Lion King

Me and Eddie ARE Lion King...

Lion King is for sure one of the best movies ever made...

Circle Of Life Lyrics

confession

We are not perfect. We stumble from the Lord, we bury ourselves into more of ourselves and turn our eyes away from the Creator to the Created. We build idols, we disobey, we do not listen and even more do not seek. We fall. The evidence is all over Scripture, all over creation, and all over our hearts. 

We are called to confess these sins and the condition of our hearts that produces the actions and reactions we have to the world around us. 

Confession is such a sweet release of built up disobedience, resistance, selfishness, pride, resentment, guilt, and shame. To learn to be open and honest about who and where you are is so key to spiritual growth, I believe, and is invaluable to the growth of the body of believers - the bond between people who confess that He is and they are not. Too many people often walk around pretending they know Him intimately and are free from struggles when they are blind to Him or hopelessly misdirected and far from Him and chained to sins they would never utter willingly. I am not saying bare the most deeply hidden of sins to everyone you meet, but have someone who knows the Lord, who is honest with their faith, who will listen to your heart pouring out its waywardness and expressing your part in the world's depravity and then guides you back lovingly to Jesus who heals and advocates and God who makes new and the spirit who transforms.

We confess to the Lord that we are lost and need a shepherd. We need grace and redemption. We need to confess deeds to seek forgiveness and more importantly must confess the intentions and thought of our hearts to seek healing and restoration for the dark parts of our hearts. Thanks be to God that He restores and heals and moves in us. Thanks be to God that He disciplines His children and those He calls His own. Thanks be to God that He has created the body like He has so that a bunch of sinners can bond over the grace that redeems them and then worship Him who brought them together even through sin.

Run from pride - thinking that your struggles are not as bad as someone else's. It is the condition of the heart, not always the external action, that must be dealt with. Listen and offer Biblical wisdom after praying. Don't be afraid to confess to God or people. God loves you and He heals. The church body should uplift, point toward Him, and offer love and support. Do not be ashamed - there is no shame in running to Jesus.

Amen.

tremble

oh, let me not forget to tremble.

to think about how small i am is overwhelming. i went outside. i took a deep breath. i looked up at the sky. slowly, my eyes followed the horizon from east to west. from north to south. i began to turn, inch by inch, in a circle, keeping my gaze upon the line where the earth meets the sky. i have to take a deep breath again and this time i exhale with a shudder. my mind begins to ponder about this great expanse of space, and my body trembles at each thought - the thoughts that reinforce that fact that i am a tiny speck against the night sky. i am lost in the deepest of blues and my words and my thoughts and my opinions are swept away like an uprooted reed forced along by a rapid current. i stop turning and begin to pray... 

Jesus, in the expanse You are sovereign. Your hand pieced together the fabric of the sky and scattered the stars across a billion miles, again and again. i am so small, yet You are near. You are across the great sky, and You are whispering in my ear. please open my eyes to who You are. teach me to breathe in slowly, deeply, and give me the faith to know You are greater and better and more capable than i will ever understand. i await the day when i will cut ties here and begin an eternity of worship. to that day i press onward. You are beautiful. You are. Amen

let us not forget to tremble...

Late Reflections

Cozily curled up in my father's old "dad chair" that now occupies a set place in my apartment, I come to you again with a thankful heart, becoming more aware every day of how the Lord uses even the most unlikely moments and surely the darkest moments to reveal His light and His wisdom and His steady, sovereign hand.

I smile slightly to myself because I am thinking about the times lately I have done everything to hold tightly to the plans I have made for myself. I have made the strongest effort to close my ears to that sweet still voice that reminds me I am not in control and, as Isaiah reminds us, that His ways are so much higher than mine. I have responded to an unclear future with fear and anxiety and a lack of trust. I have responded to chaotic situations with a firm grip, and I constantly am finding new ways to reinforce the hold I have on my life and the direction it goes and who passes in and out of it and the manner in which they pass. This hasn't worked to my advantage. It never has and it never will. I see across the pages of humanity that this does not work. God's sovereignty is just much stronger than my selfish desires and more steady than my futile plans and much better than my foolish ideas. Truly, His wisdom makes me look the fool - but I am so ready to be the fool so that He is seen as much more wise. He is wisdom. He is. And I am not.

I clutch the future and the fruitless triangle of self-doubt, uncertainty, and fear and forget the power at work in His hand and within our very lives for the glory of His namesake and the growth of His kingdom and the sanctification of the bride. I try to control relationships by saying what I want people to hear and giving them a limited perspective of me. I fear the unknown  - and don't want to admit this fear most of the time - so I pretend that I am walking in complete confidence of His power even to myself. 

I have these moments where I am just so grateful for the blood of the lamb and the love of the Father because that means I have hope. I have a future, I have a place to turn to for growth, and I have a Savior Who loves me in Jesus Christ. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

I am ready to lose control. I am so thankful that in so many ways lately He has taken it away and humbled me. It is a beautiful thing when you can see and feel and taste sanctification and start to see fruit from the vine that has been dressed, having had its dead branches cut off and its roots refreshed with water. Jesus is living water. He is the Word, He is life, He is light, He is.

OK God, here I go to surrender - surrender all of this and beg for Your direction. Humbly confessing my sins and boldly claiming Your promise of new life, I ask for direction, provision, wisdom, enough for this moment and none other, patience, diligence, a heart for the broken and the lost, a thirst for You and all that You are, a way to Asia, and sweet time with You.

Amen