Redemption

"Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, 'Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: "Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; bit you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'. I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine," says the Lord God. "Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and chain on your neck. And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flower, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you," says the Lord God." -Ezekiel 16:1-14.

I'm going to skim past the next bunch of verses... they're all really great, but I'm running out of time before work and you probably don't want to read a lot more. It's a lot to take in. Here we go.

..."But you trusted in your beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it (15)... Behold, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior (27)... neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done (48)... Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abomination more than they, and have justified your sisters by all the abominations which you have done (51)..."

BUT: "Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you (60)."

I know it was a big chunk of verses to read, but that's one of my favorite chapters, because it outlines perfectly the relationship we have with God. He sees us as sinners (before we were yet saved, Jesus died for us), extends His grace and mercy, and gives us the world. We, being human and very short-sighted, take His gifts to us and throw it to the world, abandoning our Saviour in search of a faux life, committing spiritual adultery with the world and its goodies. God reels us back in, sometimes with drastic measures, and we are, once again, redeemed. God doesn't fulfill His end of the deal based on whether we're good or whether we fulfill ours; God already made the promise to wash us clean when we first came to Him, and He keeps His word. There will always be redemption for us. The thing we have to watch for is taking advantage of His love for us. "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." -Galations 5:13.

I love the fact that we don't have to be perfect to be loved by God. He's loved us from the first time He saw us, and we're told that He sees us before we are born. I know that I won't ever be able to earn that love, and lately that's been making me a little depressed, because I know that I haven't been trying. But reading sections like these make me remember that it's not what I do that makes my God love me. And once I'm saved, I don't have to work to keep Him loving me. His grace stays consistent. After realizing this, my view has changed back to serving Him because I love Him and want to bless Him, not because I want to be loved and blessed by Him. It's a fine line, and I'm so happy that I've gotten that perspective back. Thank you, Pastor Brian and Pastor Nick at SLO Calvary for teaching on these issues! And thank you, God, for opening up my heart again.

God bless!

Rain, Rain (don't) go away...

I love it. I love rain. I love going out in the rain and feeling the drops hit my body at unpredictable times. I love forgetting my umbrella and getting soaked. I love coming inside and dripping a little bit on the carpet. I love how it smells during and after the rain visits. I love how my car gets washed in the rain. I love how empty the streets get while it rains, because no one else really enjoys being in it. I love sitting in my room and hearing the rain beat a rhythm on my roof. I love falling asleep to that song. I love that God isn't weeping when it rains. I love that we all get the blessing of the rain in this beautiful place that we live. I love how green the grass gets after the rain. I love the memories that come with the rain. I love the comfort that it brings. I love the life that thrives with the rain. I love the promise of a movie and hot chocolate, my calm space in the center of the cold rain and chilly wind.

I just love that after this amazing February summer we've experienced, this rain sweeps in and rejuvenates the landscape. It revamps the beauty so that we can look out and thank God for this happiest of places that we live in. I am blessed to be here, in the prime of my life, working at a coffee shop and seeing my favorite weather sweep through the town, bathe it, and make it new again. Thank you, Jesus, for the rain.

God bless!!

Ezekiel

I've decided after not too much debate that Ezekiel is my favorite book of the Bible. Revelation is a very close second, but Ezekiel really takes the cake. The terminology is poetic and beautiful and although the book seems like it's full of God's fury and the destruction of the Israeli people, almost every chapter that foretells how the people will be blasted off of the face of the earth and then taken into captivity ends with this beautiful promise that God will leave a remnant. The whole point of this book (so far, anyways - I'm 20 chapters in) is the repenting and restoration of the people and how God's love lasts so much longer than His fury.

"Thus says the Lord God, 'I will take also one of the highest branches of the high cedar and set it out. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and will plant it on a high and prominent mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell. And the trees of that field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it!'" - Ezekiel 17:22

"But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, and done what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed will be remembered against him; because of the righteousness he has done, he shall live. 'Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?' says the Lord God, 'and not that he should turn from his ways and live?'" - Ezekiel 18:21-23.

What has really struck me these last few weeks going through the wonderful book of Ezekiel was the comparison to the New Testament. Before I read through this much of Ezekiel, I had only heard but not seen proof of the phrase "God is the same today, yesterday, and forever." I always had two distinct images of the Old Testament God (this infinitely powerful, short tempered, judging, war-waging king) and the New Testament God (this infinitely merciful, gracious, loving, sacrificing, calm, long suffering buddy-God). It wasn't until recently that I have been able to see that really, God is the same in both sections of the Bible. For one thing, even though God destroyed the world in Noah's time, he gave the people about 100 years to repent while Noah built his new-fangled water contraption. Even though he rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gamorrah, He admitted in His dialogue with Lot that if even 5 men were found faithful in the city, all of the inhabitants would be spared (it's not His fault there were less than 5 good people). Like I said before, almost every chapter where destruction is predicted by Ezekiel ends with a section on God leaving a remnant so that the people would not be lost. There is the much quoted verse Ezekiel 18:32, "'I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies', says the Lord God. 'Therefore turn and live!'"

God constantly exhorts His much loved and cherished children to turn and live, to repent, to quit doing stupid things and start back up on the straight and narrow. He gives countless warnings in so many different ways so that everyone can see and understand the message, and even when the destruction came, He only caused it to happen because if He didn't do that, the people would never see their need for Him and repent. Captivity has that effect on you.

The comparison is that this message in Ezekiel of love and repenting is found directly in Jesus' doctrine. Jesus called the people to repent, and gave them a way into God's kingdom. in Ezekiel (so in the Old Testament times), if a man repented and came back to obeying the Lord, his transgressions were forgotten. Totally gone! I always thought that this type of complete forgiveness and grace could only be implemented after Jesus died, but right there proves me wrong! God had the same policy before Jesus; Jesus made it wonderfully easier for us, but it's all the same. God is amazing and wonderful and merciful and gracious and harsh and judging and calm and all knowing, and so so much more that I haven't seen yet. The comparison between the OT and NT is there, and the awesome thing about reading through this book and others in the OT is that I can really see the line that is drawn through the whole thing, leading straight to Jesus and what He did. Truly, everything in the Bible points to Jesus. So many of the OT stories feature some distant ancestor of Jesus' (you can find His genealogy in Matthew 1). It's great. God is good.

Anyways, read Ezekiel, it's an amazing book with amazing imagery. Check out especially chapter 16. You really see the romantic kind of love I always hear about in the church of God towards His people. It's beautiful.

Sorry about the long time between posts. Time runs away sometimes.

Enjoy your reading, and God bless!

Balaam and Balak

So in my devotional this morning, I was reading in Numbers chapters 22-24 about Balak, the king of Moab, and his deal with Balaam, the famous diviner in the land. If you haven't read this story yet, you should, because it's awesome. Anyways, Balak feels very threatened by the Israelites because of their vast numbers and the fact that God used them to conquer large cities, so he goes to Balaam and says, "Therefore please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed." (Numbers 22:6) So Balaam goes and speaks to God (which I found interesting, because he was this pagan sorcerer who apparently had enough success with "the gods" to be famous). God tells him not to curse Israel because they're actually blessed (obviously, from the way they're mowing down cities). So Balaam tells Balak that no, he can't curse Israel because God had blessed them. Balak whines about it, offers Balaam more money, and Balaam asks God again if he can curse Israel. Surprisingly enough, God tells him that he can go with Balak, on the condition that he can only say what God wants him to say. So Balaam goes, after being talked at by his donkey, and ends up actually blessing the socks off of Israel four different times.

This huge long intro is basically here to set up the verses that shocked me: "Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. the Lord His God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them." (Numbers 23:20-21). This probably doesn't seem like such a huge deal, because Israel was God's special nation, and He promised them this amazing land, flowing with milk and honey. But I've been reading chapter after chapter where the people complain to Moses about God, always mentioning how great Egypt was and how they were hungry and were sick of the manna, and on and on and on. There had to have been at least three different times where God was just about to wipe out the entire nation because of their iniquity and rebellion, only refraining when Moses stepped in and interceded for the people. I have been wading through the moanings and sins of the Israelites for days, and then I come across this amazing jewel of a section - God saw no iniquity in them! I was pretty surprised to see those verses, because there clearly was sin happening in the people, and clearly God was dealing with it in harsh ways (sending sickness after sickness and enemies into the camp to kill the rebellious people), but after all of that - in spite of all of that - He declares them blameless in His eyes, perfect in His sight, fit to be blessed no less than four times by Balaam.

I have always thought that there was a huge difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament, but here the two are one. Now, I know rationally that God hasn't changed (He is the same today, yesterday, and forever), but as I've gone through His word and seen the difference (sacrifices were needed, He seemed a lot more irritable with mistakes, and He went on killing sprees in the OT, whereas in the NT He accepted His Son's death, grace is valued above the law, and He showed much more restraint with His undoubtedly just judgement), it's been easy to separate the two versions of God. Jesus changed everything absolutely and for good, which is awesome. However, through these apparent differences in the personality of God, this section depicts Him showing the exact grace that He shows us in the NT, once Jesus died for every sin in the world. He accepts their sacrifices as readily as He accepts Jesus' blood and forgets entirely that Israel is a very fickle nation, just as He does with us! How awesome is that? It doesn't really affect us today, but it really excites me to see the proof that God is constant throughout history, full of grace and mercy as well as judgement and righteousness.

I hope this all made sense, even if it was all over the place. God bless!

Thank you for...

Today is Thanksgiving. So, I just wanted to write God a thank you note. Here it is!

Thank you for:
Amazing family and friends
Breathtaking weather and beautiful days over the past month (rain included)
Christmas expectations!!!
Days off from school and work to enjoy
Excellent times in Your word, both in church and out
Fantastic moving experiences
Grace and peace and mercy for all of the stuff I do wrong
Hilarious conversations
Insomnia
Jesus!!
Knowledge of Your word in confusing days
Laughter (lots of it)
Massive amounts of coffee
Never feeling alone even when no one's around (also ninjas)
Obvious statements
Pleasant morning sunrises
Quests to find chocolate late at night
Radically changed attitude towards Cuesta
Samples at Trader Joe's and Costco
Typical Sundays
Unfailing love on Your part
Vacations
Wacky inside jokes that make no sense to anyone but you and the other person and last way too long for       their own good
X... I don't know how to play the xylophone... but apparently they're cool?
Your character
Z... You know what, I really like zebras. I saw one tackle a cheetah or some big cat on the Discovery channel and it was really awesome.

So clearly there are sooooo many other things to thank God for on a daily basis, and the book of Psalms is chock full of amazing examples, but for now I'm going to sleep. God bless all of those people who had to work tonight, I hope it went quickly and painlessly!

Challenge!

So I've been memorizing a verse every day for a few days, and it's a lot easier than it was when I was in Awanas (I was a Sparky then!). It's only been a couple days, but so far I've got James 1:19-20 ("So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God"), John 14:27 ("Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give. Let not your heart be troubled; neither let it be afraid."), of course I have Psalm 37:3-4 from a while ago ("Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the Lord and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in His way and He will give you the desires of your heart."), and Philippians 4:8 ("Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things"). I'm working on getting a whole chunk in, and I'm thinking about Matthew 6:25-34 (the section about not worrying and just trusting God). You would be surprised at how much it affects your day. Every time I feel myself getting frustrated, I can reference James, and if I start stressing about troubles in the future, out comes John and the Psalm. It's a great way to start off the day too, because instead of just skimming a few chapters, I can concentrate on what God is saying and actually get some meat.

So for all of my readers (all... like I have a hundred or something :p) I want you to try to memorize some verses over the next week. They don't have to be long, but I would go for memorizing verses that have impacted you - it makes it so much easier when it has a personal connection. Philippians 4:8 is one that impacted my life in a huge way because it was that verse that really made me establish my relationship with God. And you should tell me which ones you've memorized! I want to see how God's word is affecting you, it's so amazing to hear how God is working in personal ways.

God bless!

Fear of God

Yesterday I came across Psalm 76, which is one of my new favorites:


(The Majesty of God in Judgement) In Judah God is known; His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion. There He broke the arrows of the bow, the shield and sword of battle. You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. The stouthearted were plundered; they have sunk into their sleep; and none of the mighty men have found the use of their hands. At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep. You, Yourself, are to be feared; and who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry? You caused judgement to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgement, to deliver all the oppressed of the earth. Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; with the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself. Make vows to the Lord your God, and pay them; let all who are around Him bring presents to Him who ought to be feared. He shall cut off the spirit of princes; He is awesome to the kings of the earth.


I was reading through it and was struck by how revered God is in the author's eyes. I've been noticing in the past year or two that as a society we have ultimately committed the "unpardonable sin" ("Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man , it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." - Matthew 12:32). Instead of giving God the respect that is due to Him, I see a trend of belittling Him, putting Him in the realm of humanity and dragging His name through the mud. There is a severe lack of reverence and ultimately fear of our Creator in the world today, and it's especially prevalent in the American culture.

Where has the fear of the Lord gone? How do we get it back? What is the fear of the Lord? I'm still trying to figure out the last two, because I've noticed that I'm one of those people who looks at God as my benefactor, best friend, and doting Father, but who's left out the part where Mt Sinai was moved by His very presence (Ps 68), or when God broke the Leviathon's heads and fed them to His people (Ps 74), or when He parted an entire body of water for the Israelites, or when He would strike even His high priest dead if the man had sin in His heart. The God who did all of that (and sooooo much more) deserves more than our fleeting love and temporary devotion. The God who delivered His chosen people from the Egyptians, who appeared to Moses and wrestled with Jacob, who flooded the earth and who rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorra should be feared. This fear isn't the kind where we start screaming in terror; this fear that we should feel for God is more of a deep, deep reverence mixed with the understanding that God is supreme, absolutely holy, and has the ability to wipe us off the face of the earth for our sins. 

I get that things have changed, since we are able to rely on the gift of salvation offered when Jesus died for us, but the unfortunate side effect since then is that we become complacent in the fact that our sins are forgiven. We can basically make little booboos and nothing will happen, unless we continue in the sin and it grows big enough to separate us from God. There will always be consequences and God has made that abundantly clear in my life at least, but after the consequence, we're back under the "Jesus umbrella" and we feel untouchable. We have lost the reverence and fear and respect for our Lord in today's society, and it breaks my heart that out of the whole world, it seems that Christians are the ones who spread the loss of respect. I am absolutely guilty of this. I have no idea how to put the genuine fear of God into my heart because I've spent so much time  using humor and the band-aid of God's grace to define my relationship with Him. There are definitely times where I've felt that fear and respect, but it isn't there all the time.

I'm going through the Old Testament right now and one thing I've noticed is that the Israelites experienced the best place in their lives when they respected and feared God, but once they lost that element of respect, their focus turned to themselves and things went downhill. I can't help but feel that the world is on this downhill spiral, where we all think that God is our best buddy who wants us to have whatever feels good and who accepts our sins in the name of love. We don't even know that we're missing out on the different facets of God's character because we're so busy promoting God's "love" to people who are trapped in sin instead of actually loving them enough to give them the lifeline they need. We don't have the proper fear of God in our lives. I rarely refer to Him as my Mighty King, or the God of Jacob, and I rarely remember just how awesome His power is and just how mighty He is. My prayer is that He'll give me reason to remember and experience how powerful He is, and that He'll give me the ability to fear and respect Him more than I do now.

God bless.