WONDER

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so they say. But sometimes the most beautiful things in the world can't even be seen.

With all the splendor that surrounds creation, it's mesmerizing to think that what we see is barely scratching the surface. For beauty is, in fact , way more than skin deep. God, the Master Designer, uses the seen and the unseen to dazzle us from afar and to plant His beautiful works both without and within. Simone Weil wrote, " the soul's natural inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it and open it to the breath on high."

God is not only the Creator of all things, but also Giver of the gift that enables us to recognize beauty. His trap is a circle of love ~ enticing, beguiling, and enchanting. As the poet wrote, " Love drew the circle that took us in." God takes us in for our own good and sets us before all the glories of Heaven and earth. Jesus declared that "eye had not seen and ear had not heard" the amazing things God has in store for those who love him. If not even Solomon in all his splendor could match the glory of the swaying lilies of the field, how much more must be the splendor God has in store for those with eyes to see? Just imagine what could be waiting while you breathe deep and take in whats here right now.

When the bible declares that the mountains will sing and the rocks will cry out the message of God's love, it's mearly another picture of the length, the height, the breadth, and the depth that God will go to lure us out of our suffocating shells and awake us to the wonder of what he has made. He promises beauty even from the ashes. Ecclesiastes assures us that "he has made everything beautiful in his time," and that " he has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the begining to end" (3:11).

Heaven truely is found in every grain of sand and every wildflower, because God's love and his hands have made every one of them. If he can't make us see it with the obvious, he'll set it before us with the miraculous.

It really is a beautiful sight..

Question:

How has God trapped you in his love?
What can you do to draw others into that circle?

REJOICE

" THOUGH THE OLIVE CROP FAILS AND THE FEILDS PRODUCE NO FOOD , THOUGH THERE ARE NO SHEEP IN THE PEN AND NO CATTLE IN THE STALLS, I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD. I WILL BE JOYFUL IN GOD MY SAVIOR.

HABAKKUK 3:17,18

All of us face unexpected challenges as we go through our lives. Things don't always turn out the way we expected them to. Darknessfalls, clouds gather, and shadows come, but our faith and confidence in God need never be shaken. And when we face difficult times and trials, he will be with us to make a way where there seems to be no way.

Have you ever felt that God was a million miles away and wasn't even listening to the cry of your heart? Have you ever poured out your heart to God , desperate for an answer but the answer didn't come? I think all of us have experianced this at some point in our lives. Does it mean that God has forgotten us? Does his silence mean that he doesn't care? nope, the bible tells us he will never leave or forsake us (hebrews13:5) and that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think ( Ephesians 3:20) ! Our solutions to our problems are limited to what we can ask or think. God's solutions are above all that we could ever ask or think, Isaiah (55:8-9)tells us that his thoughts and his ways are far above ours.

So what do we do when we are going through a difficult time yet? Habakkuk 3:18 says " yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be happy in the God of my salvation." We are suppose to exsult, to find great joy in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our salvation! Why? Because everything is perfect in our lives? Not necessarily . I heard someone say once that we don't have to deny the reality of our situation, weather it's physical, finantual, spiritual or emotional; we just don't have to accept it as the finality. In other words we need to see our situations throught the eyes of faith. Remember God has the final word. Circomstances may be telling you that you are finished and you have run out of options. But God has promised in his word that he will make a roadway in the wilderness and a river in the desert.( Isaiah 43:19) When we exsaust our own resources, God is about to show us that he is not limited to our ideas and solutions.

Luke 1:37 tells us that " nothing is impossible with God," So if your going through a difficult situation right now, don't allow the enemy to come in to your life and steal your song. Make a choice to bless the Lord. Make a choice to exsult him, even in the midst of a difficult circomstances, because God is working in ways you cannot see! So lets lift our voices and worship him, lets lift our voices and sing to him, and praise him with all our hearts because he is an awesome God and worthy to be praised. and remember, sometimes the most intense praise comes in the midst of the most intense pain.

QUESTION:

What difficult situations has God brought you through?and who and what did he use to do it? How were you able to bless the Lord even in the midst of your pain?

DARE

I will heal their waywardness and love them freely
Hosea 14:4

When God asked His prophet Hosea to marry the local loose woman, the groom must have thought someone was off his rocker. Spend your lifetime convincing the world you are the messenger of God's word of morality, justice, and truth~ and then he asks you to... what?! It's probably, at least at its core , on of the funniest stories in the bible. Leave it to God to drive someone crazy to prove a point. Not to mention imagining this whole story from Gomer's point of view: One day you're the scourge of the town, and the next day you're walking down the aisle with the village preacherman.

Makes you wonder if anyone knew what was going on that day. But something amazing usually does happen when you let go and let God do what ever he wants.

So Gomer marries Hosea, and they have a few children with depressing names, and life sort of goes on for the odd couple. Until Gomer's old life beckons and that age old temptation returns. Perhaps she couldn't really believe she could be loved. Or that she was worth being loved, Or maybe she believed she wasn't good enough to live like someone who was loved.

Whatever her reasons, she strayed. And Hosea came home, but instead of kicking her back to the streets, he just said over and over again, "How can I ever leave you? How could I ever not love you?" Hosea's heart may have been crushed by her betrayal, but his love was indestructible. God, it seems, must have looked down and said "See, do you get it yet? Anyone? this is what i have been saying all along"

You can almost imagine him chuckle when he first dreams up the absurd plot. If you can prove to one of your creation that the love they have for each other is a mere sliver of the love you have for them maybe.... just maybe... they'de start to understand, that boundless, fathomless ocean that is God's locve seems limited only by our inability to accept it. It's just to wild for words.

Charlie Chaplin, the old time actor and film director, was no stranger to absurdities himself when he declared, "Life is a tragedy when seen close up, but a comedy in a long shot." Almost everything's funny when your not in the middle of it. So the farther you walk away from something that breaks your heart, the closer you come to realizing that you are surrounded by a love so unreal, it would take a miracle to make you believe it.

Hosea got a close up view, in fact he got the leading role in God's attempt to show the world his love. No matter how far you go, the script reads, there is absolutly nothing you can do to shake him. Many have tried, including Gomer who put on one of history's strongest performances. but so far no one has succeeded.

QUESTION:
Have you ever tried to run away from love? it is when we are most unsure of ourselves that we doubt the love of others. What are ways you can remind yourself of God's constant love and presence in your life?

RECEIVE

On the old hit show “Trading Spaces” friendly neighbors give a lackluster room in their homes over to each other and a couple of opinionated designers, and trust them to deliver a totally new look to it. They’re hoping that somehow, miraculously, the designer assigned to their home will have the same taste they do. In the most captivating episodes, that usually isn’t the case .

The intriguing part is watching the shocked couple with the new, not~ to~ their~ liking room trying to graciously thank their neighbor friends, the designers, and the show host for something you know is coming down as soon as the production truck pulls away. It’s hard to cultivate a grateful response when disappointment is clouding the way. Most of the time, as someone watching from afar, you have to say, “Well, it’s better than you had before, give it a chance.”

When Jesus traded his own space in heaven for the chance to make something new of the dying old world before him, it was hard to find even one grateful party. Everyone was sitting around waiting for a warrior Messiah ~ someone with a room with a view of the promised land. They expected him to arrive and, in one broad stroke, vanquish their enemies and make everything right again.

Instead they got the Prince of Peace, who to be sure was ready to do some rearranging. Trouble was, he was more interested in their hearts than their land. And apparently the only enemy he was interested in vanquishing was the unbelievable baggage of expectations and demands everyone seemed to be carrying around with them ~ both for him and for their own lives. what no one expected was that all the change he left behind would be so beautiful. By the time they discovered it, he wasn’t around to thank ~ in person anyways, we had done away with him because he didn’t operate or move as we wanted him to.

As Joni Mitchell sang “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” Sometimes the best gifts come in unexpected packages. If your willing to be patient and wait to discover what might not be obvious at first, you may find that every day, every moment, every person you meet is a gift to your life. And they all come from the ultimate giver of all good things.

Question:

It truly is better to give than to receive, but a grateful receiver can be a gift back to the giver. Think of the gifts God has given you and your response to those gifts. What were they? Cultivate your own grateful heart and share.

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1.03.01

Love

When Paul wrote about the three great things remaining ~faith , hope, and love~ he wasn't kidding about the greatest of these being love. Love is the thread that runs through the entire story of God's attachment to his people. He has written His name on our hearts and refuses to take no for an answer.

Pascal said " the heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of." God is the best proof of that. His heart is consumed, not by logic, nor reason, nor by rules, but by passion. When it comes to love, He's ready to do anything in the name of it. The first Christmas morning was only the beginning of the incredible lengths He was willing to go. And if God truly is love, Jesus was the walking, breathing, in our faces proof of that, He started the party two thousand years ago and still hasn't stopped inviting everyone to come.

He was love, is love, and oozes love. Love tinges his every decision, his every move. He dined and danced with the rebels and losers and didn't care what the neighbors thought. When everyone wanted to stone the woman caught in her guilt, Jesus dropped the stones and let love speak the verdict.

Opening his door to anyone who knocked, he was the only one who took in any story they told. It didn't matter. Like he said, the sick were healed, and he didn't come to let the saints feel even better about themselves. He came looking for the lost, broken sinners who never even knew they had gold~engraved invitations to the party, let alone the right to RSVP. All we needed was love and he knew it. Of course he knew it. It was his plan all along.

When all the party poopers stood outside and watched through the windows, shouting their lists of all the rules he was breaking, he partied on. They really thought he needed to learn. They really thought he didn't know. They assumed he was breaking God's laws when was the one who carved them in the stone in the first place.

He knew the rules, he knew the laws. And he also knew ~ actually, He made it so ~ That the greatest law of all was love.

In the end love conquers all. Love even trumps Justice. Amazing grace, they call it, and its a grace He's extended to all his creation every day since the world first began. It's a stupendous, magnificent, beautiful thing ~ this thing called GOD'S LOVE. And it is indeed, amazing

Question~
If love truly is the greatest gift of all, how are you sharing it in your own life, with God and those around you?

hebrews 4:14-16

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confessions.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet with out sin.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.