Hope the title didn't scare you! Just having some fun. Well, I'm trying very hard not to lean into my cynical side. It is diminishing bit by bit, but cynical hangs around on me too much. Yesterday I arrived at church a little early, so using time wisely, I opened my Bible. I read a verse in the NLT version of the Bible that I had been reading last week in the NIV and on several blogs, " You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance" Psalm 65:11 Also came across Psalm 66:17, "For I cried out to Him for help, praising Him as I spoke." Two verses that are speaking volumes to me in this season.
Happy 2010! It is a beautiful and cold day here in Houston. I should have taken Mustang Sally out for the errands I ran because it might have been kind of fun having the top down on such a beautiful Monday.
For the past week or so I have been listening intently, hoping to hear God's voice for direction in the new year. There are several verses that have been rolling around in my spirit and on Saturday while cleaning through a couple of baskets, I found a book that I had read several years ago. Once everything had been cleaned out of the basket, I took time to re-read sections of the book that had made an impression on me the first time reading it. Second Mile People by Isobel Kuhn. Isobel and her husband John were missionaries for China Inland Mission...way back in the day. Sometimes her writing style is a bit too cutesy for me, but her knowledge and ability to convey biblical truths is astounding. She is relevant today, although gone on to be with the Father in the early 1950's.
Last year, oh about halfway into the year, I made a conscious decision to write more about every day things. I am wearied by the amount of blogs being written by aspiring, hope to be discovered women who seem to think ministry is done by the thousands, or the hundreds, not by one to one encounters. People who see a "lesson" in pine cones, Pine Sol and pine straws and instead of ever thinking maybe what God has shown them, was meant JUST for them and not hot off the blog news for others. It could be for others if anyone took the time to meditate and ponder what God is speaking into their hearts before posting it seconds later. This would also include veiled thoughts on what God is asking them to do. A dime will get you a donut, that they have been called to write a Bible study. Now that is my cynical side talking and I know God asks a lot of women to write what He has spoken into their lives. But come on, surely someone has to serve Him in others ways as well.
In the book Second Mile People, Isobel Kuhn writes about some of those who affected her life for eternity. She identifies some by name and others have been revealed and written of anonymously. I was taken in by the chapter on her friend Dorthy-Are You Willing for This?" I underlined this quote of Oswald Chambers used in this chapter, "The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold us" Isobel goes on and writes about when we fall into defeat when trying to "judge" the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Ours is to yield to Him in joyous faith and not to worry about the kind of value of the fruit He is producing. She writes of her friend Dorthy who so wanted to speak a Word into other's lives and felt defeat when she didn't do what she had wanted to do. "Dear Dorthy's special gift of the Spirit was her radiance, her shining happy joy in her walk with the Savior, but I doubt if she ever knew she possessed it. She thought she should have been preaching, when as a matter of fact the Holy Spirit was using her gift of shining to the very fullest extent in the life she had she had prayed to touch, and she need not have been so discouraged that afternoon." Of course the life touched was Isobel's. Throughout this chapter she uses a poem to help make her points. In fact, I believe I have written on this a long time ago, but the poem bears repeating. So if you are out there, writing, but not in your gifting, I hope this encourages. It encourages me cause truthfully I get frustrated at times with the calling God has upon my life. It's like Isobel says, once you open your being to His fullness your life must be enriched; you will never be the same again.
Indwelt
Not merely in the words you say,
not only in your deeds confessed,
but in the most unconscious way
In Christ expressed.
Is it a beatific smile,
A holy light upon your brow;
Oh no, I felt His Presence while
you laughed just now.
For me 'twas not the truth you taught
To you so clear, to me still dim.
But when you came to me you brought
a sense of Him.
And from your eyes He beckons me,
and from your heart His love is shed,
Till I lose sight of you and see
The Christ instead
(A.S. Wilson)
1 comment:
Amazing as always
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