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Glory Seed Devotional 06/24/2014

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  • Glory Seed Devotional 06/24/2014



    A Planting of Faith Seeds for the Glory of the LORD
    Shifting the direction of your thinking…

    Author James MacDonald in his book Vertical Church writes. “I encourage you to open your heart to a little shift in the direction of your thinking— which in the end will become a bigger change than you can imagine. Learn to lift your eyes beyond the fields that are ripe for harvest to the Lord of the harvest.” (Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs for. What Every Church Can Be. Page 28, David C. Cook, Kindle Edition.)

    It is the last sentence that grabbed me and will not let go, “Learn to lift your eyes beyond the fields that are ripe for harvest to the Lord of the harvest.” What those 19 words say is so simple to understand yet at the same time they are not only profound but for some very frightening. If you were reading the book you would understand the quote above in the context of changing your church from a horizontal worldly direction to a vertical Godly direction. But for me it not only speaks about the direction of my church it also speaks about the direction of my daily faith journey.

    In chapter 55 of Isaiah God established the direction our relationship with him needs to go. “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9, NLT) While it is true the direction of our faith journey needs to be vertical toward a deeper relationship with God at the same time the direction of our daily lives needs to be horizontal. When we view our daily lives on a horizontal plane we see that no one’s life is neither more important nor unimportant than ours. It is true there needs to be some form of hierarchy in society however, it is also true that in the eyes of God EVERY person is worth the life of his Son, Jesus.

    Lifting our eyes vertically toward God and moving upward on our faith journey is actually about something MacDonald does not include but is implied. It is first and foremost about moving. When life presents us with what we may consider unfortunate circumstances we have a choice to make (backward is not one of them). We can either stay put or hope things work themselves out or we can begin deepening and depending on our relationship with God. Suppose someone was presented with the fact that heart by-pass surgery had become necessary what might happen should they not do nothing with the wild idea that things will somehow work themselves out? There’s a good chance the person would be dead, that’s what my Cardiologist told me anyway.

    MacDonald writes, “…beyond the fields that are ripe for harvest to the Lord of the harvest.” Another way of saying the unfortunate circumstances life throws at us (fields) are ready for God’s presence in them and his plans to turn them into not only into a deeper faith but also give us what we need to overcome them.

    Learn to not only to lift your eyes beyond the fields that are ripe for harvest to the Lord of the harvest but move as well.

    Believe it! Experience it!
    Grace and PEACE!
    Gary

    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 NLT)

    Note: Should you want to go back and review this Glory Seed or if you’d like to subscribe so you can receive them in your email you can do so by clicking on this link: http://gloryseeds.wordpress.com/.

    “Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”
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