In fact, I’ve watched several shows that depict God, Christianity, Christians and religious zeal.
We’re bad!
And I don’t mean a little bad.
Well, some are just weak-willed sheep. They plod through accepting whatever, questioning nothing. Pathetic. Extras in the scene.
But most pictures presented are downright evil. Murderous, hateful, vile.
And God, my King and Hero, is presented as, for the most part, simply not really there. Humans doing whatever they want. Demons having the real power, the real authority over humanity.
And we sit back, silent.
No, don’t start bashing the movies, the shows. They only glorify what they have been taught.
We need real Christians, living out the love of Jesus, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, moving by faith in the Holy, beautiful, amazing, one and only GOD.
Do we ever stand amazed by the fact that God promises us. Not amazed by what He promises but by the simple fact that He promises. And He is true to His promises.
I’m not sure we get it, and this may offend some people, but God doesn’t owe us a thing.
I watched a movie that portrayed the gods of Olympus as needing our prayers, our worship. Without our recognition, the gods decay, grow old and lose their power.
It is not this way with my God.
If I pray to Him, I join myself to His will. If I don’t pray, only I lose His blessing, His purpose in my life, He is unchanged. If I sing, if I worship, He is glorified in my life, but His character, His person remains unaltered.
So, why does He promise? Why does He say that He has blessings and hope for my life? He could say nothing, let what He has done, on the cross and throughout creation, be enough. But for Him, it is not enough.
What a Father, a daddy, we live for? He wants us to know that we can depend on Him, that His thoughts are for our favor. All because He loves us. All because we are His children. He promises to prove His strength, His almighty power in our lives. He promises to prove Himself to us.
He didn’t have to. He didn’t need to. Oh, but I’m glad He did.
The once joyful, smiling little boy sat by himself in the room. His tears would not fall anymore though the loneliness, the utter, desperate loneliness was a palpable wave. It roared over him, surrounded him, crushed him beneath its suffocating weight. Daddy would not be coming home anymore.
She was a beautiful bride. Their smiles, their kisses, the warmth and joy they had felt seemed inexhaustible. Children had blessed their home and life had moved on but there wTas love, so much love. She had known that things weren’t great, harsh words, tempers, problems. But it had not prepared her for his words. “I’m leaving.” The other woman, the lies, the betrayal sent her reeling into an abyss that had no bottom, the hole she fell into closed also.
The old man lay in bed, a confusion of tubes, beeping monitors and smells that assaulted his senses and further disoriented his feeble hold on reality. He had been strong. He had worked hard and provided. He had been a father, a husband, a friend. Now, his only companions rolled him over, spoke in harsh tones, complained over his accidents (a humiliation beyond description) and then left him too. Where was everyone? Where was God?
I have no answers to these all too common issues. I could say that Jesus is the answer, which is true. But it is false, just the same. “Jesus will take away your pain. He will heal you.” True but lying in its intent. “He will not put you through more than you can bear,” quoted from scripture but so deceitful in real life.
Lay down your stones. I am not a heretic.
We make the truths of scripture, of life, a lie when we look at those truths as quick fixes, easy answers. Jesus does heal but it takes time, and faith. It is often a process where further pain is revealed. And what we can bear depends greatly on your perspective. It is also a function of failure and further attempts, unbearable initially, bearable upon revisitation.
We want the preacher to give a message that sends us home, patched up, ready to face the world. We want the show to make us feel better, good again. We want the miracles, the lottery, the breakthrough that makes our problems go away. And often they exist to cloud the reality of our journey.
You are not abandoned. God is there. Jesus did die to heal you of all your hurts and fears. But we must walk with Him. If it takes yelling and cussing, do it. HE WILL NOT ABANDON YOU! If it takes opening your heart up again, do it. HE WILL NOT ABANDON YOU! You will be hurt again. You will feel pain. Feel it. Know that you are alive. You are not abandoned.
In the end, and along the way, as you hold on to Him. You will see that He is good. His love really does endure forever. And you were not, are not alone.
We stand in a court where all are condemned. We stand before a judge who sees every motive, every flaw, every lie, every pretense. There is no jury of our peers, no technicality or loophole. We have no defense for we know as we enter, if we’re truthful with ourselves, that before a Holy, Righteous God, that we will never be good enough. Our best days, best thoughts, greatest triumphs are written on toilet paper when compared to Him.
But just before the gavel falls, we hear the simple words, “Father, this one is mine.”
It just stops me when I know this truth. I know I will write, but I sense my unworthiness, how very unfit I am, to attempt to express what this means.
“This one is mine.”
Hebrews talks about Jesus, “Who, for the JOY set before Him, endured the cross…” Not to go beyond scripture, but we should realize that He endured more than the cross. He left heaven, the throne room of His Father, to come to earth as a baby. He endured a life of hard work and discipline under the hand of a human father and mother, where kids could bully Him and tease, the indignity of colds, viruses, disease, and crushed fingers may have touched Him. But he endured. He had a goal, a prize to win.
And that prize was us. Me! You!
He considered us worth it and He still does.
We go through life wondering where He is in this mess, questioning what He will do to help us through our misery. We see the hurts of this world and the brokenness that pervades everything human and wonder how long He will allow it. But these are the wrong questions to ask.
He set us free, released us from a life of condemnation. The question should be how long are we going to allow the brokenness, the misery. How long will we wait before we realize that there is an answer to every need, a victory for every defeat.
English: Green, green grass at Damhead (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Upon waking, you are what captures my heart, amidst the numerous distractions vying for a moment of my time. Reaching through this menagerie, your love takes me to a place where tall green grass bends softly in the wind. And as my child like innocence runs toward you, dances does my heart at the thought of serving You… this day. Sharon Brooks http://www.arevivaloftheheart.com/
My fellow blogger has such a poetic way of sharing things that I thought I would post this comment for others to see. It is my honor and joy to serve Jesus with everything that I do.
English: The symbol for chemical equilibrium (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Can I believe what I want to about Jesus? Can I make Him my own? Does it really matter how or what I believe, as long as I am sincere?
I think it does.
In the human body, in cells, in life there are things that create what I call a dynamic equilibrium. Electrolytes, proteins, fluid, oxygen, and many other things are constantly flowing in and out of cells. Too much pressure on bones and they break, no pressure and they atrophy. Nutritive intake is a balance needing levels of salt, sugars, proteins, fats and a wide variety of micronutrients. An excess of any one part of this creates an unhealthy organism. Too much exercise is bad, too little is bad. Fun without discipline has adverse effects, as does discipline without fun.
What does this have to do with beliefs about Jesus? What is the dynamic equilibrium where God is concerned?
We know God is love but is that all we need to know about Him? He is holy. He is truth. He is so many things that if looked at broadly shows a perfect tension that must be maintained for us to have an accurate idea of our King. He is sovereign but He allows free will. He intervenes in humanity and yet allows evil to continue. He lives inside us but is too big for the universe to contain.
I spend time enjoying certain attributes of God, tasting certain evidences of His goodness. But He is more.
And though I can never fully KNOW Him, it matters to me and to Him that I know Him well.
1. My thoughts, my actions, my replies, my joys, my hurts, do they mirror my Jesus or my world? Next time you see something bad happening, something you react strongly to, consider your response and see if it looks and sounds like Him.
Mountain Lake (Photo credit: @Doug88888)
2. Despite what political pundits, doomsayers, rebels and rappers say, what do you see when you look at the world? I’m not a pollyanna. I don’t believe in the “power of positive thinking.” But, I do believe in a God who is King of kings and Lord of Lords. He is not thwarted by bombs or laws. He remains unchanged despite all human agendas and natural catastrophes. He does not bow to the greatest leaders of any era or bear the commands of any power in the universe. But, they do bow to Him. And He is good. HE IS GOOD! His love endures forever. He can be trusted. And He has put so many beautiful things here for us. Do I see them? Am I even looking for them?
Cross & Clouds (Photo credit: John H Wright Photo)
3. When things go wrong, when I fail, when all seems lost, where do you run? And, I do mean run, move quickly, pursue without a thought for the consequences or repercussions. We all run somewhere. Alcohol, romance, pornography, work, music, drugs, church, Jesus, gods, Satan, hate, bitterness, the list goes on. All places to run to where we demand, we make proclamations, we decide the outcome. Oh yes, you can run to Jesus with the idea of Him making you feel better. You can go to church to get your fix of feel good. What we are called to is the cross. We are told to bring everything, our desires, our hopes and dreams, our failings, our lives and lay them at His feet, lay them at His cross. “I am crucified with Christ and I know longer live…” A shout of triumph over all that would hold us, all that would enslave us. But we seldom go there when we feel lost and defeated. We rarely look to that serpent lifted up when the poison of this life has entered our veins. But we can. We must.
“Daybreak” by Matthew Hawkins is available at smashwords.com. Click on this link to learn more and to order:
There’s more to this but didn’t want to plug my own poetry.
I wanted to write a song to explain what I thought of Jesus and the audacity it took for him to lay aside his position in heaven to rescue us. I wanted to express, somehow, an appreciation for what we treat with ignorance and contempt so much of the time. Words are so inadequate. Our hearts, our minds can’t wrap themselves around what took place.
We are coming up on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our hearts can be so caught up in trappings, in dealing with family, in buying and preparing, and rushing. Every year we hear the words, see the movies, read the stories. Can we forget everything, if only for a few minutes each day, and focus our attention on Jesus, who left it all for us? Can we take a deep breath and listen for His voice, His heart?
Thank You daddy for the words and melody for a song. Thank you so much more for what can’t be explained. Thank You Jesus. My Hero, my King.
English: “Do you recognize Jesus?” is a collage that I made from oil pastel portraits which I drew in Chicago in the summer and fall of 2010. It can be folded in three and used as a Christmas card. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It was a blessing to get up this morning. I am blessed to be at work, to earn a paycheck. I am blessed to have a loving Father who patiently leads me through life, walking with me, correcting me, moving me closer to His heart. I am blessed with a strong, loving wife, children who I am proud to call mine. I am exceedingly blessed to play and sing with the wonderful musicians at my church.
According to Glen Packiam, another translation of the word blessed is lucky (he wrote a whole book on the subject that is well worth reading). So, I’m lucky when my wife disagrees with me. I’m lucky when my kids think I’m a dope. I’m lucky to deal with bosses, crazy monkeys, no raises, threats of unemployment, offensive smells, rat bites, and fatigue.
Now, in case you think I’m being sarcastic, I’m not. God’s blessings are not how we would wrap them. They don’t come in comfy, cozy, brightly colored packaging. Sometimes they hurt. Sometimes they cut. Sometimes they make us angry, frustrating us to distraction. His blessings are for our good, not our happiness. His blessings make us better with the intent of us being better for other people (not just ourselves). His blessings teach us, grow us, make us warriors and priests. His blessings raise us up to a high calling.
Would I trade His blessings for ones of my choosing? The height of folly. Would I willingly walk away from His life for the good that this world, that I would offer? A frightening thought, for I know my propensity to say yes to this question.
No, Lord. I would choose You. I would lay down all I want to gain You.
I’ve been sick for the past week and a half. I still am working 50+ hours a week. Worship was great this past weekend but also exhausting. I am “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”
Now it feels a bit melodramatic for me to quote this concerning my life of relative ease, but I’m feeling it. Family, finances, future are huge concerns that seem to weigh on me every day.
And I know I’m not alone. Many people wonder what is going to happen next, politically, in the world, at schools and jobs. No one is exempt from wondering how everything is going to get paid for. And, every family has their nut cases. Now you’d think that I wouldn’t be worried about that one, since I’m the nut case but imagine the pressure I must feel in trying to protect and guide my children away from my socioneuropathy (I made that word up I think).
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
We don’t lose heart. No matter what happens to our outward body, Jesus, as we fix our eyes on Him, is renewing us day by day. And in us, God is achieving an eternal glory. A beauty and power that will out shine our darkest days.
I’m not willing to walk timidly into my day. I am not cowed by the circumstances and trials. God is working a victory in me, in you.
The Healing Worshipper 