Thursday, October 12, 2006

Changing of the seasons, in the past Fall has always heralded to me the arrival of winter and dark and cold and dying and death ….I can miss the beauty of fall, the changing of the leaves the color….perhaps if I could adjust my thinking….to…..or think for awhile simply on CHANGE.
I guess I buck against it, I guess I tremble in fear at a change in the status quo, I guess a life of risk would be lived in and about change. I don’t know it just seems as though RISK permeates a lot of my thinking these days so maybe if I can wrap my brain and heart around CHANGE, move towards it, quit fighting it, quit fearing it…….
CHANGE and RISK could they be related ???

Change can lead to confusion…….risk……

‘They’ say they don’t know anything for sure but the words say or sound to me like they do…..they offer a different way of looking at the gospel... they don’t invite you to just look at it for yourself, they don’t offer the simplicity of you and the bible and the Holy Spirit to discover your way…..they put their spin on it…we all do but the danger .... to spin people away from the power of believing in Jesus……but then perhaps I spin towards believing……

I don’t think I am confused. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life and I am not owner of it but becoming owned by it. Without the humility of accepting that I need YOU…..how can it be finished if we don’t own or accept our part in the sacrifice that was needed?? A perfect God needs perfection…..in Christ you are through the power of the Holy Spirit completing that perfection in us…..

How can we KNOW You ??……the Bible is YOUR manuscript to us….the Bible is our pathway to knowing YOU and Your desires from the beginning to now…..the same then, now and forever. A desire for us to KNOW, LOVE and in that LOVE come to desire to be obedient to YOUR WILL…….but You don’t MAKE us to do any of it. You don’t NEED us to do it….You OFFER it……a yielding of my will to YOURS……CHANGE


The secret of Christian quietness is not indifference, but the knowledge that God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, and worry becomes an impossibility. Oswald Chambers

Make sure you read Larry's comment and go to his blog.......Thank God for companions on the journey.

2 comments:

Larry said...

Our world teaches us to resist change, and reinforces the lesson. Don't risk anything.

Unless, of course, you're into extreme sports. That model has permeated Christian culture. We're supposed to abandon ourselves and hang everything on the right move at the right time.

Well, of course we're scared. I'm scared. Change is a real threat; we've learned that usually it's for the worse. I've seen people hang on in situations I'd call intolerable because what might come after could be even worse. I've done it myself. Today may be bad but tomorrow will quite likely be worse. I'm a cynic, and I'm not brave.

So, what does God do? First, he makes sure I understand forgiveness. I'm not worthy of any of this, but Jesus makes me worthy. Then he starts showing me things, kind of putting out an attractive bread-crumb trail. I pick up a crumb and move on. Each crumb teaches me a bit about Him.

And then, when I realize I've been caught, he just holds on as I thrash, threaten, rebel, run and otherwise try to get away. He waits. He knows that nothing else is so attractive as he is, and eventually I'll realize that. After about two years.

I don't measure up to any standard that will impress other people. I'm a lousy Christian. All I can say is that I'm forgiven and that allows me to keep on. I'm tired of organizations setting forth standards for people. God doesn't play that game. He knows our hearts, and if there's any way to make real, substantive change in a soul, God's ways are the only ways that will really work. Otherwise it's just like warfare: an answer is imposed from outside, there is a winner and a loser, and neither of them wins anything real.

I can't speak for your life. I don't know what your needs are, or what things look like to you. God, however, does know exactly what you need and the more you allow him to touch you, to speak to you, the move alive the answers will be. He's bringing my walking desert to life. He can do this for anyone, if He's allowed to be Himself.

So, yes, God knows what he's doing. It's serious business and change hurts. God knows it hurts. Jesus experienced it. He knows right down to the heart what it means to be a human being, and we don't get blamed for human frailty.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Becky. I've been thinking about CHANGE all day. This is good stuff. Real stuff. Real good stuff.