Colossians 3:23-24

Today I came across the following verse. This is great timing for me. One of the things I tend to struggle with is being a people-pleaser. I often ask myself, who do you really fear the most, God or man. I would say God, but to be honest I don't know that someone on the outside looking in would see that based on my actions.

I'm training a new hire to take over my responsibilities at work right now and will be transitioning into my new role beginning the week after next. I think this is a verse I will be posting at my new desk.

Colossians 3:23 -24

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Pray for our Nation - Jeremiah 19

I don't want my blog to become a doomsayer blog, but my highest priority in life it to follow the Lord. I want to fear Him more than I fear man. As I'm reading through Jeremiah I can't help but think it is timely for our nation, as I've mentioned before.

I will be posting other things on my blog (a review of Fireproof which I watched last night is forthcoming) - but expect that each morning as I read Jeremiah and the Lord points out verses to be applied to our nation at this time - I will be sharing.

Today I read Jeremiah 19 - the Lord brought the following verses to the forefront:

For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrificies in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal - something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. (verses 4-5)

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: "Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words." (verse 15)

I started thinking about this - we don't necessarily worship stone idols anymore and we don't take our children out in the valleys and throw them in the fire. At least not literally. But this nation, this world in many cases - is still doing these things, the gods have just changed their names and the sacrifices have changed faces.

What gods do we serve in this nation right now?

* Tolerance (political - correctness) - God's Word and Will should rule our lives, not the fear of offending someone because we speak the Truth. Truth is often offensive because it brings to light our sins, something we desparately want to keep in the dark. But some day we must account for these. I'd rather repent of them now than have to explain them to my Creater later as I stand before His Throne.

* Convenience - abortion, greed, we only think of ourselves and we want what we want now. If it may hurt others, we justify it in some way. It does not matter what spin we put on sin, Truth is Truth and sin can NOT be justified.

* Self - We may say we are looking out for others, but in the end we only care about one person, us! And deep down we don't even really like that person. We can not show love if we don't know and understand love. God is LOVE. Without Him we are hopeless. The only true and fulfilling way to live is for Him, not for ourselves!

I keep coming back to Jeremiah 2:11-13

"Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the Lord. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

Please join me in prayer (repentence & intercession) for this nation. Let us turn from our broken cisterns that we have dug and run to the cistern of the Lord, the spring of Living Water!

Pointing Fingers

The Democrats are pointing fingers at the Republicans. The Republicans blame it on the Democrats. McCain says it is Obama's fault, while Obama points right back to McCain. And everyone seems to be pointing the finger at Bush. All the while our country is falling apart, the stock market had the lowest drop in points ever yesterday according to one newsreport I watched this morning.

Some will say it does not matter whose fault it is, we just need to fix it. Normally I would agree, but this time I think the only way to "fix" our country is to get to the root cause of the problem. That means pointing the finger where it really needs to be pointed.

What is the root cause of all our nation's troubles? GREED! One word can sum it all up and one word points the finger at everyone of us. I think it is time to be very blunt and no longer sugar coat things. We are a self centered and selfish nation. We want what we want and we want it NOW! At all levels this is what happened. The top guys loosened regulations and guidelines that were setup to protect us so they could make some money. Those of us at the bottom, were greedy and wanted our "stuff" now even though it did not make logical sense for use to do so. Did not matter if we really could not afford it, the bank says we can! (And yes, I'm pointing the finger at myself here! I'm just as guilty!)

Now we are trying to pass a bail-out plan. The Democrats say there needs to be more regulation, the Republicans say the Deomocrats are turning us into a Socialist country. In the end, we are still doing the same thing. We are being selfish and greedy, pointing the fingers at others. Wanting to be bailed out of our mistakes with no harm to ourselves. Who really cares about anyone else.

Greed and selfishness is not a government problem. It is not a political problem (it crosses all lines and parties!), it is not a social problem, it is not even an economic problem. It is a SPIRITUAL problem. And the only way to solve a spiritual issue is to go to the Lord in repentence. We need to be dropping to our knees in prayer, repenting of our sins and asking the Lord for guidance and wisdom in how to move forward.

I read the stories in the Old Testament about the Israelites and I'm amazed at how fast they could turn away from God. I think "How stupid were they! I would never do that!". I'm wrong. I have done that, we all have. We have turned from God as a nation and chosen to do things our way. Now our nation is falling apart. We need to learn a lesson from the Israelites. When they finally opened their eyes to sin they would fall on their faces before a Holy God and repent. We need to do the same. Will you join me? Repent of our Greed and then ask the Lord to give guidance to our leaders and discernment in how to heal this nation.

Dear Lord,

We come to you and repent of our greed and selfishness. We repent of thinking that we could do things our own way. We acknowledge your Sovereignty in our lives and in our nation. Please open the eyes and hearts of our leaders (and ours as well!). Please give them wisdom and discernment in what is needed to heal this nation, but most of all to heal our lives, our hearts. That is the beginning of healing the nation, the healing of our hearts and lives. We thank you that you are a mericful and gracious Lord who loves us unconditionally. We come to you and ask that you have Your Way with our lives and with this nation.

In Jesus' precious Name,
Amen

40 Days of Prayer & Fasting for our State and Nation

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sins, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

With the upcoming elections there is a prayer movement sweeping this nation. A friend of mine is part of the Governor's Prayer team. Beginning yesterday she started sending out prayers daily as part of the California 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting. I'm including the prayer sent today (Day2) below.

In addition she sent me a link to Pray the Vote 2008, which has a link to enroll if you are interested. They also have a link to the 40 Days to Pray the Vote which started today. You can sign up to be emailed the daily prayers.

Please consider joining us in the next 40 days to pray for our state(s) and our nation as the November elections draw closer.

* * * * * *

Prayer from Minister Joe Wright to Kansas Legislature in Topeka on January 23, 1996, it's even more relevant now.

Heavenly Father,

We come before You today to ask Your Forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, ''Woe to those who call evil good,'' but that's exactly what we have done.

We have lost our Spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that; we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism;

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism;

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle;

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery;

We have neglected the needy and called it self preservation;

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare;

We have killed our unborn and called it choice;

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable;

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem;

We have abused power and called it political savvy;

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition;

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression;

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been put in office by the people of this state and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your Will.

(Added by the sender: Lord, as we confess our sins honestly before you, we cry to you for mercy and ask you to put righteous men and women after your own heart in seats of authority in our land. See attached Prayer for Leaders after God's own heart.)

I ask in in the name of your Son, The Living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

Fear of the Lord in the Psalms

Tonight I want to share with you some of the things regarding the Fear of the Lord in the Psalms. I'm paraphrasing what the Fear of the Lord either means or leads to according to the verse and I'm listing the chapter and verse so you can look them up yourself as well.

1. Lack nothing (34:9)
2. Angel of the Lord surrounds and delivers (34:7)
3. The Lord confides in and makes His covenant known (25:14)
4. Great goodness is stored up and bestowed (31:19)
5. They eyes of the Lord are on them (33:18)
6. Salvation is near to them (85:9)
7. He has great love for them (103:11)
8. His love is with them from everlasting to everlasting and His righteousness is with their children's children (103:17)
9. H provides food for them, compassion and grace, He remembers His covenant forever (111:4-5)
10. He will bless them (115:13)
11. He who fears the Lord is blessed (128:4)
12. He fulfills their desires, He hears their cries and saves them (145:19)

This coming weekend I'll also be sharing with you a little bit about a study that a friend of mine is doing and has been gracious enough to share with me. I believe it all ties into what I'm already studying now and I'm very excited about what I'm learning from it! I also have some verses from Proverbs and elsewhere regarding the Fear of the Lord that I think are very meaningful that I'll share.

Fear of the Lord or Fear of Man

Today I had to honestly face whether I feared God or man. I don't want to go into all the details because in the end this post is not about the exact details so much as it is about God revealing to me that I'm not quite where I had thought I was.

I learned today that in some ways I'm not even close to fearing God the way I should. Instead I fear man. I fear what those around me think of me and I fear truely sharing who God is to me with others. Today I was put in a situation where I risked looking foolish to those around me in order to obey my Lord. I've known about needing to do this for two days now, but a part of me was trying to figure out a way to avoid the situation. I was trying to justify a way to get out of it, so I would not look foolish to others and so I could feel like I was doing God's will at the same time

Just before the time to do what I needed to do, God revealed to me my mindset. At that moment it was so obvious to me what I had been doing, but before that point I honestly had no idea!

I started praying for the Lord to help me to fear Him and to obey Him, instead of being so worried about what others may say about me or think of me. I sit here and say I love God, that I will obey Him, even die for my beliefs if necessary, but I was afraid of someone looking at me strangely today. The logic is so twisted.

I can't say that when I prayed my mindset totally shifted and I did what God required of me without a second thought. I still had that little voice in my head saying "Those people are going to think you are weird! Your boss is not going to respect you any longer. She'll think you're a quack!" However, God gave me peace and gave me the strength to push past that and do as He wanted me to do. In the end the feeling of obeying God felt wonderful. It was like I could see Him up there smiling at me saying "There you go Angela. One step closer to who I want you to become!"

Recently I heard someone say that everyone says they are willing to sacrifice for the Lord, but they are thinking of sacrificing money, time or their lives. Not that those things are bad, they are not. However, many times (especially in our society) what God is asking us to do is to be different, to do something new. That means standing for Him. I'm not talking about a "I'm in your face" kind of stand. What I mean is standing for Him in such as way that others will see you as foolish. Standing for Him in a way that humbles you, because you have totally set aside your pride and are concerning yourself with what He wants, not how others will see you. Does that make sense?

1 Corinthian 1:18 - 20

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Corinthians 3:18-19

Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.

Fear of the Lord - My Thoughts

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I’m starting to believe that the Fear of the Lord is one of the keys to a truly intimate relationship with the Lord. If you can get to where you truly understand this as God intended us to, you will be able to walk with the Lord and your desires will start to line up with His.

So I’m going to keep pursuing this. So far, I’ve not really answered my questions. Instead I’m just fanning the flames of my desire to know God more and delve in deeper. I guess in the end that is how it is supposed to work anyway. God created us to desire romance and He wants us to love Him and pursue Him as He has done with us.

So the chase is on!

Someone mentioned recently that Jesus was very clear that He only did what the Father told Him to do. But do you notice that unlike us He did not have to plead with God constantly to show Him the answer, to tell Him what the right path was? He was so in tune with God, that He knew what God wanted without all the pleading we do.

Now I’m not saying that we should stop asking God for guidance and to speak to us. What I’m saying is my goal is to become so intimate with God that hopefully one day I won’t have to plead with Him to reveal Himself to me anymore. It will be a constant connection. That is what God desires with us, we just get distracted and disconnect.

Now I know you may be saying, “But Jesus was God, so of course He knew what the Father wanted Him to do.” But I believe scripture tells us that although Jesus is God, He is also distinct. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around that concept, but if we could easily do so, we would be able to know the thoughts of God and personally I prefer a God who is much smarter and more capable than myself!

Jesus humbled Himself when He came to earth and while He was God, He was also man. He said we would do greater works than Him when the Helper came (Holy Spirit). So why not this as well? Now I’m not saying I’ll ever get to this point, but it doesn’t hurt to dive in and try to get that close to God.

The other day when we were talking about the Fear of the Lord at my house church I wrote these words and this verse in my notebook that I’m going to share with all of you today. In the coming days I’ll share more scriptures, but if you are interested I encourage you to get a concordance and start looking up the fear of the Lord yourselves.

Seek out, cry out for the fear of the Lord!

Proverbs 2: 3-5

“. . . and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”

Righteousness and Fear of the Lord

Recently I’ve started meeting with one of the other women in my house church on a weekly basis for what we call an LTG (Life Transformation Group). It is basically like an accountability partner. We meet weekly to talk about anything we need prayer for, to get to know one another better and to discuss our Bible reading, amoung other things.

One thing the two of us have been discussing lately, is the true meaning of things we’ve heard all our lives. Do we truly understand them? For example, one thing we both talked about was righteousness. We’ve heard this word all our lives in church, but do we really know exactly what this means? What does being righteous entail? Is there a difference between how man defines this and God?

That has led us both in a search to better understand righteousness based on God’s word and we are both delving into this and sharing each week what we’ve come up with based on our Bible study and prayer time with God.

At the same time, our house church has started a search we believe is related. As we were discussing things with the children, one of them asked what the “Fear of the Lord” was and none of us had a real good answer. We decided we would all do some searching and share what we deteremined the next week. We came up with lots of good stuff and determined in the end that we still do not fully understand it, but we do believe it is the key to truly knowing the Lord and walking in His ways.

I believe these two concepts go hand in hand. I’m not exactly sure how yet, but I believe they are related: Righteousness and the Fear of the Lord.

Many of the verses we found regarding the Fear of the Lord were in Psalms and Proverbs. There were also other scattered throughout the Bible as well. I’ll share some of the verses with you shortly. If you have any comments of your own I would love to hear them!