Forgetting Freedom out of Fear

I question Ev-er-y-thing... Just ask my sisters or any teacher I've ever had.

I thirst for knowledge, and to know what will happen next.  
In fact, sometimes I find myself fearing the unknown.

Do I really trust God with my future?  

Time and time again, Daddy God's plan has trumped my own.  Head knowledge tells me that His plans, not my own, should be where I place my hope and my future.  

But..... sometimes I feel like the Israelites.

Scholars can debate about it all day but, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for at least 200 years, living there for over 400.  When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh to deliver the "Let my people go" message from God, one of the first things Pharaoh did was require them to make the same progress in their work without providing one of the major ingredients -- the straw for the bricks. (Exodus 5) Clearly this is not a situation you want to work under, right?  Back-breaking work, unrealistic expectations... and oh yeah.... let's kill your babies too so you don't raise up and take over our kingdom.

Now, fast forward through the plagues and the passover where the firstborn died in every house that wasn't marked as the Lord had commanded.  With the death of his son, Pharaoh finally comes to a place where he is willing to let the Israelites go, and they book it out of there.  God leads them day and night and when it looks like they are going to be trapped by a major waterway, He gives Moses the power to part the sea so they can walk straight across, but the Egyptians are wiped out when the waters are released. (Exodus 14)

Now, when the Israelites felt trapped at the edge of the water, they said to Moses "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" (Exodus 14: 11-12) 

God provided a way when when they doubted if freedom had been the right choice.

As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20.  Clearly God was watching out for His chosen people.  How quickly though do we forget this truth?

In Exodus 16, the story continues:

 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.  In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

As I read these passages yesterday,  I was so disappointed in the Israelites.  Only 5 or 6 weeks earlier, God had shown up in a HUGE way.  He had pulled them out of slavery, parted the sea so they could walk across dry ground, and in Exodus 15, He provided the needed water and shade in the desert.  When we read here, it's so clear God's got their back, and yet they want to go back to slavery, picking the known pain over the unknown plans in the hands of Daddy God.

How often is that me, playing the scared Israelite who would rather be enslaved than walk in freedom and protection into the unknown?

 

This next week, I challenge you to consider these thoughts with me:

- Do I REALLY trust God?

- In what areas of my life am I choosing stability over walking in faith?

- What "chains" do I need to stop running back to because God's got better?

- How is the Holy Spirit leading me to move?

Be Bold. Be Courage. Be All In. <3

God's Will

Psalm 18

⁶ In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
⁷ The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
⁸ Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
⁹ He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
¹⁰ He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
¹¹ He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
¹² Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
¹³ The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.^[d]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
¹⁵ The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶ He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. 

For weeks now, I have been camping out in Psalm 18, because it just blows my mind.  This image of how much God cares about his children is overwhelming.  Over and over, this passage has brought me to my knees, unable to stand because He loves me so much!

In the past, when I've been hurt, I've had this image of a stand-off God; one that knows what's going on but doesn't seem to do anything.  I know that this comes from years of waiting for God to do what I wanted him to do.  It wasn't until recently that I finally started to grasp at the idea of God's Will.  God's Will isn't God carrying out my plans.  It's a much greater plan that I could even fathom. 

Kelly <3

When my best friend died 3 years ago, I hit an all-time low.  I went crazy with my "whys" because I just couldn't grasp why God would take her from me.  I felt alone in crowded rooms, overwhelmed with pain & grief, and angry beyond comparison at the people who seemed to be moving on while I refused to move the roots that I'd buried in the land of hurt and depression.  I tried to run from God, deny His existence, and hurt Him by hurting myself and those around me with my decisions.

In the back of my mind though, I'd tell myself that "if I just knew why....", I would be able to move on.  Honestly though, there is no way I will truly ever understand why my Kell Bell isn't meeting me for a movie at the drive in, going on road trips and getting tanned while I burn this summer.  As smart as I'd like to think I am, I will never be able to understand.  I can't understand God's plan.  I can't understand what has happened, what is happening or what is going to happen.  Even if He came down from heaven tonight and whispered in my ear his plans, I could not comprehend them BECAUSE I AM NOT GOD.

See, the major difference between God's will and my will is the word in front of will.  If we could fully understand God though, what would be the point in following him? People do not follow those who know the exact same things as them. There would be no reason to seek out a God if we ourselves knew enough to be considered on an equal playing field as God. 

In Ephesians 3, Paul prayed saying "May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God" (verse 19).  Paul knew that these people, like me, would never fully understand God, but that we would be able to experience glimpses into His love for us.  It's those glimpses of his love that remind me to fight when I am having a bad day because I have a purpose.  It's God's will for me to be here 'til He calls me home.

Yes, I am ready to go to heaven.  I long to be home with God someday, in a place where I know I will finally feel like I belong, but it's not my time yet.  God has a plan, and a perfect plan at that for my life.  I don't know what it is, where it will take me or when I'll see the next move I'm supposed to take, but I do know that I want to walk in His will.  I want to be bold.  I want to risk it all and loose it all for a purpose far greater than anything I could cook up on my own. 

Daddy God, I want to be used for your will and your plans for your kingdom.

Commission My Sould O Lord and give me my purpose in Your will.

Panning for Gold

So... when I sat down to watch the live stream from Rez at 8:30 am Sunday in the living room of my parent's house, I had just finished having quiet time in which I prayed that Daddy would show me what I needed to be doing with my life. As always, He was faithful and had perfect timing.

When Pastor Mike Olson started his message he said "this message can be life changing if you let it." Then we went over to a tub where he had dirt, water and a pan (a gold panning pan that is). He said that almost a year ago, God had said to him pan for gold. Not knowing what He was talking about at the time, Mike wrote it down and went on with his life waiting on God's timing to reveal His meaning.

Now have you ever been panning for gold? Yeah... me either, but when I was in New Zealand, a couple of my friends went to "Shanty Town" where they panned for gold and subsequently, became obsessed with it. They bought pans and proceeded to tell me the elaborate plans how they were going to make their millions in the streams.

Although I doubted that they would be millionaires like they were planning, they did know what they were talking about when it came to the basics of panning. As Pastor Olson explained, the first step is believing there is gold to be found. Next, you submerge the pan and pull up water, dirt and hopefully some gold flakes. Then, by carefully shifting the pan back and forth or side to side, you begin to kick out the dirt and part of the water until hopefully, you are left with gold. This cannot happen however without the movement of the water in the pan that washes away all the dirt. Because gold has a higher specific gravity... aka nerd speak that it's heavy so it sinks.... this precious element will stay on the bottom of the pan. And that's how you pan for gold and make millions........

But Pastor Mike wasn't there to show us how to make millions of dollars. Instead, he was using this illustration to parallel gold with glory.

Now, what is glory? We sing about it, we read about it and use it all the time, but WHAT IS GLORY?

According to dictionary.com, Glory is a noun meaning:

1. very great praise, honor, or distinction bestowed by common consent; renown: to win glory on the field of battle.

2. something that is a source of honor, fame, or admiration; a distinguished ornament or an object of pride: a sonnet that is one of the glories of English poetry.

3. adoring praise or worshipful thanksgiving: Give glory to God.

4. resplendent beauty or magnificence: the glory of autumn.

5. a state of great splendor, magnificence, or prosperity.

Although these are decent definitions, I love Pastor Mike's definition that glory is "the essence of His existence; the expression of God's self." If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. God is perfect and every good thing comes from Him so if anything is worthy of praise or "glory" it is a glimpse of God's character.

In Isaiah 6, the creatures in Isaiah's vision say “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.” And in Romans 1:20 it says "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

So what does this mean? The whole earth is full of His glory, His essence, glimpse into His character because He created everything out of the existence of nothing but Himself so everything had to come from what He poured out of Himself. (Reread that last sentence. It may be confusing but it is truth.)

Blah blah blah... we already know that everything comes from God but how often do we actually see the good in the world? When we look around at our lives or watch tv, it's easy to see all the things that at bad and miss out on the glimpses of God's glory, but they are there because they "have been clearly seen (...) so that people are without excuse."

In my own eyes, it's easy to see God's glory in a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a Rocky Mountain sunrise or a little kid’s finger paint art but when someone is rude, hateful, or hurtful, I often find myself wondering how there could be glory inside of them. And when I look at myself, at the way I've acted and treated others, I sometimes doubt that this glory is inside of me. But the truth is, there is a "special" glory inside of people and here's a verses from the book of truth to prove it.

Genesis 1:27

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

SEE! Humans are special. God didn't just create us of Himself, He created us in the IMAGE of Himself. (Get excited people, this is awesome!)

 If you’re still not convinced of this glory here are a few more verses:

Psalms 3:2-4

Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”

But you, LORD, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the LORD,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.

Isaiah 43:5-7

Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth--
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

So we were made from the Glory of God FOR the Glory of God. Since we are full of glory though, why do we keep seeing others and ourselves as junk?

Romans 1:21-23

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

By sinning, we cover up the Glory within us and since "all sin and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3) we all cover up this shining glory.

If you think back to panning, this is the perfect illustration. When we don't take the time and believe that there is glory in others, we just walk by the stream and miss the gold (the glory) that's right beside us. Even when we take the time to get out the pan and fill it with the dirt and water, we still have no gold to show for it. It takes the patience of swishing the water back and forth, washing away the dirt(aka the sin) to reveal the gold. If we don't take the time to wash away the dirt, it doesn't mean the gold isn't there; it just means that we didn't find it.

Ephesians 5:25-27

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

-Washing with water through the word reveals the glory just like washing with water reveals the gold. Since God is the fountain of life, he is the water. His truths (conveniently delivered in the bible) will reveal the glory.

Wrap up and Application:

Right now, I really feel like God is asking me to seek the glory not the dirt in others and myself. In order to do that, I need to go panning for gold.

1. Believe that there is Glory. In every person, glory exists because we were made from and in the image of God.

2. Approach people looking for the glory not the grime. If you go looking for dirt, you're going to find it because everyone has sin in their lives. If you go looking for glory, you'll find it too. It just takes more time because we've covered it. Just because it has been covered though does not mean that it can't be found or that its value has decreased. It just takes patience to uncover the glory. As you work on seeing the glory in others though, it will get easier just like a person can get better at panning for gold.

3. Remember that there is glory inside of you and work to reveal it. God's already paid the price to wash away the dirt. Be patient and work on not covering up God's glory inside of you with sin. Nobody is perfect but God's son. He took those sins and He'll do it over and over and over so when you sin, ask for forgiveness and then forgive yourself. Try not to do it again, but if you do, hope is not lost. Just turn to Abba again.

Just like the saying, don't throw the baby out with the bath water, don't throw out the chance of seeing glory because there's dirty water in your pan.

Until next time,

In Christ,

Liza