22.1.03

i'm waiting. waiting to hear a voice, a sound, a sigh....anything. why are people so afraid of God? do we not know the true and only purpouse of our lives is to be in communion with Him? when we view life as a relationship and not a board game with "start" and "finish" squares, then the magic happens. we begin to see things as they are intended. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18, NIV) God will see us through. we need only seek His Face.

The joy of anything, from a blade of grass upwards, is to fulfill its created purpose: "that we...should be to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:12). We are not here to win souls, to do good to others; that is the natural outcome, but it is not our aim, and this is where so many of us cease to be followers. We will follow God as long as He makes us a blessing to others, but when he does not we will not follow. Suppose our Lord had measured His life by wether or not He was a blessing to others! Why, He was a "stone of stumbling" to thousands, actually His own neighbors, to His own nation, because through Him they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, and in His own country "He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matthew 13:58). If our Lord had measured His life by its actual results, He would have been full of misery."
--Oswald Chambers, The Ministry of the Unnoticed, p. 63

You seem so out of reach, and i don't understand what i can't see,
but i'll wait here forever
i'll hold to me belief and i'll take what You promised me
and i'll wait here forever
posted by Aaron Brown on 11:16:04 AM

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Music and the Rest

"Into a desert place apart" (Matt. 14:13).

"There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it." In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by "rests," and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune. God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives; and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the musician read the "rest"? See him beat the time with unvarying count, and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.

Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the "rests." They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear. If we sadly say to ourselves, "There is no music in a 'rest,'" let us not forget "there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson! --Ruskin
posted by Aaron Brown on 10:55:48 AM

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