For my birthday last week, I shared a handful of the things I've learned about life. (Thank you to my readers for all the nice comments and tweets.) More important, this week, are just a few of the things I've learned about God, in roughly the order He revealed them to me.
Jesus is living God, to be worshiped for Who He is.
The more you look closely at nature, the more certain you are there's a Creator.
If you reach out for God when you're really scared, He reaches back.
You can only believe what other people tell you about God if it's backed up by what God says about Himself.
You cannot know God apart from truth. Pure truth has a quality that facts alone can never touch.
Hell is horrific and I belong there. Jesus loves me and He died so I can stay with Him instead.
You can't have all of God until you give Him all of you.
When God's Spirit moves in, sin needs to move out.
God can play a fierce game of Hide & Seek, but He loves to be found.
God is God, and He must be met on His terms, not ours.
When you seek God first, you receive blessings you'd given up on.
My best ideas are garbage unless they're part of God's plan.
God never intended for any of us to go it alone. We really do need one another.
God cares passionately about what we think of His Son.
God has a tender spot for the people who love His Son.
God's not particularly interested in making us comfortable.
Be very careful about what you pray for. God has an outrageous sense of humor.
Always pray for others what you'd want them to pray for you.
God repays good for good generously and bad for bad mercifully.
When we think we're waiting for God to move, He's probably waiting for us to move.
Don't ask God for new instructions until you've followed the last ones He gave.
God does not change and His feet do not move. But prayer can move the arm of God, the face of God, and the heart of God.
God has great compassion for the sorrowful heart turned toward Him.
God has little tolerance for whining when He's been so good to us.
Sometimes, God is only waiting for us to ask.
God can and does speak to those who know His voice.
God has no condemnation for His children, only discipline.
When we think we can't endure another moment of pain, God knows how far to stretch us.
If you seek blessings before seeking Blessor, you're sure to be disappointed.
God is seriously in love with His people.
God is too great to ever be understood by mortals.
God loves us too much to let us understand too little of Him.
We won't get tired of an eternity with God.
No matter what else or who else you think you need, God really is enough.
God never gives up on those in whom He's taken up residence.
Thus says the LORD:
"Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,"
Says the LORD.
"But this one will I regard:
The one who is afflicted and of a smitten spirit,
And who trembles at My word."
~ Isaiah 66:1-2
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Showing posts with label God's Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's Love. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
How Deep
Ever wonder why Jonah didn't want to go to Ninevah?
Jonah the son of Amittai was a small town boy from an obscure and remote corner of Israel, Gath-hepher of Zebulun. Yet traveling to educated and sophisticated Nineveh, magnificent capital of the Assyrian Empire, should be no challenge to a man who readily set sail on a large cargo ship for distant Tarshish.
The Assyrians surely intimidated neighboring countries with their malicious brutality and horrific expertise at siege warfare, which rivals any in human history. But fear seems to have little place in the heart of a man who dares to first defy God, and then later angrily rebuke Him. One might surmise that Jonah sought to prove himself anything but the "dove" he is named.
In the end, Jonah leaves no question about his motivation for disobedience, which is revealed in the closing words of his book (Jonah 4:2). Not unlike the Pharisees, who had zeal for God without knowing Him, Jonah's problem was that he knew God all too well, but loved Him all too little.
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
~ 1 John 4:20 (NKJV)
The Bible says it took three days to walk through Nineveh, long enough for Jonah to closely observe its people. However intelligent and advanced their culture, their hedonistic lives immersed them in sin's misery and darkness. Their plight evoked only Jonah's contempt.
Jonah not only knew God to be gracious and merciful and compassionate, he had just experienced the depth of it in deliverance from the fish. He readily praised God for the blessings poured out on a repentant heart, but seethed with rage and persisted in hatred when God did the same for someone else.
Such knowledge—such personal experience—is riches greater than all the wealth of the mighty Assyrian Empire, greater than the GNP of mighty United States. We will not be willing to pay the cost (however small or great) of sharing such treasure unless we first love God and love people.
Lord God, knowing You is an inexhaustibly deep well of living waters. Thank You for permitting us to touch such treasure. Please allow us to see others through Your eyes and feel for them what You do, that we might do Your will on the earth as it is done in Heaven.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Jonah the son of Amittai was a small town boy from an obscure and remote corner of Israel, Gath-hepher of Zebulun. Yet traveling to educated and sophisticated Nineveh, magnificent capital of the Assyrian Empire, should be no challenge to a man who readily set sail on a large cargo ship for distant Tarshish.
The Assyrians surely intimidated neighboring countries with their malicious brutality and horrific expertise at siege warfare, which rivals any in human history. But fear seems to have little place in the heart of a man who dares to first defy God, and then later angrily rebuke Him. One might surmise that Jonah sought to prove himself anything but the "dove" he is named.
In the end, Jonah leaves no question about his motivation for disobedience, which is revealed in the closing words of his book (Jonah 4:2). Not unlike the Pharisees, who had zeal for God without knowing Him, Jonah's problem was that he knew God all too well, but loved Him all too little.
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
~ 1 John 4:20 (NKJV)
The Bible says it took three days to walk through Nineveh, long enough for Jonah to closely observe its people. However intelligent and advanced their culture, their hedonistic lives immersed them in sin's misery and darkness. Their plight evoked only Jonah's contempt.
Jonah not only knew God to be gracious and merciful and compassionate, he had just experienced the depth of it in deliverance from the fish. He readily praised God for the blessings poured out on a repentant heart, but seethed with rage and persisted in hatred when God did the same for someone else.
Such knowledge—such personal experience—is riches greater than all the wealth of the mighty Assyrian Empire, greater than the GNP of mighty United States. We will not be willing to pay the cost (however small or great) of sharing such treasure unless we first love God and love people.
Lord God, knowing You is an inexhaustibly deep well of living waters. Thank You for permitting us to touch such treasure. Please allow us to see others through Your eyes and feel for them what You do, that we might do Your will on the earth as it is done in Heaven.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Why God Really Sent Jesus
At some point this Christmas season, you're likely to be reminded that Jesus was born for Crucifixion.
While we shouldn't avoid the messy yet necessary message of the cross, we also cannot point so emphatically at the cross that we lose the full circle truth of why God really sent Jesus. Obtaining our salvation wasn't the end that Jesus was born to achieve, but only the means to a far greater end.
God desires relationship with us.
Self-centered, prideful, fearful human nature frustrates relationship. We often have difficulty coming to the cross, either believing salvation from sin is unnecessary because we're good enough, or we think our sin too great to make us worthy of saving. Once we bring our sin to the cross and receive God's forgiveness and salvation, we tend to gravitate toward a new set of extremes—legalism or license. Whether or not we achieve a measure of balance there, we may become so enamored with Christianity that we drift away from abiding with the Christ:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
~ Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
These words are spoken to people who are already part of the church—not to the unsaved nonbelievers, but to the lukewarm believers who've forgotten to keep on inviting Jesus into their lives for relationship. The Great Commission isn't to simply get people to the cross. Our Master asks His disciples—those who have walked with Him, who have shared His death and His life—to bring others into the same relationship.
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love... These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."
~ Jesus, John 15:7,9 (NKJV)
God did not merely step into flesh so that He might one day be crucified. God actually became a Man. He lived with us as One of us. He suffered and wept with us, ate and laughed and had fellowship with us. He even died—with us and for us—so that we might experience His resurrection and live with Him, every single day of our lives.
God didn't save us from our sin for only our own sake, nor for only His sake. He saved us for each other, that He might have intimate, loving, "exceeding joy" relationship with us.
Our Father, please don't let us settle for too little of You. Please use Your Spirit and Your Word and Your people to fulfill in each of us Your purpose of relationship with us, that our "joy may be full," every single day of the year. Please grant us the pleasure and privilege of bringing You joy.
Comments are welcome and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
While we shouldn't avoid the messy yet necessary message of the cross, we also cannot point so emphatically at the cross that we lose the full circle truth of why God really sent Jesus. Obtaining our salvation wasn't the end that Jesus was born to achieve, but only the means to a far greater end.
God desires relationship with us.
Self-centered, prideful, fearful human nature frustrates relationship. We often have difficulty coming to the cross, either believing salvation from sin is unnecessary because we're good enough, or we think our sin too great to make us worthy of saving. Once we bring our sin to the cross and receive God's forgiveness and salvation, we tend to gravitate toward a new set of extremes—legalism or license. Whether or not we achieve a measure of balance there, we may become so enamored with Christianity that we drift away from abiding with the Christ:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
~ Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
These words are spoken to people who are already part of the church—not to the unsaved nonbelievers, but to the lukewarm believers who've forgotten to keep on inviting Jesus into their lives for relationship. The Great Commission isn't to simply get people to the cross. Our Master asks His disciples—those who have walked with Him, who have shared His death and His life—to bring others into the same relationship.
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love... These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."
~ Jesus, John 15:7,9 (NKJV)
God did not merely step into flesh so that He might one day be crucified. God actually became a Man. He lived with us as One of us. He suffered and wept with us, ate and laughed and had fellowship with us. He even died—with us and for us—so that we might experience His resurrection and live with Him, every single day of our lives.
God didn't save us from our sin for only our own sake, nor for only His sake. He saved us for each other, that He might have intimate, loving, "exceeding joy" relationship with us.
Our Father, please don't let us settle for too little of You. Please use Your Spirit and Your Word and Your people to fulfill in each of us Your purpose of relationship with us, that our "joy may be full," every single day of the year. Please grant us the pleasure and privilege of bringing You joy.
Comments are welcome and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Little People
I ask my readers' forgiveness for being MIA this week. I'm back now that three pressing projects are now out of the way.
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
~ John 4:19-20 (NKJV)
The last post offered the perspective that when the Samaritan woman at the well learns Jesus is a Prophet, she is emboldened to ask Him her One Burning Question about worship.
There are, of course, other possibilities which explain her drastic change of subject. One is that she is reminding Jesus that even if He is a prophet, He is a Jew with different priorities and beliefs than Samaritans, which places her outside of His ministry.
Which communicates messages like:
"I know that I'm not really important to You."
"If we disagree about the big stuff, what's the point of discussing lesser matters?"
"You can't tell me what to do."
"You're not for me."
In other words, she must be irrelevant to Jesus, so isn't He irrelevant to her?
We may think we're being humble if we shrug off God with the excuse that either we ourselves or some matter in our lives isn't significant enough for Him to be troubled with. We're actually belittling God, by thinking of Him like us—interested in the big stuff but not quite big enough to have time for all the little details and little people.
"Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
~ Luke 12:6-7 (NKJV)
God cares about the little people enough to die for them. We know from answers to prayer that He cares about the little stuff too, if for no more reason than He loves us so much.
If the woman at the well was reminding Jesus that she was outside His ministry, I'm inclined to think she was inviting Him to reassure her that she could be on the inside—because that's where she ended up!
Q4U: What's one of the smallest things you've prayed for that God gave you?
I'll go first ... (see comments, below)
Comments are welcome and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
~ John 4:19-20 (NKJV)
The last post offered the perspective that when the Samaritan woman at the well learns Jesus is a Prophet, she is emboldened to ask Him her One Burning Question about worship.
There are, of course, other possibilities which explain her drastic change of subject. One is that she is reminding Jesus that even if He is a prophet, He is a Jew with different priorities and beliefs than Samaritans, which places her outside of His ministry.
Which communicates messages like:
"I know that I'm not really important to You."
"If we disagree about the big stuff, what's the point of discussing lesser matters?"
"You can't tell me what to do."
"You're not for me."
In other words, she must be irrelevant to Jesus, so isn't He irrelevant to her?
We may think we're being humble if we shrug off God with the excuse that either we ourselves or some matter in our lives isn't significant enough for Him to be troubled with. We're actually belittling God, by thinking of Him like us—interested in the big stuff but not quite big enough to have time for all the little details and little people.
"Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
~ Luke 12:6-7 (NKJV)
God cares about the little people enough to die for them. We know from answers to prayer that He cares about the little stuff too, if for no more reason than He loves us so much.
If the woman at the well was reminding Jesus that she was outside His ministry, I'm inclined to think she was inviting Him to reassure her that she could be on the inside—because that's where she ended up!
Q4U: What's one of the smallest things you've prayed for that God gave you?
I'll go first ... (see comments, below)
Comments are welcome and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Good Wine
"You have kept the good wine until now!" This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory.
~ John 2:10-11 (NKJV)
According to numerous Old Testament passages, quality of agriculture was one means by which the Lord appraised Israel's moral condition. Drought-induced famine indicated His severe displeasure. Weather fair enough for delicate grapes to flourish—and to produce good wine—indicated His approval.
Little wonder that the ancient practice of dancing over grapes in celebration of grape harvest survives to this day.
If God's Word says good wine indicated that the Lord smiled upon His people and took pleasure in their fellowship, what first miracle could have been more fitting, for Jesus to manifest His glory, than turning water into the finest wine?
You have put gladness in my heart,
More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
~ Psalms 4:7 (NKJV)
Comments are welcome and will receive a reply.
You may contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ John 2:10-11 (NKJV)
According to numerous Old Testament passages, quality of agriculture was one means by which the Lord appraised Israel's moral condition. Drought-induced famine indicated His severe displeasure. Weather fair enough for delicate grapes to flourish—and to produce good wine—indicated His approval.
Little wonder that the ancient practice of dancing over grapes in celebration of grape harvest survives to this day.
If God's Word says good wine indicated that the Lord smiled upon His people and took pleasure in their fellowship, what first miracle could have been more fitting, for Jesus to manifest His glory, than turning water into the finest wine?
You have put gladness in my heart,
More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
~ Psalms 4:7 (NKJV)
Comments are welcome and will receive a reply.
You may contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Classic Love, Contemporary Version
♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥
No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies ...
We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Beloved Lord, please give us a fresh vision for how to make Your great love known to those in our lives. Please empower us to love one another as You have loved us, and to love You extravagantly.
P.S. ~ I love and pray for my readers. (Which means I love you!)
Comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are welcome. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥
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