Love and Faith

So I’m sitting here really thinking about my relationship with God. I’m comparing it to my relationship with other people, with things, with life in general. I look around and I realize how much God has blessed my life and how often I really, truly thank him for all he is, for all he’s done and for his everlasting love and grace… Unfortunately I don’t do it often enough. I can freely worship God how I please, I can freely speak openly about God, I don’t have to wonder if I am going to get arrested for speaking about my relationship with God  with someone at Wal-mart, (even though it does seem like we are moving this direction.) My life is blessed beyond measure, even though you may not be able to tell from the outside. I’m pretty much un-employed, I don’t have a car, I don’t have a girlfriend, I don’t have many things that the “world” measures to claim we are blessed or wealthy. But I tell you once more, I am blessed BEYOND measure! I have a REAL personal relationship with the one true living God, I can tell him anything and not be in fear of judgment from him, or be in fear he may strike me down for what I have done, instead he loves me through it. I am blessed by a wonderful family! One that I am blessed to be the oldest of, blessed to help lead (even though I fail more often than not.) I am blessed to have a family who loves and supports me through it all! I have friends that are simply amazing! Beautiful souls who have helped me through life and its struggles, through its ups and downs, through thick and thin. God more recently has blessed me with even more friends who I know will be there for me and be more like family than just simple acquaintances. I think that’s the most beautiful thing about my friends, they truly aren’t just friends, many friends are merely just acquaintances because of the way society has “deemed” a “friend.” A friend is always there for you, loves you no matter what, just like family! My friends are my family! I love each and every one of them with all my heart . I couldn’t ask for a better family! They are simply great! The beautiful things about my family are that new people are always arriving! Always coming and wanting to become a part of my family and I becoming part of theirs! I’m not blessed with a bunch of money, I’m not blessed with an awesome job, but what I am blessed with no man can ever pay for! No man can ever compare to what I have! And the most important of all of these things, the thing that holds it all together, is my relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ! Because of him, because of him everything else works together! Letting him lead me by still waters is oh so easy to do, we are hand in hand admiring the beauty our Father created for us, however when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, how often do we forget he is still there. How often do we forget he is there leading us just like he was leading us by the still waters. When things are easy and blessed we know he is there, but when things become dark and scarce, we begin to ask where he is, what his plan is for us, we doubt he cares for us during this time, we are scared and lonely. With all of that being said let’s look at Matthew 27 while Jesus is being led by the hand through the Valley of the shadow of death. He is being led to his demise, he is being led to his death, his crucifixion on the cross. He must have felt the hand of his Father leave him, he must have felt all alone, with literally all the weight of the sins of the entire world on his shoulders.  If we jump to verse 46 it says Jesus cried out in a LOUD voice “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI” translated to “My God, My God, why hast though forsaken me?” He was quoting Psalms 22 when David is crying out to God for help, for God to hear his voice and deliver and help him. In verses 6-11 he says “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh at me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon there from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.” Looking at and reading Psalms 22, seeing what Jesus was quoting it brings how much mental anguish and pain he was going through. He was literally in the darkest place any man, woman or child has ever been. For God judged him for ALL of our sins, for every defilement that ever took place, God’s wrath and his anger was poured out upon Jesus while he hung on the cross. Let that sink in for a second, really understand and look at what was going on during this time. Let it sink in. Have you ever felt like your sins are just too much? That God has turned from you, that he turned his back to you? Multiply this feeling by millions, imagine not being able to see God in anything, feel him in anything. You can’t imagine it, that’s the thing. The Bible says in Psalms 19 “That the heavens declare the Glory of God, and the earth shows his handy work.” We can see God in everything, we can feel his love in everything. We are not absent from God ever, not even for a split second, He is always there and he loves us. I chose to wake up this morning and thank God for all I have, to thank him for who he is and what he has done and what he is going to do. You have a choose to live life unfulfilled, and not thankful, looking at all the evil and bad in life, when you could be admiring the beautiful artwork God has placed before us, to show us how much he truly desire’s our hearts, how much he truly desire’s us to meet and commune with him. He is always there and is always waiting for you to speak with him like your best friend. That’s what he desires of us, to be intimate with him, to share our deepest fears, our deepest hurts, our deepest thoughts, our most incredible feats, what makes us happy, what makes us sad, no matter what you think, God is there and he is listening to you because he loves and cares for you! Having faith in something even though we may not be able to see or feel it around us and still love in the darkest times when our faith is dwindling, is such a powerful thing when put into our spiritual walk. God has faith we will share these intimate moments in our lives with him, he loves us even when we are nowhere to be found. He desires your heart, will you give it to him?

Listening AND obeying that still small voice!

I have a few questions that I'm working on in my spiritual life right now. Why do we struggle with the things of God when they become an inconvenience for us? Why do we treat what God has asked to do as a burden at times? I woke up at about 3 to 3:30 this morning and had 2 people laid upon my heart, both to pray for and one to send an encouraging word too, which I was supposed to send earlier. But FIRST before I began praying for them I laid in bed and argued with God about getting up! I wanted to go back to sleep! I was tired! I said I'll do it when I wake up. God was so insistent on me getting up! So I finally got up, very reluctantly and began writing this message to them. It went by great! 30 minutes or so and bam I was done! Towards the end while I was still writing a song came on that reminded me of the other person and something they had mentioned to me earlier that week. So I re-played the song when it ended and then went to bed. As I was laying there God spoke to me and said "Are you really going to try and ignore me again? I just gave you a song to send to that person and you still come to lay down!" I was like "DUDE, God, it's 4am! Give me a break! I'm sleepy and tired and I'll do it first thing in the morning!" NO, do it NOW! He was so on me about getting up! So I once again reluctantly did. Found the link to this song, which is Matthew West's "The Motions" I sat and listened and watched the music video, which brought me to tears! I don't want to go through the motions with God! Read the lyrics, look up the song, EXTREMELY powerful!  Anyways I finally sent that person the link and a little message attached with it. So I was finally FREE to go lay down! YES! SLEEP! I sat on the end of the bed and said a little prayer that was something like this, "God, I love you and all but if theres anything else you want me to do, RIGHT NOW would be a good time to tell me before I lay down to go back to sleep." I said it in a very jovial way and began laughing once I finished, which then turned into a river of tears! I began bawling my eyes out. God hit me right between the eyes! "Why do you feel that I am a burden? Why do you feel that what I'm asking is not as important as what your about to do?" I just cried and cried for a good ten minutes. Then in the middle of crying God quickened me to go and write down what had just happened. This time I QUICKLY rose from my bed and went to writing! There was no need to argue. But seriously, why do we treat God as a burden SO often and don't even realize it! I didn't purposely do that, I was just tired and wanted to go back to bed. But we should be as Samuel was with Eli and then God in 1 Samuel 3:4-14. "Here I am Lord, your servant Samuel, use me." "Samuel" He rose up QUICKLY and hearkened unto Eli 3 separate times. The Bible says their eyes waxed dim, they were tired, each time their eyes waxed dim and each time Samuel still rose up and hearkened unto Eli. The third time Eli finally realized it was the Lord and he spoke to Samuel and told him what to do. It took 3 times for me to finally listen to God without arguing. 3 times just as Samuel, 3 times God called me! Don't allow God to call you 3 times! Do it the first time, without question! Treat God as a privilege and honor to daily commune with! For he has NEVER treated us as burdens! 

Prayer

This is a 2 part blog guys but they go so well together I'm keeping it as one. It's all centered around prayer. Prayer is such a powerful thing! It strengthens your walk with God, helps you stay on track, allows you to keep a close and intimate relationship with Jesus. But I believe that prayer is not used as much as it should be and often times misused. WHOA! WAIT! Did you just say misused? Yes I did. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me explain.

I want you to take a quick look around you and at your life. Is it comfortable? Is it spacious? Do you feel free? Are people constantly telling you cannot do this because it's illegal? Well hopefully your answers are all pretty positive. Except for maybe that last one. People may not literally be telling you it's illegal to do this or it's illegal to do that, but slowly our freedoms are being taken away! Here just recently the University of Tennessee came under fire for their pregame ritual at Neyland Stadium, that ritual was nothing but a 30 second invocation or prayer, whatever you would like to call it. Now in the Constitution it says we have freedom of religion and a freedom to express that religion, we also have a freedom of speech. The Freedom From Religion Foundation aka FFRF is saying that what UT is doing is illegal and should not be allowed. It also says what is going on is offensive towards individuals that do not share the same beliefs. Now I had no idea that saying a prayer that no one asked or said you had to be involved in would cause you to be offended simply because someone was saying a prayer in the facility you were in. Maybe it offends me that you find me doing this offensive; maybe I find it offensive that you’re trying to take away my right to express my religious beliefs. If the courts decide to rule on behalf of the FFRF that will cause a very steep and slippery slope that this Nation is not ready to go down and should never have to go down! Therefore we need to do something about it! In the 1970's Martin Luther King Jr. Saw the injustices happening and did something about it! His actions are what started the civil rights movement. His prayer, transferred into action! James chapter 2 talks about this.  Faith without works is dead. If you do not put action to your faith, what good is it? MLK Jr. put action to his faith, he saw an injustice and changed the face of this nation! We as believers must do the same thing!  We must rise up and begin putting action to our faith if we want to see change. 

When will we as Christians begin to act as the disciples did in the book of Acts? When Peter, Paul and Stephen were all told to stop preaching, to stop bringing the message of Jesus Christ out to the people, how did they respond? They responded by saying do what you need to do and we shall do what we need to do! If you so deem it necessary to make it illegal to preach these things and spread the gospel then you will just have to arrest us! That was the meaning, but of course I paraphrased and used different words. Things are beginning to get so bad that people are getting fined over home bible studies! (http://www.examiner.com/article/venice-florida-family-faces-fines-for-home-bible-study) Now how can this be? We live in The United States of America! You cannot fine an individual or a family for having a Bible study in their home. It is unconstitutional and it is wrong! What would be happening if the people, if the Christians of the country ROSE up and prayed? Would this happen if we ROSE up in numbers against the government for the things they have started to do to us and the things they have started to say? I don't believe so! I believe they would leave and back off and allow us to freely express ourselves! We need to start acting like the early Christian church! We HAVE to start acting like the early Christian church! We need to start acting as the disciples did in Acts! We have to begin to do this before it is too late!

                There are many Christians out there, praying for the judgment of God to fall upon this Nation, to judge it of all of its wickedness and perversions. This saddens my heart deeply! We should not be praying for judgment upon this Nation, we should be praying that this Nation be spared! That God would show us his mercy and give us a chance to prove ourselves! Not only that but let’s get Biblical, the Bible says in 1 Peter 4:17 “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” I know I am personally not ready to be judged by God almighty. I’m still working on my walk. Are you ready? Are the people praying this ready? Or even taking this verse into consideration? These Christians are saying that if God doesn’t judge this Nation then he will have to apologize for destroying Sodom and Gomorrah! #1 that all happened in the old testament before Jesus came and paid for our sins! And brought us grace! #2 Abraham prayed and fasted to God to spare those cities! In Genesis 18 Abraham begins to speak with the Lord. The Lord tells him “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.” Yet Abraham responded saying “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And the Lord answered his request saying “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” After the Lord could not find fifty righteous in the cities, Abraham stayed with God and continued to intercede and pray for the cities, all the way till he finally said “If you find ten there will you not destroy this city?” And the Lord said “I shall not destroy the city for the sake of ten.” Abraham knew the city was evil, yet he continued to pray and intercede for the city! God did not find any righteous in the city and he only tried to spare Lot and his family because of Abraham! Because of Abraham’s righteous cries to God, did he spare them! We need to have the heart of Abraham and pray that God will spare this nation for the sake of the righteous! Because “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.” Romans 3:22. How many righteous are here? How many righteous are in the entire Nation, not just a city, but an entire Nation? We need to pray that God spares this Nation for the sake of the righteous, however if we pray this, the righteous need to rise up! We need to rise up as children of God as spoken of in Isaiah 60! The entire chapter talks about the children of God rising up and the light of shining upon his people, to the extent the gentiles, kings and all the people of the earth will recognize and come to us! They will be converted because of the light we show! For the presence of the Lord will abound! If we want to take this Nation we have to be as the children of Israel were in Joshua 6:16-20! We shall raise our voice's in one accord and make this spiritual wall fall! We have the power through Christ Jesus to do this! We must do this! 

                2^nd Chronicles 7:14-16 says “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” How powerful are these scriptures during this time in our Nation! People, rise up! Read your Bible, seek the face of the Lord! Search for God’s heart! More of you oh Lord and less of me! Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways yours.” Saith the Lord. Pray and focus on God! He knows what he is doing and going to do! Just TRUST in him. Give thanks unto God for he is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end.

                Look at Acts 12. Peter is delivered out of the hands of Herod and there are many people gathered praying for Peter in the house of Mary the mother of John. When Peter does finally show up NO ONE believes it is him! They say it must be his angel! For he is in the hands of Herod! But Peter continually knocked upon the gate to be let in. When they finally answered and opened the door they were astonished to find him standing there. James 4:3 says “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” Let’s take a look at this and break it down. James 3:4 is explained to an extent in Acts 12. Why would you pray and ask God for something if you DO NOT expect him to deliver and answer your request! For it is an empty prayer. For God knows the intent and desires of our heart. He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) If your desire is to see God move he will move! The beginning of the verse says “Delight yourself in the Lord.” Delight oh children of God! Seek him and he will be found!  Secondly pray with the RIGHT desire in your heart. If God knows what you are praying and knows the desires of your heart to be wicked then he will not answer those prayers because “you will consume it upon your lusts.” God knows if the desire of your heart, if the intent of your heart is in the right place! Allow us to thank God continually for the blessings he has bestowed upon us! 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says “Give thanks in all things, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Proverbs 3:5-6 also states “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all they ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

                I hope everyone enjoyed this and I also hope it encouraged you in your daily walk with God. I pray this will also change your outlook upon the world we live in and stir you up to pray for our Nation and our world! We need to once again become the light on the hill that Ronald Reagan referred to us as, likening us to the Light in the world and a city on a hill in Matthew 5:14. Let us remember that this nation was founded on principles that are here forever. The rock of this nation, the foundation of this nation, the cornerstone was for us to find religious freedom! So we may FREELY worship God! God has blessed us throughout the last 250 years and I believe he will continue to bless us if we as in 2 Chronicles 7:14-16 says “Humble yourselves and PRAY!” PRAY children of God! PRAY, for this nation depends on it! Your heart, your life, your families lives depend on YOU PRAYING! “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16. Be not lukewarm any longer! Become HOT and on fire for the things of God! Rise up for this is YOUR calling in the Lord Jesus Christ! Let US be the Light to the world! A city upon the hill which cannot be hidden! RISE UP!