Faithful

 Faithful implies unswerving adherence to a person or thing or to the oath or promise by which a tie was contracted.  It is part of God's essential nature and person, a name by which He is called: Faithful and True. In a generation full of inconsistencies, self-absorption - everyone always looking for the next best thing and tenuous to commit to anything, we have great need of faithfulness.  We need a renewed understanding,a major cultural shift - a calling out of wishy-washy, weak-kneed belief systems and lifestyles to a hard-core, deep seated return to commitment and faithfulness. Friends committed to stick it out through thick and thin, to always hope and believe the best.  Church members committed to the life of the body, not wanting to dismember themselves when life gets tough or ideals aren't met, or feelings are hurt, offenses taken... Employees committed to the good of their workplace. Individuals willing to commit to events or activities.  The list could go on and on.  

     Faithfulness and trust go hand in hand. Faithfulness garnishes a confidence, a strong sense of security which manifests itself in peace.  I think in this wind-blown generation, it's hard to fully grasp or lay hold of a steadfast faithfulness that is unshakable, solid and belies a fly-in-your-face circumstantial reality, engendering an almost reckless (would be perceived to be reckless) confidence founded on a greater eternal reality of an unchanging God (borrowed from ideas in Lewis' Screwtape Letters and Manning's Ruthless Trust). Real reality, that which we can't see and often can't feel or understand but which moves all around us in the supernatural often seems to open up to me like a portal when engaged in worship of the one that is REAL above all realities and makes good on His every Word. 

    I could tell pages of evidences of God's faithfulness to me just from the last several weeks, as He has confirmed His word to me and provided numerous accounts of His great acts.  Yet, in the midst of this, I was reminded that my confidence lies not in these things that I see, as I have also been through times when His faithfulness was harder for me to see, to recount, to feel and grab hold of.  There have been times when darkness seemed to shroud the truths that underlie His character and nature.  Yet, I see now more than ever that confidence and peace should rely solely and ever on the one anchor that He is a faithful GOD - faithful to fulfill His promises, faithful to complete His work, faithful to accomplish His will and the plans and intents of His heart.  NOTHING can shake that, no power, no positions, no prospects or precedence.  

    There have been many times I struggled to hang on to words or promises He has given me because they seemed contrary to the way things were playing out...some things He spoke of, promised years ago, I have yet to comprehend or see how they will be accomplished. Yet He is Faithful, who will do it!

   There have been many more internal struggles, battles of the flesh, revelations of my sin and self that I have seen, hated, repented of and struggled in again.  I have questioned whether I would ever really get free, ever really learn this lesson, overcome this weakness or reflexive response, yet I am reminded that He who began a work in me, who revealed to me, enabling me first to see my mess, my brokenness is also the one who promises to complete the work in me and is more zealous to do so than I could ever be.  AND His Promises are YES and AMEN, unalterable.  He may not choose to release me in a moment. I may stumble time and again in order to learn lessons of overcoming, of character building much deeper and more lasting than even the desired transformation that I can see or long for.  
   It all comes down to whether I will be moved by what I see or unshaken though the mountains tremble and be thrown into the sea because I know...because I KNOW that my GOD is FAITHFUL and no power of heaven or hell, earth or all the things in it can ever change or alter this truth.  A Firm foundation like no other.  Great is His faithfulness.

Great is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee,
Thou changest not, Thy compassion's, they fail not,  
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be. 



Great is Thy faithfulness! 
Great is Thy faithfulness! 
Morning by morning new mercies I see. 
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided,
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! 

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, 
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above 
Join with all nature in manifold witness 
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. 

Chorus

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth 
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, 
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! 
Great is Thy faithfulness! 
Great is Thy faithfulness! 

Morning by morning new mercies I see. 
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided,
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! 

   And as  I read these verses declaring the faithfulness of God, I see that His love and His faithfulness are intertwined, inseparable.  How could they not be as essences of His character, but maybe that's the key to our own faithfulness.  It's not some "grit your teeth" and "stick to your guns" decision that binds us but rather an overflow of love that walks itself out in a lifestyle of faithfulness one step at a time.
   If you need to ground yourself in God's faithfulness, soak in it, refresh your soul in it, the following is a link to many great verses about His faithfulness.  Ask Him to reveal His faithfulness to you, if you are struggling to see it. Go on.  I dare you!  See what He will do in His zeal to reveal Himself and lavish you with love.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/gods_faithfulness

Listen to the hymn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm-KsLytcW0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3iwZ3Ym2BE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iEgs0WKR-c

Great Youtube video on the story behind the hymn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Q2OYHrwhc

Because He lives

Death's sting...Not gone now but when perishable puts on imperishable...then shall come to pass... 1Cor 15:54

     Late again.  Sometimes all I can see is my failure, inconsistency and dysfunction.  Then, I remember...God doesn't redeem me because I have it all together.  He redeems me because I'm a mess and the grandeur of my mess magnifies His love and redemption.  A redemption possible only because the grave didn't conquer Him.  I have had this hymn and blog post on my mind and heart since Good Friday.  That dark and broken day when the Godhead's heal was bruised, the day we call GOOD but looked like anything but good to the confused, fearful, motley crew of disciples and followers of Jesus.  Hope, future, everything they had banked on for the past 3 years was before them crushed...They had thought they knew so much, learned so much; they now knew nothing. What now?  How could they go on, do anything, keep living themselves when everything they thought they knew, their whole worldview and primary basis for existence - gone in a matter of hours.

     Have you ever felt that way?  Life was going along pretty well with its usual bumps, ups and downs but nothing earth-shattering, paradigm shifting, until... And then life would never be the same, and you weren't even sure how or when life could go on and what it could possibly look like if it did.
In fact, in the moments that bleed slowly by, you're not sure you want life to go on, for you to have to process all of this, figure out life again, life with a new and constant pain piercing you at every turn, taunting your every breath.  Why must life go on when hope is gone and pain seems to be your only constant friend.
    Thank GOD that is not the end of the story.  The grave.  Death. Hopelessness.  Despair. Brokenness.  Those are not the end of the story.  They don't define or transform history.  The power that raised JESUS form the dead, that very same POWER active and present to save, deliver, rebuild, give strength for the next breath - that defines and transforms history.  All that we are and all we can be and do swing on this pendulum -- Because He lives, I live.  I can live.   I can redefine my existence with this singular, unalterable HOPE.  Let it transform the dark and broken, the hidden places of despair.  He is the author of LIFE.
Because He Lives Lyrics
(Verse 1)
God sent his son
They called him Jesus
He came to love
Heal and forgive
He lived and died
To buy my pardon
An empty grave
Is there to prove
My Savior lives

(Chorus)
Because he lives
I can face tomorrow
Because he lives
All fear is gone
Because I know
He holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because he lives

(Verse 2)
How sweet to hold
A newborn baby
And feel the pride
And joy he gives
But greater still
The calm assurance
This child can face
Uncertain days
Just Because he lives





(Verse 3)
And then one day
I'll cross the river
I'll fight life's final war with pain
And then as death
Gives way to victory
I'll see the lights
Of glory and
I'll know he lives

by Bill Gaither

Beautiful rendition of Because He Lives

Much nearer than I imagined

            

                                                                                                           

The days and weeks have all been running together lately, blurred lines of activity, thought and plans.  I can't remember when I last blogged, but I can most gratefully say that God is on the move in my life and family in several beautiful ways.  But, most compelling now is the shift that was begun in my core during worship yesterday morning.

     I was raising my hands in worship and looking upward when the Father spoke so clearly into my heart: "Why are you looking up, reaching up as if grasping for Me 'out there'?  I am right here, all around you and in you."  There was a sudden, definitive shift at the core of my theological understanding of the Father in relation to myself.  It was not a new concept or ideology.  We fundamentally believe in the omnipresence of God, Him coming to live in and through us, Him being with us.  But, I discovered in an instant that there is a vast difference between believing that and letting my very life breath be dependent on and living out that truth.

     A holy stillness, awe, fear - real, true, necessary, FREEING fear of the Father being not just "close as your next breath" but in and through every breath.  My skin is crawling with this holy revelation even now.  As all the things taught from childhood through now about the nearness of the Father become REAL.
     I find that far too often I'm like a hungry infant in my relationship with the Father.  Have you ever seen a young child who is very hungry (and maybe tired too)?  You go to feed or nurse them and their thrashing around trying to get at what they're craving, wanting, striving for the very thing that you're offering, seeking to provide for them in the midst of their struggle.  If they would only settle themselves, they would find that what they wanted was readily available right there and they could drink from the fullness thereof.

     It's like all this time, my 30 years of relationship with the Trinity have predominantly been restlessly grasping for more of Him when all the time He has not been a God far off but holding me right there, desiring to give more if Himself right there.  Not that I haven't had moments, beautiful, real moments of being held by Him and drinking of the pleasure of His felt presence.  But it doesn't have to be felt to be real and there are many times that it's not felt but very much as real, if I could but grab hold of truth.
     Since this revelation, I have been seeking, desiring that this truth would not be a passing fancy but become deeply rooted, seated in my being, transformative to EVERYTHING, and I pray it might be the same for you.

Nearer My God to Thee

Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee! 
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me, 
Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to thee; 
Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee! 

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down, 
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone; 
Yet in my dreams I'd be 
Nearer, my God, to thee; 
Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee! 

There let the way appear, steps unto heaven; 
All that thou sendest me, in mercy given; 
Angels to beckon me 
Nearer, my God, to thee; 
Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee! 


Then, with my waking thoughts bright with thy praise, 
Out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise; 
So by my woes to be 
Nearer, my God, to thee; 
Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!     

Or if, on joyful wing cleaving the sky, 
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I fly, 
Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to thee; 
Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyxXGdG3-Io

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gosY-UrpHcA