Looking Forward to the New Normal

I am looking forward to developing a new routine for the summer, or maybe it is reestablishing an old one.

Reading books I want to read at my own pace. Following and commenting on blogs a lot more closely than I have been been doing. Sitting at the table for two with God a lot more than I have been doing. More prayer, deeper prayer.

More time in ministering to others as opposed to tending to self.

I think the greatest growth comes not only when we stretch ourselves, but when when we also stretch for others. Investing in others is so much more valuable than just investing in self.

I am looking forward to a valuable summer. I will try to keep you posted, but I may be too busy.

But I am out of school for the summer. I almost feel like a teenager. I said almost, I am too much of a realist to leave that word off.

Facing A Giant

In a little while I am going off to take the test I spoke of yesterday.

I am facing a giant today. This is the weakest part of my student life, prepping for exams. That is my giant today, facing a part of my life I do not like to deal with, doing the best I can and getting through. Not much of a giant, taking a test, but it is the one to deal with today. And if I can face a "little giant", I am one step closer to facing the real giants that will cross my path.

I must admit, I do not feel as prepared as I should be. I feel small in the face of this little giant.

One thing is certain; no matter how I do, I will not talk about the results in a future post.

It is time to move on the next task the Lord has for me. Waiting to face the giants in my life with a real giant, my Lord, by my side.

Study

This is going to be a short post today (OK, all of them are pretty short).

I am studying for a final tomorrow, so all my effort needs to be as a focus on that.

As a result I do not have much to say today, other than I will now get into the struggle of studying, the part of being a student again that I like the least of all the school experience.

Let's face it, everyone in this situation does.

Do you think it is sin or pride that drives that? Is it the nagging feeling that you did not put as much in the study of the entire term to allow you to do well in an activity designed to measure your success in mastering the subject at hand?

No Sin, No Shame

²⁵And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:25 (NASB)

Adam and Eve could stand before their God is this state because they were both pure and without sin. Can we stand before God without shame today? No, not given the sin that entered the world, and the sin that is in our nature as a result.

So, we must be clothed by Jesus to be justified before God, to be declared righteous in His eyes. Is is only with Jesus in front of me, shielding me from my own sin, that I can stand before the Father, that I can come before Him in prayer, in praise, and ultimately in worship.

¹⁰as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Romans 3:10 (NASB)

There will be a day when I will be brought before the Lord in my resurrected state, and I like to think that is the state Adam and Eve were once in, without sin and unashamed.

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:23 (NASB)

That will happen one day. Right now I have to get through this sinful world, of which I am part, as best I can, trying to face my God, having Him look at me through the eyes of My Savior.

Strength in Patience

I am not by nature a patient man, never have been.

Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: May 2 Devotional

I also have not usually associated patience with strength, but more with a willingness to put up with stuff, usually unpleasant stuff.

³"For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
Habakkuk 2:3 (NASB)

The words I highlighted are the ones in the verse that Chambers stressed. It is a convicting point to me; a lack of patience is more than just a failure of my strength, it is a failure of my faith.

As I move through the week, looking to wrap up the school term, looking to lay out what I will be doing the next few months, I need to keep in mind that waiting on the Lord is the strength I desire, the faith I require. Nothing less is needed, nothing more is required.

As you think about moving through the upcoming days, weeks and months ahead; what requires yuor strength in faith, but more importantly, how are you going to go around to getting it?

In God We Must...

Have faith,not emotion. It may sound a little strange that faith is what it takes to be in proper relationship to a relational, personal God. You would think the emotional would drive the relationship. Some excerpts from Mr. Chambers, an old friend of The Narrow Road:

A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world...But what God wants us to do is to "walk by faith." How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, "I cannot do anything else until God appears to me"? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, "Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!" Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them...

Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: May 1 Devotional

In our faith God will reveal ourselves to us. I am not saying we shouldn't have joy and deeply intense and personal feelings about our relationship with God. On the contrary, the deeper, the more personal, the better.

But let your feelings be driven by your faith,, and not your faith driven by your feelings.

Reflections

Are things winding down or are they just beginning to heat up?

Today is last day of classes and then I am off for a little over three months. Lots of time to think about my fairly new status as a student and how best to manage it going forward. Lots of time to pour into the ministries I have been supporting this past year. Lots of time to plan a get away with the wife this summer.

What I seem to lack is the imagination to deal with these. I am hoping some down time turns into an uplifting time, to allow me to map out what the Lord would have me do the next three months, the rest of the year and into 2010. (2010? Yikes the 00's are almost over! When did that happen? Seems like yesterday I was planning for the end of the world with Y2K. I must have slept in for a big part of the past decade).

So I will focus on thought, on reflection and most of all on prayer. To determine the next step to take to stay firmly planted in the middle of His designated path for me.

For I know that the Lord is not finished with me yet.