Remember who you are!

   This day started pretty rough. I've been struggling (well more like insecure) with where I am with God recently. All day today it felt like I was a carrying a huge stone on my back. Many things even until just after the evening teaching we had tonight, I was mopey. I had just went into a friend's house  (who lives next door) for help. God met me there. In a way I didn't expect.

I don't know how many of you have seen "The Lion King."  It is a cartoon about a son who ran from his problems and ends up having to go back and face his problems head on.

Well....I walked in on the part where his father "talked" to him from beyond the clouds. The father tells his son that he has forgotten about him. In the forgetting that he was heir to the kingdom and acted as an exile he had forgotten the father. He told the son "REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE! YOU ARE MY SON AND KING!"

That hit me. I had forgotten my Father in my problems. By both choosing to dwell on my sorrow and acting as if I were still a slave of sin. By forgetting that I am a child of God, I allowed my sorrow to become bigger than God himself. He wanted me all day to manifest joy but I had been in a state of turmoil.


Most amazing is that he waited on me.



How often do you forget that you are a child of God? To manifest his presence with joy?

Joy means so much more than happiness. It is second to Love. Called a "fruit" of the spirit and comes from the Father as a by-product of having the Spirit manifest in you.

I encourage you to thank God every single day if you really are the Lover's. He claimed you as his own from the beginning. That Christ came for you! That he left the Father's right hand as a representative to you that you are loved and he desires you!  


The enemy works really hard to drag us from this truth.


So... REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

A confession and hope for going on.

First of all, dear readers, Happy New Beginning.

Within the past year, I have learned many things, unlearned a few, and fell too many times to count.

Yet.....

With all the the mistakes,blunders, and selfish actions....God still has not left.

His love is completely humiliating to me. It convicts me sometimes and others have completely ignored his calling.

I've written the past few years about the amazing love of God, But absolute truth is there are still corners of my heart that evade his complete control. There is no place for me to feel sorry for my self in this..

This year I hope that he give only Himself...So much that if He were to withdraw himself, I would feel it.

Also, that this year I'd  like to rest. I know now that my striving to be good comes to naught.  I also  know he is not disappointed in who he created and is not now either.


He calls me his beloved son. Just like Christ. I'm part of an inheritance that He wants on earth as it is in heaven.Part of His chosen Bride.

 May his Bride go forth this year and be further purified by His hand. May we set ourselves aside for what he would give us.

A great project my friend is doing

Hi readers. Just wanted to put a small plug for my friend John Bob. It is a great cause if you are interested.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fprojects%2F1208808421%2Fthe-longing-debut-cd-and-amateur-community-studio&h=wAQH64mBeAQEpwcx-xQ48GUFAKSaDb_G2K21V1NuoTg3wFg

Glowing (Warning: THIS POST MAY BE A LITTLE GRAPHIC!)

Warning: THIS POST MAY BE A LITTLE GRAPHIC!


When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.   -Exodus 34: 29-31


Could you imagine spending so much time with God that your face glowed? This is an amazing thought.
 How about to have communion with God so much that his radiance was reflected by you. 
Moses was unaware of the glory he shone. This is because he reflected it. He even veiled his face so that the radiance would not cause fear in the hearts of the people.


When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.But whenever he entered the LORD's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD. -  Exodus 34:33-35






It was believed that to see the face of God meant death.  Which is still true. While we are in His presence, we don't matter. 


This is something to be in awe just in it's self. 


What is even more amazing is that we can enter into His presence with confidence. He wants us there. A major purpose we exist, if not the purpose.... is communion with God. All else dims and fades while we are with Him. Emotions cannot explain  this. It surpasses situation and "feeling." 




To stay in His presence we must accept that EVERY corner of our darkness is exposed and dealt with. Places that shake us to the very core sometimes. All we can do is fall on our face before Him who is our portion to make us in His image.  An illustration I think about when I think of His Exposing and purification of our being:


Cockroaches. Anyone who has ever seen them knows exactly what I'm talking about. They HATE light. If you want to know if you have them, turn your kitchen light at night. The second the light goes on, the scatter. I've never met anyone who likes them and they seem to come if you have food(not always though!). Often you can catch one or two out and can deal with them, if you want to kill them you have to call an exterminator. God wants not only to turn on the light of our "kitchen" but every room in our house. Sometimes even the rooms we have "spotless" are lit. He turns on the light and the infestation is exposed. When we allow Him to do this, He allows a closer relationship. It becomes less like a "sacrificial life" to the life being a response to His love.




Obedience leads us to Friendship...Friendship leads us to inheritance...Deeper still is intimacy with Christ as the Bride. The one who has the heart of the Bridegroom Christ. 




LET US RUN THIS RACE TO WIN!!!!!!!

A pinch of salt....

May the Father be revealed to us, in us, and through us.


(I may think alot, but this is  worth pondering and asking God to do for us!)

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!

May this be true of us!

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
Psalm 73:25