Psalm 147

¹⁰ His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
       nor his delight in the legs of a man;

 ¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him,
       who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Its not in what you can do that He delights

Its not in what you achieve

Its not even in what you are

What does He desire?

What does He want?

Not what do I or you want?

What does He want?

For in knowing the answer to this you find the answer to what you want.

If He delights in Himself and He is still totally humble and holy

How amazing must He be?

Father, Son, Spirit

Delighting in each other

For each give to each other with no hesitation

Each love without merit

Each glorify without end

If Jesus can delight in doing only what the Father wants how much more should I delight in putting all my hope in His unfailing love.

Un...........failing.........

The psalms loves putting things in couplets - ie. saying the same thing twice in two different ways

So He is not into the strength of the things we own - horses

He is not into your legs....or where you can go or what you can do - your ability

So what he wants is for you to Fear Him

Which is to put your Hope in Him which is all of your wanting being placed in His unfailing Love

So what he wants is for you to Hope in Him

Which is to fear Him which is realizing He is what this 'whole thing' is about and loving that

Don't love that?

Simply turn back to Him and behold His glory

Repent.

The gift of repentance is the gift to know Him.

Right now that gift is before you to be opened.

Something like this "Jesus you are God....and I am sorry.....forgive me Lord....thankyou....you know my heart...I place my faith, hope and love in you today....help me to follow you with all that I am...with all of my life....so that I might know you and others might see you"

Your turn.

It all hangs on this...

+jk

Hebrews 12 ⁷Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.


When things get tough, whether it be physically, in our emotions, relationships, mistakes, finances, or other areas we must have a greater understanding of God then the western world around us.

When we as believers face trouble, whatever it may be, we must look to the scriptures to see that trouble does not mean God has left us or God is against us but rather He is loving us through this hardship.

The writer of Hebrews shows us that we should endure hardship as discipline, that it is a sign that you are part of the family of God and what kind of Father would God be if he did not discipline His sons and daughters.

God is the perfect Father so we believe what we are going through is perfect for us.

That is why we should as David did, compare our lives only to the Love of God not the life of someone else.

We now have an even greater comparison then David for although the spirit of God spoke the coming of Christ through him he never saw the fulfillment of that word as we have now seen it and know it to be true through scripture and our hearts.

Let us compare our current troubles to that of which Jesus Christ humbled himself...to very death itself, even when he lived the only flawless life that has ever been lived.

Perfect love drives out all fear.

When we see that God is Love and that He has shown us this and truly lived it out to the point of death we can be set free of the fear of failure and of suffering and of every other kind of fear this life brings.  God does not drive away suffering he drives out the fear of it.

Compare your life to His love and great joy will fill your heart by grace through faith.

Not only will we see that the hardship (if you can call it hardship living on the northern beaches) is God's way of disciplining us but we will see that without pain it is impossible to truly become the chosen people of God's Kingdom, for it is pain and suffering and our response to it in this life that reveals whether the grace of Jesus Christ is truly in us and completing its work in our hearts and lives.

Now don't be discouraged if you haven't responded well to trouble lately or in the past, but just as I have to consistently, let's as followers of Christ fix our eyes again not on the things of this world but on Christ who is seated far above this world and that we also by His grace through the work of the cross and the power of the resurrection have been seated in heavenly realms with Him.

Our joy is not reliant on us but on the completed work of Jesus Christ.

This I pray will set us free to be the hands and feet of a lost generation that need this good news preached through action, word and lifestyle.

As we see the perfect love of Christ I believe we can stop worrying about the little hardships we are facing in this life, that Paul describes as light and momentary and begin to reveal the joy that is beyond all joys in Jesus Christ.

This is your salt, this is your light.

With no suffering there is no discipline, with no discipline there is no growth, with no growth there is no righteousness and peace. 

Righteousness and Peace is what Jesus came to bring, right relationships with God, people and within ourselves and peace between God, people and within ourselves.

Be encouraged today the Father must love you.  Don't skip out of the race there are many who have gone before you and they are cheering you on from the stands of heaven. 

+jk

Matthew 7:1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

John 12:47 For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.


When I judge someone I break relationship with them.

I give them no room to be who they are and who they could become.

If Jesus came to the world and didn't judge how much more should we not judge those in the world.

Grace is about space.

Grace is creating room.

Grace allows relationships to grow.

Grace gives vision.

Judgment impairs our vision for the future.

The future is about people.

Relationships makes me sane.

Relationships ground me in Christ.

Relationships define my saltiness.

Loneliness makes me crazy.

Judging others separates me and drives me mental.

Lord help us to not be judgemental but rather be 'grace-mental'.

Help us to see our own faults, lead us to repentance and relationship with you.

Help us to see people the way you see them.

 
2 Cor 5:¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin^[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.



+jk