IN HIS IMAGE

How many of you guys remember the days when you would come to church and as your parents went to the main santuary you went to sunday school? How many of you guys remember Noah's ark, Moises parting the seas, and Jesus doing miracles? How many of you guys remember Joseph and his really awesome jacket? (alright so maybe it was a tunic)

I have been able to read Joseph's life story in depth and with discernment in a way that leaves me speechless. Joseph was paralleled to Jesus did you know that? Check this out

Joseph: Jacob's favored son,

Jesus: God's one and only beloved son

Joseph: Had dreams of his reign

Jesus: KNEW about His reign

Joseph: Hated by his own brothers,

Jesus: Hated and crucified by His own people

Joseph: Rejected by his brothers,

Jesus: Rejected by the jews (His brothers)

Joseph: Was placed in a foreign land to serve,
Jesus: went to foreign cities to serve

Joseph:Tempted but refused potiphars wife

Jesus: Tempted but refused sins of satan.

Joseph: placed in a high position by egyptians(foreigners)

Jesus: Valued by gentiles (us)

Joseph: Became the solution to a famine (shortage in food)
Jesus: Became the solution to a famine (shortage of Hope)

Joseph: showed his people his dreams were right all along
Jesus: shall show the jews he was right all along

Amazing is not even close to describe how God does things. Now if you love literature like me, then THIS just blows you away. IF this hasnt then THIS should.

Joseph pleased God. God is Love therfore God wants us to portray love. Christ was the completion, the fullfillment, of God's love. He portrayed love like no one else and became a man that was created in God's image. God had many men who were amazing. They were placed in the bible because God saw HIMSELF in them and was PLEASED

[Genesis 1:27-31
So God created human beings in his own image.In the image of God he created them...Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!]

Abraham was tested with Isaac. God wanted to see if he would sacrifice HIS son, HIS promise, HIS offspring. Harsh right? not at all!!!!!

God did the same thing remember? I have heard many people say:

"how can you serve a God that would ask someone to kill their own son?"

ummm how can you NOT serve a God that would do that for YOU?

When God saw that Abraham would kill Isaac simply because He asked him to He told him to STOP. Why? God had seen Himself in Abraham and was pleased.

God is ALWAYS looking for HIMSELF in US since that is how He created us. IN HIS IMAGE.

CHRIST was the fullfillment of that. Christ was God therfore God was pleased. The men mentioned in the bible were there because they reflected God because God saw it pleasing to His eyes that they would live a Godly life. My question is: Can God see Himself in you? My prayer for my life is that God may look at me one day and see HIMSELF and be pleased. How about you?

Into the Holy of Holies

Sweep me away

Sweep me away in your love,

where nothing else matters

Sweep me away

Sweep me away in your love,

where nothing else matters.

As this song played tonight at Elevate, my heart underwent some serious emotions. I am not an emotional guy, i am constantly in desperate need of only God and not some emotion that music can sometimes bring. This song was different though. I desired to find this "Love" . We often say we love God but the bible itself says in Matthew 15:8 "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. I came to terms with myself that it starts in the heart. You can say love, you can pretend to show love, but what is important is your heart. I am going to try to understand these lyrics.

The way i see it, we are asking God to sweep us away. In essence we are asking God to move us from the place we are at, emotionally, spiritually, and perhaps even physically. I have observed my mom when she sweeps the kitchen, and in some occasion (though not many) have done so myself. When i broom some dust i go back to parts already swept and do it again. Once I have gathered it all together i put it in the dust pan. Then it goes to where it belongs (not on my floor).

God on sweeping duty

1) retracing previous places

- Through my own experiences i have witness the hand of God having to go to places that i felt i had "fixed" and has had to give it one last swept to ensure that nothing has been left there.

2)Bringing everything together

- During cleaning time what you want to do is bring it all together so that you can put it in the dustpan all at once. What God does is He brings your family issues, economic situation, emotional crisis, insecurity, and all your terrible circumstances and puts them in a dustpan

3) Throwing out the trash

- This is the best part. Was the floor dirty? YES. Did things look bad? YES. Did it take a while? YES. Who's floor is now clean? YOURS IS!

The song does say specifically WHERE to sweep us away. In His Love! So this is where the question comes, What is Love?

To love something you have to hate something. Paul Washer once said something "I love babies, therefore i hate abortion". To accept something you refuse something else. Judah Smith once said "when i chose my wife to be my wife i accepted her and by accepting her i refused every other women on this earth". When we love God we hate the devil. When we love Jesus we hate what he was born to defeat, sin. Get it?

One of the most controversial books in the bible describes it perfectly:

Song of Solomon 8:6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

Love is as strong as death? What?!?! Jealousy as unyielding as a grave? What?!?!

It took me 7 days of bible study to understand Song of Solomon, i kid you not! It is a love that we don't comprehend. It is not made easy and it does not make sense. When your asking God to swept you away in His love you are asking him to let you undergo something that you are not going to be able to understand. GRACE and MERCY combined. You are telling God, take me to a place where nothing makes sense and enrich my body with an inexplicable love.

Where nothing else matters?

Do you understand that you are asking God to break your pride, your personal desires, your ambitions. You are telling God CRUCIFY my flesh and let my spirit REIGN. You are telling God, i want to see more of You and less of me in me! You are stating that you want to be in a place where God's presence is so great that your mind, body, soul cant even begin to wonder off about anything else. THIS is some crazy stuff. THIS is some Ezekiel, the Lord took my spirit, kind of stuff. This is some Holy of Holies kinda thing where it is you and the Lord. This is some "The Lord came down to where Abraham was in His tent" kind of stuff. You are no longer asking God for a feeling. You are no longer asking God for a new contemporary christian CD. You are no longer asking God for anything concerning you. You are telling God take me away, where i can be with you and you with me, and i will not need anything else because i will be with you. I dont know about you but that is NOT just "some song".

We are asking to enter the Holy of Holies. We are asking God to let us be one with Him, where nothing will make sense and it wont need to make sense. You are asking God to allow you to enter the tabernacle, pass the bronce alter, into the holy place, through the curtain and enter the Holy of Holies face to face with the ark of covenant where the Spirit of our living God will pour like never before. WOW! that is an overwelming stanza to sing. I want it, i desire it, i need it!

Think about the stanza. Tonight and every night my prayer is that He sweeps me away in His love where nothing else matters.

Keeping Up with the Disciples

Its 1:52pm on this Wednesday afternoon. As i thought about the building of my school i reflected on the courage that it would take to start something from absolutely nothing. Can you imagine a couple of acres of land, no blue print, no resources, no workers, and no idea what to do. I realized that THIS is how Jesus started His ministry. Though God is all powerful and omnipresent, Jesus started everything from scratch. When the world was completely corrupted (refer to early chapters of the 4 gospels) He rose up and created a kingdom, redeemed those that cursed Him, and also influenced, what till this day remains, the biggest seller in history of books. Do you understand that all of History was based on His-Story (hehe)?

i was thinking about how he chose 12 random, unprepared, underqualified, and somewhat arrogant (peter) guys. how can you possible do what He did with 12 random guys, who many believe, with the exception of peter, were all under 21 years of age. The bible says he chose them, that they MIGHT do His will.

The impacting thing about these 12 was that they were NOT perfect, NOT worthy, and NOT capable, simply willing. Im going to get straight to the point. God-willing i hope you understand this.

All 12 disciples died PREACHING his word, with the exception of Judas( but lets not get into that :D), and lived for Christ. Some were bruised, burned, beat, and martyred. the amazing men brought us many books of the bible, but now they are gone. Where do you fit in the kingdom that Christ came to establish? YOU are the continuation of the disciples. You see NOW there are not only 12 disciples there are many. Missionaries, evangelists, pastors, and many normal people deny themselves, pick up there cross and follow Christ. It is up to US to continue to word of God and spread it. We have alot of ground to cover and i motivate you to read the books of Peter, let him speak to you, from grace, that we have a job that will bring JOY despite the trials that we will first go through. Keep up with the disciples and don't be satisfied with what they did. GO OUT and PREACH!

When the answer is "No"

In a world where facebook is about the number one source of communications and we no longer call people because its too easy to text them, it comes to no surprised that this post will have SOMETHING to do with the growing social network Twitter. I dont use my twitter account often but when i do its always a joy. Today i came across a retweet that came from RevRun. He said "All of your prayers are answered...just admit sometimes the answer is NO". Now i know that RevRun isn't exactly a preacher or an ordained pastor but he brings up a good point. God answers all of our prayers. Sometimes its just hard to listen with spiritual ears when he is saying "No" to us.

I have often prayed for things that i believed i needed. I have also come across times when i feel that something is essential to my spiritual life, and because its essential than God will say yes. I have found myself praying and praying day after day until God gives me what "i need" when He probably told me within the firstweek of praying that it was NOT what i needed and He will NOT give me something that may harm me.

Faith requires that we see with spiritual eyes and hear with spiritual ears. Are you listening to God's voice, or are you listening to the voice you have made up for God. Friends i can assure you that there is a difference between God's will in your eyes, and God's actual will.

I spoke with a friend yesterday and i came to this conclusion:
Just because you do something for God doesnt mean that that is your calling. Don't get me wrong, the bible is clear when it says that everything can be used to glorify God and our goal should be to do just that. But i challenge you with this. What about an usher that has been an usher for 40 years, because he was desperate for serving, yet failed to accept his missionary calling of starting over 20 churches in all of Asia. I kid you not, many people have lived serving in one area, which is great, but failed to complete God's calling for them. Why does this happen?

Sometimes we choose and sort the things God has called us to do. I wanted to be a graphic designer and use it to glorify God. There would have not been anything wrong with that except it wasn't God's calling for my life. There IS a difference between a passion and a calling. I can be good at art yet be called to worship ministry, which i am not unfortunatly. I can be a good guitar player yet be called to organize the ushers at a local church. We must discover God's PERFECT WILL for our lives as Romans 12 tells us. And sometimes when we ask God to allow us to go into one kind of ministry God may be calling us to another one. Sometimes the answer is "no". Don't make it a "yes" if God said "No". Chances are that IF you are answering God's calling, God will see you through it the whole way.

How do i find my calling? SCRIPTURE, PRAYER, FASTING, and most importantly LISTENING. God desires to speak to you. So talk to him. Then, dwell in silence. Dont pray to God and ask him for a response and then say amen, then get up and leave. Don't do that! Pray, ask, then be quiet and listen. Sometimes God doesnt answer because you dont let him speak. LISTEN, dwell in His silence, and be prepared if he responds with a "No".

"These aren't my boots"

I heard a story about a kinder gardener and his teacher. One day a kindergarten teacher was helping one of her students put on his cowboy boots. He asked for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn’t want to go on. Finally, when the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost cried when the little boy said, "Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet." She looked down and sure enough, they were.

It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. But she managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on - this time on the right feet. And it was only then that he announced, "These aren’t my boots."

She bit her tongue rather than scream, "Why didn’t you say so?" like she wanted to. And, once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they got the boots off then he said, "They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear ’em today."

Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.Helping him into his coat, she asked, 'Now, where are your mittens?'He said, 'I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots.'

She will be eligible for parole in three years!

It appears to me that many times we are often impatient and high tempered about stuff. If we were to confess our weaknesses RIGHT NOW i would have to be the first to say that i get angry easily. Anyone that knows me will tell you that i do not tolerate a whole lot from people. This is not always good. Though this story brought a smile to my face and some laughter, it made me think. How often do we get mad simply because we have to try things over and over when we simply shouldn't "have" to even deal with them to begin with. The teacher couldnt see why the boy needed help but helped him anyway.

Have you ever tried to help a family move furniture around, a task that seemed to only require 3 hours, and have spent a whole day figuring out how to place things in an order where everything would fit?

Maybe you once told a family friend that you would take care of , what would appear to be nice, kids and come to find that they are 3 little walking nightmares that destroy everything they step on.

Perhaps you have been the one that has taken the initiative to do something and have later been lectured about how you did it wrong.

Moments like these sometimes provoke a rage of anger in us because "i didn't HAVE to do this for you" or "at least i tried to help" or even the occasional "if you are not pleased with my help than i will no longer offer my assistance".

This attitude is the kind of attitude that breaks friendships. ruins testimonies, and closes doors in our lives. From first-hand experiences i can tell you that when you are doing something for someone else you have to be prepared to their reactions because they wont always see it like you do. They wont always see that you are doing them a favor and they wont always see that you didn't have to do this for them. I can say this NOT because i have always made people happy when i help them but because i am often confronted with the same reactions from people.

One must really evaluate the intention of one's "help". Why did you decide to help them? Was it because you wanted them to thank you or because you wanted to make it easier on them. Now, there will be times when you will make it harder on a person, BUT don't let this discourage you. I can't really give you scripture on this topic other than a reference to the bible in 1 Samuel 16:7 When God tells us that He looks at our heart. This assures us that He knows why we do things and He knows our intentions. The teacher unfortunately didn't understand that, or she has never read 1 Samuel 16:7. Keep on helping people, keep putting and taking off boots because even if they aren't their boots, God knows you are trying to help.

This post was inspired by a 3 foot friend, who never ceases to take an opportunity to help someone, despite the mistakes he may make.