How Do You Think About God?

I think that A. W. Tozer said that the single most important thing is how we think about God. I just was reminded about this as I opened my bible to Matt 16:13-16 which says:


13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”


14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”


15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”


16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, [a] the Son of the living God.”


Lord, its so important that we remember that You are God, our Lord and our Savior. You are not just a good teacher, some wise man, someone who is only our friend. Rather, You are the only true God! You are creator of all things and so far beyond our comprehension, so unknowable in Your greatness, that we can scarcely comprehend even a small slice of Your character. Lord help me to think correctly about You. 


In the verses following this scripture, its clear that the ability to do this is also a gift, so I ask for that ability - revelation of who You truly are, and what You are about in my life and the lives of those around me.

Be the Ball

I know that is an interesting title, and one that will hopefully be a bit clearer shortly. In prayer this morning I was reminded of a dream I had back in October.  I wrote about in my blog at that time, but am including it here again.


I woke from an interesting dream which has Spiritual connotations. In my dream I was in a class with several people and our teacher had assigned us several simple tasks. The first task is the one that really stands out. He had several bowling pins set-up and spread-out over a large area. He gave us a tennis ball and asked us to try and get a strike (knock all the pins down with one throw or roll. All of us tried to throw or roll the tennis ball to knock down the pins but were clearly unsuccessful. Once we all failed, the teacher stepped forward and said, "Let me demonstrate how to do this task." He then proceeded to place the ball between his knees, holding it in place, and walked to each pin and knocked it over, simply completing the task. We were all dumb-struck at the simplicity of the solution. None of us had thought outside the normal rules of the game of bowling.


At that time I woke up and immediately thought of the verse from Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD."  The Lord was clearly speaking about learning to think outside the box, looking at things through His eyes.


This morning as I was praying I felt like the Lord gave me additional insight. In this imagery, my effort is like the tennis ball, relatively ineffective in light of the task before it, but if I am wielded by Him, I can become very effective.   If I maintain connection with Him and let Him direct me, I will see impossible things accomplished. The teacher is clearly the Holy Spirit, and I just need to let myself be used by Him.


Lord help me to allow myself to be used by You, help me to be the ball.

Has Your Love Grown Cold?

This morning as I was praying I was thinking about how easy it is for our Love to grow cold for the Lord.


In Matt 24:12 Jesus warns us, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,..."


I was thinking about this statement and how we can understand it in our own lives, and how to combat the growing wickedness. The Greek word that is used can also be translated lawlessness, referring to God's law. So it could be roughly translated - due to more and more people walking away from the things of God (His ways and laws) their love for God will grow cold.


In many ways that result should be expected. The fact that their love grows cold really is the affect of the walking away from the things of God. Its really the same situation in every relationship. If you are away from someone for an extended period of time, and stop thinking about them, your love for them will grow colder. I think real passion requires presence.


Maintaining a relationship takes a good deal of intentionality. Husbands and wives who slowly slide into mutual existence, just going through their days and weeks and months without intentionally interacting and connecting for the sake of their relationship, will slowly see their passion for one another wane.


We must learn to be intentional in our relationship with God, even more so as the lawless of our present culture and society increases. In the old testament, God had the Israelites build monuments or altars at the sites of His interaction with them, so that when walking past them they would be reminded of what He did. He told them to write His commands on the tablets of their hearts and to bind them on their fingers (Prov 7:3). The psalms of David are constantly reminding them of what God did, calling to remembrance His miracles, and interactions with them.


I think we need to do the same types of things to keep our love from growing cold. We must intentionally remind ourselves of what God has done, focusing on the many things He has spoken, how He has touched us, and doing this regularly. Its like having a picture album of God moments, so that if we ever doubt whether He loves us, we can go page through the album and be reminded of all the blessings He has poured into our lives. The importance of this will increase as our surroundings become more God-less.


I think the best way to maintain love for God is through daily interaction, or prayer, and daily reading His scripture. This will keep us anchored to Him. I journal during my prayer as often as I can, so that I can go back and look at the historical record of my interactions with God. This has served as a reminder of God's love on many occasions.


Lord, help us to maintain a constant level of communication with You that helps us maintain our passion for You. Remind us of Your love and faithfulness.

Abounding Love and Insight

This morning I was meditating on Phil. 1:9-11:

9 "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."


What a rich sentence and rich prayer. I want to break it down and look at this more fully.


Love abounding more and more in knowledge and depth of insight...


- love coupled with wisdom and knowledge
- love that has a maturity and seasoning
- love that knows Christ well, understands His ways and heart
- love that understands those around you, having empathy and understanding


Which leads to the ability to discern what is best...


- with this increased love, comes increased responsibility
- what to embrace, what to bless, what to release
- the ability to see true value and worth
- seeing the true worth in a person, their true heart
- I think of Jesus and Levi or Zaccheus


And helps me be pure and blameless...


- love becomes the filter for my actions
- love for Christ and love for others rather than self
- love checks my motivations
- love helps me set my priorities
- coupled with wisdom, knowledge and discernment, I am able to rightly order my life and actions


And filled with the fruit of Jesus' righteousness which He gives me...


- of right standing with God and right doing (Amplified Bible)
- the fruit of right standing is access and authority - right place at the right time
- not the result of my actions, but a gift
- my right actions are possible because of the gift, not the other way around
- fruit of this is seeing God work through me
- forgiveness of sins
- right relationship with the Father


Lord, what an awesome prayer. I ask Lord that You would bring this prayer to fullness in my life. I want to abound in love and knowledge and insight of You. I want to rightly see myself and others, understanding Your ways, and setting the priorities of my life correctly. I want to experience the fruit of Your righteousness more fully in my daily walk - being Your true representative.

God is Before and Beside Us

This morning I was reading Psalm 16, which is one of my favorite psalms.  Specifically, I was concentrating on verse 8.


8 "I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."


I was meditating on the imagery of God at my right hand. At first, I thought it a bit wrong, as that would indicate that i was in the seat of authority, with the Lord at my right hand. However, as I did some research, reading a few commentaries, I saw how this is actually an accurate representation of how we live our lives. In the domain of our lives, we have free will and do control our choices, and in this domain we sit on the chair of authority. God will never usurp our free will, but will willing guide us, direct us, give us council, and protect us, but He will not override our free will.


Its interesting that in this verse God is both before him, and at His right hand. In other words, its like God is blazing the trail for us to walk in, then helping us walk in that path, guiding us and directing us. Lord help me to keep my gaze focused on You, and my ear constantly open to Your guidance and direction.

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I see in my mind the image of when a child is first learning to walk, one of the parents in front of the child with arms open wide, encouraging the child to walk towards them. The other parent gentling supporting their child, helping them to balance and take a few steps, always right by the child's side in case they stumble or waver. Its not to control the child but to help the child grow, and gain freedom.


Or to put in Paul's words from his letter to the Philippians:


Phil 3:12-14


¹² "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."


Amen, help me Lord.

Jesus Will Meet Our Need

This morning I was reading in Matt 9:18-25:


18 "While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.


20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”


22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.


23 When Jesus entered the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up."


As I was praying this morning, the Lord reminded me of these two stories interwoven together. They are both stories of how Jesus met the needs of the people. The clear sense I had was that we need to know that Jesus cares enough for us to touch us regardless of how. In both cases, the people came to Jesus. The father came to Jesus asking for Him to touch his daughter, the women came for herself, but they both knew that in coming to Jesus, they might find an answer to their prayer.


I was encouraged as I read this that no matter the severity of the situation, or how long the situation has gone on, Jesus can, and will move, if only we will come to Him.


Lord, I take heart that You are willing to meet my needs. You would come to my house if I asked. You would not reject me, or scoff at my request. You would bless what little faith I had and move in my life. Others might laugh at my faith in You, but You will care for me and have mercy on me. Thank You Lord!

Walking in God's Light

This morning I was reading from Psalm 53:2 which states:


"God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God."


Its so important for us to understand our need for the Lord. We not only need to recognize this, but in this we should be driven to seek Him in our need. God is looking for those that are seeking Him and His ways. Our constant reflection should be a review of our pursuit of God and His understanding concerning our situation. So often, I am plugging along never bothering to gain God's understanding, nor ever even inquiring. In the next verse the Lord states the reality that we all operate in this way, and condemns this behavior as sin.


I am reminded of Isaiah 50:11 which says:


"But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment."


Lord, help us to look to You for understanding, the light of understanding, rather than lighting our own lights. We would rather walk in Your light any day, than ours .

When Darkness Covers The Earth, God's Light Will Shine

This morning I started reading out Isaah 60, and ended up reading about the last days, as described by Jesus in Matthew 24.  Rather than focusing on the last days, I was thinking about the Church's response to those times.

Rather than these End times being a dark message, as Christians we must understand that this will be the hour that the Church will shine forth. At the beginning of Isaiah 60, the time is described well (Isaiah 60:1-4).


1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm."


Darkness is symbolic of evil, so in this verse the Lord is speaking of dark and evil times for the earth, and even darker and more evil times for the people. I liken it to the growing anti-Christian movement, and clear move away from the things of God in our media and culture (clearly not exclusively) and how people are moving farther and farther from the light of Christ. The cloud of deception is becoming thicker, and with that the power of evil grows.


I believe we, as the Church, will shine forth brightly for several reasons. We will have the light of Christ in our lives and will live differently. God will bring His Glory to bear on the Church - in other words He will inhabit His people in ways that are evident to all. I would expect this would include signs and wonders, miracles, healings, etc. Those who have eyes to see will be drawn to the Church and it will be a glorious time, and God will be mightily present, and Glorified.


Yes Lord, we look for the day that the Church will once more be filled with Your Glory, and stand as a bright shining light to the whole world. We recognize that this means the world will be a darker place, and that the deception covering the people will be greater. We pray for the Grace to be those shinging lights, in a fallen world. Matthew Henry, in his commentary, likened this to the time Israel was in Eygpt and though the plagues were striking Eygpt, in Goshen the Israelites were unaffected. Unlike those times, people will be able to come and become part of the Church, and come into the light. So not only will they be drawn to the light, they will be able to enter in! They will literally become sons and daughters - which is the language of inclusion.


Amen Lord!

Trusting God In All My Ways

This morning I am using a new electronic journal, so the formatting and look my be different, but I don't have to re-type everything. Hopefully it won't be a distraction.


When I sat down to read this morning I turned to Proverbs and was reading in Chapter 3.


Prov 3:5-10


" Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. [a]7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. 9 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."


As I was reading this I felt that the focus on trusting the Lord, letting Him lead, not trusting in ourselves, not trusting our perspective, waiting on Him and then honoring Him was so critical. It says to acknowledge Him in all our ways - which is definitely a challenge, as some of my ways I am not even aware of consciously. Lord, help me to be aware of any of my ways where I am not acknowledging You.


I am reminded of Jer. 17:5-8


"5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”


- and Jer. 6:16
"This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."


Clearly the Lord is speaking of His desire to lead us, guide us and help us. If we can get ourselves past self-reliance we can move into the things He has planned for us, which includes His provision. I think one of my main issues is my impatience, never wanting to wait, but needing to have things figured out, when I want them figured out.


Lord please help me to wait on You and trust Your timing and plan. I can almost see dad teaching me to fish, trying to get me to wait while the fish nibbled on the bait "wait for it, wait for it! Ok, now!" There is definitely a correlation between our waiting and His provision, as He is trying to get us to move past ourselves. I know that waiting causes me to stop, consider what I am doing and control myself.


Lord help me to learn to wait and trust!

Fulfilling Your Destiny

This morning while praying I was reading briefly through Isaiah 55, which is one of my favorite chapters.  I was meditating on Is 55:11 which reads, 


"...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."  


As I thought about this the Lord reminded me that He had called me by name, spoken a word about me - 


Is 43:1b “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine." 


and even written my life out!


Psalm 139:16 "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."


In other words, God has a plan for my life.  He spoke this plan into being, and He will see that I fulfill it. I don't have to listen to any thoughts that say I have missed my opportunity, or messed up so bad that God will not use me, or any of the other hundreds of lies that might get thrown my way!


Psalm 138:8 says, "The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me..."


If God says it, who can thwart Him?  The truth is that our destiny is found in the Lord.  He has a plan.  He is not worried - He is God!  He has spoken about our destiny and knows what it is.  If we are looking to understand our destiny then the best place to go is to Him.  He is the one who sees all and understands all!  All I need to do is ask, and wait for the answer.  He is faithful and loving.  He desires our best.  He wants us to be fulfilled.


Thank You Lord for Your truth!  Psalm 37 sums it up well:

 ³ "Trust in the LORD and do good;
   dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD
   and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 ⁵ Commit your way to the LORD;
   trust in him and he will do this:
⁶ He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
   the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

 ⁷ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;"

Amen!  Help me Lord to walk in these truths.

Confessing Quickly

This morning I was reading through the minor prophet Micah and Mic 7:9-10a caught my attention. It reads, " Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD’s wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness. ¹⁰ Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame..."

I thought about how perfectly this expresses our reality as Christians, as follows:

1. If we sin, we cause separation in our relationship with Christ.  We bear the consequences of our sin.
2. Until He pleads our case and establishes our right (righteousness).  In other words until we come under His redemption and atonement - for when we confess our sins, His righteousness is applied to us. (1 John 1:9)   We become clothed in Him - so in essence He pleads His own case for rightness on our behalf (See Gal 3:19-29 for some more discussion on this). He becomes our atonement - and His righteousness is given to all who receive it in faith (Romans 3:19-31).
3. Once we are forgiven, He brings us into the Light of His love and we see Him and what He has done on our behalf (2 Cor 4:6).
4. Shame is cast away from the redeemed, for we have been forgiven and our sins are washed away.  (Romans 10:11)

So, the quicker we confess our sins, the quicker we are cleansed and our unrighteousness is washed away, replaced by His righteousness, and the separation we have caused is removed.  Let us hasten to confess our sins, for He is faithful and merciful.   It says in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."


Thank You Lord for all that You have accomplished on my behalf.  Taking my place and covering me with Your own righteousness; casting my shame away from me and revealing to me the light of Your love.

Remaining in Him

This morning I was reading through John 15.  I spent some time meditating on verse 5, which reads, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."  The message is so simple and clear.  Its in and through relationship with Christ alone that we are able to bear fruit that lasts.


Reading the verse again, I was aware of the fact that there are two requirements:  1) If a man remains in me; 2) and I (remain) in him.   


The first one, I think, relates to our focus, thoughts and actions.  Are we connected to Him?  Are we thinking the way He thinks?  Is our heart in line with His?  Are we working to be living examples of His Word to those around us?  Are we conscious of being His witness and representative?  As Paul writes in Col 3:2, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."  We need to remain in this place of connectedness and thoughtfulness throughout the day.


The second requirement, I think, has more to do with our sin.  Isaiah 59:2 states, "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear."  We know that God does not abandon us, but our relationship is clearly affected by our sin.  Our sinful nature leads in ways that are contrary to God (Gal 5:17), the more we sin, the more we are affected.  


If you are like me, you struggle with both of these from time to time, or even often.  I am probably more inclined to fail the first requirement, as I quickly lose my focus on Christ as I start my work day.  Clearly the more I am disconnected, the easier it is for me to fail the second requirement, as I become out of sight and out of mind from Christ.  Apart from Him, I clearly can do no good thing.


Lord, You desire me to be connected to You and bear much fruit.  I know that You will help me to achieve your purpose and plan for me.  Help me to maintain my focus and thoughts of You throughout the day!