Consumed|Baptized Pt. 2

It is my prayer to be consumed by God.

I want to look around and see nothing but him. When you look around what do you see? If you are baptized in his spirit, everywhere you look, you should see Him. You should see his love, his works, and his spirit. If your whole being is not entirely in him, then how can you know where you are? If you see him only from a distance, how can you know where He really is? If you look up from your day’s work, then you should know where he is – He will always be as near to you as you will beckon Him to be. If you want him near you, call him. He is an awesome God, and he knows you. He KNOWS you and he loves you and he wants you to be near to him. Submerge yourself entirely in everything that He is, for he cannot help you if you are not completely baptized in him.

Allow yourself to become consumed by the flame of his Holy Spirit and the courage of his Love. Cry out to him in mourning, and rejoice in victory. Boldly approach His throne from which he reigns in Love.

He will not force you into his love, nor into his presence. He invites us, and he calls us, absolutely, but it is nothing more than an invitation, a call. You have to RSVP, you have to answer the call. You have to exercise the free will that he gave you and jump into everything that He is.

Buck up, heart | Secret Place Pt. 3

When all around me is darkness, and the darkness seeks to overtake the light within me I tell my heart, “BUCK UP!” I cannot allow myself to be declined towards God. I must lift my face to Him, and as the psalmist said, “incline my heart to perform His statutes.” My heart does not default to look to God. Just like every other aspect of my being, my heart must be woken up, stretched and risen. I incline my body to get out of bed in the morning, I incline my mind to become active and quick-thinking, so also I must incline my heart to look to God for “out of the heart flows the issues of life.”

I thought I had to find a physical secret place before I could enter into a secret place, before I could connect to God, I thought I had to be in a place I had named “secret place.” How incredibly ignorant of me, because I know better than to think the secret place is anywhere except in my heart. Truly, I can say at any time to my heart, “BUCK UP!” I will sing a song of worship declaring, “I run to the throne room,” and I will incline my heart to God. Even in the midst of the darkness, I keep my light alive by inclining my heart toward God. I protect my heart by inclining it toward God. That’s not to say I will never sin, but it is to say that I will not be overtaken by my sin and come to regret the decisions I made as long as I am active in inclining my heart toward God.

I’m on a California vacation right now with some of my extended family and it’s hard not to succumb to drinking too much, and taking the Lord’s name in vain, and talking about women as if they are only objects of my sexual desire. In fact, in vacations to California before this one I had no idea how to be among my family in such a setting and not do these things. Last time I was here, roughly a year ago, it was all I could do to give in to the smoking, drinking, and other immorality, because I did not know how to find a secret place among the darkness. I was overcome by the darkness around me and I regret the things I did.

So you might ask (as I have asked myself) why did you even go with your family if they are not a good influence? Well, at most points after my last California vacation, I have rejected any time with my family because I knew that I was not strong enough or in touch enough to control myself and not regret my behavior. So, I have stayed away from parts of my family which influence me too strongly to sin, but I know I am called to influence them toward the Truth and Light. However, how can I do so when I can’t even overcome their darkness because the light in me is hardly enough to light my own path? Remember Jesus said the light within may be a greater darkness than the darkness on the outside!

So many more questions and points to make, as always, but I’ll leave you with the challenge to incline your heart to God when it is most difficult. Take any opportunity to tell your heart, “BUCK UP.”

Give me your comments, I love them!

-Frederik

The Journey of Hope

Romans 5.

7:36 a.m.

Sleep: none

“Have hope,” they said. “It’s all you can do,” they said.

True, true… well, actually no it’s not true, but that’s beside the point.

Hope is very similar to faith, only hope objectifies promises and experiences which are of God independent of us; faith, as you may recall, calls what is not as though it is into existence within us and around us (Hebrews 11).Hope is how I survive and when I come upon it as is laid out by the Bible, it does not– cannot –disappoint. It is the culmination of tribulation leading to perseverance, leading to proven character, resting finally, free from disappointment (Romans 5:3-4). This is why, when, last month, I hoped I had found my future wife, I was disappointed, and the year before that, the same, and before that, the same, and as far back as I can track some ten years to when I was twelve– the same.

I left those relationships much more than disappointed, but for the sake of clarity, I’ll leave it at “disappointed.” I had hoped for so much, knowing that God wants good things for me, but not knowing that I was pursuing those good things with a separate life in mind than the one I was pursuing God with. In other words, I was pursuing God’s perks, without pursuing God.  In Romans 5:1 Paul writes that we exult in the hope of the glory of God, and this road to hope which we are blessed with through tribulation is how we come to this exultation. In my life, I could not truly experience God’s glory without my willingness to cling to hope in God through my tribulations, and once I had just one glimpse of his glory, my whole world and life was changed, I now seek it at every turn, and I long day and night to experience his glory without end.

So, what is God’s glory? One definition given by Strong is splendor or brightness — both things you must “see.” You can’t see the light of a bulb if you’re not in its presence, can you? In the same way, I have become desperate for God’s glory. I have spent too much time, with little success thinking of how much I need God. This need for Him is apparent to me, and while I make no attempt to belittle my need for Him, I, above this need for Him, have come to want Him. I need Him, undoubtedly, but more so, I need to want him.

I choose to hope in Him, in his glory, in his promises. Throughout everything that comes against me (even as seemingly insignificant as when my roommate eats all my planned meal for a day without inquiry), I hope in his promises as specifically as I possibly can. In the case of my roommates appetite, I remember his promise, first about the bread of life and its permanent fulfillment, but then about the sparrow whom He clothes and feeds. Above all, and all the time, I hope in knowing, being deeply acquainted and intimate with God– I do not want to know of God, for I have known of God my entire life– I want to experience his physical presence, always.