Hidden Away

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence....Ps 31:20

All our best experiences come when we are alone with God. 

There are sorrows which we can endure in no other place.

 Grief is of many kinds, 

but all grief that is really terrible and heart-crushing sends us 

into speechless solitude 

to weep it out upon the heart of God.

There are temptations which can be overcome only when alone with Him. 

The fight with the adversary is a solitary combat after all. And there are 

deep joys that can come into us only when alone with God, 

the joy of feeling Christ’s personal love, 

the joy of finding His strength made perfect in our weakness, 

the joy of bringing our empty vessels to the Divine fullness of His grace, 

waiting till He fills them, and seeing them overflow.  

                                                                                                             GH Knight

Blindsided

Some pain is long term sorrow, but then there is pain that comes out of nowhere and hits hard. Yesterday I could not move, feel or think. I snacked and then lay down and dozed. I had been blindsided. This has brought me to four questions:

1. Is God sovereign?  If yes then,
2. Is God all powerful? If yes, then,
3. Is God good? If yes, then,
4. Is God good to me? Ah, that is the sticker, upfront and personal.

If God is sovereign, all powerful and good, then I can give thanks because I know that my good God is in control--of everything. He can bring “beauty out of ashes.”  I can trust Him even in the midst of disbelief and anguish. As I ponder these things emotions, simple grief begins to flow instead of the mind numbing complication that is added when I know that I am not in control and believe that God is uncaring and distant.  God is good all the time; all the time God is good!

My dear Papa, It has been a hard two days. It still does not make sense to me; I still hurt, but I know who You are and so I can live out this day with hope in my heart. It is truly, “well with my soul.”

David speaks

 I open to Psalm 103 where I find King David speaking to his soul again.  Let's listen in:

"Praise the Lord, O my soul;

All  my inmost being,

Praise his Holy Name.

Praise the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits--"

My Dear Papa, Why do You use the negative, "forget not" instead of the positive "remember?" Is it because I so easily forget to remember? I don't know about others, but for me the shoe fits. How easily the negatives crowd out Your gracious, continuous, abundant blessings. All it takes is a rainy day...  The first two verses of the psalm are overflowing with Life; it bursts out of David in glad adoration.

I can see Your handiwork everywhere.  It is there in the stillness of the lake; in the light reflected off of bare trees; in the colorful Pansies that poke their heads up above the cold ground. I sit here in this busy coffee shop and commune with You. There is an empty chair across from me and I can see You sitting there enjoying our time together.  It is a very special day.

My Soul Leaks

There is winter in my soul today

I feel:

distant

dry

unfilled

empty

Your promise to me is

Rivers of Living water

Overflow.

My deepest needs cannot be met by people

Like me

The unfilled filling the empty

Does not work

So, with King David, I speak to my soul:

“Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

For I will yet praise Him,

My Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me,

Therefore, I will remember You...

Deep calls to deep

In the roar of Your waterfalls

All Your waves and breakers

Have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs Hs Love,

At night His song is with me--

A prayer to the God of my life.”

(Parts of Psalm 42.)

Papa, my dear Papa--

I love the Psalms. I love to pray the Psalms. As I ponder the words of King David, I am encouraged. The “man after God’s own heart,” flounders. The back and forth of Psalm 42 is dynamic.  All through the stanza’s David keeps coming back to You. Weakness gives way to Your strength. 

David s not afraid to express his feelings. You are ever present to meet him where he is. It does not matter how I feel today. The truth is that I am full! You are enough.

Christ in Me

This is a song that was sung a couple of years ago. I can’t find it on You Tube but the words are so good.  Make up your own tune and enjoy!  It is adapted by David Teener.  I do not know the original author.

Christ in Me

There’s a place in me reserved for a flame

That goes deeper than my understanding,

A quiet place reserved for the Name

Of Christ in me.

And my God shall supply all my needs

According to His riches in glory.

Glorious riches, mine to share gratefully,

Are Christ in me.

Christ in me, the hope of glory

Christ in me, the guarantee of things to come.

And the age old mystery through the saints

revealed to be

That the glory of the Lord is Christ in me.

Breath of Life reflect in my unveiled face

You’re enthroned in my heart living through me

As I walk out my faith in your grace

With Christ in me.

The Mystery

The last blog was on suffering from Col 1:24-27.  Right in the midst of this passage comes the word, “mystery,” twice. Paul is rejoicing in the midst of his sufferings because of what the sufferings are tied to-- The Church, the Body of Christ. He says that the gospel he is proclaiming is something that “has been hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Saints.”  The hidden thing is a mystery or a secret.

“From eternity God had a secret (mystery) in His heart--a heart secret--for you see the secret is linked to the Son of His love. This eternal secret is the foundation that lies beneath what we are and what we do:  ‘Christ in you.’ When we receive Christ everything from then on is always the expression of Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which brings Christ into view. Hell is dead set against the revelation of Jesus Christ and that is why the assault is so intense upon every Christian who is determined to live out of the life of Christ instead of out of their own needs and desires.” (this is a paraphrase of T Austin Sparks from the book The Centrality of Jesus Christ).

Papa, this is what I want, to make Christ known. It is what this website is all about. It helps me understand why the battle has been so fierce at times. This mystery, the secret that has been in Your heart for eternity, is that your people would KNOW that they have the Lord Jesus living WITHIN wherever they go, throughout life. The magnitude of this is beyond my grasp. Way beyond. I am asking you to give me, and those who read this, a revelation as to what this means: “Christ in me, the hope of glory!”

New story

There is a new story on www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com.

You will find it posted on the story page of the website and it is entitled:

"God Named Me, Jane"

Please feel free to share this website on your wall.  It has touched the heart of many!

PS  You will have to "copy and paste" the link above

Suffering

Paul says in Colossians 1:24-26:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,

and in my flesh I am filling up

what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions

for the sake of the body

that is

The Church...

to make the Word of God fully known,

the mystery hidden for ages and generations

but now revealed to His saints.”

There is so much here; I understand but superficially. What sufferings is Paul speaking of? Hunger, sleepless nights, illness, long journeys, ship wreck, beatings, stoning, prison, rejection by his own people, heartache over believers. How is it that our suffering can fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions? I don’t know but each of us as believers has the privilege of sharing in some aspect of the suffering of the Bridegroom, “We share in His sufferings.” (Phil 3:10) I am not yet at the point where I can embrace, rejoice in my sufferings. I am able to give thanks on the other side, but not in the midst of the trial--except, perhaps, through gritted teeth, but that is changing. Paul says he can rejoice in sufferings “for their sake, for the sake of the church, in order to make the Word of God fully known.”  Here is how Paul can rejoice: His passion is preaching Christ. He has seen how his sufferings have made Christ and His sufficiency come alive to the Body of Christ. His suffering has deepened his message; given credulity to those who would immediately enter into suffering upon confessing Christ. The early church was birthed in blood and tears as it is today. The estimated number of deaths in the world last year because of faith in Jesus was 175,000.

Papa, It grieves me to see the suffering of your children across the world today but as I ponder this scripture I see that we as Believers do not suffer for naught but our suffering has meaning. It has meaning here in this country, also, even though the suffering is not as visible. How can we make the gospel fully known if we are not identified with Christ in His sufferings which includes rejection, loneliness, loss...?  Phil 3:10 says: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death..."

The Vocation of Natural Life

Yesterday I picked up My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers and then chewed on his thoughts all day.  

I read it again and decided to share it with you.

"The call of God is not a call to any particular service; my interpretation of it may be because contact with the nature of God has made me realize what I would like to do for Him. The call of God is essentially expressive of His nature; service is the outcome of what is fitted to my nature. The vocation of the natural life is stated by the Apostle Paul: “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him (ie sacramentally express.) among the Gentiles.” (Gal 1:15,16)

Service is the overflow of supra-abounding devotion, but, profoundly speaking, there is no call to that, it is my own little actual bit and is the echo of my identification with the nature of God. Service is the natural part of my life. God gets me into a relationship with Himself whereby I understand His call, then I do things out of sheer love for Him on my own account. To serve God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is expressive of that which is fitted to my nature:  God’s call is expressive of His nature, consequentially, when I receive His nature and hear his call, the voice of the Divine nature sounds in both and the two work together. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and I serve him in the ordinary ways of life and devotion to Him."

Stress

Stress results from wanting to rush headlong into the website thing that You, Papa, 

have given to me. I want to make it work perfectly. 

I want it to come together as a flow--smooth water--no ripples.

Instead I find boulders in the river; things slow down, get stuck. 

I can’t move forward. I feel frustrated.

 I forget whose idea this is; 

Who called me, Who is calling the shots, 

even what the purpose is: 

To make Christ known as I live out my life with Christ in me, the hope of glory!

Salvation--God Pursues

God moves toward man who has the seed of Adam within, who is spiritually dead, 

who cannot reach out to God anymore than a corpse can raise its arms. 

God the Father, the lover, reaches across time through the death and blood of His Beloved Son, 

to win and bring back to life the descendants of Adam. When man, who is bound, 

responds to the Lamb, LIFE comes into him and the fellowship that was broken in the garden, is restored.  

Scripture says that “the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world." (Rev 13:8)

God provided the sacrificial Lamb before he created Adam, before Adam sinned. 

Adam rejected the gift of eternal life contained in the fruit of the Tree of Life, 

but this was not the end of the story, for “God so loved the world that HE GAVE His only begotten Son 

that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but has eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16)

Jesus says in Jn 10:10: “I am come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Papa, It broke your heart when Adam chose the wrong tree and his spirit died within him. 

Fellowship was cut off--in both directions--but you had a plan. Adam’s sin did not take you by surprise. 

It never does. You sent your Son to break the curse of Adam’s sin. 

Your Son took my sin upon Himself and gave me His Life in exchange. 

It is because of your pursuit of me that I have meaning, purpose and eternal life.  Glory!

Random thoughts on the Garden

Tree of Life: If Adam had eaten it first, before he ate of the Tree of Knowledge, 

Adam would have acquired knowledge--but from the right source: God.

The Tree of Life is Jesus; He is the living Vine and He dwells in me. 

He dwells in every Believer.

LIFE in God always triumphs knowledge. 

When Adam lost the garden, he lost his home. Man has been looking for a home, 

a place he can call home, ever since.

When man lost contact with Life, all he was left with was law. Now that is death!

When Adam sinned,  did God cry?

The Two Trees

  The second chapter of Genesis specifically mentions two trees in the garden. Both reside in the middle of the garden; both are beautiful. One of them gives life. It is called The Tree of Life. The second tree takes life. It is called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The first command is given to Adam:  “You may eat of every tree of the garden, but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.”  (Gen. 2:16,17)  I find it strange that God did not specifically point out the Tree of Life and say, “The day you eat of that Tree is the day you will receive Eternal Life--you will never die.”

When God spoke this to Adam, Eve was missing. When God brought Eve to Adam, did he grab her by the hand and take her all over the garden? Did he pull her over to the glorious Tree of Life and say to her, “We may eat of this tree so let’s dig in!” Did he take her to the “other tree” and tell her exactly what God had said? Scripture does not reveal how Adam and Eve spent these first days together, but in Genesis 3 we find Eve chatting with a beautiful creature and, evidently, Adam was standing beside her. The conversation goes back and forth but I notice that Eve is not quoting God exactly; her husband is silent.   Eve eats;  Adam is given the fruit and he eats while at the same time remembering...

Papa, our parents were given an incredible place to live. It is full of light, warmth, beauty, pure water, lush with trees of all kinds. They have plenty to eat, a world to explore, paradise! But in the midst of all that beauty stands a tree of death--that looks luscious on the outside. There is also the Tree of Life. They can’t have them both. I sit here and realize anew that I have a choice. I can choose whether I will munch on the Tree of Knowledge or on the Tree of Life. I eat from the tree of Knowledge every time I choose to live independently of You. Sometimes, many times, this way looks good on the outside, but it leads to self and self in itself, has nothing to offer me. I choose to lean on You because in myself I cannot choose what is best. I see life from the perspective of time but You see life from the perspective of eternity.  My desire is to choose life today.

The Garden

God plants a garden: 

 “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden;and there he put the man 

he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out the the ground--trees

that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were 

the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:8,9

A river flows through the garden. A mist goes up to water this garden. It never rains. 

God places this perfect man and perfect woman into a perfect garden.

He tells Adam to cultivate and protect the garden. God gives man dominion.

Then God gives Adam the privilege of naming all of the animals. (I really like this!)

Papa, I see here how much you love Man to whom you gave a purpose.

You gave Adam and Eve a place to live, a place to love, to share; to work.

A place where God and man can talk face to face. 

He lives in a beautiful garden that is full of good things to eat and things to explore. 

He is perfect; the garden is perfect; he lacks nothing.

Man has a home. 

He is home. 

Creation addition

I forgot to put the song with the creation story.  It is worth listening to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF9aY49oQTs&feature=related

Creation

The dvd on the heavens at the beginning of the year has taken me 

back to the first book of the Bible where I found some new treasures.

Genesis one starts out with the words:  “In the Beginning”--now I could camp right here for awhile--

”God created the heavens and the earth”  But our big ball was nothing to speak of 

UNTIL the Spirit of God moved across the waters, UNTIL God spoke:

“Let there be light.” Day and night; evening and morning, 

the first day. (But no sun yet!)

“Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, 

and let it separate the waters from  the waters”  

God called the expanse “heaven.”  

(I have never heard anyone preach on this. I won’t go there.) 

The second day.

“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together, 

and let the dry land appear.” Earth and Seas. 

“Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed,

 and fruit trees in which is their seed...  The third day.

“Let there be lights in the heavens to separate the day from the night. 

Let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years, 

and let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light 

upon the earth. Two great lights: the sun and the moon.” 

And then it says HE MADE THE STARS ALSO.  The Milky Way 

and all the other galaxies. The fourth day.

“Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, 

and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of heaven.”

 The fifth day.

“Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds--

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, 

after our likeness...”  It is the end of the sixth day.

Papa, you are awesome!  There has to be another word 

for “awesome” to give greater honor to You for the way 

You created the universe but particularly our little ball. 

Perhaps a few cartwheels would help! 

Maybe some fire works? 

I wish I could have had a ring side seat to watch our world and 

the heavens unfold at Your Word. That in itself reminds me 

of the verse in John 1:1 where Jesus is called the Word. 

Genesis 1:1-3 reveals to me The Father, The Spirit, The Son.

.

CS Lewis did a wonderful job imaging the creation 

in The Magicians Nephew:  “Out of the darkness a Voice 

began to sing and over Narnia the stars appeared

 and joined together also in song, and the land put forth green things

 and animals were birthed as the children watched.”

 (Now that is a loose paraphrase.) What imagination Lewis had!  

He has helped me to imagine “the beginnings.” 

Thank you, Papa, for all You have done for us.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF9aY49oQTs&feature=related-- Indescribable!

Trivia on the blog and website

I am learning all kinds of things about this website and perhaps you do not know all the ins and outs. I found out that there are actually two websites:  One is the blog and the other is a real website with pictures, stories, purpose and resources. You can't get on to the latter from the blog.  You can get to the blog from the website.   If you bookmark the website then it is easy to check for new stories which I hope to post at least once a month.  If you have a story contact me through the box at the bottom of the front page of the website.  I am looking for stories.

When you are on the blog, you can share it, and follow it by going to the very top of the page and clicking on those words.  There are letters and other things below each post which allows you to take the post to your Face Book page or hit "like." There is also a comment button.  Actually, it is a pretty nifty blog page but it is not user friendly unless you are a pro at this sort of thing.  I am learning but I am definitely NOT a pro.

It has been fun to see where the blog goes as people put it on Face Book and share it with others--actually, I have no idea where it is going!  I do enjoy the comments that have come in.  So, share it, take it to your inbox, comment.  

Blessings and Happy New Year!

Jake

Jake is our Mini Aussie and for his whole life he has been fed twice a day. This morning as I was preparing his food, he was sitting behind me waiting for what he knew would come. In all of our seven years together I have never seen my dog beating his head against the wall in fear that he would starve. Sometimes I am late and he reminds me by throwing the empty bowl up in the air, but never any signs of anxiety that I will not feed him. 

I am not so trusting that my heavenly Father is both willing and able to provide my daily bread. He says to me that I am to take no thought about food because doesn’t he provide for the sparrows in mid-winter? And in regards to clothing, does not my heavenly Dad clothe the Lilies with glorious splendor even though some species of Lily bloom and die in one day?

Papa, I have such a warped view of your ability to take care of me in times of want. I live in a culture of such plenty and that skews the picture.  As I look through the generations I notice that they have survived very well with much less. I confess my unbelief when things get tough, when I feel that I am not as important to You as my dog is to me.  Really, Papa, that is the core issue; how important am I to You?  Do you really care about these small things? It brings me back to the basics and I give You my nothing for your everything.  

The Love of God

The movie on the Universe keeps rolling around inside. I cannot get my mind around the vast dimension of what we so blithely call “space.” You see God has to be bigger. He dwells outside of time, outside of creation. The God who said, “let there be...” is our Lord.  As I read through the creation story again I came to an abrupt stop with the words: 

“Then God said, ‘let us make man in our image, after our likeness...’ so God created man in his image, in the image of God created He him.” (Gen. 1:26,27)  

“Then the Lord formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature. (Gen. 2:7)

The scripture goes on to say that God planted a garden for man. A garden! A place for man to explore; 

a place to enjoy. 

Papa, This is what undoes me:  The immensity of space juxtaposed to a garden on a planet the size of a dust ball. Not only did You plant a garden for the man You made, but You actually walked with him. Then You became one of us. How is it possible that the Creator of the entire Universe desires my fellowship? But you do!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6_S20SccIY The Love of God

 George Beverly Shea sang at Billy Graham Crusades. 

He is alive, well and living with his wife of 25 years.  Shea will be 103 years old this year.

Journey to the Edge of Creation

“The heavens declare the glory of God...”

This weekend, Glen and I viewed a documentary on the vastness of our universe as seen from technology that has opened up new windows of wonder and beauty. The pageantry depicted in the film was awesome! I wish I could turn this into the video, but some of the numbers might be of interest.

Distance was presented as light years. A light year is how far you can travel by the speed of light--186,000 miles per second--multiplied by 360 days at that speed.

If we left earth on Jan 1 going the speed of light, we would reach:

     The moon in 2.3 seconds

     Pass Mercury and Venus and the Sun in 8 min. 17 sec.

     Pass Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in 5 hrs and 31 min

We would have traveled 3 1/2 billion miles and it would still be Jan 1st.

In four years we would reach the nearest star--25 trillion miles out

     It would take 100 light years to be able to see the arms of the milky way

     It would take1,000 light years to reach the arms and the disc of the milky way

     It would take 100,000 years before we would be able to recognize each point of light 

            within the milky way itself.  

    We would find that each point of light is a galaxy not just a star.

5  million light years out and the milky way comes into focus at the center

It would take 10 billion years before we would be able to view the structure of the universe and see how it is 

filled with galaxies.

The sheer quantities:

     It is estimated that there are 100 billion galaxies in the universe. 

     Each galaxy contains 200 billion or more stars

     Our Milky way is but one galaxy!

The orbiting Hubble telescope shows the predictability and order of the Universe.  It has reshaped our view of the Cosmos.  It was not until 1924 that Astronomers believed there was anything beyond our Milky Way!

“The great book of the universe stands open unto our gaze, but we must understand the language in which it was written.”  Galileo

The light of God’s eternal power and truth is reflected in what He has made:

                                                           ...Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain...  Ps 104:2

The Universe gives man significance:

When I look at your heavens, the work

Of your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which you 

have set into place,

What is man that you

Are mindful of him,

And the son of man,

That you care for him?

You have made him a little lower

Than the heavenly beings

And crowned him with glory and honor.

Psalm 8:3-5

Amazon.com  Wonders of God's Creation  6 CD's for $34

New Years Day

The day was so sweet.  A pot of split pea soup bubbling on the stove; a violin concerto flowing from our Bose; afternoon tea on the back deck overlooking our little lake. We watched the birds, chickadees, nut hatches, cardinals fly in and out of the feeders;  appreciated the colorful pansies still blooming in the warm sunshine--in Virginia, on January 1st.  It can’t get any better than that!  Thank you, Lord.

(It was raining by 5PM)