Independence Day…

Morning!

Raises his cup of tea

Sometimes unexpected things happen.  The unexpected doesn’t have to be big, it doesn’t have to be earth shattering, it doesn’t even have to be dangerous, just unexpected like a water boiling warning.  What a small thing that has such big consequences across so many people.  One of the changes?  I’m drinking tea this morning instead of coffee.

The point is though, unexpected changes bring about unexpected changes which then in turn bring about some unexpected changes, all of which may be little and subtle, but still have a huge impact on our days.

God’s Work is on my mind this morning and the mysterious ways He Works.

Amos 3: 7-8

“Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.  A lion has roared!  Who will not fear?  The Lord God has spoken!  Who can but prophesy?”

God resists the proud.  If we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, He will lift us up.  There is no way that we as humans with our limited faculties can keep track of all the unexpected changes of a day.  Even less chance that we would be able to map out into the future what those changes could possibly do.  We need to learn to hear from God and to work with God, to keep our minds focused on God for He is the One who Knows.  Our God allows the unexpected.  Our God knows the ramifications of the unexpected and He often uses the unexpected in our sanctification.

Isaiah 26: 3

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

There is a paradigm shift.  There is a change that we need to go through to start seeking more of the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and less of the world and its defilement.  It is not weird to read our Bible instead of watching movies.  It is wise.  It is not worrisome to have a zeal for the Word of God.  It is a virtue.  It is not an irritation to share our faith.  It is the Gospel of Christ with the power to save souls.

Is it perfect peace that we are seeking?  This Word in Isaiah tells us that perfect peace is found by keeping our minds on God.  So how often in the day is our mind not on God?

It doesn’t have to be huge.  It doesn’t have to be terribly sinful.  It doesn’t even have to be sinful at all.  How often in our days de we find ourselves concentrating on something to the point that we exclude God in our hearts and minds?  It is a little unexpected look away that might snowball into an avalanche of distraction.

What ultimately is our goal?

Matthew 6: 19-21

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Have we considered that our goal is to figure out how to live with God forever?  It’s been a little while since we have considered eternity and eternal life.

Time is one of those things the more I think about it, the more I rejoice about.  There is a certain mystery around infinity.  There should be a mystery around infinity, infinity is impossible for humans to comprehend.  It is an impossibility.  Eternity, for me, is very much similar.  It’s some what infinite in that there will be no end to our days.  But every day is made meaningful by the passage of time.  If there was no time, every day would be the same.  Literally.  It would be one day always, as best I can comprehend the idea.  Time gives a day a beginning.  Sleep gives us a days end.  For time continues on this seventh day that we find ourselves in.

The point is there will always be a tomorrow.  God will be there in that tomorrow.  The same God that was with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The same God that was with Daniel.  The same God that was with Paul.

Have we considered trying to get into our eternal routines?

As far as I can tell time has nothing to do with death.

But sin does.

Romans 6: 12-

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  Certainly not!  Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?  But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.  And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.  I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.  For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, ever-lasting life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I think that’s a good start for the day.

Happy waiting!

:)