Alone With Christ
One of the things God has been showing me is that I don't like to be alone. Trouble being that even in the most crowded room, the most vibrant church community, and even the most intimate relationship we are alone. Others can never fully know us, our thoughts, questions, fears. There are inevitably things of our heart and journey that can only be fully known by God Himself. Ironically, while I am prone to run from this aloneness into the business of 'good deeds', 'necessary tasks', and 'the work of ministry' it is alone with Christ that I find life to the full.
It's into this between my need for quiet presence of God, and the consistency with which I run from it that the words of Psalm 37 brought me to deep places of prayer this morning.
"Commit everything you do to the Lord, Trust Him and He will help You. He will make your innocence as clear as the dawn And the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord, And wait patiently for Him to act. Don't worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, For the Lord Holds them by the hand." Psalm 37. 6-7; 23
"Be Still in the presence of the Lord". I pray for the freedom and grace needed to enter into the quiet stillness of God today. This stillness is a stillness consisting of surrender and rest in the aloneness that is mine before Christ, and a confident faith that allows me to approach His throne of Grace with confidence.
"Let him who cannot be alone beware of community." "Let him who is not in community beware of being alone." Luther "only a we are within the fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In a day and age where community has become the object of much of our attention, may we not loose sight of the importance of being still in the aloneness of our relationship with the God who loves us in such life giving ways.
March 18th, 2011 at 9:31 am
Just this morning I was reading these words that affirm some of the quotes you have above Chad: "The spiritual life rests on a paradox, says Hernri: Without solitude, it is virtually impossible to live the spiritual life. Yet we cannot live our spiritual lives alone. Although we require solitude to know God, we require a faithful community to hold us accountable". taken from the book, Spiritual Direction by Henri Nouwen
March 26th, 2011 at 8:36 pm
So good! Interestingly enough, that book by Nouwen is next on my list of must reads.
March 30th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
I stumbled upon your site Chad, very nice. The security word needed to enter was RENT, and I thought of unforgiveness, that if you fail to forgive others, they can live rent free in your mind. But when you truly forgive them it is settled and you can let it (them) go. Your comments on being alone made me think of one line in the following poem. "All these things are showing me that I can not stand alone." I know that, now, and I also know this, "beware if you think you stand lest you fall." I am weakest when I am alone, but it is at these times, that God has revealed to me an inner strength that I must learn to draw on and trust in, a strength that only comes from Him. And is only manifested to me in the weakness of my loneliness. Then I understand that I am never alone, I am only afraid that I am. And, "perfect love casts out all fear." We Did Not Know Him Well By Murray Coulter I’m sorry cried the broken, battered, struggling, weary soul; Lord can you see my anguish my confusion and my toil. All the well established patterns I’ve worked so hard to keep alive Every one of them now says to me they never shall survive. Many things that I held dear to me have begun to slip away, Values I considered worthy seem to crumble day by day. Pleasures I have laboured for now hold but little joy, And everyday the pressures rise those values to destroy. Dear ones I loved and honoured have left me to my own, All these things are showing me that I can not stand alone. Lord if I were to die today what would there be for men to tell, There goes a good but far to busy man we did not know him well. As my mind reaches out to gather all the fragments of my life, Do I not hear You whisper, scatter them they only gender strife. What shall I replace for all these lifelong goals I’ve tried so hard to buy? The suffering, the hurting and the lost was His soft reply. Do you mean give up many comforts, for the hurting and the lost? And spread Your Word with just my life no matter what the cost. Well you yourself just told me the things you’ve laboured for are vain, Make your decision soon my Son for you may not have this choice again. Remember what you said, if you should die what would there be for men to tell, There goes a good but far to busy man we did not know him well. Lord help me to acknowledge everything that I have heard you say, Help me as I live my life for you by grace I humbly pray. Help me to surrender and thereby win the victory, Becoming more and more like you and less and less like me. So when my life is finally over and I must leave for the eternal goal Someone somewhere might exclaim there goes a faithful soul.
May 14th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Hey mate,
seems that you had a nice security backdoor on your page for using FCKEditor for wordpress.
See the vulnerability explained here: http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/17284/
Thankfully for you, I found it first and was able to exploit it, gain access to your server, remove what other hackers were doing and patch the vulnerability so they can no longer try to deface your webpage.
See ya,
RuLaX