The Light in the Woods

#1 — THE LIGHT IN THE WOODS — AUGUST 2005

© Aubri Dennison 2005

8/1/05 Inspirations     We were created as God’s gift to the earth, as all other creation was God’s gift to us. By using what He’s given us in a way that pleases Him, we are making ourselves perfect to God; presenting our holy selves to Him as a return gift. What an immense privilege to be able to become a welcome gift to our creator — to return the love He has for us. I want God to accept my gift of myself with happiness, and I’m honored to be able to please Him.

8/1/05 Reflections      There’s no faith without grace. If you’ve accepted the fact that there is a higher power, then you have already been personally contacted by that power – chosen by Him for adoption as His child, and prepared for this by having your sins forgiven and your heart softened to help you avoid further sin. How we treat our neighbor is a sign of whether or not we’ve accepted this gift of grace.

8/2/05 Inspirations      How much more grievous my sins must be to God than those of an unbeliever, who sins out of ignorance. But I, knowing God as my Creator and Jesus as my Savior, still sin after the gift of faith has been given to me. How it must hurt Him that, after forgiving my sins, adopting me as His child, ensuring my eternal life, and commissioning me to bring others into the fold by my good example, I still go to sin. Knowing the power of my salvation, I’m still willing to give it up as if it wasn’t the most important thing in my life, for something that in the great scheme of things is mighty trivial.

8/3/05 Inspirations        Today I spent some time at a beautiful home with many wonderful innovations and views. I thought I’d like to have enough money to have such a nice home. I never knew a shred of jealousy, but just wistfulness. Then I realized that I do have a home. My eternal home is much, much nicer, and it’s waiting for me.

8/6/05 Reflections      In the times when I become busy, it’s a contrast to the times when I can spend all day if I want in reading scripture and devotionals, and in studying and meditating. After having the time to get close to the Lord, it makes a bigger impression on me when I get too busy — that it’s so easy to put our spiritual lives on the back burner. And it’s a short journey from there to forgetting about God altogether, because the things of the world are so immediate and demanding. But if we’re able to forget about God, it’s only because He’s there with us always, constantly loving us and taking care of us. Maybe that’s why when we suffer tragedy it reminds us of all that could go wrong if God turned His back on us.

8/7/05 Insights from Study     We have faith when things are going well, but only when we face adversity do we actually live by faith. This is illustrated by the New Testament story of when Jesus walked on water towards the disciples’ boat. When Peter wanted to walk toward Jesus, he had faith. But when he began to founder, he was living his faith; trusting in the Lord to save him instead of trusting that the Lord could save him. As with us as for Peter, it’s a much harder test of faith to trust in what the Lord would do for you than in what he could do for you.

8/14/05 Reflections       As scary as it would be for a Christian disciple to walk among non-believers, all they would have to remember is: If you don’t believe my God can do miracles you have nothing to fear from me, because it would take a miracle for all these here to convert at my apostatizing. But if that miracle should happen, you still have nothing to fear – just re-examine your faith and rejoice that the one God has spoken to you clearly.

8/18/05 Insights from Study     The first and most important thing we are to believe is that we were forgiven and saved by Christ’s crucifixion. But how does that work, and what does it really mean? God said to all the peoples of the world essentially this: I gave you explicit instructions on how to please me; I kept in contact with your leaders and I fought your battles for you; I performed miracles in front of you and protected you even though time and again your faith in me fell short. Still you turned your backs on me – some by doing bad things and some by doing good things for bad reasons. Because you just don’t get it, I’m now changing tactics. I will send down a manifestation of myself, my son, to your own level; to instruct, to communicate, to protect, to heal, to admonish in the way of your own human nature to make it easy for you to understand. You can use Him as a go-between for you and Me; now and forever. Instead of reading the law, you can follow it by using Christ as a model. And to make sure you remember Him I’m going to place adversity in His way, just as you as humans have had since Adam and Eve lost the paradise I’d intended for them and for you. Sure you’ve had to suffer, and so will my son in His human nature – so much so that His adversaries will crucify Him and He will die. But as He dies it will be for a good cause – He will be a scapegoat for you, and in His death will take away the hopelessness of original sin and the shame of your own sins so that you can start out anew with Me in faith and hope. And then I will raise Him from the dead and welcome Him into My kingdom of ecstasy, just as I’ll do for you if you model your behavior on His earthly life. All this I will do because I created you and I love you and want to assure you a place close to Me. Christ as man is there to show you that, like for Him, your salvation is a given thing if only you don’t reject it by denying Me or your neighbor. It’s what we sacrifice.

8/20/05 Insights from Study

(from Making Life Work, Bill Hybels, Intervarsity Press 1998)

Cautions for good causes:

1. Don’t misspend goodness on those who don’t legitimately deserve it

2. Be sure your goodness doesn’t create unhealthy dependencies

3. Make sure your acts don’t merely contribute to self-serving favor-exchange programs

4. Sharpen your skills of discerning which charities are worthy of your goodness, which is, after all, limited

    

8/21/05 Insights from Study        I pray unselfishly, and I still can’t shake the feeling that it’s all about what I want, I want, I want. I worry that when I ask to be called, all I really want is the self-satisfaction that comes from helping. I’d rather be purer than that. Maybe what I should be praying for is the release from doubt. But when I really think about it, can there truly be any motivation that isn’t based on personal reward? God Himself wants us to strive for the biggest reward of all – life with Him forever. Even if we accomplish this by helping others, isn’t the goal still selfish? I read something once that did help. It asked that we envision a huge, long banquet table weighed down with every kind of sumptuous food and drink imaginable, in quantities to overwhelm the senses. Your host sets you at the table and tells you you’ve been invited because you’re a worthy friend, so eat and drink whatever you desire, and please don’t hold back. Would you answer be “Thanks anyway but I don’t want very much, maybe a half a grape and a small sip of water”? Despite what your host took the trouble to tell you, you insist on not being a bother, and doing so ends up being like a slap in your host’s face. God provides the banquet of good gifts – He love us and wants us to enjoy what He’s given. He wants us to take from Him; to ask Him for things. We need to please Him not only with praise, but also with petition.

8/23/05 Reflections      What every one of us on earth should contemplate continuously is that God has an immense, unfathomable love for every single one of us – how do we presume to have an enemy?

8/23/05 Reflections        Whenever I get to thinking that I’m too insignificant to rate God’s attention, I need to remember that my own personal salvation is every bit as important to God as the salvation of the entire universe. We can’t and aren’t meant to be able to understand how He can do this. We only know that He can do anything and everything; that He transcends dimensions of time and space in ways we can’t know – our limitations make way for the faith which makes them inconsequential. We must rely on God, for whom all things are possible, to care for us as individuals as well as humans.

8/25/05 Insights from Study       St. Anthony says it’s not in our power to live as God desires. We can and should strive to live a moral life, but we need God’s grace, and to get that we need to turn ourselves over to God’s power. This is a cause for rejoicing; not despair. All we have to do is pray for grace, and we know that God provides what we can’t do for ourselves. Our next prayer should be one of thanksgiving and praise, for if we’re lacking in any respect, God is not, and will come to our rescue if asked in good faith. Let me be always, but especially in times of despair, clothed in the warmth of His grace; wrapped and rocked in His loving, safe embrace. I don’t need anything else.