Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 13, 2012. I think Stephanie will like this one. It’s “National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.” So have another Nutter Butter Peanut Butter sandwich cookie. Except I don’t think we have any of those.
On this date in 1966, the Miranda Rights were established. From that point on, all criminal suspects must wear fruit and/or flowers on their head. On this date in 323BC, Alexander the Great died at the age of 33. And on this date in 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm concluded a meeting with Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Two weeks later, the Archduke and his wife were assassinated, which sparked WWI. Probably had something to do with this:
I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it.
Christi is still working from home. The building may be quarantined through Friday. They don’t know, yet, when it will be opened back up. There’s not much else to report. Things are rather quiet here since school got out. We need to find a nice frame for that diploma and hang it on the wall somewhere. We did luck out and get a hat and tassel. I can’t remember if I said that or not. When Christi went to the school to get the diploma, they had some extras. It seems that, at the end of graduation, many students toss theirs up and never find them again.
Father, I pray that you would show me something of yourself, this morning, that will help me live this day looking to you.
Today, I’m reading Psalm 13. David feels, incorrectly, of course, that the Lord has forgotten him. I’ve felt that way before. But at the end, he proclaims his trust and faith in the Lord.
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Like David, my heart rejoices in the salvation of the Lord, and I will sing to him, because he has, most definitely, dealt bountifully with me!
My Utmost For His Highest
Follow me… Mark 1:17
Those words were spoken to Simon and Andrew as they were fishing alongside the Sea of Galilee. They followed, immediately. How often do we make excuses? Especially excuses of temperament. “We make our temperament and our natural affinities barriers to coming to Jesus.” But once we come to Jesus, we realize that he pays no attention to these “natural affinities.” We also have this strange idea that we can “consecrate our gifts to God.” But we cannot consecrate what we do not own. The only thing that we can consecrate to God is our right to ourselves. “If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you. God’s experiments always succeed. The one mark of a saint is the moral originality which springs from abandonment to Jesus Christ.” In the saint, there is a constantly flowing spring of life that comes from the Holy Spirit. Do I reflect that? Sadly, I shake my head. Yes, according to God, I am a “saint,” but I do not always reflect that life. But one thing I do know…and that is that it is God who engineers all my circumstances. I have not yet achieved the desired result of knowing this, though, and that is an absence of whining (sadly, I do plenty of that), and “a reckless abandon to Jesus.” If I were to characterize the writings of Oswald Chambers with two words, they would be “reckless abandon.”
If I do abandon to Jesus and come when he says, “Come,” then he will continue to say, “Come,” and I will go through my life reproducing the echo of that call.
Father, I desire to come to you. I desire to obey the call of Christ. Yes, I did obey the initial call years ago when I came to salvation, but have I truly followed him? I cannot say that I have ever achieved the mark of reflecting that constantly flowing spring of life that is the Holy Spirit in my life. I know that he is there; I have felt his presence, just as I have had moments of extreme feeling of your presence in my life. I do not doubt my salvation (at least not at this moment). I do not doubt your presence in my life. However, there is more. There is more for me to accomplish. There is more for me to surrender. There’s the word, Lord. Surrender. I have never been able to fully surrender. There is too much hanging on of these “natural affinities.” There are things I don’t like to do. There are things that I am not good at. But you don’t care about that. You have given me gifts and you are the one who makes us good or not good at things. If you want me to do something, you will certainly enable me to do it. Give me the reckless abandon that Chambers speaks of so frequently! I want to surrender, Lord. “All to Jesus, I surrender; all to him I freely give!” Make that true in my life, Lord. I wish to hold onto nothing! Make me completely and fully yours.
I pray for this day, Lord. Not much happening, but I pray that Christi will have something productive to do today, and that they will get her building open for business. I pray that Stephanie will have a good, positive day. I also pray that my work day will be smooth, with no breakdowns or late deliveries. I pray for the prosperity of the companies that Christi and I work for.
I lift up the leadership of our church. I pray for their direction as they lead us. I pray for Joel as he pastors the flock. Give him good, solid, vision and show him where YOU want the church to go. I pray for the elders, as they support Joel. I pray that you would protect all of them, physically and spiritually. Strengthen them against spiritual attacks.
May your grace and mercy fall on us today, and may we overflow as dispensers of your grace into a fallen world. Help us to love.
May we all follow when Jesus says, “Follow.” Reckless abandon.
Grace and peace, friends.
Spaces of Beauty, Grace, Prayer, and Mercy 