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Lose the Laughter and the Joy!

10/21/2012

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Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. (James 4:9 NIV84)

This verse caught me so off guard this morning... Don’t laugh, mourn?! Don’t have joy, instead be gloomy?!

I read this in the context of Ann Spangler’s Devotional Book, "Praying The Names of Jesus"  as she focused on Jesus as our Friend. (You MUST get the book...INCREDIBLE!)


She wrote, “None of us will ever be attractive enough, good enough, or successful enough to warrant His friendship. Paradoxically, it is only by exposing the brokenness inside us that we can be admitted to this friendship.”

To know how true this is blows my mind! To think how I am on this side... the side where I can look back and give testimony to how true it is that the more I exposed my broken, ugly, awful heart, the bigger HIS LOVE and FRIENDSHIP became!

           Love overtakes sin. No matter how great our sin is, HIS LOVE is greater.

Think about the characteristics we all want in a real friend:
Honesty
Funny

Serious when need be
Not overly sensitive
A safe place to be completely real at all times
And yes, someone we can expose our mess to

All of that simply adds up to someone you completely trust. When you trust someone, you expose yourselves to them. Isn’t it interesting how some of us, who have that kind of friend, find it alright to expose our real thoughts and heart to a human who can do nothing for our eternal life, but we are scared to expose, a.k.a. trust, the One who has our eternal lives in the palm of His hands - literally?

As I think about the verse above, change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom... something in me clicked! It's when I finally let go of my fake laughter and false happiness, that had been drummed up by my own effort, and allowed myself to free-fall into what I really was; it was then that God could rebuild me, and fill up what I let empty out with HIS laughter and complete joy. A laughter and joy that is constant, real and sustainable.

Exposing myself to God simply displays my trust in Him. When I expose my true self and am honest with God, He can then trust me. I know, that sounds odd, but it has become critical in my friendship with God. Since I have become honest with my own sin, and have seen the greatness of HIS LOVE in spite of it, He now knows I won’t sit in judgement or shut down at the sight of someone else’s.

What can compare to being exposed to the depths of yourself, and then seeing the greatness and the realness of His unconditional love wash it all away!

Ecclesiastes 3:3b says, there is a time to tear down and a time to build up...

Perhaps it is time to tear down what is false, phony and not real, so that God can build up what is true, genuine and authentic in you.
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This is for YOU!

10/10/2012

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I woke up this morning with a scream in my soul - "HE LOVES YOU!"

It was from a really deep place. I know, it sounds so weird - but it happened. So deep, it made me curl up as I was arriving into the consciousness of the day. It was breath-taking, painful and beautiful all at the same time.

I wasn't standing in front of anyone, but I know there was someone, a few, or a crowd out there somewhere.


I don't know if that was for all of you, some of you or one of you...but it was for YOU!

Please grab hold of this:

           GOD ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF THIS UNIVERSE - is IN LOVE with YOU!!

He is desperate for someone, somewhere to know that.


It's not to just the person who knows Him, although it is.
It's not just for the one who goes to church, although it is.
It's not just for the one who doesn't know Him at all, although it is.
It's not just for the one who says, "I don't believe!", although it is.
it's not just for the one with a broken heart and doesn't understand a God who let's hurt happen, although it is.
It's not even just for the one who thinks they can't be saved, or that the building will collapse on them if they walk in a church, although it is.

No matter where you are, or what you have done - HE seriously LOVES YOU!

Just look at what He did on the cross! Don't listen to anyone else...look at it yourself.

That was for YOU!

HE LOVES YOU!
Yes...YOU!!
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    Michelle D. Dickens

    Here I simply share my life and pour out whatever emotions I have...well almost, some things need to be kept between me and Jesus (heehee). We all need a safe place to spill out what we think and feel and this is mine. My prayer is that you find some sort of encouragement for your own life and also find this a safe place to share your heart.

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