The High Calling of God

2 Corinthians 3:16-18    "16 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face to face!  17 They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it!  18 All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." (The Message Bible) I have thought so much over the years about this "high calling" mentioned in Philippians 3:12-14 . The New King James Version calls it the "upward call". KJV calls it the "high calling". Which ever word you prefer there is a great revelation behind it. I have come to the conclusion that it is not ...

"At that time the Lord said to me, 'Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets, the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.'" (Deuteronomy  10:1,2) Moses went up to the mountain of the Lord with blank tablets. As he gave them to the Lord the Lord wrote the commandments on them. We, too, must go to the Lord with blank tablets. In other words, we must empty our lives of our desires, plans and wishes- consider our life a blank tablet- ready to be written on by the Lord. God requires that we offer our lives to Him so that He can write on our hearts what He wills and purposes. It isn't our job to decide what we will do with our lives. That is God's responsibility.  It isn't wrong to make plans or have desires- but as we delight ourselves in the Lord He will give us the desires of our hearts o...

2 Corinthians 11: 23-31 This morning I was reading this passage of scripture about all the things that the Apostle Paul went through and yet he could still praise the Lord for all His goodness. I thought about how much we can  learn during our times of difficulties and weaknesses if we go through them trusting and leaning on the Lord. I was reminded of the pearl of great price in Matthew 13:45-46. It is a parable about the kingdom of God and a merchant who was searching for beautiful pearls. When he found the pearl of great price he went and sold everything he had to purchase it. That great pearl was Jesus Christ. If we desire more out of our Christian life than the ordinary- we must be willing to search for it. Many times it is through adversity and trials that we really find those pearls, those beautiful treasures from the Lord. When we let the Lord take over our attitudes during these times, when we focus on Christ and His will, we will come through on the oth...

Most of us who went to Sunday School as youngsters remember the story of the two brothers Jacob and Esau. Genesis 25:29-34 tells of an incident where Jacob had made some stew while Esau was working in the field. Esau was born first which was an honor and he would eventually obtain a double portion of the family inheritance. But Esau came in from the field tired and hungry and pleaded for some of the stew. Verses 31-34 : "But Jacob said, 'Sell me your birthright as of this day.' And Esau said, 'Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?' Then Jacob said, 'Swear to me as of this day.' So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils, then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright." How many Christians today settle for less than God's best for them. They cross the line when they think they are in a pinch. At what point do we go ahead and exchang...

Wherever we are or whatever we do can be made holy by the Presence of the Lord. Exodus 3 describes Moses' encounter with God in the burning bush. It was just a bush- but it was made holy by the burning fire of the Lord's Presence. Whatever we do- no matter how menial or mundane we may think it is- is made special and holy when it is dedicated to the Lord. Our lives, our bodies, our homes, our jobs-- all become a holy place when we dedicate them to the Lord and allow His Presence there. I worked for many years in the health care field and wondered sometimes what kind of difference I made. I wasn't doing anything special- it seemed to me. My last employment consisted of working with the elderly in a day care setting- tending to their physical needs. It was very hard work- physically and mentally- very draining. I would come home some days so very tired and wondered just what good I was doing. One day during worship in church we were singing a worship chorus about Holy H...

When I was a young girl, I loved picture puzzles. My mother, brothers and I would spend many hours putting them together. As we dumped all the pieces on our large dining room table, mom taught us to find all the pieces that made the frame and put this together first. Then we turned each piece the right side up and found matching pieces and began to form the puzzle. This usually took several days to complete and hopefully no one needed the table before we were finished. We would look at each piece and try to identify where it went in the puzzle. What good would it have been, if after the frame was complete, we just admired each piece and tossed them back into the box? Our puzzle would have never been completed.   I was thinking about this recently and saw the frame as our foundation to our Christian life. We must have our foundation correct according to the Word of God. If not, the other pieces of our lives will never fit. To some people, the first few pieces go in quickly-- we...

I love nature- not only for the beauty and intrigue it brings but for the lessons we can learn from it. While Jesus walked among us, He taught us many spiritual lessons using nature and He is doing the same today- if we take the time to listen.   I recently bought some flowers to put into containers around our house. I had bought some petunias and re-potted them into hanging baskets. A couple days later while I was taking it off the hook to reposition it, the pot slipped from my hands and fell several feet to the sidewalk. I just stood there for a little bit looking at it- all the new potting soil I had placed under, around and above it was spread all over the sidewalk and the yard. And there was the original piece of sod with the four beautiful petunias just lying there. I had just been admiring how nice they were looking since being in their new pot, just before I left them fall to their possible death. I went off the porch, scooped up the petunias and the new soil, put them...