Thoughts

You Are Not Your Egypt

The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”

Imagine yourself as an Israelite in historic Egypt. You’re 24 years old and all you have ever known is Egypt. You were born into this place, you know all too well its customs and its hand of slavery over your people. Your parents were Egyptian slaves as were their parents and their parents parents. You’ve been taught your trade to perfection through the hundreds of years your ancestors were given to hone their skills. You are good at what you do, maybe even the best in your family.

You go to work every morning shaping the bricks to build monuments to visions and dreams that are not your own. But, you simply focus on completing your work and look forward to returning home that evening to your lovely wife and your two young children. All in hope to share a simple dinner and enjoy one another’s company for the few short hours you have before heading to bed only to start the same process all over again in the morning. While you lay awake waiting to drift to sleep you can’t help but think there has to be something more than this.

The stories of God have been passed down to you from generation to generation. But, you can’t help but wonder if the hope of these stories will be seen in your lifetime. Yet, you don’t worry about it too much because you have food on your table and a decent job…

There’s only one problem…  You’re still a slave.

But you have become indifferent to this truth and have simply resigned to yourself that slavery is your lifestyle and a brick maker is who you are; at the end of the day, you reason, its not all that bad. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth and there are still a few around you that believe the same as they cry out to God to relieve them from this oppression… To hear their cries…

And He does.

So how does any of this matter today. I would venture to say many of us have found ourselves just like the Israelites grumbling in the desert for a life that God just rescued us from.

Do not let yourself be defined by an Egypt in your past and cause you to miss the hope God is bringing you into. The beauty of a new path comes from the mystery and hope that lies around each turn.

Just like the Israelites we can forget who our true provider is… And, even greater that He can be trusted…

You are not your Egypt.

You are of much greater value. It’s time to let go of your Egypt so you can build on the hope and grace that lies ahead. And that’s going to take faith. Faith that God will keep His word and faith that even though you don’t understand the how’s and why’s, He does… and as long as you are willing to follow He will guide you through his Spirit into the fullness of life that shows His mercy and grace to the world around us.

So, may you find peace in your desert. May you remember that God can be trusted. May the wonder and depth of Gods love be rekindled in your spirit. May you roam your desert in peace knowing that each step you take is one more step on the journey God is painting through your life. May you see that every great painting started with a blank, bland, desert like canvas. May you find peace in your confusion and rest in your soul. And may you find you are defined not by your Egypt but by the choices you make while in the desert.

 

also see Todays Make Tomorrows

The God Experience

What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? I find myself asking this question more and more lately. I look at the world around me and I look at this thing we call the church and I find myself wanting… imagining that there has to be something better… something more… real, uncut, raw and organic.

Much of what I see in church institution these days seems to be focused more internally rather than outward. Our buildings have become holy shrines to the pride of men and the glory of business. These walls hold us in and filter our view of the beauty of the eklessia that is each and every one of us.

And it’s not just the buildings its the atmosphere and the things we teach and believe that have nothing to do with Gods church. Somewhere the church was separated from people and became its own entity.

The gospel has been watered down AND fired up to be nothing more than a simple prayer paragraph and a exit ticket from hell. If getting out of hell is the only reason Jesus died for humanity then it only leaves me to ask why? Why do it? I deeply believe it’s because of love.

God has been working at getting us back to the Garden of Eden and the cool of the day walks and the gentle conversations for a long time… Jesus died for love because he is love (there is a lot more to this I will write about in another day).

Some people would call me a heretic for this but I do not expect to get to heaven to simply join in with the angels and sing all day… and that be it. If that is all it is then I have to ask why (again)  would I be there… God made angels to praise him, not that we can’t or shouldn’t, but we were given something much greater than the angels were ever given and that is love. I am made to love Love (God is Love).

Love created love so that love could love Love and Love would love love.

(translation)

God created us so that we could love Him and He would love us.

So, it kills me when I hear the gospel presented in the form of a ticket out of hell because it has never been a ticket, never… it is love bold and naked, enduring and conquering the sins of the world for our sake because a commitment was made at the beginning and that commitment was love and because God.. is… Love… love… could… not… fail… even though we broke our commitment.

You see, it has never been about the experience. It’s about being God’s Eklessia (God’s church body… not the building or service or thing… the people is the eklessia)… His love… It’s about loving him and loving other (two greatest commandments)/

I don’t want to be content with a goose bump experience “of God” from a song, I don’t want to be content that I punched in my time card on Sunday, I don’t want to be content with what someone else has to say about God and how to experience Him….

My soul longs for more

I long for something interactive. I read Acts and scripture about the original church body and you can help but notice how much of a beautiful mess it is. They are drawing straws to pick the next disciple and it just looks like they are figuring this thing out… or maybe they are being led by the very spirit of God.

There is a beauty that is the church which hasn’t been seen for many years

How can we claim to please God with our watered down rituals? God is not after the ritual He’s after our heart.. our commitment to love Him and His people… Take a look at this:

1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.- Hebrews 10:1-4

and

11“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats. 12“When you come toappear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
13Bring no more vain offerings; – Isaiah 1:11-13

God basically say’s, “Do you think I need the blood of bulls and goats, what is that to me? Do you think I need your sacrifices?” Basically what was happening is the people of this time were vainly and casually making sacrifices. Sinned… Oh, well just sacrifice… sinned again… no problem bub sacrifice and it will all be ok…

The ritual became watered down… diluted. The message was then lost with it. I’m afraid the church institution has fallen the same way today.

Do we really think God needs our Sunday services? Do we really think God is appeased with just our ritual songs, offerings, listening, showing up… is that really the heart of God? Is this really what he died for? Does God need us to remind Him He is Holy, did he forget? (not that I’m saying that telling him is wrong, I’m simply saying that He is Holy whether we tell him or not).

What is Gods Heart then? What is a real God Experience? I stand to believe if we look to the two greatest commandments we will find our answer.

Love God…. Love His People…

There’s His heart, there is how we experience God… by being Jesus to one another.

Rain

So we had a huge thunderstorm a few nights ago. I would have to say thunderstorms are one of my favorite things. I could sit and watch a thunderstorm for hours. The sound of rain falling on the roof, the claps of thunder that can be heard for miles, the flashes of lightning that design the night sky,the woosh of Little Kitty running through the dark room…

Read More…

Snow and Remembering

Well, I’ve been asking for it all year. There have been a few times that I thought we were about to get hit but they were only false alarms. But, now… it’s happening. The snow has finally come.

Now, where I live if we see a snow flake or even feel like one could form, school is canceled and everyone runs to Wal-Mart to stock up on the essentials (toilet paper and milk – I think one may be a little more essential than the other, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one that is:)

As the years have gone by it seems like we get fewer and fewer snows. Whenever it happens it makes me start remembering my childhood and how I would anxiously watch the local news station in the morning hoping I would see a glimpse of my schools name under the canceled list. I think this is something we all, as kids, have been through a few times. For that much, I sometimes wish it was the same for work. Pop on the tv to see if work was cancelled or not. Unfortunately that never happens.

It seems like as kids knowing how to anticipate and get excited over the simplest of things came natural. Snow brought excitement because, well first off no school, but also because it meant sledding and snow ball fights, friends and forts, all to end by telling our stories of the day while drinking hot chocolate. These were all things that we just couldn’t do any time we wanted… we had to wait for them. Sometimes it would only happen once a year but when it did we were ready… at least I know I was.

I think a lesson can be learned out of remembering. The snow reminds me to take time to stop and enjoy the change going on around me. Just to take a minute or two to watch green turn to white and the air become thick with flakes. It reminds me to remember… remember stories of times with family and friends of the last snow; because I know eventually the snow will be gone.

The same thing can be seen at work in our spiritual life. God wants us to remember… and take time to stop and watch how things around us are being changed. To remember that He is in control and just because our day may not look sunny that doesn’t mean it still isn’t be beautiful. Things change in our lives, jobs change, hobbies change, tasks change, minds change, things change… it’s what we do when things change that matters. Do we stress out and beat our heads against the wall trying to fix everything or do we take time to watch the snow, and remember… knowing that this change could very well be one of those changes, just like the snow, that may only come every once in a while, providing us with opportunities that we normally would never have.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Shoes

I wrote a blog entry a while back about finding God hidden stories this Christmas, you can read it here. I have been saving this story for a few weeks now. I wanted to give it to you all on Christmas. This is not my story but another persons story that I have claimed as my own… it was hard not to cry when I heard it. A person in the church community I go to told us this story… it was the Sunday after I wrote the stories of Christmas post. For the sake of her identity I will refer to her as Sue.

Sue got up in front of the church to tell us about what had happened. The pastor had just mentioned how Sue’s story had touched him and he wanted us all to hear it. Sue began to tell us how she was going to Wal-Mart over the weekend to try to finish up her Christmas shopping (Just like every other person in the US) She fought the crowds all the way back to the lay-away section where she was going to pick up some presents that she had been paying on. In front of her was this man who was holding on to a five dollar bill tightly and he was talking to the sales clerk. Sue could not help but over hear the conversation and apparently the man was trying to buy some shoes out of lay-away for his child. Sue heard the sales clerk tell the man, “Sir, I’m sorry but I told you when you first brought these shoes here for lay-away that it was going to cost more than five dollars to get them out… you don’t have enough.” Sue could tell the man was having a hard time accepting what the sales clerk was saying. Five dollars was all that he had… and his child really needed these new shoes. Sue silently prayed thanking God for this opportunity that was just given to her. She had the opportunity to help someone in the middle of all this shopping chaos.

Sue spoke up and said, “Sir, I would like to buy those shoes for you if you will let me.” The man quickly agreed and was very thankful. Sue handed over the $6 to $10 dollars to pay out the shoes and gave the man his child’s gift and wished him a Merry Christmas. He was of course very thankful and took the shoes and left. Sue paid out her lay-away items and left to go home, thankful that God would let her small amount of money help someone so much.

This is where we thought the story ended…. but it didn’t…

Sue went on to tell us that a few weeks went by and she received a phone call out of nowhere. She answered it and on the other side was a woman’s voice. The woman asked if this was Sue. Sue was wondering what this was all about. The woman proceeded to tell her that she was the sales clerk at the lay-away counter a few weeks ago where Sue had helped the man purchase shoes for his child. She told Sue that she wanted to call her to tell her something. Sue asked what it was and this is what the sales clerk told her. She said: “Sue, no one knew but that day when you helped that man buy those shoes for his child I was planning on taking my life when I clocked out from work. I had already planned the entire thing and was prepared to do it. I had decided that the world was just too bad and I was not happy with life. When you paid for that man’s shoes, it shocked me. It showed me that there were still good people in this world and maybe the world was not as bad as it might have seemed. I decided then that I was not going to end my life but instead was going to keep on and I wanted to call you to tell you myself… Thank you.” Sue was speechless.

You see… stories are everywhere… opportunities are everywhere… waiting for us to find them. Sue thought that all she had done was help a man provide his child shoes. She was completely unaware of what God was really doing. Sue had no idea that by being Jesus to someone, EVEN IN THE SMALLEST FASHION, she played a part in showing a third party sales clerk that life was worth living.

So, this Christmas… may you be Jesus…. may you find that even the little things can be so big…. may you see that the true spirit of Christmas is not just on one day… but everyday… may you look past the crowds and chaos… and reach out a hand to help someone… may you find the God hidden stories that wait for you everyday…. and respond… and may you find that God uses shoes of all sizes for more than just walking.

 Scroll to top