Oops...coffee's ready. BRB... *sits down with cup* *sip..."Aaaahhhh!!*

Ok, I'm ready now.

Oswald Chambers tackles a topic today which he has taken on several times already; that of ABANDON (one of these days, I'm going to learn how to insert italics in here!!). "If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtime or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion." (The Message) Jesus effectively tells us that what we call "common sense carefulness" in this world is infidelity! Strong language, huh? "Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion." "It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity, because worrying means that we do not think that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything else that worries us." Remember the parable of the seed and the sower? It is found in Luke 8. Well, as Jesus explains the parable to his disciples, he says that the seed that fell in the weeds was choked out by "worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun." (The Message) "The great word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon." (Chambers)

Reading Galatians 3:1-25 this morning. Man, there is a lot of good stuff in there! It's all about the futility of trying to have a relationship with God by keeping rules (the Law of Moses). Paul says this, "Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things out in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?" (The Message) Note: Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations will be from The Message translation by Eugene Peterson. Again, Paul says, "The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him." And it is truly impossible for one to keep the entire law. Most of us blew it a long time ago. The very first time we told a little white lie, or had an impure thought, or even did a selfish act. The bottome line is, we are born bad. I know some people don't believe that, but it is true. We are born selfish creatures. But, then, Paul says, "Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself." The life of the Christian is all about faith. If you look back at my May 19 entry, it talks about how nothing can separate us from the love of God. That means that there is nothing that you can do that can make God love you any less. Nothing! On the opposite side of that coin, there is nothing that you can do that can make God love you any MORE! He loves you as much as he can! The cool thing about that realization is that God loves me as much as he loves Billy Graham! Think about that (only insert yourself in that statement)! It is a glorious truth. God loves you as much as he loves the most brilliant, God-serving man on the planet (that may or may not be Billy, that was just kind of random)! So whatever you've done, wherever you've been, doesn't matter. Believing in Jesus by faith is all that matters. Everything that happens after that is bonus...peripheral. Embrace God! Enjoy God! It's wonderful.

Missed anything?
The Beatles--Abbey Road/Alice Cooper--Killer - July 04, 2012
The Beatles Eponymous Album - June 26, 2012
Autism's False Prophets - February 12, 2011
Santana--Guitar God? - November 11, 2010
Tribute To the Red Sox - September 29, 2010