The temperatures have risen just enough to make the snow melt and what is left behind be heavy. If it could just stay this warm for another day my driveway would probably be down to the concrete, but I have a feeling that's not going to be happening.
I was going to get to this over the weekend since the kids were not here, but, I decided to veg and lay in bed half of my Saturday and do absolutely nothing the rest of the day. Its a rare convergence of situations that I try not to pass up. I probably won't see another day like that for a good 4+ months.
So - here are some of the newest nuggets from my spirit, in no particular order:
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Ps. 138:2 AMP (thank you Bible Gateway.com):
2I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!
The item in this passage that caught me was the part about the word being above the name. For some reason that perplexed me. Isn't His Name above all things?? All things would include His Word, no?
Then the Holy Spirit made an interesting point - what good is His Name if His Word means nothing? It is the Word, and His faithfulness to watch over His Word and keep His Word that is the foundation for His Name carrying the weight that it does.
How many people do we have in our lives that promise to do this or that or be on time or anything and then fail us? How many of us would be willing to risk our own reputations to give a positive recommendation of those people for jobs or for others to befriend? Very few of us would - or we would but be very open about the serious shortcomings in those peoples' trustworthiness.
Their names would mean nothing because their own disregard for integrity would have brought their name down in weight.
Action - or inaction - on what we have said determines the way our names are magnified - and God is no different.
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Son vs. Holy Spirit
Mark 3:28-9 (NIV Biblegateway.com)
Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
Ahhh the 3 in 1 Godhead. All parts are equal, right? So, how if, in the time of this text, slandering Jesus Himself can be forgiven, but, go after the Holy Spirit and it's Hellfire, pestilence, brimstone and NO SOUP for you?! This didn't seem to make sense.
Verse 30 goes on to say that He said this because the scribes were saying Jesus had a demon/was of Beelzebub, but that still didn't seem to explain why there would be this break in equality of the Trinity.
The more I meditated on this the more it was revealed that, in this time, Jesus still had not died, therefore had not yet risen again or ascended so the Holy Spirit was still in a holding pattern around Him, waiting for the moment at Pentecost to be released among the entire Earth.
At this point, people could still take Him or leave Him in His statement of being the Son of Man/God. They could refuse Him because His greatest act had not yet been done. It was still conceivable to the Jews that He really was just a super-prophet - the return of Elijah - working side-by-side with John the Baptist and the predecessor to the Messiah.
That disbelief and rejection could still be forgiven.
But to reject the Holy Spirit would pretty much (not totally) have to come at Pentecost and later. At a point where Jesus had already died, risen and ascended. His victory over all things at that point had been secured and to reject Him as the Messiah and the evidence of Him through the Holy Spirit crosses that line.
Now, I'll be the first to admit (and my bff will not hesitate to concur b/c she's usually the one chiding me) I've called God a liar, even for brief moments. Anytime we say something is totally impossible we call God a liar.
Does that condemn me to Hell and NO SOUP for me?! Ummm, I've gotten good enough that as soon as I hear my spirit say something like that I catch myself and repent - so as long as I don't die in the 3 seconds between uttering it in my heart and repenting I'm probably OK, he he. But it takes work to re-train the mind to really truly believe all the things that He has said and promised.
Like a husband. God knows I know He's said a good one is on the way. But dammit, if I don't get him in my life soon by the time he does show up I'm gonna be like 'Ummmmm, you weren't here when I really needed you so, um, I can live without. Thanks for playing though.' And send him packing. Poor thing wouldn't have a chance. And don't think I'm not that stubborn.
And trust me, after seeing a bunch of guys at O'Hare Airport walking around in skinny jeans I can be celibate for the rest of my life without ANY issues. My mental eye has been forever burned with those nasty images - worse than when I was a swimmer, believe it or not!
But it is what God has promised. And I do want it - I want it ALL - even if it is seemingly after a season of when I could really use it (like the husband and a great breakthrough in my finances). The Holy Spirit whispers to us (and sometimes screams it at us) the Word and the meditations of the Heart of God.
And, to tag into the previous post - if His Word is worthless, so is His Name. He is faithful to do what He says He will do - and the Holy Spirit reminds us of this - to say that what the Holy Spirit reveals is fake and lies is to do what is mentioned in verse 29 - it calls God a liar and reveals our lack of faith and trust and is a signal of unbelief.
Its a daily battle, but one that is slowly becoming one in which I am more and more victorious. I would like to not grieve His heart as much. Greatness is to be bestowed to those willing to receive it.
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I am continually reminded of something Apostle said at the end of a song on 24/7:
'We are that company of people who dare to believe that You are who the Bible says You are; You can do what the Bible says You can do; and we can have what the Bible says we can have; and we can do what the Bible says we can do; and we are that group of people who are crazy enough to just believe it and bet our lives on it - day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.'
God will have His people - and I surely will be part of that heritage. And yes, I'd bet my life on any and all of His promises any day, any time, minus the few seconds of unbelief that manifests every now and then (yes, I know the man of my dreams is on his way and my provision is secured).
He either is God and all His Word is infallible - every last letter - or we can't trust any of it - including the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus - the very foundation of our salvation - and where does that really leave us? Bordering on the NO SOUP for you line with the other goats that have been weeded out of the herd.
He is the I AM. Plain and simple. And I love that, and trust that. He's the only faithful real man I've ever had (Monty's been eunuched so he can't count, sorry sweetie) and His Word is Truth. Hmm, time for that soup ;)
Peace!
La. Sra.
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