On a break!

Sorry I haven’t posted anything for awhile – I am leaving the country for a few months so everything has been touch and go. If you want to keep track of my travels, feel free to check out my other blog: http://eskapade.blogspot.com/. Once again, I am not bring my laptop with me, but I’ll try to post pictures when I can!
Thanks!

The Wrong God

The Wrong God
By Michael LaFarge

I think maybe I'm serving the wrong God. I've given it some thought, long, hard, deep thought. The kind that gives me a headache, and I've concluded that the God I believe in isn't worth my time, my worship or my life. Does that shock you? It kind of does me. I've devoted 22 years of life and four years of college to something I don't really want to believe anymore. with reckless abandon I've bought into a system I can't see ever amounting to anything. And that I is why I am done serving, worshiping, living my life for and believing in the wrong God. Yes, done.

From this point on I will no longer follow the wrong God. The one that is an invention of my preferences, a creation of my desires. I will not bow down before the formulaic being and the endless theologies that explain it anymore. I don't believe in a ten step approach God who can be understood and contemplated. I'm tired of attempting to satisfy a strategy and work out an equation and call it religion. For so long I have dreamed a God who is there when I need Him, but conveniently tucked away when I do not. I have run a race depending on the strength of a God who is as weak as the frail creature who dreamed Him up.

What i have come to see is that God is bigger than I see Him. The God of the Bible cannot be contained in a system or reduced to a set of beliefs. Peace with God is not attained through a program or by right living. I have walked hand-in-hand with a small God, while the real God, the one whose weightiness I cannot imagine walked beside as He promised He would in His Word. I can no longer read it like a self-help book. It is not a path to living a worry free life. It is the story of a God who loves me so much that He inconveniences Himself to win me back. That is the right God. The One who is beyond my ability to imagine or create. He is not troubled by my weakness or my inability to perceive Him. He waits for me to abandon the old god and follow Him wholeheartedly. I now understand that He is the right God, I must now live as if I believe.

My walk with God is not so much about getting life right as it is being in relationship with Him. As I walk with God, I trust He will do the work of making me more like Jesus and seeing Him for who He really is. The right God.

Abide in Christ: As the branch in the Vine

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches." John 15:5

The connection between the vine and the branch is a living one. No external, temporary union will suffice; no work of man can effect it: the branch, whether an original or an engrafted one, is such only by the Creator's own work, in virtue of which the life, the sap, the fatness, and the fruitfulness of the vine communicate themselves to the branch. And just so it is with the believer, too. His union with his Lord is no work of human wisdom or human will, but an act of God, by which the closest and most complete life-union is effected between the Son of God and the sinner.

Andrew Murray (C)

GOD HIMSELF WILL STABLISH YOU IN HIM - Part 3

Listen to what the Word teaches you:--"The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself"; "O Lord God, stablish their heart unto Thee"; "Thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever"; "Thou wilt establish the heart of the humble"; "Now to Him that is of power to establish you, be glory for ever"; "To the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness" ; "THE LORD IS FAITHFUL, who shall stablish you and keep you from all evil"; "The God of all grace, who hath called us in Christ Jesus, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." Can you take these words to mean anything less than that you too--however fitful your spiritual life has hitherto been, however unfavourable your natural character or your circumstances may appear--can be established in Christ Jesus--can become an established Christian? Let us but take time to listen, in simple childlike teachableness, to these words as the truth of God, and the confidence will come: As surely--as I am in Christ, I shall also, day by day, be established in Him.

The lesson appears so simple; and yet the most of us take so long to learn it. The chief reason is, that the grace the promise offers is so large, so God-like, so beyond all our thoughts, that we do not take it really to mean what it says. The believer who has once come to see and accept what it brings, can bear witness to the wonderful change there comes over the spiritual life. Hitherto he had taken charge of his own welfare; now he has a God to take charge of it. He now knows himself to be in the school of God, a Teacher who plans the whole course of study for each of His pupils with infinite wisdom, and delights to have them come daily for the lessons He has to give. All he asks is to feel himself constantly in God's hands, and to follow His guidance, neither lagging behind nor going before. Remembering that it is God who worketh both to will and to do, he sees his only safety to be in yielding himself to God's working. He lays aside all anxiety about his inner life and its growth, because the Father is the Husbandman under whose wise and watchful care each plant is well secured. He knows that there is the prospect of a most blessed life of strength and fruitfulness to every one who will take God alone and wholly as his hope.

(c) Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

NO STRINGS ATTACHED

Why do we as humans feel a need to attach ourselves to objects, positions and people? Why do we always seem to have alternative motives?

In December 2006 I had a picture that I would like to share with you all. In this vision I saw people hugging each other, as they embraced they would place these “tacks” in each others side. These tacks were attached to small, inconspicuous strings, almost like fishing line. Over and over as people embraced each other, they continued to attach more and more of these “tacks” onto others. At one point I felt as if I was looking above these people, they were all tangled together, attached by everyone else’s strings, tangled and confused, they were not their own. Each person was enslaved to another, appeasing the others will.

In my picture I saw these tacks and strings, and God spoke to me of motives, expectations and ownership of men. A person would embrace another, and place their own agenda (plan) on that person.

During this time in 2006 I had a deep cry in me to be released from the ownership of men and from man’s expectations. Even now, three years later God is still teaching me more about what I saw and what this really means!

There is a deep stirring, a cry within to breakout; to risk your reputation and relationships... everything you think you know... To yell out “You don’t own me!" I am not my own, I WAS bought with a price; I am HIS and HIS alone.

Let us go forward, truly learning to love someone with no strings attached.

Father, teach us love. Let us know you.

GOD HIMSELF WILL STABLISH YOU IN HIM - Part 2

To the blessedness of such a faith, and the experience it brings, many can testify. What peace and rest, to know that there is a Husbandman who cares for the branch, to see that it grows stronger, and that its union with the Vine becomes more perfect, who watches over every hindrance and danger, who supplies every needed aid! What peace and rest, fully and finally to give up our abiding into the care of God, and never have a wish or thought, never to offer a prayer or engage in an exercise connected with it, without first having the glad remembrance that what we do is only the manifestation of what God is doing in us! The establishing in Christ is His work: He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, and wait, and work. But this He can do with power only as we cease interrupting Him by our self-working--as we accept in faith the dependent posture which honours Him and opens the heart to let Him work. How such a faith frees the soul from care and responsibility! In the midst of the rush and bustle of the world's stirring life, amid the subtle and ceaseless temptations of sin, amid all the daily cares and trials that so easily distract and lead to failure, how blessed it would be to be an established Christian--always abiding in Christ! How blessed even to have the faith that one can surely become it--that the attainment is within our reach!

Dear believer, the blessing is indeed within your reach. He that stablisheth you with us in Christ is God. What I want you to take in is this--that believing this promise will not only give you comfort, but will be the means of your obtaining your desire. You know how Scripture teaches us that in all God's leadings of His people faith has everywhere been the one condition of the manifestation of His power. Faith is the ceasing from all nature's efforts, and all other dependence; faith is confessed helplessness casting itself upon God's promise, and claiming its fulfilment; faith is the putting ourselves quietly into God's hands for Him to do His work. What you and I need now is to take time, until this truth stands out before us in all its spiritual brightness: It is God Almighty, God the Faithful and Gracious One, who has undertaken to stablish me in Christ Jesus.

(c) Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

Back to the Basics

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” -Matthew 11:28 The Message

more to come on this...

GOD HIMSELF WILL STABLISH YOU IN HIM - Part 1

"He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, is God."-2 COR.1:21

THESE words of Paul teach us a much needed and most blessed truth--that just as our first being united with Christ was the work of divine omnipotence, so we may look to the Father, too, for being kept and being fixed more firmly in Him. "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me"--this expression of confidence should ever accompany the prayer, "Forsake not the work of Thine own hands." In all his longings and prayers to attain to a deeper and more perfect abiding in Christ, the believer must hold fast his confidence: "He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." There is nothing that will so help to root and ground him in Christ as this faith: "He which stablisheth us in Christ is God."

How many there are who can witness that this faith is just what they need! They continually mourn over the variableness of their spiritual life. Sometimes there are hours and days of deep earnestness, and even of blessed experience of the grace of God. But how little is needed to mar their peace, to bring a cloud over the soul! And then, how their faith is shaken! All efforts to regain their standing appear utterly fruitless; and neither solemn vows, nor watching and prayer, avail to restore to them the peace they for a while had tasted. Could they but understand how just their own efforts are the cause of their failure, because it is God alone who can establish us in Christ Jesus. They would see that just as in justification they had to cease from their own working, and to accept in faith the promise that God would give them life in Christ, so now, in the matter of their sanctification, their first need is to cease from striving themselves to establish the connection with Christ more firmly, and to allow God to do it. "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ." What they need is the simple faith that the stablishing in Christ, day by day, is God's work--a work that He delights to do, in spite of all our weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but trust Him for it.

(c) Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

Psalms 145

I WILL extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever [with grateful, affectionate praise].

Every day [with its new reasons] will I bless You [affectionately and gratefully praise You]; yes, I will praise Your name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord and highly to be praised; and His greatness is [so vast and deep as to be] unsearchable.

One generation shall laud Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wondrous works I will meditate.
Men shall speak of the might of Your tremendous and terrible acts, and I will declare Your greatness.

They shall pour forth [like a fountain] the fame of Your great and abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your rightness and justice.

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness.

The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works [the entirety of things created].

All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your loving ones shall bless You [affectionately and gratefully shall Your saints confess and praise You]!
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power,

To make known to the sons of men God's mighty deeds and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord upholds all those [of His own] who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down.

The eyes of all wait for You [looking, watching, and expecting] and You give them their food in due season.

You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor.
The Lord is [rigidly] righteous in all His ways and gracious and merciful in all His works.

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him sincerely and in truth.

He will fulfill the desires of those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him; He also will hear their cry and will save them.

The Lord preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord; and let all flesh bless (affectionately and gratefully praise) His holy name forever and ever.

- Psalms 145

I Will Not Forget You!

The Kingdom

The Kingdom is in us! When He is in us, the Kingdom who is in Christ is embodied in us and revealed in the earth…

PRINCE OF PEACE

The following is prophetic event recorded in Bobby Conner’s book “Harvest Time”
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STANDING IN THE STORM
The time was exactly 2:22 A.M. In this prophetic experience I was transported by the spirit of the Lord from the comforts of my bed to an enormously large body of water.

Standing at the edge of this massage sea, the sky was awfully dark. The clouds were violently turbulent and the winds were swirling and blowing incredibly strong. Lightning flashed across the darkened sky and illuminated the storm-tossed sea. This was clearly not a tranquil, peaceful, serene setting but rather unsettled, troubled waters.

The waters were extremely stirred, with waves mounting high with white caps and foam. The raging wind caused the rain to sting against my face. As the lightning flashed and the thunder was crashing, the sound rolling across the waves seemed to be amplified. I shivered as the wind drove the rain deep into my clothes. It was one of the most tempestuous times I’ve ever experienced, but I could feel that this storm was more than just a natural storm. I could not explain it, but I could sense that this was a very unnatural disturbance I was beholding.

MEAT FOR THE MASTER
Standing at my side, the Lord said, “I am hungry! You are to catch supper.” Intensely, He was steadfastly gazing over the troubled waters. I knew He was expecting me to catch some fish, but I was thinking how hard it would be to fish in such a violent storm. It was difficult for me to even stand in the strong gusts of wind. Although I did not voice my thoughts out loud, He reassuringly said to me, “This is the best time for fishing. Fish are more easily caught at this time.”

PLACE OF PERFECT PEACE
Then I looked more closely at Him and noticed that His hair was not being blown about by the wind. Neither were His clothes wet and flopping wildly in the wind, as mine were. Christ, knowing that I was now observing Him, said, “Come closer to ME.”

As I moved ever closer to Him, the winds became calmer. When I was near to His side, there was a place of perfect peace and protection from the storm. He smiled saying in the most comforting tone, “Yes! I am still the PRINCE OF PEACE.”

Even though the situation with the wind and weather had not changed, there was a quiet, calm confidence in the Lord’s presence. I wondered why I didn’t come closer sooner. Looking deep into my eyes, I knew that He was expecting more from me than just standing by. I could sense that He expected me to get busy obeying His command.

Harvest Time © Bobby Conner

Destiny

Purpose, the inevitable fate, a predetermined course of events, beyond human power of control.

When we start walking in our destiny we are walking in something that has been predetermined.

To know Him who holds destiny. He knows and holds what tomorrow brings.

You are Special

This simple children’s story titled “You are special” by Max Lucado speaks such great volumes of God’s love for us. The dots and stars in this short passage represent people’s views, judgments and expectations, good or bad. Apart of human nature is to listen to the people around us, we let them shape who and what we are, even when we don’t like it.

In the passage, Punchinello meets a young girl who did not have any stickers, stars or dots. People would “try to give her stickers, but they just didn’t stick.” “She has decided that what I (Eli, the maker) think is more important than what they think, the stickers will only stick it you let them.” If we could come under the realization of how much our God loves us, then what others say over us wouldn’t matter.

Punchinello: “You know my name?”
Eli: “Of course I do, I made you… You don’t have to defend yourself to me… who are they do give you stars are dots, it only matters what I think, and I think your pretty special.”

Punchinello: “Why do I matter to you?”
Eli: “Because your mine, that’s why you matter to me.” “…You are special, because I made you, and I don’t make mistakes!” “The more you trust my love, the less you care about their stickers.”

God loves us each so dearly… I pray we can each grasp on to what this simply powerful message teaches us. Lets trust His love for us!

The Haunting

I can’t escape you can I? You are ever present, always there. The haunting. The answer to every question, the comfort to my every pain. I run but can never seem to hide. The faithful one. I quit but am never able to really give up. I am not my own. The loudest noise in the silence of my life; you deafen me with your steady presence. I am truly preferred by you Jesus…
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I wrote the passage above many months ago... I came across it again today, and realized how truly faithful our God is. We can’t escape his presence! Lately the only truth I know is how amazing He is!!