Leave it in his care, and seek to love.

 

If we genuinely trust in God's sovereignty, we ought to trust him enough to leave certain things in his care - even and especially personally painful things. 1 Corinthians calls us to bear all things, believe all things and hope all things about one another. - Tim Challies*

So good, yet so hard to do. So glad to have a great and mighty God who is bigger than all my struggles and will lovingly grant the grace I need each day.

Waiting on the Lord with personally painful things looks like trusting that my God is...

great.

mighty.

sovereign.

just.

holy.

caring.

loving.

gracious.

kind.

I will wait on the Lord. Strength will rise. "Little ones to him belong; they are weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me."

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. - 1 Corinthians 13:7-8

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. - 1 John 4:18

And waiting on the Lord looks like allowing my faith to be tested and proved genuine, evidenced by obediently walking in the good works God has prepared for me even in the dark times (James 2:14-26). And I do believe the greatest, and sometimes most difficult, good work is truly loving others. How can I love? Because He first loved us. "We love because he first loved us."

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:1-2

* In CJ Mahaney and Difficult Days, posted today

photo: torn up baseball I found on the hill in midst

of construction for our church building 8/6/11

Come to Me all

Security. Identity. The Word of God.

I am hit with the need for these three. I want my soul to be ever increasingly established. Immovable because of my Anchor. I hunger and thirst after him. I have a Rock who is my salvation, and I have his word to feed my soul the unchanging truths of who he is and how he relates with me.

Security:

...for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

Identity:

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. ... (1 John 3:1)

Satisfaction in the Word:

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

Somedays we get stuck in a fog. But no cloud can keep me from Christ.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

What Manner of Love Is This?

I was happy to sit at the piano for a while this morning. I'm so thankful for such rich lyrics full of grace and truth that make their way into your heart through the vehicle of song, in ways that just reading the words often do not.

I had not come across this song for quite some time, and it brought back memories of when it seemed to serve as one of our "communion songs" for a season at church.

How blessed was the precious life - Laid down at Calvary -

That took the sin of lowly man - And nailed it to the tree

How blessed was the innocent Lamb - That uttered not a sound -

Who chose instead to bow His head - And bear the thorny crown

How bless-ed, how bless-ed,

How bless-ed is the blood of Jesus

And the pure, redeeming blood - That flowed from Your side -

Is the sweet wine that's poured out for Your bride - It flowed form Your side

How blessed was the broken body - That wore the scarlet robe -

Who became the Name by which we are saved - In Whom we put our hope

How bless-ed, how bless-ed,

How bless-ed is the blood of Jesus

by Larry Hampton (c) 1994 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing

My Father God has so richly blessed me and bountifully given me so many deep and sweet relationships in this life. But Christ out shines them all. To look on his precious life, him nailed on the tree, his blood flowing and body broken, and to see that he did it for me - how brightly he shines above all.

And to think upon who is this man, this Son of Man, this Son of God, this Holy and righteous one, this all powerful and glorious mighty and majestic King of the universe, this Lion, that he should stoop so low to become a lamb and be crucified in my place? Why?

Why should he do this for such a slimy, hateful, insolent, evil wretch as I am? When he knows how great my offense even better than my own deceitful and ungrateful heart knows of itself, when he knows how I spurn his holiness, justice, and mercy to go my own way even after being chased unceasingly by his strong and loving hand, when he has naught to gain and all to lose by drawing me near, he still sacrificed it all to purchase me back to himself. Like Hosea bought back Gomer (Hosea 3), my Savior has paid the great price to seal my pardon and continues in his steadfast pursuit of my soul as a jealous God.

My Savior Christ is the lover of my soul and that is a marvel and inconceivable truth that I will spend all of eternity learning to contemplate fully. There is no end to his pursuit of me, and there is no end to his loving kindness. My God has seen fit to lay down his Son to purchase me from my self-dug grave and has won me back as his child and given me his Spirit so that I may call upon him as Abba, Father, and learn to love his Son and glorify his name in all my days and for eternity.

What manner of love is this? (1 John 3:1)

Oh, that my soul would always rejoice in the God and Father of my salvation! Amen and amen.

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshipped. - Revelation 5:11-14

photo: Conestoga Gardens, August 2010

My Role and God's Love

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. . . . But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body (1 Corinthians 12:14-20).

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galations 6:9-10).

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. . . . There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4: 7-11; 18-19).

Focus.

Inspiration. Emotion. Feeling. Substance. Discernment. Listlessness. Purpose. Sensitive. Fickle. Fanciful. Grounded. Focus. Meaning. Growth. Love.

There are so many things of which I don't know and many more of which I have not experienced. How deep the depth of the human heart and how broad the scope of humanity.

Diverse. Complex. Detailed intertwining. Gray matters. Irksome unknowns.

This information age has opened floodgates of options to think and form opinions on things all over the map.

Analyze. Discern. Judge.

How do we do this?

Objectively. Detachedly. Bluntly. Blindly. Insensitively. Erratically. Emotionally.

Do I find myself mired in foggy details more often than stable on overarching truth? Look for the rock in each tempest, calm, and bog. Gospel connections will lead my heart home, as a lighthouse on the rock.

Weak. Teetering often. Believing lies. Immersed in sin. Prone to wander. Worldly unsatisfying lusts. Prodigal.

I know my frame. Feast and graze upon truth, unoriginal and repetitive as it may be. And yet, he knows my frame more than I know my own. He is the Father of his prodigal child; the one who runs after me . . . again, and again, and will do again.

We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19

quote

Mere Christianity,

pages 132-133:

On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do His will we are obeying the commandment, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' He will give us feelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him. (emphasis mine)

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Because God works we work. (John Murray)

Side note: has anyone else ever gotten their hair stuck on a fly strip? What about your arm? yeah...it happened to me this evening. A garage is a silly place to have a fly strip, don't you think? ;-)

photo: Cinque Terre, Italy 2007