His Truth

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6 

Oh I love that Scripture verse.  It's so practical in my own life. More often than I care to admit I am tempted to rely more on my own understanding than on God. Sometimes I speak too soon; other times not soon enough! Simple, sweet opportunities to be used of the Lord are missed when my focus gets locked on me, me, me, my schedule or routine! And then who do I call?  You got it. Help me Lord! There are times I put limits on God by leaning more on my fears than God's faithfulness. Life can just come too fast and my natural instinct is to figure it out based on my feelings or “what I think”.  That's a dangerous zone to be in for it limits understanding down to life experiences.  "Truth" does not count when scaled to "want".  "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death". (Proverbs 14:12) 

A pearl to string: God has not left us without resource when it comes to understanding His heart and His truth for our lives. He has given us His Word. When you read God's Word you'll have a variety of experiences. There may be times when you study God’s Word that it makes so much sense to you and you find your self congratulating God on His brilliance. Every so often however, studying the truth of God’s Word will just slam you against the wall and wake you up out of your drifting towards spiritual amnesia. Occasionally God’s truth is frustrating because it is such a contrast to your perspective or the perspective of others. Now and then, your tendency might be to lean just slightly into God’s truth….as long as it fits your needs or gets you what you want. Some days it sparks a lot of questions and will disturb your complacency just enough that you will delve deeper into the scriptures around a particular topic.  

All in all, it is that day to day encounter with God’s Word and the power of His Holy Spirit working through that encounter that challenges, encourages, disturbs, inspires, and shapes your heart after God’s own heart.  

God's heart is for you...

You are loved,

                   Lyndi

Here After

The preacher came to call the other day. He said at my age I should be thinking of the hereafter.  I told him, "Oh, I do it all the time. No matter where I am - in the bedroom, upstairs, in the kitchen, or down in the basement - I ask myself, 'Now, what am I here after?'" 

The kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3), the kingdom of the Father (Matthew 13:43), life everlasting (Matthew 19:16), the joy of the Lord (Matthew 25:21), great reward (Matthew 5:12), the kingdom of God (Mark 9:45), the kingdom of Christ (Luke 22:30), the house of the Father (John 14:2), city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebr., xii), the holy place (Hebrews 9:12; D. V. holies), paradise (2 Corinthians 12:4), incorruptible crown (1 Corinthians 9:25), crown of life (James 1:12), crown of justice (II Timothy iv, 8), crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4), hereafter - the time yet to come, kingdom come, in the sweet by-and-by, following this in time or order or place; in a future life or state. In other words: life after death is everlasting life... eternity. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11  "God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end". The point Solomon is making: Since we were made for eternity, the things of time cannot fully or permanently satisfy. 

James 4:4 Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Francis Chan said, "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers."  

The interesting thing is the Bible is not just a nice book to read in your spare time as some might think. It's not an encyclopedia of religious information, it is not a collection of moral parables, nor is it an assembly of stories about the distant past. The Bible is God's written revelation of Himself and man's relationship to Him through the Covenant bond He establishes with those men and women He calls into a unique relationship. While covenant blessings and curses in the Old Testament were temporal, covenant blessings and curses in the New Covenant in Christ are eternal. 

A pearl to string: Blessings do not depend on your performance but rather on Jesus’ performance.  And because His obedience is perfect and His work is perfectly finished, the covenant blessings for you are guaranteed! You can not be good enough, holy enough, compassionate enough nor can you love enough to be in covenant blessing.

There is nothing left for you to do, but to believe. Don’t try to work for your covenant blessings. Rest in the Son’s finished work and receive them by faith! 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) 

We're all in His love,

                            Lyndi

Do you hear what I hear?

Five Englishmen travelling across Europe in an Audi Quattro arrive at a border crossing.

The Customs agent stops them and says, "It's illegal to put five people in a Quattro."

"What do you mean it's illegal?" ask the Englishmen.

"Quattro means four," replies the border official.

"Quattro is just the name of the automobile," the Englishmen retort disbelievingly.

"Look at the papers: this car is designed to carry five persons."

"You can't pull that one on me," replies the Customs agent.

"Quattro means four. You have five people in your car and you are therefore breaking the law."

The Englishmen reply angrily, "You nut case! Call your supervisor over.  I want to speak to someone with more intelligence!"

"Sorry," responds the official, "he can't come. He's busy with two guys in a Fiat Uno." 

Life can be frustrating when you are dealing with people who do not make sense to you.  Because you believe differently does not give you the right to dishonor others. We don't all come from the same place in our thinking, in our reasoning or in our life experiences. We react and self talk more than we listen.  The tendency that seems to prevail judges others by their actions and words while we generously judge ourselves by our intentions. Our intentions however do not qualify any of us to judge the heart of another. 

Like the men caught on the stormy Sea of Galilee, have you ever been reeling in the waves of a storm desperately seeking Jesus help?  Then discover you are the storm? The squall of business? The fixer, the controller, the talker? Are Jesus’ words to the wind for you? “’Quiet!  Settle down!’” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass.”(Mark 5:39^{The Message}). 

A pearl to string: Too many people talk to impress and impose their point of view on another. They drain the life out of their audience and eventually become the old lonely person.  It's possible to actually spend a lot of time with people but unless you spend time listening, you can not know anybody.  A serious result of not listening is boredom for it is really the death of love. It seals people off from each other more than any other thing. 

Listening is the first step to successful communication and the secret component to close relationships.  Listening is an act of love, it is honoring, it refreshes the other person, and more encouraging than a thousand words.  

With a new year upon us it is the perfect time to hone our listening skills with intentionality.

In him we live and move and have our being, (Acts 17:28^NIV)

                                                                                             Lyndi