Amazing Love

Eternal Father,

It is amazing love,

that thou hast added the spirit of comfort to teach, comfort, guide,

that thou hast allowed the ministry of angels to wall me round.

All heaven subserves the welfare of the poor worm.

Permit thy unseen servants to be ever active on my behalf,

and to rejoice when grace expands in me.

Suffer them never to rest until my conflict is over,

and I stand victorious on salvation's shore.

Grant that thy proneness to evil,

deadness to good,

resistance to thy Spirit's motions,

may never provoke thee to abandon me.

May my hard heart awake thy pity, not thy wrath,

And if the enemy gets an advantage through my corruption,

let it be that heaven is mightier than hell,

That those for me are greater than those against me.

Arise to my help in richness of covenant blessings,

Keep me feeding in the pastures of thy strengthening WORD,

searching Scripture to find thee there.

If my waywardness is visited with a scourge,

enable me to receive correction meekly,

to bless the reproving hand,

to discern the motive of rebuke,

to respond promptly, and do the first work.

Let all thy fatherly dealings make me a partaker of thy Holiness.

Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees,

and that when I rise (NOT IF I RISE) BUT WHEN I RISE it may be to loftier  heights of devotion.

May my every cross be sanctified,

every loss be gain,

every denial a spiritual advantage,

every dark day a light of the Holy Spirit,

every night of trial a song.

Spiritual Helps:

from the book; "The Valley of Vision," A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

It's sin desire to have you...........................this is what He told me on my walk with him.............little did I know that it would almost kill me.

Sin is crouching at the door.....It's DESIRE is for YOU, but you must rule over it."

Genesis 4:7

"Desire," (teshuqah)

And it's me that can't seem to find the gratitude these last few weeks when I felt I couldn't take another step.

The enemies attacks have come at me hard.........I have felt alone and scared.

Words have been my biggest weapon...............the tongue that whipped the hard............... the damage that is done. 

We are the broken............from the storms that sometimes make you want to curl up and die.

And it's He that whispers...........Be Still..........but I don't know how anymore.

And it's He that whispers.............."your sins are forgiven."

An OT prophet might declare..........."The Lord also has put away your sin."

Yes He is able..............at the cost of Christ's death on the Cross!

There are things if you try and hold on to you will fall.  Sometimes the letting go of our will is the biggest step towards SURRENDERING!

asking for your grace..........would you pray for me today?
Thank you.

all of grace,

Robbie

Surrendering to the Empty-Tomb Centered Life

 Could it be true that I don't believe in the Resurrection of Christ even though I saw it with my own eyes?

It's me who denies the resurrection of Christ when I see death as the final! The aging body as the end.


I am slowly learning..........that only God can transform us.
It's when I stare out the window into the morning fog it is then that I realize........my reality is not about my agendas..........that is not who I am.
I will only find myself when I lose myself.

Matthew 10:39;
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Surrendering ourselves is the beginning of our transformation!

Inside the empty tomb looking out.

This lent season has hit me hard.............I am in the darkness of my sins.....feeling a sense that I have missed something important and how I am living my life untrue to myself...........to others.....to God.
I am confronting these feelings. Repenting.......Praying......asking God to show me what I really look like on the inside.
On the outside I look like a Christian..........I go to church..........I spend time with God...........I pray.   But to surrender or recklessly abandon myself to God I haven't........I can't let go of the need to control.
I am struggling to reach the bottom of my own well, trying to get water for myself.

John 4:11;

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

I have failed to recognize Jesus as the ALMIGHTY! I have some Christian attributes, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ!

It's time this lent season to ask God; "Show us...........what we really look like?"

What if we lived our lives with the tomb empty?
His Resurrection frees us........from ourselves. His empty tomb turns our eyes from the me, me , me kind of world and beckons us to keep our eyes on Him!

God is love........."AGAPE." Such love should inspire us......................to not be imprisoned by our own chains.............This type of Love couldn't be held captive in a cold tomb.....Nor do we have to be held captive by our sin, if we will truly SURRENDER our lives to living Christ!

"Christ must increase, and I must decrease." (apostle John)
The way up is down we live in an upside down kingdom!

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 22:13)


all is well,
Robbie


We are not converted only once in our lives but many times...and this endless series of large and small conversions, inner revolutions, leads to our transformation in Christ. (Thomas Merton)

Weekends are for embracing

"The Blood deals with what we have done...........whereas the Cross deals with, what we are. The Blood disposes of our sins, while the Cross strikes at the root of our capacity for sin."- Watchman Nee (China/1903-1972).

Embrace the trials and sufferings of Jesus...........That is our way to the light.

If we embrace godly disciplines.............we will have an inward joy.

May your where-abouts this weekend dear friends be one of embracing.......................LIFE. God has set LIFE and death before us..........and by His grace we choose life!

Self-discipline and Self-denial  during this Lent season is one small way we can step off the spiritual treadmill pick up our cross and follow Jesus.


all of grace,
Robbie

Lent- It's aMAZEing

I can't seem to follow through with anything this year and this new job has me spinning a bit disoriented lately.

The day before yesterday I got up early to spend time with the King.........(only happened once this week).  Knowing Lent was on it's way....... dreaming of how I wanted it to be the different this year!
It always starts out with  good intentions and ends up with me living in the flesh..........doing what I really want to do.
So I asked myself and my teens yesterday;  "What is Lent truly about?"

Is it OK that I see Lent as a time of plunging........into a deep dark maze with no-way out?
Repentance I murmur............I know I really want that.......but it's hard because I continue on pretending I am meeting Jesus in the maze of my life.

Externally, Lent is a time of doing without. It is a time of self-denial, a time of true repentance.
But inwardly, Lent is a time of drawing closer to Jesus.
This year I am wanting that...............the inward change..........drawing closer to the King! I want to know him!

Maybe it's me who is scared............worried what demands the King will make of me during the Lent season. Maybe I would like to just avoid it all together instead of being driven into a maze that I feel I can't find my way out of......a place where Satan himself has been given permission to confront me..........and maybe it's me with my prideful self that knows deep down inside I will just fail God again like I have so many times before.

I want to find my way out...............I want a HEART transformation that only true repentance can bring.........but is the maze too much for me?  Fear makes me want to run from it all............RUN from repentence run from transformation .........staying on my spiritual treadmill of  running in place that is going NO-where!

Am I closed..............to the very GRACE of God?  This may be...........my opportunity of CHANGE! Change can be so hard..........but it also can be so a-MAZE-ing!  If this is true that Lent is offering us a chance to CHANGE and  an opportunity for TRANSFORMATION.........then I want it.......I am willing to be a risk taker...........willing to getting lost in the maze that is before me. Join me want you? In this rare opportunity to start a fresh....to journey INWARD it is our next phase of life with the King.

Let this day be our day of departure.........we are beginning our inward journey:  "ashes to ashes and dust to dust."  It's all about self-denial...........and getting away from the world and spending time with the King!  "Dust we are and dust we shall return."

He is beckoning us to walk with Him with our hands held open ready to receive the unlocking of our real self............ trusting Him through the maze of life where our eyes and ears can't help us because we are walking in submission.......obedience........and surrender to God. It starts with the smallest of surrenders............by opening our hearts to the grace of  Lent..............His Grace!

At the end it will be aMAZEing!

all is well,
Robbie

Valentine's Day= Change

What is it that I want for Valentine's Day? Not change I scream!

As he packs his bags to leave for his trip it's me who stands there with a blank stare on my face as.......he kisses me good-bye and whispers, "quit if you want!"

I had placed them through-out his clothes secretly hiding them in pockets.......I wanted to write my own Valentine's!

What is it that I love? A clean house..................more organization?
What about my heart? What does God see when He looks inside? Maybe it's God who is removing the dead places in me.

It's a new hospital..........but a hospital just the same...............God changing my paths.............me wanting out.....looking for an escape route.........feeling like I can't find my place in this world...............wanting to simply RUN!

Everything changed and opened a new this week!  And I am not capable of stepping out of the boat.(me of so little faith)
I feel like a spoiled brat........Can I really cry the hard because I don't want to do this anymore?............It was the girl brought to me from surgery who has the nothing left but PAIN to endure.
She who has lost everything with the stage 4 cancer that started in her rectum.......moved to her colon.........then to her brain, liver and lungs. It is the all over............and it's me who screams that I only had a 15 min break in 14 hours! Can I really look at her covered up in pain from the bowel that no longer works?  Can I really look at her with tears in my eyes because I simply want to be at home? For what?  Who am I wonder?  I don't think I really know...........because at the end of the day the laundry still piles and there are still crumbs on the counter and beds unmade............and it's then that I remember A perfect organized house is not soul winning...............it's not where the sick and the dying are. It's not the kind of servant-hood Jesus is looking for.
He didn't leave us here on this earth to be saved and sanctified...........He left us here to be at work in service to Him. Our life of service to God is our way of saying; "Thank you for our salvation!"

He wants us to be the CHANGE we want to see in the world!

I am the sad because it's God who is moving me..........changing me...............molding me into something I don't want! I close my eyes and I try to praise Him........but the words don't seem to come..............maybe I am in bondage...............and it's me, (infested with self)  who keeps me there! Maybe I am scared to admit it............is God really good all the time? And He whispers to me..........."I am entrusting you with much." And for those whom much is entrusted much more is demanded! And it's then that the enemy whispers in my ear...........run........run and never look back at any hospital...............It's you with many degrees you can do anything you want...........Why stay at the hospital where people are dying?............. Where feces is running off the bed?   Where vomit hits you in the face?.......where some patients throw their bed-pans at you..........cuss you..... expose you to their diseases......their infections.........some that have no cure............RUN!
RUN from the long shifts with no breaks.......from the day that never ends!
But it all stops when I look into their eyes..........and it's His face that I see...........hurting...........suffering...........stripped of all dignity....I see a Creator who became His creation only to ......... feel pain..........to know suffering........to taste death............so that we would never have too.   It's then that I see a change in their eyes..........when you tell them about the blood of the Lamb who is a river of infinite grace...........I see their eyes change...........right there in a cold dark hospital room........a glimpse of hope...........as if His very presence swoops down in that room and our ever present God who's voice is louder than any enemies........who is willing to offer a drink from the living waters for anyone who thirsts for Him. And I don't understand why He would chose me..............someone who craves the easy....who doesn't know suffering...........who only wants to run...........but I slip my hand in hers.........she is only 47.................she looks at me the strange and it's me who has something to say........and I risk it....I tell her; "that in the midst of a world of pain it is a subject for praise in every place!" "That our souls were never created to LOVE the dust of this earth!" For there is power in the blood of Calvary!......(quoted from ;the valley of vision-prayer book)

Maybe getting out of the boat is to testify to the hurt and the dying that God is long suffering!

Psalm 86:15;

¹⁵But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

 God is forever moving..........refusing to stand still even for a moment.... sometimes asking us to get out of the boat even when it's uncomfortable or hard.........because we serve a God who is looking to and fro for anyone who will TRUST Him or............have FAITH in Him.................or someone willing to keep their eyes on Him! Wanting to show us through pain.............through suffering...........a piece of Him...........His goodness.............His grace.................and to know that even bad things can be used.......for our good........and His glory even when we can't see it!
I beg to breath............in grace...........His grace for all to be well within my soul!

It is simple really we only need to step out of the boat into the unknown.......uncharted waters diving deep into His promises and fulfillment's. Join me want you?

Jeremiah 29:11;

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

all of grace,
Robbie

Weekends are for AGAPE love

Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself.

 AGAPE love.................... means self-sacrifice!

 The Apostle John affirms this in 1 John 4:8: “God is love.” God does not merely love; He is love itself.

He loves the unlovable and the unlovely (us!)

In the same way, we are to love others sacrificially!

May this weekend be one of loving...............one not based on a feeling......but a determined act of the will, a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own.

Blessings sweet friends,

all is well

Robbie

The Grace of the Cross

Pondering these things in my heart in the wee hours of the morning.........before light breaks.
From the saints before us:

O My Savior,
I thank thee from the depths of my being
for thy wondrous grace and love
     in bearing my sin in thine own body on the tree.
May thy cross be to me
as the tree that sweetens my bitter Marahs,
as the rod that blossoms with life and beauty,
as the brazen serpent that calls forth the look of faith.
By thy cross CRUCIFY my every sin;
Use it to increase my intimacy with thyself;
Make it ground of all my comfort,
     the liveliness of all my duties,
     the sum of all thy gospel promises,
     the comfort of all my afflictions,
     the vigour of my love, thankfulness, graces,
     the very essence of my religion;
And by it give me that rest without rest,
the rest of ceaseless praise.

O MY LORD AND SAVIOR,
Thou hast also appointed a cross for me to take up and carry,
                                          a cross before thou givest me a crown.
Thou hast appointed it to be my portion,
but self-love hates it,
carnal reason is unreconciled to it;
without the grace of patience I cannot bear it,
                                                                   walk with it, profit by it.
O blessed cross, what mercies dost thou bring with thee!
Thou art only esteemed hateful by my rebel wills,
heavy because I shirk thy load.
Teach me, gracious Lord and Saviour,
that with my cross thou sendest promised grace
   so that I may bear it patiently,
that my cross is thy yoke which is easy,
        and thy burden which is light.

Why did you do it? Stay up there on that cross?
You our Creator...........took it all............ the sin of the world upon yourself for us your creation.
You put on skin to feel it..........to taste it..........to die......all for us!
The veil was torn from top to bottom..............but it is us your creation that continues trying to stitch that curtain back together to hang it between the Creator and us His creation!

You did it because you didn't want to be separated from us your creation............so the whole earth could be full of your Glory!
You washed away our sins with your blood that dripped that day on Calvary.
You removed the barrier and Satan has helped Religion put the curtain back up to keep us separated from you.
Religion has helped us think that you putting on flesh wasn't enough!
We "Christians," are the walking dead when in reality we are supposed to be ALIVE IN CHRIST!

When I truly think about what He did..........my breath catches in my throat and it's then that I want to fall to my knees and cry out.............."holy, holy, holy!"
I feel it in my whole body.........He loves us! He truly loves us!

Today is the day of remembering...........that He loves you............He loves me......and now is the moment that we can truly learn to LIVE! Live willing to allow ourselves to be poured out so He can pour in!





all of grace,
Robbie