Here or There

A loved one gave me two volumes of a book titled Every Moment Holy, and one section is titled "A Liturgy for Arriving at the Ocean," so it must truly be a ... holy moment. I quote, "We have traveled this day to the bounding sea, O Lord, to the far edge of the habitable land, as to the utter end of our own measure and ability and strength, to find here reminders of your limitless presence extended immeasurable beyond us." (Volume I). In some way, we are surely reminded continually of our limitations and our mortality. That can be discouraging even depressing except that it is cause to rejoice that God is neither limited nor bound in any way. His power and ability exceed the boundaries of what we can imagine as does His love. For the next ten days, I will settle my chair in the sand and look out to the horizon knowing, of course, it is not the end of the ocean - a gentle yet profound reminder there is no end to my God's glory and praise. All that He is extends beyond the scope of my own knowledge and understanding. My prayer is to "on this lovely shore lay down [my] pretensions of power ... find instead contentment in [my] creatureliness ... know solace and calm and wonder and delight ... wade here in the wild waters of [His] Presence ... Bask in the golden light of [His] Love." Because of Jesus, you and I can do this ... here or there!

God Before All

As Mister Bill and I prepare for a trip, there is great consideration of what "stuff" we cannot travel without. Make no mistake, we have different opinions about what should go and what should stay! It's quite profound and [somewhat] sobering to think about the "things" that we love. Friends of ours are in the storage rental business; while there are valid reasons to store items, it's interesting to hear of the things stored away for seemingly nothing more than a reluctance to part with them. In his book, Knowledge of The Holy, A. W. Tozer writes, "Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry." It is idolatry - loving other things more than God - that causes the human heart its greatest grief. To love God most - that is, more than things (our stuff) - brings a freedom like nothing else. There's nothing wrong with having things until suddenly those things ... have us - we are compelled to hold them tightly, so tightly we squeezed out what matters most. To God's children, John wrote simply: "Little children, keep yourselves free from idols." (1 John 5:21 ESV). Tozer continues, "Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration." In our car will be various [yes] useful things, a little of home-away-from-home. Every Believer must consider where God is in what we love: is He among our things or is He above our things? In obedience to God's words in Exodus 20:3 of having no other God before me, it must always be ... God before all.

No Better Words

We all enjoy complimentary words - they encourage our hearts. I have been personally blessed by so many friends who regularly strengthen my heart with kind words and deeds. For this, I am so grateful! These are words written about Abraham: "Abraham believed God" (Romans 4:3a NASB). How many of us would take those words over other words? I dare to say we do not fully grasp the extent of ... believing God. Note it does not say Abraham believe "in" God but that Abraham simply "believed" God. We can believe in something without trusting it explicitly, i.e. I believe in electricity but I do not trust that it will always do what it should do. God called Abraham to leave his home and go to a place God would show him, and that's exactly what Abraham did. Why? Because he not only believe "in God," he "believed God" knew and would do what was best. That belief meant something far beyond anything Abraham could or would know: Romans 4:3 concludes with these words: "it was credited to him as righteousness." Abraham's believing [God] became to him God's righteousness. In the same way, when we believe God sent His Son (Jesus) as payment for our sin, Jesus' righteousness becomes our own: "to the one who does not work but believes in Him [Jesus] Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Romans 4:5 ESV). No better words can be spoken of anyone than that he or she believes God. That belief results in the righteousness of Christ. If that is personally true, there is no greater encouragement; there are ... no better words.

Our Celebration

It's not uncommon to hear the phrases "funeral service" or "memorial service" replaced with ... "celebration of life." And why not - life is indeed a gift and should be celebrated. I suggest, however, life is best celebrated while living! Those who know me know how much I love my birthday; as far as my family is concerned, it is the biggest reason to throw a party. Why would any of us not celebrate that The LORD God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and at that moment man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). In then out we breathe ... our very life, originating from the Breath of God. Indeed, let us celebrate by living lives not solely defined by moral behavior and ethical decisions, nor alone characterized by kindness and graciousness to others, neither confined to wise and honorable pursuits. Ecclesiastes 12:12 - "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." For sure, living morally, ethically, kindly, graciously, wisely and honorably is excellent but not so we deserve some great eulogy or good words inscribed on grave stone; rather, "whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23 ESV). Christ glorified is the why we live each day in celebration - He alone is to be the motive for each breath we breathe-in and breathe-out. Nothing matters more and there's nothing more to celebrate day-after-day: Jesus Christ ... our celebration.

Steady Steps

In the German folklore of "Hansel and Gretel," you may recall Hansel leaving a trail of bread crumbs to mark his and his sister's way back home. The crumbs might have been a good idea except they were eaten by the birds, which left the couple lost in the woods. This is a sadder story than we realize when we consider how we've chosen the world's bread crumbs over the truth of God that guarantees the way to a spiritually prosperous life. Like Hansel and Gretel, we've followed-after the world faltering counsel rather than steadfast and fixed truth, leaving us [also] ... lost in the woods. This spiritually wandering condition - lost in the woods - is definitely not where God would have us to be: "Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth ... Seek righteousness, seek humility." (Zephaniah 2:3 NASB). When the way seems lost, rest assured it is not: God has graciously given us all the instruction we need in His Holy Word. While worldly wisdom is foolish and fallible, Jesus assures us "heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Mark 13:31 ESV). The question is just how long will we stumble following after worldly bread crumbs and forfeit the stead steps led unfailing truth? It's really not much of a choice ... steady steps.