We go through life with plans. Constantly making plans...what our life will look like...who we will marry....what we are going to do this weekend...etc. Without even stopping to say...ok what Does God want my future to look like. Mostly because we think he is not involved in the little things...but beloved...HE IS.
Plans. We long to make plans. For you who seek God we usually invite God into those plans...asking him to show us what is the best road to take. The best mate, the best church, etc.
But are we surrendered. We can ask God all we want about our future..but are we really asking him, or telling him. Inviting God into our plans can be very hard. Because deep down, we don't really know if we can trust God. When we journey into his heart. When we start knowing his heart for us we see that we can trust him..but we first must begin by knowing his character. Ok getting sidetracked.
God is a God who is jealous for us, he wants all of us. He wants all of our plans, all of our future, all of our hearts. He is also a God who will not force himself on us. He will not force himself to lay all of us, all or our plans upon the altar. He wants this done voluntarily. This cannot be easy. To go to God and say "alright God, I am putting everything I want into your hands, its up to you." This is a dying to ourselves. Its trusting that God wants the best for us...even if we don't know the best. But we love to be in control..or at least the illusion of thinking we are in control.
I'm not going to type it all out ..but please refer to Genesis 22 for this blog. We see a story of Abraham. God promised Abraham that from him, from his line, his descendants would number the stars. Abraham had a hard time believing this because he and his wife were baron. Nevertheless they had a child...Issac. God made Abraham a promise of a child..even though it was impossible...and boom, theres a child.
So you can imagine now that Abraham is making all these plans. Later on down the road when Issac was a teenager God (a loving G0d). Tells Abraham to sacrifice his son (to literally kill his son). What must Abraham be thinking. God had made all these promises to him...but if he were to kill his son...those promises were gone. But Abraham knew God, knew that he was a Good, kind and loving God. So without seeing the future Abraham went to sacrifice his only son (whom all these promises were supposed to come from and thru). At the last minute God sent a ram to take the place of Issac. Again we know this story but please refer to the whole chapter.
I cant imagine what Abraham was thinking as he was walking up to kill his only son, after he had started making plans. But He knew God, he trusted God, and because of his trust he was willing to go and do this, to surrender his plans and his hopes to God. Why, how could he do this. Because he knew God, because he TRUSTED GOD.
Beloved God calls us to do the same thing. To lay down our plans, our goals, everything we want, to lay it down upon the altar and let it burn. So that God can take our dreams,, and make them even better. God doesn't just want Good for us.... He wants the best. But will we believe it?
Will we take our dreams...our loves....our goals. And truly lay them down before God and say "have your way with them". Or will we hold on so tightly because we truly don't believe that the God we serve is a kind and loving God. And that is plans for us are better that we can imagine.
Its surrender, to a God who is jealous for us, jealous for the whole of us. We might not always see a ram, but can we get to a place where we can say. "NO matter what God, I know you are Good, and even though I cant see them, i will lay everything down before you for something better'.
Beloved, its a death, but a death unto knowing God more, unto be living that he holds the best things for us in his hands, if we will only LET GO. Can we let go. Its a death, its dying to ourselves, dying to our dreams, dying to our loves. Can we trust him. Beloved his love for us is great. Just because we lay it down does not mean He is going to take it away. It just means, we are giving ourselves to him in a place of surrender. So that the God of grace and mercy can truly have his way in our lives.
Beloved its not easy, in fact its hard, its gut wrenching, but in the end its worth it. TO lay down everything and to rest in the arms of the always Loving, always merciful God. Lay it down.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
What we Glory In
Why do we care about the trophies on our walls, or the plaques in our office. Or even certificates showing what we have accomplished. We find so much security in what we have accomplished on earth. We find safety in things we have done that has gotten us recognition or attention. At the end of our day where does this recognition get us. Why do we care so much about "all the great things we have done"
We have no vision for eternity. We kind of believe that one day we will be in heaven, but we don't live for heaven now. We don't want to understand that all of our accomplishment, not matter how great they are ....will all come to NOTHING. All of our success...even our failures...will be left here with our body when we die. But we so desperately want to cling on to our meaningless accomplishments, and our trophies...and our plaques.
This is what we will be taking with us. Did we know the King of Glory. Did we experience the depths of his love for us. Did we know his mercy and grace. Did we hear his voice. Did we delight in his law. Did we live for knowing him. Beloved whether we like it or not..this is what it comes down to. Did we KNOW HIM.
Again the great hope about this is two fold. One, all of the things we strive to gain for while we are on earth, will one day be destroyed. So we can stop striving to be number 1, we can stop striving to preform the best. Have the coolest wardrobe, drive the nicest car, etc. Because it will all be destroyed in the End
The second reason that their is such hope in this verse is bc again it is God saying.. YOU CAN KNOW ME. It is an invatation to know this KING OF KINGS. The creator of the universe wants us to know him..wants us to delight in him...wants us to GLORY in him.
At the end of the day...when you go to bed. Do you know God. Do you know him. Knowing the love and the mercy and the voice of our Heavenly Father far out ways anything we can gain here on earth.
Knowing him is knowing Jesus. So the question is, when Jesus comes back to claim us , will you recognize him....will you know him?
Here is the great thing. God is not asking of you the be the BEST OF THE BEST. To accomplish all that you can. To get every certifacate and plaque known to man. He is simply wanting us to get a VISION OF ETERNITY. That we simply know him. This is our destiny beloved....this is our GLORY. Will you know him? Will you say yes?
We have no vision for eternity. We kind of believe that one day we will be in heaven, but we don't live for heaven now. We don't want to understand that all of our accomplishment, not matter how great they are ....will all come to NOTHING. All of our success...even our failures...will be left here with our body when we die. But we so desperately want to cling on to our meaningless accomplishments, and our trophies...and our plaques.
Jer 9:24
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD.
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD.
This is what we will be taking with us. Did we know the King of Glory. Did we experience the depths of his love for us. Did we know his mercy and grace. Did we hear his voice. Did we delight in his law. Did we live for knowing him. Beloved whether we like it or not..this is what it comes down to. Did we KNOW HIM.
Again the great hope about this is two fold. One, all of the things we strive to gain for while we are on earth, will one day be destroyed. So we can stop striving to be number 1, we can stop striving to preform the best. Have the coolest wardrobe, drive the nicest car, etc. Because it will all be destroyed in the End
The second reason that their is such hope in this verse is bc again it is God saying.. YOU CAN KNOW ME. It is an invatation to know this KING OF KINGS. The creator of the universe wants us to know him..wants us to delight in him...wants us to GLORY in him.
At the end of the day...when you go to bed. Do you know God. Do you know him. Knowing the love and the mercy and the voice of our Heavenly Father far out ways anything we can gain here on earth.
Knowing him is knowing Jesus. So the question is, when Jesus comes back to claim us , will you recognize him....will you know him?
Here is the great thing. God is not asking of you the be the BEST OF THE BEST. To accomplish all that you can. To get every certifacate and plaque known to man. He is simply wanting us to get a VISION OF ETERNITY. That we simply know him. This is our destiny beloved....this is our GLORY. Will you know him? Will you say yes?
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Threshing Floor
The Picture of the threshing floor in the Old and New Testament is one of my favorite pictures. This entry is a continuation of yesterdays...so if you did not read that one I would encourage you to go back and read the "irritation of the inner man"
When we allow God to put us thru trials...to take us thru hurts... to show us our wounds. We become more complete....we can really start producing good fruit in our lives. ( Matt 3:8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance) Which is what he commands from us, that we produce lasting fruit. Which only comes from working out our issues... allowing God to come and really enter the deeps places of our heart where hurt and sin lie.
When we allow God to put us thru trials...to take us thru hurts... to show us our wounds. We become more complete....we can really start producing good fruit in our lives. ( Matt 3:8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance) Which is what he commands from us, that we produce lasting fruit. Which only comes from working out our issues... allowing God to come and really enter the deeps places of our heart where hurt and sin lie.
Matt 3:10-12
10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11"I baptize you withb]">[b] water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
This can be a rather ominous verse for those who don't really know what it means. Or it can look like a verse that is threatening us into repentance. But its not..again...this is a verse of hope.
In the old days there was something called the threshing floor. The workers would go out into the field and gather all the wheat they could. Now when they gathered this wheat, the chaff, or weeds, would get mixed in with the good wheat.
When they were done gathering they would bring all the wheat they had collected down to the "Threshing Floor". This was where the wheat would be separated from the chaff (weeds). When done they would store all the wheat, but then burn up the chaff.
Ok, so lets tie this into our life. Weather we know it or not, God is always putting our heart on the threshing floor....wanting to burn up everything that is not of him, all the sin, all the hurt, everything that does not benefit us he wants to Burn. Whether we realize it or not...as we go thru life...even our life with seeking God, we pick up chaff. Because of the fact that we live in a fallen sinful world.
This can be a painful process, if we fight against it. What we don't realize that this threshing floor process is for our benefit. It is so we can be made more like him, so that everything in our hearts can be purified. Our motives....our sin....our hurts.
For every believer he WILL put our hearts on the threshing floor. The first question is...will we go voluntarily. Will we fight this process out of fear of not wanting to deal with past hurts and presents sins. Our of fear that God will punish us. Or will we see the grace that is offered in the threshing floor. That when we voluntarily put our hearts on the threshing floor he keeps all the wheat (the good stuff in our lives). The love, joy, peace, the way you help others, your inner life with him, that is the wheat that he will keep. Then the others things that hold us down, he will burn away. Don't we want our chains gone...don't we want them burned off of us?
Beloved, this process is such a blessing. That HE wants to take away everything that hinders our walk with him. We only make it hard because we don't trust the process. We don't trust that when we present our heart to God, that HE will actually show us mercy and kindness. That mercy is him doing away with the darkness of our heart.
Do not be afraid of the threshing floor. Go to it...present your hearts to HIM...the only one who can take the impure..and make it pure. Its so worth it, press in, let him do it, then move on and see the beauty of Mercy and of Grace. Its worth it beloved. He loves you...and he desires that you walk in freedom!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Irratation of the Inner Man
For the next couple days we are going to look at the parables. Too often people either only look on the surface of parables and don't go deep enough to find their true meaning; or they get confused so completely over look them. I'm guilty of both. I want to challenge you though to go deep with the parables..let the Holy Spirit guide you as you meditate on them and search for their meaning. Side not, I also like the parables because most of them start out with " The Kingdom of Heaven is Like..."
Today we will be looking at the parable of the pearl, its short but so much in it.
Matt 13 :45-46
45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
So what does this parable have to do with the journey into the heart of God, and knowing him more, and knowing our destiny in him, especially being that this parable is so short.
To know God to journey with God takes discipline, a discipline that so many of us don't have and don't want to gain because its hard...but its also very worth it.
So we see a short story of a man looking for pearls, notice he did not just find one..he found one of "great value". He than leaves and sells everything for this one pearl. What made this pearl so important, and what does this have to do with our journey.
Its all about how the pearl is formed. When sand gets into a oyster any other irritant gets into a oysters mouth it tries to protect itself by forming a sort of nacre or lack of a better word, spit, over this irritant. It keeps doing this until this irritant stops hurting. Than when it stops irritating then we have the pearl. This beautiful expensive rare rock. And it all starting from an irritation in the oyster.
Ok so stay with me, I'm going somewhere with this. We would love to think that God can just form us and make us into something beautiful with the wink of his eye, but that's not always the way it works. Our inner life and our devotion to him usually involves a lot of hardship. Be it trials, temptations, hurts, etc. We have two options when faced with this sort of thing, give up, or let God form in us something he can actually use, a habitation for the Holy Spirit.
Its not only outside trials though that form our inner man and our devotion to God. Its also irritating things like God showing us ourselves. God showing us that without him we are dark, we are full of ugliness. We do not like to see this, we do not like to see ourselves, in fact so many of us run from ourselves. Be it past hurts, us hurting others, wounds etc.
What will we do with this hurt. If we want to know God more, and know his heart more, and his plans for us , we have to stay with this hurt. We have to really allow God to deal with our dark hearts, with our sin, with our wounds. Too many people skip this step. If we stay with this process, than something beautiful is formed. Our inner life with God....something that is a treasure...something that is worth it all. Our inner life with God is priceless, we were made to commune with him. To know the deep things of Him. But beloved, it will never happen until we really deal with these "Irritations". Its worth it. The temporary pain for something beautiful and priceless. Let him do this, let him form the "pearl of great price" with in you. After all, its a great price because of the great cost.
Today we will be looking at the parable of the pearl, its short but so much in it.
Matt 13 :45-46
45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
So what does this parable have to do with the journey into the heart of God, and knowing him more, and knowing our destiny in him, especially being that this parable is so short.
To know God to journey with God takes discipline, a discipline that so many of us don't have and don't want to gain because its hard...but its also very worth it.
So we see a short story of a man looking for pearls, notice he did not just find one..he found one of "great value". He than leaves and sells everything for this one pearl. What made this pearl so important, and what does this have to do with our journey.
Its all about how the pearl is formed. When sand gets into a oyster any other irritant gets into a oysters mouth it tries to protect itself by forming a sort of nacre or lack of a better word, spit, over this irritant. It keeps doing this until this irritant stops hurting. Than when it stops irritating then we have the pearl. This beautiful expensive rare rock. And it all starting from an irritation in the oyster.
Ok so stay with me, I'm going somewhere with this. We would love to think that God can just form us and make us into something beautiful with the wink of his eye, but that's not always the way it works. Our inner life and our devotion to him usually involves a lot of hardship. Be it trials, temptations, hurts, etc. We have two options when faced with this sort of thing, give up, or let God form in us something he can actually use, a habitation for the Holy Spirit.
Its not only outside trials though that form our inner man and our devotion to God. Its also irritating things like God showing us ourselves. God showing us that without him we are dark, we are full of ugliness. We do not like to see this, we do not like to see ourselves, in fact so many of us run from ourselves. Be it past hurts, us hurting others, wounds etc.
What will we do with this hurt. If we want to know God more, and know his heart more, and his plans for us , we have to stay with this hurt. We have to really allow God to deal with our dark hearts, with our sin, with our wounds. Too many people skip this step. If we stay with this process, than something beautiful is formed. Our inner life with God....something that is a treasure...something that is worth it all. Our inner life with God is priceless, we were made to commune with him. To know the deep things of Him. But beloved, it will never happen until we really deal with these "Irritations". Its worth it. The temporary pain for something beautiful and priceless. Let him do this, let him form the "pearl of great price" with in you. After all, its a great price because of the great cost.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Knowing
I Cor 2: 9-10
"However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"
For those of you who know me I Cor 2 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. It is filled with so much hope and explanation on how and why we can hear the Holy Spirit, how he speaks, leads, and guides on. But for this entry we will just be focusing on these two verses
For those of us brought up in Church we have heard this verse a lot. In the context of " take hope, God has great things for us". That was never enough for me, it was never enough for me to just hear that he has great things...I wanted to know. I knew deep down that he did not want us walking around dumb , def, and blind. Even though this verse above is filled with so much hope...there is more.
So most of us have heard that verse being preached...and I'm guessing a lot of you can recite this, but not a lot of us hear the very next verse that follows.
10"but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God"
This is the part that gives me such great hope and strength. He does just want us to hear that he has plans for us...He wants us to know them. It says it right there "He has revealed it to us...even the deep things". How great is that, we can KNOW the plans he has for us, we can KNOW our purpose and our destiny that we have in HIM
For people my age it is like groping in the dark to know our path...to know our destiny. We feel like we have to guess or roll a dice, but its quite the opposite. God does want to reveal what he has for us, he is not a God who wants us to walk around in the dark.
The question is will we sit. Will we sit and learn his voice? Will we sit and wait to hear the answers. People hit the wall with this for many reasons. One, they don't believe they can hear God...or they don't believe he talks. Two, people don't want to take the time to discipline themselves to sit and wait on God. But tell me , whats better, wondering in the dark searching for a solution, or sitting in the light, waiting for the answer.
Again He is a God who loves to reveal things. He is a revealer of mysteries. He is not one who is going to hide the plan (although their are times He does, and we can talk about that later). He is not a God who wants us to walk around guessing about our destiny.
He does have big, huge things for us, for his children; and whats better is that we can know them. The question is... will we respond to this invitation? Will we sit before the King and ask him to speak, and ask him to open our ears to what He has for us. Its your destiny to know the voice of your creator, the voice of your Father. Its your destiny to know his plan for your life. Will you believe it...will you believe he speaks.... will you believe He speaks to you. He just asks that you show up, listen, than trust what he says. Then walking out with boldness knowing that the "Father of Glory" has you, he has your dreams, he has your plans, He is just waiting for you to say Yes. To be drawn away be his voice. Its worth it. To hear the Voice of the one who loves who...the Voice of the one who sees you...the Voice of the one who is desperately devoted to you, and to seeing you being confident in His plans for your life. It is a journey into the depths of he heart, but its a journey that is worth it.
"However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"
For those of you who know me I Cor 2 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. It is filled with so much hope and explanation on how and why we can hear the Holy Spirit, how he speaks, leads, and guides on. But for this entry we will just be focusing on these two verses
For those of us brought up in Church we have heard this verse a lot. In the context of " take hope, God has great things for us". That was never enough for me, it was never enough for me to just hear that he has great things...I wanted to know. I knew deep down that he did not want us walking around dumb , def, and blind. Even though this verse above is filled with so much hope...there is more.
So most of us have heard that verse being preached...and I'm guessing a lot of you can recite this, but not a lot of us hear the very next verse that follows.
10"but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God"
This is the part that gives me such great hope and strength. He does just want us to hear that he has plans for us...He wants us to know them. It says it right there "He has revealed it to us...even the deep things". How great is that, we can KNOW the plans he has for us, we can KNOW our purpose and our destiny that we have in HIM
For people my age it is like groping in the dark to know our path...to know our destiny. We feel like we have to guess or roll a dice, but its quite the opposite. God does want to reveal what he has for us, he is not a God who wants us to walk around in the dark.
The question is will we sit. Will we sit and learn his voice? Will we sit and wait to hear the answers. People hit the wall with this for many reasons. One, they don't believe they can hear God...or they don't believe he talks. Two, people don't want to take the time to discipline themselves to sit and wait on God. But tell me , whats better, wondering in the dark searching for a solution, or sitting in the light, waiting for the answer.
Again He is a God who loves to reveal things. He is a revealer of mysteries. He is not one who is going to hide the plan (although their are times He does, and we can talk about that later). He is not a God who wants us to walk around guessing about our destiny.
He does have big, huge things for us, for his children; and whats better is that we can know them. The question is... will we respond to this invitation? Will we sit before the King and ask him to speak, and ask him to open our ears to what He has for us. Its your destiny to know the voice of your creator, the voice of your Father. Its your destiny to know his plan for your life. Will you believe it...will you believe he speaks.... will you believe He speaks to you. He just asks that you show up, listen, than trust what he says. Then walking out with boldness knowing that the "Father of Glory" has you, he has your dreams, he has your plans, He is just waiting for you to say Yes. To be drawn away be his voice. Its worth it. To hear the Voice of the one who loves who...the Voice of the one who sees you...the Voice of the one who is desperately devoted to you, and to seeing you being confident in His plans for your life. It is a journey into the depths of he heart, but its a journey that is worth it.
Monday, February 22, 2010
First Kingdom Entry
This is going to be a running blog about my thoughts and interactions on and off the ministry field. Thoughts from my walk with the God. Different meditations, end times, etc. This is more so to be able to express myself...and hopefully to help other people as they embark on the journey into the true Kingdom...the hidden Kingdom.......the Kingdom of God.
To many Christians are living as people who do not see and do not know.
2 Cor 3:12-17
12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflecta]">[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
With this promise why then are we living behind the veil. Acting like we don't know, acting like we cant know God, like we can know his promises, like we can know his movements and his plans for our lives. God is a God who loves to reveal his mysteries.
My hope is that thru this blog we can journey together to know the mysteries, to know the deep things, to know the very things that moves the Heart of our Heavenly Father.
To many Christians are living as people who do not see and do not know.
2 Cor 3:12-17
12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflecta]">[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
With this promise why then are we living behind the veil. Acting like we don't know, acting like we cant know God, like we can know his promises, like we can know his movements and his plans for our lives. God is a God who loves to reveal his mysteries.
My hope is that thru this blog we can journey together to know the mysteries, to know the deep things, to know the very things that moves the Heart of our Heavenly Father.
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