You ever get those times when with the best will in the world you want to do something. Your mind’s made up and you won’t turn back. You’re set. It’s going to happen. Let’s get this thing going.
Well such spirit led enthusiasm bubbled up within me as the month of June dawned and I was set to blog every day of the month in a bid to get me writing discipline together and to finally share that fasting series that I’ve been meaning to do since April!
So there I am with the best will in the world and what happens? Well doesn’t the router at home just go all coco-pops leaving me with the only net access at work. Then the work access is a bit mixed up. Then work actually picks up to the stage that there’s no open opportunity to actually post the many thoughts and the like online. Still I have endeavoured to write some notes and so this blog entry will serve as a bit of an outlet for some of the thoughts etc. that’s been crack-a-lacking with me over the time since the start of the month til now. It will involve links to other things as well, so by all means go ahead and check those. But this is a sharply edited version of that which you would have received had circumstances not conspired to thwart the BEST WILL IN THE WORLD.
So here we go.
June 3 - So I was reflecting today on the things about life and thinking about pleasing God in everything. This is part of a deeper reflection and contemplation on the Beatitudes and the kind of characteristic that Jesus says is part of His deal in being Kingdom people. Reminded of the part about being meek and the natural follow on in terms of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Now Proverbs 16:7 informs me that when a man’s ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies at peace with him. Then in Proverbs 3:5, 6 I’m also told trust God with all my heart and acknowledge Him in all my ways. There’s got to be a link there somewhere and that’s got to be related to the concept of God wanting all of us so that all our ways are pleasing to Him which requires all of my ways being committed to Him. That means my family way, my church way, my work way, my leisure way, my toilet way, all of my ways – all of the routes of life I choose to take as time goes on, all of it needs to be committed to God and following that I can then be assured that even those who oppose will not have an issue with me because the way as directed by God will only be right – that is right by God.
June 4 - Psalm 146
June 5 - Now I don’t agree with everything Rob Bell does or says. Anyone who’s been around me long enough will know that I’m at least wary of his take on Christianity as potentially a cop out to liberalism by another means. What I cannot deny however is that this homey is a Jesus-lover which will do me. Now check this clip out and really take on board what the brother is saying. Then as you take it on you may be in a prayer meeting like I was and after a night like I had last night where I was really wrangling with God about the reality that I want to love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. And in this prayer meeting this connection of living in the light of who God is and living by the Spirit means having a passion for the things He has means taking seriously the fact that EVERYTHING IS SPIRITUAL. Paul goes onto say that even in the basic activity of eating that it should be done to the glory of God – i.e. it’s a spiritual act. Then he’ll go onto challenge us to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable – this activity, i.e. ensuring everything is put to God is our reasonable profession of worship. Wowsers – that means everything is spiritual. That means the magazine I read, the television programmes I watch, the web-sites I visit, the hobbies I have, the conversations I engage with, the thoughts I dwell on, the money I spend, the music I listen to, the time I spend … there is no part of my life that is exempt from God’s analysis of whether it’s pleasing to Him or not. Now that’s not meant to be a burden or a horror, because if you’re living by the Spirit the Christ-consciousness that follows surely makes it a stimulating challenge to overcome what we want to do by sinful nature to do what God would want in our Christ-nature. When we get into it and really enjoy the ride of being in the Presence constantly, acknowledging Him in everything, experiencing fullness of joy and being lead along paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake then we realise there’s no better way to live – as in if we live the Beatitudes we’ll realise there is no better way to live. And that means our mentality all the time has to be – EVERYTHING IS SPIRITUAL.
June 6 – As the songs were playing it focussed me on the centrality of Christ in what we do – how what we do is based solely on Jesus’ blood and righteousness. The first song that played was the Gaither Homecoming version of Worthy Is The Lamb which sent me to Revelations 5 which covers the event and when read with chapter 4 before it, this text becomes even more encouraging as we see the new song made in praise and adoration of the Lamb who slain. It makes a mockery of the term ‘slain in the Spirit’ when we consider what it was for the Lamb to be slain and as a result it’s reasonable that we give Christ everything. So the list reflected a lot about Christ is the priority of what we do – how He is the prize, the goal, the motivator, the source of strength and the power that lives within that enables us to do all we can to magnify His name and proclaim for others to share in the same experience of just how great He is and how our souls were filled with joy after He touched us and made us whole.
June 8 - So yeah, again, God is using the timeless truths in the lyrics of songs I recall from my childhood to draw me closer to Him again, proving the benefit of growing up on healthy songs. That’s the reason why I’d be a bit concerned if all the daughters were getting in the system was Iggle-Piggle and Makka-Pakka. I’ll surround them with more good stuff that I had growing up and indeed when they grow old they will not depart from it.
June 10 - 117 Dumb Statements: God helps those who help themselves. What a load of baloney I mean when you check the first beatitude you’re stuffed right there. God is evidently rewarding those who are in no position to help themselves due to their abject poverty in being able to do so in the first place.
June 11 - Good quote on the importance of doctrine and theology.
June 13 - Inspirational YouTube link for the day – the longer I serve Him the sweeter He goes.
June 17 - Trust me as a teacher my heart’s desire is to be a good teacher for God and be able to put together ministries with opportunities like John Piper’s at Desiring God – this looks exciting and gets to the heart of the issue of loving God, loving His Word and loving seeing people connect with all that.
This project might be interesting especially in the light of someone else we know doing a series on Psalms as well. Oh ho good stuff for da man cd! Linked to that it’s worthwhile checking what’s going at the blog project itself.
I wanna get this – it’s really good stuff.
Indeed let’s get it on UFC style with Jacob and Esau
Kirk Franklin Song Chains – in terms of the ministry of seeing people who are captive set free, this is a more than appropriate songs!
Now for all that there is no guarantee that there will be more on the way, but at least you have an idea of some of the things that is going on in the head of ur man cd.
For His Name's Sake
Shalom
da man cd
Well such spirit led enthusiasm bubbled up within me as the month of June dawned and I was set to blog every day of the month in a bid to get me writing discipline together and to finally share that fasting series that I’ve been meaning to do since April!
So there I am with the best will in the world and what happens? Well doesn’t the router at home just go all coco-pops leaving me with the only net access at work. Then the work access is a bit mixed up. Then work actually picks up to the stage that there’s no open opportunity to actually post the many thoughts and the like online. Still I have endeavoured to write some notes and so this blog entry will serve as a bit of an outlet for some of the thoughts etc. that’s been crack-a-lacking with me over the time since the start of the month til now. It will involve links to other things as well, so by all means go ahead and check those. But this is a sharply edited version of that which you would have received had circumstances not conspired to thwart the BEST WILL IN THE WORLD.
So here we go.
June 3 - So I was reflecting today on the things about life and thinking about pleasing God in everything. This is part of a deeper reflection and contemplation on the Beatitudes and the kind of characteristic that Jesus says is part of His deal in being Kingdom people. Reminded of the part about being meek and the natural follow on in terms of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Now Proverbs 16:7 informs me that when a man’s ways please the Lord he makes even his enemies at peace with him. Then in Proverbs 3:5, 6 I’m also told trust God with all my heart and acknowledge Him in all my ways. There’s got to be a link there somewhere and that’s got to be related to the concept of God wanting all of us so that all our ways are pleasing to Him which requires all of my ways being committed to Him. That means my family way, my church way, my work way, my leisure way, my toilet way, all of my ways – all of the routes of life I choose to take as time goes on, all of it needs to be committed to God and following that I can then be assured that even those who oppose will not have an issue with me because the way as directed by God will only be right – that is right by God.
June 4 - Psalm 146
June 5 - Now I don’t agree with everything Rob Bell does or says. Anyone who’s been around me long enough will know that I’m at least wary of his take on Christianity as potentially a cop out to liberalism by another means. What I cannot deny however is that this homey is a Jesus-lover which will do me. Now check this clip out and really take on board what the brother is saying. Then as you take it on you may be in a prayer meeting like I was and after a night like I had last night where I was really wrangling with God about the reality that I want to love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. And in this prayer meeting this connection of living in the light of who God is and living by the Spirit means having a passion for the things He has means taking seriously the fact that EVERYTHING IS SPIRITUAL. Paul goes onto say that even in the basic activity of eating that it should be done to the glory of God – i.e. it’s a spiritual act. Then he’ll go onto challenge us to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable – this activity, i.e. ensuring everything is put to God is our reasonable profession of worship. Wowsers – that means everything is spiritual. That means the magazine I read, the television programmes I watch, the web-sites I visit, the hobbies I have, the conversations I engage with, the thoughts I dwell on, the money I spend, the music I listen to, the time I spend … there is no part of my life that is exempt from God’s analysis of whether it’s pleasing to Him or not. Now that’s not meant to be a burden or a horror, because if you’re living by the Spirit the Christ-consciousness that follows surely makes it a stimulating challenge to overcome what we want to do by sinful nature to do what God would want in our Christ-nature. When we get into it and really enjoy the ride of being in the Presence constantly, acknowledging Him in everything, experiencing fullness of joy and being lead along paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake then we realise there’s no better way to live – as in if we live the Beatitudes we’ll realise there is no better way to live. And that means our mentality all the time has to be – EVERYTHING IS SPIRITUAL.
June 6 – As the songs were playing it focussed me on the centrality of Christ in what we do – how what we do is based solely on Jesus’ blood and righteousness. The first song that played was the Gaither Homecoming version of Worthy Is The Lamb which sent me to Revelations 5 which covers the event and when read with chapter 4 before it, this text becomes even more encouraging as we see the new song made in praise and adoration of the Lamb who slain. It makes a mockery of the term ‘slain in the Spirit’ when we consider what it was for the Lamb to be slain and as a result it’s reasonable that we give Christ everything. So the list reflected a lot about Christ is the priority of what we do – how He is the prize, the goal, the motivator, the source of strength and the power that lives within that enables us to do all we can to magnify His name and proclaim for others to share in the same experience of just how great He is and how our souls were filled with joy after He touched us and made us whole.
June 8 - So yeah, again, God is using the timeless truths in the lyrics of songs I recall from my childhood to draw me closer to Him again, proving the benefit of growing up on healthy songs. That’s the reason why I’d be a bit concerned if all the daughters were getting in the system was Iggle-Piggle and Makka-Pakka. I’ll surround them with more good stuff that I had growing up and indeed when they grow old they will not depart from it.
June 10 - 117 Dumb Statements: God helps those who help themselves. What a load of baloney I mean when you check the first beatitude you’re stuffed right there. God is evidently rewarding those who are in no position to help themselves due to their abject poverty in being able to do so in the first place.
June 11 - Good quote on the importance of doctrine and theology.
June 13 - Inspirational YouTube link for the day – the longer I serve Him the sweeter He goes.
June 17 - Trust me as a teacher my heart’s desire is to be a good teacher for God and be able to put together ministries with opportunities like John Piper’s at Desiring God – this looks exciting and gets to the heart of the issue of loving God, loving His Word and loving seeing people connect with all that.
This project might be interesting especially in the light of someone else we know doing a series on Psalms as well. Oh ho good stuff for da man cd! Linked to that it’s worthwhile checking what’s going at the blog project itself.
I wanna get this – it’s really good stuff.
Indeed let’s get it on UFC style with Jacob and Esau
Kirk Franklin Song Chains – in terms of the ministry of seeing people who are captive set free, this is a more than appropriate songs!
Now for all that there is no guarantee that there will be more on the way, but at least you have an idea of some of the things that is going on in the head of ur man cd.
For His Name's Sake
Shalom
da man cd
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