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Healing, vision, and the fathomless love of God (2003-03-07 - 4:59 p.m.) Ok. Finally go on. Things are looking up at musicman's house! The Little Bit finally lost her fever! Hallelujah! My beautiful wife is recovering wonderfully from her surgery. Better than expected, even! Again, I say, God is good, all the time! I have wasted a good bit of time this afternoon, and it is likely that I am going to be drug off to the telly to watch this afternoon's rerun of Buffy. My teenager wants me to see the episode called "Crush." So...if it comes on at 6, I have some time. Then, we have DVDs to watch...Sweet Home Alabama, Tuck Everlasting, and The Ring. I LOVED The Ring. Creepy!!! My wife is going to try to watch it with us. I predict she won't make it. Well, on to the spiritual stuff. I finished Lifting Him Up, by Ron Kenoly and Dick Bernal, earlier this week. It had some really good insight for worship leaders. I plan to read a book by Michael Card next, called Scribbling in the Sand: Christ and Creativity. I'm really looking forward to that. I also have Jesus Freaks, written by the guys in DC Talk. Gah! So many books, so little time. But I love books. I also love the quote by Thomas Jefferson that is used by the Library of Congress in DC, "I cannot live without books." But I digress. I need a vision. And I don't mean an "ohmmmmmm" kind of vision where I go all trancy and see things. I mean I need a vision of purpose. I need vision (makes more sense if I leave out the "a") from God. I need this so I can take the "next step," as Chambers puts it. "...the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God." YES!! How do all of the people who don't have God in their lives SURVIVE? God keep the eyes of my spirit open to the Risen Christ!! Ok, today's reading in My Utmost For His Highest is even better. The Scripture is Romans 8:37, "No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Chambers says, "...the remarkable thing is that nothing can wedge in between the love of God and the saint." Read that again. Paul continues in Romans 8 to list a veritable plethora (I love that phrase) of things that CAN'T separate us from the love of God! Nothing can separate us! Let that sink in. NOTHING!!! Things can separate us from our devotional exercises and separate our individual life from God, but nothing can come between the love of God and our soul. "The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit." Therefore, since we can't deserve it, there is nothing that can happen to us (or that we can DO) that can separate us from that love that we can't merit! That makes me want to SHOUT!! Hallelujah!!! So...we are more than conquerors in the midst of all troubles and tribulations. Not in spite of them, but right in the middle of them. "The surf that distresses the ordinary swimmer produces int he surf-rider the super-joy of going clean through it." "The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Yeah! (Australian for "amen.") Father, THANK you for that love that I don't and can never deserve. Thank you so much! Let me shine that love out to every person that comes in contact with me. As I lead out in worship, let that love be the motivator, the inspiration. My chapter in Up With Worship today deals with being broken. The reference is John 12, where Mary came in and broke the alabaster vase full of expensive perfume all over Jesus. Anne Ortlund compares us church-goers to a bunch of alabaster vases that need to be broken so that the "perfume" (Jesus) can be spread out and become a sweet fragrance, not only to the rest of the church, but to the world as well. Wow. My God, how we all need to be broken. "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of Yahweh!" Psalm 119:1 Alright. I am really beginning to be excited about worship this Sunday. That's a good thing. TTFN 0 comments so farMissed anything? |