God's Gift in Creation

The Lord is our strength and our shield.

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” (Psalm 28:7, ESV).

      The Lord is our strength and our shield and in Him we exult and find joy. Not just momentary happiness because joy is more than happiness! Happiness comes from joy and joy can be the result of happiness but joy is deeper. Joy holds when the emotion of happiness fades away in the change of the moment or circumstance. Those that trust in the "Joy of the Lord," love the Lord above all else and they trust Him in every way and in every situation, circumstance and difficulty.They are not focused on the situation, circumstance or the difficulty because their eyes are focused on their Savior and they are trusting in Him for their joy!

   

   For the "Joy of the Lord" to be our strength and our shield we simply live in the joy of the Lord. The joy in the Lord is both a Holy Spirit guided, faith infused perspective and confidence in our Lord as Savior and a deep delight and fulfillment in what He did, does and will always do for us. This anchoring trusting faith of the true disciple thus finds joy exclusively in the Lord regardless of any situation, place, difficulty or circumstance they might encounter in their life.

A Prayer to the Lord

LORD, You are my strength. Thank you for anointing me and building a fortress around me to protect and shield my life. Thank you for saving me and blessing me as your inheritance. Be my Shepherd in all things and carry me forever. Oh Lord, You are our joy! Amen. (Adapted from Psalm 28:7-9)

A Branch on the Vine

  At the center of all that is living is the One who created and gives all there is to life. It is a gift of grace from our Creator to be given a life to live. It is a gift of grace to be given a new life as follower of Christ; forgiven and free from our sin as we are redeemed and sanctified as we live out our days. Most of all, it is an indescribable gift of grace to be given life eternal.  All of life from beginning unto eternity comes from the “Giver of Life” and we should live out our lives in gratitude and thanks.

     Christ desires that we live out our lives drawing from Him as the source of all substance and life. He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:1-11).  We live as the body of Christ, alive in the life He gives us in His saving and sanctifying us. It is His love that we are drawing our life from and it is His love that flows through us into the lives of others. This is the most important part of our living as the branches of the vine. This happens as we love others and the world around us. It is what He desires most of all and it is what He states will be the defining mark of His Body, the Church.  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)

     We cannot fake this love, nor can we try by our best intentions to love this way.  Our loving has to come from our dying to our selfish ways and making everything we do in our fellowship about following and loving our Lord. This means in our personal life and in our life together as a part of the “Body of Christ,” which is His church around the world.  If we love Christ above all else, it will change our lives and our world.

     As Christ changes our lives, we should be excited to give witness to the power that has changed us. This translates into the sharing of the Christ that is our Lord with our friends and family and the world around us.  Our witnessing to what He has done in our lives will then be natural and flow out of the work of the Holy Spirit in making us new. This happens as we die to ourselves and let Christ flow into us as His branches. May we remember His great love for us in forgiving all of our sins and may we let His love flow in and out of us as we love those around us with His love. May we be true branches on the true Vine of all life.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12-17)

Be wary of the condemnation which comes from your own sinful heart.

“By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;  for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20, ESV).

  There is not a single living person that has lived a perfect life. There has not been a single person who has ever lived that was perfect in their living except our Savior.  This fact forms the basis of both the truth of human sinfulness and the grace of God which Christians believe saves and sanctifies us.

Yet even as forgiven Christians, we live out our lives struggling at times with guilt and shame from our past and our less than perfect life. In reality, we may have acquired the wisdom to realize the danger of listening to our human hearts that would lead us into sin through wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and excess.  We may have seen how sin creeps into our living at different moments. We most likely know from our life experiences, the deceitfulness of our hearts in the minimalizing of the reality of sin and its consequences (Jeremiah 17:9).

     Thus in our humble appraising of our own weaknesses we can find the keys and strength to counter the allure of sin; yet there remains another side to the deceitfulness of the human heart.  This deceitfulness lingers around our past sin because it drags us into the sea of guilt and shame like an ocean sleeper wave with a dangerous undertow.

     We stand in the surf at times and yet can be oblivious to the momentary lapses of remembrances that come in the form of an overpowering tugging from the residue of past sins. Sometimes this pull is so strong that we end up in water full of confusion, regret and shame.  Our best efforts may never heal the hurt we have caused, alleviate the consequences  or redeem  even the smallest aspects of those sins but we must never forget the power found in the grace of Christ to forgive and heal us from all sin.

     We must remember the reality of God’s amazing grace to cover all sin, including all of our sin. We must speak the truth of Christ’s sufficiency in forgiving all sin and taking away all condemnation into our human heart. No matter what we feel at any moment, the truth of Christ’s redeeming and sanctifying love must be rock upon which we stand until the teaming waters of doubt subside. Thus we stand upon the rock of faith, remembering “there is no condemnation in Christ” and this is the unwavering truth in our lives regardless of what we feel because of God’s mighty work in declaring and securing as His children.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do …” (Romans 8:1-3, ESV).

Finding Beauty in an Unexpected Place

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,  and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor" (Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV).

  What is beauty? Is beauty something individualized and classified as to certain people? Is it something for the lucky in the genetic pool of features and characteristic who have exquisite features and captivating looks? Is this natural beauty just something that the luck of the draw doles out? Or is beauty something you can buy in product form of which by the application of make-up, creams and color accents and agents will render the ordinary face extraordinary? What is it about beauty that fashion groups and companies try to determine and dictate to others by their subjective definitions of certain features what beauty is? Is beauty, a body shape or size or a certain striking facial feature? Is beauty attained by the endless offerings of new styles in clothes and dress and thus available for purchase?

     Is not beauty more than the physical features or factors of a person? Surely beauty is more than something purchased and applied to the surface of the skin? Surely beauty is not the clothes draped or stretched across and around the body, regardless of the shape or size of the person?
Even in a broader sense of beauty … there are natural flowers, plants and trees that are attractive to the eyes with their color and unique features that we would speak of as beautiful. There are panoramic vistas that are considered beautiful. There is architecture whether in design and structure that appeals to the senses and is defined as beautiful. In addition, most artwork and photography exists as attempts to capture and gift us with the artist’s interpretations of beauty.

    Yet, however beauty is defined or presented, there are moments in our lives when we encounter rare and extraordinary beauty where we least expect it. It happened to me in one of the rankest and discouraging places I have ever visited in my lifetime. At the Guatemala City Dump Community, where the paths are filthy, gutted and broken down of life and promise, I met two women who were radiant, hopeful and full of life and promise. They are women whose beauty was shining like a light in the darkest of places. In a place where the stench of discarded, used up waste and accumulating refuse … staggers and penetrates every sense of your being. Yet, here in this repulsive and ugly place, these beautiful women live expectant in the hope of their faith. Here in this offending place of nauseating smells; the pleasantness of everything about them brings forth the sweetness of the very presence of Christ in whom they trust absolutely. Here, in this place of despair, they live out their days in the hope of their faith.

    These beautiful women bonded together as sisters, live with their families in a 12 x 18 foot space they are proud to call their home. This tiny home built from discarded boards and covered with salvaged tin was splashed with color and decorated with things they have collected along the way. They work in the dump collecting things to be sold or recycled. To add their lot in life, these sisters have lost their husbands to the violence that comes with life on the edge of life. Death comes on the edge of life where violence often rails against the poor and disadvantaged because force and evil are tempting as pathways for change. Their husbands drifted away from God even as the wives clung and still cling to the mercies and provisions of God. I have seldom seen any greater faith and trust in anyone in my life and seldom sensed any greater joy than the fruit of the Spirit of God in their lives life lived out here in this dreadful place as women of beauty in the middle of great hopelessness.
Their beauty is not something … they apply after buying some beauty product for they have no money to buy anything extra. Their beauty is not just something that was naturally gifted to them in their features that they vainly exhibit. No, their beauty flows out as something more. Even as they smile and reach out to others … there is something so rare and powerful in the trueness of their essence. Their beauty is far deeper and far more substantial. It has been fashioned and molded by the greatest sculptor of all time, their Lord and Savior. All the pain, misery, poverty and difficulty that life has doled out to them and everything that has come against them has not made them bitter, hostile or mean spirited. Instead all the awfulness thrown against them has been reclaimed and remade as they have trusted in their Savior and given their days over to the hand of God. He has remade these women beautiful in every way.

     If beauty somehow is to come from ashes, then something has to be burned upped. Something has to have been offered up to the qualities of the heat and flame as to change the composition of the substance. So then what has been burned away in the heat of pain and suffering, affliction and circumstance while leaving the pureness of gold to remain in the place where the fire burned off the dross?

     These precious women of faith have given themselves up to the One who refines in the fire. They have released all the pain and suffering, affliction and circumstance to be refined as precious as the finest gold. They surrender their days to their Lord and all they contain. They give up all that would pull them away from the workmanship of their loving Father. They trust Him completely, totally and in every way. Their contentment while living in this awful place is found in Him alone. Their joy is in Him regardless of their lot in life and their beauty is something that God has fashioned by His love.
It is rare to see such trusting faith. I have seldom seen any greater faith and trust then in these special women of true beauty. I have rarely sensed any greater joy as the true and beautiful fruit of the Spirit of God in a life lived out than is evident in these women. They possess great beauty in the middle of great hopelessness. Their beauty comes from the living grace of a loving Father and God, who in the ashes in our lives creates true beauty. Only He can take what would be awful, terrible, rank and filthy can bring beauty. Beauty comes from the Savior who came to redeem the world and only He can make beauty from the ashes of our lives.  He alone can make a person truly beautiful as He creates and fashions us from the inside out as to shine with His workmanship. I will be forever etched by in my faith; by these beautiful women whose trusting faith in a Living God made then alive in Him while living in one of the worst places, I have seen with my eyes on this earth.
Praise, be to God, who loves us all with a great and extravagant love. Amen.

In all things …

“You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you” (Psalm 32:7-8, NIV).

  Isn’t it amazing how little regard and recognition we sometimes give to the God who created us, redeems us, knows us, sustains us, protects us and saves us?  Even though hundreds of promises are given to us, in His Word of His watchful, long-suffering, patient and wonderful love being fixed upon us as His children; we tend to forget this reality.

     If you do see reasons to praise God in the ordinary, you’ll most likely not see Him in the extraordinary. If you are not thankful in the commonness of each day, you will probably not be thankful when God does mighty things for you.  If you do not trust God in the affliction, you will not know Him in the blessing. If you do not honor God in the mundane, you will not seek Him in your need.  If you do not desire God in your days, your life will not reflect Him when it ends. If God is not in your legacy at your passing, you will have missed your true purpose in living.

     We not only fail at times to remember His attentive presence but we also fail in being appreciative and thankful. We at times fail to praise Him in all we have been given out of His tremendous bounty.  He is ever faithful to provide as we seek Him for all our basic and momentary needs while at the same time delighting to bring us the gifts of peace and presence in mighty ways when He sees our needs as our Heavenly Father. 

We need to be thankful and we need to give our God praise and honor, for He is always present in our lives with His love, care and grace.  He is present in the ordinary and He is present in mighty ways, we just need to see it and be thankful to Him in all ways, in all things and in all your days. 

“I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.” (Psalm 34:1-2, NIV)