Category: Of the Redeemed

Categories
Sanctification

A Fresh View of the Light

Here lately, I have thought about the Light. I’ve coincidentally been exposed to the topic of the Light from my daily Bible study, devotional time, a MacArthur sermon, and singing in my head, “This little Light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”

Frankly, I believe my thinking of the Light is a result of my not thinking about the Light. I mean, I live it, but I haven’t really consciously thought of it in a while. 

I am glad to be thinking of it now. And the following verses resonate in my inner man…

John 1:5
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 8:12
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world, He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Job 33:29-30
Behold, God works all these things, Twice, in fact, three times with a man, To bring back his soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.

Ephesians 5:8-10
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

So what strikes me is that all my talking about Godly things is a form of light shining. My suggestions to my family to do right and tell the truth are a form of light shining. Could my texting “Jesus is Lord” to an iPhone App game opponent after beating them on a music game with various songs (but specifically death metal music in this case) be a form of light shining?

Lord, I pray that I grow even more in my comprehension of the light You’ve given me. Let me faithfully shine it brighter and brighter!

Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Peace,
Jim

Categories
Observation

Waiting on the Lord

Isaiah 40:31a
… they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength…

I tell my kids to wait all the time. Their eagerness and excitement mixed with anticipation is frequently tempered by my reminders to be patient. Soon, later, almost, in a little while, not yet…

What strikes me is the trust inherent in waiting. My kids don’t doubt that I will deliver. But they do become discontent with waiting, evidenced by their petitions turning to whining. And whining is selfish.

I see this in myself when I have to wait on the Lord. At first I am eager and excited, but then when the days and months and years drag on, I am tempted by discontentment because I become selfish. Yet, my trust in the Lord is settled; I trust Him with every aspect of my being.

Being sensitive to the sin of discontentment (for the Lord orders all my circumstances), my efforts to not sin in this way lead to a mental abandonment of the very thing I was eager towards in the first place. It seems to be a form of insulation towards the disappointment of the apparent delay of my God. Sadly, as a matter of consequence, the excitement fades away too.

It is like me saying, “Okay Lord, the ball is on Your side of the court. Wake me up when You decide to throw it back my way.”

And this lack of excitement tends towards the mundane which can lead to the temptation of self-pity.  But again, sensitive to the sin of self-pity, I keep active. I engage in a form of routine Bible study, devotional reading, mixed with some prayers.

This all makes for a strange spiritual exercise. I am not quite certain I know how to properly wait on the Lord. I don’t want to whine, I don’t want to be discontent, I don’t want to have a pity-party… and I have gotten better at fending off those sins (by the grace of God). I do want to be patient, long-suffering, persevering… but I also want to know how to conduct myself in the midst of it all.

All I know is to read and meditate on His word, pray more, and wait.

Then it happens… though I am waiting (with awkwardness) on the big things for God to affect for me, little things occur by His hand that stirs up my latent excitement… like waking up from drifting off right at the moment my Metrorail destination is reached. This is exciting!

You see, I pray (as a matter of routine) everyday, thanking God for bringing me home safely through my 3 hour commute. This morning, He truly ordered my steps (and confirmed my prayers) by waking me up at the precise moment I needed to be awake.

I thank the Lord for His intimate involvement in my affairs, despite my clumsiness with my inner man.

Oh Lord, teach me wait on you as I should!

Jim

Categories
Of the Redeemed Sanctification

The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

Joy is such a wonderful thing… a precious thing to maintain once you have been blessed with it. Oh how my heart leaps for the Joy of the Lord!

Listen to this… Over the past few days, I have studied into one of my private sins, the sin of discontent. Why? This sin has dogged me time and again all my life. And since my conversion, my discontent centered around God’s apparent slowness in the things I would be glad for Him to do.

I knew this was an area of my life that I was reserving for myself, and not giving it over to the Lord. I was compelled to deal with it. This I knew and yet didn’t abide by it: Who am I that I should complain to my Maker? Can a pot say anything to the Potter?

John MacArthur’s sermon on complaining (that I listened to the past couple of days) brought me face to face with Lamentations 3:39- Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

My pride was the culprit again, doh!

And so, with the working out of my salvation, with prayer and effort, I drew close to God and He drew close to me. And anytime you draw close to God with a clear conscience, you enter into His lovingkindness, which is most certainly abounding in joy. Consequently, I was again blessed with joy!

Now watch this…

Just this morning, I read Oswald Chambers’ devotion for April 14th… discussing the sin of complaining! (See how God orders all our circumstances!) Oswald cited a verse that hit me like a flash of light…

Nehemiah 8:10b
… the joy of the Lord is your strength. 

Yes! That’s it!

Think this through with me:

  1. When I humble myself and yield to the Lord, I am then dependent and “weak”.
  2. This very manner of spirit I am in puts me into the right relationship with Almighty God.
  3. Being intimate with God, I sense His lovingkindness.
  4. With experiencing His lovingkindness, I become blessed with His joy.

Now this joy transcends all manner of circumstances, good and bad. And discontent never becomes even a momentary thought.

This joy sustains me in any trial. It all makes perfect sense.

The Lord helped me understand that His joy really is my strength! Seeing this clearly also causes me to see that my prayers for effective Christian living are being answered!

This is almost too much to comprehend 🙂

Praise be to God!
Jim

Categories
Frustration

Casting Stones

The arrival of a new child into a family is a cause for joy. My newest daughter arrived about two and a half months ago. My wife and I were delighted, and especially so, for the pregnancy was a difficult one. Placenta previa had kept us home-bound and extra cautious. Thankfully, our baby was healthy and cute.

The arrival of a new child into a family is also a cause for stress. Our other children still required care and attention too.  Consequently, a couple can easily get lost in the busyness of caring for four young children. Sleep-deprived nights because of middle of the night feedings, hyper siblings contending with their new sister for attention, with long days of household activity all contribute  to lamentable old fatigue.

It is here something ugly can slip in… Enter the spectre of bitterness. Finding a fertile ground to plant such seeds, bitterness falls from the trees of careless words, sharp words, misinterpreted motives and score keeping. Against the backdrop of caring for a newborn, the recent Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays added additional stress. Now, with my daily routine of Bible study and meditation being altered by these circumstances, my nourishment on the Bread of Life was waning. I was wilting on the inside.

Look again and behold the seeds of bitterness rooting out into resentment and discontent. Many times I commented to myself, “How dare I be treated this way. Look at all I do. My actions are so helpful, too magnanimous to receive insensitivity in return”. I look down and see a stone. I pick it up and long to throw it. My uncomprehended sacrifices give me the right to cast the first stone! So I thought…

Such unChristian feelings and attitudes can bring the Lord’s chastening. First, God took away my joy. Then He took away my peace. And finally after zombie-like prayer… as if my true nature struggled to overcome my old nature… I felt the Lord’s conviction. The Lord was not forgiving me because I was not forgiving others (Matthew 6:15).

Oh how wretched I am. I don’t deserve anything. And yet I am commanded to love others even if they are unkind to me in return. Jesus did so, and so must I too.

Feeling my failures, I took a stroll to the Chesapeake Bay. I walked out there in the cold and gazed out onto the mostly frozen water. I was alone with God and I poured my heart out to Him. I confessed my sins and proclaimed my total dependence on Him. I repented of my selfish attitudes. And I look down and see stones along the bayshore…

“Lord, this stone represents my discontent. I forsake discontentment for I know all things come from You. Even painful things! ” I recited Romans 8:28 and with all my strength, I cast the large stone representing my sin of discontentment into the frozen bay. It shattered through the cold hard ice and sunk to the depths below.

And many such stones found their way, flying through the air, to crash through ice. I believe the Lord honored my symbolic stone casting. And I thank Him for such lessons.

Peace!

Categories
Of the Redeemed

My New Life

December 1st, 2006 is/ was the day I truly converted to Christ. My life up to that day was hostile to God. I was a proud “carnal-Christian”. I was a hypocrite.

Over a period of  a few years, my having cultivated bitterness and resentment towards those closest to me dragged me down into a pit of dispair. My self-decieved love for and proclamation of Jesus in the midst of habitual wickedness finally seared my conscience into relentless guilt.

God’s effectual call was upon me and the sorrow that leads to repentence brought me to my knees… and then flat-face to the ground. The pit of Hell was before me as well as God’s holy and fiery eyes upon me. I was terrified!

I knew I was as wicked as sin is… the weight of God’s presence was crushing my soul. I cried out for mercy, knowing I didn’t not deserve it. I begged God to forgive me, confessing my lifetime of sins. I promised to forsake my sins forever.

Broken and humbled, I gave up myself to His decision. Whatever He willed, I would wholeheartedly accept.

Then I felt a peace wash over me. Oh my Lord and Savior! What great lovingkindness You have shown me! My life changed that day…

I wrote an account of my salvation on this blog before it crashed… I hope that I may find a copy of it one day. It has more details…