Want to Make Your Head Explode?

...Just try thinking about eternity for a while.  From time to time the subject has come up in Bible study and we've always agreed: Wow...it's hard for us to wrap our minds around the concept of eternity. The last few days eternity and God's reality (what's going on in the spiritual realm, not the world as we know it) has come up. Thinking that means it needs to be in a post.
   You know I really like imagery. (It's the English teacher in me!) In a devotion from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young when talking about Jesus being my best friend, it said:

The friendship I offer you is practical and down-to-earth, yet it is saturated with heavenly Glory.  Living in My Presence means living in two realms simultaneously:  the visible world and unseen, eternal reality.  I have equipped you to stay conscious of Me while walking along dusty, earthbound paths.

   At one time I understood eternity as something that was in the future; it was the time at the end of my earthly stay. In the past several years, as I've been more intentional about Bible study and my TAG (Time Alone with God), I've come to understand....now you might want to hold the top of your head to keep it from popping off...that eternity is also happening now. Wow, this is confusing when you think of it. 
   I guess the biggest breakthrough in my understanding of eternity was when my precious friend G stepped from this life into eternity. I was not happy with God and I told Him about it and how I thought He should have handled things.  After some yelling, crying, pouting, and generally being mad at God, He helped me understand what her stepping into eternity meant.  G has not ceased to exist.  She is in eternity with Him in Heaven and I won't get to hang out with her until I step into eternity.  I now see eternity as a place with my destination as Heaven, not a time in the future. Right now I'm "walking along dusty, earthbound paths."
   The "living in two realms simultaneously" thing is really mind blowing when you think about it. Sometimes we look at life...job, money, house, car, things and more things, people, places...and we let it overwhelm us trying to manage everything. Until we slow down and realize "our reality" isn't "God's reality." In His reality the things unseen, the things of eternal importance are what count.  It's hard to explain sometimes, but here's the way I see it.  There are some ways I can affect eternity...anytime I do what God wants me to do, like share His Word, be compassionate, be giving, etc. There are some things I look at and think, "Will this effect my standing in eternity (Will this determine if I get into Heaven?)" Cancer was one of these things.  Since the answer to that question is "no," I don't think it's that big of a deal on this "dusty path."  I know God's taking care of it because His character never changes.
   I attended a small group last night. I'm really hoping that my treatment schedule will allow me to hang out with these incredible people this semester.  We're studying how to study the Bible. Yes, I've been studying the Bible for a while, but I can always learn something else about how to study. As one of the members commented ...the Bible is a living book and we can get something different every time we read it.  We took a verse and worked through some questions.  One of the questions was picking out the verbs and identifying their tenses. I have to confess, the English teacher in me liked that! The verbs were all present tense, but then some had "is" before a past tense. Discussion led us to the fact that the verse (Psalm 93:1) addressed God's soverienty forever...past, present, and future.  One of the members who teaches Bible class at a Christian school shared that her class had been discussing how scripture was canonized and one of the criteria was that it had to speak to all generations. Wow...there's that eternity thing again!
   Icing on the cake: Today's Bible verse from my favorite radio station was Hebrews 13:8 (NLT)-"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
    So you do need to think about eternity, but not until your head explodes.  Better to think on  what the bottom line really is...to know Jesus and make Him known.

  
  

Trust Frees Us!

   The last couple of days my devotions from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young have really been mostly about trust.  From Saturday:

Accept each day exactly as it comes to you.  By that, I mean not only the circumstances of your day but also the condition of your body.  Your assignment is to trust Me absolutely, resting in My sovereignty and faithfulness.

   That sometimes sounds like a tough assignment, especially if you're someone (let's say me) that likes to take care of things herself. The devotion gives two choices...give up or rely on God. I think sometimes I have a third choice...I'll handle it.  It's interesting because I'm not one to give up, but sometimes I like to try my hand at taking care of something before trusting God to take care of it.  I never really thought this was a problem before.  I now see that when I truly trust God to take care of whatever is going on, I don't have to worry about taking care of things.  It's comforting to know even if I do make one of the other choices before trusting God, He doesn't abandon me.  I can turn to Him and He says, "I will infuse My strength into you moment by moment, giving you all that you need for this day.  Trust Me, by relying on My empowering Presence."
    Today's devotion invites, "Walk with me along paths of trust.  The most direct route between point A and point B on you life-journey is the path of unwavering trust in Me."  (Isaiah 26:4, Psalm 9:10, Proverbs 3:5-6) It gives this advice: "As soon as you realize you have wandered from your trust-path, look to Me and whisper, 'I trust You, Jesus.' This affirmation will help you get back on track."
   I think my problem is sometimes (okay, more times than I really want to admit it) I give something to Jesus...I say, "Here, I trust you with this," but then turn around and (maybe not verbally, but in my actions) say, "I changed my mind. I'll take that back."  I'm starting to learn how freeing it is to take something off my plate, give it to Jesus, and not take it back. Am I still tempted to take it back? Oh, yes. One of my favorite sayings recently is, "It's okay. God's got this." I'm having to develop that mindset and work on unwavering trust. "I trust you Jesus!" (practicing...)

Great Pep Talk...Everyone Should Read This!

   My friend Rick posts some pretty amazing thoughts on Facebook. Today, he posted an incredible pep talk. It encouraged me and confirmed some of the things I've been "hearing" during my quiet times. Not going to make any comments; just posting what Rick wrote with his permission:

This morning I read that the life expectancy of a US Male is 75.92 years. For a female it is 80.93 years.

If I am going to live my life expectancy, I only have give or take 9,056 more days to live. That's, if I'm average. There are those who live longer & those who bring down the average by leaving us far too soon. I really have no idea if I'll be average. All I do know is that we're all terminal. As a Pastor, I saw people change the way they lived when a doctor gave then a terminal diagnosis. Would you do anything differently, if you were given that diagnosis? Just so you know, YOU'VE received yours. In my faith, short of Jesus Christ returning in my lifetime, I will die.

Time is not a commodity. I can't give you two hours of my life to make yours longer and mine shorter. All we've got is all we've got.

Do what's important.

Be there....when you need to be & for the people you need to be there for.

When you see God face to face, tell Him you have nothing left to give back to Him.You have used every ounce of talent and ability He gave you (my version of a great Erma Bombeck quote).

Quit talking, griping, and spending energy on crap that doesn't matter. Deep down inside you know you're doing that, so you don't have to face the stuff that does matter.

The stuff that does matter are the people in your life. Those who gave birth to you. Those you fathered or mothered. The grandchildren who made you truly understand unconditional love. And, those along your journey who have changed you, made you better, & loved you.

There will people along the way who believe you owe them, try to control you, & otherwise try to make you feel bad about who you are and what you are doing. They, too, deserve to be loved. But, you cannot allow them to control your destiny. That is between you and God. Those are the people put into your path designed to blow up that God-ordained mission with self-doubt. If HE believes in you, should anyone else's opinion de-rail you?

When you veer off the path because of poor choices, acknowledge them. Admit them. Change them. And work as hard as possible to not make them again. But, don't be upset if others don't forget them. That was their experience with you. That is who you are to them, because that is what you showed them.

The stuff that matters includes your God-planned Destiny. The responsibility to live out the difference you are designed to make. You must assess if you're on the right path & will be able to leave this earth with nothing more inside of you to give. The answer to that question for all of us should in all reality be, "I've got plenty of talent & ability that I've wasted." Because we all do.

You & I just need to ask God to direct our paths, anointing our words, and give us the strength & faith to follow His leading.

I will stop for now. I've spent 17 minutes of my 9,056 days on this post. I will also not try to read anything else today.:)