Imagine, if you will, being in Noah's shoes. Noah from the Bible, not Baby Noah, although he is SOOO CUTE! Okay, so you are lying in bed one night, drifting off to sleep and you hear a voice. You look around. Nobody is there. You say to your wife, "Honey, did you say something?" She's like, "Huh?" Okay, nevermind, go back to sleep. So, then you hear the voice again. You realize it is God talking to you! Imagine that feeling! I have seen angels, I have seen demons, but I have yet to hear the voice of God speaking directly to me. I know it is a possibility, but I can only imagine what it will be like! Awesome! Anyway, so you are sitting there, talking to God and He tells you to build a really big boat. You have never seen a boat before. You don't know how to build one! What is everyone else going to think? HOW are you going to explain this to your wife! They are all going to think you are out of your mind. What if they try to lock you up for being crazy before you are able to finish it? God tells you He is going to destroy all mankind, except you and your family. Talk about walking on eggshells! Boy, you don't want to make God mad, but are you really sure you want me to build this boat thing? Oh my goodness. Talk about a leap of faith! Noah had more faith than anybody! Oh, yeah, and after you are done, go and get all of these animals and bring them together into the ark. Yeah, like they are just going to come along willingly...oh, they are?
I would have to say that Noah was delighting in God's will. Despite all the things that others must have said to him while he was working on this huge project. Everyone around him must have thought he was nuts. And it would have been so huge that everyone around for miles would have been able to see it. Not like you could hide it in a garage while you were building it! The only thing he had going for him was that he knew it wasn't going to rain until he was done. No down time!
And he had faith that could move mountains, or animals, as it were.
Oh, if we could have such faith in the midst of adversity! To be able to say, "Okay, God, whatever you want me to do, I will do it without question." Gen. 6:22 "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." Gen. 7:5 "And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him."
Noah was six hundred years old at the time the floodwaters came. Would you have that kind of faith at an old age? That is a hard thing to do! Pretty set in your ways, ready to retire, and God comes to you and gives you this huge assignment. Okay, God, where do I start? That is faith!
They were in the ark for a hundred and fifty days. five months. That is a long time to be in there with all those animals and your family. Talk about claustrophobic! I get antsy if we are in the house for a couple of days! Five MONTHS!? You have got to be kidding! More faith. Okay, God, is this really going to end? Okay, I hope you are right!
Let's all have the faith of Noah and maybe God will give us some extraordinary job to do also. Or maybe we are already doing extraordinary jobs and we just don't realize it. Hopefully, when other people see us, they will see the love of Christ in us and isn't that what it is all about?
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Emotional II
We sang How Great Thou Art in church today. There were not many people in the church today. Very light crowd. So, I really felt the need to sing louder than normal. Make up for the empty seats, you know. Hoping not to offend anyone by being off-key or anything. After all, it is for God, not for anyone else, right. Anyway, so I am singing at the top of my lungs and the next song is How Great Thou Art. And it hits me as I am singing the words.
Oh Lord my God when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
HOW GREAT THOU ART. Truly. Our God is amazing. He does so much for us and what do we do for Him?
Tears were streaming down my face and I was kind of glad that the church was so empty, I didn't feel as though I had to look a certain way or be a certain way depending on who was watching me.
Then Sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee! How Great Thou Art. HOW GREAT THOU ART!
The few voices, combined with the AWESOME music (that guitar just gets me) and I just lost it. Well, I hope you all had equally earth-shattering experiences...I know I for one am glad I made it to church this Sunday.
Oh Lord my God when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
HOW GREAT THOU ART. Truly. Our God is amazing. He does so much for us and what do we do for Him?
Tears were streaming down my face and I was kind of glad that the church was so empty, I didn't feel as though I had to look a certain way or be a certain way depending on who was watching me.
Then Sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee! How Great Thou Art. HOW GREAT THOU ART!
The few voices, combined with the AWESOME music (that guitar just gets me) and I just lost it. Well, I hope you all had equally earth-shattering experiences...I know I for one am glad I made it to church this Sunday.
Emotional
Psalm 37:4 "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
So, I came upon this in my little calendar and I was reading it and thinking about it. How many times have you heard someone quote this Scripture? Probably many times. Maybe at least once. Well, often, when people quote this, it is done thus: "...and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Forgetting, or omitting the first part. Maybe you have done this yourself?
What does it mean to delight thyself also in the Lord? DO HIS WILL. Live in His will. Be in His will. ACT in His will. I am picturing a parent (something I can relate to), having their child do what they know the parent wants them to do. May not like it. May complain about it, but does it because they know it will make their parent happy. Been there? We are all God's children. We sometimes, well, often, act like children. Children are notorious for testing their boundaries. "Jessica, don't touch that." So, while looking me straight in the face, puts her hand as close as she can get it without actually touching it. Just to see what I will do. Don't we do that? Okay, God, where is my boundary? At what point will I get in trouble? You already are. Why are you testing Him? It doesn't get you where you want to be.
If we remain in the Lord's will, He will bless us.
I am struggling with this whole "Let go, let God" thing. It's hard to do! We want to control, to be in charge and can't you just picture God up there going, "Aww, look, how cute, Amy wants to be all in charge." We just aren't. The older our children get, the more we give them the opportunity to test their limits. But it is controlled. We don't let them get hurt, get in a situation where they can injure themselves or do any serious harm. Let them test their boundaries but within limits. Isn't that what God lets us do? Test our boundaries, within His limits? So as not to cause harm to ourselves? Isn't that what we trust Him to do? Shouldn't we?
Maybe we should spend more time delighting in the Lord and less time wondering when He will give us the desires of our hearts. If we delight in Him, He SHOULD be the desire of our hearts and...problem solved.
So, I came upon this in my little calendar and I was reading it and thinking about it. How many times have you heard someone quote this Scripture? Probably many times. Maybe at least once. Well, often, when people quote this, it is done thus: "...and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Forgetting, or omitting the first part. Maybe you have done this yourself?
What does it mean to delight thyself also in the Lord? DO HIS WILL. Live in His will. Be in His will. ACT in His will. I am picturing a parent (something I can relate to), having their child do what they know the parent wants them to do. May not like it. May complain about it, but does it because they know it will make their parent happy. Been there? We are all God's children. We sometimes, well, often, act like children. Children are notorious for testing their boundaries. "Jessica, don't touch that." So, while looking me straight in the face, puts her hand as close as she can get it without actually touching it. Just to see what I will do. Don't we do that? Okay, God, where is my boundary? At what point will I get in trouble? You already are. Why are you testing Him? It doesn't get you where you want to be.
If we remain in the Lord's will, He will bless us.
I am struggling with this whole "Let go, let God" thing. It's hard to do! We want to control, to be in charge and can't you just picture God up there going, "Aww, look, how cute, Amy wants to be all in charge." We just aren't. The older our children get, the more we give them the opportunity to test their limits. But it is controlled. We don't let them get hurt, get in a situation where they can injure themselves or do any serious harm. Let them test their boundaries but within limits. Isn't that what God lets us do? Test our boundaries, within His limits? So as not to cause harm to ourselves? Isn't that what we trust Him to do? Shouldn't we?
Maybe we should spend more time delighting in the Lord and less time wondering when He will give us the desires of our hearts. If we delight in Him, He SHOULD be the desire of our hearts and...problem solved.
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