He Is - Part Three

Final piece of He Is...
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He is OVER all things, IN all things, and THROUGH all things. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – ONE, EQUAL, yet distinctly different. ALL with the same purpose. ALL with the same goal. ALL fully submitting to one another as they pursue us in perfect unity.

He is a mystery. He is child-like in His simplicity, yet indescribably complex. The only term which can adequately describe who He is, is “The I AM”. Too big to contain. Too wide to span. Too high to ascend. Too deep to understand.

He has left His mark in every cell, every DNA molecule, and every ray of light. He is in every drop of blood, every tear, and even in the “dark space” we cannot see, feel, taste, or measure.

This is who we seek. He is who we need to ask. We should be knocking on His door. For He is the One who finds, answers, and welcomes our hearts in the way we were designed to receive.

Yet, we ignore His advances. We turn a deaf ear to His call. We turn our back on His attempts to draw us close. We treat Him as if He was the cause of all our pain, suffering, betrayal, and sin.

We compartmentalize Him and stuff Him into a drawer until Sunday morning. Or we shift our schedule and take Him out on Saturday night so we can have Sundays all to ourselves. We read about Him, hear His Word, learn His story yet we remain unmoved. We cling to our lives, our comfort, and our security as if it was our own power and strength which brought it to life.

We miss Him even though He is present in everything. We believe in ourselves even though we know how imperfect we are. We focus so intently on ourselves, our circumstances, our desires, and our pain that we can’t see Jesus right smack in the middle of all of it.

Seek Him - don't miss Jesus one more moment. Ask Him - and listen for His response until you hear. Love Him - even if you aren't sure how. Trust Him - even when you are afraid.

He is there. He is speaking. He is loving. He is trustworthy. He is.

He Is - Part Two

Continuation from He Is Part One...
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He is as unique as each person, yet as predictable as the sun set. He is big as the universe, yet small as a quark.

All creation groans to be with Him again as they once were in the garden. ALL creation. He is outside of time and space. Neither has any hold on Him. He is neither form nor matter but can be if He so chooses in whatever form He chooses to take on.

He knows what you want before you do. He knows what will bring you the greatest joy before you even know what joy is. He knows you better than you will ever know yourself. He sees everything even in the darkest reaches of your mind, heart, soul, and strength. He has never asked for our perfection – He knows that is impossible outside of His Son.

He has only asked for our passionate pursuit of HIS perfection which He offers freely to us at no cost. He knew what His perfection would cost Him, yet He still paid in full. He set us up for complete victory and offers it freely as a gift for anyone who would take it. All He asks is that we take it.

He also knew that outside of the garden, it would be very difficult for us to fully trust Him and see Him as the all-powerful, perfectly loving being He is. He knew that we would listen to voices other than His own and struggle finding our way to Him. So compelled by His great longing for us – He pursues His children with the passion of a Latin lover, wooing us, and persistently, relentlessly chasing us, calling to us to the ends of the earth if needed. He knows who will ultimately choose Him, using the free-will He gave, and those who will never choose Him regardless of what He does to prove His love for them.

He speaks. He pursues. He knows. He loves. He is love. HE IS.

He Is - Part One

This last weekend I went on my annual, "Wander in the Wilderness with God". My family graciously allows me three days in the "wilderness" to be in quiet and solitude with God to simply hang out. Inevitably, God gives me such a downpour of love I can hardly contain it (See Teacup in the Monsoon from last August). This time was no different. I wanted to share one of the lines of thought that came to me in the wilderness. This is part one of a several part series.
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I want you to be challenged and challenged often. You should be often confused, perplexed, and sometimes annoyed by God as you try to navigate through this life as a Christ-follower. Thoughts of Him and His way should wake you up some nights as you grapple with surrendering your own will to Him. You should read stuff which completely up-ends your common belief system. You should doubt often, search for answers, and not find them.

If you aren’t wrestling with God to some extent you aren’t following Him. If you are completely challenged and caught off-guard by Him, then you aren’t obeying Him. If you aren’t absolutely ruined for the confines of this world and longing for more of Him, then you aren’t living the abundant life He promises.

God isn’t a pleasant conversation over a nice cup of tea in a casual coffee house – although He can be. His presence fills a mountain, shakes the very earth, and will disintegrate your flesh if you come to close.

God isn’t a laser light filled sanctuary with really cool music with a smoking horn section – although He can be if He chooses. He is a still small voice which causes you crumple to your knees exclaiming, “What a wretched, wretched sinner I am! I am unworthy to tie your sandals.”

God isn’t a feel-good movie which leaves you loving the world. God is a man, born in a barn, working his fingers to the bone, ridiculed, cursed, tested, rejected, betrayed, abandoned, tortured, and killed for the very people who nailed Him to a tree.

God isn’t a nice, neat activity you can check off your to-do list. He is every “thing”. He is over all, in all, and through all. He is.

God is bigger than you think He is. He cannot be contained. He speaks to everyone a little differently; through a bush, in a tabernacle, through a cloud of smoke hovering at the top of a mountain, in a rainstorm, in a dream, as a man sitting down to eat supper with you and your wife, in an earthquake, in a still small whisper, through a mistake, through another person’s mouth, through their trials, in a story you read about people you’ve never met, through a movie or book, through angels, through a booming voice and a descending dove, through a man who calls to you and says, “follow me”, or when He says, “Father forgive them for they no not what they do”, in the laughter of a child, or through the rush of wind in the trees, to the call of a humpback whale, in the symphony of sounds in the rain forest, or the deafening silence above tree-line on a mountain top, He speaks.

He moves. He compels. He welcomes. He convicts. He challenges. He nudges. He reveals. He restores. He heals. He destroys. He resurrects. HE IS...