Desire to Feel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-ily4yJLjs

" So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong on me."

Ezekiel 2:14

This part of scripture is during Ezekiel's call. God showed up and met with Ezekiel right when he was supposed to be getting to do his priestly duties but he was carted off in the exile at 25ish. God shows up in an amazing way to Ezekiel thats blows me away and commissions him to tell his word to the exiles. He sees all these things and God says to tell them what ever he tell's Ezekiel. He's leaving the presence of God and this verse is what is said of Ezekiel as he's leaving. The first time I read this I had a hard time with it and wondered what was going on. He was "embittered in the rage of his spirit"? What does that mean? It can't be good right? What it's telling us though is that Ezekiel felt the way God felt about the situation regarding the House of Israel. God had Ezekiel feeling the way he felt........

I want that.....I need that......I desire to feel how God feels about things in my life and in my walk with him. I want my heart to break and cry out at the things that break his heart and I want to rejoice and be overjoyed at the things that put a smile on his face. I'm at the point in my life where doors are being opened to me and I don't know which ones to go through but it is getting clearer and clearer the more I walk. This is something that struck me and just put me into a place where I fell down before God and had to have a gut check. Is this what I want? If so what am I doing so I can have it? Is it a priority in my life to feel the way he feels? Not only does it need to be but I long for it to be.

Standing up with care,

"Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliever us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Daniel 3:16-18

Godly men standing up for what God had said. A perfect picture of how things should be done in my life and in ours as Believers. These men talked to the King as a man who held the position. They showed respect even in the face of death. I can't even always maintain a certain level of respect when my ideas are opposed! We need to take this to heart I think. We as Believers need to be standing up for things God told us to stand up for in a culture that is longing to assimilate into what everyone else is doing. We ARE called to live a life that sticks out to a dark world but as that light we need to be careful with how we do it. What a great passage with a lot of things to mull over but I think it's so important how these men responded. They respectfully answer in the face of death acknowledging the outcome of their actions may end in death. We as Believers need to realize that when we face something just because we stand up for God doesn't mean we don't have to face whatever the consequences are that result from it. Here it was death and they accepted the punishment with respect to the King because he was the King! God saves these men but the thing is he didn't have to! If God allowed them to die it wouldn't change what these men where doing! We need to remember the way we as believers handle ourselves and our lives may be the only "bible" they see in a day, a week, a month or year for that matter. The way we handle authority in our life does matter! Their action of standing up against what God had said not to do in a respectful way fully accepting the consequences is something we as believers who live in America very well could face in the future. Right now it costs us nothing but that is not guaranteed and when our faith starts to cost us something will we still be standing firm fully accepting the consequences in a respectful manner worthy of our father?

Father your a good God. Your a good God because you define what good is and this world does not. No matter what the situation we face we have to remember as believers greater is He who is in you than he who is in this world John says. Father I know the end of this tapestry and story your telling and it excites me that you choose to use people in places all over the world in your plan when you don't have to. I pray that we walk with care as Psalm 15 says so that when you want to use us as tools we are sharp and ready even when it gets messy and not what we expect. Let us represent and stand for what you stand for and hurt for what you hurt for handling ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ as Phillipains 1:27 says.

Hello God.

The Priests and the Levites purified themselves; they also purified the people the gates and the wall.

-Nehemiah 12:30

As a believer I want nothing more than to meet with God and have a relationship with him. I love the fact that I get to communicate with him and worship him in my life at no cost to me. At the same time when I meet with God the creator of the universe I should be preparing much much more than I am. I want to be ready to meet with him and that involves a choice on my part to take the crap that I have in this world that has attached itself to me throughout the week and shake it off before I meet with him. I need to get myself ready to meet with God more than I am and its something that I want to do because my relationship with God is the most important thing being in this world has to offer.

Nehemiah!

Today we started doing the book of Nehemiah and I must say I think it's probably my favorite book of the bible so far. As a guy that is looking into a career choice of leadership in the church this book is like a leadership handbook as Pastor Randy put it. Not only does it excite me at learning and trying to put these things to practice in my life but it challenges me to strive even more so in my walk and relationship with the Lord. Every book is unique in it's own way and has it's own something that I love but Nehemiah is probably going to be my favorite and most used section of the Bible . In the words of my friend Brian Keogh " Nehemiah man!".

Look out in the plain it's a bird it's a plane...no it's my shepherd! Part 1.

"The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me beside quiet waters He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For his name's sake Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23

If you didn't know already I'm kind of a comic book geek. I am a huge fan of the whole super hero thing and I have many shirts in my wardrobe to testify to that. Of course now they are coming out with movies of the superheros that I had in my prime little 8 year old days which are trashy and depressing but none the less I'm a fan of the hero's not so much their movies. Though I do enjoy watching those hero's in cartoon form and yes I do know they are really only cartoon hero's but with that being said I also get to worship the greatest real life Superhero ever.

Oh you want a guy who saves people who can't help themselves and are stuck in a position of hopeless despair? Bam he did it. You want a guy who literally can withstand the most punishment that anyone has ever had to go through? Bam he did it.Oh you want a guy who defeats evil doers with just his breath? Bam....stay tuned because he's going to do it :) . I think you get the point. Not only does Jesus do all these things but I get to have a personal relationship with the guy and he cares about me! That blows my mind! Daniel says in Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd and I know the reaction we get when we hear shepherd " oh an Old guy watching sheep in a field". I thought the same thing but that is grossly understating their job to put it nicely! When we look closely at Psalm 23 we get to see God as a Shepherd and the man writing the Psalm knows a little about shepherding and is writing this Psalm with that on his mind.

In verse 1-2 " the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me beside quite waters." looks simple enough, but there is something you need to know about sheep....yes they're dumb but something else. Sheep don't just lie down easily. They actually need 4 things before they will lie down: enough food, enough drink, a clean nose + throat, and they need to feel secure. See sheep won't lie down if they are thirsty or aren't completely full so the Shepherd needs to take care of the sheep's needs, not wants but needs. In the same way when we walk with God our needs are met an he gives us what we need ( and sometimes it's not what we think we need but what he knows we need). Then the Shepherd will check if any mites are in the sheep's nose and check if any leeches are in it's throat. Its basically a check of crap thats in the sheep that shouldn't be and he takes it out if it shouldn't be there. Amazingly thats the same thing Christ does with our life! When we have things that shouldn't be there by walking through this world sometimes God has to "clean us" and its not always a pleasant feeling but its necessary in both scenarios. Finally the Shepherd needs to make sure the sheep feels secure. Sheep are terrified of running water its just something they don't like so the Shepherd is sure to stay clear of any running water because he knows that it scares the sheep. Thats why the second part of verse 2 is there. In the same way God knows what scares us! Its not something we always think about but it should help us feel secure that our Shepherd knows what scares us! It makes us realize that we are not alone even when we feel alone if we are walking with him and that should get us pumped that he cares for us in such a way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0j3-tmQLjg

Gotta Love Sunday Mornings! Church activities all day and great fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. Pumped!

Can you hear me....now?

Habakkuk 1:1-2, and (5-6) "The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. How long, O Lord, will I call for your help and You will not hear? I Cry out to You in "Violence!" Yet you do not save.

(5-6)"Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days - You would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs."

"Can you hear me now? Good." It's funny to think about how a completely easy commercial caught on so rapidly and from such a simple question that most would ask when their phone call was dropped. We all asked the question as the voice was going in and out as connection was bad "can you hear me? can you?". Funnier still to me is when we see this, how the same question and situation happens to us as believer with God. "Can you hear us? Are you even listening?". A common question but can he hear us? David sure seemed to think so with the writing of the psalms and through the interactions of Jonah praying to the Lord in ch. 2 he commanded the whale to spit Jonah out on the shore. Many even Christians have said Jonah is probably a fairy tale but in Matthew 12:40 Jesus sure believes in Jonah so if I'm going to take anyones word for it I'll take his haha! In Habakkuk 1:1-4 We see Habakkuk crying out to the Lord about the "injustice" going on and he makes a couple of questions known to God.

We look into Verse 2 and Habakkuk is asking God the same question the Verizon guy is asking on the commercial. Can you hear me? Habakkuk is asking God why he is not listening or why it seems like he's not listening to him. He's crying out that the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob has turned his ear piece off and his reasoning is in the second part of two. " I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet you do not save.". Habakkuk is at the point where he's saying your not listening because I can't see your response and everything is staying the same. We all feel like this sometimes one way or another. "God are you there? I just don't see you in my life and all these things are going on and when I need you the most God you just don't seem to be here!" I've been there guys I have and its painful and its something no doubt all of us will go through and Habakkuk is feeling it here. God is not going to leave Habakkuk here though because when we truly know God and have a relationship we can ask him concerning our trails and he will answer us.

God gets to respond to Habakkuk in verse 5. In 5 he tells Habakkuk He does in fact have a plan he is listening and is doing something about it. In fact he tells Habakkuk he wouldn't believe what he was doing even if God told him! God's plans aren't always clear in our lives and sometimes we don't understand why things happen in our lives. Its easy to get frustrated with God when it seems a day is all going wrong and things seem to fall apart but remember verse 5 should comfort us. He is doing something in our days! God is listening to us but at the same time we have realize he is working his plan guys. Hardships are going to happen in our lives, its part of life, what we do with those hardships though matters. He is listening and he knows whats going on guys! My god is bigger than my problems but we have to trust him. I don't know why certain things happen I honestly can't always give an answer. I think of Job who God was actually bragging on to Satan and because of nothing Job did everything was taken from him. Job did right and got wrong and we don't like that but when we say Lord my life is yours and surrender it to him he has the right to use it any way he wants! Job's life was used to speak into his friends lives who didn't have a complete view of God and through all his hardship his life was used. Thats not an easy thing to swallow but thats what I signed up for as a Christian and its easy in my life as I see God's hand blessing me abundantly to say that. I can say confident;y that no hardship you go through is useless and just because we don't think God is listening doesn't mean he isn't So I pray whole heartedly that when we are going through things that don't make sense to us and it seems that God isn't listening to our prayers that we make sure we are right with him and then trust his plan for our lives. He's working a plan and we get to be used and be apart of it guys and we don't always get the best parts but when we are walking with him we can trust that his grace is sufficient and his hand is on my life whether it looks like it or not.