Saturday, February 27, 2010

Almighty= ALL MIGHT.


I was really encouraged by this today. Thank you, Oswald [Chambers].

"From whence then hast Thou that living water?" John 4:11

"The well is deep" - and a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! Think of the depths of human nature, of human life, think of the depths of the "wells" in you. Have you been impoverishing the ministry of Jesus so that He can not do anything? Suppose there is a well of fathomless trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says - "Let not your heart be troubled"; and you shrug your shoulders and say, "But, Lord, the well is deep; You cannot draw up quietness and comfort out of it." No, He will bring them down from above. Jesus does not bring anything up from the wells of human nature. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and by saying, "Of course I cannot expect God to do this thing." The thing that taxes almightiness is the very thing which we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish His ministry the moment we forget He is Almighty; the impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus as Comforter or as Sympathizer, but we will not come to Him as Almighty.

The reason some of us are such poor specimens of Christianity is because we have no Almighty Christ. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying - "Of course He cannot do any thing," and we struggle down to the deeps and try to get the water for ourselves. Beware of the satisfaction of sinking back and saying - "It can't be done"; you know it can be done if you look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness is deep, but make the effort and look away to Him.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Ain't no Easy Bake.

In a culture of microwaves, drives thru's and achieve-thus-and-such in x number of days, we've lost sight of a great necessity. We've loosened our grip on the process of being restored because it apparently doesn't happen quickly enough. It's too hard. It's too painful. We don't see results quickly enough. We want to be free, but we don't want to be freed from the very things that get in our way of attaining it. Habit, comfort, you name it.

Restoration is, in fact, a meticulous process. If it weren't, how would we explain the beautiful tapestries that He so carefully weaves (our lives). Again, I go back to the fact that our God desires wholeness--all of who we are to be restored and made well. We may disregard the teeny tiny little snags in the tapestry, but He desires the restoration of all parts. The process requires discipline and endurance. Though we may feel frail at times, it's imperative that we see how tightly woven the threads are. I hope we are astonished as to how the Weaver's hand has made us strong and sturdy.

In the middle conversation I had recently, I briefly but openly admitted that i'm in the midst of this process. You know when you want more than what you've typically had--or to experience more than you have before? Well, I know that deeper, fuller restoration has to happen in order for me to fully receive all that He has for me and for me to be freed up fully for His work. Sure it's easier to bolt, but I didn't ask for easy. I'm asking for life, for vibrancy, and for freedom. Does my flesh get in the way and tell me that it's too hard or too scary? Yeah, but my flesh is flawed and thankfully His Spirit in me is not:

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be made complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." 


We have great hope that what we are going through puts us in a posture of looking forward to something amazing. And even better? It readies us to behold the amazing: Him.  Exciting :D.

May we allow Him to do this work in us--more deeply, more fully, from the tops of our heads to the bottom of our feet.

So this time around I pray for increased discipline, joy in the process, and that we would see with His eyes.

Finally found chords to a song that really strikes me, so I'm sharing the song and the learning it process with anyone who's reading: 


Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sing it, Billy Joel.



There is no fuller love than His love. 
It's an endless well.
A bottomless ocean.
The invitation is to go deeper--
Deeper still. 



Friday, February 19, 2010

Anti-spill Beans.



It seems as though unpredictability is typically the unwelcome guest. It seems to squelch our plans, and we wish that things were more "stable." In other words, we wish we could control things.

Take a few steps back, and look at the big picture. Not just a few steps--but enough to where you're getting to see the grand scope of things.

Predictability ruins the surprise. It takes away the moments that make your heart skip a beat and drastically reduces the amount of times when it just seems like God's orchestration takes your breath away. The words "wow," "whoa," and phrases like "I would have never guessed!!" or "You've got to be kidding me (in the positive sense, of course)" would cease to exist, and our lives would be blanketed by monotony, drab and dull.

Monotony negates the necessity for courage, for trust and for faith. The truth is, those things are the very things that make our existence rich. Monotony takes away from what God wants to give us. Sure, its easier to "hold on to," but the reality is that when monotony (or at least the desire to know every step of the way) gets a hold of us, we we lose ourselves. On the radically opposite end of the continuum, we have the option to let Him lay hold of us--therein lies the adventure of stepping into the fullness He has invited us into.

So in some off-beat. pragmatic sense, the prayers is that we would be "out" of control--and completely in His control. It's safe to assume that most of us desire the surprises and the adventure (right?). To go even beyond that, He wants to give us those things.

My prayer is for a greater measure of this--that it would continue to go from our heads to our hearts. I pray for courage.

40 Days.


So I was praying about what I could intentionally take part in for lent--and by take part in, I mean give up for. My answer came unexpectedly as I got into my car to drive home from school. My hand went to put on music when it dawned on me that silence was necessary. So no music in the car: Regardless of the type, genre, or tempo of music I could potentially listen to as a means of relaxing or even of worship--I am being called to silence as a discipline. This is the kind of silence where I hope and expect to hear from the Lord, where I hope to see things in me come to light, and for me to be OK in the stillness and to know that i'm fully OK in the silence (not desiring to drown out anything that would otherwise get too much of my attention.

I was reminded of this song halfway home and was so thankful that the words struck me so differently this time around:


In the secret, in the quiet place
In the stillness You are there.
In the secret, in the quiet hour I wait, 
Only for You,'cause I want to know You more;

I want to know You,
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more.
I want to touch You,
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more.

I am reaching for the highest goal,
then I might receive the prize.
Pressing onward, pushing every hindrance aside,
Out of my way, 'cause I want to know you more

I want to know You,
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more.
I want to touch You,
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more.

I want to know You,
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more.
I want to touch You,
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more.

In the secret, in the quiet place
In the stillness You are there

I'm excited to see, to hear from, and to know my Jesus better. I also look forward to breaking from what my flesh is so used to--habit and routine--in order to expose new layers of my heart as well as His. I go into this humbly knowing that it will be a time of preparing and reorienting my life as Easter approaches.
This'll be interesting :).  


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

:: BE THE DRUM::

Music really does bring the world together. In this case, music's bringing the world together for the relief efforts in Haiti. Eighteen stellar artists came together and poured their hearts and talents into this project. It's one of those "donate as you feel led" type of things. There's no minimum (at least I don't think there is) or a maximum. This project represents giving, receiving, restoration, and hope. Here again we see the power of music. Enjoy! 



Some more artwork from the project: