In the story of the exodus, we find a man named Moses who led the Israelites out of enslavement from the Egyptian Pharaoh. When Gods promise of deliverance was put in action, we find the Israelites trapped in the ways of the world. The Hebrew people wanted to be like the other nations, because they fear their growing neighbor Assyria and Babylon. Even though “Moses may have freed their bodies, Pharaoh still colonized their conscience.” They were still slaves like the back in Egypt. In understanding what it means to be human, one must understand the meaning of being “set apart. ” To be set apart is be set free. To be human is to be free.
At the start of time-in the garden-Adam and Eve were free to move about the garden and even eat whatever they want to. Except that one little tree in the middle of the garden; they were not to even touch it or death would be bestowed upon them. God gave Adam and Eve a choice. This choice gave them freedom because if that tree wasn’t there, and there was no choice, would there be freedom? Without choices there is no freedom. One can only become free if they have choices. So if we say, that the tree knowledge was not there, and Adam and Eve could eat everything and do whatever they wanted, that makes God look like a Scientist looking over His lab rats controlling the situation. We then become Gods puppets were without our choices we are focus by God to live the way He wanted us to. So God and His limitless knowledge gave us the ability to have choices. In away, God was setting us free from Himself. God did not want to be a controlling God; He wanted to be a Loving God. If you think about, in a relationship if it is not a giving relationship and one person dominates over the other, this causes a very painful experience. Someone always get hurt in the end, whether it is the person being control or the person controlling. God does not what this kind of relationship with his creation.
So because of our choices we have all sinned. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge they chose death. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. To be human is to realize that we are all sinners. The world is always fighting over the things they lust for. People have a lust for power. An Example is the Tower of Babel; the world had this great desire to reach the heavens. The whole world had one language and “people were impressed by their limitless power.” To have power is to be of the world. To be set apart is to rely on God whole heartedly by trusting Him. The people in the time of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves. So what God did was he took that power away by confusing their languages. To be human, one has to be a sinner.
Jesus taught us how to be humans, set apart from the ways of the world. The Jewish leaders-in the time of Jesus-were power hungry. The Temple in Jerusalem was divided into different layers, and was separated my walls. The first layer was the Royal Porch and all people were allowed in this area, Jews and non Jews. The next layer was the Court of the Gentiles and this court was the farthest the Gentiles could go. Then there was the actual temple where the all Jews were allowed in. Then in side there was a court that separated the women and the men, and then there was the inner court and altar. This inner court was where the curtain was. So there was huge separation between the different people. There was no equality in the way the Jewish leaders handle things. Then Jesus came along say we must love our neighbors as ourselves and love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind. So in the mind setting of being set apart, equality is crucial to be known as free. Freedom has no meaning to the man crying out for equality. In the Civil Rights movement back in the 1960s we find a group of people portrayed as free people but yet they were still treated like slaves. In America, The ending of slavery happened when the 13 amendment was added to the US constitution in 1865. It took about 100 years for African Americans to have to title equality and not just freedom. To be human is to be free. In the temple of Jerusalem we find that people are not free because they are stuck in the ways of the Jewish leaders. So the lower class people (the people who are not Jewish leaders) turn to a savior named Jesus the Christ. The Jewish leaders did not like this so the crucified Jesus; the cool thing about that is, that when Jesus took his last breathe; the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This symbolizes that a free people. History states that God was symbolically trapped behind this curtain in way that excluded everyone but the highest Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders were the only ones that could go near this curtain.
Humans were meant to be free and meant to be equal with their brothers and sisters. This new idea of following Jesus was a new way of being set apart. “The works we do is nothing more than a means of transforming our love for Christ into something concrete.” These are the words of Mother Teresa which I think set up the idea of being set apart. So what does it mean to be human? To be human is to be free and the only way for that is to be different from the other nations. We are called to be set apart so we do not fall in to the patterns of this world. To be of this world is to be enslaved by the world. The world tells you there is no other way to go but when one is set apart one begins to see the other choices. The world is run by its money and by how much an individual’s lust for more power and money. As Gandhi said there is enough for everyone’s needs, but not enough for everyone’s greed. It is sad that some people buy into the lies of the world, thinking that the world has all the answers. So when one looks past the lies they find a true freedom and a new way of living in a world set apart from the normal ways of today’s society.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Love is the Answer
In my devotions the other day, I came a pond a great truth. It was one of those light bulb experiences where you just say to yourself, why I have been such an idiot. It hard for me to accept this just because it makes me feel like I may have been doing things wrong, it challenged my philosophy on life.
This great truth was Love.
But not just any kind of love, this was the love that Jesus had. It was the love that changed a lot of people’s lives. It’s the love that keeps on loving. This changed me, I have always loved but I only loved to a point that was comfortable for my only sake. I will love that man with a contiguous skin disease as long as I don’t have to touch him, or I will love that poor man who is starving but I wouldn’t feed him. I will love the homeless, but never hang out with them.
Is this how God intended us to love? Is it really love if you don’t get your hands dirty. I learned how to love this week. I learned how Jesus loved. So when Jesus did all his miracles, He did them out love. Jesus got his hands dirty when he spit on the ground and made some mud with his saliva and put it on a blind man’s eyes so that he could see(John 9:7). So I thought about that for a little bit and realized that all I had to do to heal eye was a little dirt and spit. I have a friend in my church that is an eye doctor, and I thought of going to him and telling him of this new dirt and spit cure for blindness. It is better that any eye laser surgery, because it’s what Jesus did. Now that sound really silly but why shouldn’t it work. Or is Jesus just some supernatural being that could raise people from the dead and feed thousands of people.
During Jesus ministries I have found that the main thing Jesus did was preach, do miracles, and pray. So I think that when Jesus preaches he did it out of love. When Jesus was just starting out with his ministries he preached “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” (Matthew 4:17). I like this because it tells us that Jesus love all beings so much that that he wanted people to be saved. When Jesus did miracles, we sometimes forget why Jesus did miracles, we only focus on that he did them. Jesus didn’t do miracles just to get people to believe because then that adds a since of fear, but he did them to show people how to love.
Even though he has a contiguous skin disease I will still touch him, and because he is starving I will feed him, and just because he is homeless I will hang out with him because he is a child of God just as I am. The miracle is not being raised from the dead or feed thousands of people, the miracle is the reason these miracles happened. And out of love anything is possible.
Before Jesus is arrested Jesus is praying. I believe that the only reason we pray is because we love. We pray to God whom we love, we pray for friends and family whom we love, we pray for everyone in the world whom we love, we pray for the safety of others and that they may be healed out of love.
The one thing that I final understood, is that love is what causes the fire to burn. Without a burning flame there’s no sharing of the gospels. Jesus was a man just like me; the only difference is Jesus fully understood the meaning of love. So this love that Jesus had is not just His but His love needs to be reflected off of me so that others may see. Who knows, may be some blind man will see because of the love I reflected.
This great truth was Love.
But not just any kind of love, this was the love that Jesus had. It was the love that changed a lot of people’s lives. It’s the love that keeps on loving. This changed me, I have always loved but I only loved to a point that was comfortable for my only sake. I will love that man with a contiguous skin disease as long as I don’t have to touch him, or I will love that poor man who is starving but I wouldn’t feed him. I will love the homeless, but never hang out with them.
Is this how God intended us to love? Is it really love if you don’t get your hands dirty. I learned how to love this week. I learned how Jesus loved. So when Jesus did all his miracles, He did them out love. Jesus got his hands dirty when he spit on the ground and made some mud with his saliva and put it on a blind man’s eyes so that he could see(John 9:7). So I thought about that for a little bit and realized that all I had to do to heal eye was a little dirt and spit. I have a friend in my church that is an eye doctor, and I thought of going to him and telling him of this new dirt and spit cure for blindness. It is better that any eye laser surgery, because it’s what Jesus did. Now that sound really silly but why shouldn’t it work. Or is Jesus just some supernatural being that could raise people from the dead and feed thousands of people.
During Jesus ministries I have found that the main thing Jesus did was preach, do miracles, and pray. So I think that when Jesus preaches he did it out of love. When Jesus was just starting out with his ministries he preached “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” (Matthew 4:17). I like this because it tells us that Jesus love all beings so much that that he wanted people to be saved. When Jesus did miracles, we sometimes forget why Jesus did miracles, we only focus on that he did them. Jesus didn’t do miracles just to get people to believe because then that adds a since of fear, but he did them to show people how to love.
Even though he has a contiguous skin disease I will still touch him, and because he is starving I will feed him, and just because he is homeless I will hang out with him because he is a child of God just as I am. The miracle is not being raised from the dead or feed thousands of people, the miracle is the reason these miracles happened. And out of love anything is possible.
Before Jesus is arrested Jesus is praying. I believe that the only reason we pray is because we love. We pray to God whom we love, we pray for friends and family whom we love, we pray for everyone in the world whom we love, we pray for the safety of others and that they may be healed out of love.
The one thing that I final understood, is that love is what causes the fire to burn. Without a burning flame there’s no sharing of the gospels. Jesus was a man just like me; the only difference is Jesus fully understood the meaning of love. So this love that Jesus had is not just His but His love needs to be reflected off of me so that others may see. Who knows, may be some blind man will see because of the love I reflected.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
The Call of Jeremiah
Lord I'm weak,scared and afriad
young, and not really for
I can't speak, a stuborn heart
I am only a child
Touch my mouth oh Lord
put your heart in mine
cause you knew the start of me
Lord my feet hurt near them
how can I go
I can't get my self readly
to day you will stand
and thy will rescue me
young, and not really for
I can't speak, a stuborn heart
I am only a child
Touch my mouth oh Lord
put your heart in mine
cause you knew the start of me
Lord my feet hurt near them
how can I go
I can't get my self readly
to day you will stand
and thy will rescue me
the Calling of Ezekiel
I stand to my feet
will thee speak to me
Cause as He spoke
I rose to the spirit consumtion
To hear him speak
I do hear the voice of the one speaking
thy send me, to the deepest of places
Your hands apon me
Thee is bitter fear
and the Son of man
be not afriad to live among scorpions
the word must be spoken
Sweet joyest word
feels me up
spoken out of a full mouth
honey dripped
May the glory of the Lord be praised in his dwelling place
will thee speak to me
Cause as He spoke
I rose to the spirit consumtion
To hear him speak
I do hear the voice of the one speaking
thy send me, to the deepest of places
Your hands apon me
Thee is bitter fear
and the Son of man
be not afriad to live among scorpions
the word must be spoken
Sweet joyest word
feels me up
spoken out of a full mouth
honey dripped
May the glory of the Lord be praised in his dwelling place
Why can't I be first?
When one is first in this world, I like to think of the wealthy, the big business man, in the black suit and long tie, going to work long days just so they can be, well “first.” It reminds me of a term called Social Darwinism, in the 1900s that many Americans had this view of “survival of the fittest”. It was the idea that you had to work to get to the top. In American History, this was a time were there was not much of a middle class, you were either richer than rich or dirt poor. But everyone wanted to be first. It was why people worked 14 – 18 hour days.
So any way, what I am about to write is totally the opposite of what the world of the past says. Screw social Darwinism. The world says that you have to work hard and you will make it in life. I say what Jesus said in his parable that the last will become first and the first will become last. (Matt 20:16)
When a man works his rear off to make it in life and a lazy man that sits around doing nothing with his time comes along and get the same amount of wealth as the man who works his butt off.
Now is that fair?
I have felt a similar struggle in my life, in my school. I have worked my butt off to get good grades, and there was this one class, the hardest class in high school that I have ever taken. It was AP US history. I could not take the tests, they were just too hard. Now I am a very smart man or I think I am, but when it came to test in this class, I bombed them. But what made it worse was that there were people in that class there were getting A’s on the tests, that don’t even try. Every night I would stress out over trying to understand the concepts of the time period we were studying. And when test day came the people that didn’t study got way better grades than me. Now that can’t be fair.
So let’s look at this situation a little different. Let’s see how God would look at this… Well God is the all knowing, and He is bigger then big, so I think God knows what’s best. God knows the future and he has a plan for me, and I think that if getting A’s on the test would prepare me for Gods will than so be it. But since I did fail most of the test, I have to believe that is Gods will also.
It’s hard to think that failing in live is what’s best for us. It lowers us to a standard that the world does not except. The world tells us to believe in “Social Darwinism,” and when one fails it goes against the world.
So in saying that is that not what God wants, standing against the world’s way of thinking?
Not to be of this world but to be in this world.
We need to stand up against the whole world. So how do we do that? Well let’s look at Jesus, Jesus was born of a lowly virgin mother, Jesus was a lowly shepherd, Jesus hung out with the lowest of low, like the sick, the poor, and the wicked man. What Jesus did was a great example of what we should be doing today. Can you imagine that?
Jesus lowered himself to a level that which he was then hangin’ with the poorest of poor and all the people that people looked down on. Jesus was not of this world, and he knew that.
So in my life, I have been striving to be like Jesus. I have been lifted up in many ways, lately. I getting good great in school now, I got a good job that just named me one of the most outstanding workers, people are looking up to me. And you know what, it feels good. I feel proud, and happy. Know not that these things are bad, but I don’t want to swim in my proud. I want to be like Jesus, humble. So in my life I have been striving to lower my self so that I can make God number one in my life. And I feel like God has bless me more so than what the world has done to me.
So in closing, live like Jesus. Because Jesus’ wasn’t first, he made himself last so others could be first.
So any way, what I am about to write is totally the opposite of what the world of the past says. Screw social Darwinism. The world says that you have to work hard and you will make it in life. I say what Jesus said in his parable that the last will become first and the first will become last. (Matt 20:16)
When a man works his rear off to make it in life and a lazy man that sits around doing nothing with his time comes along and get the same amount of wealth as the man who works his butt off.
Now is that fair?
I have felt a similar struggle in my life, in my school. I have worked my butt off to get good grades, and there was this one class, the hardest class in high school that I have ever taken. It was AP US history. I could not take the tests, they were just too hard. Now I am a very smart man or I think I am, but when it came to test in this class, I bombed them. But what made it worse was that there were people in that class there were getting A’s on the tests, that don’t even try. Every night I would stress out over trying to understand the concepts of the time period we were studying. And when test day came the people that didn’t study got way better grades than me. Now that can’t be fair.
So let’s look at this situation a little different. Let’s see how God would look at this… Well God is the all knowing, and He is bigger then big, so I think God knows what’s best. God knows the future and he has a plan for me, and I think that if getting A’s on the test would prepare me for Gods will than so be it. But since I did fail most of the test, I have to believe that is Gods will also.
It’s hard to think that failing in live is what’s best for us. It lowers us to a standard that the world does not except. The world tells us to believe in “Social Darwinism,” and when one fails it goes against the world.
So in saying that is that not what God wants, standing against the world’s way of thinking?
Not to be of this world but to be in this world.
We need to stand up against the whole world. So how do we do that? Well let’s look at Jesus, Jesus was born of a lowly virgin mother, Jesus was a lowly shepherd, Jesus hung out with the lowest of low, like the sick, the poor, and the wicked man. What Jesus did was a great example of what we should be doing today. Can you imagine that?
Jesus lowered himself to a level that which he was then hangin’ with the poorest of poor and all the people that people looked down on. Jesus was not of this world, and he knew that.
So in my life, I have been striving to be like Jesus. I have been lifted up in many ways, lately. I getting good great in school now, I got a good job that just named me one of the most outstanding workers, people are looking up to me. And you know what, it feels good. I feel proud, and happy. Know not that these things are bad, but I don’t want to swim in my proud. I want to be like Jesus, humble. So in my life I have been striving to lower my self so that I can make God number one in my life. And I feel like God has bless me more so than what the world has done to me.
So in closing, live like Jesus. Because Jesus’ wasn’t first, he made himself last so others could be first.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Being Called Out
In my life the calling has been a struggle for me. Some times I get caught in emotion that leads me to think that it wasn’t really God, or sometimes I get called to do this, but then a week later it’s that, it leads me to mass confusion and discomforted in my heart.
Testimony time…
When I was in the 7th grade I went up to the alter laid down my heart, I said that I am Your servant and I could feel God calling me to be a pastor. I was very emotion; I was crying and praising the Lord.
So to continue the story I lived my life knowing that God wanted me to be a pastor…BAM! Stop there….now what is wrong with this statement?
I lived my life knowing that God wanted me to be a pastor…
So before I tell you what is wrong with that statement, let’s go to the next chapter of this little story…
So I started to plan a future, what schools would be the right school for me, what do I do now to make this calling to come true…BAM…. There is problem number two…
Continue.
At about this time I am in high school, and things are getting hard. School wise any way, I was a freshman and all I wanted to do was fit in, I wanted to be cool. Life and my calling became hard. I began to look back on the day of my calling and question my calling and questioning God. I told myself that I was just emotion and I really wasn’t called to be a pastor. Than came the guilt trip that caused discomfort in my heart. I was sicken because I “though” I was lying to myself, guilty that I didn’t figure it out.
Okay let’s stop there for a second
Life after the Calling
Now let’s go back to the start…
I lived my life knowing that God wanted me to be a pastor…
Let me rephrase that…I got my calling now I done.
God doesn’t work that way, there would be no life because we are never done with our calling. So I can live my life knowing that God wants me to be a pastor but that’s not the end… The story doesn’t end with a calling, in only begins a greater, and more passionate you.
Let me tell you a story of a guy named Moses…
God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, through God calling him through a burning bush. So what would have happened if Moses did what I did?
Okay I got my calling to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, so I must be done. That would be a lame story I think because there’s no action. Life is full of risks, and taking risks takes faith, and to walk by faith, is to trust that God holds the walls of water up while you cross the red sea.
A calling from God is a verb, you do your calling, you live your calling, and the story doesn’t stop at the calling, it only begins. Don’t forget that a calling is an assignment from God. Our lives are always transforming, everyday, every second God is making every move, every single breathe an act for His plan,
This is kind of lame but if you think of it, God is calling us to make sure we don’t for get to do the simple things like breathing. Because if God didn’t tell use to breathe, we would be dishonoring God by breathing because we wouldn’t be listing to Him.
So I believe that God is always calling us everyday, in everything I do.
Who’s bigger than you?
So to continue the story, where I‘m trying to plan my future it became real hard for me, apparently I didn’t know 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.
I was a little control freak, I wanted to make sure I didn’t fail God, because He called me to be a pastor.
Okay let me say this; God is way smarter, way wiser, way bigger than any of our problems. So let me put it another way, we are incredibly stupid (compared to God), we are a grain of sand in this world, we are so, so small that we can’t do it by are our selves, if we try to we will fail, fail, fail!!!
So how do we not fail?
Trust in the Lord
Have Faith in the Lord
Love the Lord
Let him carry you through all your problems. Like the poem “foot prints in the sand” by Mary Stevenson.
During your times of trial and suffering,when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
You see, God is their all the time, He is there to carry us through the hard times. For me it was fear of failing. But when God is carrying you, how can you fail.
God has a plan for you, and you can’t let your self take God great plan and try to fulfill it my your self because you wont be able too. God knows how the plan starts, how it grows, and how it ends.
So how do we do this?
Well you have to trust in the Lord, have Faith in the Lord, and Love the Lord, and God will carry you. Your calling will become clearer when you realize that you can’t do it alone.
Discernment
Pray to God; pray that he will give you a heart of openness. A good way to know if you are doing what God is do for your life, is to ask some how is older and more wise, and who has been through life. This is good because it allows you to be open and it gives the receiver of you heart something to pray about and someone to guide you through your discernment of what God is calling you to do.
It’s hard to know what to believe when you’re not sure if God is really calling you.
For me it was very hard, because I grew up thinking I know what God had planed for me but when things didn’t go my way I stopped and cried like a little baby because I was a control freak, as I said early. But when my earthy heart starts to desire earth ways and jealousy runs through my veins, I see others and how God is working in there lives, so my jealousy of them blinded me of how God was really working in my life.
You see how important discernment is. Know that God has a plan for every one but Gods plan for him over there is going to be different from your own.
Faith in the Lord, the Lord will lead you to what he wants.
So what know?
I live life everyday wondering what God is going to do to day, the people he is going to allow me to meet, and what I am going to do for Him today. I thank Him every day, for the opportunity he has given me to live a life for Him.
So if one is struggling to hear what God is calling you to do, I will pray for you, I also believe that if you are patient God will not abandoned you, out in the cool. I also believe that if opportunity arises from God, you need to jump on it. Because God is in all of our opportunities because God knows, when you jump on His opportunities you are taking a leap of faith.
Let me give you an example…
I was given the opportunity to go to Rwanda this summer, and what we were calling it was a short term mission trip. The reason why is because we were there for only two weeks.
Now, just because I went on a “Mission trip,” that must mean I am called to be a missionary.
This goes back to discernment, on knowing what God has for me. But as you know, in the beginning I said I was called to be a pastor. These two callings are contradicting each other.
Why would God do that?
Well He wouldn’t because God doesn’t contradict Himself, He is greater than us, and he knows the bigger picture. The bigger picture, that lays our futures into God’s hands.
So was my mission trip pointless? Well God doesn’t see it that way; He sees the opportunity that I took and the risk of getting my self into the world, as a leap of Faith.
So who knows, God may calling me to lead a short term mission trip when I’m older, But going on this mission trip has made me think in a different way, and grow in my spiritual life. Now that is great.
I can also guarantee, that God will use my experiences to dwell in my heart making me more like the man God wants me to be.
So in closing I would like to say to be called out, is one of greatest thinks God can do for us, but there is something even greater, which is the growth that develop your heart, mind, and soul, to fulfill your calling,
The calling is fun, But the journey is where the parties at. And the joy of arriving at Gods plan when life is over.
Testimony time…
When I was in the 7th grade I went up to the alter laid down my heart, I said that I am Your servant and I could feel God calling me to be a pastor. I was very emotion; I was crying and praising the Lord.
So to continue the story I lived my life knowing that God wanted me to be a pastor…BAM! Stop there….now what is wrong with this statement?
I lived my life knowing that God wanted me to be a pastor…
So before I tell you what is wrong with that statement, let’s go to the next chapter of this little story…
So I started to plan a future, what schools would be the right school for me, what do I do now to make this calling to come true…BAM…. There is problem number two…
Continue.
At about this time I am in high school, and things are getting hard. School wise any way, I was a freshman and all I wanted to do was fit in, I wanted to be cool. Life and my calling became hard. I began to look back on the day of my calling and question my calling and questioning God. I told myself that I was just emotion and I really wasn’t called to be a pastor. Than came the guilt trip that caused discomfort in my heart. I was sicken because I “though” I was lying to myself, guilty that I didn’t figure it out.
Okay let’s stop there for a second
Life after the Calling
Now let’s go back to the start…
I lived my life knowing that God wanted me to be a pastor…
Let me rephrase that…I got my calling now I done.
God doesn’t work that way, there would be no life because we are never done with our calling. So I can live my life knowing that God wants me to be a pastor but that’s not the end… The story doesn’t end with a calling, in only begins a greater, and more passionate you.
Let me tell you a story of a guy named Moses…
God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, through God calling him through a burning bush. So what would have happened if Moses did what I did?
Okay I got my calling to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, so I must be done. That would be a lame story I think because there’s no action. Life is full of risks, and taking risks takes faith, and to walk by faith, is to trust that God holds the walls of water up while you cross the red sea.
A calling from God is a verb, you do your calling, you live your calling, and the story doesn’t stop at the calling, it only begins. Don’t forget that a calling is an assignment from God. Our lives are always transforming, everyday, every second God is making every move, every single breathe an act for His plan,
This is kind of lame but if you think of it, God is calling us to make sure we don’t for get to do the simple things like breathing. Because if God didn’t tell use to breathe, we would be dishonoring God by breathing because we wouldn’t be listing to Him.
So I believe that God is always calling us everyday, in everything I do.
Who’s bigger than you?
So to continue the story, where I‘m trying to plan my future it became real hard for me, apparently I didn’t know 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.
I was a little control freak, I wanted to make sure I didn’t fail God, because He called me to be a pastor.
Okay let me say this; God is way smarter, way wiser, way bigger than any of our problems. So let me put it another way, we are incredibly stupid (compared to God), we are a grain of sand in this world, we are so, so small that we can’t do it by are our selves, if we try to we will fail, fail, fail!!!
So how do we not fail?
Trust in the Lord
Have Faith in the Lord
Love the Lord
Let him carry you through all your problems. Like the poem “foot prints in the sand” by Mary Stevenson.
During your times of trial and suffering,when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
You see, God is their all the time, He is there to carry us through the hard times. For me it was fear of failing. But when God is carrying you, how can you fail.
God has a plan for you, and you can’t let your self take God great plan and try to fulfill it my your self because you wont be able too. God knows how the plan starts, how it grows, and how it ends.
So how do we do this?
Well you have to trust in the Lord, have Faith in the Lord, and Love the Lord, and God will carry you. Your calling will become clearer when you realize that you can’t do it alone.
Discernment
Pray to God; pray that he will give you a heart of openness. A good way to know if you are doing what God is do for your life, is to ask some how is older and more wise, and who has been through life. This is good because it allows you to be open and it gives the receiver of you heart something to pray about and someone to guide you through your discernment of what God is calling you to do.
It’s hard to know what to believe when you’re not sure if God is really calling you.
For me it was very hard, because I grew up thinking I know what God had planed for me but when things didn’t go my way I stopped and cried like a little baby because I was a control freak, as I said early. But when my earthy heart starts to desire earth ways and jealousy runs through my veins, I see others and how God is working in there lives, so my jealousy of them blinded me of how God was really working in my life.
You see how important discernment is. Know that God has a plan for every one but Gods plan for him over there is going to be different from your own.
Faith in the Lord, the Lord will lead you to what he wants.
So what know?
I live life everyday wondering what God is going to do to day, the people he is going to allow me to meet, and what I am going to do for Him today. I thank Him every day, for the opportunity he has given me to live a life for Him.
So if one is struggling to hear what God is calling you to do, I will pray for you, I also believe that if you are patient God will not abandoned you, out in the cool. I also believe that if opportunity arises from God, you need to jump on it. Because God is in all of our opportunities because God knows, when you jump on His opportunities you are taking a leap of faith.
Let me give you an example…
I was given the opportunity to go to Rwanda this summer, and what we were calling it was a short term mission trip. The reason why is because we were there for only two weeks.
Now, just because I went on a “Mission trip,” that must mean I am called to be a missionary.
This goes back to discernment, on knowing what God has for me. But as you know, in the beginning I said I was called to be a pastor. These two callings are contradicting each other.
Why would God do that?
Well He wouldn’t because God doesn’t contradict Himself, He is greater than us, and he knows the bigger picture. The bigger picture, that lays our futures into God’s hands.
So was my mission trip pointless? Well God doesn’t see it that way; He sees the opportunity that I took and the risk of getting my self into the world, as a leap of Faith.
So who knows, God may calling me to lead a short term mission trip when I’m older, But going on this mission trip has made me think in a different way, and grow in my spiritual life. Now that is great.
I can also guarantee, that God will use my experiences to dwell in my heart making me more like the man God wants me to be.
So in closing I would like to say to be called out, is one of greatest thinks God can do for us, but there is something even greater, which is the growth that develop your heart, mind, and soul, to fulfill your calling,
The calling is fun, But the journey is where the parties at. And the joy of arriving at Gods plan when life is over.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Hope
In my life, hope has been a very important part. And when I lost hope, I became lost and afraid. Life sucked, and I feel no reason to live. Act 27 has a great story of finding hope in God when there seems to be no hope. It starts when Paul is sailing to Rome and the hit a bad storm.
Verse 20 says...
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued to raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
Then Paul later says...
22But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed...
God said to Paul...
24Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar...
This really spoke to me in a way that showed me that through the storms in my life, there is hope. I was blinded by the clouds. I could not see the hope in God's people. I couldn’t see hope in the Church. But what God wants us to do when we have no hope is to have courage.
I then realized that there is a hope, a hope for the church, a hope for my friends, a hope for all man kind. This Hope is Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ, there is hope. Through the storm we may be scared, scared that our things will be lost, but after our things are lost not one of use will be lost, because we have Faith.
In closing I would like to encourage you to have faith and never give up hope, because with out hope we are lost.
Verse 20 says...
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued to raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
Then Paul later says...
22But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed...
God said to Paul...
24Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar...
This really spoke to me in a way that showed me that through the storms in my life, there is hope. I was blinded by the clouds. I could not see the hope in God's people. I couldn’t see hope in the Church. But what God wants us to do when we have no hope is to have courage.
I then realized that there is a hope, a hope for the church, a hope for my friends, a hope for all man kind. This Hope is Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ, there is hope. Through the storm we may be scared, scared that our things will be lost, but after our things are lost not one of use will be lost, because we have Faith.
In closing I would like to encourage you to have faith and never give up hope, because with out hope we are lost.
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