God makes good out of everything

We all know the story of Jonah, and the getting swallowed by a fish is the most famous part. But I'm going to stop the story before that.

Jonah ran away from God. Deceitful, disobedient, just plain wrong. This was a BAD thing. God sent a storm upon the ship and each person on the ship prayed to their personal god. Jonah said, "throw me overboard it's my fault!" The crewman of the ship didn't want to do that, and tried to row to land, but the storm got even crazier than before. So they said, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." They threw Jonah overboard and the sea became calm. We all know what happened to Jonah, but listen to what happened to the people on the ship - "At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him." Never mind all those personal gods - THIS God had just shown his greatness!

God could even use Jonah's disobedience to gather more followers! Not only did Jonah go to Nineveh and THEY repented - the people on the ship all made vows to the God who spared their ship!

Yet another great Psalm

This was in yesterday's reading, but I really wanted to go back and read it again today. It is Psalm 118 and you can look it up if you wish (you should), but I am going to go through and put my favorite parts here...

In my anguish I cried to the LORD,

and he answered by setting me free.
The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?
The LORD is with me; he is my helper.

I will look in triumph on my enemies.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD

than to trust in man.

I was pushed back and about to fall,

but the LORD helped me.
The LORD is my strength and my song;

he has become my salvation.
Shouts of joy and victory

resound in the tents of the righteous:

"The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!
The LORD's right hand is lifted high;

the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!"
I will not die but live,

and will proclaim what the LORD has done.

A good king

I read about Abijah king of Judah today and for some reason didn't remember him from before. In this chapter, Israel and the bad king Jeroboam is attacking Judah. Abijah stood on a mountain and yelled, "Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! Don't you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, an official of Solomon son of David, rebelled against his master. Some worthless scoundrels gathered around him and opposed Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to resist them. And now you plan to resist the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hands of David's descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. But didn't you drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods.
"As for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him. The priests who serve the LORD are sons of Aaron, and the Levites assist them. Every morning and evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the LORD. They set out the bread on the ceremonially clean table and light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. We are observing the requirements of the LORD our God. But you have forsaken him. God is with us; he is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you. Men of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed."

But just at that moment, Abijah and his men looked behind them. During this speech that I loved, Rehoboam had sent men to sneak around behind Judah to ambush them! "Oh no!!!!! What do we do!?!?!" They cried out to God to help them, and it says God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah. Judah killed 500,000 men. Rehoboam escaped that battle, but did not regain power during Abijah's reign. Finally the LORD just struck him down.

And guess what? Abijah's son was good too. That's two good kings in a row!

Describing the LORD

In the beginning of Hebrews, the angels and the Son are compared. Paul has a great compilation of prophecies and praises about God that he puts together here.

"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,

and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions

by anointing you with the oil of joy.

In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

You will roll them up like a robe;

like a garment they will be changed.

But you remain the same,

and your years will never end."

Is this not as close as it gets to describing God? At least as far as the English language can go.

The Spirit Descends!

Jesus has just ascended into heaven and the disciples are left behind. The Spirit descended upon them like flames. Can you imagine receiving the Spirit like that? First you're sitting around and then BANG there's fire on your clothes and in your heart! I love reading the first part of Acts - it says the disciples "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Can you imagine that? They had everything in common - no fighting about whether they should sing the old songs or the new ones or arguing about choir robes. They were together praising God - how much better can it get? Not only that, they were favorable in the eyes of everyone, and people came to join them because they wanted to be of their number. Now Christians are definitely NOT in favor of the world - too often we're holier-than-thou and nobody wants what we have because of the way we act. We all know what happens later - persecution. But the disciples didn't care, they kept sharing anyway!

May we be like the early Christians!

Heaven

The day I first found out we were moving, I was laying in bed thinking how sad leaving our friends and life in CO. I didn't want to fall asleep thinking things like that, so I pulled out a pad and started to write whatever. Turns out, I wrote a scene in which all of my friends from Arkansas and Colorado were altogether with Jesus in heaven. Jesus kicked the angels off the instruments and let us play them and everybody sang and couldn't stop smiling. After all, what was there to stop smiling about? Even Jesus missed a few high notes here and there, and everyone laughed just for the heck of it. Nobody really could think of a reason to stop the singing and talking and laughing until Jesus banged a pot and called everybody outside to His big big yard to play some football!

It sounded like so much fun, and God's been pressing on me lately that just like I will move away, I will someday move to heaven. I had some preconceived notions about heaven at one point in my life like a lot of people have - won't it get boring after a while? But I'm learning that heaven is our number one thing to look forward to! God didn't invent boredom - he invented everything fun and good!

And now, let me hype up the band Foolish Things. They are Colorado natives that broke up as a band a couple of years ago, but their music is AMAZING. It's not the type of music that sticks in your head as your favorite song - it's the type of music that pops up during the hard times in your life and comforts you. Here is the song, "It's Not Home" from their CD, LET'S NOT FORGET THE STORY which is my theme song for the moment.

Time is like a grain of sand on the beaches of eternity

but we're here toiling, planning

like we'll never leave

I know your fire is coming

What will stand the flames?

Will your return find me running

or blind and lame?

I've gotta say that I've lived too many days like I belong here

It's not home

I'm shocked to see the measure

of where I've been storing treasure

It's not home

The question's calling louder

"Who do you believe?"

and the answer lies upon the things to which we cleave

I know you're gone ahead

to build a place for me

so I'll trust the things you said

Trust though I can't see

I've gotta say that I've lived too many days like I belong here
It's not home
I'm shocked to see the measure
of where I've been storing treasure
It's not home

Have we believed the fiction

authored by the world's depiction

of how it is?

Let's not forget the story

we're living for his glory now

You laid it down for me

So I lay it down for you

I've gotta say that I've lived too many days like I belong here

It's not home

I'm shocked to see the measure of where I've been storing treasure

It's not home

I'm not home here

It's not my home

Prayers

"Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place."

~ 2 Chronicles 7:15

God, please be attentive and answer the prayers when two or three or eleven that are having rough times are gathered in your Name. Give wisdom generously to us - we believe and do not doubt.

Encouragement

One of the things God's been impressing on me lately is the matter of encouragement. There's a guy at our church who is really good at it. He always has a compliment and says it like he really means it. He's always ready to listen with his whole body no matter what you're talking about and add a few comments. He makes you feel special by encouraging and maybe poking a little fun here and there. Words are something I put a lot of stock into, and I don't really feel like I know how I did on something unless somebody says so, so I really can appreciate compliments on things. I thought the other day, "If I like it so much, maybe other people do too!" I don't very often go out of my way to tell somebody that their nails look cute, but I should! The Bible even tells us to build each other up.