Two Verses
Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Philippians 1:6
being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ
-j
Lemonade
God is speaking to me. How do I know it’s Him and not me? Consistency. It’s the same message everywhere I turn. “Hang in there.” “Keep the faith.” “Trust ME.” Through various methods and media, the Spirit confirms His messages in my life.
But why is it so difficult for me to do what He’s asking me to do?
I just want my lemonade.
-j
Recognition
I ran across these verses the other day….Job 42:3-6.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Who am I to question God’s authority? Who am I to suggest alternative methods to what He’s asking me to do or to alter His timeline? After all, He is without time. He works outside this man-made structure of measurement. Job spoke these words out of a recognition of how wonderful God is. Earlier, he had lamented his state and wondered why God would allow him to suffer the way he did. Even though he refused to curse God, he still found himself unable to see God’s ultimate design for his circumstances and decided to complain about them.
In the end, Job realized his appropriate place is on his knees before the Almighty God. Sometimes we have to do the same thing: fall to our knees realizing God is God and we are not. I’m going to start doing that myself. I only pray on my knees when it’s something important, but maybe everything is important.
I’m also going to steal an idea from my cousin, Rob, and go on a bit of a TV fast. I haven’t really watched TV in about a week because of Eastern Camp, and I realized a few things about my spiritual life that need some cleaning up. I figure while I’m not really interested in any show enough to need to see it (I have So You Think You Can Dance on a recording schedule), I might as well see what an extra week of no TV will help me accomplish. Some goals include spending more time in the Word, reading a book, and being more dilligent with house work. We shall see what happens.
-j
Not A Tame Lion
Here’s another exerpt from a devotional I get in e-mail. I love it when we can challenge the common, complacent views of Christians and hopefully get us thinking much more deeply.
And there is much to give one comfort in believing. Probably the most important things are forgiveness, God’s grace to us, his mercy, the knowledge of his presence, and the Holy Spirit who is the Comforter.
But following God is not only about feeling good. There are also challenges by Paul to grow and be ruthless with the sin in our lives, John’s indictments in Revelation about mediocre faith, and James’ admonishments to have a faith backed up by good deeds. But of all the New Testament voices, no one forces us to think differently than we normally would think more than Jesus himself.
There are simply no warm fuzzies with Jesus, or as C.S. Lewis put it in The Chronicles of Narnia, he is not a tame lion. He would heal people and then tell them not to tell anyone who did it. He forgave a woman caught in the act of adultery and then told her to go on and stop sinning. He gave Peter his greatest compliment and followed it up with the harshest putdown. And when his disciples enthusiastically stated their willingness to follow him wherever he went, he challenged them with whether or not they could drink the cup he was going to drink – meaning the cup of suffering and death.
One of the greatest temptations in the ministry is to take the edge off these difficult aspects of following Christ. We want to make it easy for people to join our churches. We want to equate being a Christian with the American dream. We want to get forgiven and keep on sinning. We want to have it both ways, but Jesus was never compromising.
Too true.
-j
Video
I took this short clip of Tim skiing. I’m mostly just trying out vMix. Let me know what you think.
-j
My Country Tis Of Thee
Sweet, sweet land of liberty. Sure, we’re still working on it, but it sure beats the alternative.
I have some new pictures up on my flickr account from the weekend. It was very restful (I think I took more naps than the babies) and just a lovely time spent with family. I took some pictures of the boat that I’m going to make into a set but I have to doctor them up a little.
I hope today was fun for all you Americans and that you enjoyed some cool fireworks. Remember that this is a day to observe the freedom given to us by our founding fathers to worship our Lord without rules and regulations. Let’s remember to use that freedom all the time and to tell our fellow Americans our great our God is.
-j