Did you know there are 11.944 billion Google searches performed every month? Just think about that for a second. In that second that just passed there were 4,545 searches…and each second that passes…it doesn’t stop…and it’s growing!! We ask Google every question you can imagine. And so many more that we can’t imagine. From the good (new and expecting parents’ searches increase by 2.7%!) to the questionable (Ever looked at the auto-complete suggestions…who’s searching for THAT??), people are unafraid of asking an anonymous computer (I know, I know…) the most intimate of questions. Do we bring the same sort of un-guardedness to God? David says in Psalm 139,“I’m an open book to you…You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence.” How about that? Here’s the beautiful thing: He’s not just for searching; He’s for finding.
Seasons Don’t Stay the Same
Everybody loves to love Fall. Me included. It makes it even more romantic to call it Autumn like my British friends. It’s beautiful and cozy and who doesn’t love all things pumpkin? Sign me up. As a matter of fact could I just snapshot a beautiful Fall day in New York City: clear, blue sky, temps in the upper 50s/lower 60s, Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks. How many people have I heard say, “I wish everyday was like this!”
But, as soon as I say that the Winter comes. Snow, then bitter cold. Then the amazingness of Spring, and then the fun and heat of Summer. Seasons don’t stay the same and neither do I. God’s love and His nature stay the same but His plans, purposes, and Spirit and always on the move. As soon as I decide to get comfortable God has to wake me up and tell me it’s time to go. And that’s okay.
It’s good. It’s wonderful.
He is doing a new thing the ancient prophets say. They saw it then and implore me to see it today. Can you see it? Can I see it? Here comes the next season and all its glories. And then, before I know it, it’s time for the next one. It may be harder than I expect, but I can be sure that God is there. The Holy Spirit in the midst making changes and doing things I haven’t even had the capacity to dream yet.
There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 MSG)
Photo: Some rights reserved by OakleyOriginals
Go Public
This passage of Scripture begins with the phrase, “Let me tell you why you are here.” Man, that’s what everybody’s looking for…I know I am. Here it is. When you become a part of the Body of Jesus, when you enter His kingdom you become a light. Bringing out God all around you. Some will be so grateful to you, some will probably be mad. That’s not your focus. Just be the light. Shine His light. Go public!
Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16 MSG)
Photo by David Heinlein
Love Like That
Oh man…this captivated me this morning. So beautiful, so powerful…love EXACTLY LIKE HIM! Not cautious but extravagant. So awesome.
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG)
Photo by David Heinlein
Proper Place
Life: Chaotic. Crazy. Tumultuous. Full. Disorganized. Thick.
In worship, though, things begin to take their place. They find their proper place. When I place Jesus first – at the head – then all the other parts of me and my life find the place they were looking for. They say a collective, “Ahhhh, that’s it.” My heart says, “That’s what I was looking for.”
Jesus: Peace. Clarity. Hope. Things are looking up. Finally.
Colossians 1:15-20
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
Photo by David Heinlein
Makes Our Hearts Sing
“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.” – Steve Jobs at the iPad 2 event 3-2-11
It struck me that he used the phrase “makes our hearts sing.” This is such spiritual language. This is, I believe, the cry of the human heart. That there would be a song in our heart. It’s even interesting that so many other bloggers, etc. have picked this up and stated using it.
I love that the Scripture speaks about this:
…speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord… -Ephesians 5:19
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD. -Psalm 40:3
The Lord is the one who gives us the song in our heart…the more I seek Him the more melody I get.