Things with Wings - Devotional Thoughts from ne Day in September

 

Thoughts Are Things with Wings

Let us glorify God in our bodies. It is a difficult thing when our appetites, cravings, and desires shout with such fever pitched shrills seeking to drown out the quiet and still voice of God whose voice is even more pronounced yet deep.

We tune to the frequency of perishable fading sounds and tune out that which is truly refreshing and life-giving love. It is our journey and our struggle, but not ours alone.

'“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.''

(1 Corinthians 6:12-20 ESV)

------------------

I have been taking a stroll through Isaiah this morning and sat down at a bench in chapter 7. God is using Isaiah to speak truth to power. God says that He expected more justice for the poor. God reveals His glory and His intention to rule supreme and to bring all peoples and nations to Jerusalem to worship One God as one people. But we are arrogant and exercise whatever power we grab with that arrogance and sense of absolute autonomy.

So, He zeroes in on some specific kings who are sure of their own success based upon their own strategies, armies, and arms.

To one He says:

"...Unless your faith is firm,

I cannot make you stand firm.” (Isaiah 7:9b, New Living Translation)

We do not outgrow our need for solid faith in our lives. 

------------------

 

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson

------------------ 

We are to give, pray, and fast, not to draw attention to ourselves, but to draw our attention to God. Sharing here is a dangerous balance of allowing the blessings and challenges to bless others, of being authentic as a fellow struggling soul, and to squash the temptations toward pride. It helps when you are another ragamuffin among many with more questions than answers. But it is so important to dwell most, in the secret place of the Most High.

No one, but God knows your truest, deepest prayers or struggles.

Your most satisfying reward is that God knows and invites you into intimacy with Himself.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.''

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.''

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.''

(Matthew 6:1-6 ESV)

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.''

(Matthew 6:16-18 ESV)

------------------

“The grace of God should lead us to see the truth about ourselves, and to gain a certain lucidity, a certain humor, a certain down-to-earthness.” -Gerhard Forde

------------------

Have you ever said, "I had to pinch myself," because you wondered if you were really alive, awake, or experiencing what you were seeing or hearing?

One of the closest cognitive experiences we have to mimic death might be anesthesia. Apart from the reality of the spiritual realm our brains do not record pain, pleasure, or any other sensation.

After experiencing and learning to cope with bouts of severe pain, I came to appreciate the quote below:

"Pain is a kindly, hopeful thing, a certain proof of life, a clear assurance that all is not yet over, that there is still a chance. But if your heart has no pain -- well, that may betoken health, as you suppose: but are you certain that it does not mean that your soul is dead?" - Arthur John (A. J.) Gossip

------------------

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them ..." - Deuteronomy 12:30a

 

"Tom, you're not useless. We can always use you as a bad example."

Have you ever seen a want add for a bad example?

HELP WANTED
Badly flawed, underqualified, low-motivated, mid-level manager to take responsibility for counter-intuitive training and institutionalized scape-goating for corporate inadequacies. No-experience needed. Apply in person. First in line gets the job. Tenure and top level salary with full benefits on day one.

There now may be some scientific basis for that light hearted insult.

How do we use this in our own self-management? Are there some skills we can introduce?

Or might it be better to set a high bar and expect the best from all?

We're more likely to behave ethically when we see rivals behaving badly : Cognitive Daily - from 09/24/2009 by Dave Munger

"As an undergraduate, at my school it was practically a requirement to steal silverware from the campus cafeteria. There were students who'd commandeered full sets of china. The desk clerk at my dorm used to say that the only thing we were learning from our college education was 'how to steal.'"

"Somehow it didn't seem wrong to us to steal from the cafeteria (though I drew the line at a single setting of silverware). Plus, we'd heard that at other schools, students used the cafeteria trays as sleds after the first winter snow. At least we weren't doing that (though arguably this was only because there are no hills in Chicago)."

READ MORE AT: https://web.archive.org/web/20120508205104/http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/09/were_more_likely_to_behave_eth.php

  

------------------

 

"All work takes time. When it becomes clear to us that prayer is a part of our daily program of work, it will also become clear to us that we must arrange our daily program in such a way that there is time also for this work, just as we set aside time for other necessary things, such as eating and dressing." - Ole Kristian O. Hallesby

Ole Hallesby (1879-1961) was one of Norway's leading Christian teachers and devotional writers. During World War II he was imprisoned for his resistance to the Nazi regime. He worked as a seminary professor in Oslo until his death.)

------------------

I am no fan of Cortez, slightly more of Julius, basically, a pacifist by conviction. However, we are always engaged in some sort of spiritual, emotional, and ideological warfare where the principles of such apply. Struggle is a constant companion. What can Sun Tzu teach us?

A Prayer for Love to the Lord of Love

Art: "God the Father" by Cima da Conegliano, circa, 1515

I am weak, Lord.

I am lowly.

I bring nothing in my hands. I offer no credentials, no reputation, no resume worth reading.

My track record is checkered. My focus is scattered. My mind is here and there and everywhere. I am easily distracted and frequently tested to the core.

Yet, God, you are my God.

Yet, God, you love me, value me, invest in me, and show grace and mercy to me daily.

I am unworthy. You are worthy.

All my value is that you regard me.

Why, oh why?

It does not matter why because You are the Why of all things and of my existence and You have engraved Your love into the fabric of the universe.

Your love, Oh LORD, is the only true reality, standard, and truth that bleeds through all of our opinions about ourselves and others.

Your wrath is against all that is not love. Why then, if I am not judged, can I ever stand in judgment against my neighbor?

I shall not.

He and she are Yours. You see in them that which is precious even as You see something precious in me.

Give me glimpses today of the wonder in my neighbors eyes and the love in his or her heart that I may view my neighbor through the lenses of Your redemptive and reconciling grace and lay all of my prejudices and agendas aside.

And may my neighbor join me in this cause and his neighbor and her neighbor.

I pray this, as the only solution to our divisions in the Name of Jesus who divided us in order to unite us, who showed us hard truth in order to reconcile us to Himself and to one another, who bore all pain, sin, and alienation upon Himself in order to introduce us to You as Your long lost children who have come home.

Give us the heart of the prodigal's father.

Give us Your heart and the heart of Jesus, Your Son. Amen.