Current mood:

relaxed

Edification
I am sleepy though I slept long. The trees outside have mellowed into butter-yellow and I love to look at them when I am near a window. The time is going by so swiftly! Mid-October, already? My birthday is in ten short days, and though only a year has gone by I feel I am five years older. And younger. :) The Lord is teaching me to meditate, and I've found wonderful things in those deep waters. When you scratch behind the surface of so many common things, you find gold.

I developed a cold on Monday night, and I tossed & turned until 3am. So the next day was spent in bed instead of my little work cubicle, and the Lord met me and ministered to me for a full day - how amazing it was. The Bible is so rich and lovely. I read for hours; and then I read some more. :) And there was peace and solitude and prayer and me in my pajamas cooking scrambled eggs in the morning sunlight. I wish I could get sick like that more often. :) I felt bad, but not so bad that I was dead to the world. Just not bad enough to be among the living. :)

I have made a promise to the Lord (a response to His ability in me!) that I will go to bed on time in the evenings. It was pointed out to me by a close friend that, well, I have a hard time being Spirit-filled when I'm exhausted! And it's quite the truth. I thoroughly lose all concentration and coherency when I am not well-rested... and I was convicted by that. What good am I to God's kingdom in that kind of condition? How am I to minister to anyone, or even listen to the Word preached and be able to retain any of it? So my bedtime on weekdays (excepting Friday) is now 10:00pm, and my roomates have been instructed to send me off to my room if they discover me chatting away in the kitchen too late. :)

I have already begun enjoying the benefits of this - what a surprise, that I feel so well when I am rested! Of course, this new schedule is flexible to the leading of God if He chooses to override it. :) But on the whole I am very satisfied. I can think more clearly - that alone is a priceless blessing - and I've also found myself more productive than usual here at work. I've also taken to eating breakfast in the mornings, which I'm sure has helped. :)

I am on the schedule to share from the Bible tomorrow night at our prayer meeting. It will only be 10-15 minutes or so, but I have been in much thought about what I might share. I think I will speak on the Importance of Being Edified. "Edification" is a word that I never heard much of before the Lord led me to this ministry, but oh how useful a word it has become! It means to be encouraged, uplifted, strengthened... it is the result of being loved and accepted and approved of. :) But spiritual edification is a choice... you have to look for it, like following the sunshine as it moves across the field. And it produces a positive result: "Provoke one another unto good works." It relaxes you and engages you at the same time. But edification is not self-flattery or an optimistic attitude. It is the glow you feel when you recognize that Love has fixed it's gaze upon you, and has an indefeatable plan to win your heart - a plan that is already in motion.

"Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Jude 21) We look for mercy! Why? Surely it "will follow me all the days of my life"? But I think that we look for it because to understand mercy is to understand, with great gravity, that your heart is wicked and always has been. If we looked for grace before we understood the reality of all we have been forgiven, we would never catch our breath at the wonder and scope of the goodness of God. There is such edification, such joy in that!

I want to get out one thing more before I end. I've bought myself a copy of the One Year Bible. I suddenly can't put it down! Every day gives you a reading from the OT, a reading from the NT, a Psalm and a verse or two in Proverbs. And then you start over. It only takes between 20-30 minutes a day. :) I won't make any grand claims that I could live to regret, but I am very much enjoying this. I've been reading in Jeremiah, 1Timothy, Psalm 89 and Proverbs 25. Every day I get to hear a little more about each story line, but it always changes before it gets to be too much. It feels in a small way like watching a fast-paced movie, and how the scene changes to pick up with a different character every few minutes. It's very refreshing. :) And even more so because I have set no rules for myself - in fact, I tell myself every day that it is a miracle I want to read the Bible at all! So everything is a gift, and there is no guilt involved if I don't stay on track. :) I find that's the best way. :)