by David Brenneman
Oh what He's done.
I saw these 3 in my Facebook memories this morning and it brought a small flood to my mind of my life. I only say that because I don't have that kind of memory that can be recalled like many others.
I can, however, remember songs and music way more than the spoken word or things done or thought. Weird, but hey it's how I was knit together by my Creator.
My mind thinks on what it does in the mornings like this because of what God the Spirit decides to do with me. I am brought to the song "What He's Done" by Passion.
"See on the hill of Calvary
My Savior bled for meMy Jesus set me freeAnd look at the wounds that give me lifeGrace flowing from His sideNo greater sacrifice
What He's doneWhat He's doneAll the glory and the honor to the SonMy sins are forgivenMy future is HeavenI praise God for what He's done
Sing for the freedom He has wonEven death is dead and doneHis life has overcomeSpeak, say the Name above all namesOver every broken placeHe is risen from the grave
What He's doneWhat He's doneAll the glory and the honor to the SonMy sins are forgivenMy future is HeavenI praise God for what He's done
Now on a throne of majestyThe Father's will completeHe reigns in victorySing hallelujah to the KingHe is worthy to receiveAll the worship we can bring
What He's doneWhat He's doneAll the glory and the honor to the SonMy sins are forgivenMy future is HeavenI praise God for what He's done
What He's doneWhat He's doneAll the glory and the honor to the SonMy sins are forgivenMy future is HeavenI praise God for what He's doneI praise God for what He's done
When my life is done its not at all going to be about me and what I accomplished in life for me. The Apostle Paul wrote of something along these lines. That he would only boast in the Lord always and that was it.
I sit in a chair today that's a reminder of what He's done. I was indeed a Facebook Marketplace purchase, however, I believe it was of God. It was being sold by someone who had been my Wife's breast care nurse. It's a connection to another place and time where we know that God brought us through a fire of sorts. The house in which I sit is a reminder in a different way. I look around the room, just this room, and can see reminders of what He's done.
And for several months now, yet again, I have been hearing the Spirit say to hang on, the best is yet to come. This grand blessing of finally moving to here from our wilderness wandering was only the beginning. My hope and prayer is to find a job that helps people. To have this place paid off and that I could help people without this burden over my head.
This hasn't always been what my hopes were about. It took years of God working on me to get me to this place in life. To be honest, as always, I have achieved way more in this life than I ever imagined possible. Technology and science have always been fascinating to me. I worked on things for the Space Shuttle. Have things on Mars that I had a hand in building. Have things on the International Space Station as well. Here on Earth countless other things. From immediately helping a company replace respirators after 9/11 to other things. God had me in the right place and time for those things.
I have helped many along the way with many things as best as I knew how. When challenged to look for a dream to follow, that portion is what stood out as what it should be. My Earthly aspirations were spent. I have thoroughly enjoyed helping people all my life. My computer ministry started after I witnessed someone clueless as to a simple memory upgrade that they could have done themselves yet paid out over $300 to have done. They just didn't know. That started in 1988. Am still doing it today.
My montra if you will is simple. I charge no fees nor will you get a bill from me for services rendered. If I go to church with whomever it is, I only ask that if what was done was worth anything to them that they put it in the offering plate. Don't tell me what it was, just when they did it. Also not to do it in my name, it confuses the bean counters. For those outside of the Church, if they pay me they do, if they don't then I don't sweat it. The amount doesn't matter. I was still able to hopefully help someone.
I have often lost sleep helping people that way but it's how I am.
Have you ever stopped to look at the blessings in your life? Have you a heart to help people more than helping yourself?
Was blessed to be reminded of self-forgetfullness by a friend in the small group that I meet with on Saturdays. It's ok to forget about me when others are in need.
Have you ever wondered about what things you haven't seen that the hand of God saved you from? Or how He provided when that provision made no sense as to how it happened?
We are often so self deceived by our eyes.
We are so used to what our senses show us in guiding our thinking. The Spiritual world impacts our physical is ways we cannot know ourselves outside of a right relationship with Jesus Christ. We cannot see another’s burdens or really be impacted by them unless our heart were in the right place.
We who are in Christ will indeed be learning all our Earthly lives through the wonders that we see and don't see now.
I don't care about my accomplishments anymore. Don't care about degrees or certifications. Don't care about education. It's written in Philippians 3:8-11 NASB "More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."
I have been one to be blessed with learning to see patterns in situations and people. I often refer to it as connecting the dots. God often overlays His words to situations that I find myself evaluating. I know that it's from Him because it's His Word and as I began with, my memory isn't that good at recalling things on the fly. I often can see down the road concerning someone and quite often they aren't ready or willing to hear it yet because of what I am shown is from God. It's a spiritual thing that only comes from me hopefully learning from Him.
At first Joseph's dreams were amazing to him, though wrought in God's showing him what would come decades later. When he was in prison the revealing of the cup bearer and the bakers dreams didn't amaze him so much. Throughout his life we read "and the Lord was with him".
Letting go of things and my selfish desires is what's opened me up to God doing more in me and through me than I ever thought possible. Learning to react differently to situations. Learning how to react to people who do things to me. Leaving room for God to deal with people. Oh the stories I can tell of how God has indeed dealt with my enemies. Suffice to say, don't mess with God's kids.
Take time today to stop and consider all that the Lord Jesus had done with you and for you. Think about how you are in your level of selfishness. We all have it to deal with. It's rooted in our sin nature. It's what started sin in Adam and Eve in the first place.
Jesus said to deny yourself, take up our own cross, and follow Him.
Look at what you spend your time doing.
Look at what you have spent money on.
Look at what you set as important in your life.
Do these reflect a life of denying yourself, taking up your own cross and following Jesus?
The LinkedIn world strives to make everyone a leader. Guess what? Jesus said the opposite. We have one who is our Leader and it's not us. We are in the body of Christ Jesus as the Spirit sees fit. Jesus is the head. He is the Leader of the body calling the shots as to its plan, purpose and direction.
The world pushes higher education. Look at the types of people that Jesus had a woe concerning. Woe to the Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. at least 8 times in one passage setting. Being educated doesn't make you smarter, it actually makes you more accountable.
Take time to look at your life, would it be more of you being grateful to God or of you being ashamed because of how much of it is rooted in selfishness? Even focusing too heavily on even a single aspect too much is still selfishness. An example being the world's craving for the health kick. The world is full of multilevel marketing schemes that take people for a ride, and not a good one. It's even infiltrated the Church as well.
Look at your life, take the time to be grateful to God for what He's done. Take time to change course now while there is still time to do more for Jesus than for you.
In this world only are we consumed by what we see, hear and touch that is about us. When we die we either see Jesus, if we are saved in Christ, or we see eternal separation from God paying for our own sins in torment.
The choice is yours in this here this now.
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