The Blessed Obscurity

“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God”- Colossians 3:3

Oh the blessedness of obscurity! When you can love your Lover in secret intimacy, not being disturbed by the glory of man, which has been to many their downfall. How blessed when you can serve God in quiet faithfulness, learning to put all your heart and upmost attention into the small details, as unto the Lord. How blessed you are to be obscure, a nobody in this world, having died to it, but being of attention and value to Heaven! Obscurity has been teaching me great delights about the heart of God, like how He would leave the 99 to go and save just one lost sheep. And how God is looking for our faith and quality of person in daily living, not just our quota of visible production for Him.  In obscurity, God is refining our quality of character, our faith, and making us those who can persevere in difficult times ahead.

It is easy to be close to God and passionate, when things go our way and serving Him is fast paced and thrilling.  But when we descend the mountaintop and are made to be faithful and tested in the valley of endurance, then our real person is exposed. Let us not be so caught up in the greater picture or anxiousness about the future that we miss the precious opportunities now or trample over lost sheep. In Acts, Philip left his whole church just to reach out to the one Ethiopian eunuch. In our production driven, fast passed society, this would seem so inefficient. But God has his eye on the lost sheep, and He would stop the world to rescue them. "What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?” – Matthew 18:12

We cannot judge how to glorify God the most. It is easy to think that perhaps the great evangelists glorify God the most, because they make a great numbers of converts. Though I do believe God is greatly glorified by great evangelists evangelizing, the whole body of Christ is used in making disciples.  We can each glorify God "the most" by simply fulfilling our created potential in Christ, by God's grace. Everyone has a role, whether it is to be obscure, perhaps a faithful housewife and mother, or a faithful hardworking man, setting up chairs at church and investing in his kids at home. Some people will one day be the pastors or an honest and Godly politician, but must still be obscure for a season. This is then the blessed chance to be faithful in little things and to glorify God in daily living and obedience now. Obscurity is a great privilege. When we learn to delight in God and be content wherever He has us, this is great gain! “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”- 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Where God has us presently is the most exciting place we can be, because the Most High has ordained our steps and is with us.  Let us ask God to open our eyes to His great goodness and opportunities to live for Him here and now.  "The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy"- Psalm 126:3
Joseph, Moses, and even Jesus all had times of great obscurity in their lives. Jesus was poor and a carpenter. Joseph was falsely accused and abandoned to prison for over 10 years, forgotten by all. Moses lived on the backside of a desert for 40 years as a nobody, in humility from having fallen from so high a position in Pharaoh’s Court. But God was with them. The desert and obscure times are imperative for God to form Christ-likeness and endurance in us. He is forging us into leaders and servants who can be strong and faithful to lead others through difficulties later on, just like Moses and Joseph. Be a lover of God, and worship Him now with all your heart.

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me”- Psalm 131:1-2.

Song of Solomon part 2

Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon,  means the song of all songs. The love story between Christ and His bride is the ultimate love song. 

"This is Solomon’s song of songs, more wonderful than any other." 1:1

Young Woman-

^2" Kiss me and kiss me again,
    for your love is sweeter than wine.
³ How fragrant your cologne;
    your name is like its spreading fragrance.
    No wonder all the young women love you!
⁴ Take me with you; come, let’s run!
    The king has brought me into his bedroom." (NLT)

In Song of Solomon, Solomon names his lover, "Shulamite," which means, "little Solomon." She is endeared to and named after Him. We are also endeared to and named after our lover/husband. We are called "Christians," which means "little Christs." We are identified with and belonging to Christ, our Lord and husband. The good name of Jesus is as ointment to us: it anoints, perfumes, and blesses us as belonging to Him. We start to smell like Jesus, and become His fragrance that spreads.

I love how Solomon names his lover after him; she will begin to identify with him and carry his fragrance. His name anoints her. A wife takes the name of her husband and delights that his name is as perfume upon her.
All the virgins desire the King, because he is a good man with a good name. He is the kind of man the virgins love (KJV). The saints are also attracted to Jesus. Having been saved from the world and being sancitified, we are no longer attracted to the "bad boy"/satan. Jesus is the kind of King that saints love and want to marry.

The Shulamite wants Solomon to draw her, and yet she is also willing to follow him. She is taken into the palace in verse 4.  When we get saved, we accept to trust in Jesus. We want to join him and say, "take me with you" (NLT)  and "I will run after you" (KJV). Then God takes us in as part of His family. We enter His chambers (KJV), the Kingdom and family of God. Out of all the others, Solomon chose the Shulamite to be his bride and come to live in his chambers. Jesus has also chosen us out of the world to be His bride.

Song of Solomon part 1

Introduction:

 In Jerusalem, about this same time two years ago, I first read Song of Solomon as unto God, while sitting by myself on the top of a hill overlooking the old city. It was the first time I started reading the book as a love story between the King and me. It was difficult at first, because I had trouble understanding how such intimacy could possibly be between God and I. At times the reading felt too awkward to be referring to God, and then I would switch to thinking of an earthly man. I read Song of Solomon  again, a year later at the same time (2011 fall season), through a Bible Study with Jenny Christiansen. Through her inspired teaching and explaining, it was then that the words of this book personally came alive to me and started revealing Jesus' heart for each of us to enter into mature love and oneness with Him (as well as an incredible guide for a future marriage relationship!).

After each Friday morning Song of Solomon study, I couldn't help but quickly get alone with the love of my life and meditate on what He had just spoken to me. "My beloved spake, Rise up, my fair one, and come away"- 2:10. I was overwhelmed with awe at God's love for me. How is it possible that we could ravish God's heart with one look of our eyes?  These truths so moved me, that I started to write a poem for God in worshipful response to each new passage we read in study. I am now reading Song of Solomon again (same time of year!), and again I am strangely overwhelmed with desire to write in response to what I read. Maybe not everything will make it on this blog, but as Song of Solomon's sister Psalm says, "My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king;  my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe"- Psalm 45:1. It seems that even the writer of Psalm 45 was deeply moved to write about the King's marriage. And since I believe Jesus is coming soon for His bride, Song of Solomon is ever more dear to my heart.

"Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices"- 8:14.

"Real love is always fated. It has been arranged before time. It is the most meticulously prepared of coincidences. And fate, of course, is simply a secular term for the will of God, and coincidence for His grace."- The Mystery of Marriage.

"To show forth your lovingkindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night"- Psalm 92:2

I miss the worship at this church, so awesome! :)

 "And David danced before the LORD with all his might"- 2 Samuel 6:14

"And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."- Deut. 5:5

Having Discernment for Deceptive Times!

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."- John 17:17

I went to this church in Israel. Great teaching for End Times.
King of Kings Community Jerusalem, Israel

Can God Trust You with His Silence?

"When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was" —John 11:6

"Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence."

-My Upmost For His Highest, October 11

"For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice, And he who suffers most has most to give.” - Streams in the Desert

“Fret not” (Ps. 37:1)

OVERHEARD IN AN ORCHARD

Said the Robin to the Sparrow:
“I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so?”
Said the Sparrow to the Robin:
“Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.”

–Elizabeth Cheney

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace"- Romans 8:6

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”- John 8:32

Sometimes, God strikes you with a devo, word, or sermon that perfectly speaks to you and matches your experience

Streams in the Desert October 7th:

Don’t Rush
“Who is among you that feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the voice of his servant? He that walketh in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah and rely upon his God” (Isa. 50:10, RV).
What shall the believer do in times of darkness–the darkness of perplexity and confusion, not of heart but of mind? Times of darkness come to the faithful and believing disciple who is walking obediently in the will of God; seasons when he does not know what to do, nor which way to turn. The sky is overcast with clouds. The clear light of Heaven does not shine upon his pathway. One feels as if he were groping his way in darkness.
Beloved, is this you? What shall the believer do in times of darkness? Listen! “Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and rely upon his God.”
The first thing to do is do nothing. This is hard for poor human nature to do. In the West there is a saying that runs thus, “When you’re rattled, don’t rush”; in other words, “When you don’t know what to do, don’t do it.”
When you run into a spiritual fog bank, don’t tear ahead; slow down the machinery of your life. If necessary, anchor your bark or let it swing at its moorings. We are to simply trust God. While we trust, God can work. Worry prevents Him from doing anything for us. If our minds are distracted and our hearts distressed; if the darkness that overshadows us strikes terror to us; if we run hither and yon in a vain effort to find some way of escape out of a dark place of trial, where Divine providence has put us, the Lord can do nothing for us.
The peace of God must quiet our minds and rest our hearts. We must put our hand in the hand of God like a little child, and let Him lead us out into the bright sunshine of His love.
He knows the way out of the woods. Let us climb up into His arms, and trust Him to take us out by the shortest and surest road.–Dr. Pardington
Remember we are never without a pilot when we know not how to steer.
“Hold on, my heart, in thy believing–The steadfast only wins the crown; He who, when stormy winds are heaving,
Parts with its anchor, shall go down;
But he who Jesus holds through all,
Shall stand, though Heaven and earth should fall.
“Hold out! There comes an end to sorrow;
Hope from the dust shall conquering rise;
The storm foretells a summer’s morrow;
The Cross points on to Paradise;
The Father reigneth! cease all doubt;
Hold on, my heart, hold on, hold out.”

A prayer of promises

When the Israelites came to the threshold of the promise land, they rejoiced at the promised abundance of it. The scouts brought back succulent grapes, fruit, and reports of a land flowing with milk and honey. But, they also brought back an evil report of fortified cities and giants. They decided that the land was unconquerable. How can God's promises come to be theirs with such "impossible" obstacles? The Israelites cowered back in fear and didn’t have the faith yet that God would take care of all the opposition.
God often puts us in circumstances beyond our ability or control so that we become desperate for His power. In these times, it becomes apparent that only God's power has the ability to accomplish anything at all on our behalf or for our future. The giants will prove too great and the fortified cities, overwhelming. Only God can conquer the promised land and give it over to us by faith. I am delighting in this simple revelation, that impossible circumstances bring us to the end of self and the beginning of faith. I was worrying and wrestling with God the last two months and not understanding what I was wrestling. But here it is: "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"- Galatians 3:3. I love this verse! Here is another version: "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"
God will not accept my human efforts. He will totally reject the work of my own hands. Praise the Lord! I cannot "build the house," or make ministry happen, or enact the plans of God with my own understanding. God wants to do these with immeasurably more than all I could ask or think, according to HIS power at work in me. I want to live a life that cannot be explained by the natural, so how can I execute great plans or finish them in the natural? God help me to get out of the way and walk obediently by faith! ..."For whatever is not from faith is sin" - Romans 14:23b.  If I can handle and control everything in my life, then it doesn't need the touch of God, and nothing I am doing is greater than myself or eternally profitable. How do I glorify God, if all that happens in my life can be easily attributed to my own crafting and efforts?
"And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”- Luke 18:7-8.

Since we have so many resources, God grant us grace to not try to carry out  and finish the great, spirit-inspired ideas in the flesh. Let us not get deceived like the Galatians, or lack faith like the Israelites. And I speak this foremost to myself, who is in most need of this prayer and blog entry. God brings us to a threshold of His power, and He will come through with great glory and faithfulness.  It is tempting to think that after God has revealed to me great vision or promises, that He needs my cunning or worrying to complete what He started. I have my own ideas of how God will logically carry out His plans. But sometimes God will seem to be working against Himself, and go about accomplishing the great work He revealed in a way that makes no logical sense.  Then like a child, I try to stick out my hand into the potter's wheel thinking that I need to guide it and finish sculpting. "God, you are obviously going about this in the wrong direction, and it's because you need my help." With my befuddled human hands, I only just mess up the perfect work the Master was already doing. So He kindly wrestles me out of the way, and nicely says that He will sculpt to completion better than I could. I am assured, and sit here in humble agreement.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight"- 2 Corinthians 5:7

When God seems to be working against Himself in what He has  promised, or is drying up something we thought was a good thing, then let us have faith and cling to His truth and promises.

There are some simple, but powerful promises that we can pray in all circumstances of life:

God, please finish in the Spirit all that You have begun in the Spirit. I know that You will! "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him" - 2 Chron. 16:9a.  In my weaknesses, You show Yourself strong; In my faithlessness, You show Yourself faithful, for You cannot deny Yourself. You said that you are able to keep all that we have committed to You. You said that You will perfect that which concerns us. You said that You will fulfill Your purpose for our lives (Ps. 138) and finish the work that you started. God, we defer to Your immeasurable power, timing, resources, and imagination, to accomplish for us and through us, what we are incapable of doing ourselves. Thank you for leading us into a life that is beyond the natural. You will receive glory, when the world sees what can only be explained by the living and powerful, great God. Grant us grace, Your unfailing love, and the gift of faith. Amen!

 "Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm"- Psalm 33:9

"The non-Christian world likes to portray Christians as being trapped in a web of conformity, false morality, and unhappiness, leading drab, pleasureless lives in the hope that somehow God will be impressed. The TRUTH is that unhappiness is caused by sin, not by following God's ways. Sin destroys happiness; it destroys relationships; it deprives us of our FREEDOM. The non-Christian world, enslaved as it is to sin, is full of broken lives and unhappiness"-Guidance and Voice of God by Phillip Jensen

Good quotes cont.. worth reading twice

"...What our world often witnesses today is a devoted, committed Christian or church serving God. But they are not seeing God. They don't see anything happening that can be explained only in terms of God's activity. Why? Because we are not attempting anything that only God can do. Our world is not being attracted to the Christ we serve because they are not seeing Him at work in our lives. They see us doing good things for God and comment, "That's nice, but it is not my thing." The world is passing us by because they do not want to get involved in what they see in our lives. We are not giving them the opportunities to encounter God. They are only seeing us. Let the world watch God at work, and He will attract people to Himself. Let Christ be lifted up, not in words but in life. Let people see the difference the living Christ makes in a life, a family, or a church; that will affect how they respond to the gospel. When the world sees things happening through God's people that cannot be explained except that God Himself has done them, the world will be drawn to such a God.... The reason much of the world is not being attracted to Christ and to His Church is that God's people lack the faith to attempt things only God can do... When you start to do what He tells you to do, He brings to pass what He purposed..."- Blackaby

A Growing Series of Good Quotes. Please add :)

"If by faith we have assurance, confidence, and conviction, we will of necessity patiently endure until we realize that which we confidently expect." - Pentecost 

 "Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried."- Oswald Chambers

"The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself - nothing; in God - everything. That is his motto." - A.W. Tozer

"If we have got the true love of God shed abroad in our hearts, we will show it in our lives. We will not have to go up and down the earth proclaiming it. We will show it in everything we say or do."- Dwight L. Moody

"God calls us to live a life we cannot live, so that we must depend on him for supernatural ability. We are called to do the impossible, to live beyond our natural ability."- E. Lutzer.

"Idolatry: trusting people, possessions, or positions to do for me what only God can do."- B. Gothard.

In Loving memory of Salvie L. Fiore, now 3 years in Heaven! <3

 

His favorite song :)