God reign in us.

Psalm 146

 ¹ Praise the LORD.^[a]    Praise the LORD, my soul.
 ² I will praise the LORD all my life;
   I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³ Do not put your trust in princes,
   in human beings, who cannot save.
⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
   on that very day their plans come to nothing.
⁵ Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the LORD their God.
 ⁶ He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
   the sea, and everything in them—
   he remains faithful forever.
⁷ He upholds the cause of the oppressed
   and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
 ⁸ the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
   the LORD loves the righteous.
⁹ The LORD watches over the foreigner
   and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
   but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
 ¹⁰ The LORD reigns forever,
   your God, O Zion, for all generations.
   Praise the LORD.

It's crazy how God set the moon and the stars and determined their orbits.  They continue to move through the heavens like clock work. Actually better then clock work since the clocks themselves are imperfect models of the sky. 

Maybe that's it, as hard as we try to create our own light, our own way, we are just reflections, just examples of what God is.

God reign in us.
God live in us.
God fill us.

Reading

"Son, son it must be one way or the other. Either th day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it; or else fo ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves. I know it has a grand sound to say ye'll accept no salvation which leaves even one creature in the dark outside. But watch that sophistry or ye'll make a Dog in a Manger the tyrant of the universe."

C. S. Lewis the Great Divorce

I just read this book again. I find it's a book that I like to read ever so often. Hope your day's are good.

God Bless us
God lead us
God give us everything we need.
God speak to us

Sky Light

So I decided again to give my blog another direction. Mostly because it doesn't look like I will hit my last year numbers for posts.

I have decided to make this more personal. So here we go!

This summer when lots of things where changed (and still are) I believe God was talking to me. I had a new Job, a new apartment to live in, and a new car (along which came debt). 

I was worried about how if I could take all this change. Will I be able to pay for my car, keep my Job ... It would have been so much easier to keep things the same. It was difficult at times. Then one morning when I drove early to work to spend time reading the bible God showed me a picture of myself. He showed my face half rotting, and being eaten by a crow. It scared me ... but then God explained. That's what you life was, and I have came to change you. This change is hard but it is from me.

It's funny because I thought the opposite.

It's funny if you read Daniel you see that even when Daniel is in charge of one third of the kingdom, he still faces challenges that risk his life yet he chooses God every time. God the living God is there for him every time.

Doing things right isn't easy but God is there with us and he is there to show us amazing things.

God show us all that you are the living God
God lead us into a deeper relationship with you
God bless us in every part of life
God be with us

Snow

Sometimes it's a cold day outside. Sometimes it's hard to get by. Sometimes things are difficult. Why? is what we all ask.

I think this is where Jesus smiles.
I believe it's because humans where never meant to live there life alone. They were meant to ask all there worries and fears on God. To help each other.

It's funny how God works. Even in the old Testament we find the following words. "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" Isaiah 1:18b

My bible mentions "Scarlet was the most permanent of ancient dyes, one that no laundering could remove. Isaiah says God can do the impossible and cleanse sinners, even though the stain of their sin is as fixed as scarlet dye."

2 Ch 7:14

2 Chronicles 7:14
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I well hear form heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." NKJV

I was struck by this verse when a preacher pointed out the order of things in this verse. The first thing is to humble ourselves, pray and seek God's face. Then we turn from our wicked ways. Then God from heaven will hear us and forgive us and heal our land.

Sometimes we get get caught up in being pure before God, but here it is the reverse. Humble ourselves before God and seek his face first. Pray to the almighty and turn from our wicked ways. Then God reaches from the almighty heaven and touches our lives.

Wherever

I am struck by the story of Daniel. How he trusts in God through out all the circumstances in his life. It would be so easy to follow the King's orders, to bow down an worship idols. But even in his position of control and success he continues to trust God.

I am also struck by Joseph. The same thing happens with him. He could have easily conformed with the culture around him but he says no. He serves God even in the prison and even as second to Pharaoh.

It's like they are saying with their life that no matter what I serve God first. The rest it doesn't matter where I am and what I am doing. I serve God. I love God.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (3) If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

God you rule above everything,
God you are my God.
God lead us
God bless us
God speak to us

Daniel

Today I am struck by Daniel's words before he is thrown into the blazing furnace

Daniel 3:17+18
"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Daniel a Faith that was tried and tried but never failed.

The hope of God

More and more I am convinced that we humans are driven by hope.  Our hope is what gives our lives direction.

Romans 5
{3} And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; {4} and perseverance, character; and character, hope. {5} Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The problem with this it seems is that this world is really very cold. The rain, the sun, the earth are mechanisms that do not offer any reassurance. The physical world has world has no concern over the human being.

John 3:16
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Eugène N. Marais stated in his book "The Soul of the White Ant" that the most convincing argument that there is a God is that humans in a world of death and fighting we humans look for peace, justice, and love.

(NIV, John 13:34-35)
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

One of the most amazing things I find in the book "The boy who came back to heaven" is that anyone who depends on God even a 6 year old has power to overcome the devil through the power of Jesus.

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

It's better than that yet. This awesome Jesus is available to anyone who trusts in him. Jesus understands that we are imperfect people. We fail and that is the grace of God even though we want to do right and we fail God will still be there for us. He is there for our every need.

Psalm 107:1 (NIV)
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Sorry I have been without internet and have been fairly busy the past few weeks.

God Bless us,
God Lead us,
God show us your grace
God destroy the fortifications of evil.

Battle over the Hearts and Minds

One reason why I admire Mohamed Gandhi, and Marten Luther King Junior is that they they choose not to fight the evil that was present with violence, but choose to fight the evil in our minds.

I heard a speaker talk about his interpretation of the last battle that John talks about in revelation and he interprets it as a figurative language. The battle as mentioned in revelation takes place at the centre of the world. A crucial strategic point that would control the world. He understood John to be saying that the last battle is over the hearts and minds of people. Where we all take a place.

Now I don't know if he is right but I think he makes some good points. The battle is not against people but it's one step deeper. The battle is over the hearts and minds of people.

We find this through out scripture.
King Hezekiah when he faces an overwhelming force of Assyrian coming to destroy him and Jerusalem prays to God "Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you along, O Lord, are God."  Isaiah 37:20

Where would the western world be with out the battle over the hearts and minds of the people in the enlightenment age. No matter how hard rulers tried to snuff out revolutionaries the printing press proved the better weapon.

God is God

I have been struck lately how we humans seem to think it's all about us.
It is so easy to start thinking that God's blesses those that obey him, and doesn't bless those that don't but we find something else in the bible

Ecclesiastes 8:14
righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve.

I believe because God is calling us to something deeper, something more important that physical blessing. God is calling us into a relationship with him no matter what happens.

I have just finished a book called "The boy who came back from Heaven" and really liked this book. This is the words that the father Kevin received from an Angel in the nonfiction book

"Speak of Me,forMe, and about Me
Use Alex to show who I am
I have chesen him as a screen upon which to show Myself
I am unity, the trinity, a complete circle,
Your story will lead to praise an worship, ther willbe alter calls
Your bills are the least of My worries
I will be with you all the days of your life
I will speak to you
I will guide you
I am in you
I am about you, you be about Me
My love is unconditional
My vengeance is restricted for the holy
My apostles died for Me, will you die for Me?
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last."

What I learnt most while reading this book is that it's not about us. Miracles are not to save a person from death but for God's power to be shown to the world.

Read the book If you can!

God lead us,
God protect us,
God lead us to your green pastures,
God lead us to believe and trust in you
God I love you!