Humility

TCOW today is humility.

Nehemiah is my propeller for this thought. In the first chapter of his book, he is brought news of distress from Jerusalem. At this time he is in Susa serving as cup bearer to the king.

Susa was the capitol of the ancient Elam, which is presently the hottest part of Iran, Khuzestan, roughly 1000 miles away from Jerusalem.

Nehemiah broke down weeping at the news he was brought: that Jerusalem's walls were destroyed, and that the remnant of the people were in great trouble and shame.

He wept, but it says also in verse 4 "...and I continued fasting and praying."

Two things that i notice about this. 1) He CONTINUED, meaning he had been fasting and praying for Jerusalem and probably his role with his people before then, and 2) he did not let his weeping get in the way. He didn't wait until he was broken to begin worship and prayer, he started as soon as he thought about the situation. He reached a certain level of humility here that I don't see in myself almost ever.

Even being broken, he refused to not focus on God. Generally speaking when I am sad, I get that out of the way first and then seek out God's wisdom. Nehemiah says I've got it all wrong. Humility is not lowering yourself, but putting God before you. That's what Nehemiah did!

So as the school year gets harder with classes really starting today, be humble, seek the Father especially during the roughest part of your day.

Focussed

Monday-the first day of class-D day-the day my summer came to an abrupt halt

First of all, I want to give an apology. I haven't been a very consistent "blogger" and i blame myself for being lazy and making excuses.

With that being said, yesterday can be described as one word for me. \

WOW

Life has not been my best friend recently, but yesterday Jesus grabbed a hold of my heart for the first time since the start of summer.

The stress, the sadness, the everything kicked in Saturday, so yesterday during times of worship i didn't care. I just wanted to be with my Jesus.

I looked at it for a second as me leaning on Him and being dependent.

I have a recent problem with dependency. I've been reading a lot of the prophets and to me, those seem like the dark points and points of warning to the Israelites. I feel like God wasn't singing "Lean On Me" at this point. It was more of a command to focus on HIM.

So thats what i did. I changed from dependency to complete focus. Everything else disappeared!

So the Cry of Worship for this week is focus. Where is your life focussed? Is it on a girl/boy? Is it on work? Is it on class? Or is it on the Kingdom of Heaven?

Blind Obedience

The week has not begun to seem any more filled.

I need understanding.

We, as human beings, able to reason and deduce and interact, always want to be better. If that means being better people, being better at a skill, being better about a quirk, whatever that may look like, we always want to be better. The same is true for our thirst of wisdom. Have you ever listened to a person who didn't finish high school? They think they are the bomb! They generally try to give you advice on how to live because they've "been in the hard spots." EVERYONE wants to be wise. EVERYONE wants to understand the world.

Solomon wrote a book about it. About our search for being better.

I had never been interested in Ecclesiastes until I listened to Matt Chandler speak on it at Student Life Camp at Orange Beach Alabama. The dude (Solomon) tried everything. I mean, he had THE BEST of everything. He threw the best parties, had the best dinners, had enough women that he didn't have to have the same kind of sandwich twice for three years almost!

Dude was legit. But all throughout Ecclesiastes he tries to find fulfillment out of it. Everything turns out "meaningless."

In the end, the only thing that matters is that you 1)"Enjoy life with the One You Love," 2) you realize that "Wisdom is better than Folly," and you 3) "Remember Your Creator in your Youth." I think that the one thing that sums it up is 12:13-14, "The end of the matter; all has been heard, 'Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring everything into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.'"

Fear God and keep his commandments for that is the whole duty of man.

Blind following.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer talked about this in "The Cost of Discipleship" a little. He said that the initial following of Christ is not faith based.

WHAT?!?!?

You mean I didn't have complete faith in Christ when I became a Christian? absurd!

But he brings in a good point. The one example that struck me the most was that of Levi. Jesus says come and he leaves all custom, all possession, everything and follows Jesus.

WOW.

No idea who the guy is or how he will eat, he just gets up and goes. Faith comes second. For all of the disciple faith came after spending time with Jesus in His ministry.

So the call of worship today is for that of blind obedience in my life.

God bless, One love, and whatever other "goodbye" you might want to give.

The Bread and the Water

This week is going to be rough. I can already feel it. Disappointment is starting to settle in already. It's an early morning...ish...I'm really not excited about life right this very second (mostly because of the morning thing), and I really just want like a week off of everything to run away to a mountain or something. Well, it isn't going to happen. There's too much to do, too much to worry about!

Today is going to just be a short intro, as will be the trend every monday.

John 6:35-Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

So why on any given day do I not feel satisfied?

My cry for worship this week is that I would learn the meaning of being "Christ-filled."

Reflect on the words of C.S. Lewis throughout the week. "What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step."