In the Beginning...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.


I find it amazing that God does not open up His story to us with “How great He is”. The introduction of Himself to us is simply I started something new. Where there was nothing I created tangible and intangible. This is the perfect starting point.

In order for us to believe in the intangible we have to have something tangible. Otherwise we appear foolish to ourselves and others. God never asks us to trust without proof. He asks us to see and believe. So He took the first step into showing us something we could believe in.

Something from nothing is Huge! Can we trust that? Isn’t that the plumb line? What do you believe?

The Story unfolds in Genesis 1

In the beginning God created heaven and earth……. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.

The earth was formless the bible says – this is the definition of the Hebrew word Tohuw:
                      Formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness
                                        Empty space, nothingness; wasteland, wilderness, a place of chaos; vanity

In Luke it speaks of how deep is that darkness. Can you imagine how deep, cold, isolating and void this must have been? Can you perceive being a life and falling off the edge into this abyss? Isn’t that a terrifying thought? Think about what eternal separation from God and others must be like? We know what life feels like, we know what separation feels like….and we don’t like it!

Thank Goodness God didn’t like it either. We know this because He did not stop the first day here. He made sure His Spirit was hovering over that formless, empty darkness. He did not stop the first day until He had it protected, well lit and covered. Now that is a great intro!

So today, this is my prayer for me as well as us all.

Father, please help us to push the chaotic, empty space of this world away so that I we might hear and see what you want us to. So that we might be able to speak what you have for us to say as well as be able to walk to where you want us to go. Help us believe and find what is real amidst the confusion sweeping around and through this wasteland. Your spirit is hovering, covering us and bringing us light. This is what we believe and trust.

In Jesus Name, Amen.
Love,
Candace

Shouldn't "Living Under the Influence" Carry a Stiffer Penalty that DUI?

In Isaiah 26 the prophet is speaking of our minds and how we much change them from the intoxicated thoughts of the world which embed themselves in our flesh, to the level or sober thoughts of the spirit which are never changing and consistent. We are told to pray for our spirit to prosper even as our soul prospers. We are told that God's ways (which are spirit) are higher than our ways. So if we are to gain understanding of His ways to walk in them, we must judge our own thoughts...each of them, holding them captive to evaluate them. Then, if they are false we must cast them down.

"26:7-11 The path of the righteous is level, O Upright One, yo make the road of the righteous smooth. Certainly, we wait wit hope for you, O Lord, as we follow the path of your guiding principles. We want to remember you and your name, Wit my soul I long for you at night. Yes, with my spirit I eagerly look for you. When your guiding principles are on earth, those who live in the world learn to do what is right. Although the wicked are shown pity, they do not learn to do what is right. They do what is wrong in the upright land and do not see the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, your power is visible, but they do not see it. They will see how devoted your people are, and they will be put to shame."


I pray for us this day, that we walk in sobriety to the thoughts of this world so that others might see, be put to shame as they realize not us, but the Lord and turn to him. May we all see clearly, today, the ways of the Lord.

I thank Him for His example and those following Him so that we too could see and feel the shame, turn to Him and be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

With Love in Christ,
Candace

The Master Will Judge

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ . . . —2 Corinthians 5:10

Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, "appear before the judgment seat of Christ." But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, "Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there." If you don't, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.

"If we walk in the light as He is in the light. . ." ( 1 John 1:7 ). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie. by Oswald Chambers

How Can I be Still, When I Need to Move?

During a time in my life when I was waiting on God I took the time to read many of the Psalms. It was a time of stretching my faith, pain of peoples choices, struggling with waiting on God's direction instead of running ahead of him. I needed someone to pour the tears of my troubles upon, thankfully I turned to God. I use this in galleries to share of experiences we all face in life.

"The Freedom of Wait"

Psalms 56:5 - "All Day long they twist my words and trouble my affairs; all their thoughts are against me for evil and my hurt."

When I think of the Psalms and how "human" they are, I cannot help but see my own face reflecting back at me in the many moments of mere humanity. How can we do anything but fall on our knees and thank God that we are blessed to be able to live beyond the Psalms. How fortunate are we to be able to lay the weight of our humanness at the feet of the cross, to wait expectantly for the Holy spirit that has settled down right within us to comfort, teach, lead, empower and show us the way out. There are days when I see the world from such a selfish view of how everyone is picking on me, but then I hear the Holy spirit whisper "but you know the truth and the truth has set you free - choose life and love them .....for ME".

Selah (pause and calmly think of that)!

Today -
I pray that we all trust God not our human emotions. That we allow our emotions to lead us to the feet of Christ where we will be willing to wait. I pray that we win the struggle to stay on our knees till he strengthens us to rise...in all His power, strength, courage and peace; then they victory is ours through Christ our risen reedemer.


Candace

Why Can I Not Follow You Now?

Peter said to Him, ’Lord, why can I not follow You now?’ —John 13:37

There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.


At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.


Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. "I will lay down my life for Your sake." Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. "Jesus answered him, ’ . . . the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ " (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
By Oswald Chambers