INTIMACY WITH GOD

 INTIMACY WITH GOD

Last week my friend Kathy Stiles shared new insight on Ephesians 1:17. What she wrote opened my heart to a whole new world of intimacy with God. The Passion Translation of that verse goes: “I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know him through your deepening intimacy with him.” I’d never seen this translation, but something about the second part of the verse caught my attention.

 

That “God would impart the spirit of revelation to know Him through your deepening intimacy with Him.So, what was the process of how the second part of the verse became a much bigger reality than ever before?

 

1.      God let me know this was important, so I read it over and over and mulled it over in my mind.

2.      Next, I wrote it out myself. Putting something in our own writing seems to help establish it. There are many scriptures that document this truth. (Even God had to put the Law of Moses on tablets).

3.      Then I put it in personal terms: “God will give me the spirit of revelation to know Him through my deepening intimacy with Him.” I had to think about this one! What does “intimacy” really mean? Well, first I thought of a married couple. They know secret things about each other that no one else knows. We all have intimate thoughts that maybe never even come out, small worry thoughts such as “I wonder if the doctor is going to be mad at me for not doing my medicine right,” “I wish my daughter wouldn’t hand out with that girl,” “I really am so bored by this project.” These are kinds of seemingly small issues that we keep to ourselves or maybe share with one other person. But these are the kinds of intimate things God wants us to share with HIM!

4.      I repeated many times: “God will give me the spirit of revelation to know Him through my deepening intimacy with Him.” Then I started with one or two slightly negative thoughts that entered my mind, and I voiced them openly to God. He answered me immediately!

 

I realized THE MORE INTIMATE I AM WITH HIM, THE MORE INVOLVED HE WILL BE WITH ME! Now that I see how true this is, it makes total sense, and I wonder why I never saw it before! I used to think that asking God yes and no questions was a good way to start to be able to hear from Him, and it’s not a bad idea, but this intimacy thing is far better. Yes, it takes a little work if you’re the kind of person who keeps everything inside you, but now you can change that.

 

Such a simple and amazing truth for each of us. Start off by saying this out loud to yourself right now: THE MORE INTIMATE I AM WITH HIM, THE MORE INVOLVED HE WILL BE WITH ME

 

Love, Carolyn

 

 

GOD SEES US THROUGH HIS FILTER OF LOVE

 GOD SEES US THROUGH HIS FILTER OF LOVE

I went into the bathroom Friday and saw an ugly scary face looking back  - AND IT WAS ME!!! As miserable as I feel, my friend Chris reminded me last week of Job from the Bible. I can’t even imagine how Job felt!

 

“So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes” (Job 2:7-8). It doesn’t even tell us if anyone helped him with cleaning those oozing boils all over his body! He had to scrape off the pus and infection with a piece of pottery! Really gross.

 

I studied the artist Ivan Albright. He had no filter on his paintings at all. He painted every ugly mole, every wrinkle, and every wirey gray hair. He examined and painted every little ugly thing he saw and even exaggerated it’s grotequeness. But God does exactly the opposite. He looks at us through the filter of His love.

 

“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).

 

And God will never give up on us, no matter what, “for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).

 

I know that God loves me, and I will get well soon.

 

Love, Carolyn

LAMENTATIONS

LAMENTATIONS

I got slammed a couple weeks ago with a harsh virus. I could barely breath, so I went and got a mouth swab; it got sent to the lab, and was negative for Covid. THANK GOD! But the virus hit hard and caused a few small spots of pneumonia on my lungs so I’m fighting that. I couldn’t figure out how come this had to happen to me. The only reason I can see is that the Lord wanted me to experience more compassion for those who have been affected by this. It’s horrible. I realized how much compassions Jesus has for us, that He went through all this misery so we could get well.

 

I went to the book of Lamentations because I knew there was good scriptures there. Why is it called Lamentations?  Could it be because we lament and when we feel our worst is when we need God the most?

I think the passage of scripture speaks much to our times.

 

“The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

 

“For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, they have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

 

“They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there. The anger of the Lord hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

 

“As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.  They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled;
for our end is come.  Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

^“Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins. (Lam. 4:12-20).

 

And then the best part comes from chapter 3, starting from verse 19 (for brevity’s sake, I don’t include all the verses, but you get the point.

 

“Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

 

“For the Lord will not cast off for ever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

 

“Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

“I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

“O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. (Lam. 3:19-58)

 

THE DEVIL WILL NOT DEFEAT US!

 

Love, Carolyn