MUD PIES

”Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.  We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C.S. Lewis)

We quickly repudiate crawling on ground glass, self-flagellation and all other forms of penitence as unscriptural, while imposing an attenuated version on ourselves, equating boring pleasure less lives with godliness. “All I need is stale bread, potable water and God, gosh darn it, and I’m happy.” Mud pies! Others of us become adept at removing the scriptural obstacles to spending desire in the world much like a saintly Edward Sissorhands, snipping out any restraining passages: “Oh, I don’t think you have to “Blank” to be a Christian”, missing the truthfulness of their first four words. Desires, in and of themselves are not wrong; the basic desires of the human heart are God given, and pleasure, the fruit of desire fulfilled, is not necessarily sinful. At issue is not that we have desires, but in what sandbox we choose to live them out.

We don’t have to suffocate our natural desires to please God, and we don’t have to ignore God’s precepts and commands to please ourselves. God, the great architect, made provision for the fulfillment of all our natural desires within the boundaries of His sandbox so the pleasure-fruit of our spent desires does not rot with guilt and empty regret. If we have patience, God’s favorite sculpturing tool, God will fulfill all our desires in His time and His way; could anything possibly be better? If we let life become a choice between enjoyment and serving God we have really missed the point, and love making mud pies.

The Christian life is all about choices. Rather than deny our need to satisfy our natural desires we need to find their fulfillment in God’s sandbox, submitted to His will as He “works in us both to will and to do for his good pleasure”, which includes satisfying the desires He put into us. And we need to keep focused on the real prize in this life, the blessed hope we are called too which can only be found in Him. Mud pies may be tangible reality, but they are still just mud! God doesn’t describe His unblushing promises in man’s superlatives, He goes way over the top and states unequivocally our language is inadequate to describe, and our mind incapable of comprehending the “good things” He has prepared for them who love Him. Can I get a “WOW” right here? Faith is the title deed to hope and the evidence of hope: Is faith even possible without hope? Choosing a holiday at the seashore over making mud pies is a choice based in hope. Faith springs from hope, and pleases God.                                         

MY DOG CHUNKER KNOWS HOW TO WORSHIP

He comes into my presence with respect and reverence, bringing his favorite bone or toy as a sacrifice of love for me. Then he waits patiently at my feet, waits for me to acknowledge him.  If I ignore him, he will gently nudge me.  He is patient but persistent, willing to wait for me but unwilling to be denied access to his master. The love that shines through his humility reflects a heart full of loving compassion and trust. I know that he would do anything for me, anything.  And he knows that I will always love and care for him; and when he does wrong he knows there is no depth to my forgiveness.

Although I may be preoccupied with many very important things - I do have infinitely more significant things on my mind, responsibilities and duties well beyond my poor dog’s finite, self centered little mind - the love radiating from his heart always draws me to him. It isn’t so much how he expresses his love for me, but the passion with which it flows forth that impels me to stop whatever I am doing and reach down to him.

With loving tenderness I reach out and touch him, the radiant glow in his eyes responding to my touch, my presence. But sometimes he wants more and presses in with an insatiable desire for me to express my love for him, to touch my face. And then something marvelous happens; there comes that incomparable moment of incomprehensible bliss when, driven by his love, I wrap my arms about him and draw him as close as I can.  His face presses against my face and for a few brief moments - as time stops - we are intermingled as one in the reciprocity of our love.  It is joy unspeakable!

It is for these precious moments that I live and it is why God created me.  He made me in His image with His capacity to love so we could love each other.  It’s the only thing He doesn’t have and can’t create because He wants the real thing, my love freely given.  God lives in, dwells in and enthrones Himself in my loving worship and will always respond to the love of my heart freely expressed toward Him.

WORSHIP IS THE LOVE SONG OF THE REDEEMED

THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER

The Kingdom of God is the heavenly sphere of life where God’s word and Spirit govern, the place where God rules the hearts and lives of His children, and releases them to foreordained righteous works endued with His power. We know “The Kingdom of God … is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17), but there is more. The organ of the Kingdom on earth is, individually, each believer, and collectively, His body the church.  The energy to perform, to work out, that which God has predestined is His “dunamis”, His “power”: “For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20) - not in logos but in dumanis.  This simple, no frills, declarative statement unveils God’s planned methodologies for Kingdom dwellers.  Volumes have been written about the Greek word “dunamis”, translated “power”, with origins traceable to the English words dynamo and dynamite.  But, after reading far too much I am drawn to the most simple of definitions: “To Be Able.”  God’s dunamis power is simply able to do Anything, Anywhere, at Anytime, instantly, To Be Able - intrinsic power!  There are over 1 billion Christians in the world: God is ever present with each of them, answering their prayers, catching their tears in personalized bottles, thinking countless billions of love thoughts about each of them - just how many grains of sand are there is the earth’s oceans - guiding and directing the most minute details of their lives, while He “holds together” all that exists via the bonding of molecular elements, maintains the physical laws that govern our universe,  and does a gazillion other things we can’t even fathom, in less time than we can measure with our most high-tech equipment - in fact He does it all in no time since He exists outside of time and owns time.  You are traveling the interstate coming home from work and suddenly, from out of nowhere a car appears in your lane from a crossing.  At 70 mph things happen fast, and you don’t even have time to brake.  Sure destruction is nanoseconds away.  “Jes...”you didn’t even get His full name spoken, but He heard the cry of your heart.  “Jesus, help me!”  In fact, He has countless billions of years to answer your prayer - He’s in eternity.  He hears and He answers.  Remember, when you hit your next speed bump: Dunamis -- To Be Able! Makes trusting God a whole lot easier. Mighty deeds not empty words are the tokens of God’s Kingdom. 

RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE, JOY AND POWER

IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE ESSENCE OF KINGDOM LIFE

THE CURSE OF THE CHURCH

“The curse of the church has been her apathy to truth. She has nothing to fear from truth, but she has everything to fear and she has already suffered nearly everything from ignorance” (Benjamin B. Warfield).  “The old covenant was a covenant of prosperity. The new covenant is a covenant of adversity whereby we are being weaned from this present world and made ready for the world to come” (Charles Spurgeon).  “It is appropriate that a prosperity gospel (i.e., Health and Wealth) be born in the hedonistic, self-centered, get-rich-quick milieu of modern society. We are by nature pagan. Either our religion will transform us or we will transform our religion to suite our sympathies” (Michael Horton).  “Deception is birthed in half-truths ripped from their context, dressed up in desire, and spoken as revelation. Deception attempts to control God and make Him our genie-in-a-bottle, a cross between our mother and superman, promising the “good life” now. But God’s “Good Life” is Life In Abundance, our blessed hope of Eternal Life in Christ. It’s not about corruptible “stuff”, and it’s certainly not about this life now." (Me)  “For the time is coming when men will not tolerate wholesome teaching. They will want something to tickle their own fancies, and they will collect teachers who will speak what they want to hear. They will no longer listen to truth, but will wander off after man-made myths” (Paul of Tarsus).

SEEING GOD

Some behold God where countless others look and don't see God at all. David was that kind of man. Where his presumptuous priest and his scornful wife could only see a gilded box and frenzied crowd, he could see God. This has to be deepest reality, to see God, glimpsing what remains after all else is shaken out and burned. We tend to respond to the breaking in of “deepest reality” in many ways, resorting to bureaucracy, policing, aloofness, scorn, pride, false humility, ridicule… Or we may just dance!
I know a lady who dances in church. No matter how bad the music, no matter what song, no matter how much those around her disapprove, no matter how hard her life -- scorned or loved, entertaining or envied -- she worships with all her might, her face upturned and radiant, her arms spread angelic, cruciform, an instinctive gesture of relinquishment and acceptance, her body alive with God hunger. She dances because she sees God. Right there in the midst of a multitude of people preoccupied with self life, anxious to get through the service so they can go home feeling good about themselves, this lady finds the table God has prepared for her in His presence, and surrounded by the enemy, she dances.
Between death and barrenness, in a steep narrow place, David found God’s table and David danced, a little bit of Shimmy, a little bit of Twist and a whole lot of Locomotion, David leaped and twirled in wild limbed abandonment. There’s something about seeing God during worship that can drive even a king to “get down.” Undignified? Well yes. Repulsive? To some: The ones who only see God on walls under glass, framed and hung. But isn’t this the point?
Worship is all about seeing God -- His Presence, His Face – Seeing God. Christ rent the veil of separation on the cross, creating a doorway of opportunity into God’s holiest place, His presence. Sometimes we never find the veil, other times we find the rend and peek through. But there are times when we pry the rend apart stepping through the veil into Him, and we dance or pogo or prostrate or wave or vibrate or sob or run or shout…The exuberance within will demonstrate when we see God, producing energetic and prolific manifestations flowing out of bodies not yet fully equipped for divine engagement.
Worship still resides in that steep narrow place between the presumptuous, those who want to protect God from mishap or embarrassment, and the scornful, those who want to protect the dignity, sanctity and propriety of worship, with watchwords like modesty and moderation, who in reality are protecting themselves. Both want to legislate worship, but worship is a dicey thing, always wanting to push beyond man’s opinions and is by its very nature, freestyle. As long as scriptural propriety is maintained, whether one backstrokes, breaststrokes, dog-paddles or just floats is between them and God. The living water of God’s corporate worship-pool should provide the freedom to splash around without legislating how to swim; even a half-naked king should feel welcome. And somehow, in the unfathomable mysteries of God, our flailing about in His pool ascribes and declares His worth – the true meaning of the old English “weorthscipe” -- and brings delight to the Father’s heart. Go figure that one out!

                                                                 
SEE (Greek, Eido): MEANS TO PERCEIVE, EXPERIENCE, KNOW

EVERY PERSON’S PRAYER

My precious Father, I praise Your holy name.  My heart’s desire is to really know You, to hear Your voice and be called Your friend.  Teach me your ways Lord, that I may walk and live in Your truth.  Direct and unite my heart to fear and honor Your name.  Let Your words dwell in me richly, with all wisdom and understanding, and fill me with the knowledge of Your will.  Let Godly fear pervade my being, recognizing You are God, and let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, my Lord.  Keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking deceit, and let me grow in the grace and knowledge of You.  Let the love with which You loved Christ be in me, replacing my stony heart with a heart of love as Your love flows out to others.  Create in me a teachable spirit and teach me what delights You, so I can be a delight to You.  Help me not to sin against You and to live my life worthy of You, with clean hands and a pure heart.  Let my mind be forever set on things above, disregarding my circumstances for the true reality that is only found in You.  Let me never forget how big you are and how able you are to be my supply, my all in all sufficiency.  Impart to me the gift of faith in accordance with Your word.  Let every obstacle in my path be an opportunity to learn from You, to grow in faith and to trust You more - for I know that all difficulties are within Your purpose.  I need to learn to trust You in all things, to know that I am safe in Your hands, and I need to know that You trust me.  Holy Spirit, You are my comforter - comfort me; You are my teacher - teach me; You are my guide - lead me on the smooth path of righteousness.  I submit my insufficiency to your all sufficient will, Father.  Keep me from secret faults and presumptuous sins.  Bless me that I might be a blessing to others, for I know you have given me a giving heart.  I kneel down and kiss the hand that sometimes hurts - transform me into the image of Your Son - make me Christlike.  For I am eternally Yours.  In the precious name of Jesus, amen, So Be It!

SEVEN EPIPHANIES ON WORRY

We live in an infected world plagued with contagious anxiety, the ugly child of worry. Anxiety is subtle, slipping in unannounced to lay siege on our mind, gripping us in uneasiness, dread, fear and doubt. “Let not your heart be troubled.”  God will not keep our heart from being troubled!  This is a command in the Greek, a willful act as is “Be anxious for nothing.” Nothing? Yes, Nothing!  Renewed minds look skyward.

Worry implies a lack of trust that God knows best and is powerful enough and willing to interject His remedies into our circumstances. Hidden deep within the labyrinthine of worry is the master “Self”, who has a death-grip on control. We worry about the important and the mundane with equal vigor as if this movie called “Life” is all about us: Read the credits:  written by, produced by, directed by and starring God! So... “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding.”

Worry is Self’s way of sorting things out, we are all masters at it and our life is littered with opportunities. Worry is a choice with a cost. Joy and Peace, which are inextricably linked together and diametrically opposed to worry, are the price paid. When we choose to trust God, the Peace of God, that bypasses our understanding, is apprehended and comes to mount guard over our heart and mind. And Wala... “Joy inexpressible and full of glory”!

Worry affects our health, our relationships, and our Kingdom works, producing a joyless, spiritually weak, miserable, depressing, defeated life. Joy during adversity is a barometer of our spiritual maturity... our divine healthiness: If we truly love God we will trust Him, for just how can we claim to love a God we don’t trust? And trust brings God’s supernatural Peace soaring on the wings of Joy... “The Joy of the Lord is our strength.” So even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death... we will fear no evil... for God is with us! And... It’s only a shadow! True reality is God’s Kingdom invasion into our “Now.” Remember, we are In The Beloved... In Christ. And... He is in us! We are never alone...

Worry is a perpetual emotion machine, a fretting dynamo, feeding itself with itself to continually reproduce itself. Swapping anxiety for peace and melancholy for joy, worry burns through earth’s most precious commodity leaving wasted years in its wake. Worry is the product of an earthly mind set, and abandons us to despair, having nothing to offer but more of itself. But the Spirit of the Lord says... “Why are you cast down O my soul… Set your mind on things above... Hope in God.”

God promises, grace releases, and we apprehend by doing. Is there a better demonstration of faith in the face of adversity then Joy, being joyful in all circumstances... to “Count it all Joy”? There is no “wiggle room” here for everything in life is part of this ALL. To “count” is to reckon, choosing trust over worry moment by moment – stopping to pick ourselves up when we slip and fail, until trust becomes a spiritual discipline, a divine habit. Joy during adversity is a work of faith, trusting in God’s goodness in spite of any apparent evidence against it, recognizing His ways are above our understanding.

Worry is simply fear in the face of adversity: we have a choice, we can fear God, or fear everything else. To fear God is to revere, honor and respect Him, to extol His name, and to trust in Him as the good and sovereign God who is ever present... especially when our life is out of control. When difficulties strike I know five amazing God things:  God is faithful even when I am not, for He cannot deny his love for me.  God will never leave me or forsake me, never!  God has made a way of escape that I may be able to bear the difficulty.  God is working in me both to will and do His good pleasure.  God is working this thing, this difficulty, out for my good... the very best good, according to His purposes. So... “Fear not, for I Am with you.” Awesome

WORRY ABANDONS ONE TO DESPAIR

HAVING NOTHING TO OFFER BUT ITSELF

DRUMBEATS, MYSTERIES AND MANTRAS

Jesus obviously marched to a new and different drumbeat. It is clear from scripture the Father’s heart determined the course of the Son’s actions and the course of the Son’s conversations, for of Himself the Son could do nothing. His life moved to the spiritual rhythm of His Father’s heart, mimicking His Father’s words and performing the Father’s chosen works. Real life is a drama played out on God’s stage, written, produced, directed, and staring God. For the most part we receive little insight into “why”, why God does… or why God doesn’t…, its called faith. His methods are purposeful and intentional, unanticipated and unknowable, and often troubling or painful for God’s ways are a mystery, unfathomable and unsearchable, and past finding out. The secret mysteries of God are, well …a secret. It is clear there are no formulas, no prerequisites, and no divine recipes for miracles, be they healing, de-deviling, or the mountain moving kind. We live in the brokenness of a fallen world, between the times, the cross behind us and full redemption ahead, and we really do not understand the miraculous breaking in of God into our circumstances, infrequent, but frequent enough to keep hope alive. We have become experts at explaining God’s mysteries, sculpturing “doctrine” out of cobbled up half-truths rather than allowing God’s sovereignty to speak for itself. Deception is birthed in half-truths torn from their context and dressed up in desire. This much we can say:  Jesus’ life flowed forth out of His Father’s indwelling life.  His mantra was “Not My will but your will Father.”  Whether it be subjection to human form, a wine fest, the wilderness, Jacob’s Well, the Pool of Bethesda, purging the temple of commerce, The Garden, or the Place of the Skull, “Not My will but your will Father.” We need to remember, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us.”  We will never understand why some things happen, or, more often, why they don’t. These are “God’s secrets” and don’t concern us.  We need to concern ourselves with “those things which are revealed”; the clear literal well documented promises of God’s word. And we need to embrace God’s absolute Sovereignty in all things in heaven and on earth, knowing He knows better than we what is best for us – even when it hurts.  Jesus always obeyed the Father; rather than try to understand the unfathomable lets embrace the knowable and emulate His obedience.                                                                                   

IT’S OK NOT TO KNOW WHY

NOT ENOUGH

Thank you Father. I say thank you knowing that thank you is not enough, and will never be enough expression to show my appreciation for the blessed hope you’ve sown in me - a glorious hope. So I GIVE YOU MY HEART in love because you first loved me, and even as I give my heart I know that it too is not enough, and can never be enough, to show my appreciation for the love you so freely, lavishly bestow on me - a passionate all consuming love. So I GIVE YOU MY MONEY, so precious here on earth, to show my appreciation for your tender mercy and grace, knowing once again that it can never be enough - not enough for your superabundant ever abounding grace. So I GIVE YOU MY WORSHIP, the fruit of my lips expressing in frail inadequate terms your glory, your majesty, your honor, but it is not enough for you give back to me your presence, the elixir of my life, and I am once again drowning in your magnificent grace. No, worship is not enough. So I GIVE TO YOU MY SERVICE, righteous works preparing the way for your Kingdom. But you have prepared a place for me, a magnificent place so unfathomable to my senses that I am overwhelmed, awed by your generous heart. No, service is simply not enough. So I give you my most prized possession, I GIVE YOU ME, MY LIFE, everything I am and can ever be I lay at your feet. And it is then that I see the blood, the precious blood of your only Son, I see the crowds mocking Him, I see His body beaten and broken beyond recognition, and I hear my Savior’s last spoken words, a cry of agonizing desperation which stands forever as a testimony to the ultimate price He paid for me: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” And I truly know that even my life is not enough - can never be enough! FOR I AM A PRIZED POSSESSION, A JEWEL, A SON ADOPTED INTO A ROYAL FAMILY. Before the foundations of the world God looked at my heart and said this one (me!) shall be mine, shall be one of my divinely loved ones. And one day soon I shall hear Him say

“COME UP HERE MY BELOVED!”

NEVER A BUSY SIGNAL

When Jesus cried “It is finished”, God’s gavel sounded in the courtroom of heaven, and man’s reconciliation to God was decreed eternal universal law. This word “reconciled”, to change, is often misunderstood as man’s “doings’, repentance, etc., but nothing man does effects reconciliation. God reconciled the world, and mankind as a subset, to Himself through the death of Jesus, the sinless one, as an act of pure grace.   Reconciliation embodies transformation, a change of state between God and man. Prior to reconciliation man is destitute and doomed, alienated and disconnected from God, and separated from Him by an insuperable gulf, the abyss of sin, with no way to establish communications. After reconciliation the gulf is breached and communication restored between God and man.

Now this is what is so awesome about reconciliation, the vital crux of the matter: God paid the debt our sin demanded through the sacrifice of His beloved Son. He settled the accounts, filed the docket and decreed the case closed. Under Roman law a criminal’s crimes were documented on a clay tablet called a Certificate of Debt. Upon completion of his sentence the Greek word “Tetelestai” was inscribed across the Certificate of Debt and the tablet was hung around the person’s neck to accompany him as proof he had served his sentence and was released from any further legal penalty. “Tetelestai” is what Jesus screamed into the courtroom of eternity on the cross: “It Is Finished.” Tetelestai literally means “Paid In Full”; our debt to God is finished, paid in full. This is the most significant word ever spoken anywhere, anytime by anyone throughout time eternal.

Reconciliation then is a vicarious unilateral act whereby the God who judges is also the God who reconciles and pays with self-sacrificing love the sin debt justice, the administration of His Law, demanded. Reconciliation is by Christ’s death, and salvation is by His resurrected life. God repaired the phone line so he could call us to Himself, but we must answer the call. When we “believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.”  Oh, and He never quits calling.    (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5: 17-19; Col. 2:13-14; Rom. 10:9)                          

GOTTA LOVE THAT FRUIT

The Bible speaks of fruit, the product of our walk with God, as being that by which we are known. Now we can be known for many things and there could be, I suppose, many kinds of fruit. But anyone who thinks gooseberries ripen the same time as strawberries knows nothing about grapes. Love of God and Love for Others are the first and second commandments of our Lord and encompass the whole of the Old Testament Law, all 2277 commandments captured by Love. And Love is the initiating fruit of the Holy Spirit, the first-fruit that releases Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control, the very nature of our Savior. This is the fruit of abiding in Christ, continuing to dwell in Christ, living in uninterrupted union with the vine allowing the life changing nectar of His Spirit to flow freely into us. By this fruit we shall be known – They will know we are Christians by our Love, sacrificial, freely demonstrated Love. Notice there is no mention of health or prosperity in the Holy Spirit’s fruit list, these benchmarks are of a church saturated with the world’s viewpoint and drunk on the pleasures of this life. The cross is the signature of God’s new Love covenant with mankind, birthed by an act of Love that defies the superlatives of human language. To understand how God views Love we need look no farther than Calvary. We have received the down-payment of the Holy Spirit who has produced the fruit of His Spirit in us, changing us degree by degree into the mirrored image of His Son. This fruit is the tangible proof that God is and that He is present in and with us. There is no better spiritual manifestation to live by than the fruit of the Holy Spirit, no better judge of godliness or spiritual maturity in God’s Kingdom, and no better evidence of His presence. It is a most glorious time that we live in, sensing that the end is near and anxiously anticipating our grand step into eternity. Whether we fly or we die our hope is a blessed one, a sure anchor for our heart and soul. And how will our Lord recognize us when He comes to take us home? He’ll look for the fruit, a strong family resemblance.

GOD’S FRUIT IS A LIFESTYLE

COME SHINE ON ME

There is a close association throughout the Bible between God's glory and the unapproachable light He dwells in.  The concept of a God who “covers Himself with light as with a garment” (Ps. 104:2) is carried farther and made grander in 1 Thess. 6:16: “Who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light.”  God is described here as eternally abiding in light as a continual dwelling place, and this dwelling is itself impossible to approach because of the brilliance of the light.  When Moses asked God to “show me Your glory”, God revealed some of His nature, His goodness, grace and compassion, transformed or transmitted - human words and concepts fail at this point - into blazing light (Ex. 33:18,23).

“God is love”(1Jn. 4:8), and the fruit of the Spirit is love: from love springs forth joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, but the “fruit” of the Spirit is love, and is purposefully singular to emphasize the overwhelming importance of love in God’s plan for mankind.  God holds nothing back in His love for us.  His “agape” love is passionate, self-sacrificing - think Jesus - fully committed and all consuming, a deep, constant, unchanging love for us.  I have an epiphany about God’s love and God’s glory which I have come to believe. God’s radiant brilliance, His covering and His dwelling place, is a physical manifestation of His love.  The deep passion of His love for us, His creation, is released as brilliant, glorious light, billions of times more powerful than our sun.  In fact the brilliance of His return will, by contrast, make our sun appear dark when Jesus comes in “great glory” to redeem His elect (Matt. 24:29-31).  How much does God love us?  The radiated energy of His full passion for us would instantly consume mere mortals.  “God is love” is in the anarthrous construction: God as to His character and nature is love, and He lives in unapproachable glorious light, a visible expression of His love.  Come shine on me with the light of Your love!

SOME TRUST IN CHARIOTS

“From henceforth be strong.” Be strong in what? In our spiritual position, "In the Lord". We are in Him and He is in us. Where He is, we are. We are joined to Him by the Holy Spirit. We are to live there -- "Be strong in the Lord." This is not about our opinions or questions of why, and not in our own strength, for we must be strong in Him, in the person of our Lord. We must have only Christ as our center, as our life, as our strength, and as our power. It is the Lord, all the Lord -- the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the Lord who laughs at our enemies. The King of glory -- The Lord. Our strength is not in ourselves, not in our position, not in our abilities or the abilities of man, not in our wealth or power, not in our circumstances, not in our place, not in our plans—NOT IN OUR CHARIOTS, WHATEVER THEY MAY BE! We must be strong in nothing else, but “In The Lord". I will trust the Lord who helps me and keeps me, never slumbering in His watchfulness over me, for I am totally His -- I will trust the Lord!

TRUST IN THE LORD

WITH ALL YOUR HEART

AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING

IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM

AND HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS

TRUST IN THE LORD

THE FINGERS OF GOD

The narrow way we travel is “Difficult” – not my word but the Lord’s -- full of speed bumps, circumstances on the trashing floor of life that punctuate our existence, some good, and some bad, with every shade in between. God allows in his wisdom what He could easily prevent in His power. The truth of this is found throughout Scripture. He allows that we might become perfect -- clay in the Master Potter's hands being formed on the potter’s wheel into Christlikeness. For those He foreknew He predestined to be conformed, molded and shaped, into the image of His Son. And we try to have understanding, clarity of purpose, when things happen; seeking to know why, even when the heavens are brass and God cloaks himself in silence as He is often inclined to do in trying times – God simply never answers the question “why”. Trials by their very nature include temptations, temptations rooted in fear producing doubt and the overwhelming desire to “do”, do something within our own effort to alleviate the trial. “Perfect love, God's love for us, casts out all fear.” Trust, the product of perfect love, casts out fear and doubt, and allows us to quit “doing” and simply “be”, be what we are called to be – in Christ – in the Beloved. God does not give us overcoming life that flattens all the speed bumps so we can go full speed ahead. This would be of little value in the hard task of dragging our cantankerous self nature to the cross of death. No, God gives us life, His New Life, as we overcome our old Self-Life, and will that it be nailed to our Lord’s cross. To be in Christ is to submit to the conforming pressure of God’s fingers as the Master Potter molds and shapes each of His children into a unique predetermined vessel of honor, perfected and fit for Kingdom use. Difficulties, what Paul called our momentary light afflictions, are the fingers of God preparing us for the glory of eternity with our Daddy. We are being made ready by the discipline of the present crucified life.

SUPREME REST: THE REST OF GOD

Within the stress and pace of modern life God’s children desperately need rest from the weariness that seems ever ready to overtake us. Beyond the Old Testament Sabbatical rest, which is a type, God has provided in this “better covenant” time a rest for His children. Hebrews chapter Four speaks of God’s rest as a promise appropriated through the commingling of the promise (i.e., God’s word) with faith: the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness. God commands zealous diligence in entering His rest, not by striving for he who enters God’s rest has ceased from self-effort and self-works. No, the key is found in the total submission contained in the application of faith to the promise. Not only is our Father very intentional, He is also the God who goes before us, so that we are in a sense always walking in His footsteps.”Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I have no doubt You’ve already gone ahead, my fire by night, my cloud by day”. God’s rest is a place of peace and trust, a place of cessation from stress and worry, a place of refreshing and renewing of our strength – a place where God is present – His dwelling place in the Spirit. So we must look within our divine temple to find God’s place of rest. Psalms 91 paints a beautiful word picture of this secret place of the Most High God. In David’s time God dwelt between the outstretched wings of the golden cherubim on the arc of the covenant, and the tent of meeting was uncovered so the people could see the fire and smoke manifestations of God’s presence. Psalms 91:1-2 is David’s personal testimony of dwelling in God’s holiest of holies, lying in the shadows produced by the sun’s rays passing over the cherubim’s wings. This was, to David, “dwelling in the secret place of the Most High…abiding under the shadow of the Almighty”. Now, our bodies have become God’s holist of holies, God’s temple on earth, so we must look deep within our spirit to find this supernatural rest of God. And make no doubt about it; it is a supernatural gift of grace, an “enabling” flowing from His great heart of love. We can rest in this assurance.