Just Because He lives

The other morning I was eating breakfast and a hymn came to me.  I love the old hymns, wish we sang them more in church. But this one really spoke to me and I had not heard it in so long.

It's called "Because He Lives." It goes like this..... "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone, because I know,  he holds the future and life is worth the living just because He lives."

I was stunned. I know that hymn and yet it blew me away. I felt the Lord's urging. Shouldn't it be that simple. Shouldn't it be just like that. Just because He lives.

I know it's not like that for me. I stress, I over think, I worry, I lose sleep.

I know, He holds the future. Why am I worried?. Why am I over thinking everything He tells me to do?  Especially the things He tells me to do. It usually goes like this.  Really Lord, couldn't someone else do this?, why would anyone listen to me, who am I?  Didn't I just blow it a minute ago, I mean, is that really who You want doing your business?.

Ever been there?

Funny, in the prior post, I said, God knows what he is doing. That is so true. But I don't always get it. I don't always walk with that truth shinning bright in my mind. But I always end up with that truth being revealed. It is the truth I can't run from, know matter how hard I try.

He knows best. He knows the future. He knows the outcome. He is perfect.

Yet in my flawed thinking, I try and do things my way. When I think about that, meditate on it, it makes me laugh. I am trying to make the decision based on my own thinking. I have been down this road before. When I do my own thing...... DISASTER!

It never fails. I do my best, I do what makes sense to me. Here it comes, crumbling down and down and down. Hmm, maybe I should have heeded that stop sign, must have been a million of them on the way. But no, I just go plowing through, and surprise, surprise, there's a brick wall!

That is always going to be the result of me, doing my own thing, listening to my own wisdom, reasoning it out.

YES! We should know that which the Holy Spirit reveals to us. Yes, we do have the ability to discern things of the Spirit, because He lives in us. But sometimes I hear the spirit and think, "No, that can't be right?"  I can just hear the Lord, "REALLY! OK, then this ones on you".

Why oh why would I do that!

Fear, the flesh, my pride, my stomach, the guy in the book I read. So many things distracting me from God.  But shouldn't it be, maybe not simple, but normal to us, who call ourselves Christian.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone.  I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living, just because He lives. . . .

Because He lives within my heart.

Isaiah 55:8 & 9  Says "“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine." "For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.“ (NLT)

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189, United States of America. All right reserved. 

Don't Muddy the Waters

I love the Lord with all my heart, with all my might and with all my Strength. He is my rock and my fortress, in Him do I trust.

As a Christian I strive to understand Gods word. I am not always faithful. I am not always in his word. But God has shown me much about myself through his word. He has revealed my weakness's, my wrong thinking, my selfish heart. But in spite of all that, He loves me. So much that He allowed His Son to die on the cross for me. So I would no longer be under condemnation, that by His sacrifice, I am made Holy. That is a hard one to swallow, but amazing at the same time. His sacrifice on the cross has made us who believe, the very righteousness of God. Once again, not easy to swallow.
But it is true. We are his perfect creation. Hmm, ........that is wild. I am such a mess, a broken pot. I like to tell my wife I'm a cracked pot. She smiles and says, "Boy, don't I know it."

As a believer in Christ Jesus of Nazareth as my Lord and Savior, I believe the Bible is the infallible word of God.

This morning the Lord brought to my attention Job 42:1-6. I was amazed by it. I have read it before and never was it so clear, so poignant. It was a small snapshot of us as Christians. How we muddy the waters. How we make what God is saying to us, so difficult to grasp. How we let our own thinking cloud God's plans and take us down the wrong path. I have done this many times. Letting fear, my own thoughts and my own plans, take precedence over God's. I always end up in over my head. You ever been there?

I use multiple versions of the Bible in my study of God's word. It helps me to see what is being said in plain english as well as a more literal translation. I read Job 42:1-6 in the New King James version of the Bible first, but the Message Bible really brought it home for me.


^1-6 Job answered God: "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. 
  Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
You asked, 'Who is this muddying the water, 
   ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?'
I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, 
   made small talk about wonders way over my head.
You told me, 'Listen, and let me do the talking. 
   Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.'
I admit I once lived by rumors of you; 
   now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!
I'm sorry—forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! 
   I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor."

God knows what He is doing. We have a hard time understanding that or making sense of our situation. Why don't I have a job yet. Why did my mom have to die. Why is that family having success and ours is not. Why have you told me Lord that you will provide, yet I see nothing. Why am I so lonely. Why doesn't anyone love me,....  Why are my kids giving me so much trouble, where are you in all this. 

Job had everything taken away from him. His family, his possessions, his health, everything. Yet he never stopped loving God. He never stopped talking to God. He never forsook God. He came to wrong conclusions about why these thing were happening to him, but he never gave up, never said this is just too hard, I quit.  

And God will never give up on you. 

In the darkness, the trouble he was in, Job never gave up. And God totally restored him, giving him double what he once had. 

The words of Job 42 speak to me of how I put my own thinking, my own understanding on what God is doing in my life and why. And when I do that, I really mess things up. I really muddy the waters. I start to second guess God's purposes and ignorantly confuse the issue. I admit, it is me who has done this. 

I don't always understand God. I know his ways are not my ways. But I know that even if I don't understand Him, His promises are true. I have seen them in my life. 

But you can't give up. Don't give in, don't try to reason it out.  Read the Bible and ask God to reveal Himself to you..... He will. 

I will leave you with this truth from Proverbs 3:5 & 6 (NLT) 

⁵ "Trust in the Lord with all your heart;

      do not depend on your own understanding.
 ⁶ Seek his will in all you do,
      and he will show you which path to take."

The New King James version says "And He shall direct your paths"

I love that. God knows what He is doing.

Don't Muddy the water.

“Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.”

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189, United States of America. All right reserved.