The Big Answer
So perhaps this was more to me than it might be to you but I will reveal as much as I can in perspective.
Somewhere along the way I came to a belief system that only allowed God generic emotions regarding preferences or choices as they were. The problem with that belief is the are scriptures that reflect a very emotional God with preferences and likes or dislikes that are not defined by mere logic.
Case in point.
Psa 87:2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
This verse has bothered me for many years.....Yes, I accept the weirdness of it all but that is my world.
Why does God love one town more than another? Especially when you remove the criteria of the residents. Does God really care where we live? I mean other than the sake of ministry?
I have asked about this many times but I didn't just want the pat answer that we have a tendency to lean toward when logic escapes us.
While reading the other day I came across this scripture.
Psa 69:35-36 For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.
God love Zion because it is His "project". It is the thing He is building to give His children.
The weird thing is Jerusalem isn't even that nice of a place. There is a sewer running right through town (or was).
As I reflected on this, God began to remind me of a bookshelf that I built while I lived in Seattle. It was nothing special. Just some scrap wood that was too ugly for our sunrooms. I glued them together, sanded them down and assemble a simple shelf that only had appeal to me.
Brenda has relegated the shelf to the rooms that are nor seen by our visitors. It is pretty strong and has held up to many moves and changes. It is ugly none the less.
So this was the big reveal. a simple answer to a question that plagued me for years.
But as is often the case with the Lord, the story didn't end there.
As I was still pondering all of this I read another verse that melted my heart and left me in tears for most of the day. Even as I type this my eyes are welling up.
Psa 139:13-17 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
God began showing me how I was a lot like that wood. Too ugly for a pretty sunroom but maybe, just maybe, good enough for a simple bookshelf.
But God loves me more than all the other dwelling places of His Spirit. He began to fashion me when I was still in my mother's womb. He has joy in fashioning me into a usable purpose for His glory.
And even like the shelf that only has beauty in my eyes, I do have beauty in His eyes.
I believe God would say that to each of His children. Even those of us that might still have a sewer running though the middle of our lives. He sees the beginning from the end and knows what we can become if we just trust Him to do His thing.
Somewhere along the way I came to a belief system that only allowed God generic emotions regarding preferences or choices as they were. The problem with that belief is the are scriptures that reflect a very emotional God with preferences and likes or dislikes that are not defined by mere logic.
Case in point.
Psa 87:2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
This verse has bothered me for many years.....Yes, I accept the weirdness of it all but that is my world.
Why does God love one town more than another? Especially when you remove the criteria of the residents. Does God really care where we live? I mean other than the sake of ministry?
I have asked about this many times but I didn't just want the pat answer that we have a tendency to lean toward when logic escapes us.
While reading the other day I came across this scripture.
Psa 69:35-36 For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.
God love Zion because it is His "project". It is the thing He is building to give His children.
The weird thing is Jerusalem isn't even that nice of a place. There is a sewer running right through town (or was).
As I reflected on this, God began to remind me of a bookshelf that I built while I lived in Seattle. It was nothing special. Just some scrap wood that was too ugly for our sunrooms. I glued them together, sanded them down and assemble a simple shelf that only had appeal to me.
Brenda has relegated the shelf to the rooms that are nor seen by our visitors. It is pretty strong and has held up to many moves and changes. It is ugly none the less.
So this was the big reveal. a simple answer to a question that plagued me for years.
But as is often the case with the Lord, the story didn't end there.
As I was still pondering all of this I read another verse that melted my heart and left me in tears for most of the day. Even as I type this my eyes are welling up.
Psa 139:13-17 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
God began showing me how I was a lot like that wood. Too ugly for a pretty sunroom but maybe, just maybe, good enough for a simple bookshelf.
But God loves me more than all the other dwelling places of His Spirit. He began to fashion me when I was still in my mother's womb. He has joy in fashioning me into a usable purpose for His glory.
And even like the shelf that only has beauty in my eyes, I do have beauty in His eyes.
I believe God would say that to each of His children. Even those of us that might still have a sewer running though the middle of our lives. He sees the beginning from the end and knows what we can become if we just trust Him to do His thing.
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