September 13, 2011
Be My
I have been noticing places throughout the Psalms expressing “be my [rock, fortress, defender]” “be Thou my strong rock” (Ps 31:2).
When God came to Moses as “I am that I am,” all being was made evident in Him. All existence is of Him. All being is from Him. All things hold together by His Word of power (Heb 1:2). So, when the Psalmist prayerfully asks for Him “to be” that substantial present need for him, it is mysterious to me.
Is it that the whole cosmos understands that “being” is all in Him for everything, and is existing so? Is it man alone that has yet to come to realize these needs take on Being when it is Him that becomes that needed thing unto us (1 Cor 1:30).
We need a Rock. We need God to be that Rock. All things are from the Father. All things are through the Son (1 Cor 8:6). So, in that needful moment when He becomes the Rock we need, we have taken on something that has already been eternally true. We just have not realized it. And then we take on something of the eternal.
So, when I read Ps 31 for God to BE the Rock we need, He already is, but just has not been realized to us relationally. Oh, I can see that it is going to take all eternity to see Him BE (to us) all that He already is.”
“Oh, God, our Help in ages past, our Hope in years to come; our Shelter from the story blast and our Eternal Home.”
Cathy
Holy Hope, Lasting Love, Right Relationships
- 0 Comments
September 12, 2011
I entered these wooded, carved battlegrounds with such childlike thoughts of naivete. How could a soldier entering this large area for battling find any argument/cause/issue/disagreement worthy (that could be solved in a room) to give up his life? 18,000 did just that in this very spot. All any of us have is our tent, our body, our life, and 13,000 Union fell in heaps, and 5,000 Confederate. Was this all about slavery, really?
Jesus said (Heb 10:5): “A body Thou has prepared for Me.” He took that shell and gave it away, and was taken from the earth. These humans gave their shell, and therefore rights to this earth, away.
Walking these steps in the open field, just looking down at the soil, and Genesis 4:10 arises about Abel’s blood crying out from the earth. With 18,000 lives and thousands more wounded, it was a blood-soaked earth. Was the soil crying out to me? Could I hear as I trampled on its grass?
Both Generals agreed to a two-hour cease fire in which soldiers of opposing sides shared newspapers with each other. After two hours, they split sides and gunfire began.
The fear to lose one’s life: self-preservation was at a height as they dug the trenches after resigning themselves from the steep casualties of frontal assault, a trail side sign read. In my aloneness on this trail and considering my mere tent and vulnerability, Jesus told us: Fear not what man can do unto you. Fear Him who after man has taken your life can cast you into Hell (Matt 10:28). This was reassuring in my soul for the risks on this plot of earth. God is the One to fear.
I wondered: did many of these soldiers rely on that verse, have it etched in their pockets as they met eternity in those nine days?…………..
Uncategorized
- 0 Comments
September 3, 2011
Right on the heels of turbulences ending with last week’s Irene, it was not so easy to read Psalms 29. The Psalmist saw the Voice of the Lord splitting the cedars of Lebanon with such force as to make them skip away like a calf or a young wild ox. The Voice of the Lord divides flames of fire; it strips the forests bare and causes the deer to go into premature labor.
But the One behind the Voice is the Lord whom we have cultivated a trust and walk and love these years of relative calm. The unseen roots of this loyalty, allegiance are going to be tested. Do we love Him? Can we endure? Misty Edwards sings: “I want to be with You, not against You. I want to be with You where You are. I don’t want to be offended when it’s all coming down…”
Paul warns his beloved Timothy to stay strong with speaking Voice of God, for a time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine (2 Tim 4:3). There is an endurance sound teaching requires: “to hold up, to hold one’s self, erect and firm, to sustain, to bear…”
Hear the word to let Him speak today in this cultivating prelabor time.
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks…we [will] not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from Heaven. Whose Voice then shook the earth, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more, I shake not only the earth, but also Heaven’” (Hebrews 12:25-26).
Right Relationships, Saving Faith
- 0 Comments