"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)

When I was in high school especially, I always loved being interested in things that no one else knew anything about. I guess you could say I always had a thing for the obscure, and the 'outer fringes'. There was something so great about being able to tell people about a band, movie, or even country that they knew nothing about. It was hidden from them, like some great mystery they never even knew existed.

That's really how I view the gospel of Jesus: it is the most marvelous mystery the world cannot explain. Even though it is before its very eyes, the world doesn't see how glorious He is, that there is nothing Christ takes away from our lives, only adds to it. I have let myself get too discouraged in the past; God is helping me turn a new leaf in being able to listen to Him and not get so caught up in my own life and problems. But that is why our hearts need to be open; it is not that God stops loving us when we harden our hearts, or He is too slow in making us open them again. It is just that we have nothing else that He can work with; our bodies have nothing eternal or long lasting about them.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

No longer may discouragement turn our eyes inward, or around us, or any place but above. Any solutions we come up with apart from the Lord are just like putting our finger in the dike; sooner or later that dam is going to break and we won't be able to stop the flood. I pray that the Lord will let us look upon our brothers and sisters and see we are no different than they. The hunger for the Lord is in the eyes of even the most hardened and bitter hearts; no one is too far from His reach. Let us walk into His courts with a blameless heart, for "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)