ACTION 2/28/09

Sometimes it's just nice to take a break.

I've had a super-long break from blogging. I'm so out of the habit that I don't even know where to start or what to write. There's been a lot on my mind, but it's all been put in my notebook -- the one with real paper that no one sees. (If you did see it you wouldn't be able to read my handwriting...)

I have been hearing this word for weeks that it's time for action. I still have no idea what action that is, but I do keep hearing that word. Watchman Nee's daily devotional, Oswald Chambers, the Bible, Sean Hannity, ect. -- seems like everywhere I look I'm hearing this word that it is time for ACTION. The Lord reminded me today that we are called to be a people of action. 2 Thes 1:11-12 talks about "acts prompted by faith." James 2:18 says, "I'll show you my faith by what I do." He's not talking about finding our identity in our works, but he is saying that we need to find out who we are and live accordingly.

Hmm... I think I need to mull that over a little more. Find out who you are and live accordingly...

Though I still need to process this stuff, that phrase was pretty convicting to me when I heard it earlier today, because in a lot of ways I know I've just been sitting back waiting for the Lord to hurry up and get us out of here. I guess I've had a "why bother?" attitude. Our culture and nation are self-destructing right before our eyes. That's just what happens when God and His Word are ignored. "There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 16:25)." After what I read today, I realize that I do need to care more and I do need to make a difference--even if it is small.

There was a great quote in Catherine Marshall's book, Christy, about how God is always trying to pry our hands off our eyes and help us to look at things as they really are because He can't begin to bring healing and change until we acknowledge the brokenness and need in our circumstances and our world. Most of us prefer to stay in our ivory towers, but eventually, I think we must accept the reality of a fallen world that affects us all so deeply. That's the first step to change.

Often my first impulse regarding our cultural climate is to want to buy a cabin in the woods with a couple of cows, where I can enjoy the trees and my favorite people and just forget about this sin-sick, depraved world. I realize that is indeed a very selfish desire. God has called us to share the message that has brought us peace, life, and the wisdom to operate in healthy relationships, etc. I really need His heart for people, because honestly, I would just rather enjoy what He's given and hope the rest of the world figures it out. Lord, help me.

Where would I be if He had decided to build a cabin in the heavenlies where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit could hang out and just forget about how screwed up I was. Gee.

So, anyway... I think it's time to act. Still a little unsure of what this is supposed to look like in my life I pray, Lord, help me to not only hear the word, but DO the word. Whatever that may mean and whatever thay may look like. I know the time is short. May we all make the most of it. We are only where we are because someone took the time to share the message with us...

"He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with an everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

"With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thes. 2:8-12

Ozzie Kicked my Butt 5/9/09

Oswald Chambers, that is. May 9th and 10th were just what the doctor ordered. Both stung a little and were sobering, but they've helped me to get out of the dead-zone and pursue the Lord.
The 9th is where I've been and the 10th is how to get out.
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May 9th

Grasp Without Reach

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"Where there is no vision, the people cast of restraint." Proverbs xxix. 18 (R.V.)

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There is a difference between and ideal and a vision. An ideal has no moral inspiration; a vision has. The people who give themselves over to ideals rarely do anything. A man's conception of Deity may be used to justify his deliberate neglect of his duty. Jonah argued that because God was a God of Justice and of mercy, therefore everything would be all right. I may have a right conception of God, and the may be the very reason why I do not do my duty. But wherever there is vision, there is also a life of rectitude because the vision imparts moral incentive.

Ideals may lull to ruin. Take stock of your self spiritually and see whether you have ideals only or if you have vision.

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"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,

Or what's heaven for?"

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"Where there is no vision...." When once we lose sight of God, we begin to be reckless, we cast off certain restraints, we cast off praying, we cast off the vision of God is little things, and begin to act on our own initiative. If we are eating what we have out of our own hand, doing things on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on the downward path, we have lost the vision. Is our attitude today and attitude that springs form our vision of God? Are we expecting God to do greater things than He has ever done? Is there a freshness and vigour in our spiritual outlook?

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May 10th

Take the Initiative

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"Add to your faith virtue...." ("Furnish your faith with resolution.") (Moffatt.) 2 Peter i. 5.

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"Add" means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk aright. We have to do all that ourselves, we have to work out the salvation God has worked in. "Add" means to get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages it is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning, to instruct yourself in the way you have to go.

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Beware of the tendency of asking the way when you know if perfectly well. (Ouch!) Take the initiative, stop hesitation, and take the first step. Be resolute when God speaks, act in faith immediately on what He says, and never revise your decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace. Take the initiative, take it yourself, take the step with your will now, make it impossible to go back. Burn you bridges behind you -- "I will write that letter"; "I will pay that debt." Make the thing inevitable.

We have to get into the habit of hearkening to God about everything, to form the habit of finding out what God says. If when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we know what the habit has been formed. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we are not.

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I am choosing to seek God and put my confidence in the living and enduring Word of God -- not because my feelings validate it, not because my life reflects it, but because "all men are like grass, and their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever." (1 Peter 1:24-25)