Thursday 26 August 2010

Momentous times with the Lord

I have a selected, for your reading, one of the many things that the Lord has reminded me of this week at Momentum. 


Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
            for they shall inherit the Kingdom of heaven.  
   (Matthew 5)
                                        I have been overwhelmed by how helpless the state of our humanness is. One of the seminars I went to [actually the only seminar I went to ..] was on the Sermon on the Mount. The wonderful man who taught it was called Toby something and he explained that 'poor in spirit' means that we are people who understand our Poverty of spirit. That we Know and live in a position of understanding that we ourselves have nothing to offer. And that it is only when we Find Ourselves in Jesus that we are made rich. 
                              And yet still it is not a richness of my own [Phillipians 3] ... it is that I share with Christ in His own wealth and righteousness as He binds Himself to  me in this eternal Love covenant. this is amazing. and so transforms my sight of who I am and how I can approach God.


This truth Ruins my hope in affirming myself by religious behaviour.
                                       The concept of grace is directly opposite to the attitude of earning and instead of pharisaically guilt tripping me It liberates me to find joy and a fountain of spiritual wealth in my friend jesus as I walk deeper in the grace He has Literally embellished me in.
It motivates discipline out of Love.


Jesus, i'm so thankful.

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Yield then, to my Love

Finally I find myself back in Wales. After many weeks of recording, camping, families and the gospel, I am home for a week to rest. 
It is completely what I need, although I don't know how to handle it. How do I holiday? Yesterday I finished a book I had been reading for forever, and watched Australia for the first time. I enjoyed it. Today I have played piano and eaten a lot of food. Is this resting?


Being home has many challenges, I am discovering them daily. For one, our culture is consumed by materialism. It's so easy to go out and spend all the money I have on things I don't need... and so tempting to spend all day on Facebook. Two years without internet - what a joy to be able to be connected to people on the inter-world again! Such a temptation when I have loads of free time to spend a lot of it in the mirror. So easy to spend all day in bed and refrain from doing anything productive. These are just some of the things that war against the good habits I have formerly been disciplining myself to live in. Things where I see my own desires for my behaviour needing to become more like Jesus' desires for my behaviour, and needing to watch them be changed as I continuously prefer His way above my humanity.


Deeper than that lies my own desire as a human to spend this time being mediocre in my relationship with the Lord. 
It's so easy to make following Jesus hard! To add a burden, to make choosing Him a mission for myself so that I have an excuse NOT to choose Him. 
I am striving to esteem Him first in my heart, in my mind, daily. Even though physically & emotionally I am exhausted Jesus continues to remind me of the Lightness of His burden... of the freedom and liberation of yoking myself to Him.
That joining with Him produces delight and joy and liberation in my every step. If I am experiencing a heavy, muggy and unclear relationship with the Lord it MUST be that I am making His gift of Himself more difficult than it is. Difficult when it is not.


What a simple, liberating, beautiful Marvel: The King Loves Me.