Unsatisfied By Average

The Musings of a Stubborn Believer

Category: God (page 4 of 6)

Distinguished is…

In God’s economy, distinct is distinguished.  
Same word.
“But know that the Lord hath set apart6395 him that is godly for Himself…” Psalm 4:3
6395 palah paw-law’  –  a primitive root; 
to distinguish (literally or figuratively): 
put a difference, show marvelous
–Strongs, emphasis added



Supernatural Secret

“The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but God-likeness. 

If the Spirit of God has transformed you within,

you will exhibit Divine characteristics in your life, not good human characteristics.

God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life,

not as a human life trying to be godly. 

The secret of a Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in him by the grace of God…”



–My Utmost for His Highest
Photos: ©Joshua Nebblett

Hope is My Prison, Lord

It’s been one of those weeks…
You know, when every 20 minutes there was another I-should-blog-that moment. And indeed, I would have posted more, had the luxury of time been afforded me. 
Instead, I transformed the office into a recording studio/mastering suite and ran through life from summit to valley to next summit (every twenty minutes!) taking it all in faster than I could even journal about it. 


Then yesterday afternoon it all came together. 


I haven’t written a song in over a year… (Though I’ve half-written at least half a dozen)
And it wasn’t because I didn’t really want to. Just something would get me halfway through, and then drop me. 
I got to the point where I was nearly convinced I’d written my last song. 


Until this week. 


Then I recognized a sweet little melody woven through everything…


– Through the boxes and boxes delivered by our friend the UPS man
– Through fists wrapped around a taught barbed wire while starring into the canyon, and talking to a God that’s a million lightyears away, and still within easy reach.
– Through middle-of-the-night prayers for a friend’s safety
– Through reality checks
– Through emails not so easy to read  
– Through prayers for you– my blog friends. (I pray for you by name– all of you) 
– Through reminders of loss
– Through conversations with my little sister…
– Through hours spent pacing over dust and rocks fighting darkness and finding light…


Here’s just an excerpt. Maybe the melody will never be published, I don’t know…
But I’ll always pray the prayer.


— 


Water Your dreams my Lord, 
  with tears I shed
Feed hungry children Lord, 
  my promised bread
Send me to darkness Lord, 
  teach me to pray
Through fire or freezing cold, 
  I’ll smile and say–
. . . 
Hope is my prison Lord, 
  love is my chain
If I can serve You Lord, 
  my loss is gain
I am a soldier Lord, 
  called by Thy name
Let me walk worthy Lord, 
  worthy of Your name…

Privileged: Part 2

I’m reminded…

In death, there is life. 

 Though pain, and toil, and sacrifice are the lot of the soldier, 

And though it may appear that for this time he gets no pay,

Remember that God has not asked anyone to serve Him here
without promising him an inheritance hereafter

There has never been a night
that was not followed by the morning…


“With the sovereignty of God is bound up the well-being of man. The glory of God is the joy and the blessing of all created beings. When we seek to promote His glory we are seeking for ourselves the highest good which it is possible for us to receive. . . . God calls for the consecration to His service of every faculty, of every gift you have received from Him. He wants you to say, with David: ‘All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.'” 

God’s Amazing Grace, Feb 22
Photo: Joshua Nebblett







Privileged: The Real Gospel

“The principle of the gospel is this: 
The gospel always brings life to the receiver,
and death to the giver.


If the gospel brought death to Jesus Christ, why would we think that in preaching the gospel it would be any less for us?…


So the mixture of our message is life and death,
And laughter and tears…


And this is voluntary.
This is not a sentence at all…
We’re not sentenced to death.
We’re just privileged to answer His call…”



–Jackie Pullinger
lifelong missionary to Hong Kong

Scars

Deep sigh. 
Silence.
Staring at nothingness. 
I leaned back in my desk chair while the reality settled in… 
“…He is pleading His wounds—‘My hands, my hands!’ ‘I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.’”*
And all at once I closed my eyes and I could almost see Him… 
–See Him standing in the throne room, turning for just a moment from the painful sight of yet another failure, to face His Father.
With tears in His eyes, and tears in His voice–
“Abba–
 Abba, My hands…
Look at My hands!”
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  
You and I know those beautiful hands were forever ruined saving us. A friend of mine once noted that they might be more than just perpetually scabbed. What if they are permanently disfigured? 
My hands tremble, and my eyes fill with tears, even as I type. 
But you know what moves me yet more?
It’s the second part. 
“I have graven thee…” 
It’s my name that is carved on His beautiful hands. Carved with a Roman nail.   
My name is a scar on His perfect Person. 
But He is not ashamed of me. 
Indeed not. Rather, He holds me up before His Father, and says “Look at My hands…”
And “swift angels are sent to minister to fallen man, to lift up and to sustain.”*
This is Love. 
Only love can call scars trophies. 

*{RH January 4, 1887, par. 15}

The Glory of Heaven?

Not a trillion        sinless angels.
Not a thousand miles of golden streets.
Not a million crowns under construction.
Not the angelic anthems of peace.
Nor the anthems of war.
Not perfection.
Not light.
No. 
None of these things.
“The glory of Heaven is lifting up the fallen…”*
Loving the unlovely.  Making people new.
                                                                         Beautiful.
                                                                                           Perfect.
Thank you, Jesus…
“His glory is His children’s good,
  His joy, His tender Fatherhood…”
*COL 386

Love is Life…

When we get to Heaven, come find me in the library at the University of the Universe…
I’ll be studying two things: 


Love, and music…




“Love is oneness– oh, how sweet
   To obey this law,
The unlovely we may meet
  Need our love the more.
Make us one, O love, we plead
With men’s sorrow and their need.


We are one in needing love,
  (Let us true love show)
Only love’s sun from above
  Makes our spirits grow.
‘Love us!’ this is our heart’s need,
‘Let us love’ –and live indeed!


We are also one in this, 
  We must love or die,
Loving others is true bliss,
  Self-love is a lie!
Love of self is inward strive, 
Love turned outward is true life.


Let us love and fruitful be,
  Love is God’s own breath,
Love will kindle love and see
  New life born from death.
Nowhere is a heaven more sweet
Than where loving spirits meet.”


Mountains of Spices: pages 46-47 

Another little secret

Isaiah 45-46
Before the guy even knew God’s name, he had a promise. God was to anoint him, and then go before him knocking down stone walls, breaking iron gates, and setting the kings of the earth on their faces… And this guy was a heathen!
He had a little secret though… God had his right hand, and he had God’s. (45:1)
How much more shall we have power over our enemies when we choose above all to place and leave our hand in God’s… (46:3-4)
Oh, why do we ever do otherwise?

Providence at it’s best…

Isaiah 41
I love that word– Providence.
It’s ultimate power giving of itself… And that, provision more than sufficient.
There is no promise that we will never lack… Indeed, if we never lacked, there would be no need for a promise. No need for Power. No need for Grace…
We will lack. We must thirst…
But we need remain thirsty only for a moment. Just long enough to recognize our need… And then, Providence kicks in.
And not with a little glass of water either…
“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”
(Isaiah 41:17-18)
Where there is thirst, He creates a river…

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