Now We See In Part

January 31, 2015

Now We See In Part

“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.”

There’s nothing more precious than to meet God in quietness, away from the noise.

Oh…to meet with Him alone in worship and experience a glimpse of Who He is! Not in petitions for ourselves or others, rather just being in His presence, adoring Him, praising Him…just a few minutes totally and completely His!

When we enter in to the throne of grace in humility with the sole purpose of praising Him—when we humble ourselves and ask Him (the way Moses did) to reveal Himself to us, He gives us with a little glimpse of His glory, enticing us to want more. It is an incredible experience that does not last long, only a few seconds…it is an incredible pool of emotions all coming together: joy, peace, gladness, excitement, strength, etc…This feeling of being secure in His presence and being assured that nothing can touch us, it is a feeling of hope, of what awaits us on the other side of heaven!

This ecstasy of complete and absolute joy is already ours but we only experience a glimpse of it because we are surrounded by sin. But when the time comes, the Lord will fulfill His promise and we will behold His glory, we will be filled with His glory and nothing will take that away from us.  We have no idea what this will be like but we know that it will be incredible.  I have 1 Corinthians 2:9 in the front of my mind and I think of it often:

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of man

The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

This promise, among others, fills my heart with hope and anticipation. What will heaven be like? How will it be like to live without the shadow of sin? What will it be like to experience God in His fullness?

I am reminded of the recent foggy morning we experienced. On the way to taking my granddaughter to school, the fog was dense and we could not see anything in front of us. Sofia asked me, “nana, how do you know you’re going the right way?” my answer, “I know the way and if we stay on this lane, we will end up where we are going.” Her trusting answer was, “okay.” When we reached a bridge (a landmark she’s familiar with), she exclaimed, “Yes! I know where we are now, I can see it!” and she was at ease, after a little while she said, “it’s like heaven, we can’t really see but we know is there.” I was stunned! She understands! She went on to tell me that when we go to be with Jesus we will see things with no fog.

I love how the Lord speaks in ways we do not expect. He uses every opportunity to speak to us if we only listen. It is this kind of experiences that makes God so Awesome in my heart! He reminds me every day that no matter how bad things get, no matter how dark it gets, He is in control and we do not see yet ALL that He has prepared for us. Things around the world are NOT out of control; they are where they’re supposed to bring to fulfillment everything that was written.

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” –Romans 11:33.

 Seek God! He wants to be known by us. In Ezekiel there is a phrase written over and over again: “Then they shall know that I am the LORD.” He wants to be known!

Be encouraged! Set your eyes above and your heart on the promises of the Lord.

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes,

and in Him Amen,

to the glory of God through us.”

Amen! To Him be the glory!

Distractions!

January 18, 2015

Today. What is “today?” I find myself struggling to get a hold of “today.” The hours, the minutes play “catch me if you can” with me every day!

I like to get up early, before anyone else and study the Word of God. I have a plan. I prepare everything ahead of time….my Bible, my notebook, my iPad, my laptop. I open my iPad to get to my Logos app and a message pops up on my screen that needs my attention. I tried to ignore it but it wants my attention so I take a look at it—bad choice! I find myself caught up in everything dealing with that message, which leads me to other messages, and those messages lead me to other messages…I lost my objective for that morning, to read the Word of God!

So I make a commitment for the next morning to go straight to the Bible study with no computer, no iPhone, no iPad-- I’m doing good…I read one verse and then I get to that one word and I want to know more about it…Without thinking (as a robot would do), I open my laptop to look up that one word on my Logos software which leads me to another reference which leads me to another reference and…I get caught up in something else completely different from where I started. I click on commentaries, word studies, maps, etc.…and my plan to read the Word of God goes off the wayside because now…it’s time to get going with the day’s demands. Time has run out!

As I get older, time plays more games with me. I thought I was the only one with this ordeal but I hear the same complain all around me, “doesn’t it seem as though the hours are running together instead of one after another?” When I heard this comment from someone in my office, I was stunned! Was he reading my mind? A scripture popped in to my head right away: Matthew 24:22 “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

Could it be that the Lord is shortening the days, as we get closer to the end? Are we experiencing the phenomenon that will occur during the tribulation period? We are not there yet but everything, every prophecy is converging together for those last seven years of man’s rebellion against God.

I believe we (followers of Jesus Christ) are living on borrowed time. Look up and see! The clouds are gathering together for that great, awesome storm: The Day of the Lord! It is near, at the door and we must be alert, grabbing every second we can to do the work the Lord has called us to do. The enemy keeps us occupied so that we lose our time with meaningless things but we must fight, we must keep on fighting until we are called home to be with our Lord.  We must fight with everything we have because time is even shorter for us! The Lord commands us in Luke 19:13 to “Do business till I come.” –The Lord is coming soon, very soon!

Today is passing and there’s nothing we can do about that! Can we fool time? Of course not! All we can do is grab the “bunches” of “spare” time we have and use it the right way because every second that passes it is lost forever!

“Today is the day the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

-Psalm 118:24

TODAY!

January 2, 2015

I have been scared until just a few minutes ago. Scared of the future. Scared of the things I hear could happen this year. Scared of the overwhelming task of keeping the finances for the house, of making decisions that will affect us for a very long time. All I want to do is follow the Lord and doing His will—but the more I try not to worry, the more I continue to play things in my mind that overwhelm my heart.

I thank you, Abba, that you looked at my heart and showed me what is wrong. I am not practicing my own preaching! I tell every one else to walk by faith—and here I am doing the opposite, worrying! Thank you for the scripture you gave me this morning. I know it comes from you because I was not looking for it. And you showed it to me twice, which is a sign for me to pay attention:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything

by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,

let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds

through Christ Jesus.”—Phil. 4:6-7

The world is turning up side down, falling into an endless labyrinth of chaos, my personal problems are overwhelming and the need to help others is even more overwhelming. Things seem to be going out of control.

Thank you Lord that you showed me my anxious heart and my tendency to worry with things that do not belong to me. I need to learn to take things day by day. Springs in the Valley, January 3 teaches me in regards to the same scripture:

“There are two golden days in the week…two carefree days, kept sacredly free from fear and apprehension.”

“Yesterday” – “with its cares and frets, all its pains and aches, all its faults, mistakes and blunders, has passed forever beyond my recall. I cannot undo an act that I wrought; nor unsay a word that I said. All that it holds of my life, of wrong, regret and sorrow, is in the hands of the Mighty Love that can bring honey out of the rock and sweetest waters out of the bitterest desert. Save for the beautiful memories—sweet and tender—that linger like the perfume of roses in the heart of that day that is gone, I have nothing to do with Yesterday. It was mine! It is God’s!”

How many times in my life do I have to remember that I cannot change Yesterday? I like that it says, “is in the hands of the Mighty Love…” The Mighty Love who can turn my lemons into lemonade! 

But it is not Yesterday that occupies my heart and my mind, it is its sister Tomorrow that grabs my heart like a mighty grisly bear. It wraps me around with its overwhelming strong arms and holds me tight, too tight for me to breath, too big to look ahead, too awesome to focus on today…all I see is the darkness of its embrace all around me. But…praise the Lord Who never leaves me too long in my own thoughts and leads me out of my mind... Of Tomorrow He shows me through this devotional:

“Tomorrow, with all its possible adversities, its burdens, its perils, its large promise and poor performance, its failures and mistakes, is as far beyond my mastery as its dead sister, Yesterday. It is a day of God’s. Its sun will rise in roseate splendor, or behind a mask of weeping clouds—but it will rise.

Until then, the same Love and Patience that held Yesterday holds Tomorrow. Save for the star of hope that gleams forever on the brow of Tomorrow, shining with tender promise into the heart of Today, I have no possession in the unborn day of grace. All else is in the safe keeping of the Infinite Love that is higher than the stars, wider than the skies, deeper than the seas. Tomorrow is God’s day! It will be mine!”

It doesn’t make sense to worry about Tomorrow. It is God’s Day and no one else’s. I cannot see it. I cannot grab it. I cannot determine its outcome. It will be here and, like the author says, it will be mine. So what is the point? Here’s what the author says:

“There is left for myself, then, but one day in the week—Today…

It isn’t the experience of Today that drives men mad. It is the remorse for something that happened Yesterday, the dread of what Tomorrow may disclose.

These are God’s days! Leave them with Him!”

Yesterday I made mistakes, I made wrong choices driven by emotions, but I know that the Lord is able to turn all my mistakes into learning lessons and He is able to work all things together for good. Today I mourn in my heart the bad choices I made, but a light flickers in front of me, it is the light of the hope that Tomorrow brings!

Praise the Lord that He is in charge of my Yesterdays and that He holds my Tomorrows.

Today I start this blog. It is a good day. The name I chose for this blog, Perhaps Today! it is because of the hope that I awake to each morning, the hope that Perhaps Today the Lord will call me home and I will behold His glory. Whether by death or by rapture my Today will come. Praise God!

Happy New Year! May the Lord fill your Todays!

Thank you for reading this, I appreciate your comments.