Love

See from His head, His hands, His feet

  Sorrow and love flow mingled down

    Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

      Or thorns compose so rich a crown?


      Were the whole realm of nature mine

    That were an offering far too small

  Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all

Kingdom Come

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.          Matthew 6:33

Lately, I've found that my life has been about the "things" -- as a human being, I have a natural tendency to contract attention deficit disorder, letting my fleshly eyes dart around with worldly distractions. Jesus knows how we humans become so consumed by our mortal lifestyles, from the food we eat to the clothes we put on. Why do you think He would make an entire sermon out of our craving for these things?

Hey, I'm guilty. I'm a nervous wreck about what foods I can and can't eat. I covet what other people wear. And I have the nerve to let all of this stuff stress me out and make me anxious. 

I think I get what Jesus was really trying to say in this verse. He knows how easy it is for us humans (He did create us after all) to become absorbed by the earth we were created from. He understands how our little minds barely have the capacity to focus on our daily needs, much less the greater good. But there is more. We don't have to be anxious. What good does that do us? And how can we be anxious when we realize what -- or whom -- the kingdom of God really is?

He says today, there is something so much better out there. There is so much more to this life. There is a kingdom, reigned by an Almighty King, such as the world has never seen before. We envision failures of men when we try to think of rulers. But this King is perfect in passion and great in grace. 

Through all the worry, I have seen the kingdom of God grow dimmer and dimmer in the distance. So He told me, Seek My kingdom first, and My righteousness which prevails upon all men (my own is like filthy rags), and the rest will be added unto you. 

What does He mean by that? He means to say that if we allow ourselves to be entirely consumed by His kingdom (and when we truly know Him, we will see the true worth of that kingdom) and His righteousness (and the great sacrifice in which He gave us that perfection and beauty), everything else will merely be added. All that we think our lives revolve around will be but an addition, a bonus to our existence. 

When we offer our lives to be consumed by the living God and His kingdom, the things of this world could not possibly make us anxious. We will have all we need in Him. His kingdom is all beauty and providence. He calls all to His gates.   

It's refreshing to hear these words that Jesus spoke, yet how many times do we continue in our fleshly pattern of worry and distraction? I'm guilty again. So I'm encouraging you (or maybe simply reminding you) to make His kingdom priority. Trust the King more and be rid of that fear. Relinquish control of your own life, let the King have control, and quench that anxiety. Get over your own life and wrap yourself in His. Stop seeing His kingdom as merely the means to all the "things" and see it as the beginning and end of all things. I am guilty of all of these, but I want to turn around and run toward His kingdom gates.

When we let ourselves become lost in the glory of His kingdom and the beauty of His righteousness, I think we'll actually begin to live the way we were meant to. Everything else will be simply added.

An Ant at the Door

Cut and pasted from Spurgeon's beloved Morning & Evening Devotional.
This is God's voice speaking to each of us -- be encouraged!


"I will help you, says the Lord." Isaiah 41:14

"This morning [and every day] let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: "I will help thee." "It is but a small thing for Me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with My blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made the covenant for thee. I laid aside My glory and became a man for thee; I gave up My life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. 'Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. 'Help thee?' Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency. 'I will help thee.'"

   

"O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them here-thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The Eternal God is thine helper."

Preliminary Praise

I love the idea of "New Year's" -- the concept of starting over, of wiping the slate clean from the past year, and being invigorated for whatever changes lie ahead. I am all for a fresh start. Sometimes, I catch myself favoring the simplicity and excitement of New Year's over the hustle and stress of the Christmas holiday (how unfortunate our society has made it that way).

This past year entailed many transitions for me, and consequently much personal growth. I cannot say I am fully adjusted to such transitions quite yet, but I am holding onto the hope that Jesus is with me through this growing process and will see it through.

But outside of the personal, I am growing ever excited to see what God has in store this year for His children around the world -- those present and those yet to be adopted into His family.

If there is a fresh fire stirring in my own little chuch in Southern California, I have great expectations that fires are spreading across the globe. Something is about to happen. God's people are being stirred up. We are getting attacked and tested on all sides. Preparation for a great work is in motion.

Some thoughts shared by my beloved pastor in regards to this new work that is on the horizon:

God's past faithfulness demands our present trust.

We must trade the greatness of our task for the greatness of our God.

If we never step out of our own means, we'll never see what God means.

Let us stay close to Jesus to see what He might do ...

I am anticipating the revolution of God's church. I truly hope such a revolution is not limited to my own local church body, but that it will arise from all across the globe. Our God is a big God with magnificent plans.

Oh, that we would not limit Him, nor that we would not limit ourselves with tiny prayers burdened with fears, doubts, unbelief. Oh, that we can pray bigger. That we can get closer. Fall deeper. Carry more hearts inside our own.

Our Jesus prayed for us so fervently in that upper room so long ago:

I do not ask for [the twelve disciples] only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

With this fresh start that we have been given, it is my prayer that we would take God seriously, that we would pray more for the unity of the church (for such brings us in closer unity with God), that we would have no reservations or walls around our hearts, and that our soul's intention would be to make God's kingdom even bigger by drawing more souls to Him. The kingdom of heaven is very near. There is no time to waste.

Let us be praising our Father God for what He is going to do.

 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. 

**John 17:20-21 ; Hebrews 10:23-25 ; 10:37-39

2014

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

I Corinthians 15:55-58


Death is done away with for you and me.

For every defeat in our lives, there is a greater victory in Jesus.

So stand fast in the Lord, you who have been redeemed from death and the bondage of the law, and serve Him wholeheartedly this next year and always.

Happy New Year!

Love,
Noelle

The With

"The Christian faith doesn't have a prescription for how God fixes our problems.

It doesn't have a simple formula for how and when healing happens or how and when eternal life follows death.  

Instead, Christians simply believe that the greatest power in the universe is God's desire to be in relationship with us,  

a relationship we don't earn so we call it joy,  

a relationship we can't match so we call it love,  

a relationship that never ends so we call it glory,  

a relationship that costs God everything so we call it grace.  

And that desire and that relationship are stronger than the other forces in our lives - evil, sin, and death.  

To be a Christian means to be transformed by the discovery that God is with us in such a way that we stop noticing or counting what God does for us.  

It's not about the for. It's about the with."

Samuel Wells 

Praise Befits the Upright

"Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!  

Praise befits the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre ...  

Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.  

For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness."  

Psalm 33:1-4

Even in the hard times, ALL of God's work is done in faithfulness. His Word still stands as our plumb line of righteousness and testifies of the One who has made us righteous.

And so our calling remains to shout, to sing, to praise Him with the talents He has given us! For such is only appropriate for those who have been saved by Him. Praise and thanksgiving set us apart as His children!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His steadfast love endures forever!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so ...."

Psalm 107:1-2 

So let your praise be contagious. It befits you, His beloved one.