Friday, March 6, 2015

Christ in You: RJD Entry: March 2015

bethelspringsfellowship.org

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27

{I was led to do something a little different for Random Journal Day this month. I reached for two of my journals that were close by. I chose the one entitled “Amazing Grace.”  At the bottom of each page a scripture appears. Each scripture is used several times through the journal. I chose to write on these scriptures as they appeared. I found myself approaching each of those appearances from a different angle. I pray you gain some insight into this particular verse.}

3/1/2010 (Christ in you)
               Paul writes to the believers at Colosse in order to encourage them to stand firm against the false teachers in their midst.
              
               When a person comes to Christ, he or she asks Jesus to live in his or her heart. He inhabits the person’s thoughts, mind, speech, actions, and interactions. The result of Christ’s presence in a person’s heart is the anticipation of His working in and through people.

               God in us—three powerful words. We should feel humbled that the Father would want to live in our hearts and souls. A pastor’s wife I knew told a group of us she felt very small when she partook of communion. She reflected on who He is and who she was each time she took the elements.

3/14/2010 (Hope)
                              Hope-n. anticipation, v. anticipate, look forward to,

               Christ lives in the hearts of His children. He guides them how to live, to love and to work. His presence in our hearts is a spiritual blessing. He empowers us with His presence. With His empowering, we are able to work for the Kingdom. We look forward to seeing God on His Throne, in His glory. (Isaiah 6:1) We hear we can only see God if we know Him, and have Him in our hearts.

4/20/2010 (Does Christ Live in Me?)

               We turn our hearts and lives over to Jesus Christ and ask Him to live there. But, we get overwhelmed by our world. We try to balance home and work and our spiritual lives.
               When a giant in the automotive industry had two major divisions located in our town, sometimes a lot of men and women worked six or seven days a week. Certain areas of life became secondary to work in the factories. Family life, church involvement, and recreation all deferred to the job and getting the dollars. (I did not work in this industry. My husband did.)

               As far as my place in the alignment of priorities (in my working), I allowed conditions surrounding me in my life to keep me off-balanced. It took a lengthy time for me to realize that God was with me and Christ in me. I still feel I didn’t do well, at that time in my life representing—living for—Jesus as I should have.   

5/24/2010 (Hope)
Hope- reliance on God’ blessing and provision, the expectation of future good.

               When we rely on God’s blessings and provisions we possess hope. People who live their lives for Christ walk through their days following His leading.

               The verse Colossians 1:27 speaks of Christ being an expectation of our future good.


               When we have Christ in our hearts, we become His instruments. We become the hands, the feet, and the voice He needs in order to reach those who need to find Him. God uses us, His children, to demonstrate His love and care to those who need Him—those who are hurting, those who are displaced, those who are impoverished. We become His hope when we yield to Him. As we mature in Him, we learn from Him the exact nature of His will for our lives.


Linking to:enthusiasticallydawn.com/

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

“Seeking God”



“One thing I ask of the LORD,
This is what I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
And to seek him in his temple.”
Psalm 27:4 (NIV)

               King David tells us a lot in these half dozen lines. He regularly asks God to allow him to fix his eyes on the Lord’s beauty and to approach God in His throne room. The shepherd king gives us in the 21st Century some guidelines to follow as we learn to grow in the Lord.

               Seek Have you ever lost something precious to you, a ring or another piece of jewelry? When I lost a ring I deemed a mother’s ring. Its front was fashioned to look like the Robert Indiana sculpture, LOVE. In the letter “O,” it had my son’s birthstone in it. I retraced my footsteps in our area; I posted “lost” notices at work about it. I wanted to find that ring because of what it represented.

                Sometimes, we have to spend quantity time in prayer in order to receive God’s answers. A friend once said she had to pray about some needs for 30 days before she would receive an answer. But she was one of the most prayed-up people I have known.

               Dwell, simply stated means “live” but it also seems to have a deeper meaning. As I see it, if a person dwells in a place, he or she is living there for quite a few years.  David asks to live in God’s house all the days allotted to him. (See also Psalm 23:6)

               Gaze to gaze means to look for an extended time. When I am in deep thought, Hubby will notice me staring and ask, “What are you looking at?” Do you remember playing the game where you would stare at someone until one of you blinked?

               Beauty God’s beauty has been called His Glory, or His Splendor. It is all around us. We anticipate the beauty of His creation each year as we look forward to the change of seasons. When we moved into our house, at the end of one October, there sat a lilac bush just outside our back door. A late frost got the buds that next spring.  I had to wait for 18 months to discover the Lilac bush was a White Lilac. To me, it was the most beautiful bush I had ever seen. The fact that my bush sprouted white flowers was a surprise. I believe that was part of its beauty.


               Seek Let us search for what God wants us to have for our lives. Just as we look for lost items, let us look at where we are and where we want to be in Him.

Monday, March 2, 2015

“Time to Seek”





“Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness;
 break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD until
He comes to rain righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12 NASB

               Hosea ministered in the northern Hebrew kingdom, focusing on the spiritual corruption of the time. He, along with Amos and Jonah called on Israel to repent and turn to God in the hope that God might relent and withhold punishment. 1

               In our focus verse, Hosea instructed them to turn away from wickedness, (Sow with a view to righteousness,) to receive God’s love (reap in accordance with kindness ;) to soften their hearts (break up your fallow ground,)

               He then stated a very important reason for the change they needed to make—(for it is time to seek the LORD.) Hosea didn’t mean for this to be something done just once but repeatedly, as they needed to. (until He comes to rain righteousness on you.)

               We are sometimes like the people of the northern kingdom. When we see something wrong in another person’s life, we think we are all right because we “don’t do that.” Our only remedy for our short sidedness is to search our hearts and ask God to help us as we look for qualities that we have that cause us to be less than what God wants us to be.

Also, Karen Lange has a new feature on her blog Write Now. She calls it "Meet the Blogger". She has chosen to feature me on this edition. 


God Alone

  Jesus and the children at our church's prayer walk.          I will both lie down in peace and sleep;  For You alone, O LORD make ...