Tag Archive | heart

Balloon Therapy

Apr14

Recently I’ve felt a bit like a balloon.

A balloon that has been blown up, then deflated.

Then blown up again, only bigger this time.

This has been going on for the last four months.

Each time that balloon has been blown up,

It has been a bit bigger than the last time.

Just when a bit of recovery was felt, the inflation process would begin again.

Each time, I have felt stretched farther than possible.

After each new challenge, I found myself feeling a bit more like a stretched and wilted balloon left behind at a child’s birthday party.

 

It is very common in scripture, for God’s people to come upon circumstances, either random or brought on by themselves, which “stretched” them.

The things they thought they knew were called into question.

The way they did things proved to be requiring a change.

The circumstances they endured made them realize that God was indeed big enough take care of them even in the direst of circumstances.

They learned that when exhaustion knocked on their door, they learned that the joy of the Lord was their strength, that in their own power, collapse was inevitable.

Probably the most important thing they learned was that even if their state of affairs was grueling, taxing and grievous, they could still be joyful.

The details of the first quarter of my personal 2012 don’t even need to be shared.

To be sure, they involved all of the above.

There was challenge.

There was stretching.

I’ve been called to know what I believe and why I believe it.  This will be a lifelong process I am quite sure.

My routines for doing things were totally flipped on edge, causing me to take note about why I do things a certain way.

Speaking the truth when it is not popular to do so can be delicate, but it can be done.  People will not always be happy that you did, but God knows the truth about the love in your heart.

Perhaps even the five minutes you give God each day, can be enough to recharge your batteries.

When you make a commitment, regardless of how large, you do your best even if that means from a distance. 

In the end, keeping your word is something that folks won’t even expect you to do if things change and make it even more difficult. 

God knows.  You still do it.  You do it as unto Him.  It is He who holds the scales.

Often, the reward is not in what you see with your eyes as a result of your difficulty, but a sense that you did what you were supposed to do.  You did it well.  You did your best.

The invisible reward is feeling God’s pleasure.

Philippians 4:12-14 (NIV1984)12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. 14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

Nehemiah 8:10 (NASB)10 Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letters

Mar14

 

“I will read your letters over and over and over and over again.”

Justin Rizzo –  Worship With the Word –

http://www.ihop.org/prayerroom/archives/
(Wednesday February 5, 8:00 am, 19:01 -24:50)

International House of Prayer – Kansas City

These words were enough to make my inquiring mind want to know.

I had a need to know what God’s word says about “letters”.

I recall first, that the Bible is literally a letter to mankind.

It is a letter recalling the times of man from the beginning.

It is a letter journaling the days and times of God’s people, their enemies and the ways, during thick and thin, that God took care of their needs.

It is a letter describing how to live a better life by living wisely.

In total, it is a love letter of insight and provision to the children of a loving father.

Some of its “paragraphs” may be simple to understand while others are difficult and cryptic.

It is in the deciphering that we become engaged in the unfolding relationship with our “Abba” daddy.

It is in that relationship that we learn exactly WHO He is and exactly who WE are in Him.

2 Corinthians 3:2 (NIV1984)  You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

If we spend time pouring over His letters, we become like His words, like Him.

2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV1984) He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Keeping time with His letters transforms us, and we become able to speak the life of His words to others.

2 Corinthians 10:10  (NIV1984)  For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”

We do not speak His words so that people can be impressed with us, but that they may be impressed with Him.

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 (MSG)  If anyone refuses to obey our clear command written in this letter, don’t let him get by with it.  Point out such a person and refuse to subsidize his freeloading.  Maybe then he’ll think twice.  But don’t treat him as an enemy.  Sit him down and talk about the problem as someone who cares.

People who do not know Him or read His letters are not our enemies.

Romans 2:4 (ESV) Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to to lead you to repentance?

Our time with His letters gives us the kindness, forbearance and patience required to gently lead them to God.

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Don’t know Him yet?

You can have that Significant Encounter by clicking on the “Rescue” tab at the top of this page.

Not enjoying His letters and His company yet?

The internet is full of free letters (Bibles) for you to begin your relationship with your Father in Heaven.

Won’t you try one?

What do you have to lose but your loneliness?

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Kansas City, Missouri. Front of the Internatio...

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Hard Candy Shell

Mar10
English: A pile of plain M&M's candies.
Image via Wikipedia

“Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”.

Remember those words?

They were made famous by the makers of M & M’s.

 
 
 
 
 
Sometimes God reveals things to us.
Some things that may be unpleasant.
It is as though we have been wrapped in a hard shell.
The hard shell has served a purpose.
It has protected and preserved our insides as God has been working on them.
Then when God is ready for our insides are to be revealed,
a crack appears in that shell.
It gets larger, and the insides begin to melt.
 
The shell protects us until we have processed enough to be able to handle what is next.
What is next is a total melting away of what we had inside before,
A changing of our old heart into a new one.
 
Ezekiel 11:19  I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them;
I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
 
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
 
In a really intense Bible study class I heard a man say,
“If you had tried to tell me this two years ago, I would have walked out of here.
Today I want to hear it”.
 
He was not finished with his processing.
His hard shell was still in tact.
Until now.
His heart is now able to be melded in with God’s.
 
Here’s what I want you to get.
Do not despise your process.
Go at God’s pace for you.
Your insides are changing by His power.
Soon, you will melt in His hand.
 
1 Peter 5:6 (MSG) So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs.
God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time.
Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.