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“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” – Psalm 46:10

While camping, sitting on the river bank with nothing to do and no one around, I began to chunk rocks. A patch of grass in the stream my target I fired away as the day went by.

I then realized king David of the Bible, keeping his father’s sheep as a lad, was likewise alone for long periods of time with nothing to do but sling rocks, play a harp, watch sheep eat, and talk to God. His brothers were all busy doing man’s work with no time or inclination to rest and when the king selection process began they were passed over.

The term, “still”, in this verse doesn’t mean unmoving but, rather, letting go, doing no purposeful activity, taking time off to be alone. Fresh ideas come to mind and a new resolve engages in the “stillness”.

God says we need those times of being alone with nothing to do and no where to go to let life’s clamour fade; he even commands it. He uses stillness to refocus our attention and get us refreshed with who he is.

Today stillness seldom just happens; take the time, get alone with no agenda other than being alone, let your mind wander, chunk some rocks, listen to some birds, and talk to God.

– fritz

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And [God] said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. – Genesis 15:7

Abraham lived in Haran when he heard God’s call on his life. Terah, Abraham’s dad, had years before moved the family from Ur, about a thousand miles away. As far as Abraham was concerned his faith adventure started in Haran but not according to God. Ur was from where God said he brought Abraham from.

Circumstances and events in our lives are not random events until we find Christ, from our very beginning God is actively involved orchestrating our character, composition, and desires to bring us to himself.

God … separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace” – Paul (Galatians 1:15b)

– fritz

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“…neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” – Matthew 7:6 (KJV)1

We sometimes get things so backwards, with our arrogance and propensity for self justification. Look at the Pearls and Swine directive from a better perspective

Jesus is not suggesting that certain classes of people are to be viewed as pigs or dogs … Anyone who has ever had serious responsibilities of caring for animals will understand immediately … The problem with pearls for pigs is not that the pigs are not worthy. It is not worthiness that is in question here at all, but helpfulness. Pigs cannot digest pearls.2

Jesus isn’t offering an insult to those who don’t accept our “pearls” of wisdom, he is chiding us who push things on others that they can’t use!

[T]he point is not the waste of the “pearl” but that the person given the pearl is not helped…Our children or others do not know what else to do with us pearl pushers. And even though they love us–as parent or friend, for example–they simply cannot take any more of our “pushy irrelevance,” as they see it, or possibly our stubborn blindness.2

– fritz

1 – Matthew 7:6
2 – The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, published by HarperCollins, copyright 1998, page 229
Related Post: An Armload of Zucchini

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