Joy in The Moments of Now

I'd like to combine thoughts from two articles into one very important truth for us as believers.  Both articles are from the little magazine "Table Talk" put out by Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul.  One of the articles is by Sproul called, "Dream a Little Dream".  And the other article is authored by Gloria Furman called, "Glorifying God in the Routines".  The first is premised by John Knox's prayer, "Give me Scotland or I die."  The second is about not discounting the mundanes as mundanes.

"We live in the mundane, and life-altering, dramatic moments are, by definition, extraordinary.  Whatever your normal is, I think we can all agree that that's where we live.  Even so, we long for significant work, unique callings, and uncommon opportunities.  It's tempting to view everyday life as a monotonous cycle of making your bed only to lie in it again.  Our perspective on the everyday business of our lives is important because when we forget about God's activity in the world, we become functionally hopeless.  What's the point of anything if "all is vanity"?  We hear Paul's instruction of "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" and we wonder how that squares with the "have-to's" of our everyday lives." (Furman)

"Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, warned us against worrying about the petty things of this world, the very things that tend to hold our attention--what we will eat, what we will wear.  We are inveterate worriers and insatiable spenders, which together mean that we tend to fret over funds.  Jesus calls us, however, not to worry over such things.  Our Father in heaven knows what we need, and He provides for us.  What we ought to be focused on is the kingdom of God, and His righteousness....  [In focusing on His righteousness, John Knox desired this focus for the citizens of Scotland to the point of his, "Give me Scotland or I die" statement.  This brings Sproul to the point of "dreaming big".]  We would be wise to learn to discern the difference between the brightness of our King's glory and the brightness of the spotlight.  There is a very thing line, one I suspect we all are tempted to dance along, between wanting to do great things for the kingdom and wanting to be great in the kingdom." (Sproul) [Dr. Sproul goes on to say that we go so far as to wondering if God would be pleased to use me the way He used Knox and believers five hundred years from now commemorating my life, and carving my likeness in marble?  He also reminds us of even Jesus own disciples arguing over their greatness in His kingdom.]

So, how do I bring these two articles together.  I believe it is the Christian's dilemma of balance and warfare with the righteousness of Christ living in them and their old sin nature and the Enemy of their souls.  We think our little lives of no consequence in the cause of Christ.  We worry over everything, both big and small, important and unimportant.  We always look for a future great work for God and neglect the joy of His working out every little detail in the moments of now.

Jesus is as much glorified in victory over the silent residual sin in our lives as He is in using us in the righteous conquest of a country.  It is, after all, the power of God in both situations.  Let us bask in that power, in that greatness with worship.  Whether or not one other person or the masses ever know of the victory, God has ordained it and it is good.  It is very good!!

Making Up Our Minds!

I love how I learn when I study to teach!  What a joy it continues to be for me, and what excitement it brings to my heart when God drives new thoughts home!  As I have many times before, I taught my little preschoolers this morning about Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  It was the story of their refusal to eat the king's choice food and how God blessed them for their obedience.

What I loved today, as I taught, was this simple phrase, "Daniel made up his mind...".  He made up his mind!  Oh, how we need to learn that truth on so many levels.  Just make up your mind.  I know we have to have our blessed Spirit to guide us and give us strength.  I know Jesus draws us to Himself.  I know God is The Power to do it.  And it is because I know these things that I must make up my mind not to sin.  I must make up my mind to follow Him, live for Him, speak about Him and think about Him all the time.  I must make up my mind daily, moment by moment.  May we all rejoice in this liberating thought!

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!!

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!!

Mighty Works

The following is taken from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening:

"Do not be content with forming schemes and talking of them.  One good deed is worth a thousand theories.  Let us not wait for large opportunities or for a different kind of work, but do the things we find to do day by day.  We have no other time in which to live;  past is gone, future not arrived.  We never have any time but the present.

Serve God!  Do it with all your might.  Do it promptly.  Do not fritter away your life in thinking what you intend to do tomorrow as if that would recompense for the idleness of today.  No man served God by doing things tomorrow.  Do it today with heart, soul and strength.

And remember, your might is not in yourself.  NO, you are perfect weakness.  Your might is in the Lord of hosts.  Seed His help.  Then wait in prayer and faith for His blessing.  Only then will what we do be well done and not fail in its effect."

And adding to this, I recently went to the funeral of a young man and this was said of him:  It was not a big work that he did, but it was the everyday details of life lived well that made him great.  One man wrote of him: "he did not seek to impress but by his very life that is exactly what he did."  

Refuge in the Name

"But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the LORD."  Zephaniah 3:12

Prayers of the Puritans are humbling at best.  I've been reading "Valley of Vision" in my devotion time recently and have written down some excerpts that go along with the above passage:

"No comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service.  I rejoice to think that all things are at thy disposal and it delights me to leave them there."

"When thou art present, evil cannot abide; in thy fellowship is fullness of joy, beneath thy smile is peace of conscience, by thy side no fears disturb, no apprehensions banish rest of mind."

"Thou art all good in times of peace, my only support in days of trouble, my one sufficiency when life shall end."

Let us take refuge in the name of the LORD.

Christian Contest

Sometimes I fear, we as believers forget about Jesus and begin competing for a holiness we have learned but forgot why.  Daily,  and I do mean daily, we MUST meditate on Jesus.  He is the author and the finisher of our faith.  We would not even understand the Bible apart from Him.  Don't think you have any holiness to boast of that He has not put there.  We are not in a contest, a Christian competition!  We are in love with a Savior who has bought us with His own blood, has called us by His own grace and will keep us by His own power.  If we don't love Him, then back we must go to the beginning to seek Him.

Spurgeon said, "He did not shed His precious blood to make you a hypocrite."  "You will seek Him and find Him when you seek Him with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13