A Loyal Spirit

Matthew 6  "don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing"

            How unnoticeable are my offerings?  What is my focus when I pray, give, spend, talk, serve?

If I am unsatisfied unless others notice my offering, I have really set it before myself to worship myself.  If I need others to appreciate my spirituality, service, wisdom, humility, generosity, giftedness and such then my gift is not an offering to God at all but to myself.

"Watch out!"    ....for what?

  Pride in myself.  Self-focus in what I do.  Self-centeredness in how I live.  "Doing" to somehow prove/earn my worth to others, myself, God.

"The true character of the loveliness that tells for God is always unconscious...if it is conscious it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus."  -Oswald Chambers

Can I give without calling notice?

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me.
 

Hiding

 

Yesterday was a "go through the dresser drawers" day for Brandon.  Unburying winter clothing outgrown months ago; trying on last year's summer clothes to see what still works and realizing nothing does.  He's grown so much since last summer that he's two sizes larger than any of the outgrown stuff.  It was comical to see him come out from changing in his room, squeezed into clothes that were oh so small.

 

There was something else interesting found during the course of this drawer digging.  Wrappers.  Just a few little cellophane candy wrappers shoved underneath the too small clothes.   We already knew he had candy from a treat bag gotten at school so why hide the wrappings?  Did he think the candy was unknown or that we would not find the wrappers?  Oh yes, I do believe I see some of my own tendencies here.

 

Genesis 3:8,9  ...the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden.  So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.  Then the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

 

God created me for an eternal love relationship with Him.  So why do I try to hide my raw struggles and sins from Him?  Sometimes it isn't blatant; just not really acknowledging them to Him. I stuff the worst of them down under the too small clothes of control.  Do I  think somehow that if I don't throw them outright into the trashcan, then maybe they will go unnoticed?  

 

I think the reason I hide struggles and sins from God must be the same reason I sometimes get "too busy" to be alone with Him or to focus when I am alone with Him.  I think it is the same reason Adam and Eve hid after their sin so long ago.  I am ashamed; ashamed that He might tell me I am not following Him as I should.  I am afraid of what He might ask to me and of me.  I am stubborn and really just want to do what I want to do.

 

Hebrews 7:24,25 ...because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.  Therefore he is able, once and forever to save completely those who come to God through him.  He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

 

God calls to me with His faithful love, "Where are you?"  Why am I hiding instead of going to meet Him when I hear Him all around me and He is waiting for me?  There is no room for hiding when Jesus has once and forever saved me completely.  I need to give away control, come out from hiding, openly throw my trash away and walk toward eternity with my God who sees me, knows me and loves me. 

My Own Understanding

John 15:4  "Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me."

So many times I want to do something significant for God.  So many times I initiate what I think is a good plan.  So many times I follow God in what I know He wants me to do then get sidetracked as I try to manage, expand upon, adjust, assume, and work out on my own terms what is His.

 

Blackaby and King, in their book Experiencing God, say,"God is not our servant to bless our plans and desires.  He is our Lord, and we must adjust our lives to what He is doing and to the ways He chooses to accomplish His work."

 

Proverbs 3:5,6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

 

God  will not bless what it is I want to do for Him no matter how "godly" sounding my plans are.  He will however, bless His plans carried out through me as I seek Him, obey Him, listen to Him, and submit to Him.

Your plans Lord.  Your way Lord.  Your time Lord. 

Stars

 

Monday night is Joel's night to throw logs into the wood boiler that heats Miracle Lodge, camps main building.  It is a five minute job as long as the fire is still going well.  The maintenance staff does this job early each morning around 6:30 and again in the afternoon at about 2:30.  The 10:30 nights have then been assigned out to various non-maintenance staff persons with Joel having this duty on Mondays.

 

The boiler system was installed this past summer by volunteers as an alternative to burning fuel oil which is much more costly.  Right now we are burning birch trees brought up from The Valley. It took, all the guys pitching in, two days to cut the semi-truck long trunks to boiler length and then split them if they were too big in diameter to fit through the boiler door. 

 

 So last night, Joel and I walked up so he could stuff in some logs.  It was a clear night but dark since the moon was not up so Joel used a flashlight to illuminate our way on the snow-packed road.  The wind was cool, our snow pants swishy, and the snow very crunchy under our boots.  It was a great night for a walk. We chit-chatted all the way up, pausing just a bit to go around a section of road where ice is building.  Once up at the little boiler building, smoke still wafting from the chimney, I watched as Joel fed in large sections of birch.  Two were still so big they wouldn't fit through the door and he heaved them aside.  With the boiler as full as it could get, Joel closed it up, turned off the light and latched the building door. 

 

The smell of smoke was still lingering on us as we started our walk back down the road to home.  The lights surrounding the lodge were bright and Joel did not turn the flashlight on.   As we rounded the tight corner at Alpine Camp all light was suddenly gone.  It was dark.  Joel quickly turned on the flashlight until we looked up and saw the stars.  He shut the flashlight off and we stood there for a long time amazed.  There were tens of thousands of stars, some as small as dust that must be millions of miles away, one much brighter than the others that stood out so much it must be a planet, clear patterns of them that must be constellations we wished we knew the names of, one that blinked every ten seconds or so that must be a satellite.  The longer we stood, the more stars we could see. It was crazy the shear number of them.  It was beautiful. 

 

We finally started walking again.  This time in the dark holding each other's gloved hand.

 

Isaiah 48:12,13  "I alone am God, the First and the Last.  It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand that spread out the heavens above.  When I call out the stars, they all appear in order."

The Place of Quiet Rest

 

Isaiah 28:12  God has told his people, "Here is a place of rest; let the weary rest here.  This is a place of quiet rest."  But they would not listen.

 

Matthew 11:28  Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for you souls."

 

Hebrews 4:6,7  So God's rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.  So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today...

"Today, when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts."

 

 

A Walk to Muddy Creek

I walked up the trail to Muddy Creek this morning.  It was 9:45am and just light outside.  The light was soft,  new snow was falling, and at 20 degrees who could pass up such a beautiful morning.

I don't venture up the Muddy Creek Trail alone at other times of the year. The creek is loud and I've seen too many bear tracks. It would be a fearful thing to accidentally come across one lounging in the creek because it didn't hear me approaching. This time of year however, the bear are all having a lovely siesta and I like to take advantage of it.

I got to the trail head and found that the previously snow-packed path (thanks to snow machine traffic), this morning was soft with new snow.  As I journeyed up, it was more like climbing a West Michigan sand dune than traipsing up an Alaska trail and my legs felt sluggish.

It was a quiet walk except for a few birds chirping, heard but unseen, probably the Chickadees and Magpies that stick around through the winter.  As I finally came to the top of the hill and neared the creek, I suddenly stepped in slush.  "That's odd," I thought as I kept walking, a bit more carefully now.  Then I almost lost my balance as my slushy wet boot hit ice under the snow.  Now walking even more cautiously, I arrived at the creek's edge which had once again become slush.

Muddy Creek was frozen over and stangely heaved up across the popular crossing section.  It looked like a small frozen dam.  I wasn't sure if the creek's running water underneath found it easier to flow down part of the path than down the creek itself because of the dam or if water from under the ground was being forced up as it has been in many other areas around here this winter.  More than likely some of both was going on.   

The ever changing scenery is one of the things I love about Alaska. You can find new things in old places.  God's power and creative beauty are so clearly seen.  The ordinary is amazingly extraordinary when I take the time to look around.

The Struggle

 

The king of Assyria had captured Samaria.  He exiled the people of Israel and then replaced them by transporting groups of his own people to resettle the towns of Samaria.  After the LORD sent lions to kill some of the new residents, the king commanded one of the exiled priests of God to return to Samaria to live there and teach them how to worship the LORD.

 

 Kings 17:32-34,41   These new residents worshiped the LORD...And though they worshiped the LORD, they continued to follow their own gods according to the religious customs of the nations from which they came.

And this is still going on today.  They continue to follow their former practices instead of truly worshiping the LORD and obeying the decrees, regulations, instructions, and commands he gave the descendants of Jacob, whose name he changed to Israel.

...to this day their descendants do the same.

 

Genesis 32:28  "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

 

How much am I still a person who "struggles with God and with men?"  Do I follow God partially but also follow my own desires instead of truly worshiping the LORD and obeying Him completely?

 

Romans 7: 24,25  "Oh, what a miserable person I am!  Who will free me from this life that is dominated be sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord."