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This morning the LORD inspired me with a verse to share through the WORD Power for a few people. It's cold where I am this morning (28 degrees as of this typing) and I wanted to make sure it was cold where others were before I encouraged them to "stay warm". As I hit my weather app I saw the notable places I wanted to check, and sure enough they were cold. But then I saw a sunny aberration at the bottom that caught my eye. I had previously saved all of the cities on my list but not the last one...Y-e-k-a-t-e-r-i-n-b-u-r-g. Never heard of it so I definitely didn't save it. Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk, Russia to be exact. Not just that, but the temp - 1 degree. Yes, ONE. Fahrenheit! Here I am thinking about my 28-degrees and the brothers and sisters in the "Y" are rolling with 1-degree in mid-December already?! God spoke. Complaining never makes sense. It feels good (to the flesh) but it's deceptive. It never does anything to actually solve the problem. Complaints are just like hitting the Bold button to highlight a word on a Word document, but it doesn't move a single pixel. Now mind you, complaints can be strong because they can actually be based on fact. The truth of the matter is often what makes complaining so hard to stop or to ignore. So we nod our head in agreement from our mind, but in our heart we know the LORD is not pleased with our misplaced faith (Notice how I didn't say lack of faith. We'll get to that in a moment). As a recovering complainer, I ask you to consider Exhibit A...the "Y". I was checking the temperature in my neighborhood at 7:51am Central Standard Time. If you take another look, the 1-degree in Yekaterinburg, Russia at the time of the radar scan was 6:46PM their time! Their daylight was ending when mine was beginning. So when I was going to get warmer from 28, they were going to get colder than 1! We were only going to get positive while they could only go into the negative temps...FAHRENHEIT! Family, we should never complain! Somebody has always got it worse than us! No, it doesn't mean that we don't got it bad, but it could still be worse. Complaint is a balloon lifted by the hot air of our anxiety. That anxiety is a symptom, so what ultimately is the disease? Unbelief; lack of faith. Or should I say, misplaced faith. We all have a measure of faith according to ROMANS 12:3 - For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. So complaining is taking our measure or cup of faith and putting it on failure. Resting it on despair. Which in turn, is just like putting it against GOD. "No LORD, you can't do it." "Nah Jesus! You don't care because you can't see!" Now do we understand why complaining is actually a sin, or faith, against God? It hurt the LORD when Israel complained in the desert, and it hurts Him even more today when we complain on the borders of eternity. So a way out of complaining? Compare. Get some context by actually comparing your situation to someone else's. Whether in your family, the Bible, a friend, or even an enemy. But what if everybody's all good and I am actually the one at 1-degree? Then compare your situation to God's. Because all of us have it good, or it will get better, because Jesus decided to take on our bad. Jesus put Himself at zero for our sakes. Our Heavenly Father decided to bankrupt Heaven and give us His Son just so we could even be alive to enjoy, not endure, the next breath. And even when death seems like the answer and the way out, Christ died so the answer is always love and only eternal life through Him is the way out. God is not asking us to stop feeling, He is simply calling us to keep believing...in Him! PSALM 102:1 [[A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD.]] Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto Thee. JOHN 3:30
He must increase, but I must decrease. In English, "scale" has many meanings. But in architecture or design, scale is "a proportion between two sets of dimensions (as between those of a drawing and its original)" or "a distinctive relative size, extent, or degree" according to Merriam-Webster. Basically, we can understand how big or small something is by comparing it to something else that is bigger or smaller. The video above illustrates scale by comparing the height of a man with the tallest statues (idols) of the world. With birthday number ## around the corner on December 17, the LORD has been teaching my family and I more about the absolute importance of balance in life. But I am also realizing that we can't experience balance without perspective. And perspective can be seen with the help of scale. As Christians, we are told to not compare ourselves to others. This is good advice because this comparing is often the fast track to coveting or wanting what another has or is. But we are never told to not compare ourselves to Christ. In fact, the Bible says quite the opposite... [ROMANS 6:4 KJV] 4 Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. [EPHESIANS 5:2 KJV] 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. [COLOSSIANS 3:13 KJV] 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also [do] ye. John the Baptizer, son of old Zacharias and Elizabeth and the greatest preacher of all time, did not live a conventional life as he did not possess a conventional call. But could His short but balanced life, be the result of a perspective that he was able to experience by the grace of God and understanding scale? He said,"[Jesus] must increase, but [John the Baptist] must decrease." JOHN 3:30. John didn't get this balance through proximity. In other words, he didn't have a leg up on us because he was Jesus' cousin (since Elizabeth and Jesus' mother Mary were cousins). We only see them having a handful of conversations and John was martyred by King Herod not long after Jesus was baptized. It was through perspective and a clarity through scale that John was able to distill complex mathematics into a simple equation. From what He learned about Jesus just like we learn about Jesus, he figured that in order for Jesus to be big in His life, he had to be small in his life. John's surrender allowed Jesus' salvation. John's humility paved the way for Jesus' honor. John knew as the forerunner to the Son of God, Jesus had to be pushed up; but those mechanics required that he be pushed down. For example, if we want to make a desk lamp stand higher, we have to put a desk beneath it that is lower. Even if we want to make a desk lamp shine brighter, we have to ditch the bulb that shines darker. The desk top can't be the same height as the lamp top! The old lamp can't be in the same socket as the new bulb! Scale allows us to not just right-size God, but perspective through scale keeps us in our place. His generosity exposes our greed. His greatness exposes our weakness. His love exposes our lack. 1 JOHN 4:8a says,"He that loveth not knoweth not God...." Not loving (whether not loving God or not loving others) simply reveals that we don't know God. Because if we knew God and knew Him according to scale, we would know love because "God is love." (1 JOHN 4:8b) We would know His love is too deep to get under! We would know His love is to wide to get around! We would know His love is too strong to break! While the Bible clearly teaches that we can break one or all of God's law, find one that says we can break His love? Can't find it because God never said it. And He never said it because it's not possible. God would stop being God before He stopped being Love and stopped loving you! John the Baptizer got this and we can too! Balance begins with perspective, and perspective can be achieved by simply using scale. If we, like John, look in faith to the Redeemer, we will rise in heights of humility and holiness! |
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April 2024
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