Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Resolved
As I read God's Word today, it welled up in me a determination, a passion that moves me to action even when I don't feel like acting. God hasn't answered a prayer, a most earnest and desperate prayer. Do I lay down and cry out (or scream out) "WHY? Why are You so long in hearing me?" No, I keep asking, pleading, waiting and watching. And in the meantime, I am resolved to live for Christ moment by moment. My living for Him is not conditional on His answering my every prayer. "I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delights; things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight. I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, Greatest, Highest, I will come to Thee." That song has spoken to me in different ways in different seasons of my walk with Jesus. And now, as I labor over unanswered prayer, I am still resolved to continue coming to Jesus, living for Him, and bringing glory to Him in every detail of my being. Amen and Amen!!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Boat of Reason
Watched a bit of a documentary about Stephen Hawking this week. His kind of intelligence gives me a headache. I am so very small in my thinking compared to him, yet, by God's grace, I know where the credit goes. I respect and admire Stephen's ability and while admired by an academic world, he completely misses the big picture.
He says, while promoting the "Big Bang Theory", that alas, there is no need for thoughts of God at the beginning of such a theory. Apparently, the release of that spiritual connection brings him some kind of happiness, maybe freedom. In reality, he only digs deeper into the prison of unbelief, which is no freedom at all and devoid of all hope for eternity.
As I think about this with great sadness, I have also come to the conclusion that unbelievers are not the only ones who are guilty of this great blight of unbelief. We, as believers, do this on a daily basis as we angst over life situations that are out of our control. Things do not go the way we plan, we hit bumps in the road, we allow life to weigh us down and this with too much regularity. While reading the Valley of Vision this morning, these lines from a few different prayers struck me: "I believe, help me experience it to the full. Help me to make use of it [Christ's righteousness] by faith as the ground of my peace. It is not feeling the Spirit that proves my saved state but the truth of what Christ did perfectly for me. It is not inner sensation that makes Christ's death mine for that may be delusion... I rejoice to think that all things are at Thy disposal, and I love to leave them there. Let me lament for forgetting daily to come to Thee, and cleanse me from the deceit of bringing my heart to a duty because the act pleased me or appealed to reason."
Reason! It is to what the Stephen Hawkings of the world flock. That is their great delusion! For reason has nothing to do with the supernatural work of the God of the Universe. It is a faith that is completely given as a gift. And as I prayed to our great God this morning, I thought of Peter walking on the water toward Jesus. And I asked our Father to help me on a daily basis step out of the boat of reason, keeping my eyes on Him and my feet on His path. He alone gives us this ability and strength and it must be our earnest prayer!!
He says, while promoting the "Big Bang Theory", that alas, there is no need for thoughts of God at the beginning of such a theory. Apparently, the release of that spiritual connection brings him some kind of happiness, maybe freedom. In reality, he only digs deeper into the prison of unbelief, which is no freedom at all and devoid of all hope for eternity.
As I think about this with great sadness, I have also come to the conclusion that unbelievers are not the only ones who are guilty of this great blight of unbelief. We, as believers, do this on a daily basis as we angst over life situations that are out of our control. Things do not go the way we plan, we hit bumps in the road, we allow life to weigh us down and this with too much regularity. While reading the Valley of Vision this morning, these lines from a few different prayers struck me: "I believe, help me experience it to the full. Help me to make use of it [Christ's righteousness] by faith as the ground of my peace. It is not feeling the Spirit that proves my saved state but the truth of what Christ did perfectly for me. It is not inner sensation that makes Christ's death mine for that may be delusion... I rejoice to think that all things are at Thy disposal, and I love to leave them there. Let me lament for forgetting daily to come to Thee, and cleanse me from the deceit of bringing my heart to a duty because the act pleased me or appealed to reason."
Reason! It is to what the Stephen Hawkings of the world flock. That is their great delusion! For reason has nothing to do with the supernatural work of the God of the Universe. It is a faith that is completely given as a gift. And as I prayed to our great God this morning, I thought of Peter walking on the water toward Jesus. And I asked our Father to help me on a daily basis step out of the boat of reason, keeping my eyes on Him and my feet on His path. He alone gives us this ability and strength and it must be our earnest prayer!!
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