Counting on you
We as Christians count on God for so much. We count on Him to be good to us, to forgive us, to love us, to heal us, to help us. But can God count on us for…well…anything?
We don’t think about God counting on us. In fact, we don’t really think that God needs us, do we? We realize that He is God and He can make His plan work no matter what we do or don’t do. But that’s not the point. God doesn’t rely on us, He doesn’t have to, but He does count on us. He counts on us to do His will, to obey His commands, to care for our fellow Christians, to show His love to the lost and broken, He may even have appointed you a position in which you can do these things. He counts on us doing our part. If we never step out our front door, if we never take the chance, if we squelch the voice of God inside of us, aren’t we letting God down. We like to dance around the circle of ‘it’s a partnership, God and I are working together,’ because it makes us think that God is helping us in fulfilling our goals and our dreams, and that is what the outer ring of the circle sometimes looks like- but what about the inner circle, the inner Sanctum if you like, that’s where God is, the place where it’s not our will but His. The place where the fire burns so hot that it hurts sometimes, the place of surrender, are any of us willing to enter that circle? Or do we prefer the edge where it’s safe?
Can God count on us?
Can God say, “I can always count on Lauren to do the right thing?” Or I can always count on Larry, or Lynne, or Tanya, or Carole, or Mark, or Matthew, or whatever your name is, fill in the blank, can God say “him or her, I can always count on”?
I hope so. I hope that we all aim to live within the fire, near the heart of God, so He can count on us.
All of me loves all of you.
All of me loves all of you.
Who do you love so much that you even accept the hard things from them? Love emotions can be tested by a lot. Your dog could puke in your favorite shoes, your kids could lie to you, your best friend could betray you, your spouse could yell at you, on and on and on; but if you truly love them then you forgive them and continue to love them after this right? Why? Because people mess up and mistakes happen, and you love them more than yourself. But what if it isn’t a mistake? What if nobody messed up? What if what hurts you is not only accurate and true, but something you have to accept? So many people talk about the things they won’t accept, that they love, but not unconditionally. They will take the parts that make them happy and feel good about themselves, but they choose to throw away all else. Is that love? No. At least, not real love.
Oh. I’m not talking about person to person relationships, I’m talking about person to God relationships.
The only time when unconditional love and unconditional acceptance go together is when in context with God. I don’t mean Him accepting us, I mean us accepting Him. Back to the top. What if what hurts you isn’t a mistake? There are parts of the Bible that hurt sometimes, they offend us and are hard to accept, so what do we do? We toss those parts away. We claim them irrelevant or Old Fashioned, we say that we’ve moved past that in our world and that God needs to keep up. Wow. So, is that love? Nope. We don’t love all of God. We only love the Genie in a Bottle bits. We even say rediculous things, like we’d rather be lucky than have God, because God takes effort on our part. We want everyone to accept us, faults, failures, sins, dark sides and all. We want God to do that too. Then when we find out He does we click our heels together and run after Him in joy. But wait, theres more. Our run toward Him comes to a skreeching halt when we realize that, yes God accepts us faults, sins and all, but He plans to change us from that person. We’re supposed to love Him so much that we leave that person behind and become a new creation. But that sounds so hard! And we don’t want to. So we pout and complain and say that God is unfair, and then we do the unthinkable, we try to change Him. If He wants to change us then we should change Him first so we can stay the same. That’s not love and it’s certainly not what a Christian is or does. We don’t love all of God, we only love the easy parts. We love the feelings and the Miracles, we love when someone is healed, we love the worship music, we love the handbag that says Jesus loves you, but we don’t love God. If we did we wouldn’t be trying to fit him into our box, we wouldn’t be trying to change or misrepresent or warp or disregard the word and rules God gave us. Jesus IS God, and yet He cried not my will but yours Father. Why? Because he knew that it was God’s will for him to die even though he didn’t want to. Imagine what would have happened if Jesus had been like us. If Instead of saying “your will father,” he had shouted out “forget this! Your rules, your Authority was all Old Testament, people don’t need to be what you’ve planned for them in this modern world, you’re out of date and I’m not doing this!” Then got up and left the garden. Where would we be now? Hopeless. Broken. Alone. Scared. Lost. We don’t think about it, but the Jerusulem that Jesus was in was a very modern version compared to the Jerusulem of David. Yet He didn’t disregard the old texts or God’s will just because it wasn’t modern, Jesus knew that God and His word was and is still relevant and necessary. If Jesus was willing to be subject to His Father’s will, why aren’t we? Because we don’t truly love God. Sometimes it hurts and feels unfair, but if we love God we will let Him change us. He didn’t make us to be the broken, sinful mess we are, He made us to be followers of Him. Let’s get to the place where we love all of God, even the side of God that is going to change us.
Hanukkah- Final day
Hanukkah- final day
Shamash
On each day of Hanukkah an additional branch of the nine branched Hanukkiah is lit with the candle in the middle, the shamash, the helper or servant candle.
As we end our journey through Hanukkah I want to focus on the first candle lit. The helper candle. We don’t realize how important this candle is. In Judaism certain men who work in the temple are also refered to as Shamash, one important job they have os the reading of the Torah.
We too have a helper inside our temple, the temple of our souls. Jesus left His Spirit with us to be our helper candle. We cannot be lit without the Spirit, we cannot truly find God without the Spirit and we cannot serve God to our fullest without the Spirit. We need God’s Spirit to do anything. He tells us where to go, what to do and what is wrong and right. We see a world full of people who ignore and throw the Spirit away, they don’t like that voice that says they should act a certain way and give up certain things that offend God. Because of this we see a world that is dark and broken, void of God’s light. We need the Shamash, we need the helper candle so we can be set on fire for Jesus. The thing is, we see how we work to serve God, but without Him helping us we can’t serve Him. Like C.S. Lewis said, “it’s like a child taking money from their father so he or she can buy him a gift. We take what we have from God and use it to serve Him, but it was always His to begin with.”
We need the Holy Spirit to keep us from riding in the middle complete darkness and complete light, there is no Twilight Zone with God, you either serve him or you don’t.
Look to our helper today and ask Him to guide you in your life.
Happy Hanukkah
Merry Christmas
Which is your favorite gift under the tree?
We all have that one gift. The one we have been eyeing that has our name on it. Be it big with a red bow, or small with sparkly paper, there is usually a single gift that stands out above the others. We don’t know why. It just speaks to us. Then the day comes when we open it and get to see what we have been dreaming of.
Jesus is the greatest gift from God. The only gift that came to us willingly and because He loves us. He’s not under a tree, He’s near our hearts, knocking and waiting for the door on them to be open. He’s the only gift that so many ignore and refuse to open. He’s the only gift that so many others cherish above all joys, friends, family and even life. Someday He will return and we who love Him will get to see whom we have been dreaming of. He came once to save us from our sins, that was Christmas and Easter. But He is coming again to redeem us from this world, that will be our Revelation.
Merry Christmas!
Hanukkah- Day 5
Hanukkah- Day 5
When the Maccabees recaptured the Temple, through the help of God, they had to fix all that was ruined and cleanse the temple after it had been defiled. They also cleared the temple of the idols of the Syrians. God had commanded in the Torah that the lamp of the Menorah should burn continuously. They wanted to light it, but they found only a single jar of clean oil, and that would only last one day. In faith, they relit the Menorah. They waited for the oil to rin out but day after day it kept burning. It burned for eight days, till they were able to get new oil. That is the miracle of Hanukkah.
It is so easy to believe that the evil in the world has corrupted and destroyed the pure things God put in place. In many ways this is true. Yet, just like in the miracle of the oil, God will make a way for all things that are Holy to be redeemed. That may come in the form of God causing a derelect church to be rebuilt, or a lost soul to find it’s way out of darkness back to Him, or in the form of a small portion of oim being streached for eight days, or something else. One thing we know for sure is that Jesus is coming back one day to redeem all that the devil has tried to destroy. That day will be wonderful for those who have stood with God and followed His laws as best they could. That day will be the worst day possible for those who didn’t stand with God and denied His laws. God will provide for us, as He did for His temple with the oil, and He will redeem us when we come into His kingdom. The devil cannot destroy that which belongs to the King.
Hanukkah-day 4
Hanukkah-Day 4
Just like in Redwall, our hero here is a warrior named Matthias. He refused to be forced to sacrifice to the idols like others before him, but he also refused to allow himself to be killed. What I have read might have been a more embellished version of what happened, but I have cross-referenced it a few times and this seems to be the way things went down:
A government official demanded Matthias to sacrifice to the Greek idols; instead Matthias took the official’s sword from him and killed him.
Then Matthias cried out in the town with a loud voice, saying: ‘ let anyone who is zealous for the law and supports the Covenant come with me!’ (Maccabees 2:27)
After that he and his son took their people and hid, then they began to do covert Warfare against their enemy. Some have criticized the revolters claiming that the killing of their own people who followed the Greek ways was wrong, however, we forget that the Jewish people who followed the Greek ways had turned against their own people, according to what I have read the Jewish people who fought against the Maccabean Revolt had sided with the Seleucids against their own people and reported to the Greek officials, telling them who in the Jewish community still followed God and didn’t sacrifice to the idols. These people had become traitors to their belief, to their loved ones, and to God. The Maccabee army isn’t a group of people mindlessly killing those who oppose them, The Maccabees were working to take back their homes, their Temple and their rights.
How often, especially these days, do we as followers of Jesus and His Word find ourselves being accused of doing wrong simply for standing up for our own rights and values? How many who claim to be Christians are really serving the enemy in secret? Some days you wonder who you can trust. But one thing is for sure, you can always trust Jesus. As God Jesus is the only one who can save us from what is unseen. The best part about that is the fact that Jesus wants to save us. He didn’t sit with sinners and tax collectors because He liked to keep company with sin, He sat with them so He could tell them the truth about salvation. He never minced His words, you must sacrifice your old self and be born again to enter the kingdom of God. That offends people because it is so hard to do, but that’s the truth of it. Jesus loves you no matter who you are, but even if it breaks His heart He will turn you away at the gate if you refuse to give yourself to Him as God, King, and Lord of your life.
It took one man to say ‘no, I won’t let you cause me to reject God or compromise my Faith, and I am going to fight you for the sake of my people,’ for the Maccabees to make a stand against against the Seleucids. It takes one true Christian to say, ‘no, I won’t let you cause me to reject God or compomise my Faith, and I am going to fight you for the sake of every soul out there.’ Of course we aren’t speaking to a person, we are speaking to the enemy, the devil, telling him that even though he has tricked some brothers and sisters in Christ to betray God we won’t die yet, we will fight him on our knees before God. Pick up your swords and stand for the lost. Stand against the lies. Stand against the tricks. Stand against the twisting of God’s word to mean something other than what God said. Stand between the pages of the Bible by reading it everyday and remembering what God has said and done. Fight back against the darkness. Pray for deliverance. Pray for God’s will to be done. Pray for the protection of the blood of Jesus on your family, friends, church and on yourself, because the enemy is looking for a place to attack. So stand with God, Sword drawn, shield raised, and eyes focused on Jesus.
Hanukka- Day 3
Hanukkah- Day 3
During the reign of King Antiochus IV epiphanes, a series of persecution of traditional Judaism began. Because Alexander the Great’s Kingdom had become divided it was easy for the Seleucids to attack it and take over. A kingdom divided truly cannot stand.
Now, in my research I have read one person who claimed that the Jewish people were wrong in taking a stand against their persecutors and that they were simply refusing to modernize.
A. The person who said this clearly didn’t read their history.
B. How would you like it if your land was conquered and your ways were being destroyed?
History tells us that the Seleucids tortured to death anyone not willing to sacrifice to their idols. They took over and defiled the Temple of the one true God and killed those who opposed them. When the Jewish people were told to sacrifice to the idols it was an offense against God and their beliefs, but then they were told they had to also eat unclean meat which was an offense to their culture. Refusing to bow to oppression seems to be the staple of being a follower of God. These brave men and women chose death rather than turn away from God and their culture. All willingly gave up their lives. Except for one.
God’s chosen people have suffered so much for so many years. Go through history and you can mark many major world events with a tag that says, ‘Jewish persecution’ either it began or it increased. As a Gentile saved by Jesus’s sacrifice and adopted into His family I do understand this persecution to a point. Not of my culture, but of my religion. I have personally been attacked for just being a Christian, for wearing cross earrings, for softly singing Christian songs while at work, for posting about Jesus on my personal fb page, and yet all my attacks were only words. Words hurt yes, and you never forget them, but I can’t imagine being physically tortured. To be in agony and to still stand and say, “No! I will not bow!” What a mark of true Faith.
You can’t judge people who were attacked and murdered for standing against their enemies, you should applaud them and aim to hold that same standard. Do we love Jesus enough to refuse to defile oursleves before God just so we aren’t attacked by mortal men? Our we so in love with Christ that we are willing to suffer and or die?
Hanukkah-Day 2
Hanukkah- Day 2
Again Jesus watches a candle being lit, the blessings are said and the feasting continues. But what is the history behind it all? Why did this tradition start? Let’s begin with one of my favorite men of action, Alexander the Great. Yep, he’s where this all began. Go figure. I should specify as to not tread on any toes, I like Alexander for his contribution to the equin world, from what we know of horse history we owe a lot to Alexander and his breeding. I also think that if it was ever actually discovered, his Library would be cool. We find Alex doing what he did best, conquering.
Alexander iii of Macedon known as the Alexander Great the Greek General (His Father Phillip of Macedon united much of Greece, he was Macedonian but raised with Greek tutors) took over much of Asia including Palestine, Persia and North Africa. He died just before his 33 birthday (same age as Jesus) in 323 BC. It is said he divided his Kingdom amongst his 4 generals, but it is actually way more complex than him just giving the Kingdoms to 4 generals, with military clashes and political intrigue but 2 or 3 did rise to the top, so to speak. I have also heard that Alexander did not give his kingdom to any of his generals but instead they simply took and battled for his kingdom after he was dead. The latter making a fair amount of sense considering Alexander did have a son who should have inherited his whole Kingdom . Alex was married three times before his death and his last wife he had a son with but the boy was assassinated at the age of 14 . It doesn’t seem his generals had anything to do with that , but who knows ? They easily could have plotted against him . Ptolemy was over Egypt and Seleucus was Syria, Babylon, Persia, and India.
The Ptolemies controlled Palestine from 323 to about 200 BC then the Seleucids took over. (Cleopatra was a Ptolemy) The Ptolemies allowed Jewish religion. The Seleucid Antiochus iii seemed to leave them alone as well, but Antiochus iv known as Epiphanes was very pro Greek culture and started disallowing Jewish religion. Putting Greek friendly Jews in positions of power. Here’s where things really get interesting.
Footnote:
Larry VanBeek, doctor of Theology
Hanukkah- day one
Hanukkah- day one
They’re in Bethlehem Jesus sits with his family, as Joseph lights the shamash and recites the Hanukkah blessing:
[ blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has Sanctified us with his Commandments, and commanded us to Kindle the Hanukkah light.]
[ blessed are you, Lord our god, King of the universe, who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days, at this time.]
[ blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.]
Then Joseph lights the first candle on the menorah. Games of feasting begin. How odd it must have felt to recite the blessings with Jesus sitting there. He would have seen the miracle happen and being part of it, his family were blessing his father and him, what a strange feeling that must have been. I know I feel a little strange doing this. I’m not Jewish. Yet because God has adopted us into his family I take part in his miracles, I count myself as one of his children. Being adopted is an odd feeling, you’re part of the family yet something feels a little different. Jesus wasn’t adopted by Mary but he was by Joseph. I wonder if he felt a little disjointed during family events such as Hanukkah? Or even going to the temple. His family went to worship their God, Jesus went to chat with his dad. How strange that must have been for him and maybe for them.
How about you,? Have you ever considered how amazing it is that God took us into his family?
Recently I realized something that I should have known a long time ago, Jesus probably celebrated hanukkah. Going on this thought I became curious about the holiday/celebration, so I decided to research it. Up came the name Maccabees so I called my dad who is a theologian and has read all those books and got the rundown. It has been argued that the book of The Maccabees should have been added to the Bible for its history and of course for the miracle. It was not added however, so many don’t realize the significance of the books- the eight days of oil Miracle is just a part (a very important part) of the story. Over the next 6 days I want to cover a small section of the amazing true story of Hanukkah. Pronounced with an exaggeration on the ha, try not to soak anyone when you do that😉 I will only do six days because of Christmas.
Carried in the cross 