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| Love From The Skies Over TPLEX |
A few minutes ago I got out of bed, did my morning tinkle, and drank 2 glasses of water. Then I put a pot of water on the stove for my bath.
Someone somewhere pointed out the importance of having a solid set of morning and evening rituals. A little discipline ensures a significant increase in how effective we are with the time we have been blessed with.
It's just that now, I'm back in bed, waiting for the water to boil. I'm sure there are a bunch of other things I can do before I take a bath, but this is what I choose to do. I'm further rationalizing this by pointing out that I slept roughly 2 hours less than usual. I've been consistent in sleeping really late on Christmas Eve.
I'm under the impression that at age 30, the world expects you to have everything under control and under way. I'm not making any excuses when I say that I know I still make mistakes every single day. In the light of yesterday's events and rebukes I got to thinking that I'm such a mess when it comes to productivity.
I know that God causes things to work for the good of those who love Him. Perhaps that's why I was surprisingly calm and receptive (as compared to violently reactive) when my mom (yes, my mom) suddenly rebuked me after I complained about Christmas traffic. I would rather not mention what she said exactly, but I feel like the Holy Spirit had me take it in as constructive feedback. That I gotta get things together.
I have problems. I have issues. I have struggles. In the light of the law all this filth just comes out, no matter how old you are. Now I feel helpless, worthless and pathetic.
"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." - Romans 7:24-25
We see God's glory in everything - His glory and love is there in all creation, people, situations, and rebukes. And it all comes to this.
Jesus didn't just come to help me. He didn't just come to encourage and motivate me. He didn't come just to provide for me. He didn't just come to be a teacher, a mentor, a best friend. He didn't just come to heal me. He didn't just come to organize things and to get me going to be more productive.
Christ came to save me.
Christ came to save me! Oh, to just imagine what that entails just gets my heart happily beating faster! He came, above all things, to save me!
The Son of God, He is my Savior. And the Spirit that raised Him from the dead raised Him with such an unimaginably sovereign power that goes beyond time and space in that it encompasses all that is. This power, this love is as deep as it is vast - it strikes and transforms us completely, from the inside out.
Oh, praise and glory to Jesus, my Savior!
Oh, that this reality would just completely sink in and saturate my body, my mind, my being.
There's that song that goes 'all of me loves all of you.' I was about to quote that for this but then I realized, powerful as it is, that 'all of me' implies that the lover may have boundaries. The power and might of our Savior cannot be contained. We ought to just sing, 'Jesus loves me, this I know..'
The point I'm getting at here is that I keep preaching that Christ is bigger than our problems, and that our focus should be on Him instead of all the issues we have because He Himself is the solution. I guess I've needed to refresh my soul, I've needed to renew my mind on the subject today by allowing my mind to elaborate on what this really, really means.
As we celebrate Christmas and approach the dawn of 2015, we.. I would do well to cast off and abandon all hope we have in anything else but Christ. As pastor Oscar stated, our message should be clarified and intensified as our foundation for the coming year..
And I feel like the call is to simply trust in Jesus Christ. In all things.
Jesus Christ is my Savior.
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email me at jibee@rocketmail.com.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26