God Must Weep

Yesterday on my way to work I listened to a  story on the radio. An elderly lady received a floral bouquet from a good friend. Included in the arrangement was a willow branch. When the time came to discard the flowers, she discovered that the branch had sprouted leaves and roots, and could not bring herself to throw it away. Instead, she asked her caregiver to take the branch and nurture it along. Her feeling was that she had "given it life" and it "should not be thrown away" and that she now had a "responsibility" for it. The tree eventually was planted in a park, and is now a sort of shrine for people who leave rocks with little notes containing prayers underneath. You can find the entire story here in this newspaper article: http://www.theobserver.ca/2012/12/03/in-memoriam-marions-willow-finds-new-home .

Immediately as I heard how she felt responsibility for this new life, and that it should not be thrown away, I thought of the countless lives of unborn children that are discarded in this world. Abortion is an issue that disturbs me deeply. During the recent U.S. presidential campaign, I was horrified to read about Mr. Obama's stand on abortion, including his support of late term, partial birth "terminations" (a procedure you can see demonstrated here, but I warn you it is very disturbing) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUr0jCbcPNc  It is hard to comprehend how such a heinous crime can be condoned in any country or culture, let alone in a "civilized" one.

In the U.S. there is strict legislation aimed at protecting the American Bald Eagle. Here is a brief excerpt from the "Legal Information Institute" website:
Whoever, within the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof, without being permitted to do so as provided in this subchapter, shall knowingly, or with wanton disregard for the consequences of his act take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or in any manner any bald eagle commonly known as the American eagle or any golden eagle, alive or dead, or any part, nest, or egg thereof of the foregoing eagles, or whoever violates any permit or regulation issued pursuant to this subchapter, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than one year or both: Provided, That in the case of a second or subsequent conviction for a violation of this section committed after October 23, 1972, such person shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
 
Any golden eagle, alive or dead, or any part, nest, or egg thereof........ Boggles the mind, does it not? That more value is placed on a bird than on a human being created in God's image?

How about this news item from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources website, March 9, 2012:


Three Toronto men have been fined a total of $10,500 for charges related to harvesting and possessing an endangered plant species on private land.
Jong Hak Lee, Joe Yeal Yu and Seong Gon Lee all pleaded guilty to possessing wild American Ginseng in contravention of the Endangered Species Act and were fined $2,000 each. All three men also pleaded guilty to entering on posted private land in contravention of the Trespass to Property Act and were fined $500 each. Jong Hak Lee pleaded guilty to the additional charge of taking wild American Ginseng in contravention of the Endangered Species Act and was fined $3,000.

They were find thousands of dollars for  harvesting and possessing an endangered plant species on private land. Again, I ask you, does this make any sense at all?

I love God. I love life. I love creation. I love people. But I hate the "world", the way it functions in rebellion to God. Its mindsets, its priorities, its ongoing slide into destruction and depravity. I hate abortion. I hate that it takes the life from innocent babies that God has given to them.I hate the lie that is fed to women in desperate situations; I hate that they are not instead told of the hope that is in Christ, and given loving support to enable them to bring their babies to term, and either keep them or give them to a family who is desperate to have a child to love. I hate the way babies are ripped from the safety of the womb to be tossed out as garbage. If my heart breaks for them, how much more does God's.

If you are reading this and you agree with me, please pray for women who may find themselves contemplating this desperate act. Pray for our governments that they will turn from this wicked legalization of murder. Pray that God would appoint brave leaders that will stand for the rights of those who cannot protect themselves.

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

Psalm 139: 13-16

Bread of Life

God never does anything by accident. From the things that we "get" right away, to those that make us scratch our heads in wonder, to those things that escape our notice completely. Take for instance the setting for the birth of Christ. He came into this world in a lowly stable, and His bassinet was a rough feeding trough. As for His death, He left this world writhing in agony on a cruel wooden cross.  In between He was raised in a working class family, and spent His ministry years as an itinerant preacher, with no possessions save those He wore or carried with Him.Yet He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and Savior of the world. God's ways are indeed not ours.

Quite often, though, if we consider His ways, we will find the reason for them, and the message intended for us. I love to ponder these things, and if I am not too distracted, Holy Spirit will lead my thoughts, not on a rabbit trail, but along a path dotted with "oh, now I get it" moments. As He does with all whom He indwells.

This morning I watched a sermon on television. It focused on the birth of Christ, and of course mentioned the circumstances of His birth, including the feeding trough that was His crib. Got me to thinking how even at the very beginning God chose to put Him on display in a way that spoke of His being "food".  Not, obviously, as fodder for those animals that may have been present at His birth, but as spiritual food, healing sustenance, meant for mankind to partake of.

Scripture tells us that there is more than a physical life, and a physical food that we require to "live". We see it first in Deuteronomy Chapter 8, and Jesus repeats it again when He is being tempted by Satan in the wilderness:

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘ MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

In John 6:35 Jesus puts into a few words the truth that He alone can give eternal life. He states it again in John 6:51:

 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. 

Here His offer is twofold: first He offers that supernatural, eternal  life that God alone can give, that life that overcomes death and hell and the grave and brings us to an eternity spent with Him. Jesus goes on to say that this offer of Himself includes the giving up of His physical being, His very flesh. Nothing is spared here; the gift is infinitely sacrificial.

Jesus continues to offer food in other instances. In John Chapter 6 He feeds the crowd of more than 5000 with five barley loaves and two fish. Another time He does the same with seven loaves and "a few small fish" (Mathew 15:34).

Once more He uses bread, and this time wine also, to represent His body and blood at the last supper:

 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood."

And again, after His death and resurrection, he offers bread and fish to His disciples at the beach where they encounter Him:

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples ventured to question Him, “Who are You?” knowing that it was the Lord.  Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise.  This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead. (John 21:12-14)

The most dramatic instance of Jesus offering Himself up is His sacrificial death on the cross at Calvary. Here He becomes the ultimate and final  sacrifice for sin, far overshadowing and outweighing those countless animal offerings that led up to that one perfect and perfecting redemptive act. Here He fulfills His promise to give His life for the life of the world.

At this time of year, food is an important part of the way we celebrate the season. We bake, buy and bring scrumptious treats. Workplaces abound with goodies, families gather 'round sumptuous feasts, and we wrap up chocolates and homemade potions to be given as gifts. It is a time, more than any other in the year, when we share with others what we have been blessed with. It's easy to do, because most of us are blessed with much. But the greatest blessing we can have is to be in Christ, and He is the greatest gift we can offer to others. We have more than enough physical food, but many are starving for that Living Bread. He was meant to be shared. And He is more than enough to go around.

Transformed

We bought our old house a year and a half ago. It sits in a beautiful spot, very scenic, and handy to town. It was easy to overlook a lot of the shabbiness and needed work when we saw the view from the large picture windows in the dining and living rooms. Since moving in, however, we have experienced the reality of just how much work the place needs.

After a hiatus from renovations of several months, I decided I would paint one of the large upstairs rooms. The former owners had used blue paint on all surfaces; walls, ceiling, doors, and trim. The house is a storey and a half, so the upstairs ceilings have that cozy slanted shape. Cozy didn't describe that blue room, however. The "country" blue paint, and the blue-grey carpet made it seem more like a cave.  Feeling a surge of motivation, I hauled out paint cans and rollers.

Before I got going, though, I wanted to pull up the carpet. Not having decided what kind of floor covering we would have, I wanted to see just what might be underneath. Two layers of rather nasty carpet, some linoleum, and lots of old newspaper (used for insulation?) later, we found some pine floor boards in seemingly reasonable shape. If you could look past the several layers of paint. So we decided we would sand and either paint or verethane them.

Walls, ceiling and trim painted, we got to the rather gruelling task of scraping paint and sanding. We spent nearly a whole day on our hands and knees, using paint stripper and scrapers to get the paint off. My husband gets all the credit for the sanding. He used a belt sander at first, with a coarse grit paper, then when it was time for a finer one, we rented a floor sander. At that point, seeing the boards sanded to reveal their original look, we began to think that the work would indeed be worth it. The boards were just too nice to cover again with paint, and after four coats of high gloss verethane, the results were amazing. Combined with the yellow walls, white ceiling and trim, it is a totally different room, transformed from a depressing cave to a bright and pretty bedroom.

That work was just completed a few days ago. The result was so satisfying that we are going to do the entire upstairs in the same way. Now, whenever I go upstairs, I find myself just standing and admiring the beauty of the floor. I do a "before and after" in my mind, and can't help but be amazed at the transformation. I don't believe it is pride that I feel, but rather a sense of awe at the difference that some just plain hard work made. It's as though we peeled away those layers to find a hidden treasure. The raw material was there, just waiting for someone to bring it to life, and help it to be all that it could be.

This morning as I once again contemplated the beauty of the floor, I thought of how it is so like what God does with us. Sin stained, world weary, and dragging layered years of wrong thinking and living, He begins a wonderful work in us that He has promised to finish. The first layers come off, then begins the real work of scraping and sanding. First a coarse grit, then a successively finer one, until that day when we will stand before Him in a sinless state. Then He will get the glory, as that final product of redemption and restoration is on display for all eternity. Far more beautiful and amazing than anything I can accomplish with some old pine boards.

For I am confident of this very thing, 

that He Who began a good work in you 

will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Phil. 1:6 NASB

BLESSED BE

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1Peter 1:3-5


It is said that in interpreting scripture, the three most important rules are "context, context, context", but at times I am compelled to lift certain verses from the page, to ponder them on their own, away from the verses before and after. I want to set them apart, like when I find some exceptionally lovely beads when I want to make some jewellry. They stand out from the others in the display, and I hold them up, examining and admiring them for their unique qualities. In that way, many verses are "stand alone" in their beauty and richness of truth.

Sometimes when we read scripture, verses that we have seen time and again can stop us in our tracks and let us go no further. In reading the above passage this morning, I was amazed, perhaps for the first time, by the list of incredible, encouraging truths it contains:

• We are to bless God. He is blessed already, in that He is Who He is. Yet we are to bless Him for that, praising and thanking Him for what He has done for us.

• He is merciful. Because of His mercy, His great mercy, He has acted on our behalf to make possible the following:

• We are born again. I don't think we see this term used many times in scripture. I can think of one other time, in the Gospel of John (3:5), when Jesus said we must be born again to see or enter the kingdom of God. The gist of it is, that we were once spiritually dead, but God in mercy brought us to life. In the spiritual sense, we are born dead. And it is a state that we cannot bring ourselves out of, any more than a cadaver can raise itself to life. Dead means dead, with no life or power existing to change that status. God brought us to life spiritually.

• We have a living hope. When we were still spiritually dead, we may have put our hope in various things for ultimate contentment and safety in this life, and the hereafter. Those hopes were dead; pointless and founded on lies, since they did not include hope in Jesus Christ as our Savior. But since we are now included in Christ, and are joint heirs with Him, we can be confident that our hope is secured by His perfect life, death, and resurrection. He is our hope, and He is a risen, living Saviour.

• We have an inheritance waiting for us in heaven. It is perfect, secure, for sure, and forever. It will not diminish, fade, or disappear. That inheritance is our completed salvation, glorification and sanctification. It is reserved for us, and will be revealed in the last time, or the end of time as we know it.

• We are protected or kept by God! He didn't just save us, then leave us to carry on in our own strength. Grace is not just for our initial salvation; it is something that is poured out into our lives every moment that we live and breathe. God is able to keep us from falling, and to present us, blameless before Himself (Jude v 24).

God's word is so rich. These verses are not truly stand alone, in that they describe truths that are reinforced and reiterated throughout scripture. But as I consider all that is said in this one sentence, I am struck anew by God's mercy and provision for lost sinners. He gives us new birth, brings us into His family with Christ as our Brother, provides grace to keep us till the end, then welcomes us into eternity where we will enjoy sinless, blessed communion with Him forever.

If you are in Christ today, I hope these verses speak peace and joy to your soul as they do to mine.

(Originally posted   Thursday, September 04, 2008)

From Mourning to Dancing

I read this scripture today. Whenever I come to it when reading through the Psalms, I get a little jolt of joy. As a new Believer, it was one of the verses that resonated perfectly with my heart. Today I wanted to write a post about that, and I was doubly blessed to come across this picture when I was searching for one to add to it. Here it is, my Bible's version, with the next verse:

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,

That my soul may sing praise to you and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever."

(Psalm 30: 11-12, NASB)

In those days following my acceptance of Christ, I walked around in a kind of a cloud. I couldn't stop smiling. The Bible became the most amazing page turner; it kept me on the edge of my seat, and I could hardly wait to get back to it. I wrote this scripture on an index card, and posted it above my desk at work. It seemed I went through each day just thanking God over and over for what He had done for me. When I first read these words, it was as though David had written them on my behalf, those centuries before. They precisely expressed my sentiments toward my newly found Savior and God.

Maybe you can relate to my experience. My sackcloth was made of guilt, fear, remorse, hopelessness and confusion. I was in a pit of despair one day, and the next, when I walked out the door, my whole world had transformed. It was a complete 180 turn, and I was staggered by the enormity of what had taken place. And I still am. Each time I am reminded, by these verses or others like them, or by situations or conversations that take place, of God's amazing grace. In my life, and in the life of each one that He chooses to bring up out of the pit.

"I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,

And have not let my enemies rejoice over me,

O LORD my God,

I cried to You for help, and You healed me.

O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;

You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.
(Psalm 30:1-3)

 I didn't know much about the Bible back then, but I KNEW I had been rescued.  HE RESCUES US! And it doesn't stop there. He keeps saving us, each day. He keeps on forgiving. Thank God for that...

"If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

(Psalm 130:3)

So, when I have a day when I am a bit down, like today, I am so thankful to have my ungrateful heart get stirred to thankfulness. It is enough, it is more than enough, that He saved me. And that He keeps saving me. And that He will ultimately and forever save me. It is more than enough that He loves me, and always will. 

This post is for Him. It is for you Lord. I WILL give thanks to You forever. And I thank you now. I bless your Name, and lift up my heart to you, my Savior. To You belongs all praise, honour and glory. Forever.

 

Deep Calls to Deep

Do you ever come to a place in your journey with God where He seems to "clear the table" of your heart, and sweep away all that you thought made for solid ground? Like those lofty ideals, good intentions, noble purposes, and precious convictions that had up till that point kept you afloat, and (supposedly) on a clear path, one that you knew He was leading you on? Suddenly that little boat you were sailing in turns out to be made of paper; it starts to disintegrate, and you realize it is no longer sea-worthy, and will never take you where you need to go. Well, it seems I am at that place now.

My boat. What has it been made of, and what has kept it afloat? In the beginning, it was constructed of fear of a God I did not know, and fear of a religion that kept me in a prison of rule-keeping. That boat sailed on choppy water indeed.  It was a raft, in fact, and I had to keep fending off the sharks of guilt and fear that continually threatened to overcome me. I was stuck there, floating on the ocean, trying to steady myself, knowing that at any minute that raft of my own righteousness could fall apart, and I would drown.

Then one day, it did fall apart. But God threw me a life preserver, and gave me the faith I needed to grab hold of it. I met Jesus. My boat then became more of a rubber dinghy, filled with the air of intoxication; and I bobbed along quite happily for a while. I was in love, and I knew I would never be the same again.

Shortly thereafter, I traded (reluctantly) my dinghy of starry eyed bliss for a rowboat. This required a lot of effort on my part. Effort to be "spiritual", and a "good Christian". Seemingly, there were still rules to follow, so once again I became entangled in the do's and dont's (thought I left them when I was rescued from my raft experience!) of the Christian life. That leg of the journey evolved into a flotilla, where I sailed alongside  many others. It was good to have company, but there was a sense of insecurity as well. I couldn't help but keep comparing my journey with those of my fellow companions. Did my boat measure up to theirs? Was my experience as "spiritual" as theirs? Was I keeping up to the best of them? Well, my arms eventually grew weary with the effort of all that rowing, and I traded my rowboat for a tugboat.

What, you might wonder, did my little tugboat pull? It was a heavy load indeed. Great, huge containers of SOUND DOCTRINE was what made up my cargo. It was slow going, but very satisfying for quite a while. I learned a lot. And was quite happy with my little tugboat; proud of the ever increasing weight of knowledge that I was accumulating. Till I began to notice that I was slowing down. All that I was dragging behind me eventually caused me to come to a complete standstill. Stuck. Too overloaded to move any further. And I realized that I had only traded in one set of rules for another. Rules about being "right", following the right teachers, reading the right books, believing the correct interpretation of scripture. I was full of information, but seemed farther away from where I wanted to go.

I didn't stay there. A sailboat came along, and I happily jumped aboard. This boat's name was "Biblical Church". I found confirmation for all the things that God had been filling my heart with, and I was free to be me in Christ. Quite an exhilarating ride. I met many others along the way, and had a renewed sense of purpose, and intimacy with Jesus. Determined to stay this course, God allowed me to travel in a small contingent of like minded sailors for a time. A blessing indeed.

Now that leg of the journey is over. And I find myself alone in the ocean once again. My destination isn't clear, in the way that it has been in the past. Maybe I have been trying to plot my own course, thinking that I knew what it should be. Maybe my "destinations" were not destinations at all, only points along the way. Maybe this time I won't have any boat at all. I will be like Peter, and simply walk toward Jesus on top of the water. Because, in the end, He is the destination. And the boat. And the wind. And the sails. And the arms that pull the oars. I know He is calling me, as He calls each one of His own. And, somehow, that is enough. Even if the ocean is dark, and there is no one else here with me. Even if all I do is "tread water' for a while. Maybe I just need to soak for a time, and let Him wash off all those wrong motives. Erase all the maps I have drawn up for myself when I charted my own course.

Maybe you are at one of those "stepping off" places. Stepping off, and stepping back. It's ok. Let yourself be in that place. Stop listening to every voice but His. He is there, waiting for you. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. We all need that rest, that respite. The world, even the religious world, can drown out His voice, but He will keep calling you till you come away to listen to Him.

Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;

All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;

And His song will be with me in the night,

A prayer to the God of my life.

Ps. 42:7,8

Nowhere Else to Go

"From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with him no more. 

Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?'

 But Simon Peter answered him 'Lord, to whom shall we go? 

You have the words of eternal life. 

Also we have come to believe and know that

 You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"

(John 6:66-69)

How many things pull you every day? How many grab your attention, and stir up discontentment in you? How many times does the magnet of worldly thinking tug on the filings of fleshly desires within your heart? Unless you live under a rock, it happens very often. Because we live in a world that has it's head screwed on backwards. There is not a lot out there that feeds our God-born spirit, but plenty of things to distract us and come against the truth of what God has said. 

I was in a Shopper's Drug Mart recently, and heading for the blood pressure monitoring station, I passed through one of the "beauty product" aisles. I was amazed at the number of boxes of hair color that were displayed. How many shades of blonde, brunette and red can there be? Now don't get me wrong; I color my hair regularly. My daughter (a hairdresser) does it for me; the same old medium brown every time. I wish I could just "go gray" and be done with it, but I haven't got there yet. Still, have you ever wondered if the never ending ways to "improve" every single food and health and beauty product will ever cease? Just how many kinds of toothpaste and shampoo do we need? Each new version practically promises a life changing result, and we continue to buy them, despite the fact that, in the end, most of them don't perform much better than the previous version. We are so susceptible to advertising.

But that is only a tiny example of the countless ways we can be distracted and led to pour time, energy and money into endeavors that are, at the least, foolish and wasteful, and at worst, damaging to our mind, body and spirit. Even good things can go to far, if they overshadow other equally or even more vital aspects of our lives. For me, it is a daily struggle to keep a right perspective. 


Despite the commonly held belief that there are many paths that lead to God, there is only one. That path, that door, is Jesus Christ. Conversely, the many paths that people take are the ones that lead away from God. 

Some of Jesus' disciples walked away, took other paths. They found His words too difficult. but others  knew the real thing. They knew the pearl of great price, and they weren't about to wander away from Him. For them, knowing Jesus was the ultimate prize, the only thing worth living for. Indeed, where else could they have gone?


Is this your heart? Do you say, like the Psalmist, 

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

 My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

^{Psalm 73:24-26}

^{God grant us the grace to keep Him first, in all things, above all things.} 

There Are No Good Guys

Do you ever find yourself rooting for the good guy in a movie or program, even though he is really a "bad" guy? You know the ones. They sleep around, get drunk, tell lies, and curse to beat the band, yet they are, in the storyline, the hero. It happens a lot, I have noticed. They may be every bit a thief, or even a murder, as the villain, yet they somehow are redeemed by sheer virtue, sometimes, of outsmarting the other guy, and saving the family farm. I have found myself inwardly cheering them on, while at the same time, reminding myself that they are no better, in essence, than the story's bad guy.

It's what we do in real life, too. We compare. We justify. We manage to walk around with eight by ten lumber jutting out of our eye, because we held up a magnifying glass to our neighbor's eye and found a speck of sawdust. But the truth is, there is none good, no, not even one. But oh, the effort we exert, the loopholes we search out, in order to prove ourselves right, worthy and acceptable! Until that day, that glorious day, when it all comes crashing down, and God pulls back the curtain to our heart, and we see the ugly truth....we are sinners beyond hope and help, apart from His grace.

I read this verse this morning. It is good news! If you haven't appropriated this truth, you need to do so! Praise God for His marvelous gift!

"Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39)

Our Heavenly Portion

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you will perish;
You have destroyed all those
who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.
(Psalm 73:25-28)

I love these verses. They display such heartfelt devotion to, dependence on, and satisfaction in God. When I read them, my heart says "Yes! So it is with me!", and in that moment the beauty and truth of the words resonate with my soul. It is a transient thing, however. Reality, or rather what we see as reality, soon interferes. When I get up from my reading, I am distracted by a thousand silly thoughts and worries. How can this be, when I know in my heart of hearts that He is all that I need, and the only One Who can complete me and keep me? How fickle is my devotion.

And this "reality" that steals my heat and mind away; how real is it? It is only the world, the flesh, and the devil, interrupting my mindfulness of some wonderful truths. Indeed, whom have I in Heaven, or on earth, but God? Who has more worth, or value, or is more deserving of my praise and trust? I know that my flesh, this body, this heartbeat of mine, will ultimately fail me. But He will raise me up, and keep me forever.

Can we really be "too Heavenly minded" to be "any earthly good?" I don't think so. Keeping our minds on things above, whatever is true, lovely and pure, hiding God's word in our hearts, all of these things keep a right perspective. The world is constantly "in our face", distracting us, and warping our worldview. But God's Word washes us and renews our minds, giving us a "right" mind, and the knowledge and strength that we need to face all the fiery darts of the enemy.

I have been thinking a lot about Heaven lately. Just allowing my mind to try and conceive of what it will be like to see Jesus face to face. I think too of seeing my brothers and sisters there, all of us rejoicing and worshipping around the throne of God. Surely there is nothing to compare with, nothing I can long more for, than that. It does seem purely selfish on my part. The thought of stepping out of this world, with all the sin and sorrow it contains, and stepping into perfection is a hope that brings me much comfort. It seems as if the glory of God is not my first motive. Or....is it? Because it is only in worshipping Him, with all our hearts, minds and souls, that we fulfill our ultimate purpose, and reach our highest, most glorious goal. John Piper says that God is "most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him". And Heaven will be the place where we find our complete and eternal satisfaction, worshipping Him forever. So, I think I will keep on thinking on these things, and thanking God for His Word, and His Spirit, that have given us a glimpse of glory in the revelation of Jesus Christ.