Are You Small Enough

It has been several years back when I was going through a very hard time in my personal life that I asked God; are you small enough. This time in my life was during a time of confusion, hurt and a mountain of heart ache. I would hear from people all the time that they were praying for me and that God was bigger than my problem and my hurt. I cannot take credit for all of my hurt and problems at this time, but I was part of the problem. I would say to myself and to God when others would tell me that God was bigger than my problem; “God I know you are big and awesome, but I really need to you to be small enough for me.” Many times when we think on God it is on a grand scale, we think of things as Creator, Life Giver, Author of Salvation and I AM. These are big things and I praise Him for being all those things. Often though in the mists of our pain and hurt we forget that He is Counselor, Comforter and most of all Savior. A counselor is someone I can talk to about my hurt and pain, a comforter is someone that can hold me and hug me and just be there when the hurt and pain become to much to bear, lastly and most importantly as a Savior God tells us that He was once a baby, a child and a man He knows my hurts and pains. Most of all He knows how to free me from them. When I asked this thing of God; if He was small enough. He did not answer me right away, instead He was each of these things all the way through my hurt and pain, even when I was not doing as He would like for me to have done He was still there being it all. The answer is yes God is small enough, He became small enough to dwell within a baby; the Creator of it all packed into a baby. Now that is being small enough just for us. I do not know where you are at right now, maybe you are good right now and God is blessing you with a time of peace. Maybe though you are in a world of hurt, pain and trouble and need a comforter, counselor and Savior. Things may just be in the beginning stages of the hurt you will have to go through, but let me tell you there are blessings and peace to be had and found in your hurt and pain. All you have to do is be willing to go to God and lay it at His feet and say “Daddy I need help”. Jesus says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28. Is it not awesome to know that we have a God that meets us right where we are and is willing to take on our burdens and let us rest why He solves the problems.

Passing it On

I hope that everyone enjoyed the Podcast that I posted this weekend. I am going to try and post a Podcast each week, hopefully I will get a little better each week at the sound control. If you had difficulty in hearing it or anything else please let me know.

I am going to be looking at a few verses out of Deuteronomy 6:1-2, 5-8

I think sometimes that we forget just how important it is for us to take the time to study God’s word. In these verses we find out that obeying God is not just for out benefit, but also for the benefit of others.
We as parents have the responsibility to pass the commandments of God and the love that he has for us. Showing our children the promises that God gives us for obeying His commands. In today’s world of passing the buck so to speak onto someone else for the teaching of our children, we have made ourselves as parents a little powerless. Yes, we depend on our school systems to teach our children the knowledge they will need to graduate to a knowledge level that has been set by the state. However we can not depend on them to teach our children morals and values, especially those of the word of God. That is our place to teach and the only thing that a school should be doing, which many do not, is to reenforce those values. We will leave all of that talk for another blog post. Let us take a look at what God says we are to do and the promise He gives us in doing so. First we are to take the teaching of the law commands from God and learn them ourselves. We cannot teach our children anything if we do not take the time to study God’s word; bottom line you cannot teach what you do not know. Next we are to take these teachings and teach them to our children so they can teach them to their children and so on for generations to come. How is that for immortality for you? By following these commands God’s gives a promise of a long life. What are these commands that God give us? The one mentioned here and is later quoted by Jesus as being the greatest commandment is Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Moses goes on to say, that we are to write these commands upon our hearts, we are to impress them upon our children. It is interesting here that Moses do not just use the word teach, but impress our children. When you are impressing something on someone you are not just teaching them but you are also showing them by doing the very thing you are teaching. In other words you have to live these commands in order to truly teach your children. We are to talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk on the road. Think to yourself when was the last time you were sitting down and home and talking to your children about God and word? Most of the time I think it is safe to say the TV is doing most of the talking. How about when you are going somewhere? Whether it is taking your child to school in the morning or you are running to the grocery store, have you talked with them? You may say “awe my kids do not really listen when I start talking about these things” or “my kids learn these things in Sunday school, I am good Christian and we attend church regularly. Once again these scriptures tell us that it is our responsibility to teach our children. We are going to be the ones God holds accountable for our children and the legacy we leave them. We are also told to think on these commands when we lie down and when we get up, tie them on our hands and write them on the frames of our homes and on our gates. You may be thinking to yourself that is all a bit eccentric don’t you think? No the point is that we are to surround ourselves with the very word of God, to protect us and our family from the enemy that is our to destroy us and our family. It is very interesting how this is very similar to the command Paul gives us in putting on the armor of God, we are to cover ourselves with His word. I hope everyone has a great day and finds the time to read a little scripture sometime today.

The Very Hope of God

I am trying something new here, by making podcast every now and then of my post. Try it let me know what you think. This is my first attempt at this so be patient it will get better. To make the podcast play click on todays blog title "The Very Hope of God" I will be working on getting these posted to iTunes and linking the RSS feed to them. This is just a test to see how it does.

Here I am to worship

In our world I do not think that the word worship truly sits well with people and in truth most people are probably not truly worshiping. When you think of worship, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Church, singing maybe even prayer? Worships is all of these things, but it is also so much more. Let us look at a few things that Jesus had to say about worship.“It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. (Luke 4:8); first and foremost we are to worship only God, no other and no other objects. What does God think of our Worship our prayers? 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma (Gen. 8:21) Our worship to Him is a pleasing aroma. Have you ever thought that your prayers and worship have a pleasing smell to the creator of the universe? Now that we know that we are only to worship God and that it is pleasing to Him; the question is what are some ways to worship Him? There are so many ways to worship God here are a few, in prayer, in song and dance, with your time, with money, with obedience and with fasting. We should have a hunger for worshiping the Lord everyday not just on Sunday mornings when there is someone leading you in worship. Worship God everyday, after all He is the creator of the very ground you fall upon to worship Him. Take a little time and spend it on your knees worshiping the Lord and send up the pleasing aromas to heaven.

This Little Light

As I think most of you would remember, those of you that grew up going to Sunday school, the song this little light of mine. The song was quite simple; this little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine; simple song strong message. Over the last few days I have heard in sermon and in devotional reading a reoccurring message of just this very thing, letting your light shine. Sure in the sermon and in the text they used words like sharing the Gospel or the different ways people try or think they are sending the message to others or ever the way they share verbally the plan of salvation. After hearing and reading these things I got to thinking that maybe God was speaking to me about sharing His message, then I became sure that He was telling me something. This got me thinking that I should also share this with those of you who read my blog. When we are being taught as children this little song “This Little Light of Mine”, often it go without saying that we are being taught to share what God has done for us and what he has done with us. Now as a child we are not thinking these things, but none the less it is being taught to us. The question is have you been letting your light shine? All the time? Are you truly letting your light shine or do you talk yourself into believing that you are? Let me explain what I am saying. In today’s world of being politically correct and everyone watching their words for fear of upsetting someone; the message of Christ get lost. We as Christians are to blame, because we are not letting our light shine. Listen to me when I say this, we are all guilty at times of covering our light because the darkness seems so convincing. While acceptance and tolerance are very good things, the message can get lost very quickly. We often do not speak up for Christ because it will cause people to look upon us as intolerant or judgmental. I ask you can it truly be your fault that people see your statement of faith or standing up for Christ as intolerant? I heard Charles Stanley say a few weeks back; do what God has asked you and the responsibility of the consequences are His. I myself find myself at times not speaking up as I should or skirting around what really needs to be said; for fear of losing my job or a friendship. Oh we can come up with excuses to justify these things, but when we do not follow God’s lead the consequences become ours. Christian I tell you LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE! Our faith is under so much attack, if we do not start speaking up for Christ we are going to lose what ground we have left and it will soon come that to speak the very word of God will come at a great price to us. I encourage you sometime today to find a way to let your light shine. There are many ways to let your light shine, but none of them are done in silence. What to know a good approach to witness to someone, read Acts 8 and see how Phillip did this very thing. Have you read the great commission recently, sometime we need to be reminded, read Matthew 28:19-20.

The Haunting Question

It was a few days back back but a friend and I were talking about different ideas on all types of subjects, but the most reoccurring subject was religion and God. As our discussion went on it began to remind me of a book I had once read. The book, The Time Machine, the conversation that I was reminded of was the one where Alexander Hartdegen is talking with one of the head / Uber-Morlock. The Morlock tells Alexander that he is a man haunted by the great question of what if. You see to understand what Alexander was after; you have to know that his fiancee Emma was killed. The part that was driving Alexander crazy was even though he could travel into the past no matter how many times he did go back to save Emma, she always died. Alexander spends most of his time pondering on what could have been if he could have only saved her, he completely forgets about life happening all around him. During my conversation with my friend, it became apparent how much we ponder what what if or what could have been. We spend so much time wondering, what if I could have gotten that promotion, what if I would have stayed in and finished school, what if I would have made a different decision on a night I try to forget or what if I could be more like someone else. People I am telling you that God is big enough to work with and around all our what ifs, the problem is that most of the time we are not. We get caught up in the what if scam, believing that it will make life all the better for us. I am here to tell you that it will not make a bit of difference because decision once made can not be revoked. Stop haunting yourself with the questions of what if and yesterday and focus on what is and what will be. Live in the promises that God has given us.

When was...

Once again it has been a little time since I have posted a blog; things have been a little crazy figuring out the new schedule and prioritizing my time. Speaking of time; I have a little Q & A to look over.

When was the last time you spent quality time on your knees in the presence of the most high God?
When was the last time you took the time to listen to Him, instead of praying and getting up off your knees and leave Him with words for you?
When was the last time you told Him thank you?
When was the last time you spoke a blessing to your child?
When was the last time you stopped that important work you were doing and played in your child's world?
When was the last time you told your spouse thank you?
When was the last time you told your spouse I Love You?
When was the last time you called a friend to just say you were thinking about them?
When was the last time you surrendered yourself to someone else will?

I encourage you over the next week to do all or a few of these things. Then notice the difference you made in that moment. They are only moments in time, but they can last for an eternity.