Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.”

- ESV

Is this comforting to anyone else!?

What faith? Did you not hear or understand that God is infinite? Jump up and do something! God is impenetrable.

Indefinable. Unbeatable.

A pillar, indestructible.

Do you not realize God doesn’t quit? He carries on forever. He doesn’t grow weak or tired yet carries on into the night and through eternity. He does not give up or grow weary & fall. He cannot be weak of mind or lose direction.

He made the world and everything in it!

God is not leaving, not giving up, not going anywhere but right in front of you – shouting your name.

“Wake up!” he says, “Go on! Realize what I have for you.”

“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

- Hebrews 10:39

Go on, then. God has your back… though things may be hard and tiresome know that you have a God who is there, and is in your corner. Know that you while you may grow weary that He does not! Right there behind you, picking you up when you fall, redeeming your mistakes and encouraging you along.

We are not the ones who shrink back and are destroyed, because, really…

…we have no excuse to be.

A reflection on my quiet time from the other night:

²⁸And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.²⁹And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” ³⁰Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. ³¹And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” ³²And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. ³³The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. ³⁴And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

I was reading through Matthew the other night and something that had never really hit me before clicked, these people asked Jesus to leave.

Jesus comes to their town, casts out some demons (which is good, and amazing) and the whole town hears and comes out to see him. I mean, these people are pretty amazed… but, they ask Jesus to pack up and leave. At first I read this and I’m thinking, what a buch of jerks, don’t they know who is in their town? Then I realized… I do that, all the time. I think we all do.

How many times are you living your life and God shows up and does something incredible. At first you are amazed, you run out to see him but then as you are running out you realize maybe his awesomeness has affected some other area of your life (the pigs ran off the cliff). So, it’s like these people heard and were amazed, came out and were like ‘Wow, this Jesus guy is pretty incredible… but the whole pig thing is a little inconvenient, I mean pigs cost money. Sorry Jesus, could you pleeeease leave now?’

It sounds ridiculous I know but, you do it to, trust me.

Following Christ is tough. Letting Him work in your life will not always be convenient, things of The Spirit are ‘folly in the world’s eye’. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

I hope this is making sense – I’m sort of scattered here but, it’s just something I wanted to share. I’m challenging you, and myself to not only run out to meet Christ but then to invite Him in. Don’t get freaked out when things don’t look right – keep running toward Him.

I enjoy movies. Simple as that, I enjoy movies, and I watch a lot of them. It doesn’t mater the genre as long as it is decently made and keeps me entertained for a while. Admittedly they can be a bit of an escape from the real world for me (which isn’t so great but, a conversation for another time).

So, I watch movies. Tonight I was over at a friend’s house and we watched the oldie but goodie Say Anything, starring John Cusack and an actress who I’m pretty sure went on to do very little but, that’s irrelevant. So, admittedly, I watch what some might call chick flicks – it’s my guilty pleasure.

In every chick flick you can count on a few things. One of these things is that inevitably there will be that part in the movie where things aren’t happy. The girl or guy will find out something about their counterpart that they weren’t entirely truthful about and all the happiness goes to pot. They break up (if they were together) and go out and do stupid or say stupid things and so on. People are upset.

I always hate this part in the movie, it makes me mad, not sad, mad. I get upset because it’s usually some sort of ridiculous thing that they are upset about or, the party who called it off is equally at fault. Regardless, in any good chick flick they will invariably get back together anyway, so I feel like this part of the movie exists simply to make it meet the 90 minute chick flick quota, no more and certainly no less.

Another part you can count on, in most but not all, is the open ending. It will end on a happy note, however you are left wondering exactly what happens after. Do they run away and live happily ever after? Do they buy the boat, the puppy, the house, adopt the kid, save the day, break out of jail – Who knows, I guess it all depends on if you are a glass half full or a glass half empty type of person.

So, there are more formulas to the chick flick, but those two are the two that stuck out to me tonight. Out of the two I’m just going to elaborate on one of them – the fact that very often, we are left hanging as to what happens. Yes, perhaps we are left on a happy note (except for The Break Up but, we won’t go into that) albeit a very open ended happy note but, one nonetheless.

This kills me, why can’t they just give a little tid bit of what happens? Maybe one of those little titles that come up at the end like on Remember the Titans where it goes through and says what happened to everyone – something like that. Or, a newer fad, something at the end of the credits like the couple in the delivery room – making way for a very funny family comedy in which they dive into the struggles of raising a child in the midst of their zany lives. Something, anything, I just want some resolution.

Really though, I love movies with very resolute endings. At the end of the movie I’m left sitting there going, well – so it is. You may not be happy with the ending but at least it ties things up, that’s okay, as long as I’m not left hanging. Maybe they lived happily every after, maybe they were killed by a mugger – together – and in love, either way it’s an ending.

Am I alone here? I don’t think I am. I think most people like to have some sort of wrap up. Most people do, it’s a semi-standard thing, I’ve met very few people who prefer to be in the dark all the time. So, what is it about us that makes us have to know what’s next? I think it’s something more deeply rooted than a high budget formula written movie.

I mean, if you think about it, this isn’t the only aspect of our lives that we try to know the ending of. The desire goes far beyond movies, a lot of people plan out every detail of their life. We just have this longing to know what is next. The next home, the next promotion, the next day’s plans – we think about what is next all of the time. In fact, I would say that a lot of the time the hope of what is next is overshadowing what is here and now.

Why is that we can’t just let go of things? I’m not trying to say that we shouldn’t plan but, sometimes you just have to realize that God, in his sovereignty, at any moment, could entirely alter what is next – and all of our planning becomes rather silly, and useless. At the time it may seem all “Woe is me, I thought I was going to get the poodle but now I don’t know if I can get any dog,” but in reality we’re more than likely better off. Really, believe it or not, God always has your best interest at heart. Scripture is full of references to letting God take control and not worrying yourself over the things of this world [Luke 12:22-34] or planning out everything [James 4:13-17].

Now, don’t get me wrong – there is value in planning ahead. We are called to be good stewards of what is given to us, this is true, however what I am trying to say is sometimes we get so caught up in the stewardship of what we are given that we neglect the most important thing that has been given to us – life. We were pulled up from a most certain death and given life and so often we just sit and think about… tomorrow? What about today? What have you done today to show the love of God to someone? What have you done today that has had a positive effect on the kingdom?

You could walk outside and get hit by a Mack Truck tomorrow and your plans will have been for nothing. I’m guilty of this too, I plan all the time, I plan ahead and daydream all day long about what my life will be like in 10 years. This is so pointless I can’t even begin to talk about it… 10 years from now? I haven’t the slightest idea of what I’ll be doing in 10 years. One thing that I want to make sure I am doing, is living where God wants me.

To wrap it up I’m going to quote a line from a song I like, “we must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read…”

I know it sounds sort of corny when it’s pulled out of the song but I think it’s a great point. Sometimes we are so caught up in what is happening next that we miss out on it happening.

How much better is it to be a part of what happens next than to read about it later?