Skip to main content

Adjustments

           May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 5:23)

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

In Henry Blackabee’s Experiencing God he wrote about seven realities of experiencing God: (p 50)

1.      God is always at work around you.

2.      God always pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.

3.      God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.

4.      God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purpose, and His ways.

5.      God’s invitation for you to work with him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.

6.      You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.

7.      You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.

I would amend the first of the realities as “around and in you.” However, the focus of last night’s reading was the sixth reality.

Years ago, my back hurt so badly that to get out of bed in the morning, I had to pull myself onto my side and then push myself to a sitting position. One night, out of the blue, the question came to mind whether a chiropractor could help. I found one, and after several months of appointments, I found myself pain-free. Now and again, I’ve done something to my back, and he has helped by adjusting by spine and hips, putting them back in proper alignment.

To join God in what He is doing, we must make major adjustments, which are akin to the adjustments I had to make while my chiropractor was adjusting my spine and hips. I needed to build muscle strength to keep his work from going out of alignment again. The chiropractor initiated the work. I didn’t always cooperate. When I did, my whole life improved, but even though I wasn’t perfect in my cooperation, his adjustments were necessary before my adjustments could be much help. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...