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.

The Measure of a Man

What is the measure of a man?

Stature, success, knowledge. These are usually what the world defines a man. But what does the Bible say a man is...

A man is loving, selfless, responsible, respectable, honorable, strong, noble. But in what context?

He loves God with all his heart, everything he does, dreams, or desires, is what the Lord longs for him. He loves his wife selflessly, honoring her in everything he does; in speech, in action, in emotions, in finances, in everything. He loves his children; longing to be the example for his boys of a Godly man, and the standard of the type of man he wants his daughter to marry.

He, like Jesus, takes responsibility for sins (or issues) of his family even when they aren't his fault. He engages, gets involved. Takes the leadership of the home. He is the overseer of the covenant he was brought into by marriage. He loves like Christ loved the church.

He walks in complete integrity. Never hiding, never faking. When he struggles, he gets help humbly. When he speaks council, he lives it. Earning respect from his peers, but more importantly his wife and children.

He works as hard as he can, giving up all his "rights" to provide for his family. Putting down the remote, golf clubs, cars, etc, to ensure the provision of his family. He is the man, he works the field.

But what about us single boys? We don't have a wife or kids yet.

Then you,

You walk in integrity. Put in practice living the life you will want to live one day. Pursue noble character. Treat all women with respect and love, they are the daughters of God after all and deserve it. Love your wife now. Don't go looking for "a good time", don't hook up, don't feed your brain with porn and lustful thoughts. Have some self control. Take captive every thought. Learn to appreciate a women, for more than beauty. Your wife will be your equal and helper, not your object.

Seek the Lord at all times, longing to do His will. A real man can make the hard choice and stick with it. A boy dies when it gets to hard. A man understands influence and strives to be the best he can, a boy lives for himself.

Only a man can love a women, it is not a boys world. There are too many 40 year old boys walking around. It's time for some growing up. Get accountable, pursue integrity.

The measure of a man is simply loving God, loving his wife, loving his kids, and living with integrity. You will fail, you will fall, but how will you get back up? Humbly working to be better? or like a little boy crying and whining, blaming everyone else?

God loves Atheists

God loves atheists. He loves the rapists, the pedophiles, the abusers, the drunkards, the cocaine addicts, the prostitutes, the porn stars, the murderers, the exploiters, the manipulators, the liars, the cheaters, the adulterers, the homosexuals, the arrogant, the selfish, the disobedient, the foolish, the man consumed with rage, the women that hates her body, the suicidal, the insecure, the ones filled with hate, the promiscuous, the drug lords, the sex traffickers, the racists, the sexists, those who support abortion, those who do abortions, the scammers , the frauds, the fakers, and the deceivers; just to name a few. We must begin to understand that God's love isn't superficial, isn't understandable, isn't conditional, and isn't limited. He loves us all the SAME. No sin is greater than the others in the context of eternity.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." Romans 3:23 (NIV)

Some sin have greater physical consequence, that is easy to understand. You wouldn't want to spend the night alone with a murderer, or rapist. But in the view of eternity, we are all same. A "small" sin is a "big" sin, when standing before the Lord.

So what does this mean for us? If we are to emulate the love that God has for humanity, it means we MUST love all those sinners; from the rapist to the liar. So love. Love big, Love well. God does for you.

Grace..

By faith and grace alone are we saved. Not by any righteous deed can we claim salvation. As Christians this is the truth by which we live. Isaiah said that our righteous acts are like filthy rags before God. John Wesley in his writing mentions that any good work we do is not by our own merit but by the grace of God allowing us to do so. That literally every good work is a gift from God. One line I loved that he wrote was "we will never be able to trust the merit of Christ until we renounce our own."

Bur here is where the problem begins, the understanding of salvation through faith and grace allows men to twist and distort the greatness of God. They take for granted grace and even give themselves license to do as they wish. But hear the words in Hebrews...

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10: 26-31 (NIV)

If we, after gaining the knowledge of Christ - through the grace of God - continue to deliberately sin, it says there is no sacrifice for sin. What does that mean? Does it negate the grace which God operates in?

It cannot. After all these are words from the bible, and although it may seem in direct contradiction it is truly not. We are not perfect; that is easy to understand. But here, clearly God states he has some expectations for our lives.

I believe what is being said here is simple. If after receiving salvation through grace, we deliberately abuse and degrade the gift Christ gave us, we are in essence blaspheming God. In the passage it talked of how much more sever the punishment is for those who trample on the Son of Man. Why does he use that imagery? It could be said that, in the act of "trampling on" we are quite vividly rejecting, but also despising the Son of Man. And this is where eternity hits us in the face.

There is heaven, there is hell. One aspect of our lives is living for one of them. Jesus himself said that the way is narrow that leads to life and only few will find it. Some might even say that means the majority of lives are headed to hell - including 'Christians'. Although a fear based doctrine is at the core wrong, the essential knowledge of eternity is needed. Whether we like it or not, there is reward and punishment. And I believe that God is saying, that only by His grace we are saved, but when we, without a repentant heart, purposely abuse his grace, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Again I say, we are not perfect. So the inevitable sin that we as humans commit is not being referenced here, but rather the disregard for the Cross.

Examine yourself. Do you make choices based out of an abuse of grace, or a thankfulness for it. God is so huge, so paradoxical that we will never understand Him. But heed the words in Hebrews. DO NOT TAKE GRACE FOR GRANTED. If you have, as I have, repent. Make right the relationship with God and go on; strong in the faith.

Be blessed today. May the light of God's face forever shine upon you.

Undefinable

As I lay in my bed last night, I finally began to realize the great truth that the more one comes to know God the more he realizes there is so much he doesn't know at all. The vastness of our creator is at the least astounding. So then the question that jumps around in my mind is, why do we settle for so much less? God has revealed himself as the all powerful, all knowing, untamable, uncreated, awesome, incomprehensible and loving God of the universe, yet we think what we know is somehow good enough?

As soon as we let our minds convince us that we "know" God we are deceived. Yes, God is extremely relational and close; in that sense we are called to know him, but with the finite brain we have, we will never really know our God. For as soon as we can grasp God He is no longer God. If anything can be grasped within the human mind than it is easy to call it man made. And that's where the greatness and even humor of our God lies. We can never fully know God, but this was put in place on purpose.

We can all understand the concept of a cube. A six sided, 3 dimensional square. We created it. In the human mind it was discovered and brought to be. It has its limits within our understanding, but God...He is completely the mind shattering God. I find myself literally with a hurting mind after talking about God for long periods. Simply because I cannot comprehend it all. I hate it! I want to know all that I can, but thats where God steps in and says you can't, it's literally impossible.

In all our attempts at explaining God, we can clearly see the divisions it had caused. No man can deny that disagreements on who God is and what He wants is what causes the most disunity between believers. So then the next question seems to be, why do we get hung up on trying to define the undefinable? Paul said that it doesn't matter who you follow, what matters is the central unifying understanding that Christ died for our sins and rose again.

Our personal interpretations of the will of God for personal conduct and right living should never get in the way of our loving everyone. So often we find Christians in quarrels over "this is right and this is wrong". I will say, these discussion can be often fruitful and necessary, but when these overrun our lives the whole point of the Cross is lost. For by grace alone are we saved.

I urge you today to put aside all your presumptions about the rules and regulations and just be in unity with other believers. For the rest of our lives people will always disagree with what we think, there will continue to be arguments and quarrels, but let us not forget how we all got here...the love poured out on Calvary. When disagreements arise let us sit back and ask if this is producing any kind of fruit or are the words you speak just worthless. Love on somebody, that is our goal and Christ's command.

Knowing

"[T]o grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:18b-19 (NIV)

The love of our God will never be understandable. It will never be comprehensible. It will never be graspable; and Paul is very aware of that great truth. But yet we find him encouraging the people of Ephesus to continue trying to grasp it. Even further we can understand that Paul is later in life when He wrote this letter, being in the faith for many years and always growing to understand God in deeper ways more than maybe anyone; yet he still says there is so much more of Gods love that needs to discovered. Paul uses these terms of human measurement to help us understand the greatness of God's love but he never limits it in any way. In fact we know that he is trying to get us to picture the unmeasurable quality of Gods love.

But Paul goes on to say that we might KNOW the love that surpasses knowledge. What does it mean to know the love of God. Clearly it has been portrayed as an infinite, incomprehensible thing. But Paul hear gives us and even deeper insight into the love of God. That in fact it is KNOWABLE; but so great that we will never completely understand it. God's love is a paradox in itself. So vast and great and unknowable, but yet very intimate, close, and in fact knowable. Now seriously try to think about that.

I also believe that Paul had much deeper meaning when he wrote "to know this love that surpasses knowledge." Being in university now, the thirst for knowledge is undeniable when walking the halls; and being a Theology major the hunger for more knowledge about God is evident within myself. But its just another link to 1 Corinthians 13, I could obtain all the knowledge in the world about God, everything everyone has learned but yet, without understanding the love of our Lord it all is for not. What would be the point of Knowing about God if I do not act in the knowledge of His love. Love is what changes things, this has been a reoccurring subject in many of my recent posts simply becasue God has been revealing more and more about its importance, especially with its battle against knowledge. This battle has been being fought in me for a long time. I have always loved the study of God, to try to know him, but in doing so I became caught up in being able to quote the bible and theological theories that, with great shame, I neglected the heart of God. But amazing is our Lord. As I have wrote about before, this summer opened my eyes to the great truth that, although knowledge is good, LOVE IS MORE EXCELLENT. As paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 12 "a more excellent way". And now I can fully say how true this is! Yes, I still have my great set backs, like everyone else, but I know that God is tugging at my heart and making it break for the things that break His.

Never neglect the pursuit of knowledge. But more importantly never neglect the pursuit of His love.

May you be blessed abundantly today with awe and wonder of our Gods great love.

Everything

God is God and we are not. This is very true. We cannot see into the future, we certainly do not know everything there is to know; but yet we find ourselves believing we know what is best. As I have talked to many people of late I have encountered a common theme in some of their ideas. That theme is that they try to literally define God to benefit their choices. Commonly used is the phrase, "if He loves us so much..why...". As is in why doesn't He let me do this or that. Why do I feel this way. Why are there trials that I face.

But what we fail to see is that the Lord is sovereign. Everything that God does or allows must happen. This stretches from the rules He has put in place to the events that take place in our lives. When one comes to realize the vastness of this concept, life changes. By that I mean, when we even start to comprehend that God is literally in complete control, who are we to worry about anything?

Now, we as humans sometimes escape the will of God and He uses situations to bring us back into it - to get our attention back on Him. Money is a huge issue in this case. Are we tithing? Are we giving generously? God tells us to test Him with our tithe. In Malachi, God says He will open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing we will not be able to contain it. This is His promise, but that doesn't mean we all live according to it. God says this is what could be if you do as He asks. Give money, even when you don't have it. And if you do have it, give all the more.

That was just one example. But another aspect of the sovereignty of God is that He requires, and quite frankly deserves, complete obedience; even when contrary to our own longings. Everything we have is literally a gift from God. This includes our passions, desires, longing, pleasures, and dreams. Understanding this also helps when God asks us for things. We must put God's will before our own desires. Love his pleasures over our own. In God's timing all the desires of your heart will be given to you; but that's exactly it, in HIS timing. When He asks us to do something, even when it will hurt, we must do it for we are to trust Him completely. He knows us better then we know ourselves. We are to be living sacrifices. So sacrifice; everything. Relationships, desires, aspirations, pleasures, gifts, dreams, even every breath we take.

LOVE

It has never been more real to me that Love is the most important part of our Christian walk. Everything we do must reflect Christ's love. Out of God's love does everything we know exist to begin with. He created us so that we might be in relationship with Him. At the beginning there was Love. Now there is love. And His love will never die.

Coming home from camp and reflected on all I have learned, the largest lesson is simply that our world longs for love. From the toughest Gangsta to the smallest girl. I have seen how love can literally change a life.

Her name, Kimmy.

Her life...horrible.

She hated God. She hated men. She ran into the arms of the great deceiver. She bought the lies that she was worthless, that God didn't care, that she was gay; just to name a few. She used her life to worship the Father of lies and was so deeply caught up she knew no way out...until LOVE (1 John 4:8 : "God is love.") met her.

She tried to run and hide, literally, we followed her down the road. Crying out to her about how much God loved her. Than God showed up. Its crazy how He uses the simplest of things. There was a butterfly, its' wing broken. Kimmy bent over to picked it up but it fell out of her hand. So I reached for it but she wouldn't let me touch it; she was saving it. She took it over by the side of the road and made it safe. As we kept walking I began to talk with her about her love of animals. That is when God took over and spoke through me. At the end of the conversation I asked her how many times would she have picked that butterfly up, and she said as many times as it fell. So I said that was exactly what God has been doing for her because of His love. Every time she jumped out of his hand, he picked her back up.

She stopped. Did a 180 and started heading back to camp. No words. Just watery eyes.

I was speaking one night about freedom in Christ. And as I finished I saw Kimmy huddled on the ground weeping. And I went over to talk. But she was just crying.

She stands up and says I want to be free. So I brought her to the foot of the cross but she couldn't kneel; Satan wasn't ready to let her go and she left.

Fast Forward a bit. Thursday night she comes up to me and says "I'm ready." So we went down to the cross and she fell to the ground and began to pray. And with tears in her eyes she looks at me and says "I'm Free!". She went off by herself and began to yell "I'm Free! I'm Finally FREE!"

I have seen LOVE take a satanic worshiper to the foot of the cross and worship the King of Kings. Oh the awesomeness of our God's love. She has dumped her girlfriend, and has told us she is straight again (just mentioning that for you).

Now here is the point to all this...

"But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way. " 1 Corinthians 12:31 (NASB)

Love is the more excellent way. This verse is the transition between Paul talking about spiritual gifts and then Love. Healing, prophesy, teaching, any gift God gives us is literally nothing without Love. Even to the point where we shouldn't concern ourselves for those things as long as we can show love. I am at great fault of this. I was much more concerned with seeing the great wonders of God and very much neglected the heart of our creator. But through one of the most influential person I know, God changed my heart. He showed me the need not for signs and wonders, but for us as Christian to demonstrate the unending, unmatched, unparalleled, indescribable, incomprehensible Love that God is. No other person, philosophy or religion known to man offers such love. And we have failed at letting that love shine forth.

We should strive more to love the people we encounter than convert them. People will always disagree with us, but even still we love them. When we are cursed, we bless. When we have nothing to give, still we give.

This love is literally revolutionary. But only to those that let it changed them. It starts with us. The Christians. Allowing God to reveal the immensity of this love to us. And as we begin to change, we will change others. Its an amazing, but yet humbling, feeling to feel this love surrounding you.

It is truly hard even talking about it with out welling up with tears as I begin to try and put words to this love. He loves us so much. It is truly unknown to us. It is truly mind blowing.

I pray that God takes to so much deeper into his limitless love so that LOVE will change our nation, and our world!

AWESOME

I have seen satanic worshipers fall at the foot of the cross. I have seen people conquer their fears. I have seen boys and girls find their Father; welcomed into their real family. I have seen thugs crying before the Most High. I have seen drug dealers throw out all there stuff. I have seen cutters set free. I have seen AMAZING things this summer. Bottom line...I have seen lives CHANGED. The Lord has become so real to me in many ways. Even in the times where I felt drained and a thousand feet away from Him, He always showed up! Always give me a word of encouragement. All I can literally say is I found God again and He is Awesome, truly Awesome.

Let us give thanks with our full hearts for all the incredible things the LORD is doing and will never stop doing. Praise the LORD.