God has really been speaking to my heart about what to share at the beach for our Devotions by the Ocean Gathering that we've been doing for a few months now, and this morning as I sat with my journal at work, He showed me a beautiful passage that is often overlooked.
Coming up at the beach we will be discussing what we find to be truly valuable to us, and in an effort to discover what we keep in the 'safe' of our hearts, we will step out into the world of redefining wealth.
A few years ago, we began to see things in a different light around here at the Village Garage, and by that I mean God began to reveal Himself through His Word in response to a prayer that I lifted up to Him early one morning while sitting in the Garage.
I had been listening to first this one, then that. I had read many books 'explaining God' and I was still coming away empty feeling. So I did what I felt was right, and what I thought would help me to get the scoop firsthand. I prayed.
Not just any prayer as it turns out. I sat down with my Bible, and I prayed for God to teach me, by His Holy Spirit (the same One that wrote the Book) and to help me to understand so that I might follow Jesus more closely than man was teaching me in the various books I had been reading. It was then that I began to see what is truly valuable, and that brings us to this post.
As God began to reveal Himself to me in His Word, I began to realize many things, which I will share along the way, but I want to stay focused on the topic here, which is redefining wealth.
You see, I grew up in poverty, extreme poverty, so I never had much value for fancy things, which I feel has made it easier for me today to be content with what I have, and to see value in the things that many take for granted.
As I began to dig deeper into God's Word, it began to bury itself deep within my heart, and I began to really count the cost of following Jesus, and when stacked up against what the world has to offer, and what I've already experienced, I can see plainly that I'd much rather follow His Way.
For so many years I remained an angry guy. Angry at no one or nothing in particular, just angry, and that has caused more problems in my life than I'd like to admit, so long story short, I didn't value people or relationships.
After experiencing Jesus in a very real way in 2005, and as He led me out of the chains of addiction to drugs, alcohol, and the anger that had held me captive for so long, I began to see that I really do need others, and that God had created us for community.
The sad part about it all, is that what I was seeing in church, looked so much like the world, that I could barely tell the difference, but I knew that I am different, because the Spirit inside of me was telling me so.
My intention here is not to point out all that I find unappealing about the church of today, but to continue to pursue the discovery of how to become the church that Jesus intended, and to do so, I must continually pursue that which is most important, and that can only be found in Jesus.
This woman who came to Jesus and poured the expensive perfume over His head in Matthew 26 knew that the One she was doing this to was far more important than the perfume that she used.
We're not sure of what her financial life was like, whether she was someone who struggled to make a living, and possibly 'treasured' this jar of perfume, or if it was surplus, but what we do know is that she was willing to offer it to Jesus, regardless of its meaning to her.
In my next post, I will continue this writing, and I will try to take a look at the ideas that we will discuss at the beach during DBTO. It is my prayer that I will draw near to Jesus, and give to Him in all things, my everything.
Coming up at the beach we will be discussing what we find to be truly valuable to us, and in an effort to discover what we keep in the 'safe' of our hearts, we will step out into the world of redefining wealth.
A few years ago, we began to see things in a different light around here at the Village Garage, and by that I mean God began to reveal Himself through His Word in response to a prayer that I lifted up to Him early one morning while sitting in the Garage.
I had been listening to first this one, then that. I had read many books 'explaining God' and I was still coming away empty feeling. So I did what I felt was right, and what I thought would help me to get the scoop firsthand. I prayed.
Not just any prayer as it turns out. I sat down with my Bible, and I prayed for God to teach me, by His Holy Spirit (the same One that wrote the Book) and to help me to understand so that I might follow Jesus more closely than man was teaching me in the various books I had been reading. It was then that I began to see what is truly valuable, and that brings us to this post.
As God began to reveal Himself to me in His Word, I began to realize many things, which I will share along the way, but I want to stay focused on the topic here, which is redefining wealth.
You see, I grew up in poverty, extreme poverty, so I never had much value for fancy things, which I feel has made it easier for me today to be content with what I have, and to see value in the things that many take for granted.
As I began to dig deeper into God's Word, it began to bury itself deep within my heart, and I began to really count the cost of following Jesus, and when stacked up against what the world has to offer, and what I've already experienced, I can see plainly that I'd much rather follow His Way.
For so many years I remained an angry guy. Angry at no one or nothing in particular, just angry, and that has caused more problems in my life than I'd like to admit, so long story short, I didn't value people or relationships.
After experiencing Jesus in a very real way in 2005, and as He led me out of the chains of addiction to drugs, alcohol, and the anger that had held me captive for so long, I began to see that I really do need others, and that God had created us for community.
The sad part about it all, is that what I was seeing in church, looked so much like the world, that I could barely tell the difference, but I knew that I am different, because the Spirit inside of me was telling me so.
My intention here is not to point out all that I find unappealing about the church of today, but to continue to pursue the discovery of how to become the church that Jesus intended, and to do so, I must continually pursue that which is most important, and that can only be found in Jesus.
This woman who came to Jesus and poured the expensive perfume over His head in Matthew 26 knew that the One she was doing this to was far more important than the perfume that she used.
We're not sure of what her financial life was like, whether she was someone who struggled to make a living, and possibly 'treasured' this jar of perfume, or if it was surplus, but what we do know is that she was willing to offer it to Jesus, regardless of its meaning to her.
In my next post, I will continue this writing, and I will try to take a look at the ideas that we will discuss at the beach during DBTO. It is my prayer that I will draw near to Jesus, and give to Him in all things, my everything.
They say this is what the alabaster jar that was used in Matthew 26:6-13 may have looked like. When cleaned up, alabaster is a beautiful and valuable mineral stone.
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