Pages

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

But...Brokenness?? The Cross??

"Preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."

The message of the Cross. How stark and cold and cruel. How marvelous, how wonderful, how rich the Love, the Sacrifice poured our for me. How real it is, in contrast with the fakeness, the frivolity, the emptiness which the World has to offer. 

"Take up your cross and Follow Me. [Not Billy Graham. Not your parents. Not Oswald Chambers. Not Bill Gothard. Not Neil Anderson. Not Ken Ham. Not your friends. Not your pastor.]"

Oh, the misery, the pain, the heartache? 

No! 

The Joy. The perfect Love, that permeates and flows and casts out fear. The Freedom. Complete. 

The brokenness? Yes. But rushing in between and encircling round those broken pieces is flowing the Love and Light of Jesus Christ, Filling, Restoring, Healing, making all things new. It is now His Story, bringing only Him Glory. 

Restoration...

Reconciliation...

Renewal.

All thru and because of those broken pieces. 

"I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Live within My Love. When you obey Me you are living in My love..."


Thursday, August 11, 2016

WAIT

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried:
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait."
"Wait? You say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith, I have asked, and am claiming your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate
hangs in the balance, and you tell me to Wait?
I'm needing a 'yes' and a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.
And Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!"

Then quietly, softly, I learned my fate
As my Master replied once again, "You must wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled  to God, "So I'm waiting for what?"
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.
All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want --- but you wouldn't know Me.

You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint
You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You'd not know the job of resting in ME
when darkness and silence were all you could see.
You'd never experience the fullness of love
As peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and I save (for a start),
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I gave when you walk without sight
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.
You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'
Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come true,
But oh, the loss! If I lost what I'm doing in you!
So be silent, My child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft' may My answers seem terribly late.
My most precious answer of all is still, WAIT."

-Unknown

Friday, February 5, 2016

Not Part, but ALL

A friend recently sent me this beautiful quote in a note for my 21st birthday:

Jesus Christ does not want to be our helper; He wants to be our Life.  
He does not want us to work for Him; He wants to do His work through us, using us as we use a pencil to write with.

- Charles Trumball


 Jesus Christ doesn't want half or 3/4 of us, He wants ALL of us! We must forsake all and follow Him; He wants to be our life. Not just part of our life. We must abide in Him, and Him in us.

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you... As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in my love...This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
 John 15:7,9,10,12

"...He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law...Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." 
Romans 13:8&10 

"These things have I spoken unto you, that My JOY might remain in you, and that your JOY might be full (to make replete...to cram, level up, furnish, satisfy...)" 
  John 15:11