Just try me...

Psalms 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
Examine = investigate
Prove=assay, to test like silver and gold to determine the purity level
try= cast, melt, purge away
reins and heart=mind and soul, every bit of me
What David is expressing is for God to do a complete and thorough examination and anything that does not meet up with His standard (Jesus) is to be burned away in a hot fire so that there would be no flaw within himself..  In this day of self worth and if someone were to criticize a flaw it is viewed as an attack on your very self.  You are made special and you are valuable (look at the price paid for you)  I am not in my last few posts and I think one more to come trying to advocate everyone to become exactly like each other but instead lets just get the shovels and sometimes picks (depending on how thick and hard it is) and get the manure out of the stalls.  You and I are being watched more than we know.  I know this may upset a few people  but each one of us has ares that can use some tweaking or even complete destruction (are you ready for the shocking part?) even.............(can I say it) even........me.  I had an incident the other morning in a Lowes parking lot. A man came from the side cutting across the parking rows without looking back to see if anyone (in particular me)was there.
Now this is something I practice when the lot is empty (often early in the morning) but I usually go slower and check a bit more than he did.  He came very close to hitting me and I laid on my horn pretty good (which he did need and deserve).  He parked his truck at one end and I proceeded to park closer to the middle to the other end .  I noticed that he was walking my way as I approached the store.  I got a little concerned but kept going as he was a smaller guy.  As he got near he said, "You didn't have to lay on your horn at me as much as you did."  I was a little shocked... even though there was a slight admission to his guilt he was criticizing my hornmanship.  I remained quiet while I quickly analyzed this...God quietly said "He is right"... "But he cut me off!"...  By this time we were entering the store... I lightly put my hand on the back of his shoulder and said "Your right"  and then we parted going our separate ways.  What was God doing? Grabbing another shovel full or two and cleaning out. Was he wrong in his driving? YES.  Was I right to honk? YES.  Was my attitude right?  No.  This incident was no big deal, but it made an adjustmnet in an attitude that was developed or developing within me.  Three days later an SUV tried to t-bone me (to hit a vehicle on the side with the front of their vehicle) within 50 feet of the last incident.  My reaction?... To swerve and no horn (not even a polite honk).   I was protected and today that is good enough for me.

Tales from the woods

On a different hunting trip to the U.P. of Michigan, than the previously discussed excursion (this time with my two "other brothers", Jon and Dave), we found ourselves a bit bored...  Being bored on a hunting trip is a dangerous thing.  Boredom often requires several elements, when combined can produce an undesirable effect that can impact the course of mankind.  The main ingredients of boredom on an hunting trip are: extra time, cold weather, sharply pointed weapons, bad food and no bagged game (any of which by themselves is not good for the average person but being the quality person that I am ,<we are> the pressure built to effect even me ...<us>).  After one morning of successfully freezing my feet and rear end off and downing a less than adequate breakfast (to restore the frozen bits) I retired to catch up on the missed sleep from the night before during which it had snowed and my small tent was worse than cold.  Upon waking from my nap I decided to take some target practice, as up to that point I had nothing of note to shoot at,  I had passed up shots at several June Bugs (hopelessly lost due to the cold) and the occasional snowflake (basically because I was concerned that the release of the bowstring would snap my frozen fingers off).  By the time I woke up and decided to take some target practice the sun was shining and warming up the air to a balmy10 degrees.  My stirring had apparently woke up Jon and Dave who were also trying to recover (apparently the screaming of others moving frost bitten limbs causes sleeplessness)  and seeing me demonstrate my accurately placed shots at a clump of grass they decided to try and show me up.  Unable to match my marksmanship, as my target would often change clumps according to where my arrow had landed, Dave grew increasingly agitated.  He decided, in his elderly wisdom, to add an equalizer to maybe get back some of his machismo.  He proposed to shoot the arrow upwards to see who could get the closest to the target that was 30-40 yards in front of us.  It was a wonderful twist (with the added benefit of learning to shoot accurately over trees and other hunters to get at the deer) with the arrow almost disappearing before coming back down.  Our accuracy was quickly improving as we shot, so to keep it competitive Dave would move the target closer, 5-10 yards at a time (which would enable us to shoot those wily deer, which would often stand behind a tree in an obvious infraction of true sportsmanship). As the target got closer our ability to follow the arrow near its apex diminished.  On one almost fatal shot Dave lost sight of his arrow... we panicked and scattered, obviously we all still had frozen limbs because there was also no lack of screaming... only to find the arrow about 20 feet behind where we were shooting from!  Needless to say we quit practicing and left that shot for use under real and ideal circumstances (fewer people around and equipped with our army helmets).
A lot of us live lives as close to sinning that we can get... losing our temper repetitively, demanding our own ways, looking at and "considering" the opposite sex, letting our thoughts wander and so on and so on....
"What, I need to change and go in the opposite direction?"...  "You mean I need to live a life of blessing and caring for others instead of cursing them? You don't understand... they are jerks!"
Why do we try to keep as many of our bad habits and attitudes as we can and still get into heaven? Living a life with God is one of change and it is not on His part.  Selfishness is at the center of the old man, keeping your habits and attitudes is an act of selfishness to keep the old man ways.  Blindly shooting and hoping you make it is a surefire way to lose your life... the wrong way!

Getting down to the nitty gritty

Toe stepping time...  Being a christian is not going to church services,  it is not "praying",  reading the Word on a regular basis or even saying "the prayer".   It is the invitation to have God actually come into your life and you partaking His life and Him partaking yours.  There will be change and probably a lot of it.  The longer you claim to be a christian (a little Christ, or Christ like one) the more smooth your "edges" and actions and reactions  should become.  To put it more simple for you all to understand...  if you claim to be a believer and are acting like a bitch and either have not changed out of that mindset or have not pleaded with God to change you or or at a minimum asked Him to show you when you are, so you can apologize to those you were a "B" to, or at least gone to someone close that you can trust, like a spouse and say  "Okay I recognize my short comings and need help.  When I get that way, say the word 'lavender' ." (and may I add. when they say 'lavender' don't take it out on them),  I don't believe that you can be a true believer  (because you are not changing or morphing into the image of Jesus).  You are are still sitting in your poopy pants, sucking on your thumb and looking ridiculous.
Here is a good (really its bad) one,  ever been around someone that gets mad or bitchy for not having things their own way and then in a matter of minutes start talking about Jesus?  Later they complain about how hard you are and wonder why you haven't gotten saved and/or become like them?  You are not required to be perfect in the flesh but transitioning toward perfection  and accepting correction is.  We all have our faults, you may be lazy, obnoxious, bossy, irritable, a perfectionist and expecting everyone else to be just like you, you may demanding and expecting everyone to behave up to your standards and there is more... ( you may be manifesting every sin of the flesh but a true believer will be changing and accepting change.) Are you in the process or still in your diaper not wanting change? I heard recently that our elected office holders are like diapers... if we don't change them frequently, they tend to stink.  If you aren't changed regularly your witness (or representation of God) will stink too.

IMPORTANT ADDENDUM
If you think that I am pointing this at you, you are right! Although this is not "at" any one individual, it is toward everyone!   I have heard a recent stat that showed that 80% of the youth in the "church" never come back and/or some find other religions that "meet their needs".  I believe that there are two things going on...
First, there is the hypocrisy that you and I portray for them (as shown above), without the proper repentance toward God and man (people really can look past our faults if we can be real enough to admit them), because we have not truly met the Master (with the meeting comes change.  See also the prior post on meeting angels).  Secondly, we give them the history and info about God, but not the reality of relationship or lead them to have their own meeting with Him.  DO NOT BE THE STUMBLING BLOCK THAT KEEPS OTHERS OUT OF THE KINGDOM.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE IN THIS LIFETIME.  (No, I did not accidentally hit the cap lock....) I AM SHOUTING!!!

What you may not know...

A few years ago... okay, probably 30 by now. My brothers, who shall remain unnamed (and not Jon and Dave), and I spent several falls in a row hunting deer with bow and arrow in the U.P. (upper peninsula of Michigan).  It was a strange place mostly trees and deer and just about as many bars and very few people (probably had more bars than people).  In our quest to disguise ourselves, so that the deer would not recognize us as hunters and thus behave normally and be much easier to get, we all cross-dressed (I chose to look like a tree and my unnamed brothers,  not Jon and Dave, chose dresses, nylons and three inch heels).  I had to set them straight and finally convinced them that a nice pants suit with nylons underneath would be much  more practical, warmer and easier to walk through brush or climb a tree in the case of a wild animal attack (bears, skunks,wolverines etc...  They also chose a nice Chanel #5 to smell less like a man, I chose a two part synthetic that once combined smelled like a skunk.  In their (the unnamed bothers) instructions it said to apply liberally in multiple spots, my instructions were to apply on a rag and drag behind, attached by a string if walking, or hang on a bush or tree several yards away if sitting still.  After several days my unnamed brothers,  not Jon and Dave, both stopped wearing the Chanel #5 and instead used Obsession,  I was having trouble with the whole drag thing as it would get caught on brush or I would have to go and pick up the pieces expertly on the nearby bush or tree in the dark. Whereas, they thought theirs would not only disguise but also be an attractant, I changed my technique and started applying the "skunk" to the heel of my boots and later on the bottom of my tree/camo suit.  By the end of the week Dave's wife Carol came out to the camp to check out what was happening.  My other brothers, who incidentally ARE NOT Jon and Dave, (and shall still remain nameless) told tales of strange looks given them by other hunters, I only had accounts of trying this new masking odor that seemed to have lost its potency once opened. Carol started making comments like "Whew! What's that smell?"  I offered her the remainder that was still in the bottle but she refused insisting she had her own perfume  "...and besides... is that... also a... skunk I smell?"  What had happened was that over the week  my nose had gotten used to the "skunk" to the point where it no longer had the edge that it once had.  To this day real skunk odors do not offend me and I breath in a little deeper and almost enjoy  it because it is really not all that bad you know (note this is not the fresh overpowering odor but one that had been let loose a while ago or a ways away).  What's my point you ask?  You never really know someone till you go hunting with them...   No not really, but I will bet you have smiled or laughed at some point along the way and have learned that I actually have four brothers...  really my point is that you can get used to something over a period of time and you will make adjustments to tolerate a condition or habit that would at one time repel or be totally unacceptable to you.  We get used to physical maladies, abuse by leaders, habits and sins that taint and hinder us.  Ask for the Light of God to shine on you and expose the work of the enemy that has made its way into your life. Next will be to get free... and the truth shall make you free!

P.S. In retrospect using an odor that  in nature is used as an alarm or a defense against an attack may actually repel or make deer go around to avoid an area where an enemy may be.  Today I actually think Chanel #5 may be the better choice.

Looking for a change?

  This morning as I got up and was compelled (probably too strong a word) I was inclined to read the Word.  I did the Holy flip (just opening up the Bible, not knowing the upside down-right side up orientation).  I ended up in Galatians (a book I had once memorized and can sometime quote along with someone reading, especially if they are using the NASB). 
Ga 4:19  My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
   The word  formed  in the Greek is morphoo, sound familiar?  Yes, I think most of us recognize it as morphed.  Better put, it could be said that Paul was going to pray until they "morphed into Christ". Selah (click all-cracked-up-stop-and-think-about if you don't understand "Selah").
  For the last month or three I have been reading my  Bevington book which mentions how they used to pray and/or travail for "sanctification".  Sometimes the people would pray and sit before God for days, if not a week plus, till they "got" what they were after (I know that it was mostly an infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit), but the way they talk about it makes me think more happened and we have missed out. (I think, in our quick and get lives, we perceive all things are attainable in minutes if not seconds, (Microwave Complex Thinking, MCT, yes this is my theory).   Perhaps there was a little morphing going on. 
  When I was in my teens I would go to a camp in northern  Minnesota (well, well north of us anyway).  Being the youngest I had been preceded by my other siblings.  I would hear several times a day "Are you Jon's brother?" or people would sometimes address me as "Jon",  so much so I started to disliked him and finally (for awhile) would answer, "No!" or "No, he is my brother!".  What was going on (other than Jon was probably paying them, in an attempt to drive me nuts) was that they recognized  family physical and mental traits as well as mannerisms and habits that become similar because of being around each other so often.  Selah...  (you become like, morph into, those you hang around with)... True interaction or communion with Him causes change (morphing).
  Can you imagine if we all not only did a little morphing, but as the caterpillar does when it changes into a completely different creature, would do a complete morph into Jesus?  I am not saying to become another Son of God, but so alike people would see Him and we would truly be a son of God, just like Him.
 

What do you know, anyway?

I have watched, studied and made notes (yes, for you people that were or are a little strange, I may have a spiral notebook or two with your name on it...and they are full! Actually, just general mental notes is all) on people through the years.  For example, I know a pastor that thinks he is "free" but rules the church, he is supposed to be watching over, like his father ruled and absolutely dominated him. A friend and I reviewed the people our own age and generally found that the ones that grew up in a household DOMINATED by the wife/mother had a hard time with God through the late teens and at least through the twenties (please note I didn't say a strong mother, but one that ruled over the father/husband)  Anyway... without seeing and getting free. a lot of us feel and relate to God the Father as we see or perceive Him through our parentage, more specifically our fathers.

Daniel 11:32 ... but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

The key words in this partial verse for us is "know their God".  What do you really know of Him?  What is your perception?  Is He a hard task master?  Unloving?  Unforgiving?  Do you have to continually work to get His approval?  Getting past our Book knowledge may be harder for some  (which I find is most of us) and realize what it is that we really think, act and respond to.  If we think He is unforgiving we may frequently deal we past sins by repenting over and over for them even if they are in the past.  Is your worth to Him what you can do for Him and it's only as you keep busy that you feel loved or accepted or worthy?  We all for the most part have an incorrect perception of Him and act or think accordingly toward Him and others.
God recently took me to this verse:


Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

The part that He was after me to see and understand was "He ever liveth to make intercession".  A drug addicted person ever liveth for the next fix.  Anyone addicted to anything is consumed for the "fulfillment or acquisition" of the act or substance and will do about anything to get it.  This verse says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us!  Who cares if we have a praying mother (not diminishing or discouraging any of you to pray) we also have Jesus doing it for us and He gets His prayers answered, if any of us do.  It is His passion! And He has the Fathers ear!  Selah (stop and think about that, shall we?  Yes, we shall!)
Why or how could you fail on your next God thing that you do because Jesus is interceding for you while you do it!  You talk about a new found boldness and confidence!  If you don't know this you may just wimp out and not even try because you really don't know how passionate and motivated He is about you.  Again in Hebrews 12 it says ..."for the joy set before Him endured the cross"   What is that joy?  It was the reward of having you and I with Him forever and seeing us be with the Father that drove Him to endure.
So, I ask again what do you know...anyway?

Are you ready… ?(the rest is not… for some football, if you don’t get that, just move on)

I have been working on renovating my future son-in-law’s house for the last couple weeks.  On the way, to and from the house, I pass by the Fox Creek Christian Church.  They, in their infinite wisdom, bought one of those signs that lights up their catch phrase of the week.  To say that it is prominent is an understatement, domineering to totally obnoxious would be getting closer (especially at night).  I have had four eye surgeries in the last 18 days or so because my retinas have been burned out by the overly bright and blinding bulbs that make up the individual parts of each letter (I now have to wear special “sun” glasses to shield my eyes during the night hours as I drive by that thing).  The brightness and coloration of the sign makes you want to stop and… beat the hell out of whoever is responsible (because no one in heaven would have had anything to do with making it therefore you would beat the hell out).  Anyway……..

Past signs have been “Been to church lately”, like I said to do what?  kick some #$@? (for the overly bright sign) and “God answers knee mail” isn’t that cute? Their sign for this week has been, “Are you ready to meet God?”.

Now, I know that they mean “If you were to die today…” .  What is in most “Christians” thinking is that when they die they will be meeting God, but they don’t realize the joy and experience that they can have with Him now.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Please note,  in this verse Jesus is not even bringing up the Holy Spirit, He is talking of the Father and Himself making a home in you!  Yes, we have the Holy Spirit and He resides in us, but don’t realize the potential of relationship or, as the sign says, “meet God” time that is available.  So often we limit the “relationship” to church time, prayer and reading time and the comfort it can provide, but we can have a continual communion with all three members of the Trinity.  We see such phrasing in the Bible such as “Abraham was a friend of God” or “Job walked with God” or “Moses talked with God face to face” and skim over it or put them in a “special men of God” category.  Look again at the part where He says “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” this is talking of you and me and seems not something that is an automatic, this comes to someone that “loves me and keeps My words”, it speaks of a growth in relationship first then comes the live in relationship, almost like a marriage.  You thought you knew them before… just wait when you live with someone... you will find things out… (you discover things that you did not know  or even conceive about them) the good news is God has no down or weird sides, only goodness! Our relationship with God is often so restricted to our upbringing that we often limit it to that prior experience.  It is not until we hear of or see someone else’s relationship (and are challenged by it) or see a verse like John 14:23 that we can conceive what we have been missing and are awakened to a potential.  We must be careful and not get defensive because we have “missed out” or dismissive because of our traditions, but realize that “iron does sharpen iron”  (others will challenge the status quo in our life so that we can experience more of God). 

It really all starts with seeking Him.  It is not all that hard, but will involve time.  Look at it the same as  someone you are or were dating… there is a lot of just hold hands and walk time, without a lot of talking going on.  It will happen.