Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

• Psalm 131:2

Fill my heart with joy
    when their grain and new wine abound.
In peace I will lie down and sleep,
    for you alone, Lord,
    make me dwell in safety.

• Psalm 4:7-8

You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

• Psalm 16:11

My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.

• Psalm 27:8

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
    that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

• Psalm 90:14

Your statutes are my heritage forever;
    they are the joy of my heart.

• Psalm 119:111

“Hear my prayer, Lord,
    listen to my cry for help;
    do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
    a stranger, as all my ancestors were.

• Psalm 39:12

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
    Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.

• Psalm 130:1-2

My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.

• Malachi 1:11

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

• Malachi 3:10

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

• Galatians 5:13-14

Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.
“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

• Luke 6:22-23

His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

• Acts 5:40-42

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

• Revelation 3:20

“Have you ever met someone who was utterly and desperately in love with Jesus? I have. My wife’s grandma Clara.
“I spoke recently at Grandma Clara’s funeral, and I could honestly cell the mourners gathered chat I had never known anyone more excited to see Jesus. Every morning Clara would kneel by her bed and spend precious hours with her Savior and Lover; later in the day, just the sight of chat corner of her bed would bring joy-filled tears and a deep anticipation of the next morning spent kneeling in His presence.
“Grandma Clara acted toward God the way we act toward people we‘re madly in love with.
“When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You‘ll drive for hours to be together, even if it’s only for a short while. You don‘t mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You‘ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it‘s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.”

• Francis Chan, crazy love

Rev. Francis Chan combines the previous two chapters with this one.  We are not lukewarm when we fall in love with our spouse.  When we hold that baby for the first time, that is not lukewarm love.  And when we have that red hot love for someone else, we would give all that we have to keep it.

In the other chapters, there is a Bible verse here or there, usually one on every page, but then in this chapter, he goes for two pages of the psalms.  King David knew how to talk about love, but he could talk about those rough patches also.

Francis Chan’s description of his grandmother’s love for Jesus is one of those things that exudes from the bodies of those that have it.  The attraction to Jesus that I felt for the year before I surrendered came after asking a friend, “What is wrong with Linda?”  And the reply was “She found Jesus.”  The thing was that a lot of others found Jesus also.  They did not have a smile that had no end.  They did not walk as if their feet never touched the ground.

C.S. Lewis, I think in his letters to an American lady, said that it was rare, maybe only once or twice seeing someone in which the spirit indwelled to the point of it seemingly flowing from their body.  He did not use those words, but I agree.

My wife was a wonderful person, but she was a human.  And she accepted Jesus when she was 49 years old, not long before our 25^th wedding anniversary.  One of the arguments that I gave her when we were first married was “You cannot ride the fence forever.  You will always fall off on the wrong side.  You must choose Jesus, not accept that He might have existed once.”  When she accepted Jesus, at the point when she had her vision of her death, she brought that argument up to me.  I remembered saying that, but it was buried under 25 years of other arguments, but for her, that comment that I made, in love, stuck with her all those years.  Then, she kept saying over and over, “It’s real. It’s all real.  Jesus is real.  God is real.  Jesus is in my heart.  Everything has changed.”

I say that to say that my wife became one of those who smiled all the time.  People knew that there was something within her that could not be hidden.

But why are there so many Christians that can hide it?

If God is within you, shouldn’t there be an outward manifestation of His love?

Should we not be walking as if our feet never touch the ground?

Later in the chapter, Francis Chan returns to talk about his grandmother, and he quotes her as saying that she was in love with love.  God is Love.

My favorite Bible verse is mentioned in this chapter.  In the middle of a scathing letter to the church at Laodicea, there is a wonderful verse, Rev. 3:20.  The church and each individual within the church need not have remained lukewarm.  God provides an invitation, just as Francis Chan does at the end of this chapter.  Jesus stands at the door knocking.  He does not barge in.  He softly knocks.  All we must do is surrender to Him and open that door that He might freely enter.  And He will cater the meal.

And once we have tasted that meal, we will never want to go back.  We will be in love.

Lord, fill me with Your love.  Thank You for loving me.  At times, I do not feel the warmth of Your love, but that is due to me stepping away from the fire.  Help me keep my eyes on You, Lord.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.