First, First, First

The battle within continues, fighting for joy and peace throughout the challenges of each day. Then God reminds me to cling to Him - to come to Him and let go. He wants to be first in my heart.

'When we start to love [God's] gifts more than we love Him, we lose our contentment and joy.'

'Open your hands and let Him have what you’re holding.'

Taken from Charles Stanley's Holding Too Tightly sermon outline based on the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 12.

Exploding relationships

I'm having one of those moments when I feel like my head's going to explode with so many questions and things to think about. Yesterday I came across this interesting video related to the question, should girls pursue guys? My head says of course not! In an ideal world the guy should pursue the girl - he should be the leader, that's the way God designed it.

But my heart gets the better of me more often than not. In the video, it's suggested that guy/girl relationships should follow God's example - He chose His bride (us - the church) first, and He came after us. I think I agree that this should be the model for guy/girl relationships, but it also raises some questions.

I was chatting with a bunch of ladies about the issue this morning and one recommended the book 'Passion and Purity' by Elisabeth Elliot. Earlier today I had planned to head over to Koorong to buy the book I'd read about on the website, thought it'd be an interesting read. But after speaking to these ladies thought I wouldn't rush straight out just yet. Maybe I'll get Passion and Purity instead?

Found this interesting interview with Elisabeth Elliot about a response from a 17 year old boy to her book. He wrote, 'Elisabeth was extremely careful not to reveal her feelings for Jim. If she did, she would become the initiator and deny God her whole self.' I never really thought of it like that. He also wrote, 'Christians need to realize that God does not always want to take something away from us, but He wants to take us away from ourselves and our selfish flesh.'

I guess ultimately the key is our relationship with God - taking everything to Him, committing everything to Him, trusting Him in everything... though this is hard to do in practice!!

The black cloth and the gospel

There are some days where the weight of the black cloth seems so heavy - I find myself thinking and saying things I know I shouldn't think, I find myself trying to live my life independent of God because trusting Him means stepping out into the unknown and that scares me. I'm often so focused on my own needs and hurts that I don't see other people's needs and hurts and support them.

The black cloth. Sin. I heard the analogy last night about jewellers placing diamond rings on black cloths to make them sparkle even more, and look even more beautiful.

The diamond ring. The gospel. I finally realised that the gospel is about more than just Jesus (though He is at the heart of it!) - some other religions also believe in Jesus, but they don't believe the gospel. They don't believe that first we rebelled (and continue to rebel) against God, that Jesus lived a sinless life on earth and then paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross and being raised back to life so that we might enjoy relationship with God and the promise of hope for eternity with Him.

OK, there will be people who don't understand the term 'the gospel' at first (none of us did!), but that's why someone needs to share the message of all that Jesus has done for them, and the hope that He offers.

The black cloth is an important part of the story, but it's only the beginning. The gospel turns the black cloth into something special that can be used to the glory of God.

I read this last night, 'We were ultimately designed to find true joy, identity and purpose in God, but man sinned (Gen 3), which changed everything!' It hurt to read these words, because I realised how often I don't find my joy, identity and purpose in God. I seek after 'created' things, rather than the Creator Himself. When God is just waiting for me to come to Him so He can offer me true joy, identity and purpose.

Be strong and take heart

I had to laugh out loud at God's unbelievably impeccable timing giving us the exact word of encouragement we need at the precise moment we need it. When everything in me is screaming, 'But, Lord I can't do it, I just CAN'T, I want to obey You, but it's too hard', He steps in and says, 'Be strong and take heart'.

I've been thinking about which Bible character I'd like to put myself in the skin of. Initially I was thinking about the well-known characters that we see God doing great things through (David, Moses, Esther), but then I thought about the bleeding woman. I think I'd like to get in her skin - to have enough faith in Jesus, to reach out in desperation and touch his cloak, to be healed, and to be able to tell others of Jesus' amazing power to heal. I love that in the account of this story in Matthew, Jesus tells the bleeding woman to 'take heart', that her faith has healed her.

abandon

Hiding His Word in our hearts

I've been thinking about something I read the other day by Charles Swindoll about 'discovering your life message'. I kind of didn't like it, as it made me a bit uncomfortable - I felt like there's a lot more honing yet to be done in my life and I think I'd rather not be honed any more. He suggests that God has a unique message for each of us that no one else can share, and that the key to discovering this is spending time alone with God.

Charles writes, 'Nothing can so train you for life like the time you spend alone with Jesus.'

Psalm 119 v10-11 says, 'I seek You will all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands. I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You.' I remember hearing an awesome kids talk on v11 a long time ago where Peggy told us of the importance of reading God's Word and hiding His Word in our hearts.

As I struggle with one of the life messages God seems to be building in me, and wonder how on earth I'm going to make it through, God reminds me that His grace is sufficient for me.

Yesterday morning I met a friend who I'm just starting to get to know, and she was talking about God giving us His grace for today, sufficient for our needs TODAY, not tomorrow, today. Tomorrow He will provide grace for that day too, but right now He gives His grace for the situation I am in right now. His grace is sufficient.

tic-toc tic-toc tic-toc

Trying to get to sleep, listening to my stupid clock. So many thoughts buzzing through my mind. The middle of the night is not a good time to want to debrief and talk about deep stuff, especially when your cat's the only one you can chat to, and even he's sleeping.

Why 'the gospel' and not Jesus?

One of my pet peeves has been (and still is) references to 'the gospel' instead of Jesus. Maybe it's time for me to get over this? Maybe it shouldn't make me agitated, maybe it's a good thing?

I'm assuming the majority of the time when people say 'the gospel' the intention is that this incorporates Jesus' life, death and resurrection. But why do we use the term 'the gospel' instead of talking about Jesus?

Sounds kind of silly, but I wonder whether we can end up worshiping 'the gospel' instead of Jesus? I guess it depends on our definition of the gospel. But it's a bit like the Bible, it's an essential part of our knowing Jesus, but we don't worship the Bible, we worship Jesus.

Anyhow, if references to the gospel point people to Jesus then I'm all for them. As long as it ends up being about Jesus. Maybe I'm just confusing myself?!