I came across a verse in the Old Testament today that I have read, but never really seen before, if you know what I mean. It is in Ezekiel 6:9 in the NKJV it reads, “…because I was crushed by their adulterous hearts which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols…”
The word that drew my attention was the word crushed in other translations the word is translated as broken. In other words, God was hurt. It is not very often that we think of the Almighty God in these terms.
Think back to that time in your life when you may have liked someone. You did everything you could to impress them. You wanted them, at the minimum, to know that you existed. And just when you thought they noticed you they started dating someone else, and they told you they just wanted to be ‘friends.’
In that moment you were crushed. This verse seems to be indicating the same thing about God. He had done everything for His people, He had poured out His love and affection on them only to be rejected. The people had replaced Him with silly little pieces of wood and rock that they had made with their own hands.
They turned their trust over to other things and not Him. God wanted them to depend on, and trust in Him and they chose someone else. Who do you trust?
In James 1:2-8 it tells us to, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials”, and “if any of you lacks wisdom, let Him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach.” With all that is going on in the world today it is easy to live in fear. Some are struggling because they don’t have jobs; others throughout the world are being physically and emotionally tortured for their faith. God is asking you to trust Him.
We trust Him by rejoicing when things aren’t going our way and coming to Him with our problems, believing that He really does have all the answers. And not only that He as the answers, but that He is ready and willing to give us the answers.
He is a good God who is in a good mood and who wants to do good things for His children.
James also tells us that we should ask without doubting Him. Remind yourself of the good things that God has done for you and others around you. Remember and read about what God has done in the past, for those in scripture and in the history books. Throw a party and shout for joy, even if you don’t feel like it.
God has done so many wonderful things for us. Remember His testimonies and trust in Him and things may not change right away, but they will change.
Until next time,
May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Who's your Daddy?
Kings and heirs know the answer to this most important of questions. They take pride in where they came from. They recognize that their authority was passed down to them from their father. The question is do you know who your Father is?
Romans 8:14-17a
14 Far as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,...
These verses are meant to give us courage and hope. We can walk in authority on this earth because God the Father is our papa. We were adopted into the family, because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. It was a gift given to us because God loves us.
We can rule because we are His children. Too many times we see ourselves as weak and powerless. Too often we see ourselves through the eyes of our past. We need to begin to see ourselves how God sees us. He sees us as his children.
We have authority here on earth, because of what He accomplished on the cross. I struggle in this area; it is hard to wrap my mind around this truth. I see what I once was, and even some of the issues that I struggle with today, and then I begin to wonder how it is possible? Sometimes the lies of the enemy seem to be more real than the simple truth.
You and I, are His children. Nothing can separate us from His love. No matter how bad we were, or sometimes are, we are His children. If you have accepted the sacrifice that Jesus paid on the cross for your life, then you are His, no if, ands, or buts about it.
Jesus' sacrifice was great enough to cover our sins. He set us free from the law of sin and death. We may have deserved to die, but He took our death for us. We, me included need to live life as adopted son's and daughters, because we are His children. Begin to see yourself as a child of the one true God and begin thinking about what that means for your life.
Until next time,
May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Kingship part 2
Matthew 19:13-15
Until next time,
May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!
13Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.
14 But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
15 And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.
Today's post should probably have been first in this series, but I was having these thoughts while I was driving after having read my Bible. After the disciples tried to keep the children from coming to Jesus, because he was obviously too busy doing grown up things, that they were to let the children come to him. He went on to say them that "of such is the kingdom of heaven." In another passage he says we must come to him as little children.
Children in relation to kingship.
I remember as a little boy fantasizing about being the hero. It usually involved saving the day and as I got older it also included rescuing the woman, or "damsel in distress." There was always some bad guy that needed to be defeated, because he was trying to hurt the "damsel." Now if you are a woman you may have had the opposite fantasy. You may have been wanting to be the one being rescued, but with a twist.
Ask yourself this question when you were a little kid were you just, any old girl, waiting to be rescued? I don't think so. I have observed my own little girls enough to know what character you were in the above scenario. You weren't just, "any old girl", you were the, "princess." More than likely you were the smartest, most talented, most beautiful princess in all the world. And you were either waiting on prince charming or the shining knight to come rescue you.
The point is your dreams were big. You had high hopes, no child daydreams about being the dirty little orphan who never gets enough food. Children dream about being heroes and heroines, saving the day. Somewhere along the line we lose the mystery of life. We face cynicism or bad things happen in our lives and we begin to settle for less.
We lose something as we get older and life happens that we need to get back. I am not saying that we should be totally naïve. And I am not saying that we should just bury our head in the sand and pretend all day, but there is some things about being a child that we need to get back. As I talked about in yesterdays post Jesus saved us and made us kings and priests to God. We are all royalty.
Our dreams need to become bigger again. Life is a journey, it is not always rosy, even as little kids we recognized this, after all without a "bad guy" to defeat the story would be pretty lame. As children we never doubted for one moment our ability to overcome the enemy. In my dreams, I NEVER LOST! In fact in my dreams or fantasies the thought of losing never even crossed my mind. We need to learn to trust in God no matter what situation we find ourselves in. Jesus already defeated the enemy, we are already on the winning side, now we need to act like it.
This is just a piece of the story, I hope you will continue on this journey with me.
Until next time,
May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Kingship part 1
The next few post's are going to be a little bit different, because I feel something so strongly that I want to write about it, even though it doesn't necessarily follow the same format as my previous posts. Sunday at church I was thinking about kingship, or royalty. I began thinking about the following questions.
How many kings could you think of in this world who would…
- Eat off of the floor?
- Question their abilities or talents?
- Walk with their heads bowed down, everywhere they go?
- Settle for less if they could have more?
Revelation 1:5,6
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
Many times, we as Christian's, do not see ourselves in this light. We are under the false assumption that we are being humble, while putting ourselves down. We make all kinds of excuses as to why we couldn't possibly do what we feel like God is calling us to do. We think, "I had to have heard wrong, I couldn't possibly do this or that, so and so would be much better than, I just am not good enough." And so the work that we were meant to be doing either doesn't get done or doesn't get done as well as it could be, because someone is withholding their gift from the body.
This post is not to put you or myself down, I just want us to raise our expectation levels. We need to start seeing ourselves as God sees us. The above scripture states that Jesus, through His sacrifice, has made us kings and priests to God. That makes you and me royalty. We have authority here, because of what Jesus did for us. He paid a high sacrifice for us.
I asked the above questions, not so we could become arrogant or selfish, like some earthly kings have been. I asked the questions to really challenge our mindset as Christian's. I cannot possibly cover everything I want to cover in one post, so over the next few days and weeks I am going to attempt to cover this subject in a more thorough manner.
Being a leader doesn’t mean you won't have any problems, and that everything will be fun and easy. Being kings and priests involves hard work on our part, because as Christian rulers we don't rule, to Lord it over people. Our motivation comes from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and as His representatives here on earth, our goal is to build and lift others up, while violently tearing down the kingdom of the god of this age. The victory has already been bought we need to step up.
Ephesians 6:10-12
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
HE IS RISEN!
The stripes that He took on His back to provide for my healing. The whole humiliation that he was subjected to as they mocked Him and gambled over his garments, while he was hanging there. He was bleeding from the deep gashes in his back, all of His weight being supported on nails that were pounded through His hands, or wrists, and feet. Gasping for breath as His lungs were struggling to get air. I deserved to die such a tragic death, but Jesus suffered my death for me.
Jesus paid the wages of death that I deserved and earned. When we hated Him, He died for us. At times I think back on all the things in my life that I had done wrong. All the ways in which I had sinned, and some of the things that I even say and do, that I regret seconds after having done them. We as human beings did not deserve and could never earn such love and sacrifice.
My heart is full of joy, for Jesus paid the price that I could never pay. I owed a debt that I could never pay, because of my actions, that I did freely of my own will, I owed trillions of dollars. A debt so big that I would never have been able to pay off, if I could work 100 lifetimes. He marked them, paid in full, but He did so much more than that.
Not only did he pay off my debt, he freely gave me so much more. Because He died and then rose again, I have life. I have been freed to live a life full of goodness. I was trapped in my sin, no matter how much I tried not to, I always failed. I was stuck! His sacrifice freed me to live a life that would be pleasing to Him. Sin was defeated on the cross.
I hated myself, I wanted to quit doing those things, but I could never gain victory. I would do okay for a while, but then I would go back to doing what I despised. It was a vicious circle, that I could not break. And in one moment, it was broken, because of the sacrifice He made for me. He is risen, sin and death has been defeated, and now I have life, a life that I did not deserve. And as if all this weren't enough, He promised me eternal life with Him in heaven.
Most peoples god's have them begging for just crumbs from the table. Jesus spread out a full table before us. Most peoples god's demand much and give little. Jesus gave His life, to pay for our sin, offer us healing, gave us victory, and gave us the hope of eternal life with Him. Most peoples god's demand love, Jesus gave love. Most peoples god's are either dead and buried or are pieces of wood or clay that they made with their own hands, Jesus is alive and at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, His children. Most peoples god's are far away, Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit, as a helper for us.
HE IS RISEN!
Until next time.
May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Brood of Vipers (Repentance Defined)
These verses show us a picture of a man dressed in camel's hair with a leather belt strapped around his waist, and eating locusts and wild honey in the wilderness preaching repentance to all who will listen. In this passage of scripture we can find a true definition of repentance. Too many times we as people equate repentance with just saying sorry. Repentance is more than just saying your sorry. Repentance- defined is to change the way you think and act.
This means that you change what you are doing. Not just trying to justify your actions. Sin is never to be taken lightly. Although we can never earn our salvation, our actions and thoughts should be changing. After all we know from the scripture that the wages of sin is death.
We see in this story, that as he is preaching, here comes out the Pharisees and Sadducees, these group of men who were coming out to be baptized by John, not because they were sorry for what they had done, but just to avoid being punished. For, he calls them a brood of vipers and asks them, "who warned you to flee from the wrath to come." They never really planned on doing anything differently.
Repentance is not just about saying sorry, only to avoid being punished or only saying that you're sorry because you were caught, or only trying to cover your bases, just in case. True repentance involves change, truly being sorry means you plan on never doing it again. Although sometimes we do fail. We never come to a place where we just say, "it's okay, after all I'm only human."
Repentance is a condition of the heart. To truly repent, you must, acknowledge that you have done something wrong. These Pharisees and Sadducees were being like a thief who says he is sorry, but walks away, and at the very first opportunity that comes along, he steals again. They had no intention of changing what they were doing. They were full of pride because, after all, they were Abraham's children.
After asking them about who warned them to flee the wrath to come. He tells them to bear fruit worthy of repentance. In other words, don't just say you're sorry, truly mean you're sorry. By changing what you're doing. You can't just say hey, I'm sorry, and then go out and live the life that you want to live. In Luke 3: 7-14 the author expanded on this whole idea of bearing fruit worthy of repentance.
He told the tax collectors to collect no more than what is appointed to you. He told the soldiers do not intimidate, accuse falsely, and to be content with your wages. If you have two tunics give to one who has none. If you have extra food do likewise. Repentance involves change!
Don't get me wrong, saying you're sorry is a good start, but it is not the end. Repentance is like when you're walking one direction, and then you turn and walk completely in the opposite direction. You're not just saying you're sorry, to avoid punishment. You are acknowledging that you were wrong, and that you desire to live differently, because of God's goodness toward you.
God's love and forgiveness should never be taken for granted. Never say it's okay to sin, because after all God will forgive me. Our attitude counts, God sees through to your heart. It may be easy to fool others, because they cannot see the condition of your heart, but God is never fooled. Don't just say you're sorry, change the way that you think and act, with God's help you can do it.
Until next time,
May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Know and Trust
The tempter tried to get Jesus to question who he was and who God was. Jesus' response to Satan's temptation to jump was it is written you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Quoting an old testament scripture about the time when the people of Israel had complained to Moses because there was no water. The Children of Israel had seen God do many miracles for them. He had called them and given them many promises. He had shown them that they were His people. He had shown them that He would lead them. They tempted God by complaining to Moses, and by questioning whether God was even with them.
Satan wanted Jesus to act in the same way. Bringing the If you are the son of God, then cast yourself down. And He wanted Him to cast himself down, because after all the scripture does say that the angels would catch Him. Or would they? Satan's tricks do not change, he wants us to question whether God's promises are real. Make us question if God will really honor his promises. Can you really trust God?
The Children of Israel were in a rough spot. They were in the desert and there was no source of water around them. They began to question whether God was even with them. They were desperate and they began to contend with Moses whether God was with them. They had forgotten about what God had just done for them. He parted the Sea, so they could cross on dry land, he had just made bitter water sweet so that the water was drinkable, he had sent them manna from heaven when they needed food to eat.
He had called them as His special people. Jesus was the Son of God, and He knew who He was. Satan wanted Him to question who He was and whether or not God would answer His promises. After all the promise of the angels catching Jesus was a promise that God had spoken, and Jesus knew that God would answer. He didn't have to do something stupid just to prove whether or not God would really do what He had promised.
God has given His people promises from the beginning of time. He has done many things for His people who trusted in Him. There are many testimonies that we need to remember and build ourselves up in, God is real and He really does care for us no matter what we have gone through, are going through, and are going to go through. We need to remember His promises for us. Remember that He has many thoughts for us, they are more than could be numbered, and they are all for our own good.
I am reminded of an old song, and yes I do believe in mixing some old with the new, I think it was called Trust and Obey. It said trust and obey for those no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. We need to know who we are in Christ and know that our Father will always keep His promises. Even when things don't look good, we serve a good God who loves us and will take care of us.
Until next time,
May, “the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance, and give you peace
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