Project: Who Is I AM? - Part 2

Hello people! 

In my last post, I talked about the names of God, and how different ones stand out to different people. (you can read it by going to my last post, Project: Who Is I AM? - Part 1)

One thing that really inspired me to write about who God is, was the realization that so many people know the same God, all coming from different backgrounds, different phases in life, and we all love Him. So I wanted to see just a little bit of why, of what God has shown all of these people of Himself that makes us all love Him.

So I asked a bunch of people that I know, "What is one thing that God has taught you about Himself through your life?"

These are some of the answers I got:

"One thing I've learned is that He likes the process, the journey. 

He's shown me how He cares about the small things in life. Often through answered prayer. After all, if He cares about the grass of the field enough to design each vein in every blade and preserve it day after day, He cares about details in my own life. " -Anonymous

"Nothing in the bible moved me more than reading God's response to Job..." "...God taught me through the book of Job that He is like no other, no one can ever come close to His power, majesty, sovereignty, etc. He taught me that he is GOD!" "...You don't experience God leaving feeling so much better about yourself, you leave in AWE about how wonderful and powerful HE IS!! I don't think I will ever forget the way I felt that day, and I wouldn't trade that lesson for anything! Some people don't like the thought of fearing God, I love it because I know that powerful, mighty, being is watching over me, protecting, and helping me!" -Adam (29 years old)

"I think it's impossible to capture that for me. I have noticed some themes in learning about God over the past days, weeks, months and possibly within a year but not through my life. I can't distill it into a short snippet. There has been so. many. lessons! Mercy. Grace. Forgiveness. The justice/mercy balance. Prayer. I guess that there have been so many varied lessons, and that may be good in that it helps me realize that God is infinite and will always have something new for Him to teach me if I'm open to it."

-Gordan (49 years old)

"He really does love His children."

-Iven (32 years old)

"I have learned--and keep learning, over and over again--that God's grace is bigger and deeper than I think it is, and that everything really depends on it. Almost everything I've ever gone through has come back to this one thing: it's about grace." -Rachel (31 years old)

You can learn so much about God through other people's experience of Him, I think one reason He shows different things to different people is to make us learn from each other. To make us listen to each other, and experience joy that we would not have known had we not asked, "What has God shown you?"

If I had to add to this, my one thing that I would choose is that He is so, so, so faithful. This too, I first heard from someone else who chose to be vulnerable and tell us (it was a group) that she was learning how faithful God is in her unfaithfulness, and that has always stuck with me.

God has continued to show me in SO many ways how faithful He is to me.

I will conclude Part 2 with the encouragement again, to talk to other Christians about Jesus. Whether they are older or younger than you, or have a completely unrelatable situation in life, you will find that people have great things to share.

Project: Who is I AM? - Part 1

Hello there. :) How are you? How is your week going? I wish this were like a real letter, where I would actually get a reply. If you would like to talk to someone, I am all ears. :) Send me an email or something. But anyway, that is totally a rabbit trail.

This is what I was actually going to write about. Remember how I said I was writing a really long post about God?

Well, it's not finished! Surprise surprise. ;)

Hehe. Anyway, I am going to break it up into parts so that it will be easier to write for me, and to read for you.

So here is the first part.

Since God is the be-all and end-all of everything, I figured it would be smartest to look at what He says about Himself, who He calls Himself, first.

"I, the Lord, am the first; And with the last I am He." (from Isaiah 41:4)

"I am the God of your father-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." (from Exodus 3:6)

"I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and Death." (from Revelation 1:17)

Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth."  (Exodus 34:6)

"Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me." (from Isaiah 43:10-11)

"I AM WHO I AM." (from Exodus 3:14)

Exodus 3:14 was really the inspiration for this post, because it does not describe God, and yet it describes Him fully. If you look at all of the different names of God, each one describes Him, but none can capture every part of Him. He is too great to be described in a name, and that is why He has so many, and why He is called I AM WHO I AM, because it simply says, "I cannot be described."

That thought led me to think about His name. Names we call Him, and  names that He is called in the bible.

God puts a lot of emphasis on how great His name is. 

And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?” (Judges 13:18)

Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’ ” (Isaiah 52:6)

He also attributes the meaning of a name to the person who owns it.

"No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations." (Genesis 17:5)

So, if a name is the describer of the owner of it, should we, without further ado, look at some of the many names of God in the bible?

God, the Lord (ruler - master), Most High, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees, Jealous, Judge of all the Earth, Everlasting God, God Almighty, Fear of Isaac, The Angel, Mighty God, the Shepherd, Stone of Israel, the Almighty, I AM, God of gods, Lord of Lords, the Rock, Father, Jehovah, Yahweh, Prince of Peace, Jesus, Wonderful Counsellor, El-Shadai, Abba, Adonai, Alpha and Omega, Yeshua, the Word, King of the Jews, Christ, Messiah, the Deliverer, Son of Man, the Lamb, the Beginning and the End, Jehovah Jireh (Provider), the Excellent Glory, Holy Spirit, Savior, First and Last, the Amen, Lord God Omnipotent, Son of God, the Branch, the Vinedresser, Ancient of Days, Prince of the Host, Faithful and True, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Root of David, Holy One, the Mediator, the Majesty, High Priest, Apostle, Anointed One, Bright and Morning Star, Father of Lights, Mighty One.

That is 62 names, and that isn't even all.

I was going to look through the bible and use as many names for Him as I could, but I soon found that there were just TOO many. Partly because some of the names were very repetitive, ex: God, the Lord, the Lord God, the Lord God of Israel, God of Israel, the Lord God Almighty, God Almighty, God the Lord... The list goes on, and on. 

So, I tried to avoid doing any that were repetitive, and any that contained the word 'of.'

God is God of everything. We don't need to list every single thing He is God of. I did do a few repetitive ones, and a few 'ofs,' simply because they were really cool, and I couldn't pass them up.

I found a website, as I was trying to find more biblical names for God, called 900 Names of God. Each one was from the bible. Talk about a lot of names!

This part of who God is, His many names, led me to yet another train of thought. Each name describes Him, yet some names mean more to some people than to others. For me, a few of my favorites are "You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees," (Hagar's name for God in Genesis) "Father of Lights," and, of course, "Jesus."

These mean a lot to me because of things about the character of the Almighty that He has taught to me. 

You could spend a long time looking at these names for God, and learn A LOT about who He is, but one thing I really noticed as I put this post together was that He is SO personal. Each person has their own experience of who God has shown Himself to be in their life, and so we each have different names that stand out to us, that are special to us.

Let me clarify, I do not mean to say that God is different for everyone. He is always the same, always consistent, and our ideas do not change who He is. What I mean is that for one person, when they think of God, the strongest thing about Him to them is His strength, His power. To another, it might be His love, His compassion. To another, His consistency, His dependability. All are a part of Him, but He makes His relationship with us so personal that we each know Him in a different way than everyone else.

There are many things that He is, that have not been shown to me  strongly. So, I had the privilege of interviewing a few people about it, but I will talk about that in the next post.

I hope you liked it! Have a great day!

Impossible Requirements

HELLO WORLD! :D

This past week I have been out of town at a dance camp in the Niagara/St. Catherine's area. I have been going to this camp for the past I-don't-know-how-many years, but for the past three or four years, it has been my favorite week of the year.

As a dancer, it's amazing. It stretches you, (literally) and pushes you to new levels of accomplishment. The teaching is amazing, the teachers are very uplifting and... Just awesome.

The best part about it in my opinion though, is that the week is focused on God. Every morning we gather for morning session in which the bible is taught, there is another hour set aside for bible study, we have some time for personal devotions, and often the evening session is focused on worship, prayer, etc. This year we had one day focused on sharing our testimonies.

In the end, I usually find that I have loved every minute of the week, but the most valuable thing to me is the way that God worked, and the ways that I have grown spiritually.

That was a little bit of a long tangent. The point I was trying to get to was something that I feel God has been teaching me through this past week.

It started on one of the days in bible study when our bible teacher, who is also my oldest sister, asked, "Do you feel like God requires something of you?"

Of course everyone said yes. The answers were things like Our lives, Obedience, Our trust, etc. For me, it was Faithfulness. All of the above, yes, but mostly Faithfulness.

She told us to make a list of the things that He required from us, but that was the only thing I could think of. In the end, I had only one thing on my list.

Then she asked, "Do you feel like you can't give God what He requires of you?"

YES.

This has been such a struggle for me. I always try to be faithful, I try to follow God, but it's like I am not strong enough and somehow I always fail. Eventually, I always feel like a untrustworthy servant, a disobedient child, and an unfaithful bride.

We had just been looking at John 4, where Jesus asks for a drink from the Samaritan woman.

Rachel, our bible teacher, pointed out something that I have never noticed in this passage before.

Jesus asks her for water. 

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (John 4:7)

Rachel pointed out something here that gave me even more understanding of her reply, and that was that this woman probably was sort of an outcast. Firstly, the Samaritans were looked down on by the Jews because they considered themselves to be part of God's chosen nation, but the Jews knew that they were not. So her answer at first, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" (vs. 9) is fairly defensive. 

If you add onto that what her position in society probably was, she had been married five times, which clearly says a lot of rejection. And also, women usually came to the well in groups, but she was alone, which means she was probably used to being an outcast.

In light of this, her reaction to His request basically shouts, NOTICE ME. I AM LEGITIMATE.

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." (vs. 10)

The point that Rachel was making in this, (which was also apparent in a few other passages we were looking at) was that God asks things of us, but whenever He requires something of us, it is because He wants to give it to us first.

In our own humanity and weakness, we cannot give God what He requires of us, unless we first receive it from Him.

That struck me in a new way. Jesus was asking of me faithfulness, because He wanted to be faithful to me. And He wanted to give me the power, through His faithfulness to me, to be faithful to Him.

After that realization, I pondered it for the rest of the week, and time and time again my eyes were opened to ways that He was being faithful to me.

At the end of the week, we had all of our stuff packed up and we were cleaning before we left. I was scrubbing a toilet, while thinking about God's faithfulness and singing a line in a song which said, "I believe everything that You say You are, I believe and I have seen your unchanging heart."

And as I sang and scrubbed, my cousin walked into the bathroom and said, "Oh Keturah, you're so faithful."

She could have said anything. "You're so diligent," "You're such a hard worker," "You're such a servant," any of which I would have been extremely encouraged to hear, but she said, "You're so faithful."

I believe God put those words in her mouth. After she left the bathroom I could only thank God saying, "Thank you for that! Thank you for making me faithful!"

I still don't feel faithful. But I know that God is working in me, and His constant faithfulness to me is proof that He wants to make me faithful in return.

So I guess I will end with restating that God does not require something of you that He does not first want to give to you. And that is awesome.

END NOTES:

The dance camp that I talked about really is all and more than I said it was. If you are a dancer, want to be a dancer, or just feel like it might be fun to try out for a week, here is the website which has more information. http://www.one11ministries.com/artscamp/

My sister Rachel is awesome! She is an author, editor, and speaker with 1:11 Ministries. If you are interested in reading some things she wrote, finding out about her career, or even getting to know her, here is her website. http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/

We Were Made for Jesus, Not Heaven

Hello there friends!

I have had a thought, which I would like to share with you. Please feel free to join the discussion in the comments either here or on Facebook.

I'm sure everyone who reads this blog would agree with me if I said that our culture has bought into a lie, the lie that says, "Everything is about me."

But may I suggest that even many professing Christians have bought into that lie on a different level.

When you think about sharing the gospel with someone, what is your hope for them? That they accept Jesus, right? Why?

I think most people would answer, "So that they can go to heaven," or, "Because I don't want them to go to hell."

When a Christian is on their deathbed, we find comfort in telling each other, "They know where they're going."

Or the opposite, if a nonbeliever is dying, we pray furiously, and send a pastor over to share the gospel with them, hoping that in their last few minutes they accept Jesus so they can be saved from hell.

Nonbelievers, at least from knowing how I thought when I was one, think that Christianity is all about going to heaven. Christians want to convert them so they won't go to hell.

But as a Christian, I can tell you honestly that the reason hell is scary to me, is not because of fire. It's not the thought of burning forever and never dying. It's the thought of complete separation from God, the only one who has ever been unfailingly faithful, and unconditionally loving enough to die for me.

God made me for Him, and Jesus' death was a way to restore a broken relationship, not a way for me to have a nice home.

I get a little bit sad when I hear Christians share the gospel with people as a way to get to heaven, but, (and this is where I would like a little bit of feedback) with the general public not being interested in relationship with God... I don't know how we would do it any other way. It may be that they just have to wait until they are a Christian, or until the moment that God shows them their need for Him, to be able to see that. I don't know.

Anyway, I love Jesus. :) I can't tell you how grateful I am that Christianity is not about getting to heaven, because I can be with Him here and now, and day by day He shows me how valuable that is.

I am looking forward to heaven, but again, I'm not looking forward to streets of gold and angels, I'm looking forward to a time when sin will no longer be in the picture of my relationship with Jesus.

Deaf Ears

I have begun to realize over the past while that I, along with many others, are deaf.

We hear what is going on around us, the surface things, but there is so much underneath, and above our world that seems silent to us.

I am pro life. I have siblings, and friends, who feel very strongly how much abortion needs to be ended. I agree with them 100%, but I have never had the same passion that they have, the same love for preborn children that they have been given.

Because of that, and a few Psalms, I began to realize a while ago that I don't hate evil very much. I don't like it, but there are things in our culture that are just sort of "normal," and so I tend to downplay it.

God put it on my heart upon that realization to pray that He would help me love what He loves, and HATE what He hates.

In no way am I there yet. I still have times when I have downplayed sin so much, that it doesn't bother me that much. But I have begun to hear a noise that stings at me.

I read Psalm 83 today, and the first two verses caught my eye.

Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, And do not be still, O God! For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. (Psalms 83:1, 2)

Your enemies make a tumult.

It struck me that God is omnipresent, He is everwhere at once, hearing every sound all at once.

Every silent cry of a preborn baby as it's chance to live is taken away, every shout of abusive words, every scream of a child unjustly taken away from their parents, every political speech announcing some new law of rebellion against God, they all collide in one great catastrophic tumult. And He hears it all.

No wonder He loves to hear His children sing praises.

The past few times that I have been aware of this noise, the evil too great for me to conquer, I begin to feel a distress and helplessness that is so painful.

I see an entire planet full of people who were made in the image of God, each one having such great potential. And yet, most of them are drawn into the crowd of people making the tumult.

But each time God has sent me peace in a thought of, "He has it under control. This noise is ugly, He doesn't like it either, this is why He died. But unlike me, God is not too weak to conquer it."

I think we need to hear the noise sometimes, it is what is really going on, we need to be aware of the darkness of the evil all around us. That is why I still pray, "Open my ears. Help me to hate what You hate."

But at the same time, I think we all need to hear the other side, we need to hear the sound of horses and chariots of fire around us on all sides. That is why I also pray, "Open my ears. Help me to love what You love."

And Elisha prayed, and said, “ Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (II Kings 6:17)

To: Keturah

I just... I can't... Aaaaahhhhhhhhh........

This is what I have felt like since Sunday morning. The inability to express what is going on within me.

It's even worse, because normally if I can't tell you how I feel, I can at least tell you WHY I feel this way, but this time I can only tell you the latter part of it.

The beginning is a story that I don't fully understand, I wouldn't be able to describe it because I don't even really know what it was. All I can tell you is that I should have loved God more, I should have sought God more, but I didn't, and I was left with a lot of unnecessary confusion and emptiness.

I wish I could elaborate even a little more to tell you when this started, but again, I have no idea.

It isn't that I fell away from being a Christian, or something like that, I just lacked motivation to do much about my faith for a while. So my bible collected more dust than it should have, and when I would talk about God with people I would get this little pang of guilt telling me that I was neglecting Him at heart.

Anyway, that is the beginning. The second half begins with a little bit of history.

As most of you know, I have been saving up money for ballet lessons for years and years. Recently I have been hearing a lot of talk from bible teachers about giving above and beyond ten percent of your increase, your tithe. 

My first thought when this topic would come up would be that I don't have consistent income, and I'm saving for ballet, so I can't give more than 10%. My thought immediately following would be that I am so selfish and stingy, and I need to believe that God can provide for me, so I should give above and beyond. I shouldn't even put limits on it, cause that is stingy. I need to give it ALL. Every penny to my name.

But that's not even wise... Would be the next thought, and that's true. If I were supporting myself, you could make the case that living by faith doesn't have to be "financially sound," but as I am not, giving away all of my money would simply mean that every expense I have in the future, my parents or my siblings would have to pay for, and I don't think that is what God is asking of me.

So anyway, a few days ago I was at a bible study where this came up again. I asked the leader my question, told him my problem, and he said he didn't know, but that I should pray. Make sure that my heart is in the right place, and be willing to give everything if that was what God wanted from me.

After the study I talked with my older sister who shared some wisdom with me, and after talking to her, I felt more at peace about it. (I am still praying about it, but I felt less stressed.) A verse that she shared with me during that conversation was "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."

The next day, Sunday morning, I was sitting in the church pew and a gentleman that I don't know well came up to me. My initial thought was that he was going to talk to me about ushering, since I was ushering that day, and well, why else would he be talking to me?

But he handed me an envelope and said, "Can you hold this?" Oh, I see. He wants me to put it into the offering plate for him for some reason. "That's for you." When those words finally set in, he had walked back to his seat already, and church had started.

Looking down at the envelope in my hands, I read, "To: Keturah - Psalm 37:4"

Hands shaking, I opened my bible and turned to that verse. I had to hold back tears as I read "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

I didn't look inside it until the end of the service, but I knew what was inside. I could hardly concentrate the whole time through the music and the sermon, I was having to hold back tears.

Really? Why?

Not only was it so cool that it happened right after I had that talk with the bible study leader and my sister, I felt so blown away that a gift like that would be given to me when I had been not seeking God for so long.

The verse said "Delight yourself also in the Lord," but although I would like to say I had done that... I hadn't really for a long time. I felt like that gift should have been for someone else.

But it wasn't. It was given to me.

It reminded me again of God's gift of His Son. I am the last one to deserve it, and yet...God wants me to have it. He gave it to me, fully aware of who I was and what I had done.

So the end of the story is that I have been blown away AGAIN, by the same story of love that amazes me all the time.

God encouraged me in my pursuit of my dream, to become a dancer. But even more than that, He encouraged me to follow Him again, to take up my cross and run the race for the joy that is before me.

Once again I stand amazed at the feet of Jesus. Even after blessing me with money for ballet lessons, if He wants me to lay down that career, I would do it, because He is worth more than any treasure I could store up for myself on earth.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

It's Not About Me

I sometimes think about the end of my life. I am sure all of us do, it is something inevitable to happen, unless of course Jesus were to return sooner.

But that thought used to depress me. Not just to think about the end of my life, but the near end of it. My grandfather, who is a wonderful man, has alzheimer's. I love him a lot, and it is hard sometimes to give him a hug and see on his face that he is struggling to remember who I am.

If I were to develop alzheimer's as I get older, I don't want to go through that pain. I don't want to go through the pain of losing my own parents. The future, as it holds so much end of life, used to scare me a lot.

Not only that but, this is something not everyone will be able to relate to I'm sure, I'm a little weird. But I used to not want to grow older simply because what if I were to get married, and have children, they would begin the prime of their life, and I would have to face the end of mine slowly closing in on me.

I say "used to," because seven months ago, my twin nieces were born.

After they were born, I thought about them a lot, about how they will get older and play together, they'll play on our swingset, and make mud pies in the yard, they'll learn things that I learned when I was younger, and they will have a lot of fun. As they get even older, they will have dreams and aspirations, they'll grow to be teeneagers and start to have bigger responsibilities, the list of things that they will do goes on and on.

Through thinking about them, and then about my own kids if I ever have them, God began to show me that my life really is not about me.

It isn't about others either, since we all will pass away at some time. We may seem to be the centre of our life but we really are not, we can't even control it.

My life, truly, is all about God.

This is so freeing to realize, and I continue to realize it more and more each day. I am relieved of the burden of having a life be all about me, and I am given the freedom to live for someone greater, to be a part of something greater.

If all of our lives were about us, we'd go around doing our thing for however many years we have, and the end of it would truly be a depressing thing.

But since our lives are about Jesus, when we die we can know that it is not the end. His plan will continue to go on, helped by other people who realize that their lives are not about them, and we get to have the satisfation of knowing that we are done our part.

I Can Take A Hint

Hello All!

This is another in-the-meantime post, because I STILL haven't gotten my big one together yet.

Today, I thought I would share with you a neat story that happened recently.

A little while ago, I decided to close my blog.

I wrote up a Farewell blog post, and decided that I would end it with a bang, so I made plans for a really awesome post about God.

I'll let you read a piece of my Farewell which gives you the reason for folding.

"I have received lots of encouragement from my family and friends, but I always felt that I needed to have a vision, a purpose for why I was writing. But I didn't have anything.

In short, I don't feel like I am "called" to be writing this blog, and so I'd rather not. I have thoroughly enjoyed updating it and am very thankful to all of my encouragers, and if God shows me that I should pick it up again, I will, but for now, I am putting it to rest.

It will still be here for you all to read if you feel like going back over my posts, but I will not be updating.

SO. I thought, as a farewell post, I should write something awesome! And what is more awesome than God Himself?

The following  post is a small, quick picture of my Savior. I know I won't be able to do Him justice, but I hope it is a cool snapshot.

So this is it for this post, my next one will be the OFFICIAL farewell, and much less gloomy than this one, I promise. ;)

Until then!

~Keturah"

But my plans got interrupted pretty quickly.

The same day that I officially decided to close it, I received a Facebook message from someone encouraging me, and telling me that they love Counting Blessings. That gave me a little remorseful feeling, but I had known that people would be disappointed, so I wasn't discouraged.

Only a few hours later we went to a meal at our church, a man whom I know came by to tell me that some people that he had read my blog to were very excited about my writing.

I thought, Okay...It's fine. They can get over it. I don't have a reason for writing, so I am still going to close it.

The next day I found a post that I had written a while ago and never published, so I posted it, and someone commented to tell me that they love my blog.

Seriously, it was like everyone was trying to get me to keep it, even though I had not told a soul my plans.

The next day I got ANOTHER Facebook message, again, encouraging me, telling me to keep writing.

By that time I was seriously doubting my own judgement. The next day, I finally consulted my dad.

"Should I keep posting on my blog?" I asked.

"Why is that even a question?" He said.

I explained the situation, (excluding all of the encouraging people) and he told me why he thought I should keep it.

By the end of it, I basically said, "You know what, I can take a hint."

It was too much, and too direct, to ignore.

I have decided that I will keep writing, without a vision or a mission statement, because even though I don't have a purpose for Counting Blessings, obviously God does.

So that's it! This is not my second last post friends, I will probably have many more to come. :)

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8, 9)

INCOMING

Hello y'all!

I know it has been a very long time since I last posted, and I know I say that all the time, but this is a NEW good excuse! :D

Not that all of my excuses are good...but this one is.

Anyway, back on track, the reason I have not posted for a while is because I am gearing up for what I hope will be an AMAZING post.

I won't reveal too much about it, except that it will be awesome, it involves input from a lot of other people, and won't be coming for a while yet.

I may or may not post more INCOMING posts in the meantimes, just to keep you entertained.

We'll see.

Anyway, have a lovely day, and remember, "God made you special, and He loves you very much!"

Holy and Empowered

Just a quick note before I begin, I mentioned in my last post that I am gearing up for a big one. I still am, and this is not it. This is something I wrote a little while ago and forgot about, so I am going to post this in the meantime as well. Hope you enjoy it. :)

Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. (Psalm 29:1-2)

This is a pretty easy part to skip over if you are reading through quickly. For me anyway.

It's the kind of verse that you see over and over again in the Psalms, with words like the Lord, glory, holiness, worship, beauty... You get the general idea of God being holy and deserving of your worship, and you should worship Him.

Okay, next part.

But if you took a moment to look closely at those words, to read them for all of what they mean, you would find much more.

Let's take it little by little.

Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones.

Okay, ignoring the "Give unto the Lord," for a second, who are the mighty ones?

Without verbalizing the thought in my head, I had told myself, I am not a mighty one. He is talking about someone else.

But really, who else could he be talking about?

It is the bible. If you have ever read the bible, you should know that he would not be calling people mighty because of how physically strong or powerful they are. So, since that outrules physical might, who are the ones who are spiritually mighty?

The answer to this of course is God's soldiers. The "More than Conquerors," the ones who have been given the power of the Holy Spirit and the armor of God...

Us.

Me, my fellow Christians.

We are the mighty ones.

Give unto the Lord glory and strength.

This is where we pick up our "Give unto the Lord," that we had put aside a moment ago.

How do you do that??

I know how you can give God money, praise, even glory, but...strength?

After giving that one some thought, I decided that it must mean that you give Him strength in the same way that you "Give Him your best."

He gives us things to do, He gives us a life to live and a battle to fight, in which we are More than Conquerors and Mighty Ones.

In all of this He gives us strength which we can use, or not. In using the strength He has given us to bring Him glory, we are giving Him strength and glory.

Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;

This only emphasizes how much more we ought to give Him!

Look at your life, are you living it in the strength that He has given you to live it? I am not. But He is so worthy of it! He is worthy of every second we have and every ounce of strength we have, the glory due His name is IMMENSE.

Read on, through the chapter. It goes on about how glorious He is, and if you realize that the chapter does not capture a smidgen of who He is... You will realize that He is so worthy of glory.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Whose holiness is this?

If you just read the these verses like I mentioned at the beginning, you would automatically think, "God's holiness, of course."

But it has just talked about giving God more, giving Him all we have because we are mighty in Him. We are set apart in Him. We are holy.

We are holy and empowered.

I am going to try to put this next part into words, because it is the best part of my whole study today, but I don't know how good of a job I will do.

What these two verses said to me today, as you may have picked up, were that there is more empowerment given to me than I am using to bring glory to God.

The last line closes it with a perfect wrap up.

The holiness that we have is beautiful, because it is light, and love, and glory and STRENGTH.

Don't just live your life without using the strength God has given to you, or when you worship, you will worship with the mindset of weakness.

But if you live in the fulness of the empowerment you have been given, your worship will be in the BEAUTY of holiness.

Does the Law Have a Purpose Anymore?

Now that we are under grace, does the law still have purpose?

Confusion has always been my reaction to this question.

"YES!" I would respond, in light of verses like Matthew 5:17,

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."

But when it came to verses like Hebrews 10:9,

then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

He TAKES AWAY the first. Doesn't that sound like it is done with?

How then did He not destroy the law?

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

There. It's done. The law's purpose was to bring us to Christ, so now that we are under grace, the law is done.

Isn't it?

Of course, I understand that the law still has purpose in the lives of the unbelievers. They still need to be shown their sin, their need for a savior, so the law still is needed. But for the believer, for the one who has already been saved, who has already repented of their sin and are now under grace...what is the law for?

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7)

I used to just believe that the law still had purpose, because it says so in Matthew 5:17, without fully wrapping my head around it.

But now that's changed! :D

In my personal devotions a few days ago I realized a clear way of understanding what I already had believed, a new way of seeing it that made sense in my mind.

I was reading in Psalm 19, and I particularly noticed verses 7-8,

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; (Psalms 19:7, 8)

Normally, when I read in the Psalms about "the law," I make a subconscious switch in my mind to, "things that God/Jesus has said."

This isn't a bad thing, I don't think, but I think I deprived myself of this realization by doing that.

This time, for whatever reason, I decided to read it the way it was written, as, "The law."

(Okay, side note: Bible journals are AWESOME! I have some of the greatest insights sometimes just by writing down my thoughts on a passage. It is amazing.)

It didn't click right away, but I wrote my thoughts out until I saw it, this is what I wrote.

I think as Christians, we often put so much emphasis on grace that we neglect the law. (emphasis on grace is good, don't get me wrong, but we sometimes overlook the law) The bible tells us that the law was like a tutor to bring us to Christ, but that doesn't mean we forget it. Jesus said He did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. God made the law to show us who He is, how perfect and holy He is.

If we are striving to be like Him, what better place to look than the law? We shouldn't use it as a means for salvation, but it has rewards in itself. To look at these verses, you see that the law does not just condemn without grace, but with grace it frees.

That is where it clicked.

"...The law does not just condemn without grace, but with grace it frees."

The law and grace were designed to work together. In the old testament, the law was without grace, and all it was good for was to bring us to Christ, because all it could do on its own is condemn.

But when Jesus died, He opened a door for grace and the law to work together, a door where we could be saved without having to die for our own sins, and we could benefit from the law.

The law, we are told in Psalm 19, "Makes wise the simple," "Rejoices the heart," and "Enlightens the eyes." There is more still, if you read the rest of the chapter.

These things are there for us to have, because Jesus died for us, uniting grace and the law.

Help My Unbelief

Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:17-29)

Remember this story? It has always been a difficult one for me. This one and Luke 17:5-6,

And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

The reason I find them difficult is that I look at them and do not see myself in them. I see myself as faithless.

Honestly, I feel like I wouldn't be the one to uproot a tree and throw it in the sea, and I would not be the one to work miracles. Jesus said "If you have faith AS A MUSTARD SEED..." I understand that the concept of a mustard seed is that it starts really small and grows to be huge, but I still have always just seen this passage as a guilt trip, and told myself that my faith must be even smaller than a mustard seed.

I have been praying for greater faith for myself, I am still praying for it, this post is not a praise report of, "I prayed for greater faith, and now here I am, tossing all these trees into the sea!" I still have very small faith.

What this post is about, however, is something I have been learning about faith itself.

I have two points on this topic, number one is the mustard seed.

I was thinking about myself one day, thinking about my small amount of faith, and again, thinking that it must be smaller than a mustard seed. The problem with this way of thinking was that it pushed me into the logic that since a mustard seed would grow, my faith could not, since it was even smaller.

That made me extremely frustrated and upset. I kept relearning to trust God and not worry about it, but since my logic never changed, I was constantly brought back to the same problem.

Anyway, that particular time, a new thought struck me. Kind of out of the blue, like most of my favorite insights, maybe they were God putting thoughts in my head, I don't know.

Before I tell you what the thought was I will warn you of the fact that a lot of things mean a lot to me, or speak to me in a new way, if they are presented in sort of a visual, metaphorical way. So if this makes no sense...I apologize.

The thought was this, it doesn't matter the size of my faith, but the place. What I mean by that is that I may have a very small amount of faith, but if 100% of my faith is placed in Jesus, that is faith as a mustard seed.

That to me, was SO cool.

And relieving, I might add.

Point number 2 was this, I have often heard this description of faith, "Faith is not believing that God can-- It is knowing that He will."

This one I have had SUCH a hard time with. I would beat myself up time and time again if I didn't fully believe that God would do what I was asking of Him.

I know that God CAN do what I ask of Him, no matter how difficult. But I couldn't bring myself to pray expectantly.

I'll give you an example.

I had two friends who were friends with each other, but one day one of them told me they had had a fight and weren't talking. I was deeply upset by this, so I asked the other friend about it and tried my best to bring them back together, but neither were willing.

So I prayed about it, A LOT. I fully believed that God could bring them back to being friends again, but I also fully believed that He has a plan that is better than my own. So I continued to pray, knowing that whatever came of it would be the best thing.

I never prayed assuming that God would make them friends again, and I struggled with the feeling that it was because of my lack of faith, but the reason was truly that I doubted my own ability to see the best outcome of things.

Is this lack of faith? According to the quote, apparently it is.

This same problem in so many different situations came up again and again, making me so confused.

A relative or friend would have cancer, we would pray, but I never expected God to heal them. I would ask, knowing He can, but didn't assume.

As I said, I do have a very minuscule amount of faith. I do need to continue to pray for it. So again, this is about reflections on what faith is.

Eventually I asked God to teach me whether that quote was completely wrong or if it was my own skewed thinking.

Turns out, it was my own skewed thinking. :P

So here is what I realized! This has been so delightful to know.

There are two ways to look at a situation, a small picture and a big picture.

The small picture is the circumstance, the friends who didn't get along. The big picture is the Greater Good, if you want to call it that.

The quote is incorrect, I believe, if I see it in the small picture. It is not lack of faith to ask unsure of how God will answer.

The quote IS correct if I see it in the big picture though, if I ask knowing that God will do the right and good thing.

I don't know, to this day, why my friends are not speaking anymore. I don't know what the big picture is. God didn't say yes to my prayers, they still aren't speaking, but I have absolutely NO doubt in my mind that God heard my prayers and answered them in a way that will result in their benefit and His glory.

If this has aroused any questions or controversies in your mind, please don't hesitate to bring them up. I still have small faith and limited understanding, so new thoughts, new insights, even corrections or criticisms are welcome.

I hope you have a marvelous day!