When the Dust of the World Blows Our Way...

When the dust of the world blows our way, it can cloud our vision, change our perspective or viewpoint, influence us to make poor decisions because we cannot see clearly.  In  Colossians 2:6-10 it says, "My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.  Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything."  (The Message)

"We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!"  1 Corinthians 13:12 (The Message)

Turning away from a worldly viewpoint can be difficult and the longer you've been hanging around that worldly viewpoint, the harder it can be to leave it.  Don't hang there!  Get back to God's wisdom.  Everything  else in this world will pass away, but not God's Word...  "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."  Matthew 24:35 (NIV)

"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."  1 John 2:17 (NIV)

"I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God."  Psalm 40:1  (The Message)

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock."  Matthew 7:24 (The Message)

Dear Lord,  Thank you  for Your  word that will never pass away.  Thank you that when everything in this world is sinking sand, You are the Solid Rock on which I stand. 

Photograph courtesy of Sean Zellmer.