Tag Archives: abiding

And the Sheep of his hand–heed his voice!

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,” (Psalm 95:6-7)

To ears familiar with a certain chorus, the psalm’s transition here is as jarring as the stopping point is awkward and incomplete. We go from an upbeat worship tune playing in our heads to a solemn, perhaps even tuneless, warning not to harden our hearts against the voice of God.

So what is the connection? We are the sheep of his pasture, kept in the hand of the shepherd. God’s sheep, Jesus declared famously in the gospels, know their shepherd’s voice and heed it. So it is a quite logical next step to urge, if the shepherd speaks, be a good sheep and listen and follow him rather than going astray after our own way.

Lord, we thank you for choosing us and making us the sheep of your pasture. We thank you for keeping us safe in your hands. Open our ears, Lord, to both hear, know, and recognize your voice. Grant us discernment to know what thoughts of the heart are from you, what is from the enemy, and what is of our own flesh. Give us an earnest desire to seek after what your voice says and follow your lead. Soften our hearts towards you today. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Prayer and Devotions

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The Lord of All Creation is Waiting to Take Your Call.

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it— the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” (Jeremiah 33:2-3)

In verse one, we helpfully learn this prophecy came to Jeremiah when he was imprisoned/under arrest basically. This is the lead up to God announcing he’s fed up with the evil of the Chaldean oppressors and promises to destroy them (strike them down) and restore the fortunes of Judah and Israel (the kingdom being divided at this time.)

First let’s not read past what God asserts right off: he made, formed, and established, that is he’s responsible for the laws of physics and the physical properties and parameters of Earth, including its orbit and location in the universe, boundaries between the sea and the continents, everything is located right where he’s put it and moving according to the rules he established. The water cycle, the often delicate balance of ecosystems,  God designed all of it. None of it is a result of happenstance or a fluke. The fall introduced all of creation’s “groaning” and the “birth pangs” we’ve endured for two thousand years. The destructive forces of our fallen nature, which atheists and their dupes mistakenly credit with the creation, were introduced well after God set this place up and wrote all the natural laws science has and can actually test and prove.

This intelligent cosmic designer, this supreme king who reigns over the entire universe, declares his ears are always attuned to the cries of little old us. He is never too busy, too tired, or plain unconcerned.  No matter what major crisis is going on elsewhere in your world, God has time to answer your prayers and he will if we will stop and listen long enough to hear his voice in our hearts. God is pouring out his holy spirit on all believers today, not just the prophets.

What “great and hidden things” does he reveal? He shows us how to rightly divide his word, he reveals what our hearts hide from us, he reveals all we can be and become if we walk faithfully by his side, seeking to do his will. Even more than that, he will reveal himself to us and make us like him, rather than our flesh’s sinful tendency to remake God like us in our deceived minds.

Lord, open our eyes to the truth of your eyes–tear down the strongholds of our minds and false images of you and reveal your true self to us as your spirit opens up our eyes to the truths you revealed  to the saints gone before us in the never-changing message of scripture. Guard our hearts and minds from all lying spirits and false teachers who would appeal to the wicked inclinations of our flesh and turn us away from knowledge of you as you truly are. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, God's Character, Prayer and Devotions

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Want to Grow Spiritually? Slow Down!

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22)

According to James, we are deceiving ourselves about what we believe in our hearts when we read the bible, known intellectually what it says, and go out and ignore it in practice. So how do we not turn away from this uncomfortable mirror and promptly forget what we looked like and keep on as we are?

In our instant culture and world, we often react by habit and by impulse. If our habits are godly, that is great. If our habits are indistinguishable from our impulses, that’s not so great. Contrary to what we often like to think, we are most likely to react from the fallen sinful flesh when we’re go-go-going rather than being led by the spirit as we hope to be, or at least like to think we are.

Unfortunately for our time, the spirit walk still requires stopping to plug into God and sync our hearts to him. We have to stop and think rather than letting our hearts take the lead. As our “why the heck did I do/say that?” regrets after the fact testify, our hearts aren’t always on the same page as our minds are with what our hearts believe and what our heads believe. So we have to stop and think it through and deliberately act according to what we know to be true. Such discipline, along with prayer and the work of the spirit, is the path to godly habits and hearts that aren’t holding dirty secrets from us anymore.

If only it didn’t take so much time, huh? What is most important to us, keeping up with the rest of our crazy world, or spiritual growth?

Lord, ouch. Strengthen me in discipline. You know I am weak of mind here and prone to be driven by impulse. Check me in my spirit, remind me to stop and pray about it, to mentally search your scriptures for what your way is. Open my spiritual ears to hear you, give me a heart that seeks you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

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God’s Commandment Defines You, Not Your Sin

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:10)

Today’s verse comes in the middle of the vine and the branches parable urging us to abide in Christ.  We were designed to connect to God and we need to receive spiritual nourishment from him to grow and live.

Christianity is all about love and relationship to some. To others, it’s really all about rules and regulations with lip service paid to Christ’s atonement for our breaking the rules and regulations in the past.

What we actually have is a divine paradox.  Love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all  your strength and love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus told us is the aim of the law and the prophets.  The commandment is  a tool teaching us how to properly relate to one another. If we forsake the truth and throw out the commandment, our love is nothing but a demonic counterfeit.

Jesus paid the whole debt for sin on the cross. Our works are filthy rags. We cannot keep the law sufficiently on our own. We obey not to save ourselves, but in gratitude that he has saved us, because we love and trust him. He has to do the work. We need his transforming grace and power flowing through our hearts to walk as Jesus walked, especially in those areas where our fallen flesh is weak.

In verse eleven, Jesus tells us he spoke said verse ten and the ones preceding it so our joy may be full.  If your reading of this text brings condemnation and despair, then you’re reading it wrong. God’s desire is for you to abide in him and in his love and to keep the commandment. He won’t lower his standards to accommodate your weakness, but he will raise you up to meet them by strengthening you and renewing you in your mind.

Trust God’s commandment. He designed you. He, not the world, knows who he created you and fashioned you to be–and it is *not* a sinner of any sort, no matter how attractive that sin might be to you. It is not who you are. Embrace the commandment. Accept by faith who God says you really are meant to be and who he is willing to restore you to being over the course of this earthly life. It can be really tough down here, but if we hold on, one day, we will shed the sinful, corrupt flesh and put on our incorruptible Heavenly bodies.

Posted in God's love, Sin and Holiness

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Posted on June 6, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Today we are handed a fragment of a prayer that begins in verse fourteen and we learn the purpose of it from verse thirteen:

So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:13-19)

The gist  then appears to be:

  • Since Paul is  concerned his suffering for the faith may cause the church he serves to be discouraged, he is bowing his knee and summarizing  a prayer, which is included in cannon of the word of God to encourage us when we are disheartened due to suffering (our own or others.)
  • He reminds us we are all descended from Adam (whose Jewish surname credits his maker as his father, which is how Christ is the Second Adam) while implying the poor folks in Hell are disowned by mentioning both everyone still living on this earth and the saints already in Heaven.
  • He asks God to pour out of his abundance the power of his holy spirit to strengthen us in who we really are on the inside
  • The goal of this requested out pouring is to prepare our hearts for Christ to live there more fully by increasing our faith.
  • Love is compared to a good, firm soil to hold the roots of our faith.
  • He prays God would enable us to grasp the multiple dimensions (complexity?) of Christ’s love that goes beyond our awareness.
  • Being filled with the fullness of God, probably another reference to abiding in Christ and our hearts as living temples. More of Jesus in us.

In the presence of suffering, then Paul’s answer is to remind us God is our Father, pray for more of the Holy Spirit’s power in us, increasing our faith, and strengthening our connection to Jesus so our hearts reflect him more fully, and to these ends to grasp how much he loves us.

Thank you, God, for being our loving Father, thank you for the power of the holy spirit at work in us. Grant us the grace to, like Paul and like Christ Himself, be the sort of people who, in the midst of our own suffering, concern ourselves with how it would effect others and pray for them. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, God's love, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

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Secret to True Christian Harmony

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:5-6)

Longing for peace and harmony in your relationships? This blessing in Romans points us to the only source of reconciliation: Jesus. It starts with prayer, filling up on encouragement and endurance from the Lord, opening up to his power to bring  each of us into accord with him. The more like him each of us grows, the more harmony we will have with one another.

Churches and Christians get in trouble when we start to see harmony as an end unto itself. The end goal of harmonizing is to glory the Lord our God, who does not change. If, for the sake of peace, we sacrifice doctrinal truth and change our message to please those in the church who are held captive by the world, we might have peace, but we’d all be out of harmony with Jesus. Rather than glorifying Christ, we’d be spreading deception.

Thus we must be sure who we are harmonizing with is truly seeking to be in one accord with the Christ Jesus of the Bible. Now, we should be respectful, gentle, and kind in disagreeing with those who choose to believe a lie. We should be sensitive to the Lord’s leading in who we cast our pearls before.

However, in our own lives, we must not back down from where we stand in Christ to please the Marketplace of Ideas Shoppers who toss a few cherry-picked Christian beliefs in their basket along with other cherished beliefs that seem right and feel good to them. Warn them if God leads,  leave them to God’s judgment as convicted to, but don’t let them take you with them for the sake of peace. Our first responsibility is to harmonize (become in accord) with the Lord. If others around us decline to, that is their choice.

Lord, search our hearts. If we have any beliefs not in harmony with who you are, reveal them to us by your holy spirit. By your grace, grant us the strength to cast off anything that is not of you. Encourage us to endurance, seeking to live in peace, for the purpose of glorifying you with all of your people. We pray we would find peace and harmony as we your people draw closer to the truth and walk in your ways. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Idols, Post-Modernism, Prayer and Devotions

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Unload, unwind, chill out, God-style.

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Life is a battle. We know what we should do, but so often we end up dragging around with us a garbage bag full of fears, anxieties, and hurts, seeking to distract ourselves from the load and smile and pretend everything is okay. Then we frown in confusion, where is the joy of the Lord? Where is the peace of God? Where is the victory? We feel guilty for not praying more. We feel guilty for not reading the bible more.

And you know what most of us do? We chuck all that guilt in the garbage bag and make it all that much more of a drag. Step one–humbly confess our weaknesses and failings to God and ask him for help with them. Step two–trustingly brace yourself for impact. God’s move can sometimes feel like an earthquake, but he knows what we can bear and knows what is best for us.

Lord, many of us have not been consistent in prayer and bible study. Many of us have not been consistent in you. Change our priorities today. Remind us to seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added unto us. Encourage our hearts gently to keep an open door and open ear to you as we go about our days. Remind us, whenever the enemy hands us garbage, to immediately hand it over to you rather than bagging it and carrying it around with us. Grant us the peace, Lord, that will guard our hearts and our minds. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Fear and Anxiety, Prayer and Devotions

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