Chew on the Word

Pro 4:20-21 - (20) My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. (21) Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. (22) For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. (23) Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

I ran across this scripture this morning and I have to say it convicted me! Verse 21 in particular tweaked my conscience. This is my regular pattern. Get up in the morning, maybe spend time in the Word maybe not, and get about the business of my day. I will usually at least glance into the Word at one point during the day even if I "don't have time" to do any real study, but then it is back to normal life and what I read is, more often than not, quickly forgotten.

In this Proverb Solomon is warning against precisely this practice. He commends His Son to make an effort to receive the Word and then watch over that Word to make sure it remains in his head. I love the picture: "let them not escape from your sight" . I picture myself; feet spread wide, hands outstretched, head up and eyes alert dancing back and forth in front of the door of my mind. The goalie of my soul. "OK Word of God you're not getting out of here". You know I've always read vs 24 as a warning to keep bad things OUT of my heart, but in light of the two previous verses I think it is also a command to keep the good things IN!

This is not the ONLY place in scripture where this admonition can me found - In the parable of the Sower (Luke 8) Jesus spoke of the soil that was shallow and could not hold the seed that was planted. I guess this verse is Jesus guard against shallow soil. HOLD ON TO THE WORD and make SURE it bears fruit.

Another echo of this is in the parable of the vine and the branches. Jesus says in John 15:7 that if we remain in Him and HIS WORDS remain in us we will bear much fruit AND anything we ask He will do for us. That's a pretty amazing promise, especially when combined with the promises from Proverbs vs 22 of life and healing!

So Lord I respond to your command. Help me to know the best ways to guard over your word in my heart to keep it in place. To not let it escape from my sight. To remain in you and let your word remain in me that I might bear much fruit. That I might have power in prayer, that I might be filled with life, and be healed of all my afflictions!

AMEN!

Jesus - the real thing

I love Jesus. I love everything about Him, even those things about Him that challenge me, and there are a LOT of things about Him that challenge me. Recently I have been thinking about Jesus.

I told our youth cell the other day that no one that encountered Jesus remained the same after meeting Him. Then I rather glibly said something like, "and if you have never been changed then you've never really met Him either", as soon as I said it it messed with me. How often do I have that testimony? How often do people meet me and leave different? If Jesus was really living in and through me, like I know He should be, then my life would have that effect on people too. Most of the time however I have little or no effect on the people I encounter. In fact most of the time I don't want to have ANY effect on the people I encounter! Most of the time I just want to go about my business and move on. Maybe that is my problem. I am about, "my business". In Luke 2:49 a teenage Jesus tells his parents (depending on your translation) "I must be about my Father's business". This was the way Jesus moved through the whole of His life. In John 5:19 Jesus discloses His philosophy of ministry, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." What would life look like if this was the way we lived? How extraordinary would our lives be?

Jesus I want to do this! Help me to have an ear open to you at all times. To walk through life seeing you change those around me just because I am following you. For REAL

Amen

The Title says it all

From Him, Through Him, and To Him.

That title says it all.

I have been agonizing over the direction of my life lately. I have been deeply unsure of my ability to step up and do the things that I feel like God is currently calling me to do. I have been begging the Lord for direction and for wisdom, but most of all I have been begging for this feeling of inability and insecurity to go away. I want to be set on a path but even more than that I want to know that I am not going to catastrophically fail!!!

This afternoon I was there, in that place again, waiting before the Father who always seems to maintain an inconvenient radio silence in times like these, when I heard this. "I am capable - YOU will never be". Wow that both hurt and felt great. First I heard that I will never be capable. A deeply troubling word from my Father, but with it comes the realization that I do NOT HAVE TO BE! God is not expecting ME to be capable. He is expecting me to bow down and believe that through Christ who strengthens me I can do anything!

If I am relying on my strength, my wisdom, my talent, then I will fail every time. However if I am relying on HIS strength, His wisdom, His power, I cannot fail. He is love and love never fails.

The only important thing is that we are doing the same thing at the same time! Jesus said that he said nothing he didn't hear the Father saying and He did nothing He did not see the Father doing. He later said the same of the Holy Spirit. We must follow their Godly example. Aligning myself with the Lord and walking gently.

Help me Jesus to live from you through you and unto you.

Amen