God does not forget...

This pumps me up. It's like one of the sweetest things I've found in a long time.

I was reading in John 1 where it talks about Jesus, the Word, coming and being the light and life of everything. It referenced over to Isaiah 49. So I started reading there to see what it was talking about. It's talking about "The Future Redeemer" a.k.a. Jesus. It's so cool to hear how they talk about him hundreds of years before hand. How he'll "gather Israel to himself" and he'll also "be a light for the Gentiles" (thats us) that he will "bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." (v5 - v6)

Hold on it gets better. He will be "despised and abhorred by the nation" then check this out "to the servant of rulers"; and "Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." (v7) Dang. I dig that. That Kings will see him and rise up, and princes will see him and bow down. But wait. That's not the best part.

Isaiah goes on to explain what God's saying. "In the time of my favor, I will answer." (v8) So God is saying that he's gonna come through, when it's BEST, not when we want, but when his favor comes to the fullest. Boom he'll come. It's a promise. It goes onto talk about how he'll tell captives 'come out,' and those in darkness 'be free.' (v9). So he's setting this up saying, I know your pain, I know your agony, I know what your in. I promise I'm coming and I'm going to do things thats impossible any other way.

"Shout for joy, O heavens;

rejoice, O earth;

burst into song, O mountains!

For the Lord comforts his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted ones." (v13)

It's awesome that all of creation the skies, the earth, mountains and valleys, the clouds to the grass, the trees to the rocks are all celebrating the freeing of His people. All rejoicing, singing songs about what he's about to do. . . . And what do the humans, those about to be freed, do?

"But [(just an awesome start)] Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me,

the Lord has forgotten me." (v14)

The humans are going, "Oh dang. God forgot us. He left us out here. He doesn't care. It doesn't matter." All of creature and nature is celebrating cause they see long term, and us in our stupid human ignorance and short sighted-ness are saying that God's forgotten us. So then the comeback:

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no companion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!" (v15)

Good point. Real good point. I like the baby at her breast analogy. Describes our dependence and how anything we get is from God and by conscious decision from God. I also dig the exclamation mark at the end. But this. . . This is the best part is the first line of verse 16.

"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;"

It's so good I'll repeat it. "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;" Wow. Just wow. this is Jesus were talking about. I don't know if you've read a little further down the story or not but it turns out that he gets nails put through his hands to hold him to a cross while the wrath of God is poured out on him instead of us. These palms that are scarred are his remembrance of me on my Kings hands. He's saying "NO! I Will NOT FORGET YOU! Look at my hands, do you really think I'd forget you?! Have I not proved that already?" That just humbles me and makes me feel so important that he's engraved me on the palm of his hands. I mean I write stuff on my hands to remember, usually it's in pen so I can erase it later. If it's really important, I use a sharpie, but still after a few days it's gone. But this is engraved. How amazing, how special, how important, how worth while should we feel. That the King above all kings, the one who all bow down to, the one who ever creature massively large and microscopically small would bow down before him, and He engraves us oh the palm of his hands.

Oh. Merry Christmas too.

What if. . .

A list of thoughts from thinking in the shower that never got fully developed...

What if we saw Bible stories come to life?

What if He says go into all the world... and we did?

What if he says depend on the Holy Spirit and thousands were saved...and we did...and they were?

What if the Church grew to be bigger than the four walls it meets in?

What if we realized every moment of everyday is a time of worship and not just when the music is playing?

What if we live by faith and not by sight?

by faith and not by logic?

by faith and not by human reasoning?

by faith and not by our family's expectations?

What if we looked more at our todays than our yesterdays?

what if we looked more at His tomorrows more than our todays?

What if we stopped endless pursuits and began eternal ones?

What if we stopped making excuses and started making efforts?

What if we looked for opportunities more than we looked for comfort zones?

What if we started trusting more than we feared?

What if we dreamed more than we reasoned?

What if we realized that we are the tomorrow?

What if we realized that today is the tomorrow?

What if a generation lost everything to walk with God and not just 12 unschooled men?

What if we realized we're part of God's heart that has beat the same from the beginning of time to the end of the earth and beyond?

What if we realized we're part of carrying that heart to every schoolteacher, kid, fastfood worker, homeless man, actor, politician, ticket-taker, African, Jew, American, Muslim, Chinese, every satellite worker, soldier, computer technician, customer service representative, every man, woman, and child?

What if. . .

What if. . .

Caught in His heart, losing track of my actions.

We need to be caught up in His heart and not our actions.

So often I look at His heart, and in the process of learning and having it, I turn and slowly get caught up and focused in what I'm doing instead. It's not even the "oh look at what I'm doing," but the over focus, over analyzing, and almost anal-ness of the details of my service.

"Did I say exactly the right words?", "How were my facial expressions?", "Is it better to give to the poor with God's hands or to give to the church?", you can continue these thoughts for a while.

Why Can't I focus on Your heart, let Yours make mine like yours, and then just living in the overflow of your heart out of mine? Why do I focus so much on the ins and outs, trying to perfect loving someone. That's never what You died for, not for me to stress out by loving someone.

Why is "Love God and Love others" so hard to do? Why is there so much toil inbetween? so much striving? Why all of the religious implications that sneak in?

We have perfect love. It casts out fear.(1 john 4:18) So why do I fear that I can't make the love I give perfect? Am I so caught up in what I'm giving? Have I shifted to the point that I'm now trying to give love on my own, my love?

But perfect love casts out fear. Fear has to do with punishment. So what type of punishment are we afraid of so much that we cannot love openly?

-Fear of disappointing the person

-Fear of disappointing God

-Fear of showing them a bad example of Christ's love

-Fear of trying to show His love, but it not being good enough, because I couldn't do it right.

-Fear that when i do show His Love/ when His Love flows from me, that it won't have any sort of immediate effect so I 'll think that I messed something up, said the wrong thing, didn't listen well enough, said too much, gave a hug or didn't give a hug when I should/shouldn't have.

-Fear that they won't understand God or they'll have a skewed version of Him due to me and my actions.

I know that none of these really are logical. Perfect love casts out fear. I will not fear to Love. It's true that I am a horrible version of what Christ's Love is like. There is no way that I can replicate it, but the only way for me to be close is to abide in Him, (John 15:5) continue to walk with Him and let His Love transform my heart, His Truth transform my mind, His Presence fill my essence. It's not up to me as to what others think, I cannot control their minds, I can only present my self before them as humble and honest, and making every effort to follow the way my King walked the streets and interacted with people when he was here.

God is love. Perfect love casts out fear. We love because he first loved us.

Today I will seek to let his love overflow my heart and love those around me without reservations and with an open heart.

But I know...

I know the pain your in.

I know how much it hurts.

I know where you've been.

I know the condition of your heart.

I know.

I know how much you love me.

I know how you act or don't act it out.

I know the thoughts of the pharisees.

I know your thoughts and motives.

I know.

I know your enemies.

I know their plans against you.

I know the strength you lack.

I know your weaknesses.

I know.

But I know the plans I have for you.

I know the bigger picture.

I know how this fits together.

I know how to control things.

I know.

I know how to love you more than you do.

I know what Love is.

I know what you need.

I know you.

I know.

-God.

I was reading in Exodus 3. Verse 19 starts out with "But I know..." and goes onto talk about how Pharaoh would react to Moses' taking his labor force and so God plans ahead of that. In Mark I was reading how Jesus knew what the Pharisees were talking about and trying to trick Him, but rather than being trapped He showed off. In Psalms, David understand that God knows him.

undeserved.

So I started thinking about it, and in the process of being thankful, since that seems to be a popular topic this time of the year. But I was thinking about what we have to be thankful for, what we take for granted. The fact of it is the things that we're thankful for are also the things that we don't deserve. I think a lot of time we believe we deserve much more than we actually do.

For instance:

We don't deserve, yet are granted, as a free gift straight-up out of his grace.

Today: gift. When we woke up: gift. The air we breathe, right now: gift.

Yesterday was a gift. When you got up and put pressure on your legs and they held you up: gift.

When you walked to the bathroom this morning: gift.

When you used the bathroom successfully: gift.

If you think about it anything that others do or don't do and they by with:

(Mission trips do wonders for opening your eyes to this)

Having your food warm or hot: gift. Options with types of food: gift.

Groceries stores with 3 or more types of cereal: gift.

More to come later.

Reflections for faith.

I'm kinda having a rough time. I am a senior and am a little frustrated with the lack of progress I've made for the Kingdom while I was here. I know there's still time left, but I just keep seeing all the people who are hurting and all of my comfort I surround myself in. Too many people to reach, and not enough boldness or whatever it is that I'm lacking to reach them all.

I left a village in the desert, walking five miles to get reach the water reservoir. The village is thirsty, dry, barren, dying of thirst. I filled two gallon jugs with water and returned to the village.

What do I do?

I can give the whole village a drink of water, or I can hydrate two others enough that they can make the trek with me back to the reservoir and bring back six gallon jugs of water.

The sensible thing would be to hydrate the two others so that we can eventually hydrate the village again; in the process of this, I must say no to those dying of thirst. I must pass over those who need it just as bad. I must leave those looking for hope, portraying to them near hopelessness, but it is the best that I can do.

I feel like I've spent the last 3.5 years giving everyone a drink and not really hydrating anyone. It's kinda rough to think about the impact you could have had, had I been sold out. (I know that part of this is Satan trying to stop me or slow me down, but part of it I feel like God can use to inspire those around me.) I'm reading Hebrews 11 tonight. v13-16 is really good. It talks about how these great "heroes" of faith lived by that faith until they died. They never saw what they were promised. The vision they had never completed, but they weren't settlers, they were pursuers of a country of their own, a better country, a heavenly one. They kept on living in faith even though it never fully came through when they were there to see it, because they continued to live in faith, God was not ashamed to be called their God. That's what I want. I want to please God, with faith is the only possible thing, but I don't want to give up. I'm working on believing that he's still working and that it's still coming. Still discovering what's God's voice and what's not. What his plans are and how I can be a part of them. Amen. Nothing too great. Just honest. Double Amen.

Have you seen Jesus?

Taking him, [little child], in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of theses little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." -Mark 9:36-37

As I'm trying to find Jesus, I'm searching for him. I asked how could I find him? How could I reconnect with him? How could I make this something really real and not just a thing I do in the morning?


Day before, God lead me to 1 John where he talked about how we know what God is that he lays down his life for his friends. How to Love God is to obey his commands, and his command is to "Love each other as I have loved you." Jn 15:14. So I was thinking about that, and then eventually forgot and just let it pass by, but God doesn't forget things very easily. He's more of the stick to it kinda guys. So he further developed this idea in my head so I wouldn't forget.


IF we want to see His heart on campus, we have to see Jesus on campus.
Yeah, so at first I went to ego-centric and thought, yeah, people should see us as Jesus on campus, then they could meet Jesus and we could be that light. I was sorta pumped, I mean I should be really pumped, but I had had that revelation before, but it wasn't really motivating and seemed like that's not what God was trying to emphasize. As I was reading in Mark 9 it came upon the verse we started with. "Whoever welcomes one of theses little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."
Then I began to think and realize, (God showed me), that to love others as he loved us is good in theory, but still we wouldn't treat them very well. We don't fully understand it. At least for me, I still would be "trying" but I would be burnt out easily, easily frustrated, lose patience, give up, and it wouldn't be very effective for very long. But what God was saying was, "How would you treat Jesus? If I walked into the room right now, how would you treat me? Would you keep on doing homework and just blow me off? Would you just keep watching TV? Would you go take a shower to try to avoid that awkward moment where you don't really have anything to say?. . . or would you stop and talk to me? would you ask me how my day was? and then listen because I really cared? . . . then why do you do it to your roommate?"
"If you saw me in the library, would you give me the quick heads up 'what's up?' then keep moving on? or would you stop and talk?"
"If I was walking behind you a ways, would you just walk through the door, or would you wait that extra few seconds to hold the door open for me?"
"If you were on the computer checking facebook or email, and I walked up and really needed a computer, would you think to yourself 'I waited my turn, what I'm doing is probably just as important as what You have to do' or would you say, 'here Jesus, you can have this one'?"
"Would you hand me a tray in the cafeteria if I walked up behind you?"
"If I passed you on your way to class, would you wave and say 'hi' and ask how my day was going? or would you just ignore me. Would you go the around about way so we didn't have to pass? Would you look off into the distance so we didn't have to make eye contact? Would you have your ipod turned up so loud that you didn't even notice me? Would you take your ipod out to acknowledge the fact that I'm there, or would you just keep 'rocking out' to music that talks about me instead? Do you even have your head up when we pass so that you could see me?"
"If I got on the elevator, would you break out your cell phone and start texting, read the time, just play around with it until we stopped so that we didn't have to talk?"
"Do you pay attention to me when I'm trying to teach in class? or are you doing your own thing?"


How many times in the day do I blow Jesus off. How many times a day do I pass Jesus and treat him like crap. If it was actually Jesus there is no way that I would do that, if I saw Jesus there, but yet, I do it to others. I do it to his creation. I do it to those made in his image, his likeness. I blow of Jesus all the time on campus, I ignore him most of the days.


"For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me... I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the the least of these, you did not do for me." - Matt 25:42-45


How do we love others? We love God as he has loved us, and we love others as he has loved us. So in the same sense, it's proof that we are loving God by loving others. We are carrying out his heart. It helps me practically apply what it means to love others, if I could see or imagine them like Jesus then I think I know how I would treat the physical Jesus.


I saw this youtube video, not crazy about the song that goes with it, but look at these pictures. Look at their eyes. Look past their facial expressions and male or female. Look past their setting and surroundings. You can look past their features, look into their eyes and see Jesus looking back at you. You can read so many expressions by someone's eyes. You can see so many thoughts that Jesus portrays by his eyes, and it makes him a little more real.


Thats my prayer for today, well the rest of my life really. Is that I could see people, look them in the eyes and see Jesus looking back at me to remind me just how I should treat them, just how I should love them. Even when they're doing things extremely annoying or stupid, it's almost like Jesus is a character in the play and testing out roles, and when he is just really annoying you can meet him in his eyes and he looks at you saying "ok, now how do you respond? are you still willing to show the love I've given you?" It's looking past the person and their actions and behaviors to see the person inside. Like a play is how I think of it, it's just their character they're portraying, really they are a person inside, and that's who I am going to love.


But when I get to heaven, I'd like to hear:
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me....I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." -Matt 25:25-36&40


Today. I'm looking for Jesus on campus, I'm praying that I could see him and respond appropriately.

Love God.

This is a long complicated thought. But it ends in, Love God.

It started out with me realzing (God showing me), that i judge/measure other people by what they do. By their actions rather than who they are. Then I realized it was because I do the same thing with myself. I judge/measure myself by what I do rather than who I am. I find my worth in my ministry (what I do for God), rather than I'm his. It makes Him Loving me conditional, rather than unconditional. (I know that there's nothing I can do to be saved/earn salvation, but I still find myself trying to strive to be Loved.) So I try to find my worth and my accomplishments of what I do for Him, rather than who I am in Him.

(Bad Logic- I know, but this was my next thought process.) If you're a Christian who plays basketball and you define yourself and find your worth in being a basketball player, then God will probably remove basketball. Or basketball will be removed by Him or you. Then your forced to define yourself by something else, where God should and usually steps in. <- This works fine for basketball, not so good with "ministry." It more or less involved me saying, ok. So if I define myself by my ministry, by what I do. I won't do anything and then figure out what I am. . . . fail. - I tried to stop ministry to realign my focus but that didn't seem to work. I was just being disobedient. So I realized, I need to figure out how to find my worth outside of ministry without stopping ministry, by shifting mental gears.

I got to talk to J Hunt this morning, and talk some of this out. He is learning/dealing with the same thing. How do we give our all, without doing. Which if that doesn't make since, he put it another way which explains it a little better. "I try to love You with my efforts, rather than my heart." I should be loving you with my heart, and letting my efforts follow. Not that the efforts are bad, or are wrong, but that it's like putting the cart before the horse. God wants me not what I do. Jesus died for me not my ministry. So the question came up, "How do I love God?"

We hit the books, well just one book, but it's a good one.

How do I love God?

-"If you love me, feed my sheep." - John 21:17 (but that's still doing, and effort)

-"If you love me, you will obey what I command." - John 14:15

Obey what I command. Ok. Check the page over John 15:9-12.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will reman in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

Then in trying to figure that out. We were referenced/lead over to 1 John. Solid piece incase you were ever bored. 1 John 3:16-20

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

The thing that seemed to keep coming up over and over and over again was the fact of love each other. "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God." -1John4:7. It all comes down to loving people.

It's not doing ministry, it's just loving people.

When you hear serving God, what do you think of? I think of of church, of cru, of leading a bible study, of meeting with individuals, of being in the praise band, of leading cru, of hanging up signs. But did Jesus ever say to "do ministry"? or did he say Love people. So how do we love people? We love them by giving them what they need. What they need, not what they want. We seek and meet those needs. In the book "Starving Jesus," they specify that Christ-like love is giving someone what they need at great personal cost.

To Love:

the only love we express, is the love we've experienced.

Think about that, when our parents love us and hug us, so when we love someone we want to give them a hug. When, they give up work to come to our games, we love someone by putting off schoolwork and going to their game or their play or event. We just replicate the love that we've experienced. Most of it is, by doing stuff, by putting forth effort and showing our actions. But the only way we can love each other, the only way we can Love God is to understand and experience His Love.

So the question to figure out:

How do we experience and fully know God's love & how do we flect that back to Him and those around us?

What does it mean to Love?

Freedom is what we are given, but not what we should always use

Freedom:

1 Corinthians 8:1-12

Paul starts in by talking about food worshiped to idols. Ok so here's the scoop.

Back in the day there were actual idols, like a golden statue they thought could control stuff.

(Actually, kind of ridiculous to think about, like going to the mountain lion in front of the library and asking it to help your Mom with cancer. Yeah, I know right. Actually, we probably do that now, we just call it "luck," by smacking a sign that says "Play Hard" before taking the court, or rubbing the mountain lion by the field as you take it. I guess it's kind of the same thing.)

But they would sacrifice different types of meat to these statues/idols so that they would have a good harvest, good health, etc. After they symbolically sacrificed these animals to these statues and idols, they weren't just going to leave all these dead animals laying around, so they shipped them off to the marketplace. So many of the animals in the marketplace were symbolically "sacrificed." So some of these new believers, we'll call them "freshman Christians," were worried that by eating some of this meet that they were participating in some form of idolatry worship. I could see this as a valid point, if they had previously believed in these statues, and participated in this type of worship, then to have anything to do with it might seem like a "slip up" or that they still want to be part of it.

Paul understands that way of thinking and just brings a new perspective on it and says: "Ok, so, we know that there is one God. Only one. Others say there maybe some on earth or in heaven. But we know there is One God, and everything is from Him. right? (pauses for agreement) Then if God is the controller of the universe, than those "gods" have no power or control, and that they really are just a clump of scrap metal made into a statue. It doesn't really matter how the food was killed because killed to eat or killed for a pile of junk, the killing is not the point. Food doesn't bring us closer or further from God. It's not what he desires."

That's his first point that the rest is based off of. Jesus said the same thing in Matt 15:11 "What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean.' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean'." Kind of the whole "it's not the input, but the output that occurs that matters."

But now that we've got the initial background setting of how things worked and the issue that was being addressed, Paul talks to the upperclassmen about how we should deal with it. He says, "So you know that it doesn't matter, but be careful, because those who don't know that, may think your sinning and it cause them to sin. I know it's inadvertantly, but still we need to be aware. If someone, who Jesus died for, see's what you're doing, and they fall because of what you did or are doing, you just sinned against God."

Ben Parker says in Spiderman, "WIth great power comes great responsibility." Along those same lines, replace power with freedom. Paul says, "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Gal 5:1), so it's not that we're not suppose to be free, but that with Freedom comes great responsibility.

At first I thought, well this is bogus. Finally free, and now held down by responsibilities. Then God showed me it's the same thing in college. We're free from our homes and our parents restraints, free to do whatever we want, but we still have responsibilities. Actually now, we have more. Responsible to make sure we eat enough each day, get enough sleep, responsible to do our homework when we need to, responsible to make sure you plan classes so you graduate, responsible to check to make sure you have enough flex dollars, or enough money in the bank when you go to wal-mart. We're responsible for keeping our rooms clean, for doing our laundry, for changing the sheets, filling up the car with gas. Lots of responsibilities with all of this freedom.

So Paul notes this freedom and says. Don't be selfish, you have freedom, but if your freedom is going to cause someone else to fail, to fall, to sin, then your stupid and selfish to go ahead in that. Not only that, be you will be sinning against God. Jesus, "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." (Luke 17:2)

It's not a self-defeating view, it's a others-centered view. We as upperclassmen, as more mature Christians need to live a life as an example, thats living with freedom and responsibility. Ft note in bible about 8:10-13 "Some actions may be perfectly alright for us to do, but may harm a Christian brother or sister who is still young in the faith and learning what the Christian life is all about. We must be careful not to offend a sensitive or younger Christian or, by our example, to cause him or her to sin." and here's the kicker of it all. "When we love others, our freedom should be less important to us than strengthening the faith of a brother or sister in Christ."

What are some of those things/sins that I do/could do that possibly young Christians could see as a stumbling block.

-having a drink

-missing church once or twice?

-skipping class

-freedom of speech

(with the freedom to say whatever you want to say, what are you saying? how are you using that freedom?)

-speaking in tongues (we have the freedom to, but sometimes it's beneficial for those around us to not)

-spending the night in a room of the member of the opposite sex over night (especially if you're dating), not having sex but how others will assume and then follow your example.

-"cussing" - certain words aren't in the Bible, but some people view as wrong when others don't.

What this does not include is: (the Bible is against for everyone)

-getting drunk

-sexual or perverted joking

-having sex with someone your not married with

-not going to church

-using God's name in vane

Look what I'm giving up...

You may think, well this is stupid. Why am I giving up everything I can do. Maybe I want to do it. I have the right to do it. True, Yes, yes you do. But this life isn't about you. Paul keeps on writing in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 about our freedoms and how we use them. He pretty much hits the essence of this here: "'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." (1cor10:23-24). Nailed it son. "For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved." (v33b). How much of a humble servant is Paul. He lives not for his own good, but simply for the betterment of any of those around him.

We shouldn't come at this with super-sensitivity and paranoia, but with an awareness of others and a willingness to limit what we do when there is a real possibility of misunderstanding and offense. (It's like the first part he says don't cause someone to sin with your freedom, and here he's taking it a little further and saying only build each other up with your freedom.)

Well, I'm offended...

As Christians we should hate sin. But we need to be careful as upperclassmen (mature) Christians, we're not always being offended. "Christians should not make a career out of being the offended people with oversensitive consciences." Many Christians tend to throw their thoughts and standards on someone else rather than the Bible's. We need to be careful that in continually being offended we can quickly become just judgmental of others and then become the "pharisees."

Final point:

It comes down to Love. How you Love others and how they Love you. Sometimes the best way to Love others is by doing, not doing, calling them out on what they're doing, or loving them in-spite of their downfalls (as many people have for us.). It comes down to how do we love people best?

Simon's Honor

So I was thinking. As i read in Luke 23, well all of them tell the story, but this is the version I'm reading, it says "as they lead him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus."

My initial thought was, dang that sucks for Simon. Dude was just trying to go about his business, didn't do anything wrong, maybe just followed the crowd over to see what all the commotion was and then gets yanked out of the crowd and forced to carry someone else's cross. He didn't do anything, and it was probably inconvenient for him, like he could have needed to go fix dinner or meet someone for some food, but instead he gets chosen to lift this up. Unfortunately, I've read this many times before and always thought, huh, well it kinda sucks to be him.

But today, God showed me, look at the honor he had. He was the most like Christ. Ok 1) He was forced to carry someone else's cross 2) which he had done nothing wrong to have to carry it 3) It was probably inconvenient for him, but he did it anyway. (Actually, all of that just came as I was trying to explain my thoughts then realized how much they tied together)

What God really showed me was how much of an honor Simon had. To be able to literally pick up a cross and follow Jesus. (Something Jesus said 12 chapters and I dunno how many weeks or months before this, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.") So Simon got experience something we never can imagine, helping our Savior carry the cross up the hill to his place of execution. The place where all of God's wrath poured down, the place where Love was poured out, the place where all of human history took a 180 turn, the place where Life was started. He got to put the same wood across his back that the weight of all of human history was about to be placed on. He not only got to be there, but he got to help. Of course, Jesus had the hard part. Jesus carried the cross, when Simon just carried the wood. Hmm... I like that. Jesus carried the cross, when Simon just carried the wood.

The distinction comes when you think about it as, well different things.

-Jesus had the wrath of God on Him, the guilt of every sin every committed on Him (pssh, we crumble at the feeling one or two), He had the feeling of God turning away from Him, forsaking Him. A promise he makes us that He'll never leave or forsake us, yet He did it to his own Son for us. He wasn't just carrying wood, he was carrying the world.

-Jesus carried the cross, when Simon just carried the wood. I think about us and how that applies to us today. One difference between the two was the result, how that event carried out in the two's lives. For Simon, probably just some physical fatigue, worn out from having to carry wood up a hill for possibly a few miles. Yeah, he's probably pretty wiped. But for Jesus, it killed Him. He was beaten and bruised along the way. Jesus suffered so much not only physical but also mental anguish. To have your best closest friend, your Dad, your hero, the one your most closest and most intimate with turn your back on you in your darkest moment. This was at great cost. Physical fatigue you rest up, get some food, and you'll be alright. This kind of emotional and mental loss changes you. I think sometimes maybe we often are carrying wood, a hard or stressful situation, maybe it's just inconvenient, and we think we're carrying our cross, but it's just wood. With some alone time, some food, and some rest. We'll pretty much bounce back. But there's other times when we carry our cross, when deep emotional matter. (It's kinda like a mission trip for example. Physical labor for someone is great. Appreciated and definitely helpful. But sitting down with them and being able to connect with them, to feel their pain, to help carry their load with them, to experience what they experience, that is more of carrying the cross. Those types of events change you forever, you can't just rest of from them and be fine again. Carrying the cross deals with the heart and face rather than the hands and the feet.)

Kind of unrelated but something else that stood out was that Jesus was never about Himself. After all, this was the greatest act in all of human history, and he just keeps giving. Not soaking it up. But asking for forgiveness for those who are doing this to him. He just keeps giving, he's still outwardly focused. He keeps giving. He gives forgiveness and makes an effort to show to the other thief that he cares and loves him even in the worst point in His life. It just amazes me. I want to be like Jesus. How much love did he have, how much effort did he spent showing that love. wow. I. . . I. . . just amazed.

Passive Follow to Active Seek

We are passively following God, if that. We should be actively seeking God.

Here's the difference the passive follower is the one who says, ok, God if you want me to do something let me know. Set it up. (Pretty much, spoon feed me what you want me to do, and make it overly obvious to me. Make a big deal out of it, so that I recognize it's you. Then I'll probably question it and deny it once. Then the second or third time realize it's really you, then ask for confirmation to do it.) Then there's the one's who actively seek God. The ones who are on their toes of life. Who look for opportunities to know more about God, to share God with people. Who are looking and expecting something big to happen.

Look at David, known as the man after God's own heart. It's hard to be passive and follow your way to someone's heart. Let alone God's. How many passive follower treasure hunters do you see? I see more of seekers. Searchers. One's who are actively looking for opportunities to know and discover more.

It kinda comes down to: What are you living for?
When you get up in the morning, do you think, "Ok, How can I serve God today? How can I love someone? What can I learn from God today?" or is it more of "Ok. I got to check my email, make sure I take care of the animals, go to work. 100 things at work to do. Still need to mow the lawn. The house needs fixed. I should have done this a long time ago. I'm not going to get it done. Oh and I should read my Bible today." What do you get out of bed for in the morning? Is it to go to work/school and get things done? or is it to know, and serve, and love and experience God more?

We get caught up in the day-to-day activities. Instead of making the whole day about God and living for and with Him. We see things here. The temporary that need to get done now. We get so caught in today's details that we forget the big picture of life. It's like living for today, everyday. Day after day we accomplish today's goals and then at the end of our live look back and see if each day's activities somehow fit together to make a bigger picture or some common theme, or is it just a repetition of the same series of events that don't really tie together. If we had vision for something bigger. To be part of something bigger and larger, at the end of our live we could look back and go, "Wow, look what God did." It's a big picture, a big impact.

Are we doing things throughout our day that we are forcibly having to rely on God to come through for us to make it through? Upon those things, thats when we can really experience God's power. To experience God is recognizing that everything good we do is from Him, whether it's successfully using the bathroom, speaking in front of a group, tying our shoes, leading someone to Christ, loving the jerk that cut you off, being kind to a neighbor who's paranoid about getting your grass on his yard. Seriously! That's why life at home is so boring and so unGod centered, is because we refuse to take the time to stop and appreciate what he's done for us. Not just on the cross, but that last breath he gave us, and the clothes we're in. We feel God's presence when we take a leap of faith and become forcibly dependent on him, but we just assume that everything else we can do on our own. We don't realize that we are dependent on him naturally. We refuse to realize that God is in and about everything we do, that his mercy allows us to make it to this afternoon. That his grace gives us a heart that continues to beat.

We, as American's have so much that we've became to self-reliant. We will do things our own way when we want them and do them by ourselves. We have the technology and the means to do it. (Along with the pride and selfishness too.) . . . and we wonder why American's are so numb or unchanged by the story of Jesus. At the very center of the gospel, (what Jesus is and taught) is humility, selflessness, and above all dependence. Even as Christians we fail to be dependent and realize it's all about and from God. So we continue to struggle through our lives fighting God with our independence. Bill Bright writes "Unfortunately, many Christians do not display a quality of life that encourages others to desire a relationship with our Lord. Some believers do not even display a quality of the life that encourages others to have a relationship with them." I think if we'd just shut up, sit down, and reevaluate, realizing that it's all from and about Him, then we could start to realize what this life more abundantly is all about. By doing things his way what is possible. Using an electric guitar as a spoon does not work great, but by surrendering what we want or think it should be used for and letting the creator show us what it could do, beautiful music can be made.

I think actively seeking plays part in that. Listening. Active listening. Asking questions, then getting answers. James says it in James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." Ask and receive. Seek to ask.

But not just with wisdom or info. But to seek God's face, you will first experience his hands at work. I'm not saying God is all about miracles. But he is all about loving people. God is not just a theological, conscious being/wonder, God is an active real-life getting down and dirty loving people kind of being. So if we want to seek God's kingdom, his righteousness, his face, his hands, his being, if we want to be like Him, If we are actively seeking Him, it's going to involve following Jesus' footsteps in loving and serving people. It will involve coming alongside other humans he loves, despite their actions, and choosing to love them. We are actively seeking ways to partner with God to love people. Actively seeking HIS heart. Actively seeking His face.

It's like if we're passively following God, then we're living life. We tend to fit God throughout our day when he fits. Some time in the morning or evening. Quick times before food. We are reminded of God throughout or day. We do what we have to do and he fits in and fills the cracks to fill up the day. But if we're seeking God. God is life. Everything we do is in pursuit of Him. Every event of the day. We go to class, we eat, we go to the grocery story looking for God, looking for lessons, looking to be able to serve and love someone else. We are actively pursuing God and His Love, His Ways, His Will. If you take God out of our lives, our whole life falls apart, it doesn't make sense. It quickly becomes a dull list of actions to repeat over and over day after day.

We cannot actively seek by not thinking about God. We cannot actively seek by letting our own prejudice get in the way. We cannot actively seek by refusing to do things our way, by being passive, by sitting on the couch, by not putting time in with Him. We cannot actively seek by dreaming the way those around us dream. We cannot actively seek by looking forward to the end of the week/ day/ event, just to get it over. ?Enduring is not actively seeking.? You cannot actively seek by going through the motions. You cannot actively seek by not going through trials. Like Moses, he sought after God and that meant climbing the mountain to Him. Actively seeking means finding your comfort zone boundaries, then taking another step. Actively seeking cannot be done alone, or by your own will or motivation. Only One can give you the drive to seek His own heart. If at any time this is not for or because of God, it will fail, be fruitless, and completely pointless.

Some Biblical references I believe. If we look at Isaiah. When first talking to God. God says "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah seeks in saying "Here I am. Send Me!" (Isaiah 6:8). He doesn't necessarily follow but he volunteers. Lots of people responded to God with "Here I am" throughout the old testament. But Isaiah added in the "oooh ooh, pick me! me me me me! Me Pick ME! I'll go!" He was went seeking. and Peter. If Jesus would have said come to me disciples I don't know who would have gotten out of the boat, but Peter volunteered himself. He was seeking. He was looking for opportunities to get closer to Jesus. "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." That wasn't passive that was active. Jesus if that's you, tell me to get out of this boat and do the impossible cause I want to get closer to you. Jesus rocks it and answers with a "Come." Boom. One word answers from the Holy One.

So in our everyday lives, how do we actively seek God? How can we begin to pass past this passive following? Lets get up, get dependent, and live life abundantly.

Righteous Dude Numero Dos - Daniel

So I'm already diggin' Daniel and I know there's alot more to discover, so I'll probably have to come back to him, but what I'm looking at now is Daniel 2. Once again, Daniel (like the other two) is noted for his wisdom. Which is good, but what I really like about it is how he carry's out that wisdom, how he carries himself.

Ok to set up the scene - King Nebuchadnezzar (I bet he didn't learn to spell that til like 3rd grade), has these dreams and they're really messin with him. So he calls up these astrologers and he says tell me what it means, but if you can't, I'm going to cut you up into pieces and torch your house and property. (Great, no pressure, right?) So the astrologers and magicians say "ok tell us, we'll tell you what it means." and King Neb says "no, i think you know how serious I am about this so you'll just make up something to survive. No you tell me what the dream was and what it means." They reply with "dude, thats impossible. No one can do that." So King Neb gets TO'ed and sends out an order to kill all the wise men in the Kingdom. [Enter Daniel: Stage left]

So as Arioch (King's Executioner) comes to get Daniel and the 3 (Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego). David talks to Arioch "with wisdom and tact." (v14). I like that. I like it cause not only did he have wisdom, but he knew how to use it. He didn't go around with his nose up in the air, he kind of thought it through of what's the best way to convey this. He used tact, which takes alot more thinking through than just "I have the answer, here it is!" But he was aware of things and knew the best way to communicate was not to fly off the hinges or deal with stuff that way, but tactfully. He was a thinker, and a wise man. So he talks Arioch to talking to the King and letting them have some time to interpret it. Then he runs back and gets the 3 and urges them to "plead for mercy from the God of heaven." <--Dude straight up knew how to handle stuff. You get you and your posse together and you faceplant in-front of the God of heaven (the only God, thats why they give him the capital "G") and you plead and beg. They all knew this was the only way it was happening is if God shows up and God explains it. Footnote in my bible explains it as he just met with the temperamental king who ordered his death. Instead of panicing he prayed. Panic shows your hopelessness, prayer shows your hope in God. So they hit their knees and cry out please. (I dont know this for sure, but the feeling I got when I read it was that Daniel didn't ask for Him to solve it, or for Him to get the interpretation. He just was asking that God would tell one of them.) How much more should we be like that. Doesn't it seem like alot of time's we want to be the hero? or that we want to be God's all-star? But Daniel wasn't into that (granted his death with his life or death) but still a good lesson that when we want God to work, we often want God to work through us (not a bad thing, necessarily) but are we a little frustrated when God does it and it's not through us? I know I am. I shouldn't be. It's ridiculous. It's not about me, it's about Him. The goal got done, but I think part of it is where I want to feel like I accomplished something. We often forget how much prayer is a great part in the process. Actually prayer is like the bottom of the iceberg. It's like 2/3 of the situation. It's only the 1/3 that sticks above the water that people see and that we are doing something. Hmm.. yeah I like that. Anyways. Daniel prays that it gets done, doesn't matter who or what does it, but that it gets done. I wish I could pray like that? I wish I did pray like that.

{[God, please help me pray without pride. God, show me what I can pray for, whether or not I'm in the situation, and help me to pray with your heart. Not that I could help, but if I can please let me, but that it will be done. That we, as we go about the situation, that we wouldn't think about ourselves or anything we're doing, but see that it's you who's doing it and that it's you who get all the glory. and God please, help remove any feelings of being let down or disappointment because we weren't the ones there to help, but help us rejoice in the fact that you are working despite the people involved. Let us fully be the body of Christ, and as there is any small victory that we could celebrate it because it is our victory also. That we would be encouraged by this victory and it would motivate us and spur us on to further work harder. to pray harder. ]}

So Daniel is the one who God ends up using in the middle of the night through a vision. and What i like is in v18 he says "he urged them to plead for mercy" then in v19 "Daniel praised the God of heaven." ok 1) He believed fully that God could answer the prayers and God did. 2) instantly he turns around and praises God for it. He just turns and thanks God honestly and open heartedly. Sometimes, I think we, atleast I, thank God not the way I should. I thank him, but not nearly as much as I asked him for help in something. Not with the same creative language, not with the same life changing urgency. I also have a tendency to go tell everyone else right off and celebrate with them rather than stopping and celebrating and thanking God first. I'll go tell the other 4 people in the situation and then thank God.

So then he goes to tell King Neb. He says can you tell me what it means? and I love how Daniel responds. It in no way could be pointing the finger at himself. He doesn't even take partial credit like we often do by saying "I've got it, God gave it to me." He spins the whole sentence structure. He says, "No one could do that. It's impossible for anyone to do it. But God can." Actually his exact words which I'll put cause it's slam-in-your-face-good was "No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but thre is a God i heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown. . ."(v27-28). BAM! Then the humbleness continues to pour out after he says this he make sure everyone knows who he is and that he's nothing special. After he says God reveals stuff, then he goes on to say "as for me, this mystery has been reveal to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men," but so that you know what your dreams mean. It would have been very easy to just leave this line out when your talking and say, "I have the answer God gave me" and let people revel a little in God using you. But he says, it's not because I have greater wisdom.

Ok a few other things real quick after he tells King Neb about the dream he says now WE will tell you what it means. WE as in him and the 3. Although Daniel was the only one speaking, he still makes sure to include the other 3 who were there all along. Who prayed (doing most of the hard work). and I think about how often we don't give credit to all of those who prayed for us. We tell them thanks, but when someone says something how often do you hear someone say, well God did all of the work, and there was Bob and Jill and Sarah and Meghan and Michael and Jonathan and Kayla and all these people people praying so they get just as much congrats that I do." I don't know if I've ever heard someone say that. Then along the same lines King Neb raises up Daniel in a high position and gives him lots of crap (good crap, like gifts) and by Daniel's request, the 3 are made administrators over the province Babylon. He never forgets those who were with him, he never leaves them behind. he always prays and rewards those who have prayed with him. Hmm. Lots of good lessons in humility from such a wiseman. He wasn't thinking less of himself, he was just thinking of himself less. He never let the power get to him or persuade his mindset. He stuck to God did it, and these people helped me pray for it. I was just the one God happened to use.

UPDATE: So, my bad. Foolishly, I started with chapter 2 cause that's where I was referenced, but kind of missed the pre-chorus of chapter 1. So Chapter 1 hits this: Daniel and the 3 have exported, along with the rest of his people to a foreign land after Judah was conquered. Then they get picked up by King Neb's official because Neb wanted some of the young men of Israel. So as they're there, Neb gives them a certain amount of food and wine for each day, but Daniel doesn't want it. It's unclean food and is starting to be swayed towards the Babylonian culture (leaving God's). So the dude in charge comes and says, "if you guys look worse then all the rest then Neb will have my head." So David says, "Ok. test us. Give us 10 days to do it our way, and then judge for yourself how we look." At the end of 10 days, the 4 look fantastic (fantastic 4, get it?), better than the others, so the boss allows them to continue their veggie diet. After this it says that there were none like the 4 in the kingdom. That God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning to these men. and David could understand visions and dreams of all kind. Then as King Neb talked to them all, he found that these 4 stuck out above all the rest. "10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole Kingdom."

So I started looking at this from a conceptual standpoint rather than just pure facts and learned this: long before any of them were used to interpret dreams or rise above the rest, before the fire they walked in, before they were placed in a place of authority, before Daniel's dreams, and before he hung around with some rather large felines, before all of that, they stuck with Jesus. Two words I love now: 1) Resolve. Daniel resolved not to eat any of the meat or wine. Resolved - to be devoted to principle and to be committed to a course of action. 2) Consecrate. Consecrate - to set apart or devote to God. I think these two words best describe what's going on here. They fantastic 4 set themselves apart from all the rest of the Israelites and all the Babylonians and dedicated themselves to a strict course of action to follow God at all costs, and not to give in anyway. This was way before they expected to do anything. They had no idea what was about to happen. All the crap they were about to be put through. This wasn't even the best of times either. God allowed them to be kicked out of their home, then taken away from their family, and still they said "You know what, we're sticking with God." And because of their set-apartness, then God raised them up and used them in some mighty big ways. OK. RELATED TO US - Sometimes God has to move us away from things we're comfortable with, away from home away from friends and family. Do we crack? Do we give in and adapt to the culture around us? or do we stick with God, even if we're the only ones who are. IF we do, then God can use us in big ways. It doesn't mean we're going to be promoted and be the head of something. It means he will bless us (surprising what that comes in the form of), and it means that they'll be opposition. After this, Daniel gets thrown into the lions den, the 3 get tossed into the fire. both things I wouldn't necessarily do. But both times you see that God is with them and that God never leaves them. Thats like being caught in a gun battle between two gangs, or being tossed in a shark tank with a fresh cut on your leg. Maybe that's being tossed into another country in missions work, or tossed into a freshman class at college when no one is left around you, or when they all abandon you for the ways of the land instead of sticking with God. If the fantastic 4 would have given in, we might not have had any of these stories about men walking in fire, or thrown to the lions who become your friends. Extreme cases of sticking to God and God showing up BIG. So it makes me think of how sometimes God moves us out and when things aren't too happy, we stick with him. Then he raises us up and uses us in more ways than if we had been left where we were, where it was easy and complacent. Heck, due to Daniel not going with the flow and eating the food the next chapter we see a Kingdom being turned around, that's like one guy refusing to conform and a country turns to Jesus. BAM! Chpt 2:46-47 "Then Kin Nebuchadnezzar fell prostate (face-down on the ground in submission) before Daniel and paid him honor... the King said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings..." <- DANG! Check that out. Bamboozled. woop! woop! Of course, the Neb-ster wasn't a full convert, whenever God works there tends to be another force at work and so there's more to the story. Kind of how we have to continue to fight all the way through the battle and not give up at the first sign of victory. But how amazing is that. To consecrate yourself before God, not expecting anything but to stay with Him and then he does that? So before or even during things that are happening, we should remain devoted to God. James 4:10 "Humble ourselves before God and he will lift you up." Complete and total submission and dedication, devotion to one thing long is the beginnings of wonders. If we want to be used, we have to set ourselves apart to be used.

3 Righteous Men

So today.
Looking at the 3 "righteous" guys of the Bible. Specifically the old testament, so Jesus does not count. I mean he counts, but not here. In the second half of Ezekiel 14, God is talking about judgement and how even the 3 righteous men could not save these people from judgement. These 3 people are Noah, Daniel, and Job. Footnotes mark that these 3 men were known for their relationship with God and their wisdom.

First up, Noah, (Gen. 6:6-9). It's kinda sad, no really sad what was going on at this time. It (being the Bible) says that God was "grieved" that he had made man. He had pain in his heart. Ouch. How much love did he have in there, yet he was grieved to have made the human kind. I kinda feel like we all sucked it up there and definitely dropped the ball. He knew that "every inclination of the thoughts" of men were evil. So here God is knowing that all of these evil thoughts and hearts were about and he was just ready to wipe them clean off the earth, humans and animals. BAM, but then there's Noah. "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Woah! Noah was like the wax that touched the pot when it got dunked into the glaze. When everything around Him had just sucked up the world around them and clung to everything evil, Noah had some wax on him so that he repelled the world and stuck to the original. Hmm. Part of Noah's intro was that he was blameless among the people of his time, and he "walked with God." Dang, such an awesome thing. (SN: <-- Thats what you can say about me when I die. That I walked with God, only if it's true though. I want people to say that. Not that I was this or that, cause I'm nothing, but that I walked with God.) So we see that Noah walked with God and was "righteous," but then God told him his plans. What a man he had to be for God to go, "Ok, so ya'll have pretty much just blown it, now I'm going to destroy the earth." (So glad he didn't stop there) "So get your act together cause I want you to build a boat. Here's the specs." Haha. I just realized that God started telling him the plans for the ark and how to make it before he told him it was going to flood. I wonder what Noah's though process was to start, "Ok, he's going to destroy the earth. Crap. Oh, wait. . . build an ark? He's going to destroy the earth and he wants me to build an ark? Riiiight. Oh, because it's going to flood. Makes sense. Oh, oh and we're getting in the boat and he's going to keep us safe. Oh, whew. . ..and my family gets to come along. and. . . he's going to restore the covenant through me? Oh dang. Woah. I must have found favor with Him. Wow. And you want me to take every animal on this ark? Um...big boat. Wait, so God's destroying all the people, and all the earth, and all the animals except for what's in this boat, that I'm suppose to build. I had better get busy. oh. oh, um. lets go."

So it's kind of fun, (to me at-least), to make up voices and thought process for people or animals or inanimate objects, to try to see things from their point of view, but seriously there are good lessons in this story. The one that jumped out to me this time was that God started telling Noah what to do before he told Him why. In my little convo, Noah just listened and then go to work, he was a little confused at first, but I wonder if it was more of "Ok, Your destroying the earth, yeah, people suck. Ok build this ark. Gotcha. Go build the ark. Ok make it this way and this way, and oh, it's because your going to make it flood. Well that makes since. Oh and me and my family are going to be on there, Thank You. Thank you so much for that." I wonder/I think most of the time that we are probably more of the first ones. We listen, but then have trouble acting until we understand it all. I wonder, those who are really serving God, I mean these were the 3 guys God called Righteous, if they just set off to go do what God wanted before they fully understood. Needless to say they all had to have faith. No where in the previous 5 Chapters (this is chapter 6 of the Bible) did it ever mention rain, so to say God was going to bring a flood, was like . . . what?! What is that? Although he did listen well, he had good follow through too. Despite not having rain or alot of help, and being a couple of hundred years old, he followed through with what God said. Dude built a huge boat, in the middle of the desert. How crazy do you have to be for that? What if God asked us to do something crazy like that? Build a boat in the desert, and trust me. Woah. Just woah. Build a boat in the desert and trust me. That would be like, putting a clothing store in a nudist colony, or a book store in a place where no one could read. Putting time, and effort, and sweat and tears into something where it didn't belong. Not just didn't belong but was the exact opposite of it.

Also, Noah had some patience, and perserverence. His obedience was long term. He spent over 120 years on this project. It's easy for us to go yeah, but he lived 600 years. Wait 120 years. That's longer that anyone lives today. He spent on this boat. We've been working on Isaac's house for a little over a year and it's wearing on us. I haven't even been home as much as Mom and Dad and Isaac working on it. But they are worn out over a year. Imagine spending your whole life on this thing. This boat in the desert. We have trouble sticking to any project. Semester long projects wear me out. By the end of the school year I am ready for summer, well ready for something new. But 120 years. That would be like starting to build a boat in 1890 and finishing it next year. Yeah, do that math. Good news, only 1 year left. The closest thing we have to that is our lives. Spending you whole lives from the time you came out screaming, til the time they stick your body in a box, you spend being obedient to God. Blows my mind. I suck at it. I'm bad at sticking with something all the way through it, well I can do it, but I often get burnt out on it. I can't imagine 120 years.

I also see Noah's patience. So it rains for 40 days. (What we all know), but then the waters hang around for 150 more days. That's like 5 months. They floated around. They get in at the begging of February, and don't hit land until Mid-July. Then after the 150 days they land, well the boat hits ground. WAIT! that is far from the end. They hit land on July 17, but couldn't see the tops of the mountains till October 1st. Then he waits 40 more days, (Nov 9), and sends out a bird to check for land. No go. Then a week later he sends out the dove and it comes back with an olive branch. So he waits another week and the dove doesn't come back. Then, finally, The first day of the first month, January 1st, (I don't think they had June and July in their calendar, so it was only 10 months but I kept it in their earlier just for relativity.) he cracks open the door. What kind of patience is that? But then he waits til February 27th when God says come out of the ark. Dang. Seeing the fresh air but still waiting on God. I think of how many times we come through storms and are just ready to hurry them up and get them over with, yet he waits. Still waiting on God's timing to finish up things instead of just bustling through them. I think of how after a storm/trial/hard time, we just think whew we're threw lets get out of here before we get dragged back in and probably miss out on a few more of the lessons God has. Like what did they learn in that extra 2 months in the boat about each other, about God, about life? What lessons did they learn in general being in there? What was communication with God like inside the boat all of those days? That was a year and 2 months just inside the boat. 3 months once they had landed. What patience on God. What if we had that type of patience? dedication? follow through? obedience? faith? What could God do through us?


Next up to bat, Daniel (Daniel 2:47-48)

Finally, Job (Job 1:1)

"What have you been doing?"

This was the Saturday after finals. Finally home, I crashed on the couch accidentally. I woke up at whatever time in the middle of the night and tried to make it to my bed. I had a thought going through my head over and over, like a lesson from God, and I thought "I'll remember it tomorrow, where's my phone so I can go to bed." (Phone's my alarm clock.) So I staggard around the room searching for it, and attempting to get my eyes open enough to see something. I couldn't find it until I realized that this was probably God trying to tell me to focus, go write this down. So I went to the computer desk found a piece of paper and wrote down whatever it was. Not remembering what any of it was til the next morning, then I found this:

God said, "So what have you been doing?"
'Well, I had finals."
"So what have you been doing?"
"I had finals."
"Sorry, not what time was it, but what have you been doing with the extra couple of weeks I have given you?"

I realized so many things. That I had shifted my mindset into finals time and not fully embraced what I could have been doing for God in that time. That I had began to get so caught up in the moment and situations that I missed many opportunities to love and serve people. Not to get caught up in that time.

The big thing that was further implemented was how temporary things are here. How self-focused we are. "What have you been doing with the extra couple of weeks?" "Extra... weeks" Wow. It's funny how we think we have the right to live another day. We go to bed expecting, almost demanding, like somehow we've earned the right to wake up the next morning. Our own little world all revolves around us, but with 6.4 million little worlds revolving around each other, whose going to revolve around the sun/son and change someone else's world. "Extra weeks" - So many times when a child or young person dies, we ask say there time was cut short. Well that's kind of crap. Why do we ask why their time was cut short? when we should be asking Why is our time been extended? Don't get me wrong, I have lost friends my age and younger that have died, it's not something to brush off and yes it hurts. But if we want to talk about fair, it's not fair that our lives continue to go on day after day. We have been given a gift, an unearned gift, one in which we should be extremely grateful that we have the opportunity to live an extra day. Today might be that extra day. Today is the extra day, but tomorrow may not be. Obviously, if we have extra time it's for a reason. Every minute we are allowed to live has an explanation to it. So if we're part of a bigger plan, are we doing what we could be doing to follow it. It's like the Sanctus Real song "Whatever Your Doing (Something Heavenly)" says "Am I doing everything to follow your will, or just climbing aimlessly over these hills?"

So I guess the question is asked, what are we doing with the extra time we've been given?

Falling into Stagnaticity - I Want Out NOW!

The bible should change us. when we read. the words should almost sting us, they tingle. the come alive and rush through our veins. like taking a semi-cold shower. it's a jerk but it's invigorating.

it's not just stale, repetition of words and stories, but this is how God wants us to be changed. it's changing us. we don't take a hold of it. we read it, but don't allow it to change us. I want it to get to my spine and tingle. to refresh and come alive.

instead its like drinking warm water. or breathing warm humid air. its just kind of does what it has to do, but is not enjoyable. it's almost bogging down.

it's like everyone here has a shallow mentality about God. yeah, we go to church and, oh i probably should read, be a good little christian. It's not something thats real. not something that is interwoven into ever facet of our life. It's something that is just done on sundays. maybe for some even maybe wednesday. for maybe 5% it's something that you do in the evenings or something. and perhaps 2% allow it to change their lives. to really fully work. Where following God is the process of their day, not making time for God part of the process in their day.

it's either like we have way too much to do, or we don't have anything to do. so we're filled with motivation but just keep putting it off, or there's no motivation. just a funk. like a heavy moist air settling. Trying to run with thick air.

everyone think's with such a limited scope. But it's not like it's a limited scope as in you could just expand it. It's like everyone's thinking in terms of numbers, and God is colors and shapes. It takes time to stop and rethink everything that's being said in a different stage or light.

It's back to doing because we should do this or that. Who ever thinks, I get to do this because I get to love someone. I get to serve them. I'm going to show them God's love by doing this. It's oh I gotta do this, let me make a joke about how hard this is and give someone a hard time. and I just want to be like what? wait. woah. Like i started thinking back that way again and it was just this funk. this heaviness surrounding it, until I thought of Meghan being here and going, "pssh I get to love them." and i was like wait, wait a second, yeah, yeah that's right. I get to do this. I am loving them by doing this. What happened to this old attitude? How did I get back here? But it was just like I had a switch flipped. After being down for a day with the headache I had to reset and all my standards were adjusted to home, what it was like way back when instead of now and new.

Everyone just thinks I'm special or either "on fire for God" but my question is, why aren't you like this? What is holding you back? Why don't you give it your all? or they think it's just a church thing. They simplify it down to oh, church thing. NO IT"S NOT. THIS IS A MESSAGE THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD! and I am NOT SATISFIED keeping it to myself. I want to change the world. This county lacks passion. We have temporary excitement, and we're used to muscling through things to get to the other side, but for what? to get to the other side? where's your passion? what is your purpose? You're a huge success if you get out of the county, graduate from college, and get a job. That's not success. You cannot judge your success by others. Your best is not determined by anyone but you and God. You cannot say I am successful because I did this. So many people in the county think their successful because they passed others. I want to see these people give everything they have and fully do their best. to push past their limits and make a difference. What if we made a difference instead of just getting better than other people? But how easy is it to simply adapt to those around us? or to push only past someone else? but we are not just someone else. we have been gifts and abilities far beyond those of others, how dare we measure our success in comparison to anyone but ourselves. Where one person succeeds and is very fruitful another may wither and only grow weeds.

How can se measure our success based on another's attempt? Like the pole vaulter yesterday. He had already won the state title by jumping like 13'6" and he could have stopped right there. but he didn't. it wasn't his best. He had them raise the bar to 14' and attempted to jump it all by himself. no other competition. he was there to perform and he wasn't going to stop until he knew he had given it all he had. he missed the first one. missed the second one. and finally on the third cleared it. then he asked to raise it to 14'5". 2 inches higher than his PR. he missed all 3 times. but he gave is all. he went until he couldn't go. Thats giving your all. making a difference.

Each time we open our bible and read it, it should be like getting a new style hair cut. Unknowing what exactly is going to happen or how others will respond, we trust the barber and allow him to do what he thinks (knows) will be right. Its that kind of near uncertainty as we read, that it changes us that much. That exhilaration that we are reading, no hearing from the very Heart of the man who created everything we know, yet we have this very book at our fingertips. Many of us have 4 or 5 of them laying around, the very heart, the very words, of a person who knows everything, who knows how to think, who knows what's best, who loves the greatest. And he wants to share that with us! What the heck?! Is this for real? This is like, passing up a chance of going on deal or no deal when there is no $1 or $500 or $1000, but they're all millions and we say, nah. SERIOUSLY?! Why do we do this?

What frustrates me is how people aren't passionate. not how they express it neccesarily but that people don't live what they believe. which makes you wonder, do they really believe it? or is it just a casual socially accepted thing they do to fill up the weekends?

Text Message Thoughts

So here's some thoughts I randomly have, or more or less God and I talk about (usually if it's good it's more of Him talking) that are on my phone that I need to clear off so I'm writing them on here.

Just because someone is willing to serve you, that does not make them your slave.

Jesus as a rebel WITH a cause.

Jesus was a trouble maker - an origionator- a re-establisher.
A bon-a-fide, certified, one-way makin', holy-pleasin', re-establishin' originator who knew how things were meant to be and never settled for anything else.

I may stagger across the finish line, but I'm giving it all, so I can't look back and say "what if. . .". I want to finish strong, but I'll finish with all I have.

Questionable Thought I heard and needed to mull over. Still undecided. Thoughts?
It's not as much about what you do as it is who you do it with and who you do it for.

Quote from Gary about being lead by God:
"The world is like a giant board game and we're all pieces that he just moves where he wants us."

"If we worry about the "what if's" then we'll never figure out the "what is"." Fear is a funny thing. Jesus feared death, but he did not let his fears control Him. If we have fears about something, yet God is speaking directly against the fear and we hold back, why do we allow ourselves to be controlled by that fear? Is God not bigger than that?

How often do we, as the church, promote behaviorism rather than a change of heart?

Fingernails

How cool of a thing are fingernails?

We could do without them and do fine, but they're God give little sharp objects attached to each finger useful for opening and tearing things.

It's like God made each of our fingers swiss army knives.

"Showing Christian Love"

Based off of a random subject switch with Dr. Muhammad Islam during principals of Finance. Honestly, no idea what came before this, I had fallen into the pre-stage sleep (unintionally.)

"But Christians show Christian Love. They go all over showing Christian Love. Helping people. There are people in Bangladesh. And even though we are not Christians we can show Christian Love too, right?"

Hereafter is the conversation I had with him in my head over the next couple of minutes:

"No, not really."

"What?"

"It's not really Christian Love that we're showing. It's really God's Love and not our own. So it's God loving people through us. But there's no way that we can show God's Love to people on our own. Except when we accept Christ as the payment for our debt (sins) and chose to follow Him, then God gives us a part of Him. It's called the Holy Spirit. So it's like we have a part of God inside us, and out of that part of us is where God's Love comes from. It's just that so many times we don't let that part live in us and we don't show God's Love. So when we can't show God's Love, it's really a piece of God in us that is Loving people."

Then it occurred to me. If he thinks that even if you're not a Christian you can show Christian Love, how sucky are we showing Christian/God's Love. If he thinks anyone can do it, how simple and non-huge are we limiting it to. God's love is impossible, it's unforgettable, it's unrepeatable, but if what we're doing seems to be replicated then, Dang, we suck. 

So I started thinking tangibly, how do we show God's love. It's really nothing that no one else couldn't do. We care, we open doors, we help when we shouldn't. Really it's almost like we're just being overly polite. I could see how it would make sense where it looks like anyone could do it.  The biggest thing I could think of is perseverance. We, some of us, persevere past when it's logical or when it's practical. When it hurts, when it causes us pain, when we continue to go on.  Is that God's love? It's a start in the right direction, the fullness, heck no.  Anyone with determination could persevere some. How do we persevere through it all?

How do we live, by not quenching the spirit, but live a life of Love, God's Love so it's obvious and apparent that it's not ours. How do we Love so it's unreplicable without God? Specifically, if we took a hold of the Power of God in us and Loved so far beyond ourselves, that no doubt that no one could do "Christian Love" without God, how do we do that?

Bike Ride Scripture.

(Here's the copy pasted version from a convo on aim because i was too lazy to retype it.)

Matthew 7:13-14
the king james version says v14 "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few find there be that find it"
Which the point of that is that they spell it "strait" not "straight"
Straight is the distance between two lines, a straight like the edge of a paper; but strait is like the bearing strait or the strait of magellan. Dad used the example like a group of islands that magellan had to navigate around. he had to be on his toes the whole time and constactly checking depth, staying away from this but closer to this and adjusting to this and turning, protecting the ship.

So thats the way our christian life is, there is no autopilot, it's always reevaluating and correcting and turning and adjusting, staying away from certain things and getting closer to others.

ok cause heres the really cool part
it's like a motorcycle ride

"broad is the way and wide is the path to destruction" - like driving on interstate. it's wide and autopilot. all you see is cutaway (for the road) and occasioinally a truck stop, it's so bland and boring and repetitive and so many people there
"but strait and narrow is the way" - country roads. you're always reevaluating and adjusting. staying close to some stuff and away from others. always stearing and protecting
plus it's so much more fun, more work - yes, but definitely worth it. it's so much better and you get to see so much more, the scenery is so much better. we found an overlook place that had a waterfall and this wide open tree line with animals and all this stuff, but we would have never found it if you just go on interstate

Thats what it's like with God, you find stuff you never would have seen, you experience so much more of life. there's more than just the cutaway and truck stops. there's actually life. it's never boring or mundane. you find stuff you've never seen before and get to experience things you never imagined.