Month: October 2011

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Arrived

A glass sits on a table. It is filled halfway up with water. What do you see? A glass half empty or a glass half full?

I’ve always been a glass half full kind of person. It makes for a happy life 🙂

I ask this question today because of a statement and an overall thought process I have heard expressed so much in the church today. It can be summed up in the statement, “not yet arrived”, although it can be expressed in many different ways. While I believe it to be a true statement in that there is a glorious splendor we still await and long for, some have turned it into a mantra that takes on the same sense as seeing the glass half empty.

“Yes, you’ve been born again. Yes, you’ve learned some glorious truths. Yes, you’ve gone from glory to glory and grown and transformed so much, but you haven’t arrived yet. You still have so far to go.” I don’t know about you but this glass half empty statement does nothing to inspire me.

Today, I want to take a look at the word of God and see where we have arrived. I want to see the glass half full.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named… (Ephsians 3:14-15, KJV)

I have arrived into the family of God. I am His kid. He is my Father.

[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love… (Colossians 1:13, Amplified)

I have arrived into the Kingdom of God, into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.

But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)… (Philippians 3:20, Amplified)

I have arrived into my citizenship in heaven even while I live this life on earth.

And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus… (Ephesians 2:6, Amplified)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6, KJV)

I have arrived in heavenly places to be seated with Him.

For in Him we live and move and have our being… (Acts 17:28, Amplified)

I have arrived in Him.

In Him I have been made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). In Him I am a new creature, a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Through Him I can do all things (Philippians 4:13).

Because of where I have arrived, I have the hope of arriving at that future glorious splendor.

Look again. The glass is full and about to overflow.

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Known and Loved

O LORD, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me. You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar off. You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways. (Psalm 139:1-2, Amplified)

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you… (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV)

Have you ever had the thought, “If people really knew me, knew my weaknesses, knew my failings, knew my secrets, they wouldn’t like me anymore. They wouldn’t love me anymore”?

Is there a side of you that everyone sees, while hidden within is the you that you never want anyone to see? It’s a lonely place to feel unknown for fear of being unloved. But there is One Who has always known you. There is One Who has always loved you.

I think of the madman of Gadara. A man possessed of devils, living among the tombs, frightening everyone in that area. Others saw him and were repulsed by him and feared him. Jesus saw Him, knew Him and loved Him.

The woman caught in adultery, her secret failings and sins were put on display for all to see. He knew what she had done. He knew her and He loved her.

Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors. He knew them and He loved them.

As He dined in a Pharisees home a woman came and anointed his feet with oil. Washed His feet with her tears. Dried His feet with her hair. The Pharisee thought to himself if Jesus knew who was touching Him, a sinful, outcast of a woman, He wouldn’t allow it. But Jesus knew who she was. He knew what she had done. He knew her and He loved her. His love set her free.

He knew you before you were formed in your mother’s womb. He knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows every intimate detail of your life. He knows you and He loves you.

People may or may not ever get to know the real you. People may or may not love the real you. But always remember that there is One that has always known you and One that will always love you.

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized you that He sent His Son for you (John 3:16).

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Be Somebody

I recently went through a great transition in my life. My husband and I left a church we had attended for fourteen years. We left at God’s instruction. We left on good terms. We left a place where I felt like I was somebody. I felt a little like Norm from Cheers, everybody knew my name. I was a prayer leader. I was a teacher. I was a healing minister. I was the lead person for a certain area of ministry in the church. I was somebody that people looked up to. Then we left.

I am at a new church now. I can count on my fingers the number of people who know my name. I slip in for service and then slip out unnoticed. I do laundry. I clean my house. I cook dinner. I was beginning to feel like a nobody. But what does the Bible say about this?

…if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). (1 Corinthians 13:2, KJV)

Leading prayer doesn’t make me somebody. Being a teacher doesn’t make me somebody. Healing the sick in His Name doesn’t make me somebody. Being in charge of a ministry doesn’t make me somebody. I was somebody as I did each of these things because of the love I did them with, His love in me.

…the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5, KJV)

We can have faith that moves mountains but without His love we are nobody. But with His love…

Be somebody today. Whether your praying for or ministering to the nations or simply folding laundry and cooking dinner for your family. Be somebody today by loving the people that are right in front of you.