May our hearts and minds continue to birl away from self and move through the currents of this world, carried by His Word, to the eternal embrace of our Saviour, Christ Jesus.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Push Thru



Push Thru...
That seemed to be the message reflected in everything this morning. Life is made up of seasons, changes are God’s specialty for us and we all “know” that, but it can be difficult to daily live in that knowledge. We can tho’, choose to ignore a change God wants for us and be content to stay anchored in a season far longer than God intended. I mean imagine summer – vacations, warm days at the beach, bbq with friends…It’s all hot dogs and apple pie, right? But where would we be without the cool fall days to ease the scorch of summer and winter’s chill to slow our pace and ready creation for the bursting of life in spring? Summer is good, but is has its place.



As I started to the labyrinth today, I had to lift the big duranta branch to clear the path and push thru. When we know we’re at a cross road and the season is changing all God asks us to do is step with Him ~ from the familiar to our future. HE is fully aware of the walls put up by the familiar and so often they can be just as pretty as this duranta! That’s why it is so very important to seek, ask and pray when stepping.


I was reminded of this when I saw the summer growth of the giant timber bamboo. Big shoots are pushing thru the hard ground, right there next to the 40 foot giants. They don’t all make it, tho’. Not sure why, but they just stop pushing. For some perhaps, the growth came too close to winter’s chill, for others the proximity of the ones nearest left no room for growth.


For all of us, God’s chosen-His beloved children, there is a plan for our seasons. He has a purpose for us to “push thru”. For me, I take great comfort in knowing that I don’t need to know…as if I could know God’s whole/perfect plan for me, hello?!?!?



So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11 ~ The Message Version



Push thru 

~ one step of faith at a time 

~ one prayer at a time 

~ thru the familiar, to the fruitful

"...a life Jesus will be proud of."

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Look in the Mirror



Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
    God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
    any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
    And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
    all the men and women who belittle you, God,
    infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
    see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
    Your enemies are my enemies!
 Psalm 139:17-22

As I read these words today, the last part struck me a little differently. When David is speaking of his own loathing of others who are godless, it isn’t some license of self-elevation. He mentions murders first ~ He is one. It is as if he is looking in the mirror, as we all should, to loath the enemy within our own souls that wars against God.

David knew that “search my heart, O God” needed to be a daily endeavor ~ to fight against the “godless arrogance” that lives within our own natural self. The existence of it is often times the most difficult to acknowledge to ourselves. But this passage does hold a key to our inner disclosure before God, “…let me rise in the morning and live always with You!”
It is not right to live in self-loathing, or to put others down in order to lift ourselves up…after all, ”we all fall short”! But it is in our seeking God that HE lifts us up from lowly to lofty.

Investigate my life, O God,
    find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
    get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
    then guide me on the road to eternal life.
Psalm 139:23 & 24 ~ The Message

Ya know, we have all kinds of books and “googling” stuff out there. Self help is its own industry! There certainly isn’t anything wrong with improving ourselves, but attempting it without God at the center cannot possibly go anywhere good. David puts the examining in God’s hands, not his own and here he shows us that he knows he has imperfections and he knows that he doesn’t know all of them, BUT he knows Who does! And as God’s children we all can depend on the Guide on the road to eternal life…here to heaven.

Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
II Timothy 3:16 & 17

These Steps





IT IS SUMMER!!!! The last couple of weeks have really brought in the summer heat…103F, for my friends up north! Well, that has kept me in the a/c a bit more, but today was nice and windy so out I went. What a wonderful surprise waited for me, too! The first new bamboo shoots are shooting up this year. This kind of bamboo is a clumping bamboo, but you still never know just where the new shoots will pop up. 
AND it was sooooo cool to see that the sego has pushed out new growth. It is still fighting the scale disease, but new growth is a great sign! It all just reminded me how God is always working, even when we’re just seeing the heat or disease or whatever…He’s getting things done in the midst of all that.

I often think how funny we humans are, I mean really! We so easily think we wander aimlessly thru life, or wonder which step to take next…all as if we’re on our own. These steps, the ones I just took to sit in this chair, they’re on only one path – the walk with Jesus path. All of us, from the moment we first met Him, each step ~ our paths ~ reach to our God’s throne room. These are our first steps, the life steps that lead us to the Holy of Holies. Every step is known before taken, every path anchored in the destination ~ not the departure. That’s a precious Truth to anchor our perspective in!

Surrounded then as we are by these serried ranks of witnesses, let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet, and let us run the race that we have to run with patience, our eyes fixed on Jesus the source and the goal of our faith. For he himself endured a cross and thought nothing of its shame because of the joy he knew would follow his suffering; and he is now seated at the right hand of God’s throne. Think constantly of him enduring all that sinful men could say against him and you will not lose your purpose or your courage.
Hebrews 12:1-3

Nothing we do can separate us from the Love of Christ, Who walked this path, that we may also. Everyone of our steps have purpose, because they are taking us Home. The way of this path is not always clear to us, it can seem confusing and messy. AND we all know, if we’re honest, that we wander off to places God never intended us to go…but He goes with us into the “unintended” and shapes that path with His grace-filled steps. He fills the “unintended” with His mercy and for His glory and that is where we find purpose - because He is there – in every moment, every step, every breath. We, His earth bound temple, live in holy consecrated space. Oh, that we would tread gratefully in that Truth and with every step draw nearer Home.

I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing Him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is He is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life He has for His followers, oh, the utter extravagance of His work in us who trust Him—endless energy, boundless strength!
Ephesians 1:16-19 ~ Phillips New Testament