Skip to main content

Projects

           But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; (I Corinthians 9:26)

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30)

          You’ve probably seen it on Facebook. Someone shows you something they got at a thrift store or Dollar Tree that you and I would probably say is useless, and they turn it into something whimsical, beautiful,  useful, or otherwise wonderful. I wish I had the craftiness needed to pull off some of those transformations. Of course, some of them require a fair amount of skill with tools or supplies that I tend to be afraid to try to develop.

          God doesn’t have that problem, and reclamation seems to be one of His hobbies. Only He’s not looking at a candy dish or a floor lamp. He’s looking at us and some of the work He wants to do isn’t exactly comfortable. Being sanded down to the raw wood or otherwise removing stains and paints from the outside can be painful or ugly. Things that have always been a part of our life in this way suddenly be turned upside down or replaced with something unfamiliar. We may find ourselves put in a collection with things we don’t like. And that color paint/stain to refinish us? That hardware? Who is He kidding? We had another idea in mind, and more often than not, that other idea makes us look good, powerful, or impressive. Sometimes, we’re afraid that if we don’t direct God, we’ll end up looking like a Grinch Leg Lamp.

          And this is where we can run into a difficulty. The sermon yesterday morning at my church had to do with being doers of the Word, and not just hearers. And that’s right. But if we are “doing” God’s Word to impress others, we’re not doing God’s Word. We can work really hard at all the things we find in Scripture, but if it’s for others to praise us, it’s not from God. On the other hand (and I fear this is more often my case) if I sit around waiting for God to change me, inspire me, move me, give me clear commands, etc., then I am not becoming like Christ.

          This brings us to the other passages above. There are times when we need to be Rocky and times when we need to be Jello. Right now, I’m trying to walk the line between those two as I meditate on how God sees me. And today’s notion of a project is one I can relate to. I like projects. I can’t say I’m good enough that I can do things that don’t make sense and have them turn out beautiful, but I’ve seen it happen.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more