Locating Your Hope

It's easy to say that your hope is in God.  It's harder to prove it, even to yourself.  If you think that your hope is in Him for your health, what do you do... For me I had a test when a greyish growth about the size of a nickel appeared on the back of my head.  How would you feel if you had a blood exchange, of some kind, with someone infected with AIDS?  Would your heart rate go up?  Would you start to worry? Would you constantly wonder when you'ld start to develop HIV?  Would you lose sleep?
  I used to have exchanges with someone who "didn't worry", they were "just quite concerned" about things.  Worry (or concern and thinking about something frequently) can invade your life subtly (def: So slight as to be difficult to detect or describe) a thought here or there and WAMM it has a stronghold of "concern" in you.  It's a Christian thing not to worry because the Word says not to, but we still can be very concerned about something ...that okay...(NOT).   Worry can be over anything, health, money, relationships, death, poverty, wealth or even something so trivial as trillions of dollars. When "concern" is present, hope in God is nowhere around...at least in that area.  You can have all the hope in God in one area and be a mess in another.  Worry or "concern" has a twin sister.  Her name is Fear.  They look so much alike you can almost say they are identical twins.  One is just a little more intense than the other... both will destroy your life and are a conduit for illness (physical and mental).  Check out one of my previous wrestling sessions with "concern" posted May 7  "Why it's Important"  http://urthechurch.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-its-important.html 
The process to beat worry is the same as I took that night, sometimes the process of ridding your soul of the worry takes longer or may be shorter (depending just how long you've been thinking on the matter).  It's just like a tree, the longer it has to take root, the harder it is to get rid of..
  "Casting all your cares (concerns) upon Him"  Casting involves the throwing of something away from you and like fishing... you can reel it back to you... if you choose to.

I hope so!

Do you ever find yourself saying things like..."I hope those politicians get their act together!" or "I hope the economy turns around soon!"?  For some "hope" may just be an expression,  similar to the one we all hear way too much... "Oh my god!" ( I did not capitalize that because most people that say this probably don't have a god that is worth capitalizing.  I often wonder when I hear those words, if that will not be a judgement point for them... "You knew I existed by your proclamation, why did you not do what I said?")  
On what or whom (including yourself in the possibility you may be a control freak) is your hope based?  For some it is the American way, for others their spouse, job, their own abilities or even their political party.  I have been in organizations where the pastor or the church (the structure, people, the style or organization becomes the answer and thus hope for the people.  Is your main way of "getting" people is to invite them to "your" church [In reality it is not yours, well the organization, style, beliefs and structure may be, but it is Jesus that died and rose from the dead for it, it belongs to Him!]  The Church is not a building or man made denomination or any 401c entity... and while we are on this subject... the "incorporated" status of most church organizations makes it, in the eyes of the courts, a State institution, because it is given the status and power of incorporation by the State and is under partial control by the rules and laws of the State... I thought this nation was started to get away from that...An incorporated entity protects the organization and its officers and makes them less vulnerable in law suits and matters of money.  So by the incorporated status the State, in which the papers were drawn up in, becomes their protector, shield and hope...this is a SELAH moment... Does the organization that you belong to preach reliance on God and is incorporated?  If so, they are lying to you through their actions, whether by deceit or ignorance!) [sorry, I will now get back down from my soap box]...If your main way of "getting" people is to invite them to "your" church is to tell them about the meetings or brag on the pastor or maybe what you do there, and we have all done it, your hope, trust and reliance may just be in that thing or pastor and not in your relationship with the Almighty!  If you find yourself in that position my recommendation is for you to develop your relationship with Him...Jesus talked about, in at least one of the gospels, people facing the Father and His dispute with them was not what they did, but rather "I never knew you". That speaks of relationship!  When you have one with Him it displaces all other things and gives you a confidence like no other thing or person can. Here is the verse that got all this started today...
Ps 33:22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
To get the mercy you must first locate your hope.  After you locate where all your hope lies then to whatever portion of mercy you desire from God you want you may want to learn to put and equivalent amount of hope in Him. To have hope there must be trust and relationship. Make a decision today and watch where or in what  you put you hope. I sure do hope so anyway!

A Psalm 84 Attitude

Life will not be measured so much by what you encountered (or didn’t encounter) but how you reacted to it.  Let’s take a quick look how to be a success in God’s eyes not only when times are good and easy, but also in harder times.

Ps 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.      

 4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. (there's a SELAH moment, don’t just pass over it)

Vs 3 and 4: Sparrows will nest anywhere and aren’t intimated.  We can come in boldly into God’s presence just like the sparrow (the old “worm am I” mentality is for Satan’s bunch).  God’s presence is your strength and  dwelling   (where you stay and yes, it is possible).   It is a place of stability, refreshing and calmness.

Ps 84:5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

Vs 5:  when troubled or hard times come and you are used to operating only in your abilities/strengths you are in trouble (see Sun June 26^th post).  You’ll be struggling to find answers and the ability to not only survive but to come out ahead.  It will be twice as hard because you are not only facing your current issue(with all its pressures and voices, you know like the ones that taunt you with the “You’re going to die” or “fail” routine), but also trying to stretch out of yourself and trying to reach and develop a deeper relationship with God (which is possible, but remember you’re also fighting your problem with this selfish my way attitude and abilities and the “voices”). It’s like heading for a cliff in a car and you haven’t even learned how to operate it yet (the learning curve is intensely quick…can you say pressure?)   For those who are already trained in operating in His strengths  (or yours that have been retrained and cultivated by Him) you are also led by a heart that is established and will follow after Him.   (Quick note:  I have seen couples and pastors go through hard and/or stressful  times (including building projects) only to fall, leave or divorce and have come to realize that they probably survived in their own strength and when it is over they are beat physically ,mentally and spiritually and have nothing left to give to their spouse or congregation, so they leave.)

Ps 84:6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

Baca =weeping.  These people have already been established by practicing  vs 3-5 so that when the hard time came instead of going inward and mourning and questioning they instead called up their strength (their relationship with the Father) and have now turned the place of weeping into refreshing (the well).  Not only are they able to thrive in hard times they have captured God’s rain and have a place of refreshing for others even though they themselves are in a hard place.  (note:  that in the verse it says going through Baca not residing!   HINT! HINT! HINT! Mark and celebrate the good times not the tragic and/or bad times.  If you mourn a certain day for what hard or tragic thing happened in the past you are living in Baca and have yet to go through it!

Ps 84:7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appears before God.

Strength to strength (see Sun June 26^th post)see they are becoming stronger and not bogged down by what they have been through.  Why? The rest of the verse repeats the answer… they are often if not continually in His presence.

Don’t wait for trouble to come to be closer to the Father practice now …maybe even today!

All Cracked Up, Stop and Think About That!

SELAH – Sometimes we get in such a hurry to do what we think we ought to… like read the Word, that we  skim over or feel so familiar with it that we don’t think about what it is says.  This is what the “SELAH” is for, that is in the Psalms, the brakes of the Word, the “Slow down! There is something important here for you if you’ll just ponder on this for a while!” It is a point of deeper meaning, if you’ll look.

While listening to Milea read a Psalm, on a recent road trip,  I did a little SELAH moment.  So now, I get to give you my rendition of the Ps 143:6 Selah…

Ps 143:6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

  …“as a thirst land”  Thirsty land is first of all land that hasn’t been getting its share of water, for one reason or another,  so unless you live where its sandy the ground gets hard and starts to shrink and crack.  Now as a gardener that is not a good condition to be in.  (In Minnesota we used to describe potholes on highways which were so big a VW Bug would disappear into them,  in some of the ground shrinking and cracking dry times we get in KY if a skinny girl were to fall into one of these chasms  she would disappear- unless her arms were out to stop her from going all the way down and visiting China.)  Secondly, dry ground doesn’t absorb water well.  I have come home after a huge rain and looked at my yard expecting those cracks to be gone, only to see them still there!  What happens is the ground gets so hard and dry that it cannot absorb the moisture easily and expand back, a lot of the water has either run off or gone down into the cracks and wetted the earth down deep but the surface still looks the same and is still in need of more rain to fully recover.  That is why, if we’ve been dry around our house before a rain comes,  I will water the areas around plants and trees to get the soil ready to drink in the rain instead of letting all the rain just run off.  Think of a dry hard sponge… when you first start to use the sponge, it needs a little work and lots of water to get it to the place of getting ready to absorb and hold more water.  It is the same with the ground.

We too are like the earth and that sponge; we call out for the rain of God, but then not see or perceive any result.  Don’t give up!  He did send some, it just ran in deep to heal your ground.  Call for more.  Soak yourself under His spicket.  You will start to see the gashes in your body or soul start to heal and become whole.

How do we get dry like that in the first place?  Sometimes its sin, sometimes it is just getting too busy and we forget or put off the drink for a later time.  When I get dehydrated my eyes fell low on fluids and they can get a little blurry.  Not getting a regular wetting from God will warp your vision and how you perceive things.  Let all that go along with any condemnation and just start fresh today with a shower, to wash, absorb and refresh (we will all appreciate it if you would :) ) Repeat as needed…  Daily showers are a good thing… SELAH!!!

I'll give you $100 U.S. for your $100 of Monopoly money

"No I won't! I like my Monopoly $ too much!"  Can you say, "idiot"?  (Well maybe in these days the Monopoly $ would buy more, but for now lets not go there.)  Yet we often have that response to God.  We will keep what we have and refuse the real stuff!
John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
My previous interputation of this verse and I think some versions actually say "grace upon grace".  The word "for" between the graces in verse 16 is, in the Greek, "anti" -opposite,  i.e.  instead  or  because of (rarely in addition to):--for, in the room of. Often used in composition to denote contrast, requital, substitution.
 So I feel pretty good about saying..."And we get His fulness if we would just exchange what we can do in the natural (habits, thinking, strengths and talents) and in it's place take His ability".  Why do you think that it says in  2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my(God's) strength is made perfect in(Paul's) weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Our habit is to do what we can until we reach our limit and then call out to Him, but if we realize that we just can't do something we are  usually more apt to first call out for His help. 
Would you rather have your wisdom or His?  His healing or yours? His power or yours?
Do we need to think about this for awhile?
.

Just what does God require of us?

Just what does God require of us? 
 Mt 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
 38 This is the first and great commandment.
 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  
 We tend to make the demands of God more complicated than this simple formula. (I think because it makes us feel better because the more we do, the better we feel).   If we were to concentrate on these verses to do them, we could pretty much forget what the rest of the Bible has to say.  The rest of the Word is there to help us in our stupidity and selfishness (which stops us from just doing these two commandments).  Please note: to do the second commandment you must do it out of understanding and the doing of the first.  Everything must operate out of love and not duty.  Love-compels us to do, which is the opposite of how we normally act: doing-which causes us to feel loved.

Ro 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
(Whoa, upon editing and rereading this I finally understood something, if you are working as this verse states, you are doing it under the understanding it is a debt, to which there is absolutely no reward-because it is a debt.  So you are working to get, but the result is you get... nothing)
Instead of being first... (love) we first try to do... (work).  The work of GOD changes us to be and act love.  Love gives... "For God so loved..."  (selah...stop and think about that shall we?)
Are you trying to get approval (love) from God (the key here is to find out that you already have it) then you must work for that approval (love). If you are trying, you are working. You are thus denying that the work that Jesus did for you as not good enough.  The end of it is you have just put yourself out from under the power of  grace, that  Jesus provided by fulfilling all the requirements of the law, and into the bondage of the Law of doing (read Galatians).  So now you must DO (WORK) ALL the law. 
If you are able to do it all and have a large supply of livestock, go for it! (My recommendation is to rely on the work of Jesus and do it that way)  If you must work, work on developing your love life.  It will become that fountain of love that will spring up from that core of life that is in you.
  If you are looking for a current day example of someone that seems to be love... check out Heidi Baker  (I am sure she is not perfect, but love seems to ooze from her).

On the Lighter Side

John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men

             5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

To get fuller meaning of these two verses we have to first look at the end and in particular the word “comprehend”, so we can get a glimpse into the power of darkness compared to the Light.  The Greek word that we see translated comprehend also could be: “apprehend, attain, come upon, find, obtain, perceive (over-)take”.   

1.       Darkness cannot understand the Light or God, (you could say he is a little dim compared to the Light… he is dark after all!) Also he cannot really conceive or perceive how God operates or why He does what He does or what God is doing in you other than creating light and thus dispelling the darkness.  You could say he is ignorant of the things pertaining to God or the Light.

2.       Darkness cannot overtake the Light.  There is Light in you, guard that Light, maintain that Light and you’ll be untouchable.

It’s up to you to keep an inroad of darkness out.  

 Let me give you an example of something that happened in a church body that gave an inroad to that body and pastors for sin and much darkness (some of you will understand more clearly than others because you were there).  Years ago a fairly well liked pastor was kicked out of serving a body by the boards.  Bitterness and /or offense came in (you could tell because even after 15 years the topic of the ouster seemed to always work into his special meeting messages that he preached, during the denominational gatherings).  He left with quite a few people (I am not saying what the boards or what he did was right).   Instead of being subject to one another he decided to make the pastor and pastoral control a priority, an ungodly reaction to an ungodly action.  (You’ll note that the NT verse actually says… “Be subject to one another except pastors, who are above it all”.)  Then came all the doctrine and twists of interpretation to support this and years later came the abuse, control and manipulation by the pastors he raised up (along with the hundreds to even thousands of hurt people).  A road (or inroad) for darkness, created by an offense, followed by a sin that has affected and infected others.  Maybe some can relate to this:  a glance, a thought, a look, a thought, a desire, a lust, a decision, an action, more thoughts and then the affair.  You may say it is not that simple, but if you were to look at it at the core it really is, sin always starts small and builds. “Keep or guard your heart with all diligence for out of it issues life (or are the issues of life) Prov 4:23.”   Look up blindness or darkness in the NT and you can see how darkness comes to limit a person to the Light.  **Please note it is only by the person’s consent (through sin action or thought) that Satan can bring darkness in.

I think I will close with this verse.

2Pe 3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot(or darkness), and blameless