"So what's your plans for the day?"

"To man belongs the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue."

-Proverbs 16:1

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." v3

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." v9

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord purpose that prevails." - 20:21

Getting the picture?

It's like dodging snowballs this morning, the passages were just jumping off the page at me.

I keep learning about my pre-conceived notions about things and about plans and what my plans are and how warped they can be from what God has. Then I heard a verse on the radio last night and googled it this morning and as I was looking for it, I just kept running into all of these other ones.

Some things are just so good. Just some footnotes in my Bible that I trimmed up for grit.

v.1 - If the final out come is God's, he has the last say, then we often want to rock back and say, alright have at it, no plans. But there is a balance between our efforts and God's control. He didn't make us stupid and ignorant, he gave us minds if we could clean them up and think his way (Romans 12:2), they would function a lot better than they currently are. "Planning, then, helps us act God's way. As you live for him, ask for guidance as you plan, then act on your plan, as you trust in him." Like they said, "Planning without praying is presumption."

v3. Sounds good right. Sure commit to God and success. But I think we need to define commit first.

"Giving what we have to God by seeking his way in prayer, then with all of our efforts carrying out what God has given us like Christ, and leaving what the results should be upto God's sovereignty and superior mind." - my definition. Maybe it needs tweaked.

But my Bible hits on the head of ways that we don't commit:

-Superficially Commit - say it's being done for the Lord, but in reality they are doing it for themselves

-Temporarily Commit- giving God temporary control of their interests, only to take control back the moment things stop going the way they expect.

-Not Up To Me Commit- commit a task fully to the Lord, but put for no effort themselves, then wonder why it didn't succeed.

-True Commit- trusting God as if everything depends on him, while working as if it depends on us, then having open hands as to what the end result looks like

v9- I think it's pretty set. We make whatever plans we want, but God doesn't back down easy. He has a tendency of doing things the way he wants. Doesn't compromise well, and I appreciate that, because I wouldn't want him meeting some of my short-sighted demands or plans. It goes along with 20:24 "A man's steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way?"

James kinda hits this up in James 4:13-14 "Now listen, (good start) you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." He goes onto talk about how we should say if it is the Lords will, (but not just say it but actually believe it, with open hands and willingness to change plans) we will live and do this or that. Kinda makes me laugh. James going, "Ya'll think your clever, right? Got it all figured out about how it's gonna work. Don't you remember that your a spec in the timeline, that this life is bigger than you. You're only like a fart in the wind (not that we stink, but I think we all know how this concept works), not being here that long. So give what you have to God and let him do with you whatever he wants. You know that, if you know the good that your suppose to be doing, but your not doing it, your disobeying God, which means your sinning, right? Well, it does."

Plans. Plans. Plans. My plans was to have this finished and published this morning. But I do have to go to class and share what I know with others. So I'll save this for later, or publish it now and get back to you. One closing thought just about living:

Don't get caught in what you did yesterday, or worried about what will happen tomorrow.

Life today that you have been given. Today is the day that you can live.

You've already lived yesterday. You can live tomorrow when it becomes today.

Today...

Treat someone better than they treat you today.

It's not a new concept. I mean it was 2000 years ago. Jesus says to "Love your enemies." We've heard it so many times before that I think we're almost accustomed to it. Yeah, love those who you hate. Easy to say, hard to do. That those who violently attack you, you should repay with Love and prayer towards them. Let's look at the passage first, then I'll explain what God's teaching me.

Luke 6:27-36
[27] "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, [28] bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. [29] If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. [30] Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. [31] Do to others as you would have them do to you.

[32] "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. [33] And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. [34] And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. [35] But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. [36] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

I guess in my mind, when I first would read this, I would think of people who directly came at me. People who attacked me in opposition, my enemies. That was my preconceived notion was an enemy in a war is obvious they're against you. After realizing I wasn't treating some people the way I should God brought this passage back up and I started rereading it.

I guess verse 32 is what got me. I was thinking this applied in my life directly to non-believers who want to argue and fight. That those who stand in opposition, but I never thought about those who just aren't loving me. Believers and non-believers alike. I realized that often times, consciously or subconsciously, I'll return whatever love or respect I'm given by people I'm more comfortable around. If someone treats me rough, or even if they just don't treat me good, then I tend to reciprocate those actions back.

Statistically proven, more missionaries leave the field not due to culture, or the people, or being homesick, or physical ailments, but the number one reason they leave is other missionaries. I realized, we as Christians, are not showing the patience and grace to believers like we are non-believers. We are held to a higher standard, but we forget that we need Jesus everyday just like everyone else in the world. We need grace just as much as those who don't have it. Just because we've been forgiven by God doesn't always mean we're pleasant to live with on Earth. Still being human, we're still going to mess up. We recognize that in ourselves, but I think we forget that about other Christians. Grace is not a one time event, it's like water, needed daily to survive.

So today, I am going to show patience to those who are wearing me out, whoever they are.

I am going to show grace to those who need it, whoever they are.

I am going to go above and beyond they're actions towards me to Love them like Jesus, whoever they are.

What God Wants

God wants your heart before your musical ability.
God wants your heart before your schoolwork.
God wants your heart before your change in actions.
God wants your heart before your ministry.
God wants your heart before anything you can do for Him.

What God wants is not religious actions but a righteous heart.
One thing that you cannot give him, but that He can give you.

Odd, hu?
What God wants is what we cannot give, but what we're given.
Funny how we try to hold onto what little we have.
He wants our dirty hearts, our bad actions, our horrible minds, our disgusting thoughts, our embarrassing habits.
He wants them so that he can make them pure.
We give him crap, garbage, the stuff we're ashamed of and disappointed in, the stuff we don't list on a resume, and hide from those closest to us, and he changes them into something more beautiful and extravagant than we could have ever imagined they would be originally, and it was out of our degraded rejected pile. He gives it back to us, so that we can give it back to Him.

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinth 5:21

Just the ramblings of a compulsive wish-washy radical ordinary.

It's not what we need to do to get stuff done, not about getting it taken care of, its about what can we do to make this better? How can we better explain or more explain who Jesus is? Who we are in Christ?

Forget the regimented programs, lets Love someone the way they need to be loved.

I think God must often laugh and shake his head at our clinginess of human intellect and reasoning. How often we hold onto our first grade level of reasoning and refuse to accept any new information. Like certain mathematicians cannot comprehend the conceptual ideas of color in art or advertising without the concrete facts of how it works. We are constrained by our close mindedness and necessity to use human logic - (which is to simplify the God in control over every breathing and non-breathing thing, who thought of light and created the shadows that fall, dance, and change, the God who invented reproducing cells that work in symphony with red and white blood cells to function the human body as he made it. That we try to take His intellect and cognition and make it fir into or be less than our own. To say what has been around since the beginning of time knows less than we, in our limited knowledge of culture, history, and facts have acquired in 20, 40, 100 years? Really? Now in my 22 years of limited logical thinking, even I know that that's not logical.)

The Bible says every knee will bow and every tounge confess, but it never says they'll enjoy it.
Thinking of everyone's personalities and how they deal, will they say it:
with adoration or anger?
with cowardice or confidence?
with repetition or regret?

Fight

From Spring 2009:

Fight:

We're gonna FIGHT

and tear down these walls, FIGHT

for His Kingdom cause

When our weapon's on our knees, and we're crying out please, FIGHT

for You love them more, FIGHT

than the sands on the shore

Cause the crashing of the seas shows your holy expertise, FIGHT

when there's no hope seen, FIGHT

a human trampoline

And I'm bent beyond use, but still proclaimin' Your truth, FIGHT

cause your still in control, FIGHT

no matter how deep this whole

Cause you've got me in your hands as you head me in your plan, FIGHT

for you know far more, FIGHT

than I could begin to explore

And I'll never understand, this love my life demands, FIGHT

how you fight for me, FIGHT

like kidnapped royalty

Cause your busting through the numb as redemption comes

We're gonna FIGHT

and tear down these walls, FIGHT

for His Kingdom cause

When our weapon's on our knees and we're crying out please FIGHT!