Do you ever get that feeling when your studying your bible that you are onto something? Well, I did. Yesterday. If you read my previous post about Genesis and God creating light then you know full well what I'm referring to. I was correct i think in a sense, however I would like to clear up that God did not create evil but that Adam and Eve's choice to eat of the fruit brought sin into the world and so from then on we were a fallen people who needed a savior. When it comes to the light, yes God did create Light twice, sort of. In Genesis 1:3, God does in fact create Light by saying, "Let there be light," and so light existed, then in Genesis 1:5 God seperates the light from the dark. And finally in Genesis 1:14-19 God gives the world the Sun to govern the light of the day and the Moon and stars to govern the night.
Point being this: God's creation is beyond comprehension and its vast and amazing and glorious and magnificent and beautiful and overwhelming and I could go on and on. God has done an amazing work here in this world, not because he needed to but because He wanted to. God's love for us is unquenchable. He gave us the world, to care for, and to love Him. He desires so much a personal relationship with all of us. And I do mean ALL. Genesis is a book that has been debated on for thousands of years, and we will never truly know how God did it. That doesn't really matter anyway. He did it. End of story and end of statement. That is all that matters.
Because God is Love.
Rain
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYKa9E1xzao&hl=en&fs=1&]
"When the rain come. It's not like they might. They do. It rains in our lives….a lot." – Rob Bell
I love that line from this video and actually the main reason that I feel the need to blog about this. Rain will come. Storms will come in our lives. You can't stop them from happening, they just do. The last couple weeks in the sunday school class that I teach we have talked about this every now and then. We talked about it in the story of David and Goliath and this past sunday when we talked about Samson. You see in life there is a path that we are on. Everyone has a path, and sometimes roadblocks get in the way. So, if you can't stop something from happening. What do you do about it?
In life your gonna make mistakes. Just like rain, they are going to happen. So, what do you do when you make mistakes? Give up? No, when it rains do you stay inside all day everyday that it rains? No, you get an umbrella. Mistakes are gonna happen. In life we are going to fail. That's not the point though. The point is that we were created by a God that is all knowing and knows everything little you and I are going to make, but He still loves us and has a future for us!
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." – Jeremiah 29:11
When it rains you get an umbrella and and when you fail you realize that you are still loved by God. You always will be. Always.
Here's a thought to chew on. No matter what mistakes you make in life or how many you fail, God will ALWAYS be there for you waiting to support as you go on. He is always with you and He will always love you. Always. You can fail everyday of your life and yet He will still love you!
Something to think about today…
Acts 1:8 says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
God has an agenda for the world because God truly loves everyone on the face of the planet, he has always had an agenda, but now the question is, where do we fit in God's agenda?
If you go by Acts 1:8, we are the ones that carry out God's agenda by loving, teaching, and embracing in the way Jesus taught us to. So, where do we fit?
Right in the smack dab middle.
We are the voice. We matter. Even in the worse of times in your lives you will always matter to God, always, and he believes in you and me and that is why he has entrusted us with the care of his creation. People need love. We desire to have love and there is no love like the love that God provides and we have to share it.
I believe it was Francis Asbury that once said, "Offer them Christ." Cause that is an offer that may be refused but never fades and never disappears. God is always there. Always.
One of the most beautiful moments in the Gospels is when Peter walks on water and then gets scrared and drowns, but what does Jesus do?
He extends his hand and pulls Peter up. No matter what you are going through in your life today, tomorrow, or ever you will always have the hand of Christ extended to you. He loves us and we are His voice. Just some thoughts on an early Sunday morning.
Enough Said.
Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
"The Word of God.
For the People of God.
Thanks be to God."
The Nearness of God
So, on the way back to work from my lunch break today I was listening to music from my iPhone and "Be Near" came on and I really really like this song.
Your fullness is mine (Your fullness is mine)
Revelation divine (Revelation divine)
But oh to taste,
to know much more than a page
To feel your embrace…
To feel your embrace, oh to taste. Yes! there is nothing in the world that compares to then overwhelming sweet taste of God;s love and the nearness of his presence. When I feel God close to me, a flood of inspiration, and courage just shoots through my body and my heart is lifted and oh to see the world through his eyes and with his presence right with you. There is nothing. Nothing better than that.
Father I pray that as we go about our daily routines at work and at home that we would embrace you and your presence because it is so near to us always. Thank you Lord for always being present with us through the good times and the bad and God help us to confront the things we struggle with and let us confront with the strength only you can give. We love you Lord! In Jesus Name, Amen.
May God Bless you with his sweet sweet presence!