“I Will Instruct You”

Once again from Phil Jackson at Red Letter Christians. I’m really enjoying his insight this week.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”
Psalm 32:8

A friend of my, Soong-Chan Rah, posted on Facebook once that the heart that is willing to hear a no and obey is the heart that can be trusted with a yes. This is one of the acid tests of our walk with Christ, trusting in the counsel of God in our daily lives and in whatever ministry Christ calls us to. Too many times my plans become God’s plans and then I can and will justify that this is right before God. All because I didn’t want to a tune my ears to hear God’s no. Proverbs 16:2-3 tells us people maybe pure in their own eyes but the Lord examines their motives. Now, Prov 16:3 is our challenge today as we serve and live for God, commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.

Mom

I hope your thoughts of mom evoke the same feelings for you as mine do for me. So often God uses our moms as a huge portion of His incredible love for us, I’m so grateful that’s the case for me, thank you Mom.

I know this isn’t true for everyone and it’s unfortunate that for some thinking of mom is not a happy endeavor. I hate that, but I also know that when this is the case there is still hope. I’ve seen many difficult relationships with moms become wonderful; I’ve seen mother figures come into someone’s life when restoration was not possible and most incredibly I’ve seen and experienced Jesus’ amazing love as maternal and nurturing just as powerfully as His paternal and guiding love.

Rearview Mirror

“The more I’ve listened to God, the more I’ve realized I don’t always catch what God is up to in real time either. Some people speak with a great deal of authority about what God is doing right now. I’m always amazed because I can never figure out God that quickly. I usually understand what God is doing by seeing it through the rearview mirror. Only then can I connect the dots, and even then, it’s a pretty dodgy sketch. Maybe that’s why the Bible described what we are often doing as looking through a mirror dimly. The Bible says that right now we only know “in part” and that one day, after we’ve gone, we’ll know “in full.” That makes more sense to me because it means our understanding will always have gaps and gaps are good because they leave room for God to fill in the spaces.” – Bob Goff, Love Does

Immanence

Immanence is another of my favorite attributes of God. It means that He is here with us. It might seem to some to contradict His transcendence (He’s outside of space and time) but it doesn’t at all because as we said earlier, He is infinite. Our immanent God is never far from us in fact scripture is abundantly clear that we literally have Christ in us. On top of that we have the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us and The loving Father to speak to and hear from while His greatest wish is that we would allow Him to shower us with His love.