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Where?:   Prayers:   What Studied?:  Notes:

• Saturday, August 30, 2008: Where?: At home in the library Prayers: for direction What Studied?: Matthew 6:33
  "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." It's been awhile since I have been here to update this page (I wanted this to be daily). But I have been having good, recently regular quiet times with God - just not recording them much. Why that's happening is relevant to today's revelation, though. Today I came into the library on a quiet Saturday morning on a four-day-off weekend. As usual, my head was swimming with the week's events, my own goals, and my latest dozen bright ideas for the future (which is a list that gets refreshed every five minutes). Despite my website and my relentless list-making habits, I have actually given up on trying to capture and retain all the ideas, plans, and hopes, etc that flow through my brain. In the past, I have lamented that this happens, feeling their potential loss at the prospect of their not returning. Anyway, the thoughts I had entering the library today centered around my head's swimming with such ideas, but wanting to stick my pattern of being with God first, with no other distractions. I am happy to report that this "time with God first" has been a solid habit of late, facilitated by the increased discipline of a two-week-long good workout / eating cycle (why God encourages us to be whole in all three aspects of our lives: mind, body, and Spirit), and the fact that I now keep my study Bible open on the coffee table in the middle of the house, rather than closed in a stack of books on my nightstand from whence it must be retrieved. As I sat down to spend my time with God today, I felt overwhelmed with my own thoughts and plans, and I just heard what the Bible calls that "still, small Voice" in my heart saying "seek Me first - but work hard - and you won't have to worry about all the rest." Then the verse above of course popped into my head, and the familiar song that people sing when they put it to music in Church. Further, a recent quiet time with God also produced a similar revelation, whereby God's direction was to do His work first, and let the rest fall into place, and - as the Bible instructs - to make "all our work as unto the Lord." In this way He can bless any work we might do - not just "churchy" work. I have always felt His assurance that my life would make sense in His context, and that He would never let my life be for naught because I was His and I do seek Him - in however bumbling a fashion I can manage sometimes. I don't know at all how non Christians live without that assurance. I say not with haughtiness, but with sadness at what they are deprived of. May you each seek and know that assurance, by seeking God first.   

• June16: Where?: The backyard dock Prayers: Friends and family; thankfulness for the opportunities we have had over the last several weeks to add to our lives by time with our friends here. Peace in my own life What Studied?: Psalms Ch 2. Notes: I didn't know this beforehand, but this chapter is where Rich Mullins got the words for his song "Why Do the Nations Rage?" It goes something like this: "Why do the nations rage? Why do they plot and scheme? ... The Lord in Heaven laughs...He knows what it is to come...when all the chiefs of state plan a bigger tax....against His Anointed One." It is basically a statement on the arrogance of mankind...how man continually flexes against God, inexplicably expecting I suppose for God to cater to them, rather than the other way around. The wise seek what God wills for them instead. The commentary in my Bible likens the haughty approach to a child who continually dares his father to race him - or to arm wrestle him. The parent, amused, may take part in the mock contest - but is of course ever aware of the limitations of the child vis-a-vis himself. The father may even laugh. That laughter is merely playful, but may change entirely if the child grows to be an adult without realizing his delusion. Then the father no longer thinks the struggle is cute....just foolish. Then the laughter of God that was once amusement as His child's growth, can become a mocking laugh towards someone who instead has chosen to be an enemy of God, straining against Him like a supremely foolish insect shaking his "fist" defiantly against a cyclone. Let us be the kinds of sons and daughters to God who have a proper perspective. How we are fully His children, entitled to all the benefits and protections thereunto; but who have the wisdom know when to flex our muscles and when to submit to His Will....His loving, caring Will that is meant for nothing else but our benefit. Many will not pursue His Will because they see doing so as being restricted somehow. These people are of the type who see discipline as a restrictive thing. Yet it is discipline that produces and develops our abilities....and our very freedoms. The freedom of fitness and health, for example, comes with the discipline to sacrifice and train on a regular basis. And a high tech locomotive is only free to travel at bullet speeds so long as it remains solidly on the tracks that were meant for it. This same powerful, magnificent machine becomes a twisted, pathetic wreck of a yard ornament if it jumps of it's tracks. If its conductor balks at the "restriction" of the tracks and wishes to run the land or ply the seas with his train, he will end up a laughing stock, like a fish that wishes to loose itself from the "restriction" of the waters. It will go from being a sleek and magnificent being, to a gaping invalid washed ashore. May we not be so foolish. May we see the freedom inherent in our creation as God's children, and have the wisdom to seek the full benefits of our design as God's very children. 

• June 11, 2008: Where? My back yard on the dock Prayers: Friends and family, a spirit of peace in my own life What Studied? Psalms Ch. 1 Starbucks coffee, a banana, and my Bible in hand, I walked down to the dock on this pretty day and started reading Psalms from the beginning. Psalms is divided into five sections, much as Moses' writings were. Not all the Psalms were written by King David (my favorite non-divine Biblical figure) but they start and end with him as author. Primarily the Psalms are a collection of praises and songs to God; and proverbs for our daily lives. I have a study Bible that has as much commentary as original text. I read  the first chapter today and all the associated commentary. Then I prayed, starting that with praise and then moving to prayers for my friends and family. I try to focus on others rather than my own needs these days, and I have found that God honors this lack of emphasis on self. Epiphany: Many people who seek God expect their lives to be more blessed because they are trying to be "more Christian." They are right in this, but our human concept of blessing is kinda like Santa Claus...we study the Word and so we expect to be rewarded for that somehow. Thus, we are strangely surprised when getting closer to God actually brings more troubles sometimes. The Enemy, first of all, fears our new closeness enough to try and distract us from it with his own unique but ultimately shallow combat. Plus, God Himself actually values struggle as a kind of "soul exercise" that strengthens us (as even humanists like Machiavelli understood). That challenge is something that leads still others to balk at having to endure any additional discomfort, yet is it not true that all the great accomplishments (intellectual or physical) come only after great efforts and often uncomfortable striving? Why do we expect the spiritual accomplishments to be any easier. Ultimately, they are the most worthwhile, yet as in the other endeavors, few will undertake the hardships. May I be among the strong and the motivated who are willing. Of course, God also frequently blesses us with ease and with full, pleasurable, enjoyable circumstances, but we cannot come to see these things as expectations for "being good." They are bonuses that we must not be duped into seeing as some kind of cosmic reward. That's the shallow, immature way to relate to God. He says in His Word that to see things this way is to be like an infant who can only feed on milk, and who is not strong enough for meat. I don't want to be that. I want to be used by God, not metaphorically couch-laden, being spoon-fed "spiritual grapes." The saints and apostles of the Bible were not free from persecution for the sake of their work for God, and yet they kept that in perspective, and even counted it an honor to be so associated with Christ that they were singled out to share Christ's sufferings too. We may not ever have to endure things like that (because of the uniquely free life we lead as Americans) but we must stay disciplined and ready for that, and not curse God for it if it happens. After all, He is not the author suffering in this fallen world. For Him to "make sure" that other people don't do anything bad to us - ever - He would have to take away their free will, and He doesn't do that because free will is part of His very definition of, and purpose for, man. The tests and trials that do come from God will never be abusive - they will only be those things that build us up.

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