Grasping Eternity

This week I read a number of things that I think ultimately informed what I can only describe as a brief epiphany. In "Approved unto God" Oswald Chambers writes:

God buries His men in the midst of paltry things, no monuments are erected to them, they are ignored, not because they are unworthy but because they are in the place where they cannot be seen. Who could see Paul in Corinth? Paul only became marvellous[sic] after he had gone. All God's men are ordinary men made extraordinary by the matter He has given them. God puts His workers where He puts His Son. This is the age of the humiliation of the saints.

This hits home because of all of the amazing men and women I know and have had the pleasure to know whose names will never be in the papers. Whose sermons won't be sold on iTunes and whose lives will never be recorded in a book. They all deserve such gratitude, I'm surrounded by giants, and yet in this life they won't receive it.

However "this is the age of the humiliation of the saints," and what's to come is the glorification of our Lord in His fullness. And if we've placed ourselves firmly in Him by his grace we stand only to shine with Him. This comforts me as I see great men and women strive and struggle to further God's kingdom with no hope for respite, this is only a passing moment.

And then it hit me while I was in bed the other night, I'm eternal. Not in the sense that God's omnipresence is eternal, I'm a finite being with a beginning point within His creation. But I'm eternal from this point on, for better or for worse.

Thankfully it's by God's good grace that it's for better through the death of His Son, and it's my privilege to join Him in whatever work He calls me to. And that work will last forever.

It changes ones perspective to realize that this short period of misery and humiliation is only to last for the first few seconds of the rest of eternity. It makes the misery a joy and the humiliation a burden for which I am grateful.

Life holds purpose, eternal purpose, and it's in this short span of time that I must work my hardest to ensure that my actions ripple throughout eternity in a way that will affect it for the better. God is good and though I'm undeserving of what I've been given in every way I'm ultimately all the more grateful for it.

am I talking to myself?

I often have conversations in my head, don’t you? It’s normal…I think. But I just realized something important about my ‘conversations’. In the book “Humility” by CJ Mahaney, he asks the question – “Did you spend more time speaking truth to yourself, or was most of your time spent listening to yourself?” I had never thought of it that way before. He goes on to say, “As we stumble through our morning routine, we’re not directing the thoughts in our mind – we’re simply at their mercy…We’re not in charge of our thinking. We’re just there.” I don’t want to be ‘just there’, it sounds like I’m drifting. I have come to realize that my battle with sin begins in my MIND. So when my thoughts ‘drift around’, they usually land in bad places. So what am I going to do now? This book gives some good suggestions on ways to renew my thinking. Mahaney says that he’s learned to “go on the offensive. I’ve chosen to announce to sin, ‘I’m at war with you. I know you’re there, and I’m after you.’” I want to be filling my brain with God’s Word and to be telling myself TRUTH instead of listening to my racing thoughts. There is another thing I can do to help me in the battle. Invest in others. I can think more of my wife and children. I can encourage and pray for the people in our small group. I can care more about others rather than being so inwardly focused. Wow, it sounds like being more like Christ. I need help. Please pray for me to learn this. And ask me how I’m doing.

Staying in the Battle,
Geoff

The Hungry and the Poor

So first off i don't think i should eat anymore!! lol this book makes me realize how American I really am, and how much our culture takes everything for granted. We are a very very unthankful and selfish nation, a day after claiming to be "thankful" how do we celebrate our thankfulness. We go out and trample people to death so we can get the latest toys and comforts. Very ironic!

But anyways that's not what i wanted to write about, that was me saying that I have been thinking a lot about the poor and the needy while reading this book. :) And I have found it very interesting and am realizing how little I have truly thought about what the Bible says about the poor. I thought chapter 3 was especially interesting and was going to see what you guys thoughts were?
I thought it was a very interesting picture the author painted when giving all the passages about the poor and oppressed and how God saves them from the oppression and then opposes the rich and so I was thinking where does that put us as a Nation?