Burning

Just lettin' God burn in me today...That's so amazing to me...really....God - in me...us! I want to be a torch that is aflame with His light and love...
 

Luke 3:16 "John (the Baptist) answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come (Jesus!), the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" Matthew 3:11  is similar....


Lyrics from a song by TobyMac...Burn for You
I'm a brand new man, I'm a conscious man
I'm a man who's burnin' for you
The mistakes I've made have been chased away to the bottom of the ocean blue
I'm a brand new man in a foreign land, I'm a man who's feelin' that fire
And it's all so clear when I'm standing here at the peak of my desire

So won't you move me like you used to
I want the world to know I burn for you

I feel revived again, I am alive again
(Burnin' for you) You got me lifted and lifted you lift me up
I feel revived again, I'm energized again
(Burnin' for you) You got me lifted and lifted you lift me up

I'm a whole new guy with a whole new vibe
Changed inside - more flame in the fire
Can't stop, won't stop praying for desire
Like the bunny on the screen feel so energized
Old shell gone without a trace, new face
No more shortness of breath, new pace
Live life now without the taste of fear

Tapestry

When I was young a read a book that supposed that death, war, father time, mother earth and fate were actually people. They each had their jobs to do...it was pretty interesting and the thought of fate has stayed with me since. See fate's job was to weave a tapestry using thread that represented peoples lives, where two threads crossed, people met and interacted...

I often think of my life represented that way... a thread ...there are times that I want to just be alone, not be bothered by anyone, just do it myself ...but I think of Romans 12:3-8 "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you (I like this... seems to say that we should continually evaluate ourselves as our faith grows). Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (We are not all supposed to be the same, God wants me to appreciate and protect the differences among us - we belong together!). We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage (I think that this is where I live...); if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently (sometimes I wish this was me); if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully"

I see that even if I am a fantastically beautiful thread... I don't make much of a tapestry. But God wants us to be together, sharing life and faith and weave a wonderfully awesome tapestry! Each of us excelling where He gave us strength and each of us lifting each other up...yesterday was a hard day for me and I had so many people that gave me kicks in the butt, and encouragement, and love... THAT is what we are created for...living in Christ to love each other.... I'm glad that my thread is interconnecting with yours and that together we are weaving an incredible tapestry ....

Shame on me?

I'm not sure if this happens to you, but I get focused at times on why something is happening to me or people I know. Oftentimes, after much reflection (or if I'm lucky - a great friend or family member will talk me through it) eventually I find out that some of my past decisions and choices have come to full and ....yep - I'm reaping a crop of my own crap! I get a knot in my stomach and guilt fills me...guilt turns to shame and if I came to this realization by myself I DO NOT want to talk to someone about it - it's nasty...gross (that's why I said - "If I'm lucky, someone else gets me to that point" - at least they can be there to help alleviate the shame). I also read that just because I believe that Jesus is my Savior, it doesn't mean I'm exempt from suffering and pain - I read that it is that fact that some people suffer more than if they didn't believe! So, Brad.... don't feel bad that you go through bad things from time to time!

Like Gideon I get stuck on ME. Why is this happening to me? Why isn't everyone joining my pity party??? Then when the answer is revealed to me...I want to crawl in a hole. Same with Gideon...luckily for him someone (Jesus - the angel of the Lord) got him to realize this and before he could feel shame...the angel focused Gideon on what God has planned for him - check out this exchange:

Judges 6: 14-16 
"The Lord turned to him (Gideon) and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” (Yah, dude - get out there and kick them out of your land!)
“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”(This is so cool - I feel like this always - "What can I do? I'm one person, from a small town in the mountains, I don't have anything special!" Plus, it's hard to really stand out in the crowd - by and far most people want to "fit in" and being outside the norm is not a comfortable position to stay in)
The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”(This is the best news of all - God promises to be WITH me. We'll tackle my problems together!)

What I'm getting out of this so far is that guilt is: "I made a mistake!"
Shame is: "I am a mistake"

The thing is - God says "No! - you are NOT a mistake! I created you (see Psalm 139:13 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.") and I have a plan for you (see Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."), so....you cannot be a mistake!"


Prayer:  Thanks Jesus for taking my shame... I make mistakes and sometimes I have to live with some of the consequences....but at least I don't have to be weighed down by the oppression of shame! 

If you are reading this and are carrying shame for decisions you've made - talk with Jesus about it. If you would like to bounce it off of someone... contact me, I'll listen!

Sniveling, Good For Nothing Weaklings....

You ever watch a football game and no matter what one of the teams does, it works out for them. I have days like that. I fumble around and everything turns out in my favor... Great Days!!

There are other days that are not so great - no matter what I do, it seems to turn out wrong...string a couple of those days together and...well depression kind of sets in. "Can I do anything right? Am I worth anything at all? I'm a sniveling, good for nothing weakling"...There are times I secretly wonder (I sure wouldn't want anyone to know this) "If you're such a great God, Why am I going through this?" or "Why do bad things happen to good people?"... Maybe.... secretly..... You have wondered this, too.

Well, I'm reading today and here's what jumped out at me - Judges 6:13 “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”Sounds like - "Yeah, well, if God's so great, where are all these miracles people always talk about? Why can't I experience a miracle? Instead, I'm put in the worst position of all! I'm weak! Why doesn't God care about me and save me?"

Cool - See Gideon was speaking to "an Angel of the Lord" - i.e. Jesus ...  Way to go Gideon! You asked the question I sometimes have right to His face!!!!

So... did God strike down Gideon right then and end him (that's what I would be afraid of)? I'll write about how this turns out next post.... : )

Where is He?

Ok... I'm reading 1 Samuel and am at chapter 4 (if you so desire to read)

....so the Israelites have been delivered by God from Egypt (Exodus). He instructs them to build an ark so that he can meet with them and give them orders (Exodus 25:22). They carry the ark and split the Jordan and walk across dry (Joshua 3:17), and God instructs them how to conquer their enemies and take possession of the Promised Land (Joshua and Judges). The Hebrews (as foreigners referred to them) have had a long history of "seeing" God and His association with the ark of the covenant (uh the Jordan splitting!, enemies that are much stronger then them submitting, His "cloud", etc).

The way I read it - it just so happens that the Hebrews become numb to the presence of God. In 1 Samuel 4, I read that the Hebrews decide to take the ark of the covenant to battle (I mean, come on...if we are getting our butts kicked let's sick God on them...right?!). The problem is - is that, well...they became numb to the presence of God and didn't realize that the ark was not God. They had difficulty in differentiating the presence of God with a symbol of God.

Bad Hebrews....right?

My first reaction is...Yeah! What are you guys thinking...that's just a gold covered box....ha ha ha....idiots! Well with a bit more reflection and thought (meditation...for you Christian folks), I realized that I tend to do the same thing from time to time. I get comfort from time to time in wearing my "cross" necklace - yep, even clutch it when things are going bad. I found that I get comfort in entering a church... you know the modern day version of the tabernacle where the ark of the covenant is kept...the very essence of God - with His people!

What I am getting out of my walk so far is that God

1. wants to be with us
2. has made many attempts and helping us to understand what His presence is
3. gave His Son so that He could send His Holy Spirit to live IN us (wow!)
4. has plans to be with us eternally

What I see as my response from time to time (which oddly enough is similar to the responses of all of God's people - in the Bible and today)

1. I sometimes just seek Him when I'm "in trouble" or "had a GREAT day", not as often when I just had a day, a regular day - I'm getting better at this - I think ;)
2. I want to be alone and "do it myself"
3. I confuse God's presence with symbols of God's presence
4. I don't want to acknowledge parts of what God wants me to do because...well, frankly...it's inconvenient for me....(yikes!)
5. I tend to be focused on what's happening now and everything up to about 10 years from now...not really on eternity...

I'm glad that God works in me to realize these things and gives me a heart to want to change!

Love - a tall order...

So I've been thinking about what it's all about. You know...what am I here for...

As a read, I see that we all are here to love - to love God first and a close second, love our neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40). Through this I read that I will be transformed more and more into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). So how does Christ love..

From 1 John 3:16-18 "¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life (wow!) for us. And we ought to (yes, do this) lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? (it seems that I've been taught by our culture - neighbors, strangers, books, TV, media, friends and yes...family to strive to gather material possessions, protect them, put them in safes, boxes, get security systems, etc. But the answer from God - his plan - seems to be letting go... if Ihave material possessions and someone else needs them...I am to surrender them. If I don't...it says that I don't have the full love of God in me. Hmmm.....hard to do for me.) ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (People will know there is something special in me when I love like this... not with words - but with actions - in truth...you know...from the heart - like I really mean it)" The highlights are mine...

I always thought that love was just a feeling in your heart - it warms my body and excites my mind. I still believe that this is true...but I realize that I feel this way when I take action. I want to feel this way all the time but it is strange because I also feel threatened by the thought of giving my stuff away...I'm not talking about the stuff that I'm done with...that doesn't fit me or is worn out...I'm talking about giving things that mean something to me - that I still use and like and want. Giving those things show that I have the love of God in me.

This is hard...        

Will you join me in bringing love to the world?

Provisions

My wife and I are reading Haggai (It is in the Old Testament and he was a prophet when Israel got back from being taken away from Babylon - his name means "festive") and thinking about trusting God and letting Him provide. First we read Chapter 1 which talks about how the Israelites got back and at first were real enthusiastic about rebuilding the temple… well when they worked on the temple the other peoples would attack them. So the Israelites kind of thought "Well, maybe now is not really the time, we'll just focus on our lives a bit and we'll get around to building God's temple when the time is right." They had really rich people that built opulent houses and they had really poor people that could barely find a bite to eat. In fact, most people were working REAL hard, they planted, tended the fields and harvested. However, their results were lackluster. God used Haggai to talk to the people and say "Um, you guys have been busy building ridiculous mansions and you haven't even started my temple… what's up with that?" "Oh… and P.S. - you all haven't been having supreme harvests or bringing home much profit because I'm withholding my blessings from you because you're not paying attention to Me." Brad's interpretation

You see, I'm learning through the Bible and life experience - without God being the focus of our life - we don't get to experience the richness of the blessings that God has in store for us… He withholds them so that we search after Him.

In the meantime, we got a letter in the mail with $20 in it that talked about being called to share God's love and growing our faith collectively and individually in God and realizing that He is Jehovah Jireh (According to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, Jehovah-jireh (Hebrew - יְהוָה יִרְאֶה)(or Yahweh-yireh, The Lord will provide), was a place in the land of Moriah. It was the location of the binding of Isaac, where God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham named the place after the Lord provided a ram to sacrifice in place of Isaac.). The letter said that this is what they were doing to show their faith and also to encourage us - it asked that we consider using a portion of it to encourage others. Well, it just so happened that earlier in the day, my wife had thought that it would be nice if we had $20 to go to the County Fair with our daughter (she's never gone to a county fair). So…God provided just the amount thought to be needed on the very day it was asked ( I realize that this is not a NEED - it was a WANT but God wants to bless us with our wants as well so the story still works). We used the money for the fair and we have decided that when I get paid (which may or may not happen in August) we will also send a similar message on and add to it - just as God adds to our blessings as we have faith in Him as shown in our recent study in Haggai.

This only gets a bit cooler in the way it is integrated together. Jehovah Jireh to some Jewish commentators see the name as alluding to the future importance of the place as the site of the Temple built by Solomon. It is interesting that we were reading about the rebuilding of this temple in our quiet time (Haggai) and that God chose to provide a time for our family to be festive - the meaning of Haggai's name!

I've had several other DAILY examples of God providing - yesterday I was talking to my business partners and they were each describing marketing activities they were each involved with and I realized that I hadn't had time to focus on marketing because I've been focused on getting work done… well that afternoon, a contact called me and asked if we would team with them to go after a stream restoration project in Montana. It is not a for sure job but it made me realize that God is involved moment by moment in my life and provides all - opportunities, jobs, food, shelter, love….all.

Thank you Jehovah Jireh for your provisions, help me to thankfully receive these blessings (like in the song "thank God from whom all blessings flow"), and to not tire of their taste as the Israelites tired of the taste of manna in the desert.