What more do I need?

A quote a my dear sister in Christ, Jessica, texted me today,

"Lord, open my eyes, that I may see my Savior present with me.' It is a blessed thing to gaze upon Him. To those who seek Him He is kind; but to those who find Him, He is dear beyond expression!" -Charles Spurgeon

This brought me to a sermon I heard a couple of weeks ago on Psalm 23. The sermon was by Philip De Courcy, and what he said relates to this. He basically explained that the whole psalm of Psalm 23 is the first verse and the verses that follow are just a description of the first verse. After I heard this sermon I was deeply moved by it. Now this over used verse strikes my heart with love and encouragement. Why? Many know this Psalm, and know it better than me, yet I know the Shepherd and that is what is so amazing about this Psalm. It may be a beautiful poem to many but to those who know the shepherd it is their life story, their Love story.

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." or my favorite way to paraphrase it, "The LORD is my shepherd, what more do I need?" Take note, this is a psalm of David. If anyone knew what it was like to be in need it was David. You may think, "well he was the king of Israel" true. However, before he was king, he hid in a cave from Saul. That is where he wrote a lot of his heart sorrowful psalms because he was in what seemed to be a hopeless situation. Yet God provided for him. David's life wasn't perfect, it was horrible actually. Because of his sin with Bathsheeba, his whole family was messed up. His one son raped his daughter, his other one tried to overthrow the throne,, if that's not pain for a father to face, then I do not know what is. Yet even so, after all this, he could still write, "The LORD is my shepherd I shall not want" Even in the midst of his turmoil he could see God's sovereignty. I need to study up on David more on my own, I've been listening to a series on David by Pastor Chuck Swindoll, it has been such a great series for me to listen to. In the midst of his turmoil you can see David's love for God, that he truly had the LORD as his shepherd.

The question now lies within me. Is the LORD my shepherd? Do I truly know the shepherd? I hope I do. I hope He reveals Himself to me more and more each day. I haven't had deep intimacy with Him lately and I know that's taking toll. He is protecting me, and I am still praying and reading the Word, but there's a battle coming, I know it. I do not believe I am prepared. We will just have to see I suppose, I just hope I remember my Shepherd.

Remember your Shepherd today, He's waiting to lead you.

He Wills as I Will

Today I was contemplating when I was flying home from D.C. a couple of weekends ago. I remember how gloomy the weather was all weekend, but on both flights, as we flew above the clouds the sun shone so bright and so magnificent that I was mesmerised by it. I love flying, it is terrifying to me as well as magnificent. Whenever we go above the clouds I smile and talk with God and just praise Him for what He has created. The beauty above the ground is amazing, yet what is also amazing is how He has fashioned mankind to make flying machines. Many view that as if they are becoming gods, and I just laugh at them because God knew how to do it all along while it took us over 3000 years to figure that out. That's what so cool about God in a way, is that He allows US to create. He has created and fashioned things already such as a field, but it is the farmer that plants and harvest the field to create food. I can certainly see God finding joy in us in that way. We are glorifying Him in the most natural sense of our being, which is being creative, thinking, feeling, making, organizing, researching, discovering, and the list goes on. As I type out this blog I am using my God-given ability to use my hands, to think, to contemplate these things. I also have the leisure and let us not forget the freedom to do such things as these given by God's grace and will by the men who willed and died for freedom for this country 200 years ago.

The will of our Creator is so magnificent and so gracious that He has willed us to will as well. A bit of a tongue twister isn't it? Probably a confusing concept as well. Apparently my reading has spoken through because this completely relates to Chapter 6 of Elisabeth Elliot's book, Discipline the Glad Surrender. Let me just quote from page 35 from the first fresh paragraph...

"We have said that Christian discipline is one's wholehearted yes to the call of God. It is of the highest importance that we understand the necessity of two wills, the one created by the other and ordained free, both operating in accord. If we forget that there are two and dwell only on the sovereign will of God, we will abdicate our responsibility and lapse into the fatalism of Islam, which leaves all to the inscrutable and unknowable. If, on the other hand, we forget the sovereignty of God and see ourselves as independent, we will arrogate to ourselves all responsibility and leave God out of it--in other words, we make ourselves God. In both cases we fail to do His will, and the result is the forfeiting of our joy and freedom."

The irony of this is that I was planning on blogging about something else. ha! ha! That is what I love about this; is being able to see the Holy Spirit speak through me. There is no reason for Him to speak through me, I am no better than anyone else, yet He chooses to, how cool is that? God does not have to use me and yet He does. What a glorious God we serve! One cannot understand this concept of Grace until they realize how wretched they really are. May God humble you and expose the sin in your life so you can be freed from the bondage of sin. I tell you I am free, but I forget that I am many times. It is only by God's will that He has shown grace to my wretched being and by my will to accept that reality in my life. By accepting this reality on a day to day basis I can discover how awesome our Creator truly is. What a wonderful Love that I have, nothing can compare to this. :-)

God bless!

In Christ,

Amber

Made in the Image

I was inspired by Clayton's blog, The Orators Education with the small line from his recent poem, "We are His image, Angels know not"

It speaks Truth, does it not? We have been made in God's image. The angels have not been made in God's image. They are splendid and magnificent beings, yet they are not made in His image. They display His glory and His splendor, yet we display His image, His being. Humanity is created in God's image. Have you ever wondered why the serpent bothered Eve? Was it Satan spiting God in the spiritual realm? Or is it deeper than that? Is it maybe because Satan in all his glorious splendor, being made as the most beautiful creature, saw Adam and Eve as something more glorious than himself? To be made in the image of God, that is the most glorious and magnificent way to be created.

For the past couple months this has been a realization to me. To quote myself in a journal entry in August "One of the most amazing mysteries of God is that He uses lowly beings who can be deceived and even controlled by spiritual forces to advance the kingdom of God in such a way that penetrates the power of spiritual darkness all thanks to the work of the Cross and the grace of our God."

We are not as strong as spiritual powers, we cannot even comprehend the spiritual realm let alone resist it on our own. Yet through the work of God, through Jesus, His Son, we have the ability to resist that spiritual strength. "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Hebrews 2:18

In the Garden, Satan may have tempted Adam and Eve to sin, and in doing so stained the image of God's splendor with sin and shame, however, Jesus came and washed it away and we can now shine in God's glory once again. "I answered, 'Sir, you know.' And he said, 'These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 7:14

When we look at The Cross, we tend to look at it from a humanity's perspective. Let us not forget, we were originally made in God's image, and it is by God's image that we have been cleansed once again. Satan tempted us to ruin, Jesus cleansed us into God's glory (Isaiah 61:3).

Do you ever wonder why there has been such conflict within the Church through history and even today? Why is it, that there are so many disagreements within Christianity? Why are there so many different branches of Catholicism and Protestantism? Don't you just want to say, "Why can't we all just get along?" Well let's look at it this way, the Church, is Jesus' bride (Eph 5:25-32;). The Church is Jesus' body here on earth. If we are divided then we are weakened. So who divided us? Humanity's sin, and the temptations brought about by Satan through this world. We are to blame. We have allowed ourselves to become weakened by spiritual darkness through temptations (Eph 4:17-19) because we are not relying on God's strength, but our own.

However, even though we are brought down to worry and grieve over the sin and division of the church remember Jesus' words, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Matthew 16:18

Evil can do whatever it wants to divide the church, but we have a promise from Christ Himself, that it will never overcome the church. Why? Because as one we can display God's amazing splendor, glory, and power.

May this be an encouragement for you today. :-)

God bless!

In Christ,

Amber

He will do wonders among us

"Joshua told the people, 'Consecrate yourselves because the LORD will do wonders among you tomorrow."

-Joshua 3:5 "

All believers have been set apart from the unclean to the clean, from the unholy to the holy. And when believers act like the sanctified people they are, God is released to do powerful wonders among them."

-Beth Moore (from Scriptures and Quotations from Praying God's Word)

What weakens us and the church is when we lose sight of God's place in our lives. When there's lack of faith in my heart the person of God is no longer visible in my heart and I feel I could never do anything for the kingdom of God. It is only when I am right before God and have purified myself before Him is when I can see His glory being revealed in my life and the lives around me. Satan's strongest opposition force to me personally is keeping me from prayer, God's Word and God's Church. When I lack those things, I am a mere atheist because God is no longer visible to my life. When I am consistent within it that's when I can feel God's power in my life, and the Holy Spirit speaking instead of me. Don't let Satan keep that from our sight. God can and will do great wonders in your life, but you have to let Him in first in order for you to see Him again.