Something Beautiful

I love that song by Need To Breathe!!! The chorus says "This is my desire; consume me like a fire 'cause I just want something beautiful to touch me. I know I'm in reach. I am down on my knees, and waiting for Something Beautiful."

The picture above actually came from my neighbor, the next blog.  A Norwegian who loves posting pictures, and they are really beautiful and interesting.  Anyway, this picture reminded me of the scripture found in Hebrews 4:12,  'For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.'  Icesicles are beautiful, but to be touch by one sends discomfort and could lead to piercing pain by its sharpness.  It also transforms with every lost drop as the sun shines upon it.  May the word of God humble us, revealing our Lord in all His Majesty and Wonder. May it cause us to get excited about the work He is doing in our hearts to be made like Him.  Looking at the icesicles and singing the words of Something Beautiful causes me to want more of God.  Let the waters rise so I won't leave Your side.

God, consume me with your refining fire today.  Cause me to fall before in praise.  Help me to step outside myself and rely on You.  I would drown in this big ocean if you weren't by my side. Thank YOU for loving me and holding me up.  I pray that each time I open your word your Spirit floods my soul and changes my heart; reminding me I am no longer a slave to sin, but righteousness through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Come Lord, Speak Lord, Make me into Something Beautiful!

At His Feet

I don't want to be like the Pharisee, and not see.  So many times in my life I am trying to soothe the symptoms(acts of sin) of my condition(sin) instead of falling on my face before a Holy God. My only hope of redemption and life.  We are dying and think that a dose of bible study, Sunday school, church revival, or good deeds will cure us.  I want to be the like the sinful woman healed because of her faith in a merciful God.  The story is found in Luke 7. The sin of the woman who washed Jesus' feet moved her to humble herself before the religious leaders. Yet they were the very ones in most need; Simon didn't even believe that Jesus was a prophet, much less God.  Luke 7:39 says, 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is touching him, for she is a sinner.' Therefore, Simon didn't look at himself as a sinner. He certainly felt no need to fall down at the feet of Jesus. His faith was put in the things he does and the religious rules he keeps. 
Faith in God is our only hope because of our hopeless condition(John 15:5) and his mercy(Titus:3:5).

What am I trusting in?  Am I walking hand in hand with a Big God in faith?  Will I believe His ways are best and perfect though I can't take anything with me and the passage is narrow and very uncomfortable?

I need help, I need God!  I want my stuff, I want to look like I got it all together.  BUT I don't!!!!!!!!!!!

My God, keep me in need of you. May I never be satisfied except at your feet. I surrender...all.

By His wounds we are healed

Japan needs healing. I cant imagine the pain they are experiencing today after so much loss.  In this life we need something super, something supernatural to come and reveal to us, WHY?

We are born, dying of a fatal disease, with a heart condition. It's called sin. But there is a cure!!!
God. He sent His blameless and Holy Son to take our place and the punishment we all deserve.  God's Word says "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved".  The problem is that we are so blinded with our sin, we do not see we need help. We think we can save ourselves by our own, small ways.  God has to change our ways, and that is where suffering comes in the picture. We must become poor, hungry, sad, or even deserate to see we need a Savior(Luke 6:20-23).   Because of our sin we need intervention to help us.  1 Peter 2:24 says, 'He himself(Jesus) bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live in righteousness. By his wounds you are healed.'  God came and He works in many ways to soften and change the hearts of His people.  Trials in our lives cause us to need, and the Spirit of God enables us turn to Him. Giving us life abundantly and eternally! Because of Jesus death on the cross we are healed. Our heart is cured!!! We will live!!!! And that is why God allows suffering. It's because He loves us and wants us to live with Him forever! God will do anything, even sentence His only Son to his death for us, to get us.  Thank you Lord for not giving up on me.

I am praying today that God would use this tragedy in Japan and the many more that have and will occur to soften and turn hearts to Him. I am thanking Him for the times in my own life that I can look back on and know His presence and hand redeeming me, guiding me, keeping me, growing me, loving me, sustaining me, holding me.... I am overwhelmed by His grace.

Waiting...

We are always waiting on or for something. Whether it's for a Doctor visit or to pick the kids up from school, or for God to make sense of our lives and answer our prayers. Most of us would agree that it takes an intervention of the Divine and Holy Spirit for us to see that our own agenda is not what is best for us.  Isaiah 55:8,9 says, "For my thought are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." The very reason you wait is because of the block in the road designed by God Himself.  So why does He stop what seems to us to be His will. I believe it's because God is bigger than your plan and wants us all to see it!!!! God uses small and large obstacles to draw hearts to Him.

When these obstacles come my way I want to ask God why?  I recently read the book, You Were Made For More by Jim Cymbala. He gave 3 very practical reasons: Hardships produce iron in the soul, Romans 5:3 says "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
Second is that hardships drive us to pray. Exodus 2:23-25 says, "During that LONG period... the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help BECAUSE of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned for them."
Last he said hardships give us a story to tell. Deut. 6:20,21 says, "When your son asks in time to come,  'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?'  then you shall say to your son,'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a MIGHTY Hand. He closes the chapter with this sentence,  'Our struggles are simply a sign that we, like the ancient Israelites, were made for more.

I want to know God more, serve God more, love God more, need God more, praise God more, pray to God more, give God more... Whatever the means of getting there are, however long it takes; I will trust God.  When are hearts turn worrisome, it can be turned into a time to trust and live by faith.

Desire

I was thinking about the desires that God placed in each of us and though we all look so differently on the outside, inside we are all made to desire or crave something.  And we spend most of our time here on earth trying to fulfill it and in that attempt soon realize we need more. It looks different for everyone...some simply find temporary fulfillment in food; some challenge their bodies physically,pushing themselves to achievements and goals; some seek beauty by worldly standards; some resort to drugs for that temporary fix; some buy things, some put all efforts forward to climbing the ladder of "success"; and so on...  What is the desire of my heart? I have to ask myself to check myself. Where lies the desires of my heart? I want everything that you want; love, joy, and peace. Where and what am I seeking to find these? When God chose to open my eyes and heart to Him I was no longer my own. I was bought, purchased by the blood of Jesus. On that day, my heart was His. I was a new creation, the old had passed and the new had come. And it keeps on coming!!! Glory to God!  My own heart will and has chased these things apart from the saving grace of my Lord and Savior. But God , my gracious God, gives. He gave me His Spirit to guide me and remind me. He gave me His Word to abide in and grow through wisdom and understanding and LOVE. And I want to please Him with my life. I desire to do His will! Help me God to know and remember the satisfaction of YOU.  Be our portion today of love, joy, and rest. No thing can satisfy my soul, but YOU LORD.
Romans 7:18-25 "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. WRETCHED man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."
 I praise Him for choosing me and writing my song for salvation. We are slaves to sin when we allow these desires to be anything other than the law of our God. Psalm 119:10 and 18 are two verses that I long for my heart every second of everyday. 10 says "With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments." 18 says "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." Who can pray such a prayer but those who believe and by faith in Christ have been set FREE. Mere man doesn't love any law. Therefore, would not pray to not wander from it or see any good in it. Only God can cause us to love His ways. Psalm 25:4,5 says "Make known to me your ways O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long." I, through Him, see. I see life, love, joy, and great freedom in knowing that I am His! He loves me and He knows the very thing I need in order to draw nearer to Him. He is all about the heart matters. I long for His all consuming fire to refine me still. He is worthy of my life. Lyrics to a song say " How could repay such a debt except with my life, how could I give anything but sacrifice."
So where lies the desires of my heart?  I desire more than anything this world could ever offer... GOD.