What If...

Have you ever had one of those days where your feelings did not seem to match with what God's Word says?  I know that I have, and I have often wondered why that is, but recently, a thought occurred to me that I had not thought of before, or if I have thought of it before, it has been so long, that I have since forgotten. Why do I seek God?  Is it for the great feeling that I get from Reading His Word?   The idea that I was seeking a "feeling" instead of Jesus was one that had not occurred to me before.  Being on Bi-Polar Medication has helped me to realize that God is not to be sought because He makes us "feel" good.  Before I was on medication, life was just one big thrill, or tragedy after another.  Now that I am on the medication, the intense thrills don't happen as much, but that's ok!  I'm not supposed to live on feeling.  My experience with God is so much more than a feeling.  Feelings come and feelings go, but God remains the same.  The lesson that I am starting to learn is that I should not seek God for a feeling.  I should seek God to be with Him.  Jesus meets our needs, sometimes I may think what I need is a feeling, but what I really need is His Promise instead.

The Savior or the swine?

An interesting thought occurred to me tonight as I was reading through the Gospel of Mark.  In my reading there was a huge story that jumped out at me.  I was able to read all the way through Mark 4, but when I got to Mark 5, the chapter stuck out at me big time.  There were a lot of amazing things that happened between Mark 4 and 5.  As I read through the story of Jesus casting out the demons out of the man of the Gadarenes, I was struck by what the messenger told the people.  Let's take a look at what was said:  "And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. (Mark 5:16,17 KJV).  

The first thing that we notice about the message is that it is two-fold.  The first part is the wonderful victory of Jesus, and the second part of the story is about the loss of swine.  What never ceases to amaze me is how these men actually told Jesus to leave.  Why is this?  They were eclipsed by the swine in their mind.  They chose the swine rather than the Savior.  How about us?  Do we choose the swine over the Precious Savior?  Let us not get discouraged by thinking about what we will have to give up when we follow Jesus, let's just make it a point to follow Him no matter what the cost may be and spend time simply enjoying the reality of His Blessings. I like how the story continues:  

"¹⁸ And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.

¹⁹ Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

²⁰ And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel." (Mark 5:18-20 KJV)

The Stairway to Heaven

Have you ever had a dream where you had the ability to walk up to heaven? I did last night.  I dreamed that there was a stairway that led all the way up to heaven.  To get to the stairway, I had to go up some old stairs in an old building. When I tried to explain to my friends how to go up the stairway, they didn't believe me.  "The stairway was simply a legend" they said. "We've never seen it, so how can it be"  When I tried to show the stairway to others some eagerly wanted to go, but others stayed on the ground outside the building and went back to business and everyday life as usual. I had found this stairway numerous times before and always would get so far up, but then start heading back down.  Finally I came to a point where I was determined to make it all the way to the top of the stairs, but then someone said I needed to go help others so I was transported to the desert to help people.  After a while I found the stairway again, and this time I was going to go up it no matter what the cost!  I can remember going up the stairway and as I did I noticed that it looked no different than any other stairway at the bottom until I started to climb several flights of stairs.  Finally I came to an area where the stairs turned to transparent glass.  The stairs led up to a huge circular glass room high above the earth with a transparent glass floor.  There was music going on in the room and people were praising God.  I won't forget the words to a song that I heard. "Draw me close to you, never let me go.  I lay it all down again, to hear You say that I'm Your friend.  You are my desire, no one else will do, cause no one else could take your place.  To feel the warmth of your embrace.  Help me find a way, bring me back to You. Bring me back to You. Your all I want, Your all I've ever needed, You're all I want!  Help me know You are near.  They were worship songs, and as I  was praising God, and as I did I heard an accuser say "You can't sing that song, you aren't perfect.  Your life is full of sin.  You don't have a right to sing that song."  However, I quickly ignored his voice and continued to praise God because of who He is and because He had paid the price for my sin!  Just then the stairway continued upward, and this time there was a bright golden light coming down the stairs.  I wanted to go up higher, but as I started to continue ascending the glass stairs I woke up!  Of course this is simply a dream and nothing more than that, but it does bring an interesting thought to my head:  how close is heaven.  There are a couple of Bible texts that I would like to talk about that come to mind when thinking about this dream.




The first one is Matthew 17:1-3
"1 ^*xgAnd after six days Jesus took with him^*xhPeter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was ^*xitransfigured before them, and^*xjhis face shone like the sun, and ^*xkhis clothes became white as light.  3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him." (ESV)

Why is Jesus doing this, you ask?  The disciples have had in their head that Jesus is setting up an earthly kingdom, but Jesus was not coming to rule, He was coming to save us from our sins.  In order for the disciples to know His mission, and to put their faith in Him, He allowed this to happen. 
This was one of those "heavenly" experiences for the disciples, and it is for us as well!



So many times in life I find that I don't really realize or appreciate who Jesus really is!  Peter James and John saw before who Jesus is.  Interestingly enough this was all to assure them of His mission to save them, and impress upon them the necessity of the cross.  They, however were thinking about the temporal, and didn't get it until after He was raised back to life.

There is a living way to heaven.  A stairway!  What does Jesus say in John? 
  
"1  ^*xd“Let not your hearts be troubled.^*xeBelieve in God;^*n1 believe also in me.   2  In^*xfmy Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that ^*xgI go to prepare a place for you?   3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you ^*xhto myself, that ^*xiwhere I am you may be also.   4  And you know the way to where I am going.”^*n1   5 ^*xjThomas said to him, “Lord, ^*xkwe do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”  6 Jesus said to him, “I am ^*xlthe way, and ^*xmthe truth, and ^*xnthe life. No one comes to the Father except through me. "

His Outcome!

What does a person do when he or she cannot see through what's ahead?  I think that this question occurs to me everyday.  The solution is to trust Jesus.  The neat thing about blogging about how God is leading, is that when tough times come, all one has to do is go back to past blogging experiences and to see how God has worked.  No matter what the outcome of this interview, God is on His Throne, and He will make a way where there seems to be no way.  Faith does not base itself on an earthly outcome but on the heavenly one!  I truly believe that God will take care of me no matter what.  A story that comes to mind when in this situation is the story of Peter in prison.  He was sleeping right before his execution, because he trusted Jesus all the way.  Here's the reference:  Acts 12:5,6

"5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.  6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. 

Now the interesting thing to note here is that he was thrown in prison by Herod for preaching the Gospel.  Notice what he is doing before his execution:  He is sleeping!  Now that is what I call perfect trust.  The next part gets really interesting, notice the next few verses with me if you will:

 7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.  8 And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.  9 And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.  10 When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.  11 And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews."

To the Christian the question is not if God will deliver, but a great expectation and joyous excitement of how.  Just when things seemed the darkest for Peter, Jesus came through.  "But what about those that didn't get saved" you may ask.  Well, the good news for them is that their story is not over, even though they are asleep.  They are asleep in Jesus!  So no matter what trust God to make the most of your situation when you give it to Him.  I like how David puts it in Psalms 18:18-23:

 18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.  19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. 20 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.  21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.  22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.  23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.

Not the Place of Happy Endings but There is The Rock!

This post is going to seem like one of those John Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress posts and that is because as I dreamed last night, God showed me something absolutely amazing.  Lately I have been going through a hard time, and the truth is that most people have. As I lay in my bed last night after talking to God, I had a dream.  In the dream I was helping somebody remove pests from the land.  After a while the scene switched and I was on my own.  As I watched "myself" I noticed that a lot of people that were nearest and dearest dying or being taken away. The scenes were gruesome and I began to wonder if God was really there.  When all of the sudden there was a thought in my head that said: "God is not into making sure that we have the most rosie life.  He is into building our characters.  Life is made up of stages and their purpose is to help us perfect a Christ-like character.  There are going to be stages in life that are enjoyable and pleasant and then there are going to be those stages that are not so pleasant and in fact even terrible and horrible, but in all of them God is working His greater purpose."  Losses that we all face at different times only remind us that this is not our home.  That we are not there yet!  As the dream continued the scene switched to me trying to find a job and being unable to.  My wife and kids and I were out of a job and out of money, when we ended up at this house that was built completely in Solid Rock.  Once inside the house we didn't worry about being hurt, or attacked.  The Rock afforded protection from the storm, and the people dwelling there were nice.  Incidently they were Spanish!  That was totally awesome."  The Rock was a place where no one could find us.  There we found security, and got to know many wonderful people.  Finally we were able to see other things going on around us, but didn't care.  We had a home in the Rock that was safe and secure."

These two dreams that I had last night say something to me very special.

1.  God is not always in the business of our comfort here on earth, but rather in the building of our characters through the things of life.  He wants us to learn that we can trust Him in any situation because He is working out our ultimate good.  No matter how painful the situation God has a better purpose for good in it!  In Heaven, all of the loved ones we have lost who died in the Rock we will see again, and once we reach the finish line, our characters will have been molded to the point where we are able to live with Jesus in Eternity.  We will have the whole story.
2.  God is our Rock, we can go to Him any time we are discouraged or don't understand what is going on.  He is our place of safety, where we can learn and grow, and experience His love.
3.  The people that are in the Rock are also growing and experiencing His Love.  We are all in the Rock together so we should do the best to make sure that it is a safe environment.
4.  The Rock may not afford the best this earth has to offer, but He is Home!  He is Base.  He is a Safe Place.

There is a verse in the Bible that comes to mind when I think of these dreams and that is: Psalms

" 5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.  6 He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.  7 In God ismy salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.  8 Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. 9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degreeare a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighterthan vanity.^*n5  10 Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.  11 God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.^*n6  12 Also unto thee, O Lord,belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work."

Reaching Love

There are several things that have occurred to me this weekend.  One of the things that occurred to me on Friday night of last week was just how high love really is.  I have read 1 Corinthians 13 many times, but this time through, I was struck by just how high "True Love" really is!   

"Love is patient and ^*xfkind; love ^*xgdoes not envy or boast; it ^*xhis not arrogant  5 or rude. It ^*xidoes not insist on its own way; it ^*xjis not irritable or resentful;  6 it ^*xkdoes not rejoice at wrongdoing, but ^*xlrejoices with the truth. 7 ^*xmLove bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, ^*xeendures all things."

As a sinful human being, this kind of love is really outside of my reach to grasp.  I cannot by my own efforts attain to it.  I must receive this Love in my heart. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:5: 

"5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

Notice that God's love is not something that we come up with, it is a gift.  As I realized my "powerlessness" to obtain this kind of love, it became, and is becoming more and more apparent that I must go to Jesus to receive this kind of love:  

 "18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  19 We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

Also notice that when we receive His love into our hearts we love those around us as well.  The love that I need is from Jesus.  I can only get it from Him.  The question then comes:  Are we going to Him to get this love?

Even When Things Don't Go As Expected

Today has been a great day overall.  My family and I had waffles for supper and they were great.  I guess the question of the night is:  What happens when things don't turn out like I expect?  How should I respond?  There are many types of responses that I could have, but don't at the moment.  I don't have my job, but I am not discouraged.  I know that God has promised that He will either give me what I want or something better.  In this case it is something better.  There were several things that went differently than I thought that they would.  However, even though that was the case, they were always counterbalanced by good things.  For example, even when I didn't find another html book, I was reminded to be thankful for the one I already had.  As far as the job goes, I was reminded last night that God can do anything!  He is so awesome! Also, the kids went to bed on time.    You see, God is teaching me that not getting what I want is a good thing! :)  There is only one huge verse that comes to mind when I think about today and that is Psalms 37:4 which says:  

"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.^*n2  6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday."