Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?   (Mat 6:26)

Continuing His lesson Jesus gives us an example from nature.

He asks us to consider our "value," to our Father.

Birds can't sow, reap or gather - yet they are provided for.

If you can't sow, reap or gather - does thin not suggest that God will feed (provide for) you?

Is this just about food?  I think not!  This is about value.

Actually I believe it's about who we look to in order to determine our value.

Birds?  I'm of greater value that birds?  Actually the idea here is that we are "of so much MORE value" than birds. 

Birds have a role in God's creation no less critical to the sustaining of that creation than anything else.  God maintains everything they need to fulfill their role in His creation.  There are lots of birds - that takes a lot of maintaining.  It's not a simple thing nor is it insignificant!

Then there is "us."  We were God's viceroys in the Garden.  Note:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 
(Gen 1:26)

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 
(Gen 2:15)

God's intention for us was to be His means of maintaining His creation.  We were to work and keep the garden which in turn would provide for all the creatures of the creation.  Pretty important stuff!  

Now, in this fallen world our role has changed.  Now we are called to show forth His glory, to be holy as He is.  We are his witnesses, living testaments to His glory and goodness.  How much value can we put on that?

Consider:

". . . . when He comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed."   (2Th 1:10)

Whose "value" do we choose accept?  His or the world's?  Who do we look to?  How do we measure it?  

The redemption of the creation - the birds - cost Him His Son.  However the price was demanded for our sin not for the birds' sins (birds don't sin they just suffer its effects).  So He paid the demanded price - for OUR sin - that He might redeems His creation.

Where in our fleshly spectrum of value do we really put that?  Is it first or just a close second?  Do we really accept that we are valuable enough for God to give His Son?  Are we willing to accept that his love for us was so great that he sent His Son to be a man, to suffer and be tempted as a man and then be killed as a criminal?  How valuable does that make us?

Are we willing to accept and live with Jesus as our total net worth?  Are we willing to be rejected and scorned and put down by the world so that we might live out His gracious gift for and to us?

Or do we play with the world's criteria for worth and value measuring our lives by their standards?  And how well have those standards served Him or His creation?  How cruelly have the standards of the world dealt with the world?

Think on what God has done for and in you.  Consider what you might be tempted to trade it for.  In times of weakness and suffering it is not uncommon for us to fall into "if only," and to see ourselves as worthless failures.  It is a struggle to cling to God's love and the value He has given us - He has made us ultimately valuable - He has given us a worth beyond words - Pray and think on that.

Father,

In these tough times I see my sin and my errors.  I see how I have been deceived and schemed by the world, the flesh and the devil.  Now, in my distress those three cruel enemies taunt me and pour shame upon me.  Help me Father, to cling to Your gracious gift as the only thing that matters.  Let the cruel accusations and aspersions of those three enemies drop from my mind and heart.  Deafen my ears to them, let me be comforted and let by Your Word and Your Spirit as I seek to  follow You in whatever circumstance I find myself in.

Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.   (Pro 30:7-9)

In the name of Jesus and for His glory, amen.

Finger Thinking 010513 A Certain Darkness

Finger Thinking 030513

There's a certain darkness
which some of us know.
It is just part of us
not flesh
but wounds
not sin
but the effects.
There is relief
but rarely
release.
We carry it
like a secret
ashamed
and afraid.
We pray
for healing
and yet
we hear "No."
So,
we keep going
forward
as best we can.
Walking towards the light
even if just on its fringe.
Wanting to know
it is OK
knowing it may not be
until the finishing is finished.
Most of us
hang on.
Some don't.
But we all know
He knows
and cares
and provides.
We can't escape the truth,
His truth.
We may not feel His love
but we know it.
We may not experience His joy
but His promise is enough.
It's harder
for us than for some
but we know it is harder
for others.
So we learn
to pray in a different way
for what we sometimes don;t know.
But we pray
knowing He hears
knowing He has a plan
and a purpose
and in that
we hope. 

This and That Who spoke? 092412

A comment.  A simple statement.  I don’t think it was ill-meant.  I assume it was chiding or jokingly made.  And yet how deep and broad the wound.

But, the question I wrestle with is, “Who spoke?”  Was it a dart from Satan or a goad from God?  Was it indeed a message to wound or a message to convict?  Who spoke?  Why the wound?  Is it my frailty that was hit or my falseness, my fantasy?

Have you ever experienced this type of wound? 

Perhaps, when we are being refined by God, He allows such to happen to keep us humble.  Perhaps He allows one of Satan’s darts to get through so we might think on the issue raised.  Perhaps He wants us to understand the power even innocent words have and pray for the power to tame our own tongues.

Who spoke?

What purpose for the message?

The comment certainly “pushed my buttons,” but who was doing the pushing and for what end?

When we are low in our spirits Satan sees it and it is his nature to take advantage of it.  But God too will use our lowness to get His message through.  Who spoke?  How does one discern the answer?

Am I as false as I feel?  Am I the sham and deception I feel like?  Am I, contrary to assurances of those most closely affected, wasting my time and serving myself and not Him?

Just the other day I was reading in a Puritan work about how when we are low we can rejoice if we do what we have to do and do it faithfully.  I was encouraged in my trust of Him and that which He has given me time and ability to do.  Yet it only took a moment to turn that light into darkness.  It only took a simple comment to raise doubt and crate confusion.  It only took a comment to resurrect a sense of shame and hypocrisy.

I don’t know where this event will take me.  I have no idea what the conclusion of the matter will be in my life.  I only know that right now it is all I can feel and it has called much into question that I had believed I had worked through.

It has re-enforced the point that James makes about the tongue but I hesitate to take that high ground and stop at that.  Yes, there is a point there and a good one but, who spoke and what was the meaning of the message?

The sense of melancholy, which is my nature, is increased fourfold.  But this is my flesh – I think, I hope.

We live, hopefully, by certain well examined conclusions.  When they are challenged we should consult the Word, the Spirit and wise brothers and sisters.  When our conclusions have been repeatedly affirmed, when no alternative is clear, no other opportunity offered how we respond when the challenge is offered from an unexpected direction.

Indeed the sense of falseness and hypocrisy, the sense of being wrong and having been wrong for some time is crushing.

Yes, we must be oh so careful in what we say but what about our hearing?  How does one determine who is speaking? 

I don’t believe God allows such things to happen capriciously.  He does not taunt us.  So, when things like this happen, what is the point, the lesson the purpose?  Right now I don’t know or at least I don’t want to know and yet I am compelled to question and seek the answer.  Who spoke?  To what end?

Oh how I want to see this as a prodding of some thorn in my flesh – for it certainly touched what I believe God has given me to keep me humble.  How I want to know this is Him keeping me from rushing to some great endeavor He has not called me to.   But the fear is that I am being told that I have been wrong and wrong for a long time.

All I am able to do right now is to trust that he will show me who spoke.  All I am able to do right now is to turn inward, prayerfully, and wait His answer.

To answer, “Why art thou cast down,” all I have is, “I don’t really know – and I am afraid to know.”

Am I alone in this?  Do any of you have those times when someone speaks and you are confounded and confused?  Have you had someone speak and sweep you into despair?  

Have you had someone speak and turn what you thought were evidences into indictments?

All I can pray now is that He will guide me through this to the truth and while He does so He will sustain me to be about that which He has given me to do.  Because if I am and have been wrong – if it was indeed Him telling me to move on then what I am about will have to stop or at least be radically changed.  That’s OK if it is His will and I pray that I am not obstinately clinging to past conclusions – but I still ask, “Who spoke?”