Hmm...wonder what that means: reverse the sequence.
This morning I was praying for someone in particular and, seemingly out of the blue, this phrase presented itself.
Upon reflection, we think in sequence, act in sequence, and encounter consequences accordingly.
The word consequence looks like we are conned, or persuaded, into the sequences we experience.
If our thinking sequence needs to be reversed, then it must currently be leading us astray. Why on earth would we think in ways to do ourselves harm?
We do it all the time.
Our personal patterns of thinking go into motion over and over-- repetition creates learning--and, if unproductive, lead us down treacherous paths.
These mind patterns have been set up over our years of emotional and circumstantial turmoil.
Our mind patterns con us into bad or harmful or at the very least, unproductive behaviors and lead us toward weakness. They lead us into feeding our weakness.
Over this Labor Day weekend, we will test our mind patterns. For now, imagine what pattern of thinking is most seriously leading you astray.
Feeding our weakness? We want to reverse the sequence.
We want to feed our strength.
01 September 2012
29 August 2012
Day 3...God Said What?
This is not a pretty picture of God. If that's what you need today, please do not keep reading. But if you are in a relentless search to know God in an ever larger way, prepare to be in awe.
In Ezekiel 20, God has had it with the Israelites. His summary:
The staggering truth is that God's invitation is to enter into a unique environment, unique because God "controls" with love and mercy and grace. His way produces goodness and life.
Are we sacrificing our firstborn heart to any no-god idols, things that we can make and control?
Run hard. Away. From anything God sees as worship of a no-god idol.
In Ezekiel 20, God has had it with the Israelites. His summary:
Your parents [coming out of Egypt] further insulted me by betraying me. When I brought them into that land that I had solemnly promised with my upraised hand to give them, every time they saw a hill with a sex-and-religion shrine on it or a grove of trees where the sacred whores practiced, they were there, buying into the whole pagan system.The whole pagan system is our life every time we insert what God calls a no-god idol. He continues:
What you're secretly thinking is never going to happen. You're thinking, "We're going to be like everybody else, just like the other nations. We're going to worship gods we can make and control."We make gods out of things we can control to avoid investigating and submitting to the true control of the Living God. Will He let us continue that no-win road? You decide:
Since they were determined to live bad lives, I myself gave them statutes that could not produce goodness and laws that did not produce life. I abandoned them. Filthy in the gutter, they perversely sacrificed their firstborn children in the fire. The very horror should have shocked them into recognizing that I am God.I do not have words for this. I just want to run and run and run back to God to avoid His scathing summary that I might be chasing no-god idols.
The staggering truth is that God's invitation is to enter into a unique environment, unique because God "controls" with love and mercy and grace. His way produces goodness and life.
Are we sacrificing our firstborn heart to any no-god idols, things that we can make and control?
Run hard. Away. From anything God sees as worship of a no-god idol.
28 August 2012
Day 2...God Said What?
Years ago, I was pedaling as fast as I could--single mother of three of my own plus two more teenagers, middle school principal, just beginning to listen to God in the scraps of minutes I had in the early morning, before the mayhem.
I was behind in every arena as you might imagine.
And out of nowhere, with His bizarre timing, I thought I heard God say, Do what you are doing in six days and give Me the seventh.
Right. Can't do it in seven so now I'll get it done in six.
But...I was teetering on a precipice so scary that I decided to bet on God.
And, in the God economy that surpasses all understanding, I got more done in six days and recovered incredibly on the seventh.
Turns out God tells us what He's up to in that economy of time. In Ezekiel 20, He says:
I think our "holy" is our devotion to Him, where perhaps He is able to break through the muck and mud of our hearts with increasing frequency.
So seventh it is...yours, God...no argument. Do Your best--I'm a pretty tough case.
I was behind in every arena as you might imagine.
And out of nowhere, with His bizarre timing, I thought I heard God say, Do what you are doing in six days and give Me the seventh.
Right. Can't do it in seven so now I'll get it done in six.
But...I was teetering on a precipice so scary that I decided to bet on God.
And, in the God economy that surpasses all understanding, I got more done in six days and recovered incredibly on the seventh.
Turns out God tells us what He's up to in that economy of time. In Ezekiel 20, He says:
I...gave [the Israelites] my weekly holy rest days, my "Sabbaths," a kind of signpost erected between me and them to show them that I, God, am in the business of making them holy.If making me more holy means turning my heart more and more toward Him by spending more and more time in His arena, mission accomplished.
I think our "holy" is our devotion to Him, where perhaps He is able to break through the muck and mud of our hearts with increasing frequency.
So seventh it is...yours, God...no argument. Do Your best--I'm a pretty tough case.
27 August 2012
Day 1...God Said What?
I'm always a little bit sad that people won't enter into the phenomenon of reading the entire Bible. It is to enter into the entire personality of God and He becomes...terrifying and intimate and funny and vast and so incredibly worth our worship.
He becomes uncannily real.
In Ezekiel 20, we get a glimpse into the very thought process and decision-making of God.
A group of leaders in Israel have come to the prophet Ezekiel to ask for guidance from God.
In no uncertain terms, God tells Ezekiel that, in light of the chronic rebellion of the Israelites, He will not tolerate any questions, but rather will retrace the depth of their rebellion as He brought them out of Egypt.
You can't fly in the face of God with your rebellion and not evoke a response.
Why, oh why, do we insist on ticking off the Guy that made us? That can blow us away with a fraction of His breath?
"But they rebelled against me, wouldn't listen to a word I said. None got rid of the vile things they were addicted to. They held on to the no-gods of Egypt as if for dear life. I seriously considered inflicting my anger on them in force right there in Egypt. Then I thought better of it. I acted out of who I was, not by how I felt. And I acted in a way that would evoke honor, not blasphemy...from the nations who had seen me reveal myself by promising to lead my people out of Egypt."
It is staggering to watch God--God!--think through what He would like to do (because we drove Him to it), then impose restraint upon Himself, and once again display the honor of His name.
God obeyed His promises by imposing restraint upon His feelings.
Wonder if we could try that?
He becomes uncannily real.
In Ezekiel 20, we get a glimpse into the very thought process and decision-making of God.
A group of leaders in Israel have come to the prophet Ezekiel to ask for guidance from God.
In no uncertain terms, God tells Ezekiel that, in light of the chronic rebellion of the Israelites, He will not tolerate any questions, but rather will retrace the depth of their rebellion as He brought them out of Egypt.
You can't fly in the face of God with your rebellion and not evoke a response.
Why, oh why, do we insist on ticking off the Guy that made us? That can blow us away with a fraction of His breath?
"But they rebelled against me, wouldn't listen to a word I said. None got rid of the vile things they were addicted to. They held on to the no-gods of Egypt as if for dear life. I seriously considered inflicting my anger on them in force right there in Egypt. Then I thought better of it. I acted out of who I was, not by how I felt. And I acted in a way that would evoke honor, not blasphemy...from the nations who had seen me reveal myself by promising to lead my people out of Egypt."
It is staggering to watch God--God!--think through what He would like to do (because we drove Him to it), then impose restraint upon Himself, and once again display the honor of His name.
God obeyed His promises by imposing restraint upon His feelings.
Wonder if we could try that?
26 August 2012
Your Viewfinder
Are you ever overwhelmed by how many choices there are...in nearly every category?
Let's start small: look at your grocer's cereal aisle. How is there room for yet another type that will inevitably need a space?
And on the subject of food, whose nutritional advice is sound?
It seems everyone is clamoring for my dollar, my attention, my freedom of choice.
The same is true for wearing apparel, college and career choice, matchmaking, what we should do with our money over the long haul, and the list goes on.
In our multi-media culture, the choices are amplified over every electronic avenue to which we have access (or that has access to us).
It is exhausting...and confusing...and intimidating.
I decided years ago that if God made me and if He can see all of these choices at one time, why can't it be His job to at least narrow down them down and route me to the ones best for me?
If I am going to trust anyone, including myself, why not trust His big picture access?
I think He offers to be our viewfinder, to narrow our path of choices with His wisdom and the fact that He personally wired each of us uniquely and for His pleasure.
God the Viewfinder. I think He'd like that.
Let's start small: look at your grocer's cereal aisle. How is there room for yet another type that will inevitably need a space?
And on the subject of food, whose nutritional advice is sound?
It seems everyone is clamoring for my dollar, my attention, my freedom of choice.
The same is true for wearing apparel, college and career choice, matchmaking, what we should do with our money over the long haul, and the list goes on.
In our multi-media culture, the choices are amplified over every electronic avenue to which we have access (or that has access to us).
It is exhausting...and confusing...and intimidating.
I decided years ago that if God made me and if He can see all of these choices at one time, why can't it be His job to at least narrow down them down and route me to the ones best for me?
If I am going to trust anyone, including myself, why not trust His big picture access?
I think He offers to be our viewfinder, to narrow our path of choices with His wisdom and the fact that He personally wired each of us uniquely and for His pleasure.
God the Viewfinder. I think He'd like that.
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