Am I convinced?

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39


Over the last year or so, every time I read this verse, I find something odd.  I used to think about all the things that are listed here and how none of them are able to separate me from the Love of God.  I would think through them, how enemies standing before me can't.  How natural disasters can't.  How all the storms of my life can't.


Instead, I find myself stuck on the first 4 words: "For I am convinced".  Paul was saying that he's convinced of these things, yet can I say as much?  I know I can't.  I can see it from my actions, especially my attitudes on things.  Maybe it's not so much that I think something can't separate me from His love, than that He loves me that much.

How I long to say those words.  I am convinced of the love of God.  I have weathered the storms, I have stood my ground, and found the Lord is faithful. 

Without the presence

Perhaps my favorite scripture about Moses is in Exodus 33. After the Israelites had created the golden calf to worship, look at how the Lord responded to them.


Then the LORD spoke to Moses, "Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'To your descendants I will give it.' I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.  Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way." - Exodus 33:1-3


Here is a different kind of mercy from the Lord.  He was within His right to just destroy them and start over if wanted, yet He chose to continue helping them.  He would send His angel before them to clear the way, but was afraid to go with them, for He knew that they would turn away from Him again and again, and obviously feared that He would grow tired and destroy them.  His mercy was to remove Himself, yet still provide.  Sounds like much of my life, provided, but not anointed.



Had I been there, I probably would've grieved, and taken it.  You see, if I'm upsetting God that much, maybe it's better for a little time apart.  We do that in our friendships, work relationships, marriages, why not with God.  Yet Moses wasn't willing.


Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here." - Exodus 33:15



Moses wasn't willing to take the easy way out like we so often desire.  The easy way is to step away from the situation, to sweep it under the rug once our emotions calm and pretend it didn't happen.  How many of our families are built upon this attitude.  I'm going to storm out of the house, and come back once I've calmed myself down and decided I can ignore this.


You see, it's easy not to manage a relationship.  Moses wouldn't take it.  He knew that without the presence of the Lord with them, that what else would set them apart from those around them.  


What about us?  Can we handle the effort it takes to clean things up, to repent, to stay humble before Him, ready to sacrifice whatever it takes to stay in His presence.  Not only does His presence guide us, but it will also make our lives fruitful.  Why would I ever want to be outside of His presence.  But the relationship must be tended.


Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with continual burning? – Isaiah 33:14

You can read my post about being in the fire here.

I sit here, trying to find the words for what staying in His presence really means, and I find I can't.  I don't think I've lived in this enough to really even give you an idea.  All I know, is that it's my desire, the burning of my heart.

What is eternal life?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
We find here in this well-known verse that Jesus came to bring us eternal life.  So what is this eternal life?  A couple years ago I would've said that it's the result of being saved; that we will go to Heaven and live with God forever.  I would have attributed it to what happens after this life.  This brings to mind an old hymn that many of you might recognize which describes some of this sentiment.

When we all get to Heaven,

What a day of rejoicing that will be!

When we all see Jesus,

We’ll sing and shout the victory!
 
There was a part of me that always felt like something wasn't right here.  That my understanding was a bit off.  I've heard eternal life preached too much about being with God after we die.  Too often I've heard salvation spoken about as "fire-protection", basically, a life insurance policy for our eternity.  But guess what, that's not what Jesus preached. 

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.  This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." - John 17:1-3


Did you catch that?  I was a christian for 15-20 years and hadn't noticed.  Firstly, eternal life is not about what happens after you die, it's about the hear and now.  Second and more importantly, eternal life is to know God.  Forgiveness of sins, going to heaven, living forever, those are just by-products of the true root of eternal life.  It's knowing Jesus, and knowing God.  Think about it.  What were Adam and Eve created for?  There was no mission field, no homeless to feed, no ministries to support.  They were made to fellowship with God.  Their sin messed that up, and ever since, God's been bringing us back.

Too often we have treated knowing God like knowing our presidents.  We've listened to them in speeches, we've read about their history, looked at their policies, debated them in our workplaces, but does that mean we really know them?  Of course not.  To know them, we must spend time with them, most of all, we must listen. We can know God.  We can come to know Him as a person, not just some ideal.

For one last thing, lets look at the heart of David.  Saul attempted to kill him multiple times, then chased him through the wilderness.  Through this all, look at his words below.


The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread? 
When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, 
they stumbled and fell. 
Though a host encamp against me,
My heart will not fear;
Though war arise against me,
In  spite of  this I shall be confident.
One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple. - Psalm 27:1-4

David says that his enemies have come to devour him, they've encamped around about him, yet what does he want most?  What is it that he desires?  His words have been a motto of mine for the last year or so, as you can see, they're the title of this blog.  "One thing I ask".  I want to get to the point where I can say that the one thing I want more than anything is to seek for God's presence.  

Beware your "godliness"

I'm sure you've all seen the Westboro Baptist church protests.  Using funerals or other special events to protest against certain unbiblical principles.  I personally abhor what they do, I just want to get that out right from the start.  I can give you a number of reasons why I believe they do things wrong, what they should or shouldn't do, how they are hypocritical; however, yesterday I suddenly came upon what is the best warning I have for them, and not only for them, but for many of us who have the same tendencies if only in smaller quantities.

I was thinking of the one group of people that Jesus seemed to hate.  In the gospels we find Jesus interacting with the adulterers, the tax-collectors(worse even than IRS agents), the drunkards, the lowly, and the outright filthy(fish just don't smell good any way you put it).  He got along with these people pretty well.  We know this for He was criticized as being a friend of tax-collectors and sinners.  The people He didn't get along with were the pharisees.  He hated them.  In one instance(Matthew 23:13-36) Jesus blasts the scribes and pharisees for their deeds.  Showing them for the hypocrites they are.  I won't go into these verses, but I do wish to mention another.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. - Luke 18:10-14


The Pharisee thought himself better than the other sinners.  He had no problem looking down his nose at the tax collector.  He was so good that he could judge these other people as less than himself.  Yet, in all his self-righteousness, Jesus despised him.


Are you different?


Do you see someone else that you look on as a sinner, maybe that friend who goes to the bars too often, maybe the coworker who gossips constantly, or even the family member who loses his temper so easily.  Do you look down on them as you praise yourself for not being like them?  Do you feel good about yourself because you don't do these things others around you do?  Do you have justify the things you do because you're not near as bad as those around you.

Beware.


When you protest someone's life because you are more godly than they, beware.  

When you choose to look past someone because they don't look good enough for you, beware.

When you criticize someone another because they're not as godly as you, beware.


Beware that in your "godliness", you don't become the very people Jesus can't stand.

Do angels crack jokes?

First of all I need to start with a little background here...  I'm convinced that God is hilarious.  If you think about it, there's a lot of humor in this world and it had to have come from somewhere.  Too often we portray God as completely serious but I believe it's much more.  You know when you're having a conversation with someone, and they make one of those comments to you that's so well-timed, so funny, that you can't even respond back.  My wife has done that to me multiple times where it's so funny I can't even try to respond lest I ruin the moment.  God's done it to me as well.  Think about it, who could have better timing than Him.  Several times I've been having conversations with Him, only to suddenly have the perfect comeback just appear in my head at just the right time.  I'm sorry, I'm just not that funny for some of the lines that's come to me.

Now, fast-forward to today.  Olive(my daughter) has had a tough day.  She's 20 months old, she's woken up multiple times coughing and crying, she's been grumpy, not eaten well, spit up, and overall just had a rough afternoon and night.  As we're getting ready for bed I have her on the changing pad, she's in her diaper and laying there, then suddenly she just starts laughing.  I wasn't touching her, wasn't talking, wasn't making any faces, she just laughed.  I watch her face, and she's looking up at the ceiling, her eyes track back and forth, and then she laughs again.  There's no fan on in the room, nothing on the ceiling, I'm not moving, and she continues to watch something up there, and then start laughing like it's the funniest thing ever.  This continued for about 2-3 minutes.  I attempted to take a video of this, and here it is...

Apparently I put my finger over the mike for part of it, so the video loses sound, but watch how she's not looking at me most of the time she's laughing.

So the question is, do angels crack jokes.  Otherwise, I haven't given her near enough credit for her imagination.