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My dearly loved brothers and sisters, don't be misled.  Every good gift bestowed, even perfect gift received comes to us from above, courtesy of the Father of lights.He won't change His mind or play tricks in the shadows.  We have a special role in His plan.  He calls us to life by His message of truth so that we will show the rest of His creatures His goodness and love.

                                                                 James 1:16-18

I do have so many gifts:  salvation, resources, family, good health, choices.  Lord, I have you!  (Or you have me!)  Show me how to use them to show your love.  Some are obvious:  I use my resources to benefit others.  I use my health in social justice and taking care of others.  I see that I can use the outcomes of my salvation - assurance, freedom, love, right living - the same way.

Sometimes those things appear most clearly when you carried and sustained me through dark times.  Are you seen better at the margins?  The proliferation of wealth and resources seems a murky presentation because it resembles and is mixed with cultural standards.

I want to distinctly pull out the gifts and use them to show your goodness and love.  I think that includes never taking credit for them, using it for the welfare of others, living thankfully, learning how to celebrate properly and by pointing to you constantly.  Each of those deserves expansion.

You are a generous God!

Sanctification

Items which were pure,

or of first or best effort,

were then dedicated for a holy act of God:  

sacrificed or used.

The purposes were many:

to atone for sin,

as a mark of gratitude or

as a blessing to God.

Lord, sanctify me.

Endure

Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the proofing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given. Be sure to ask in faith with not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is drive and tossed by the wind...

James 1:1-12

My favorite part of this section in James is that God is gladly generous.  He will not fail us.  He wants to sustain and equip us.  It's fun for him!  

I understand and accept the need for endurance - like endurance training - and as the hill gets steeper, I see the growing need for maturity, "complete," and a satisfaction (humble acceptance) of the task ahead. This climb will end.  

I can rest and relax into the life I yet have because God is gladly involved.  Not only does He know, but He is also strong and strongly in favor of helping me.  I need it!  I can approach God without hesitation because of His generous availability to help!

Transformation

I appeal to you, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, that which is good, acceptable and perfect.

                                                                     Romans 12:1, 2

Holy.
Pleasure.
Discern.
God's good.

To please you, Lord?  You are pleased by my focus to be set apart for your service, that I keep my eyes open to be yours in every situation.  The situations in this day.

I want to discern God's good from any other definition of goodness, especially cultural goodness.  What is pleasing to you, Lord?  What completes your intentions and goals for this day?  He wants transformation.  I want to know His will, every time.  

To become aware of you and your path and agree to be on its path is true repentance - a change of mind.  True transformation.

#32 An Advent Poem

At just the right time

He knocked at the door of my “Inn.”

My life was full – bustling and suffering.

Would I relegate Him to the cave in back

Or clear a room,

Clear my whole house,

So he could birth in me,

Live-with-me

A place where “Glory!” would sound?

Oh, the gifts that would come!

Could we, together, avoid an exile?

A death?

No.

Together,

We would live a stranger in this world,

The death of the old life and its power would pass

And rise to new.

Glory!

What God wants

When God Wants a Man

(Anonymous)

When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man...

When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world shall praise...

Watch His methods;

Watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects...

How He hammers him and hurts him,

And with mighty blows converts him

Into frail shapes of clay that only God understands. 
How his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands...

How he bends but never breaks when His good he undertakes.

How He uses whom He chooses...with every purpose fuses him;

By every art induces him to try His splendor out...

God knows what He's about!

When God wants to take a man and shake a man and wake a man...

When God wants to make a man to do the future's will;

He tries with all His skill...

When He yearns with all His soul to create him large and whole...

With what cunning He prepares him...

How He goads and never spares him! 
How He whets him and He frets him and in poverty begets him...

How often He disappoints whom He sacredly anoints!

With what wisdom He will hide him;

Never minding what betide him...

Though his genius sob with slighting and his pride may not forget;

Bids him struggle harder yet!

Makes him lonely so that only God's high messages shall reach him...

So that He may surely teach him what the hierarchy planned;

And though he may not understand...

Gives him passions to command.

How remorselessly He spurs him...

With terrific ardor stirs him

When He poignantly prefers him.

When God wants to name a man and fame a man and tame a man...

When God wants to shame a man to do His Heavenly best;

When He tries the highest test that His reckoning may bring...

When He wants a [god] or king;

How He reins him and restrains him so his body scarce contains him...

While He fires him and inspires him…

Keeps him yearning, ever burning for that tantalizing goal.

Lures and lacerates his soul...

Sets a challenge for his spirit;

Draws it highest then he's near it!

Makes a jungle that he clear it;

Makes a desert that he fear it...and subdue it, if he can -

So doth God make a man!

Dear Daddy - 6 June 2005

If you receive my words, hide them within yourself.

Proverbs 2:1

Dear Daddy,

I know you have so much to say to me and I don't always pursue them as fully as you offer them.  Your words.  The author of the Proverb says to "receive" your words. That is my quest, today, Daddy: to receive what you have to say to me.

Please, Daddy, place more opportunities in front of me to read, to listen.  Give me desire to go to your Word.  Help me to take in these words for your sake and mine.

I look forward to this day with you, Dad.

Love, Gina