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.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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)
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)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
"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?
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?
Sunday, May 24, 2009
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?
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?
Thursday, May 21, 2009
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?
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?
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