Glancing or Gazing Upon the Lord

Jaded- worn out, wearied     to make or become dull
Glance- to look suddenly and briefly
Gaze- to look intently and steadily
       stare as in wonder or expectancy


There is nothing like lying in a hospital bed to increase your prayer life.
 Pain, tubes, morphine hallucinations...
  one feels vulnerable, weak.

Before going in unexpectantly for a second surgery, if you had asked me about my faith I would have said it was strong.... yet relaxed.
Now I had no faith crisis, no disbelief, no struggle with God, I had just become comfortable.
Prayer- less frequent, study less intense, if one were to climb a ladder of faith I had perhaps stepped down a rung.

Once when I was a new Christian a friend that had been active in the church for years said to me, "You haven't been a believer long enough to be jaded."
   I remember being shocked and praying that night that I never would become "jaded".
yet...
somehow over the years that fire within , the desire to know God more became...dulled.
Always in a bible study learning about Him but not meeting with Him.
Always praying to Him but not approaching Him.
You see I was glancing at Him. I was not gazing upon Him.
My head knew and my heart forgot.

Still knowing He was on the throne,
              mighty,
                     merciful,
           holy and full of grace,
I glanced his way.
The will of man sometimes needs drastic measures to stop wandering away from the very God who created him.

So there I sat, weak, tired- no exhausted, self absorbed and uncomfortable in a hospital bed when a knock came.
In walked a man with gray hair and a full smile, he worked at the hospital in food service.
He asked if he could sing me a song.
I said yes.
He sang Beulah Land.
He spoke scripture.
Encouragement straight from God.
 The focus of the song is on eternity, the promise of Christ's return to gather those who are his. Focus on Him and His redeeming work....Beulah Land, the Promised Land.
when we glance His way it is easy to stay focused on ourselves
when we gaze and look intently and expectantly we should be in awe of who He is.

Do not glance upon the writer of History, do not merely look His way.
Gaze upon Him who can carry you into a glorious eternity;
To a place of glory, without pain, without fear.
Look intently....expectantly for He comes faithful and true.

Beulah Land

I'm kind of homesick for a country
to which I've never been before
No sad goodbyes will there be spoken
and time won't matter anymore

Beulah Land I'm longing for you,
and someday on thee I'll stand
There my home shall be eternal.
In Beulah Land, Sweet Beulah land

I'm looking now across that river,
to where my faiths 'gonna end in sight
There's just a few more days to labor,
then I will take my heavenly flight

Beulah Land I'm longing for you,
and someday on thee I'll stand
There my home shall be eternal
In Beulah Land, Sweet Beulah land

In Beulah Land, Sweet Beulah land 



Stop by Spiritual Sundays for more inspiration.

Prone to Wander

 



Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love

Wander.....
          to the world and it's ways
          to the self
                  self seeking, self gratifying.

              to cherished sin...."It's not so bad."

Each wandering step away from God takes me closer to myself....
          where I am comfortable
             where I am self reliant.

Isaiah 1:13 (NIV)

 ¹³ Stop bringing meaningless offerings! 

Meaningless offerings.
God spoke through Isaiah, telling his people they were far from him in their hearts. They were going through the motions,
the ceremony; yet they were rebellious and corrupt, loaded with guilt.

      Could we say?
unrepentant,
    full of excuses,
       avoiding  and blaming?

Isaiah 1:15

 ¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer,
       I will hide my eyes from you;
       even if you offer many prayers,
       I will not listen. 

God will not listen?
God hears everything....nothing escapes him.
Yet sin keeps us from being close, when we wander.......we wander away from him, that distance is created by us, not him.
 The callous builds up
        the will grows stronger
               the heart harder
                   the neck more stiff.

Here's my heart O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Psalm 51

  ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
       and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 

 The wanderer must stop 

                repent- turn from sin and self toward God and his grace

                refocus- toward him and others

Give up that which has mastered us, lay down that which has become an idol

Romans 6:14

¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Isaiah 1:18

 ¹⁸ "Come now, let us reason together,"
       says the LORD.
       "Though your sins are like scarlet,
       they shall be as white as snow;
       though they are red as crimson,
       they shall be like wool.

Believers- you are a child of God, saved by his grace, his grace will sustain you. His mercy is bestowed upon you. You are sealed, you are his. Live in this way.

              Wander no more.

To those who do not believe in Christ, the risen savior and Lord,

Isaiah 1:19-20

 ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,
       you will eat the best from the land;

 ²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,
       you will be devoured by the sword."
       For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Romans 2:5

 ⁵But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

             

Who made God? Part one of many.

Who made God?
Perhaps a ridiculous question to some, but one that can be asked in the innocence of a child or as an adult coming to grips with how and why we exist.
The better question would be Who is God?
Easier to answer? NO
Who made God? No one or No thing.
Who is God? That is where the answer lies.
In no way can I do this topic justice. This will merely be a human effort to state some basic Christian beliefs and state some common misconceptions.
God has always existed and always will. He is self sustaining and sustains all that is created.
  God is triune
    God the Father
       God the Son
          God the Holy Spirit

Wayne Grudem uses these 3 statements
  1. God is 3 persons.
  2. Each person is fully God.
  3. There is one God.

All 3 statements are true and are not in any way separate from each other. One statement is not more or less true than the others and no statement supersedes the others.
The word trinity is theological, it does not exist in scripture but comes from the systematic study of the word of God and the person of God. Based on scriptural truths it has become church doctrine.

False beliefs about these statements;
 Tritheism- (polytheism) God is 3 separate gods.

Ancient Greek and Roman cultures believed in a god for everything, today, the Hindu religion is still that belief system. Often referenced even here in America with statements of praying to the gods. or my god and your god, a rejection of one true absolute Deity.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (New International Version)

 ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ^{[a] 5} Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

Exodus 20 (New International Version)

Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments

 ¹ And God spoke all these words:  ² "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 ³ "You shall have no other gods before ^[a] me.

No other gods....This is not God acknowledging other gods but that man creates gods, powerless gods.
gods that rot....Isaiah 40:18-20
gods that cannot save Isaiah 45:20-21
worthless idols Isaiah 44:9-20

Modalism- God is one part of the trinity at a time or appears in one form of the trinity at a time.
 Today the United Pentecostal Church (not to be confused with general Pentecostal faiths) is Modalistic. They are often referred to as the Jesus only slogan and stress baptism in the NAME of Jesus, not the Father Son and Holy Spirit. They also claim speaking in tongues is necessary proof of salvation during this baptism, another false teaching.
To say God is in one Mode or another is to deny who God is.
Jesus' baptism
In John 10, Matthew 3, Luke 3

Mark 1:9-11 (New International Version)

The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus

 ⁹At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

God is 3 persons, each person is fully God, there is one God.
The church has long accepted the trinity and any church that denies this teaching is considered a false church.

Be Thou My Vision

When cancer knocks at your door

    takes over your life by attacking the one you hold dear,

      takes over your plans

 When retirement becomes....pills, appointments.....transfusions and infusions......fatigue.

Be Thou My Vision

Your child wanders......strays

   flirting with the dark and the empty

    until......

 that darkness invades their mind and clouds their vision.

   suffocating them,   reaching into other lives.......

                  distorting

                     lying

                         stealing

Be Thou My Vision

When someone who knows better, someone you have come to love

   willingly walks away.

  leaving behind their best gifts,

      their joy

         their peace

When you want to yank them back and Yell    WHY?

Be Thou My Vision.

When others, small and frail need you

everything you have to give

   your time

     your patience

        your heart

          your very breath

Despite your own tiredness......you give it all.

 Be Thou My Vision

When we focus on ourselves, all the tasks and challenges at hand,

 we can lose hope

     feel despair

         overwhelmed.

  

Cast our eyes upon Christ

Lord of our heart               High King of Heaven

and all things are possible

They are still hard

 still sad

   still tiring.

             Be thou my battle sheild, sword for the fight:

           Be thou my dignity, Thou my delight

          Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower:

      Raise Thou me heavenward, o power of my power.    (verse 3)

This is dedicated to my friend, my step mother, my sister in Christ......Rachel

For all the obstacles in her path that tried to trip her up....

     Her vision was not clouded.

           Her eyes were on Christ. 

               His strength became hers

                  His truth, she trusts in.

                       His peace adorns her.

Praise and honor and glory belong to Him.

Well I am still here! I want everyone to know even though I haven't  updated this blog in a while it is not because it is not on my mind. I appreciate everyone that checks in...and each follower!!  I have much to write about the amazing things God has done in sustaining trust and peace in the midst of turmoil.

I will be back soon!

Trust in the Lord with all your  heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

Do you ever wonder.........is my path straight? Am I trusting in him....or me? Or am I wandering on some trail, being sidetracked by everything....shiny....

     everything........easy

everything......self serving

There are...

Those times you know your following, feeling secure.

The times you see others following....wishing you were doing better.

Those times you find yourself standing watching, wondering......what path am I on?

Isn't it amazing that no matter where you are.....He is never lost, never insecure, never wondering or faltering. He makes the paths straight, not us.

Amazing Grace

Are you saved? That question makes me laugh now. Laugh at the fool I was.

I remember around 10 years ago, we were to start home schooling. As it would be, the only home school group I was at all familiar with was a Christian group. (yep, there is a story there too, maybe later) I was not a believer at that time.

The first event we went to was a picnic, I went prepared! I just knew all those pushy Christians were going to ask me "Are you saved?"

To  which I was going to reply- "From what?" or "Just what makes you think I need saving?"

Really....teeth clenched, I was ready.

NO one asked.

    Saved implies lost and I sure didn't think I was lost. My life was fine thank you.

Sure....I believed in "god".  Ya know, like goodness, the things that weren't bad. Some type of power. 

I even believed the "good" in man was god.  uhg!

James 2:19

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder.

  The demons were ahead of me, they knew God, THE God. Like me they did not want to be told what they needed or lacked or what God told them to do, so they didn't follow him. They followed their own will, destined for hell.

Yet they shudder- tremble. They know what awaits them.

I was too arrogant to shudder.

I was lost. Lost to sin.

Lost to self. 

Lost to anger, unforgiveness.

                  Amazing Grace   how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

                     I once was lost , but now am found

                    Was blind but now I see.

Grace found me. God's grace. THE God. The very God I shunned, the God I thought I didn't need.

 When Saul, (Paul) was saved on the road to Damascus,(Acts 26) Christ told him he would make him a minister of the good news. God would rescue Paul and send him to non believers to.....

open their eyes

to turn them from darkness to light

from the power of  Satan to God

so that they may receive.....

forgiveness of sins

an inheritance 

Those who are saved by God are kept by God, for eternity. Forgiven, loved, accepted, renewed.

God's grace is rebirth, revelation of his truth.

It is completely from him and him alone. 

It comes to those who do not deserve it

  who do not seek it

  and who can not earn it.

Without God's grace we are destined to serve sin and under the power of Satan.

I was lost and I needed to be saved. It is a good thing God didn't wait for me to get comfortable with who he was before he saved me or wait for me to figure out I needed him. That would never have happened.

God saves those who do not know they are lost.

Not perfect just Forgiven

         This morning I read a blog, what it was about wasn't as important as the comment afterward. The blog objected to the use of scripture in a particular publication, the comment that followed is one every Christian should read. 
She referenced a person that was just  mean, and a gossip, yet had a bumper sticker on her car that said                    "Not Perfect, Just Forgiven."
  Well, that doesn't surprise me. Anyone could unfortunately say something similar about me. It proves that those of us who profess Christ are always being watched. First to see if we really are different and second to see if we really are not. What we as Christians do, effects our testimony, and by the world's standards, our Christ. He does not need us to show his glory, but he has chosen us to do so and we should be overwhelmed by that!
  It is the next part of the woman's statement that is so very important. She said "When did being a Christian become and excuse instead of a motivation?"
  She is right! Just because we are sinners forgiven is no excuse to continue to sin. Now.....we will. We will never be perfect in this life, in this world, that comes with Christ's return.

Now- the world is full of sin, dying from it.
We, trapped in tents of flesh are serving ourselves. Sin.
Ephesians 4:17-32 talks of how a sinner, saved by grace must put off the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires because we have been made new, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness. No longer to be like those who are lost, darkened in their understanding because of ignorance and hardness of heart.

 The unbeliever does not have this battle. The old self rules, there is no new creation to battle with. Believers must daily  put down the old ways, the anger, gossip, lust and sinful desires. It is battle! The flesh is strong, the will of man is strong, evil is strong.
          Christ is stronger.

There is the story, perhaps you have heard it in one form or another.

An old Indian man, as a new believer in Christ speaks of the raging battle inside of him. He says, it is like two dogs fighting within me, both trying to win. One is good, it is those things like prayer and Bible reading, kindness to others, forgiveness. The other, it is my old life, spirituality, drugs, lust and anger. They fight all day, all day, all day. Someone asks the old man, "Which one wins?" He replyed, "The one that I feed."

Believers in Christ sin. Believers are forgiven. Believers do not have license to sin freely.
We have the gift of God's grace, his mercy, his guidance and power of his Holy Spirit, his restraint.
We have repentance granted by him.
Repentance in the Greek means to think differently to reconsider.
Maybe it means to feed the right dog.