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LOOKING UP Missionary Carol Hall, Nagoya Japan |
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A GROWN UP CHILD Here you see a child in God’s hands… The painting is
called
“Safe In His Hands”
Are you there?
The storms are raging all around….the waves are high and
roaring, it’s dark & windy…..you see a touch of
fear in the child’s face…..HOWEVER, His eyes
are fixed UPWARDS to the LORD, TRUSTING IN HIS
STRENGTH ALONE. He is LOOKING
UNTO JESUS. This is a form of PRAISE. Growing to maturity…growing UP in
Christ is like the normal growth. A
normal CHILD trusts his parents…wants to copy them, follow them, think they are the greatest…they depend on
them for every need and they show all their emotions freely in front of their
good parents. Even if parents make
mistakes, …the child’s instinct is to
BELIEVE and TRUST THEM. They may also TRY OUT their parents to see if they
really MEAN what they say! Apart from parents they feel lost…they are their
identity! Spiritually, we do this when first
saved…..We think the pastor is great, the church is awesome….etc etc…The WORD
fires us up ~ Our faith is strong. Our whole identity is with Christ… our
life, our breath!! When TEEN AGE YEARS come along, kids
begin to feel they can do things ON THEIR OWN and know better than
parents. They come up with their own
ideas, and sometimes rebel. It’s an up
and down roller coaster. Some run
away from home….. SPIRITUALLY, isn’t this how we grow up? We leave churches we used to love….criticize
pastors, Many chase after new ideas, make new programs,
and turn their backs on anything called “old fashioned” & “outdated”
We grumble about “too many meetings, offerings, etc” We TRY OUT the world a bit….and GOD ALLOWS
THIS as a process of growing up!! When a child is full grown, his
parents seem to get smarter and they actually ask them questions of
life. Well most of you know all
that! But in spiritual living, we do
this too. HOW? We begin to see the SIMPLICITY of Christ
again. He is so, so profound that in
all our intellect & reasoning we see that only a CHILD’S HEART can truly grasp His truth in faith. We come back to the basics of the CROSS
and all the depths of His riches are LINKED to it & see how far we’ve
wandered. We finally come
back into his big, safe HANDS, and become as a CHILD again and lay down our
manipulations and human ideas and let HIM be our TOTAL ALL IN ALL. We find our deepest pleasure in gazing at
HIM and PRAISING HIM. LASTLY: We can enter into a depth & freedom we’ve never
known before. As we PRAISE Him in
worship, the faith & power of Heaven begins to rise within us, and rivers
begin to pour from us naturally and easily because it is not by our works at
all! Our true Praise has opened a
door for His HABITATION, & we become
GROWN UP………by understanding that we are always just
beginning to understand His AWESOME GLORY & LOVE. IT IS THE SAFEST & MOST POWERFUL PLACE
TO BE: SAFE IN HIS HANDS.
Luke 10:21 ….Jesus rejoiced in Spirit, and said “I thank you Father, Lord of Heaven &
earth..that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have
revealed them unto BABES” Luke 21:16 & Pslm 8:2
And Jesus said to them “Have you never
read, “out of the mouths of babes…& nursing infants, You have perfected
praise.” Carol Hall, Nagoya
Japan
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