Where are we looking?

 

So often we spend so much energy searching for everything else, besides God. When we continue this pattern for a long time, we eventually grow restless and dissatisfied. C.S. Lewis reminds us of the simple adjustment we need to make in our Spiritual lives:

"Look for Christ and you will find him. And with Him, everything else." 

Matthew 6:33-34 - 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

What do you think of this?

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Who is watching who?

"On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely." - Luke 14:1

The great irony of Jesus sharing a meal with the Pharisee was that although he was being watched very carefully, Jesus was equally observant about their behaviour. This is why he asked them a very challenging question concerning the man who had dropsy (v.2-3). Matthew Henry comments on this verse by arguing:

"Even in the common actions of life, Christ marks what we do, not only in our religious assemblies, but at our tables." 

This challenges us to include Christ in all aspects of our lives and not just at the 'religious' moments in our communities. We may be able to fool some people during our religious moments, but we can't fool God when we live the rest of the week. 

"The one you are looking for is the one who is looking." - St. Francis of Assisi 

Living in Grace

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If I cannot find .....

Oh my goodness - what a challenging, real, powerful piece of writing. Please don't "enjoy" it, but rather be moved by the words!

If I cannot find the face of Jesus in the face of those who are my enemies,

If I cannot find him in the unbeautiful, 

If I cannot find him in those who have the “wrong ideas,”

If I cannot find him in the poor and the defeated,

how will I find him in the bread and wine, or in the life after death? 

If I do not reach out in this world to those with whom he has identified himself, 

why do I imagine that I will want to be with him, and them, in heaven?

Why would I want to be for all eternity in the company of those I avoided every day of my life? - Jim Forest

Matthew 9:13 - "But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Living in Grace

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Hummingbird or Vulture?

I came across this lovely illustration the other day and I think it speaks volumes into how we see the world. Apologies to those who heard it on Sunday, but it is worth reading again.



Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation's deserts. All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colourful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is looking for. We all do.  - Steve Goodier

So, in response to that story, what are we looking for?
If we look for the bad and negative, we will be sure to find it - we don't have to look far. 
However, if we are willing to look for the good in others and in the world, surely we will also find it?

Genesis 37:14-15 - ^"So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”



Living in Grace
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Full in the face

Looking at someone 'full in the face' is a sign of love and appreciation. It tells the other person that we value them and that they are worthy of our attention. The way you look at someone can tell them a lot about what you think of them. So, with this in mind, have a read of Numbers 6:24-26 from Eugene Peterson's 'The Message':

"God bless you and keep you,

25 God smile on you and gift you,

26 God look you full in the face
    and make you prosper."

May God look at you 'FULL in the face' today and may you feel God's pleasure.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Looking for God

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world." - Matthew 5:8

"Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how." -Thomas Merton

Living in Grace
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Right in front of your eyes

I was looking all over the place for a document just now - I knew I had just seen it, but for some reason I couldn't locate it. I was turning my desk upside down trying to find it. All of a sudden, I looked down at my desk again and there was the piece of paper sitting in front of me.

It WAS the one I had been looking for.
Man was I irritated!

Why couldn't I see it in the first place? What prevented me from seeing that it was the document I needed? I honestly don't know! It could have been a number of different reasons, but thankfully I FOUND it in the end.

Is this how our FAITH works sometimes? Do we search frantically to try and locate God, when all along God is right in front of us. Or should we say, God has not moved anywhere, but we are rather distracted in our vision of Him.

1 Samuel 25:29 - "Even if someone comes along searching for you and seeking your life, your life will be bound in the bundle of life with Adonai your God."

What do you think of this?

Living in grace
D3LM3

What's in your fridge?

Have you ever caught yourself (or another family member) standing with the fridge door open, peering inside? When you ask them "what are you looking for", they don't have a reasonable answer. Their answer is something like:

"Mmmmh, I just don't know! I am hungry, but I don't know what I am hungry for!"

There are many of us who are standing at the "fridge door" of our spiritual lives, sensing that we are hungry for something, but we just don't have a clue what will satisfy our hunger. I would like to suggest that we are not really looking for 'something' to satisfy our hunger, but that we are rather looking for 'someone.'

In my opinion that someone is Jesus Christ. You are welcome to disagree with me, but that is my experience. I am not speaking about finding the answer in 'religion', because that too is empty and hollow. I am talking about putting my trust in the person of Jesus Christ. In committing to a personal relationship with the Living God.



“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” (John 4:13-15)

Don't spend too long peering into the "fridge" - the answer you are looking for may be staring you right in the face!

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Where are you looking?

If you are looking for bad news, you will find it. It seems that we are very good at taking note of all the pain and suffering in the world, but we never linger with Good news. It is as if we have become conditioned to let good news melt away and so then our plight becomes:
"....you will gaze upon the bad news. End of story!"

If this is our 'lot' in life, then it is little wonder that people become disillusioned with God.But this is not the message of Jesus. He comes to give us life in all it's fullness and to savour the sweetness of God's grace and love. So, perhaps we are looking in the wrong direction?

“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.” - Abraham Lincoln

Living in Grace
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