Wait A Minute!

Why is life so full of waiting? Waiting on the next paycheck. Waiting on the next semester, or the next day. That it might be better or put us further a head so we can then wait for our career to take off, for our classes to get more interesting, to complete our all important plans. We wait on a girlfriend or boyfriend. We wait to get engaged to the special someone then we wait to get married, next is the honeymoon! We wait for our kids to be born, more importantly the pregnancy to end. Then for then next eighteen years we wait for them to move out. The four years after that we wait to stop having to pay for everything they do and the mistakes that they make. Then we wait to retire. We wait to see our grandchildren, and then we end up waiting on the dentist to give us our dentures, and in the bathroom line for the tenth time in that day.
We spend so much time waiting, dreaming of the next best thing. What we don’t realize is often times we don’t get a chance to see the things we are waiting for or are disappointed by what they look like when we get an extended look at them. Why is it that we either rush past or sit idle while something wonderful is right in front of us?
We always hear people say that we may not have tomorrow. While this is true it may be more accurate to say we may not have the next hour, minute and so on. Life is fragile and we need to start capturing the moments that are WAITING FOR US TO DISCOVER THEM. Just a thought I had.

Fullness Found In You

There is a satisfaction that pours over you when you begin to realize the insane amount of love that God has for us. The truth that the designer, creator, and sustainer of the universe is simultaneously controlling the cosmos as well as controlling something as trivial as a bruise in my knee, blows my mind. Something majestic enough to breath out all known existing things, desires intimacy with me? The One who always was, always is, and is to come knew me before I was born?
Staggering, flooring, breathtaking, exhilarating, humbling, paralyzing, stimulating... I wish I could describe how I have felt in response to His Extravagant Love. He designed every fiber of my existence and He holds me together. He holds the keys to death. He is the key to understanding life. Though, His ways are beyond all understanding. His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways. His knowledge surpasses... everything. He has shown His love for us in the intricacies of creation. Our bodies are living examples of His power and purpose.

God in His love, His nature, has brought me so close to himself and held me there intensely. From His arms I have seen miracles daily. I have seen Him paint masterpieces and begin new ones. I've been corrected by Him and consoled, convicted and compelled. The intensity of His love for me has brought me to my knees.

On my knees I remain, humbled by the Love of God, the Grandeur of the Almighty, the Intimacy of the Father. I pray before the throne, that God would continue to hold me, to hold my life. Lord make yourself known in every moment. Let me see Your face, Your artistry. I thank You for the incredible work you've done in my life since my last post. I praise you for the mistakes that you've carried me through, the pits you've pulled me out of, the success that you've worked out, and the people you have intricately placed into my life who have delivered your truth.

I Love You God.

Be Real

Lately I have been trying to wrap my head around the games that people play in social situations. The "game" if you will. It seems to me that each person has a number of scripts that they have to choose from in every circumstance. All of us are so in danger of getting wrapped up with choosing the appropriate script according to how we are going to make everyone feel around us. Now this may sound harsh, but I'm starting to not care what people think. Does that sound bad? We often hear those words in the form of a proclamation that we are standing up for what we are doing because we know it's right, contrary to whatever inverse pressure we feel. This situation is not what I'm getting at here. I'm really not interested in how people perceive each action that I take. Truly, I'm only concerned with one opinion, that of my savior Jesus.

We waste so much energy in coming up with the best action we can take, trying to keep everyone happy. There are countless hours spent worrying whether or not something will be taken the right way(When more often than not, most people will just lie and adjust what our "intention" was according to how someone reacts). All this problem solving energy could be spent figuring out how to serve someone best.

BTW there is a big difference between serving someone and trying to avoid stepping on thier toes. You serve someone by loving them and being patient, but you are crippling someone when you are too afraid to be real around them. If everyone where real, there would be far less social issues because people would no longer have to play the guessing game. (see more games) STOP ACTING!!! STOP TIP TOEING!!!

Sometimes people need there toes stepped on so they look down and see where they are going.

Summer Valley

I guess you could call me a mountian lover. I can't tell you how awesome it was to wake up one morning in Denver and look out the window and wittness the sunrise climbing up the rockies. In Boone N.C., being able to stand outside the hotel and in every direction seeing rolling masses of land shooting into the sky is something I will never forget. It's such a beautiful thing to me to drive along an interstate and rather than seeing a city skyline, I get to see amazing fingerprints of God. There is nothing like looking down from my window seat as I took off out over alabama's smaller mountians. The clouds were so close to the ground that the tops of the mountians were the only thing that you could see jutting up through what looked like cotton spread out in the valley's.

I've noticed something about mountains, not very many people live on them. I'm pretty sure that the top of Mt. Everest laid a city. It would tick me off if i payed a lot of money and worked harder than ever to get to tho top on;y to find a nice little cottage and a small airport. What's the point of climbing to the top of the mountain if people live there already. 

See, live happens in the valley's. In flying over Birmingham all the tips of the mountains where covers in trees, not houses. When I was snowboarding in Colorado, it was miles it seemed down a slope before the first building. if you where to travel to any place on the globe you would find that cities usually come together in valleys. 

I feel that the same if true of our walk with Jesus. A lot of people want to get to the mountain top experience and not go home. I would love to make my home there and never leave. But Life happens in the valley. The valley is where we get our bread. The Valley is where we go to school to learn, it is where we do our work. The valley is even where we rest. Sure it's relaxing to get to the summit, sit and rest a while. Some say though that it's actually harder to climb down hill. 

(GOD IS AWESOME FOR GIVING US SUCH OBVIOUS METAPHORS)

Everything??? -Conclusion

First, thank you all for your response. It was a blessing to hear such varied responses. I felt like I knew what direction my conclusion was headed after I posted the last blog. The responses solidified my view!



I must state that the best thing for us is GOD himself! So what we should want is the fullness of him manifested in our lives.



In my previous blog I was talking more about the desires we have for this life. The desire may be for things we can attain, things we want to accomplish, places we want to go, or people we want in our lives. I mention some suppositions in my last blog as well, supposing these desires will not harm other people and even that they might further the Kingdom. Should we be able to have them or should we live with some not being fulfilled?



I have resolved that we should not be able to receive all of the desires in this life.

First, our desires will not always be for the benefit of all and/or they may not always further the Kingdom. But even for those desires that qualify, I don't feel that God allows us to attain each one. Sure he gives us desires and allows us to attain certain things, but to have everything would or could be harmful. It may cause us to put ourselves above God, knowing we had a role in gaining this contentment. (I'll get back to contentment) Also it would leave us null, with out drive or motivation to inspire us to work towards the things God has put before us.



Here is where the contentment comes in. There is nothing that we could ever gain in this world that should leave us fully content. If that was the case then there would be no need for heaven or for Christ to return.



BUT!!!
All of the above has been approached with the narrow view that this is one life and the next life (after our death in this world) will be a separate life. There is no break between this life and eternal life. Eternity starts for us the moment we give our lives to Christ! We have been promised eternal life through Christ Jesus, and if our true desire is to see his Kingdom come and to reign, then our desire will be met, this is marvelous!!!

We only have one life to live, true, but because of the blood it will never end! Praise God in Heaven and on earth. While he always allows us to maintain a drive and motivation to seek and do his will, he may not let us see the finish line of that desire. However GOD in his goodness will satisfy us on the day of our deliverance to him! Thank you Jesus!

I think of Moses, I'm sure his desire was to enter into the Promise Land, the desire was never met. Still though, Moses in his growing developed his desires and demanded that God show him his Glory. I've thought for so long that God would not give me a desire without the means or opportunity to fulfill that desire. Only now as I type these words have I discovered that God may only use these things to inspire me, and motivate me to chase after him.

Hmmm...
JIA!!!
(Jesus is Awesome)

Everything?????

I need some help on this...

Should we be able to have everything we want?
I mean sure your first instinct is to say no of course not. But should we not be able to have everything we want even if the things we want are good things that will not be a bane to society? Even for all the people who work hard everyday and never give up, should they get the things that they want? Assuming that they cant afford it, should it be given to them? How about the people that can afford it, should they be able to buy or create everything they want? Remember now, these are good things and they will not harm other people.

In the best of conditions would it be helpful or harmful for a person or group of people to get everything, or even most everything that they want? Even if they are things that bring people comfort. Whats would be the effect?

Let me know what you think, this is something that has really been on my mind today!

What if....

-What if we really believed prayers are answered?

-What if our hearts yearned for the time in which Jesus would return, rather than giving the plans we have for our lives today priority?

-What if God was as real to us as the ground we stand on and the food we eat, recognizing that he is just essential for our survival?

-What if we realized that God is completely Sovereign, being wrapped up in every detail of our existence?

-What if we believed that God is completely Providential, giving us everything we need at just the right moment?

-What if we truly trusted the Character of God that has been laid out so clearly in His word, and furthermore materialized in our lives?

-What if we truly loved our neighbor, caring more for their soul than for our own comfort?

-What if we knew, with all certainty, that the same God who supplied food and water for the Israelites everyday for nearly 10,000 days, is the same God who is going to continue to meet our needs daily?

-What if, as the body of Christ, we didn't have to tell people that Christ is alive in us, do to the overwhelming evidence that the Kingdom if Heaven is near through seeing our fruit?

-What if we believed that with Christ living through us the Kingdom of God is upon us? Just as the tabernacle carried the Ark of the Covenant wherever God lead the Israelites, we carry the Holy Spirit wherever God leads us and therefore, we take the Kingdom wherever we go.

---Finally--- What if, because of everything above, each of us knew that we don't have to wait to die in order to know the full peace of God? Christ told us to pray that that the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So while the earth will not have perfect peace as it is in heaven, I still know that heaven is on earth in us. God sent the Kingdom to earth 2000 years ago, and I believe he allowed it to return to us through the Holy Spirit. So that we may have no more weeping, no more hurt or pain, no more suffering, for he holds us now. Or as Colossians says, "hold us together."

p.s. -What if all of this became more than a blog? What would it look like if all followers of Jesus began to live out their lives knowing that this life is part of the Kingdom as well. This fake paper and imaginary ink needs to stain our hearts and become a declaration song.

Luke 21:31 "Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near."