heavy lifter

Does anybody want to think with me this week about what Jesus means when he says his yoke is easy and his burden is light when we know that testing is a part of the refining process that purifies our character and allows our Spirit to thrive?  I think that part of the point is that all this worldly stuff doesn't matter and that who we are with God is all that does matter, so that should put our selves at ease. But if we are good with God, why are things in the world so hard?  Sin, fallen world, Satan all contribute of course.  We struggle with all of these and our relationship with God and His Word.  I am thinking the reason I let the struggle define the situation is that I lack the power of the Spirit.  I, like Peter, look down at my feet as if I can compel them to walk on water rather than trust Jesus to get me through.  The Bible says in James 1:2-4 "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."  

I am still learning the truths of the Word  and reflecting on them and sharing them is helpful.  Also, other translations of that verse say "the testing of your faith produces patience" instead of the word "endurance."  And a devotional I have says "patience" comes from a word that means "suffering."  To me the verse makes more sense with "patience" meaning "suffering."  The Word reveals faith will produce 'suffering' but that the suffering will have its perfect result, so that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  I think this idea more clearly reveals the Way and the Truth and the Life.

confronting sin/ confrontation with God

2nd Chronicles 33:9 Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. 11 Therefore theLord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. 12 And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lordwas God."

God is so good. His mercy is everlasting. Here is a king that does more evil than the peoples God judged and destroyed and yet….the humbled king made a plea, a supplication, an entreaty for mercy and God was moved. In the act of confronting his sin, the king confronted his LORD and repented and received mercy. Forgiven, he acknowledged the one LORD as God of all and worshiped Him alone. This is a story of redemption, of hope, with a plot twist, drama, love, and a beginning and an ending that will have you entreating for more understanding and more of Him! God desires a confrontation with us.. He spoke to Manasseh but the king did not listen. However, God spoke to him again, another way; He humbled him. The king was taken prisoner. K. Manasseh learned to listen and he evidently knew the way to move God’s ear to hear his plea, and blessed be His Name, he heard him and he hears us! Let us confidently pray with great humility, knowing the source of our life, liberty, and happiness comes through Jesus and is testified by the Spirit.

Let it not go without saying that this reveals God as compassionate, gracious, merciful—attributes not often associated with “the God of the Old Testament.” For those who claim God is wrathful or ready to pronounce judgement in some unfair, unreasonable, unjustified way, let them read carefully. When people repent, there is mercy. Yet, one politically incorrect act or spoken word, and today people are considered not fit for civil society, unemployable, and held up for ridicule. People in this post modern society are far less forgiving than the God who they think is unsensibly wrathful.

buckets

there is a book called " How full is you bucket?" and it talks about how our emotional needs and reserves are met by the qualitative interactions that take place with others throughout the day. If the encounters are positive our "buckets" are filled, but if they are not, we run the risk of living empty, dry lives. If we extend that philosophy to our encounters with God, how are we doing. If we rarely seek Him, He can not fill our buckets. If we seek Him seeking our own egotistical entitlements we will still come out, perhaps not empty, but filled with something other than what we came for. When we seek God with humility, broken spirits, sincerity, truth, and ready to listen, then God can fill our buckets with loads of fruit...gentleness, peace, joy, love, patience, etc...And when God fills, He fills abundantly. We can take our buckets and disperse to others then keep going back for more and more from this fount that has no need to ration the quantities it gives away. Praise God for His mercy, blessings and grace! Our spiritual buckets have their source forever through His Son and the gifts of the Spirit!

God's Great Gift

A Gift Fit to be King

humanity
Feeble meager transient
with swaddling clothes
Comforts His Son
Light
Of the world
Eternal universal manifest
God's goodness revealed
Life
The breathing Living Word
Observable discernible imparted
God incarnate Sovereign
Sacrificed
The impossible ransom paid
Humble Obedient Perfect
Proves His want for us
Salvation
For each child of God
Redemption Forgiveness Grace
Swaddled in a manger
Messiah.

Merci for Mercy!

Mercy, anyone??! The site chosen for the temple Solomon was chosen to construct has quite a legacy. In 1st Chronicles 21, the consequences of David's sin of numbering the people under his dominion had caused catastrophic losses throughout the land. And David, seeing the angel of the Lord with sword in hand in order to smite Ornan the Jebusite and his household along with other inhabitants of Jerusalem, sought God's mercy, vs. 13. Though fearful of the hand of God, he knew there was nothing but the mercy of God to appeal to and that is what moved God to tell the angel to cease and desist the administration of justice.. It is as if the consequence for accepting the sentence would be more damning than the action that warranted the sentence in the first place. And because this is where David interceded for God's mercy, God told Gad to tell David that is where He wanted an altar to be built. A place to signify that God could hear and be moved by man would be a powerful testimony and reminder for the people to continue to trust Him. And isn’t that what Christ proclaimed and demonstrated as well. He was moved to make the sacrifice.   To be sure, the more we fear the appropriate impartment of due process that would hold us to account for our sin, the more God shows His amazing grace and profound mercy: Zephaniah 3:7 "I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;

you will accept correction.

Then your dwelling would not be cut off

according to all that I have appointed against you.’ " I believe God is especially moved when we have nothing but a determination to be heard by God whether in communion or confrontation--mano a Deo--when we know we have nothing but His Word to fall back on because His Word testifies to His love, His mercy and His desire for us to know we can and should count on Him for what we need and that He wants to provide abundantly! We can ask, seek, and knock because God wants us to confront Him--to have a passionate determination in our aspiration to find inspiration! The splendor of David’s plan, in all its glory, got its humble beginnings from the consequence of sin and the redeeming grace of God. Much better then, the splendor of God’s plan which was fulfilled in Christ. God interceded on our behalf to save us. The cross reminds us that He is a God that cares and was moved so much as to give His only Son to redeem us into His kingdom. Now to receive this most merciful gift is only to confront the Lord, confess our fear and profess “I am yours; save me,…” (Psalm 119:94). May God be glorified with our praise, obedience and thanksgiving, Amen.

drinking from the vine

Habakkuk 2 15 “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—
you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
in order to gaze at their nakedness!
16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the Lord's right hand
will come around to you,
and utter shame will come upon your glory!"

--To me these verses illustrate the cup that Jesus was asking God to remove from Him at the garden while He prayed for strength to obey His Father's will. This cup is not some gentle, little throw away trifle of a piece of plastic, it is an ominous foreboding disgusting threat to Life's existence. Being humble and faithful and for love for us all, Jesus summoned the strength in His weakness to take our cup for us, that we would not have to drink what we so deservedly reap. Now, through Him, we may drink of His righteousness, goodness, holiness, and this is the divine taste of being children of God!

All for One! One for all!

1 Chronicles 29:11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

This sounds like the end of The Lord's prayer or the doxology; "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen." Just glad to know its context.

17 I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.

--There is another scripture that says God does not tempt us, James1:13, but he does test us....need to differentiate the two and know in my heart what comes from God and what is of my own making.

23 Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king in place of David his father.

--I wonder if this phrase "the throne of the Lord" is newly given or had it been established prior to this-. I know Jesus is the king descended from David to rule from this throne, but I never thought it was The Lord's throne until he sat on it. Seems like that would have been a title of only the place from which Christ would rule.

In an earlier chapter in Chronicles, (22:12) David prayed to the Lord for Solomon that he would have the wisdom to rule. And I think that is overlooked much. We often here how wise Solomon was to ask for wisdom because God blessed him abundantly for making such a honorable request, but to know David was praying that his son would know of his need for wisdom speaks volumes about the need for intercessory prayer and getting to the heart of God's will.

I think it is interesting that what I have thought to be the temple being built for God is called a lot of things but not a temple. It is a house, a holy house and a palace such as in verse 19. I think this is significant because a house is where families reside and a temple is usually something where a community joins together for an event, but it is not home.

Lest I omit what is made abundantly clear here in this reading in this chapter in Chronicles is the fact that everything we have has comes from God, and to give it to Him to serve Him and bring Him glory is a joyous and commendable action that brings blessings innumerable to countless others. May my thankfulness lead to more generosity for the blessing of others to the glory of God.