"Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.
Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
~Hosea 6:1-3
This passage of Scripture has always intrigued me. At first, it was mostly because I didn't understand it. I didn't get why God would injure, break or hurt us just to fix it. It didn't fit my image of a 'loving' God.
Over the past months, seeing God working in my own life, I see that He has to break me if I truly want to become more like Him. If I've built up this life that isn't pleasing to Him, full of things that aren't of Him, He has to chip away at that and then begin rebuilding me. It hurts now, but unless the Lord's will is at the heart of me, He can't make me into what I need to be.
And that's my thought for today. :o)
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
And so we come to it
Lent begins tomorrow (or what's more likely by the time I'm done writing this post, today).
Lent brings to mind a few different things depending on what you've heard or experienced of it. Whenever I mention Lent, the most common response I receive is, 'But you're not Catholic.' Oh well. :P
Traditionally, Lent is viewed as a 40 day period of time in which believers do some sort of penance in the form of fasting from particular foods or activities in preparation for Holy Week, which includes the death and resurrection of our Savior.
Others take a less 'religious' view and simply see Lent as a great time to try giving up smoking or drinking soda or eating chocolate.
But what is the point of Lent? Can one really do penance for their sins, hoping to find favor in God's eyes? Of course not!
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" ~Eph. 2:8
I think there is a fine, but significant, line between doing penance for sin and recognizing your desperate need for Christ's blood to cover your life. I think practices which can start out as the latter can drift into the category of doing penance if we're not careful.
While spending time thinking and praying about how I wanted to handle Lent this year, I asked God to show me what most I needed from Him, not just during this time, but for my life in general. One thing I've always liked about Lent is that you have a tangible goal to set for yourself. 40 days to work towards a new goal.
During this time of reflection, I recalled something we had talked about in our college small group last fall. We were talking about tithing and it was brought up what it might look like if we tithed a portion of each day to the Lord. I said then that I would do that for Lent. And so...that's what I'm going to do for Lent.
10% of every day will be for the Lord. I'm not talking about sitting and reading my Bible, but really spending time with the Lord. Praying, yes, but most importantly, listening. Truly spending quality time with my Jesus. My biggest prayer for this time is that I won't stop at 40 days...and that by the time that 40 days is up, I'll be giving more than 10%.
I want to spend the next 40 days truly connecting with Him and learning to listen to His voice. This is what I feel He wants most from me right now. All areas of spiritual growth in my life hinge on whether I am listening to His direction.
In order to maximize my ability to listen to God's voice (and know that it is only Him that I'm allowing to dictate the direction of my life), I've decide to make the following verse my theme verse for Lent:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." ~Phil. 4:8
The battle for the mind is as spiritual as any. Spending this Lenten season recognizing how Christ's sacrifice not only has redeemed my life and saved me for eternity, but also knowing that it's this very power that helps me to fight everyday temptation is a huge reason why this verse is key to successfully growing with Christ. It's going to come off a bit extreme, but I'm okay with that.
I want more Jesus and if that means less of everything else, so be it. I want to truly discover what it means to dwell solely on those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. There are a lot of things I can do that wouldn't stand out to anyone simply because the rest of the world is doing it too.
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." ~Romans 12:2
I want to cut out the unnecessary and be different! My life should look different to the world. In fact, I imagine that if I truly lived a life worthy of the calling that Christ has put on me, my life would look a lot different than most of the believers I know. I'm not saying that to rag on the people I know and love, goodness knows I'm right there with them. But I'm ready to step up and say enough is enough. Christ is in me which means that Christ should move through me. And Jesus didn't plan his life around a TV schedule or what tax bracket He fell into. He lived a life of love and truth and passion. He lived and died and rose to change the world.
Oh, that I could live a life like that! I want to affect those around me for eternity, and that journey begins with my own decision to allow Christ to completely take over and transform me.
Even so, come Lord Jesus!
Lent brings to mind a few different things depending on what you've heard or experienced of it. Whenever I mention Lent, the most common response I receive is, 'But you're not Catholic.' Oh well. :P
Traditionally, Lent is viewed as a 40 day period of time in which believers do some sort of penance in the form of fasting from particular foods or activities in preparation for Holy Week, which includes the death and resurrection of our Savior.
Others take a less 'religious' view and simply see Lent as a great time to try giving up smoking or drinking soda or eating chocolate.
But what is the point of Lent? Can one really do penance for their sins, hoping to find favor in God's eyes? Of course not!
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" ~Eph. 2:8
I think there is a fine, but significant, line between doing penance for sin and recognizing your desperate need for Christ's blood to cover your life. I think practices which can start out as the latter can drift into the category of doing penance if we're not careful.
While spending time thinking and praying about how I wanted to handle Lent this year, I asked God to show me what most I needed from Him, not just during this time, but for my life in general. One thing I've always liked about Lent is that you have a tangible goal to set for yourself. 40 days to work towards a new goal.
During this time of reflection, I recalled something we had talked about in our college small group last fall. We were talking about tithing and it was brought up what it might look like if we tithed a portion of each day to the Lord. I said then that I would do that for Lent. And so...that's what I'm going to do for Lent.
10% of every day will be for the Lord. I'm not talking about sitting and reading my Bible, but really spending time with the Lord. Praying, yes, but most importantly, listening. Truly spending quality time with my Jesus. My biggest prayer for this time is that I won't stop at 40 days...and that by the time that 40 days is up, I'll be giving more than 10%.
I want to spend the next 40 days truly connecting with Him and learning to listen to His voice. This is what I feel He wants most from me right now. All areas of spiritual growth in my life hinge on whether I am listening to His direction.
In order to maximize my ability to listen to God's voice (and know that it is only Him that I'm allowing to dictate the direction of my life), I've decide to make the following verse my theme verse for Lent:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." ~Phil. 4:8
The battle for the mind is as spiritual as any. Spending this Lenten season recognizing how Christ's sacrifice not only has redeemed my life and saved me for eternity, but also knowing that it's this very power that helps me to fight everyday temptation is a huge reason why this verse is key to successfully growing with Christ. It's going to come off a bit extreme, but I'm okay with that.
I want more Jesus and if that means less of everything else, so be it. I want to truly discover what it means to dwell solely on those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. There are a lot of things I can do that wouldn't stand out to anyone simply because the rest of the world is doing it too.
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." ~Romans 12:2
I want to cut out the unnecessary and be different! My life should look different to the world. In fact, I imagine that if I truly lived a life worthy of the calling that Christ has put on me, my life would look a lot different than most of the believers I know. I'm not saying that to rag on the people I know and love, goodness knows I'm right there with them. But I'm ready to step up and say enough is enough. Christ is in me which means that Christ should move through me. And Jesus didn't plan his life around a TV schedule or what tax bracket He fell into. He lived a life of love and truth and passion. He lived and died and rose to change the world.
Oh, that I could live a life like that! I want to affect those around me for eternity, and that journey begins with my own decision to allow Christ to completely take over and transform me.
Even so, come Lord Jesus!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Heart check
I read this verse yesterday while I was up at Starting Grounds, and while I had read it before I had always kind of passed over it without a second though. Well, I guess Jesus thought it was time for me to pay attention to it. :P
"The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks." ~Luke 6:45
I know that from time to time I can feel like I've 'arrived' in certain areas of my walk, or at the very least, feel like I've grown enough to get by. Reading this verse yesterday pretty much brought me back to my senses. For one thing, the Bible says:
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 1:6
That tells me that I still need the Spirit to work in my life daily, shaping and transforming, and He will continue to do so until Christ returns.
Second, Scripture also says:
"there is no one who does good, no not one." ~Psalm 14:3
So it is by Christ alone in me that anything good comes from my life. And so now I come back to this passage in Luke. I'm a pretty positive person, but it's still my default to resort to sarcasm and biting remarks when I'm talking to people. I know that I can lean towards a more cynical view point and that fuels the kinds of things I say.
I want to see the world the way Jesus sees it. If my heart is in tune with His, wouldn't I be much more likely to respond out of compassion instead of cynicism? That is my prayer for today.
Father, as I seek to understand and know You more, show me the world through Your loving eyes instead of the blinded perspective I tend to take. Open my heart to extend grace and compassion to those around me.
"The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks." ~Luke 6:45
I know that from time to time I can feel like I've 'arrived' in certain areas of my walk, or at the very least, feel like I've grown enough to get by. Reading this verse yesterday pretty much brought me back to my senses. For one thing, the Bible says:
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 1:6
That tells me that I still need the Spirit to work in my life daily, shaping and transforming, and He will continue to do so until Christ returns.
Second, Scripture also says:
"there is no one who does good, no not one." ~Psalm 14:3
So it is by Christ alone in me that anything good comes from my life. And so now I come back to this passage in Luke. I'm a pretty positive person, but it's still my default to resort to sarcasm and biting remarks when I'm talking to people. I know that I can lean towards a more cynical view point and that fuels the kinds of things I say.
I want to see the world the way Jesus sees it. If my heart is in tune with His, wouldn't I be much more likely to respond out of compassion instead of cynicism? That is my prayer for today.
Father, as I seek to understand and know You more, show me the world through Your loving eyes instead of the blinded perspective I tend to take. Open my heart to extend grace and compassion to those around me.
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