GREENE STREET LETTERS: The Real Me

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Real Me

Psalm 71 (Message Bible)
Just as each day brims with Your beauty, my mouth brims with praise,
but don't turn me out to pasture when I'm old or put me on the shelf
when I can't pull my weight....

61 1/2 years old, and I feel like a kid again.
The love that I have tapped into is as old as creation but is as new to me today as this dawn that is breaking outside my window.
With this love comes a deep appreciation for who You are, Lord.
I'm not going to lie (You already know anyway)....I fell prey to loving what you did more than loving You for who you are.
Kind of sick, isn't it Father?
But You.....
Unfailing in your character and nature....
You....
The Author and Finisher of this salvation You have so wonderfully poured out on me (and anyone else who would receive it)...
Never change...
Culture changes...
People change....
Governments change....
Celebrities come and go...
But You are a constant presence and stability in a world gone mad.
People curse You .....yet You keep on loving.
People want to remove every semblance of You from society....
But you keep on being faithful.
You keep loving...
You keep calling us, daily to Your side.

I drifted out the edge, but you kept Your hand upon me.
I lost sight of You and tried to find you through the words of Your Bible.
You were there all the time, but I couldn't see you.
I had lost sight of Your love...
What I thought was You, turned out to be the hardness of my own heart.
Slowly (and deliberately might I add) I covered up tenderness with the flowing robes of a pharisee. All flash and sparkle on the outside....but empty and hollow on the inside.
I discarded the real love from the heart (that you require) and replaced it with a verbal acknowledgement that was as cold and hard as a granite tombstone. In fact that was where my love for You and others had been taken. The grave.
I plodded along daily...
Praying daily....yet filled with doubt and fear.
Those Pharisee robes come in pretty handy when you're living like this..you can fool anyone into thinking you're really spiritual. But I never could fool You, could I Lord?

You kept Your hand upon me....
You moved events around me....
You lovingly called me back to your side and Your heart.
And I came.
Restored...
Renewed...
Refreshed....
And about a million other "Re's" that I can't even think of at this moment.
So thank You for the gift of life today....
More than that, thank You that I am learning to love all over again.
Thank You for who You are....
Amen.

God on you....
mb

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: These letters are very heart touching and making me see my own need to have a real and close walk with Him. It truly is so easy to have a Pharisee's robe to hide behind. I want to have the real thing, though. Thanks for these posts.; May 20, 2013 at 8:12 AM
Greene Street Letters said...: Man....we are all busted and tore up. I kept trying to be "good enough" when God was simply waiting for me to come to Him. I bless you today and pray that you keep on, keeping on.
It's the greatest love story ever and you've been invited to join in. Is that cool or what?; May 20, 2013 at 1:43 PM

Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Real Me

2 comments:

THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD