Draw Me --Keith Green

Draw me, oh, draw me, please draw me, my Jesus.
Into your presence, where I cannot lie.
My soul is so thirsty, I cannot endure it.
And if I can't get closer, I surely will die.

Take me, oh take me, please take me, my Jesus.
Quickly, before I forget that I'm lost.
For so many times, my mind has deceived me,
That I really don't have to carry the cross.
That I really don't have to carry the cross.

I just need to know how to pray.
My wicked desires block the way,
Sometimes I have grieved you away,
I don't want to do that today.

Help me, oh help me, please help me my Jesus.
Save me from sins that I thought were all gone.
Kill me with kindness, and break through my blindness.
I know till I'm dead, I can never live on.
I know till I'm dead, I can never live on.

I just need to know how to pray.
My wicked desires block the way,
Sometimes I have grieved you away,
I don't want to do that today.

Draw me, oh draw me, please draw me my Jesus.

~Keith Green

Stale Relationships or Living Faith?

Some time ago, I heard a sermon on Exodus 16 by Pastor Charles Price, about the Israelites and the gift of manna in the wilderness, entitled “Manna: the food that didn't satisfy.”

Price says that the manna given to the Israelites in the wilderness is “the picture of the freshness, of the supply everyday. You see you and I are not invited to live on stale relationships with Jesus Christ; we are intended to live on the basis of a fresh daily supply of life and strength and nourishment.”

This is why daily devotions are so important: We can't “live tomorrow or today on yesterday's supply” (Price).

You won't find a relationship with a friend, family member, or significant other fulfilling if you never communicate with them. The same is true for our relationship with God. Although He is always faithful, we will not feel the true power of our relationship with Him if we do not learn more about Him or communicate with Him through prayer.

“Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.” 

Lamentation 3:22

“'His mercies are new every morning' . . . . God gives us today what we need today; He gives us tomorrow what we need tomorrow. He doesn't give us today what we need tomorrow.”

We also should not try to run ahead of God and spent time in anxious worry about tomorrow. Jesus warns of this tendency too, saying,

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”

(Matthew 6:30-32 ESV)

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

(Matthew 6:34 ESV)

God wants us to keep us in a fresh relationship with with, resting in Him for all that we need. When we stay in this close relationship with Him, we will have the confidence to trust that He will daily fulfill both our physical needs and our spiritual needs.

The song in the video below really expresses this idea: God truly leads us step by step!

Heart Boundaries

It is important for us as single people to set boundaries on our emotions, as the writer of Proverbs says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). We must guard our hearts carefully or we will end up giving bits of them away.

Our emotions belong first and foremost to God, then to ourselves, family and friends. We give them. They are not taken from us and we are not owed anything for giving them–we give them as a gift. We do not need to feel obligated to give them out willy-nilly. We must not prostitute our emotions. It may seem crude to put it that way, but so often (in my case anyway) we waste our affection on “puppy-love” relationships and infatuations that go nowhere. And when these infatuations finally die off, we find ourselves looking for another place to dump our affections, only to discover we are again wasting our time, our love. We have invested a part of our hearts in the “relationship”, reciprocated or not, and we can’t get it back.

We are not heart whole anymore. Every time our “crush” dies, part of our heart dies with it. We have emotional hang ups that can last our life time.

It is right to desire a relationship with a “Significant Other,” God created us with longings for a soul mate(“It is not good that the man should be alone” Gen 2:18), but it is not right to begrudge others their relationships and the affection that that involves. As a single person, we must give our whole heart to God. Our affection is not to be engaged elsewhere–especially not brooding and being discontent with the situation God has set us in.

Our job as a single person is to keep our emotions unattached until God brings us into contact with our future spouse. This, of course, depends on His will regarding our lives: if we are meant to be single, we will be. We cannot try and “help” God to find us a soul mate. We need to take our lesson from Abraham, and not try and fulfill God’s promises for Him (ie. Hagar and Ishmael).

We must wait in God, place our trust in Him. This does not mean we are waiting for something, such as proof that our waiting for a Significant Other will pay out in the end. We must wait and trust that He will do what is best for us–not that He will do what we think is best for us.

Oswald Chambers said (My Utmost for His Highest), that the first type (waiting for a sign) of “[w]aiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that…. It is a question of faith in God–the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings.”

This is such a common trap. We cannot rely upon our feelings–they are much too fleeting. We cannot place our hope in another mere human. We need Someone more to have real faith in or we are lost. We will drown in the surf of our surging emotions if we do not have a Rock to cling to in their midst.

But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 
Matt 14:30-31

And yet God works in us, despite our questioning and doubts. We must be careful that we are not only buoyed up by our feelings, but by true faith and trust in Christ.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised).Hebrews 10:23 

Growing in the Kingdom: Part 1 "Grafted"

[17] But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, [18] do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. [19] Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” [20] That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. [21] For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. [22] Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. [23] And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. [24] For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

(Romans 11:17-24 ESV)

A plant grown from seed or as a cutting has to rely on its own roots and leaves to get the nutrients and water that it needs to grow. A grafted shoot relies on the roots and leaves of its new “parent” plant for nutrients and water.

As Christians, grafted shoots in Christ the Vine, we are not responsible for providing our own nutrients. Christ has become our Root, the source of all our sustenance. He takes care of our growth (and pruning when needed to help us to grow more productively).

You cannot graft an entire plant on to the new host—only a branch. This means cutting and also means pain, since our “own” plant is left behind, and we are pulled away from everything that we are comfortable with.

This idea of being grafted from Romans 11 not only applies to the blessing given to New Testament Gentiles being grafted into God's church, but also can apply to the battle between new man and the old man-- we are in Christ, but still in the flesh. Paul speaks to this battle in Romans 7:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

(Romans 7:14 ESV)

[22] For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, [23] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [24] Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? [25] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

(Romans 7:22-25 ESV)

The difficulty is that so often we act as though we are still part of our own plant; we are grafted onto the new one, but still attached to the old one. It is as though we have roots in two places, and we keep reaching backwards to our old root system, wasting our energy on fleshly concerns when we should be concentrated on growing more strongly into the True Vine.

The plant (the First Adam) we originally came from was dead, and we were only saved by grace and grafted into Christ by His blood, His death, and resurrection. It is interesting to note that in order for a graft to be successful “the vascular cambium tissues of the stock and scion plants must be placed in contact with each other. Both tissues must be kept alive until the graft has 'taken', usually a period of a few weeks. Successful grafting only requires that a vascular connection take place between the grafted tissues” (GraftingWikipedia). If we take Paul's grafting metaphor a step farther, we can see that we have been put vein to vein with Christ, as it were, and He shares his life-giving blood with us, causing us to be made alive in Him.

We must heed Paul's warning though, “[R]emember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you” (Romans 7:18). It is so easy to forget that we cannot live in our own strength. We take our new roots for granted and think that we are responsible for everything. We cannot forget that it is only through grace that we have been saved from ourselves. We must remember that we have been grafted into Christ and all we have to do is cling to the Vine.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. John 15:4