A Wonderful Take on the Human Condition.

This quote is such a wonderful take on the human condition (Our condition :P) in relation to the absolute necessity of a life lived in full dependence on God and pure relationship with Him to live in a manner worthy of the calling in which we have been called:

"How slothful and unfit we are for this blessed work.
Only the Spirit of God can enable us to do right."
-Andrew Murray (Pg. 10, With Christ in the School of Prayer)

The "knack that you never want to come back."

I believe that all of us, have at the very least 'jumped the gun' once on God. What I mean by that is we sometimes get so caught up in our own desire, that we tend to play God and go for that desire without waiting on Him long enough; without consulting Him properly through His own, perfect, God-like timing.

In 1 Samuel 14, King Saul, just after being anointed and appointed King over Israel, 'jumps the gun' on God and in turn, becomes His own God.

Saul's son, Johnathan, caused a great commotion North of the Israelites encampment where the Philistines had a garrison, and had slaughtered twenty men with only himself and his armor bearer. When the first twenty fell, the whole Philistine garrison trembled and the ground shook with panicky footsteps. When Saul's watchmen noticed the scattering of the Philistines, Saul quickly counted heads to see whom of the Israelites was missing. When the heads were counted, sure enough, Johnathan and his armor bearer were gone. In verse 18, Saul called for the Ark of God, which meant that His first reaction to what was happening around Him was to consult God. This is good. However, in verse 19, Saul tells the priest to remove his hand (or put the ark back where it was) because of the urgency of the moment and rushes straight into battle without God's permission. He decides that listening to the voice of God would have taken too long and it would have ruined his military advantage. The problem with Saul's actions is that he didn't obey the voice of God and didn't depend on Him. Yes, Saul's first thought was to seek God's advice, but he did not go any further than that initial thought. Instead, Saul acted on his own insight and broke his commitment to obey God, He broke his dependence with God and chose independence from God; Saul was not a man after God's own heart.

The point of me writing about Saul's disobedience is to provide a biblical example of how we, as humans, have a knack for determining what's right or what's wrong in our own eyes without first asking God what His verdict is. If you recognize the prideful tendencies in your own heart, and you repent and ask God to change them, then I pray that this will be one knack in your life that will never have to come back.

Stay humble, be obedient, ask God what He desires for your life, and pursue just that.


-burton 261E

Once, For All.

God doesn't need us to do anything magnificent, unbelievable or miraculous; nor does he ask of us for such things. He only needs us to stand obedient to His calling, to perhaps plant a seed whenever given the opportunity, and allow for Him to work His inexplicably marvelous miracles in the middle of our lives.

There is never a day when I feel perfectly adequate or feel that I measure up, but I am continually renewed and forever reminded that God has never asked me to be adequate. He has asked me to be absolutely flawless, and His Son has already ever so flawlessly and perfectly carried out this requirement for me, by the tree at Calvary. I need to do, no more.

"Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself." (Hebrews 7:27 with emphasis added)

Christ died, once, for all.


-burton 261E

The Cause of Loneliness and a Cure for Change.

For the longest time I have been struggling with friendship. I'm not talking about that surface-leveled type of friendship, where news, sports and pointless facts or takes about so-and-so revolve around every facet of conversation. I'm talking about my struggle with an intimate form of friendship; the kind of friendship that reaches right into the core and center of who we are and allows for true relationship to occur through a long-suffering process of human engagements, honest experience, and convivial change.
My struggle has caused me to be in a state of proverbial loneliness. Nothing to the extreme of depression, no, I have God and He is sufficient, but loneliness in the sense of lacking forms of genuine companionship that make up community; the designated community that God experiences within Himself and desires for us to experience. As far as I can remember, I haven't truly experienced what its like to be in such a form of community, but only because I haven't allowed myself to be a part of this style of community. The reasons for this are quite obvious: Self-protection. I'm afraid of getting hurt, and I'm afraid of allowing others into this dark, grim, and disseminated mess that is my heart because I have convinced myself into believing that there is no other human being on this earth as unpleasant and horribly repugnant as I am; as my sin is.

But then it occurred to me:
Maybe you are feeling so alone because you never actually extend an invitation into your own life for others to enter into. You never give anyone the opportunity to love you. You just keep things at a distance and allow for others to let you into their hearts while concurrently locking the door of your own.

A voice spoke:
Open your arms, unlock your heart, and never fear, for God is here.

"Its not the nature of love to force a relationship but it is the nature of love to open the way." (Pg 192, The Shack)


-burton 261E

No-God Desires to Mo-God Desire.

Sometimes we are so reluctant to just simply go to God. We duck and dodge, play hide and seek, and throw whatever we can in front of Him so that we don't have to look at Him. And when we see deep down in the bottom of our broken and messy hearts, we know that it's time to stop hiding, but we still persist in throwing more and more objects in front of us, avoiding Him at whatever cost. And when we are chasing after whatever our No-God desires may be, we happen to rather unexpectedly run right into Him, not realizing that He used one of those No-God desires that we decided to let into our lives and were aimlessly searching after to lead us back to Himself. And as we are kneeling down looking up at the face of God; we see our brokenness. We are allowed one more glance at the huge mess that we have secluded and locked inside of the deepest chamber of our hearts. For this moment our eyes are opened wide to look at this mess and we find out that this mess is the result of our own self-sufficiency, and our lack of God-dependency. At this time, we know that something must change. We cry out to Him and repent of our disobedience, our lack of faith, our lack of trust, our avoidance of His perfect relationship. We are then almost instantaneously stirred by the power of His love and shaken by His overwhelming presence. "Why have I avoided this for so long? Why have I been so reluctant, so set in my own ways, so right in my own eyes, and why, oh why have I neglected you?...My heart craves You, I was made for you." The three words "I love you" travel down into every part of our whole being and warm the center of our messy hearts; we know that we are loved. And then the moment has passed. We have experienced both our past and our present colliding into one another so that by moving into the rhythm of His grace we might together with Him bring about a most perfect, extravagant future.




-burton 261E

Just A Thought, Nothing More Than That.

Truth is the only foundation for confidence, humility, and distinguishable open-mindedness.

Christ is the sole basis of this truth; for He is truth.

From Hearing to Mere Trust.

Some people might say that it's impossible to hear from God, especially in the sense of His voice communicating directly into your mind.

Being the logical and rational being that I am, I have always assumed this. Then, something, among many other recent things happened...

On Tuesday night, I heard a distinct voice.

It spoke to me in a gentle and reassuring spirit the words, "I have a plan for your life; it's not what you think, but it's good."

When I heard this statement, my initial reaction to it was one of disbelief. How can God say something to me without using scripture, an experience, or other human beings? How do I know it's not the devil trying to deceive me through the use of my thoughts? How do I know its not just my own thought, such as my flesh?
Then I thought it through a little bit, and came to the conclusion that it has to be God because right now, this statement doesn't make much sense to me. And when something doesn't make complete sense to you, you can trust that it's God because His thoughts are not our thoughts. When Satan puts a thought into my mind, or when a thought is explicitly from me [the flesh], it usually is phrased in such a way that allows me to still have control over my life, and it never has me trusting in its plan because the plan is always attained by my own means.
However, the sentence exclaimed above allows for me to have no control; It only contains trust. When something requires trust, it asks for faith. When faith is needed in something [such as your future], it must be God; for only He requires our belief. And that's how I know this voice was in fact the voice of God.
Thus, God still speaks, and yes, He's immensely personal.



-burton 261E