"They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds." - Hosea 7:14
I often wonder if we really know what we've been saved from or what we have attained in Christ. Lord, open our eyes to the reality of the death we have been spared and help us to see the life You have given us, let us be truly transformed by the renewing of our minds. God never said He was merely the right way, He says He is "THE way, THE truth, and THE life." Have we come to the end of ourselves when we say, "though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him" (Job 13)? Being a good or bad servant is nonsense - either you're serving the Lord or you're not. Let's simply choose today whom we will serve, allow the Spirit to have free reign, and decide to let God be the ultimate reality in everything we do.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Today was an awesome day mainly because of an hour (or more) that Alicia, Debbie, Heather, Jake and I spent in prayer and worship. It wasn't planned at all and the Holy Spirit spoke so much it was phenominal. A big thing we were all getting, something that brought us to tears was breaking formulas. For too long Christians have been living on formulas in their walk and it extends to the way we see people. All this emphasis on saying the sinner's prayer and all the regulations and boundaries that we use to define Christianity. Somewhere after the intense moments I think we listen to sublte suggestions, we forget to be like children, we start becoming yoked into slavery when we're supposed to be free and showing others freedom. Paul spoke so much about this in Galatians, he really summed it by writing; "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (5:6). Our faith and love are intertwined and if we love and trust and love God than that will express itself in our love for one another. I'm learning to be blatantly honest with God in prayer, I do all my complaining to Him, I repent for unbiblical feelings (like anger and resentment towards God) but I still tell Him how I feel but in the midst of those feelings is when I know I have to choose to love and trust God and that is when God helps me endure. Bring it all to Him, nothing you do makes you worthy in God's sight, it's only Christ that does that. Bring Him all the feelings - good, bad and ugly. No one cares more than He does. It's all about Him - I think if you want to increase your faith, focus on how faithful Jesus is, increase your love, meditate on His great love. In beholding Christ with the eyes of our heart we are transformed, the more we lift Him up in our thoughts the more free reign the Holy Spirit has within us.
These are the verses from Galatians 5 that we were really on my heart this afternoon:
"You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."
"You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?"
"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature...The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself""
We have to stop trying to do things to justify ourselves before God so as to expect that from others and judge them. We're free, not to sin like crazy, but freed from judgment and having to live up to a standard on our own power by man made rituals or rules. We are free to love God with all of our might, to meet with Him and have interactions with Him that aren't designed for anyone else but you. How personal and intimate is Jesus to us? I asked God today at church to speak to me, I didn't want anyone else, don't get me wrong, I need prayer just as much as anyone else and I love my friends and family, but ultimately the One that I need is God and I wanted something just from Him. I didn't get it that moment but a few minutes later, He spoke to me using a specific memory to convey something about Himself that brought me to tears and encouraged me like nothing else ever could. I know if I told some people what it was, they might say "aww" or something like that but no one will ever understand that moment, as well as other moments, and that's okay because it's strictly between God and I. I am His and He is mine.
These are the verses from Galatians 5 that we were really on my heart this afternoon:
"You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."
"You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?"
"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature...The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself""
We have to stop trying to do things to justify ourselves before God so as to expect that from others and judge them. We're free, not to sin like crazy, but freed from judgment and having to live up to a standard on our own power by man made rituals or rules. We are free to love God with all of our might, to meet with Him and have interactions with Him that aren't designed for anyone else but you. How personal and intimate is Jesus to us? I asked God today at church to speak to me, I didn't want anyone else, don't get me wrong, I need prayer just as much as anyone else and I love my friends and family, but ultimately the One that I need is God and I wanted something just from Him. I didn't get it that moment but a few minutes later, He spoke to me using a specific memory to convey something about Himself that brought me to tears and encouraged me like nothing else ever could. I know if I told some people what it was, they might say "aww" or something like that but no one will ever understand that moment, as well as other moments, and that's okay because it's strictly between God and I. I am His and He is mine.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
People aren’t enough, relationships aren’t enough, love (as the world experiences it) is not enough. Your career isn’t enough, money isn’t enough, ambition isn’t enough, passion isn’t enough, brilliance isn’t enough, achievement isn’t enough, potential, skill, talent, strength, intelligence is not enough. Your significant other, your sibling, your best friend, your soul mate, your pet, your self. Is not enough. All these things combined at the same time and place aren’t enough. This world is not enough and it never will be. Something that transcends how we feel yet causes us to taste of feelings that we can never know anywhere else is what we need. We need something that we can never get in this world. We need something that lies beyond our expectations because, lets be honest, we don’t know what we want or need half the time. There is a God that created you, gave you everything you have, gave you the capacity to enjoy the things of this world. He also came in the flesh to show you how to live and He came to die and to be raised up to give you what you need the most. He left room in you, a part of you that will know no satisfaction until you meet Him and recognize the need for Him, until you realize that what you really want, what you really need, is Him. He came to defeat your worst fears. He came to bring you love that is everything that you need, but not always what you want at first. It is perfectly honest, forgiving, merciful, appreciative, humbling, uplifting and beyond our understanding. It is perfect and that is why we will never fully understand it.
Let’s admit that we’re not perfect, let’s admit that if perfection was staring us in the face we wouldn’t know because we don’t have perfect eyes to see perfection. We don’t have perfect to hearts to feel perfection, we don’t have perfect minds to comprehend perfection, we don’t have perfect ears to hear the perfect message. The only way is to believe and understand it more and more as we grow closer to that perfection who is Jesus Christ. We need to be perfected and that is something only He can do. Let’s admit that our logic is a far cry from perfection and our answers lie in the realm that we might consider illogical. We don’t have control, what we do is at its best a spark in a giant stadium, that we cannot live up to the sense of morality we have in our hearts, we can’t live this life the way it’s supposed to be lived. Let’s admit that the things we look at and think about on a daily basis are jaded. Let’s admit that we want to be God, to be in control of things we never will be, that we think by doing this or that that we’ll be able to make our lives right or change our destiny. Let’s admit that we can’t. Let’s look at the cross. Let’s look to Jesus because we have to admit that nothing we’re doing is working. He promises if you give your life to Him and that you won’t have to worry about it anymore. Let’s look at the fact that there were hundreds of prophecies foretelling details about His life, death, and resurrection and that He fulfilled every one of them. Let’s look at all of His actions and see which ones weren’t done out of love. Let’s ask ourselves why we wouldn’t believe in the God of the bible. Perfect honesty is a hard thing to accept but we aren’t perfectly evil, so maybe there is a part of us that wants to believe but there is another that simply doesn’t want to believe that we need Him. Lets be honest, we really don’t know what we want or need half the time. Lets talk about "blind faith" as the world sees it. Do I understand why God does everything He does? No, but a good relationship is based on trust. To insist that we have to understand all the facts before considering God or that He has to meet some requirements is arrogance.
Let’s get past the idea that God is what you want Him to be that He has the standards you want Him to have. That idea completely reverses the dynamic of a relationship between a superior God and an inferior man. If the inferior is deciding for himself what the superior is than he has broken the relationship, in his heart he wants to be God. Let’s go back to the garden where the devil told Adam and Eve that they could be like God. They believed the lie and so do we. We can admit that God is perfect and we’re not, yes? Wouldn’t it then stand to reason that at some point we have to admit that what we want to think about God is going to be wrong? If God was one to be completely figured out by our mere minds than He wouldn’t be God. Ah but God tells us things about Himself, that He is good, that He loves us and that we’re lost and blind without Him. This is also why the bedrock of Christianity is repentance and surrender, because it has to be God who does the work in us to make us the people we’re supposed to be.
Christ came with the perfect message - that we can’t be perfect, that God desires you but the relationship has to be on His terms. He gave Himself up for us in a way that no one ever could, He also created us, so He hasn’t fallen short on His end. If my relationship with God isn’t where it should be and He is perfect then the issue is with me. We have to step outside ourselves "those who seek to save their life will lose it and those who seek to lose their life for my sake will save it." There is a part of you that insists there is nothing in this world for you, that it’s all for naught and there is a part of you that insists that there must be more so you seek to fill that need by latching onto things of this world. Both of those sides are right and wrong, There is something more to all of this and it isn’t in anything of this world. This world is a waste without God. Some people say, ‘what would happen if we all loved each other?’ maybe in a perfect world, right? There will be no perfect world and the only thing you can change is your own life and you need Jesus to do that. The only heart you have to give is your own and it’s precious to Him. Don’t take my word for it, approach God alone at night, talk to Him when you gaze at the night sky. Ask Him if this whole Jesus thing is a quack, that is what I did. Put it all aside and approach Him with a clean slate and I know He’ll answer, just make time to listen.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." -Matthew 7:7-8
"Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you" - James 4:8
Let’s admit that we’re not perfect, let’s admit that if perfection was staring us in the face we wouldn’t know because we don’t have perfect eyes to see perfection. We don’t have perfect to hearts to feel perfection, we don’t have perfect minds to comprehend perfection, we don’t have perfect ears to hear the perfect message. The only way is to believe and understand it more and more as we grow closer to that perfection who is Jesus Christ. We need to be perfected and that is something only He can do. Let’s admit that our logic is a far cry from perfection and our answers lie in the realm that we might consider illogical. We don’t have control, what we do is at its best a spark in a giant stadium, that we cannot live up to the sense of morality we have in our hearts, we can’t live this life the way it’s supposed to be lived. Let’s admit that the things we look at and think about on a daily basis are jaded. Let’s admit that we want to be God, to be in control of things we never will be, that we think by doing this or that that we’ll be able to make our lives right or change our destiny. Let’s admit that we can’t. Let’s look at the cross. Let’s look to Jesus because we have to admit that nothing we’re doing is working. He promises if you give your life to Him and that you won’t have to worry about it anymore. Let’s look at the fact that there were hundreds of prophecies foretelling details about His life, death, and resurrection and that He fulfilled every one of them. Let’s look at all of His actions and see which ones weren’t done out of love. Let’s ask ourselves why we wouldn’t believe in the God of the bible. Perfect honesty is a hard thing to accept but we aren’t perfectly evil, so maybe there is a part of us that wants to believe but there is another that simply doesn’t want to believe that we need Him. Lets be honest, we really don’t know what we want or need half the time. Lets talk about "blind faith" as the world sees it. Do I understand why God does everything He does? No, but a good relationship is based on trust. To insist that we have to understand all the facts before considering God or that He has to meet some requirements is arrogance.
Let’s get past the idea that God is what you want Him to be that He has the standards you want Him to have. That idea completely reverses the dynamic of a relationship between a superior God and an inferior man. If the inferior is deciding for himself what the superior is than he has broken the relationship, in his heart he wants to be God. Let’s go back to the garden where the devil told Adam and Eve that they could be like God. They believed the lie and so do we. We can admit that God is perfect and we’re not, yes? Wouldn’t it then stand to reason that at some point we have to admit that what we want to think about God is going to be wrong? If God was one to be completely figured out by our mere minds than He wouldn’t be God. Ah but God tells us things about Himself, that He is good, that He loves us and that we’re lost and blind without Him. This is also why the bedrock of Christianity is repentance and surrender, because it has to be God who does the work in us to make us the people we’re supposed to be.
Christ came with the perfect message - that we can’t be perfect, that God desires you but the relationship has to be on His terms. He gave Himself up for us in a way that no one ever could, He also created us, so He hasn’t fallen short on His end. If my relationship with God isn’t where it should be and He is perfect then the issue is with me. We have to step outside ourselves "those who seek to save their life will lose it and those who seek to lose their life for my sake will save it." There is a part of you that insists there is nothing in this world for you, that it’s all for naught and there is a part of you that insists that there must be more so you seek to fill that need by latching onto things of this world. Both of those sides are right and wrong, There is something more to all of this and it isn’t in anything of this world. This world is a waste without God. Some people say, ‘what would happen if we all loved each other?’ maybe in a perfect world, right? There will be no perfect world and the only thing you can change is your own life and you need Jesus to do that. The only heart you have to give is your own and it’s precious to Him. Don’t take my word for it, approach God alone at night, talk to Him when you gaze at the night sky. Ask Him if this whole Jesus thing is a quack, that is what I did. Put it all aside and approach Him with a clean slate and I know He’ll answer, just make time to listen.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." -Matthew 7:7-8
"Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you" - James 4:8
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