For Granted

I cant believe how much for granted I take our Lord and Savior.  I have been reading quite a lot lately and when I hear the passion of the Jesus they talk about, I wonder.  Why is it that I cannot let myself fall in love that way with him.  I hear of people who pray on their knees, until the point of scarring.  They kneel and pray for their loved ones, for those that are lost and for the world.  I sit back and I worry about things that really are not that important, but get frustrated if a prayer isn’t answered right away.  We take God for granted so many times and never slow down to think He has whats best for us in mind.  You know what friends there are going to be hard things we struggle with and for the most part they are not going to disappear from your life.  It’s not that the prayers don’t work or that God doesn’t care, it is because there is a bigger purpose for your life.  That struggle is something you can bare and you need to allow God to carry the burden of it.  Just because someone carries something for you doesn’t mean you still cant see it.  Our struggles are apart of our brokenness, but they are also the reason for our redemption.  Jesus is more than a savior, He is the great re-constructor of our faith and our alter.  We have to stop bringing God to our struggles and hope that something will change.  When I place myself in a safe place and hope my struggles won’t find me there because I am busy or “hiding” guess what, they will find you.  It is not until we stop taking our God for granted and take our struggles, hearts and lives to Him that we are in His freedom.  I have learned that this life is hard and not fair, but  I have also learned that my hope is in Heaven and in a God who wants to consume me with all of His love and grace.  When the tough times come, we will respond like we are supposed to, however, in our grieving and repentance there will be something that others will want.  Please be warned that when you choose to draw nearer and more intimate with Jesus, the heat is turned ON!!!  Stop taking Him for granted, stop just praying when you go to bed or in your car.  Treat Him like you treat someone you are in love with and create time for Him.  Get on your knees and pray, pray in submission and in awe of a Mighty and Powerful and Loving God.  Allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with the gift of God’s mercy and grace and let your life be His.  We are spoiled in America and we limit Jesus with are entangled thoughts and actions.  When you see Jesus outside of America, you see the Jesus that was in the Bible, People who have nothing seem to have everything because they allow God to completely fill them and change their lives.  They may live in a dump, but smile everyday, even knowing they may not eat because they trust and know in a God that loves them and steps into their darkness.  Even in the face of evil, they allow God to love them and protect them.  They make commitments and vows of Faith and guess what they come true.  Its not because they know Jesus better than we do, it is because they do not take Him for Granted! Selah

Easter Poem

Good Friday, Better Sunday

We call the Friday he suffered good
When nothing good occurred
He suffered like no one ever should
All of his Holy rights deferred

Jesus hung, dying and nailed to a cross
Allowing all darkness to come and reside
From their eyes this was the ultimate loss
Even one of His strongest disciples chose to hide

He called out to His Father and said
Forgive them for they know not what they do
This was moments before His body would be dead
Moments before we would all be made new

In the end, He almost could not take any more
Pleading with God for Why has he been forsaken
With His last breathe the temple curtain tore
He was indeed the Messiah this could not be mistaken

On the Sunday which was the third day
Jesus had risen and No he cannot die again
He was the Messiah, so dead he could not stay
This new covenant means the Lion of Judah will reign

Oh what a happy and better day Sunday was
For my cross I will never have to bare
The feeling of Satan’s unclenching claws
Causes me to surrender as I say the Lord’s Prayer.

Amen.

Good Friday

I have never stopped to really meditate on why we call it Good Friday.  I have been sitting on my balcony for the past couple of hours just praying and reading and spending time with God.  Listening to worship music and letting Him love on me.  Then as I pause and look at the sky and let God love on me, He says this is always a “Good Friday.”  This is the day that I had the courage to take on the death of the world physically and spiritually.  The horrific events that occurred on our Savior where indeed intense and more than we will ever know.  That our God chose to lose His life for all of us, not only to save us from our own sins, but because He loved us.  This day is a day of rejoicing and humility.  We have the freedom to choose how we want to live and many of our family and friends have not chosen to follow Him.  They simply choose to believe or not believe there is a God.  Our Papa, knowing this still followed through with His assignment.  I can only think of the amount of times I have denied Christ like Peter when I have ran away from standing up for him.  Simply because I didn’t feel confident enough to stand before a crowd and speak.  There was our Savior on His knees praying for His Father to lift the burden He was about to carry because of the infinite hell He was about to pay.  For that single moment in History, Jesus becomes the most evil man to ever live.  He was nailed upon a cross and spiritually received ALL of our sins into Him and then Had God, His Father, reject Him.  It is in that sacrifice that we can walk freely and have the opportunity, even on our death bed, to receive His gift to us.  Good Friday is a day to simply stay in silence and let God resonate in your very being.  It is because on this day, death was defeated forever.  There is no doubt there is a one true God and He is also a mighty God, mighty enough to humble himself into human form and take on all the temptations, sins, pains and brokenness of our World.  Everyone will one day experience that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of All.  I pray that Jesus will place His burdens on you to pray for those who do not know him.  Make your life about Urgency and I plan on doing the same.  Growing up I lived in fear of many things because Satan had his hand on my life, but now I choose to release everything into Jesus’ more than willing scarred hands and will not be afraid.  I want to leave you on this Good Friday with this verse Romans 1:16: ” I will not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: First for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Amen and Amen