BEAUTIFUL

Wow….its August! Hot, really really hot, and I've sorta lost that lovin' feelin' for the summer season. Funny, if you'll look back in my blog posts you'll see one titled A WHOLE NEW WARDROBE and it's all about the changing of seasons….how they happen just as God designs. I'm wishing He were as ready as I am for autumn.

So this morning I was in my car – air conditioner blowing HARD - listening to Gateway's latest worship CD on which Kari Jobe sings a song called BEAUTIFUL. I found myself truly challenged by the words. The first verse says:

Here before your alter I am letting go of all I've held
Of every motive, every burden, everything that's of myself
And I just want to wait on you my God
I just want to dwell on who you are

What a declaration….what a decision. So often we come to Him not carrying our sacrifice of praise, but instead carrying all of our life's trials and burdens and needs. And there we stand with all of our stuff, sometimes almost tapping our foot saying, "What are you going to do about all of this God". But therein lies the sacrifice….the laying down of our burdens. Deciding to let go of all that we are holding on to so that we can do the very thing we were created to do… serve HIM...worship HIM…dwell on HIM. The truth is that He understands sacrifice better than anyone, and is far more capable of handling our burdens than us. We come into His presence to give Him praise, to give Him honor, to give Him glory; and when we set our eyes on Him, "the things of this earth grow strangely dim"…and we receive. We receive hope and strength for tomorrow, and a peace that we cannot comprehend. And as He lavishes His love on us, He smiles. This is the God we serve! This is the God we worship! This is the God in whom and on whom we dwell! He is BEAUTIFUL.

The chorus of the song says this:

Beautiful beautiful
Oh I am lost for more to say
Beautiful beautiful
O Lord, you're beautiful to me

My hope and prayer for all of us is that every chance we get to rush to the feet of Jesus, the Holy One, we do – and holding nothing back we WORSHIP OUR GOD!

Simple Math

I have always been relatively good at math. My brain enjoys problem solving. The very first test I took in college was a math test, and out of a possible 110 points I made a 106. I was DEVISTATED. Yeh….I know….I couldn't believe how close I had come to a perfect score. After frantically sifting through the pages to find my error, my eyes fell upon possibly the most frustrating truth. It came down to simple addition. I had added wrong in the very first step and the rest was history. One small oversight cost me those points. Here I was, doing college level math, getting tripped up on the elementary stuff. So frustrating….but it proves just how important the simplest of math is.

I was recently asked an interesting question. "What does your flag say". What they were asking me was what my message was….what was the one thing I wanted people to know more than anything else…what defined my song. My response was God REALLY loves us. "Why is that your message", they asked. As I sat formulating the answer in my head - because
lost people everywhere are living sad, depressed, hopeless, desperate, chaotic lives and need to know about the love and grace of Jesus - something dawned on me. It's not just the lost that need to KNOW. I live life everyday with followers of Christ who look much the same. I, myself, often get caught up in the idea that His love for me is based on what I do…and what I don't do. So do I really KNOW? Somehow I think that understanding the love of God is fundamental to everything else. It's like simple math.

Dr. Karl Barth is said to have been one of the most brilliant Christian thinkers and complex intellectuals of the twentieth century. He wrote volume after massive volume on the meaning of life and faith. As the story goes, a young student once asked Dr. Barth if he could summarize what he had said in all those volumes. Dr. Barth thought for a moment and said this: "Jesus loves me, this I know." What a comeback! What a journey! All of his in-depth studies led him back to the basic and most profound truth - Jesus LOVES us.

It's the first thing we need to wrap our hearts around. I say heart, because our minds can't grasp it. Jesus is relentless in His pursuit. He loves us, He chases after us. And in this world that tells us we aren't enough, God says we are worth His only son's life. When the world tells us we get what we deserve, God tells us his GRACE is sufficient for us. To KNOW the love of God it is to receive all that comes with it…all the forgiveness, all the acceptance, all the freedom. Jesus loves me – this I KNOW. What a firm foundation!

Commanding Destiny

So here we are! We made it to June….the “half way point”. Half way to what, I’m not sure….but we made it. :0)

As I look back over the past 6 months, I can’t help but evaluate where I am relative to where I’m going. It’s impossible to measure, really, because I don’t know all that God has in store. But I know what He’s put in front of me to do right now….and I think it’s just part of His grand design that my headlights only show me a few yards ahead. As I walk in the way God is directing me, trust that His hand is pulling me along, and commit each and every step to His purpose (there’s that word again), I find that my destiny is completely and totally wrapped up in His leading. And what a miracle it is that in this life committed to Him, my destiny and purpose are not defined by my past mistakes and failings…a true testimony to the grace and redemption of Christ. Furthermore, His plan and purpose for my life is not contingent upon my ability – in my own strength, but what He has and is equipping me to do thru Him. Making myself AVAILABLE to do His will, and not leaning to my own ABILITY and understanding is the only prerequisite to God’s direction. We have all heard and quoted at some point Proverbs 3:5-6, but I love the way The Message interprets it:

5 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. 6 Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track.

It amazes me how so often in scripture God doing something for me requires nothing more than my TRUSTING IN HIM. Trusting in HIM….the God of the Universe. The one who see’s the beginning and the end…not to mention the “half way point”. I am held and kept by the only one who sees the big picture. It reminds me of the final verse of the song IN CHRIST ALONE where it says:

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

WHAT A RELIEF! Jesus commands my destiny….not my family…or my boss….or my past. JESUS…and He knows everything about me, and loves me still. What an amazing and beautiful thought!

A Whole New Wardrobe!

Its MAY! So hard to believe how fast this year is whizzing by. It’s time to start switching our wardrobes and preparing for warmer weather…MUCH warmer weather. But I’m ready. Its odd how the season’s change NEVER comes too early. I’m always just as ready for spring as I was winter, and so on. In fact, I’ve noticed that I tend to dress in anticipation of the new season. At the first hint of weather change, I start putting on the appropriate attire. And it happens exactly how God orders it…WHEN God orders it. He knows just the right time for the season to change so that life as we know it continues and thrives. -- You can probably see where I’m heading with this (it actually just came to me as I started typing).

The seasons in our life are just that…”seasons”… and they are MEANT for change. And they change exactly as God orders them and WHEN God orders them. How often have we been in the middle of a difficult situation and wondered WHAT God was thinking or WHERE He was. And yet, when we get through it we realize that He knew all along EXACTLY what He was doing. And how many times do we need to repeat that process before we stop stressing and start realizing that HE REALLY IS IN CONTROL??? We humans are so ---human.

It’s in that awareness of the sovereignty of God when I realize that I really should CHOOSE joy…CHOOSE peace…CHOOSE hope; that I really should put on the garment of praise for my heavy heart. I am not rejoicing in my pain, sorrow, fear, disappointment, stress, etc... I am slipping into a new wardrobe in anticipation of the change of weather. And in that moment, I am wearing Christ. I am showing Christ to everyone around me. I am “preaching the good news”. I love the verses of scripture in Isaiah 61 that say:

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed
me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

When we put on beauty and gladness and praise we are a “display of His splendor”….that’s what His word says. What an AMAZING thought! WE are a display of HIS splendor!!!! When we choose to trust that the purpose of God is being worked out in our lives, and we look back at God’s “faithfulness track record” as I call it….we CANNOT HELP but rejoice! Recently, while enduring a difficult season, a good friend said to me, “faith in purpose means that there will be the ‘substance of things hoped for’ while as yet there is no evidence of its existence”. So for those of you struggling through times of despair….PUT ON CHRIST and become a display of His splendor!!! Have faith in His purpose….the season will change….and just exactly when and how He orders it!

Peace,
Cristie

Starting Again...

So...wow...I can't really believe I'm actually doing this. After all these years, I've finally figured out that the calling of God on my life is TRULY irrevocable, or as The Message puts it:

"God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty - never canceled, never rescinded." ~Romans 11:29~

It doesn't just leave....it NEVER leaves. No matter how much you try to ignore it or minimize it or pretend you're too old, or not "relevant" enough - whatever that means - it just sticks with you. Tommy Barnett said in a sermon I watched recently (thank you Kari Jobe) "A delay [in your ministry] is not a denial". I believe that for my ministry…it’s time to get to the DOING.

And at the close of this VERY difficult weekend when someone I loved very much but not nearly enough (Vanessa Whitwell) went home to be with Jesus, I've learned a little something new about myself. The truth is that I REALLY love people and genuinely hurt for them when they are sad. I was reminded thru this tragedy that all sorts of people need Jesus – Christians and Non-Christians alike. And as many different ways as we can present the good news that Jesus loves them and wants to bring them peace and calm their hurting hearts, the better off we all will be. It’s not that I didn’t think I loved people before, I just didn’t realize to what extent. But God has a way of allowing His purpose for our lives to shine forth even in the midst of chaos and confusion. As the song says - "He is sovereign still" (None But Jesus - Brooke Frasier)

And so I come to this new chapter of my life armed with an irrefutable calling and a tender reminder of how much God loves us. He really does love us you know...deeper and more perfectly than we could EVER imagine. And how much more reason do we need to WORSHIP Him with everything we’ve got…after all it’s what we were created to do!

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