the incorruptible

clothing I've kept



Seems

Revelation

I read a post last year that suggested giving each new year a name. After much prayer and searching the scriptures, I felt like God was leading me to "2010-the Year of Longings." This verse had seemingly jumped off the page and into my heart: All my longings lie open before you, O Lord. from Psalm 38

My longings lie open before Him but do I know them? I wanted this to be a year filled with revelation from God of what my deepest longings are--He sees so far into our spirit and knows things about us that we can't begin to fathom. Most every time I post, I list a longing at the bottom of the post--something that just comes to mind as I am reading and studying and journaling before God. So, needless to say, there are many longings listed since I post quite often. It will be quite the chore to go back and retrieve all of them into one piece of writing. That will be a post for December 31, 2010. I probably should get started on that soon--smile.

I love how God always has little surprises mixed in with His big huge revelations.

In reference to this scripture

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

A commenter said: "That picture of the Lord longing to be gracious - a gift for you perhaps in your year of longings - to know the Father longs as well."

This wasn't new knowledge but in the moment that I read it, there was a revelation and it was this: While I spent the first half of the year exploring, through God's Word, what my longings are, maybe I need to spend the last half exploring what His are towards me.

I think I try to do that every day in my Bible study and prayer.........but maybe a true, concerted, energy-filled treasure hunt of His longings for me will be the theme of the second half of this year. Thanks, Mom2Six for a revelation-filled statement.

Dianne
2010-the Year of Longings

He longs to show me the secret things of Himself.

And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness--secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.Isaiah 45:3 NLT

(Mom2Six will understand why I used this scripture today. If you follow her link above, you will also.)

Photo taken in Santa Fe, NM-2010

Why I Couldn't Hear

This will not be an easy post but one that has been on my heart since I read the assignment on Ann's post last Wednesday:

Next Week: Consider sharing in community: The Spiritual Practice of Listening and Hearing God.

The title of this post really should be, "Why I couldn't hear even though I thought I was listening."

Some years ago, I was involved in a Bible study by Beth Moore. I'm not sure but I think it was Breaking Free.

For the first time that I could remember, I was confronted with the 30th chapter of Isaiah. In the first part of the chapter, in part God is talking to the Israelites about their behavior after being freed from hundreds of years of bondage and slavery to Egypt. You can read about this in the first several verses of chapter 30.

When I read the Old Testament, I try to convert the lessons and teachings to something that applies to me. Israel had been delivered but then after deliverance when things weren't going so well in the journey to their old land, they started murmuring, muttering, complaining, wanting to go back to their old life and some of the things it afforded.

I could apply that to me--I had accepted Christ as Savior as a young child but had lamented about this and that all along my Christian walk.

But then I came to this scripture:

9 These are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to listen to the LORD's instruction.

10 They say to the seers,
"See no more visions!"
and to the prophets,
"Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
prophesy illusions.

11 Leave this way,
get off this path, and
stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel.

Wow! Was that what I was doing? Is that why I failed time after time and could not seem to carry on a steady, even relationship with God--I was unwilling to listen? I didn't want my preacher preaching the truth? I wanted to have my ears tickled and for everything to sound good and not be confronted with my sin?

Why did they (and I) not want to really be confronted with the Holy One of Israel. We know from scripture that when God makes an appearance something has to give. I didn't want to give?!

And then the hammer fell when I read on:

12 Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
"Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,

13 this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

Oh, Lord did I really rely on oppression? My mind thought back to the sleepless nights I had spent recounting all the ways that a particular person had hurt me so very badly. I almost made it a point to think about and numerate their sins toward me every day--somehow it made me feel better and more justified for the grudges I was holding towards them--I was relying on their oppression to feel better about myself?

And I was depending on deceit? Well, yes, satan's deceit--(As Sandy says, I will not capitalize his name). I was depending on his lies to feel better about myself? Once more I was confronted by the Holy One of Israel.

And then God warned me of the devastation to follow if I continued in my ear-stuffing ways of not listening to Him and depending on oppression. Yes, by this time, I knew that this chapter in the Bible was written for me and for me alone. I was the guilty party.

13 this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
for taking coals from a hearth
or scooping water out of a cistern."

And just when I thought my heart would break and I could take no more discipline--He interjects this loving Word to me--

15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.

Oh Lord, forgive me, forgive, I want to hear your voice. I do not want to be obstinate and stubborn.

And He sweetly says over me--

18 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!

19 O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

The chapter goes on with promises from God about what else He will do for us when we are willing to listen to Him.

I thank God for this confrontation in my life--this confrontation with the Holy One of Israel--it truly changed my life--oh, yes, I fall back in the same ole rut from time to time of relying on oppression and deceit but I am quicker now to discern when it is happening, to know and rely on this instead:

"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength."

Love,
Dianne
2010-The Year of Longings


Oh, Lord I long to be an unbroken cistern that pours out rivers of your living water.

enough

Enough! Jesus spilt enough blood on Calvary to pay for every sin we would ever commit--past, present or future. The provision is there. It is enough.




It is a free gift. His suffering was enough to pay the whole price--no payment from us, only repentance, belief, and acceptance.



But as we discussed yesterday, sometimes those sins that have already been forgiven keep trying to rise from the dead--things we know we have made peace with God about and yet..............enough already! We have had enough of sin ruining our lives, destroying families, plaguing us with guilt, controlling our thought processes, giving us over to gluttony, pride, rebellion, greed and lusts of all types.

So we made a list of those "besetting sins," grabbed a hammer and a nail and put them back where they belong--on the cross--where enough blood ran to cover them for all eternity. It was enough.



We laid down the hammer..........He laid down His life.



And then we tenderly tore from the bread of His presence, dipped it in the wine of His mercy, and sang with the angels while partaking of His sweet love and forgiveness once more. There was enough for all. It did not run short. Enough. More than enough for all.



If you listen closely, at just about the midway point of this video, you can hear the thud of the hammer--It was moving to hear hundreds of people hammering their sins to the cross.

Untitled from Dianne Hogue on Vimeo.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

I long for the day when I will never break His heart again because of my selfish, sinful ways.

killing me softly with his song

Out of the blue this song ran through my mind yesterday morning. I have always loved it but haven't heard it in a very long time.

It may seem odd to you, but when I thought of the words, I thought about the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery and the alabaster jar woman, thought to be Mary Magdalene. Any of them could very well have written this song with a few minor changes.

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly... with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly... with his song

I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters, and read each one aloud.

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly... with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly... with his song

As far as we know, there was no crowd at the well. The woman had gone during mid-day to escape the rejection of her community. But the woman caught in the act of adultery was a different story--Jesus broke up a crowd getting ready to stone her. I think it might be possible that her embarrassment was worse than her fear of death.

However, there is a major difference between the singer of this modern-day secular song and any of us who would sing that song about Him, Jesus.

Yes, He is killing us softly--but thank goodness, His Song is a song of deliverance that kills the parts of us where pride, prejudice, hatred, bitterness, fear, envy and all other sins live. Sometimes they are very slow deaths-- and sometimes they try to rise from the coffin of defeat--try to make another stand, try to grab another foothold.

It is then that we are reminded once again of His Song:

The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

And we know that only when we have died to self can we truly be free, liberated and live the abundant life He meant for all of to LIVE!

I think this picture above of my niece, Lindsay, taken last year shortly before her wedding, says visually what I am trying to paint with words. The background is a graveyard and just to her right is a large tombstone. Surely the women I mentioned above felt just as victorious, just as beautiful as a bride sitting amidst defeated death.


"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 1 Corinthians 15:55

Let's LIVE this week like we have been redeemed. We were purchased at a very costly price while we were yet living (or should I say dying) in SIN.





Oh, Lord, I long to have ears to hear your songs of deliverance over me.