After the Broken

This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by Peter Pollock.
You're invited to visit his site and see what others are saying
about today's theme: Broken.

"... this is My body which is broken for you ..."
~ 1 Corinthians 11:24 (NKJV)

Perhaps, when we are broken, and think it not possible to endure our pain, we forget the utter brokenness of our precious Jesus.

His majesty was broken down when He stepped into flesh and became a Man.

His reputation was broken when His mother became pregnant out of wedlock and He was reckoned a bastard.

His ties to home were broken when He became homeless for the sake of the hopeless.

His heart was broken when His people rejected His message.

His will was broken at Gethsemane when He laid it down before the Father's will.

His flesh was broken with unconscionable abuse that we might be healed.

He was broken by death that we might have life.

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
~ Romans 6:4 (NKJV)

Perhaps, after we've been broken and have died to what we thought necessary, we will remember that death must precede resurrection and newness of life.

The LORD builds up ...
He gathers together ...
He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.
~ Psalms 147:2-3 (NKJV)

Our Father, You are the Potter, we are the clay. Have Your way with us. Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us. Break us as pleases You. Let us fall into Your hand, for Your mercies are great.

"We are to be broken bread and poured-out wine for the lifting up of [others]."
~ Oswald Chambers

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.
Image from the movie Passion of the Christ © 2004 Icon Productions

Inevitable Triumph

Today's post is dedicated to the memory of all who lost their lives and risked their lives in defense of freedom during World War II.

USS Arizona
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
From the National Archives

"With confidence in our armed forces—
with the unbounding determination of our people—
we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God."
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

This last weekend, our worship ministries orchestra, choir, and drama team presented an adaption of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" for two nights. The presentation featured an apartment set on one half of the stage and an 1941 radio studio on the other half. Our musical had its moments of comedy, top-quality soloists, and big band era music.

The climatic scene was when news is received of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and a father hears over the radio that his son's battleship—the USS Arizona—has just been completely destroyed. We did our best to honor history, our veterans, and our Lord. We all prayed that a message of hope amid tragedy, available through life in Christ, is what people would take home with them.

Though our worship ministry team practiced faithfully, we were aware that our performance did not achieve perfection. But it's unlikely that the audience noticed the numerous minor flaws. I believe we presented excellence, and that is what will be remembered. Though we wish to do well for the sake of the team, the greater goal is that our offering is pleasing to the Lord, however imperfect.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.
~ Psalms 19:14 (NKJV)

Evil thoughts pass through the heart. David did not pray for the Lord's acceptance of his thoughts, but of his meditation and spoken words.

This prayer is not as difficult as it looks. Whatever wrong thoughts may come to us, we must determine not to make them our heart's meditation, nor allow them to escape as spoken words.

God knows we're not perfect. He doesn't ask us to be. He asks us to strive for excellence. He asks us to give Him our best offering, flaws and all, keeping in mind how He loves and accepts His children. He has promised to not remember our sins, and He has promised to remember us. For He has (Isaiah 49:15-16) inscribed us on the palms of His nail-scarred hands.

In Jesus, we have inevitable triumph.

Comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are welcome. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments or e-mail me—my address is
buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com.
Copyright 2010, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Laying Hold of God's Strength

The theme for today’s blog carnival (hosted by Bridget Chumbley) is "Strength." You're invited to visit her site for other related thoughts. :D

"God wants you to ask Him for things
that are bigger than yourself."
~ Jentezen Franklin

Laying Hold of God's Strength

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled."
~ Matthew 5:6 (NKJV)

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
~ 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NKJV)

We are physical beings, limited by the weakness of human flesh. Worse, the flesh asserts itself in ways which fight against the work of the Holy Spirit. We may not even be aware of the ways we struggle against God.

Abstaining from food for many hours—or a number of days—has a way of weakening the flesh and enabling the Lord's Spirit to become strong in us. When even food is not our priority, the things we once thought were priorities are seen with a different perspective. When we make clear to ourselves and to the Lord that His will is more important than our appetite, He can reveal it with startling clarity. When we tell the flesh it needs God more than food, we will indeed receive more of God.

By saying, "When you fast ..." Jesus omitted "if," indicating an expectation that we would do so. By saying of a demon, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting," Jesus indicated that spiritual warfare might require fasting for success.

If there is a situation in your life which requires divine power to understand the Lord's will, for overcoming weakness or addiction, or to defeat an attack of the devil, consider boosting your prayer with fasting as a means to humbly lay hold of God's strength.

He longs to feed you with spiritual food finer than any available from the earth.

Father in Heaven, we are feeble children of flesh. We do not know how to pray as we ought. Please give us a desire for You above our desire for all else. Please give us a desire to know and fulfill Your will at any cost.

Your feedback is appreciated. Post to BuildingHisBody.com Comments or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2010, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
#fasting
Image source: mydebtregret.com

Hope Does Not Disappoint

"None are completely wretched but those who are without hope."
~ William Hazlitt

Hope Does Not Disappoint

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
~ Proverbs 13:12 (NKJV)

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
~ Romans 5:5 (NKJV)

There's lately been more than one cause in my life for me to think on what hope means.

In the movie Shawshank Redemption, a man in prison says, "Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It's got no use on the inside."

And so it is. When we feel imprisoned in some way—by jail walls, by a hated but necessary job, by sickness, by rejection, by a stigma wrongfully forced upon us, by conflict in a relationship—hope is dangerous. It opens the door to expectation for change, and we know that life is brutal to expectations.

But without hope, we fail to act as our own catalyst for change. We fail to confront the status quo, telling ourselves "it is what it is." We fail to pursue what we are called to do that painfully stretches us. We fail to chip away at the walls we build around ourselves which have come to feel secure in their dependability and protection from uncertainty.

True hope is not expectation for something specific, like to get a new job, or to change the person we struggle with, or to attain a goal we've set.

True hope says, "This pain, this indignity, this labor—this love—is not in vain. It drives me to be a catalyst for change where change is needed. It drives me to cooperate with the plan God has to bless me and work for good. It allows me to surrender even that which I think I need, because God says to do so, and Faith in His Love gives me Hope for something even better."

Genuine hope does not die. But it does cease, as does faith. 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Faith is being certain of the unseen. It finds its fulfillment—and ceases—in the seeing.

Hope is waiting for promised blessing. It finds its fulfillment—and ceases—in the receiving.

Love is greatest. And on the day spoken of in Scripture as That Day, love will no longer wax and wane, but will find complete fulfillment, for love cannot cease.

That is true hope.

"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well
but the certainty that something makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out."
~ Vaclav Havel

Lord, faith does not fail us when faith is in You. Hope does not disappoint when hope is in You. Love always trusts, love always hopes, and love never fails, for You, Lord God, are love.

Contrasting points-of-view, questions and feedback are invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Image Source: cenotemexico.com
#hope

The Overcoming of Suffering

The Question of the Week for Bullets and Butterflies last Saturday was "Why Suffering?" The answer is expanded on this week's posts here.

"Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive."
~ Josephine Hart

The Overcoming of Suffering

"Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament ... and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy... These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
~ John 16:20,33 (NKJV)

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty...
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
~ Psalms 91:1,4-6 (NKJV)

The "overcoming of suffering" does not mean that we overcome suffering, but that suffering is the impetus by which we overcome all else.

Survival is motivated by visible threat. In times of horrendous crisis we are compelled to overcome. When faced with an attacking enemy we do not hesitate to fight.

It is amid the drudgery of tasks just as necessary to survival, in the oppressive mundane of the every day—where we are stared down not by visible foe but by the unrelenting erosion of trivial vexations—that we are more likely to succumb to defeat.

Suffering rescues us from this more dangerous threat. It compels us to rise to our potential and makes us strong so that we do not merely withstand, but we overcome life’s challenges.

The cuts which suffering inflicts upon us can be deep and painful. We understand when we receive them that they will leave scars. Those marks will prove to be the work of a Master carving a masterpiece if we accept them rather than resist His hand or flee His presence.

The soul which stays close to the Most High God remains in the shadow of His wings. This person may not understand the cuts of suffering, but feels the assurance of the Lord’s companionship as He shares our suffering. This soul does not forsake hope.

The soul which is far enough away from the Almighty to escape His shadow will languish in suffering. This person will know doubt and despair, and will allow hope to slip away.

We are easily distracted sheep and prone to wander. But in the moment we discover that our attention has left the Shepherd, memory should serve well to draw us immediately back to the safety of abiding with Him.

Almighty God, You are only good, all the time. You do not willingly afflict the children of men. Though You cause grief, You are full of compassion. Please draw us close to You. Please assure our insecure hearts of Your constant love.

Contrasting points-of-view, questions and feedback are invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
#suffering
Image source: thewe.cc