Freedom in Christ

This morning I read Psalm 119:32:

I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.

I was reminded of a concept I got from Dr. Hans Bayer in the Life and Letters of Paul class I am taking via podcast.

God's will for me is what He intends to do in me, not what He expects me to do by myself.

I struggle with a stubborn rebellious spirit that does not like to submit. Quite often I know exactly the right thing to do, and I even want it, but something inside still fights against God. As I read in this Psalm this morning, I felt a great sense of comfort. I am free to obey God. I do not have to obey that old sin nature, because God, in all His Power and Strength, is working in my heart. He has set my heart free to run in the path of His commands.

More Thoughts from Ephesians

The unity of the church

Not uniformity
Not organizational

But maturity under the headship of Christ

We cannot have unity if we do not all recogize Christ as head... that must be the starting point

Unity under the headship of Christ

NaBloPoMo survived!

Today is the last day of November, the end of NaBloPoMo. Thank God. I did manage to post something every day, but it felt forced and I didn't like it. I have to wonder if it was worth it. What was the point? I guess the point was to force yourself to write something; I suppose that was a good thing. We'll see. At the moment it is just a relief to not have to think of something to post tomorrow!

Thoughts on Ephesians

Paul is in prison, yet he preaches spiritual freedom.... very cool.

Indicative/ Imperative

Somehow we are conditioned to say, "Tell me what to do'". We want the list of do and do not. This is the imperative. But Paul doesn't start there, he starts with who we are in Christ. That is the indicative. What we do must flow out of who we are. Starting with what to do results in a works based salvation, a works based religion. What God and Christ and the Holy Spirit have done and continue to do for us has nothing to do with what we do, but with who we are.

I am a child of God, bought with the price of Christ's death, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, looking forward to an eternity in Heaven. Because of what He has already done and who I am, I serve Him with my actions, I seek to please Him, I do good things.

That is the freedom of Christ. Not freedom to do whatever I want, but freedom to be able to to love Him, to please Him, to obey Him. He saved me. I had nothing to do with it.

Amen!

Missed Glory

Today I went to a live performance of Handel’s Messiah. I was disappointed. Not in the piece of music or the performance of it; it is a fabulous story straight out of scripture, set to fabulous music. The performance was good as well; while not professionals, they were talented musicians with beautiful voices. No, what was disappointing was something else. I walked in with a desire to worship God, to be carried away by the music, but I found myself distracted.

I got there late and didn’t get to sit in the sanctuary. I was sitting in a chair on the back row of the foyer. The place was packed. The outside doors were right behind me, and I was cold. The overhead lights were bright, making it harder to focus on the performance itself. I was looking through a small window able to see only a few of the performers, listening through the open sanctuary doors. People were moving around me, in and out. A child knocked a large, obviously unbreakable ornament off a Christmas tree, and the ball went bouncing across the tile floor with metallic dings while the embarrassed parent tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. We in the foyer laughed a bit; it was funny after all. An ancient old man in front of me informed his daughter that when he was a young man he sang this. The disappointment set in as I sat with all these distractions going on around me. My thoughts began to wander… I wondered when I could find a couple of hours to listen to it by myself, to sit and meditate and worship without distraction. I almost left.

Suddenly the place was filled with music! Somehow we had reached the climax without my awareness. How did it sneak up on me like that? And then I was swept up in the glory of the resurrection; it was fabulous. It was everything I hoped it would be. If I had given up and left during the wait and the disappointment and the frustration, I would have missed the glory of that moment; in fact the glory may have even been greater because of the contrast.

How many glorious things have I missed in moments of impatience and rush?

Band, Karate, and Sanctification

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12

Have you ever worked on anything with fear and trembling? What does it mean?

First, we must take this verse in context. It isn’t talking about working for our salvation, but what happens after salvation. We do not work for our salvation at all, that is a gift from God. This is the work after salvation, the work of sanctification, of becoming like Christ. This works out from the point of my salvation. Even then it is something I rely on God to do in me. Anyway… fear and trembling.

When I was in High school I was part of a really good award winning band. We practiced every day from 2:30 (last period in school) until about 5:00. We worked hard in those hours, and that doesn’t include time spent practicing on our own. Yes, we were scared of our band director, but nobody forced us to enroll or stay in band; we were proud to be part of something so good. Our goal for each football game and each competition was simple – perfection. If you messed up your part you felt absolutely horrible, because you had made the whole band and the director look bad. We worked with fear and trembling.

In more recent history I approached my black belt tests with this same attitude. I trained many, many hours in preparation for the test; the pressure was immense. It was very important to me to do well for a number of reasons. I wanted to reflect well on my teacher, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I definitely trained with fear and trembling for both of those tests.

What if I approached my sanctification with that kind of dedication and drive? What if pleasing God with my life was so important to me that I was willing to sacrifice that same kind of time and effort and work to it? What would that look like?

May you work out your sanctification with fear and trembling.

Rebecca A Givens, 11/24/09

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, it's almost 10am and I haven't seen any of my family yet. I had a wonderful extended time alone with God this morning. What a perfect way to start a day set aside to Thank Him for all He has given us.

Which brings me to this post. Thanksgiving is not a time to thank people for stuff, and not a time to just be generally thankful. It is a time to thank God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, for what He has done for me in a personal way. He has provided

food (literally, the turkey that we are having today, someone anonomously put our name in to win a cajun fried turkey, or maybe they just paid for it and the store came up with a good story for them),
a roof over our heads (again, the back half of the house doesn't leak because God sent us shingles, one pack at a time from various sources),
cars to drive (gift from parents),
health (even though getting old is not fun),
our family is all here together,
we have great kids (I love spending time with all my kids),
my husband loves God, me, and our kids (what a gift in today's society),
we have a great church family that loves and accepts us,
and most significantly, Before the foundation of the world, God so loved me that He gave His one and only Son to pay the penalty for my sin, so that I could spend eternity with Him. He rescued me because He delighted in me, before I ever even dreamed of doing anything for Him. And He still enjoys my presence. That's just cool.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Lists

I want my spiritual life to be the best it can be.
I want to make the best use of my time.
I want to remember everything.
I want to get things done.
So I organize and I plan and I make lists: Reading lists, prayer lists, to-do lists.
Then I tend to do things just so I can check them off my list,
But that is not what I want.
I want it to mean something,
I want it to be real,
I want it to come from my heart, not from my list.
I don't want a list, I want a relationship.
Maybe that is the answer:
The motive
The focus
The purpose
Is it the prayer list
or the Person I am praying to
and the person I am concerned about?
Is it the reading list
or the Person I am reading and learning about?

Goals - 2010

Yes, you read the title correctly. I am already thinking about what I want to do in 2010... not New Year's resolutions exactly, more of a To-Do list I guess. Here is my preliminary list:

Continue with the Covenant podcast classes
Continue studying history
Listen to the entire Bible (which means I need to get this for Christmas!)
Study Escrima

Of course there are all kinds of things I need to improve in my life... cook, clean, work, pay off debt... but the stuff above is what I really want in my middle age life.

Start thinking about your own "study goals" for 2010. As a Christian you should want to know God better. That comes through studying His Word and the world He created and the history He acts in.

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Scripture Prayers

For years I have been increasingly drawn to praying through scripture. It just seems logical to me that God's own Words are the perfect prayers for us. I am now studying in the book of Ephesians, and it is full of prayers. This was from today's reading. I suggest you pray it for yourself, for your family, and for your believing friends (feel free to pray for me as well!).

Ephesians 3:14-21 (New International Version)
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

What It Feels Like by FFH

I heard this song this morning... it describes so much of my life!

So this is what if feels like to walk the wilderness
and this is what if feels like to come undone
So this is what if feels like to loose my confidence
unsure of anything or anyone
So this is what if feels like to walk the desert sand
and this is what if feels like to hear my name
and to be scared to death cause I'm all alone
but feel love and peace just the same

And this may not be the road I would choose for me
but it still feels right somehow
And I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now

So this is what if feels like to be led
So this is what if feels like to have it fall apart
to be totally unglued
and find out if I accept my brokenness
I get more of me, I get all of you
If this is what if feels like to be on shaky ground
Careful of every step I take
Realizing as I stop to look around
I look around and see everything a different way

and this may not be the road I would choose for me
but it still feels right somehow
cause I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now

So this is what if feels like to be led
and this is what if feels like to be led
So this is what if feels like to just walk away
from everything I thought kept me safe
to depend just on you for every meal
and find it's better this way
oh it's better this way

And this may not be the road I would choose for me
but it still feels right somehow
And I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now
like i do right now

And this may not be the road I would choose for me
but it still feels right somehow
And I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now

And this is what if feels like to be led
And this is what if feels like to be led
And this is what if feels like

Ask a Ninja

This is too funny...