Thursday, September 28, 2017

God meets us when we call upon Him.


Python my dad shot on the hill by our house
I have had something on my heart and mind.  When I was going on 5 years old my parents went to the country then known as Tanganyika.    As a child I became very early on fearful of several things.  Snakes,  Fire,  and being alone,

There were some other things also but those became very big to me.  Then one night I dreamt that I had 'found' a tunnel with rooms that I could hide in away from all those fearful things and I was able to be there alone.   No one else knew how to get in.
green mamba I stepped on.  My brother killed it.

So started a life of creating a place in my imagination of refuge.  Yes, I learned Bible verses and was taught about the Christ who died for me to save me but somehow it never occurred to anyone to ever mention that I remember, that Christ was a place of refuge.   And by the time I learned it I had a habit of living much of my life in my imagination - peopling my dreams with friends who cherished me, and wealth and a perfect life.

In my mid-teens I made a commitment to the LORD Jesus Christ as my Savior and by then understood what it meant.   But though I loved the LORD Jesus Christ, and believed in Him I could not give up the pleasure of my daydreams.  I even sought to quit my day-dreaming, by the power of my will but  was so immersed in it I could not.  
The morning after our kitchen burned down.

I began to have a growing knowledge how detrimental it was in my life.  There came a day in sheer anguish I asked the LORD to deliver me, and set me free.  Not my work but His work.

And He did.   It has changed my own inner life and I believe has done a work in my outer life. 

Thank you Father.  

Day dreaming is not a positive thing in our lives.   It prevents us from living in life and in the present and seeking God's ways.  At least that was how it was in my life.   



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Saturday, September 2, 2017

 I Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) Do you not know that you are God's
temple and the God's Spirit dwells in you?

II Corinthians 6:16 (ESV) What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Psalm 139:13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I have been created a dwelling place. God created us to be his dwelling place.

Later you bought me back from the enemy at a price I could never pay. Your life and blood paid the price of my sin.

Who it is that dwells in us depends on to whom we open the door.

To often our dwelling place is opened to the world, the flesh and the devil. Those are the ones we often invite in, believing the lies told us to how they would fulfill our deepest desires.

But there is another one who knocks on the door – it is the only begotten son of GOD, born unto woman. He was crucified to pay for the sins of all mankind.

However once paid, death could not hold him. He arose.

He seeks to make us His dwelling place but awaits our opening of the door and invite in. This is our only act in making us the dwelling place of the LORD God and Almighty Creator of the universe.

It is not my good deeds, or kindness to others, or great personality that makes me acceptable as His dwelling place but my opening the door to him, to give Him room to rule and reign in me.

That invite has implicit within it, my acceptance and desire for Him to come in and rule and reign. To change the decor and furnishings of his dwelling place. To clean out the junk and scrub the filth away. Even to rid his dwelling place of my most treasured attitudes and desires where they clash with His Holiness.

What a mighty God we are indwelled by when we open the door and invite Him in.