Self Struggle

Romans 7:24-25
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Self Struggle

From my night I look out into the light.
I am drawn by its warmth and love.
There is a love that draws me out of my night.
But then the voices rush in that changes my gears.
They remind me of past hurts, disappointments and fears.
They remind me of all that I enjoy and would need to give up.
So I am drawn back from the light and from drinking His cup.
Back into the security of my unchanging heart.
Back into my dysfunctional darkness of which I’ve so been a part.

I hear the voice speaking into my spirit,
“Would you be made whole?”
“Would you be healed?”
“Would you be delivered and set free?”
Suddenly there is such a strong sense of duality.
Two men warring within me for dominion and victory.
One struggles to keep me in the darkness and need;
Bringing before me fears of change, and shame of my past,
Condemnation of sin and a half empty glass.
And what it will cost me to make the change?
The other man stands in His peace and light of His gain,
Arms extended and the truth of His love inviting me in.
I love the warmth and the peace of His presence,
But then the darkness crowds in, causing me to withdrawal again.

Inwardly I am grieved at my fallen state.
Only fleeting joy, broken promises and empty estate.
I look back over the wastelands of my life.
All I see is heartache, brokenness and strife.
What is my purpose if this life is all there is;
If I continue to choose this self-life instead of His?
His love is faithfully pursuing my wretched soul.
What can He possibly see in this lump of coal?
This time when He invites me, I run with a new reply.
I cast my wretched self upon His grace and cry,
“Change me and fill me with yourself and your love.”
“I would be made whole.”
“I would be healed.”
“I would be delivered and set free.”
Please Lord, take and fill all of me.

The magnitude of His love and peace floods my heart.
I sense His blood cleansing every filthy part.
Hope and joy are now abounding through my soul.
I finally relinquished my will and gave Him full control.
A new day has dawned in this heart and soul of mine.
Transforming power and new direction do I find.
“What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Blessings,
#kent

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Kindness

Kindness

Colosians 3:12-13
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also [do] ye.

“Kindness”, an obvious word with an obvious application, it is often descriptive of one of the attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. Kindness is so obvious and so simple and yet so missing among so many of us. It is simply goodness and favor toward another person. Many families and relationships are missing this little social grace from their words and actions. Even in our every day encounters with strangers and people that we interact with, we fail at this little thing called kindness. Oh yes, we feign kindness through superficial words and platitudes, but is it an issue of our heart? True kindness pities, it empathizes, sympathizes and identifies with another’s need. Kindness puts itself in the place of its neighbor and then responds appropriately according to how it would want to be treated. Kindness isn’t a social mask that we put on to give the illusion of our graciousness; it is something that issues out of the foundation of who we are in Christ. Kindness genuinely cares for another and will not think about going out of its way to minister or help another. Kindness overlooks the opportunity to be right when it is at the expense of another. It compliments the rest of the attributes of the Spirit and it chooses the high road even at its own expense. Kindness is what covers another with grace and favor even when they may not deserve it. Kindness is slow to be offended and it returns good for evil. True kindness is often the brunt of abuse and is commonly taken for granted. Yet, it is the kindness working in us that causes our Father to smile and reminds Him of Himself.
Today and each day of your life, develop the habit of random acts of kindness, not just on the deserving but on the undeserving as well. Practice that kindness on the ones you say you love and yet always rub you the wrong way. While others may not always appreciate it and it may be abused by some, you will never regret the warmth it leaves inside and the smile it puts on the face of God.

Blessings,
kent

From the Place of Suffering

Romans 8:17
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

From the Place of Suffering

Some thoughts the Spirit was dropping into my heart today:

Behold, all I have given you is good.
The evil that befalls man has been the consequences of choices.
Free will always carries with it the responsibility of your decisions.
Those decisions do not affect you alone, but the lives of others as well.
The world lives under the tribulation and subjection of the god that mankind surrendered it too.
This also was the consequence of man’s choices.
My heart has always been to redeem you from all of those wrong choices.
Many want to blame Me for the consequences of sin in the world that is seen through sickness, corruption, disease, pestilence, wars, famine, drought, suffering and all of the evils that plague this world. Unless man sees and experiences what the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil produces, they will never fully appreciate the Tree of Life and the fruit that it produces.
Light is never fully appreciated till one has lived in the darkness or warmth, till one has experienced the cold, or health till one has experienced the pain of sickness.
That is why I came as the suffering savior to experience and take all of these sufferings upon Myself, not as the result of My sin, but yours. I did it that I might redeem you spirit, soul and body. I overcame it all and all of that victory is in Me and in you, if you are in Me.
I told you in the world you would have tribulation, but I also told you to be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. Your victory is not in avoiding all suffering, but in finding my strength and peace to overcome in all suffering. It is not the outward wholeness that reveals my righteousness it is the brokeness that releases My life. It is in your brokeness that My life makes you whole. It is from that place that you can minister My life into the broken lives of others.
Mary was willing to break the outward beauty of the vessel that contained the sweet perfume in order to anoint Me. She was breaking her own vessel of self-respect and dignity to pour out her love and lavish it upon Me. When you are willing to fully lose yourself and become broken, then are you best able minister to the death in others, the sweet perfume and fragrance of My life and salvation. Christianity and religion just dabs the perfume onto the humanity around them, but like Mary’s alabaster jar typified My body that was broken, so that the sweet fragrance of My blood and life could be spilled out upon humanity. You also must be willing to be broken, if you want to fully spill out My life in you. It means you meet people where they are at, not where you are. It means becoming all things to all men, if by any means you might win them for Me. It means that you are willing to die and be poured out that they may live through what I am releasing in you and through you. Christianity was never meant to be a life of glory, but the willingness to suffer along with Me that you might, through that death, be partakers of My glory. You are the sweet grapes, crushed under the feet of fallen humanity, much of it religious in nature. My purpose is make from those crushed grapes the sweetest wine that will make the hearts of men glad through their sacrificial message of good tidings.

Blessings,
kent