Psalm 90

This Psalm is actually a prayer of Moses. So many good things are in this chapter. I recommend all of you reading it at least once and just open your heart to what God would have you to learn from it. The Psalm starts out with a great verse. "LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." Our dwelling place. The word dwell means "to remain for a time" or "to live as a resident." To think of God as my dwelling place...isn't possible. Honestly, God isn't my dwelling place. But He should be. I should be in His Word and living for Him so much that He is my dwelling place. But, He's not...yet. I'm hoping and really striving to change that. The next thing in this chapter that really hits home and really opened my eyes was verses 4-12 (or thereabouts). These verses talk of how a thousand years to us, is but one day to God. And verse 12 says, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Number our days. In the book I'm going through with the Psalms, there's a suggestion to see how many days you have already lived. And if the Lord allows you to live to be 70...that's about 25,550 days...how many days do you have left? How are you going to live those days? Yeah, it may seem like a lot of days left...but we never know when God will call us home. I've heard lots of messages on this topic about not wasting your life and making every day count for Christ. But until today, my eyes weren't that open about the subject. I surrendered today and prayed that God would help me use every day to honor and glorify HIM and Him alone. A day isn't worth living...if it's not for Christ.

I also read another chapter in the book "The Calvary Road." Again, it was amazing. The title of the chapter is "The Dove and the Lamb." In this chapter, Roy Hession talks about Christ being both. He starts off by using the verse John 1:29, "...behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." As John baptized Jesus, the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended like a Dove. Roy Hession goes on to talk about these animals picturing Christ's humility. Had Christ not been pictured as a Lamb with humility, submissiveness, and self-surrender, the Dove couldn't have rested upon Him. The Dove would have been frightened if the Lamb wasn't so gentle. This is how we are to be. Just like the Lamb. If we are like the Lamb, then the Dove (the Holy Spirit) can come and abide in us. He can't rest upon us while we aren't broken for Him. Roy Hession gives 5 dispositions of the Lamb. He states that the Lamb is simple (having no plans of helping itself), shorn (willing to be shorn of His rights, His reputation, and every human liberty that was due to Him, just as a lamb is shorn of its wool), silent (while he was facing all that the mockers said to Him that day on the cross, "He answered nothing."), spotless (nothing but love was in His heart that day), and the substitute (taking OUR place on that cross to die a horrible death) lamb. To think of MY sins on that cross with MY Savior...He bore MY horrible and awful sins...so that I may be in Heaven one day. He didn't have to, but He did. He doesn't have to still bear EVERY horrible sin I commit...but He does. Roy Hession gives a little illustration to help us all see Christ carrying our sins. The illustration says that there was a saintly African Christian and one day, as he was climbing up a hill, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned and saw a Man carrying a very heavy load up the hill on his back. As he looked closer, he saw scars on His hands and realized it was Jesus. This man said to Him, "Lord, are you carrying the sins of the world up this hill?" "No," replied Jesus, "not the world's sin, just yours!" At first, this may seem kind of odd to hear, but truly think about it. Christ carrying YOUR sins. MY sins. My heart broke as I read this and realized how many of my sins He was carrying. My prayer is for God to break me and make me more like Him. Look to the cross.

Not I, but Christ

I'm reading the book "The Calvary Road." I have to say that it is the biggest encouragement and rebuke I have had in a while. This book needs to be on your must read list, especially if you have never read it. The first chapter starts off talking about brokenness. In this fist chapter, Roy Hession states that in order for us to have a right relationship with Christ, our will must be broken. We must say, "Not I, but Christ." Christ cannot live in us and have Himself shown through us, until we get rid of our selfishness. There is so much more I could say on the other chapters, but this one part of this one chapter just grabbed my heart. If you truly think about it, we all are so selfish. We want things our way, even when our way isn't what is best or even right. I find this so often in my own life. My selfishness even reared its ugly head at a time when I should have been SO unselfish, and it actually cost me some great things. I have let selfishness into my life too much and too often. Yet, it's one of the hardest things to really get rid of in your life. We're humans. We'll always want things our way. But until we allow God to break us, and we do our part as well, this selfishness will come many more times. No, I don't think we'll ever be able to get rid of our selfishness, at least until we get to Heaven. But, once we allow God to truly break us, and let HIM have control of it all, we won't be able to completely used by Him. Brokenness. Seems easy. But it's not. We try to live the Christian life by ourselves. Without God. Yet it is impossible to truly serve God and live this life without Him. Roy Hession talks of Christ being so broken to do what His Father had called Him to do. In Psalm 22 verse 6, The Bible tells us that Christ said, "I am a worm, and no man." Roy Hession goes on to talk of Christ becoming as a worm. When you think about it, worms are a picture of total brokenness. You can squash them and they don't fight back. You can do what you want with it and they don't have any resistance. We should be just like that. Allowing God to do what He wants with us, without any resistance. I don't know about you, but that is certainly something hard to ask of someone. I want these certain things done my way...but a few other things, God can do His way. But, we have to be completely surrendered and broken for God to do whatever He wants with all of us. I'm hoping to daily make my prayer that it will be not I, but Christ in everything.