New Year's coming! Grasping hold with authority.

     So, today I've spent some time in the Word, not just with it, as it so often happens. I've just been thinking over the past year and finding holes, missed opportunities and the like, and I've been asking God about what's to be needed of me, of us believers, in 2012. I asked for a word and God kept me circling around authority. Authority is a scary word to most people, and to me in particular, because true authority comes with such a responsibility, a weightiness; It is a service to others and unless we're both properly and fully prepared for it it can be a stumbling block. Prepared means that we are prepared to act in the authority He has given to us and, in that way, to act under the covering of His authority. We can have none of our own - none of ourselves and none of the world's. It is only when we work in tandem with God and have daily dealings and growings in Him that we can walk in it all.

     As previously mentioned, the idea of operating under authority, and more recently His authority, has often overwhelmed me. I've so often tried to live an undercover life. The value and strength found in words has been starkly apparent in my life, and since becoming a Christian that has been reinforced in a desire to speak life and not death into people and situations, knowing and being responsible to the truth found in:

Proverbs 18:21
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit."

     The responsibility we're going to be feeling in this coming year revolves around the desire for truth. I don't want to operate in a false authority, I want to ensure I'm walking in His giftings. The whys of the importance of authority over the next year elude me, as I can't see His plans but for some fractal imprints, so I've been praying instead for the hows; For the words and patterns and strengths that I'll need to walk it out.  For the verses to carry. I keep landing on the whole of Hebrews 2. At this very moment, I'm stuck like glue to the first verse:

Hebrews 2:1
"For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it."

     It's a simple verse. A beginning. A start. I know that growing in God is not a horizontal growth. He continually builds upon what He has already placed in us. His lessons are foundational. They are reinforced every day simply because they are so obviously true. They are steady because He is our Rock. Our truth. Our love. We become steady in Him, in His Word and in living that Word out. The idea of having to pay 'much closer attention' is wonderous and frightening and monumental to me. We can always learn more about Him, but more so in Him. We can always change, grow, and give more of ourselves away to be filled by Him. Every word finds meaning in Him, every action too. Every verse strengthens our understanding and prepares us for more. Recognizing His work in our lives only makes us yearn for Him more. So, with this verse, with bringing His Words and Works to the surface, to the forefront of our entire beings, we bring Him glory. We hold onto Him alone. We share Him freely. We exhibit the gift of authority He has given to us by salvation - and has opened in us through the maturation of faith - and become more in Him.

     Authority is by no means an easy task, but if this is the word He has for life next year (and beyond - a 'Buzz Lightyear' reminder that everything is foundational), then I'll walk it out. In truth, it's already begun, and though it hurts to stretch in a new way (and that won't stop), I'd rather grow in God than get stuck in a standstill, because standstills always happen over quicksand, and I'll not put myself in a position where I'd grow distant from the Lord. That's why my encouragement is found in holding Him tight by: paying 'much closer attention', praying, reading His Word, putting on His armour, and just by simply (and complexly and fully) loving like He does. I think that the biggest change to be brought in 2012 is that I'll be more open about living that out - in living Him out.

     More on the fullness of Hebrews 2 later... because I'm stuck on it all. Until then, I'll be writing next in the New Year. 2012: bring it.

Picture Cruising

I was looking through some of the blogs I follow and found this picture:

From http://designismine.blogspot.com from someone else.

     I really like it. I like that it says semblance. I like that the whole reason for this blog is to not live that. To not be broken up and patched together, but instead to be mended and made whole in God. Guess I liked the reminder of what this really little internet space means to me - just what I'm working in and through and towards. 

     The world has broken people in it - so many people - and it likes it - in so many ways it makes it easier to attack and 'understand' and ignore them - us  - it's complex, but we call it simple - so that we don't have to deal. It's much harder to attack and 'understand' and ignore those who are saved and healed and mended and whole - people try - but it's so not of this world. I guess that's the point, or rather, it's how we become the arrows that point towards the God who saves. It's impossible to do that alone, or by our strength, instead it has to be His...

1 Peter 5:10-11

"After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen."

     Wow - Amen it is. This verse is what it means to be whole to me. To struggle, most assuredly, but to be set apart and to be changed in God. To follow clear directions - because God's voice is always clear and firm and unshakable when we are willing to listen - and then to be like an arrow for others just because we know that all that love, well, it's for all and also all for Him.

Surely... not a "don't call me Shirley" airplane reference (that movie's not cool enough to make it further than right here)... longest title of one of my posts EVER... I could go on... it's longer than what I had to say... I added this later... because mobile Blogger tried to kill my ""'s... EPIC fail... I showed them...

Blessed. By God. Surely. His first words to us, in Genesis 1: 28, as well as in so many other places in the Bible, such as this:

His forever promise. His words stay the same. He is steady. He is our Rock. Forever promises are the very best - especially because God is outside of time and in this promise he swears it to us by Himself - He actually backs this promise - doubly ours! Wow. The service tonight: The Fullness of His Blessing