OCTOBER 1, 2022

 “The ragamuffin who sees his life as a voyage of discovery and runs the risk of failure has a better feel for faithfulness than the timid man who hides behind the law and never finds out who he is at all.” 

― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

ISAIAH 22-23

17At the end of seventy years, the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord, for abundant food and fine clothes. (23:17)

EPHESIANS 3

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom every family^a in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

JOURNAL 

Reading these passages from Paul...it can at times seem like he is speaking another language.  It saddens me to think how far I fall from really living this way. How my community does not look this way, how I depend so much on the culture and comfort and all the trappings of suburbia rather than truly seeking God with a community of believers.

Reality is that people mostly seek God in desperation...not in gratitude. I hate that about myself, I hate that often I am closest to God when I myself have failed...when I can't figure life out. Does it have to be this way? I don't think it is an absolute necessity...however it usually is the way it happens. Yet with God all things are possible, but I must seek  God always, not as just an answer to my own problems but because I realize the ineptness of my own wisdom. I realize the trappings of my own patterns of behavior. I realize that apart from God I am nothing and am just a vapor. I realize that with God I have the power and love of the creator of the universe and of all things. Why would I ever shrink back from trusting God? Why would I ever go my own way? Why would I ever rely on the things of this world rather than seeking and trusting God?

 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 

EPHESIANS 2:4-5