Just Thinking

I want my life to be so hidden in God, that others must seek Christ to find me. We encounter one another and see one another from the outside in oftentimes to decide, "Who Is This?" I pray for eyes of the Spirit to go deeper than the outside which can change like the wind.

Beholding God

Scripture_Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 

Greetings: I pray that you are blessed and rejoicing. After a brief rest into this 2012, I am again reflecting on the beatitudes because each one speaks so much. On this pathway to happiness in the Lord, we are reminded that this teaching came after the Holy Spirit led  Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days while He fasted. At His weakest moments, the assaults of the adversary, Satan, came one after the other, but our Lord overcame by recalling and declaring the word of God. We are well into this New Year and no doubt, our faith will be tried and tested. We may be tempted to choose another way than the path the Lord has predestined for us. Sometimes in these times, it is difficult to see God’s hand, and we find it hard to see Him at all. This beatitude shares a little insight on seeing God as I share this with myself and let you in on the conversation. 

Meditation: Our heart is the center of our emotions, will and thoughts. The Lord says, blessed are the pure (clean, purged and made ready, free from mixture, unstained by guilt, corrupt desires, and sin) in heart. To be pure in heart means to be clean with the connotation of having been purged and made ready. I pondered that because no man has seen God, yet it is He who opens the eyes of our spirit to know Him. The Lord took our sin and guilt upon Himself on the cross. He does not intend us to carry it, but to trust that He is all sufficient to cleanse us and keep us. The sense of guilt deprives us of the rest Jesus died to give.   

The Lord says that those of us with a pure heart are blessed because we can see God. If our eye is single, meaning, our eyes are fixed on Christ, we will behold Him. When we behold Him, we become like Him according to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:18…

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

How blessed we are indeed that we are changed into the same image of our Lord by His Spirit as we behold him with a pure heart. We make Him the object, person of our devotion, not merely for reasons of study to attain knowledge and the many benefits of having done so, but  because He is our God. When our eye is single, like doves’ eyes, undistracted by the temptations to seek Him with mixed motivations, we shall see Him.  David said in Psalm 57:17…

My heart is fixed O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Jumping ahead in the Matthew 5, verses 14 and 16:

v14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

f16 Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

In Luke 11:33 in the parable Jesus speaks of the lighted candle, he says:

v33 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but in a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.

v34The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, they whole body is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, the body is full of darkness.

Oftentimes we hear that they eye is the window to the soul. When we see Jesus, who is The Light of the world, our lives reflect that light and others will be drawn to the one we behold, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As one of my pastors often says and I paraphrase, When God said, ‘Let there be light,’ the light didn’t have to think about it. It just shined.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I rejoice in your word and realize that you gave us yourself in these earthen clay vessels, that so easily are broken. Thank you for the privilege to behold you, to see you, to know you, and to love you. There are times when we need you to create in us a clean heart (Psalm 51:10) and renew a right spirit within us because distractions obscure our vision and we fall short of your glory. See if there be any wicked way within us that would cause your light in us to shine dimly. Please cleanse us by the precious fount of mercy at the cross. Thank you for the promise that you are so willing to wash us with clean water and give us a new heart and a new spirit within us (Ezekiel 36:25-27). It is ours for the asking when we confess that we need your help. We love you and thank you. In Jesus' name.

Eternally yours,

Amen. 

Remembering Those In Chains

Scripture_Hebrews 13:3

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Greetings: Praise God for this day of rest.  As I sit and ponder the things I need the Lord to help me remember this year, I am reminded not to forget our brothers and sisters who worship in unlovely places such as the bush of Africa, prison cells in China, the jungles of Colombia, and in other harsh environments. Let's take a moment to remember those who are in chains in the body of Christ worldwide. 

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, our omnipotent, omnipresent Lord, we thank you that there is not one sparrow who falls to the ground that you do not take notice of. Thank you that your gaze is upon us when it is well, and when life seems contrary. Right now, I present our brothers and sisters in the faith who are worshiping you in bonds and chains. Would you look upon each one and surround them in your embrace? Please be their shield, buckler, the one who goes before them and behind them in every situation. Please remember their families as they have given themselves to take care of your house, Abba, protect and cover their families left behind. I pray that in they would have a divine encounter with you and know that they are not forgotten. As a mother may forget her child, you say in Isaiah 49 that we are inscribed on the palms of your hands. Our walls, our frame is ever before you. I thank you that your Holy Spirit is able to go where we cannot. Thank you that you do exceeding and abundant above all that we could ask or think. We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen. 

Eternally yours. 

Great Is Your Mercy

Scripture_Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Greetings: I pray that you are blessed and rejoicing. As 2011 draws to a close, we reflect upon how fast time goes by, the moments of joy, other moments of challenge. One thing that we know is that we are here in the land of the living because of the great mercy of God. Morning by morning, new mercies I see, therefore every day is a gift and an opportunity to start anew.

Meditation: When we are merciful, we store up a treasure in heaven, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing. In Luke 6:36, we revisit the beatitudes from another perspective. Jesus says in verse 36:

v36: "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
v37: Judge not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
v38: Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

This part of scripture is often taken out of the context that Jesus was speaking. Preceding verse 36, Jesus tells us bless those who despitefully use us, to do good to those who aren't good to us, to love our enemies, and to be merciful. The charge for us to be merciful is in the context of what we might call injustice. Yet, the Lord says in verse 35, "...and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil." Then he tells us to be merciful. He not only pronounces a blessing upon those who are merciful,  but speaks this word over us giving us the grace to be merciful in the face of what seems unjust.

We don't have to think to hard to remember things we have done unjustly to others and how we were once enemies of God. When we gaze upon the Lord and the cross, the troubles of life, though real, though painful for a while, pale in comparison to what Jesus gave to us, His very life unto the last drop of blood. We can draw upon the grace of God to enable us to walk this out and make it a reality in our daily lives when situations test us in this area. Some of us receive more opportunities to grow in this area, but the answer is always the same: love and mercy. Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives chasing us down and tackling us at times to when we need to back up and try that again.

Many years ago before I was really seeking the Lord and before I learned, "Stacy shalt not write when angry," I wrote a looong letter. If only I had a drop of mercy at the time...selah  Circumstantially, everything pointed to one conclusion...so much time elapsed, things weren't adding up, were out of order, but I did not investigate further. If I could hear, I might have heard that still small voice of the Holy Spirit whispering..."Don't write that, you don't know the facts. It is not what it seems. Don't meditate on what you don't know. Rip up that letter you just wrote." We want others to give us the benefit of the doubt, but  do we offer the same?

That is why Paul exhorts us in Philippians to think on those things that are good, lovely, of good report and earlier in 1 Corinthians 13 that love hopes all things and rejoices in truth. Well, I mailed it! Then I later found myself standing teary-eyed at the postal box waiting for the postman to open and withdraw the colored envelope for me. I had since learned the truth which was contrary to everything that I wrote in haste and anger. But when I saw my colored envelope sticking out of the bunch, I was sooo relieved and told the postman all the details. All he said was that he was sorry, he couldn't give it to me.  I pleaded, I begged,  threw up a few more tears, and a thought crossed my mind before he told me that it was against the law for him to give it to me. Only God kept me from grabbing the envelope. It was that bad! A little mercy would have spared all that surmounted when that letter reached its final destination. At least with snail mail, I had a day or two to think about things. Let's pray. At that time, I did!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I am in awe of you. Your mercies are from everlasting to everlasting. I cannot understand the depths of it, but desire to walk in truth and mercy. In times of testing, I choose to draw upon the power of your word and your sacrifice. Continually bring me to the cross where I find strength to be merciful as I see how merciful you are to me and how you sent your Son to die for me. Thank you Lord for you are good and your mercy endures forever. In Jesus' name.

Eternally yours,
Amen.