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First blog post
This is the post excerpt.
God’s Proposal
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:9-10
Sometimes God leads me to look deeper into a seemingly obvious and unremarkable word. That happened with the word translated “purpose” in the verse above. That word is prothesis (πρόθεσις) and in it I discovered an astounding hidden treasure.
The word means a proposal or intention, the setting forth or placing in view of something. Literally, it means “a setting forth in advance for a specific purpose, God’s pre-thesis.”1 But the breathtaking thing about this word is that, specifically…
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To Carry a Different Way
I love this word picture!
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Matthew 6:26 (NIV)
More valuable. Looking deeper into this verse I found a surprising and wonderful hidden treasure. That Greek word translated valuable – diaphero – doesn’t just mean valuable. It also means to bear or carry through a place, to carry a different way, in a different direction, to a different place, to differ, to be more excellent.
To carry a different way. We are carried a different way. God carries everything. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col. 1:17).” He carries the sparrows; He carries the fields that grow the seed they eat. Underneath are the Everlasting Arms. But He carries us a different way.
And he’s…
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The Winter is Past
The passage into pure trust…
My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”
Song of Songs 2:10-13
I have been reading Brennan Manning’s book, The Furious Longing of God. In it, he translates verses 10-11 above this way:
‘Come now, My love. My lovely one, come. For you, the winter has passed, the snows are over and gone, the flowers appear in the land, the season of joyful songs has come.’
For you – for me – the winter is passed. I felt the Lord calling me out of a long season…
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Swimming in Glory
The glory of God is our natural habitat. Wow!
You have made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler. The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly. Habakkuk 1:14-15
For the earth will be filled with the knowledgeof the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14
Did you ever think of that? That we are like fish of the sea and that we were made to, and are, swimming in the glory of God? Pretty amazing, isn’t it? The Glory of God is our natural habitat. The angels recorded by Isaiah call out that the whole earth is full of God’s glory.
And they [the seraphim] were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his…
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Bring Back Your Heart
Merry Christmas!
But you must return (repent, return to your starting point, be restored, bring back your heart, do it and do it again, turn back) to your God;
maintain (protect, guard, keep watch, have charge of the garden, keep, preserve)
love (goodness, kindness, mercies, pity, merciful kindness, lovingkindness, especially to the lowly and needy and miserable)
and justice (right, rectitude, judgement, the verdict of God),
and wait for (patiently, tarry, wait on, wait upon, expect, look eagerly for) your God
always (continually, constantly, daily like the morning and evening sacrifice, with uninterrupted continuity like the Bread that is always there). Hosea 12:6
Into the dark night
God brought us his heart
Laid it in a manger
A baby’s cry echoing our pain
A tiny fist clutching life of breast
Then opening on prickly manger hay
Wrapped shroud-like against the biting cold
The heart of God
The heart of the universe
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What is Love?
Thank you Sheila!
Recently my sister asked me “what is love?” She is wrestling like me. I am not completely certain, but one thing for sure, caregiving has given me a different picture of love.
Love is definitely NOT warm fuzzy feelings. It may not even be at its core emotion at all, though there are emotions attached to it. But love transcends emotion because emotions are flesh. Real love is in the spirit. God is love and God is Spirit. Yet, God definitely has emotions.
At its heart and essence, I’m beginning to see that love resides somewhere in the grit-your-teeth killing of the self. It is keeping on, enduring, persevering, choosing to do the right thing though you know you will be misunderstood, rejected, punished for it. It is taking the next step and the next step and the next, always focused on what pleases God, what will heal and help…
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It’s a Wonderful Death
Hard-won insight for sure!
May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’ Job 3:3
Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me. Job 10:18
I have been re-reading Job and I can relate, in a very small way, to his wishing he had never been born. Sometimes the burden is too heavy; sometimes you just want it to be done. Job’s faith was tested to the utmost. He asked God, what was it all for? He was tempted to give up, to blame God, to “curse God and die” but he held fast. God was refining and testing Job, and, according to James 5:11, he passed the test.
Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how…
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Shaken Off
For I am poor (depressed, in mind or circumstances, wretched, afflicted,
humble, lowly, needy, poor)
and needy (in want, a beggar, needy, poor),
and my heart (inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding, seat of courage)
is wounded (profaned, defiled, polluted, desecrated, violated, wounded, pierced)
within me (my inward part, seat of thought and emotion, my center).
I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust. Psalm 109:22-23
I can identify with all of this Psalm – the depression, the woundedness, the feeling like I am in darkness. But I can especially relate to that last line: “I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.”
I can understand shaking off a locust or grasshopper in creepy disgust. The feel of their sticky little feet and they are ugly and they spit that brown goo. They are associated with…
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Is the Lord Among Us Or Not?
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. Exodus 16:4
And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” Exodus 17:7
Reading the two verses above together was mind-blowing to me. The Hebrew word translated “test” in each of these verses is the same word. It is nasah (נָסָה) which means to test, assay, prove, tempt, try.
It seems like there is a lot of testing going on in Exodus, God testing his people and his people testing God. I remembered Jesus, who being tested in the desert by the devil, quoted another verse which…
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We Belong to Each Other
“… each member [of the body of Christ] belongs to all the others. We have different gifts …” Romans 12:5-6
Have you ever thought that? That we belong to each other? And, if that is true, that we really don’t have the choice to withhold our different gifts? Paul writes that we belong to each other, and that our gifts therefore belong to each other. What are our gifts? Paul lists prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leadership, and showing mercy. There are many more, I’m sure. Later in his letter he writes to be devoted to one another in brotherly love, never lacking in zeal. This is a far cry from doing something once in a while when we think of it and it is convenient.
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep…
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gmcrossley 