So I recently was online looking at tons of different books on sale, everything from what it means to be a man, how to make sure your marriage is good, being good at prayer, the church, etc and so on. There was a book that I came across to which I read some excerpts, the title of this book caught my eye, anything to do with the love of God and peoples view/pursuit of it I am all over it.
As I began to read my heart became heavy, here is the reason. There are many things in life that we are uncertain about, will I have a job tomorrow? What do people think of me? How long will my car last? How much longer will I live? But the question remains of what does God think of me? There have been different ideas of what God thinks and I dont intend to "settle" per say the different views here but more so to put my thoughts/experience and what I see as truth in the word of God. Most importantly for consideration. Here is my thought, you ready? Yes? Hmm....
1. "When will it be settled in our mind and hearts that God loves us?"
2. "Is Gods love conditional to the believer? How about to the unbeliever?"
The reason I ask these two questions is because of what I read in the excerpt I spoke of earlier, its the idea that "If you really love God you would _________". Now here is where I am coming from with that. Scripture is clear they will know we are Christians by our love....but wait....for one another. Let me ask you a question, do you want to love someone who says, "Hey you can't you get it through your head that I did this for you? Yes you, gosh you are so selfish, I gave everything for you". If I were to say that for you, what does that bring, guilt? Condemnation? For the "love" people! We love because He first loved us. It is talked about that many Christians are stagnant, lukewarm, etc. Then its going into a stint of these people are just selfish people who need to own up to their own sin and just realize that they are sinful. Now hear me on this, sin is sin, Christ was crucified for our sin, to pay the debt, sin is serious business. But here is the clincher for me, If I truly understand Gods love for me, I wont want to sin or be drawn to the things of this world. But I can't tell another Christian, "why can't you get it?" "are you stupid?". The harsh words of Jesus came towards the Religious of the day, not those who were stuck in sin or going about their lives the ho hum life. It was to those who thought they had it all together.
I am still processing through alot of this, but there is one thing that we MUST believe Christians, its the FACT that God loves us, only God can convince us of that. We can't pound it into each others heads, we can't convince ourselves so we can act better so it proves we "love" God. How does God feel about you right now? Are you at peace with the FACT that Jesus Christ died for you and if you have put your trust in Him as your savior, your Lord, your complete payment that He loves you 100% and is pleased with you? At some point we must stop looking at the past saying if only, Jesus took care of the if only, you dont stand condemned, for if we stand condemned than Christ's sacrifice is null. Yet it is not, true freedom is that we are convinced by Almighty God himself of His love for us, and that frees us up to obey him in truth and in power. God wants to relate to you, he wants to reveal himself to you, He longs for you to know three words that shake the gates of hell. "I LOVE YOU".
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
I'm waiting...
Hear the song "While I'm waiting?" or maybe its "I'm waiting", the point is the message of this song. I dont like to wait....seriously in NYC this weekend, there is a wait for everything, I'm so used to looking at the end of goal of going to a place to sit and eat and I hate the waiting part.
My waiting for the Lord is seasoned with something different, meaning that there is just as much He wants for me in the waiting than in the destination. Sometimes when all you can muster out is "Jesus Help Me", you wait....you dont curl up in a ball on the floor, you dont stop your life. Yet you wait....there is communication from Him while waiting. Waiting for His touch, His move, a glimpse of His face, His provision, His direction, it all is wrapped up in a package of God being the Alpha and Omega, He is there at the beginning and end, and guess what He is there in between, our God is the same yesterday "The beginning", Today "The present", and "Forever" the future. God prepares a table for us in every season. Today may this be a prayer for you.
"Jesus, Help Me".
My waiting for the Lord is seasoned with something different, meaning that there is just as much He wants for me in the waiting than in the destination. Sometimes when all you can muster out is "Jesus Help Me", you wait....you dont curl up in a ball on the floor, you dont stop your life. Yet you wait....there is communication from Him while waiting. Waiting for His touch, His move, a glimpse of His face, His provision, His direction, it all is wrapped up in a package of God being the Alpha and Omega, He is there at the beginning and end, and guess what He is there in between, our God is the same yesterday "The beginning", Today "The present", and "Forever" the future. God prepares a table for us in every season. Today may this be a prayer for you.
"Jesus, Help Me".
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Mother Teresa or William Wallace?
Another excerpt from John Eldridge:
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Is Jesus More Like Mother Teresa or William Wallace?
Now-is Jesus more like Mother Teresa or William Wallace? The answer is . . . it depends. If you're a leper, an outcast, a pariah of society whom no one has evertouched, if all you have ever longed for is just one kind word, then Christ is the incarnation of tender mercy. On the other hand, if you're a Pharisee, one of those self-appointed doctrine police . . . watch out. On more than one occasion Jesus "picks a fight" with those notorious hypocrites.
One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are healed of your sickness!" Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised and thanked God! But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. "There are six days of the week for working," he said to the crowd." Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath." But the Lord replied, "You hypocrite! You work on the Sabbath day! Don't you untie your ox or your donkey from their stalls on the Sabbath and lead them out for water? Wasn't it necessary for me, even on the Sabbath day, to free this dear woman from the bondage in which Satan has held her for eighteen years?" This shamed his enemies. And all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did. (Luke 13:10-17 NLT)
Does Jesus tiptoe around the issue, so as not to "rock the boat"? Does he drop the subject in order to "preserve church unity"? Nope. He walks right into it, he baits them, he picks a fight. Christ draws the enemy out, exposes him for what he is, and shames him in front of everyone. The Lord is a gentleman ???
(Wild at Heart , 24-25)
One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are healed of your sickness!" Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised and thanked God! But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. "There are six days of the week for working," he said to the crowd." Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath." But the Lord replied, "You hypocrite! You work on the Sabbath day! Don't you untie your ox or your donkey from their stalls on the Sabbath and lead them out for water? Wasn't it necessary for me, even on the Sabbath day, to free this dear woman from the bondage in which Satan has held her for eighteen years?" This shamed his enemies. And all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did. (Luke 13:10-17 NLT)
Does Jesus tiptoe around the issue, so as not to "rock the boat"? Does he drop the subject in order to "preserve church unity"? Nope. He walks right into it, he baits them, he picks a fight. Christ draws the enemy out, exposes him for what he is, and shames him in front of everyone. The Lord is a gentleman ???
(Wild at Heart , 24-25)
Friday, February 11, 2011
From John Eldridge
Few Have Felt So Pursued
Few have ever felt so pursued. Sometimes we wonder if we've even been noticed. Father was too busy to come to our games, or perhaps he jumped ship altogether. Mother was lost in a never-ending pile of laundry or, more recently, in her own career. We come into the world longing to be special to someone and from the start we are disappointed. It is a rare soul indeed who has been sought after for who she is-not because of what she can do, or what others can gain from her, but simply for herself. Can you recall a time when a significant someone in your life sat you down with the sole purpose of wanting to know your heart more deeply, fully expecting to enjoy what he found there? More people have climbed Mt. Everest than have experienced real pursuit, and so what are we left to conclude? There is nothing in our hearts worth knowing. Whoever and whatever this mystery called I must be, it cannot be much.
"In fact," we continue, "if I am not pursued, it must be because there is something wrong with me, something dark and twisted inside." We long to be known, and we fear it like nothing else. Most people live with a subtle dread that one day they will be discovered for who they really are and the world will be appalled.
(The Sacred Romance , 83-84)
Few have ever felt so pursued. Sometimes we wonder if we've even been noticed. Father was too busy to come to our games, or perhaps he jumped ship altogether. Mother was lost in a never-ending pile of laundry or, more recently, in her own career. We come into the world longing to be special to someone and from the start we are disappointed. It is a rare soul indeed who has been sought after for who she is-not because of what she can do, or what others can gain from her, but simply for herself. Can you recall a time when a significant someone in your life sat you down with the sole purpose of wanting to know your heart more deeply, fully expecting to enjoy what he found there? More people have climbed Mt. Everest than have experienced real pursuit, and so what are we left to conclude? There is nothing in our hearts worth knowing. Whoever and whatever this mystery called I must be, it cannot be much.
"In fact," we continue, "if I am not pursued, it must be because there is something wrong with me, something dark and twisted inside." We long to be known, and we fear it like nothing else. Most people live with a subtle dread that one day they will be discovered for who they really are and the world will be appalled.
(The Sacred Romance , 83-84)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
In the Zone
Ever zoned out before? Maybe its with a friend or in school or at work, hopefully not driving. But you find yourself completely in a different frame of thinking and it could be for just 1 second but its enough to make you feel a disconnect from what ever is in front of you or around you. I've done this, be it in a church service, etc. There are times when sports figures are at their best, they are "in the zone", nothing can stop them, they seem to just be a natural at what they are doing.
Consider this, there are times when we don't "Feel" like we are in the zone with the Lord and what He has called us to do. Here is an important truth, Galatians 2:20 "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, the Life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." We are in "the zone" with a new nature and we are new creations, it would be one thing for me to try to go out and put on a show of being a football player when I would get crushed! Its not in my makeup to be a football player. What is in my makeup and in yours if you have trusted Christ as your savior and king, is that we are children of God, He makes us be able to say to this mountain move and it will move. We are made to walk out the character of God to the world. Christian you are in the zone whether you believe it or not. God said it "It is finished". "Paid in Full" you are in the zone. Walk as Children of Light, walk after the spirit.
Consider this, there are times when we don't "Feel" like we are in the zone with the Lord and what He has called us to do. Here is an important truth, Galatians 2:20 "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, the Life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." We are in "the zone" with a new nature and we are new creations, it would be one thing for me to try to go out and put on a show of being a football player when I would get crushed! Its not in my makeup to be a football player. What is in my makeup and in yours if you have trusted Christ as your savior and king, is that we are children of God, He makes us be able to say to this mountain move and it will move. We are made to walk out the character of God to the world. Christian you are in the zone whether you believe it or not. God said it "It is finished". "Paid in Full" you are in the zone. Walk as Children of Light, walk after the spirit.
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