anazopureo

http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=329

There has been much on my mind and heart lately. So much that I have not been blogging much for fear of something I might type. You see, sometimes blogging can be "safe" because of the anonymity of it. I mean most of you know who I am, but there is just something about communicating this way that can feel distant, or well safe.
This is a way of communicating in which you do not see the physical response of those you are communicating with, so I was trying to be mindful to not be hurtful or accusatory and the best way for me to do that was to not type.

But I cannot hold what is inside of me...

The link above is a Greek word lexicon that gives information of the word stir.
As I type I hear the words of the song:
"There's a stirring, deep within me.."
I realize that the last couple of weeks that I have been stirred by God. When we get comfortable, or complacent, or whatever, I believe that God will stir us to get us back to where He would have us if we are to be effective for His purpose. I wonder how many times I have just charted this feeling as "bad-attitude day," or just a bad week? How many times have you.

This idea of stirring is found in 2 Timothy 1:6 where Paul is urging Timothy to "fan into flame."

The idea that I want you to get is that of a cold campfire that has burned well through the night, but now appears to be only ash. Yet with a stick, the ashes can be stirred to reveal embers that need only fuel and oxygen to grow. The Word is the fuel, and the Spirit is the Oxygen.
What is the stick that you have been stirred with this week?

Comments

Bryan said…
For my part, it is the "c" stick. What an odd place to find onesself in to have such a disease inside and yet have not known. Yet, what I discovered is that tested faith grows stronger and is proved in the process. By allowing oyourself to be stirred, you learn much about yourself and even are reminded of whose you are if you will but listen intently. I praise God for the stirring, for othewise the embers grow cold indeed and without the fire rekindled, we share not. So, I thank God for the stirring even if I would have preferred a different stick. Father knows best.
3:07 PM
Johnny said…
Thank you Bryan, for your example in responding to the stir.
3:40 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Tower of Label

Society today seems to be fractured and polarizing. The culture that we live in, the television and movies we watch, politics, sports, all boil down to categories into which we place others. Even in church this is difficult to escape, progressive vs conservative, traditional vs liberal, young vs old...the damage we do to others in this labeling and sectioning has been discussed some this week, so what bout the damage to ourselves when we label others?

To decide to place others in a category, or to apply a label to someone may very well be the actual application of the old children's argument "I'm rubber and you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you." Each time I label others, I am placing a label on myself.

One of the things that is frustrating about today's social climate is the lack of true debate. To simply place a label on another person, and therefore assume that I know their argument blocks any chance of honest give and take discus…
Read more

You!

Image
I have been between most of my life, between the world of church and “reality.” There has been very few times in my life where I have felt fully accepted, or where I had a sense of really fitting in.  I have felt a divide between the world of home, school, work and church. I have also felt I have stood most of my life between two men. Two men who I love with all that I am. Two men that I look up to but quite simply do not fully understand. I cannot understand how two men so much alike in my eyes, who I have so much affection, and who I long to make proud could be so far apart.  It has felt like therefore that I must offend one to love another, or that I need to bring them together. So i have lived this life of two worlds and they have collided.  So how do I develop grace to all now?  I'll start with this. 
Yesterday I wrote about second chances to men like Osama Bin-Laden. Today I move past that hypothetical situation and speak about actualities. 
I could write out a list of men, women…
Read more

Never Beyond? Now just wait a daggum minute

Image
This is a picture put out this week by a group called People Of The Second Chance. This is the latest in a series of posts about who may have wandered out past our limits of a second chance. Here is my initial reaction.

WHAT THE... now just hold on a stinking minute. Have you lost your ever-loving mind? Are you totally crazy? What could you have possibly be thinking? This is a mass murderer, a man who commissioned and planned the murders of men, women and children that refused to cow to his beliefs and demands. How in the world can you even entertain the idea of asking me to give a second chance to a... terroristic zealot like this man.

That was my internal conversation yesterday. Every time I looked at this picture I cringed inside. I even asked my friend Tanner, "do we offer a second chance even if it risks someones life?" Hey said "sometimes that is the price." Me: "that's a steep price." -end of conversation-

So today I was reading some of the com…
Read more