Circumstances have really driven the truth of it home for me this week, just how frail our wills are--and yet how God chooses to work through our resolve.

I see my strengths, my weaknesses, the need for fellowship, the mandate to put myself in a position to be corrected, to be encouraged, in a newer way. 

The lure to have my own way is so strong…but God is a jealous God and desires my loyalty.   When I woke up Monday morning, three definitive thoughts about this sprouted to mind, and I woke them down quickly.  I have carried this list in my left shirt pocket all week.  When thoughts of negative self-will surged, I would read the list, think about the points, and resolve in my mind to walk in them.  Here they are:

(1) Life is a matter of relationship with God and with others.  If I question whether something is good, I must ask, “Does this keep me within my awe of God?  How does this affect my relationships with others?”

(2) “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”  [NKJV - James 5:16]  I must remember that the effect of (1) is the blessed position it affords me to have a clear conscience so that I can pray, so that God can move through my petitions--because He desires it so.  To forfeit fealty for the slightest thing is to bypass the privilege to pray in conformity to the will of God.  Do I not want God to give me discernment and desire to pray rightly?  Don’t I want my family members to be blessed by my faithfulness and prayer?  I do, and I want my prayer to matter.

(3)  “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church”  [NKJV - Colossians 1:24].  Lastly, am I willing to be brave and courageous for the cause of Christ?  This involves the suffering of discipline:  no easy thing, but something needed so that the body will be healthy spiritually.  We will only know in heaven just how much our willingness to live for Christ has blessed others.

Same here  Thanks Quaz

Favored

God takes us
to the woodlands to see
it has dirt and it has leaves,
a covering--all that matters,
shaping aging things.
It takes no pond to see our reflections
in the green strength and fragile nests,
in the webs that dangle from limb to limb,
(a long road for an insect’s life),
cut short by wind and jagged debris.
We sense this is a temporary garden,
where the refreshing makes us grin
as we close our eyes to wonder
what it was like for Adam and Eve
to be so tempted that they would
shift from being in awe of creation
and their Creator just so they could be
where imagination has no teacher.
Yet, even where there’s failing,
how glorious a fall
of gold, red, orange and yellow for-nothing’s
shall lie upon the floor,
cover all the dirt,
say, “There is more!”,
more of the animus pulsating in these woods,
echoing, “Forgiven, restored!”
How favored you have made us to be, oh Father!
How we look!

Mark's account of Jesus walking on the water is quite amazing.  See 6:45-52.  I recommend the CEV version for this, but any will do.

At the end of verse 48 it says, "[Jesus] was walking on the water and was about to pass the boat...they thought it was a ghost, and they started screaming."

Jesus was about His Father's business and was passing the boat!  Where was he going?  What was he intending to do? 

This is what I love about the Word of God.  God is unpredictable and man responds to the improbable. 

Why then, do we so often respond to Divinity as if we know God's every angle? 

We know so little.  All we can do is respond to grace, whether it [He] is coming straight at us or passing us by. 

But...we call out, and Jesus responds, calms us, restores us. 

I used to hear a song with these words:  Pass me not, oh gentle Savior, hear my humble cry!  While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by! 

These words are, I believe close to describing our condition and our God, except for one matter.  To our benefit, he is often not gentle.  Jesus can be radical, unconventional, jolting.  That is good:  we need this.  Why should we be surprised?  He who spoke in parables, shall he not act sometimes in ways that are paradoxical, yet true?  How else would he sift the seeking from the self-seeking? 

We need to quit looking sideways at others and repent.  When we then turn to look ahead and to the side, Jesus will show up.  Not predictably, but in the everyday surprises of grace that almost pass us by...but which we nevertheless can see...if we thirst for his righteousness.

Be blessed,

Quaz

Reading Mark 6:53-56 (below), one sees what happens to a person who encounters the wonder of the love of Jesus:  "So they ran all over that part of the country to bring their sick people to him on mats. They brought them each time they heard where he was" (verse 56).  Does Jesus' love for us enlarge our hearts to possibilities of what Jesus can do for others?  Does this grace cause us to, over time, "r[u]n all over"?  God has placed us in a context, among a people.  We have been groomed to understand at least one culture, tongue, ethnic group--perhaps even more than one of these.  Are we motivated, even showing heedless abandon, to communicate to others {via the many creative means available} that Jesus is here for them?  Does the charisma of Jesus move us? 

Desiring to be an instrument is not the starting point, really.  It just simply happens "each time they heard where he was".  We just need to seek Jesus, and the order of his Kingdom comes into play.

53  Jesus and his disciples crossed the lake and brought the boat to shore near the town of Gennesaret. 54  As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized Jesus. 55   So they ran all over that part of the country to bring their sick people to him on mats. They brought them each time they heard where he was. 56  In every village or farm or marketplace where Jesus went, the people brought their sick to him. They begged him to let them just touch his clothes, and everyone who did was healed.

Please first read the passage at the bottom that is from the Gospel of Mark:

Now…some things to consider:

About the ten cities:  Jesus came to fulfill the law, the law being epitomized in the Ten Commandments. 

A man who could hardly talk.  This means he once spoke and had lost his hearing.

The people were begging Jesus to touch the man.  In most passages, the sufferers are the ones trying to contact Jesus.

Continuing the line about Jesus coming to fill up the Torah:  Israel had lost its spiritual ears and its spiritual leaders their authoritative voice.  Therefore, Jesus dealt with the ears first, then the voice (tongue).  Such stubbornness can only be broken by a miracle, the voice of the Lord, “Open up!” 
When one hears again, right speech follows.  Just so Jesus does for those who receive his mercy.

That last verse always tickles me:  the one commandment that can be broken without, apparently, man sinning against God.  Was Jesus, in a way, doing this to teach a paradox:  that when we speak in our own, impotent power, no one can hear us?  But when we speak after being touched by him, not only do we hear but others hear, too?

In a way, Jesus was speaking a parable, but the grace of God broke the curse of hearing a parable without understanding.  The beholders of Jesus understood all too well and therefore could not be silent!

Mark 7:31-36 (Contemporary English Version)

Jesus Heals a Man Who Was Deaf and Could Hardly Talk

31Jesus left the region around Tyre and went by way of Sidon toward Lake Galilee. He went through the land near the ten cities known as Decapolis.  32Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. They begged Jesus just to touch him.
    33After Jesus had taken him aside from the crowd, he stuck his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spit and put it on the man's tongue. 34Jesus looked up toward heaven, and with a groan he said, "Effatha!", which means "Open up!" 35At once the man could hear, and he had no more trouble talking clearly.
    36Jesus told the people not to say anything about what he had done. But the more he told them, the more they talked about it.