Tag Archives: Jesus is there for You

One Pebble Closer – The Sixth Beatitude

Posted on March 2, 2016 | Leave a comment

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Ponderings:
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about hearts and how God changes them. That’s what led me again to Ezekiel 36:26 & 27 – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.Pebble jar

I think Ezekiel’s words are what Jesus is honoring with this Beatitude. Purity of heart is a slow but sure promise of the power God and the life of Jesus to chisel away at a stoney heart, pebble by pebble, and replace it with life and his Spirit.

Consider this idea. Find a lovely glass jar you’d be comfortable to have in a prominent place in your home. Either buy or gather a supply of small pebbles to have on hand. Every time you feel God tug at your heart, put another pebble in that jar. It may or may not be a big event but it’s an important one to remember; another pebble has fallen loose.

God is at work changing your heart from stone to flesh and you’re One Pebble Closer to purity and the blessing of seeing the reality of God.

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Posted in Lent, Matthew, Wednesday

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Unfamiliar Reality

Posted on February 17, 2016 | Leave a comment

The Second Beatitude
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Ponderings:
Mourning exposes a depth of emotions associated with loss that are an Unfamiliar Reality to us. Loss forces us to experience those emotions and at same time admit our coping skills will not comfort us.

This is the reality that Jesus simple words address: mourning releases us from our need to cope with those unbearable circumstances so we are ready for the blessing of comfort.

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Posted in Blessing, Lent, Matthew, Wednesday

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The Real Jesus

Posted on November 15, 2015 | Leave a comment

Excerpts from Mark 3 NIV
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts…9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him…21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”…

Thoughts:
I’m having a negative reaction to everything I read today.  I don’t like reading that Jesus was angry and distressed.  I don’t like that he made plans to keep himself away from the people.  I don’t like that his own family was ready to haul him away because they thought he was out of his mind.  This is a clear indicator that I’m deeply involved in romanticizing the human Jesus and I don’t like that either.

I read a book “Imaginary Jesus” by Matt Mikalatos.  It’s not a “Christian” book per se, it’s a novel and underlying the humor of it is a very serious reality.  It’s the mistake of seeing Jesus as what we need him to be in any given situation.  Here’s part of the description from Amazon: “When Matt Mikalatos realizes that his longtime buddy in the robe and sandals isn’t the real Jesus at all, but an imaginary one, he embarks on a mission to find the real thing.”

I don’t want to miss The Real Jesus because of my need to make him look and act like I think he should…but…I don’t want him to be angry, or distressed either.  That’s too raw, too human, and too much a mirror of what my reaction might be.  Maybe that’s the point.  The Real Jesus will show me my own humanity despite my creative attempts to mold him into an imaginary image.  Obviously he’s not finished yet.

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Posted in Daily Faith, Growth, Mark, Real Life

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Home Improvement

Posted on October 21, 2015 | Leave a comment

John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

It’s obvious even among the most devoted believers that there are individual quirks leftover when God deals with the serious business of saving a person. Surely you know someone of deep and true faith that gossips, or lashes out, or lies, or….[you fill in the blank].

It’s easy for me to see those flaws in others and much harder to recognize them in myself. These are the hold-out things that can become the secret weapons of the enemy.  He can’t have our souls back but he can cause a lot of hurt and havoc in our lives with those leftover quirks.

Jesus has saved my soul and now he’s standing ready to save me from myself; to free me from those quirks.  After all these years, and hours of devotion, and true transformation here I am seeing one of those little “quirks” in my own life. It’s awful and it’s wonderful at the same time.  It’s awful to see it…and wonderful to know Jesus has got a plan for me to be free of it.

I’m crawling up on the altar again Lord, to sacrifice one more “last” thing…again…to you. I love you. I love that your purpose is to make me whole and into your likeness, first with redemption and now with renovation. It’s the best kind of Home Improvement.

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Posted in Confession, Daily Faith, John, Real Life, The Real "Me"

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The New Devotional Direction – The Inside Story

Posted on June 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

Looking for Jesus in all the right places.
I John 5:6-9
6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.

Of Interest from William Barclay:
When he [Jesus] told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he was telling us to feed our hearts and souls and minds on his humanity, and to revitalize our lives with his life until we are filled with the life of God.  But John meant more than that, and was thinking also of the Lord’s Supper. He was saying: “If you want life, you must come and sit at that table where you eat that broken bread and drink that poured-out wine which somehow, in the grace of God, brings you into contact with the love and the life of Jesus Christ.”

My Thoughts:
A couple of years ago I wrote The  3R’s of Communion.  Recently I reviewed and rewrote it.  This is part of my own growth, finding words to make what I write more real than ever before.

The 3R’s of Communion.
• Responsibility — I believe what Scripture tells me that it’s Christ’s responsibility to continue and complete His work in me.  He has the power to pull it off, I don’t.  My responsibility is to regularly give Him back the gift of my faith as it grows and changes and trust he’ll do just what he says he will, build more in me.
• Revelation — Flesh and blood – the elements of communion shared between Christ and me have a powerful purpose. That little bit of bread or wafer that feels so dry in my mouth for a moment and the tingle of that small sip of wine on my tongue are actual physical reminders to wake-up and consider the “now” reality of my life in Him.  They are reminders that his plan is to show himself to me and as importantly to show myself to me.  Communion is Christ’s plan to feed, to cleanse and to nudge me one step closer to what He sees I can be – with a little taste of Grace and His life in me.
• Regeneration — Those “elemental” moments are blessings to remind me that this beautiful act is more than a ritual.  I can feel them as I take them!  I believe it is the perfect reminder that Christ meant it to be, my outside reaction to a real “inside” story –  the regenerating power of Christ living up to His promises to build and renew my life in Him.

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Posted in 1 John, The 3Rs of Communion

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Sin Loves Company

Posted on June 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

Day 1 of my Snippet Slog Through the Old Testament.  Not a scholarly verse by verse, chapter by chapter “slog” but what I believe God has in his mind for my mind.

Genesis 3
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”  “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”  “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”  The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

Of Interest:
• Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

My Thoughts:
I admit it, I’m defensive.  Eve has become our first picture of what sinful, lustful, greedy AND manipulative looks like.  No wonder I’m defensive.

There is no way to dispute the fact that Eve (and Adam) are NOT Godless.  They’re right there with God, firsthand, face to face, in a perfect environment.  This story is also our picture of the first chink in what it means to be Godly.  That’s why it’s called “original” sin.  They made it up!

It wasn’t like Eve had called Adam to dinner and served up a tasty dish without telling him where it came from.  Remember that phrase: “who was with her?”  I read more and look at this! Genesis 3:12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”   That first picture of Eve?  It’s the same as the first picture of Adam.   This must be where the old saying “sin loves company” comes from.

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Posted in Genesis, Not Godless but Not Godly either, OT Snippet Slog

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Hello world!

Posted on June 5, 2015 | Leave a comment

I began what I call a timid [because I’m just me, not a scholar] and limited snippet [because what I read is often far less than a whole chapter] slog [because it’s hard] in the Old Testament last year.  I wanted to explore the human identity of some of the main characters of the Bible that I pretty much skip over to get to Jesus.  They often seem so remote to me but they’ve become heroic examples of what faith looked like in the “good old days;” days so much closer to the memories of God’s miraculous intervention in the lives of real people.

I wanted to look at them as people who didn’t always get it right the first time and see what happened in their lives.  Some stayed faithful and learned from their mistakes and some just let their worry or anger destroy them.  You know, people just like us.   People knowing and believing God but held back by flaws, or maybe just indifference, from becoming what God created them to be. This is exactly where many of us find ourselves.  This word journey is my attempt to see how God moved them, and still can move us, from being satisfied with being “not Godless, but not Godly either.”

I am absolutely convinced that there is a process God has designed for the purpose of revealing himself to those who care to look and listen.  It involves his Word, the Holy Spirit and time. At least this is how it works for me.  I read Scripture, I watch for the mental “stop sign” in those words that says “notice me.”  Those are the things I copy and paste into my iPad journal from my online Bible.  Yes, I’m a geek.  I type, I think, I backspace [a lot] and then I think and type some more until there seems to be a completion of the thoughts I believe the Holy Spirit has brought to my mind.  My journey with you with begins with these posts I call my Snippet Slog Through the Old Testament.   I want to hear what God might have to say to you from what I think He’s said to me.

It brings a smile to my face to imagine that God can use that oft repeated cell phone phrase, Can You Hear Me Now, as an object lesson for me and I hope for you.  I want to listen, I want to hear, but sometimes I just have to quit moving and stay in one place for good reception.  I hope you’ll read these blogs and ponder them for yourself.  One thing is absolute though, God is faithful to ask the question, “can you hear me now?”

 

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Posted in OT Snippet Slog

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