Cheese and Crackers

 This story is a repeat from my Teen challenge group by the lead Facilitator:

 Once there was an old man, who wanted to go on a cruise before he died. So, he spent 4 years saving up and afterward bought his ticket. Since this man had very little money  he could not afford to buy the fancy dinners on the cruise, so he packed his suitcase full of cheese and crackers. During the cruise, while everyone else sat inside eating luxurious dinners of steak, seafood,and many other delicacies..the old man ate his cheese and crackers. 


On the last night of the cruise, as the old man sat eating his crackers..a man walked out to see him from the dining room. 


The man asked the old man why he would not come eat with the everyone else. He exclaimed "I haven't enough money"


The man then said "The meal was a part of the ticket price..you were supposed to eat with everyone"












How often do we just sit outside being settled with eating our "cheese and crackers" instead of entering into the fullness of Christ? He paid our ransom from sin and we are okay with just floating along. 


Instead let us seek his fullness no matter what it may cost.

Our lives? 


HE IS NO FOOL THAT GIVES WHAT HE CANNOT KEEP TO GAIN WHAT HE CANNOT LOSE
-Jim Elliot 




Our reputation?




He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.


ISAIAH 53:3 








Family?


If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.


Luke 14:26






When we follow Him and enter into His fullness, he adds to us: His Life, His reputation, and His family which are all eternal. 


Lets not be satified with even the place we are now with God, but go FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN!

His alone

"Whom I have in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My heart and flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
-Psalm 73: 25-26




Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.   
-Revelation 3:12


These are two incredible verses. 


First of all. The first verse shows absolute love for God. It represents absolute dependency on Him alone. He is our daily bread, our life-blood, and our only desire. It doesn't matter that we may be a mess, our lives are going the way we think they should go, or even that we look non-spiritual. Because our lives cease to be about us. We, like a bride, become his. 


Which leads me on to the next excellent verse. 


"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out."


Isn't that an incredible thought? 


Never to leave the presence of the Most High? 


To be a part of His work?  


A pillar upholds a building...fairly simple. It does not move, do it's own thing but stays forever in place until the end. 


Can you imagine that? 


Not to live "Your own" life


but to be FOREVER in His presence?


"And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name."


Normally, when a bride gets married, she takes on her husband's name. She is no longer who she was. She has no rights apart from her husband...she is his.


On the other side... She gains him. Everything that he  is hers. 
They belong to each other.   




It is fairly similar to what Christ calls his bride to be. 




We cease to look like ourselves, lose who we were, and are joined to Him. We are then changed by him until we are a reflection of him. We no longer move on our own, go anywhere he doesn't, and He is our delight. 






These are my thoughts on two verses. 
I hope these thoughts have encouraged you, that you realize how much it costs to be with Him, and that you are ready to be His alone.

Is it about you or Him?

I just got done dumping my disappointments on God. I've wanted to go on a "missions" trip for a while now. It really feels like a burning inside my heart to touch people in other countries. To feel their pain and be changed into a more caring person.

But then comes reality. 

Every time I start saving...something comes up. Right in my face. It may be a need in the house I live in to help out, a friend who needs support, or God wants to lavish on someone and he chose me as the vessel. 

After all that, I end up spending all that I'd saved. Though I don't want to fool you, I do plenty of self pampering as well with my savings. (I'm learning that no matter what I have, it never seems enough! Black hole syndrome ) 

Anyways....

I asked God why this was happening and He really answered! This was no way in my mind.

He asked : Are you wanting it for you or me?

Big question. I just know I'll look back at this post on a later date and feel like it was for then as well.

If it was God I should be able to wait. If it is just me wanting to say that I did something, it will most likely never happen.  

One question for all my readers. 

Are you living your life for Him? Or is it wrapped up in the affairs of the world? 

Do you feel like God has spoke now YOU need to make it happen? 

If so, it may not be God after all. Though that is just from my experience. God works differently  with different people. But please consider the answer.

Don't ever rush Him. You will ALWAYS miss opportunities that he gives along the way.

Remember the words of Paul: "To live is Christ and to die is gain." 

Our purpose

I'm pretty full tonight. I just got through my first (of this year) "two people meeting" an hour ago. It was very enlightening. The facts don't matter of how I got there, the exciting thing is what I got out of it.
  
  First of all, I wanted to share something I've been thinking about lately.I have been wearing a ring on my wedding finger for about a week now. People ask me why, but until now I've held out. The ring helps remind me that the relationship that Christ started with me (others as well) is like a marriage. I am unmarried by the world's standards, but I'm joined to Christ in the standards that really count. I'm reminded to keep my thoughts about how I can please him. It's a radical idea, but big changes  are caused by little steps.

Anyways, back to what I learned. I was reminded how Christ called us not to live how we want to, do what ever we dream of, or even feel happy all of the time. He wants to totally destroy our lives, make us ask for death, and to hunger for him. When we truly are emptied of our reputations, pride,and emotional stabilities (for myself) he pours himself into us. We then find out that all of our pain,struggles, and hard times are for one thing. To rid us of everything but him. We are become like a child. The more time we spend with him, the more we are fulfilled. Separation becomes our fear. He becomes our all in all and we desire nothing else. Even in our low times, he is right there. It is such an amazing God we serve!

Obsessed by God

Can you honestly say that the consideration of God fills every waking thought? I know that I can't. I tend to have things that are more important than God. Things that feel my day and push me further away from God. One of them is how much time I spend on the computer each day (Meaning this won't be a long post.).I consider time with God to be a chore. It is something I do to keep my day going well, to fulfill some "quota,"or only when I truly need something. Getting stuck in doing just enough is like what the Jews did with the law. We tend to strive to give God our "leftovers" in the words of Francis Chan. We give God only whats required, then wonder why we feel so empty of the Spirit. The goal of Christ was to call us higher. We can never give enough, be humble enough, or praise him enough to satisfy him. He wants our all. He wants us to be so obsessed with him that we have to trust in him for our daily necessities. when Christ called his disciples, he told them not to go back for supplies for their trip. No extra money, tunic,or walking staff. This type of devotion caused the disciple to be intimate with God. He was forced to trust that the Lord would provide. In the story of Abraham, he had to rely on the fact that God would provide. What would have been like if Abraham had killed his son only to be mocked by others for having faith? Are we so afraid to have faith that God will provide for all of our needs? I know I have many times. When hard situations arise, I tend to get really anxious, forgetting what Christ has done for all who had faith in him before me. Becoming obsessed with God means letting go of all our anxieties and focusing on him, making every experience we go through cause us to want him more, to fall madly in  love with him. Like we were meant to do.I pray that he would do this in me. He is our provider and we are his delight.When you fall in love, like everyone knows, you don't need to be reminded to think about someone, they are on your mind all the time. You will no longer serve God because you have to, but because you are so deeply in love that not serving him would be crazy.