Saturday, August 6, 2011

His awesome terror.

"O God, there are two things I beg you not to do to me; only then will I be able to face you. Don't abandon me. And don't terrify me with your awesome presence." Job 13:20-21.I was just skimming through Job this evening. Saw this. Fell in love. I'm not sure why but I am extremely in love with this. Terrifying, awesome presence. Who do you know with a terrifying, awesome presence? I'm at a loss for words. I expected to get on Blogger, type in that verse and the rest would just stream out. Like, it usually does. I'm good at babbling on, even over the internet. But, tonight. I'm stuck. Kinda like writers block. Kinda like my brain just farted out my ability to process thoughts. I know that God is amazing. I know that God sent His only son Jesus, to save us from.. well ourselves. I know that God forgives you, no matter what. That explains the "awesome" part. But, the terrifying part.. I know you should fear God, be afraid of everything he is capable of.. Yet love him with all your heart, mind and soul. He is quite confusing. That's what makes believing in Him and having faith in Him, so exciting, so amazing, so wonderful. Being able to completely trust someone who has the power and ability to tear your world apart.

Psalms 33: 8. "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." Ecclesiastes 3:14. "I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him."

Deuteronomy 6:5. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart and entire being and with all your might." 1 Corinthians 8:3. "But if one loves God truly, he is known by God."

See what I'm getting at.. God, is simply amazing. Simply awesome. Simply terrifying. We need to fear God, love God and simply stay in awe, in wonder of all He can do. Of everything He has already done. I know this a shorter blog, but I think I have made my point. God is dangerous, in my opinion, that's what makes Him so loveable.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Pleasing God..

It's late. I've brushed my teeth, put on my deo and said my evening prayer. But, here I am. Sitting in the dark, typing away, burning up these laptop keys. I had this feeling, this urge to come and blog about what I read earlier in the Bible.. I was sitting on the sofa this afternoon, watching these kids play, bouncing around the house, "rasslin" as my great grandmother calls it. I don't know why, but it made me want to read the book of Romans. Maybe because it talks about power and when I think about "rasslin" I think power. It talks alot about God's power. His power over us, over sin. It talks about how we receive forgiveness through God's mercy. It's a big ole' book talking about how awesome and powerful God is.

I was stuck in chapters 5-8. These chapters are big on sin. About how we receive forgiveness for our sins. About how sin's power over us is broken. About how God's law reveals our sins. About how there is no condemnation in Christ. Chapter 8, Verse 3. "We aren't saved from sin's grasp by knowing the commandments of God, because we can't and don't keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful, and destroyed sin's control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins.". This leaped out from the page at me. The minute I finished that, I pictured in my head Jesus on the cross, blood all over his body, beaten, bruised, the crown of thorns on his head. It hit me hard, I stopped reading, went upstairs and prayed. I thanked God, with everything I had, all that was in me, for giving his Son, his ONLY son, for me. Later that day, I picked back up where I left off. Chapter 8, verse 4. "So now we can obey God's law if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.". Now that Jesus has died for us, now that He has sacrificed himself for our sins, we can live again, pure and through the Holy Spirit, we can be saved from sin. Verse 5. "Those who let themselves be controlled by their lower natures live only to please themselves, but those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that PLEASE GOD.". Pleasing God, that's big. I want to do everything in my power, put all I have into doing what pleases God. I mean, that is the least I can do, right? After He gave up his son, for me.. It just seems right, seems like the logical thing to do. Verse 6. "Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death." Verse 7 goes on to say. "Because the old sinful nature within us is against God. It never did obey God's law and it never will." We all sin, we all slip up and do things out of our "old, sinful nature". That's why God gave up his son, so that no matter how many times we slip up, no matter how many times we fall. He will always be there, lifting us back up, helping us and pointing us in the direction we need to go. All we have to do is try our hardest to please God. We do that and we get peace, we get life. That seems like a pretty nice offer to me. Of course, could you expect anything less from such a generous God?