Red Bird Thoughts
- Thread starter Joidevivre
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The shepherds followed the light to see the child Jesus.
Jesus said: “You are the light of the world”. But, do we shine brightly so that others follow us to see and hear more of Jesus?
Do we reveal through speech and actions that He is cradled in our hearts?
Do we worship and adore Him?
Do we offer Him the gift of ourselves?
Do we speak of Him as Immanuel “God with us”?
Is our faith the gold we lay at his feet?
Is our love for others the frankincense?
Is our living only for his purposes the myrrh?
THESE THINGS WE ARE TO KEEP
Keep your heart with all diligence – Prov. 5:2
Keep my commandments if you love me – John 14:15
Keep the unity of the Spirit – Eph. 4:3
Keep yourself unspotted from the world – James 1:27
Keep yourself in the love of God – Jude 21
Keep yourselves from idols – I John 5:21
Keep your tongue from evil – Prov. 34:13
Keep your spiritual gifts alive and active. Stir them up.
Keep trust strong and keep worry away..
We need to hear the Word.
Some of it we hear when read in church. Sometimes someone speaks a scripture to us.
But the best way to hear it is to begin reading parts of it aloud. There is nothing quite as faith building or personal as hearing the Word with your own voice. At the same time, it becomes a part of your vocabulary.
The word “meditate” in the Hebrew is “hagah” which actually means to “mutter” - to SPEAK the Word repetitively. To truly meditate is not a mental activity. It is to listen to the words as we speak them.
God spoke the Word first.
We can only follow his example.
These are the things we are told to look at:
Look to Jesus – Heb. 12:2
Look only ahead – not back – Luke 9:62
Look at the things unseen – not at the things seen – II Cor. 4;18
Look not at your own things – but also on the things of others – Phil. :4
Look for and hasten the return of Christ – II Pet. 3:12
Look well to your household – Prov. 31:27
When we look at these things, is it with just a “glance”?
Or do we look with the word’s intended meaning – “to understand, consider, discover, and attend”?
We are told to love the Lord God with all our heart.
How I tried to work that out in moments here and there – trying to spend more time understanding the bible – sometimes singing louder – but always with that undertone that I could love him better.
I prayed for more love. I took my “love” temperature often. I worried when it seemed lukewarm (I read the part about God spitting out the lukewarm lovers in Revelation). I thought I would feel more love in serving others – but something was still missing.
One day I realized just how much my focus was on me. He showed me that instead of worrying about how much he was in my heart, I was to see how completely I was in his heart forever. He carried me everywhere with him. I was his treasured possession.
“We love because he first loved us”. I John 4:19
To see and feel the reality of that truth opened my heart in ways that trying to “work” it out never did.
There is a new freedom to love. It is only a response.
We treasure moments of joy, moments of pleasure, moments of comfort, moments of peace and moments of inspiration. Sometimes we experience moments of creativity and moments of surprise. And we soon learn that those , even though they leave, seem to come around again.
We can stretch those moments out if we can stay in that moment with all of our awareness – even a bite of food that is delicious should be eaten slowly. We can linger over a beautiful scene, and not so quickly rush to the next.
One day I realized that God, himself, wants to have moments with us that only we can give him. Do we rush away too quickly?
Maybe he wants to “stay in the moment” with you.
For just a little longer.
We all need to “nest” our souls.
But let’s start with what we do when go about “nesting” in a new house. We set up an environment that gives us inspiration, peace, safety and beauty. Some of us have given God a special place in our home where we pray and worship. It is a visual place where we are continually reminded that he is present and waiting for our interaction.
Our souls also need to be cleaned and put in order. Has our soul drifted off course into things that do not profit? What might we need to let go of? Our souls also need the inspiration that the scriptures feed it so that our thoughts can be at peace and trust.
It beautifies our soul when we are attending to His presence. At those times, His glory is upon us. We can have an inner radiance that nothing can diminish.
Let’s put our soul house in order. And then invite guests…
The “dry bones” in Ezekiel is symbolic of so many things we need to recover from. There is illness, loss, depression, wounds, emptiness and just plain tiredness. There we find ourselves, in Ezekiel’s valley, just another stack of old, dry bones.
God spoke and said, “Dry bones…I am now going to make breath come into you and you will live.”
The breath of God, his very essence, is a symbol of life and restoration.
The next time you have a “dry bones” feeling, give yourself to the Breath-Maker – the Life Giver. Feel his breath filling your bones. Listen to his voice.
Your spirit will experience a coming together much like the dry bones coming together into life.