H2O

When asked about how God fills us, sometimes people will use the example of a glass of water - us being the glass and God being the water.  Not a bad picture but it really does not do quite do it justice.

Try picturing this:  God is the ocean, and we are a cup.  But we are not glass or plastic cup, we are a paper cup (unwaxed or coated),  Now then, picture the cup in the ocean - not floating around on it but down within it.  Not only filled with the water but surrounded by it as well, and since it is paper, the water also is soaked into the very fibers of the cup as well.  You are the cup, God is the water.

Now then, consider that you are not the only cup in that ocean.  Your cup is filled, surrounded and all but completely a part of the water it is within.  That very same water is also the same for all of the other cups in that same ocean.  So in essence, your cup is attached to every other cup in a very real way.  So it is with the Spirit of God.

Another consideration for you to ponder:  considering how the cup and the water are with each other, what is there between the cup and the water?  Nothing, right?  So it is with us and God - there is nothing between us.  Nothing.

Let that little tidbit sink in.

Family Ties

So when exactly did it happen? Do you know?


We are called to be one Body (Romans 12:5) with many differing members and we certainly are - different and separated members, hardly a bodily connection.  We seem to be more concerned with being our own, individual little cell than being part of the whole.  We cry out to God as our fortress yet we think we are each in our own, looking out at our Brothers and Sisters in their own little huts being pounded by the enemy while we turn a blind eye or point a judgemental finger.  Oh sure, we say "we'll pray" but are we not supposed to DO SOMETHING  (Not all needs are physical) as well (James 2) - and half the time we do not even bother to pray other than that of the pharisee (Luke 18:11).  Sure we do things for those we perceive to be in need but why, why do we ignore our own Family?  We choose indifference, acceptance and the "safe ground" over the very lives of our Siblings! And if we do so, can we actually think we are truly okay?  If He returns tonight, will we be welcomed with open arms or told "I never knew you"? (Matthew 7:23)

Reasons for Tears

I once overheard a conversation between two believers; one newer and one older.  The newer of the two was complaining to the older that no one from church ever came to visit them.  The older just laughed and said no one ever came to visit them either.  They continued to complain abit and then moved on.  I remember being a bit dumbfounded by that.  They did not live very far apart from each – why would they not visit each other?

 

Here’s a verse for you, from Acts chapter two, verse 42:  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

 

One does not have to look very hard within the pages of the New Testament to see how close the members of the early church were with each other.  Matter of fact, they seemed to do a lot together and I strongly suspect that included more than just “churchy stuff”.  So, I ask a question:  what the hairy heck happened?!

How many believers end up walking away from not only their local church but “the Church” – their very faith - because they now find themselves alienated?  Before they were saved, people came and went all the time.  They could go visit people they had some common ground with and welcomed.  People just dropped in to do nothing more than just hang out for a while.  Then they get “saved” and find themselves alone.  No one comes to visit and if they go to visit someone else – within the faith – it is usually this awkward moment as everybody tries to pretend they are perfect.  The only relief they find from their isolation is to sneak out and be part of the world around them – leaving their God at home as if He were some unwelcomed pet dog!

This should not be!

We are losing them!  They are walking out into the wolf pack and being consumed by it!  They are dying and taking the lost with them!  What horror have we wrought on this world?  What have we done, Church, what have we done?  We are doing Satan’s work for him!

Quit being so damned formal all the time!  Stop trying to hide who you are and what you like from other believers.  So what if you like bad Sci-Fi movies rather than the newest Christian flick?  So what if you would rather listen to Lynard Skynard or Pitbull over traditional gospel tunes?  You may just find that the very people you are trying so hard to be perfect in front of are just like you are – not perfect – and possibly even interesting.

(credit where due: a line of this must be credited to Patricia Kennedy)

These Boots were made for Walking

It is one thing for us, as individuals, to say that we trust God with everything in our lives.  Actually, it is a pretty massive thing truth be told and, for the most part, many (if not all) of us do not truly realize just how far reaching that is until God brings each thing in front of our faces.  And, if you are like me, you probably are a bit more resistant to some things than others.  We may trust Him with some things, but have a much harder time with even the idea of others.  For me, one of the big ones was relationships.  Trusting God with the relationships in my life sounded great, but really, I kept a pretty firm grip on things.  In case you are curious, the results tended to be less than wonderful, which is why I now try to trust Him even with the relationships in my life.  I tend to make a pretty big mess of things as a rule, while He on the other hand, well let’s just say things work out a whole lot better.  And it is actually relationships that are part of the focus today.

Once upon a time, I ran.  I do not mean I ran a marathon nor do I mean I ran from something “mad and hairy” intent upon seeing if I was crunchy or tasted good with ketchup.  No, I ran from God.  I had gone through a rough spot in my life and my faith was already less than stable.  I had stopped pursuing God and thus, kind of left myself wide open.  I was just kind of surviving, for lack of a better way to put it.

So in that time and place, I had started to drift, then wander, then into a full out sprint in the opposite direction.  I embraced ways of living that I had not done so before.  I went back to some old behaviors, habits and attitudes.  And those that God has been telling me to walk away from, yeah, those I jumped into with both feet.  I was running from Him.  Yet somehow, even during that time of insanity, I always still knew Him.  I cannot even give a reason for that because I surely should not have, but I did even if I was trying to outrun Him (in case you wonder how it works to try and outrun God, check out Jonah).

This went on for quite some time, my running away.  Until one day, out of literally nowhere, He came and called me back.  The only thing I can tell you is that I was in a place where all of those habits and vices seemed useless, hollow and empty.  As you may guess, I was pretty devastated when I realized what I had done and where I had gone – the guilt was horrifying to be honest – until He started explaining some things to me.

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand."  John 10: 27-29

Do me a favor:  make a fist, as though you were grasping something precious in your fist.  Now tell me, how far exactly can it get from you?  Arms length.  Arms length is as far as it can get away from you and arms length is as far away as I got from God.  It seemed like a million miles, but to Him, it was just arms length.

The hollowness I came to know with many of those old vices also spoke volumes.  In Ecclesiastes the teacher exclaims that “everything is meaningless” and that’s true.  All those old things made promises they could not keep – they were empty and hollow in the end.  As “good” as many may have felt in the moment, in the end, they just left me feeling empty.

So what does this have to do with relationships?  Well, the relationship with God could be an obvious tie in, but that is not the one I am focusing on today.

We ALL walk our own walk; we all live our own life.  No one could have walked where I have walked except for me and I would not have learned what I learned apart from that walk and those experiences.  Knowing that is one reason why, when faced with a rough change, I frequently pray that I learn whatever I need to learn and change however I need to change quickly, rather than praying for it to end.  Not the easiest thing to pray for oneself.  It is massively hard to pray for someone you care about who has hit a rough spot and is running from God.  But honestly, that is probably the best prayer you can offer, otherwise, if things end too quickly or they do not learn/change, then they will have to go through something probably even worse later on since they already got through round one without getting the point.

It is easier for us to surrender ourselves to God and His will than it is for us to surrender our loved ones to Him but it is the best we can possibly do.  After all, we cannot truly change ourselves, how can we ever think we can change another.

So if someone you know is running from God, it may be hard to do, but take a bit of heart – they need to walk their walk just as you need to walk yours.  Be there for them, love them for who they are not what they do or don’t do and pray that they learn <whatever> quickly, for mercy for them and pray they come back to God, but try not to pray that it ends before He is done.  And if it is you that is running:  take heart, He is not as far as you think - just stop running and come home.

Enough!

How long church, how long will we cower with our heads in the sand? Shivering and quivering in fear? Begging and pleading for everything from angels to hedges to protect us? We tremble while the enemy and the world gloat and strut. We hide away while our Brothers and Sisters are led astray and back into captivity. The enemy knows there is one God and THEY tremble with fear (James 2:19), so why do we, who belong to Him tremble before them? Jesus said even the gates of hell would not stand against His Church (Matthew 16:18) - gates are a defensive structure! We are not to be the ones on the defensive, but the offensive! Come Lord, take back what is, and has always been, Yours!

This is not a prayer; this is a call to arms.


"Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!" ~ Isaiah 64:1

 Let the world, the enemy and the Church be aware  that we serve a jealous God who is more than capable of taking back what is His - and let Him do just that.

Hurtful Things

This posting is a combination of a couple that were previously posted on by me on my FaceBook page.

Gossip, in any form, has destroyed no small number of lives - sometimes even taking them. And while most would gladly join in with condemning it, no small number of us still do it. After all, gossip requires at least two people - one to speak, another to listen and believe and possibly continue the cycle. But even if you do not say what you have heard, do you act upon it? Do you believe it? If someone tells you something about another person, that you yourself have never seen or seen in them, do you suddenly act and think as though what you have heard were true? You know you actually do not know if it is true or if it is, what details were added in or left out of the version you heard. Our words can destroy or our words can heal. It is up to each one us which we will use them for, every single time we open our mouths and speak - without exception. Choose well.

As eluded to above, the words we say can either heal or destroy, bring life or bring death. I do not know what you may have used your own words to do in your life, but I know that I have, more than I would like to think about, used both spoken and written words to hurt, slam or cause pain. I do not speak of a 'well deserved' rebuke that may occasionally come up, but of selfish, hurtful words spoken (or written) in a moment of anger or pain or sorrow. That said, I am taking this moment to ask for forgiveness for anything that may have hurt any of you who ever see this that came from me. I also ask that you try to remember the good and forget the bad for I truly never meant to have you suffer - for any time or in any way - due to my words.

None of us are perfect and is why, when we realize that we have done wrong - intentionally or not - that we have to admit to our error, repent and seek forgiveness ... whether it is given or not is irrelevant.

 I should mention that, when I say we should seek forgiveness, I do not mean with God although acknowledging our error to Him is also on the list. I mean with the person or persons whom we may have wronged, slighted or hurt. They may not forgive us however, but we must seek it regardless - their acceptance and forgiveness is between them and God just as our offering and forgiveness of others is between us and God.

 I know that some of us, when confronted with the reaction to our words, will take the stance of "Well, "I" didn't say anything wrong" or "I" never said anything that was not true" or even "Well, it is not "my" fault if "they" took it that way" or possibly "They shouldn't be so sensitive" or some other similar stance or mindset. How "they" took it "is" the point, not how you meant it or what you think someone else should be capable of letting roll off their back.

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." ~ Romans 12:18

Media Repost

Social Media (FaceBook for example) can be a wonderful thing and it can be something less than wonderful.  While I surely could go on easily from here, that is not the point of this posting.  The point of this post is a simple sharing.  There have been a number of times when I have posted something online rather than in here, which is fine if one knows me in another venue, not so much otherwise.  That said, I’m going to toss a couple of them down here that have appeared elsewhere.

 

So, I was in Romans 6 .....

You can either be a servant of sin or a servant of God but cannot be both - cannot walk with one foot on each side of the line or wander back and forth at will. Sin puts up a pretty good argument though - like a drug dealer trying to tell you how great it will be or one of the many beer commercials showing the "good time" scenes of fun, excitement and - of course -the opposite sex. But the reality of those "party scenes" would be much different - regrets, pains, break ups, fights and loss to name but a few (not too mention puking on your new shoes). The view that sin puts forth is a tempting one and tries to make you think of everything that will you will miss out on. Even when doubts come with the tempting, sin counters with "you can follow after you...". But is there an after? 

And what manner of choice "is" that anyway? After all, you are in effect telling God He is not enough for you or not quite good enough for you. You love someone with all you have. How would you feel if they said "I'm leaving you but I'll come back after I hook up with this one or that one or..."?

So there is a choice to be made. Follow sin or follow God. Sin offers much but really, does it deliver? Perhaps briefly in some manner, but hardly long term and it does tend to lead to consequences which are not good by any standard, and frequently we see those consequences in the here and now, not just in a life yet to come. It is not a matter of "legalism", it is a matter of loyalty.

 

 And every time you compromise what you believe - you own moral standards - for whatever reason, two things happen. 1. It becomes easier to compromise again. 2. It gets harder to come back from.