JESUS CHRIST - LORD OF ALL

 JESUS CHRIST - LORD OF ALL

One of the things I love to think about is this. He is LORD of ALL. Let's break this down.

The Universe. He is Lord of all of the Universe.  

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Psalm 8:3 "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained"

Psalm 102:25 "Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands."

Psalm147:4 "He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name."

We have been intrigued by space for all of history. We have stared at it, admired it, examined it, and categorised it, but we still cannot understand it or control it.  

Earth. He is Lord of all the earth.

Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him."

Job 38 is both poetic and awe-inspiring as God speaks of His ownership of all of creation.  I encourage you to read it.

The promise of Scripture is that when Jesus returns, there will be a new, redeemed heaven and earth. While we are called to steward the earth with care, the planet's hope is not us but Christ!

The Nations. He is Lord of the nations.

Psalm 22:28 "For the kingdom is the Lord's, And He rules over the nations."

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

Psalm 47:8 "God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne."

It can be frightening to see powerful governments strutting the world stage, threatening and posturing for war, but Psalm 2 tells us that He will have the last word even though they do.

This is a very simple post; it could also be very confronting. If Jesus is Lord over all this, why all the turmoil and mess?  

This is a much bigger dilemma than I have space for here. But I do hope this short post will introduce you to the possibility of hope in the middle of despair.

The thing that makes the difference is whether He is Lord of ME. I love to contemplate that He is King over the Heavens, the earth and the nations, but then I love to say, "Be Lord over me".

It is a fact that when we feel like our personal world is out of control, we often try to control things that are out of our control. But what makes us think that if we can't control our personal world, we could manage the wider space?

Rather than making the bigger space the starting point, we can start with our own hearts, the very centre of our personal world. The best way to do that is to pray, "Be Lord over me". When Jesus is Lord over me, my soul starts to come together, which has a ripple effect on my world.  

Then whatever impact the bigger space has on me and my world, I know that God will work it out for good. Amazingly, the fact that He is sovereign doesn't mean that everything that happens is His choice, but that He can weave everything that happens, the good, the bad and the ugly, into His will and our good.  

God is love, and love doesn't control. Love invites, love honours personal freedom. And in love, God invites us to make Him Lord of our own hearts. God is not after our perfection. He is after our vulnerability. Beautifully, we can bring our hearts as they are to Him, broken, messy, bruised, confused, but also soft, vulnerable and repentant, and out of that simple act, we can begin to see Him create something good and beautiful out of our mess.

What will your answer be?

Until next time,

much love,

Lynda xx

TIME TO REST

 TIME TO REST

We all have pet hates. I have two that I can think of right now.  

1. Running Late

2. Wasting time.

I want to talk about the second one.

'Days off' have proven to be a challenge to me as I try and find ways to make it count. I don't want to WASTE time! I think that I may not be at work, but this day is an opportunity to pursue some other goal, and I want to be satisfied.  

If I examine this mentality, it has a couple of nasty roots hidden away under the noble thought of productivity.   One is arrogance. You've heard the saying, "If it is to be, it's up to me".  

The second one is that I have to somehow justify my existence - my use of free air to breathe. How cruel! Do we ask our children to justify their existence in our world by doing and working?

Can't you smell the poison in those two thoughts?

I have been going through a few months of bad health and exhaustion and have found myself having to do nothing. Sometimes, I just need to go back to bed to sleep, and I find that both tedious and frustrating. 

 Exodus 20:8-10. 

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work,  but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work... "

That came to me as a breath of fresh air, a gift. It's not just OK to do nothing. It's commanded! 

Rest is obedience.  

Now I can hear some of you... you really don't have the freedom I do to go back to bed during the day. You have children at home; you simply cannot stop in that way. I have good news for you.

The Pharisees had turned this sabbath command into a crazy law that had to be obeyed regardless, but Jesus, when confronted by them, said that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath, and also that He, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28)

So for you who have others literally depending on you being on task, I want to say be kind to yourself. Find your rest in the places and moments that you can. Don't fill the margins with more work; just stop and rest. Put your feet up, read that book, watch that show, pursue that hobby or just stop and meditate on His goodness.

It really is OK to do nothing for a while. Obeying this command to rest is an act of trust. When we stop and rest, we tell God that we trust Him to keep things together. We let others know we trust them and allow them to step up and find their strength.

In sharing these thoughts, I don't want to add weight to you to whom the idea of a 'day off' seems like an impossible dream. But I do want to say that in this command, The Lord Himself legitimises regular times in our lives of doing nothing. Whatever that looks like in the season you are in, my prayer is that He will show you how to do that, and my encouragement to you is to refuse drivenness to be part of your life and personality. Believe me, it will lead to exhaustion, and that's no good for anyone.

Until next time, take time to be kind ... to yourself xx.

 

 THE YOKE IS NOT THE PLOUGH

Matthew 11:28-29 "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

This is a beautiful passage, well known and loved. When we feel tired and stressed, it's a favourite 'go-to' passage.

However, I am embarrassed to admit that up until recently, I had missed something.  

My understanding of the yoke was the particular call or responsibilities I am called to do. For instance, it may be to preach the gospel, lead people, raise my family etc.  

However, the yoke is not the plough.

What I mean by that is that the yoke is there to enable any number of different things to take place. The yoke may be hitched to a plough to break up the ground, connected to a seeder to plant the seed, or attached to a carriage or cart to take things or people somewhere. Depending on the task, the farmer may have one yoke that could be hitched to any item.

I believe the yoke that Jesus is speaking of, His yoke, is an attitude of the heart. And what is that attitude? He said, 'because I am humble and gentle at heart.' The attitude is one of humility and gentleness. This yoke makes a heavy load easy, whereas pride or drivenness makes the load hard, whether the load is heavy or light.

So whether we are called to do one thing or another, whatever it is, the yoke is how we do it, not what we do.  

This means that when our task is downgraded, upgraded or taken off for a while, we are at rest because we have nothing to prove. We are yoked together with Jesus in an attitude of humility and gentleness, not ambition and drivenness.  

How do we do that? By daily aligning ourselves with this attitude or re-aligning it whenever we feel the stress level rise!

So when we wear the yoke of Jesus, nothing is above us, and nothing is below us - we are free!