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Where are God’s blessings?

July 11, 2010 by Fritz

They will name him Emmanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”) – Matthew 1:23 (Message)

In Christ God is with us in our life’s situation now. This is very hard to realize when the car breaks down, the children are sick, the job is floundering, and more sometimes all at once.

The fact is we must see our lives and circumstances as the place of God’s blessing, the place of service, and the place of our current calling. The Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul said,

“we know that all things work together for good to them that love God … called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

We must hold tight (in spite of opposite feelings) to the knowledge that God is at work through the good and difficult – not that all things we experience are good things but that God is using all things, even the unwanted, for our good.1

“God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are, and if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being “right,” we will simply have no place to receive his kingdom into our life. For those situations and moments are our life.”2

— fritz@langgang.com

1 – see also: “Escapism in the Bible” (June 4, 2010)
2 – The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, published by HarperCollins, copyright 1998

Posted in Dallas Willard, Escapism, Quotes | Leave a Comment »

>Be Still A Moment!

July 10, 2010 by Fritz

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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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God in the Circumstances

July 9, 2010 by Fritz

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

Posted in Haran, Terah, Ur | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

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