Hard to Swallow

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. James 4:4

Just think about it..

Life

Life can get rough. Lets be honest, even with the creator of the universe on our side life can still flat out suck. None of this theological jargon and high lever thinking, being real is the way to go with this one. The weight of life at time seems unbearable.

I found myself at a point where my mind literally felt heavy and I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep. All the expectations of my first year of university were shattered, no basketball, the pressures of money and marks were hurled on my shoulders, and I was just being dragged in the dust of life. Coming off the spiritual high of camp, the place I found myself felt like God was an infinite distance away, that I was back to the start of my spiritual journey. As if I didn't even know Him, that all the promises He made weren't real or happening.

I found myself praying "Where are you!? How long will I be alone?!" quite often. It was like the spirit had departed and left me hanging.

I do recognize that with the sudden jump into the hectic life of university and working, I did not spend the time with God that I wanted. But I still made Him the integral part of my day, giving my day to Him in the morning, trying to listen to Him all day long, and spending quiet time with him at home. But yet I was far away, in a totally different place than He was.

I found myself saying all the right things; I have God I don't need anything else, this is a great learning experience, I know God is faithful and here. But that was just a bunch head knowledge, and head knowledge really, means nothing.

(Now I will say that through this whole time I knew He had me in His hands, and I could wake up every morning and smile because of it)

And I came the point where I went to God and just started praying for other people, sort of giving up on my own cause. Anyone who came to mind I starting praying for. As I finished I ask God what He wanted me to read from the Bible. In the back of my mind I thought, how cool it would be if God would just give me some verse that would give me the answer I needed for my life right now, but really I expected that God would just give me whatever He had.

As I waited on Him, He told me to read Psalms 13. I had no idea what is was. So I turned there with no expectations, and this is what I began to read...

"How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me."

Basically, everything I was calling out to God about David was too! God gave me exactly what I was searching for.

The best part was, that in the Psalm how does David resolve his problem? Despite of his circumstance, which probably didn't get resolved right when he prayed this, he came to rest in one thing : the unfailing love of God. David knew that even when he felt like God had turned his face from him, he still knew that God's love would never fail him, never abandoned him and that because of Gods love anything that happens doesn't need to complete destroy his world. God's love always has your back.

In my time of distress and crap, God showed me the Cross. He showed me the power of His unfailing love. Now my problems haven't left, but I can stare them down and walk as a victor.

So when life is getting you down, let God pick you up. His love never fails, His love conquers all.

I pray that today you will take time just to bask in His love, let him rain down some unbelievable love onto your soul. Be blessed.

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And I saw the King seated on the throne. His crown shimmering gloriously, and the train of his robe extending all the way down to me. He began to extend His hand out to me, so I tried to grab it. I couldn't reach. I used all my might, jumped, hollered, I did whatever I could even for just a brief grasping of His hand. But nothing, I couldn't reach. I turned in anguish, dismayed I ran the other way, tears flowing down my face, embarrassed and lost.

Then from the Kings right hand side came running His son. The Prince was running after me. I felt Him tugging at my cloak, bidding me to turn around. I turned to see a man, with fire in His eyes, but it was as though the fire burned for me, it was soothing yet terrifying. He took my hand, and reached for His fathers'. He could reach both sides. He uttered to me that this was His purpose, this is what He did for me and instantly we were brought to the middle of a cosmic battle.

Bloody and scarred I saw the Prince fighting a million enemies. Laughing and tormenting Him all the while He stood taking blow after blow until finally He fell, and a loud growl roared from the enemy. They all began to jump on the fallen Prince, as almost to devour Him. Their leader called his legions to retreat so that he could have the final blow. As he walked over he put his foot on the Prince's head, "Today, I have dominion" I heard roll off his tongue. Then I saw it, I saw the Prince's finger began to twitch...He was alive. Was it all a plan? Did He lure the evil one to Him? The evil one noticed just as I had and with a shriek he summoned his legions back on the Prince. But they couldn't pin him down, and like a nuclear blast, a radiant light shown out from the middle of pile, blowing the evil one and his legions in every direction. Thats when I saw the Prince standing victorious. All the evil one's warriors hid their faces and ran from the Prince, but the evil one did not. He began to laugh, almost as if to mock the Prince. But thats when the Prince pulled out the keys, and the evil one's face dropped. He began patting himself down, to check for the keys for he was in denial. The Prince walked over to the evil one and proclaimed, "My Father has dominion, not you." and with that He kicked the evil one right in the chest and I watched him almost fold in half from the blow and fall to the ground. The Prince turned to me, with that fire in His eyes and even a grin on His face for He knew what He had accomplished.

We were back in the King's court, the moment when the Prince extended His hand. When I realized what the Prince had done for me, how could I not take His hand? Before I grabbed it He said, "We offer you all of us, for all of you. Every piece of your heart, the good and the bad, and the parts that you hold as secrets. Come follow me, do as I command. I love you and gave my all for you. You will at times forget me, reject my law, and live in rebellion, but my Love covers you. But give me all of you, your dreams, gifts, freedom and rights, and I shall give you life, and life to the full."

I grabbed His hand with all that was in me. Giving my life was an easy trade in for an audience with the King. The illusion of freedom I had to surrender was nothing compared to spending eternity in the light of His glorious face.

As for me..

¹⁴ "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵ But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."¹⁶ Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! ¹⁷ It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.¹⁸ And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."¹⁹ Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you." Joshua 24:14-20 (NIV)

The covenant between God and His people was being reestablished when Joshua uttered these words. The Israelites have been given the law, they know the law, and clearly have not been keeping it perfectly. I love his opening statement, FEAR the Lord and serve him faithfully. The people of Israel always end up following other idols, these containable "gods". He reminds the people first of the awesomeness of Yahweh, that He is deserving of our fear. Then he urges the people to either choose God fully or just deny Him totally! Joshua boldly calls out a whole nation. And then he publicly declares his choice is God, and not only him, but his whole house and family. And of course, like anyone who was just challenged to this extent, the Israelites say that they do choose God, claiming they know that it would be wrong to not choose Him. But then again Joshua puts them in their place, harshly, but yet appropriately. He bluntly states that we as humans cannot serve God in ourselves. He says God is Holy, God is jealous, and that God does not tolerate an unfaithful heart. But then, Joshua does something incredible; he reminds the people that God is GOOD. He says that God is good to His people, and that God has been, and will be good. So all in all God DESERVES our faithfulness, but just like Joshua said, echoing the words of Moses in Deuteronomy, it is a day of choice! Choose God, choose Him fully. Don't play the risky game of walking on the fence.

Ps 119 is full of the love of God's law. That is what I am trying to say. God is a God of grace and love, but He is also a God of standards and expectations. We have no right to define what is right and wrong, God is the Lord not you. Submit your heart to Him, or reject Him. It is time that a people rise up who take seriously the call to holiness. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of seeing half hearted Christianity hiding behind the abusing of God's grace, even within my own soul. God never said anything about an easy life, but He did promise life to the full.

Again I say it is a day of decision. Choose life or death, blessing or curse. But choose fully, ready to accept ALL of who God is, not just the parts that suit your life.