Saturday, December 12, 2009

GALATIANS 4

8 Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. 9 So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? 10 You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. 11 I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing. 12 Dear brothers and sisters,[f] I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles—free from those laws.
You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you. 13 Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you the Good News. 14 But even though my condition tempted you to reject me, you did not despise me or turn me away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then? I am sure you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible. 16 Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth?

17 Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them. 18 If someone is eager to do good things for you, that’s all right; but let them do it all the time, not just when I’m with you.

19 Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. 20 I wish I were with you right now so I could change my tone. But at this distance I don’t know how else to help you.

Abraham’s Two Children

21 Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? 22 The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife.[g] 23 The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.
24 These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. 25 And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia,[h] because she and her children live in slavery to the law. 26 But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother. 27 As Isaiah said,

“Rejoice, O childless woman,
you who have never given birth!
Break into a joyful shout,
you who have never been in labor!
For the desolate woman now has more children
than the woman who lives with her husband!”[i]

28 And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. 29 But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit.

30 But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”[j] 31 So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Sweet Holy Eraser

I was sitting at Global River this morning and I had this thought running through my head... Or maybe it was more like multiple swirls of thoughts trying to lay siege on my sanity. You know, those thoughts that run through your head and try and remind you of all the regret, and all the things that if you had done "this better" or "that differently" that your life would be different. And this swirl just starts to drive me crazy. Its that accusing spirit.. I guess thats why satan is called "the accuser of the brethren." He walks around accusing us all day long, seeking whom he may devour. He's always trying to get access through our thought life. Always trying to get us to speak death instead of life over ourselves. Constantly reminding us of our inadequecies. but this morning as I was beginning to fall in to this thought pattern, I all of a sudden saw myself in a white room with white garments. Its a picture I have been getting from time to time lately. Then I saw a picture of this timeline of my past and I saw Jesus take this big pink eraser and literally erase my past. He said to me, do you really believe that when you come to me you are truly forgiven, and do you really believe that I DO NOT SEE IT. This should be such basic stuff I guess, but I think I thought I was carrying around so many tally marks on the "Oh crap I blew it" side of life that He must be looking at me as a failure. Not only did I realize that it has nothing to do with my current performance, but that my past is covered under the blood no matter what any man thinks. And if this is true, then that changes everything. Check this out:

Philippians 3

No Confidence in the Flesh

1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

This is really good stuff. Its so easy to fall in to the mindset that when we are doing well that God looks at us differently. And it causes shame when we are doing lousy because we want to clean ourselves up and then come to Him.. That whole "God helps those that help themselves." Well that line is a bunch of bullshit. God helps those that stop helping themselves, and learn to wait upon Him and THEN their strength will be renewed. Its something to think about.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Life

Many times I have attempted to write something in this thing over the last 2 months of my life. Every time I write something I decide that I don't like it and end up erasing it and go on my merry way. So hopefully I can present you something of substance this time.
I moved a little over 2 months ago from Ft. Mill to Wilmington. I am living in a townhouse with my friends Sue and Meghan exactly 3.7 miles from Wrightsville Beach. It is only within the last 5 days that I have realized how thankful I am to have that beautiful body of water nearby. We live approximately 4 miles down the road from the Carr's house which is where most life activity is usually happening. We do most of our grazing, praying, hanging and general life there. We usually make bi-weekly trips to Costco for very berry sundaes (Meghan and I) and I have frequented almost every empty parking lot in Wilmington at some point over the last month in attempts to deal with my independant runaway tendencies. Every comfort zone is slowly but surely being pulled from my lifeless grip. This is quite the process that I am going through. Severe mercy. It's beautiful because I can now see the objective, which is me dead, and the life of God alive and working in me. It is a beautiful exchange, but it still requires me dead, so the dying process is well... exactly that.
At the moment I am living on a quickly depleting savings account, and lots of ups and downs. (It is worth it.) Some days I'm like Dear God what the heck am I doing? And then I have nights like tonight where I realize that gold is refined in the fire, and the fire is what purifies us, and brings us back to the place where God created us to be. I am so incredibly thankful tonight for so many reasons. The Holy Spirit is freeing me, beginning to breathe on my life in a way that I haven't experienced in a long time, maybe ever. I am so very thankful for Covenant. So thankful to have a dad. It is worth it.