learning points

I'm learning once again that words have the power of life & death
And when they are released, we have no control over what is heard,
neither do we have a choice where it goes, nor what ripples that causes,
the only thing we can do is manage our own reactions,
and trust God's hand in it...

We've no righteousness of our own, so God is truly our defender...

Think my heart is beaten senseless truly...
When all I've fought for is actually seen as needless, meaningless...
Maybe that's why God in His sovereignty made me reread afew posts back...
Are my intentions pure, and what's been placed in my heart to do...does it honour God?
Man isn't to be my judge, because God will be the one doing the judging,
As long as I've that sense of conviction that it is a God-given task, need I be understood?

To answer that question...
Wish I could say that I'm strong enough to say that "it truly doesn't matter..."
Guess I can stand being misunderstood, and mistaken...from others
Still...I think I want and always hope to be understood...
maybe it's the sense of hopelessness, standing alone, that pierces...

So...i'm back to the question, need I be understood?

Lord, I'm not sure...
But I trust in your Character and Goodness,
your Person and Being,
none of me...

Jeremiah never did understand why, he was just obedient
Job went through more than I did, and he never cursed you
David, shepherd, psalmist, warrior, king, fought countless battles...
Christ, ridiculed, spat on, pierced, nailed to a cross, abandoned by all his disciples...
Yet, they stayed the course...help me to stay the course, Lord

On my re-reading trip...this is what hit...
http://rudydavid.blogspot.com/2011/11/follow-thread.html

Jesus says, "Follow me. I'm going to take you on a journey, and I don't want you to turn to the left or to the right. I want you to put me first; i want you to keep trusting me; to stick with me, not turn back, not give up, turn to me in all the disappointments and injustices that will happen to you. I am going to take you to places that will make you say, 'Why in the world are you taking me there?' Even then, I want you to trust me." The path Jesus takes you on may look like it's taking you to one dead end after another. Nevertheless, the thread does not work in reverse. If you just obey Jesus and follow it forward, it will do it's work. MacDonald, author of "The Princess and the Goblin", put it like this in another story: "The one secret of life and development, is not to devise and plan...but to do every moment's duty aright...and let come-not what will, for there is no such thing- but what the eternal Thought wills for each of us, has intended for each of us from the first." And in yet another: "You will be dead, so long as you refuse to die" That is, you will be dead so long as you refuse to die to yourself. Follow the thread. You say,"That sounds pretty hard," and you're right. How can we possibly follow the thread? It's simple but profound. Jesus himself does absolutely everything he's calling us to do. When he called James and John to leave their father in the boat, he had already left his Father's throne. "He left his Father's throne above, so free, so infinite his grace." And later he's going to be ripped from his Father's presence, on the cross. It's going to look as if your thread is taking you into dead ends, places where you'll get bloody, where the only way to follow the thread looks like it could crush you. But don't try to go backward. Don't turn to the left, don't turn to the right. Jesus Christ's kingship will not crush you. He was crushed for you. 

 He followed his thread to the cross so you can follow yours into his arms.
& yes, even though it doesn't feel good at all...i'll still follow...='/ 

2 Corinthians 4 (The Message)

1-2 Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God. 

 3-4 If our Message is obscure to anyone, it's not because we're holding back in any way. No, it's because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention. All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won't have to bother believing a Truth they can't see. They're stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we'll ever get. 

 5-6 Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we're proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful. 

 7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best! 

 13-15 We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise! 

 16-18 So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.