Joshua was like one of those old knights who slept in their armor. He was always fighting. His sword must have been well hacked, and often must his armor have been blood-red. He had before him a lifelong enterprise. Such is the life of the Christian, a warfare from cud to end. As soon as you are washed in Christ’s blood and clothed in his righteousness, you must begin to hew your way through a lane of enemies, right up to the eternal throne. Every foot of the way will be disputed; not an inch will Satan yield to you. You must continue daily to fight. – C. H. Spurgeon – Joshua’s Obedience
A happy new year reader. When this meets you, we would have comfortably settled into the month of January. It has been a while since I published on these pages. Reader, I use these pages as a hobby and the words written in the last few years have not been quite ready for your eyes. To be completely honest, excuses and indiscipline have also played a part in how rarely I post. But reader, I have vowed and will try.
So what to say after such a long time? I worried about what this first post should be. Do I ignore the interval and just post as normal or acknowledge the drought of words. I will do both. A note of explanation and a drawing of the line.
Consecration.
If His burden is light and His yoke is easy why does it feel like a maze to rest in salvation?
This life comes with warfare but victory feels fleeting.
An impossible list of do’s and don’ts.
Restraints instead of the freedom He promised.
One side of the coin tells you it costs obedience and that is a steep price most mornings.
Would rather amen the blessings and snatch at the good “prophecies”, but should God sit me down and tell me of my sin, the woman at the well I will be.
Baby girl, you’ve loved five men and the one you’re with is also not yours.
Yes, but God. The Mountain.
The flesh in me wants the quick fix.
His Spirit in me reminds me, I entered battle by taking His name.
Paul speaks of beating his body into submission.
Consecration.
You will tithe and serve like they tell you to. Sermon after sermon you will watch. Moved to tears, in those moments you will believe the clouds to have lifted and a new heart in place of the old.
But the Sunday feels will end.
When life lifes, you’ll find this thing you thought to be faith is but a mist blown away in the test.
Not what the ancients were commended for.
In the worst of the moments, you’ll wonder if you are saved or if as he hung on that cross, he took everyone else’s sin except yours.
Some nights you’ll fear sleep because sometimes the demons find you there.
You’ll feel for the angel assigned to you because it feels like she is beaten to a pulp most mornings.
Reader I know what you are thinking because years later I will see it for what it is.
The devil's got his roots deep in her soil and the voice in her head is not of the One.
You will surmise correctly reader, but in the middle of the fight all I know is to wonder and hear the words of the serpent, did God really say.
In the times where you wish for neither night or day, the Father in His infinite mercy will meet you again and again. In His kindness, he will teach you like a child who He is. He will erase the words of the ones who taught you wrong. He will pour His love into you and you will find rest. You will know Him to your bones to be Good. In His magnitude, He will call you loved and you will finally feel that love. Time and time again, morning after morning His mercies, new everyday, will be your guiding light. The devil will fight to unearth all He plants. But you believe Him when he calls himself your Shepherd and says that nothing can snatch you from Him.
THE WEEK THAT WAS:
Words of note –
A few words from Your God Is Too Small by J.B Philips. My reading list right now is a mix of the questions I am asking God and gifts from friends.
“Such a god is, of course, in the highest degree inadequate. It is impossible for people who have persuaded themselves that God has failed, to worship or serve Him in any but a grudging and perfunctory spirit. What has usually happened to such people is that they have set up in their minds what they think God ought or ought not to do, and when He apparently fails to toe their particular line they feel a sense of grievance. Yet it is surely more sensible, as well as more fitting, for us human beings to find out, as far as we can, the ways in which God works. We have to discover as far as we can the limits He has set Himself for the purposes of this Great Experiment that we call Life and then do our best to align ourselves with the principles and co-operate with the purposes that we have certainly had no say in deciding, but which nevertheless in our highest moments we know are good. God will inevitably appear to disappoint the man who is attempting to use Him as a convenience, a prop, or a comfort, for his own plans. God has never been known to disappoint the man who is sincerely wanting to co-operate with His own purposes“
Thankful for –
- Laughter in grandmas garden
2. The answered prayer of knowing His voice
3. That He makes no mistakes even though you are full of them
after the wilderness 