FINDING THE MAGIC WAND

Thinking can get you in trouble...  I mean you should think before you do something but to over think, now that is a different story.  In church yesterday Pastor James spoke about finding God's favor.  He said that people think that their is a code that you put in and the results should be blessings from God.  Do we really think like that?  Lets look at some possible codes or passwords that some think just might earn them the favor of God.  Prayer + Bible reading (1chpt) = Gods favor.   Oh wait I have to add in church + tithing + fasting should be in their too.  Witnessing must play a part in this also, along with serving.

Crud, which is it?  I want to be blessed by God but what do I need to do to be blessed?

Instead of thinking of it as things that we need to do for blessings.  We need to look at it a little differently.  As children our parents would praise us when we... got good grades, picked up our room, put away our clothes, or even made them some crappy refrigerator art.  Well kinda like that... But what does our Heavenly Father want from us.

The two keys I see are relationship and obedience.  If you spend time with God, no matter what that looks like.  You get close enough to hear His voice.  That might come from His Word (BIBLE), a Preacher, The still small voice you hear that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  How ever you hear from Him it is important to continue to listen.  Praying or speaking to God with praises is a good way for us to communicate to Him, but learning to be quiet and still so that we hear Him is a practiced thing.  You got to practice listening to God.  God loves this... It is like working on flash cards with your kids when they come looking for help.  In the Bible it talks about this...  ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27  

 This verse then leads us to speak to the other clue... obedience...  We don't just hear His voice we do what He says to do!  Our Heavenly Father was totally impressed with His Son Jesus.  Their are lots of places where we read in the Bible, THIS IS MY SON IN HIM I AM WELL PLEASED!!!  A booming, thunderous voice coming out of Heaven.  Could that happen with me?  I am an adopted son of the living God.  Could that happen to me?  Lets work on that.  You see God is responsible for our obedience.  

Their may not be a MAGIC WAND, or CODE, but we can live to please our Heavenly Father.  He loves to bless His children... Just because we talked about this today... God wants to bless us.

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING!

I have always been impressed by inventor's, they take a challenging problem and invent something that makes life easier.  Just look at the some of those inventions that have popped up over the last several years...  The GPS is an amazing invention for time savings and men who hate to stop and ask for directions.  The Cell phone made it so I don't need to find a phone booth along the road to call someone.  These are amazing advancements in technology that save tim and money.  I remember when my mom's family all went together and bought my Grandfather a microwave.  He would put a cup of water in push the appropriate buttons and the water would get hot.  I saw him just shake his head in disbelief and say, "What will they think of next?"

That is the question for the day...  What will they think of next?  Man has figured out how to make life more convenient,  from the Snuggie, (Which I have yet to see a family out in public wearing these things.) to the Roomba iRobot vacuum cleaner. (vacuums your house robotically.)

These advancements in technology will continue but they will never measure up to what God has done in the invention business.  God is more than an inventor He is a Creator.  There is a difference here in the Creator vs. Inventor.

An inventor solves an already existing problem.  Like inventing a machine that will change the shape of the lens in your eyes so that you can see without the need for Glasses.  On the other hand the creator designed the eye itself.  BIG DIFFERENCE.

God is a Creator.  What does that mean?  It means that just by speaking something is created out of nothing.  Wow... That is intense!  In Genesis God spoke everything into existence except for man.  God said planets there were planets.  God said animals there were animals.  But when God got to the creation of man, He took the dust of the earth, spit on it and formed it with his own hands.
Yes it's true that God's DNA is all over us!  Made in His image!  We are so valuable just because God created us.  All of us.  We are not clones... We are individuals created specially by God.

Now don't confuse the Creator with the inventor in this world, that is a dangerous thought.
The ruler of the kingdom of the air is Satan.  He is not a creator he is an inventor.  He cannot speak anything into existence.  All he can do is to take what God has created and twist it into something that looks new.  He is a great salesman as he convinces an endless amount of people to follow their own plans instead of God's original plan.

The Devils infomercial would go something like this... Guaranteed not to rust ,bust, collect dust, chip crack peel or draw flies.  What ever you want to believe is up to you.  You are your own reality and can make up your own rules and follow your own passion without the worry of being wrong.

Some of his inventions have lead people to take the lives of babies for convenient sake and to follow the passions of their desires into hating everyone who is not like them or who disagrees with them.
Satan has invented the... It's not my fault copout.  Even to the place of saying things like, It's not my fault God created me this way.  Let run threw a few of those...  God created me this way so it must be ok for me to... abuse drugs, alcohol, children, women, men, other religions, other beliefs.  So if God created me to be sexually aroused by someone of the same sex, or to have those kind of feeling toward a child...  It must be ok!  Hey God created me this way it's His fault. f we go back to the origin of life we will find that God created them male and female,  and He created them good.  The Bible says that God saw all he had created and said it all was GOOD.

When the Devil saw all that was good and saw God so pleased with His creation he (the Devil) hater what was good and wanted to destroy the good.  He found out He couldn't create evil so he would have to work on perverting what was already made.  So Satan began to twist the good things that God had created and to make them bad.  The great gift God gave to married people.  Sex!  Twisted by the Devil took on different forms to suit the pleasures of the inventor not the Creator.  Sex with... people out side of the context of marriage and the Bible is clear on that it should be a male and female union.  Not male with male or female with female.  Sex as an adult with a child.  Sex with animals.  Sex with self...

Most times by making the statement against same sex marriage we are then classified by people as Haters of Homophobes.  When the truth be told I don't hate or am I afraid of anyone.  I don't disagree with equality.  The Creator intended that we all love each other...  I don't hate someone that is homosexual.  I just disagree with them as to the choice to go against God's original plans.

God says anyone who lives that way sins!  So as people are living that way choose to live in sin.  The problem with sin is it separates us from God.  So even if a practicing homosexual gets saved by the grace of God.  If they continue to sin they continue to be separated from God.  God calls us out of sin.  He doesn't want us to continue in perversion.  He doesn't create us that way the inventor twists the good creation and perverts it.

I don't hate the drunk, the addict, the child molester, the lier, the cheater, the homosexual and nether does God.  He just realizes that there is a day coming of separation.  Where those who follow their own ways and the inventions of the Devil will be separated from those that truly follow God.

The Bible is clear in what it says we can ether believe it or reject it.  Me, I would be afraid to reject what God has said.  After all, He Created all of us...  Something from nothing!!!

PENIEL

PENIEL:
It means face to face with God...  Jacob was involved in a wrestling match with God in Genesis 32...
I have had many nights of late wrestling with God.  Wrestling with my own failures, my desires, and with what God wants to do in my life.  

I remember wrestling with my dad as a child.  I could never beat him.  It was play wrestling and it was fun, the contact that was made was needed to show love, concern, and power.  My dad was stronger than me but he showed restraint in our wrestling, he could have squished me like a bug.  The contact showed that he would be my protector.  I could look him in the eyes and see the love and concern he had for me.  He was my dad. 

The wrestling that goes on between me and my Heavenly Father is in some ways quite the same.  Let me explain our wrestling...  God loves His children and He can't wait to get His hands on us.  His finger prints can be found all over our lives.  He created us, so on the inside as hard as we try to forget Him we can't, because He put us together with His hands.  The world we live in shows evidence that He is in control.  So their is this internal knowing and this external seeing and we wrestle.  We wrestle because of love, care, and concern.  He won't relent until He has convinced us that He is in love with us, that He shows us His power.  All He wants in return is our devotion.  Some time to wrestle with us.  

Don't be afraid to look God in the face even in your sin, because He has the sin cure...  Jesus!

Old Pictures

Old Pictures...

I remember the old pictures in my mind...  You have them too!  The pictures that you took with the camera God gave you.  You have them archived in your mind.  Mom Davis was what all her grandkids called her.  I have many pictures of her in those precious archives in my mind.  One that popped up in my mind this morning was her old ringer washer that set on the back porch.  I remember her ringing out the wash water out of those clothes.  The ringer squeezed the water right out of each article of clothing. It was the convenience of the day... It was much easier than river rock beating!  From the ringer to the clothes line.  In my mind the colors are not brownish like the actual pictures, but they are vivid and beautiful.

It made me think of how God works in our lives... He takes us through a process of squeezing out sin.  It hurts, that squeezing!  Sometimes all the water didn't come out the first time and back through the ringer again it would go.  Same with us.  God's Word says, “Be holy, because I am holy.” 
1 Peter 1:16  We can't make ourselves holy only God can do that.  Back and forth through the ringer squeezing out the old dirty sin.   Then He takes us out and hangs us up as a witness for the whole world to see.  We are on display and as the wind blows ie... (HOLY SPIRIT)  We are a raised banner that points toward Christ.  

I love those old pictures in my mind... They remind me that God was in everyone of them.  Kinda like where's Waldo.  Can you see God in the pictures of your mind?  Shaping you squeezing you making you look like His Son!