March 14, 2012

A world of suffering.
Interesting how He responds, isn't it?  

GUIDANCE

He dignifies it!

When our Father fully engages in His children's activity, it's a complete "game-changer."  His presence changes the nature, focus, and outcome of everything!

His touch and energetic encouragement resurrect our perspective.  His dignity transforms us!

PERSPECTIVE

So, by entering into our suffering, He gives it dignity by making it His own. 

No longer meaningless misery.  Now, meaningful ministry.
No longer solitary suffering.  Now, shared sacrifice.
No longer the cruel chaos.  Now, creative change.

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

When the Father/King weeps with us, we become different.  We see our worth in His suffering.  The dignity He brings to our pain transforms us.  We begin to see ourselves through His tear-filled eyes.  In the mirror of His loving gaze, we see who we are -- beloved children that have His love in spite of anything the enemy throws at us. 

We experience that His grace is sufficient.

-Tony

February 29, 2012

Earthquakes and other natural disasters. Famine and war.  Israel about to be wiped off the map.  

GUIDANCE

This was the condition of the world when Jesus gave the Great Commission to His first International Disciple Makers.  Sound familiar?

PERSPECTIVE

His solution to global chaos is that we become increasingly immersed into the will of the Father, life of the Son, and fellowship of their Holy Spirit.  When we do, we live in the safest place that exists:  The heart of God.  We do battle by hallowing of the family name.  A name honorable and spotless from all eternity to all eternity.

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

For soldiers like us, radical obedience is more than compliance.  It is our food.  A way to live in harmony with the deepest networking of the universe.

Obedience to all He commands reverses the abuse, dysfunction, neglect, and ignorance of our prideful rebellion. It's the only way to insure that His children are really loved, accepted, nurtured, and matured.

One day soon there will be a wedding feast in which the Son gives all back into the hands of the Father.  War over.  His suffering finished.  His Great Commission Initiative complete.

His children safely and securely home.  Forever.

-Tony

February 15, 2012

So many of us self-destruct.  Tragically.  But why???  

GUIDANCE

Lots of reasons.  But certainly at the top of the list is not keeping our relationship with God alive, growing, and dynamic.  We tend to cling to past experiences, imitate the lives of others, or start sliding down the undemanding path of non-spiritual growth. 

PERSPECTIVE

But our God deserves a real relationship from us.  Because He is One.  In fact, everything that is really good began between Them, where love has always lived.  The Father, like the sun, radiating beams of love.  The Son, His glorious reflection, mirroring the Father.  The Begetter and the Begotten.  Eternally.  In the strong bond of the Holy Spirit.  A relationship between the three that is always alive and growing. 

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

It is this loving relationship which birthed you and me (along with all else). We're chosen, adopted into His eternal family.  This family of those who do His will.  God's strong right-hand Word formed us from frail dust, while His powerful left-hand Spirit energized us into being.  We are now sons and daughters of Abraham, called out of Egypt, given the Law and Prophets, the Incarnate Word, the Written Word, His Holy Spirit, martyrs, trailblazers, guides, friends, and witnesses all through the ages.

And that's not all.  Formed by His many beams of love, we are now being transformed into Him.  We're being re-created to live in our heart's true home:  This eternal relationship of love which painted the first supernova, smiled at the first sunrise, and welcomes children home.  This relationship we call the Trinity is our eternal destiny.  And toward Them, we swim like spiritual salmon seeking our way forward to the Holy Place from which we were spawned.

Anything less will destroy us. 

-Tony

February 1, 2012

There is another kind of silence.

GUIDANCE

Oh yes, there is the silence of anger - the "silent treatment."  There can be the silence of confusion.  Or fear - a "silent scream."  Maybe you have been manipulated or harmed by others who kept quiet when they should have spoken up.  Not hearing from a friend is a silence that can eat away the relationship over time.  Much devastation can happen in this type of silence. 

PERSPECTIVE

But there is another kind of silence.  Sunrise devotions with a loving Father.  Holding a hand at the hospital bedside.  Old friends enjoying the sunset together.  Love hushed into adoration.  Quietly experiencing surges of joy and delight gurgling up from His depths.  A simple place of quiet where beloved children are embraced. 

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

"My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me. 

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord
Both now and forevermore.

Psalm 131 NIV 

-Tony

GPS Journal - January 18, 2012

I didn't understand.  I always thought it was giving praise or adoration.  But it's much, much more.

GUIDANCE

Jesus demonstrated it by example and with words, but still I missed it.  Remember when He prayed:  "Father, glorify your name!" (John 12:28), or "Father, the time has come.  Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you" (John 17:1), or "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began" (John 17:5).  But giving God glory here means much more than praising or adoring.  What was I missing?

PERSPECTIVE

Recently re-reading Andrew Murray's book, The Spirit of Christ, the reality jumped off the page to smack me in the soul.  "To glorify is to manifest the hidden excellence and worth of an object" (Murray, p. 75).

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY 

Now the prayer of Jesus for himself and for us in John 17 makes so much more sense to me.  His purpose is simply to point out the obvious excellence and worth of God!  Making the hidden known through His word, work, life, example, and sacrifice.

I've always known somehow that the purpose of my life should be to glorify God.  But never really understood how.  Murray really helped me.  Of course I should praise and adore Him.  But this is more than what I say.

Glorifying God is living so that His excellence and worth is experienced by others with and through me.  In His presence and power, I want my life simply to point people His direction.  And doing nothing to take attention away from Him.

"Father the time has come.  Glorify your Son, that your son may glorify you.  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.  Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.  I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began" (John 17:5).

-Tony