Battle against Self

Mathew 16

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 25If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?l Is anything worth more than your soul? 27For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 28And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

So many times I want to hang on to my life. I want to do things my way. But how I lose out on so much. I can see it in how I got a job, how I finished school ... As long as I was trying to hang on to my life things wouldn't work. I would get fed up. Burnt out. It was untill I gave it to God and said this is yours, what should I do.

You know and some times I felt God leading me other times not. I picked what I thought was the best, and God worked through what I gave him and made it into so much more. Not for me but for him, because it is now his.

That's what i try to do with this blog. It is all God's. It's not something I can do by myself. 

I can't wait to see a world where people are fine with where they are, never looking for the more, because Jesus is in control of everything.

God lead us to give everything to you
God bring us to your refreshing stream
God help us to serve one another
God work in our lives

Four Years

I was thinking about the start of this blog and why I did start. The truth is the fall of the year before I started I remember thinking I should create a blog but quickly pushing it off as something crazy. What would I do. The idea came back a few times and I pushed it off every time. Then one of my friends started a blog on his faith and I started posting comments. I decided then that I should start. I figured it would end right away. I actually told no one about it for about half a year. Just me being my crazy self I guess.

So here we are 4 years later.

The following bible passage was read at church and it struck me. Hope it shows you some light.

Isaiah 58
³ "‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
   ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
   and you have not noticed?’
   “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
   only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
   and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?"

God bless you
God draw you closer to him
God feed us truth
God lead us closer to you

God you are all powerful and I give everything to you.

Crazy things to say to humans

Mark 11:11-14 (NKJ) 11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.

13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.

Mark 11:20-24 (NKJ) 20 now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.” 22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God."

23 “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.

24 “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

Jesus saying crazy things again. God really is all powerful.

Think of what it takes to change a person. For a person to throw down all the selfishness and say God you are my king and I am you your servant. That I consider a great miracle.

I find myself saying that I know better ... That is crazy God.

You here Jesus saying simply “Have faith in God."

God help us have faith in you
God fill us with your presence
God lead us to green pastures
God bless us
Bring us closer to you

Thoughts

No one gets what they deserve so why do we think that sometimes we do? Why do we think that a person who is down in the dumps deserves what he got?

All of has made mistakes, all of us has down things that we regret.

Paul talks about a thorn that he wants God to remove but he does not. Saints talk about long times of absence of God's presence.

Maybe God is doing something greater than a just a simple reward and punishment system. Maybe he is calling for purer servants that are refined by a refiners fire.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a special place in heaven for the drug addict who couldn't beat his drug addiction here on earth, for the drunk who never could throw the habit ...

If you think about it if God didn't make his prevision through his son all of us do terrible things even as believers of Christ and we would all be thrown to hell.

It's not that God likes these sinful habits but rather, he understands our position and has created a way for every sinner to enter God's home for us if we but trust the Saviour Jesus to take care of our every need.

Anyways those are my thoughts

God Bless us
God Lead us to green pastures
God Bring us into your glory
God Speak to us
God live in us

Community

I have an experiment for you to try.

Next time you are worshiping God, instead of what you normally do, Pray for those around you. Whether you are singing, or what ever you do when you worship God pray for every one around you.

It's a funny thing how we are the only one that can save ourselves, yet as others draw closer to God around us then we too grow closer to God.

I don't know about you but I like to give, and when in worship I like to bang on the doors of heaven for those around me not because I am any better but because I would give it to them. I find myself caught up and receiving the same things I prayed for others.

I believe that is how God works. As we pour ourselves (prayers, effort, time, money) into others God pours back into us. 

It's funny how things work like that.

Anyways that is my challenge.

God Bless you
God fill you up with his spirit
and give you peace.

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.