Bridging the Gap

What is a bridge? The specific definition according to www.dictionary.com is:
1. a structure spanning and providing passage over a river, chasm, road, or the like.

2. a connecting, transitional, or intermediate route or phase between two adjacent elements, activities, conditions, or the like: Working at the hospital was a bridge between medical school and private practice 1

When we cross a bridge we do it one step at a time. A bridge doesn’t transport us immediately from one place to another, it provides a way, a support, for us to cross a chasm or body of water that is too deep or too treacherous for us to have crossed otherwise. Jesus Christ became the bridge for us to cross from being alone, without direction, without hope, without faith; to a place of healing, wholeness, purpose, love, and hope.

In this life as we cross this bridge, I believe we many times lose sight of the goal or direction He gives. There are people along the way telling us that Christ isn’t really all that He says He is. They tell us He is not full of grace, mercy, and love. The reality is He is not only full of love for us, He IS LOVE.

What they are trying to take from us is our hope; they try to take our expectation. One of greatest things we can lose is our expectation. Do you have an expectation about what God has in store for you? Has skepticism set in, bringing along with it an attitude of ‘I’ll believe it when I see it?’

You know the scenes in movies where someone is crossing a bridge, only to look down at the rushing river beneath them and get caught up in fear of what’s below rather than the stability of the bridge supporting them, making a way to their destination. When Christ is the ‘bridge’ we are standing on, we don’t have to worry about the turmoil, the churning tumultuous water swirling beneath us, but we can rely on and rest in Him. We do that by keeping our focus on Him, by keeping our mind stayed on Him.

We serve a God that has huge plans for our lives, and as Christians we need to open our hearts and minds to the greatness of God. We should have an expectation of walking into things that we would not have believed if someone had told us! Habakkuk 14:5 tells us to “look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it!”

Do you walk with that kind of expectation? Are you looking to be amazed? Are you looking to be blown away by the greatness of God? Are you looking to be astounded by what God wants to do through you?

Eph 1:18-20 says “ I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.19 I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”
What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe? Are there dreams in your life that you thought too big for you? Are there things in your life that you have put aside?
CS Lewis wrote in ‘The Weight of Glory’ the following passage that has stuck with me ever since I read it. “…if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak… like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he can not imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

God has called us to live a life full of freedom, pursuing Him and the places He’s prepared for us. God has called us to a great adventure with Him we just need to continue taking steps forward toward that destination – toward that vision and dream.

How often do we settle because we are told that we need to be content with what we have? How often do we wallow where we are at in life because we are told that there is not anything more for us here? That is so far from the truth! The truth of God is that he desires for us to walk into wonderful things. To be a part of the things He is doing today in the world! He designed us to be in relationship with Him. Christ came to this earth and died so that a way would be made for relationship with the Father – a bridge.

Beautiful New Day

"for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."

- Philippians 3:12

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. I was thinking about this upcoming new year, and praying about how it would be different from the past year - from the past years. How do I break free of the things that have been holding me back? Can I really accomplish the things I believe God has called me to? Then I came across this verse in my devotions, "it is God who works in you..." We have to do our part. We have to seek God, we have to step out in faith, we have to walk in the light of God's word, but it is GOD who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose. That focuses my new year. That tells me that if I want to accomplish more this year, I simply have to seek the LORD more. It's no longer about me, but about relationship with God and allowing Him to work.

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year is a t-shirt that says 'Winning is for the birds." It's a fan t-shirt for the Philadelphia Eagles that I had seen in the movie Invincible. It's a play on the saying that something is "for the birds", which has a negative connotation. The reason I love it is because it takes the saying and makes it positive. (Side note - I hope the Eagles make the playoffs or Superbowl this year so I can wear it.) It reminds me to look for the positive in things. No matter how I feel, I might have failed in the past, or not lived up to my own expectations in an area, I have to remember that tomorrow is a new day. If I don't live it, it won't be written. God has purpose and plans for us, He loves us, He wants us to fulfill the lives He has for us out there.

To quote an old song, life is a highway, I want to ride it all night long... I can't wait for tomorrow, and I'll live today in great expectation of it. God is working. He is moving. He is changing me, so tomorrow I'll be different, tomorrow I'll be more like Him, tomorrow is a beautiful new day full of what God has on this road I'm on. Not all of it is fun, some of it I just won't ever understand until I get to heaven, but I know God. I know He works all things for good to them that love Him and are called according to His purpose. I will rest in Him. I will look forward to a beautiful new day.

Life in the Waiting

"And we desire that each of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." -Hebrews 6:11-12

Sometimes it seems the things in our lives we believe God has called us to are never going to come. We keep waiting. We begin to question if we are really called. We begin to question whether we are on the right track, if we've veered off the road. We wait. We begin to question whether God will truly bring us to the place of fulfillment of the promise. Yet we continue to wait.

As I prepare for the Christmas season and reflect on God coming to Earth as man, it amazes me to think of the wonderful and awesome length that our Heavenly Father went to so that His promise would be fulfilled to restore us to relationship. Immanuel, God with us.

I think about the hundreds of years between the Old Testament and the coming of Christ, the waiting between the promise and the fulfillment. The people of God lived their entire lives waiting. If I had lived then, how would my life have developed? Would I have been sensitive to listen for the Lord and anticipate His coming, opening myself up to the waiting? Would I have wrapped myself in the letter of the law as the Pharisees and Sadducee's did, guarding myself from possible disappointment? Not truly living to the fullest in the waiting. Would I, like Simeon and Anna, serve the Lord with joy, waiting with anticipation for the promised One - ready to recognize the Christ?

"God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" -Numbers 23:19

As we wait to see the promises of God fulfilled in our lives, we have to remember that the One who has promised us is not a man. In the waiting I often find myself thinking of God and the things of God and associate human shortfalls with them. Is God mad at me because I didn't do something? Did I fall short? Don't little things make me mad at times and I withhold things from people? Then I'm reminded by the simplicity of His sweet Spirit that He's not a man that He should lie, that He is faithful to fulfill all that He has promised. As I wait, there is a journey. Even when things don't look like I thought they would, He is faithful in the journey that is waiting. Many times takes twists and turns we did not foresee, hills that contain illness, heartache, or waiting not knowing or understanding why.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful." -Hebrews 10:23

As I consider life in the waiting, I reflect on how I am living my life. I must live my life in the assurance that He is faithful. I must live my life in in the peace and full assurance of hope that He who promised is faithful. Most of all, I must live during the waiting, I must take the journey, no matter where it leads. The journey does have a guide, and all I have to do is follow. I will allow this Christmas season to remind me also of the lengths my Father will go to in fulfilling the things He has promised.

Prayer: Thank you for your faithfulness, thank you that you are faithful even when I am not. Father, thank you for the journey You have given me in life and that I can not only live it in Your peace, but share Your peace and love throughout the twists and turns. Thank you for the fullness of life I have in You! Father, I pray that you would increase my faith where it is weary. Holy Spirit, I ask that as I wait on You, that You would open my eyes every day to the faithfulness of God in my life. In Jesus mighty name, amen.

Created for Grace

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." - 2 Corinthians 9:8

We were created for grace. However, I find the grace I extend to others is lacking throughout much of today's life. Yet, in the truest sense, our lives are born out of grace and meant to reflect the grace that we've been given. I'm amazed many times when I reflect on my day, how many times I was offered an opportunity to show grace, how many opportunities I remained silent in, or how many I reserved giving the grace that does not even need a reason to be deserved.

Grace, by definition, is a virtue coming from God, it is approval, favor, mercy, pardon, an act or instance of kindness. If more grace flowed in our lives, how would it change our relationships, our homes, our work environment, lessen our own level of stress? If it is a virtue coming from God, and we don't see grace evident in our lives, then we know where to get it, simply by spending time in God's presence.

Waves ebb and flow. They are a moving ridge or swell on the surface of a body of water. Grace flows like this many times in our lives, and we can usually reflect back and see that when we have spent more time with God, grace abounds much more in our lives than others. The ebb and flow of grace in our lives is so evident when we look at it in the light of our time spent with our Savior.

Waves of grace, I see them in my life and I enjoy riding them. I pray that my life reflects more and more of the grace of God, and that my consistency in extending that grace to others can effect their lives like an ocean wave that picks them up and gives them a ride all the way to their destination. Sometimes riding a wave can be unsettling, but the best way to do it is to allow the power and force of the wave to take you forward.

I'm writing this first blog at the beginning of December, a time we focus on celebrating the birth of Christ. John 1:14, 16 tells us that 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth...and of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace." I say that this is a perfect time to reflect on the grace bestowed on us through our Savior, and to find His grace that flows in our lives - it is a time of giving gifts, let us make them gifts of grace.