Destination Eternity

Today I’ve discovered what the joy part of “longsuffering with joy” means to me.  My joy is eternity. My joy is living in heaven everyday with Christ, the love who died to bring me home.  My joy is knowing that life on this earth is a temporary assignment and that when I die, I get to go home.  This explains to me why I’ll never feel an absolute contentment while here living.  I am joyfully overwhelmed with peace knowing this to be true.  Knowing death isn’t the end of my life, only the door to eternity.  Now I understand how it’s truly possible to endure hardships and pain without despair. Because, there is always hope, a hope that is laid up for all of us, for every nation, in heaven.  This hope is Jesus, who came in love to reconcile all things back to himself.

Believe and receive His Spirit and Him as Lord and savior!

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

It baffles and humbles my dear friend Elizabeth and I that there is no work requirement for this love so freely given.  Only requirement is to accept Him, accept Him as the payment.  Bizarre how this seems to be the most difficult part of the relationship, huh?

I understand how brief life is on earth. Being referred to in the Bible as an alien, pilgrim, foreigner, stranger, visitor of this land all makes clear sense now. After graduating college the questions completely surfaced, “What am I here for? What is my purpose for being?” No matter when we ask them, don’t we all ask those two questions?

God wants us to ask Him those questions because He made each and everyone of us.  We find our purpose as we exist in Him and know Him in our relationship with Him. And I’ve discovered that as I seek and live out my purpose I enjoy who He is and give Him the glory of the life we lead.

The book The Purpose Driven Life has really helped me confirm my thoughts.  I recommend every person read it to have the knowledge it offers and then decide whether they are ready to believe and receive it or not.

My joy for heaven explains my unrest for what the world says will bring fulfillment.  With this fundamental knowledge plainly laid out for me, I now am equipped to make the best decisions for stewarding my future well.

I will always live in abundance by the grace of God.  Now is when I will decide what to focus my time and energy on in order to build up to the focus I’ll have in years to come.  Now is when I’m able to discover how my gifts will play into my purpose and how I can best use them to proclaim The Good News.

This phase of my life is the training and equipping phase.  My life will be devoted to making the Only Living God known.  (Psalm 135:15-18).  The couple Schools of Ministry that are in my future will be the preparation for that work.  They will be used as a tool and an instrument by God to shape me, confirm gifts, find my specific purpose, and then send me off to work using those gifts and qualities.  We all have unique gifts to bring God praise.

I will live my life set apart for Christ’s sake so everyone will know what He has done for all nations in love.

“..My power is made perfect in weakness”

Oh, Lord I need your power to be present and to work in my life for I am desperately weak.  The life makes no sense without you.  I’m fighting the world, I feel it.  I’m fighting the world and I will be defeated if you aren’t my source of strength or power.  I’m fighting to live.  Weirdly funny how that is.  I’m fighting to live but I’m already living free in your Spirit.  I’m free but I’m still bound to the earth.  My whole being is crying out to you. Moaning and growing for the newness you promise will come.  I keep reminding my self, the one who promises is faithful.  The One who promises is faithful.

I’m staring to first handily witness how living this life works in relationship with you.  You know how all of this feels and now I understand more deeply why you vehemently cried too.  Thank you for not abandoning us in our defiance.   Thank you that nothing, absolutely nothing, will separate us from your love and care.

I know you are working everything for Your glory.  I know you get your feelings hurt too by what goes on here.  It’s a hard truth to swallow that all this hell goes on here with such a loving God.  I see the consequence of our actions, actions to want to be separate from you.  However, I see that although it might hurt both of us, Your plan is for the long run.  You do not trash what You have bought with Your blood.  We are yours for the long run.  I will fight the good fight on your behalf because I know the truth.  Nothing else makes sense.  As my dear friend Tabitha says, “You are good and You do good no matter the circumstance.”

I know there are many circumstances in this life that I am not going to understand.  However I know it doesn’t matter if I can understand them or not, I know You are good and do good.  You fight for me. And I thank you.

I’ve started to enter into a place where there is no other way than the way of trusting the Lord to be strong in my weakness and powerlessness.  Allowing His grace to be the sufficient source of me living each day.  You are my source.  You cause me to thrive.  You cause me to rejoice in the mourning.

By Your grace I have overcome.  By Your grace I am victorious.

This life will have hardships. This life will have pain. This life will have insults. All of them bring me to my knees, in need of Your majestic awesomeness.

I am created to rejoice in You, so I will rejoice.  If You created me, you will take care of me.

I WILL delight in my weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Longsuffering with joy

There have been many heavy thoughts weighing on me the past few days.  Thoughts my mind has not found answers to.  Will this be the case with most of life? After trying to cope with the heaviness my heart felt on my own, coming up with distorted ways to cope, to protect my feelings, I’ve gladly handed them over to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I get this picture of myself: I am wounded, not able to walk, and He’s carrying me along this terrain, as a fellow solider does in battle.

It’s as though I’ve been living in a bad dream.  Today I’ve had to ward off accusing thoughts and misconceptions of relationships and myself.  My mind is a constant battlefield in need of rest.  I’ve been trying to escape the reality I live in, but it’s impossible.

I am here. I exist. I am made with a purpose in mind.  There is hope.  He is coming for me.

I’ve found knowing Christ and why He came is my only hope.  Finding my purpose in Him is the only way life brings me joy in living everyday.

I’ve come to the conclusion knowing Christ is the only way life is beautiful no matter the difficult circumstances.

I refuse to let the brokenness of the world and my heart direct how I live and react.  Yes, the wounds of the world are festering.  Yes, sometimes life’s storms are unbelievably harsh.  And if I choose to focus on that my actions and words will not display the hope and joy I know and I believe.

I believe that God has and is in the process of redeeming all things to Himself. I believe He has brought us new life.  I believe He loves us and wants to be in relationship with us.  I believe He wants to heal us of our brokenness if we will let Him.

The joy and hope of Jesus is bigger than those temporary fears and hurts I feel.  His love is more powerful than death itself.  Although my hearts breaks for the hell around me, I firmly know I need to remain steadfast in sharing the good news of hope and reconciliation through my life.  Because if I do not, who will?  If I don’t live as though I believe, who will?

I’m very thankful for what the Father is teaching me.  I’m learning who He is, how he acts, what He thinks about me, what He thinks of relationships, how redemption in all parts of my life looks.

My heart longs to be back home in paradise, but for now, I gotta keep reminding myself: Long suffering with joy……

Longsuffering. with. joy.

Colossians 1:11 (NKJV)

Strengthened in all might according to His glorious power. For all patience and longsuffering with joy.

Separation Forever

Think about the hellish things that take place on this earth we live through and endure everyday.  Then, ask yourself, “Is this place, someplace I could endure forever?”  Tell yourself your answer.

In this state of being, on this earth, temporarily, we are separated from our Maker because of the first choice we human creations decided: that God-our-Maker did not have our best interest in mind and we wanted to do life our way, not His. At that moment pride and power of control entered our hearts; hence the hellish separation we suffer as a consequence; Now, image enduring that separation forever.  Hell.

It’s a real place.  And I promise friends that destination is a choice of ours. If you do not know God and why he sent his son, the Savior Jesus, ask whatever questions it takes to find out who he is! The answer you choose will determine where the spirit within you will reside forever.

A condition does not need to be visible for it to be real. Nor does your belief or disbelief in that condition dismiss the actual truth of its existence, understanding it or not.

I say all of this because I feel strongly most of us would choose the place of life and no more sorrows to be forever. There is a hope we can find joy in no matter how anguished we feel.  Our misery is only temporary and small in measure compared to eternal misery.

There are questions I do not have answers to and explanations I do not understand. No matter how many tears I cry and how much pain I feel, I can’t dismiss this truth.

Hello world!

 

Very excited for the kick off of this blog adventure. I just know fruit will be produced from this labor.  Well. Here we go, the transparency of my being begins….here’s my heart.