Counterfeiting

"Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain." Psalm 127:1

It is not possible for us to copy or recreate that which is of God. Any attempt on our parts to copy the God that we see in another person, church, or organization will fail. It is God who established them, and for that very reason, we are able to see God at work in them. Even if they were to teach us all the "secrets" of God that He has revealed to them, if we are not walking with God and seeking Him and His understanding on our own, then we are a counterfeit. I am not able to copy the acts or writings of any great "Saint" or person of God that I may look up to or aspire to be like for it is God who inspired their very heart and soul and infused them with His power to be who they are and do the things they are doing. They do them through the inspiration, power and leading of the Holy Spirit. So, we should never strive to "be Godly." It is only God who can make us more like Him, and the most natural part of the process is seeing that the more we become like Him, the less we are naturally able to be like Him on our own. It is only by His grace and gift to us. Our eyes are opened more and more to the fact that we are not Godly on our own or of our own "doing." So stop "doing" and start seeking Jesus, humbly bowing before Him. Not only are you not "Godly," but you are a sinner and in desparate need of His grace. He chose to give it to you, as a free gift, because you are His child and He loves you so. You are precious to Him in every way! What sweet relief it is to know we don't have to do it all on our own. Relax and rest and trust in Him...surrender it all to Him and find freedom.

The crooked man stands in his crooked house
Judging everyone else's
And from the spot on which he stands,
His is the only straight one.

Be sure your foundation is the Rock of Ages so your perspective is not skewed by the crookedness of the world.

Confirmation

Lately I have felt somewhat confused when it comes to knowing where God wants me to be. Today, I began reviewing the past and considering the instances in my life when God acted on my behalf, or in some way revealed Himself to me. As I drew from my most precious memories, the ones in which God chose to reveal Himself to me, I realized that each instance shared an important commonality. Each one was preceded by my desire to seek God and to do His will, as well as my turning to Him and placing my circumstances into His love and care. Each time involved a process of my realizing that I had exhausted my own power and strength and yet, still, was unable to change anything. These moments are my treasures. They are the ones in which I came to understand more and more God's love for me and His absolute Sovereignty over my life and all things.

Now, as for the instances themselves, the ones where God's hand seemingly reached down from Heaven and altered the very fabric of my experiences in a magnificent display of His love, grace and might; for these there is no comparison. They are the stamps of God upon my life. They are the upward steps of faith which cause my heart to know in ever increasing measure that the Almighty God of the Universe does indeed Reign on High. They are the awesome moments where one can exclaim in perfect faith that, "God's foolishness is greater than man's wisdom." They prove the truth and reveal the beauty of the verses, "apart from Him I can do no good thing," for, "every good and perfect gift is from above."

When we choose to turn our troubles over to God, He confirms that faith by acting on our behalf. Even when the instance is trivial, as long as our hearts are for Him, He will reveal Himself and confirm that He has heard, and often, the response is heart and mind changing. Evidence of God's love is often seen in the transformation of our lives.

Eventually, we turn a corner. Rather than turning circumstances over to God one at a time, we turn our whole lives over to Him. When we are following His will and seeking His face wholeheartedly, He will bring all that we need right across our path. God honors our desire to know Him, obey Him, and love Him more. There is no amount of struggling that will cause it to be brought about on our own.

Stringing Pearls

God has blessed us with our lives here on earth. He's given us free will in which we can choose Him, choose to honor Him, rejoice in Him, praise Him for all things, or we can even choose to live apart from Him. Our entire lives are spent making choices. Who are we making them for and who is our focus; ourselves or God? What are we doing with each precious moment that He's given us? Paul tells us in Phillipians 4:4 to, "Rejoice in the Lord always!" Regardless of our circumstances, despite potential difficulties, God desires that we praise Him in all things because each day is a gift from Him. Moments pass and fall just as sand through an hourglass. It is up to us to rejoice and be thankful for each precious one. As we do, God will honor our praise. He has given us salvation, freedom, life and has set us free from every bondage and captivity. Regardless of life's circimstances, we will always have reason to rejoice.

As we rejoice and thank Him for each day, we are taking that moment of time, that one grain of sand, and, rather than letting it fall, wasted, through the hourglass of our lives, we are offering it to Him. It is a beautiful gift to God which He honors by turning it into a pearl. It becomes a moment of time in which we chose to put God at the center and focus of our lives and rejoice in Him. As you look back on your life, what do you see? Have life's moments been falling, wasted, through the hourglass of time, or have you rejoiced in your God regardless of how you felt? Choose to rejoice in all things, to praise the Creator for His goodness, grace and love daily. As we do this, we will find that God has graciously given us a string of precious pearls, each one strung around a God honoring string of time in which we chose to rejoice in our Savior King.

By nature...

Most of us naturally desire to have Godly attributes. Even those who don't know God, want to be viewed by others as good people. We desire to do good, we want others to think we are good, but we don't, naturally, know how to be good. Our nature desires a "good" outcome for ourselves, but naturally (and often blindly) it acts in ways which are contrary to that. This results in attaining an outcome that is the opposite of the one we set out to reach to begin with. We don't realize, naturally, that that which we desire, if we truly want to attain it, would require that we ask and desire nothing for ourselves. A person who is truly good, will not be wanting or desiring to be viewed as a good person because it is already in them by nature. If it is already a fact, then there is no reason to desire it. A person who is honest, does not consciously think or contemplate telling the truth, for it comes so naturally to him that to consider it would be redundant and pointless.

One who desires to be exalted must first become nothing and emptied of self. By nature, this is an impossibility for the two are contrary. One desires to be exalted and so, is not willing to give anything up of himself, he is full of pride. He thinks he deserves to be exalted and therefore nullifies any right to exaltation. The other would not even consider thinking of himself or care about exaltation, but would live for others, lovingly and humbly serving without asking for any return. No one desires to be less than every other person and at the same time better than every other person for these two desires are conflicting in nature. In order to be exalted, in truth, one must think of others and think not upon himself. Pride must be discarded until "self" is emptied of any motive and one exists in true humility. Working from the above premise, it could only be one who is truly worthy of all exaltation that could possibly live a life of complete humility, give it all, and ask for nothing. This is why there is only one name, Jesus, who truly deserves exaltation. He, as God, did this. Noone else, for there is no other God, could accomplish what He did, even if they tried. In fact, even if they did all that He did on earth, they are not God and so would be a false God with false motives, setting themselves up to be God, but not deserving of it. For there is only one man in all of time and history who lived a sinless, blameless life, who deserved every exaltation, but asked for and desired nothing and then gave it all, His very lifeblood, for every last one of us. He was the only one who could have or ever will accomplish this. It is only because He is God that He was able to live life here, considering not Himself, but living only for others. Truly, it could only be God humbling Himself to a servant who deserves exaltation. Jesus is the only one who ever lived as God in human form. He deserved every glory and honor and praise, but asked for nothing. He came to show us the way to true Life...Life not of flesh, but born of the Spirit.

The more we walk in the Truth with Jesus, the more we realize that, unlike Him, who came deserving to be exalted, but asking for nothing, we came desiring to be exalted and so, deserving to be nothing. We need to realize that, "Every good and perfect gift is from above," (James 1:17) and "Apart from Him I can do no good thing." (John 15:5) The more humbled we become, the more we realize that we are nothing and He is everything and give praise more and more so to Him who lived a perfect, sinless life, desired nothing for Himself, yet created everything. We begin to live in awe of Him. Not just know that we are supposed to be in awe of Him, but we are literally humbled and amazed by Him.

The things of God do not make sense to the natural mind. Understanding is only given to us by revelation through the Holy Spirit. Man's view of the world is opposite of God's view because apart from God we desire to place ourselves first, before others. Even as children, we want and expect others to put us first, thereby putting ourselves first before others. This is why Jesus said, in Luke 13:30, "Indeed, there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." When we receive the Holy Spirit and become born again, when we surrender all to Jesus because He bore all things for us, it is a setting aside of this "natural, selfish spirit" and, as a result of this emptying of self, God fills us with His Spirit. Our desires become His desires and we finally understand what it means for our lives to be a living sacrifice and it is not at any cost that we are unwilling to pay. For by God's grace our eyes are open and we finally realize that Jesus gave it all. He, literally, took my place and yours upon that cross and bore the burden of sin and death for me and for you so that we could, if we so choose, be set free from chains and captivity and slavery to sin and be alive with Him forever. Now, here, it must be noted that many people will just stop here and say, "it is my choosing Jesus, going to church and trying to be a good person that makes me saved." This is a lie and deception. It is a thought that keeps us farther from grace than those who are purposefully committing arbitrary sins.

It is not by my choosing Him that I am good. It is only by His blood given for me, His substutionary act of atonement whereby He died in my place, because of His infinite grace, mercy and love that I am freed to become like Him. It is only in being humbled in this way that I am able to become even the slightest amount more pure. Now He sees me not for who I was or who I am now, still feebly attached to human nature, but for the new creation He has made me and calls me His Beloved. He sets me apart and I will forever spend eternity doing two things that grow in proportion to each other: 1) becoming more like Him and, 2) living in greater and greater awe and amazement at His holiness and my own inability to be holy at all apart form Him.

Justice and "Me"

My heart is grieved today over the reality of all the injustices that I have committed toward others for the sake of self-preservation. Not only that, but the reality of how much we all go around fighting for our"selves." It is a tragedy that we are so afraid of being hurt that we are willing to hurt others in order to protect ourselves. In addition, many of us take our emotions and treat them as truths rather than measuring them against the One and Only Truth, Jesus.

When we know and realize how much Jesus did for us, that He died for us so we could have freedom, we no longer choose to defend ourselves, but begin to understand, by way of the cross working in our own lives, just how easy it is to treat others unlovingly in order to protect ourselves. Anytime I choose to turn my back on someone or shut them out because they have hurt me I am reminded that Jesus did the opposite. He continued to love us despite the fact that we turned our backs on Him. He remained open and vulnerable and continued to love those who persecuted Him even unto death, and even then, He continued to plead their case before the Lord, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." His love is unending and never self-serving, so why would I think that mine should be any different. If Jesus, the one who never deserved harsh treatment was treated harshly unto death and yet, never once retaliated, why would I think that I should defend myself for little, petty things, rather than continue to compassionately love those who treat me poorly. Yes, I should continue to love no matter how difficult it seems, regardless of how wrongly I might think I've been treated. If I truly want to be like Him, if I want to follow and obey Jesus and be a willing vessel in His hands, I must forgive, I must not retaliate, I must continue to see others through His precious eyes of love as He hung on the cross. He looked at all of us at that moment, and rather than being angry or hurt for the endless amounts of wrongdoing we committed toward Him, He loved us, understandingly and compassionately.

Lord, give us eyes to see others through your eyes. Give us compassion and your love for them. You looked upon me while on the cross and said, "My child, I love you with an everlasting love," and you say the same to every one of us. Lord, you even loved those who hated you. Thank you for your endless mercy and grace. Help me to not look upon myself and feel sorry for myself or throw up a wall of self-preservation out of fear of being hurt, but care for others and love them just as you love me.

Search the world over, and you will find that there is no end to the beauty and majesty of all that is set upon the horizon. If we sailed around the world in every direction for all of eternity, there would never be a day when you'd finally seen it all. No sunset that was exactly like one already seen in times past. It would never become monotonous or boring.

Search the heavens and you will find there is always something new to discover. There is no end to the glorious majesty that is revealed in the heavens. The earth may follow the same path around the sun year after year, and rotate day after day around its axis, but there will never come a day when you've searched out the endless depths of the universe and finally know every star, planet, galaxy, comet. There will never come a day when you've seen it all, for the heavens are alive and active, ever-changing and infinite.

"The Heavens declare the glory of God,
the skies proclaim the works of His hands."
Psalm 19:1

We cannot search out everything there is to know of our Creator, He is infinite. We will spend all of eternity getting to know Him more and all that there is to know of Him will never be exhausted. He is the unsearchable, the deep, the all-knowing, infinite, perfect and only God of all the universe. If it is impossible for one sunset to be the same as another, and if the heavens continually display new and different wonders from day to day, so will our God forever reveal new facets of His majesty and glory day after day after day. It is impossible to tire of new revelations and that is exactly what Heaven will be; new and fresh revelations of God for all of eternity.

Thank you that every tomorrow is an opportunity to know You more, Oh God. The more I know you, the more in awe I am of all that You are. You are infinitely unsearchable. Thank You for revealing Yourself to us and loving us so much. Thank You for Your desire to make us new each day....more like You. Thank You for speaking new life into us and giving an ever-increasing awe of who You are. Just as the fire on the lampstand in the Temple was never extinguished, but burned at all hours, so will the fire in my heart forever burn for more of You and never die out for lack of fuel.

My Neighbor's Weeds

Today I'd had it. For about a year now, I have been walking down the driveway to the sidewalk in front of my house to inspect the front garden situation. We have a little landscaped area about 12' x 12'. This whole past year I have been watching as my neighbor's bushes and weeds have begun to overtake our side of the yard. Our landscaped area flows together with theirs and their entire area is overran by the bushes that are planted in it and along with that, there are weeds coming up everywhere poking up through the bushes. I've been tolerating it and tolerating it, not knowing where exactly to draw the line, and not wanting to interfere with my neighbors' yard...not wanting to offend if I accidentally pull something up that they may have wanted there. "Who knows," I thought, "maybe they like the way that weed looks and don't want it pulled up...?" Well, today I'd had it. I was sick and tired of tolerating the weeds and allowing them (along with the overgrown shrubs) to creep unwanted into my yard. So, I drew a line, the most appropriate one I could draw, and began to pull up everything that was on my side of the line. I pulled and pulled and I'll tell you what, there was a lot of garbage that I had been tolerating in my yard from theirs. It felt so good to clean up my side, to have that line be distinctive and separate from their side. I accomplished much today.

Then I got to thinking about life and how it is so typical for us to behave with our own lives as I had been behaving with my front yard. We tolerate other peoples "weeds" which can pop up in many forms, such as anger, bitterness, lust, greed, anything that is not tended under God's watchful eye, and just by living in close proximity with them, if we're not careful, their ugly behaviors begin to creep into our own hearts and lives. The truth is, if we don't keep that line clear to both us and them, and make a daily effort to bare our hearts before the Lord and allow Him to pull the weeds in our own lives, the weeds of others will creep in. It can often happen slowly and as a result of us not wanting to offend. We look at other people who don't know God and say, "well, they seem happy enough," or, "I don't want to be presumptuous or pushy," but the fact of the matter is that those things in their lives are weeds. A weed is a weed and when there are weeds, even the plants that are supposed to be good become overrun and out of control. So, it is important to keep that line clear, to let other people know what is acceptable to you in your life and what is not. Also, to show them and everyone who sees exactly who it is that is Lord of your life and that there is no happier, healthier or better way to live. That your life is not your own, it belongs to the "Master Gardener," Jesus, who removes the weeds, prunes the out of control and brings fruit daily. There are no better hands to be in than His.