Last week as I reflected on yet another birthday, I pondered God’s gifts to me. The first one He brought to the forefront of my mind was forgiveness. He led me to one of my favorite forgiveness promises – I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34) – and He underscored the last phrase. It’s beyond my ability to comprehend, but His all-knowing mind chooses to delete my sins and never retrieve them….ever. God isn’t forgetful. The Ancient of Days hasn’t misplaced them. He purposefully and irretrievably removes my sin from His mind washing them away with His own blood.
From Jeremiah, He took me to other treasured places of forgiveness: Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 38:7; 43:25; and 44:22. He drew pictures of unreachable unsearchable distances, of blotted stains and vanishing mists. Then He took me to a new place in Micah 7, and I fell in love all over again.
This final chapter of Micah is set within the context of sin and guilt then culminates magnificently with forgiveness and love…
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives…? (verse 18)
Who is this God that fully pardons at no cost to me? All other gods roaming the planet and all those I place before Him are slave masters that imprison and condemn. There is no God like our God who placed all our sin on His Son and condemned and judged it once and for all.
You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea (verse 19).
I love the Hebrew word for compassion – racham. It’s a deep stirring of love and tender affection. When God looks at me, He is moved in His core with deep love even when I’m most unlovable and prickly. I can never exhaust His love, and His compassion for me never fails or falters – it’s brand new every morning. So, I drag myself out of bed and revel in the freshness of His racham.
Picture God walking on your sin with complete disregard then hurling the whole and totality of it into the depths of the sea. How far can God throw? To the bottomless depths of forgiven and forgotten and out of existence forever. And He will never dredge them up…so, why do we?
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Worn Path
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13
Jeremiah 29:13 has been one of my favorite verses, but as I was rereading it recently and digging for nuggets, God uncovered a beautiful gem. The word seek is used twice, but it’s actually two different words in the original:
You will seek (baqash) me and find me = Search for by touching or feeling.
This word is also used in Psalm 27:8. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (NKJV) As though blind and unable to see, I find God by reaching a hand of faith to the features of His face. In that timid reach of faith, God takes my hand and guides it that I might know Him through that touch. But I have to step close and face Him to touch Him and know Him.
When you seek (darash) me with all your heart = Tread a place frequently in prayer and worship.
Do I seek Him so frequently and go so often to that secret place, that my foot falls have worn a path to Him? Am I diligent to spend time with Him, talk to Him and worship Him day after day? Did I yesterday…have I today? Is the path worn or is it overgrown by my neglect? When I stop seeking, I stop growing, my strength drains away and I grow cold.
God wants all my heart not a heart divided by the trivial pursuit of the world’s shiny objects and time suckers. He is jealous for all of me. He longs to draw me close and reveal Himself to me. There is nothing greater, more wondrous and brimming with blessing than finding the God who lovingly pursues me every moment of every day.
Oh God, forgive my divided heart and wandering feet. Set them on the path to know You. Show me Your ways, teach me Your paths, guide me in Your truth. Each day establish my steps to Your Presence. Show me Your face, O God, I want to know You. I want more and more of You.
Psalm 27:8 is quoted from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Prickling Faith
In the soundless doldrums of routine,
Adrift in sameness,
I long for extraordinary…
To be overwhelmed by the living God,
Enveloped in unutterable Love.
To hear the soft pad of Sovereign feet,
The quiet hum of contented Joy.
To feel a stir of air,
A brush of the Unseen against my soul.
Doubt shrieks, “Impossible!”
Faith bows low and waits.
Doubt numbs.
Faith prickles at the movement of Glory.
The Inconceivable draws near,
The Almighty leans in,
The commonplace ignites.
Is it possible or just mystical imagination? The logical mind doubts what it cannot grasp. It’s dependent on the perception of its physical senses and dismisses as illusive what cannot be perceived or explained.
The Unseen Reality waits in a dimension beyond logic. He continually speaks but logic hears only thunder. God waits for faith to look Him in the eyes and talk with Him.
Faith is the conviction and proof of the reality of things that can’t be seen.
Faith sees the unseen, hears the inaudible, and feels deeper than the skin.
Faith unleashes the power of God and opens the door to the unimaginable inexplicable blessing of intimacy with Sovereignty.
…blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. John 20:29b
5 More Minutes
Last weekend – October 10-12 – is now a memory of what seems long ago but was just a few days ago. It was a glorious weekend in Cannon Beach. Glorious weather, yes, but more glorious was the palpable Presence of God. His touch melted hearts and the fragrance of the melt rose to Him as a sweet aroma.
If I had five more minutes with the women of Sandy Baptist, I would say this…
Sink your roots deep into the unfathomable love of Christ, and grasp the blessing of abiding in Him. Set your heart and soul to know Him. Seek Him so diligently, meet with Him so often, that your frequent footfalls wear a path into His Presence.
Take time to step out of the fast flowing currents of life and step in behind the Rock. Touch Him and keep your heart aligned with His. He will do the rest. He will keep you close and will do great and mighty things in you and through you.
Andrew Murray in Abide in Christ wrote, “…take time each day…to put yourself into living contact with the living Jesus…so will you give Him the opportunity of taking hold of you, of drawing you up and keeping you safe in His Almighty life.”
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 NIV
Creativity: Artist-in-Residence
Children are born creators. They dance and play in the open field of their vivid imaginations. So, what shrinks our aging souls and stifles this playful expression? What imprisons the spirit that was born to revel in creativity?
For me, it’s primarily fear. I’ve dabbled in watercolors and sketching for many years but have struggled with the proverbial block both in my art and in my writing. I have amassed tools, equipment and books and enjoy arranging them around me in great admiration. But at the same time, I’m intimated by it and hesitant to put the brush to the paper for fear of making a mistake or creating something less than breath taking and less than perfect.
Last year, my creative journey took a turn. In September, I watched Anneli Anderson create a painting during a time of worship at Camp Elkanah. Her description of the process and her journey as an artist pushed back the curtain for me. This is what she shared:
“My paradigm changed from ‘I create to find acceptance and value for what I am able to produce’ to ‘I create because I am loved, and there is nothing I can produce to be more loved, accepted, or valued than I already am through Christ.’ I now have a new freedom, through that assurance, to experiment with color and more thoroughly enjoy the creative process! It has become like prayer for me….I submit my gifts to the Lord for the glory of His name and to be a blessing to those around me.” http://www.studioanneli.com/about-anneli/
That night my paradigm began to shift as well. Because of His great love and great grace, I am fully accepted as I am in Christ Jesus. He has uniquely gifted me and made me to be a conduit of His love and grace. I am not made to create admirable perfection but to capture and express the beauty of His touch upon the world and upon my soul…for His glory and praise. In that, it is an act of worship.
I have an Artist-in-Residence, Creativity Himself, – living, thinking, feeling, imagining and creating – in my soul. He is at my right hand as I pencil lines and words, as I touch a brush loaded with paint to the paper, mix ingredients for the next scone recipe and find a solution to a problem.
He calls us to dance in rhythm with the pulse of His creativity. Sometimes it wells up until the mind and heart are overwhelmed by an impulse to express it. Then the song flows, colors blend, words touch the soul and a solution works.
There is no mystery to the creative process…no secret ingredient in the soup. Simply place the first mark on the page, write the first sentence, make the first cut in the wood or the first stitch in the fabric…then another and another. Make mistakes, learn and grow. Throw away what you don’t like. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be.
Michelangelo said,
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
What imprisons your creative heart? Fear, perfectionism, guilt, intimidation of a blank screen, an empty staff sheet, lump of clay, block of wood, bolts of fabric, handfuls of seeds or a store full of ingredients? Let God chisel away the stone that restricts and confines His expression through you. He will expand your heart with joy and set it free!
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. Psalm 119:32
Run, sing, dance…create!
The Greatest Courage
The greatest courage and deepest faith of humanity
Endures the slow disintegration of the body and the slipping away of independence.
It looks into the eyes of death and begins to see the brilliance of glory.
It stretches a foot over the chasm afraid to let go of here but yearning for there.
It groans as it struggles to escape the deteriorating confines of flesh.
It pains through the stripping away of the body as the soul emerges to unimaginable joy.
It reaches one last time to grasp the hand of God as He lifts His faithful into paradise.
Everest
For all of us who watch them reach the summit…may we be grace givers unto the end.