You Are A Mountain

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Psalm 125:1-2 “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved and abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.”

If you ever doubt for a minute that God does not protect you and give you strength and power beyond this world, then come back to this passage. TRUST in God and you will be unmovable like Mount Zion. Your faith will be steadfast and you will have eternal life (not death).

I trust in God and I believe that His Son Jesus Christ died for me and my sins and has given me the gift of eternal life. I have faith in that, in the eternal life part. That is not to say that my faith does not come and go, per se. My faith is 100% with God and the fact that when I die, I leave this world to spend eternity with Him. BUT, on a day to day basis, I lose sight that He is my savior.

I cannot even count for you the times that I have turned my back on God and walked in the direction I knew He did not want me to walk. I also cannot count the times that I made decisions without talking it out with God first and TRUSTING Him to make everything work out. I cannot count the times that I lean on Him to come through for me, and once He does I give the credit to myself and don’t have a conversation with Him and read His Word for months….until I’ll need Him again for something and come right back to Him.

My goal, the goal of every believer, should be to have the type of relationship that leans on God every minute of every day. Good or bad times, walk with Him.

And you know, the wonderful thing about God, is that even when I am not talking with Him and trying to build a relationship with Him, He is still there. He is still protecting me and is waiting for me to come back to Him. And when I finally do, He is there, He never even left. I am one of his children, I trust in him, and ultimately try to live my life for Him. He has plans for me, and has an ultimate place for me, so he will not EVER leave me.

He is the mountains surrounding Jerruselam, which is you, me and every other believer out there.

Strive for the type of relationship that meets with God everyday and is constantly listening and looking for Him. Don’t just TRUST in him when you need him, TRUST in him when you “don’t” need him; because even then, YOU NEED HIM.

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In the Hands of God

Psalm 37:7a,8b (New King James Version)

7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;…Do not fret—it only causes harm.

God is my refuge, my strength, my comforter.

In the world’s eyes I should be frightened about how this is going to work out. In my case right now, which job am I going to get. I am waiting patiently, on Him to do His work, and because of that I am not scared. Why should I be? I am in the hand’s of God, of my Creator who loves me! No reason to be scared when that is where I am. If I wasn’t with God and didn’t trust in Him, I would be scared out of my mind!

Thank fully, I am not; I have no reason to be.

The Lord is my provider and protector.

Moses, the Old Testament Jesus

Exodus 32:7-14 (New King James Version)

7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
11 Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: “LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”^[a] 14 So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

The more I read about the Israelites, the more I see me and everyone else I know.  We have been blessed by God and we still turn our backs on him and worship other things; idols.  This is something that I drilled into the youth group kids last year: anything that distracts you from the presence of God is an idol.  It does not have to be a golden calf or a wooden man statue from a tribe in Africa, it can be another person, a class at school, a dream to do something, a movie, cd, an ipod (technology)…you get the point.  Even after God, the God of the universe, brought them out of Egypt, the Israelites couldn’t worship Him alone at all times!  They doubted Him so many times that they just got to the point where they needed something else to worship. 

God sees this and calls them what they are: “still-necked people” (v. 9).  God’s wrath is burning and seems to get to the boiling point until Moses intervenes on behalf of the Israelites.  He pleads with the Lord not to harm His people!  In this light, Moses is to the Israelites what Jesus (and His blood on the cross) is to us.  Moses continually had to plead for mercy on the Israelites as they continued to sin, just as Jesus’ blood does for us! His death and resurrection on our behalf protect us from what we deserve: the wrath of God.

Be thankful for what Jesus did. His crucifixion has been so watered down that I do not believe that it has the affect that it should.  Same goes for his resurrection!  He died, and three days later came back to life…and then he rose up into the sky and joined His father in Heaven.  Think about that and realize that it actually happened! 

Just as we deserve the wrath of God, He deserves our devotion and worship.  GIVE IT TO HIM! Spend time with Him on a daily basis and trust in Him always!

The Perfect Place To Wait

Psalm 27:14 (New International Version)

14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

Again, God does not cease to encourage me!

Right now my wife and I are at a cross road in our young lives (as mentioned before) and we could be very, very, very worried and stressed out about the situation. But, by the grace of God we are not. We are both trusting in the Lord and are waiting on Him. Waiting with eager anticipation of how He is going to work this all out. We know He will and we know it is all in His timing, not ours.

Wait on the Lord, trust in Him, go according to HIS plan and you will not be sorry, “He shall strengthen your heart!”

Joseph: A dreamer, a Man of God

Genesis 50:20 (New International Version)

20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

I am amazed at the entire story of Joseph!  God had a plan for his life, and even though it may have seemed quite opposite in Joseph’s eyes, God executed that plan with the perfection that only He has.  Joseph’s brothers hated him (Gen. 37:4) and wanted nothing to do with him, so they plotted against him (Gen. 37:18) and sold him away.  Now, if i were Joseph, i would loose all hope at this point, but that is not what we see in Joseph. All through his life, from his brothers selling him to being accused of rape and thrown into prison, Joseph is faithful that God will deliver him and protect him from harm.  I believe that it is that faith that Joseph had in God that eventually placed him in a position of great authority (Gen. 41:41) and gave Joseph the opportunity to save the lives of many people and through it all forgive his brothers for what they had done to him!  

God blesses those that put their trust in Him for everything!  This is evident in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now Joseph.  The Lord provided for all of these men and blessed them for their strong faith, trust, and love in and for Him.  That is the kind of faith that i want: strong, bold, and steady faith!