The Better Part, week #13

 

This week's FB posts- and thanks for all the comments on these!

The Better Part, Day #81:

 

1Co 3:21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,

1Co 3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all are yours,

1Co 3:23 and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. 

 

Today I heard Charles Stanley in tears, describing how, even though he'd read this verse so many times, he had had to get on his knees and ask Jesus to show him what it truly meant. What great truth brings such a veteran man of God to tears? That is between him and Jesus; for me, it was the thought that a man so long in the ministry STILL finds the treasures in God's Word so precious. What it meant might help me to knowledge, but those tears brought me to praise.

 

 

The Better part, Day #82:

 

Rev 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." 

 

In the midst of my afternoon prayer for refreshing, how is this for a refreshing thought? You're in heaven, and a friend says, "Hey, remember when?" And you look at them and smile, and answer, "No... I really don't!"

 

 

The Better Part, day #83:

 

Mat 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

There are days, and places, where you hear this and you think, "Wait a minute, does this mean everything gets easy when you become a Christian?" And no, else He wouldn't have also said, "In this world, you will have tribulations..." This is a promise for heaven; BUT... once saved, we are in the heavenlies, as Paul said. Which means, avoiding temporal mechanics, we are already seated with Jesus, and we are experiencing the lightened yoke. And, if we have that knowledge in hand, we have a bit of that lightness already, even in the heaviness of what we term "here and now".

 

 

The Better part, day #84:

 

Confession time: Last night, I took care of too many other things first and didn't get around to a post.l It had been a long day, and what I thought I'd post about was buried in my mind, and being to lazy to put it to thought, I told myself, "Even the Pastors we listen to have reruns once in a while."

Their excuse: They are cutting them from Sunday sermons in front of their congregations. I just have to find something to treasure in God's Word every day. In other words, I was full of it. I WILL be doing better. Some nights I will have a good reason- last night was not it. Remind me tomorrow, I need to tell the Chicken Wire story.

 

 

The Better Part, Day#85:

 

So yesterday Charles Stanley was talking about how sin attacks best when you're in HALT- hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. In the course of talking defense against this, he said something that hit me 'twixt the eyes:

 

"...and if you aren't daily seeking God's Word, you're not building a wall, you're making chicken wire."

 

And that so applies to me. I (not I, but God) have built a solid chicken coop, with battlements and walls thick enough to fend off all but direct strikes from a nuke (exaggerating for contrast), but there is one door, which one fox knows how to get in, that's made of chicken wire. And my own best efforts at security have only put a hook-and-loop lock on it. Lord, I need you to put a proper door there. Certain parts of me are unwilling to do it, because it reminds me of the 'old days' and the fox is a cute little fellow whose robbing me blind. I cannot count on me.

 

 

The Better Part, Day #86:

 

1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, to which you are also called and have professed a good profession before many witnesses. 

 

When I struggle, when I want to fall, let this remind me. I have a claim through Christ of eternal life, I have a calling, and my witness ripples out to others.