Godgrown

Updates from January, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 7:56 am on January 27, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  You are Whose You are 

  Someone else gave you your name.  Think about that for a moment.

  Among the items that make up the most central part of your identity, of who you are in this world – your name might be at the top of the list.  Who are you without your name?  And yet – you had nothing to do with the name; it was given to you.

  At your center – you are not own; you are whose you are.

  Naming someone is a tremendous privilege, and must be seen as one of the most holy things a person can do.  Hopefully the one who named you followed up with a relationship of intimacy, care and commitment.  All too often, those who were rejected by the one who named them have at their core a “missing piece” – their name becomes Rejection, Absence, Abandonment.

  And even more so in Isaiah’s day, given names told folks something about who you were at your core, what your personality was like, and maybe even what your mission or role was in society.

  So when God starts giving out new names to the Jews that returned to Judea from exile, he’s marking it as important as him giving birth to a brand new identity.  Yahweh looks right into the eyes of the Jewish remnant and boldly proclaims,

  62:4 Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City”

  or “The Desolate Land.”

  Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight”

  and “The Bride of God,”

  for the Lord delights in you

  and will claim you as his bride.

  What is your name?  Who gave you that name?  What is your relationship with them like today?

  Does the statement you are whose you are bring dread or delight to your heart?

  Many followers of Jesus have a retreat where they head out on their own for a few days to listen to God and discover their true, “spiritual” name. It is a weekend to discover the name God gave you – a time to reorient your core identity as coming out of intimacy with Papa God.

  May you find the name you’ve been given by God, and live under his delight!

  
   

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  Mark 12:09 pm on January 11, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Truly Hearing God is Doing Something About It 

  Just because God speaks doesn’t mean you’ll be able to hear him.

  In reading over Isaiah 48, I was reminded that in Hebrew, there is no distinction between listening and obeying.  There is no way to simply listen to something without responding.  If you listened to someone, and didn’t do anything about what you heard, you didn’t actually hear anything.  You were deaf.  You could either obey or disagree, but you couldn’t simply brush it off without a response.

  18 Oh, that you had listened to my commands!

  Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river

  and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.

  This echoes true in the Jews’ response to the words of God – God was speaking, but they didn’t “hear” him, meaning they didn’t do anything in response to God’s voice.

  This also rings true in the way Jesus spoke of his disciples’ relationship with Father God.  ”My disciples are those who hear my words and put them into practice…”

  This is a noticeably missing piece to the prayer of Christians in the West.  Few Christians pray…or at least, no more prayer than the occasional “Help me get through this, God, and I promise, I’ll call more often!”  And even fewer Christians listen for God’s voice in prayer – something I’m becoming more and more convinced is essential in a healthy relationships with God, and the starting point to any significant mission on earth.

  But even if you do pray, and you do listen for God’s voice, how often do you actually put what you hear into practice?  Might God’s silence in your prayers this morning be because you did not listen to what he had to say yesterday? Think about the last thing you DID hear him say, and go out and be obedient to that.  It may just get the two of you talking again…

  Hearing and doing…for the Hebrew-speaking Jews, these two ideas were inseparable.  If only we could recapture a fraction of this conviction again today…

  
   
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  Mark 12:38 pm on December 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Running Ahead of God 

  Can running ahead of God be the same as running away from God?

  You have a powerful moment in prayer – and you quickly respond to what you think he was telling you to do.  Before long, you feel as if you know exactly where God plans to take you, and you run on ahead to show him how much you can do for him.  You start projects, you lead teams, you make it happen.  But then it comes – disaster.  You’re knee deep in complexity and you look behind you for help – but you realize how fast and how far off you ran.  Now you have no idea where God is and you can’t remember what it feels like to be directed by God…

  Sometimes the first thing God wants to say to you in prayer is not the only thing he plans to say – learn to wait until he is finished speaking before heading out to get the first thing done.  Learning to follow him step by step will keep you in step with him.

  Isaiah 30:1,2 mentions the alliances Israel makes that were not directed by God’s Spirit.

  But people willing to listen to the voice of God rather than running out looking for quick solutions will “hear a voice behind them” telling them at every turn whether to go right or left.  30:21 It is those people whom the LORD will “bless at harvest time, have plenty of food and overflowing mountain streams, the sun will shine SEVEN TIMES brighter, and the LORD will begin to heal his people.” v26

  That’s what its like to listen to God and do what he says – it doesn’t mean you’ll be fat n’ happy with Yahweh’s Favorite Things – but constant, daily listening to God changes how you see and engage the world – and it will make the sun ever shine out the clearer; the simple food on your table will taste of thankfulness and joy, and you will never be left alone.  It is the “abundant life” Jesus would later talk about.  Not necessarily a full-bank account, (in fact – maybe the opposite) but a full heart – ever expectant to what God will share with you next.

  

  angela, and Acid 9 are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Acid 9 2:12 pm on December 17, 2010 Permalink

    Thanks bro. Needed to hear that today.

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    angela 7:44 pm on December 17, 2010 Permalink

    right on