Atrophying? Exercise.

Being that we learn daily, a couple of days ago I learned a new word: atrophy.

Atrophy is the wasting away of something through disuse. A muscle that is not exercised weakens. A skill that is not practiced diminishes. Nothing stays static. Growth demands stewardship 

Think about this proverb; Iron sharpens iron and during sharpening three things happen ,

✨Friction is involved.

✨Pressure is involved.

✨Sometimes sparks are involved

Yet the purpose is not damage but improvement.

If a blade is not sharpened it will overtime become dull and rusty .

Hebrews 5:14

"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

When we break that down ,we see that ;

✨Strong meat — requires ability to 'chew' and that is capacity 

✨Full age — speaks of maturity.

✨By reason of use have their senses exercised to discern — speaks of stewardship.

The transition from milk to meat is not because you have outgrown milk. Rather, milk has accomplished its purpose: it has formed in you what is necessary to support the eating of meat. It has brought you to a place where you now possess the capacity to handle deeper things because you have come of age in the knowledge of Christ.

But maturity is not the destination ,it forms in us a steward.

The writer of Hebrews does not say they discern because they heard, studied, or memorized. He says they discern by reason of use. What they received, they practiced. What they learned, they exercised the more they exercised the more they discerned what was good and what was evil .

And that is where many things either grow or atrophy.

Truth unused becomes truth forgotten. Discernment unused becomes discernment dulled. 

Maturity forms a steward in us and in stewardship it's required that we be found faithful.

The things God gives us are not merely to be possessed; they are to be exercised and the more the we exercise,the more we keep Atrophy at bay

 DailyWell- Peace 

THE WHALE FALL

Ever heard of the whale fall? 

No? 

Here is what it is ;

When a whale dies and sinks to the ocean floor, it becomes what scientists call a whale fall and what unfolds is extraordinary. The carcass sustains entire ecosystems in stages, sometimes over decades.

The whale in death is said to give more life than it ever did in life.It sustains more species in its death for extended period of time .

I was busy loving marine biology guys but Jesus is Lord of all I ended up seeing the Light of His Person through this fishy story of death and life 🤣🤣 anyway it's through Him that all things were made including the whale and the strange math of multiplication through death.

John 12:24:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Jesus said a grain of wheat, but I'm here using the whale logic ; that dying is not the end of giving of life, it is the beginning of a different, wider kind of giving of life.

As the only begotten of the Father,He chose to be the Seed that Fell to the ground that he would bring many sons to glory. 

Through His death ,many have been begotten of the father, that though death ordinarily ends a life,His birthed many lives. 

Though death should have brought sorrow,His was one that gave God pleasure because His purpose for man would be fulfilled.

Though His death had brought mockery to Him as 'King of the Jews' His resurrection was evidence of His kingship as Lord of all .

His death was a wonder because it was through it that we have come to the NEWNESS OF LIFE, I am the fruit of His 'fall'.

I am born of God.

Many love the prayer of Jabez but I say consider the prayer in John 17 ,it is solid. His hour to be glorified has come, and the prayer He makes for His disciples is this: "The glory You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one, just as We are one." (John 17:22)

This is where the grain of wheat was always headed. 

Much fruit was not just in numbers , it was about union. He bore fruit after His kind, that we would be brought into the very oneness He shares with the Father.

"He who is joined to the Lord is one — one 🥺 spirit with Him." (1 Corinthians 6:17)

Now you see being told 'life is spiritual' is not a far fetched truth , you are born of the the spirit and that which is born of the spirit is spirit .

You've been raised to life through His life .

DailyWell-Peace ✨

BETTER

I love it when I'm reading Scripture and one word sticks.

Not because I am looking for it but it keeps just popping in other scriptures until I pay attention 😀

Yesterday that word was; better.

 Better doesn't just mean nice or improved, it means what is now present is of greater worth, greater value, greater quality than what was there before. Better assumes something came first. And something else later surpassed it.

Several scriptures popped but these three stayed with me;

✨ It is better to live on the corner of a rooftop than with a quarrelsome wife. — Proverbs 21:9

✨ The end of a matter is better than its beginning. — Ecclesiastes 7:8

✨ Christ has become the guarantor of a better covenant, established on better promises. — Hebrews 7:22

The groom in Proverbs chose the rooftop. That corner of the house that is exposed and uncomfortable. But he stayed. He didn't pack his things and walk out completely he just moved to where the peace was and waited.

His was the kind of love that doesn't leave. The kind that watches from a distance and keeps coming back. Because every time he drew near, something in her softened. Maybe she didn't even notice it. But he did. He kept pursuing because he could already see what peace between them looked like and he wanted that .

That's the groom on the rooftop, patient, persistent, pursuing.

And then; the end of a matter is better than its beginning.

We know what "It is finished" sounds like. We've read it,sang it so many times.

But that moment on the cross was the end of a very long matter. A matter that started in a garden where God walked with man in the cool of the day and then sin entered and the walking stopped.

But God never stopped watching for His beloved .

With every covenant, every prophet, every sacrifice it was all Him staying on the rooftop. Drawing near,waiting for the moment He could say DONE. 

The end was always going to be better. He planned it that way.

Which brings us to the better covenant. Established on better promises.

Not just revised promises. Better ones. The old covenant said you keep yourself right before God. And we couldn't. 

So Christ became the guarantor of the New covenant. 

Which means He didn't just sign off on the promise , He is the promise. He absorbed everything,every contention ,every 'quarrelsomeness' that stood between us and the Father and said, I've got this. She can come in.

And the better promises? Peace in the house again.😀 Now I have Pece with God , I have Communion with the Him. Everything the Groom always wanted His bride to walk in finally coming to a fruitful end..

Here's what I kept seeing across all three;

Better always required staying through discomfort and even pain .

The groom stayed on the rooftop, in pursuit, the preacher in Ecclesiastes stayed through the whole matter until the end proved itself better than he imagined at the start. And Christ He stayed through Gethsemane, through the cross, through the silence until that resurrection morning became the loudest proof that the end of a matter is better than its beginning.

 In Christ we have something better than what Adam lost. We have a covenant that can not be broken because its guarantor cannot fail.

Song of Solomon 2:16

My beloved is mine, and I am His.

✨ In Christ ✨