Abiding Joy

John 15:6-11 (NASB)
⁶ "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
⁷ "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
⁸ "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
⁹ "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
¹⁰ "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.
¹¹ "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Abiding is a choice. The Father chooses to reach out for us, not wanting even one to be lost. If we choose to extend our hand in return, taking hold of His, we receive His love. His words and commandments will show us the way. The way is not one of a restricted life, but one which frees us of a restricted life without Him.

Jesus tells us that a result of abiding in Him will be joy. His joy is added to ours. His life is added to ours. This is the joy that He saw before Him on His way to the cross. He saw you and I being saved by His sacrifice. He saw you and I joining Him and the Father forever. He takes joy in our joy. The fullness of the Father and Son is ours, an ongoing, abiding joy.

Giving Life

If we choose Him, we choose life
We give Him ours
And receive His

This is love
That one would lay down his life for another

The Race

Mark 1:3 (NIV)
³ "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"

A life without benefit of the eternal view of God and heaven has some analogy to a motor racetrack. The most striking aspect is that the course doesn’t go any where; it is often oval in design, but is a closed track. So the participants go in something like a circle, round and round. Destination is not the point, but getting there faster than anyone else.

Part of the game is getting the winning edge. The racing contraption is constantly being tweaked through increased knowledge and experience. The pit crews strive to improve their efficiency. We do things so much better than ten or a hundred years ago. We know so much more.

We gather in the stands to cheer and pass a good time. The spectacle is full of entertainment, complete with loud noise, fast action, and the theater of man pitted against man. The focus is solely on the race. The world of the small track eclipses everything else.

There is more to life than the track. There is more to life than going round in circles. Knowledge does not equate to wisdom. Knowing about gravity will not save me if I wander off a cliff. If we allow ourselves to be consumed by this race we will find that we have missed our true calling and destination in life. His path is straight.

Arrogance

It is arrogance to say that reality is only what we see,
That what is real only exists by our measurement and understanding.
This has proven false time and again throughout our existence,
Yet there are always many who cling to this notion,
Perhaps finding comfort in a shrunken world,
Where man is self-sufficient,
Master of one’s own fate.

Masterpiece

God’s expression through each of us is unique
We work with Him to create a masterpiece
He is the Master
We are the piece

Fields Of The Heart

When we turn our minds to Him, we are immediately at a disadvantage. We can only speak words of our own making, in constructs of our own device. Words and concepts, even divinely inspired, come from our mind. In seeking God, the finite seeks the infinite. Is that why God is felt and known in silence? Is that why faith is not adequately and justly explained in words?

Knowing by knowing
Alive in the living
The breath taken in
The wind of the Spirit
Blows across the landscape of the soul
Living water flows
Through the fields of the heart

Taking A Look

John 12:9 (MSG)
⁹ Word got out among the Jews that he was back in town. The people came to take a look, not only at Jesus but also at Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead.

There is irony in the first verse because the Word indeed had come to the Jews. The Son of God had arrived. But this was not the word that was understood by the people. It was their own word they spoke, announcing something to be looked at rather than heard.

They came to take a look. It would appear they did not come out of reverence, or in seeking, but to see something different, out of the ordinary. Maybe it was like coming across a beautiful shell on an otherwise empty stretch of beach. Maybe it was the entertainment value. Maybe it was just something shiny in the landscape which caught their eye.

We are called to be different like He is different. As receivers of the light in the world, we should be drawing others to His light reflected in our lives. In doing so, it may happen that some coming to look will see that light. Somebody is looking.