for anthony:
God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!15 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”16 God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.
At Ford the proving grounds serve as a space of land dedicated to being absolutely sure the vehicle in question is capable of performing as it is designed for the long haul. Here the vehicle can undergo the complete gauntlet of testing via terrain and conditions for driving.
I have felt like I am in the proving grounds lately.
I feel so “ready to go,” I am ready for a new challenge, a new season, a new opportunity, and yet God is clearly taking me around the proving grounds. Familiar faces, experiences, and situations have me reeling again and again and again.
God’s Spirit beckons!
How I want to respond YES FATHER I HEAR YOU! I believe that there are things to do and places to go, and yet here I am living in the proving grounds.
WHY?
There needs to be proof.
There needs to be real proof.
It’s Proof that I am who I say I am. It’s Proof that my submission isn’t conditional, proof that I don’t decide some time from now that really I am the self-sufficent and successful adult that, after-all understands what I really need.
But more than that, it’s proof that my departure won’t be early.
If a car can’t survive the proving grounds, it’s back to the drawing boards. If I can’t survive the proving grounds, maybe it’s back to the basics.
The proving grounds are the in between the basics and the real deal. There is real progress here. It’s not a what happens next? (with a question mark) It a what happens next! (exclamation.) It’s the excitement that all this is going to mean something soon. It’s not just for nothing. It’s for something so big we can’t know yet.
Don’t despise the proving grounds.
Soon enough you will be require to perform the way you were designed, and to do that you need proof FOR YOURSELF.
Adventurously Expectant!
Jump
“Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God.”
If there has ever been a moment to simplify, it’s now. I’m nearly 25. 25. Whoa! The lessons that I am learning now stem from 25 years of experience, I know awesome, right?
A quarter century gone by and I can breathe a sigh of relief. My life is more simple than it has ever been! In view of the arguably most complex time of my life, (according to nearly every publicized means), I am actually finding things more simple.
Why?
Exactly!
I know why. I know why I’m alive. I know why in response to all of “this”
“God’s purpose in all of this was that man would search after God, feel their way towards Him and perhaps find Him, though He is not far from anyone of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being.
I have joy. I enjoy things because of Jesus.
It’s a gift to struggle harder and yet have a lighter burden. It’s a gift to enjoy things and not allow your mind to want something else. It’s a gift to let go of things you can’t control anyway. It’s a gift to commune with God.
The chief end of Man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
I’m free. It’s simple. I love it.
Jump
“Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.”
We all need a turning point.
Sometimes we need more than one.
Is your life a God story?
Today is the day that the Lord has made.
This moment, I sense God’s awesomeness all around me. It is late and I am sitting perfectly still. The candles are near their finish and all I can think about it that God is writing.
But most days, because of what you are going through, I am sure that it’s better for me to stick it out here.So I plan to be around awhile, companion to you as your growth and joy in this life of trusting God continues. -Paul
1. who can you be a companion to, helping their growth and joy as they trust God?
2. what keeps you from being available when people need you.?
3. when selfishness presents itself how do you respond?
4. where is the fruit people can taste because of my own walk with Christ?
5. why would I settle on myself? when I am not available to help, I am settling for me.
I loved reading through acts 10 and wrapping my mind around how big a deal it was for Peter to have the vision on the roof. God literally changes Peter’s mind as he begins to see events unfold and reveal something about God.
Obeying God will protect you from becoming stuck in a religious system of your own.
Without obedience there is no understanding when God acts.
If Peter isn’t praying, he doesn’t get the vision. If Peter allows his understanding to be the go to, he never goes into the home of Cornelius. If Peter doesn’t go into the house, the Holy Spirit doesn’t make it to the gentiles.
It is very important to obey when it doesn’t make sense. Especially when it doesn’t make sense.
I want to get out into the ocean of faithfulness with Jesus, allowing the depth of his purpose to help me humbly row from moment to moment in trust, not in scepticism.
Jump
As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him… Acts 8:6
As for me.
The single individual is decisive in forming community…The cohesiveness of community comes from each one’s being a single individual before the eternal. The connectedness of a public, however, or rather its disconnectedness, consists of the numerical character of everything.
God speaks to the individual. Conversely, he doesn’t speak to the crowd. He needs no one and nothing and yet chooses to involve individuals in his plan. Acts is full of this. “Meanwhile, Paul.” “Meanwhile, Peter.” “As for Philip.” God moved one person to act.
Do you get alone to listen for God? Is it hard to be alone?
Now, we have made it almost impossible to be alone. ALONE? As s.k. would say in another place, “It is a frightful satire and an epigram on the modern age that the only use it knows for solitude is to make it a punishment, a jail sentence.”
Yet, social networking and wireless connection is continually shrinking the time we “have” to be alone.
What will it take to stand alone with God? This is not a one time deal. It’s simple but requires total concentration. For Moses it was 40 days. For Peter as we learned it was 8 months.
When we are individuals community is RIGHT!
I must secure MORE TIME ALONE!
Andy
For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 1 thessalonians 4.9-11
Two days have passed since I was first presented with this passage. Since, I have seen it in nearly every situation and thought I have been a part of. It began as a simple thought from a teaching that our job is to encourage. If you ask someone to sum up 1 thessalonians 4, (if you ask me too,) I would probably immediately think of it as “the rapture” chapter. Verse 17 is the “Big” reference to rapture although there are several. The text reads “Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” “Caught up” here obviously refers to theological term rapture.
Why does this matter?
Well I have been caught up, but not with verse 17, it’s been with verses 9-11.
For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever.
So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 1 thessalonians 4.9-11
This is just so incredible and as the message puts it “God handling all the details as we trust in Christ.” Just reading this puts strength in my soul. BUT IT’S NOT JUST FOR ME. IT’S FOR YOU TOO!
The second part says SO encourage each other and build each other up.
I have been known to be caught up in things. Sad, but true. Things fight for my attention and as Pastor Chilly has always said, “Whatever has your attention has you.” I want stay caught up in these Truths and as a result spend my energies encouraging and building others. When I am caught up in everything else, it usually ends up selfish and self-serving. No way.
When you’re caught up in the Truth of Christ you can’t help but to encourage and build others.
Deciding to stay caught up!
Jump
