Thursday, June 30, 2011

Untitled

So I have noticed an interested phenomena in a lot of Jesus followers, having a fear of God. Not the biblical fear which denotes an awe inspired and reverent position toward God, which most people still don't possess, but I am talking more about people being afraid of God. Now on one side it's fair to argue that because of His standing we should be afraid of Him, but that's not based in scripture so I won't even give that any weight.
In our dealings with God there is often a subconscious tendency toward having to cover our back sides in case God feels like spanking us or put another way, something bad happens. Now that's kind of a contrary opinion to what the scripture says. In the Testaments it talks of God as a father, a brother, a rear guard. And not to get it confused, but none of those positions are spoken of and testified to in a negative way.
The one that most intrigues me is the rear guard. That's kind of a foreign concept to modern folk and even more so when we have no military background. Well from what I have heard, the rear guard were the soldiers who trailed behind, pretty self explanatory but the wonderful element is that it means that God has our back. Now I may be unique but that makes me tingle. Putting it another way, for a small business to get started there needs to be a financial backer who believes in the company and those who are in charge of it. Now God is the one who is supposed to be in charge of our lives, but the principle still applies. I really like that the creator of all that we have has my back.
I also realized that because he has our back protected we are not provided with any protection for our backs amongst the armor of God. I have always heard that we weren't given back covering so that we couldn't run away, and still agree with that but we don't need to run away if God is protecting that part of us.
I may be way out in left field on this one, but going from the scriptures I don't think I am. Moses spent 80 days with God on the mountain and it is said that he saw Him face to face. Now that's a relationship that I would love to have!
I can't say that I don't have a fear of God, but He keeps proving Himself as the faithful, loving and just One. All attributes that He operates in perfectly and at the same time. I don't know how but I love it because God isn't in a box. So live in awe of Him, but don't be afraid that He is going to just snap on you and begin making your life a hell on earth.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Acts 2:37-47

The Ingathering

Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

uff da

Well let me just say that this has been kind of a crazy few days. It started on Friday afternoon. I got back from work and read a text from a buddy with some bad news. It was hard to hear but my reaction wasn't what it would have been say a year or two ago. I was sorrowful but didn't blame God or doubt Him. Well later that day I decided to go on outreach with a couple other people downtown through Street level. So yeah, downtown on a beautiful Friday night in the summer. It was a level of crazy like I didn't understand. I have a heart to intercede for that part of the city but I didn't know what it was actually like and I'm sure that I didn't see the worst of it. But again, while it made me sad to see lives wasted, I wasn't shaken as I would have been before.
Then on Saturday I decided to go to the christian bookstore to check out their music. On my way back I had some car trouble. I was able to get back to school, which considering how my car has been behaving since I am definitely crediting to God. Obviously that's not a major thing, but it just added to the other things but I still didn't respond negatively to God. Then I got a ride to the gym and while I was there I saw a news report about more flooding in ND. That's when it really became clear to me that the Enemy was making a real push to attack me on an emotional level. God designed me with emotions as a central operating mechanism in my life and yeah Satan was trying to twist that against God. Well he didn't succeed. Despite his efforts Satan wasn't able to shake me. More then anything that has happened I finally was able to see how deep my roots have gone in God.
I rejoice in it because until the roots are strong enough there can't be any fruit. In my prayer God told me that I am entering the time of reaping. That's a scary thought but I'm not scared about it. I know that as long as I abide in Christ and follow the example of the disciples I won't stray. As for the timing of the season, I don't feel ready but God's timing is perfect so that's nothing to worry about.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

How Great Jesus is!

Warning: Don't start viewing them if you don't have time to watch them all in one sitting. 







Now praise Him!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Have we reached the limit? It seems no

So last weekend I went back to my hometown for one night just to collect most of the rest of my things. As I was about 20 minutes away I started flipping through the radio stations. I haven't been around there much and didn't know which numbers were which for them. I figured out that there are 5/6 christian stations just on the fm side of the dial. Now, I may be naive but for a tri-town that size it seems a little excessive. Like I realize there are a lot of people who regularly attend a congregation in the area but it just doesn't make sense to me. The only thing that I can really settle on about it is that it is the result of the christian culture we live in. We choose churches more from the fit to our preference then anything to what they teach or how they conduct themselves as believers. Even the few examples I can think of where people choose based on something regarding teaching it is usually pretty insignificant.
We forget about God.
We forget about Jesus.
We forget about the Spirit of Jesus.
We forget about the ones who don't know Him.
We forget about the ones who think they know Him.
So none of those things factor in. We go to churches that do what we want so that we wouldn't get uncomfortable, because you know, that's when there is growth.  So we will continue to choose and have choices so that we can just got about business as it has been so that things won't change, yet pray for revival at random times. Seems like a dichotomy to me, but maybe that's because of my perspective. One thing is for sure, we haven't reached the limit of the buyer's christian, but when we do, it will crash harder then the stock market ever has.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Check that temp


An accurate thermostat
I like to worship. Partly because I know how worthy God is of it and partly because I enjoy it. I grew up in a church where there was and is one unwritten/unspoken rule during the service. Don’t have fun. We talk about orderly worship, about not making people feel uncomfortable, that it isn’t how people express themselves but aren’t those all excuses to cover up the fact that they fear the inevitable emotions that come with freedom in praise? Maybe that’s too much of a generalization, but I would say that it is also very accurate.
For my part, I remember always loving to go to bible camp because I could express my praise to God how ever I saw fit. In my younger days one short week out of the summer with a few other random weekends through out the year was good enough but as my passion for God has grown so has my love for worship, which brings me to the real reason I am posting right now.
A few years ago, at the Chi Alpha fall retreat was the first time I full abandoned my ideas about praise. I was dancing and just celebrating Him. I later got questioned about it but never really responded, didn’t know what to say at the time and because of my school setting the dryness began to dry me up. Well as with many other things God was really shaking the rust off this year at school. I was letting Him operate in increased fullness as the year progressed but my praise never really got back to that place of full abandonment.
Last night things changed.
The internet had been offline at BCOM for about 24 hours but right around 3:30 it finally came back. I checked my facebook page and the first hit in my newsfeed was from a band named Desperation band. I usually only read a couple items in my feed, but this one stuck out to me. It said that “.” I didn’t have any plans for that evening so that became the event of the day. I found out it was only $5 so yeah I was locked in. I had the feeling like this was a divine appointment just because of the circumstances.
I got to North Central University at about 6:40, the auditorium that the show was being held in had a stated seating of 1000 so I expected it to be packed out. It got to about 7:05 and there was at most 400 people in the auditorium, which made it feel more like a local band then one of the nations leading praise teams but I was fine with it. After a few announcements the band started up.
It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable nights of the year so far. I didn’t care about the opinions of the people around me, how looked or anything, I was just letting it all happen and it was fun and good and pleasing to God, He told me so, ha. I danced, wept, raised my hands, sat in awe, basically everything that good worship entails. It takes a special type of conditioning to what I did and I really don’t know how I managed it, I’ll call it God’s help again. I was still freaking tired afterward but when I got back a few of the guys that I live with said that I had a glow and while I’ve been told that before, it’s been a while and was really refreshing to hear again.
I broke free and was unabandoned, that’s the point. It was just a few months shy of three years since the last time, but it was worth the wait and will happen again much sooner next time. What I thought was going to be a fun time where I knew God was going to do something turned out to be the best thermometer of where I am at now that I have experienced so far.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

The rule of thirds - roommate style

I'm going off the cuff this time because well I think that I have an unusual observation to make.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Confirm it!

So it's been a while since I have written about any like sweet miraculous stuff that has happened in my life. The reason for that is because there really haven't been any for a while. That changed this past sunday.

Friday, June 10, 2011

A legit desperation

Yesterday I was at work, listening to my Hillsong cds and the song Hosanna came on, it's a good song if you haven't heard it before, but one part of the lyrics stood out to me uniquely. In the second verse the line

"I see a near revival 
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees
We're on our knees"
really got me thinking.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

tick tock tick tock. trying to understand the timing of God

Well I've been through a couple schools and have noticed that the grad class that I end up in fits me much better then the one preceding it. This was especially true at AFLBS but has also proven true at BCOM. Not to bash on the older groups but with AFLBS I just wouldn't have made it for two years with the conflicting personality types where as I was able to manage it with the guys that were in my group. It's kind of crazy though, because a friend of mine prophesied to me about one of the relationships that I would have at AFLBS and the prophecy has come true. It's an ongoing thing but it has happened as I was told.
At BCOM it has been for different reasons. I would have fit ok in this past years sophomore class but fit much better in mine. Just the way that people operate and how our class is constructed works very well for me and with me.
But I think beyond even the schools I have been in God has been setting me up for a special purpose through a lot of the relationships I have had going back all the way to Junior high. The fact was pointed out to me by my friend, the one who was the fulfillment of the prophecy, that people a lot of times will dumb their baggage on me. Some of it is my fault but not always and it has happened with out me even really seeking it. Maybe people sense they can trust me, God would get the credit for that or maybe God just wants it to be that way. In any case, it's good because I have really been able to learn that they aren't throwing their burdens on me but on Christ instead. And it is He who takes the weight of their burdens, I rarely, as rarely as possible, take on people's issues. I don't think I would have been able to handle it to this point if I took their burdens on me when I can barely handle mine so much of the time.

Well while I really don't see how God's timing is playing together I have been shown enough to rejoice in it and wait eagerly for a greater understanding.

Monday, June 6, 2011

God at Disneyland

Enjoy!



genuinely attractive

Through my high school and college days I have heard the term "hottie" often in reference to an attractive young lady. Now I may be the exception to the standard, and I would guess that I am, but growing up I had very limited social skills and very few opportunities to have normal relationships with females but those opinions had an impression on me. Combine those factors with the fact that I had three older brothers and no sisters growing up and well, the term "late bloomer" would certainly apply to me. Thanks to the fellowship at BCOM I have been able to make up for some of that lost time. During this year I have begun to learn how to see the woman around me as sisters instead of objects and goals. Well in the transition period I stopped focusing on their appearance and more upon their relationship with God. I would say that the real hotties are the ones that are so on fire for God that they want nothing of the things that are commonly considered valuable. Is this sort of a cheesy play on a worldly view, yes and could easily lead to misunderstanding if actually used in conversation but for me I am now beginning to see woman this way and am glad for the perspective change!

Well there's the ramblings for now.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

knowing or believing

Here's the deal, I hear a lot of people say they believe in God, a god, something out there that they don't really know but belief will not get you to heaven. Does that sound like a pretty serious claim? Well it should because it is.