Worship.... warfare....

What is worship? I was contemplating this today... I believe that true worship is not something that we do, it is something that we are. It is not just singing a song, or a good sermon. It is something that we are, and should be continuously.

Sometimes true worship can seem embarrassing... maybe God has prompted you to raise your hands during a song and it just seemed too much. But worship is not just for God's sake. The bible says that He inhabits the praise of His people.

Psalm 22:3
 ³ But You are holy,
         Enthroned in the praises of Israel.

That means that through worship we can have a moment to be in close contact with our Sovereign Savior. A chance to enter into His presence and to pour out our hearts to  Him.  

But more than this, the bible also says that He will rejoice over us with singing. I heard a worship leader talking about this today and it really was amazing observation that he had.. He said that when he sings a song, he likes to imagine God singing back to him. 

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

Worship is not a one way street. When we worship God, truly worship God, then our hearts are prepared to hear back from Him. He delights in our praise, He inhabits our praise, and He will quiet us with His love and rejoice over us with singing.  What a beautiful picture that is to me! Us struggling to maintain a semblance of any key or music, and the Creator of voices and song, singing back to us. Delighting in what we give to Him.

More than that though the scriptures call worship, warfare. In Psalm they call the praise of God a two-edged sword used to execute vengeance.

Psalm 149:5-9

 ⁵ Let the saints be joyful in glory;
         Let them sing aloud on their beds.
 ⁶ Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
         And a two-edged sword in their hand,
 ⁷ To execute vengeance on the nations,
         And punishments on the peoples;
 ⁸ To bind their kings with chains,
         And their nobles with fetters of iron;
 ⁹ To execute on them the written judgment—
         This honor have all His saints.
        
         Praise the LORD!

We are not called to simple singing or indifferent praise. We are called to worship in spirit and in truth. How many of us can say that is something that we have done this past week?

1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

The parable of the sower

Matthew 13

The Parable of the Sower

 ¹ That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

     This parable is a very common told one. Something that I'm sure we all have heard numerous sermons preached on. But this weekend I heard one that varied from many others. Of course we all can read a little farther into the chapter and Jesus Himself tells us what the parable means. The farmer is God, the seed is His Word being sown into the lives of people, and we are the dirt. Not exactly flattering, but hey, that's what Jesus says there. 

      I often hear the reference of this chapter as the seeds falling on the path are seeds to unbelievers who won't soften up and listen to what God says, that the seed on the rocky places were people who listened but fall away quickly because they did not have any depth to their belief, and that the seed among the thorns are ones who listen hear but then get concerned about trivial things and fall away. Not that this is at all incorrect, but the sermon this week took it a bit farther applying all of these things to the believer as well as the unbeliever. Since I assume the majority of people reading this are in fact believers I just want to touch on that aspect of this.

     First I'd like to start with a picture of what the path would look like. Imagine a garden, there is the soft ground that has been worked in long mounded rows and between each of these is a path, that you walk up and down to get to the areas you need to. These paths in the bible times would be walked on by hundreds of servants, the owner of the field, and the people allowed to glean in the fields with the workers. The ground between the areas where the plants grow would be unworkable, hard, and impenetrable. And the chickens, or birds are happy to get into this area and if they can find a seed they will snatch it up and eat it. This is the picture of the heart of someone who refuses to listen to what God says. Often these people are not believers, but how often have we as Christians ignored God, pretended we couldn't hear Him, or blatantly disobeyed what He commanded of us? This is the picture of the first seed. The one that fell along the path. The picture of the hardened heart of someone willfully attempting to disobey God's will. Think of Jonah running the opposite direction of what God has asked of him. Now it certainly isn't easy to soften your heart in that state. Anyone who has gardened, especially pre-rototiller days, knows how hard it is to soften packed ground. To loosen it to make it at all useful. But this is what God is asking of us, to soften our hearts to listen. I'd imagine that it is painful, I mean who wants to have everything around them tilled, and reworked? But it is not as painful as living an unfruitful, unproductive and unwilling life, producing nothing for the Kingdom of God. How soft and willing is your heart?


   The second picture is that of the seeds that fall in rocky places. In Idaho we tend to have large and small rocks all over, that a persistent plant could possibly work it's roots around and reach good soil. But in Jerusalem their terrain is a little different. Jesus was talking about places that look like good soil and for the first few inches they are, but then underneath is a large slab of limestone or sandstone that was impossible to move or work around. The only thing that you could do was not plant in those areas. This is the picture of the Christian who comes to church and hears a wonderful sermon or great worship, or reads something inspiring, they feel like nothing can stop their faith in those times, but then something happens to shatter their faith or shake them and they fall away quickly. Retreating back to complacency where they think that they will be safe from hurt and trials. They have no depth and eventually they lose faith completely. In our Christian walk, how often do we hear a good sermon, have a good word of God put into our hearts, but when we get home from church we get in a fight with our spouse or argue with our kids and the word completely withers.  We need to ensure our heart is soft so the word can plant itself deeply into good soil, and not lose it's hold on Faith.


The third picture is the one that struck me the most, that is of the seed that fell among the weeds and thorns. Anyone who has tried to garden knows that weeds don't just suddenly decide that they have plagued your yard enough and will now wander off to pester your neighbors yard for a while and give you a break. Weeds are all about territory, they will spread wherever you give them room to move. If you don't get rid of them, they will take over everything. They are aggressive, pushy, and will literally choke the life out of anything else you try to grow. My dad spends hours out in his garden trying to prevent weeds from taking over. The weeds in this picture are to me the things that are taking over the majority of our thoughts and our lives. These may not necessarily be bad things, often they are not, maybe it's work or other obligations, maybe its television or our appearance how we want other people to view us, in this superficial world that we live in, it's a terrible temptation to worry only about the outward things. Maybe it's pornography, alcohol or some other addiction. Whatever it is, God commands us to pull those weeds out of our mind and to renew our minds by the cleansing of our hearts. What is taking up the majority of your heart garden? Is it the things of God? If not then it is superficial, will not matter into eternity, probably don't even matter now, and are just weeds. These weeds will take over everything if you do not actively remove them from your life. As the saying goes if Satan can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

The final picture is that of the Christian who has actively cared for the condition of his or her soil. Removing weeds avoiding rocky places and continually softening the area to be productive and fruitful. Therefore producing good fruit and a plentiful harvest.

When you look back on your one and only life what will your fruit look like? Will it be an empty basket? A small basket with some withered vegetables? Or a great bounty of things to bring glory to God? All of us have the potential to do great things for God, He doesn't call all of us to be Billy Graham, but He does ask us all to live up to the best that He has called us to. That doesn't matter if it is raising your children in a Godly way, loving your spouse like Christ loved the church or going to the backwoods in Mexico to spread the gospel. God will hold each of us to our own measuring stick. We just need to pray that our hearts will be soft enough to be receptive of God's guidance and will. So I ask you... what is the condition of your dirt? 





Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

But if not....

Daniel 3:16-18

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. ¹⁷If this be so,^(AA) our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.^{[d] 18}But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

I frequently pray that if I were in such circumstance, that I would boldly say to the one person that was holding the key to my life(at least on earth) in his hand; "My God will deliver me, but if not I still will not worship your gods." To have that kind of faith, that says that I know that God has the ability to deliver me out of this trial or problem, but even if He doesn't, I know that He is still there, and He still cares for me. There is a song out right now by Laura Story: Blessings- one of the verses which reads:

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

– Isaiah 40:28-31“Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

God's promises are enough! His grace is enough!! Just remember next time you are feeling discouraged, that maybe the trials of this life are just God's mercies in disguise.

http://www.tsrocks.com/l/laura_story_texts/blessings.html

(see this link for the song  Blessings by Laura Story)

Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

I have loved you with an everlasting love...

Whenever my husband is out on an adventure with Isaac I like to sit and spend too much time watching girly chick flicks and romantic comedies. Last night the movie of choice was: "Where The Heart Is". The very end of the movie Natalie Portman says to her co-star "I lied because I thought you deserved better", to which he replies: "There is no better than you."

Sometimes I think that we do this with God, we are afraid that we are not the best person for what God asks of us. Maybe He has asked you to spend an entire week with abused children showing God's love, or maybe just sharing His love with a stranger, or even harder, a friend. Perhaps it's something more in the spotlight, such as sharing your testimony or a verse or song. Whatever it is, our tendency is to think that God couldn't possibly want to use us for such a thing. But what I think we need to realize is that God is looking at us saying "(insert your name here) there is no better than you." He has designed us to serve a purpose, each and everyone of us! He loves us and sees us not as we see ourselves! So next time God prompts you to do something don't let fear stop you. Remember, Steve, Randy, Julie, Dave, Lee, Leena, Linda, Berndt, Shari and anyone else that might read this, there is no better than you!

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).

His grace is sufficient!

2 Corinthians 12:9

⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 


 It is always difficult as a human in general to show any weakness. To even allow ourselves to tell others about how we have fallen makes us think that they will either judge us, or look at us differently. We'll lose a little of our 'status' that we have been trying to obtain. As a Christian I think we sometimes use the facade that if we tell others how we have sinned they will judge us, or worse think that we are a bunch of hypocrites. But one verse that has constantly stood out to me is 1 Peter 1:14-16:¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.^"

 
 I suppose we are not trying to be hypocrites, but we are in fact trying to be something we are not. God has asked us to be holy because He is holy! But because this is something that none of us will ever be able to obtain, which brings us to the verse above in Corinthians. You see none of us are good enough to deserve God's favor! Definitely not good enough to be considered holy... but by God's grace through the sacrifice of His Son, we will be allowed to stand before His throne and be counted as worthy. This always amazed and confused me, why God would want my messed up life to be anything to be used for Him and His glory, yet in Proverbs 3:5-6:

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
   and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
   and he will make your paths straight

Through trusting in God daily in my life, God willing, I will slowly conform to something that He would want me to be, and will bring Glory to His Name.


Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

My Hope Is Buit on Nothing Less...

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is in him."
Jeremiah 17:7

Recently we attended a web-inar(fancy word for a seminar we had to sit in a tiny sweaty room to watch) about disease pathology and auto-immune disorders. During the discussion I was frequently brought to the verse in  Luke 21:11 ¹¹ There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

The word in the above verse that most intrigued me was pestilences you see during this discussion the doctors were talking first about all the diseases that we had assumed we'd eradicated but have just come back around only stronger, things such as Polio, Pertussis(whooping cough) and Tuberculosis are making a startling come back in the United States. Now our original vaccinations, and treatments for such things have become all but void and doctors are having to come up with new ways to treat and protect from these diseases.


But what was even more interesting to me was all the new things that are attacking our bodies. The main thing during this seminar being bacteria overgrowth in our intestines, kidneys and a multitude of other systems that we need to survive. They have managed to link bacterial overgrowth to Auto-immune disorders such as Lupus, Fibromyalgia, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. They have linked it to Cancer and a near cornucopia of other inflammatory disorders. The big problem is that if you can find and treat these bacteria's they are able to morph themselves and become resistant to what they are being treated with so most people that are being treated are going through round after round of antibiotics with only temporary results.  After the seminar was over one of the doctors said to the rest of us, "Well we might as well go get a drink and wait to die."


That ominous statement made me start thinking about the world perspective on things like this. The hopelessness that they feel when they think about the fragility of our lives. When I read Matthew 21:11 or Revelation 6: 7-8

 Revelation 6: 7-8 ⁷ When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” ⁸ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. 

Instead of feeling like I may as well just give up, I felt renewed strength. As it says in
Matthew 24: 32-22  ³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that the end is near, right at the door.

I believe that nothing else has to happen for the Lord to come back, nothing! Therefore instead of feeling as though we may as well give up, we should be hurrying out to help people around us because the time is short. 
Luke 10:2  ² He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.


As a final thought, if you found out that Jesus was coming back on Monday, how would that change what you did for the next four days?  

Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

Bible Boot Camp 101

1 Corinthians 9:25-28
New King James Version (NKJV)
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.But I discipline my body and bring into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.



For the past few months I have been slowly prepping for my 2nd degree black belt test. This time of year is always hard, because first I have NO idea when the test will be, sometime in the fall, which means I need to be ready anytime between September and November, and secondly with all the training comes a multitude of bruises and general muscle soreness from overuse. Not to mention the extra time that is put in during preparation. But knowing that there is in fact a goal at the end, and working hard for something that I will soon be able to obtain makes everything worthwhile.

I believe this is a small picture of the idea that Paul was hoping to convey to us in 1 Corinthians 9:27. First, we need to be prepared at all times.

Matthew 24:44 Therefore you must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect

I have always enjoyed that verse in Corinthians the image of the fighter beating the air reminds me of a story that I heard from one of my Taekwondo instructors. He was out on a date with his wife and a man confronted them for money, he was an excellent martial artist, his kicks were so high and powerful, but he had hardly trained with any real contact, choosing instead to always fight in non-contact sparring, so when this man came towards him for money, instead of being able to fight him off, he placed 5 or 6 kicks right at the assailants face, but not one of them made any real contact. The attacker simply punched him in the face and took his wallet. After that this martial artist started training with renewed vigor, going to full contact sparring and making sure he knew the practical application for everything that he did. He was no longer just ‘beating the air.’ What stumped me on this verse was how do we make sure that we no longer are just spiritually beating the air?

1 Corinthians 16:13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.

Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.


Ephesians 6: 10-12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.


To be prepared, we must first realize that there is an imperishable goal that we are striving for We are not just walking along with no end in sight, and the finish line is where the judges are. So we are not to become weary in doing good. When we cross the finish line we want to hear Jesus say “Well done good and faithful servant.” Not “Well run, I’m glad you had a good time” but “Well done.” When we keep our mind on the final prize, it helps make the walk easier.

The second thing we must do is pick ourselves back up if we fall. If something happens that hinders us, we cannot just give up and think that we gave it the old college try. We have to push onward, regardless of how many times we have to pick our battered bruised spirit up out of the muck we pushed it into.



Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26