Ch. 744 - Bridegroom Thoughts

These concise thoughts are the result of reading a report written by a young man named Blaise Foret. I think he's a student at IHOPU, but I could be wrong... Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about what was said in the paper and through my own reading... and I want to just get my thoughts down.

Jesus is the Bridegroom.
A husband's love for his wife surpasses his love for his children.
Or, at least it should.

Jesus coming as the Church's Bridegroom... mere language... or truth?

[Ephesians 5:22-33]

Christ: His Church
Husbands: Wives
<------------------->
One body...
Mutuality in love...

Mystery: Christ and the Church
--> Communication
--> Emotions [like fire]

Engagement... it creates a longing, a yearning... a deep desire.
[A yearning from and of the Holy Spirit...]

Our desire for the return of Christ, for the marriage to the Bridegroom, will be a "real impartation of hunger that comes from the Holy Spirit..."

[Luke 18:7-8]

A perfect marriage.
Faithful in all facets.

His presence will bring peace and rest.

The cry: "Come!"

......

Click here to revisit Chapter 271.

Ch. 743 - By and Through...

Luke 1:35
Jesus was born of the Spirit.

Luke 3:22
Jesus was baptized by the Spirit.

Luke 4:1
Jesus was filled and led by the Spirit.

Acts 10:38
Jesus did miracles through the Spirit.

Hebrews 9:14
Jesus offered himself to death through the Spirit.

Romans 8:11
Jesus rose from the dead by the Spirit.

......

Click here to revisit Chapter 255.

Ch. 259 - Habitual Love

I want to love so much that it becomes habit.
But I want that love to not be shallow and meaningless.
I want it to be purposeful and true.


' "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them." '
[Luke 6:32]

Ch. 194 - Not Worth It

' "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." '
[Luke 6:27-28]

I really need to do just this. It's not even that I have enemies or people who hate me or curse me - or I at least hope I don't! Eh, mistreat me, maybe. But seriously - I have it good compared to a lot of people. However, I can still become discouraged or upset based on what people do or say, even if something's not exactly directed towards me.

I just pray that God will lay what Christ said in Luke 6:27-28 on my heart all the more, no matter what situation I am in. Big deal, not a big deal... serious matter, light matter... it's important to truly love everybody for who they are and to meet them where they are.

Ch. 186 - Leaning on God

I can't keep missing people and experiences. I mean, it's alright to do so, I suppose. But when it's getting in the way of my walk with Christ, it's definitely not alright. Things simply aren't the same here as they were in Salt Lake, so I can't expect to grow in the ways I did when I was at the University of Utah. I just can't.

It's just that I miss talking.
Not talking to people.
Talking with people.
Having those true, deep talks.
Meaningful conversation.
I haven't done so since I've been here.

And to be honest, I haven't even talked with God all that much. I may have talked at Him, sure, but I haven't truly listened to Him. I don't give Him as much time as I should. As a result, I haven't felt very close to Him for the past few weeks... yes, even here at Bible college. Oh, sure, I've felt His presence. But that's different from feeling close to Him, in my opinion.

I was talking with my friend Anthony tonight about the whole issue. He reminded me that I need to fully rely on God. Lean on Him. I can turn to friends and family and whatever all I want, but nobody and nothing matters more than God. Just this past week a professor spoke in chapel about surrendering to God and how you need to consider everything but God as garbage. I know in the past I wrote about how Luke 14:26 says that your love for your parents and your life should look like hate in comparison to your love for God (see Ch. 84). This is just a reiteration of what I said then. I'm also going to go 'back to basics' with Isaiah 40:8, which says ' "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." '

I really need to dive into Scripture more. Man. I say that every day, but do I follow through with it? ...... Even if I was more adamant about reading, you can never read enough. As we were talking Anthony told me to read Romans 8. I've probably read Romans a handful of times, but for the life of me, I hadn't the faintest idea of what Romans 8 was about. So I read. Beautiful. It speaks of living life through the Spirit and not letting anything come between you and God. It was exactly what I needed. We spoke about how the enemy will do anything to get you away from God. Just now he told me, "Remember that doubt comes from the enemy, not yourself; don't let him deceive you." That really hit home for me, because right now I am full of doubt. It's a terrible feeling. 'Why am I here? What does He want? What am I supposed to do? Am I here because He truly wants me here, or is it just another step towards where I'm supposed to be? Maybe I haven't given everything over to God like I thought I had. So what now?'

We can think about what God's will for us is all we want. We can mull it over for hours on end and get basically nowhere. That's why we have to take life one day at a time. I know from experience that having a plan of your own doesn't work. You can have a general idea of how you want life to go, I think, but as soon as you have your life planned out to your dying day... that's when God will turn your life upside down. That's why we have to rely on God and trust in Him for everything. Anthony let me in on the fact that God told him that His true will for us is to spend time with Him and become close to Him - and when we do so, He will reveal His plan for us.

But first you need to lean on God for everything. That's where it all begins. If you aren't leaning on Him, you aren't going to be close enough to hear what He's saying. So how will you know where to go and what to do?


'You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.'
[Romans 8:9]

'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?'
[Romans 8:35]

Ch. 117 - The Ol' Switcharoo

So I was reading my Bible today and decided to read some New Testament scripture. I flipped it over to a random page and came to Luke, chapter ten. I started to read and came to The Parable of the Good Samaritan. I almost decided to skip over it and continue on to chapter eleven, but decided not to do so. I got through the first few verses and had to stop to think about them, because I read something I had not taken note of before.

An expert in the law decided to 'test' Jesus and asked Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked in response what is written in the Law; the expert answered that we are to " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Jesus replied, "You have answered correctly."

You have answered correctly. But wait, wasn't the expert the one who had decided to test Jesus in the first place? But Jesus makes it sound as if He were the one who was testing the expert in the law.

An interesting thought, no?

I asked my mom about this and she reminded me that it seems as if whenever experts in the law and the Pharisees stood up to Jesus and questioned or tested Him to undermine His authority, Jesus turned the tables on them and simply made them look and sound foolish.

'Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.'

[1 Chronicles 16:11-12]

(This was a verse I read in my Old Testament reading for the day and it really hit me. I like it a lot.)

Ch. 95 - God's Great Grace

Man. Gotta love that alliteration.

Today was my first full day back in Iowa and I have enjoyed it very, very much. It was great going to church and attending the full-on traditional service that I have come to love entirely. We had a visiting pastor, though. He's the lay pastor of the United Methodist Church of Tanzania. His native language is Kurundi and he had a translator for his sermon. So, so, so neat. He's larger than life and knows how to keep your attention. He spoke of remembering to thank our God for His grace that He has given us. I believe that's really important because I don't think people often enough do so. I know I don't. I like to think that it pleases God by at least meaning to give Him thanks more often, but I know that by actually just doing it pleases Him even more.

These were the verses that the pastor's message was based on:


'Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." '
[Luke 17:11-19]

Ch. 84 - A Love/Hate Thing

As I was hauling myself back and forth across town yesterday between the driver license division building, social security office and my dorm, I had a lot of time to sit, think and read. And sit some more. While in the social security office I let my Bible fall open and it came to the beginning of Ecclesiastes. I started reading from the beginning. As I began chapter three, titled 'A Time for Everything', I became excited because the first eight verses of this chapter are one of my favorite groups of verses in the Bible.

So I began to read.

'There's a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:'
'... a time to be born and a time to die...'
'... a time to weep and a time to laugh...'
'... a time to search and a time to give up...'

Then I came to the eighth verse.

'... a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.'

A time to hate?

I had never taken this verse into consideration or even cared that it said there is a time to hate.

I decided to look a bit deeper into this, because for some reason it struck me pretty hard and I couldn't stop thinking about it. This is what I found, thanks to the Blue Letter Bible:

Ecclesiastes 3:8 is interconnected with Luke 14:26 -

' "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple." '

Hm. Picture this. Some angsty tenth grader, whose passion and mission in life is hating the world, is being forced to read the Bible by their mom - who thinks that it will do the kid some good. Amazingly enough, they actually do it. They come to this verse in Luke. A light goes on, a grin slowly spreads across their face and they immediately go find their mom. "Mom, guess what?! Jesus told me to hate my family." Now that their self-allowance of speaking ten words a month has been reached, they go running off to do whatever it is that angsty tenth graders do these days.

The thing is, the kid didn't care about what Jesus was saying. First of all, the topic of discipleship is a big deal. To be a disciple of Christ - to follow in His footsteps - is an honor. And I don't think it's to be taken lightly. Secondly, this verse can't be taken literally. Its true meaning is actually the opposite of what it seems to say. This verse speaks of love.

You should love God so much that love for your family and self seems like hate. Only when your love for God is greater than your love for anyone or anything else can you be a true disciple of Christ.

Love God.
Transform.
Give it up.
Carry your cross.
Follow Jesus.
Be a disciple.


'If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.'
[1 John 4:15-16]

......

Ch. Eighty-Three, Part Two:

I like the fact that this post started with explaining my curiosity of what 'a time to hate' means... and ended with the focus not on hate at all, but instead on love. This is fascinating to me, because once I'm interested in something and want to learn about it, most of my time, energy and focus goes into whatever that 'something' is until I either, a) have learned all that I can or b) am satisfied with what I've learned. So this time, when I'm actually interested in hate, it turns a 180 on me and I end up learning about love. As Phil, my youth pastor in Iowa, likes to say, "It's a God thing."

Ch. 68 - Praise God!

He is risen!


'On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee; 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " Then they remembered his words.'
[Luke 24:1-8]