I have mentioned before that one of my favorite movies is Ben-Hur. The old version. Does anyone recall what causes one of the big turning points of the movie? Right, Juda saves the Roman officer who in-turn makes him his son and gifts him his ring as a sign of his covenant with him. Suddenly the man goes from slave to master and his whole world changes. In the same way, when Johnathan-Saul’s son-meets David he takes off his cloak and ring and bestows them upon David, acknowledging him as the man worthy to be the next king. Johnathan was ten years older than David and the rightful successor of Saul, so to willingly relinquish the throne was an act of true respect, and also (I feel) the act of a true ruler. He saw that David was full of God and that God had chosen him to take the throne, for the good of the people Johnathan gave away his birthright because he knew that David was the one who would lead Isreal the right way, only a true king would give up his throne for the good of the nation. Unlike Johnathan, Jesus was always the one we needed and no other could take His place; but like Johnathan, Jesus gave up His throne (temperarily) for the good of His people. Jesus also gave up his birthright. He had the right to be the only child of God, no adopted sons and daughters were necassary for the kingdom to continue, we orphans were never something that God needed in His kingdom, but because He loves us He sent His only son, the only child that He had, to save us, to die for us and to make a way so we could be truly part of the King’s family. He gave us His cloak and Ring and let us live with Him in glory. That is the love of a true king. Like Juda Ben-Hur, we were once slaves and now are inheritors of the kingdom. Like David, we were unworthy in the eyes of the world, but are accepted by the Prince and the King to be children in the kingdom. Let that sink in, and in your own words, thank God for all He has done. Oh how great the Father’s love for us.
Category: Jesus
Heart-lost
I may be afraid of my situation, But I am more afraid of losing heart in all this.-N
Fear. What an odd word. It’s one syllable, four letters, and has several contexts that it can be put into. Even though ‘fear’ is such a small word, it is a huge emotion. I once heard pain be refered to as the obliterator, because it takes away everything else. Pain and fear have the same result, they take away everything else. Fear clogs your senses, takes over your heart and mind until you have nothing else to give. Fear causes us to lose heart. Once we lose heart everything else slips along with it, our passion, our courage, our joy. Jesus said, “Take heart, for I have overcome the world.” Because He knew that human hearts were weak and we could easily lose ourselves in our fear. But Jesus has overcome fear and doubt, and when our hearts are in Him, we cannot lose hope.
Fold your hands
Fold your hands.
Sit quietly.
Pray silently.
Keep it all in and don’t bother God with your pain.
How many “religious” people claim this to be how we must act with our all powerful God? Too many.
Fold your hands, close your eyes, listen to the pastor, but don’t ever bother God. Don’t cry to Him, don’t be angry in His presence, don’t mumble about your fear. Pray. Quietly.
That’s not who God is. God wants the real us. The tear drenched, heart shattered, screaming at the top of our lungs, us. The hurt and angry; just needing someone to talk to; someone to make it right, us. The too afraid to let our voices be heard aloud, us. Sometimes we need to pace and sweat and rip our souls apart when we pray; and that’s okay. Sometimes we don’t have words, just feelings, God understands still. Sometimes we laugh and smile as we talk to God; or get lost in song, and that’s fine too. God wants US. Our messes and failures, our victories and triumphs, He wants it all. Just pray- Don’t worry what it sounds like.
Image is ‘Worn out at eternity’s gate’ by Van-Gogh
Do all to the glory of God?
To do all to the glory of God sounds… difficult. How do we brush our teeth to God’s glory? Or wash the laundry? Or…ugh….do the dishes?
I once heard a pastor answer this question in the only way that actually makes sense.
‘Do all to the glory of God means to do all as if you were doing it with God. Do it all enthusiastically -if possible- and do it without grumbling.’
There is so much that feels like too much work, but if we are doing it with God than He will make our task easier. Perhaps not physically- but mentally, because we aren’t doing our task alone.
Today I was removing a tree branch that was over our driveway and scraped the roof of our vehicles. I set up a chair and got my hack saw rolling. I didn’t have a chain saw with me and was making do. It was a hard and tedious task but I felt joy in knowing that God was standing behind me, tugging back and forth on the saw as I did. My dog paced the base of the chair and looked at me, incredulous eyes burning with the question, “are you nuts!” Yes. Standing on a chair with a saw to remove a branch was stupid, even my dog could see it was unsafe. But I was fine because God helped me. And guess what? I failed. The branch didn’t budge. It was too thick to take off manually. God is always with you, helping you and guiding you, that doesn’t mean you will always succeed, sometimes it is just not possible for what you want to work out. Don’t worry. God will help you find a new solution. And because I did my best with a good attutude, I had fun trying.
Do all, to the glory of God.
Mean girls and bad boys
Mean girls and bad boys
Late for class, last bell rings, dead run for her locker. She throws her bag into the steel trap and dashes past the others who are still in the hall. “Loser.” “Trash.” ‘Whatever.’ She just needs to get to her seat. She slides behind her desk. Peanut butter on the chair. ‘Nice.’ The girls behind her laugh. She sighs. Class ends and she’s on her way back to her locker. An elbow hits her in the side, then two hands shove her against a door. She’s had enough! She shoves back. The other girl lands on the floor. Teacher sees. “You! Stay after school!” Parents are called in, she has detention and a new nick name, Mean Girl.
The boys gather around the new kid. He’s shy and stares at his shoes. “You have to be cool if you are going to hang with us.” He’s heard those words before, that’s why he transferred. He shakes his head and is shoved against the wall, “Don’t be such a wimp!” He chokes a groan back and nods. The other boys look triumphant. What makes them look cool at this new school? The old school it was alcohol, the one before that was drugs, this one? The next thing he knows his locker is full of pirated video games, and he is very cool in the eyes of his new ‘friends.’ Until they get caught. Short term in Juvenile Correction facilities and he’s back in class. One of his old ‘friends’ leans over to another kid and whispers, “stay away from him, he’s bad news.”
Life can be drastically unfair. Don’t judge a person by the unfair labels that have been stamped on them by the hypocrites around you; See for yourself what they are like. Jesus has called and still calls all kinds of people, not just those who don’t get caught doing wrong, and thankfully He sees everything and knows who’s truly at fault. If you have ever been wrongly labeled and judged, know that Jesus sees the truth and He will take up positions to defend you.
You don’t know what God is doing behind the scenes, so never give up and never stop striving. Don’t let fear stop you from seeing God’s great gifts for you. I know first hand that staring your dragons in the eye can feel catastrophic; your body begins to reject your decision causing your internal organs to protest and your muscles to feel like jelly, and then your mind seems to second guess your heart, next thing you know you are being throw into the mouth of a giant whale by the other people in the boat. Because when God has a purpose for you, it won’t be easy. You will fight and claw your way through every moment some days, but that isn’t reason enough to not follow God’s plan. You will never be the hero of your story if you aren’t willing to fight. The best thing about your story being the fact that Jesus has already won the war, your battle is just a fight for one small part of your life, the eternal battle has been waged already, just don’t let the enemy have your part of the kingdom, Don’t give up! Jesus has planned everything for you and you will win this because He is fighting along side you!
I’ve got your back
We are a church family and our family is holding up our hands. When we grow weary and can’t keep praying, others are praying for us in our stead. That’s why God has given us so many people in our Church community. Even if you watch Church online and don’t attend a service physically at this time, most churches have a prayer request section, you are never alone. Even if you have no connection to a church at all right now, Jesus is praying for you and with you. We are many so that when one falls we can lift them up until they can stand on their own again. That is the body of Christ.
On the move
The children of Isreal lived in tents for a long time. I, personally, love tenting. The rugged out doors, cooking over a fire, showers heated by solar power; Sand in your sleeping bag, a buddy system for walking to the bathroom because it’s dark. It’s great! For about a week. Could you imagine spending years in a tent? It would be managable, but not comfortable. And tents break. Much more easily than I thought they did. So you would be repairing constantly. So why were the children reduced to tenting? Because tents are mobile. They weren’t where they were supposed to be yet, so God didn’t let them settle down. He wanted to keep them moving so He kept them in tents.
If you are uncomfortable right now with life, it may be because God doesn’t want you to remain where you are, spiritually, financially, geographically; God may be trying to keep you moving. He might be saying to not put dow roots, to stop building a foundation, because you aren’t where He wants you to be yet. Maybe He wants you to toss your tent in your rucksack and keep moving forward.
The one with the magic
The Magician’s Assistant
The stage is saturated in fake fog. The lights are set low and a single spot lights up on stage. Out you step to the roar of the crowd and you begin your show. In the backgroud your assistant sweats and works as He pulls the cords and activates the sounds and releases trap doors, meanwhile you make elaborate hand gestures and cascade around the radious of your spotlight. In the end you sit on the edge of the stage signing autographs, and the hard working helper? He is still working to clean up the tricks before anyone comes and sees how the magician pulled it all off.
We are magician. Sitting on the edge of the stage, basking in the glory of what we accomplished. But it wasn’t us. How often do we take credit for what God has done? He sets the stage, He makes all the lights and props do what they are supposed to. He cleans up the mess we make. But do we even give Him the credit He deserves? Shouldn’t He be the one signing autographs?
We all need to remember to give the credit back to God. Because He should be the magician we assist. We are nothing amazing without God. No one is.
What was that God?
It isn’t that God no longer speaks to us, we have just forgotten how to listen.
God has never been very loud. To be honest there are times when I feel like Horton listening to the clover. And usually while listening you get a lot of loud and obnoxious things come up to distract you and then you lose all hope ever hearing what you thought was the voice again so you give up. Yep. That’s me too. But the point is to not give up entirely and to instead try again. You might be surprised at how Good God is at repeating Himself. I was. He doesn’t get annoyed and say, ‘weren’t you listening the first time?’ He just quietly repeats Himself again and again until you nod and go, ‘okay God, I’ve got it now.’ Just keep listening, and when you think you hear God pause and ask, ‘what did you say God?’ See what He says.
Carried in the cross 