Puzzles

Prayer is such sweet release!  And the more I learn about God, the more I'm able to pray with confidence.  As Francis Schaeffer says, "He is there and He is not silent!"  Do we believe that?  Then pray and trust His control.   There were many burdens on my mind this morning.  So many needy situations with many details each!  As I began to talk to God, looking at the sky and feeling the warmth of the sun, I thought-WOW! I'm talking to the creator. (I do this often when I pray and it's always such a faith growing reflection.)  "Father, I don't have to tell You the details of each situation or come up with a plan for You to consider.  All I have to do is lift each name to You with the burden with which You've blessed me and You'll take care of it."  As I said this, much of the pressure began to melt away.  And I began to envision each person as a puzzle piece.  We are unique, diverse, different (puzzle piece) yet we need unity, completeness, purpose (finished puzzle).  As I thought about this in regard to each person's life crisis, I saw their puzzle piece as jagged and not able to fit yet into the whole.  Thinking this way, I prayed that God would lovingly and tenderly form their piece to enable it's fit into the whole.  God's Plan (the whole), God's Power,  and my obedience and trust to lift it up to Him.

Pain Inexpressible

When thinking of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Christ, we tend to think flatly, without much thought.
As I reflected on salvation this morning and began to meditate on the person of Christ, from birth to death, I thought about the pain of life that our Lord experienced.  The Bible tells us "He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities."  I began thinking about the unfairness of His arrest and trial.  But then I moved on to the death, from the carrying of His cross in His weakened condition to the nails being hammered into His limbs.  All these things I have thought about many times, however, today, my concentration centered on His BECOMING sin.  I began to think about sin in all its various degrees.  You may do this for yourself, as I don't want to put in print all the horrors that came to my mind!  And with each thought, each horror, they began to pile up on Christ.  I can't even name all the sins and the ones I did think about began to oppress me.  HE BECAME SIN.  How can that be??  I cannot comprehend that pressure, that oppression, that pain.  As believers, we will never know what He endured to enable our adoption.  Unbelievers, however, will spend an eternity finding out!  Praise be to God!!  He endured this to secure our salvation.  "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."

Nobility

In talking to God this morning, I asked Him to give me what it takes to be noble for Him.   "From the inside out, please make me noble in heart, noble in mind, noble in what I say and then noble in how I act before a watching world.  Please God, let me not reek of the world but let me exhibit the sweet aroma of my Savior.” (2 Corinthians 2:15).   I looked up at the sky and thought, “Why are we not blown away by the fact that God Almighty, Creator of this little planet, Earth, and then the vastness of the rest of the universe, desires relationship with us and bestows it on us through Jesus Christ!  God, the King of all the earth (Psalm 47:7), loves me.  I’m His child!”  Our pastor asked the question, “Are you amazed by God?  If not, why not?” He relayed to us how important our integrity is before the world.

 Are we amazed that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, died in order to allow us back into fellowship with Him?  Do we “stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder why He could love us, a sinner condemned unclean?  Oh, how wonderful; oh how marvelous!” (Charles Gabriel, 1905)

Noble means “of excellent superior quality; fine personal qualities and high moral principles and ideals.” 

Integrity means “being honest; strong moral principles; the quality of being unified, unimpaired and sound in construction.”

I say integrity for a Christian is of top importance and must be done with the cleansing power of Jesus Christ from the inside out.  We are of noble birth!!!  Our God is KING of all the earth!!

Trinity

I've learned two new thoughts on the Trinity in my reading in the last few months.  One is from a book I've read multiple times and one from a book I've had for years and have just begun to read for the first time.

A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy said, "The doctrine of the Trinity... is truth for the heart.  The fact that it cannot be satisfactorily explained, instead of being against it, is in its favor.  Such a truth had to be revealed; no one could have imagined it."

Francis Schaeffer in He Is There and He Is Not Silent, said, "I would still be an agnostic if there were no Trinity, because there would be no answers.  Without the high order of personal unity and diversity as given in the Trinity, there are no answers."  "...three Persons in existence, loving each other, and in communication with each other, before all else was.  If this were not so, we would have a God who needed to create in order to love and communicate.  In such a case, God would have needed the universe as much as the universe needed God.  But God did not need to create; God does not need the universe as the universe needs Him.  Why?  Because we have a full and true Trinity.  The Persons of the Trinity communicated  with each other, and loved each other before the creation of the world."

Fear

"Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous; do not be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."  Joshua 1:9
"So do not fear, for I am with you;  do not be dismayed for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you;  I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."  Isaiah 41:10

Sometimes our fears are bigger in our head than in reality.  On an new exercise route I took one day, I encountered just such a situation.  As I approached a house with a fence, I heard a very ferocious barking and growling.  Having had a dog come out of a fence at me in the past makes me a bit wary of new encounters.  I began trembling at the sound and would not look over at the animal.  I thought if I ignored him, he would give it up.  I kept walking along the house and it being a corner house on the turn I needed to make, the dog in turn went to the other side so he could continue his rant at me.  I continue to tremble and pray for God's protection.  However, I began to feel the need to look at the dog.  Yes, I'll just make eye contact.  I heard that intimidates them.  Do I really want to intimidate him?  Struggling with my thoughts and my lack of faith and all this in a matter of seconds, I decide to stop and stare at the dog.  When I did, I almost couldn't  control my laughter.  The dog was no taller than one or two feet high on all fours.  He had much volume but very little mass.  I've heard all my life, we need to face our fears.  This was one of those times where the results proved the point of that saying.  But most importantly, God's word is true and we can depend on His protection as we cry out to Him.  It was almost as if He was telling me, "Look at what you are afraid of.  It's really nothing at all."  He "will be with us wherever we go" and if it is more than a two foot dog, "He will uphold us with His righteous right hand"!

"Hallowed be Thy Name"

When using Jesus guide for prayer in Matthew, it's hard to get past "Hallowed be Thy Name".  One could stay there long hours!  Here are a few words that came to mind today during prayer as His name was being pondered: profound, pure, perfect, precious, powerful.  There are so many more but to take just these five and look up the definition, applying them to a God that desires relationship with YOU, it'll blow you away.
What hope that brings to existence in a cold, harsh world. "Seek and you will find."

First Day

In my daily walk with God, He teaches much that I long to share: a fullness that spills over!  Hopefully, daily but at least weekly there will be posts as short as possible.  Making them short will enable you to grab a truth for the day and meditate on it.  This short truth I've called a "truthlet".  If it encourages you or gives you hope then may God be glorified through His teaching.  I'll remain anonymous as there is really no natural intellect in me that hasn't been granted by Him.  Seek Him through His Word, the Bible and you WILL be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  (Ephesians 3:19)

Hope: glimpses of the future that light up the present.  The difference between hope and wishful thinking is that hope is according to evidence; wishful thinking is what I want it to be.  The Bible is the evidence and is the basis for all that is said in this blog.  In Hell, there will be no more need of evidence.  It is my sincere desire that you seek this evidence while you have the opportunity.

God, make us strong to overcome the desire to be wise and to be reputed wise by others as ignorant as ourselves.