Thursday, August 4, 2016

In The Deep End Of The Pool


Psalm 139:7:10
I can never escape from Your Spirit! I can never get away from Your presence! If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to the grave, You are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there Your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

Always there.....
Always pursuing....
Always loving......
Yet we don't understand that this is God's nature and character.
We sometimes see Him as a terrible ogre, carrying a fist full of lightning bolts to hurl at us when we've been bad.
Or maybe we view God as some doddering old fool, sitting on a huge rock throne up in heaven too bored to care about what goes on in this world. Oh He created it,but He views it as a kind of toy you wind up and leave to run down.
Truth is....
God is always around us.
We are immersed in Him....
We are at the bottom of a pool that has been filled with God's presence.

Take into account our sin....
Our sin nature....
The influence that the devil has in our society...

And our gullibility to swallow his line....
And we've got a pretty skewered view of who God is and what He wants to accomplish in our life.
God is love...
Sin tells me that God is angry and on a tear. He's out to get me. Well, there is some truth to that statement. God is out to get me....get me out of the mess I've created. Get me out of hell, which is my destiny if I don't change.


God is salvation....

Sin tells me that I don't need to be saved. After all, I don't want to turn out like all those other so called "Christians" I see. The root word to salvation is "salvage". To salvage something is to reclaim it and restore it to it's original state. You see, sin is not my original state, or the way God created me to live. God, through the conviction of His Holy Spirit, salvages me off the humanity garbage heap. He cleans me out.....cleans me up and causes my real value to be seen by others. I need to be salvaged!

God is freedom....
Sin tells me that I am the captain of my own ship (Never mind that I've run it aground).

Sin lies to us with the false notion that we are free. In reality we've become slaves to a dark master whose only desire is to see us destroyed, along with everyone else around us. God wants to bring us into the light of real freedom. Freedom isn't me getting to do what I want to do......real freedom is me doing what I ought to do.

God is healing....
Sin tells me to take one more hit....one more line.....fire the pipe up once more...this is all the medicine I need. here again, we've bought into a lie. Our DOC doesn't heal us, or comfort us...it merely clouds our minds so that we fall under the spell of a false reality. One that whispers to us with sweet promises, but only delivers death and misery.

God is mercy....
Sin tells me that it's a dog eat dog world and I can't show mercy to anyone, or receive it from anyone. Really? Then why is it when we get caught, the very first thing we ask for is mercy?
Maybe our need for such is an inborn trait given to us by God. One that can only find deep, true satisfaction when we receive God's mercy.


God is everywhere.
God is calling us...
Why not answer it today?

God on you....

mbb


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