A Poetic Visual

"The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,

shining ever brighter till the full light of day."

When I read this, I pictured a good sunrise. Getting up at 5 in the morning when it's still pitch dark and driving is a good way to see one. You're in the car, then it starts to get barely lighter. You still can't see the sun, then suddenly it peeks over the horizon, sending light all around. As it rises it get steadily brighter until everything is bright and you pull out your sunglasses.

You don't usually think of the path of the righteous that way. But when you visualize it, it becomes a lot clearer. When you go along the good path more and more people see what you're doing, and the path gets brighter as the world grows darker, until that path eventually leads to our ultimate goal.

Anyone wanna go for a hike?

Encouragement

Last night our own Rommel planned a worship night and opened it up for everyone in our church to come. As we all know our church is small, but only our core group (less than 20 people) showed up. I was a little bummed, thinking, "how come the church doesn't come to the church stuff?" We played some worship songs (pretty badly for the most part), and Clayton, Dad, and Ms. Jeanne shared with everyone. Dad's was really good and encouraging, and made me happy that at least the people that WERE there were there! We got into groups and prayed and talked, had communion, played some more songs, and had a great time connecting with God and with each other.

(NOTE TO SELF: SCREWTAPE LETTERS is on your iPod! Don't forget it!)

The blown big break

Well, Solomon did some things near the end of his life that made God quite angry, and He swore to take the kingdom away from his son, Rehoboam. So a Man of God went to Jeroboam, one of Solomon's officials, and told him that he would be king of all Israel but 2 tribes. Whoa. Uh... ok! This sounded a lot like when Samuel called David in from watching the sheep and anointed him king! But when Solomon heard about it (the kid looking for his lost kitty came and reported it), he tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled to Egypt.

When Solomon died and Rehoboam became king, Jeroboam came back to Israel just in time to hear Rehoboam proclaim that he would make things even harder for the Israelites. Said Israelites rebelled and joined Jeroboam. Things are sounding good for our surprise king, but when you get the power fever you do things like... mmm... make golden calves to make sure the people don't go back to worship God, then join Rehoboam again. The people loved the golden calves, and God was not happy.

Instead of becoming this great king that could've done all kinds of things, Jeroboam's whole family was wiped from the face of the earth.

Offerings

Today I read in Leviticus about the rules for making offerings to the LORD. You had to cleanse yourself, and God was VERY particular about how he wanted it to be done. There were even directions about where to throw the guts of the sacrifice birds! Why all this hubbub? Dirt and sin could not be in the presence of God! He could not even look at it. There was a gap between us and him that sin had dug out. God did not like this. There had to be a bridge over that gap.

Well all know what God did - he sent his son as the ULTIMATE sacrifice for our sin, forgiving us for all we have and ever will do! Now instead of having to cleanse ourselves before we could come before God, we can come just as we are! We are forgiven!

The Spirit

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

Our pastor is doing a series on the Holy Spirit. It has proved most thought provoking - fairly simple, yet complicated too. Today in my daily Bible reading I ran across this passage and I thought of the sermon yesterday. There was an illustration that likened us to a runner. You're running as fast as you can, and your body says, "You should really slow down. I'm tired - STOP ALREADY!!!!" But your competitive nature says, "No, lookit that guy's ahead! Get him! Get him! Catch him!"

It's the same way with our flesh and the Spirit. "the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature." They are at battle! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. BUT the sinful nature has been crucified! If we belong to Christ, it no longer has any control over us! Let us keep in step with the Spirit!

What have we become?

Our current president has reversed the "Abortion Funding Policy" today. It "gives federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide information on the option."

OPTION!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Tod Preston, a spokesman for Population Action International, said thus. "Women's health has been severely impacted by the cutoff of assistance. President Obama's actions will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don't have access to family planning."

Yeah, ok, unintended pregnancies are kinda the "victim"s' fault, funding folks that are fans of abortion is NOT (logically speaking of course) the brightest way to go about REDUCING abortions, as said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee...

"President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control."

Perverse. Abominable. When people killed their children in the Bible, God calls it "detestable" and when his people started doing it, he called it profanity.

Well America, I hope you're happy.

"So let's just praise the LORD..."

Have you ever prayed without asking God to do something? Not saying that God gets tired of us asking Him to do things, but we all like a conversation without requests for stuff don't we? Ever just told God how awesome He is? I don't do it nearly often enough, but today I found a Psalm that doesn't ask God to do a single thing - not even "deliver me from my enemies"!:D

Psalm 66

Shout with joy to God, all the earth!

Sing the glory of his name;

make his praise glorious!
Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power

that your enemies cringe before you.
All the earth bows down to you;

they sing praise to you,

they sing praise to your name."
Come and see what God has done,

how awesome his works in man's behalf!
He turned the sea into dry land,

they passed through the waters on foot—

come, let us rejoice in him.
He rules forever by his power,

his eyes watch the nations—

let not the rebellious rise up against him.
Praise our God, O peoples,

let the sound of his praise be heard;
he has preserved our lives

and kept our feet from slipping.
For you, O God, tested us;

you refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison

and laid burdens on our backs.
You let men ride over our heads;

we went through fire and water,

but you brought us to a place of abundance.
I will come to your temple with burnt offerings

and fulfill my vows to you-
vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke

when I was in trouble.
I will sacrifice fat animals to you

and an offering of rams;

I will offer bulls and goats.

Come and listen, all you who fear God;

let me tell you what he has done for me.
I cried out to him with my mouth;

his praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened

and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God,

who has not rejected my prayer

or withheld his love from me!

Faretheewell, Mr. President Bush

Today, Barak Obama becomes our President. We shall miss Bush sadly. He was...

• A great Christian man.
• Respectful to everyone.
• He had the reflexes of a puma:P
• He answered every letter my brother sent him.
• (I think) his decisions were good.
• Republican - need I say more?

Let us pray that Obama shall be a good president for us.

"Let's make some humans!"

I was listening to a comedy podcast this morning, and they played a clip from a black artist from the 80s who said thus (and I use a little black lingo):

"You know, I just imagine the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in heaven at the beginning of time ya know? They just hangin out, and they say, "Well, what ya'll wanna do?"

And they say, "Well - let's make some humans!"

And the Father and the Spirit look at each other and they look at Jesus and say, "Now, man, you know if we make some humans what's gonna happen? You gonna have to go to earth, take on one of them funny-lookin bodies, people are gonna spit on you, curse you, call you all kinda names, and eventually nail you to da cross."

And he said, "Father, that's alright! Because as I look down through time I can see people on planet earth, enjoying abundant life! As I look further, I can see people - men, women, boys and girls, at the end of the age from every nation, from every tribe, from every tongue, coming up from the face of the earth! I can see 'em Father, with their arms raised standing all around our throne sayin, "Blessed be the lamb that was slain for the whole world!' I can see em Father, standing there, with their new bodies, bodies that will never suffer pain or die again. It's worth it! Let's make some humans!"

Wisdom

We all know Solomon often depicts Wisdom as a woman. They also did in the book THE SHACK where the guy meets God in person. In the very first Proverb in the book, Wisdom makes clear what happens to the ones who embrace her, and the ones that reject her. She said, "The waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them." But then she says, "But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm." Well it makes sense! If you be wise, you're safe. If you be stupid, you're not.

But get WHERE wisdom calls out! It hit me for the first time as I read it today... "at the head of the noisy streets". Hmmm... it's no little voice while you're in bed at night - wisdom calls out in the middle of our everyday lives, urging us to make the right choice! There's another Proverb where she's on the roof of a house yelling for people to leave their simple ways. Wisdom is ALWAYS calling, but sometimes when I'm set on doing this stupid thing I choose not to hear it.

Today, keep an eye out for where Wisdom might be standing yelling!

I <3 little kidz

I love kids! When I see a kid, my first impulse is to like that kid. There are extremely few kids I don't like. I even like bratty kids! For some reason I can forgive a baby for peeing on the floor, but not a dog, who is not even as smart as a baby (or at least MY babies) *shrug* Kids say funny things, and get into messes, and have the most interesting logic ever. For instance, just now Jess looked up from his Bible copy work and said, "What does 'gloom' mean?" I said, "Um, it means dark, and sad, and bad, and mad." He said, "Like 'doom'?" I said, "Yeah kinda!" He started to read the rest out loud then asked, "what's 'distress'?" I said, "It means freaked out, and sad and mad." He said, "Oh. Like gloom. The same thing." "Yup."

Mayf is looking at his picture Bible and said, "You know what I'm gonna do if I ever catch a green fish? I'm gonna check if there's a money in his mouth!" Yup! Sometimes kids are so much more fun to talk to than adults!

I think any sane person that sees a baby or a little kid thinks "oh how cute". These guys are the future!

So why do people kill them and that's ok? So why do people just stick them in any old school, not caring about what they're doing? It's a little "gloomy" and "distressing" don't you think?

A Wise Ruling

King Solomon sat on his throne, listening to the musicians play. The herald walked in and raised his hand for the king's attention. "Yes?"

"Milord, two women demand an audience with you."

"Very well, I will see them."

The herald inclined his head, then departed. Solomon held up a hand to stop the musicians as the herald reentered with two prostitutes who were whispering angrily to each other as they approached. One held a baby, while the other clamored for it. The herald cleared his throat noisily, and the women seemed to remember where they were. After awkward bows, one woman raised her eyes to the king and began to speak, barely keeping the anger out of her voice. "My lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us. During the night this woman's son died because she lay on him. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn't the son I had borne."

Solomon opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the woman holding the baby piped in. "No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours!"

But the first one insisted, "No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine! You know perfectly well -" What were once whispers became shouts, and the two women argued noisily, shouting at the same time.

The king rolled his eyes. "Excuse me!... Ladies?... Ahem!... Ladies... SILENCE!!!!!!!"

The two stopped shouting and looked back up at the king, waiting. "So let me get this straight," Solomon began. "You each think that the baby is yours?"

The women nodded.

"And you cannot come to any agreement?"

The women shook their heads.

"Very well." The king turned to the herald. "Bring me a sword."

The women glanced at each other. The herald placed a sword in the king's hand, then held out his hands for the baby. The woman, confused, handed the baby to the herald. "Wha - what are you gonna..."

The king looked at his reflection in the sword he held. "We shall cut the child in two. That way you may each have half."

The first woman's eyes widened. "Oh no! Don't kill him! You may give him to the other woman, just don't kill him!"

The other woman shrugged. "Well, now neither of us will have him. I suppose it is the only thing to do!"

Solomon smiled. He looked at the herald. "Give the baby to the first woman - she is his real mother."

If God doesn't go with us

Yesterday in church, my pastor showed us a quote that went something like:

"If the Holy Spirit somehow suddenly disappeared from the earth, most of the Church's work would continue unabated."

Wha? Heheh. Chew on THAT one for a few minutes and figure if that's correct in your church or, more importantly - your life. If the Holy Spirit somehow left, would you know for certain that something was wrong?

This morning I read about the Israelites after the golden calf and all these other things that showed their bull-headedness. God was angry, and said:

"Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."

"God will not go with us???" Everyone said. They started to mourn and cry. They did not want to go without God. Since God was still pleased with Moses, he changed his mind and went with them.

But that's not the point, it's just to give it a happy ending. The point is, what if God WEREN'T going with us in what we did? Would we notice? Do we take advantage of the fact that he is with us in all that we do?

Why the Wait?

I've recently been thinking/praying about a certain something that just doesn't seem to be clear. There's no doubt it is from God, I just have no idea what he wants out of me about it! Rather strange... usually when I feel called to do something I know when I AM called to it and what to do to some extent. But this is just confusing! Today I read where all these army officers went up to Jeremiah and asked him to pray to God for them. They believed what he so blatantly proclaimed about being captives in Babylon, and asked, "Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do." My thoughts exactly. Then it said, "Ten days later" the word from God came to Jeremiah on the subject. Ten days? Now, not that ten days is that much of a long time for us, but it seems like here, when Babylon is getting closer and closer and God spoke to people just in conversation, ten days is a wait!

Why the wait? To me, it seems like the sooner we have direction, the better we can carry things out! But I suppose God knows what he's doing, no matter how much it annoys us. But as it turned out, these guys that needed direction didn't obey the direction God gave them after this wait. It didn't fit in with their original plan, and they didn't trust that this was the best road to take, mostly because of their fear. Whatever God ends up asking of me, I want to do it! I don't want to back out just because it's out of my comfort zone, or unusual, or I feel like others won't support the idea, or because it's impossible. I want to do it! I want to get it done!

If you have a spare minute, please pray that I WON'T back out on... whatever it is, whatever happens. And maybe that God will hurry up and put me out of confusion!:P

Our Job

Well, according to my Bible reading plan, I was supposed to read in Jeremiah. I don't really care for Jeremiah, for some reason it's a tough read for me. But today I was reading and lots of things were underlined with notes and cool stuff I forgot about! "Whoa! Who knew this stuff was in Jeremiah?" BUT guess what? It wasn't in Jeremiah. I read in Isaiah. For some reason I didn't noticed the little word ISAIAH at the top of each page until the end... not good for the confidence!:P BUT who cares, I found another neat passage anyway!!! It talks about our job.

"This is what God the LORD says—

he who created the heavens and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,

who gives breath to its people,

and life to those who walk on it:
"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;

I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and will make you

to be a covenant for the people

and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,

to free captives from prison

and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."

When you hear of the cool things the police do, and the army search and rescue stuff, you think, "Whoa, cool!!!!!!!!! Those people are so neat!" Tough, fearless, skilled, and ready!!! Don't mean to bust this in on ya folks, but guess what? That's what God calls us to do for souls! We hare supposed to free captives from prison and show them the narrow way out of the cell!

Are we AWOL? Are we stepping out to do what God has called us to do?

Walk Forward

I was listening to the radio this morning, and someone called in and told a story about himself and his 4 year old son that I thought was pretty neat. He said that he was out cutting wood in the woods outside their house, and his son came to the door. The son didn't like to go into the creepy woods where everything scratched at him, so he started yelling. "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where are yoooooooooooooooou?????? DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!!"

The dad called back. "I'm right over here!"

"I can't see you!!!!!!"

"Well just come over here - I can see you and I won't let anything get you."

"But I don't know where you are!"

"That's ok, just walk this way if you want me. I see you from here."

So the son walked forward and saw the dad and they hung out cutting wood and having a good time.

How often is that like our relationship with God? We yell, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!! Where are yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou????? I can't see yooooooooooooou!!!!!!!!" But He can see us! We don't have to see him right away - just follow his direction and walk forward!

"One thing God has spoken,

two things I have heard:

that you, O God, are strong,

and that you, O LORD, are loving."

Standing around doing nothing

Well, I know I often say I love my church and that that's old news, but guess what? My church EVEN has a great back-up pastor when ours is out! Dr. Bentley spoke today about growing. How do we grow? Growing is working hard at things, studying in order to know things, exercising our body to stay healthy, etc. But he told us that most people stop growing at the age of 40! It may be because they don't NEED to grow more to get the job done, or that they have more fun things to do, yadayadayada. As kids we have to learn or not get to wear the dorky blue hat(:P), but you don't have to be 40 for this to fit: are we growing spiritually? Are we studying and listening to God and others who know more than us? Or are we standing around doing nothing in our faith. There are times when I say something like, "Oh, well. I'll read more Bible tomorrow" or "it's just Sunday morning church... lah-dee-dah". Dr. Bentley said that when you stand around, content with where you are, you are ineffective. It's like a dull knife. I don't want to be ineffective - I wanna be sharp!

Join me in staying on top of life - growing in wisdom and stature (maybe:P) and in favor with God and man!

Different Gifts

This isn't something deep really, just something I thought was funny out of my Bible reading.

I personally think Paul is the best writer in the whole Bible. But in 2 Cor, he says, "Some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." It made me giggle to think of Paul being a wallflower in the Corinthian church! Since we all only know Paul through his writings, we think of him as impressive and witty and smart, and hence a good speaker. But God didn't make him amazing at everything - but writing was all he needed to reach people even 2000 years later!

Ok, that was probably pointless to everybody... but I thought it was kinda cool.