Thursday, November 26, 2009

Keep my heart aflame

December 12, 2007

Romans 12
Jean, if you preach, just preach God’s message.
If you help, don’t take over
If you teach, stick to your teaching
If you give encouragement, be careful that you don’t get bossy.

Lord, I know I’m not a preacher but I do tend to be “preachy.” I don’t usually tent to take over, I’m more apt to sit back and let others do everything. (am I lazy? I hope not.) I also know my gift is NOT teaching, but I do love sharing my passion, journaling, and drawing close to You through the word pictures of dancing.

Empower me, Lord, to use these tools so that others may know that intimacy with You is very possible and that You desire it probably far more than we do.

v. 9
Love from the center of who you are – don’t fake it. Keep me totally honest and open. Don’t allow me to run out of fuel, energy, passions. Keep my heart aflame and burning brightly for all to see and be warmed by it. Enable me to see beauty in everyone – to Your honor and glory.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

What's next, Papa?

November 26, 2007

Romans 8, assorted verses.

Jesus personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right one and for all. The law asked for what we couldn’t deliver but that is now accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them, the living and breathing God.

Attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious free life. Those in whom Christ dwells (you and me) will experience life on god’s terms. He’ll do the same thing in you (me) that he did in Jesus – bringing you alive in Himself.

When God lives and breathes in me (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), I am delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in my body, I will be alive as Christ is alive. This resurrection life I received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It is adventurously expectant and greets God with a child-like, “what’s next, Papa?”

Thank you, My Father, for this reminder that Your Spirit abides in me. May I live today with the enthusiasm of a child, expecting fun, exciting experiences that even bring You joy and pleasure too.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Passionate Patience

October 31, 2007

Romans 5

Because we are entering into what God always wanted for us, we have it all together with God because of Jesus Christ. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand: Out in the wide open spaces of God’s Grace and Glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with trouble because we know how troubles can develop “passionate patience” in us and that patience, in turn, forges the “tempered steel” of virtue; keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we are never left feeling short-changed. Quite the contrary.

We can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through His Holy Spirit. YEA!

God put his love on the line for us by offering His Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use to Him whatsoever. Just think how our lives will expand and deepen by means of His resurrection life! We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah.

As we grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everthing-right that one man, Jesus, provides. Sin doesn’t have a chance in competition with this aggressive forgiveness we call Grace. When it is sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life – a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. Amen!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

God's promise

October 18, 2007

Romans 4
v. 3 Abraham entered into what God was doing for him and that was THE turning point. V. 4-5 When we see that the job I too big for use, it is something only God can do. I must trust God to do it. It is this trusting Him to do it is what gets me set right with God. By God. A sheer gift. Embracing what God has done for me is what declares me fit before God.

v. 6-10 The promise God gave Abraham was not given because of something Abraham did or would od. It was based on God’s decision to put everything together for Abraham which Abraham then embraced when he believed. This was not a business deal. It was a promise.

The fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and His way and then simply embracing Him and what He does. God’s promise arrives as a Pure Gift! God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence. He didn’t tip-toe around God’s promise asking skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that god would make good on what he said. AMEN!

Lord, enable and empower me to embrace Your promises to me concerning my family and my own needs for the future – even today. I think, too, of the great needs facing my friends. Give each of them the assurance of Your promises that they are meant definitely for them. Supply the faith they need to trust You in their very different circumstances.