The White Tower

Proverbs 25:28 ESV "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls." 

I was reading the entire book of Proverbs aloud today as preparation for our first week of 3rd Quarter. This verse, 25:28, stuck out to me the most. I know, it's not a Psalm. :) 

After finishing the book, I began journaling on the subject. I was burdened by this verse, reflecting on my own lack of self-control. Whether in eating, exercise or abstinence from sin, I felt as though this word-picture described me perfectly. I felt as though I was a city, robbed, left without walls. Left without defense, my city (my heart) was decimated by the enemy. 

Praying about this, I asked God what He thought. Immediately, I got a picture in my mind similar to the one I've shown here. Although, the city around the tower was broken down and smoke rose all around. The impression I got was that the tower was God, and He was at the center of my heart. Impenetrable and tall, it stood unaffected by the war that had taken place around it. I realized that all of the precious things from the city had also been gathered into the tower and were kept safe. 

While the city looked torn down, ruined and worthless, God had graciously protected all that I held dear. Even though the city had been broken down due to my own negligence,  the tower stood strong and unaffected. God showed me that, while He is in my heart, He is still separate. His strength is not affected by my sin and He, in all of His mercy and grace, provides safety for me in the times of my worst trouble caused by my own sin. How good and mighty is our God who provides a safe haven for us despite our rejection of Him. 

Truly understanding this grace will lead to a transformed life, a heart willing to be purified and brought through the fire so that the dross can be lifted out. We MUST realize the incredible significance of God's grace in our lives and allow this to impact us more deeply than it has before.

I really hope this blesses you today. Remember that no matter how decimated your life feels, whether due to your own sin or that of someone else, God IS a strong tower in the center of your heart. There is a high cost of entry into this tower but His Son has paid the cost for you to enter at anytime. There is a seal of this payment on your heart, the Holy Spirit, who bids you to come and find safety, rest and guidance in His shelter.

If you haven't accepted the payment Christ paid for your life, I encourage you to message me or find someone you know who knows Christ. Don't waste another minute searching for your own strength which has failed you time and time again and accept Christ... Allow this strong tower to be built in the center of your life. You will find love, strength, security and guidance that does not include your own strength. Then, you will glorify God, your very life will, because He has done something in you that neither you or anyone else could have ever done. 

Psalm 57 - The Shadow of Your Wings

This is going to be short... :)

Going into our 2nd Quarter break I'm excited but also nervous. God is calling me into deep intimacy with Him and I have this voice in my head that keeps saying, "Go off by yourself, get alone, go hide in a closet." Those of you who know me well know why I'm nervous. I don't particularly like time by myself... It's not a strength of mine. But, like I said, I'm also excited! I know that, while it may be tough, it's necessary if I wish to go to the levels of intimacy with my LORD and Savior that I so desire.

Psalm 57:1 ESV "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuges; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by." 

In Hebrew, "the shadow of your wings" refers to the flaps of a cloak or some type of covering garment. The picture we see here is a little child being sheltered from a storm inside their parent's big jacket, while the parent stands strong in the midst of the storm. All the child has to do is stay close to his/her parent and he won't feel the effects of the storm. For David, he was running from Saul when he wrote this. He had this great promise from God but now it seemed like the world was after him because of it. Don't we feel like this sometimes? We have the promise of eternal life from our Father, but from the moment we accept it, it seems as if the entire world is out to get us.

David calls us to cling close to our Father and stay within the shelter of His protection. Only He can stand strong in the midst of every storm, every trial and every heartache. What an incredible blessing it is for us, born sinners, to find grace and mercy in the eyes of our Savior. He doesn't then put us on a short leash and set us in a locked room so that we can never make a mistake again. He freely loves and His arms are open wide for us to have full and unhindered relationship with Him and He promises that when we seek Him and get close, He'll protect us from the storms. He may not take away the storms, for such is life in a world so set on rebelling against the God of the universe. Find rest, though, in His love. Go and find a quiet place, lock the door and let Him speak to you. Ask Him to quiet your thoughts and your heart. He so desires this intimacy with you! Don't wait another second to dive headfirst into the relationship He desires to have with you!

Ps 51 - Broken Bones Rejoice

Meditating on Ps. 51 this week, having finished 1st and 2nd Samuel last week, I'm very moved by the fact that this Psalm was even published. How many of us would write out our confessions to God, our cries for forgiveness for our greatest sins, and allow them to become public writings to be read aloud in congregations? One of my favorite lines is"let the bones that you have broken rejoice." David spoke to himself and told him to rejoice over the conviction the Lord had given to him and also the judgment Nathan had pronounced to him.

In the past few weeks, going through the Old Testament, I've really seen how God's judgment on his people is as much His grace and love as anything else. If He didn't allow them to see the consequences of their sin, didn't show them that they were doing something wrong, the people would have had no opportunity to repent. If God had done what we think would be loving, which is just to keep letting them sin and forgiving them without consequences, they would have walked further and further from God and their exile would have come much sooner.

I think David felt this way too. He realized that God's judgment on him opened his eyes to his sin and his reduced intimacy with God which he loved so much. David considered it God's grace when God was faithful to the words of warning He spoke if one should reject His law.

For us today, I think it's so easy for us to miss the consequences of our sin as they get lost in the mix of things we call 'normal'. God has forgiven us for our past, present and future sins, but we also bear the physical and spiritual consequences of these. I've prayed that God would open my eyes to how my sin affects me and those around me. He's shown me how my interaction with people changes drastically as I walk away from Him in sin and how this leads other people down mental paths they wouldn't have gone had my course of action been different. Today, we need a revelation of the impact of sin in our lives, even more so that our sin is covered by Christ's blood on the cross. As believers, we should see even more how sin impacts our lives, those around us and how it's affected the world in general.

Most of all, we need a revelation of the fear of God. We get lazy when times get good and, like David, we let our most foundational values slip leading to the most outrageous of sins we could have never imagined ourselves committing. It is God's grace that there are consequences to our sin because God knows that in relationship with Him we can live the best lives possible. If He was less loving, He'd let us do our own thing and never say a word about it.

Rejoicing in punishment sounds kind of insane... But, David had somethin' right. :)

Psalm 18 - Simplicity

While reading in the Psalms this week, I was struck by yet another verse that was so simple, so unfitting in the Psalms, that it caught my eye.

Ps. 18:1 "I love you, O LORD, my strength."

David goes on for quite a while about all the things God has done in his life, from judgment to blessing. I really appreciate how David's conclusion after all of these events is actually in the first verse. Through life we see the many miracles of God every day. If we were to stop and think, I think we'd have a Psalm to write of our own that would go on for many pages. But, how often do we forget these things and let our current circumstances lead us away from being firm in who God is, how we feel towards Him and most of all, how we act towards Him? I'm challenged by this Psalm, as I hope you are, too. I hope we can see that it is possible to go through life allowing our cold hearts to render the miracles ineffective in our own lives. Let's have a conclusion like David! "I love you, O LORD, my strength." That should be our response and it is surely the response He desires most of all!

Psalm 111 "The Fear of God"

This week, I've been reading in Psalm 111. Verse 10 really struck me... "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." The way this really hits me is in the context of God's will and man's will seldom lining up. YWAMers and many others use the phrase "Take God out of the box you've put Him in." Obviously there's the understanding that God isn't really in a box but we've put Him there in our minds. What this really does is  limits the ways we get to see God working in our lives as we fail to recognize God's sovereign hand in the happenings around us. <-- Random tangent. ":)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. How many times do we take  the 'norm' of the world and try to force that upon God's ways or will? If we feared the LORD and had the correct understanding of how we simply can't understand His ways, I think we'd be a whole lot happier and wiser. Instead of looking to our own logic, we'd realize that the most logical thing would be to follow God's will no matter how odd, stupid or childish the acts He calls us to do seem. I truly believe we'd see so many more crazy Divine occurrences happen throughout our lives because we're willing to step out in faith because we fear the LORD.

Just some ramblings from a bran fried SBSer who is falling more and more in love with Jesus daily...

"I Would Satisfy You" Psalm 81

The past few weeks have certainly been heavy. All of my time has been spent in the world of the first couple generations of the Israelites. It’s been bittersweet as God’s glory, grace and love are shown over and over again, but only to be met with the unfaithfulness and idolatry of His people. They remind me so much of myself, over and over again declaring my love and faithfulness to God and yet, rejecting Him in a million ways the next day. However, His grace is still abundant. PRAISE GOD!

This week, I was reading in Psalm 81. The nation of Israel is called to sing out and rejoice over God’s faithfulness to the people in the face of their rejection. God says, “If you would but listen to me!” God desired for them a life of peace, relationship with Him. He desired to bless them and show His love to them every moment of every day. Instead, they constantly chose their own path, seeking to make their own way through the world; making themselves god. They refused to faithfully worship the real God and chose to worship the gods they created; a human way of controlling their life.

The nation of Israel, in PS 81 is called to rejoice over the fact that God had turned them over to destruction. They are to see it as a blessing that God chose to curse His people with their enemies having rule over them. The nation of Israel is to see that their relationship with God is worth more than anything and so, because this cursing caused them to turn back to God, they consider it a blessing and praise God for it.

This really challenges me. There have been many consequences in my life for the sin of myself and for that of those around me. There is no way I could honestly say I have lived as if these were also blessings. But, they are! My relationship with God, today, is stronger than it’s ever been. I’m in Taiwan studying His Word and having the amazing opportunity of deepened relationship with Him. I know that the pain I’ve suffered in life would never have been God’s intention. But what thankfulness I’m beginning to have that He didn’t just let me live my life in peace, never feeling the weight of my sin. Because of His actions towards me, I’ve turned away from a dead and sinful life. I’ve come into relationship with the Creator God whose desire is for me to live in peaceful relationship with Him, carrying out His will on earth and being led by Him every step of the way.

PRAISE GOD!

Psalm 114

You brought me out of the desert place
And set my feet upon the rock
So I could dwell in Your sweet embrace
Just so You and I could talk

In the presence of the Lord is my dwelling place
In the presence of the Lord is Your sweet embrace
In the presence of the Lord all else will fade
All else will fade
All else will fade
All else will fade

My past You put all behind me
A dry straight road lies ahead
The walls of the sea on either side of me
Draw me away from all I dread

In the presence of the Lord is my dwelling place
In the presence of the Lord is Your sweet embrace
In the presence of the Lord all else will fade
All else will fade
All else will fade
All else will fade

Tremble, O Earth, at the presence of the Lord

In the presence of the Lord is my dwelling place
In the presence of the Lord is Your sweet embrace
In the presence of the Lord all else will fade
All else will fade
All else will fade
All else will fade