Some of you closest to me (who read my last post) kidded me about not growing my "container" any bigger. I want you to know, loved ones, that I am not offended...
...and after crying quietly in my pillow for the last few nights I am here to say I will attempt to grow my spiritual container bigger and work harder at reducing my physical container.
OK now for seriousness...
I am content with mud pies.
It's true, as I said in our last time together, I do not recognize much of the blessings God is bestowing on me, but CS Lewis reminded me that I really don't truly understand the rewards promised to me plainly in God's Word either!
He writes in his work, The Weight of Glory:
"If we consider the unblushing promises of rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
I need to wash up and find my sea legs. How about you?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
From the Fullness of His Grace
Hello Friends,
After a self imposed exile...I am back.
Thank you...I missed you too.
I passed an accident on I-4 last week. It was mildly horrific. I say horrific because both vehicles were overturned and the driver's side window on the silver F250 was smeared liberally with blood. I say mildly because emotionally it did not strongly register with me. I drove by and just looked. In my meager defense there were people already there stopped, helping or administering aid. I-4 is also the last section of interstate in Florida where you want to leave the relative safety of your vehicle.
How selfish did the above paragraph just read?
Life is like that. Some respond to the events around them...and some just watch. Sometimes the motivation for those that get involved has to do with how much "skin they have in the game". For others, it is just about putting their own selfishness aside, understanding a need and having a Godly desire to meet it.
From the book of John:
1:15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Verse 16 tells me that it is from the fullness of Christ's grace that I keep receiving one blessing after another. Many translations actually read the phrase in 16b as "grace upon grace". Think about it, from the stock of Christ's over brimming grace he is blessing me.
Verse 17 then contrasts Moses,(the Law giver) with the grace and truth given through Christ. On the surface it looks like a simple thought. I think though, there is more there than just a contrast. Moses, who knew God's Law, in a time when God's Law was all there was to live by, begged to see God's glory.
That ain't me lately....I am a little numb and slightly self-absorbed.
I feel foolish reading these portions of scripture and realizing that I can barely grasp the concept of God's grace upon grace "pouring out" or "spilling forth" or "flowing from" God to me. There is so much I know I must miss. I look at the container that I walk around with everyday and wonder, "how can I truly be used by God?"
I think the answer is to see the "grace upon grace" in everything that is happening to me and grow a bigger container.
After a self imposed exile...I am back.
Thank you...I missed you too.
I passed an accident on I-4 last week. It was mildly horrific. I say horrific because both vehicles were overturned and the driver's side window on the silver F250 was smeared liberally with blood. I say mildly because emotionally it did not strongly register with me. I drove by and just looked. In my meager defense there were people already there stopped, helping or administering aid. I-4 is also the last section of interstate in Florida where you want to leave the relative safety of your vehicle.
How selfish did the above paragraph just read?
Life is like that. Some respond to the events around them...and some just watch. Sometimes the motivation for those that get involved has to do with how much "skin they have in the game". For others, it is just about putting their own selfishness aside, understanding a need and having a Godly desire to meet it.
From the book of John:
1:15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Verse 16 tells me that it is from the fullness of Christ's grace that I keep receiving one blessing after another. Many translations actually read the phrase in 16b as "grace upon grace". Think about it, from the stock of Christ's over brimming grace he is blessing me.
Verse 17 then contrasts Moses,(the Law giver) with the grace and truth given through Christ. On the surface it looks like a simple thought. I think though, there is more there than just a contrast. Moses, who knew God's Law, in a time when God's Law was all there was to live by, begged to see God's glory.
That ain't me lately....I am a little numb and slightly self-absorbed.
I feel foolish reading these portions of scripture and realizing that I can barely grasp the concept of God's grace upon grace "pouring out" or "spilling forth" or "flowing from" God to me. There is so much I know I must miss. I look at the container that I walk around with everyday and wonder, "how can I truly be used by God?"
I think the answer is to see the "grace upon grace" in everything that is happening to me and grow a bigger container.
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