Being rich toward God means making that which is temporary a servant to that which is eternal. - Ortberg I think that I will think about that thought for quite awhile. Christ, as He is so good at doing, has created another intersection for me. Honestly, I don't consistently enslave the temporal for the eternal. I find myself chained to temporary circumstances, issues, things, decisions and temporary circumstances often determine my view of the world. Wow, do I ever want to enslave the temporary to the eternal. The scope and impact of a life that is chained to the eternal and enslaving the temporary is unimaginable. May I be rich toward God! May we....
As I was teaching Sunday, the most interesting part, for me, was the idea that I truly do love God. Really. I love Him and I long to love Him with all heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yet, with all those desires, I make Him 'counteroffers' as it concerns giving Him myself. I counteroffer His desire to know me and guide me and live in me and live through me with my busyness or my scattered thinking or my sin. I don't know why in the heck I counteroffer God in His desire to know me well and His invitation to know Him well, but I do it frequently. I want that to change. I will think much about counteroffers and I will, hopefully, begin to offer me... just me as a living sacrifice and I know that God will find that to be a holy and pleasing offer.
Deuteronomy 30.19 seems to give me a good bit of guidance in this desire to know and love Christ. I love the way this section of the Word says to me, "hey, this is not a grand mystery! Day in and day out, there is before me one intersection after another.... I can choose life and blessings or death and curses. It's that simple." As I venture through down the path of this day, I choose life... in the big deals of the day, but also in the hundreds and hundreds of decisions that I will face. I choose life. I choose Christ. I choose to love Him. I choose to free Him to free me to become more like Him.
Today, it's been set before you... Choose life! Choose Christ!! Have a great week. I cannot wait to begin a study of the Book of Colossians. Yeah! This venture through the Word will be good.
Free free to comment. Enjoy today.
By Grace... For Glory,
Mark
2 comments:
Hi Mark!
I just wanted to thank you for the beautiful image you created during this weeks service...to live and to see that God knew us before the foundation of the world and he knitted us together in our mother's womb.
I can't stop thinking of that image. How Cool.
What comes to my mind is what Paul said about his struggle with doing the things he does not want to do. Thank God that God knows my heart and also knows the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Not to sound like excuses, but I can take comfort that the apostals struggled with the very same issues. Keeping an eternal mindset would be so liberating.
Post a Comment