Sunday, May 16, 2010
May 17 ... 2 Chronicles 25 - 27 "Making My Life As Good As I Can Make It"
2 Chronicles 26:16 - "But then Uzziah's strength and success went to his head. Arrogant and proud, he fell. One day, contemptuous of
2Chronicles 27:8 - "Jotham's strength was rooted in his steady and determined life of obedience to
Is life about our choices? Do we really just choose to serve God and it happens. Do we really just choose to love others and it happens? Am I really trying to choose to make the best out of what has been handed to me in this world? Of course obedience is a choice---Joshua 24:15 - Choose this day whom you will serve...as for me and my house. But there is Mystery in God moving His Plan forward. One of my favorite quotes from 66 LL follows: "No matter how great your path or how confusing and intense your suffering, live in the Mystery of My Love. Struggle to trust Me. Do not live with the priority of making your life in this world as good as you can make it. You will suffer, at times unfairly, but you will be given what you need to enter strongly and wisely with Supernatural Love into every circumstance you face." I've spent way too much of my life living with a priority of making my life as good as I can make it. So what is God calling me to "let go of" where my priorities actually reflect a drivenness to accept my lot and make it as good as I can? I've struggled lately with feelings of not being wanted---my perception, my interpretation from constructive feedback. So do I deal with that by making my priority to make my life as good as I can in light of the pull on my life? Romans 7:24---oh no. Someone is setting me free from this mess I am in, praise God!
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25:2 - Follwoing the Lord whole-hearted is my desire. Reveal to me my half-heartedness, Lord.
ReplyDelete25:9 - God's help is priceless. There is no place for my pride & desires (26:16).
I agree with you, Bev. That may be my favorite quote from 66 Love Letters. "Living in the Mystery of My Love..." I think we've all had some "A-ha!" moments this year in turning our thinking upside down and setting our sights on the holy versus worldly goodness.
ReplyDeleteIt looks nothing like I thought it would. And I'm so glad. It's so much better. My own reason doesn't get me very far...it takes faith.
We don't often hear this stuff in churches. I hope some of you do, but it's rare to find preachers that talk about hard truths in the Bible. We are blessed in Houston to have a young pastor who does take on the unpopular sermons. Never skips a verse as we work our way through each Book.
I still don't think I've ever heard a sermon or teaching on suffering quite like it's spelled out in 66 LL. Have any of you?
I agree, Annette. I haven't heard anything on suffering the way it's spelled out in 66 LL. Much of what I've heard is about making the best of a bad situation, not embracing the suffering as a path to holiness.
ReplyDeleteIt was such an eye-opener in today's reading about the different responses of Uzziah and his son, Jotham. Those verses stood out to me as well.
I like your question though, Bev. Is life about our choices? I always thought it was - and I was convinced I'd make the best choices. And then I failed miserably by making bad choices.
And God has used it. I am a different woman, a God-fearing woman, because of what God has allowed in my life. As you said, Annette, it looks nothing like I thought it would. And I'm so glad too. I worship the One who has and is setting me free from the mess. I love living in the mystery of His love!
And don't you think so much of what Christ taught is exactly what we are learning? We will suffer. We are aliens. This world is not our home. Following Christ puts us at the forefront of spiritual warfare...with others and with ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWhole-hearted. Is there any other way if it is real?
We had a graduation party on Sunday with friends from our church (with adults only) for our son who is a senior. I asked them to share some thoughts that God stirred up in their hearts with him. What's the pull there---share the wisdom and you won't make my mistakes. No! I told my son after the party that this wasn't to inundate him with wisdom but that it was transformation that God wanted and HE might just stir up something through those words BUT---wrestling with what is really going on inside of your heart is the focus. I just don't think we think deeply enough about what is going on. There seems to be such an emphasis on changing our behavior but that's no more than behavior modification. Why do I live frustrated on the inside? Why am I so jealous of my siblings? What is going on inside of me that I want more than the love of my Christ? Why is this thing so important to me? What is stronger inside of me---holiness or being right? There's a million questions we could ask---no set questions that fit all occasions. The problem isn't that friend who has let us down, or our husbands who have missed us at times, or our failing health...the problem goes back to our flesh which will always be with us. I'm always haunted by Paul saying at the end of his life: "I am the chiefest of all sinners." The more he knew Christ, the more he saw the wretched side of his nature. Oh wretched women we all are and Someone has saved us from it! IDK why I wrote this or wrote this long...I just wanted to talk to someone and even though it's one-sided, I'm here thinking of you this rainy night and missing you...I see your faces right now! And I love your words!
ReplyDeleteAnnette, to answer your question, the friends/pastors I know who preach this same message have all studied under Larry. I know several of them. The counselor I went to for a couple of years was trained under Larry as well. He was the first person in my life to ask me some very hard questions and helped me wrestle with what was going on deep in my heart, Phil 1:21, For me to live is _____? "Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me? I was passionately attached to some very good wrong things like ministry. But filling in the blanks of our lives is not easy to figure out why I was so confused and empty. Alan Jones says "finding out that one is lost can take a long time." It took me a couple of years of work with this counselor to work through the memories of my deep hurts (Crabb would call it: "What do I most fear?") and to work through deep satisfactions (What do I most want? The Love of Christ or what?) This guy mentored me with a spirit of prayer and the guidance of the Word searching my innermost being revealing the thoughts and intentions of my heart. I think it is what the church is supposed to be doing! And I found Life and became alive in ways I had never been even though I had been searching for Him for many years! Ask the people closest to me...I am not the same person I was a few years ago! I am so more attached to Him than ever with still a long way to go! I better go to bed! I've been wanting to talk to someone all night and I just did except it was one-way---talk back to me!!!
ReplyDeleteSweet one, I am pituring your face right now. And the feel of your hand as I held on tightly to you at the Siesta Scripture Memory Team gathering. Never, ever talked to you face-to-face before that, but through your posts, I felt I had known and loved you forever.
ReplyDeleteAnd that now includes all the other beautiful hearts I've met here. Each of us are not the same people today because of the deep questions we are forced to answer from our souls.
It is so easy to live as though who, what, when and where are the MOST important things! But the Why now appears to be the transformation engine.
Why?
Why do we hold up the exorcist cross to suffering?
Why are we afraid?
Why does the idolatry of self hinder our hinder our growing in the Mystery of His Love?
I am seeing things with different eyes. Pondering things with more of a plan.
Hoping for the eternal rewards, knowing that they are promised. But settling in to the reality that this life hurts sometimes and we grow through it with grace. Thankful to have my love letters to show me the way. Needing eyes and ears opened by Jesus.
By the way, I heard Paul Wilbur sing and speak Sunday night. He spoke about some things that really aligned with what we are learning here.
ReplyDeleteGod is on the move, drawing a group of people out...making them pure. Something is coming and He will use us for His Glory.
Everyone else can choose to follow an easy path.
But the road of suffering is making us into a holy people ready to be poured out. Not tossed about to and fro. Hardened and seasoned in a way that we can go the distance.
Wow! Good stuff here! I love/hate all the questions Bev asked. Hate what all it makes me face...love the God who forgives and the Spirit who will do the transformation.
ReplyDeleteMy pastor is a verse by verse guy. He doesn't skip anything, but always takes us back to God's grace.
Bev, you are so right about the need to let God do a work deep within us. We move on to the next study, book, or conference without stopping to hear what God is trying to say to us.
My verse for the last two weeks: "As many as touched Him were made WHOLE." (Mark 6:56 KJV)
He alone will make me whole. He wants to do something IN me. I'm always wanting Him to do something for me. I don't think it's wrong to have desires. It's when my desires become a demand. What a journey we are all on!
So grateful for all of you!
FG
Wow. I just love stopping here. So much to ponder--and transformation is a life's journey. It is good stuff. Beautiful hearts poured out...love you guys.
ReplyDeleteWow! I am so blessed by each post I am just now finding my way back. Just to say recently my life has been a blurr. I am so thankful to find my way back which is only God's amazing grace and mercy in my life.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many pearls of wisdom as I read through the post. Yes, God's amazing grace and mercy is living in the mystery of God's love for me.
Each of you have poured into me God's love with a fresh perspective to consider. Yes in my own evil sin I am still seeking more of God's Holiness in my life today.
This is a song of I must Sing.
Sylvia