Smiling with God...

Ezekiel 8:14-15 Then he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz. He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.” Here the Lord is showing Ezekiel that there is something going wrong with Israel. Here a woman is mourning over a Sumerian god. The Lord is obviously grieved and saddened over this. It is not a normal thing to do for the people of Israel. They have stepped away from serving the true God. The nation of Israel has stepped away from their calling, they have rejected God, and the worst was yet to come. I believe that the Lord is truly saddened when Christians step away from their calling and retreat away from their God. Now whether or not you believe that “once a Christian always a Christian”, or in the theory of “were you ever saved at all” we can all agree that God is not happy when it happens. Especially in this case where they not ...

Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own, it is not for man to direct his steps Jeremiah knows who is really in charge. Unlike the rest of Israel, he recognizes that God is the one who is controlling the destiny of the people there. Jeremiah is fully aware that God is the one who can withhold punishment, bring peace, and administer judgement. In this statement, Jeremiah also submits. There is something submission does to people. It brings them to humbly come before God and ask what to do. It means that the individual must rely upon God for everything. And that is exactly what Jeremiah does. His reliance upon God is unprecedented. At this point there is nothing that Jeremiah can do but to whole submit his request and wait for God to execute His plan. Jeremiah’s only option is to sit and wait. His reliance is on God. You know, there are times in life where I have come to this point. There is nothing I can do but wait on God. Couple of years ago I had a ...

Jeremiah 7:22-23 For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. Nothing wrong with rituals. I at times enjoy having going through a church service that is very ritualistic. The Israelites seem to have got that part down also, but as time goes on, it seems that the Israelites tend to forget that following God is more than just doing the rituals and going through the motions. He desires here that the Israelites actually walk the walk. His true desire is that He wants is for them to obey. He wants them to walk in obedience to Him. Offerings and sacrifices are just part of the equation The rest of it is that very important command: "Obey Me". I have, in times, put God in a box. I separated "rituals and sacrifices" from...

Romans 4:19 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith and he gave glory to god, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Here Paul talks about Abraham and his faith. He talks about how strong faith directs and guides your life. It gives you confidence and strength during times of trouble and doubt. Not only that, it gives assurance and security in life. Yet, faith is tough, it’s not easy to believe in something that is not seen and act as if it is real. Not knowing if it will happen sometimes known as suspense is what we don’t like. We like knowing. But like the popular quote says, “The opposite of faith is certainty”. We love certainty, we love knowing, we love having it written down on paper signed and sealed. Yet that is exactly what faith is not. Not knowing what will happen or if it will ever happen in your life time but trusting that it will happen. That is the nature of faith. It’s not easy. It is no...

Matthew 15:15-16 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us?” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. Wow. Nothing like being called stupid by God. Peter by far is the most interesting disciple. Sometimes he’s the person you admire other times he’s the idiot. Here Jesus called him “dull” But in other translations it literally says stupid. Imagine Jesus saying to you, “Are you stupid?” Nothing like being embarrassed like that. Let’s take things into perspective and take a look at this. The parable they are asking about is the one where Jesus is explaining to the Pharisees what goes in to the the mouth does not make you unclean but what comes out of the mouth makes you unclean. Pretty basic right? And really we weren’t there so I’m thinking…. maybe Jesus did not understand the question. But he is Jesus. So that’s probably not the case. Now being called stupid requires you to either one, already know something that is being said, or two it is common knowledge. So I’m thinking the...

Genesis 2:20-21 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. This is an interesting. Prior to these verses, God states that it's not good for man to be alone. Then he makes Adam name all the animals. Kind of weird, but if you ask me there is something up about that. So I had to go and look it up several commentaries and see what others though about this. Surely I was not the only one who wondered why in the world did God just not make someone for Adam, seems to make the most sense. Little did I know that after some digging, it was not that God there were some that were some crazy explanations, then one that just hit me like a ton of bricks. That was this, sometimes we don't recognize that we need something till we need it. In th...

Mark 1:38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” Now there was much to do here in this town. Jesus was preaching and healing, so people were coming all over to see him here in this town. But all of a sudden, after a quiet time in the desert, Jesus tells his disciples, “Let’s go.” I’m sure the disciples were thinking what we are all thinking, “WHY?” But what see is the right thing to do is not necessarily the thing to do. Jesus knew what His mission was: to please the Father and do what He called him to do. Obedience, to the call and to pleasing the Father, that is what Jesus modeled. He knew his mission on earth was to call the sinners to repentance, be the sacrifice for all, and therefore it will bring glory to God. It seems that he does this at every level here. From the get go he was obedient to God and stayed true to the calling that God had on his life. Jesus knew what to do, when to do it, and how ...