The Quiet Time

Posted on August 3, 2018 by heartcalm7

The Quiet Time is the term often applied to the efforts a Christ-follower makes to experience closeness with God, usually one or more times a day.  It often includes getting alone, silence, prayer, Bible study, meditation, and often the recording of thoughts gleaned from the experience.  Christians consider this time their life-blood or their oxygen hose, so dependent are they on it for their spiritual health, happiness, and effectiveness.

During this time, we can grow to think God’s thoughts about life (and our situation), rather than our own amateurish thoughts.  It is like taking the time to read the owners’ manual of some new device we just bought, or actually having a personal question-and-answer session with the maker of the device himself.  What we learn in this exercise can untangle our knotted thoughts and bring direction out of confusion.

One important function of the quiet time is open our eyes to the many ways we are messing up our lives and the lives of others, which also sabotages our Creator’s wise intent for our lives.  The quiet time process can both point out these dangerous flaws to us, as well as move our hearts to actually want to change them.

“I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved.”                    Habakkuk 2:1

How we reply to God’s reproof is dependent on how we view His correction.  If we see it as Someone sticking His nose into our business, though uninvited, we will resent it, lick our wounds in self-pity, sorry to be caught.  But if we welcome His intervention, as though our kindly coach were showing us how to more skillfully run the race, we are grateful and eager to apply His advice.

“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”                              2 Corinthians 7:10

Lord, give us watchful, vigilant, eager, teachable, obedient spirits as we seek Your healing and guidance in our lives.  Fix us, O Lord!

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Are you clinging to a mirage?

Posted on July 30, 2018 by heartcalm7

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”                                           1 Timothy 6:17-19

So, is there a quality of life that is not life indeed?  Is there a make-believe life that has no real substance?  God’s wording, through Paul, certainly suggests this.  How unnerving it is to think that the years and hours we spend assessing the options around us, pursuing our choices, and seeking significance could be pursuing a mirage!  Like a movie set, the things we spend our precious lives acting among we later discover to be only false building faces with nothing behind them.

“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”            Matthew 7:26-27

Certainly, we would serve ourselves well to carefully discard worthless things from our lives, though they might be outwardly attractive.  Only by doing this will we have the time and energy to pursue that which is of eternal substance.

The first crucial choice we must make in life is whether or not we will yoke ourselves with our Creator.  We do this by receiving His gift of eternal life contained in the person of Jesus, God-in-the-Flesh.  The apostle John viewed this to be so important that he did not consider life without Christ to be any real life at all.

“And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”    1 John 5:11-12

Once we have received this gift of eternal life, we then can begin to experience it this side of heaven as God intended, as we learn to love what He loves and to pursue those things.  Likewise, to hate what He hates and flee from those.  As Matthew put it (above), wisely acting on the principles God gave us for living is building upon the Rock.  These things are those of permanent importance.  The Bible is full of innumerable ways we can live according to His values:  prioritizing our dependent relationship with God, yielding to the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we go through life, seeking to represent His wisdom and grace to those lost sheep around us, relieving suffering, and encouraging the dismayed.

We will find, both in this life and in the next, this is not pursuing a mirage, but that it is life indeed.

 

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Someone is watching you

Posted on July 26, 2018 by heartcalm7

Beware of the opportune time! This is the ominous phrase used of Satan’s strategy following the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, at the beginning of His ministry.

“When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.”  Luke 4:13

His strategy in our lives is further described by Peter,

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, . . .   After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”      1 Peter 5:8, 10

Opportune times for the Devil come in everyone’s life.  When drunk, Lot committed incest with his daughters.  King David stumbled into lust, adultery, deceit, and murder, when his guard was down.  Innocent Joseph was framed by his master’s wife when finally she found him alone in the house with her.  Solomon was blessed, wise, and very wealthy, but he fell into rebellion against God, in multiple forbidden marriages to pagan women.  Peter, who boldly claimed to Jesus that he would never forsake Him, fearfully denied Him repeatedly during the trial of Jesus.

When do you find yourself in a compromised position of weakness, open to The Tempter?  It is a healthy discipline to regularly review the situations we put ourselves in daily.  To be circumspect.  Cautious.  Alert.

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit . . .”          1 Peter 1:13

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”                                                                                                                   Ephesians 6:10-12

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This is not being an uptight, fearful kill-joy.  It is being prudent, eyes wide open, seeing the invisible dangers surrounding us.  And being wise enough to make some emergency mid-course corrections before it is too late and we suffer harm.  And others be harmed in collateral damage.

 

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Justifies us “for His own sake”

Posted on July 24, 2018 by heartcalm7

We start with a sad story of a jilted Lover:

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“For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them;
And often He restrained His anger
And did not arouse all His wrath.
Thus He remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passes and does not return.

How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And grieved Him in the desert!
Again and again they tempted God,
And pained the Holy One of Israel.”                                  Psalm 78:37-41

God wrote the script He gave to Hosea the Prophet to illustrate the pain this caused Him for His beloved Israel to forsake Him and to flaunt their ingratitude and sin in His face.

“How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, O Israel? . . .

My heart is turned over within Me,
All My compassions are kindled.
I will not execute My fierce anger;
I will not destroy Ephraim again.
For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst,
And I will not come in wrath.”                                                Hosea 11:8-9

These passages capture the longing ache the Creator had for His ungrateful, rebellious people.  He chose to “wipe out” our transgressions.  For His own sake.

“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake,
And I will not remember your sins.”                                       Isaiah 43:25

But God, being perfect and just, could not just “let bygones be bygones,” ignoring sin.  A just penalty had to be paid.  Unbelievably, He chose to wipe out our sin-debt by paying the due penalty Himself, allowing Himself to be both just and the justifier (Romans 3:26) at the same time.

justice scales“I will bear the indignation of the Lord
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me.
He will bring me out to the light,
And I will see His righteousness.”                                            Micah 7:9

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”                                                                                                             Romans 5:6, 8

What is your response to His act of justice and the clean slate He holds out to you?  What does His passion and action motivate you to do?

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You are God’s masterpiece!

Posted on July 19, 2018 by heartcalm7
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“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”                  Ephesians 2:10

What a comfort and encouragement it is to meditate upon this truth that the Creator of the universe carefully and thoughtfully made us!  Like a craftsman intentionally and patiently fashioning capacities into a complicated device, He studiedly put us together.  He thought carefully about the purposes He had for us.

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“You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

“For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.“               Psalm 139:2-6, 13-17

 

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”                                   Philippians 1:6

What has He made you to be?  What plans does He have for you today?

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Living in Dependence

Posted on July 16, 2018 by heartcalm7

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him. . .”    Colossians 2:6  NIV

“Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”         Galatians 3:3

In our quest for forgiveness of sin and a relationship with God, we finally come to an end of ourselves.  In repentance, we acknowledge that we are helpless sinners, unable to fix ourselves.  “While we were powerless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.”  Romans 5:6 NASB  Having finally realized that we are needy and incapable of making the life repairs necessary for reconciliation with God, we place all of our hopes in God to accomplish it.  He does this unilaterally, by executing His own Son in our place.  We give up all aspirations of ever pleasing God in our own efforts and cast all our hopes upon Him.

It is a strange thing that we have so much difficulty continuing in this helpless, dependent posture through life.  After receiving the gift of eternal life, many people then try to muscle their way along in life, relying on their own efforts to develop godly behavior.  There is a sense in which we are called on to make the effort to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”   Philippians 2:12  But we act like we are the Principal in this partnership.  We feel it is our responsibility to accomplish our own visible righteousness by working diligently at it.  Paul tells the Galatians and Colossians that they must live the visible Christian life after we have been justified in the same way that we became justified — by faith.  Trusting God to make of our everyday lives what He wants them to look like, as we rest in Him, depending on Him to produce it in us.  It is like a hand-in-glove experience, as God lives His life through us.  “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  Galatians 2:20  Our main concern is to stay fastened upon the Hand.

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Gospel Preview in the Old Testament

Posted on July 12, 2018 by heartcalm7

The Gospel of Salvation is sewn throughout the Bible, from start to finish, as a “crimson thread” of the Messiah’s saving blood.  Those who lived before Christ could look forward to it.  Those who lived with Jesus could see it being revealed.  We who follow can look back and see more clearly what God has done for us, in His love for us.

“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”                    Hebrews 11:13             NASB

Although they did not know clearly the details of how God would save them from the penalty warranted by their sin and their helplessness to do anything about it, they rightly sensed that it would be God Himself who would have to do this for them.  He would have to do what they could not accomplish in their own strength.

“I will bear the indignation of the Lord
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me.
He will bring me out to the light,
And I will see His righteousness.”                            Micah 7:9
Micah foresaw the court scene of our Advocate Jesus defending all who would trust in His substitutionary death in their place, insisting, “It’s paid in full!”

justice scales“But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.”                                                     Isaiah 53:5-6

Won’t you accept today this gift of undeserved forgiveness and eternal life?  We come with empty hands, having nothing to offer to warrant His favor.  Only with hands empty can we take the Gift He is so eager to give us.

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Does God forget sin?

Posted on July 9, 2018 by heartcalm7


Does God forget our sin?  What does David mean when he says,

“I, even I, am he who blots out
    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more.”                Isaiah 43:25  NIV

Or Isaiah:  “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.”                                 Isaiah 38:17  NASB

“He will again have compassion on us;
He will tread our iniquities under foot.
Yes, You will cast all their sins
Into the depths of the sea.”                                                                           Micah 7:19    NASB

It is an incomprehensible blessing that we should be forgiven forever, we who deserve full, just punishment for our self-life.  His forgetting our sin is wonderful relief of our anxiety and sense of doom.  But our remembering our sin is also a powerful motivator in us.  The memory that we who are guilty have been released from those charges, our debt paid in full by Jesus, motivates us to godly living out of gratitude for this undeserved grace.
“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”   Hebrews 12:28-29   NASB

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”       Romans 12:1  NIV

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”                   2 Corinthians 5:14-15

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Try me and know my anxious thoughts

Posted on July 6, 2018 by heartcalm7

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.”                         Psalm 139:23-24
Often, it’s when a glass is bumped that one finds out what is in it.  When life is going well, we may be deaf to the warning sirens within us, blind to the red lights flashing.  This delays our necessary task to learn what faults and weaknesses we have within, which, undetected, could lead to our serious harm.  Finding out the dangers within us allows us to enlist God’s help to correct them.

“See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
    I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”                    Isaiah 48:10

“Test me, Lord, and try me;  examine my heart and my mind.”                       Psalm 26:2

It’s not that God needs to know what is within us;  He already is well aware.  It was said of Jesus that “He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”  (John 2:25)  But He wants us to know and acknowledge our sin and helplessness to fix it.  It is urgent that we discover the issues within us that we need Him to fix.  We do not wish to go on hurting ourselves and others, and we do not want to do violence to His kingdom, driving people away from Him by our character and actions.

This is a reason we can “exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope . . .”       Romans 5:3-4

“Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”                              Psalm 51:10

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Reflecting God’s Glory

Posted on July 3, 2018 by heartcalm7
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The moon has fascinated mankind since creation.  Songs have been written to rejoice in its beauty.  Lovers have held hands and enjoyed the atmosphere it creates.  It shows us around, to a degree, at night.  This author has a reputation for going walking in the middle of the night to enjoy its mystery and beauty.

The moon revolves around the earth in a 27-day orbit, circling the earth from west to east.  (It seems to move from east to west because of the rotation of the earth on its axis.)  The moon radiates no light of its own.  It reflects to us the light of a greater body, the sun.

We, too, can reflect to others the light and beauty of Another, if we fix our own souls upon our Creator.  Jesus told the multitude on the mount, “Let your light shine before men is such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Jesus Himself was “the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His nature,” as He showed us what God looked like in the flesh.  “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

We are made to shine in the darkness around us.  It is the purpose for which we were created.  The secret to shine as we should is to focus the attention of our minds and hearts on Jesus, a habit which seats His Holy Spirit upon the throne of our lives.  Having been given control, He then is given rein to live through us, making us shine like Jesus does.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”       2 Corinthians 3:8

“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”      Colossians 3:1-3

Shine through us, Lord Jesus!

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