The Ugly-Beautiful

May 9, 2013 at 11:11 pm (Eucharisteo, God's Word, Growth, perspective)
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It can be difficult to find God within heart-wrenching pain.  More than difficult.  It can seem impossible – only a thing for great theologians, and individuals much better and more selfless than myself.  For a simple girl, looking at the world from her pain-filled corner?  It feels hopeless.

For those of you who are new in joining my journey through Just Breathe, I’ll recap briefly a few key points to date.  I’ve been working my way through One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp, who highlights the perspective of living in thankfulness, also known as eucharisteo.  If you’d like to read my other posts specifically in regards to this part of my growth this year, you can click on the category “eucharisteo” and join in.  My practical step to focusing on thankfulness is a small journal I keep, where I keeping my “gift list” – a place where I can list the gifts of grace that God places in my life.  My goal?  To reach 1000.  My even bigger goal?  To never stop recording what God is doing in my life, even if it is a quick jot in a book, but to live in habitual eucharisteo.  So, to 1000 and beyond!

Also, I told you, my lovely adventurers, that I would be accountable to you with how my list was progressing.  Admittedly, I am not as far along as I should.  With how abundant God’s blessings are, I should be well past a thousand.  However, I have not given up, but am quietly plugging along.  My compilation thus far has reached a grand total of 114.  That’s 114 better than 0. 🙂

Recent entries:
109.  Skype dates with Kiley
110.  that one shady spot in a parking lot being open
111.  something sweet at the end of a long, hard day
112.  Being tired from the sunshine – and having sunshine to be tired from!
113.  Momma saying I am a blessing to her
114.  Being wanted.

I’ve been home from college for about a week and half, and it has been lovely to be done with exams.  Ohmysoul.  So very lovely.  I do not miss finals, or the 3 1/2 hours of sleep per night I got on average that week.  However, coming home has not been easy.  I will be honest, life (circumstantially) is not entirely rosy.  I am surrounded by a lot of brokenness, and at times it can be difficult to see clearly through pain.  Yes, there are wonderful parts to being home – I get to see my Momma every day, and my favorite coffee shop makes a mean dirty chai, but life feels very big and overwhelming.  Truth is, I am not enough to rise up and meet it.  I simply am not.

A particular question looms in view of this: Where is grace?  Where is God’s goodness in all of the ugliness?

Ah.  There’s the kicker.  How do you view ugliness as grace?

How do we read the world, read the situation, read the people that cause pain?  Through His Word.  “To read His message in moments, I’ll need to read His passion on the page; wear the lens of the Word, to read His writing in the world.  Only the Word is the answer to rightly reading the world, because The World has nail-scarred hands that cup our face close, wipe away the tears running down, has eyes to look deep into our brimming ache, and whisper, ‘I know.  I know.’  The passion on the page is a Person, and the lens I wear of the Word is not abstract idea, but the eyes of the God-Man who came and knows the pain.”

I am a forgetful individual.  I forget that Jesus really did come, and that He really did experience pain – to an exponentially deeper degree than I will ever know.  Sometimes I feel like shouting at God, saying, “You cannot understand how torn my heart is and how great my pain is!”  And yet.  He can.

Here’s one of the most incredible concepts I’ve ever considered.   God the Father put His ONLY Son, Jesus, on the cross to pay for the sin of all of His people, and He called it grace.  He called it grace.  How could something so heinous, so terrible and horrifying be characterized as grace?  Because God uses the ugly-beautiful.

“See that I am God.  See that I am in everything.  See that I do everything.  See that I have never stopped ordering my words, nor ever shall, eternally.  See that I lead everything on to the conclusion I ordained for it before time began, by the same power, wisdom, and love with which I made it.  How can anything be amiss?”

It is grace because God isn’t finished yet.  He is the God of transfiguration.  He transfigured death into life.  He transfigured separation into relationship.  He transfigured depravity into righteousness.  Why do we think He is stopping there?  He was just getting on a roll!

In similar words to those of Ann Voscamp, but in my own language, from my own heart:

I can say that all is grace.  When a child loses a parent, when a family loses a home, when a mother buries her child, when friend takes their own life, when community is severed by betrayal – it is all grace.  This is when eucharisteo is hard – when thankfulness isn’t rejoiced in after experiencing a child’s laughter or a warm ray of sunshine.  All is grace, because God can transfigure all.  All is grace, because redemption is always possible.  All is grace, because “suffering nourishes grace, and pain and joy are arteries of the same heart – and mourning and dancing are but movements in His unfinished symphony of beauty.”   It is the “hard discipline to lean into the ugly and whisper thanks to transfigure it into beauty.”  But is possible.  Why?  Because God is good.

My challenge now?  To count hardship, struggle, and grief as grace.  My God is the God who transforms.  He is the God of the ugly-beautiful.

 
 
*One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voscamp; excerpts from chapter 5

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My Voyage

February 5, 2013 at 11:27 pm (College, Encouragement, God's Word, Growth, perspective, prayer)
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It has been a challenging couple of weeks.  Lots of stuff going on – some really good things, some really challenging and difficult things, but all good growing things.  Tonight, I finished studying for my statistics test that I have in the morning and was craving some Jesus time to quiet my thoughts and heart as I adjust to going to sleep.  Jesus is so faithful – He uses so many things to speak to our hearts, to renew weariness, that sometimes I’m overwhelmed by it.  And I’m not nearly overwhelmed often enough.  Here is a prayer from The Valley of Vision that quite perfectly encapsulates where I want my heart to be tonight.

~Voyage~

O Lord of the Oceans,
My little bark sails on a restless sea, 
Grant that Jesus may sit at the helm and steer me safely;
Suffer no adverse currents to divert my heavenward course;
Let not my faith be wrecked amid storms and shoals;
Bring me to harbour with flying pennants, hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled.
I ask great things,
        expect great things,
        shall receive great things.
I venture on thee wholly, fully, my wind, sunshine, anchor, defense.
The voyage is long, the waves high, the storms pitiless,
      but my helm is held steady,
      Thy Word secures safe passage,
      Thy grace wafts me onward,
      my haven is guaranteed.
This day will bring me nearer home,
Grand me holy consistency in every transaction,
      my peace flowing as a running tide, my righteousness as every chasing wave.
Help me to live circumspectly,
    with skill to convert every care into prayer,
Halo my path with gentleness and love, smooth every asperity of temper;
Let me not forget how easi it is to occasion grief;
May I strive to bind up every wound, and pour oil on all troubled waters.
May the world this day be happier and better because I live.
Let my mast before me be the Savior’s cross,
    and every oncoming wave the fountain in His side.
Help me, protect me in the moving sea
    until I reach the shore of unceasing praise.

This is my voyage.  Jesus is sitting at my helm and steering my safely, tenderly, faithfully.  Yes, storms come.  But I know who controls the seas, the harsh winds, and my little craft.  And each day I am nearer home.

Hebrews 6:19 – “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast…”

(I know there are run-on sentences galore in this post….however, my brain is tired.  It will only get worse with editing, so thank you for your graciousness. 🙂 )

(By the way, as I promised to be accountable to you, I AM continuing to work on my 1,000 gift list.  My problem has not been trying to think of things to include, my problem has been having the time to document all my blessings.  Such a good dilemma to have!!)

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Think Upon These Things

December 26, 2012 at 6:04 pm (Eucharisteo)
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“Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praise-worthy, meditate on these things.”                                 – Philippians 4:8

True.  Noble.  Just.  Pure.  Lovely.  Of Good Report.  Virtue.  Praise-worthy.

Most of us are incredibly familiar with this passage.  Most of us (myself absolutely included) do not implement it nearly as often as we should.  However, I am not convinced that this is, at least for myself, primarily intentionally done.  Or not done.  I oftentimes fail to translate this particular passage into practical terms.  Does it mean restricting yourself to watching only PG movies, only reading books with Christian themes, spending 3 hours each day reading the Bible, and going to Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening services at church?  I beg to differ.

Yes, all of the above things are good and fit the “requirements” of Paul’s words in Philippians.  However, I do not think that is the spirit of Paul’s message, or God’s message, for that matter.  I do not think this a list of “don’ts.”  Rather, I believe it is a list of “do’s.”

Paul was pushing us on toward goodness, toward God.  I don’t think that the passage is an all-inclusive list of what our conduct or thoughts should resemble.  Instead, I think that it was inspiring us with a direction in which to travel.

Not only are these qualities simply good ones upon which to meditate, they are part of God’s character.  He IS truth.  He Is noble.  He IS just.  He IS pure.  He IS virtuous.  He IS worthy of praise.  And so on.  Paul’s exhortation was not simply to meditate on those specific qualities.  For instance, truth, justice, and virtue all stem from God.  Therefore, if we meditate upon them, if we seek them out, we will be directly led back to the heart of God.

So what is Paul saying?  He is saying that God’s desire for us is that we would meditate upon Him, upon His GOODNESS.

His GOODNESS is life-transforming.  It is world-transforming.  It is the stark contrast to the depravity of humanity.

Practically speaking…

Our very nature is to seek to prove ourselves, to show that we are able-bodied, intelligent individuals who can handle everything on our own.  That’s called pride.  Often, it is disguised as the phrase “self-worth.”  One of the most difficult things in life is to maintain the balance of God’s prominence versus our own.  He has infinite greatness.  We do not.  We, without Him, are miserable, fallen creatures.

Here’s the incredible thing:  focusing on the GOODNESS of God helps to keep God in His place – right smack in the middle of our world.  It keeps Him from getting put on the back burner and being pushed out of our lives by something as simple as being busy.  If we are continually aware of His GOODNESS, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore Him or forget to take  notice of Him.

Here’s where it gets radical.  Voskamp, in her book One Thousand Gifts, says this

“The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world.”

It is courageous to meditate on the goodness of God!  It is world-transforming.

As I continue working on my list of 1,000 things that I’m grateful for, God’s GOODNESS is continually put before me.  Granted, I am nowhere near perfect in recognizing God’s blessings and remembering to write them down, but I am learning.  Slowly, but still learning.  Each day is a gift; I can only hope to discover a fraction of the blessings that God infuses in each one.

I’m up to number fourteen on my list.  Have you started your own yet?

 

*Voskamp, Ann.  One Thousand Gifts.  (Zondervan, 2010), 58.

 

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Learning to Live In Eucharisteo

December 22, 2012 at 9:49 pm (Eucharisteo, Growth, perspective)
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It has been difficult to get into the Christmas spirit this year.  On the outside, I’ve been quite giddy and full of enthusiasm in regard to the upcoming festivities, but in reality, my innermost being has shied away from the holiday season.  I attribute this to the “soul-weariness” that I’ve been struggling with lately.  In some ways, I’ve been in survival mode; each day begins with the goal to successfully reach the end of the day in one piece.  My pursuit and love of beauty and truth has taken a back seat, which leaves me tired, sometimes depressed, and weary of heart.

This last Wednesday, I arose at 3:15 am to take my sister to the airport.  I left the airport and headed to a coffee shop to spend the next few hours before going to work with my grandparents.  I walked into the coffee shop and found a table– not as easy as one would think, considering it was 6:45 in the morning (a local men’s Bible study filled over half of the small space).  I brought with me my Bible, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and One Thousand Gifts.  My goal was to spend some quality time in God’s Word and crack the spine on a couple books on my book list.  One Thousand Gifts was given to me by a dear friend for my high school graduation and it sat on my book shelf at school, untouched, due to my busy schedule.  It was in opening this book that I began to…”see the forest for the trees.”  In other words, I got my wake-up call and gained a little perspective.

In all honesty, I am far from finished with this book.  However, as I embark on this journey, I’d like to share it with you along the way.  In the first few chapters, Ann Voskamp shares about her quest to live the full life and the day she came across the Greek word, eucharisteo.  In this one word, three particular meanings are present: thanksgiving, grace, and joy.  The word as a whole means “thanksgiving;” grace (Greek word charis) and joy (Greek word chara) are embedded within it.

It is this word that washed over me in that small coffee shop, early Wednesday morning.  In a small summation, the significance of eucharisteo is to see something as grace and to give thanks for it – resulting in joy.  The underlying question is this – what is the significance of a lack of eucharisteo?

“‘ The only real fall of man is his noneucharistic life in a noneucharistic world.’  That was the fall!  Non-eucharisteo, ingratitude, was the fall – humanity’s discontent with all that God freely gives.  That is what has scraped me raw: ungratefulness. Then, to find Eden, the abundance of Paradise, I’d need to forsake my non-eucharisteo, my bruised and bloodied ungrateful life, and grab hold to eucharisteo, a lifestyle of thanksgiving.”

Eucharisteo.  THIS is what I want to embrace.

Now what?  I know what I’ve been missing – thankfulness.  I know what I’ve been wallowing in – ungratefulness.  How can I change my mindset?  How can I LEARN to live in eucharisteo?

Voskamp, in her own journey, helps answer this question.  She begins writing a list.  And not just any kind of list – a list of thanksgiving.  She was challenged to write her own list of 1000 things, or gifts, within her own life.  It could be anything from her children, to sunshine, to cookies straight out of the oven.  As she writes things down and identifies her blessings, her perspective begins to change.  She sees the small, the mundane, and the insignificant as what they are – gifts.  She realizes that these small things make up the big things; they greatly contribute to what she considers her big blessings to be.  In this next step of my own journey, I’m undertaking this challenge.  Starting tonight, I’m beginning my own gift list.

Why am I telling you this?   Because I know myself well.  If I don’t tell someone or feel like I’m accountable to someone, it is highly probable that I will start out with great enthusiasm and when I get to 469, I’ll get distracted and not finish.  So…I’m holding myself accountable to you, as my readers, to do do 4 things:  finish my list, actively seek Christ, ask Him to change my perspective, and to teach me the meaning of eucharisteo.

Introducing….My Gift List:

1.  the cheeriness of Christmas lights
2.  the warmth and coziness of fireplaces
3.  the prospect of a new tomorrow
4.  tea
5.  the love of a small, shaggy Shih-tzu with a “big dog attitude”

My one question for you is this:  Will you join me?

 

*Voskamp, Ann.  One Thousand Gifts.  (Zondervan, 2010), 35.

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A Gift Called Grace

November 10, 2012 at 5:28 pm (Encouragement, General, Growth, perspective)
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On this lovely Saturday, my tired mind is a bit overwhelmed with the amount of homework that is due and the number of exams I have this upcoming week.  Hence, I find myself in the library.  I found my mind wandering and opened The Valley of Vision and found a sweet gift in the first prayer I read.  

Amazing Grace

O Thou Giving God,
My heart is drawn out in thankfulness to Thee,
For thy amazing grace and condescension to me
In influences and assitances of Thy Spirit
For special help in prayer,
For the sweetness of Christian service
For the thoughts of arriving in Heaven,
For always sending me needful supplies,
For raising me to new life when I am like one dead.
 
I want not the favour of man to lean upon, for Thy favour is infinitely better.
Thou art eternal wisdom in dispensations towards me;
    and it matters not when, nor where, nor how I serve Thee,
    nor what trials I am exercised with,
    if I might be prepared for thy work and will.
No poor creature stands in need of divine grace more than I do,
And yet none abuses it more than I have done, and still do.
How heartless and dull I am!
 
Humble me in the dust for not loving Thee more.
Every time I exercise any grace renewedly, 
     I am renewedly indebted to Thee, the God of all grace, for special assistance.
I cannot boast when I think how dependent I am upon Thee for the being and every act of grace;
I never do anything else but depart from Thee,
     and if ever I get to Heaven it will be because Thou willest it, and for no reason beside.
I love, as a feeble, afflicted, despised creature
     to cast myself on Thy infinite grace and goodness,
     hoping for no happiness but from Thee;
Give me special grace to fit me for special services,
     and keep me calm and resigned at all times, 
     humble, solemn, mortified,
     and conformed to Thy will.

  This gift of grace, of the humility that Christ expressed when he deigned to reach out and connect with us, is unfathomable to me .  And it puts things into perspective.  I, Cassie Gamble, get to live under that grace.  I am covered by that grace.  I am connected to Christ through that grace.  I am astonished by that grace.  I am redeemed by that grace.

 I get to cling to those promises.

Guess what?

So do YOU.

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Worship: A Learning Experience

October 4, 2012 at 3:56 pm (College, Encouragement, Growth, perspective)
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Hello all!  I’m so sorry that it’s been so long!  Currently, I’m working through my fifth week of classes here at school.  It’s good.  It’s hard.  Those two things sound a bit contradictory, but they’re really not.  Each day, Jesus promises to be my strength as I learn and grow in Him.

One of the things that Jesus has been teaching me is about my approach to homework.  I’m taking 18 credits this semester and I have to admit it’s a bit of a struggle to get everything done.  With that come late nights, very little free time, and 8 am classes each day.  It has not been easy to jump into this and I’ve been pretty overwhelmed at times.  I wanted to share with you what God has been teaching me through this challenge.

——————————————-

What is worship?  Worship is acknowledging God for Who He is and praising Him for it.  I’ve come to realize that I can worship God through my studies and that extra studying time can actually be turned into extra time spent with Jesus.  How does that work?

Here, in a nutshell, is what I’ve been learning:

If worship involves discovering things about God, appreciating and praising Him for who He is…what better way can I apply that right now than through my studies?  In Human Anatomy, I learn about how God designed the body and how it all works together.  In Chemistry, I learn about how God created the world in an orderly fashion and that different things interact with each other and keep our world functioning.  In my Old Testament class, I get to spend hours each week immersing myself in Scripture and unpacking what it means.  In World Civilizations, I learn about how God loves history and how He moves and guides the courses of people and nations.  You get the picture.

God loves beauty, order, history, and creativity.  I can find all of those things in the stack of books on my desk if I approach it with the right perspective.  I’m so grateful for the ways that Jesus has been teaching me this – it makes my constant list of assignments a lot easier to complete with a much better attitude in the process.

What about you?  Has your idea of “worship” been confined to a particular area of your life?  My idea of worship was challenged in a completely new direction, one that I’d never even considered before.  Perhaps there is an approach to worship that you haven’t considered – maybe it’s time to ask Jesus to open our eyes to the possibilities and to broaden our perspective in a way that honors Him.

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Anxiety Put Into Perspective

September 3, 2012 at 6:23 pm (Growth, perspective)
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Classes start tomorrow, my schedule will be chaotic, and I will be tested far more than I have been to date.  There is much that I could spend time worrying about – much to be anxious about.  What will I do with that?

I was reading in “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas A Kempis and found something that was good for my soul.  I’d love to share it with you:

“My son, I descended from heaven for they salvation; I took upon me thy miseries, not necessity but charity drawing me thereto; that thou thyself mightest learn patience, and bear temproal miseries without grudging.  … I suffered great want of things temporal, I often heard many complaints against me, I endured meekly disgraces and revilings; in return for benefits I received ingratitude, for miracles, blasphemies, for doctrine, reproofs. 
 
O Lord, for that thou wert patient in thy lifetime, herein especially fulfilling the commandment of thy Father; it is a reason that I, a most miserable sinner, should bear myself patiently according to thy will, and for my soul’s welfare endure the burden of this corruptible life as long as thou thyself shall choose for me. 
 
For although this present life is burdensome, yet notwithstanding it is now by thy grace made very gainful; and by thy example and the footsteps of thy saints, more clear and endurable to the weak.”
 

It was such a good reminder to me that tests, homework, and relationships are nothing in comparison to Christ and what He suffered or what He did for me.  Praise Jesus!  May this encourage you as it encouraged me. 🙂

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Grace Realized

August 10, 2012 at 10:17 am (Encouragement, God's Word, perspective)
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There are few things that can be more frustrating than an unfulfilled promise.  They can be promises of joy, of loyalty, of friendship, or of kindness.  When something promised goes for a long period of time without coming to completion, it can lead to frustration and disappointment and grow to be a source of bitterness and sorrow. 

For the Israelites, an unfulfilled promise brought about great strife within their people.  It pulled out the worst in them, most often shown in great amounts of doubt, disobedience, and rebellion.  Throughout all of the Old Testament, particularly after they were given the Law, they were continually being measured against a standard to which they simply could not adhere.  It highlighted their depravity and how far away they were from God.  In order to have any kind of relationship with Him, they had to complete a list of steps, in addition to making sacrifices, in order to compensate for their inadequacy.  They were promised full reconciliation with God.  They were promised intimacy with Him.  They were promised freedom from the sacrifical system and the strict rigidness of the Law.  They were promised REDEMPTION. 

They waited.

They doubted.

They despaired.

They sought fulfillment elsewhere.

They came back to God and waited some more.

What they didn’t realize was that God had His perfect timing and was setting up His plan and getting all of His pieces in place.  Once everything was in order, He fulfilled Him promise far more abundantly than His people had dared to dream.  And it all happened through His Son, Jesus Christ.

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
John 1:17

Grace realized.  What does that even mean?

Grace is a gift.  It releases us from the consequences of our disobedience to God.  It means that we are free.  Free to have a close, intimate relationship with God.  Free to love Him wholeheartedly.  Free from being enslaved to sin.  Free to do what God created us to do.  Free to have communion with Him.  Free to approach Him directly.  Free to live fully under the umbrella of his grace and truth!  We are FREE! 

What are you going to do with your freedom?  Will you choose to use it?  Or will you live as if you’re still operating under the old rules of sin? 

Unlike the Israelites, you do not need to wait generations to experience the fulness of God’s grace in your life.  You can choose to embrace the grace that Jesus is offering to pour into your life.  You can trust that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, willingly died for you so that you could be free.  You can choose to believe that His love surpasses the depth and weight of your sin and that you can experience His grace by having a relationship with Him.  If you want to learn more about what that looks like, please feel free to let me know.  I would love to talk with you!

Perhaps you’ve already embraced that grace, but maybe it doesn’t play out in your everyday life.  It is so easy to let life’s struggles stamp out the joy that comes from a relationship with Christ.  Ask Jesus to make it more real to you, to bring the realization of His grace to the front of your life.  Ask Him to help you extend that grace to others.  Thank Jesus for His fulfilled promise to you.

What does the ultimate fulfilled promise look like?  Grace realized.

 

 

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Will You Love Them?

June 24, 2012 at 4:46 pm (evangelism, Growth, perspective)
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This past week, I was privileged to be a  “studaff” ( part student, part staff) at Christian Youth In Action (CYIA), which is a week-long training camp for teenagers through Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF).  This was my 6th year with them, and as always, God hugely challenged me through the week.  Tuesday night during worship, one of the students shared something that he had written during the week and God used it tremendously to help challenge all who heard it.  With his permission, I would like to share it with all of you.

Earlier in the week, I had this nagging feeling that something was wrong.  I didn’t know what, but I knew that I should take it God in prayer.  As I began to pray my thoughts kept drifting to other things that have been happening, but I knew that I needed to talk to God about this feeling.  After minutes of prayer, I took a paper from my notebook and wrote myself this letter.

Perhaps He’s trying to get your attention.  The time that you are to be devoted solely to Him is squandered on pointless daydreams.  He isn’t angry, He simply wants your attention. 

“Child,” He seem to be calling, “Will you love them?”

You nod, “Yes, of course I will, Lord.”

He stares deep into your inmost being, “Child, will you show them that I love them?”

Again you nod your head, “Lord, you know that I will.”

All goes quiet.

“I love you,” whispers the Savior.

You tighten your throat and think of what He truly means.

The sound of a hammer clashing against steel rings in your ears.  A cry of pain, a smear of red.  Light turns to dark as the Savior draws in a rugged breath.  You take another nail and push it into His other wrist.  The falls of your hammer slowly sink the nail deep into the rough wood of the blood-smeared cross.

His eyes open for a moment as He grits His teeth together.  You stare for just a second into His brilliant eyes.

“I love you.”  The words are ragged, but they’re true.

Your hammer clatters to the ground.

“Savior,” the word trips off of your shaking tongue.  A sob escapes your throat.  You look at your blood-stained hands.  the innocent man hanging in front of you coughs through the pain. 

“Child,” He whispers, “I love you.”

You can’t help but fall to your knees.

“Child, I forgive you.”

You open your eyes and see that you’re back.  The man on the cross is gone.  Your hands look clean. 

“Child,” calls a silent voice, “Will you show them that I love them?”

You breathe in.  “Yes, Lord.”

His voice whispers once again, “I love you.”

And in a voice that can barely be heard, you cry out with all your soul, “I love you too.”

-Jason Earl (CYIA 2012)

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The Exchange – Incorruptible God for Corruptible Man

May 18, 2012 at 11:03 am (God's Word, Growth, perspective, prayer, Uncategorized)
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I have always recognized the link between the rejection of God and the depravity of man, but while reading in Romans this morning, I encountered some Scripture that made the connection hit home.

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”
 
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” 
 
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice… “
 
“Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”  
(above verses taken from Romans 1:22-32)

Ouch.

It is easy to say, “Wow, what horrible people they were!  How could they do such things?!”  However, this morning I am completely convicted.  I cringe at how often I do that very same exchange.   “Thanks God, but I’m going to walk away from Your goodness today.  But I appreciate the truth that You’ve given me….well, maybe I’ll appreciate it tomorrow….” I may not consciously say that or think that, but my behavior shows that that’s exactly what is going on in my heart.  I could try to shrug it off and think that this is some over-spiritual moment that will pass, but the acute ache in my heart tells me that I have indeed been exchanging the truth I know about God for whatever I want to put in His place.

It would be very convenient for you to simply skim this post and respond with “That’s so great that she is on the right track with Jesus!”  Please stop.  Please engage your mind, your heart, your soul.  Ask yourself if God is waiting and wanting to show you something that you’ve been trying ignore.  Open your heart and mind to Him; ask the Spirit to give you the status of your relationship with God.

Join with me in the cry of my heart:

Jesus,

You see all that is in my heart. You see my deceitfulness, my lies, and my sin. You see all that is hidden from the world, yes, all that is even hidden from myself. You have opened my eyes to see Your glory, Your sacrifice, Your holiness. I stand before you now, ashamed of myself and asking for You to renew my mind, my heart, my soul. Give me a heart like Yours. Let me look at my life through Your perspective, always checking myself that I am not exchanging You for anything else. Lord, thank you for Your love. It overwhelms me that You, the God of all, could give Your life willingly for me, with all the ugliness that is found in me. It astounds me that even with all of my struggles today, You still open Your arms to me and pour Your love and truth into my life. Father, thank You for opening my eyes to see You for who You really are. Guide me today with Your truth and keep my feet from stumbling.

Your child

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