Re-Construction

Philippians 1:6; Revelation 3:14-21

⁶ For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Every once in a while when you visit a favorite site or blog you are met with a “under construction” page.  You are instructed to come back at a later time.  Don’t go anywhere… because I have a construction project I need to announce.  The project is me.  I sense a need for change in my heart and life.  I am praying for personal revival.

Gypsy Smith (an evangelist from another era) used to tell his audiences: “Do you really want to see a revival begin? Then go back to your home and draw a circle three feet around in your bedroom. Then get down on your knees in the middle of it and ask God to convert everybody inside that circle. When you do that, you are experiencing the start of revival.”  I have begun to draw the circle in my own life.

I am frustrated in the construction project which is me.  I thought I was building a pretty good house there for awhile.  It seems the winds of time and circumstance have blown the the thing flat.  I’m getting tired of imaging walls were there are no walls… and the winds are starting to blow cold.

I’m reminded of the lyrics of an old Greg X. Volz song:  “How can you rebuild what once had stood so tall… when rubble covers everything in sight?”

I know I need to shore up some faith in the Philippians 1:6 promise.  What God started in me on December 6th, 1980…. he will be faithful to bring to an end, accomplish, perfect, execute, complete… the work he began in me.
What will cause me to pick up the pieces and build a great cathedral for God?  The desire to live a vibrant life in Christ for starters.  Author Greg Ogden wrote:

“All too often I have watched myself and others slowly turn down the temperature to where we become lukewarm and insipid.  We need purifying and refining contexts where the best is continuously called out of us.  Humans follow the law of entropy; we wind down, and our energy dissipates unless the poker stokes the coals of our lives and stirs them up again.  (Greg Ogden,Transforming Discipleship, p. 114.)

I don’t want to be lukewarm or tepid.  What I built yesterday was great in its day.  It is time to build a more glorious tabernacle.

There is some spiritual reconstruction ahead for me… for my body, my mind, my calendar, my habits… etc.  I am embarking on a project that will carry me forward for the next 20 years or so.  Pray for me as I go over the blueprints with my Lord.  And then maybe ask him to go over yours with Him.

“Happy Feet” Goes Home

Colossians 3:2

Not sure if you caught the story out of New Zealand… but their latest refuge is now home bound.  “Happy Feet,” a young Emperor penguin, recently washed up on their shores, 2,500 miles from home.   Happy had become somewhat of a celebrity in New Zealand.  But that is all coming to an end on August 29th as he will be heading home aboard a research vessel that was heading toward his subantartic neighborhood… and decided to give him a lift.

Reuters reports that a Wellington Zoo veterinarian will accompany  the penguin, which will be housed in a crate designed by Wellington Zoo staff to keep it cool and comfortable during the voyage.  It will be fitted with a GPS tracker that will allow fans to monitor its progress on several websites, www.sirtrack.com and www.ourfarsouth.org.”   They also reported: “Penguins normally eat snow to stay hydrated but veterinarians believe Happy Feet, named after the main character in a popular animated film, became confused and ate sand instead.” (Reporting by Elaine Lies, editing by Miral Fahmy)

I got to thinking of my passage from Colossians as I read this recent article.  Colossians 3:2 reads:  ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  The New Testament frequently reminds us that as believers we are now citizens of another world.  Our hearts are to be desiring our true home.  Our minds are to be focused on it.

But like this penguin, sometimes we end up a little off course.  We are stranded on the shores of a land far from home.  We have since tasted what this world has to offer and have mistakenly come to prefer it… trading snow for sand.  We need daily to have our heads examined… to have them refocused on our Homeland.

Through prayer, study, meditation and solitude… we retrain our minds.  We don’t allow them to be reshaped into the image this world holds as ideal.  We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Someday we will take that journey home… the angels will be heading toward our eternal neighborhood… and they will be glad to give us a lift.  But in the meantime, we enjoy the ride.  And learn to be happy.