Workmanship

Ephesians 2:10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.  

How many times have I read this verse?  How many times have I thought, "yup, I'm God's workmanship" and then moved on; that concept, that living Word falling into my head and never reaching down into my heart.  Well, last night I read it again and for the very 1st time I felt a feather like tickle on my heart.  Me--God's workmanship, some versions say masterpiece.  Me--not junk, not a defective failure, but God's very own masterpiece, His own workmanship.

And that brought to mind the verse in Isaiah 43:4  Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, and I have loved you;  therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.  

Precious, honored...that is what I am in God's heart.  In His eyes.  Jesus came and died for me, and for You, gave His life....because we are precious creations of the Father.

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  

I am chosen.  I am precious.  I am God's workmanship.  I am royal and holy.  You are chosen.  You are precious.  You are God's workmanship.  You are royal and holy.  And we have a response and a responsibility to these truths.  We have works to do that glorify God and the telling of His goodness to tell.  We are not junk, not to be discarded or forgotten or cast off.

This God visit I had last night as I read that verse for the umpteenth time was like a healing balm on my heart.  And I hope that you too, dear reader, will take this verse, all these verse in and make them your own as well.  God thinks we are something pretty special....not through anything we do ourselves, but because He created us.  It makes us His special possessions!!  He saved us.  Thank You Lord.

Help me to honor You, to walk in the works You have created me for, to proclaim You praises.  Thank You for loving me.  In Jesus Name.  Amen.

130 Gifts

I have shared from the wonderfully enlightening book I just finished, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  I was inspired by this book to start my own list. Don't know if I will get to a thousand, maybe less, maybe more, maybe I will just keep recording the gifts until the Lord brings me home...I don't know where this road will go right now.  But I realized that each gift, each blessing, little or big, is a God visit of its own.  I thought I'd share a few of them here, and maybe get my readers to thinking about their own gifts or daily God visits.  Perhaps it will lift your hearts to realize that the Giver of gifts is visiting you!

Today I awoke to the softest of light (and 3 little cats circling like sharks looking for food...LOL, the can be so sweet and friendly when they are wanting their breakfast).  My curtains are a  shimmering cream color, not quite opaque and the let the light filter through like a glow.  But the day is overcast so the light was so soft and quiet, it was beautiful.  A wonderful gift.

Relaxing here in the presence of the Lord, with His Word and the peace and quiet around me...another much loved gift.

Cupcakes!  I am ever so thankful for cupcakes...I love them!!  Sweet and lots of icing, and even better, some filling too!!

Finishing a long hard 12 hour day at work....yaaay it's over !!

Sensing the encompassing God who loves me, knowing He is always there.

A good and kind husband.

The wonderful, funny, crazy, loving family I have been placed in!!

My beautiful church and the fellowship I have there.

Amazingly blue of the sky.  Wow!!  Colors, so many colors in the world!!

Getting in my exercise.

And some of the harder ones....

Failing in what the Bible says I should be.

Disappointing myself, and feeling like I disappoint God.

Struggling to be a Christian...the type I think I should be

Broken house....more money to be spent on repairs.  Feeling like all the ot I work is going to be spent on that.

This is just a little bit of my list.  I am trying to remember to give thanks in the hard things too...."in everything give thanks; for this is the will of  God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess 5:18).  And God is in these difficulties too.  So if God is in everything, then even the hard, the seemingly impossible, or the downright ugly is to be on the gratitude list as well.

Make your own list.  It helps to focus my eyes on the Giver, helps me notice His touch on my everyday living.  And that is the best gift of all!!

Enjoying God

I have to admit, enjoying God is not a concept I am really familiar with.  It's just not something that I think about doing.  Worshiping, thanking, praising, petitioning, all those are frequent flyers in my head, along with complaining, blaming and throwing tantrums at (all to frequent visitors), but enjoying?

     Enjoy Me.

     Just these two words He spoke changed my life, "Enjoy Me."

     What a burden I thought I was to carry--a crucifix, as did He.
   
     Love once said to me, "I know a song, would you like to hear it?"

     And laughter came from every brick in the street and from every pore in the            sky,

     After a night of prayer, He changed my life when He sang, "Enjoy Me."

                                                                             Teresa of Avila

This is the poem including in the book "One Thousand Gifts."  It was an amazing moment when I read this....a mind altering, spirit awakening moment, when I realized I had never sought to do this.  I think of all the things, the people we enjoy.  Fellowship with family, friends, after church, holidays, gatherings of all kinds.  Fun and laughter.  Even the comfort of loving individuals when they cry with us, commiserate during our difficult seasons.  Sports, reading books, walking on the beach, beautiful days, a good movie, a thousand things that hold our interest and bring us pleasure....but enjoying God?  What a concept!!  LOL  I mean, if we are to spend eternity with this Being, wouldn't it do us well to enjoy His presence, to delight in being with Him?

So I realized, I don't know how to do this.  How do I enjoy You Lord?  It's not like I can see You, touch You.  I don't understand this notion, let alone how to begin to practice it.

Sooooo, two mornings ago I was off on another run.  Listening to Joyce, stopping at the grocery store for a couple of things on the way home, walking the last leg with my flimsy bags, (didn't want them to break with the jostling running would have caused).  I love my Stop and Shop, but their bags are the worst!!  The day was one of those perfect fall days, sunshiny, crystal clear, bluest of blue skies, birdsong, slight breeze cooling my runners face and then it hit me...It was a gift to be counted this day.  This run.  This sunshine and breeze, birds singing and color all around me.  And this was enjoying my Creator.  This was His heart....the beautiful day, me in it, a gift to me.  As I enjoy the gift I learn the Givers heart, and I enjoy Him!!  I can enjoy God!!  Everything I praise Him for, thank Him for, is part of enjoying Him.  Wow.  I get it.  Cool!!

I love it.  I want to learn it.  To do it.  I want this enjoying of You Lord to become the most natural thing to me.  I know it will be easier to do in the good things, the pleasurable blessings and the smooth sailing, blue skies kind of times.  But I also know it will be something that must be done in the hard, tear filled days.  That is definitely going to take a lot more practice!! And a lot of help from You Lord!!

Psalm 34:7a "Delight yourself also in the Lord.....

If the Lord is singing over His creation, and that includes me and you, delighting over us, shouldn't we also delight in and enjoy Him?  I want this !!!  And I believe it is something God wants too.  Something that would bring Him great pleasure and make Him sing!!  What person wouldn't want people to enjoy being with them. What person would want it to be a drudgery to be around them? A duty or obligation.  Oh how His heart must ache for us to understand this.  Lord, forgive me for not realizing this sooner.

Lord, I want this.  I want to enjoy You.  Teach me.

The Cross

The Cross is enough.  That is what we always say as Christians, right?  "God if You gave me nothing else, the Cross is enough to show Your love."  A great belief.  A great truth.  But when everything is going wrong, when things are frustrating, irrating and bothersome, a test and a trial...it's really really hard to remember, let alone be grateful for this fact.

Friday night at work was actually a quieter night than usual.  So of course, I was asked to do something extra and I really didn't want to do this.  I was tasked with picking up these things called gaylords...which are just large cardboard boxes (think like 4' x 4' or so square), that were on pallets and filled with other empty, folded gaylords.  I was then to bring them out to a trailer for storage.  Well, I picked up the first one and off I went to bring it to it's final resting place.  And just before I got to that destination, I caught it on another piece of equipment, only to have it tear down the side and all the contents of the gaylord start falling out!!  I tried taping it, jamming it together, anything to not have to empty it and refill a new one!!  And of course nothing is working!!  GRRRRR!!  And of course, the thoughts start flowing through my head...."Great Lord, You never help me, why can't I just have an easy night!!"  LOL...right away, blame God.  And then the thought popped in my head, "the Cross is enough a sign of His love and care."  I quickly dismissed it to continue on with my complaining.  Yessirree!!   That I did!!

Backtrack a bit now.  Earlier in the night, one of my bosses had asked me to pick up a "case" for him which was resting on a pallet, whenever I got the chance.  So after the whole gaylord ordeal (and yes, I had to set up a new one and empty all the contents of the last one into the new one, dispose of the broken one....), I saw the case and decided to pick it up and deliver it as requested.  And on the side of the the case.......someone had taped a small Cross!!!  There it was, about 3" long, with Jesus on it, staring up at me.  Yup, there was my reminder. LOL  It was as if God said, "dismiss that thought, huh? I am not going to let you off that easy."   A definite God visit!!!

Lord, thank You for the Cross.  Thank You for Your sacrifice.  For saving me. Help me to really remember, to really appreciate what You did for me on the Cross.

Greater

Greater.  It's a new song by Mercyme, and has quickly become a new favorite (I have a lot of them !!  LOL).   The thing about it is, we are doing this Bible study at church on the book of Ephesians and the first chapter is all about our being chosen and our blessings in Christ, who I am in Him.  And the song speaks to just that, at least for me, who I am in Christ, in spite of the voices that tell me different.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.[b] 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,[c] for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own[d] by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

As I was sitting at lunch the other day, studying this Ephesians passage after another struggling day at work, these verses stood out to me.  It wasn't so much that God saw me as holy and without fault in His eyes.  Or that He chose me before He made the world.  Being united with Christ, sharing in His inheritance, being adopted as His daughter....all wonderful, amazing, fantastic things, truths that can all on their own, set  your feet "a dancing."   But the fact that He did this in wisdom and understanding and great pleasure is what just blows me away.  

When I think of myself, and all my faults and difficulties, negative thought patterns, anger issues.....I really don't see how anyone, knowing all of that in advance, before the creation of the world, would choose to adopt me.  That is an truly mind-boggling thought to me.  And He makes all of these things, me, my strengths and weaknesses, you with your strengths and weakness...all of us, all of this work according to HIS good plan.  And choosing me, choosing you gave Him great pleasure!!  Knowing all He knew, our Father still took delight in choosing us!! Gobsmacked.  Dumbstruck.  Astounded.  He knew and still took pleasure in choosing me.  I can't get enough of this concept.  And if all that weren't enough, He calls me holy and without fault in His eyes.

This God visit...this God lesson, was later that night punctuated by the Mercyme song, Greater.  It's a great song overall, but a couple of the lines really stood out and gave the exclamation point to the message I had heard in Ephesians early.

     "You are holy, righteous and redeemed."
     "I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed."
     "understanding just how He sees me."
   
Take a good listen to this song.  Enjoy it.  Take it into your heart and let it sooth and smooth away the bumps and bruises that say you are nothing, that you can't possibly be loved and wanted by God. Take God's Word and let it heal the parts of You that say you are a mistake and are rejected.  The Word tells us those things are not true. And God has blessed us with gifted musicians and songwriters to sing His truths to us.  Thank You Lord for truth, for music, for Your love and Your great plan.

"The Cross already won the war."

How?

How.  That's my question.  How do people know You?  You the merciful.  You the providing.  You the comforting, strengthening, tenderly caring Abba Father You?  I hear it in song.  I see it in the written word.  But it's not a point of view that I share regularly.  It's not a reality to me.  Sadly, I struggle with not seeing You as a punishing, reap what I sow kind of  God...and since I have not sown well......So HOW? How do others see You the other way?

One of the most touching stories for me is Hagar's in Genesis 16.  She was severely mistreated by her mistress Sarah, and was running from her home with Sarah and Abraham.  God saw her affliction, and spoke strength and comfort to her. She called Him, El Roi....the God who sees me.   I try to remember this name, this story, but unfortunately my memory is short lived, and the minute things go wrong or I start to encounter difficulty I go right back to my "tried and true" (not really I suppose), familiar thought patterns of "God don't You see, God don't You care, God don't You love me, God do you hate me".

2 days ago, as I was listening to some singer crone on about Your wonderful care for them, the questions came again.  HOW?  How do they see this You?  Why do I miss it?

Fast forward, yesterday morning.  We are doing a Bible study on Ephesians at church.  I came upon some verses that really stood out to me...you know the words and phrases that kind of pop off the page.  Really it was a few words in the verses, but those few words zeroed in on the heart of the matter for me reached in and gave my soul a good shake.

Ephesians 2:4  But God is so RICH IN MERCY and He loved us so much...

Ephesians 2:7  So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and KINDNESS toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.  

There are the words describing You.  Right there in black and white.  Now---do I want to believe them?  Can I believe them?  Or do I continue in my perceptions (fueled by my spoiled brat emotions) and the god they create in my head?  Do I not see the God they describe in the gratitude list I am making?  When I take that list--that ever growing list--and truly ascribe each and every entry on it as a gift from You--then how can I not see You in the way of Ephesians 2:4, 7, the way the songwriters and authors do?

Lord, I need to remember this.  Focus on this.  Believe this.  Help me to see You clearly, really, and in faith.  I am tired of being mad at You and myself.

Baptism, From Mom's Journal

I was baptized as a baby.  When I started actively walking with God, I thought that that was enough for me.  About a year or so after I got clean and sober God decided on more (most likely God always had the plan) .  I believe, at the time, baptism had been playing somewhere in my thoughts, perhaps not consciously but there all the same.  I was going to Cornerstone Bible Church at the time and I can remember saying to the Lord, "if you want me to be re-baptized, then let it be talked about today in Sunday service."  And of course it was !!!  A God visit even back in the day !!!  So I spoke to my Pastor, and shortly after that I was baptized at the church picnic, in the pool of the other church leader.  I can only tell you it was the most wonderful experience....I have never felt such joy, tear-filled jubilance as when I arose out of that water....unbelievable and amazing.  I can still remember it so clearly.  So today Mom's journal entry is on baptism.

Matthew 21:25  "John's baptism--where did it come from?  Was it from heaven, or from men?"  They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'from heaven', He will ask, 'Then why didn't  you believe him?'

Immerse - dip  Baptism emphasizes "the result" of the act rather than the act itself.
The Christian baptism is identified with Christ in death, burial and resurrection.

1 Peter 3:21  and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.  It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Faith.  Baptism----is the answer of a good conscience toward God --through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Response of the faith that saves.

The act of water baptism outwardly declares or confesses and inward experience of salvation through the blood of Jesus.

From me:

I won't get into whether Baptism is necessary for salvation...I leave that to the apologists and debaters, brighter minds than me. (but leaving it undone on the chance that it is a requirement seems foolish to me)  I only know that I was led by the Lord to do it.  And I am forever glad that I did.  I will include some extra verses here regarding baptism.  Sometimes I think that was the day I got my perseverance and stubbornness to not quit trying and walking on this labyrinthine Christian road.  God's gift to me.  LOL   Perhaps, one of you out there is wrestling with it or asking the same question I did, "God, if You want me to be baptized, then let it be talked about." So here it is in this blog...talked about.  You will have to take it from there, but I highly recommend it !!!

Mark 16:16  Whoever believes and is baptized will be save, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Acts 2:38  Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift f the Holy Spirit.  

Romans 6:4  We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  

Epehsians 4:5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

Colossians 2:12  having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.  

Baptism--a beautiful picture of our unity with Christ, our risen Lord and Savior. Like Mom said, death, burial and resurrection.  Identifying ourselves with Him.

Lord, thank You for the experience and institution of baptism.  Thank for the washing away of sins.  Let us bind ourselves with Jesus, not just in ritual, but in reality, not just once at baptism, but also in our everyday steps.  Open hearts to take that step, take away the fear and the questioning, and let those doubtful hearts go boldly forward into the waters of baptism.  And thank You for my gifts, perseverance and stubbornness and especially for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and eternal life.  There is none like You.

Glorious Change

I read one of those verses this morning...you know one that you have read dozens of times before, but this time something just pops out that makes you say "Oh, really cool!!"

Romans 8:18  I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Ok, so at first I went on about how difficult it is to see past today's trials to that day of glory.  Broken down cars and houses that need fixing, relationships in the same state of disrepair, aches, pains and illness....on and on the list goes that fills our thoughts and hours.  Yet Paul considers them not worth comparing to that coming day.  And he is right, of course.  But oh so hard to put into practice.  I am thinking I will be working on this one til Jesus returns or calls me home!!!

But it was the second part of the verse that got me excited today.  It says "the glory that will be revealed in us."  That says to me that it's already there and hidden away inside each and every one of His children.  It's here in me right now, waiting for the day that it is completely uncovered!!

That got me thinking of that verse in   1 Corinthians 15:51-52  Listen, I tell you a mystery:  We will not all sleep, but will all be changed---in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Now, I am thinking some of us will have a bit more changing to do on that day than others....(myself included of course).  For we know that we are all changing now, from glory to glory....little by little His glory is revealed in us more and more as we cooperate with the Spirit and work on that obedience thing.  But to think, that His glory, this wonderful glory is already in me....I just love that thought.  It's there, waiting to be shown, waiting to be seen!!  One day it will be revealed completely, but it can be seen now too, if we let it.

How is that for a great God visit to start the day?  So now, when I go through my day today, I will try to keep that in mind...His glory in me, right now.

Lord, help me to let it shine, let Your glory be seen in me, that you may be honored.