Cry Me A River

Ever since my mother gave me "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers, its been an amazing journey for many years to chisel away at my mistakes and then re-chisel the same mistakes away again. Every day I read this devotional, I am amazed at how imperfect I am. I think i'm doing good, but instead I get a daily reality check. Today was no different.

I could have stopped after the first sentence and learned my lesson for the day. So here it is...

I have never lead anyone to the Lord. It's a fact in my life that I'm not proud of. It's not a fact that I will ever boast in because that's not what it's about. But it's a fact I've dealt with and contemplated a lot. I worry that I am not doing enough for the Lord, and in fact it makes me feel like I've done nothing. But I'm tired of the devil sneaking these thoughts into my head.

"A river reaches places which its source never knows." A simple sentence drenched with power and truth. I have no idea how God is going to use me just as the river does not know where the water will end up. Sometimes I don't know how I've been used, if I've been used at all. But guess what?! We're not always supposed to know!!! There have been few instances when God has made it known to me that I made an impact on someone. But now that I think about it, it shouldn't matter to me if God tells me or not. I'm supposed to be the salt and light of earth, no matter if I'm in a room full of lanterns or not! And just like my last post, our goal isn't to be worried about these things. And do not equate this to an excuse for mediocrity and justification to not share the Gospel with someone.

I believe that we are all given gifts. God has told us this many times in the Bible. But I believe that God has used me in different ways other than leading them to the Lord face-to-face. Maybe God has someone else in store for that job. I am not scared of being that person if God puts that situation in front of me, but I've yet to be in one of those situations.

All in all, I don't know what God has planned for your life. I don't know how God is going to use you, but God does. And we need to be in a good standing relationship with God so that we can be in tuned with what He has for us. And the next couple of lines of the devotional says this... "And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, 'rivers of living water' will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even 'to the end of the earth' (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow--'This is the work of God, that you believe...' (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others."

Well said Oswald. Well said.

Have a blessed day! Be a light!

Be Weak and Foolish

As I read through the first chapter of 1 Corinthians last night, I came to an abrupt stop once I hit verse 26. About half way through it I told myself, "I am not ready for these next couple of verses!" They were so powerful that taking a quick glance at them before I went to bed wasn't gonna cut it. So as I looked at them today, the power oozed through the spaces between the letters. There was a reason why I had underlined this entire last section of chapter one.

You have to be in the right frame of mind to read these last couple of verses. To skip over them... well, let's just not go there. Verse 26 starts off with a slap in the face: "not many of you were wise according to worldy standards..." Ok sort of humbling, but I see that sense of humility we must have. "... not many were powerful..." Yupp, still humbling. "...not many were of noble birth." Ouch. But what if I truly were wise?! Or really powerful?! Or strong?! Well, keep reading... Verses 27 and 28: "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are." Immediately I think, "I guess I don't want to be strong anymore." Why? Because of what it says in the last verse, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." I don't want to boast in anything but the Lord. Being strong and wise and noble are all great things that we should want to be, but these characteristics should be at no higher level than our unconscious thoughts.

Let me give you an example. Have you ever been asked, "Who is a hero in your life?" Many of you probably do have one whether its your mom or dad or a favorite athlete. But when I think about a hero, words like "conceited", or "cocky", or "arrogant" don't come to mind. It seems like being a hero is almost unknown to the hero itself. If the hero is making a conscious effort to be a hero, it tarnishes the image of a hero, at least in my own definition. My kind of hero is selfless, sacrificial, and unrelenting. They are unaware of their "hero status." So my point is, and the point of this passage is, don't aim to be wise, powerful, or boastful. Seek the Lord and he will use you in your weakness and foolishness to "shame the wise" and "shame the strong."

"...Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:31