Avoiding A Spiritual Caldera

Caldera. I like that word today. A caldera is a basin like depression formed by the explosion or collapse of the center of a volcano. You have all the heat and energy and activity. Then the bottom falls out of the top and you have a caldera. A kind of sunken look, a mere shadow of the former power and energy you once saw flowing from that volcano, when it was full in its' passion and activity and rocking the world immediately around it.

Doesn't sound like a good idea to have a spiritual caldera, does it? Who wants a collapse, when we need the fires to be burning as hot today as when we came to faith in Jesus, as hot tomorrow and each day until He comes back or calls us home.

I clearly want to keep the fire stoked, don't you? So I am in the Word daily, recently I started participating in an on-line bible study (my first) on Psalm 119 with some really cool and very godly women (and a guy or two), I work at an  evangelism training and outreach ministry, I attend seminary part time, I try to focus hard on my prayer life.

I am stoking my fires as best I know how right now. (Know how right now. How now, brown cow? Not sure where that came from. Possibly a mini-caldera, an attention implosion.) I am a little shy of 8 years into my faith walk, and I want to make sure that fore keeps burning bright. 

I know it isn't about the volume of activity but the level of intensity. So I am trying to do all these things as deeply, as sincerely, with as much fire as I can. I hope I am succeeding. I will keep going. I choose to avoid the caldera of a cooling passion for the Lord. I want the fire kept hot so I am stoked for the Lord, but that the fire also burns away what is worthless in my life, what is worthless in the pursuit of the Lord and the giving to Him of all glory.

I hope you are doing things to keep your fires stoked up to their full potential. Anything less than a blazing bonfire is not giving God the glory He so richly deserves from each and every one of us.

We (I) are open to suggestions as I (we) keep stoking things up at our (my) end.

Renewal

I was prompted, convicted or just made to get off my duff and blog about renewal today. Kudos to PeterPollock.com for putting this on the table today.
Renewal.
I think about what it takes for me in the spiritual sense. A willingness on my part to pursue it. A willingness on the Lord’s part to offer it freely and continuously to me. In fact, renewal makes me think of another word.
Patience.
His, not mine. For His offer stands 24/7, while my desire and drive to pursue it wanes daily. It makes me think of another word.
Persistence.
His again, not mine. He is willing to keep after me and bring me into the fold. He will not give up on me now that He has made me His. Which brings up one more word.
Grace.
All His. He would do this all for me even after he knows who I really am.
So renewal really has little to do with me, and is all about Him. It has to be that way or it really isn’t going to work in my life.

Is He Ashamed of You?

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 

Hebrews 11:16 (English Standard Version)

Is God ashamed of you? Is He ashamed of me? I find that a very disturbing thought, probably because I have often given Him a good reason to be ashamed of me. Reading this verse as part of my morning prayer and reflection brought some tears to my eyes, as I thought about all He has done for me, and how I often give Him a reason to be ashamed.

And it brought even more tears when I thought that it is love and patience that He shows to me; not anger, not dismay, not frustration at how I behave.

Today I will think a lot about the city He has prepared for me, I will think about how I live and how I need to try to make Him have so much less opportunity to feel ashamed.

Desire Meeting Need

I was struck in my readings in the Bible this morning (in Job) and in my prayer and reflection that my relationship with God is based on a beautiful blending of desire and need. His desire, my need.

He desires that I understand enough about Him to live my life in accordance with His will, for that was what He created me for. He doesn't need me to understand Him, nor frankly, does He need to to live according to His will. But I need to. He desires it, and I need it.

He desires that I be with Him for all eternity and sent His Son to die for my sin and make me acceptable in His eyes to spend eternity in His presence. I need that. He desires it, and I need it.

I think it is a most marvelous part of His sovereign will that His desires for me match up with my needs for Him. That as a result I would seek what He so dearly wants me to have. 

And through the death of His Son on my behalf, He made possible, in the only way possible, for my needs to be met most completely.

God's timing and His plans are perfect, for He is sovereign and perfect.

And I am perfectly fine with that.

Merry Christmas

Yesterday it was the first day of winter and here where I live in Texas, it hit 85 degrees. OK, so we are off to a warm start to this winter season, but it has already  dropped down to a high of about 60 today, so we are heading in the right direction. My Christmas morning scene will not look like this.

Not exactly a White Christmas this year, but this season has never been about the weather, it has been about Christ.


I am looking forward to a quiet and long Christmas weekend, starting tomorrow, with my wife. We will send a lot of time together alone (I like that a lot) and a lot of time with our Lord (I like that a lot as well). We will not be visiting family this year, I like to have a Christmas once in a while in my own home, not on the road visiting. Christmas to me is a state of mind not a physical location (unless that location was to be in the eternal physical presence of God. Which it will one day, but not yet it seems), so I am cool with a quiet Christmas in which I can really seek out the Lord and thank Him for what this season means.


I pray that wherever you are, and whatever you are doing this Christmas, your thoughts turn often to Christ, the true reason for the season.


Merry Christmas to all.

The Glory of God

I stayed up late last night to watch the lunar eclipse, knowing I would pay for it this morning when I had to get up for work. I figured watching a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice, which hasn't happened since 1638 (I missed that one) and will not happen until 2094 (will probably miss that one too, or since I will be around 138, probably will have even more trouble than staying up than tonight), it was worth the effort and the pain. Seeing something that hasn't happened in close to 400 years is something to see, and to write  about. Just to walk outside and see the moon directly overhead, like the noonday sun, was a treat worth staying up for. And it got better from there.

I really wanted to experience the glory of God in the wee hours of the morn, watching what I could see of how He wheels the heavens about from our vantage point on earth, bringing about moments of celestial harmony such as this. These moments are rare indeed in our rather puny and finite lives. These moments cannot be created by us, but only by the Creator for us.

It made me think of the of the divine harmony one can experience for eternity by accepting Jesus as the only way to your salvation. Of being able to experience incredible moments of harmony eternally, continually and absolutely.

A moment like this really highlights the incredible grace He extends to us daily, once we are His.

A New Direction?

I know it has been a while since I blogged and may be quite a while longer before I do it again. You may have noticed I changed the name of the blog and the link to it. You may not have noticed since I am not sure I am not going to mess up all the links it has. It may take me some time to sort that all out, but I have always plunged first and thought about it afterwards as I have worked changes to this blog.
I am looking to make this more of a passage through the grace I have been provided by Christ through my trust in Him, as I walk in faith with Him. We shall see how it goes and if anyone actually can read this going forward. As a social mediot, I do not always get the techie stuff quite right.

Happy touring!