Godgrown

Updates from April, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 11:12 am on April 3, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Things We all Know 

  Babies are amazing.  They teach us so much about our relationship with God.

  Take for instance, the bonding between a new-born infant and her mother.  A new born’s eyes are not fully developed when they’re first born; they can only see clearly about 12 inches away – everything else is blurry.  Interestingly, that is the distance an infant is away from her mother during breastfeeding.  There is an eye-to-eye connection - a deep love with the one person she can see clearly. This, combined with rooting, an instinct that connects the baby with the one person who can provide for her. Sounds a lot like prayer! Sounds a lot like what God wants for us in our intimate relationship with him, yes?

  It gets even more interesting.

  Babies, within just an hour from birth, already have latent in them the ability to walk. YES – walk.  Hold them up and lightly brush their feet across a flat surface, and they’ll begin to stride forward.  (Funny, they lose the ability to make this movement at about 6 months because of weight and muscle development, but if you half-submerge them in water, they’ll walk just the same.)  We are born as the only bi-pedal mammals; making us much more efficient for long journeys.  God created our bodies for a journey. Our movements are always moving us forward (our knees don’t bend sideways or backwards).

  Mission…journey…intimacy…these things are built right into the fabric of what it means to be human.

  God created us to find him.  We are specifically designed from Day 1 to give us as many chances to connect as possible.  ”Seek the Lord while he can be found.” Isaiah 55:6

  And for those of us who are no longer able to claim the “new born” restaurant discount let this be a lesson for us.  May the instincts and impulses integrated into the fabric of a baby be our instincts with God. An infant, who know nothing of this strange new world he finds himself in – still knows the sound of his mother’s voice, knows who to trust, knows when to cry and who alone can silence his fears.  May this be a moment when we remember that “our feet were made for walking…” – and like a sheep after our shepherd, “…that’s just what they’ll do!”

  
   

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  Mark 12:29 pm on January 27, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Disowned by Your Dad, Owned by Your Father 

  I don’t know the relationship you have with your father, but if you are like many across this great big world, it may have its rocky points.  Maybe you were even traumatically abused, or disowned by your dad.  There’s little that can do more damage to a young boy or girl than to have a broken, immature dad in the household… but possibly worse is not having one in the house at all…

  63:16 Surely you are still our Father!

  Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us,

  Lord, you would still be our Father.

  You are our Redeemer from ages past.

  Much of what you see in God, for better or worse, you originally got from your dad.  Even Jesus Christ, the very image of God, called the LORD his “Father” – Abba his word for “Papa.”  This kind of intimacy was scandalous in Jesus’ day – but as one who’s earthly dad was suspiciously absent, Jesus understood that God was to be his father now.

  Were was Jesus’ dad, Joseph?  After such a display of faith at Jesus’ conception and birth, he is never mentioned as Jesus enters adulthood.  Was he killed in a masonry accident?  Could he have abandoned the family?  Whatever the case, he was not there when Jesus was at his most crucial moments (his baptism, his temptations in the desert, his crucifixion…the list goes on and on.)

  A young man wants a mentor, a father to show him the way – to point out the path he should go in this life.  But truth be told, we have a lot of men in this world, and in the church who’d rather wallow in isolation, immaturity or passivity; and refuse the gift of fatherhood they’ve been given by God.

  Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing, and even with the absence of his earthly dad, he moved beyond the earthly example of fatherhood and pursued intimacy, and mentoring from his heavenly Father.

  Papa God wants this for each of his children – for you and me.  In an age where fatherhood has lost the vitality and the adventure and the abiding love it must have to create healthy, maturing people – God is ready to offer you that kind of relationship.

  Being disowned by your earthly father is not the end. Let it be what propels you into the arms of Papa God who is ready to train you as his son or daughter.

  What does being ‘fathered by God’ look like?

  You will be given his characteristics!

  First off, you may have to learn God’s capability to forgive - starting with your earthly father. He is still fighting through things himself, and will need your forgiveness.  But after that, only God knows where he’ll take you.  One thing is for sure – you will be given increasing maturity and capacity that only God has to handle the inevitable wounds of life, and the attacks of the Evil One.  You will charge out with God on mission – you will be given a new name, a new identity – sons and daughters of the King!

  All this – through God’s grace.  Thank you, Father.

  

  Mark W, and Sean Durbin are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Sean Durbin 7:19 pm on January 27, 2011 Permalink

    Mark, there is so much good stuff from the LORD in this writing. One of the ways I can tell if someone is bringing up a principle that is of God is when the Spirit brings a scripture to my mind. This is the scripture He brought to me while and after reading your blog:Galatians 4″And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” LOVE IT. ad maiorem Dei gloriam

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    Mark W 3:42 pm on January 28, 2011 Permalink

    We have been adopted into God’s household! This means we live under a new kind of leadership – and we are given a new name (see the previous post “You are Whose You are”.) I want there to be an awakening across our nation – those that call themselves children of God – to begin to understand what that changes about how they actually live!

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  Mark 8:27 am on January 13, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  God in the Dark 

  I have a favorite memory of heading out to the south Texas badlands – near Big Bend National Park for a little bit of camping.  This place is like a moonscape – it is desolate and dry.  Scrags and shrubbery are all that can survive out there…well, if you don’t count the wildlife.

  After an amazing day in our new ecosystem, we watched the sun set on the Texas horizon, then lit a little campfire and watched the long shadows dance along the ground.  The ground was dry and flat where we were stationed, so we decided to ditch the tents and sleep under the stars.

  …Ahhh… I stretch out and lay on top of my sleeping bag.  Totally exposed to the elements – and I won’t say it didn’t bother me that we had to take out a few scorpions before settling in for the night.

  What we didn’t count on was all the animal sounds we’d hear throughout the night.  Even before the fire had gone out, we began to hear twigs breaking, rustling near the trees to the south of us, howls in the distance.

  Maybe you’ve had the experience.  All of a sudden you sense your campfire has become like a billboard for a butcher shop, “Fresh meat!”  It also traps you – your eyes are not adjusted and able to see out into the darkness – but oh, the darkness can see you just fine.

  There are two ways to walk through life:

  1. Walk in the dark, but trusting and relying on God who will save you.
  2. Light your own fires, seeking out whatever you can on your own.

  God’s eyes are adjusted to the dark.  He can see things we’ll have no chance at seeing, and has a strength we’ll never have to keep us safe from harm.  But many of us want to do it our way; we want the warmth and comfort to come from something of ourselves – we build ourselves a fire.  In our pursuit of light and warmth we announce to the darkness “Fresh meat!” giving away our location.  The pursuit of life, wisdom, or meaning without God leading the way invites Pride, Contempt, and ultimately Destruction.

  I’m asking you to learn as much as you can in this life, but do it while knowing the first and most basic thing of life – that you are created, you are loved, you are built for something important.  Starting from any other place is like setting off fireworks in guerrilla warfare.

  10 Who among you fears the Lord

  and obeys his servant?

  If you are walking in darkness,

  without a ray of light,

  trust in the Lord

  and rely on your God.

  11 But watch out, you who live in your own light

  and warm yourselves by your own fires.

  This is the reward you will receive from me:

  You will soon fall down in great torment.