I am constantly amazed at each day that I face. One, that I am still here, the next being that yet again Jesus brings something else to write. I look back since the end of March and am in awe. The things that God has brought to my mind.
I am no scholar. Never went to a seminary. What I know of the Bible comes from the men of God whom I sat under. In their sermons and their teachings. Pastor Mike Wingfield, Pastor Jeff Brown, Dr. Herman Hoyt, Dr. Boyer. Dr. John C. Whitcomb to name a few.
The rest is from daily reading and asking God to show me more.
Show me more. I guess that's taking faith to a new level. To not only believe in the Bible, but to ask the living authority on it to explain more of it to me. Connect the dots, if you will. What most people miss is that I can tell He enjoys it!
I made a commitment to meet with Jesus in the morning. Even at the expense of sleep. I read devotionals that He has brought to me. I read a section or so of the Bible that Biblegateway.com has going to read through it in a year.
Then the amazing happens. These words begin to flow. Today's devotionals covered a few things that made Scripture clearer. Solomon's Temple was built with no physical tools on site. Everything was chiseled or hewn or hammered off site. Where the material was. Then transported and everything fit.
What made this reading stand out was that is an excellent description of our lives as Christians before leaving this world. All the work of Sanctification will be complete before we set foot in Heaven. The piece we are in God's Temple up there will have us fitting perfectly upon arrival. That's how Spurgeon wrote it for today.
Did that rock in the quarry being chiseled know how it was going to fit in the Temple? No.
Did that beam of cedar? No.
Will you see how you fit into God's Plan? Likely no. We will never see the ramifications of all He has done this side of Heaven. Amazing.
Another devotional was about Spiritual markers. Writing down the things in your life where you KNEW it was God. What lead up to that marker. What the marker was and what came next.
So that when you faced new things you have something to look back on to strengthen your faith. I can't write well at all so I type. All these posts to this blog, save one, were tapped out on my phone.
If you can text, you can keep a Journal.
If you need suggestions, ask me. I use 3.
Stop your crazy life and breathe.
Things appearing to not go the way you planned? Maybe it's because those weren't God's plans. This broke and that didn't go right, this happened, there they go again. Well some of that might be Spiritual in nature. Some just may be that anything man made will break. It's royally annoying and inconvenient, but things break.
Breathe.
Life isn't about you. If you are a Christian, it's about Christ in you. It is you being worked on in the quarry or the forest. Being made ready for Heaven. Being sanctified. Sometimes the best way to deal with what you experience is to put on the brakes, be still and tell God what's on your mind and heart. He knows what it means to take up your cross. He did it.
He knows betrayal. It happened to Him. He knows what it means to be the one suffering and see your family helpless to do anything but be near you. He knows frustration. He knows what it means to be vilified and violated. He was stripped down and beaten. He was humiliated before a nation. He went through every single emotion you can come up with.
Yet was without sin.
You are not alone. He will always be with you. I have called the things He does with me Spiritual surgeries. It is indeed work in the forest or the quarry. Work on the potter's wheel. Do some to the masterpiece then let it rest. Let it sink in.
The masterpiece cannot know what it is going to look like in the Master's hands until the Master says of them "It is Finished!".
So write down what God's doing in your life. Be willing to open up before Him. Be amazed when you see Him working. Ask for more.
May you never cease to be amazed too.
Amen AMen
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