The Sheep and the Goats

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. . .41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in
prison and you did not look after me.' 44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison,and did not help you?' 45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' ~Matthew 25:31-33, 31-45

As I've mentioned before I'm reading The Final Quest by Rick Joyner. I must say it is messing up my mind in that it is causing a huge shift in how I think about things and look at things. I highly recommend the book.

At one point he is talking to someone who he had once wanted to be mentored by, but their personalities had clashed and they had not gotten along well. This man is now holy and pure in heaven, but tells Rick he is one of the least in heaven because of how he had focused more on himself than on God during his life. (The amazing part is that he is so thankful and happy for the place he does have in heaven!) As he explains this a bit more Rick realizes he has done some of the same things. One of the things he mentions is he had rejected those who the Lord had given him to disciple. That really made me think.

I've always thought of the story in Matthew regarding the sheep and the goats as being someone who literally does not help the poor and needy physically. I looked at it in a worldly way, I guess. But it could also be taken in a spiritual sense. Are we helping those who are hungry, thirsty and poor spiritually - those who are looking for God? Are we being so judgmental towards others and arrogant in our own spiritual standing that we miss those God sends us because we think they are not worthy or we think they are unimportant?

While I was thinking of this the Lord revealed some of my own shortcomings to me. Areas where I had started to get arrogant because of what God has been revealing to me. Areas where I've started to focus on myself instead of on God. That knocked me down a notch or two.

So now I need to ask myself everyday:

Am I the sheep or the goat? Am I feeding the hungry and thirsty, caring for the poor and needy physically? Am I feeding the hungry and thirsty, caring for the poor and needy spiritually?

Am I looking upon others arrogantly, holding it over their head that I am spiritually more mature than them or am I looking on them with love through Jesus' eyes? Is there anyone God has put in my life to help that I have not because I have been thinking they were not worthy or important? If so, then I'm forgetting that I'm not worthy or important, but God still teaches and pursues me because He loves me regardless of what or who I am. The least I could do is the same for others.

Ephesians 1:4-6

My house church just finished a study for the children on Praise. It actually had some really good things for us adults as well. So last night we had decided to do a quick study on the Armor of God until we decided what to do next. The study last night really had a lot of good discussion with the adults and with the kids (I'll share some in the upcoming days!). We are finally starting to figure out how to do our "adult" time as a church while involving the kids as well. It is amazing how much everyone, adults & children, are growing closer to the Lord.

We decided we are now going to go through all of Ephesians - one chapter a week. We will all read it and come with our notes/thoughts to discuss. One adult each week will go through the chapter as well to look for discussion items to involve the children. I'm so excited!

Last night I started reading through Epehsians 1 and verses 4 - 6 really jumped out at me. I wanted to share that with you today.

4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
(Ephesians 1:4-6, NIV)

I'm going through a study right now on the Song of Solomon and I'm starting to finally get in my heart how the Lord really feels about me, how much He really loves me. This may be why this verse jumped out to me. We all remember the verse about the Lord knowing us when we were in our mother's womb (Psalm 71:6), but the verse in Ephesians tells us that the Lord not only has loved us since we were conceived, but even before the world was created!

Think about this and personalize it to you. The Lord loved me and wanted me to be holy and blameless in His sight even before He created the world! He wanted me to be a child of His even before He made the earth and all that is in it! What an amazing love.

Then it says he took pleasure in planning this. Even before He created the world He loved me, thought of me and made a plan to redeem me because of His love for me and He took pleasure in doing all of this. I am NOT a burden to the Lord - He takes pleasure in me just the way I am now. Not in how I will be after His process with me is finished (that is what He is enjoying planning for me). He took/takes pleasure in me when I was/am at my lowest!

For me that is a huge revelation. I think without realizing it I had a always seen myself as a burden to God. When I read this last night it finally hit me - God was telling me that when He does things for me He is not doing it because He feels He is obligated to do so because that is what His Word says, but because He really enjoys it and wants to do it for me!

I looked these verses up on Biblegatway in various translations. I love the way it is worded in The Message:

3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

(Ephesians 1:3-6, The Message)

I love how this says we were the focus of his love and that He wants us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving. When you personalize this and realize this is how the Lord feels about you, regardless of where you are at right now - that is beyond what we can imagine! Just know the Lord really does Love you more than you could ever imagine and there is nothing you have to do to earn it. He is pursuing you and lavishes His amazing love on you. Doesn't that just make you want to love and serve Him so much more!

19We love Him because He first loved us.

(1 John 4:19, NKJV)

Eyes of our Heart

God gave me something recently that keeps coming to mind periodically as I go through my day. It is a great encouragement to me and I wanted to share it with all of you, in case it could be the same for you.

God gave me this while I was reading the second chapter in The Final Quest. In his vision, Rick Joyner has been standing in the Garden of the Lord, he has ate from the Tree of Life and has been worshiping God. Then he is being told he needs to leave the garden to go out and bring the Good News of Jesus to others. He is saddened to leave the garden, but an angel named Wisdom tells him that this place and the presence of Jesus lives in his heart.

Then Wisdom released me and started to walk toward the gate. I followed with ambivalence. I remembered the exhilaration of the battle and the climb up the mountain, and it was compelling, but there was no comparison to the presence of the Lord and the worship I had just experienced. Leaving this would be the greatest sacrifice I had ever made. Then I remembered how it was all inside of me and was amazed that I could forget this so quickly. It was like there was a great battle raging within me, between what I saw with my physical eyes and what I saw with my heart.

(The Final Quest, by Rick Joyner)

After reading this the Lord gave me a vision of me walking down a wide asphalt road. On each side of the road I could see bright lights flashing and hear loud music and laughter. So many distractions beckoning me to leave the wide dark road I walking down. It reminded me a lot of Las Vegas. It was so hard to concentrate on the road ahead which was so cold and dark when I could see so many things on each side of me that looked so fun. But then I heard the Lord's quiet voice speak to me, telling me to stop looking at the world through my physical eyes. He told me to close my eyes and look at the world the way He saw it, to see it through the eyes of my heart.

So I shut my eyes and immediately all the distractions on each side of me when quiet and dark. I still has a sense of them being there, but they were dark and fuzzy, they held no pleasure for me. I realized all of a sudden that the reality I thought I knew was not the true reality. It was a fake that was all made up on the outside but on the inside was hollow and empty.

Then I noticed in front of me there were what looked like stepping stones in the middle of the road. These began to glow with an inner light. They were beautiful. I noticed though that they were not very large, just big enough for me to put a foot on. The Lord whispered to me that the path was really much more narrow than I had originally thought and that the only way to stay on the path was to follow Him - to see "reality" through the eyes of my heart, not with my physical eyes.

Now when I start to get tempted by the things of this world or start to feel overwhelmed by the things of this world, this vision comes to mind. That is not to say that I don't sometimes let the distractions of this world sway me. I'm human just like everyone else and I fall. (And it has only been about a week since He gave me this and already I have fallen, more than once!) But eventually I do hear God's whisper and He draws me back onto the path. He wants to guide us back to the path and guide us down it, but we have to give Him permission. He will stay by us waiting for us to ask Him to take us back, but He won't just pick us up and bodily drag us there. He will pick us up and set us back on the path if we ask Him to though.

Song of Solomon Study

As many of you may know from my previous posts - I've been on a journey recently to better understand God's love for me. The Word says we love Him because He first loved us. I know how much He loves me in my head. But at times that is all it is, just head knowledge.

I want to get it in my heart. I want to truly understand that He loves me no matter what I have or have not done. That does not give me an excuse for not reading my Bible, not praying, etc. However, I have trouble truly understanding that His love for me is not dependent on these things. Therefore, I live with shame and condemnation a lot.

Last week I started a study at RHOP on the Song of Solomon and I am so excited (and a bit scared!) about this. Last week while listening to the woman leading this study I started to "get it". I started to feel it in my heart, but without realizing it I would start to throw up a wall. It is a habit and it was causing a struggle in me through the whole lesson. Part of me wants to have the heart knowledge of how my Lord feels towards me, but part of me feels the need to protect myself. I know it is crazy but old habits and ways of thinking are hard to break.

I believe it is no mistake that the woman leading this had to postpone it from November to now. Right now this study and this understanding of how much the Lord loves me and cherishes me means more than ever before. God's timing is perfect.

So, if any of this is pulling at something in your heart. If you think this is something the Lord is also wanting to reveal to you, please join me. RHOP is making the handouts and the lessons available online. You can listen to the podcasts using iTunes (which is free - iTunes).

RHOP Podcasts (and handouts)

Song of Songs - Session 1
Bridal Paradigm Introduction Handout
Song of Songs Overview Notes
Discovering God's Heart - Session 1 Notes

I also have the RHOP podcast feed on my sidebar so you can see when the new sessions are posted.

Prayer for President Bush in Israel

Please keep President Bush in your prayers over the next few days as he visits Israel and then other locations in the Middle East. There have been threats made against our leader and we need to cover him in prayer.

Below is an email I received from Joni Ames today regarding this:

******

Dear Friends,

Let's all release extra prayer for the safety of President & Mrs. Bush while they are in the Middle East this week. There have been severe threats made on their lives, per all of the news media sources. It would also be good to break the power of word curses spoken about them - even the "prophecies" some have made that there would be assassination attempts. We do not want to come into agreement with such a thing. Rather, in prayer, cancel and take authority over that thing.

During the next few days, President & Mrs. Bush will travel to Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt from January 9-16, 2008.

Below is his detailed itinerary as specified by National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley:

January 9 - 10 Tel Aviv and the West Bank, Meeting with Israeli President Peres and Prime Minister Olmert, Meeting with Palestinian President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad

January 11 Meeting with Tony Blair

January 12 Visit with U.S. Troops at Camp Arifjan, Meeting with Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus

January 13 Visit with U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet, Meeting with President Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates, followed by a speech he will give in Abu Dhabi

January 14 Meeting with ruler of Dubai, Meeting with King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia

January 15 Meetings in Riyadh

January 16 Meeting with President Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt

Then, of course, pray for safe travel home.

Blessings,
Joni Ames

Huckabee's answer re: Evolution

I have to say the more I see of this candidate the more I like him. This is a click where Mike Huckabee responds to a question that is asked of him regarding whether or not he believes in evolution. I thought he did a great job of answering the question. What do you think?



If you are interested in learning more about this Mike Huckabee visit his site. It has alot of good information regarding where he stands on issues.

Where are we in the Army?

I've started reading a book called The Final Quest by Rick Joyner. The first chapter is called The Hordes of Hell are Marching. In it Rick describes a dream/vision God gave him about the army of the Enemy. The first part of the chapter he describes the army of the Enemy and the rest of the chapter he describes the army of the Lord and the beginning of the fight between these two armies.

What is interesting is how Christians figure into the army of the enemy. Demons such as Rejection, Bitterness, Lust, etc are actually riding into battle on Christians and these Christians do not even realize it. Then behind the main army he describes little demons called Fear that are guarding prisoners. These prisoners are Christians who are marching along dejected and above them are flying vultures who are Depression who vomit on the prisoners. The really sad thing is these prisoners still have their weapons with them and could kill the little demons and vultures guarding them, but they actually think these things are messengers of God and believe they are marching in the army of the Lord, not the enemy.

Then he runs to the army of the Lord and sees Christians, many of whom do not have all their armor on, or in some cases have no armor at all. Many are wounded and are not bothering to cover their wounds with armor to protect them. Behind this army are more Christians who are frolicking and have no idea what is going on. When someone says something about the impending war they laugh and say the Lord would never let anything like that happen and they ignore the reality of what is happening around them.

Then the enemy attacks and their arrows of Accusation, Gossip, Slander & Faultfinding rain down on the army of the Lord. The vultures of depression come in and start taking away the wounded to become prisoners in the army of the enemy.

Later in the chapter he describes the army of the Lord going to the Mountain of the Lord and climbing levels while fighting the enemy. The angels of Faith, Hope & Love encourage them and they grow stronger. He talks of the weapons of the Lord to be found on the different levels and about putting their swords (the Word of God) into the ground and tying themselves to it in order to anchor themselves while they shoot arrows down on the enemy.

I found this whole chapter so very interesting and it spoke to me quite a bit. I could see that the things he was describing are happening in our world. We just don't see it because we are so distracted by this world, we forget there is a spiritual world that is very active. It influences our lives whether we recognize it exists or not.

I also found myself throughout the chapter wondering which part of the army I was? Am I part of the army of the enemy being ridden by demons? Am I one of the prisoners being dragged down by depression, thinking that I'm marching with the Lord? Am I one of the individuals in the army of the Lord that is not fully armored and is already wounded and not trying to protect myself or allowing God to heal me?

This is just the first chapter of this short book. I'm going to read this first chapter again prior to continuing on. I've also started praying that the Lord will reveal to me where I am in these two armies. I'm praying He'll open my eyes to where I am and what I need to do in order to ensure I am part of the Lord's army and climbing His Mountain.

New Again - Brad Paisely & Sara Evans

A friend sent me this and I thought it was beautiful. Please be warned it does have a few graphics scenes from The Passion in it.

My Christmas Tea Experience

Last month a good friend of mine invited me to a women’s Christmas tea. I really enjoy these things and this was a friend that I don’t see as often as I would like to, so I was really looking forward to this event. The tea ended up being more meaningful than I could have ever imagined.

The event was being hosted by a large church in our area. I’ve been to a few teas before, but never something like this one. As we walked in the front door we were overwhelmed by the amount of tables set up with items including jewelry, lotions, candles and everything you can think of to purchase. All the tables were beautifully decorated and there was even a chocolate fountain for everyone to dip marshmallows and pieces of cake in! Then we walked into the room where the tea was being served. Men from the church were dressed in tuxedos serving us, there was a man playing Christmas carols on a pan flute and there were beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere! Many of the women were dressed in gorgeous gowns and I must admit, it was absolutely beautiful (and the food was delicious!)

Then the program started, filled with beautiful music and dancing. I’ve been to teas before where they’ve given out little gifts. At this one they started telling us about what they had set aside for us to take home. There was a beautiful chocolate covered graham cracker with an angel on it, a silver heart necklace, and tickets to a Christmas performance at the church. On top of that they informed us that we were to take home the porcelain napkin holder, teacup and saucer that we were using.

While I should have been overwhelmed by their generosity, all I could think about was how much money it must have cost them to put this together and how the money could have been used on something else, to help those less fortunate than us. I found myself start thinking about how the real meaning of Christmas was being lost, that these women were more worried about pampering themselves than helping those who need help. From there I started wondering how close these women’s walk with the Lord really was, since they seemed to have their priorities messed up.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t think we should try to be martyrs all the time, nor can I say that I don’t do things to pamper myself. I was just so overwhelmed with this tea and the amount of time and money that had to have gone into the event.

As I’m thinking these things, one of the women got up and started talking to us about God. All of a sudden I heard the Lord start to reprimand me. He showed me very clearly that this woman knew and loved the Lord just as much as me and that I did not have the right to judge these women. I’ve mentioned before that I do not attend “traditional” church. I am part of a house church or a church without walls as some call it. A lot of times when I explain this to people I feel as if they are judging me and trying to convince me to come to their church because in their minds what I’m doing is not really church. God showed me that day that I was doing the exact same thing to these women. Just because they did not “do church” the same way I did, I was judging them. I was no better than those people who have implied that I was not following the Lord because of how I chose to worship Him and fellowship with others.

That really humbled me. I wanted to just sit there and weep. But our God is wonderful and merciful. In the same moment that He showed me how I was judging others, He also showed His love for me.

I’ve been on a journey lately to discover how the Lord really sees me. I have trouble imagining the God of the universe loving and pursuing me. I’ve been asking Him lately to open my eyes to how He is romancing me.

As I sat there that day, realizing that I was doing to these women exactly what others have done to me, the Lord also opened my eyes to His love for me. The woman talking and telling us about what gifts they had for us was telling us that the Lord loved us and we were all special to Him. She said the tea was their way of pampering us and showing us God’s love. As she was speaking these words, I clearly heard the Lord tell me

“Angela, I love you. I am using these women and this event to show you how very much I love you. I am romancing you right now. Open your heart and accept it. Don’t deny me this opportunity to love you. Don’t judge them based on what you think is right or wrong and miss out on what I am trying to give to you.”

It is amazing how we can take something the Lord means to use to show us His love and twist it into something we judge others regarding. And it is even more amazing how the Lord can teach us a lesson, reprimand us and at the same time show us how very much He loves us.

Is there something in your life the Lord is trying to use to bless you, but you are not allowing it? The Lord wants us to learn to love others and sacrifice for others. However, we also need to allow others to love and sacrifice for us. If we don’t we may not only be missing something special and amazing the Lord has for us, we may also be keeping someone else from serving the Lord by serving us.

Who is our Worship for?

Who is our worship for? Seems like a silly question, huh. Of course, it is God! But is it really?

How many times have you been in church during worship and just not "felt it". How many times have you thought, "I just don't like this song" and tuned out or changed the radio station? The question I've started asking myself is, does it really matter if I like the song or not? All that really matters is if God is enjoying the worship of His people, right? It is easy to loose sight of that though. Worship is for God, not for us.

I bring this up because tonight I was at our local house of prayer and something happened to drive this point home. We had an hour of worship and then a speaker. She mentioned a story about someone coming up to her at a conference worried that they were going to offend her. You see they had not liked the style of worship the night before and the woman wanted to tell her but was worried that she would be offended. Joni's response was, "Oh that! I'm not offended. It's not big deal, because the worship was for God not you."

Joni's story about this really hit home for me because although I love worship, I find it difficult for me to focus on God at times. You see I'm very self conscience when I'm around others during worship. I don't have a very good voice (in fact when singing in the car I turn up the radio loud enough so I can't hear myself!) I'm always worried about disturbing others with my voice. I know God enjoys all of our worship, regardless of our singing ability, but it is hard to remember that at times.

Tonight though my doubts came regarding the raising of my hands. You see I'm also self conscience about that. I'm afraid I'm going to stand out and people are going to stare at me or something. I know deep down if they are truely worshiping God (which is what I'm supposed to be doing) they won't even notice me (or my voice or my hands!) because their focus is on God. What was really funny about tonight though is that everyone there had their hands up. So really I stood out more by not putting my hands up! But that little voice the enemy has planted in my head was telling me I was not sincere and would be just doing it to fit in. If I raised my hands everyone would know I was a "fake".

So I started praying and God immediately revealed to me how I was allowing the enemy to put the focus on me instead of on God. Boy, did that humble me! In addition, God told me my problem was not that I was not focusing on Him so much as it was I was not willing to surrender to him. You see, I don't think raising hands to God in worship is weird. In fact I think it is beautiful. I love to see people totally abandoned to God in worship, raising their faces and hands to heaven in praise. I imagine that is what David looked like when he danced through the streets and sang the Psalms he wrote. That is what Miriam looked like when she danced and sang to the Lord when the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt. But the enemy has planted lies in my head about me doing those things. That however is a whole other issue I could write about for months.

In the end, God told me I needed to surrender to Him. To not be afraid to give up control (because to be honest, I'm not really the one in control anyway.) At one point tonight I was able to do that and without even realizing it I raised my hand to the Lord and truely worshiped. Now that is not to say that I have it all figured out now. It did not last for the rest of the worship time. At one point those lies of the enemy raised their voice again and I lowered my hands and my focus went back to me. But I did get a taste of surrendering to God and it was beautiful! Now that I've experienced it I can strive for that next time. Each time it will get easier to disregard those voices in my head and to surrender to and focus on God instead of me.

The other amazing thing that happened though is the picture I received. You see, I'm a visual person and the Lord often speaks to me by giving me pictures. I wish I could paint because they are so beautiful. Tonight for that period of time I surrendered to God and truely worshiped Him, He gave me a picture. Actually it was more of a video, I guess.

As I stood there with my eyes closed and my hand raised (yes, it was only one this time!) I felt a breeze blow across those assembled there in worship. In my mind I could see all of us there with our hands and faces raised to heaven and could feel the Holy Spirit amoung us in that breeze. It was like a mighty but gentle wind. Then above our hands I saw Jesus dancing. He was weaving in and out between our upraised arms with his head thrown back in joyous laughter and his arms out. He was dancing and basking in our praises of worship and love. What an awesome picture.

So my question to you (and myself from now on) is when you worship, who is your worship for? Are you focused on God or are you focused on you? Do you see Jesus dancing around you in joy, basking in your praises? I know I don't nearly as often as I want to.