"And I don't have all the answers today. But I will tell you this, there is Someone who is no stranger to pain, in Whom I always have an ear, a sympathetic heart, Somebody whose shoulders and larger than mine, and I can "shout to him"(Psalm 100;1) and while the pain may not go away, I have Him, and just knowing that, for right now, is simply enough. So no, we're not fine, and we probably won't be for sometime, but I know Somebody who knows what it means to hurt, and I'm not ever going to let Him go, or give up on my Lord, nor will He let go or give up on me.
There are going to be those days/seasons/moments when we are simply "not okay". You missed getting the trash cans out, maybe the job you did for your boss didn't go as planned, your neck hurts and it keeps hurting, a loved one or loved ones are in pain and you can't stop it. When this happens, and it will, again, we have to be able to breathe and honestly say to whomever," no, everything is not alright, this hurts."
"And I don't have all the answers today. But I will tell you this, there is Someone who is no stranger to pain, in Whom I always have an ear, a sympathetic heart, Somebody whose shoulders and larger than mine, and I can "shout to him"(Psalm 100;1) and while the pain may not go away, I have Him, and just knowing that, for right now, is simply enough. So no, we're not fine, and we probably won't be for sometime, but I know Somebody who knows what it means to hurt, and I'm not ever going to let Him go, or give up on my Lord, nor will He let go or give up on me.
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Psalm 34;18
The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. When you’re broken, you don’t try to suck your gut in, since your pain overrides your pride. When you’re broken, you realize that your pain hasn’t gone away, it’s merely stayed the night at someone else’s house for a weekend or so. When you’re broken, you don’t just realize that your problem has been exhaustively thought about, grieved over, counseled over, planned over, resolved over, it has been on your plate, on your heart, in the depths of your soul, longer than you can remember. When you’re contrite, you’re willing to do anything to change. When you’re contrite, you would have done it again so differently, that Jonah would had to have sought another whale, because you took his. When you’re contrite, something that can change your problem has become your oxygen; you’ll take on new friendships, you’ll read new books, you smile new smiles because, there’s an inkling of hope, a smackerel of a chance of a chance that things could finally change. When you find that the Lord is near, & you realize that not everybody that is a “Christian” will come to this place, you find that God’s answers are very different than man’s answers. Man tells you “you’ve got the victory”, “you’re an overcomer”, b/c that’s biblical, and people don’t always know how to act towards a Christian that hurts long-term. How you know though, that your hearing from God is actually Him, is when He says this,” I love you enough, to allow you to struggle, b/c that’s one of the ways that keeps you close to me. If I merely took away your pain, your struggle, your grief, I know all too well, that we wouldn’t really talk that much. And you need Me”. “You need Me to be close to you, not just for a weekend, or for a personal revival when you were on fire over a summer. You need to be close to Me for life. So, when you’ve wondered, how come the God of the universe, that holds together every nuance of life, every tear, laugh, smirk, and doubt, doesn’t change my pain, my endless frustration, it’s because you have a reluctant fair-weather heart. And the way that I keep you close to me is by reminding you that My grace is sufficient for you/ 2 Corinthians 12; 9. How can a God of love allow this? The answer is in the question, He’s a God of love. Thank appears 64 times in Psalms; it is the Hebrew word, yaw-daw’, which means to express praise by enjoying God. The enjoyment of God and gratitude are specifically meshed together in this psalm. The psalmist challenges us to plea for gratitude-filled universal worship.
Psalm 100-"Enter his gates with thanksgiving (tôdâ) and his courts with praise; give thanks (yādā) to him and praise his name." I often do not realize all that God has given me, to be truly grateful and in debt to Him, until He sends my way a living illustration of a person(s) that remind us of how spiritually wealthy we are. I’m pretty thick and so, while as believers, we’ll use catch phrases like “divine appointments”, flippantly at times, the truth of the matter, is that there is a whole lot more to that particular catch phrase than you or I realize. 1 Corinthians 13 says ;12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. A great challenge for today is to take in how much each one of us has been freely given, in Christ. Happy Saturday everyone! What is the origin of the quote "Whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stronger"?
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's original line was “Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker." The saying comes from the “Maxims and Arrows” section of Nietzsche’s book, Twilight of the the Idols (1888). It is usually translated into English as "what does not kill me makes me stronger." From Quora.com I disagree, though I understand the gist of the statement/premise. If I’m alive, then, I have something to learn from the experience. The problem I run into has to do w/ some of the outcomes, like; “that which does not kill me turns me into a hazy shade of bitter.” “That which does not kill me robs me of joy and rewinds in my mind like a drink I thought I liked before the after-taste pleaded for a different case. Rather, “that which doesn’t kill me” has the potential to steal my joy, plant within me a root of bitterness, or sticks around in the floating gray matter in the back of my mind like gorillas trying to destroy Samsonite luggage. Truth be told, that which I think about-person, place, or thing, and how I think about it, do I marinade it in God’s love language or my paralysis of self-analysis, determines whether or not I am an overcomer or an over-analyzer. In fact, I want to make a case for the simple fact, that some issues are meant to be hard/difficult/calloused by design! That’s right my friends, intended for us to grow through. Don’t take my word for it, rather, consider w/ me the nature of a refining process. Refining means to remove impurities or unwanted elements from (a substance). And the impurities tend to be the attitudes and heart-felt deep crevices within us that God alone knows, the need to be softened, channeled through, made right by the Holy Spirit. Both James and Peter talk about multi-colored trials in life that are meant to produce something precious; a faith, a patience that can’t be bought off a rack in a Christian bookstore or delivered to your doorstep by Amazon. No, my friends, rather, these deep- seated crevices are meant for the Lord and He alone to do a work in. And it’s always there to remind me that, when I take something to the Lord three times or three thousand times, the Lord is allowing it because of what needs to be refined, retried, and retaught in the darkness of my heart so that, something malleable within myself can be formed into “Christ-like-ness”. So, just for today, “that which doesn’t kill me”, should drive me to my knees in search of the One who carries my burdens, lifts my spirit, and understands my need for Christ-like character. Have a great day everybody! I've found the sequel to Song of Solomon ;4-Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.
Husbands, when was the last time you likened your wife's neck to a military tower? This is just fun. Irving Jensen had this to say in his intro to Song of Solomon: A healthy balance in Bible study is maintained when the Song of Solomon is studied along with Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes focuses on the intellect of man -- his mental outlook on life. The Song of Solomon is a book about the emotions of man -- in particular the emotion of love. It is a recognized fact that man's total experience is directed by these three responses: intellect, emotions and will. Actually, all three responses are involved in a full experience of genuine love, just as this is true of genuine faith. To say that the Song of Solomon is a book about the emotion of life is not to rule out intellect and will. (E.g., a person in love exercises his will in choosing whom to love.) It is just that the emotion aspect is prominent in the narrative. I think a better question for the Lord than "why" is how. How do you want me/us to proceed? How can I give you back the control that my mind and emotions want to take charge of? My loved ones are in Your hands, help me to continue to keep them there and help me not to overreact. I'm feeling/ experiencing tremendous poverty of spirit and probably didn't realize the degree at which I struggle with control until now.
It's more apparent with a type A personality but, for the rest of us that don't fit into those boots, that way of speaking, I find that we keep things quiet on the inside until it bubbles up. I'd prefer personally speaking of course, not to give further testimony on how not to tame the tongue according to James chapter three. Love is greater than temporary frustration, it's greater when I sit down longer and pray about it with my wife. Love is an action word and I'm praying for my heart to accompany my actions. It's funny to me to think about how we don't have just one testimony regarding our walk with Christ, it's a day by day journey. There's never a day where I skate on by and think I didn't need Jesus today. And yet prayer is supposed to be the gasoline that powers each days need to walk in the Spirit. We often wonder why we have to live with pain so frequently and yet I know that I seek Him much more to heal my daily pains than when everything's peachy. Psalm 46 s says He's a very present help in trouble and I can't help thinking why not seek Him now before the trouble starts? And isn't that a mark of maturity to seek Him whether the dog has eaten your favorite part of the sofa or not?
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” John 6
The crowds in John 6 followed Jesus b/c they enjoyed seeing Him do miraculous, supernatural acts, like multiplying food for thousands to eat. I know that He has drawn me to Himself b/c I too have needed a Savior and continue to need One who can perform acts in my life that are beyond my abilities. My abilities and God’s abilities seem to be a line of demarcation in my life; if you look the origins of that phrase up, it can represent a sort of “cease-fire” which is often what the Lord is trying to do in our lives. Allowing His abilities to take over make a cease fire necessary on my part, I have to agree with Him to stop my efforts and allow His to take over. There’s kind of an example I believe, of this when I read about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. We read that He was led into the wilderness to be tempted. You can read Scriptures many, many times over the years and the Spirit brings up nuances that you need for your situations in life. And I guess I’m impacted this morning because Jesus was able to be led, He was within His ability to flex, to be moved. I can’t always say that I too am that way in fact, I’m more of the garden variety “no gain until there’s pain” type of Christian. I have to get sick and tired of being sick and tired and as a friend and I were speaking the other day, we both talk to ourselves often and have some pretty good conversations. My point is that I am usually trying to preach/teach/tell myself something or a myriad of things and it’s a good idea to listen today. The point is that in the aging process, in this walk with Christ, the heart makes a convert of the mind. And when you find yourself doing/saying/thinking what your mind clearly rejects as unhealthy/unholy/un-edifying, now is the time to take action! And as Jesus was asked the question of what was to be done to be doing the works of God, His response was both staggering and provocatively simple. He told them to believe, to trust, and to know and then to know again 5 minutes later, that Jesus is God. And then again 5 hours later and even 50 years later. So that’s really where the rub is b/c, b/c, b/c, the temptation in this life is this; I know that Jesus is Lord but, how do I keep Him as Lord at work? I know that Jesus is Lord, but how do I keep Him the Lord of my words when I’m upset as a parent, as a spouse, as an automobile operator, you fill in the blank. And not only that, but, if I really believe in Jesus, I’m believing that He’s going to move/provide/allocate the way for me when my circumstances lack the appearance of profitability. Let’s face it; the money isn’t always there, our bodies aren’t always functioning right, our peoples in this life don’t always come through for us in the way we’d like, and we can find that our minds keep us up at night. So to believe today means that He’s working it out and it means that He wants me to pray for these things that cause me to wonder and it means in the meantime that by faith, I can offer to Him my heart at this very moment when the potential for it to be a traitor is within my means. I know that like a two year old, I can give it to Him and take it back. But the interesting thing is this; a Savior takes my feeble faith, my want for words, and any inane inabilities that I can produce and brings about a fragrance to this crazy life that I simply could not imagine was possible. His means, His timing, as well as some of the unseen behind the scenes workings is beyond my grasp and it causes me at times to wonder about how much more common the interaction of angels according to the bible, occurs from what we realize. And so on this seemingly humid Saturday where my daughter and I will be test driving a car for her, I confess to you my friends that I believe this morning. My faith is not perfect, my words will fall short, and my heart is subject to failure at any given juncture. But my belief in what my Jesus can accomplish is everything that I have this morning and that is enough! |
AuthorChuck Rhein Archives
May 2019
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