responsibility but one that has made weak men strong.
Is it any wonder why Jesus said, “except ye become as a little child, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven”? The trust a child displays is born of his love and his knowledge. You may say, “Some parents are not trustworthy!” and this may be true of earthly, sinful parents – but if you know God, you know it is not true of your Heavenly Father. “His strength is made perfect in [our] weakness.”
Even when His answer is “No” – He has promised never to leave or forsake you. He goes with you and gets under the yoke with you even in the most difficult of times; when you’ve failed, when you’re sinking, when your body is wracked with pain, when your heart is broken, when your mind skitters about in panic, when the enemy comes in like a flood, when you’re perplexed and don’t know what to do, when you’re between a rock and a hard place. Whatever the circumstance, if you know Him and His Word, your love can anchor itself in that knowledge, and, like that little child, take a leap of faith into His waiting arms.
“Perfect love casteth out fear.” The more experiences you’ve had, the more times you’ve depended on His Word and His promise, the more you have seen His hand at work in your life and in the life of others, the more you know of His Word and His Character; the better you are able to trust Him and obey without fear. Obedience is the measuring stick of trust. Abraham trusted God’s promise and bound Isaac to the altar. Noah trusted God’s Word and built an ark to the saving of his house. Mary trusted God and yielded her body and her reputation to bring the Lamb of God into the world.
Lord, haste the day when Your people love You and trust You because they know You!
Marjorie Kinnee
July, 2009
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