God is great, God is good

I was a with a good friend and his family eating lunch after church Sunday. His little boy Caleb, who is 3, saw us praying over the meal and he wanted to pray next. He said "Caleb do it, Caleb do it." So we all bowed our heads because he wouldn't begin until we did, then he prayed "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Amen." He was so excited, he screamed "Yea! Caleb, do it again, do it again." So we bowed our heads and he prayed again, this time only the first part was audible, "God is great, God is good..." 

Have you ever thought about that phrase. Is it just me or does it not make much sense to describe God this way. If someone asked you how a movie was that you just saw, you could say it was good, or you could say it was great, but not both. Maybe no one else thinks like this and I am making no sense at all. But last night I heard a pastor speak on a verse that made Caleb's  prayer, the same one that I had prayed so many times, finally make sense.

Psalm 62:11 –Psalm 62:12 a

      I heard God say two things:

      “I am powerful,

      ◙ and I am very kind.”

 

God is great in power and good to all. If you described our God as only one of those and left the other one out, it would give the wrong impression. A great and powerful God who is not loving is a scary thought. But think about a loving God that has no power, that makes Him seem about as helpful as your grandmother, no offense to the grandmothers. So I guess I write all of that to say this: That short prayer that we learned at a young age, just like Caleb, has a beautiful and awesome meaning. 

We serve a great, powerful, and almighty God, who has the whole world in His hands. And that same God is so good to us and loves us more than we can imagine.

 God is great, God is good...

Rejoice in the Lord...

Phil 4:4

   Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! (emphasis added)

 Always means "at all points in time" . The term comes from the words all and ways, meaning that something is happening and will do so eternally.

 There is a time for everything. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us this. A time to laugh, cry, mourn, dance. But joy is for all points in time, not some. It doesn’t say that there is a time for joy, because we are called to be joyful always, at all times.  

Why is that command so hard to obey? Why do we accept joylessness and write it off as a bad day? The devil comes to steal our joy everyday and we as John Piper puts it, must fight for our joy.  But why is joy so important, why would Paul repeat the command? I think Charles Spurgeon was right on the money with this:

o   Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life's machinery. Holy joy will strengthen you for your daily labour..  Holy joy will beautify you, and, as I have already said, give you an influence over the lives of others. If you cannot speak the gospel, live the gospel by your cheerfulness; for what is the gospel? Glad tidings of great joy; and you who believe it must show by its effect upon you that it is glad tidings of great joy to you. Let us sing unto the Lord as long as we live; and, mayhap, some weary sinner, who has discovered the emptiness of sinful pleasure, will say to himself, "Why, after all, there must be something real about the lives of these Christians; let me go and learn how I may have it."

Jaxon Lee

I have the coolest nephew in the world, hands down. He just turned two last month. He loves fast food and mountain dew. Apparently a few drinks of Mountain Dew will keep a 2 yr old up all night. I did this once, but now every time he doesn't sleep I get accused of sneaking him the good stuff. He also thinks that talking is highly overrated and I dont blame him. He has already mastered the two things every 2 yr old boy should be able to do. 

If you can pray and shoot a ball like that, who cares about talking. God is so good. 

Gone Fishing...

So I  was planning on fishing all day today, but it didn't work out. I probably havent been fishing in over a year or two, which is surprising because I really enjoy to fish. I am by no means a good fisherman because of a severe lack of patience. But it is a great way to get away from everything. Fishing is very peaceful to me, a great time to listen to God. I think we have trouble listening to the Holy Spirit because of the loudness of our lives. But not just the ipod , or TV, or other people, but sometimes the loudness of our thoughts. One of the Enemies greatest tools is to attack our thoughts, keep our minds so preoccupied with meaningless things that we cant hear the Spirit and then we cant possibly live by the Spirit. One on the signers of the Declaration of Independence, I should know which one being a History major but I don't, said something along these lines, I left the city to escape the noise and it was there in the countryside that I discovered the noise was inside of my head.  But maybe we dont want to hear the Spirit. I found this in a blog.

"He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth." John 14:17

I think most of us wish the Holy Spirit led us into all comfort. We might even settle for partial truth. But all truth? Most of us would rather surround ourselves with people who will simply validate what we falsely believe about ourselves. That isn't the Holy Spirit. Like a good counselor, He'll take you places you don't want to go so you can get where He wants you to go. He'll reveal things you don't want to know so you can become who He wants you to be. 

I think many of us get frustrated at times because it seems like God is silent. Here's a thought: if you cannot hear the voice of God maybe it's because you aren't willing to hear everything He has to say? 

You can't tune out His convicting voice and still hear His guiding voice or wise voice or comforting voice. You cannot listen to half of what the Holy Spirit has to say. It's a package deal. If you tune out His convicting voice you won't hear anything He has to say.

- Mark Batterson

That last paragraph describes me. I am always looking for wisdom from the Spirit and feel like it doesn't always come. But maybe I am only listening when its convenient or in my time of need. 

On a more worldly note, I was recently informed that the I had named my blog after a song that was inspired by heroine or written about heroine. I am sorry if that offends anyone and there will be a new title soon. 

The First Post....

has to be the hardest to write.  I am really hoping it gets easier from here. I feel like I need to explain why I have a blog and not really sure why I feel that way. But if I have to give a reason, I guess it would just be for practice. I need to learn how to put my thoughts into words. God is constantly teaching me new things, but I am not great at explaining those things to others, so I am unable to bless others with what He has taught me. So maybe this will help all of that, and maybe someone will be blessed by something I am going thru. But at the very least you should get a good laugh at my crazy and very random life. 

I should probably explain the title of my blog. I was trying to come up with something that described where God has me right now. I am and have been in a desert period for about 3 yrs now.  God has me working a job that allows very little time for church, family, or christian fellowship.  So He is teaching me how to completely rely on Him for all of the things that the list above can bring.  It is very encouraging to know that He is preparing me for something, but also very easy to get content on just spiritually surviving the desert and not growing. So anytime I think of the word "desert", I am reminded of the song A Horse with No Name, and that is how I titled this blog.