Posted in Life Inspiration

Getting in Tune with God

chick tune

Life… every time I think I have a handle on it, God speaks to me as if to say “Really?”

Twice this morning God brought to my thoughts Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Trust… I think I trust Him, but then I’m not sure if I even get it. If I “trust” Him, why am I always trying to fix life? Why can’t I just wait for Him to open doors instead of picking the lock? Seriously? That’s a good thought. It’s just a shame I don’t take my own advice. I’m still blaming Eve. If she had trusted God and not eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, my life would be so less complicated. Just think about it… not having to live life by trial and error. That goofy fruit really messed things up, rather than having the mind of God, I now have the mind of me… that’s seldom good.

Lean…What must it have been like to literally lean into the bosom of God? I think of the Apostle John who said in John 13:23 “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.” That always cracks me up! I read it as if he says… “the one whom Jesus loved… He liked the others. But I was His favorite.” But how wonderful would it have been to have sat with Jesus face to face and had a conversation where the Lord’s advice wasn’t a guessing game as I so often feel it is now. I know… the Holy Spirit is within me, and if I was really the Jesus Chick I’d know what He wanted me to do. Well you’re right and I do know what He wants me to do, He wants me to trust and lean but not upon my understanding, upon His. It’s the human perception that causes the error… that doggone smarty tree again. The one of good and evil.

Hindsight is always 20/20. God wasn’t trying to keep Adam and Eve from enjoying life; He was sparing them the full weight of reality.  Reality bites. Reality is where lust replaces satisfaction. What God had for Adam and Eve was perfect and what Satan introduced them to was doubt. Genesis 3:1b Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

That same lingering doubt is in my mind today… Is that really what God wants me to do? Its then that I must

Acknowledge… Just admit that you can’t go it alone. Adam and Eve were not created to walk in the garden alone, they were created to walk in fellowship with God. He had their path laid out for them until Satan entered the scene and created paths, in the plural sense. God’s way was and still is “one way.” John 14:6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

In order to get back into fellowship with Him, He created that path home which I took in 1996 when I acknowledged that I couldn’t go it alone and that I needed Jesus in my life. I still have self-will, which is what gets me into trouble and causes confusion. Life isn’t a guessing game when it comes to decision making. We don’t have Jesus face to face, but we do have Him heart to heart. If I’m not hearing the answer to the question I’m asking, then my heart is not in tune to God’s heart and I need to tune it up through the Word of God and prayer.

I hope today finds you in tune!

Error: Contact form not found.

Posted in Christian Service, Life Inspiration

The Function of the Unction

image

1 John 2:20 – But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t always feel like I know all things. Sometimes even the most basic of scriptures will seem foreign to my mind. I’ll sit in frustration trying to cypher out the meaning of the Word of God and it just will not come. And other times a seemingly hard verse to understand will just open itself to my understanding and I’ll be like, “Woah baby, you’re good!” And then I’ll get that knock on my head from the Holy Spirit that says, “Are you Serious Shari? You couldn’t even understand the meaning of the most simplistic verses a few minutes ago,why are you taking credit for the work of the Holy Spirit?

That’s the function of the unction. It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that reveals the Word of God with a deeper understanding; and its provided to the children of God who diligently seek Him.

Because Bible Study tools are so readily available I often resort to them to help me better understand a verse; and its not that there is anything wrong with that, but I as I discovered through reading the Word this morning, in so doing that I just may be missing out on a huge blessing by denying the Holy Spirit the opportunity to do His job.

1 John 2:27 – But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

A commentary is the the word of man, and he may or may not have been anointed when he wrote it. But if the Holy Spirit speaks to you it’s absolute truth, so which is better? My lesson from God this morning was that I need to be more desperate for God. It’s the theme of a youth conference that I’m attending this weekend and I believe it is what’s lacking in many of our lives. We want to hear from God, but we want it quick, little effort and no cost. And God, Who wants to bless us in abundance, desires to do it through our abiding in Him (staying close, as in a deep intimate relationship with Him… maybe even desperate. Believing our very existence depends on staying close to Him… and it does.

God’s generally not a shouter, if we hope to hear His still, small voice, we need to stay close.
An example of God’s love would be likened to taking teens on this weekend adventure of our Youth Evangelism Conference. Even though its a Christian event, I still want my brood near me. If one of them gets up to go somewhere I want to know where they’re going and who they’ll be with. God wants that constant relationship with us too. It is great that we have Christian teachers, preachers and study tools to learn about God… but we need to be within whispering distance of the Holy Spirit… Protected by the absolute truth.

Posted in Uncategorized

Whoso is wise, do this…

owlPsalm 107 begins in verse 1-2 ~ O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;”

And then ends in verse 43 with Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.”

The verse between 1 through 43 are filled with trouble and deliverance, backsliding and redemption, sorrow brought to rejoicing and again and again the psalmist reminds the reader that “men should praise the Lord.” I will not tell you that through every heartache and sorrow I have shouted the house down. I’ve shouted neither for joy, nor have I shouted for complaint… I fear God too much for that. Oh, I’ve whined; believe me! But how do you get in that attitude of praise when you’re in the midst of the storm sea?

I went to sleep last night praying God would remove a heartache, and I awoke this morning praying likewise and then I began to ponder the what if’s in my life; possibly with a little help from Satan, or the flesh I’m not sure. What if this would happen or that? What if it gets worse than this, what now? And then I had an urge to begin thanking God for the morning. I didn’t stop there, I thanked Him for family, friends, my home, right down to the coffee in my cup! …and then it happened. Whoooooooshhhhhhhhh. That ever calming breath that comes from the Lord calmed the waters of my soul. Whoso is wise…

Observe ~ look around you and see all that you have to be thankful for. Yes there is heartache, but so much greater than the troubles of the day is our Lord. In His providential ways He can speak peace into existence. The storm may be raging, but the soul of a saint of God can be stilled just as easily as the storm at sea.

Understand ~ boy, that’s tough sometimes. Understanding doesn’t always know why something is, or when it will end, sometimes its believing that God’s in control of it. I don’t understand how electricity works, but I believe when I hit the switch the lights will appear. I don’t know how God works, but I understand that He does, and He does it on my behalf. I fully believe that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28), but I still might whine about it. God’s lovingkindness is immeasurable. I fail, He forgives. I hurt, He heals. I mess up, He fixes it.

How’s your sea this morning? Feeling a little nauseous? Start praising God …whooooshhhh… Peace be still my soul. Amen. Let me know how God is working in your life.