Thursday, February 7, 2008

hesitations...

hesitation can be the thing that breaks you the most as God works to develop the best in you. it can be crazy because hesitation demonstrates who's in control. gen 19:16 teaches that lot hesitated; it should have cost him and his home their lives. later on in that verse, we read the words that God was merciful and he got them out. when God speaks, we should act. when we hesitate to act on what we know to be from God, it shows how much we don't trust. does God truly have the best in mind for his people? yes. do we always live like we believe that? no.

i often believe that God calls our attention to get us out of areas or places where we should no longer be. sodom was that place for lot; God called him to leave. i believe that he knew it and yet there was something so charming about the place that made him hesitate. he stopped for a moment to reconsider his options. is it really better out there?

is it really? if God calls you 'out there,' then yes...it has to be. thank goodness for his mercy; for those second chances of redeeming our mistakes, our unwise choices, our hesitations.

why do you think we hesitate to go out there?

why do you think we always reconsider things when we know that God is leading us to a better place, to a place where he's waiting for us?

Monday, February 4, 2008

how do we respond?

in genesis 17, at the age of 90, God visits with abram. he introduces himself "I am God Almighty" (El Shaddai)

then he tells abram to do 2 things: walk before him and be blameless.

in verse 3, abram's response is falling facedown...in reverence, worship, fear? has this calling really changed that much from back then to us today? to walk with God and to be blameless(not at fault for wrong). what's amazing to me is how my response to God is seldom like abram's. the almighty OnE reveals himself through creation, through every breath taken, through life in itself and yet it seems so normal. so..routine-ish. i am convinced that to walk with him, we must first know where he is and which direction he's going in. these are things that we can't control, we must simply adjust to. then the whole blameless thing, we have good amounts of control over what we do or do not do. we can choose to do what's right and be blameless...it's just so hard. but i believe that when we walk with him in intimacy and we when we draw closer to him because we are further from sin and closer to him, we realize how much we are not God and how much we truly do not deserve to be in relation with him. we also realize how good he is and how kind and generous he is. our response to that is worship. falling face down before an almighty God, because of who he is and what he has done. when God appears, our response is worship. not singing, worship.

how do you worship when you aren't at church or without your ipod?

how do you fall facedown before God Almighty?

Sunday, February 3, 2008

being credited...

abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness- genesis 15:6


a man who was really to old to have kids is told by God that not only will he have kids, but their will be so many, that it's going to be like the stars in the sky. for believing God, he is credited with righteousness. i know that God does the impossible and i know that God has done the impossible, and yet i still wrestle with doubts. i often think that it's because i try to do it myself and rely on myself instead of Him. i know the right answer, it's the whole putting it into practice part that i can struggle with. i would like to be 'credited unto righteousness.' that would be sweet.

why do you think it's difficult to trust God, even when he's proven himself over and over? let me know.