Soliloquy about Jeremiah

On Monday I was in my Old Testament Prophets class and our teacher, Dr. Rickie Moore (an Old Testament Scholar), read to us a soliloquy that he wrote about Jeremiah. This is written as if it were Jeremiah's reflection at the end of his life. This is probably better understood read aloud, but this will have to work. It really spoke measure to me, so I wanted to share it with you and pray that it'll do the same for you.



"I remember when He first called me to be his prophet
I was young then, so young that in fear I drew back,
but so young that in ignorance I stepped forward.
Forward into that presence so strange yet so familiar,
A presence suddenly which I did not know,
but which seemed to have always known me.
I felt surrounded almost smothered,
yet more alone than I ever knew anyone could feel.

It was as if nothing else existed, only myself and His word.
And then as that word came on me it was as though even I ceased to exist.
His word filling an consuming all of me and all of the world.
So in those times when I appeared to be bold or before the crowds or the priests or the officials,
Don't be mistaken I was not bold, no more bold than a dead man,
would that God had left me there,
But each time after HIs word left me
the weaknesses of my living flesh returned with greater force than before.
I longed to be understood, to fit in, to join in the festivities, to live just a normal life,
but who could believe how abnormal life had become.
Yes who could believe, who would believe?
That was the question of my life, a question I know I ask a hundred thousand times,
Was I Gods agent to turn my people to believe,
or just a lone witness against their unwillingness, their inability to believe.
Will you tell me which?
How do you expect me to intercede for more people and at the same time proclaim their judgement.
Why don't you answer me, can't you see my crying?
Or is it you who cries?

At the first He promised that He would be with me.
How was I to know that he meant it as a warning,
How was I to know that no one could ever be prepared to be with such a God,
A God who inflict such suffering on His own, His own self.
Enough questions, my questions have brought only silence,
but it is His silence."



I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks Dr. Moore, I appreciate all you have meant in my life.

Today is Today

Well, today is today. Not sure where that came from, just felt like doing it. There have been a lot of incredible, fun, life changing, excellent things going on lately, and sometimes the only things I know to do is thank the Lord for where He has me. At the same time though this it is hard, grueling, gut wrenching sometimes. But, the Lord is Sovereign and in control.

Trusting in the Lord is a difficult thing to do, and this week I have really experienced that. It is so easy to just decide to quit everything and do what you really want to do (or what you think you really want). But then you realize then you realize that that would not be who God created you to be. We are overcomers, and if we are where the Lord wants us to be then we need to walk there in our identity as He has called us.

This is what I have been learning in a big nutshell. This applies to multiple facets of my life (especially in the past week). It is time to consciously fight for our identity. If we don't then Satan will subtly come and speak lies which we usually end up sowing. Thus, where there is a sowing of something naturally there is a reaping. If we sow lies we are reaping a false identity. I challenge you today - Fight.

Urgent Message to Pray

This is a message from Lou Engle. Please pray for America tomorrow.



"Convergence

It is critical that the church in America understands the times and what needs to be done now. The natural things speak of the invisible. Natural happenings on the earth are revealing something that is going on in the spiritual realm. There is a great spiritual conflict with a rising tide of Islamic boldness being manifested. Several happenings are converging this week. First of all, our President has recently proclaimed, honored, encouraged the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting called Ramadan. He was very silent on the National Day of Prayer but very vocal on the support of Ramadan. Interestingly at the same time a major Christian leader of the Emergent Church called for forty days of fasting and prayer in the same Ramadan period with the goal that the church will better understand our Muslim friends. We are all for understanding but we must have spiritual discernment as to the spiritual dark powers that are being invoked into our nation.

Cause for Concern

At the same time, on the 25th of September, Muslims are calling for a Muslim Day of Prayer in Washington DC (http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com/). They are calling for 50,000 Muslims to gather and pray on the DC Mall. This is the exact word of one of the Sheikhs who is leading this historic gathering, “Muslims should march on the White House. We are going to the White House so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become into a Muslim house.” These are not empty words. They speak of a dark spiritual intent and a coming day of great trouble to America.

A Divine Moment

Now one of these events is enough to awaken us to this significant throbbing moment, but when they all converge it becomes a massive spiritual alarm that must be responded to by the praying Church. However, I believe in this moment of divine providence God has raised up on the stage of history a little “Esther” that if we pray and fast for her she could be a major voice to expose the dark under-belly of Islam and radiate a bright hope for a day of salvation for Muslims in America.

Headlines

On Monday, Rifqa Bary, a young 17-year-old woman, will be in the headlines of US news. Four years ago, while living in a very devout and radical Muslim home, Rifqa met Jesus in a powerful way as her savior. She hid her conversion, began praying secretly, and began hiding her bible from her parents. Then, on Facebook, her love for Jesus was exposed to the radical Muslim community in Ohio. Rifqa’s father demanded that she renounce Jesus or he would kill her as is commanded by the Koran. As a radiant believer in Jesus she refused to renounce her Lord and fled to Orlando where she was taken in and cared for by a Christian Church and family. Now, the father is appealing to the courts to bring her back under his custody. Major television networks have already covered her story. How must the Church of America respond in this moment for our sister who is a part of the Body of Christ?

A Major Sign

This convergence, I believe, is urgently summoning us in the midst of the rising tide of Islamic influence in America to recognize that our God is above every god and that if we return to Him with all of our hearts and call upon Him with fasting and prayer then God could use what the enemy meant for evil to bring about a great day of salvation for Muslims in America, of which Rifqa is but a major sign.

Here is The Call

First of all, we cannot be passive as a Church to let these kinds of developments go on without being challenged in the spirit. Our fight is not against Muslims, it is against principalities, powers, and forces of darkness. We are calling the Church of America at the end of Ramadan, from September 21st through 25th, to five days of concerted prayer. On Monday, we must pray that God would grant supernatural wisdom to the courts so that the testimony of Jesus would be proclaimed and that the best situation for Rifqa and her family would take place. We must pray for Rifqa to be bold in proclaiming Jesus that even thousands of Muslims would hear and be awakened to the love of Christ. She has already said that this is not about her but about many Muslims coming to Jesus. We must pray for her lawyers who are being bullied, threatened, and challenged on every side. On Friday, September 25th, the Muslim Day of Prayer, we are calling the Church of America to fast and pray that Muslims would be moved by the Holy Spirit, convicted by the testimony of Christ, and even be visited by Jesus in dreams. We must pray that God would restrain the spiritual powers behind Islam and grant us the great awakening that we desperately need for America.

Let us hear the call to prayer and not miss this moment,

Lou Engle"

The Upside down Kingdom

This is such an intriguing topic to me. Mainly because it is totally opposite of what I want to do the majority of the time. I do not understand it, but for some reason the way of the Kingdom is to go low so you can go high. We obviously see this in the life of Jesus, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. During this message to the people Jesus did not demonstrate His power, instead He spoke about the foundations of His Kingdom. After He spoke the peoples response is seen in Matthew 7:28-29, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teachings, because he spoke as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the Law."

This blows me away. How can you be so amazed at someone who is telling you humble yourself and forgive other. Someone who tells you that it is not all about you. But because of the power and truth on His words the Holy Spirit convicted their hearts.

I also want to point out where this is seen in Isaiah. This starts in the song seen Isaiah 42:1-4 where Isaiah is talking about the servant of the Lord (often seen as Jesus):

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my spirit on Him
and He will bring Justice to the Nations.
He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.
In Faithfulness he will bring forth Justice;
He will not falter or be discouraged
till He establishes justice on the earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope."

This has messed me up as I have meditated on it a tiny bit. If you look at it the main description is a servant who is weak and lowly. It says He will not cry out or raise His voice in the streets. Also it says, "A bruised reed he will not break..." etc. Now I don't claim to know what most of this stuff means, but it blows me away that Isaiah says that this is the one who will bring justice. The one who is weak and lowly; who will not be the loudest among the people, but instead the quietest and meekest.

As I have been meditating on these passages I have been wanting to put them into practice more and more. Just today I had an opportunity where something was done to me and it was probably wrong. But I heard the Lord asking me how I was going to respond. It is so easy to respond in anger and just hord up bitterness toward the person, but in the Kingdom of God we are to respond in meekness and forgive them. I don't understand it, but this releases power both in our lives and the other persons.

I hope this encourages you as you seek to live a life worthy of the calling He has given you. Cya!

Strengthening yourself in the Lord

Lately I have been realizing my great need for the Lord. So often I think I can do things on my own, but the Lord in His grace stops me in my tracts and shows me I have to rely on Him. This is a subtle thing, yet it still happens. I will just be going trough life day by day and then turn around and realize I have hardly been using the Lords strength and instead have been using my own.

Ephesians 3:16 says, "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man..."

This is what I want. I want to be strengthened with divine might in my inner man. I am tired of trying to use my own strength. We have access to everlasting strength that never grows weary or gets tired. There is so much depth in this verse that we need to tap into. I have known this verse for a while, but when it actually hit me what I was really saying it messed me up. We cannot get tired of this prayer.

Hope you all are enjoying my blog. Please comment and let me know what you would like to see me write about. I am completely open to suggestions. Right now I am just posting random thoughts. Hope to hear from you!!

Psalm 19

Hey there readers (if there are any). I realize I haven't been posting much (what else is new), but here's a few thoughts if there is anyone still reading. Today in our Chapel Dr. Cross spoke on Psalm 19. This idea is something that regularly amazes me since I found out about it. He was mainly making a distinction between the Hebrew words of "Elohim" and "Yahweh."

Both of these words are seen in this Psalm. It starts by declaring the majesty of God in His creation. The hebrew word for God here is Elohim. Then as one keeps reading to verse 7 the author uses "LORD" in our bibles, which means Yahweh. I do not just want to present this to you as an interesting difference, but instead I want to try and relate it to our hearts.

Traditionally Elohim is seen to display the majestic attributes of God (holy, worthy, mighty, powerful, etc.) whereas Yahweh is used to show the personal relationship of God (loving, always near, etc.). When we read this Psalm with this in mind it completely changes everything. Verses 7-11 are specifically talking about the law of the Yahweh and its characteristics. I want to start thinking of the law as part of my love relationship with Jesus, not just a set of rules and to do's, but something that causes me to fall more in love with Jesus.

Jesus said in John 15:10, "If you obey my commands you will remain in my love..." This is the only way to love. I have been asking the Lord to shift my paradigm (perspective) on obedience so that I would not just obey for obedience sake, but instead I would obey to fall more in love with Jesus. Those who love Him will obey His commands.

I don't understand how this works, and to be honest it sometimes offends my mind, but I want it! Looking at Psalm 19 shows us that there is something intimate about obeying the Lords commands. I hope this encourages you today, I know it has me! Cya!

"May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer. Amen."

Dreamers

If there is anyone who reads my blog you have probably already seen this video, but here it is anyway. This is a song called Dreamers, by Daniel Bashta. Every time I listen to it the Lord reminds me of how faithful He is, and that He really is calling me higher.