Ordinary Days

Well, I was going to write a post about why I changed the name of my blog to “Ordinary Days,” but then I stumbled upon this blog post from A God-Man in Christ, and it was everything I wanted to share with you and more.  So instead of writing something completely original, I’ll just point you to a blog that already said what I was going to say.  Please visit agodman.com for the full post (this is just the first three paragraphs)!

“Our Christian life is not a spectacular life, filled with all kind of amazing and out-of-the-ordinary events, but it is a normal daily life under the divine dispensing. The Triune God has been processed and consummated so that in His Divine Trinity He may dispense all that He is into us – and this takes place in a daily way, in a normal way, and even in a fine and detailed way. As we turn to Him here and there, He dispenses Himself into us little by little, day by day, bit by bit, causing us to grow in the divine life in a normal way!

Just as our human life, our Christian life is not filled with spectacular things or extraordinary experiences. On the one hand, from time to time, such experiences may occur, but they are not of a daily occurrence. We shouldn’t expect to have a spectacular time each day in receiving the divine dispensing. We shouldn’t expect spectacular results in our Christian life. Rather, we need to be content and satisfied with ordinary days filled with regular and normal practices in our human life under the divine dispensing!

We love our time in the morning with the Lord – seeking His face, touching Him, spending time with Him in a personal way, and being revived by Him every morning. After such a time – which is not spectacular but is a normal experience in the divine life – we go ahead in our daily life and live our life with its daily routine, activities, to-do’s, etc in the divine dispensing. We go to school, we go to work, we travel, we visit, whatever we do during the day, we live ordinary days in the divine dispensing, receiving the fine and sweet dispensing of the Triune God!”

Recently I’ve been enjoying a song that talks about this, and I’ve been impressed with the fact that my Christian life shouldn’t be something so miraculous that it somehow gets separated from my normal, everyday life.  Yes, especially awesome things may happen every once in a blue moon, but that isn’t the Christian life our God has ordained for us.  Our Christian life is a little by little and day by day life.  Daily getting into the word, singing hymns, and meeting with other believers are just a few ways to live this normal Christian life.  In my own experience, I’ve also enjoyed writing verses on my mirror to help me get ready in the morning and listening to online messages of Christian conferences while I clean my house and do laundry.

Ephesians 5:16 says “Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.”  The footnote in my translation says “I.e., seizing every favorable opportunity.  This is be be wise in our walk (v. 15).”  There are so many small times in my day that could be spent with my precious Savior that I overlook.  Waiting in line, driving, and cooking are just a few examples.  O Lord open our eyes!  We want to seize every favorable opportunity to enjoy You!  To love You!  To gain You!

Here’s the song I mentioned earlier.  You can listen to it here.  (I added the verse references to each verse incase any of you wanted to look it up!)

Little by little (Exo. 23:30) the Lord is cutting off all our natural life.  As we grow in Him He replaces us with more of His life divine.

It is our destiny to live a normal life, in the divine dispensing.
It is a blessing to be satisfied with ordinary days in the divine dispensing.

Day by day (2 Cor. 4:16), our inward parts are being renewed by the Lord. Everyday, fresh and rich supply to us He does afford.

Here a little and there a little (Isa. 28:10) Christ reveals Himself to us.  When we read His word, we are satisfied and we enjoy Him thus.

Morning by morning (Lam. 3:23) Jehovah He is faithful to awaken us.  He instructs our ears, with just a word the weary to sustain we must.

From strength to strength (Psa. 84:7) we’re on the highways to enter into our God. Though Satan opposes we are strengthened to lay hold on more of God.

Grace upon grace (John 1:16) the Triune God is processed for us to enjoy.  The law is over, now we can partake of His supply with grace.

From glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18) we are in the process of being transformed. Beholding reflecting, to God’s image with all saints we’ll be conformed.

The Mystery of Human Life Infographic

Look who made her first infographic!  It’s not perfect, but I think it’s pretty good for a first-timer!

For more information on the content of this infographic please visit Living Stream Ministry.

5 Verses on the Comfort of God

Psalm 46:1-3 

“God is our refuge and strength; A help in distress, He is most readily found.

Therefore we will not fear, Though the earth change, And the mountains slip into the heart of the seas;

Though the waters of the sea roar and foam;”

Psalm 18:2

“Jehovah is my crag and my fortress and my Deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my high retreat.”

Nahum 1:7

“Jehovah is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; And He knows those who take refuge in Him.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassions and God of all comfort;

Who comforts us in all our affliction that we may be able to comfort those who are in every affliction through the comforting with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For even as the sufferings of the Christ abound unto us, so through the Christ our comfort also abounds.”

2 Thessalonians 2:16

“Now the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope in grace”

Don’t see your favorite?  Tell me in the comments!

Added by you guys:

1 Corinthians 1:3

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Lord’s Prayer (Part 1)

Almost every church-going Christian can recite the prayer in Matthew 6 from memory.   In case you are unfamiliar with, or have forgotten, this prayer, it reads:

“9 Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified;

10 Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.”

Growing up, my dad took me to a Methodist church and we read it at the end of every service, but I had no idea what it meant.  It was just the signal that church was almost over and I could go home and change into soccer shorts and a t-shirt.  So when I saw that my morning devotional for this week focuses on this prayer I had some mixed feelings.  One reaction was to groan and sigh.  “Ugh.  This again.  I already know this.”  But I was also curious.  “Maybe there’s something here that I’ve never seen before.  Some kind of deeper significance that I never understood.”

Luckily, I went with the second reaction and read it even though I wasn’t too excited about it.  My devotional splits the prayer in to two parts for study, and that’s what I’m going to do here.  The first part is verses 9-10.

“You then pray in this way: Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.”

My devotional points out that first of all, the ones praying have to be children of God.  Otherwise, how could they say “Father”?  And as children of God the ones praying this prayer have the authority, the right, to call God their Father.  Isn’t this wonderful?  We have the right and the authority to call the God of the universe our Father!

I also appreciate this translation’s use of the word “sanctified” in verse 9 instead of the word “hallowed” that I grew up with.  The devotional points out that “To be sanctified means to be separated and distinct from all that is common.  On the fallen earth there are many false gods. The worldly people consider our God as being in common with those gods.  If we pray for our Father’s name to be sanctified, we should not just utter this with our words.  For His name to be sanctified, we should express Him in our living.  We must live a sanctified life, a daily life separated from being common.”

I had never considered how the Father’s name would be sanctified or hallowed.  I guess I just thought if I said the words, it would somehow happen, almost in a superstitious way.  But the devotional points out that as a child of God, I bear the name of my Father.  Therefore, in my daily living I have a responsibility to sanctify His name and make sure it is separated from all other “gods” and anything else that is common.  The Lord’s name is cursed and spoken evilly of throughout the whole earth.  He needs some who would sanctify His name and make it holy.  Lord, make me this kind of person!  I don’t just want to say these words!  I want to live this prayer!

And lastly, the devotional talks about verse 10.  “Today the world is not God’s kingdom but His enemy’s kingdom.  This is why the Bible says that Satan is the ruler of today’s world (John 12:31).  In Satan’s kingdom, the world, there is no righteousness, no peace, and no joy.  Romans 14:17 tells us that the reality of the kingdom life is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.  In Satan’s kingdom today, there is no joy, because there is no peace.”

Wow.  This really opened my eyes to see the real situation on the earth today.  I knew that when the Lord comes back He will establish His kingdom, but I guess I didn’t think of it as pushing out or defeating Satan’s kingdom.  “We need to pray for the Father’s divine will to be done on earth as in the heavens.  This is to bring the heavenly ruling, the kingdom of the heavens, to this earth.  Then the Father’s will surely will be done on the earth.”

After reading this devotional my view of this prayer has done a complete 180.  It’s not just something to repeat verbatim in a church service.  Its more of a blueprint for how to live the Christian life and a skeleton model of what to pray for.  I’ve realized that I can take any one of the verses and expand it to apply to the world situation to today and to my daily living.  What a wonderful pattern of prayer the Lord gave us!

Coals burning coals

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m not feeling all that great.  I’ve got insomnia and headaches and blah blah blah, so the thought of not going to a church meeting is really appealing.  Last night Christians on Campus and some christians around the area had a prayer meeting.  I somehow managed to drag my nasty, stinking, dead self to the meeting, and let me tell you – I got revived.  I wasn’t jumping up and down and shouting hallelujah all over the place, but I was warmed up.  It was so good to just be around other people who were enjoying God.

I heard an illustration once that the Christian life is like a bunch of coals.  If you have a pile of coals, they’ll burn each other for hours.  But if you separate one of the coals from the pile, it will cool off pretty quickly.  That’s what happens to me when I separate myself from other Christians.

That experience last night reminded me how precious Christian meetings are.  I know a lot of Christians (some of my family members included) think it’s enough to just have a personal relationship with the Lord without attending Christian gatherings.  A personal relationship with our dear Lord and Savior is extremely important, but that’s not all there is to the Christian life.

John 20:24 says “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.”

Seems like an odd verse right?  Well, the Bible I’m using has a fantastic footnote for this verse:

“After His resurrection the Lord came to meet with His disciples, beginning from the evening of this first day.  Thus, in the Lord’s resurrection the matter of meeting with the saints is crucial.  Mary the Magdalene met the Lord personally in the morning and obtained the blessing (vv. 16-18), but she still needed to be in the meetings with the saints in the evening to meet the Lord in a corporate way to obtain more and greater blessings (vv. 19-23).  Thomas missed the first meeting that the Lord held with the disciples after His resurrection, and he missed all the blessings as well.  However, he compensated for it by attending the second meeting (vv. 25-28).”

Can you believe that?  Mary had seen the Lord in His resurrection – something no one else was privileged to see.  She went to the tomb early and hung around until she saw Him.  She had one of the most wonderful, personal, and intimate experiences a believer could ever have with the Lord.  She met him face to face after He resurrected from the dead and before He ascended to the Father.  You’d think that would be enough to sustain her in her Christian pursuit for a while, right?  But according to the Lord, it wasn’t.  He told her to go to the brothers and meet with them.

In Hebrews 12:2 the writer (probably Paul) said he would “declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.”  In 10:25 he goes on by saying “Not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Wow, this was Paul.  In 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 Paul tells us that he was “caught away to the third heaven” and into “Paradise” where he “heard unspeakable words.”  This man, this same man, told us to not abandon our own assembling together.  Even though he saw things that no one living human being had ever seen and heard things that no other living human being had heard, he still made a point to attend Christian gatherings with pitiful and lowly little believers like me.

The same Paul wrote Ephesians 4:16 “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”

Paul not only met with the other believers, he realized that he needed the other believers.  He didn’t go to meetings to fulfill some religious obligation, but he went to get joined and knit with the other members of the Body of Christ for the growth of the Body of Christ.  He even says in 1 Corinthians 12:14-22 that every member of the Body has a different function, and that even the members who appear to be weaker are necessary.  Hallelujah!  Even I’m a necessary part of the Body of Christ!

This is so good!  Don’t miss the meetings!  You receive blessings in the meetings!  You get built up with and encouraged by other Christians in the meetings!

There’s a lot more I could write on this topic (and I feel like this is all kind of scattered thanks to my lack of sleep), but I think I’ll end it here.  Maybe i’ll continue it later.

Eachonehas.com – God’s Desire for Man Today

A wonderful, short video of a young speech pathologist’s enjoyment of Genesis 2:8-9.

Eachonehas.com

Do you realize that Christ is in you?

I am reading through a book called the Life-Study of Colossians, and today I read a  portion on Christ being applicable in our experience that really touched me.

“In 1:27 Paul speaks of ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ Do you realize that Christ is in you? The Christ who is in us is the extensive, immeasurable, unsearchable One. How marvelous that such a Christ dwells in us!”

So many times I forget what it means to say that I am a Christian.  Yes, I have been redeemed (Romans 3:24, Ephesians 1:7) and forgiven of my sins, but I also have also received Christ, who is God, into me.  This is what it means to be born again (John 3:6).

It’s always good to be reminded that I haven’t received some kind of super-human ability to follow rules or maintain an impossibly high moral standard, but I have received THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE into me.  How cool is that?!?!

Here are some verses telling us that Christ is in us as Christians:

Colossians 1:27 – “To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Romans 8:10 – “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.”

2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves.  Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved.”

But how do we know that Jesus Christ is God?

Romans 9:5 – “Whose are the fathers, and out of whom, as regards what is according to flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.  Amen.”

1 John 5:20 – “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God and eternal life.

John 20:26-28 – “And after eight days, His disciples were again within, and Thomas was with them.  Jesus came, though the doors were shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be to you.  Then He said to Thomas, Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.  Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God!”

A question I found myself asking is “If I have received Jesus Christ into me as the ‘extensive, immeasurable, and unsearchable One’, how come I don’t experience Him as such an extensive, immeasurable, and unsearchable God?  I don’t know about you, but sometimes it just feels like God is way up in the heavens and I’m way down here on earth and there’s no contact between us.  I’m doing my thing and He’s doing His thing.

Well, I just finished the Life-Study of Joshua and a couple of sentences in that book actually answered my question.  It says “We gain Christ, experience Christ, and enjoy Christ according to what we are.  Therefore, someone who is diligent in pursuing Christ will experience a larger Christ than someone who is lazy in this matter.”

Wow.  That is really exposing.  God wants to be immeasurable to me in my experience, but I limit Him to the point that sometimes I even forget He’s there.  I want to be like Paul in Philippians chapter three who pursued toward the goal for the prize (v. 14) and stretched forward to the things that are before while forgetting the things that are behind (v. 13).  He was a real pattern in being diligent to pursue Christ.

O Lord Jesus!  Make me like Paul!  I want to be one that pursues You!  I don’t want to be lazy anymore!  I want to lay hold on You!  I want to gain You!  I want to know and experience You to the fullest extent!

Channels of Life

Have you ever considered that

“Life is God the Father in Christ Jesus / As the Spirit flowing into us. / How enjoyable, this Person wonderful! / He’s our life so rich and bountiful.”

I love this song.  It reminds me that eternal life isn’t simply some amount of time i’ll spend in heaven after I die.  Eternal life is a person, Jesus Christ (John 1:4, 5:26, 11:25).  When someone prays to receive the Lord and to be born again or regenerated, they are actually receiving the eternal life of God into them.  WOW!  That is amazing.  Can you imagine?  The God of the universe wants to put His very life inside of measly little sinners like us.  Incredible.

But God has no intention of stopping with us.  He wants to flow out of us and into other people.  This is the topic of my morning devotional this week that some of us in Christians on Campus are going through.

In 1 John 5:14-16 we see John’s word concerning how to take care of a brother who is sinning a sin “not unto death.”  John tells the reader that “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and he will give life to him, to those sinning not unto death” (v. 16).  GIVE LIFE TO HIM.  How in the world am I supposed to give life, eternal life, to someone else???  This sounds awesome, and it’s pretty amazing that the Bible says we can participate in this, but how?

Our devotional says “If we enjoy eternal life and experience it, surely we shall be able to channel this life to others.  We shall be able to minister eternal life to other members of the Body.”  In John 7:38 Jesus tells a huge crowd of people “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus gave a similar declaration to the Samaritan woman in John 4:13-14.  “Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water spring up into eternal life.”  So here we have a connection between the eternal life of God and the living water.  The living water is the life of God experienced by us!  Hallelujah!

Back to John 7:38.  I have heard this verse explained by saying that the rivers are actually the various divine attributes of God (love, light, etc.) spreading into our soul (which is awesome), but this devotional expounded it in a different way.  It says “In chapter seven the living water is not only in us, but it also has become rivers of living water.  It flows out of us into others and supplies others with life and satisfies their thirst.  God is not satisfied with us only having His life; He wants His life to flow out of us.”

This was a completely new view on the rivers of living water in John for me.  Totally caught me off guard, but this is exactly what 1 John is talking about, this is the life that we can minister to our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

The devotional continues:

“Today God is seeking people into whom He can dispense Christ’s life more and more so that they can supply others with His life.  Life needs channels, and God wants men to be the channels through which His life can flow to others.  May the Lord gain us so that we can have a life-supplying ministry and supply others with life.”

Oh Lord!  Make me a person that You can flow through!  I don’t want to bottle You up inside of me!  Make me a channel of life!  I want to flow out to my coworkers!  To my family!  To my friends!

“Eternal life not only takes care of our own need; it also takes care of the need of the fellow members around us.  It overcomes death within us, and it overcomes death within our brothers.  Especially, it overcomes death in those who are weak or who have problems.”

Both of my parents are psychologists.  They know how to give therapy and talk people into feeling better.  But I can’t do that.  I don’t like doing that.  People and their problems scare and intimidate me because I don’t know what to say or what to do.  But I’m so encouraged by this word!  People don’t need me!  They don’t need my good advice or similar experiences!  They just need God!  God is the only One that can meet everyone’s every need!  I just need to flow out the God that I have been enjoying!  This is so sweet!  I’m no therapist, but I can be a channel of life!  Hallelujah!

(Me trying to give therapy ^)

Want to break free from everything that’s holding you back?

If You Want to Be Freed From Every Negative Thing and Saturated With the Divine Element, You Need to Read the Bible

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” – John 8:32

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” – John 17:17

“It is a very significant matter to have the truth, for it frees us from all negative things and saturates us with the divine element.  The more truth we have, the more we are released from bondage and the more we are saturated with the element of God.  Eventually the truth will cause us to be thoroughly sanctified and transformed.” – Truth Messages (Ch. 1), Witness Lee

This has really been my experience.  There have been plenty of times when I was filled to the brim with all kinds of anger, fear, anxiety, jealousy, etc. to the point that I felt like I was a prisoner of my own emotions.  The last thing I want to do when I’m in that condition is read the Bible, but I have found that when I just stop my being and pick up the word, something happens inside of me.  All those terrible thoughts and emotions just fall away.  I don’t try to be a good or loving or patient or whatever person.  I just read the word and somehow I get set free from everything that is troubling me.  The source of my anger or anxiety (ex: work, school) might still be there, but the condition of my heart is changed.  God is able to come into and saturate my thoughts.  In this way, by letting God into my situation through reading the Bible, I get transformed and saturated with God.  This is the best way I have found to be freed from all of the negative things in my being.