Unshakable

“Let nothing stand between you and unshakable.”

Loren Thornburg

Since living in Colorado I have had the opportunity to explore the mountains with some amazing hikes.  With hiking also comes scree.  Scree is the accumulation of rock fragments formed by weathering and erosion.  The presence of scree on the trails makes for a slippery surface.  Even just a few small pebbles can create the possibility of slipping no matter how stable the foundation underneath.   Even as I become well versed on traveling through the scree and even if I have poles and all the right tools, I am still more at risk when my foundation is altered.  It makes me wonder what kind of scree I have in my life that presents the possibility for slipping and falling.  What things have I allowed to become that which I am standing on that aren’t a true foundation?  Am I standing on the opinions of others, or my accomplishments, or relationships, or financial status or anything that can be shaken?  I can’t just sweep it away on the trails of a mountain, but I can begin to clear it away in my life as that which gives me my hope and security.  Step off of the scree and onto that which is unshakable.  

“Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.  For God is not an indifferent bystander.  He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed.  God himself is Fire!”

Hebrews 12:28-29 Message

God is unshakable.  He is a foundation that can’t and won’t ever be moved.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  When we settle in Him we get His sure foundation based on truth that never changes.  Yet, even one small pebble on that foundation can cause a fall when stepped on.  It only takes a little scree to create a potentially unstable surface.  God knows that and in His love is trying to remove it.  He is cleaning the places of our hearts that are standing on all that isn’t Him.  He won’t quit because He loves us.  In the removing process it can feel unsettling, but that’s until you see what God is doing and what He is building in your life.  He is clearing the stage for you to walk free from the scree onto a foundation that is unshakable.  

Son Exposure

“It’s in the light we can see.  It’s in the light we find life.  It’s in the light there is joy. Find the light.  It makes all the difference.”

Loren Thornburg

I am so thankful for a warm weekend in late October and the chance to be in the sun.  There is something about the sun that makes things better.  There is also something about the lack of sun that takes its toll on me.  I can’t deny the affects it has on me.  I find myself like a lizard drawn to bask in the sun.  It appears it is more than just me, but there is something biological about the ways our bodies were made.  Even more than the needed Vitamin D that we get from the sun there is something that happens when we are exposed to the sun that causes are brains to release endorphins that increase our overall feelings of well being.  There is something about having light in our lives, even more than the sunlight that brings life to our lives.  You were made for light.  Are you basking in it?  

“Everything was created through him; nothing--not one thing!--came into being without him.  What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.  The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.”

John 1:3-5 Message

Just as we were made for the light of the sun so we were also made for the light of the Son, Jesus.  We were created to be in relationship with Him.  The same as with the sunlight, when we go too long without Him our deficiencies begin to show.  When we aren’t in communication and relation with Jesus it takes its toll on us.  It comes out in many different ways: short temper, inability to handle difficulties, lack of life, missing joy, and so many others.  We find ourselves searching for something to bring light to that place we know is dark but looking in all the wrong places.  There is only one that brings true Light because there is only one that is true Light.  We need to be with the Son.  We need to sit at His feet and bask in His presence.  We were made for it.  Let’s do what we were made to do...bask in the Son.  

Meaning in the Mundane

“It’s the days that feel insignificant that are significant after all.”

Loren Thornburg

Life is a series of events in the middle of many mundane days.  We are all familiar with the mundane.  Theses are the things in our lives that lack excitement because we experience them as common and ordinary.  It’s in the dishes, the laundry, the meals, the same routine day after day that leaves us longing for something more.  Yet, what if you knew that it is in the mundane itself that gives life deeper meaning.  It is in the mundane that we learn perseverance for the hard days.  It is upon the mundane that the things of joy have greater significance.  The mundane is actually not mundane at all for those who can learn to see the meaning in it.  Each day is building us, growing us for the next thing.  There is meaning in this day, even in the mundane.  

“When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you.  From Jordan depths to Hermon heights, including Mount Mizar.  Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids.  Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me.  Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer.”

Psalm 42:6-8 Message

It’s one thing to seek God in the depths and the heights but what about the days that seem like just another day.  Here those are referred to as Mount Mizar for this site can not be located, implying it’s seeming insignificance.  This can be representative of our everyday walk with the Lord and the little things God does for us in what we see as mundane.  The food on our table, the wisdom in decisions, the provision in our jobs, the relationships that we have been given, they are all a part of His miracles that may in fact influence more than the big events.  You see it’s not mundane after all because these things happen every day.  So we can do look David and rehearse these small miracles that we know are from Him.  This invites His promises into our souls.  Either way His promises remain true.  He is with us every day.   When we learn to walk with Him and trust His promises there is nothing insignificant about that.  

Gift Disguised

“When you start seeing the gift you stop seeing the handicap.”

Loren Thornburg

Gifts can often go unseen.  Often they are even seen as a hinderance rather than a gift.  A friend reminded me of this recently as we hiked.  Climbing up to 14,000 feet is not an easy task, largely due to the affects that altitude has on your breathing.  Yet, what seemed to be a hinderance to getting up the mountain as fast as we may have liked became a gift that it was hard to breathe.  For what happened in the midst of that was we were forced to stop and enjoy the AMAZING views and beauty that surrounded us.  If it wasn’t for our difficulty breathing we may have kept on without stopping, which means we would have kept on without enjoying and seeing the gift around us.  My friend pointed out it was as if God made us to have limits so that we would stop and see the gifts that are around us.  

“...so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.  Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees...”My grace is enough; it’s all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness”...I quit focusing  on the handicap and began appreciating the gift...”

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Message

I wish I couldn’t relate to Paul here, but I can.  We all can.  We all have limitations.  We were designed that way and it is part of His design. Paul recognizes them as more than limitations, as the opposite of limitations; he calls them gifts.  That sounds crazy to think that our sicknesses, our weaknesses, our deficiencies could be seen as gifts.  Yet, it’s true.  I’ve seen it and I can even say that those things I once saw as “handicaps” I now see as gifts.  Some days it’s harder to see than others, but eventually what I find is that they brings me to the realization that in the weakness I am forced to look to Him for strength in ways I never would have or even thought possible.  It is in inviting His strength that I find so much more than my talents or gifts could have ever offered.  Unfortunately, I don’t look to Him for that if I don’t have to.  If my limitations don’t force my to my knees I forget to seek His grace that is more than enough.  So I find it really is a gift.  When I start seeing the gift I stop seeing the handicap.  

Thanks to Melissa Mullins and Kierstie Cameron!

Move to be Moved

"Sometimes we need to start moving in order to be moved to keep moving.”

Loren Thornburg

I love those moments when passion overwhelms you and you can’t help but put things into action; when you feel so called towards something that nothing can stop you from making it happen.  The problem is it doesn’t always work like that.  Often we don’t feel like doing something until we start doing it.  I remember training for a half marathon.  I rarely felt like going for a run, but if I could just get my shoes on, get out the door, and start running I would start to get into it and remember why I wanted to run a half marathon.  Yet, if I were left up to what I felt like doing in that moment I would not have gone for very many runs.  Many things in life are the same way.  We have to start moving before we feel moved towards what we are wanting to do.  If you are waiting to feel moved you may have to wait awhile.  Start moving and you just might find the passion you were waiting to find.  

“No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.”

Romans 4: 20 Amplified

Abraham had great faith that didn’t waver which I long to have.  Instead of wavering in unbelief or distrust he grew strong.  Each day we are faced with similar opportunities where we can doubt or we can walk in faith.  Abraham grew strong in his faith not because he was filled with feelings of faith but because he praised God.  He grew strong and was empowered by faith AS he gave praise.  It wasn’t that he felt like praising but that he knew that it was in praising that the faith he needed to walk through the next obstacle would come.  I have had many moments where I don’t feel like worshiping until I start singing and remembering how great my God is and how He is at work.  Often it’s not until I kneel before the Lord that I feel free before Him.  My posture leads to my praise.  It’s then, after I have started praising, AS I give praise and glory to God that I find  I am moved to keep praising.  It’s through this praise that I too am strengthened to keep moving in that which God has called me.  So let’s praise that we would find the strength and faith we need to keep moving and walking in faith.  

Off Your Back

There is a saying that refers to a constant burden as the ‘monkey on your back.’  Some say it began as ‘monkey off your roof’ in reference to the burden of a mortgage payment.  We all have different things that have been a burden at one time or another.  In sports often times we carry the errors of the plays before us.  What happens is like we are going up to bat with a physical monkey on our back in the ways that we carry those previous mistakes and burdens with us.  Life is the same way.  Whether it be the mistakes of our past, resentment, unforgiveness, bitterness, woundings; we carry those with us until we let them go.  It may be hard to admit those things are there and begin to deal with them in their pain and the ways they have affected us, but so is carrying all of them everyday, everywhere we go.  So why not get that monkey off your back and start to walk  lighter and more free?  You’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier.  It’s time to let go.    

“Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk.  Be gentle with one another, sensitive.  Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”

Ephesians 4:31-32 Message

Forgiveness means letting someone off of your hook and onto God’s.  Somehow in our pain and suffering from the actions of others we believe that if we carry the burden of it that will somehow even the score.  The problem is they often don’t know we are carrying them, and so it costs them nothing, but costs us everything.  So much is lost at the hands of unforgiveness: joy, freedom, hope, and life.  Not to mention the ways that our unforgiveness affects others.  The giftings God has given us are at stake and our freedom to relate with one another as God intended.  That is why we must forgive as quickly and as thoroughly as Christ did.  Quickly means not letting it linger or waiting for it to build.  Thoroughly means forgiving not only for what’s been done to you but also all the ways it has affected you.  He did it first that we could go back to His forgiveness and forgive out of that.  So make a clean break, stop carrying the weight of it.  It’s about more than you. Be quick.  Be thorough. Be free.  

Shine In

“Let the light shine in on all the places of your heart; even the dark, heard to reach ones.”
Loren Thornburg

There is something about sunrise and seeing the first ray of light that I love.  As I was enjoying a sunrise, looking into a small valley I noticed how as the sun got higher it lit up more places in the valley.  Now this is not rocket science to know that as the sun gets higher more light will make it’s way into the valley and eventually the whole valley will have light shining in on it.  Yet, this is not always true with our hearts and lives.  For we can still have places that we keep hidden in the shadows that may never see the light.  If they never see the light we will never see them for what they really are...and for some of those things we want to keep them that way.  If that’s the case I have bad news for you: Those things will surface one way or another.  They may be disguised as bitterness or anger or other emotions, but they will surely surface.  So why not let the light in now before you get held captive by it?  

“Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, Shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, Then showing us the way, one foot a time, down the path of peace.”

Luke 1:79 Message

God’s light, His sunrise light, His light when all is dark, will break in upon us.  He comes to shine on our dark places. Not to break us but to heal us.  Even in the places that look and feel like death, even in the places that are hard, even in the places that we would rather not go, He comes.  He comes not to shame us but to show us the way. Knowing how much you can handle, one step at a time.  For it is “through the heartfelt mercies of our God” that His light breaks in on us, ushering us down the path of peace.  He invites us to let Him bring light to the dark places.  To the lie you’ve been believing, to the situation that is corrupt, to the secret you are ashamed of, to the hate you feel, to the bitterness you battle, to the anger that creeps in, to all of it He invites us to let Him shine in on it.  He can shine His light that reveals truth, freedom, and peace.  Let His light rise on you until He shines on all of the shadows of your heart!