Where does my help come from?

Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

Walking through the daily questions I look around with confusion aired on my face.

My heart was questioning everything, every decision, every action, every word that came out of my mouth as well as every word that came back to my ears.

What was going on? 

Something was happening here. Something outside my realm of earthly perspective. 

Things where lining up in a strange, yet obvious course of events that I was struggling to make any sense of.

The battle was over the top and my strength was on the edge of gone.

With an anxious, exhausted breath. I gave it up. I let it all slid from my own hands to the hands that where reaching out to me. 

I felt the weight of everything lift off of me, and I felt myself starting to slid. I was sliding downward, but not in a freaky, murky bleakness. I was sliding deep into solid peace. I was sliding into a quiet peaceful rest, so full of glory. 

Strength started to return to my heart and soul. A strength so far outside of me that I knew without a doubt that it was the strength of my Lord. 

He was reaching out taking everything that was holding me back and baring down on me. He was lifting me up out of the crazy and setting me in a place of rest. 

He removed all fear and replaced confusion with confidence. He settled my mind and filled it with His plans and glory. He changed the doubt to laughter. 

He is the author of my life. No other. He has plans for my life that might not make sense in the view of this world. But His glory goes beyond this world. 

The greatest Love

Greater love has no one than this, that they laid down their life for their friend. 

These where the words bringing me into this valentines day.

The truth of love, the greatest love you can have, the only real reason love exists in this world, the picture of a man who gave up everything so that we wouldn’t have to suffer the total loss and separation from the father who loved us more then anything.

I’ve never been much of a fan of this consumer holiday. I don’t get how this world can celebrate a love they don’t even seem to understand. It all appears to be a form of buying someone’s love.

It’s a little painful to watch the world go wild with the pink and fluff of this holiday celebrating “Love”. I mean what does true love even look like?!

Let me give you a picture…

In the beginning was God. God is love.

When sin entered the world there was a wall that went up. A perfect God cannot be contaminated by sin.

This made God sad. He created us for the every purpose of love and relationship, not just with each other, but with himself.

God said that the punishment for sin was death and eternal separation from Him.

So he sent his only son. A son that was very much him down to this world to live a life much like we do only without the sin part.

He sent this child to the world with a mission. A mission to obliterate and destroy that wall of separation.

When the son was about 33 years old he gave himself up for this cause. This mission. To die the death that would bring down the wall and bring back a unity and love between God and his people.

But death could not keep Him. After 3 days dead this man came back to life. The wall had been ripped apart and still this mans story would not end in death.

Every sin in our lives was forgiven, the ones in the past and the ones in the future.

There is nothing we can do that will separate us from the love that God has for us. That love pursues us.

Day after day some of us try to build up that wall again. We try to ignore or discredit the thought that we are a forgiven people and we try to count the ways we shouldn’t be loved and why we will never make it.

When someone else does the work for you and all you have to do is step in a take the reward and the gift of accomplishment it is a hard thing to comprehend.

I think the hardest part of this is to choose to believe that anyone would ever die for us.

Part of the reason this is so hard is that there is two forces at work here. The God who already won, and the devil who is seeking any foothold or thought that he can attach himself too and drag us away from perfect love. Away from perfect forgiveness.

It’s time to stomp on the devils head and say no more, it’s time to say I want the truth. I’m taking it. It’s a gift to me, and I choose to receive it.

I CHOOSE LOVE.

Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for a friend. John 15:13

That’s love. That’s real love.

The Sword and the Fruit...

On the day we join forces with Jesus, we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit. Eph. 1:13-14

We step into battle.

We are handed the SWARD of the spirit…Which is the word of God.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Eph. 6:17

The same sword the Holy Spirit uses in battle against the enemy. We are given this weapon as a gift, and told to make it our own.  To do this we must learn how to use it, practice and gain knowledge of the power we hold in our hands.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

As we use learn to use the sword of the spirit and wage war within our own lives, killing off our selfishness, anger, bitterness, etc.  we are slowly released from living under the authority of the law and start to operate in the fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit.

For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.

But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Romans 7:5-6

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

The fruit of our lives as warriors of God using the powerful weapons of war He has given us should produce some amazing results!

What is the result of our actions today?

Where do we need to re-examine and re-focus the use of our spiritual armor?