Thursday, November 27, 2008

Not Forsaken!

When I was growing up, my family moved around a lot. My dad was in the Air Force, so where he went we went. Because of this, we changed churches a lot, and we pretty much had to choose from what was available. We didn't always end up in a church that believed quite the way my parents did, but usually the differences weren't big enough to pose a problem. There were a couple of things that I was taught that I took to heart that weren't scriptural. I didn't realize that at the time, so they messed with my head.

One of the things that I was taught was that "God can't be in the presence of sin. He is too good and righteous to exist in the presence of something so vile. If God were in the presence of someone with sin in their life, they would be blasted into nothing instantly. God even turned His back on Jesus when he was on the cross because He couldn't look on the sin Jesus was taking on for us." This was supposed to be backed up by the fact that Jesus said: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Now, I was young, but I knew full and well that I had sin in my life, and if God would reject Jesus, who was only doing what God told him to do, then I was in BIG TROUBLE. I spent nearly 10 years in constant fear of God's sudden judgement and wrath. Then one day, I was reading in the Psalms and came across Psalm 22. This is what it says:

Psalm 22
For the director of music.
To the tune of "The Doe of the Morning."
A psalm of David.

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

by night, and am not silent.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the praise of Israel.
4 In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were saved;

in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by men and despised by the people.
7
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
8 "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.
10 From birth I was cast upon you;

from my mother's womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me;

strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions tearing their prey

open their mouths wide against me.
14
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs have surrounded me;

a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.
17
I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.
18
They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.
19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver my life from the sword,

my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;

save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare your name to my brothers;

in the congregation I will praise you.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or disdained

the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;

before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;

they who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD

and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him;

future generations will be told about the Lord.
31
They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.

That first verse nearly stopped my heart. Jesus wasn't crying out to God for forsaking him, He was quoting scripture!!! Psalm 22 is a prophecy about the messiah! Jesus was encouraging himself in the WORD. In the middle of this terrible experience, he was reminding himself that God knew all of this would happen, that it was part of the plan and that this fit in with what God needed to make things right between men and Him again.

Romans 8:39 (New International Version)
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Jesus was NOT FORSAKEN! AND NEITHER WAS I!!!!

This was the beginning of my journey to find out what God was really like. To find out for myself who God IS. I began this journey with TWO important points:
1 Even Jesus had to encourage himself with scripture in hard times. . . .
2 God LOVES me and He will always LOVE LOVE LOVE me!

And that goes for you TOO!!!!!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Name Change . . . 2

Well this is my best idea so far. I would appreciate feedback from anyone who is interested.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Name Change. . .

I'm going to be changing the name of my blog soon.  The current name just doesn't seem to fit where I'm going with this.  I don't know what I'm going to call it yet, but I should have something soon.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

"A Ghost Raccoon With A Crystal Grenade"

This happened several years ago, but it made an impression.



A pastor associated with our church came one Sunday. He was on his way to be the pastor of a new church that needed one so Pastor Jack, our pastor, invited him to come and be blessed and sent to that church. At the end of the service Pastor Jack called him up and told the church that anyone who felt that they had a word from God for the man should come and share it after they were done praying. So I figured that it would be neat to have a word, so I asked God for one. I heard "b. . . . .capital B. . . . . . .Blessings with a capital B . . . . in music. . . . . . . . .Tell him."

. . .So I'm like: ok. . .that's cool I guess. (but in the back of my mind I'm thinking that I'd really like a vision or something. You know, 'cause they sound more like they're from God than "Blessings with a capital 'B'")



Hang on for a sec:

I saw a red velvet pillow. It was square and trimmed with gold fringe and tassels on each corner, and it was spinning end over end in the darkness. I watched as it flew toward an old wicker-framed rocking chair. The chair was empty, but it was rocking anyway. The pillow flew over the chair, turned horizontal, and lowered very slowly into the seat of the chair. Then the chair stopped rocking and I saw something shiny and transparent rising out of the cushion. As it rose up I realized that it was a ghost-like raccoon poised with arms spread out and standing on one leg. AND SMILING! (I know, I know, but it's what I saw.) The raccoon looked at me and held one hand out in my direction, palm up, and out of his hand rose up a crystal grenade. The grenade lifted up and hovered above his hand and began spinning faster and faster and as it spun it began changing shape the way clay changes on a potter's wheel. It turned into a trumpet. And then I heard God say "You wanted a vision so you got one. Now go tell the man that I'm going to bless him with a capital B in music."



So I did. I found out the next week at a meeting when I shared this that the man was really concerned about his new church because they didn't have a worship team and he was going to have to use CD's for a while. Well we used a lot of CD music that Sunday and then God gave me that word for him. God is soooo Cool! And personal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A raccoon with a grenade. . . .I don't ask for visions after I already have a word anymore. :)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Baby B's Breath Of God


Today I had a chance to help a friend, Moco. Moco is Curly Mommy's dad. While we were talking he mentioned that Baby B, Curly Mommy's newest child http://fuzzballchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/11/she-is-here.html, had been having some breathing problems. I had been telling him about some of the things that I mentioned in my last post, Abraham's Blessing, and this fed right off of that. As I listened to Moco tell me about how Baby B was taking fast, deep breaths, I also heard God say that when we speak His words, we are re-ordering reality to fit God's plan. He told me to tell Moco that whatever reasons the doctors might (or might not) find, GOD was saying that now Baby B was breathing in God's breath. God had His hand on her and everything was going to work out right. He said that He had a purpose for this little girl, and as of that moment, He was using every deep breath to touch her in a special way.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Abraham's Blessing

Okay. I've been teaching Sunday school to the 6th and 7th graders at my church. We've been going through Genesis, story by story and I've been trying to "introduce them to God." I had been using the curriculum provided by the church, but found that while the material was good and well intentioned, it simply wasn't getting through to the kids. The lessons were about teaching them to be "good Christians," but they didn't really know God, so there wasn't anything more than "trying to do the right thing" to motivate them. I wanted them to KNOW that God LOVES them and that He wants a relationship with them. I figure that if they know God's love then the "right things" they should do will be fruits of that love instead of calculated decisions.



It's been great!



So we've been talking about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The last couple of weeks have been spent on Jacob. We talked about how God had promised that Jacob would have the major inheritance and how God was going to make His nation from Jacob, but Jacob and his mother didn't trust God and deceived their way into a promise that was Jacob's by right. Jacob got Isaac's blessing. Isaac got that blessing from Abraham and Abraham got it from God.

I grew up in a home that taught the Bible. My dad told us stories of Abraham and King David and the mighty men of valor. One thing that always stood out to me was the blessings from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (called Israel). These blessings weren't like the blessings you hear today--they had POWER. When Esau realized that Jacob had gotten his blessing, he was furious! He begged Isaac for a blessing. Today, we'd just say "OK, here you go," but this was something much more serious. Isaac couldn't give him the blessing again. This was something REAL! I've always believed in these kind of blessings and the power in them, and I've always been sad that they seemed to have passed away.

Skip ahead to this past Sunday. . . A man came to our church this Sunday. His name is Ken Sumerall. He is a pastor to my pastor. He is actually a pastor to many pastors, as is my own pastor, Jack Hollis (who has a blog http://ftcw.blogspot.com/ ). He has been a spiritual father to my pastor, who, in turn, has been one to me. So, as Bro Ken was preaching, I was watching him and listening to how he spoke and thought to myself: "This is a man who is a patriarch to this church like Abraham was to Israel." I could just SEE Abraham all over him. When he finished speaking he invited people to come up and be prayed for. I was heading up to join the worship team, but before I could go up the stairs I stopped. It hit me. "Here is a man who could give a patriarch blessing." I tried to dismiss it, "People don't DO that sort of thing anymore." But I couldn't make myself leave it alone. I struggled with whether it was something I should do and if it would even be a real blessing, believing in my heart the whole time that it would be real, until I head God say: "You have an inheritance waiting for you. Will you take hold of it?" Well, that didn't leave me with any outs. So I went to Bro Ken and told him what I had seen on him and that I wanted a patriarch's blessing.

He leaned forward placing his hand on my head and said: " I bless you right now with a father's blessing. . ." I'm not quite sure what he said next because I felt a wave of heat hit me in the chest and spread in all over my torso. Then I heard him say something that I didn't expect at all. I went up there expecting him to say that I would be in the ministry, or that I would have a supernatural boldness, or that God would do miracles through me or something like that. What he said next nearly knocked the wind out of me. There I was caught in the presence of the Holy Spirit and I heard these words from the man God had impressed upon me as one who could give a real blessing, a blessing with power: "I give you the blessing of Abraham."

Check out what God's blessing for Abraham was and you may have some idea of what that felt like.

Later, God told me that what I felt when I felt the heat in my chest was God "changing my blood." He told me that He had changed the fabric of who I am.

I am still absorbing the implications of all of this, but I know this much. God has called me to be a giver of blessings. I have tried to be conscious of my thoughts and words. I have been openly blessing anything that I have a hand in and blessing any who bless me. And I truly BELIEVE that God is going to be doing things that will awaken me (and any I can influence) to a fuller awareness of the richness of His glory.

So, to all who read this. Be Blessed with His presence. Have God so richly in your life that you cannot escape a day-to-day deepening of revelation of God's love and desire to have a relationship with you.

Amen.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Whom shall I Fear?

In Exodus Miriam and Aaron are ridiculing Moses about his wife. God steps in and addresses the issue by saying that He has, in the past, always spoken through visions and things hard to understand. But with Moses "I have spoken clearly, face to face as a friend. . . Why is it that you aren't afraid to talk to my man Moses this way?"

God spoke of Moses as a man to be respected because He spoke with him "face to face--as a friend" and yet, here we are today with the Holy Spirit dwelling INSIDE us, and we still fear the things of this world.

We really need to get a hold of the idea that God has a personal investment in claiming us. We didn't just sign up on God's mailing list. He LOVES us! He isn't about to do all that HE did to bring us into a relationship with Him just to abandon us. God takes care of His own!