The second word I want to touch on, in regard to my previous post from yesterday, comes from a pastor in my church (no, not the senior pastor, the young adult's pastor) whom I will simply call PT, since that is the nickname all the young adults have given him and because this is the internet. Anywho, this particular word of PT's was recomended to me by someone whom I'll refer to as dad since that's who he is. (btw, click the title of this post to hear PT's message)
And now that we've put all the preliminary repetative hoakieness behind us, bear with me as I forge ahead to reviel the contents of PT's said word. In his spoken word, PT basically started by talking about how some people leave the church, or at least a particular church, because they get offended by someone or by a word the pastor speaks or for any number of reasons. This also seems to be a somewhat common occurance here in America, probably due to the influences of both conservatives and liberals, not only in the political and pop culture realms, but within the church body as well. It's this kind of thing, PT explained, that has created so many denominations within the church body itself, why we have specific groups called Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Protestants, Calvinists, etc., etc. and so on. The progression seems to go like this; whenever a group of people feel they've got God figured out or the reach a place in their walk where they feel comfortable, they seem to dig in, settle down and get comfortable with where they are and stay there, refusing to move on any further into the inheritance God has for them. At that point, God moves on to the next group of followers that's willing to go a little further with his plan until the find a comfy spot to stop and say "okay, that's good enough", and the cycle continues. At least up 'til now... I think. Don't quote me on that, though, I have been known to be wrong. The point is, some of these denominations have missed out on some of their inheritance by staying put where they are in their walk with God. They became too content with a certain level of holiness or religiousity and basically said "nope, this is good enough for us, thanks, we don't need anymore." PT went on to say that God "...doesn't want to improve me, he wants to remove me so that he can live through me (and we all go owwee!)"
What does that mean exactly? What the Bible says, and I'm not quoting this exactly as it appears in the book, God didn't come hear to make us feel better and give us all our heart's desires and make everything all puppies and rainbows. God came hear to earth, to die and atone for our sins with his own blood, to bridge the gap between us and him and give us another shot at a new destiny. That means no longer living up to our eyebrows in sin, no longer conforming to this world, it means trusting fully in him and dying to ourselves, to lay down our wants and needs and allowing him to transform us from the inside out. Simply put, God came here to earth to perform a massive overhaul of the way we think and feel, spiritually, and to perform open heart surgery on our souls so that he can use us and mold us into tools to reach other lost children. He wants to bring us back to himself and give us new life and a true joy and comes only from him. For him to do that, we have to be open and honest with him, completely, as in being fully vulnerable before God and hiding nothing from him and allowing him to prune us, much like a tree, to remove all our defitiancies and impurities so we can grow stronger in him.
Another example of this, which can be found in the Bible, in the refining of gold. What does the refining of gold have to do with the pruning of trees you ask? Actually, more than you think. Pruning cutts away fruitless branches, things in life that just weigh us down, and forms the tree, us, any way the gardener, God, desires. Purifying brings impurities to the surface and burns them away, leaving only the pure gold substance that can then be easily molded into whatever shape the goldsmith, God, desires. So, while pruning deals with what's on the outside as apposed to what's inside like refining, they both help to remove from us our imperfections and shape us in the hands of the Father. We just need to allow God to come in the perform surgery on our hearts and make us his.
(Still to be continued...)
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Plan A... or Plan B?
*A red and white clad figure deftly steps from the shadows in silence, a piercing stare affixed within his deep blue eyes, his right hand upon the hilt of his sword ready to strike*
*sigh*
So I've been in something of slump spiritually, as well in my current employment situation, and I've been thinking lately about a some words spoken in recent weeks by three particular people in my church, all of whom I look up to with much respect. I say slump because that's pretty much what it is. As far as a job, I've gone through a lot of prospects but I either never hear back or it just doesn't work out. Meanwhile, spiritually, I've kinda slipped into a bit of a apathetic lethargy and I've let other things take priority over my spiritual walk with God. This has made it a little hard to seek him lately on a an important life decision I have to make rather soon. I've been meditating on these aforesaid spoken words and trying to apply them to my current situation .
The first word came from one of my young adult leaders durring our four-day outting at Lake Roosevelt the weekend before last. The first night he spoke, it was actually the second night of the trip, he talked about how there's been a lot of talk about my generation being called the "Joshua Generation" and how that's basically a huge missnomer in that it sets a high expectation on us to do great things now. He explained how it's really very unrealistic to expect teens and twenty-somethings right out of high school and college to do a bunch of great signs and wonders in the name of Christ right off the bat. For the most part, in general, we're still very inexperienced in how to do this propperly, we're still greenhorns to borrow the old colloquiallism. Sure, there were Josiahs in the Bible that did great things in God's name in their teens and twenties, but, as my good friend points out, there were even more examples like Moses and Elijah in their forties and older who where not only far older, but one could speculate they were also far more experienced and had walked with God longer. Simply put, don't let people look down on you because of your age, but don't try to grow up too fast either. We have a great inheritance as sons and daughter of the most high, but perhaps we should take a lesson from the prodigal son's story and wait until we're truly ready to move out into that inheritance.
The second night, he took his message a step further and disected the story further by saying there's a plan A and a plan B we can take. God has a plan for our lives, each and every one of us; that's plan A. As perfect as His plan is, though, we, in our simple-minded human thing, sometimes think we've got a better one, that we've got God all figured out and that we know more than he does. Indeed, it almost never fails that you even overhear someone telling themselves or others how they are God. Now, I don't know if you got the memo yet, but...
YOU'RE NOT GOD!!!
Contrary to popular belief, you didn't create the universe and it certainly doesn't revolve around you! If you were God, you wouldn't have the inherent ability to trip over you own shoe laces when you forget to tie them. There's only one God, He's got one plan and the fact is, it's the only perfect one. If we stray from God's plan A, we're then choosing our plan B, a plan which can take any number of forms. God can still work us back into His plan A if we come back to Him, but, like the prodigal, we will no longer have the full inheritance he planned to give us had we stuck to his plan A. In other words, keep trusting in God alone and eventually you will recieve his full inheritance for you.
This spoke to me on a number of levels, showing me how, because I listened to a lot of talk about how my generation is the "generation of change" or something like that, I had come to expect great things of myself when I still did not know what exactly those things were or even how the heck I was supposed to acheive them. Maybe I trying to hard to make my own plans come true. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough to listen to God. All I know is, I'll never get it right if I keep trying to do this thing called life on my own outside of the original plan A. So, I'm asking God to help me trust him better and grow closer to him.
(To be continued...)
*sigh*
So I've been in something of slump spiritually, as well in my current employment situation, and I've been thinking lately about a some words spoken in recent weeks by three particular people in my church, all of whom I look up to with much respect. I say slump because that's pretty much what it is. As far as a job, I've gone through a lot of prospects but I either never hear back or it just doesn't work out. Meanwhile, spiritually, I've kinda slipped into a bit of a apathetic lethargy and I've let other things take priority over my spiritual walk with God. This has made it a little hard to seek him lately on a an important life decision I have to make rather soon. I've been meditating on these aforesaid spoken words and trying to apply them to my current situation .
The first word came from one of my young adult leaders durring our four-day outting at Lake Roosevelt the weekend before last. The first night he spoke, it was actually the second night of the trip, he talked about how there's been a lot of talk about my generation being called the "Joshua Generation" and how that's basically a huge missnomer in that it sets a high expectation on us to do great things now. He explained how it's really very unrealistic to expect teens and twenty-somethings right out of high school and college to do a bunch of great signs and wonders in the name of Christ right off the bat. For the most part, in general, we're still very inexperienced in how to do this propperly, we're still greenhorns to borrow the old colloquiallism. Sure, there were Josiahs in the Bible that did great things in God's name in their teens and twenties, but, as my good friend points out, there were even more examples like Moses and Elijah in their forties and older who where not only far older, but one could speculate they were also far more experienced and had walked with God longer. Simply put, don't let people look down on you because of your age, but don't try to grow up too fast either. We have a great inheritance as sons and daughter of the most high, but perhaps we should take a lesson from the prodigal son's story and wait until we're truly ready to move out into that inheritance.
The second night, he took his message a step further and disected the story further by saying there's a plan A and a plan B we can take. God has a plan for our lives, each and every one of us; that's plan A. As perfect as His plan is, though, we, in our simple-minded human thing, sometimes think we've got a better one, that we've got God all figured out and that we know more than he does. Indeed, it almost never fails that you even overhear someone telling themselves or others how they are God. Now, I don't know if you got the memo yet, but...
YOU'RE NOT GOD!!!
Contrary to popular belief, you didn't create the universe and it certainly doesn't revolve around you! If you were God, you wouldn't have the inherent ability to trip over you own shoe laces when you forget to tie them. There's only one God, He's got one plan and the fact is, it's the only perfect one. If we stray from God's plan A, we're then choosing our plan B, a plan which can take any number of forms. God can still work us back into His plan A if we come back to Him, but, like the prodigal, we will no longer have the full inheritance he planned to give us had we stuck to his plan A. In other words, keep trusting in God alone and eventually you will recieve his full inheritance for you.
This spoke to me on a number of levels, showing me how, because I listened to a lot of talk about how my generation is the "generation of change" or something like that, I had come to expect great things of myself when I still did not know what exactly those things were or even how the heck I was supposed to acheive them. Maybe I trying to hard to make my own plans come true. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough to listen to God. All I know is, I'll never get it right if I keep trying to do this thing called life on my own outside of the original plan A. So, I'm asking God to help me trust him better and grow closer to him.
(To be continued...)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Why do I even try?
I'm kinda feelin' a lot like the Apostle Paul when he said "...what I hate, that I do."
For the last couple of months I've been stuck in a rutt, unengaged with life, either sittin' on my butt at home on the internet or lookin' of a job; and failing to ever hear back. I see lots of opportunities, but I just can't seem to land anything (for very long, if at all). Even when I get a lead on a job and try to follow up on it, I botch it horribly, even when I plan ahead. What makes it worse? I make the most obvious mistakes like a wrong turn. I feel like an idiot, I can't do a thing right, even when I do everything according to plan.
Am I a failure? Why do I even continue on with this life? What's the point?
Why don't you just give up on me, God? What do you see in me?
I know you have a plan for my life and I know you have a destiny laid out for me and I know why you sent your son. I just don't know why I keep screwing up so bad lately. I haven't listened to you very well and so far I've botched every job opportunity I've pursued. I know you have great plans for me and I've got big dreams of my own, but it seems like every step I take just digs me further into this hole of failure I've been digging lately. Oh, despicable me!
Why do I even try?
God, I can't do this on my own, the only thing I seem to be good at is botching my opportunities and wasting time. You're the only hope I have left right now. You know me better than I know myself, you see everything I do, everytime I've screwed it up, everytime I've failed at even the simplest tasks. Speak to me, if you really care. Show me your face, reveal to me your true plan. Show me what to do. I can't do this without you.
For the last couple of months I've been stuck in a rutt, unengaged with life, either sittin' on my butt at home on the internet or lookin' of a job; and failing to ever hear back. I see lots of opportunities, but I just can't seem to land anything (for very long, if at all). Even when I get a lead on a job and try to follow up on it, I botch it horribly, even when I plan ahead. What makes it worse? I make the most obvious mistakes like a wrong turn. I feel like an idiot, I can't do a thing right, even when I do everything according to plan.
Am I a failure? Why do I even continue on with this life? What's the point?
Why don't you just give up on me, God? What do you see in me?
I know you have a plan for my life and I know you have a destiny laid out for me and I know why you sent your son. I just don't know why I keep screwing up so bad lately. I haven't listened to you very well and so far I've botched every job opportunity I've pursued. I know you have great plans for me and I've got big dreams of my own, but it seems like every step I take just digs me further into this hole of failure I've been digging lately. Oh, despicable me!
Why do I even try?
God, I can't do this on my own, the only thing I seem to be good at is botching my opportunities and wasting time. You're the only hope I have left right now. You know me better than I know myself, you see everything I do, everytime I've screwed it up, everytime I've failed at even the simplest tasks. Speak to me, if you really care. Show me your face, reveal to me your true plan. Show me what to do. I can't do this without you.
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