In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning

I can't help but share about God on a morning like this. Before I headed out for my walk, I was reading in the One Year Chronological Bible about Solomon's temple in the Old Testament. It was so elaborate and magnificent. I don't think we can even imagine the splendor. Yet Jesus said in Matthew 6:28-30, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Wow. He is so good.

Then, look what I got to see this morning! Just before the sunrise, this beautiful smoky mountain view:

And then I turned a corner and BAM! An amazing sun rising over the hills:

"The earth is the Lord's, and all its fulness; 

The world and all those who dwell therein." -Psalm 24:1

I've talked about this a little bit before, but I really feel like God was leading me away from my usual gym routine so that He could show me Himself in the mornings like this. He speaks to me on our walks and it is glorious. I would have missed out on those talks, and seeing His awesome handiwork in the skies each morning, if I had stuck with the same ol' routine. His ways are so much better than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. Every time I follow where He leads, it is so much more and better and higher and sweeter than anything I was doing before. "He leads me beside the still waters; He restores my soul." -Psalm 23:2-3

Monday night I was invited to hear Trisha Gunn speak at River Tree Church. If I understand correctly, she wrote the LIFE (Living in Freedom Everyday) Bible study out of Birmingham's Church of the Highlands. What a wonderful message. On the way to hear her speak, my friend Christie and I saw this rainbow:

Again God reminded me through His beauty, of His faithfulness and love, grace and mercy, that is so different from human love. His love never fails.  "'My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you."-Isaiah 54:10. We were led in some great worship and then when Trisha Gunn spoke, she reminded us again of His love. That our sins are removed, and God's wrath is satisfied completely, because of the cross. "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." -Isaiah 53:5. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."-Jeremiah 31:34. Why do we act like God has a human love for us? He is not fickle. He doesn't get mad at us, and then wait for us to make it up to Him before He will talk to us again. When we think like that, we deny the power of the cross. We say in essence, "What Jesus did on the cross is not enough; I must also do -----." God is good. He is not like us at all. I'm so thankful for that.

I heard on the radio yesterday that a device is being created to allow people to control their dreams. Somehow, as a person reaches REM sleep, they can tell their minds through this device, what to dream. So if you wanted to dream you were a millionaire, you could. If you wanted to dream you were dating a supermodel, you could. The discussion on the radio was interesting. One guy said, "I think it's dangerous. If I had that device, all I would want to do is sleep, so that I could dream I was in some other life and somehow make my real life go away." I was rocked to the core by that statement. How sad are we as a people? We have already created devices and games that do this sort of thing, by the way. All these video games where you can "create" your "character" and "be" someone else, with some fantasy life. It's SICK if you ask me. Why do we want so badly to escape life???? In real life, God really is still good. No, it's not always beautiful. Every day isn't sunrises and rainbows. I know that, trust me. But even on the "bad" days, God is doing something glorious in us. He is making us more like Himself. If we try to escape our real lives, we never allow God to mold us and shape us and make us beautiful, which He does through our circumstances, good and bad. To escape is to die. To escape is to suffocate our lives until they are nothing. I don't want to escape. Even when life is ugly. Because I truly believe that when life is its ugliest, it is about to be at its best.

"The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 'Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.' Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!'"-Jeremiah 18:1-6.