Sunday, January 24, 2010

Beauty...

The first couple of weeks of a dts (discipleship training school) are usually pretty intense, there is usually considerable growth with just one week of being out of your comfort zone in a place where you feel you can trust people, but more importantly God. Breakthrough in how we view ourselves is inevitable when we look to who our Lord is, there has to be a intense fear of the Lord when we look to Him, He is Holy, He is Righteous, He is love. How can we apply this to how we view ourselves, well simply said we have to look at the throne of this lovely yet all powerful God first.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We believers are Gods "pieces of work" now you can take that in a joke because we all know we are real pieces of work. But God is/has creating/created us in Christ Jesus and we are His handiwork, made beautiful. Why is it so easy to see each other in a judgmental way, why is it so easy to see the ugly side of things. we need help.

I thank the Lord for the healing of the hearts of these students, the live giving breath of God that is leading us to experiencing more and more of His love, more and more of His grace, more and more of the fear of the Lord(which may sound like a bad thing but really it isn't, I wish more people had it). We have put deep pain from the past, shame, guilt, rejection, and lies, down at the foot of the Cross not because its easy to let go but because God meets us there and gives us new life. Redemption is a word I love, I love it when God reminds me, you are redeemed, i payed for you. that's where I find my worth, my beauty. In the ashes of death, in the new life that springs up.

Do we look at the landscape around us, the sunsets, the mountains (wheat fields for you Manitoban's), those places we go to, to find beauty or do we go to the people around us and say to ourselves or directly to them" wow the glory of the Lord is shining on you, that new life in you is radiating love."

which is more beautiful?

sunset in homer




our small but oh so great winter DTS 2010

yes i see the Saskatchewanite, and I love him and find him beautiful.




dont get me wrong I love the sunset, I thank God for revealing some of his beauty through it, but i seriously question our ability to see others through Christs eyes sometimes. its something God is teaching me being up here, to love others as Christ loves.

give God all the glory, he has it already so you might as well let him give it to you through Jesus and not pretend to have it already.

2 comments:

kath. said...

amen. :)

Joy Klassen said...

Hey Chad - I just got home from sharing at First Nations Aboriginal church - and decided to read your blog ...
You have such a way with writing your thoughts. Makes me think!!
You wrote this "We have put deep pain from the past, shame, guilt, rejection, and lies, down at the foot of the Cross not because its easy to let go but because God meets us there and gives us new life. Redemption is a word I love, I love it when God reminds me, you are redeemed, i payed for you. that's where I find my worth, my beauty." and I have to tell you that spoke volumes to me...God has been talking to me about laying down some hurts and pain - at the foot of the cross... He has once again affirmed that is what I need to keep doing. Tonight I shared from Isaiah with the women - about where God says - YOUR ARE PRECIOUS... You are HONORED and I LOVE YOU.... Our God is amazing isn't HE?

Hope this finds you well - keep pressing into HIM.
take care
will continue to pray for you.
joy