Begging at God's Table

I sit and wrestle with divinity
my little mind wrestles with the mysteries of God
so much you have taught me
so much you have shown me
little scraps from your table
back I come begging
searching
wondering
what a foolish endeavor
to think I might understand you God who is beyond all human comprehension
God who made all that is and stands apart from everything I know and see
God who interacts with Creation
Apart from anything I know
Apart from anything I see
Untouchable
Wisdom beyond measure
Love never-ending
Yet I come back for more
More scraps at your table to savor
I come back because you have been so generous to me
so generous to share with me, just what I needed, just as I needed it
to serve you
At times, I thought I might fully grasp you
In my arrogance, I thought too much of myself
Can I be at peace, in knowing in part but not in whole?
Can I rest in what you've done? and what you've shown?
Your Holy Spirit convicts me and moves me
Your truth burns in my soul
Love, justice, mercy, joy, peace, and patience
they point beyond and assure me of what is
That you God, you God stand behind it
You move me, you guide me, in your paths of righteousness
You move me where I desire to be, where I love to be
In your goodness, in your grace, with purpose and joy supreme

even when it doesn't make sense,
even when its hard times
this I know, you have been good to me
scraps I've savored from your table
by no merit on my own
but because you are good, and you desire to share with me

misundertood word: gospel

When you hear the word gospel, what do you think of?

It is the most important part of the Christian faith. Do we know it?

Gospel literally means, good news.

Why don't we just say good news...? Maybe then it won't sound like such a foreign concept to people who have never heard the word gospel.

Good news.

We all like good news.

Good news, even though we have all messed up and done bad things in our lives, God wanted to provide a way to cover all our bad choices and remove them from his sight. He did this by coming in the flesh as Jesus Christ, and took on the penalty, Himself, for all of our bad decisions. God chose to do this for us. God chose to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. None of us deserved it. None of us earned any favor with God. It was a free gift given by God, the same God who gave us life in our mother's womb.

Good news of a forgiven past.

It is belief in the good news that can purify a heart, after all Jesus loved you enough to die for you. It is belief in the good news that can cleanse a conscience, after all it was all of your wrong choices that required Jesus to be crucified. It is belief in the good news that can break through idle talk, after all there is a world that needs to feel the good news. The good news brings our dead souls to life. Fully alive, in God.

Good news! You have been forgiven, so forgive others. Good news! You have been helped, so stop and help others. Good news! You have been loved by the greatest lover of everything that exists, so love others.

Thankful

I am blown away with what God does in my life. I am now 3 years having been reborn a Christian and I wonder how I could not see God, when He was just as active in my life for the first 25 years as now. I regret that I did not see God so clearly as now. Just think about that, 25 years of living and I was completely oblivious to God. Looking back now, I can clearly see God moving in my life. But alas, I was so focused looking inwardly at myself, I was unable to see Him working outside me and all around me.

One day God intersected my path with a Christian that lived out his faith day by day. He did not profess he was a Chrisitan and make it a label only, but he acted funny (Not in a ha, ha way) but in an alien kind of way. To me he just did not belong among the sorts of people I had known. He was patient and kind. Funny, oh yes, he was. But most of all he lived a higher standard and did not step down to join in the office filth. His language was clean and he spoke in a strange dialect. Now I can recollect, that what he spoke was the truth. He spoke the gospel of peace and love, from our loving Saviour, who has risen above. To me a friend he did become. It was friendship that brought me to a saving faith. That one I knew looked like Jesus saved by grace, changed my heart and selfish ways. So yes today I must proclaim, "I am thankful, indeed, that Christ still saves."

Thank you God for people like Carl and all those courageous Christians you have placed in my life. Thank you that there are those who lay down their life and give their all for the kingdom that is to come. Thank you for love. Thank you for answering prayer and thank you for taking the smallest things we do and making them huge for your glory. Thank you for others in my own family that have stepped closer to the Lord in recent time. May there be much more of that and even strangers I don't know well!

May there be many more like me that become thankful for people like Carl. May we all walk out and be the church not just attend the church. So the lost will see the hope to which we are called, a transformed life, shining like stars.

Every day I have now I am thankful. I delight in waiting on God for answers to His will. I am amazed with the people I seem to encounter and discourse with. So many messages come funneling in through one book after another that just seem to hit my hands at the "right" time to meet me where I am at to help me along my journey with God. Excited I am to see what God has for the future. It is a mystery to me that God would want me and be willing to guide me, may I be so willing to guide others that are undeserving just like me.

God grow my love and let it abound without end, like your Son that showed us where to begin.

Joy Unspeakable

Lord I come unworthy of you and what you have done. I come to you lacking and lazy with my plans. Yet you come, you come and you fill this place. You overwhelm me with hope and light when it seems hope was gone. You lay hold from heaven and perform a miracle in another's life. Thank you Lord, thank you.

I can't imagine the joy in heaven. The joy when one person makes one decision to sanctify their life....to turn away from the fruit Satan offers. Thank you Lord for allowing me to be so close to be able to witness your saving power to change and give new life. Lord I remember what you did for me. I remember you bringing me out of the dark and into your marvelous light. You gave me new life. A new life of truth, purity, light, love, peace, and joy. My life is now on a firm foundation, I no longer question. A life that delights in pleasing you and pursuing what is good and true rather than hiding and playing in the dark. Oh that others may see you...that they may lay hold of your face, to see your truth; that they may find peace in their soul and love for their brother.

Words can do me no justice to share what my heart cries out! My soul sings to heaven to see your saving grace! I love to see you work. I love the mysterious plans you orchestrate to bring strangers into friendship. Lord what you do I could never plan or imagine. I commit my life to following your lead. Take me Lord, where you will. Take me Lord, I want to see your glory.