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ever been around someone who was thanking God that they "got up that morning"? believe me, after spending 40+ years among the redeemed folks of the Kingdom, i have. i used to sit there and think, "c'mon. we all got up this morning. it's what you do unless you work at night." then my heart failed. and several times in each journey to the hospital, nurses have told me that in the middle of the night i have had teams including doctors at work trying to wake me up. i suppose it coulda scared me, but for some odd reason i listened to them like i was overhearing a soccer game from the next room. i went to school with archie griffin. puh-leez. soccer. ha. okay. back on task ...
gratitude is more than a happy reaction for some gift that will wind up in your basement for your exhausted family to find when you croak. gratitude is a force of creation. suppose you've got a houseful of adolescents for a family. they are toilet trained and popular among their peers. you don't see them as much as you would like, of course. they blow down the front door like hurricanes and somehow suck food into their stomachs on the way to their rooms without ever opening the refrigerator door. the boys always make creative noises while the girls berate their beauty about things you literally couldn't see with a microscope. and when you try to tell them they are bonkers because they are beautiful, they say, "you're my dad. you are SUPPOSED TO think that."
now suppose that for some reason one of those teens says, "i love hanging out with you. let's watch a movie." if you are in the middle of operating on a heart patient, you will say, "nurse, pinch this artery right here. i will be back after the movie with my kid." mom, suppose you have had a day. nothing went right and it was such silly stuff that to complain would make you look like a three-year-old. so you got to the end of the day, and there was just a pile of gurgling static in your gut. now suppose your son who lately has been calling you by your first name and is as ornery as a gnat comes up and with no warning gently wraps his arms around you and says, "i love you, mom. just wanted you to know." wham-o! dingdingdingding! we have a winner! your heart is not only healed, your memory is washed clean, too. you could be elected president of the United Nations, and you would be talking about your kid. "oh, yeah, i hope to be a good president, but last week my son came up and hugged me. for no reason. just cuz he loved me. he SAID that!"
please forgive me with this, because i promise i DO respect my Father. but i need to say that even though He is King of the universe, He responds to those moments, too. when Psalm 100 says, "enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise," it isn't talking about some secret monotone combination that mimics aladdin's "open sesame!" may i remind you that you are His temple? YOU carry the Holy of holies in your body. it shares space with the doritos and day-old coffee. so now that the curtain to the Holy of holies is ripped top to bottom and the glory has transferred home-base to your heart of hearts, what exactly does it mean to "enter" His gates and courts? it means putting your arms around Him and saying, "i love You and i just wanted You to know."
"john, that is stupid. He is too busy to just have people coming up and hugging Him."
why would He be busy? time is His servant. most of our prayer requests either are asking for selfish things He chooses not to do, or have no faith backing them, so there's nothing for Him to work with. but even if He "had to" answer every prayer ever prayed, that takes less time than a blink for Him. He is OUTSIDE of time. time was created for us so we could pull the food out of the oven when it's done and know when to get the winter clothes out. "Abba, Father" may mean different things to different folks, but for me, it is that time when my head rests on His shoulder. it is my response when i am weeping quietly and feel His arms surround me and feel myself be gathered into His chest.
when you flip the switch for your lights to come on in a dark room, it appears that the change from dark to light is instantaneous. it isn't. light moves in a vacuum at 670,616,629.2 miles-per-hour. it is a little slower through glass or air. but you still can't see it. here is something that IS instantaneous: when you praise, you are instantaneously in His presence. faster than the speed of light. faster than your feelings or awareness. before the breath you make the noise with can begin to leave your lips. the Psalmist was painting this praise picture with the understanding he had at that time. He described what he could see. God at the time DID have a tabernacle that He dwelt in. you DID have to "approach" Him. but if we had to wait for light to illuminate our way to Him, we could only get there going 983,571,056 feet-per-second. and, hey! sometimes i need to get there in a hurry. none of this light-slowing-me-down stuff.
here is how instantaneous it is dealing with God: He gets there first. He responds to your faith before you are aware that you believe. before your faith hero has begun his impressive prayer wind-up, God says, "done." when you go to the elders for anointing with oil, the elders aren't magic. paul left churches he had only started up 3 months earlier with elders. elders are folks who have more experience, but they are just God with skin on. you may want to excommunicate me, but it isn't the oil you are anointed with that is magic, either. GASP! how can i say that? um ... cuz it's true. that oil is a picture for you to understand with. it represents the Holy Spirit. look in Genesis. the same Spirit Who moved on the face of the waters is in you. the same Spirit Whom Jesus said is like the wind and blows wherever It wants, wanted to be in you. the same Spirit Who raised Christ from the dead is giving life to your human husk as you read this.
have you heard of Habitat for Humanity? beautiful folks. Jimmy Carter, one of my heroes since before his first primary election, has built those homes. but there is also Habitat for the Creator. Pastor Don and Pastor Vern both work in this organization. HA! i crack me up. you see, God inhabits the praises of His people. it's why i can get up and turn on a church program with people whose denomination i don't understand at all, and if they are singing and glorifying Him, at least for that time, i am blessed. i have heard folks say that the tribe of Judah (the worshippers. the choir) went into battle first so the other side would be discouraged. perhaps. i don't know. but it seems to me there was one purpose for the choirs to go in first. it was the picture of God showing up first. those choirs weren't in the spiritual warfare game. they were clothed in God's glory and as such, untouchable. like the force-field around the Starship Enterprise. (if you have never watched Star Trek, stop reading and go watch it right now.)
so the folks who are grateful that they got up this morning (you thought i forgot those folks, didn't ya?) are just plugging in at the moment of consciousness. they are saying, "every moment i am accountable for, i want clothed in His glory. i want to live every second conscious of His company. i want Him to go before me into battle and into love. and into the times i am having trouble telling the two apart." He is always aware of you. always. praise makes you aware of Him. moments are different between hanging our with your spouse and praising your spouse. there is a richness, a quality enhancement. of course, you want regular conversation, too, so you don't throw up and stuff. but praise changes your awareness. and praising Him takes you immediately from being wrapped in your world to being wrapped up in His. you will like yourself much better in His. be careful out there. see ya.
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Posted by AllThingsBuck on 2007-12-28 05:26:11 | Rating: | Views: 145
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Hello AllThingsBuck:
Jesus Christ is so real and upclose and personal, I constantly invite others to do their own homework and research the facts of Scriptures because I want each person to come to the intimate knowledge of Christ, which is the hope of glory that lives within the "jars of clay" also known as "ordinary human beings."
This post blessed me because we all need to count our blessings even in the midst of trials and tribulations because there is always something to be grateful for in life. Many times it is the very thing we take for granted until we almost lose it and then we recognize the profound value of a simple thing. God bless you.
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Posted by SRD
on 2007-12-28 08:01:00
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So interesting that you posted this today. I posted something similar (well, nowhere NEAR as advanced as yours). I LOVE the way you explain things. Like a more layman than Max Lucado. Hey, have you read 'Facing Your Giants' by him? If so, what is your take on it? I loved it. As always, reading what YOU write is a blessing and a reminder that their are true servants of God.
~Kaye~
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Posted by NothingLeft2Lose
on 2007-12-29 19:35:08
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