Redemption Vs. Perfection

Beth Moore on how an imperfect past need not burden us:

"We put a higher premium on redemption than perfection."

The Man Who Has Left All

"The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ."- Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

I read this quote in the book I'm currently reading, Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, which I would highly recommend. You can download and read FOR FREE. You can read any John Piper book for free at his website. Here's Don't Waste Your Life:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/onlinebooks/bytitle/1593_Dont_Waste_Your_Life/
But be warned, it will probably make you evaluate all of your selfish motivations for any of your life/career pursuits.

Complacent Comfort

"I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he will take away, and every branch that beareth fruit he will prune, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean, on account of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abideth in me, and I in him, beareth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast out, and wither as a branch; and men shall gather it, and cast it into the fire, and it shall be burned." -John 15:1-6

I went to London to do a show and I had a hard time. I missed my husband. I lost my passport. I was around all new people. And I wanted to be home. I wanted what was comfortable. I wanted what was safe. I wanted what I knew. But while I was there, while I was uncomfortable, boy did I pray. I made sure I not only spent time with God but that it was focused, that it was attentive, that I was talking to Him about all of my needs, my concerns, my worries and my fears.

And then I came home. And since I got home, I have been coasting. I'm back to what is comfortable. I'm back to what has an illusion of safety and security. I'm back to not being dependent on God every moment because this illusion of comfort around me makes me feel like I don't need to ask God to help me in all of the details of my day. It deceives me into believing that things here at home are in control and that I have some control over them. As long as I do A, B, and C then D, E, and F will happen.

But when I'm not really pressing in to God, as the verses above demonstrate, I can do nothing. I can bear no fruit. How awful a thought. I can spin my wheels all day long of my own accord thinking I'm going somewhere and thinking I'm accomplishing something. But if I am not abiding in the Lord, if I am not dwelling with Him then my actions will bear no fruit. They are pointless. Because they are for myself. They are self focused and self motivated.

So, I need to be abiding not in my comfortable circumstances but in the True Vine.

I need to fully acknowledge that in my sinfulness and selfishness, I cannot bear any fruit in my day unless I abide in God and in His grace He uses me.

I cannot bear any good thing unless I am in Him.

Nothing.

Nothing can I bear on my own.

That thought should help remove the illusion of comfort. Knowing that nothing good can come without Him should be enough to move me out of a place of compalcency and into a place of Love. A Love that will result in service and not sloth, in passion and not apathy, in peace and not restlessness.

Here's to pressing in, pressing on and pressing upwards.

Paige Benton Brown Video- "But My Coward Heart Fears to Give Up Its Toys"

Found this video of Paige Benton Brown talking about "The Responsive Heart". You have to fast forward through the first bit to get to her.

In the end she quotes the following prayer by A.W. Tozer:

"Father, I want to know Thee,

but my coward heart fears to give up its toys.

I cannot part with them without inward bleeding,

and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting.

I come trembling, but I do come.

Please root from me heart all those things which I have cherished so long

and which have become a very part of my living self,

so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there with-out a rival.

Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine it it, f

or Thyself wilt be in the light of it,

and there shall be no night there.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen."