Being Rooted

A few things have lead me to this post today.  Mostly, it's been my daily devotions coupled with life happenings.

Persistent sin sucks. You can let it define you and drag you through the mire, or you can confess it and let Jesus lift you over that same mire.  The thing is, many people think confessing is the last step. It really is not. It might not be the first step either.  My point is that it is a STEP in the right direction.

Repenting is a HUGE step that, I feel, gets glossed over. 'We fall into the trap of thinking 'But I already admitted I was guilty...do I really have to change?'  The answer is YES!  A resounding YES!  BUT!  We must be rooted in God before that change can occur.

If we just change directions it is likely that direction, while maybe better, isn't the right one. Without reading God's directions, talking to wise godly people who have been in your place before, or even praying, you might as well be a sailing ship without a compass on a cloudy night.

For me, often, I make good changes, but neglect to get to the root of the sin. Like raspberry vines, even though I cut down the visible bush, the untouched root system will spring up alive and well and produce its fruit.

Sometimes we have to go through a really ugly uprooting phase in order to oust the sin completely. Digging up an entire line of roots doesn't sound fun, does it? And that's why, I'm afraid, the majority of us 'conquer' the same sin time and again. We rarely get down to the nitty gritty. We are afraid of the open, vulnerable hole that will be left. We are unsure of what will be planted in its place.

Here's what we can do instead of worrying: fertilize the soil. Rid it completely of weeds. Search out anything that might hinder good fruit and GET RID OF IT! Build a fence. Ask others to help set up a guard around that fence. and so on the list can go.

Let the Holy Spirit plant His fruit. Watch it grow. Let Him prune you into a lovely garden that others are drawn to because of HIS handiwork! Remember, though to be firmly rooted in Him and His Word.


What are you growing in the garden of your life?

XO,
J

Soli Deo Gloria

Trusting When in a High and Stormy Gale

Lately, music and lyrics of different songs have really been hitting me at a soul level. There is a common theme through all of them : Trusting in a God who is bigger than our circumstance/pain/world/fear/everything.

Even right now, going through my head is On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand:
When Darkness veils his lovely face
I Trust in his unfailing Grace
In every high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand

...That verse especially encapsulates what I've been feeling.  I don't understand what's been going on, the darkness has been hiding or at least obscuring God's goodness, but I don't need to fear because I can trust in His UNFAILING grace. 

JJ Heller has a song called Who You are the chorus goes like this:
Sometimes I don't know, I don't know what you're doing
I don't know, I don't know what you're doing,
BUT! I know who You are.

THAT is it! That is the theme of these songs, I really have no idea WHY God is giving us the life He is, but I know WHO He is.

He who put the stars in place pours out wrath on those who do not turn from sin.

He who so loved the world sent the LION of Judah.

His love is magnificent, so wholly terrifying we fall on our faces from the sheer pureness of it, and we use the word 'love' so flippantly and in such a way it demeans, degrades and defiles. God is love and we have only a small glimpse, through a dark glass of what love really means.

I believe in God. I believe He is powerful enough to bring us into situations like Jonah -where we have absolutely no inclination towards the people He loves. We don't understand his fierce and earnest desire for those we have deemed unreachable or tainted. We run from His commands to what we believe will be easier and find ourselves in a pit. A stinky, bottom of the ocean pit of utter lonliness, chaos and despair. We often mislabel our disobedience as a lesson God is teaching and then call out for Him to save us. In His everlasting and awe-inspiring grace, he has the fish spit us out. Our pit has done nothing to change our hearts, we still have no desire to follow God, but we do, realizing in some aspect that our disobedience causes us pain. We technically follow his commands, with no joy, nor excitement. We sit back and see how people respond to God's unfailing and incomprehensible love and we moan and complain. God did not need Jonah to reach the people of Nineveh, but He chose to use this prophet in a way I'm sure would not be forgotten.

I love that the end of Jonah is an open ending. There is no happy resolution for Jonah. God has had his task satisfied and the people of Nineveh have repented, but Jonah has not. It's a perfect picture for us today. God is not about me. God is about Him. So often, though, God invites us into glorious tasks that are not about us and we get upset, and when we are utterly miserable in our failure, He invites us again. His love is relentless. It is not God's fault Jonah is miserable. Who wouldn't want to be part of finding the cure to an incurable disease, or a party celebrating the overthrowing of an inhumane regime? Us. Jonah. We get so caught up in what we want or don't want to do, that we lose sight of the important, the immortal, the immeasurably joyous thing God is asking us to be part of.

Jonah, like us, has (or had) a choice. He did not have to stay there under 'his' dead vine and bemoan his wondrous circumstances. He could have gotten up and taken part of the redemptive revelry brought about by God's unfathomable mercy for the Ninevites. We, the redeemed, must remember this mercy was used to draw us into the Kingdom.

His mercy is so beautiful it leaves us speechless, but with a need to cry out with the rocks. It shakes us to the core and upends our selves. Grace, mercy's partner, is also wondrous that we have no earthly words to describe the wholeness is produces.

His kindness leads us to repentance, yet a majority, like the Israelite heritage we have, forget. Giants stand in our way. The Red sea, the river Jordan, the lack of food, the lack of water, the inane, the basic, the underwhelming needs of the body stacked with the overwhelming mistrust of the Infinite God who has promised, proven, and provided all good things.

We who ate the forbidden fruit and revel in our filth and muck. Who glory in cheating the system and garnering treasures that rot not only psychically but spiritually. Who prostitute our bodies to abuse after abuse of gluttony or starvation, not to mention the hedonistic highs of drink, sex, drug, and vice. Who justify anger and harsh words. Who lead children into 'harmless' lies to cover shame. Who set up idol after idol and make sacrifices to the gods of health, wealth, and self. We gloat in our shame. We flaunt our hideous malignancy and waltz before the throne of the Almighty with requests for parking spaces, blessing of sinful relationships, and dastardly vows.

We point to Elijah's burnout and use it for justification of our own, neglecting to remember the circumstances surrounding his time under the broom tree. We look to Hagar's request and think our own, sin laden petition will be granted, and are angered and scathing in our response when God turns down the unglorifying postulation. We read about Job and feel we are the same in blamelessness, but forsake the warnings of Malachi. We cherry pick through the God's Holy Word to justify our existence, when what we really need to do is grab hold of the sanctification and subsequent justification provided only in and through the Messiah.

I want nothing to do with the pithy god who is only worth turning to when disaster strikes. I want nothing to do with the god who is above all thinking of me. I want nothing to do with mishandling, misquoting, and misusing the precious Book God has given to us. I want no part of easy, self-satisfying worship.

I want to be overwhelmed. I want to be upended. I want to be put in the crucible. I want to be washed in the blood of the Lion-Lamb and take on His fearful holiness. I want to live in and because of His power. I want to out sing the rest of creation with praise too wonderful for even angels to comprehend. I want to stand and be counted. I want to live and die for Him who died for holiness, wholeness, completion, and glory. Most of all, I want Him.

How about you?  Want have your anchor hold within THAT veil? 

XO,

J

Soli Deo Glorie