forgetting

i forget lots of things!  eric cooper was walking out of the house the other day and had forgotten something that he needed to have.  in a moment of haste, i said,"buddy...why is it that you can remember so many little things about stuff that happened 4 years ago, but you cant remember to grab your back pack!?"  he said something like, "i don't know dad.  i guess i don't have a good memory."  he felt very dejected.  i felt like a jerk.  

i had to stop in that moment and remember that i do the EXACT same thing!  so, i told him.  "You know who else does that very same thing?  ME"  and we went on to have a great conversation and i am sure there were even doves flying around or something...maybe not the doves, but it could've happened.

anyway, i read a passage of scripture this morning that reminded me of my good, selective memory. 2 Peter 1:5-9 It is a pretty recognizable passage of scripture.  add faith to goodness, knowledge to self control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love.  we are supposed to make every effort to have these qualities.  because if you have these, they will keep you from being unproductive and ineffective.  BUT if you don't have them, i love what scripture says, "he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins."

i have a selective memory AND i can be very nearsighted.  i am focused on things that happen today or even down to an exact moment.  i forget sometimes how i am.  sometimes it seems like i forget who i am.

then, i had to do an inventory of those qualities.  i had to remember that i am not who i was.  i had to remember i have been CLEANSED.  

maybe you need to remember that today as well...or maybe just me.

jacked up.... pt deux

here are some examples of what i am talking about... (this is going to be long...fyi)

Jesus says...

"and why do you worry about clothes?  see how the lilies of the field grow.  they do not labor or spin.  yet i tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, ... will he not much more clothe you, o you of little faith? So do not worry, ...  , and your heavenly Father knows you need them.  but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  each day has enough trouble of its own.(emphasis mine) matthew 6:28-34

how much time do you spend worrying?  i do it all the time...why?  no faith!

Jesus says...

"do not judge, or you too will be judged.  for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (matthew 7:1-2)

do you judge people?  i do it all the time...why? i don't know.  

Jesus says...

"ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  for everyone who ask receives; he who seeks find; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (matthew 7:7-8)

do you ask and expect to receive? i don't always...why?  little faith

Jesus says...

so in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prohets. (matthew 7:12)

do you always treat others the way you would want to be treated?  i dont always...why? i am selfish.  

one note on this last verse...Jesus takes the extremely difficult concept of living life and interacting with people and trying to figure out how to live the "christian life"....and he boils it down to this one simple statement...everything that has ever been told, all the people who were foretelling the coming of God, what they all meant to say is this...treat people the way you want to be treated!  kind of to say, if you can do that.  the world, it will be ok, if you just treat people the way you want to be treated.

pretty simple, huh?  i gotta run...go treat someone the way you want to be treated today.  

jacked up...

i am reading through the gospels...matthew 5 and 6 right now and they have me jacked up.  i think that i know what Jesus was about.  i think i know what living a Christian life is about and then i go back and read Matthew 5 and 6 , then i realize after not reading this very often...that i have it messed up.  i remember that my sin is a big deal to God, and Jesus isn't going to wink at me at the end of the day and say..."it's ok daniel, i died for that, so it is ok ; )"  (i dont know if Jesus gets emoticons or not...i just thought i would put one there in case he does)  

it is still early and i havent completed my thought process yet, so maybe i will post more on this later today...but you should go and read this.  see how you measure up to what Jesus is teaching... i dont measure up real well.  (i think this is one way the Holy Spirit works.)

Bible reading thoughts

it has been a while since i posted one of these...i had a minute, so, here is what i am thinking about today...

in Matthew 4 i read about the calling of the first disciples, and i had to ask...what is it about these guys that they instinctively dropped everything to follow Jesus? you can read about it here. how "holy" and "spritual" were these guys that they gave up everything they knew to follow the One they didnt really know...i mean, surely they had heard of Jesus...surely they must have had some foreknowledge and had seen something amazing in Him to be able to drop everything and just follow...right?

If you clicked the above link, you didnt read this verse. this verse got me to thinking today...a little detail i have looked over. the verse says, he saw two brothers..., maybe they had not been seen before, maybe they just did their job every day just like you and me and had never really been seen or noticed. and maybe no one had ever called on them to follow, to believe that they could actually do what Jesus was going to lead them to do... maybe it wasn't that they saw something so great in Jesus, maybe it was that Jesus saw something so great in them! maybe he even sees it in you and i...

maybe i am reading too much into it, but, for me...this is huge! to know that Jesus sees me is inspiring, to know that he believes in me to do what he is calling me to...that, to put it mildly, is helpful information!

and, in reference to fran and my comments on my last post, this fact seems huge to me. they were doing their job, they were fishermen...and Jesus simply says, come follow me, i will make you fishers of men. i will take what you know, and make it more important, more lasting...i will take your normal job and make it spiritual! no smoke, no big experience, just come and follow me...that's it. that's all you have to do...i will do the rest.... and i believe that you can do it, b/c i see you...i know what you're doing...i see you working and i believe i can take your normal job and if you follow me, i will turn it into something tremendous for my name!

this is where i am at today....you too? (inside joke...lol)

challenging...

john lindell has been teaching through the book of luke for a while now, i dont know how long...but a long, long time!  the last few months or so has been really good to dig into luke 19 through 23 or so.  something keeps bothering me, it keeps challenging me, so...i decided to do a little digging on my own.  let me just tell you the part that has been bothering me...Jesus rides in to jerusalem, on a donkey, to the praises of almost everyone in the city.  they sing praise to Him, they shout Hosanna to the highest!  then, not a week goes by, NOT A WEEK! and the jewish leaders have Jesus arrested, pull a sham of a trial, take him to pilate, who takes him to herod, who sends him back to pilate...both find no guilt in anything he has done, BUT the jewish leaders still demand to crucify him.  so, where are all the people that were shouting Hosanna in the highest?  there are crowds yelling to crucify him, but where are all the people who were praising him not even a week earlier?  had the religious leaders convinced all of them that Jesus was not who he claimed to be and needed to be crucified?  

here is what i am finding.  i dont know exactly.  i dont find all the specific answers.  to be honest with you, it hacks me off, i get very angry when i think about where in the world could these people have been?  i mean seriously, Jesus had just healed some people, he was teaching in the temple and the people were amazed...so where in the h-e double hockey sticks were they? why didnt they come to at least stand up for Jesus?  i dont know.

here is what i do know.  my anger towards them, it can be directed towards myself a large part of the time.  this is what i am learning...  Jesus healed me, i have stood in awe of Jesus...and when there are people who are living lives for so much less than Jesus, it is very rarely, if ever, that i speak up and tell them why my life matters now, why my life has purpose, who it was that saved my soul and gave me purpose!  so my challenge is to take some of that anger and some of the frustration towards people that i dont know, nor do i have much of an idea of what the circumstances were, the people, who i don't know where they were when the mobs were yelling to crucify.  i am going to take some of that frustration and anger to fuel my fire.  to love people who are not so lovable, and to say something!  our faith has to have action ... otherwise, how much can we say that we really believe what we believe?  that is my challenge to myself...to not be like the people that didnt speak up...

would you join me?  in not being like the crowds...not in some judgmental, hypocritical way...but with love.  would you join me?

covenants, learning, goodness

i told  my wife that i probably need to go to church tonight.  later today i told a buddy of mine i was going to james river's wed. night prayer service.  we commented on the fact that we both thought that it is the best service they have there.  

i made a covenant with God back in august while we were in san antonio.  as i look back on it and re-read it, my focus was on making much out of God with my life.  but somehow, in the day to day life of things....so much of my focus hasnt been on glorifying God or really even on loving God.   more of my focus has been on trying not to sin.  honestly, just trying not to sin with the 'BIG" ones.  i have been frustrated, un-focused, not being bad...just not actively, seeking ways or even acting on opportunities to glorify God.

let me stop here for a second, i might sound like a broken record...or at least in my mind i do....but can i be honest.  i have a hard time living two lives.  you know, my work life and my spiritual life.  my career and my calling.  its as if Jesus died for my spiritual life and i have to do it myself in my work life.  and since it is me doing it in my work life...i have to rely on me to T.C.B. (take care of business!).  so, if i write with this theme often...it is just me having issues killing the work life and the spiritual life and forging ahead for one WHOLLY life! 

john lindell started out tonight by saying something so profound and yet so simple.  Be strong in the Lord.  As believers it is our job to be strong in the Lord.  and i dont know if he said this exactly or i just wrote it down this way but i will give him credit for it....  "to be strong IN the Lord, you must be strengthened BY the Lord."  man that hit me.  probably because of my lack of consistency in the Word lately...but a commandment is a commandment when it comes from the word of God. and for us to be strong in the Lord is a commandment.

he went on to talk about the promises of God is where we can draw our strength from.  He taught out of Genesis 15 where God makes a covenant with Abram.  it was awesome and for me to try and recount it here would be a terrible dis-service.  but tonight definitely strengthened me in the Lord.  

i wanna try... (anything i say from here on is what i got from JRA tonight, unless otherwise noted)

• Gen 15:9-11 this is one of those passages that intrigue me.  they actually make me scratch my head and say what the heck?  in those days if people were making an agreement the lesser party or lesser king would make an agreement to submit to the more powerful party or kings way of doing things.  the lesser party would say, i am going to make a covenant (to cut) with you.  i am going to cut these animals and separate them and walk in between the halfs...getting all the blood and all the nasty all over me.  if i, as the lesser party, break this covenant...i am agreeing that you(the greater party) can do to me what is done to these animals.  does that make sense?
• Gen 15:17-18 this is where God answers Abram from v.8 . God took the part of the lesser party.  saying if this covenant is broken, i agree that you can do to me what is done to these animals.  you have got to be kidding me?  think about that! of course the covenant was broken...by the isrealites.  so what now?
• Read this.
• through Jesus, God fulfills his end of the covenant he made with Abram.  our freedom isnt free at all.  it came at the highest of prices.  

we took communion after this, and i cried as i thought of the symbolic covenant i held in my hands. (and i am not a cry-er) the price of the covenant that i do not remember so often, i held on tight to it tonight...and it strengthen me in the Lord.  When I try to not sin, even on just the BIG ones, i fail miserably.  I must choose to die to let Christ live...my focus then brings everything into perspective.  why is it that the most basic principles are the ones i constantly need to be reminded of?

THAT is why the wed night prayer service at JRA is my favorite service i think i have ever been to around here!  so, if you dont have a church home, or your church doesnt have a wed. night service....you ought to check it out. 

your faith...

i was reading in mark 10 this morning.  the story is about a blind man named bartimaeus.  short story of when Jesus is leaving a town, just walking down the road.  this blind guy, bart, hears Jesus is going to be passing by.  he starts yelling..."son of david, Jesus! mercy, have mercy on me!"  everyone tries to get this nut job to shut up and sit back down, then he gets louder...."SON OF DAVID! JESUS, MERCY, HAVE MERCY ON ME!"  (pause for one second) didnt he know about the polite way to handle things?  didnt he know, he ought to listen to all the people who werent blind, but the know the polite, nice, comfortable ways to handle things?  

(ok, continue) and i love this. reading from the message , Jesus stopped in his tracks.  apparently Jesus did not know the rules either.  Jesus ask him, what can i do for you?  Rabbi, I want to see, says the blind man.  "on your way" said Jesus.  "your faith has saved you and healed you." In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road.

for me, it is really hard not to listen to what the crowd of people are saying i should do.  but my favorite part of this story is how Jesus stops right in his tracks to see what this guy is all about!  this is the kind of faith that moves Jesus to compassion.  also, i love how bart says mercy, have mercy on me.  i dont realize how much mercy means to me sometimes.  the fact that i am NOT going to get what i really deserve!  my hope is to have enough faith that i could care less what other people think of me...  then my faith will have saved me and i can follow Jesus down the road.

how is your faith?  is it big and in dire need of Jesus?  or is small and listens to what others think?

Bible reading thoughts

reading through Judges and Mark. here are a few thoughts from today's reading:

Judges 4-6

one thing real quick...the Bible i am reading through does not mark it's verses, so you will have to dig through the text yourself to find where i am at. sorry, i know it is a pain...but you might find something you can comment back on! : )

k...judges chapters 4-6

story of deborah

• she was a judge and prophet. that was weird to me, thought the woman were supposed to keep their mouth shut??? (in the OT, of course...lol)
• people of israel continue to sin. not too much different from me so far!
• speaking of this time before the Lord called deborah to lead an attack, the author says that warriors became fat and sloppy, no fight left in them...God chose new leaders. at this point i am having to ask myself who the Lord is speaking to?
• the command is for all people to stop what they are doing and listen, listen to the story of the victory God performed for the israelites.
• clan of reuben had lots of division and camp-fire discussions. sometimes it seems like i am talking a lot...obeying very little
• "thus may all God's enemies perish, while his lovers be like the unclouded sun" there isnt much in between here.

that brings us to the story of Gideon

• people went back to evil! if you are following along in the story....you have to be saying, your kidding right? they didnt...yep they did! how often do we forget how good God has been to us and then we go right back to how we were?
• God's angel goes to Gideon and tells him, you are going to be the guy who saves israel from midian. Gideon is like, not me! I am from the smallest tribe and i am the runt of the litter! i have been dealing with this here lately. i have been thinking of the apostle paul...that when we are weak, He is strong and the Lord said to paul, my grace is sufficient for you. and for me too!
• God's promise to Gideon is this, " I will be with you..." i know that is more than enough, but i am praying for the Lord to make that real, more real than it is already for me.

have to get to Mark later. read Mark 7 that is what i will try and comment on later tonight, maybe sometime later this week. we'll see : ) have a good week!