Pursuing Love

Today I read one of my favorite books, the Book of Hosea. This is always such a sweet picture of the Love of the Lord for His people. It is a book of God pursuing his bride that was a harlot. It starts out with God telling Hosea to go find a wife in harlotry and to marry her and have children. He was to love this wife that he bought out of harlotry. The reason for this was because God had a message that was going to go out to His precious people that were doing the same thing to Him. Hosea was going to be the one to carry the message and God wanted Him speaking with the Heart of great passion that God had for His bride. God first dealt with the heart of Hosea.

See this message that God had for His people was calling her to love and repentance. This was going to become very personal and meaningful to Hosea because He would be going through the same process with His bride. He was going to buy her out of harlotry, dress her in fine clothes, feed her, take care of her and Love her with all his heart, He was even going to have children with her. She had security in His embrace. Israel had security in the embrace of God but she wandered, we all wander at times. Why do we do that? It is a weird thing how we like dogs run back to our vomit even though it is not good. Even when She left the loving groom God says "I will Allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak words of comfort to her heart." It was still a time of him pursuing the heart of His bride even when she had hurt Him. He loved her!

When I was in Israel we were in the Judean wilderness and our tour guide was explaining something to us about the wilderness. He said "you know Christians treat the wilderness as a place of punishment but in biblical times that is not how they saw it at all. They would go to the wilderness as a place to get away and see the Lord and hear his voice. This was a place to meet with God. It was a good place to be. God said that he was going to take her to the wilderness to speak to her heart. How sweet those words are!

My friend Jessica was reading a devotion thing to me today and it was sweet. It was God saying to His bride "There is no spot in you." (They defined spot at the littlest thing that would go away in a few days.) "You are perfect." He was looking at His bride through the eyes of Love. He did not choose to say there is not huge scar found in you. Our Lord loves us so much and we are His bride. His heart is to pursue His bride and speak to her heart. He will deal with the sin. He will require repentance when it is due but he will take you back with His gracious, Huge arms of love. How greatly He wants to do that!!!!
God hates sin, He will judge, but His love stands firm and He is reaching out His hand to restore!

Kids with Power Tools

You know... I have been reading in Jeremiah and been thinking it is so cool how the Lord would tell Jeremiah to go places for him to see something from God. Well the Lord showed me a little something cool today while I was working with my dad.

Today I found myself outside looking at the wood pile in our paddock and I wanted to help my dad by cutting it. I started to think to myself... I wonder if my dad would let me use the chain saw. I went outside to ask him about that and he gave me a look that reminded me of when I was a kid. He told me that I was probably not strong enough to handle a tool like that. He told me the danger if I messed up and then instantly pulled me into a different project that he was doing. (It was as if he was saying, “you may not be able to use that but I will let you do something else.”) I was reminded of out Father in heaven. We at times ask him to do things that are way to big for us. He is so gentle in how he responds. Sometimes He will let us do Great things but others he knows that it would hurt us greatly if we had what we asked for. My dad let me help him take apart and rebuild something that would not hurt me. I really did feel like a little kid working with my dad. I was excited to spend time with him. He let me use other tools and let me do things to help him. The Lord really did show me his heart in this. He gave me something else to do. The Lord will put tools in our hands and grow us little by little. I know that at times I was in the way of my dad but he still wanted me there helping him. The Lord puts things in our hands and he does not need our help but lets us be a part of what He is doing of His work. My dad put a different tool in my hand than what I wanted... you see He is a master carpenter/contractor he knows what he is talking about and he can handle all of those tools ;but I well... could not. Our Father in Heaven does not want to discourage us but also does not want to cripple us but putting something in our hands that we cant handle. How cool is our God? My dad is a great example to me and shows me the love of our FATHER in heaven. I am honored to be able to help in the little things and grow with the things that He puts in my hands. This is a little lesson I learned today.

I remember when I was a kid my dad would let me go to work with him and back then I could do a lot less that now. I was more in the way back then too but our father is patient and lets us try and fail. If you feel like you have been asking the Lord to do something and he says no for now, just know it is for you good. That does not mean that he is done with you or cant use you. It just means that He has something different for you. Just go with it. Learn from Him. And be patient.

Life is but a Vapor

The Longer I live my life and see people battle against cancer and hardships I realize, life is but a vapor. Some people win against this battle and some loose. There are some that battle with a smile on their face looking to the hope of Salvation; they look into the face of Jesus and to the promise of heaven. Joy comes on their face and peace is in their voice. There are others that do not look to such joy but look to the despair of it all. Their faces suddenly age, their hearts turn from careless attitude of the world to bitterness and anger. Why did this happen to me. While pondering this and learning more of my Savior and Master I see more clearly, my life is not my own; I was bought at a price so I MUST glorify God with my body. My time on earth is not for me to pursue worldly pleasure, it is not for me to have the best time ever but it has a greater purpose. “The Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. What of those people that are not fortunate enough to have heard of their Savior? How sad is it that there are some who have never heard of the extent that Jesus Loves them personally? So many times I get caught up with pitying myself for some of the hard things that I go through and then I look to the cross; I find myself falling on my face and looking up at the face who died for me. My little trials suddenly turn into a breath that comes and goes. My Lord, right before He was crucified was sweating drops of blood because of what He was going through. He was about to have EVERY sin of EVERY man from times past until eternity put on His shoulders and was going to bear the judgment of GOD. He was one Man about to do this thing. How deep the Fathers Love for us… Those words suddenly seem so small.
I have been watching a girl that I don't even know hear that she had cancer and her eyes are fixed on the face of Jesus. She has no other choice then to look upon her Savior who loves her and focus on the good things that he has promised her. Through the pain of the situation she worships the Lord and meditates on the One who is unchanging. She realizes that her life is not her own and has come to accept that her life may never be the same but says that if this will glorify the Lord the most than she is able to say “please Lord let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.” How beautiful are those words? I am encouraged by the Life of a girl that I have never met. The world looks on us Christians to see how we are going to react in the face of trouble and pain. Are we drawing from the everlasting life that Christ has promised us? Are we choosing to trust in the One who gave His life for us so that we can have life abundantly? What is the purpose of my life? 1. To glorify God; let people see Him in my life. That means that I don’t life for myself but for His purpose. What is His purpose? He wanted a relationship with mankind and that has never changed. He loves every man and woman and wants their love but won’t force it; it is a choice of ours. 2. To Enjoy Him forever; this is a good thing not a Tyrant demanding love. We get to enjoy Him forever, that means that we will love being with Him and it will last forever. It will be fun. It will not be miserable.
I am so grateful for those people that shine even when they are going through such hard times. Their purpose remains, “not my will but Yours be done”. This brings the Joy and peace in the midst of the storm. Remember if you follow Jesus Christ all eyes are on you, people watch to see if your faith really means what you say it means and they watch the closest when you are in your deepest trial. You set your gaze on the One who never changes and look to the Joy or your salvation. Life is but a vapor… therefore Glorify God with your body. Jesus is the commander and “if you disobey orders people could die.”
Thank you Katy Haney for you example. Your life glorifies God and people you don’t even know about are encouraged by your life.