God is our salvation

For those of you who don't have an amazing girlfriend/boyfriend who loves you, i urge to try and find one. My lovely girlfriend recently decided she was going to buy me a Keyword Study Bible. For those of you who don't know, that is like the Cadillac of study Bibles. I am kind of giddy waiting for it to come in, because i'm looking forward to being able to read it, and dive in to the scripture and have all those study tools at the tips of my fingers. I am a Bible geek, and I love it. When people ask me what my favorite parts of the Bible are, I find myself usually citing things from the Old Testament. Obviously my favorite event in the Bible is the Gospel story. But I love the Old Testament too. Some people may never read the Old Testament because it is automatically boring. I assure not all of the books in it are like Leviticus and Numbers. A lot of people think that the Old Testament is invalid because Jesus is the New Covenant, therefore everything in the Old Testament is void because Jesus said so. Not true. I learn just as much from books like Joshua then i do Paul's epistles. A general understanding of the Old Testament is almost necessary for a minimal understanding of the New Testament. For instance, my favorite picture in the Old Testament is Joshua leading the Israelites into the promised land after forty long years in the wilderness. The Israelites were led out of Egypt by God, with Moses being acting as their leader the entire way. During these forty years they worshiped false idols, complained about the leadership of Moses and did the opposite of pretty much everything God said. For this reason, God did not allow any of the people who left Egypt (even Moses) to enter the land that He had promised Abraham hundreds of years before. Instead, God waited until all of them died, to let their children enter the promised land. Joshua was chosen to take over for Moses. The interesting thing is, that in Hebrew Joshua is actually Yehoshua. Yeh being an abbreviated version of Yahweh (the Hebrew sacred name for God) and Shua meaning "Salvation". The most interesting thing about it is, in Greek "Yehoshua" is written "Jesus". Joshua and Jesus share the same name, and that name means "God is salvation". Joshua leads his people into the land that had been promised to them by God, underneath the banner "God is salvation". Jesus is going to do the same thing! Jesus came here proclaiming "I am salvation!". One day, when He comes back for us, He will gather His people and lead them into the land God has promised us, all the while proclaiming "God is our salvation!". God is our salvation people! It is all over the New Testament, but did you know it was in the Old Testament too! The entire Bible points to us putting our faith in Jesus and depending on Him to take us back to God. Please, look at what you believe and figure out if you're really letting jesus lead you back to God. Are you putting your faith into Him so that one day you will end up in the promised land, or are you just attending church and going to Bible studies so that you lead a moral life. None of it matter is you are not carrying that banner that says "God is our Salvation!". The Old Testament has a lot to teach, start looking.

Joshua 1:9- "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

From Heaven

So, once again i have not posted in a long while. This time it wasn't my fault though. E-Blogger wouldn't let me sign in for about a week and a half. Shows what they think about me. This post is going to be very basic, but still i want to offer up a really valuable concept. Things that come from Heaven. Off the top of your head, you could probably come up with a few things that came from Heaven. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they were fed with manna from Heaven. When Elijah was on Mt. Carmel, fire reigned down from Heaven and engulfed the sacrifices on the altar. Jesus came from Heaven, He was there from creation until he descended to Earth to be with us. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came from Heaven and placed itself on the believers. What is the common theme? It would be easy to say that they all came from Heaven, but there is a much deeper and more important constant in play. God provided what we needed, when we needed it. From Heaven. The Israelites needed food and nourishment, He provided a mysterious heavenly food that gave them what they needed to get through the day. On Mt. Carmel, Elijah needed God to show up and show that He was Lord, and that Baal was fake. He did, and did it in a way that any of us would be anxious to see. The Jews had been waiting for a savior for a long time. God gave them one. Jesus came down from Heaven and provided exactly what we needed. A bridge between us and God that was never going to collapse. Not even we could mess it up. The disciples needed a guide, the church needed unity and everyone needed the power and wisdom of God to proclaim the message Christ had left for them to spread. Tongues of fire descended on them, and 3000 people accepted the gospel and were saved. God is completely able to give us what we need. We try so hard to obtain it on our own, and we insist on things happening now. Be constantly looking for God working in your life. God gives us our daily bread, even when we don't ask for it. God proves His existence in all our lives every day, but we are too blinded by pride and business to see it. Christ is calling out your name, wanting you to experience the love of God through the sacrifice He gave on the cross. But you won't listen because you don't like religion and think there is no use for Jesus. The Spirit wants to fill you and minister to you, helping you throughout each day with the presence of God but we have filled ourselves with ambition and conceit. God wants to provide for you! Just like every good husband and father wants to provide for the ones he loves, He wants to give you all that you need and more! Become humble and accept it. I'm working on it, lets all do it together and this world would be a much better place.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Following His footsteps

Praise God! Bless His name and thank Him for everything He has done in your life so far. If you go to Liberty you may be in the same attitude of worship I am in right now because of what has been happening on our campus the past two days. For those of you who aren't here with me, let me just tell you that the Lord is working in amazing ways here at LU right now, and many people have found salvation, been reconciled in their faith, or maybe like me have just found that the attitude of worship is just the best attitude to have. Tonight we sang one of my favorite songs at church, and i feel like i have to share it with anyone who is willing to read this blog. "Give me one pure and holy passion. Give me one magnificent obsession. Give me one glorious ambition for my heart, to know and follow hard after you. To know and follow hard after you. To grow as your disciple in your truth. Cause this world is empty pale and poor, compared with knowing you my Lord. Lead me on, and I will run after you. Lead me on and I will run after you". That song is so amazing, a great summation of how our attitude towards God should be. When i go to God in prayer, and have no idea what to say sometimes i will just sing that song. My favorite part of it is when it says "follow hard after you". I emphasized the word "hard" because there is a huge reason why it is included in the song. If you have salvation through Jesus Christ, you're not called to simply walk after Jesus. He said "Come to me". He did not say "slowly make your way to me, while taking small breaks to fall into sin". It reminds me of the visualization that Paul Washer gives of following his dad through the snow. He tries so hard to match his fathers footsteps, but the strides are too long for his little legs. He keeps falling over, and getting up and immediately tries to match the next step. It's ridiculous because the boy won't be able to match his steps. His legs are too short, and he doesn't have the stamina to walk that fast. But if you were to watch him do that, watch him fall over and get up over and over again, you would know exactly what his intentions are. To follow as close as he possibly can to his father. That is how we need to follow Jesus. That is following hard after him. I love Jesus, but i don't show it nearly enough. I don't follow him as close as i can, none of us do. Pray that you can keep your eyes fixed on Him, so that no matter how many times you fall you can always get up and continue to follow.

John 11:16- Then Thomas said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him."