DUH!
I just HAD to share where God led me this morning!!! As I have said here before I am currently reading through the Bible…and I am about to finish II Samuel.
I really do like Joshua, Judges, I & II Samuel, those books sort of have an Braveheart element to them!!! I especially loved II Samuel 21:18-22 where the Philistines kept sending these big honkin’ men to fight against Israel…and every time someone would step up and kick their butt!!! Translation…the Lord will allow us to handle ANYTHING that the enemy throws at us!!! What is coming at you today that seems too hard to handle? God is able!
But after that I was flipping through Scripture and wound up in the book of Habakkuk. The Lord quickly reminded me of two verses…
One was Habakkuk 1:5…I remember reading this verse when we began NewSpring and praying, “Lord, I want that!!!” And I still pray this often!!! I want the Lord to continually do things at NewSpring that cause the world to be amazed…He has called us to be THE CHURCH…and somehow I don’t think hot dog suppers and sending second hand clothes overseas counts as amazing…we are capable of so much more!
The other was Habakkuk 3:2…here the prophet is saying, “God…I’ve heard about what you have done, who you are, but I don’t just want to hear about these things—I WANT TO SEE THEM!!!” YES!!! I am truly in awe of God—what He is doing among us is amazing…but I want to see Acts 2!!! I want to see Him do such an amazing work among us that even the most vile pagan in this community has to say, “There is no way a man is capable of THAT…there HAS TO BE A GOD and I want to know Him!”
Finally…I wound up in I Thessalonians 5:12-13 (please don’t ask how you go from Habakkuk to Thessalonians…I have no idea!!!) This passage challenged the snot out of me!!! It basically tells others to respect the leaders in the church and hold them in high regard. I have met some pastors who use verses like these to demand respect…and it makes me want to hit them!!! (Just being honest!)
I see these verses in a different way…I didn’t take them as being to the people in the church…I took them to heart! If I, as a leader, and going to be held in high regard and respected…then the life I live and the work that I do needs to demand that…NOT the position that I hold. I MUST keep Jesus my main focus…I must desperately seek HIM and HIS ways. I must lead the church the way HE tells me too—never making it about me. I must seek to preach HIS word and desperately pray that lost people get found and found people get grown up!!
And finally…I Thessalonians 5:16 was the icing on the cake. After this post from earlier this week—this verse simply reminded me that, by allowing that crap to get to me, that I was allowing the enemy to steal my joy. The Bible COMMANDS me to be joyful always…and so stuff that steals my joy (religious nuts who have a passion for the law but not Christ) can’t be listened to or looked at any longer.
WOW…it’s been an awesome morning…think I’ll go run now!!!