Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Spurring On........

I don't know about you, but I need to be encouraged and spurred on constantly! I need to be immersed and saturated in all that God has for me daily, hourly and even moment by moment. And if I am not getting happy in the Lord or my fellowship with Him isn't growing deeper and richer, well then something ain't right!! I like how Joseph Prince says it, "If you don't preach grace radically, then your lives won't be radically blessed, radically transformed!" It's so true! I need to be exhorted regularly in the grace of God. All my life was spent learning in a legalistic, what to do for God way! When all along, God just wanted to be in a personal loving intimate relationship with me! He's like okay I can give you a way to live for me, (the Law) but that's not what I want, that's what you want because you are afraid of My Awesome Presence, too afraid to enter in to My Almighty Power! But He knows we can't live for Him, and that's just not the point of our Christian life anyway! So, for me, I want to be taught and encouraged in my friendship with God. My pursuit of His Presence is my # 1 priority! I don't want to know about God, I want to know Him and you know what, He wants to know me too! Awesome! Just this morning I was sitting thinking about all of this, and I sensed a peace wash over me for a few minutes, and I closed my eyes and imagined God standing there, His shadow over me and Him reaching out his hands and caressing my face! Just thinking about it now makes me melt! God you delight in me!!! How can this be!
The more I hear from pulpits about how to live right, and what to do for God, the more it just takes me away from knowing Him a bit, because apart from knowing He loves me and accepts me, I can't live for Him! I want to live in a way that pleases and honors Him, when I am brought to a confidence in Him, and His Amazing Love. His love alters me dramatically, His love invigorates me to love and to live in a way that pleases and honors Him! Knowing I am already absolutely Loved and accepted and that nothing I can do, will do or have done, can EVER change that fact, makes my heart sing and gives me a deep passion and eagerness to be ready to hear His voice and honor Him in all of life!!! Whoa! My faith is deepened when I am in pursuit of Him and He meets me. He touches me tenderly and speaks lovingly to me, reassuringly! Only He can give me what I need to live a life that pleases Him!!!!
That said, let us spur one another on in Love, He is Love....Let's encourage one another in pursuing Him, as we pursue Him and spend time in His Presence, genuine friendship and fellowship with Him, we can then out of the overflow of our hearts bursting with joy from His touch on our lives, speak, encourage, love, do ........all this can bless others only by His transforming Life impacting ours first.....We can love others because of first fostering a love with HIm, all because He is Love and He has loved us since before the foundations of the world.......if you don't understand the Love of the Father, if you aren't so deeply blessed and marveling in His love and Great Grace for you and towards you, how can love flow through you to others, which in essence is the summation of the Law and the Prophets and in the New Covenant the one way we can fully obey Christ, by loving one another! You see it's all by Him, through Him and for Him! How can we think we can do anything for Him apart from Him! We get to take part in what He is doing and that to me is so cool, God loves me and wants me to love others and take part in His glorious plan to spread His love to all the world........
Getting a grip on God's excessive grace and vast Love and continually being drenched in it, has the Power to dramatically alter your life........!!! Don't settle for anything less .......

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lydia,
Not sure if you remember me. I found your blog and have been reading thru it. I am so glad to hear you and Keith are doing well. I can't believe you all have 4 children now. Sadly, I would have to say I am reading much of my own thoughts in your words with the church situation. After twenty some years being a christian this quest for perfection in the churches took me to a new low point for my life. I still feel I have to re-orient my thinking .... I hear something else we are suppossed to be doing and I fall right in line... I have a hard time making sure I check is this even biblical... does it void the message of grace... am I following another gospel... I look back on those years as wasted. I have been actually encouraged by reading your words. I had no idea others were going thru this stuff too. Anyway... just thought I would drop you a line. You and Keith look so cute in the photo. Your kids are beautiful. God bless.
Angel

lydia said...

Wow, great to hear from you Angel, yes yes I remember you, and think of you every time I walk past your old house! I hope and pray that you are all well! I am glad you were encouraged by the blog. Thanks for stopping by and sharing, grace and peace to you and your family.....Love Lydia

Joel Brueseke said...

Lydia... This is all so very true! The "live for Jesus" and "live by Biblical principles" mentality has caused a great deal of anguish and hurt in my Christian life, and I'm still recovering from it. It will take a long while to recover from it, actually. But I'm humbly thankful that our Father has revealed truth to me and to many others such as yourself, and I hope and pray that the message of His pure, unadulterated, radical grace will be embraced by our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.

I know that the way that I lived my Christian life for so long, and the way that I see many living their Christian lives today, just didn't work! If I thought I was failing in a certain area or areas, I thought the answer would be found in Biblical "instructions." I figured that if I would just do what the Bible says, then I would achieve victory and I could move on to growth and maturity.

But as you said here, and as I came to find out, this was a crumbly foundation that only led to falling backwards rather than standing on solid ground and walking in victory.

My marriage was hurt... by Biblical marriage principles! But it's not because the 'principles' are wrong, but rather because they are not steps to follow but rather are a fruit of being obsessed with Jesus, not with rules, principles and law! We need to be rooted in Jesus Christ, the personal Person who personally lives His life through us, intimately. Victory is a gift!

lydia said...

Hey Joel, Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
"Victory is a gift", that's a great way to look at it....!
Yeah let's be obsessed with Jesus, and addicted to God! Jesus was so intimately close with the Father, and he came as a man, totally dependent on the Father, saying I only do what I see the Father doing, how could he know unless He spent time understanding the Father's heart and listening to His voice and communicating with Him......(that's a whole post's worth of discussion right there! hmmmm...)

Aida said...

Great post, Lydia. I've been a believer for over 30 years but it's only been in the last 10 years that I've begun to experience freedom from religion. The process accelerated when I found Steve McVey's website during the summer and then sometime later all of you who blog about grace. As a result, I feel as though I'm just beginning this grace walk.

Like you, I need to be constantly reminded about grace. That's why I love what everyone has been blogging. Each day, Father reminds me of his love and presence as I read what has been posted that day.

Aida