June 14, 2009

• Naphtali News: a time to blog and . . .

  Earlier this week in preparation for a study of Psalms 1-3, I ended up reading in II Samuel 15 because that portion of Scripture corresponds with the time David wrote Psalm 3 (David was fleeing from Absalom at the time):

  And the king's servants said to the king, Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides. 16 So the king went out, and all his household after him.
  

  –II Samuel 15:15-16

  If my King decides something, like David's servants, I must be ready to do whatever my lord the King decides.

  Later today I’ll be tagging along with my husband on a business trip to England for a week, and I believe my King is directing me not to blog during that time.

  I took a two-day retreat recently (please read here and here for more on that), so I don’t quite understand why I’m to take another break so soon,  although I do have some idea. But it doesn't really matter if I understand or not. If God directs, who am I to question; after all, He's God and I'm not...

  I find this frustrating because I do have so much I want to write on, but right now I believe God has some things He wants to write on my heart and He wants to get me alone with Him once more for an even more extended period so I might hear His still small voice. I also realize I am in danger of losing my first Love as I minister in His Name, so I must go back and drink deeply and gain a greater understanding of His love for me which is in Christ Jesus, a love which loves me regardless of what I may be doing.

  At a worship service we recently attended, the high school graduates were recognized and commissioned to go out into the world in Jesus' name (that included having their feet washed by the church staff). During that service one of the graduates gave a brief message on Ecclesiastes 3: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven... He reminded us that we can trust God will give us time to do the work He has given us. Amen. I needed that reminder and need it again today and every day.

  As I was walking this week, I came across a turtle in the middle of my path. I've walked in that park many, many times, but I had never seen a turtle there before until that day. I began thinking that no matter how fast my pace, or how quickly I want to run, God will accomplish His work in and through me in His time. And sometimes I can see I'm tempted to run and jump like the hare, but all He's really asking me to do is to walk slowly, like the tortoise, and when I don't do so, I miss out on walking with Him and abiding in Him.

  So right now it seems the best way for me to keep walking with Him and to press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me is to slow down in the race and sit and rest a while and put up my feet so He might wash them.

  I've been thinking back to a hymn that we sung together the Sunday prior to leaving our last church and find it appropriate this day:

  
  

  I love my Shepherd's voice,
  His watchful eyes shall keep
  My wand'ring soul among
  The thousands of His sheep:
  He feeds His flock, He calls their names,
  His bosom bears the tender lambs

  The Shepherd leads each of us in His way and His time. He always provides His sheep with all we need. His voice is calling me. His eyes are keeping my wandering soul. He is feeding me. He is calling me by name. He is bearing me in His bosom. Amen.

  I know there are times I get so zealous and anxious that I sometimes feel I have to get done all God has given me to do in the next 24 hours! Yes, there ought to be a sense of urgency in how we live, for we are called to diligent and vigilant obedience and souls do hang in the balance, but as we work in the power of the Holy Spirit, there's also to be a spirit of resting and a calm and confident assurance that God is sovereign and a certainty that He will equip us to do the works He has ordained for us in His time. If we look at the life of Jesus, we never see Him scurrying or hurrying anywhere. He was one with the Father and He accomplished all the work the Father had given Him in the Father's perfect time. And though they always had a perfect union and fellowship together, Jesus' relationship with His Father did include time spent away from the crowds alone with His Father. Jesus never ran ahead of His Father's time for His Father's time was perfect. In the same way, we must never run ahead of our Father's time for us, and there are times that He wants us to spend time away from the crowds alone with Him. O, to have that perfect oneness and communion with our Father like Jesus did! I groan as I await the day of the redemption of my body, but today I press on...O, that I might learn more and more what it truly means to take His yoke upon me and rest in Him always.

  While I'm gone I won’t be alone with God the whole time as my husband will be there, so he and I will also have some time alone, but during those times he'll be attending work meetings, I will have a lot of time alone to meet with God. And I also don’t know whom else God might have me meet with as well...

  Though I won't be blogging, I do hope to have some opportunity to check messages or to peek in on your blogs and the like. So some of you may see me leave a footprint but perhaps not a comment. And I hope to read your comments, messages or e-mails, though I may not respond to them.

  While I'm gone I would also like to read and reread Revelation 1-3 along with John Stott’s “What Christ Thinks of the Church: An Exposition of Revelation 1-3." (HT: Pass_the_Aura for the rec). As God leads you to do so, would you also prayerfully read through those chapters in Revelation? As we read, let us ask God to give us ears to hear what His Spirit has to say to each of us today and to His Church today. I'm also going to make the same request on my prayer blog, tent of meeting. At tent of meeting we've been praying through the Lord's prayer and have recently begun to pray, “Forgive us our sins." I do believe as we open the Word of God and read of the seven churches of Revelation, the Holy Spirit will begin to open our ears to His voice and open our eyes to our sins so we might confess and repent of them. Unless and until we do so, we will continue to quench and grieve the Holy Spirit of God and despise and limit the Holy One of Israel. Unless and until we do so, we will remain apart from our first Love and cannot love Him as we ought. Mhoay the Spirit's fire fall fresh on His Church to convict, cleanse and revive us, so we might turn back to our first Love.

  

  Come, let us return to the Lord;
  for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
  he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
  2 After two days he will revive us;
  on the third day he will raise us up,
  that we may live before him.
  3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
  his going out is sure as the dawn;
  he will come to us as the showers,
  as the spring rains that water the earth.

  (Hosea 6:1-3)

  Once again, I so very much appreciate your fellowship, your encouragement and your prayers more than you can imagine. You will be in my thoughts and prayers as I hope I will be in yours.

  In closing, I'll share some words from George Whitefield and then the apostle Paul:

  But what is Calvin, or what is Luther? Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all–So that He is preached. . . . I care not who is uppermost. I know my place . . .even to be the servant of all.

  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

  May Christ dwell in my heart by faith so I might be filled with all the fullness of God, so I might know His place and my place, and truly be the servant of all.

  May Christ dwell in my heart by faith so I might be filled with all the fullness of God, so I might press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

  As I rest in Him may I be His servant and yours, and keep pressing on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
  By His grace and for His glory,

  Karen

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  Related posts:

  • Pressing on in the New Year
  • One week into 2009: a prayer to press on & manifest Jesus (Charles Wesley)

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