What Is Your Will In Christ?

To The Hand That Holds Me Up Oh Lord, when I allow myself by your conditions to remain in your presence, I have no fear that I may be brought down. For the hand that holds me up is not my own, but the one that cannot be shaken. Every assault of my adversary only brings new opportunity for blessing. Because I cannot lose when you fight for me. Held tight in your bosom, I have only to watch your faithful love for me play out. What can be taken that you have not given? What joy eternal given by the God that dotes on me that can be brought to end? In your bosom I find myself complete. My face hidden in the fold of your robe, I have no care. I pray only Lord that your great wisdom will lead my heart always to remain in your presence and that your will born of your great love for me will forever be my lot. Forever, praise and glory be to the hand that holds me up!

The Truth Hurts? Really? I'm sure many of us have felt a sting at one time or another when confronted with truth. But is it really the truth that brings us pain? Or is it really the sudden sharp acknowledgment that we're faced with? I tend to believe that it's the recognition that we're in error or that we've been deceived that causes us pain and that it's the acknowledgment of, and compliance with the truth that brings us healing and life. For example, the need to express individuality and intellect in radical ways seems to be a wide and common goal in the world among people today. But I harbor a fear of the extremes of independence I see many striving to achieve. Because the truth is that the spirit of independence can be a spirit of deception. The quest for independence has the ability to separate us from truth and life. The truth is evident whether we choose to acknowledge it or not and that is that we're totally dependent on ...

I recently re-read the books of Leviticus and Numbers. I'll admit that it's been a while since I last spent the time to read them in their entirety. In the past, while reading these books, I've felt somewhat disconnected. I'm a Gentile so my salvation lies in the richness and grace of the New Testament or the New "Covenant". Previously what I gleaned from these books was not without value - I learned a great deal about the personality, likes and dislikes of our Lord. But I saw it as a history of a people that was not my own under an old covenant that didn't apply to me directly. But this time was different. Instead of reading these books with a sense of "duty" to do so, this time I was searching with an openness to what richness I might find. The Lord had placed in me a curious desire to read them again and in my little world, that's a signal of a promised blessing. So with a hunger to find the treat that I knew was to come, I began to ...

Lord, let this one prayer rise above all others that I have prayed... and above any other supplication ... It's a simple thing I ask Lord ... yet I ask it with all that I am ... The granting of my request will rock the earth and the thundering power of it echo in the heavens ... At Your response ... the whole of Heaven will shout with joy in anticipation ... because they know Your heart ... My request Lord ... the one thing I ask above all else ... is that Thy will be done in all that You have created ... and let it begin with me ... In all that exists ... there is one power that cannot be contended ... one wisdom that cannot be compared ... and one heart purely righteous, all holy, faithful and true beyond any other ... and they all belong to You ... There's no brighter hope ... and no greater gain to be desired ... than Your plans for our lives .... and all of creation ... What must be suffered ... must be suffered ... what must be taken a...

Like Josephs' brothers, if we didn’t know the whole story of God's plan to include the rest of us in His family as well as the Children of Israel, we might be asking "what about us?". Not knowing might tend to make us jealous of them. And not understanding God's secret plan, as Paul referred to it, might make us resentful or even angry toward the people that crucified our Savior and King. But I thank God for the truth of His Word and His grace. Not only for us, but for them also. Christ's invitation, as Paul clearly stated was "to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles." There are many who believe that the Jews have lost favor with God. But if any might doubt the continuing relevancy of Israel in the history of the family of God, Romans 11 is a must-read for those who truly want to understand Israel's importance to our Father and the relationship that does exist between us. The truth substantiated by God's word is that the true child ...

So far, we've just been revisiting history that many are familiar with. Most Christians are familiar with the fact that the Children of Israel are God's chosen people. But the important connection between us that I want to point out is yet to come. Be aware that I'm not attempting to reveal some "never before revealed information" - that would be impossible. Our Bible has been scoured faithfully by scholars and those thirsty for knowledge of our God for centuries. But what I am hoping to do, is to bring back into focus some details important to our knowledge of who we are, who the Children of Israel are, and the eternal relationship that exists between us. So, on with the mission ... We're surrounded by worldly ideals, attitudes and theories. They come to us in the news and in all forms of political, social and even entertainment media. But if they're not consistent with the word of God, then they're the ideals and values of frail and perishable...

Authors Note: It occurred to me after I put up the previous post, that my goal may be more correctly stated: There are numerous parts of Christ's Church that are called on a regular basis to pray for the people of my focus in this writing, but not everyone understands why. I'm hoping to bring some clarity to them... Being human with all of the physical and intellectual limitations of beings having a typical life span of less than 100 years, I think it's hard for us sometimes to keep in mind the realities of an infinite God. If our entire lives were to be examined by someone else, and we were asked to describe exactly what we were doing at an arbitrarily chosen minute, say 10 years ago, we couldn't recall. But our God, being omniscient and infinite can instantly recall every moment not only of my life and yours, but of every human being He ever created from the moment He created Adam. He suffers no limitation of His ability to recall. His memory is without fail. Th...

I'd like to share something that I know some Christians recognize fully, but that others don't yet grasp. As you read this series of posts, please take your time in reading and check my references to scripture so that you can be at ease with what I'm sharing. It's nothing new, but something that not everyone recognizes and appreciates. And it's not something that I feel a lot of Christians are taught to understand with any recurring frequency to keep it in mind. The subject is one that the Lord's been speaking to my heart about for the last few months. It's taken some time in meditation and in checking it against His word in order to be able to share it. The subject first came up in conversation with a trusted spiritual brother a few months ago and without further discussion between us, it's continued to come back to my thoughts like an unending echo. It deals with the wholeness of Christ's Church - God's family, and the fact that it ca...

There are numerous interesting people mentioned in the New Testament and of course none are even remotely as great as our Lord - There are of course,none fit to compare to even the shadow of His greatness. But among the other remarkable characters, I've always been drawn to be interested in the Apostle Peter. Having taken him from his humble beginnings as a raw, hard working fisherman, our Lord discipled him to become a fisher of men and gave to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. But his transformation didn't really begin until he got his feet wet. It wasn't until he spent a little "time on the water" that the calloused fisherman himself was really hooked ... Before he came to know Christ, Peter was just a common man. He was singularly unimportant and without any reason to believe that his future would be much different than his past. He wasn't a scholar or a dignitary on any level. One might get the impression that he was coarse, passionate, outs...

Gratitude, something that I fear may not be expressed as much as it should be in our relationship with our Creator. It's the third word weighing on my heart and mind these days. It's a response. To be an honest expression, true gratitude requires an act of thoughtful recognition and bears the burden of a response. Gratitude: "thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling, emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive." - Wikipedia In order for our response to be appropriate to the benefits received and expected to be received, we have to "acknowledge" the full scope of the benefits. To "acknowledge": "1. a. To admit the existence, reality, truth of. b. To recognize as being valid or having force or power. 2. a. To express recognition of: acknowledge a friend's smile. b. To express thanks or gratitude for." - thefreedictionary.com My concern regarding this ...

GHG - Powerful Medicine To Cure The Runaway Human Ego Part 3 - Humility One Wikipedia definition describes Humility as, "A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a humble opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake." This is the definition to which I subscribe and the one I aspire to be consumed by. It doesn't mean that as a Christian, I still carry the sins or the due judgment of my past. By the grace of God to forgive them through Christ's sacrifice, I'm no longer guilty before God. I no longer live under the conviction of them. But, I do remember ... that it's only because of His grace. I remember that by any sin, including the sin that I was born into, I was guilty and subject to judgment and thereby the punishment of death. I do realize that my right standing with God is a gift - unearned and undeserved and one for which my gratitude should never wane as long as I enjoy the et...

GHG - Powerful Medicine To Cure The Runaway Human Ego Part 2 - Grace There are various definitions and interpretations of the word grace. But I'm convicted of, and impressed by only one - the undeserved favor of God. As Christians we should recognize that it's purely by grace that we're saved. We should know that our salvation isn't something we can earn or make happen by our own efforts. If we don't ... then we're missing a huge element in our relationship to our Lord. It was made possible purely by an act of God - a benevolence or act of charity that was unmerited, unearned and certainly undeserved by man. There's nothing we can do to promote our own salvation other than choosing to accept what God has implemented... nothing. As Christians we're very much aware of the awesome grace offered to us through Christ's sacrifice. But the moment of our salvation, though the pinnacle of His grace to us, is not the beginning of, nor His only gr...