A Morning with the Lord

Sunrise…

A Morning with the Lord…

I have always loved the mornings. For me there is no sweeter, quieter, peaceful, more focused, time. When my household arises….it is another matter 🙂 🙂

Like most of you, I’ve been at home…although it was pre-planned. As essential personnel, soon, I’ll be out of this hiatus and back serving.

The world is fighting a pandemic. The proportions of which I struggle to wrap my head around. Much less my heart…

My heart feels for all right now…and the more I see, the more I realize I seem to always be one layer away from weeping.

Mornings….

This morning God woke me at 3:27am…a bit random, or maybe not 🙂

It is in Him that I find my solace. There are times that I do not know what to say…so I just soak.

 I got to praying. And repentance was on my heart. I know most of us think this as a negative word….as if we have done something wrong.

And we may have.

But it such a love word because it gives us the opportunity to make a different decision and choose Him in whatever area He highlights.

As I was talking with the Lord….these words came out of me that just gave me the sweetest release…

“God, I repent for choosing myself over You.”

Oftentimes we go down a checklist of ‘things’ to repent for…but truthfully, this one may be at the root of them all.

God, we repent for choosing ourselves over You.

So….before your day gets busy and other noises creep in….I ask you to think about, and acknowledge, where you have chosen yourself, your ideas, your preferences etc, over God. And repent.

May those words bless you like they blessed me.

Blessings always.

JC

 

Is God Enough?

Myrtle Beach sunrise….

 

Is God enough? How dare I ask such a question?

We are studying a new book for bible study and it is on WORSHIP.

Worship being ‘anything we value or ascribe worth to’.

We are really getting to the bottom of ‘what’ or ‘who’ we worship. We may all say that we are worshiping God, but in actuality when we take a look at where the bulk of our time, money, energy and attention goes…….we may come to another conclusion.

Some of us worship our families, our jobs, our possessions and ourSELVES.

Last week, in the book, we got to discussing Psalm 16. In it David is talking about his trust and security in God. He is thoroughly satisfied to dwell IN God. Choosing to experience pleasures found with God rather than elsewhere.

But what happens when we don’t feel like God is enough, because we’ve had so many pleasurable experiences ‘outside’ of God? I’m not just talking about sexual experiences, I’m talking about those of us that are foodies/gluttonous, shopaholics, selfish, vain, lazy etc…….even those of us who are workaholics.

I really got to thinking about it. Even though most of us would not outright say that God is not enough, I would argue that our actions say it.

I’ll pick one thing……unforgiveness.

When we hold on to unforgiveness, we choose something that pleasures us and not what pleasures God. Are we saying that God is not ‘enough’ to handle the wrong (s) done against us? Perhaps we are…..

Anyway, just the words in my thinking cap for today. We are all somewhere in the process of being more like Christ.

Have a great week!

Blessings always.

JC

 

Early Morning Musings….

This morning I was up early because I wanted to enjoy God in nature before I made it to our worship service. I went to the greenway near my house an hour or so later than I usually do. You see, a week ago, a female runner reported that she was attacked at knifepoint by some guy hiding in the woods and he tried to drag her in the woods. She kicked him in the ‘you know what’ and took off running. Anyway, I came out an hour later and decided to ditch the iPod and take my phone.

There is just something so serene about early morning that is very relaxing to me. I really think it’s the freshness of a new day. A fresh chance to do it again…a fresh dose of new mercy 🙂

I passed a familiar walker, his usually walking partner replaced with a beautiful stick. “No dog today?” I asked. “Unfortunately, we had to put him down” was the reply, “thanks for asking.”

There was a squirrel running off with an acorn as big as her head….scurrying away before I could snap the moment. Preparing for winter I guess. And deer…yes, they were enjoying the early morning too.

Untrustingly checking me out, but too lured in by the lush dewey grass to be thwarted by us two-legged intruders. I saw a total of three mamas with their spotted babies nearby.

 

Worship that Costs….

splendid creation…..splendid Creator

One of my favorite characters in the bible is King David. A lot of people give him a lot of slack for the indiscretions that he committed. But no one could beat him at repentance and having a heart that sought after God. On my ride home from work yesterday morning I was thinking about one of his stories that has touched a tender place in my heart; 2 Samuel 24:24. I wanted to write a quick blurb about it.

David is in trouble for conducting a census without God’s consent. His punishment is in full effect and he is instructed to go and build an altar to God on the threshing floor. Well the threshing floor belongs to Araunah. Araunah offers to give the threshing floor to David for free. But David’s response is so beautiful to me; he says “I will buy it from you. I will not offer sacrifices to God that cost me nothing”.

In other words, I will not seek after You to worship You if it costs me nothing (even if I just messed up). What a heart…..no wonder he was a man after God’s heart.

Are we willing to pay a price to worship? To lose a couple of friends and pick up a couple of haters? To be rejected by people and be under constant attack from the enemy?

Can we sacrifice some time to be patient with someone else? Sacrifice some time to spend extra quality time with God? Sacrifice financially to invest in the temple and further the work of Christ?

I pray that I will pay the price to bring my worship before an AWESOME God; even when the price is me!

I will not offer God worship that cost me nothing.

Be Blessed

JC

 

Why are you Afraid?

Lord, I love to praise Your name…

Dealing with the emotion of fear.

By definition, fear means an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. In some scenarios it is a necessary emotion because it keeps us alert as we proceed in different situations. It prevents up from walking thoughtlessly into danger and when warranted, it puts us in that ‘fight or flight’ mode that is necessary for survival. There is also the fear of God where we revere Him and repent from our sin for fear of punishment. But this is not the fear I want to talk about.

As I study the word of God, I notice that this is the greeting that angels gave to man when they came upon them; Fear not. I also noted that of all the emotions we have been given, God had to tell us that He didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). This reminder is actually crucial in our Christian walk. I say this because fear is the one emotion that paralyzes and cripples us. It causes us not to move. You never hear someone say they were paralyzed or crippled with love, or hate, or jealousy, or greed, or joy etc. Fear paralyzes.

The enemy is crafty and he knows this. He knows that as long as we are oppressed by the spirit of fear, and yes it is a spirit, we wouldn’t be effective for God. We wouldn’t want to go witness and evangelize because we fear rejection. We freeze walking in our spiritual gifts because we are afraid of critique and rejection. You see, most of us like to be liked and we like to have friends. So the thought of people not accepting us or what we have to say is a terrifying one. We are afraid that the plan God has shown us wouldn’t work. We see that as failure (we are afraid of that!). There are some of us who are afraid the plan of God will work; success (and we are afraid of that too!). This whole fear thing is a mess.