Tag: Heaven

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Perfection Problems

 

Dear sister,

I hate to break it to you, but life is not perfect, and neither are you.When I was a kid, my mom would remind me, “Karlie, you are not perfect, and you never will be. You might as well realize this now.” This may sound harsh, but I really struggled with perfectionism as a kid, to the point of frustration. Basically, she was saying life is not perfect and putting my hope in something that I cannot obtain is hopeless. Telling someone they are not perfect may sound discouraging, but it can be exhausting expecting perfection in a fallen world.

So does that mean we stop striving for perfection? We desire perfection, but often look to the wrong places for perfection. I usually put my hope in planning. If everything goes according to plan, my life will be perfect. But life is not perfect; relationships fall through, cars break down, family members get sick, etc. So what do we do? Well, if you are like me, I worry. At least then I feel like I am being productive. But in the end I find worrying doesn’t accomplish anything other than raise my stress level.

“The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:5b-7)

I am not the one in control. Worry only reveals a heart that does not fully trust the Lord with all things. If God can take care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field (Matt. 6:25-34), why do we doubt His care for you and me?

This year, I’ve made it my goal to stress less and trust God more. Will life go according to my plan this year? Probably not, and if hard times haven’t come, they are probably just around the corner. Yet what looks like failure or a mistake to us may just be God’s plan from the beginning. It’s frustrating when plans don’t work out, but that’s life. Thankfully, we cannot ruin God’s plan. His ways are above our ways and His timing is perfect, even if it does not fit our timeline. When faced with disappointments, we need to rejoice and trust in Him. After all, nothing is supposed to be perfect, on this side of heaven.

I guess my mom was partially correct, I am not perfect, but I am being perfected every day. As Paul says later in Philippians: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12).

We will be perfect someday, as He is perfect. When life doesn’t go according to plan, we need to look to the One who is perfect and makes us perfect in Christ; rest in His perfection.

In Christ,

Karlie

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The Music of Praise

Dear Sisters,

This weekend I attended a lovely piano concert. Picture in your mind if you will: a Hawaiian church, the evening breezes blowing thru the open windows, family and friends seated around, lights focused on the baby grand piano tucked in the front corner of the building, and haunting melodies lifting around us. At the end of one piece in particular, I remember feeling almost cheated that the music did not continue.

Recently, my husband and I finished reading the book of Revelation. I have always longed to understand more of Revelation—its symbology often confuses me to say the least. One portion in chapter 4 established a particularly dry, boring image in my mind in which the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders are constantly praising the Lord (with the same specific phrases). Today as I re-read those verses, last night’s concert came to mind and a suggestion developed that perhaps these praises would be much like the music I heard and wanted to continue—music expressing a surprising variety of thought and emotion, but always wrapped in delight and joy.

Each piece of music has notes it centers around, they hold the piece together as a whole, make it unique, and they repeat throughout. Perhaps the praises of those in heaven would pattern themselves much like beautiful music on earth—unified in its theme, ever changing in its expression. And, also like here on earth, the praise in heaven might flow and pervade every aspect of our lives. In other words, I do not imagine we simply have a forever ‘gather around the camp fire’ experience at the throne of heaven. God is a god of action and creation. He delights in work. In fact, He made us to work and created joy in our hearts for our acts of creation and His. Instead, I envision His saints working while praising much as we might whistle while we work—indeed, as in I Thess. 5:17 we should “pray without ceasing.” Here on earth, we are to constantly lift our hearts to Christ as we go through the day—in communion with Him; in heaven, oh joy!, we will be side-by-side with our Best Friend! I do not think we will be able to help exclaiming in delight over His power, majesty, glory, and honor as we ever find new facets of His person and work.

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” Rev. 4:8b.

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your Will they existed, and were created.” Rev. 4:11.

Over and over, the same chorus binding the praise together, different voices, high, low, quiet, trumpeting, lilting, flowing, marching, poignant, beautiful, and best of all—never ending.

Running (and praising) with you,
Rebecca

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The Tongue’s Prayer

My tongue shall speak of Your word, For all Your commandments are righteousness.
Psalm 119: 172

Dear sister,

How wonderful it would be if our tongue was used only always to speak of God’s word! Imagine the celestial sound of every conversation, every lecture, every song, and every sermon. The harmony would be so euphoric that the stars would sway to the perfect rhythm of God’s perfect poetry! There would be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness—no long suffering, for there would be no suffering at all! This is what Heaven holds for us, the blessed hope for the Believers in Christ, and our tongues shall speak of God’s word, and we shall be forever with our Groom, The Word of God! And so, we wait patiently for that glorious, sinless day.

But, Dear Ones, right now we are here on earth where there is only never an inclination for the tongue to speak of the word of God. A few moments with the television, a few loud sounds of rap from a car, a few shouts from a stadium, and a few rants from an unsatisfied customer in your neighborhood supermarket will show us that the tongue is the cause of anger, slander, complaint, hatred, filthy language, war and murder—the dissonant mess of the world! Right now, the stars are sobbing and the Children of God are striving!

The tongue is in the middle of our mouth. God placed it there for a purpose—to sing praises to Him, to lament with repentance, to converse with Him in prayer, to speak the truth in love to the rebellious, and to praise Him even more! Only always should this be the work of the tongue—designed by the mind of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit! The central location of the tongue should only always remind us that our whole being is for praising and worshiping Him!

Jesus, all God and all man, was able to peer into the hearts of the people that surrounded Him. In Matthew 12:34, He connected their evil heart to the mouth: “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” Again in Matthew, a few chapters later, He makes the association: “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” Matthew 15:11

The psalmist, David, surrounded by enemies, understood the need for verbal restraint from what he truly felt in his heart. Notice what he says in Psalm 39:1,
“I said, ‘I will guard my ways,
Lest I sin with my tongue;
I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,
While the wicked are before me.'”

And David’s son, Solomon, in the wisdom that God gave him, said much the same:
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue
Keeps his soul from troubles.
Proverbs 21:23

Because I have not heeded the word of God, and allowed an unbridled tongue to offend, criticize and complain, my soul has been troubled many times.
Precious Sisters, how can I extend solid counsel to you when I have failed to glorify God with my own tongue? There is nothing I can do or say to explain myself out of this sinful dilemma. And so, I shall pray with thankfulness for the Holy Spirit’s kind conviction to our hearts at this time.

Dear Heavenly Father Who created every part of my being, have mercy on me a sinner.
My tongue has caused very large problems for me and for others,
problems that point to the sinful nature that I possess.

Instead of praising Thee, my tongue complained to Thee.
Instead of singing to Thee, my tongue rebelled in discontent.
Instead of proclaiming Thy Word to a needy world, my tongue kept silent in fear.
Instead of presenting the Gospel of Grace, my tongue incited blasphemy.

Precious God, Triune, Holy, Almighty and Compassionate,
the “should haves” for the use of my tongue are numerous.
I should have responded kindly to an unkind person.
I should have prayed for the one who hurt my feelings.
I should have presented the Truth of Thy word to the one who denied and compromised it.

How can it be, Sweet Creator, that this little rudder, of the vessel that I am,
could pull me off course, away from Thy perfect will for me,
and take me to places that make me shudder with shame?
How can it be, Most High God, that I who sing worshipful anthems to Thee with my tongue on Sunday could also engage it in glib gossip, caustic complaints and disgraceful dialogues the remaining week?

Dearest Father, I am ashamed of sin caused by my hurtful tongue, and I have displeased Thee.
Yet you hold me by Thy righteous right hand. I am Thine and You will never let me go.
The sweetness of Thy forgiveness delights my tongue.
The psalms and hymns and spiritual songs have been restored.
May the heart of Christ form words of compassion for every person I meet.
May my tongue confess Christ only always, so that eternal praises may begin today. Amen.

Has this prayer helped you, tearful Sisters—even in a small way? I need to pray this often—only always.

Blessings to you,
Mimi

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On the Waves of Patience

Beloved Sisters in the Lord,

Would that I had the patience of a saint, as some of you think! Indeed, patience is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit, following the flow from LOVE, JOY AND PEACE! (22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23). Patience, in the biblical sense, means slow to anger, long-suffering. What a definition—slow to anger. Only God is slow to anger and, therefore, truly patient with an impatient world. What a gift to have God’s word remind us of His patience with us! Read, Dear Sisters, from Psalm 103: 8-14.

8″The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
14 For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.”

In human nature, patience is cultivated through the trials and setbacks that we experience during our lifetime. As the children of God, our patience should result from trusting Him, our Father in Heaven. It is when we pocket our trust in God that we become quick tempered, easily angered, and yield ourselves to fret and challenge and forget the blessed new creation that we are. (Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17) The very fact that we are saved for eternity should be something that completely overwhelms us with patience to endure any and all infractions on what we deem most important—in our perfect little world, for our perfect little agenda!

No, Dear Ladies, I do not possess the patience of a saint, but there is someone who modeled it for me. Having recently taught a Bible study on Noah and God’s Covenant with him, I began to wonder about the eight people in the ark who were saved through the awful forces of water surge and down pour of the wrath of the holy, holy, holy God on a completely sinful world. Has anyone given much thought to Mrs. Noah as possessing the patience of a saint?

As far-fetched as this may seem, think for a moment of this sinner saved by grace, and what she endured while her husband constructed an ark, a huge building that was to house animals and plants and his family for many, many weeks. Think of her patience as they were ridiculed while this vessel was being built in the middle of dry land. Until then, people had not known rainfall, let alone a deluge, and they could not understand what Noah was doing because they had refused any relationship with God, their Creator and Provider.

But Noah was chosen by God to know Him. And so, what could she have done, other than patiently be his helpmate, feed him, keep him company, and give him encouragement from the very Gospel she received from him. Then they entered the ark and there she was with Noah and her sons and in-laws, locked in a floating box of gopher wood, listening to the bleat of sheep, the moo of cows and the chirp of birds…and these are only the sweet sounds! Think of her patience as she feeds the two elephants and two camels, the two frogs and the two dogs, and, possibly being food herself for the two mosquitoes, that were being kept alive for the restoration of the natural world that was being devastated by our most patient God!

My Sisters, patience requires us to endure—to put up with—the most uncomfortable situations: the surroundings, the sounds, the smells, the selfishness and, yes, even the silliness that we may not like. Even dealing with family dynamics had to cause more stress as they all wondered what was going on outside!

In the end, this patient lady emerged from the ark to observe a totally destroyed world, and to be God’s chosen one, among the 7 others, who were saved. She and the others had much work to do, clean-up, rebuild and evangelize the new ones to be born for the repopulation effort. That had to be an unspeakable challenge to her patience. But, oh, what grace and mercy she and her family had been given—they were saved by God!

If, indeed, we contemplate our own salvation, through the mercy of God Who, through His Son, Jesus Christ alone we are spiritually restored to Him, then we can begin to enjoy Heaven now! What could possibly irritate, annoy, attack and consume us when we are already in Heaven? Like Mrs. Noah, trust God and patiently ride the waves of each day within the ark of His sovereign grace!

With thankfulness for His Grace alone,
Mimi

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A Heavenly Treasure Chest

My dearest sister,

Someone that I love very much passed away recently. It has been challenging for me and other family members to mourn our loss. Our loved one lost the war that was declared on her her by cancer after four and a half years. She fought valiantly but to no avail, other than the four years of life had she not entered into several battles against it with varying types of strategies and armament ( treatment plans and chemotherapy). Our loved one left this world as she came. In other words, as the world declares, she left with nothing! The beautiful clothes she wore, the lovely artifacts she acquired from around this world, the jewels given to her by others, her home and all of it’s contents could not go with her. Wow, it is quite a picture isn’t it?

Our heavenly Father tells us that although when we leave this world,we leave behind all earthly or tangible material, including our bodies we do not actually leave empty handed. If we are His children then we leave this world with a treasure chest of eternal valuables! Our hearts/souls live on after our bodies die. With that Truth in mind listen to this exciting word from our Lord Jesus:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be.” Matthew 6:19-21

Jesus compassionately warns us to invest in a treasure that is not of this world, but instead of he and his Father’s world. He warns us as well that earthly treasure (as lovely, costly and even as fond as they are to us) will not last. So not only can we not take our earthly treasures with us when we die but when left behind they eventually deteriorate, are destroyed and possibly stolen.

Jesus exhorts us to store up that which is treasure in our Father’s eyes!!!! Our greatest heart’s treasure is our LORD himself. If He abides in our hearts He will fill our hearts with treasures that will go with us when we leave this world. (Ephesians 1: 3-14 ~ please take the time to read!) Our hearts become a treasure chest filled with valuables that will live for eternity: love, peace, patience, kindness, wisdom, prudence….

These treasures within our hearts/souls cannot be stolen from us, they cannot be destroyed. They will be what we take to heaven with us. They will be the crowns which are given back to the One who gave them to us in the first place. Hallelujah!!

As I have pondered prosperity this month, this is the picture that comes to mind. Sweet sister, this is what I long for. That my heart would be filled with heavenly treasure given to me by the hand of God through His Spirit fashioned specifically for me by His Son the Lord Jesus that when I leave all of this world behind, and my soul flys away into My Father’s arms, my treasure chest will be full of incomparable glorious valuables to be cast at the throne of my Savior!!!! Oh how I long to prosper in this manner!

Your Sister,

Susan

“For what does it prosper a man, if he loses his own soul?”. Matthew 16:26