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Archive for May, 2008

Is she ok?

Last night I went to church and sort of hung out with the youth leaders and the few youth who will be speaking and singing Sunday evening at the youth-led service. When Holly asked me if I was going to come I decided pretty quickly that I would. I am trying to embrace the fact that I feel most fulfilled when I am doing ministry related and church things and being around people who share a passion for Christ. If I would stayed at home, I would have piddled around and gotten nothing accomplished and felt very bummed about it. Instead I was at church talking and laughing, and helping stuff envelopes. Chloe got to play with Rachel, Rebekah and Luke and had a blast. I know Richard was glad to be back in church, even though it wasn’t on Sun. or Wed. night. He’s drained. Their entire family is. I just could tell he was glad to be there. We got home at around 9:30. Chloe’s had a lil’ allergy stuffiness this week. So, after playing outside last night she was pretty stuffed up when we got home. We gave her some allergy medication and she went to bed. She sleep walks sometimes. I’m thinking it’s when she takes this kind of medicine that it usually happens, but it may be at other times too. I had just really started drifting off to sleep at about 11:30 when I hear some loud noise, and couldn’t figure out if it was Meagan or what. All of a sudden the door flies open and Chloe comes in. I set up in bed, “Chloe what’s wrong?” Silence. “Chloe what’s wrong?” Silence. “Chloe!” She starts talking so quietly you can’t hear her, and what you can hear makes no sense. She says something about it being too dark and she can’t see. Turns out she had picked up her clothes for school and was going to put them on. Mark realized what was going on and said “C’mon let’s get back in bed and talk about it.” He walks her to her room and is back in ours in I think about a minute. I asked him if he thought she was ok. He said yes. In my mind I felt like she wasn’t, but somehow within I think 10 seconds, I was back asleep. Thank the Lord she actually was ok, and I laughed when she got up today and didn’t remember one bit of what happened last night. Mark’s sister Debbie used to sleep walk. One time she cut up my in-laws curtains with scissors, while sleeping! They had to put a cow-bell on her door.

Thank goodness that me ignoring my gut feeling didn’t turn out to be a disaster, ’cause it certainly could have.

This is place of the world. Much of the world I should say. Knowing something isn’t right, but 10 seconds later saying ” Casarasara. Whatever will be will be.”

Isaiah 22

A Country of Cowards

1-3 A Message concerning the Valley of Vision:

What’s going on here anyway?
All this partying and noisemaking,
Shouting and cheering in the streets,
the city noisy with celebrations!
You have no brave soldiers to honor,
no combat heroes to be proud of.
Your leaders were all cowards,
captured without even lifting a sword,
A country of cowards
captured escaping the battle.

You Looked, but You Never Looked to Him

4-8In the midst of the shouting, I said, “Let me alone.
Let me grieve by myself.
Don’t tell me it’s going to be all right.
These people are doomed. It’s not all right.”
For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
is bringing a day noisy with mobs of people,
Jostling and stampeding in the Valley of Vision,
knocking down walls
and hollering to the mountains, “Attack! Attack!”
Old enemies Elam and Kir arrive armed to the teeth—
weapons and chariots and cavalry.
Your fine valleys are noisy with war,
chariots and cavalry charging this way and that.
God has left Judah exposed and defenseless.

8-11You assessed your defenses that Day, inspected your arsenal of weapons in the Forest Armory. You found the weak places in the city walls that needed repair. You secured the water supply at the Lower Pool. You took an inventory of the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some to get bricks to fortify the city wall. You built a large cistern to ensure plenty of water.

You looked and looked and looked, but you never looked to him who gave you this city, never once consulted the One who has long had plans for this city.

12-13The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
called out on that Day,
Called for a day of repentant tears,
called you to dress in somber clothes of mourning.
But what do you do? You throw a party!
Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets!
You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast—
slabs of meat, kegs of beer.
“Seize the day! Eat and drink!
Tomorrow we die!”

14God-of-the-Angel-Armies whispered to me his verdict on this frivolity: “You’ll pay for this outrage until the day you die.” The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says so.

“4-8In the midst of the shouting, I said, “Let me alone.
Let me grieve by myself.
Don’t tell me it’s going to be all right.
These people are doomed. It’s not all right.” “

I love his passion when he says “No, this is not ok, these people are doomed.”

The comfortable modern day pew-filler says, “Oh, it’ll work out. They’ll come eventually. Casarasara” The person who sees the truth says “Don’t tell me it’s all right, these people are lost! We have to do something!” I think the passion for the last group I described may come across to the first group I described as fanatic or sometimes even anti-social. Because when you’re passion is for winning the lost, it’s tough sometimes to think about anything but that. Because again we/they see it for what it is “It’s not ok, these people are doomed. It’s not all right.”

Romans 10:14-15But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,

A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
telling all the good things of God!

I pray that uppermost in my thinking will be the truth of what it means this means: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Equally I pray to be confronted with the truth of what this means:

Revelation 20

The Dead Are Judged

11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

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Holly asked me if I could combine Focus and Vision last night, simply because of everything going on with Janice. We sort of have that understanding. Anytime something comes up on my end, I know I could do the same with asking her to let Vision come in. I’m going to attach the lesson I taught last night. Maybe you need to hear it. Read it if you think you do.

At the beginning of the lesson I passed out rubber bands and told them that throughout the lesson anytime they thought a negative thought about themselves, I wanted them to pop themselves. They were a bit shocked at first, but then they understood.

This lesson was sparked a few weeks ago in Sunday School when our lesson was on the story of David and Jonathan. A story of a complete absence of jealousy in which I myself would have struggled to not be jealous. Let’s look at the story.

I Samuel 20

David and Jonathan

1 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to take my life?” 2 “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without confiding in me. Why would he hide this from me? It’s not so!” 3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” 4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.” 5 So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon festival, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ 7 If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. 8 As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the LORD. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?” 9 “Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?” 10 David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” 11 “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together. 12 Then Jonathan said to David: “By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father is inclined to harm you, may the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away safely. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like that of the LORD as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” 16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD call David’s enemies to account.” 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself. 18 Then Jonathan said to David: “Tomorrow is the New Moon festival. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the LORD lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the LORD has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the LORD is witness between you and me forever.” 24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon festival came, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, ^[a] and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” 27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” 28 Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.” 30 Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he must die!” 32 “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David. 34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the month he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David. 35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, 36 and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39 (The boy knew nothing of all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.” 41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most. 42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’ ” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

Why was this story successful?? How in the world could Jonathan be this selfless??

Matthew 22:36″Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

If you’ll look in the story of David and Jonathon at verse 17 Jonathon loved David as himself. In Matthew Jesus says that after loving God you are to love your neighbor, but how does it say to love your neighbor-that’s right as yourself.

Matthew 7:12 12″Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.

But what do we do if we don’t love ourselves? Here in lies the problem for many of us. We don’t love ourselves, and we don’t expect that we deserve anything good, or are worth anything good, so that is how we portray what we give to others. This is not just a little problem; this is a cancer eating away at the purpose God has planned for your life.

Tonight what and who is keeping you from loving yourself? The truth of the matter is you’re being prideful. I know what you’re thinking “Wait a minute, I have low self esteem, that’s the opposite of pride.” But low self esteem, and self hatred, and listening to what others say about you is putting your opinion and beliefs above those of God and that is pride.

Psalm 139:13-18 13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

Male and female he created them in the image of God
(Genesis 1:26-28)
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”.

I have come to the conclusion that the only opinion I should care about is the opinion of God. If the opinion of someone else doesn’t line up with God’s opinion, then God’s opinion always overrules. I’m not suggesting that any person not be in submission to their parents or authority figures. In those situations you must see you as God does, and then know that He will guide you on dealing with parents or friends who aren’t Christians, or living outside God’s will, But no persons opinion overrules God’s. Are you living that way tonight? I’m not, but I want to.

This has to be dealt with. Our relationships to others can’t be what God intended if we don’t believe we are exactly who he wants us to be. EXACTLY. Do you believe that tonight?? So I’m left to believe this. Who we were created to be is who God wants us to be. I don’t believe there is trickery on the part of God. What I mean by that is- did God create you to be a serial killer? Did God create you to be a drug addict? Did God create you to be cruel? I’m tiptoeing around some things, but the bottom line is if you are involved in gross sin and it’s become your way of life, don’t tell me that’s how God made you. What I’m trying to say is there is a clear line of right and wrong and some people will use this as a platform to sin, and that is not what I’m talking about. God didn’t create you to sin. If He can’t tolerate it, then why in the world would he have created you to live in it? That’s crazy I Corinthians 10: 13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. If you are having negative feelings about yourself because of sin, that’s not low self esteem, that’s the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You’re not getting by that easy by me patting you on the head and saying “it’s ok.”

I’m talking about you. Who you are. Your personality. Your appearance. Your intelligence. Your abilities. Your inabilities.

I want to stop for a minute and say this is not only about physical beauty and you’re struggle with that. I know some of you do, and I know some of you struggle with many other things as far as how you feel about yourself.

2 Timothy 3:7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.Is this us tonight? We learn this lesson over and over and over but can’t acknowledge it.

Do you have relationship problems tonight? Do you have a problem with yourself? Do you have problems with your creator?

If I love others based on the love I have for myself, and I hate myself, that’s what I give to others. Do you remember the story of Jonathon and David? We can be fulfilled in relationships and do things that in our own power and opinion of ourselves we could never do. You will struggle in friendships, marriage, parent-child,-child-parent if we don’t accept the mystery of being created in the image of God.

You can’t be happy or experience true joy and peace, if you truly don’t believe you are who God says you are, you can NEVER be and do everything in His plan. You will stop and start a million times because every time someone tells you who they think you are, you will believe them. The devil sends messages in the form of the people whose support you crave, and when they say something negative, we often listen and forget it’s contrary to what God says. The flip side is happiness and true joy and peace in the middle of any situation when we do believe we are who He says we are.

We must deal with this if we ever want to get beyond spiritual infancy. There are times we will be alone except for God, but it’s better to alone with God then surrounded by the support of everyone but Him. Are you putting the approval of others and yourself above what God says?

Tonight I want us to realize that when we say “God you made a mistake. God I’m no good. God you couldn’t be pleased with your creation of me” we’re calling God a liar. We are.

I want you to gather every negative thing that you think of yourself, or others have told you and you continue to believe and bring it to Him. If you have low self esteem because you’re in sin, bring it to Him. I want us to pray tonight, and you can bow if you want, but please do real business with God tonight.

Throughout the lesson I could see people popping their rubber bands. Some over and over. After the lesson, I had the lights dimmed, and we played music. I encouraged us all to deal with not loving ourselves. People came forward. Some knelt. Some sobbed. When it was over, many had their hands lifted.

But that was last night, and this is today. I told them all that we may have to get up every day for the rest of our lives and remind ourselves God loves us. That’s ok. I encouraged them to wear their rubber bands and use them when those negative thoughts come in.

Do you love others as yourself today? Or do you hate others as you hate yourself? Or do you criticize others as you criticize yourself? Or do you expect the impossible from others as you expect the impossible from yourself? Deal with this today. You have to.

One last thing I said last night, “If we believe we are who God says we are, shouldn’t the expression on our face change?? to