My favourite verse right now is Ezra 1:1-2
Now it came to pass in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: "All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah."
Kind of a strange verse to have as a favourite? Well, this is what memorization has done for me: I am actually taking time to LISTEN to each verse, and consider the implications of what each verse is saying. When you memorize, even the little words are important, so we have to actully pay attention to the little words, and suddenly you realize that it's the little words that can completely change the meaning of an entire passage!
Ok, back to Ezra, so, in memorizing this, as I meditated on it to "hide it in my heart", it came to me:
1. GOD did the stirring of a GREAT KING's heart, and thereby CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY!!
2. God did it to FULFILL HIS WORD!!!
3. God did it right away IN THE FIRST YEAR!!!
4. This ungodly king, actually gave credit to the "LORD God of heaven"
5. THIS UNGODLY KING ACTUALLY *OBEYED*!!!!!!
6. This ungodly king "also put it in writing". The significance of that? It was found in the archives many years later when the adversaries of the Jews were trying to put a stop to the rebuilding of the temple. Ezra 6:1
And what is the significance of these things??? If God has that much control over the events on the earth, who am I to worry about what will happen to me tomorrow. If He has such power over a man who was not even serving Him as a child of God, He will certainly have no problem directing me! My life is in His hands, my future is in His hands, I only have to obey, be quiet, listen, read and hide His word, and: Trust in the LORD with all [my] eart, And lean not on [my] own understanding. In all [my] ways acknowledge Him And He shall direct [my] paths. Prov 3:5-6 (And in checking my accuracy, I noticed vs 7: Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. -- humility must accompany it all. God help me!)
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Job and Hosea
Job... a kind of picture of the church. I read last night a guy who believes God allows bad things because it's the only way we see how evil we really are, how much we need Him... so, Job, -- I'm looking at Hosea 2... vs 5 says: For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.' -- and what crossed my mind was the idea that that is what we are like, even as Christians. When things don't go our way we depend on our jobs and our employers or -- even worse -- the government, to supply our needs. We aren't willing to trust that God knows what He is doing. I think we also forget that THIS life isn't REAL life, that this is just a temporary shell we are living in. We are only left here to do a job, a job that is to bring glory to God and bring more into His kingdom... am I doing that? Do I really believe that.... REALLY in my heart???? If I did, wouldn't His kingdom be the most important thing in my life, forsaking all others???
so, back to my original thought.... about Job. God allows evil in our lives, in the world around us, so we turn to Him and only Him, recognizing that we know nothing. We do not know the end from the beginning, we do not know the whys and the wherefors, we have no idea of the big picture and how it all fits together. Back to the tapestry illustration... the side we see is the side with all the knots and stray bits and pieces, not the beautiful finished work of art that will be shown to us only after we are with Him in heaven.
We are set apart, we are protected, we are called, chosen, special.... peculiar -- and we had better stand out that way... or we are not living our lives they way we should be.
so, back to my original thought.... about Job. God allows evil in our lives, in the world around us, so we turn to Him and only Him, recognizing that we know nothing. We do not know the end from the beginning, we do not know the whys and the wherefors, we have no idea of the big picture and how it all fits together. Back to the tapestry illustration... the side we see is the side with all the knots and stray bits and pieces, not the beautiful finished work of art that will be shown to us only after we are with Him in heaven.
We are set apart, we are protected, we are called, chosen, special.... peculiar -- and we had better stand out that way... or we are not living our lives they way we should be.
