God's Big Plans

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

Do you feel capable of doing great things? You are, with Christ’s help. Though we may never reach our financial goals, though most of us won’t ever be famous, God does have GREAT BIG plans for us–bigger than we can imagine. What those plans are will differ for each of us, of course, and some will be more “high-profile” than others, but if we follow Christ’s plan for our lives, we will accomplish great things. A better way to put that, I suppose, is that Christ will accomplish great things through us, if only we’ll let him.

Some people think the Christian life is suppose to be easy, but it’s not. We are guaranteed happiness, but not necessarily in this life here on earth. Being Christian will be hard. God doesn’t promise a life without pain, and probably a lot of very uncomfortable, inconvenient things! There is a saying that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. But I think a better way to put that is that God won’t ask us do to anything that he isn’t willing to walk through with us.

A beautiful song called “Ruin Me” was performed today at church, and part of the lyrics said this:

“Ruin my life, the plans I have made
Ruin desires for my own selfish gain,
Destroy the idols that have taken Your place,
‘Til its You alone I live for.”

We like to make our own plans, and we tend to resist when God’s plans don’t look like our own. Sometimes his plans are a whole lot harder. But he’s known the plans he has for us from the beginning of time, and they are a whole lot bigger than our own plans. May God ruin the plans I have made, and may his plans be accomplished through me.

He Hears My Heart

“…God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves…” Romans 8:26 (MSG)

I love this verse. Although I tend to have plenty of words–often, too many–they don’t always come out the way I intended. I’m like that in prayer, too; what I mean to say isn’t necessarily what I actually end up saying. One of the reasons I enjoy writing is because it helps me organized my jumbled, rambling thoughts. I like to talk things out, and my dear husband has learned that he doesn’t have to “fix” anything or offer solutions (unless I ask), but just listen as I ramble on. But this verse reassures me that the Holy Spirit is taking all my ramblings to God, and translating them to what my heart actually means. Isn’t that a lovely thought?

This verse also speaks right to those who are in such pain that they can’t even think of words to pray. In deep grief and heartache, the Holy Spirit speaks for us.

I like to think this verse applies to singing worship songs, too. I love singing, but it’s certainly not one of my gifts! I used to be a little self-conscious about people hearing me, but if I apply this verse to my singing, then I figure the Holy Spirit sings for me, and when my songs reach God’s ears, my voice is as glorious as an angel’s. (I do, however, feel a little bad for the person sitting in front of me at church because he or she just gets my plain ol’ earthly voice.)

Last Sunday, instead of a sermon, several people gave their testimonies, and we had a little extra worship music in-between. It was an awesome service. Every song and every testimony touched me heart. But one testimony touched me in particular. They played a videotaped testimony of a few of the children who recently made a decision to trust Christ. Each child said how and when they became a Christian, recited a favorite Bible verse, and told why they wanted to be baptised. It was very sweet. The third child who gave his testimony was an 8-year-old boy named Bennett, who has serious disabilities but has defied doctor’s expectations by attending school and church and doing many of the things they said he’d never be able to do. Bennett is rather difficult to understand, so his video had subtitles. He ended his testimony by saying, “I want to be baptised because I asked Jesus into my heart, and God understands me.” God knows exactly what Bennett is saying, because God sees right into Bennett’s heart. And He does the same for you and me.

I'll Stand

“So what can I say,
And what can I do,
But offer this heart, O God,
Completely to You…

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all.
I’ll stand,
My soul Lord to You surrendered,
All I am is Yours.”

Every time I hear this song it moves me deeply. Christ was perfect, free of sin, but he gave himself up for me–imperfect, sinful me. In thinking about all that he did for me, enduring a painful and shame-filled death to pay the price for MY sins, then what else can I possibly do but give my whole self back to him? Ephesians 5:2 says we should “live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” There is no other choice but to offer my heart completely to God, and I stand in awe of the one who gave it all for me. All I am is his. I pray that I might glorify him in all I think and say and do.

Supply and Demand

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
(John 6: 9-11 )

Last Sunday’s sermon was on the story of the feeding of the five-thousand. Actually it was likely closer to fifteen or twenty thousand, because there were 5,000 adult males there. Anyway, the guest pastor gave a great message, but a couple of points in particular struck me…

At first I didn’t know where the pastor was going with the economics law of supply and demand, especially in relation to this loaves and fishes story. But the “aha” point in this part of his message is this: without Christ, demand will always exceed supply. No matter how much we get– whether it be money, or a bigger house, or sex, or alcohol, or power and fame, or even the “perfect” spouse– it will never be enough. We’ll always want “just a little bit more.” Just think about that a minute; it’s scary how true that is.

On the other hand, with Christ, we will always have plenty. Those people on the hillside had enough; in fact, they took “as much as they wanted.” And there was even some left over! Nothing–no person, no thing, no power or fame or wealth– can fill the void we have when we don’t know Christ. As Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

I know this from my own experience; I’ve tried to fill that void other ways.

The other really big “aha” moment in Sunday’s sermon was this: when that little boy packed his small lunch and left his home that morning, he had no idea that he had the potential to feed multitudes. We do that all the time. We think we don’t have much to give, so why bother. I’m sure that boy had at least a minute or two of thinking, “I’d like to help, but all I’ve got is these five little loaves and two small fish. This won’t make a difference to all this crowd.” But because that boy decided to give it to God, a miracle happened. Another thing to note: the boy gave everything he had; he didn’t just give most of it but keep a loaf and a piece of fish for himself to make sure he’d have a good lunch. He just trusted Christ and gave it all, knowing that Christ would take care of him, too.

For more on this subject, please read “my loaves and fishes” on my Rose Cottage blog.

Joy of Wisdom

“Wisdom is a tree of life
to those who embrace her;
happy are those who hold her tightly.”
Proverbs 3:18

Wisdom is the ability to discern or what is true, what is right. We might have an entire encyclopedia’s worth of knowledge, but still not have wisdom; the only way to gain true wisdom is by learning what God teaches in his Word. (Proverbs 2:6) And to be in this world but not of it, it’s absolutely essential to learn true discernment.

Proverbs 3: 13-15
“Joyful is the person who finds wisdom,
the one who gains understanding.
For wisdom is more profitable than silver,
and her wages are better than gold.
Wisdom is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.”

I think one of the reasons wisdom brings happiness is because we aren’t so overwhelmed and confused about what to do in every circumstance we’re faced with. And I believe the biggest reason wisdom bring joy is because it’s impossible to have true wisdom without knowing God–nothing brings more true and lasting joy than a close relationship with Christ.

Graven on His Hands

“Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God”

Two of our worship leaders did an awesome performance of this song today. I don’t think I’d ever heard it before, although it sounds like an old hymn. All the words are awesome (seems like there were more, but this is all I found online), but that part about my name being “graven in His hand” and my name being “written on His heart” really touched me today. I know that, I’ve read it in the Bible (Isaiah 49:16), but sometimes something I “know” just doesn’t sink in until I’ve heard it quite a few times. Just imagine that…

God had my name (and yours!) engraved right on the palm of his hand, and he has my name (and yours!) written on his heart! He loved us enough to pay the price of our sins with his own blood.

And then that part about Satan reminding us of our guilt. He loves to do that, to make us think so little of ourselves that we doubt ourselves, even doubt what Christ did for us. But we are special, despite our flaws, despite our sins, because Christ loved us enough to die for us, enough to engrave our names on the palm of his holy hand.

Words

“May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to You LORD,
my rock and my Redeemer.”
Psalm 19:14

I spent a long time learning to tame my tongue and had a bunch of verses copied down to help me when my tongue was running away from me again. Back then, it was mostly an effort to not say unkind or slanderous things to or about the people I was having difficulty with at the time.

This verse goes further than that, though. Here God is showing me that I should do more than just avoid saying bad things. Everything I say, every single word that comes out of my mouth should be pleasing to God. Not only my words, but even my thoughts! This is definitely one of those times I am extra glad for the Holy Spirit as my helper because this would be humanly impossible for me. I know I’m still not there yet, but with God’s help, I’ll keep getting more like he wants me to be.