We are all prisoners until Jesus sets us free; once we accept Jesus into our lives as our Lord and savior He frees us from all our chains. I have said this many times before in other posts. This time I would like to discuss our beautiful bracelets, the things we add to our lives that we think are so wonderful but in fact are new chains tying us down and pulling us away from our savior. Most people have either owned, held, or seen crystal bracelets. They are sparkling and vivid, beautifully catching the eye; once you place the bracelet on your wrist you realize it’s light and after awhile you don’t even notice it’s there, until it catches on something. The same goes for our crystal chains. We have these little things we bring into our lives that seem glittering and beautiful, we don’t even notice something is off with them at first. We have these beautiful little things for a short amount of time and now we don’t even notice them because we are so used to them being part of our lives, until they catch on something, say our conscience. Until our crystal chains catch on God we may not even notice that they were drawing us away from Him. I won’t make it easy and point out the crystal chains I see around me because there are many on my own wrists that I am sure I haven’t noticed yet, so who am I to judge yours. I also almost know for sure that at least one chain you never realized was thus has popped into your mind while reading this, I know that a couple popped into my mind while writing it; the nice thing about crystal is it shatters really easily. On that note I say break off your chains and be free once again in the name of Jesus! Who the Son sets free is free indeed. Be chain-less today!
Category: searching
Contradiction
Today I was looking out over the lake in front of my grandfather’s cabin, and watching the gentle, grey waves roll in as multi coloured leaves escaped from their branches and settled on the stirring water. My mind flitted back to the ocean. The ocean is so much like God in many ways (and maybe God intended that) but today I thought of how the ocean is the world’s great contradiction. The sea is wild and untamed and sometimes quite harsh, yet it’s also gentle and nurturing. If you are out on the waves during a winter storm it’s a miracle if you make it back to shore! The wind howling, the water in turmoil, ice pellets driving into you like shrapnel; suddenly you realize this is not a place meant to be tamed or conquered and you are very much out of your depths thinking you could control such an controllable force! What you don’t see from the surface of those wild, teasing waves putting you back in your place is the security and comfort of the lives down below. When a big, cold winter storm attacks the animals under the surface swim deeper under the water until they are not affected by the storm. The ocean holds an array of extremely beautiful and delicate creatures who are unafraid and unharmed by the raging storm above. Where they are is quiet and safe and they know they are protected by the water. The ocean is so much like God in this way. To those who do not know God this world can be wild and harsh and untameable. They are like a little boat bobbing around in a wild winter storm, out on a great ocean and if they come out unscathed it’s a blessing. For those who know God and have accepted Jesus, it is like being a sea creature. We are safe in Jesus and comforted by His presence. When the storms of life hit we swim deeper into Him until we are enveloped by Him and are safe. Jesus does sometimes make us ride out some tough storms, but He always gets us through. Even if we don’t see Him protecting us right now He is there and He is keeping us safe. The ocean that crushes rock walls into sand is the same ocean that gently hydrates and feeds the ever so delicate anemone. The same God that conquers armies and parts the seas is the same God that gives dew to the flower and sends honey bees to scatter it’s pollen. What a perfect and powerful, loving and gentle God we serve and love; we are so very blessed to be called His children.
I love the thief
Ladies, I bet you could name at least one movie where your heart was momentarily stolen by the suave and handsome thief. Whether he was the main character, a secondary character or even a minor character I bet you could think of at least one. He steals for a good reason maybe, kind of like Robin Hood, or maybe he really is a scoundrel but there’s just something about him. I know a robber who steals for a good reason, a good guy who many don’t see as a thief. But there’s the catch, what He is taking already belongs to Him. Jesus is the grave robber. He comes like a thief in the night and steals us away, isn’t that fabulous! When we die we don’t just lie in our graves with nothing to do; Jesus comes for us and only our bodies go to the grave, our souls, our personalities, us… we go to Heaven. Jesus isn’t trying to be alluring to falsely take from us, He steals our hearts with His love and His truth and His sacrifice because He adores us, and once He has our hearts we belong to Him and Him to us and we no longer are of this world. If we give Him our hearts while we are still alive then we can have no fear in death because Jesus is our grave robber. He snatches us away so we are not captives of the grave but are captives of the one true King. I don’t know about you, but Jesus is my favorite robber, a robber who steals us away because He loves us. He is not a thief in truth because He owned us even before we knew what life was and now death is life and this new life is the greatest adventure because it’s an adventure where we can see and touch Jesus, the thief who stole us from death and suffering.
Out in the cold
When you light a candle and sit basking in its glow you will always find that the closer you are to it the warmer you are, but the further you get from it the colder you get. It’s common knowledge. God is like that candle. At first we are lit on fire by the Holy Spirit; we seek and long for God, we search out ways to draw closer to Him and our hope grows and our Faith grows and we feel powerful because of Him! But as time goes on most people start to find that they don’t have the time to put into seeking God, or they just don’t feel like seeking God anymore. He’s always there right? Why should I seek after Him it’s not like He’s going anywhere! And these people find themselves growing farther away from God, farther away from the warmth and are now out in the cold. Has God left them out in the cold? Has He abandoned us in these times? NO! Our frigid existence is our own doing. God gave us free will and we want to be able to make our own choices, so why do we blame God when those choices draw us away from Him and we find Him hard to find? If you blow out the flame the warmth leaves with it.
What do you do when God seems hard to find? I heard a Church planter once say “God always hides in obvious places.” God is in your devotional reading, your worship time, your prayer time, your Bible reading, your Church attendance. God is always easy to find if you look for Him because He wants to be found. The more you seek Him the closer to the flame you get and the warmer you feel until all chill of the outside world washes away. All fear, sorrow, doubt is gone and you have the peace of Jesus and the comfort of the Hold Spirit and the always guiding hand of God, now you are safe and warm.
A whole new world
Remember that famous scene from Aladdin when he takes Jasmine for the magic carpet ride? Do you recall how that scene began? It began with a simple question. Do you trust me?
How often does Jesus reach out His hand and ask, “do you trust me?” Do we trust Him? Are we confident that the carpet can hold us? Are we asking Him “is it safe?” And then realizing that God is never safe and finding that that scares us. Just like the Beavers said about Aslan, “of course He isn’t safe, but He is good”. Of course the ride isn’t going to be safe but God is good, all the time. We may not see it always, but God is always doing good for us. The tips of the updrafts and the smack of the wind may not always feel comfortable, but Jesus takes us out of our comfort zones so that we can find a ‘whole new world’. If we don’t ever step off the balcony we will never find the magic of the adventure.
Next point, remember how the Genie said (in humor) “always keep your hands and arms inside the carpet”? We must remember to always keep ourselves within the Holy Spirit. We can wander too far to the edge and fall away from Him. Yes He will catch you if you call on Him, but the fall is a horrible thing that is better to avoid. Within the carpet you Are safe, trying to walk on air by yourself is impossible.
There are a lot of carpets out there, but the only magic one that will take you on an amazing journey is the one with the savior holding out His hand, asking if you trust Him enough to let go of the edge and fly.
Starlight, starbright
Now that I live in the country one of my favorite things to do is sit out at night and watch the stars. Out where we are there is virtually no light pollution so we can see billions of stars and the depth of sky and the milky way is so vivid you could almost touch it. One thing I like to do is pick a star and make a wish (yes I know that’s silly but it makes me smile.) Tonight as I made my wish I noticed my star shift places and realized I had made a wish on a satellite. This made me realize how often we think we are wishing on stars and they turn out to be satilites. We put all our hopes into one big dream and it ends up being less than we expected. Say you wanted to sing professionally and you put all your effort into getting that one big hit, but when it comes and you start chasing that dream you find yourself discontented with the stage life. Now what? You’ve put all you have into this opportunity and now you don’t feel you can move on. Let me tell you something I heard a great speaker once say, “if you are feeling a push to move into something new it very well might be God preparing you for something that is coming.” Trust your calling, trust that that voice may be God wanting you to do something else. Everything has it’s season and maybe it’s your season to start God’s dream for you. Now wait, don’t go quit your job, pack your backpack and go because a new calling isn’t always what’s going on, discontentment and God moving can be different things; so pray hard and involve people you trust to pray with you because you want to be sure it’s God before you move. God is the star, solid in the sky and unwavering; our own ambitions however can easily be a satellite, here right now and gone somewhere else in a few moments. We must trust that God does have a purpose for us (because He does) and we must wait upon Him to move us when it is time. Instead of wishing upon satellites turn to God in prayer and open your heart to hear His answer.
Light houses
Recently I fell in love with a song about Cape Breton island that refers to the island being rimmed with lighthouses. The song says how the lighthouses are more than just beacons in the night, they are lights to guide the wanderer home, which of course made me think of Jesus. Jesus isn’t just a beacon in the night to help us on our way and when we are back on course we turn our sails away and continue without Him; Jesus is a bright light guiding us to Him, showing us the way back to truth and into His kingdom (our home). Jesus sends out His light, reaching over the dark expanse between us and Him and He touches us with His pure guiding hand and we are drawn home. Not only is Jesus a true, strong, active lighthouse but He has given us range lights along the way in the form of our pastors, and missionaries and evangelists and so on. A range light is a structure similar to a lighthouse, but it’s there primarily to guide ships through treacherous and shallow water when traversing a canal or other small body of water. So a range light is there for the small community, for the group that it can reach. Our ministry leaders are put in place to guide us through life and direct us toward our savior Jesus who is there to show us the only way into Heaven. Range lights are very important and sometimes do great work in assisting the lighthouse, like all people who do the work of Christ by reaching their community and guiding people into Jesus’ light. It doesn’t matter if your audience is small like a canal or endless like the ocean Jesus has a special place for you to shine. Sometimes all you need to do is be there, you may never know who you’ve helped by just shining your way through life. When we are guided into our savior’s presence and find a safe place in His harbor we are on our way to becoming more of His range lights to help others come to Him.
Tributary
Have you ever noticed how when the ocean tide goes out there are streams of deep water that get left behind. Part of the ocean has gotten caught by shifting sands and has become separated from the rest. Now imagine those tributaries are us and the ocean is God. We go through life as Christians walking with God. He flows in we flow in, He flows out we follow; but sometimes we flow someplace that God doesn’t want us to go and we enjoy that place. God will wait and wait but eventually we don’t want Him with us and we become shallow, tidal pools. Then we realize that where we are is not a place God is and that when we decided to separate from Him we chose a life of loneliness. We start to look around for Him only to find we have put a large expanse of sand between us and Him. But God always leaves ways for us to get back to Him and when we find those paths through the darkness we rush toward our saviour. Sometimes we sing along the way, sometimes we simply flow because if we forget where we are going and why we may end up back on shore. As we run to Him God rushes to us and pulls us into Himself so we are safe. Sometimes there are sand bars to cross and bit of debris floating along with us, but the expanse of God’s holiness and grace pulls us over the hard times and envelops the junk we bring with us so we are clean again and one with Him. Without the ocean, tidal pools are just salty ponds; Without Jesus, people are just empty shells. Follow the sea paths back to the ocean and let God heal you.
When at last you see the light
Everyone has moments of darkness; some last for a day others can last for several years, but when at last you see the light it’s like emerging from a tunnel in the mountains. You start to see a little gap and then it grows and grows until you emerge and are struck by the sunlight reflecting off the snow-capped summits. When you start to emerge from your dark place and the glory of God hits you and you suddenly see the world anew, things are very different and are so much better. Darkness is a device used to trap humans into following the wrong path. Most people are afraid of the light. The light exposes us and shows the world who and what we really are. In darkness we can hide our faults and our flaws, we can be anyone we want to be because no one can see the truth. But eventually the darkness gets to be too much, the little wrong doing here, the little harmful act there soon turn into catastrophic problems that we can’t run from and now the darkness isn’t dark enough to hide us, so we run into a deeper darkness that can cover these faults. Soon the darkness is so much we can’t see any light, that’s when we fall on our knees and say, “what have I done?”
There on our knees we are truly alone, until we feel a hand on our shoulder and our tear stained eyes look up to see a bright light. Jesus lifts us to our feet and we realize we were never alone, not even in the darkness. He guides us through the levels of darkness until His light shatters our binds and we are free. We don’t need the darkness to hide our flaws, we just need Jesus to heal us and soon our flaws will be gone. So search for Him when in the darkness and you will find the light.
My favorite blanket
Sometimes talking to God is like wrapping up in a warm blanket. You know the moments? Those times when you feel like your heart can’t handle any more and you begin to pray. Maybe not immediately, but eventually you start to feel a security and a peace, a warm feeling that comforts you. Like sitting on your couch and wrapping a blanket around your shoulders. The prayer is a hard struggle at first, you don’t know what to say except, “help me God!” “God where are you?” “Jesus, you said you would never leave me nor forsake me.” Then you feel a release of the spirit that says, ” but may your will be done Lord.” Then you find yourself praising God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, telling them how amazing they are and remembering the times they’ve saved you and pulled you through, and now you’re smiling. How does God do that? Isn’t He amazing! Jesus is a professional at finding lost sheep and drawing them into shelter from the rain, He can find you and bring you into a place of shelter too.
He will cover you with His feathers and you will find refuge in the shelter of His wings- Psalms 91:4
Carried in the cross 