greater than pain ...

Good Morning!

I pray your day is off to a great start. Once I post this message, I will be off and running.
Interesting thing is ... this post has been in DRAFT for SIX YEARS!

So what is this message that took six years to publish?

There is a love which is greater than pain ...

As I sat in my living room yesterday, suddenly I was overwhelmed with this thought. There is a love which recognizes that offenses are a part of life. After all, Jesus Himself said, 'it is impossible but that offenses will come' (Lk. 17:1). The God of 'all things possible' said it is impossible to be in this earth without circumstances of offense coming our way: husbands and wives, children and parents, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors.

Inevitably, there will come a moment in every relationship where someone will do something, or you will do something that will cause a 'rift' in the relationship. I have experienced deep hurts at the hands of a child, a love, a spouse (-ex), a sibling, a church member, a co-worker and a stranger.

YET -
I have finally reached a place where I realize that my love is greater than the pain. My desire for continued fellowship is greater than my need to be right, my need to receive vindication, my need for an apology and greater than the pain that was inflicted. It is not to say that the hurt was not real - but the love ushers in a greater reality. The LORD is teaching me to love others and to love Him beyond what my flesh might desire.

THAT BEING SAID - 
I am fully committed to living a  life that please God
Even if it means living a life that is not pleasing to me

NOW - 
Some will take that statement at face value (and entirely out of context) and leap to the conclusion that it is the declaration of someone who has much maturing to do in Christ.
And they might be correct on some level.

HOWEVER - 
I am honest enough to recognize that not everything that is pleasing in the Father's sight is pleasing [enjoyable, comfortable and pleasurable] to me ... at least not immediately.

While it is pleasing to me to please God, it is not always pleasing to me the situations and circumstances that He will allow in order to accommodate my living that life.

LOVE THAT IS GREATER THAN PAIN
LOVING BEYOND WHAT THE FLESH DESIRES
I am so thankful the LORD is teaching me to love Him, love others and love life in this way

SIX YEARS IN DRAFT ... 
Sometimes it takes that long to grow and mature into the word the LORD gives you

Have a Blessed Day!

HE AIN'T MAD!

Now - before I say anything else

Please allow me to apologize

I know ‘ain’t’ is not proper grammar 

And grammar is a HUGE thing in my house

YET – sometimes, there is no other way to aptly communicate what you would like to say; there is no other way to fully capture what I hope to convey

SO – with that being said …

Good Morning!

I pray your day, your weekend and your November are all off to a great start

Last week this time, I was attending day two of our Womanhood Redefined 2018 Women’s Conference. During that conference, we had several amazing speakers. Among them was Kim Dailey from Calvary Church in Irving Texas.  She shared such an honest, touching and relatable message. It was powerful! 

During this talk she quoted sections of scripture found in Psalm 18.

You see verses 7-15 note the fury of God, the smoke from His nostrils, fire from His mouth, hailstones and lightning & thundering from heaven ... just to name a few descriptors

‘He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy’ Ps. 18:14

But then the speaker focused on verses 16-19 which note how God rescued the psalmist.

‘He brought me out into a spacious place;

He rescued me because He delighted in me.’ Ps. 18:19

He was mad at sin, and at the enemy 

But He DELIGHTED in the psalmist!

When I went back to read for myself [and you should always go back to read for yourself],

I noticed something else...

Further down in the text, the psalmist recalls how he has kept the laws of the LORD, how he is blameless and has kept his feet from sin

INTERESTING - 

I have no doubt that the psalmist was sincere in his self-assessment and communication

HOWEVER - 

The perspective of the psalmist may require some adjustment or tweaking 

THE DILEMMA IS THIS:

Many people gauge their goodness by their adherence to all or most of the Ten Commandments 

YET WE KNOW FROM SCRIPTURE:

There are NONE who are good (Romans 3:10)

ALL have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

Those Ten Commandments: I have violated most of them

BUT STILL HE RESCUES ME

AND STILL HE LOVES ME …

WHO DOES THAT?

There is this song from a group called Sidewalk Prophets – You Love Me Anyway

The lyrics are genius and there is one section which perfectly captures the plight of the sinner. 

BUT HE LOVED US ANYWAY 

HE LOVES US ANYWAY 

There is a section in Psalm 18 where the psalmist notes:

‘To the faithful you show yourself faithful,

To the blameless you show yourself blameless,

To the pure you show yourself pure’

Yet the truth of the matter is:

To the unfaithful - He shows Himself FAITHFUL

To those deserving blame - He presents blamelessness

To the impure - He shows Himself pure, holy, merciful and LOVING

HE DELIGHTS IN HIS CREATION!

BUT WHY?

Why does He delight in me?

It is not because of anything I have done or any special skill that I possess

When He looks at me, He is reminded of the redemptive price which was paid

HE SEES JESUS

When He gazes into my eyes, He recognizes a reflection of Himself, the Helper who has consented to dwell within me

HE SEES HIS HOLY SPIRIT

He AIN’T MAD!!!

He loves you with an EVERLASTING LOVE 

He loves us - all of us - with an EVERLASTING LOVE 

Meditate on that for a while.

Let it truly sink in how great, how vast and how deep the love is that God has for us

Simply Amazing!

Have a Blessed Day and an Amazing Weekend!