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- Written by: Don Goulding
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If someone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know. But if someone loves God, he is known by God. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)
“Why do they have gargoyles on the church?” “Why do they eat pure fat?” “Why won’t they sit on cement?”
The American teens of our mission trip to Hungary asked too many questions. They wore the leaders down until we finally set a limit—three cultural questions per day.
I also suffer from brainitis. It’s the disease of using knowledge to control my environment instead of trusting God. Brainitis is a fear based malady. I fear that what I can’t understand I can’t control, and what I can’t control will hurt me.
Knowledge puffs up. It inflates my pride into thinking I can manage the unending variables necessary to direct the future. What knowledge should do is make me realize how much more I have to learn. It should humble me into dependence on God.
There’s only one who fathoms every intricacy of all realms. God holds in his consciousness all of history’s words, thoughts, and actions, and he weaves them into a tapestry of eternal prosperity for those who love him.
Because of God’s sovereignty and love, it’s okay to lay down the news reports. I must let my spiritual organs recover from all that data saturation. Rather than feeding my fearful whys, it’s time to bask in God’s friendship.
Love cures brainitis. I’m called to the productivity of love, not to the waste of worry.
Prayer: Almighty God, silence my whys with your love.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
For this is what the high and exalted one says,
the one who rules forever, whose name is holy:
“I dwell in an exalted and holy place,
but also with the discouraged and humiliated …” (Isaiah 57:15)
Where in this vast, treacherous world does God live?
Lanky, afro headed Michael dropped out of high school, stole blankets from the orphanage, then fled to Harare, Zimbabwe. After weeks of sniffing glue on the street, Michael knew he’d made the biggest mistake of his life. He returned and begged forgiveness. On condition that he would repay the stolen articles, we allowed him to come home and resume school. Days later, he asked to be baptized, and a potent dose of Jehovah rushed into his prodigal son.
1,500 children spilled beyond a purple, red, and green striped tent during an outreach in Thiruvallur, India. After songs, skits, and a gospel message, twenty kids crowded to the front. Little brown hands clasped and faces squinted in prayer for salvation. There wasn’t a proud heart among the young converts, and God exploded into their lives.
Dani’s father, Dave, was in his mid fifties when his life imploded. Three marriages, several lawsuits, and various intoxicants had all failed him. His current mistress, gin, was treating him badly, but wouldn’t let him go. He asked Dani to help him turn to God and detoxify. The two of them lived through a hellish week.
The world used its sharpest knifes to gut the joy out of Dave, but Jesus moved into the empty shell, and those of us close to Dave saw God Almighty up close.
It’s in the broken, dependent soul that we find God pressing into every corner. He still lives in our damaged world—laughing from his hiding place inside the humble heart.
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Prayer: Mighty God, come dwell in my brokenness. |
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- Written by: Don Goulding
He put the cherubs in the inner sanctuary of the temple. Their wings were spread out. One of the first cherub’s wings touched one wall and one of the other cherub’s wings touched the opposite wall. (1 Kings 6:27)
I lay awake at 3:00 a.m., angry at an electronics store. Oh, what pathetic trivia can consume my thoughts in the unguarded watches of the night. The store had refused to honor a warranty and I replayed conversations about their responsibility.
The Bible says don't let the sun go down while you hold a grudge against a person, but I allowed bitterness over an institution.
I used praise to push the ugliness aside, but before long I was back to condemning the store manager, while the clock crept toward 4:00 a.m.
“I don’t have the power to move off these petty thoughts,” I prayed. “Help me Holy Spirit, help me.”
I felt the expansiveness of Jesus move into my heart and I laughed at my weakness against vain thoughts. After a time of sweet worship, joy led to sleep.
I am the replacement for Solomon’s demolished temple of God. My body, mind, and spirit are chambers of worship.
To overcome insomnia, I walked through the temple court of my body. Past dependence on the Holy Place in my mind, and into the Most Holy Place of my spirit. There I bowed to God. When I realized that all I am is not enough to live a godly life, then he met me in the sacred inner sanctuary. It’s a space marked by repentance, a turning away from what I never had, to receive what he always offered.
In that moment of yielding, Jehovah filled my Holy of Holies with smoke and stretched his ministering angels from wall to wall. I became more than an empty human with vanities rattling about my head. I was a temple of the Most High God, filled with power to conquer even the most challenging of kingdom assignments, up to, and including sleep.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, I’m done with me. Fill me in the inner sanctuary.