"Before Abraham was born, I am!"

Oh yes, it has been quite a long time.  I do apologize for that, but I have something very exciting to write about.  It is John 8:48-59.  Let me just write it out for you and then we can talk about how exciting it is.

The Jews answered him, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?"
"I am not possessed by a demon," said Jesus, "but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.  I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.  I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."
At this the Jews exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.  Are you greater than our father Abraham?  He died, and so did the prophets.  Who do you think you are?"
Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing.  My Father whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.  Though you did not know him, I know him.  If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.  Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."
"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Isn't that amazing?  These Jews are trying to find the hole in what they thought was Jesus' facade.  They were clearly mistaken.  In verse 54 Jesus is not taking any more of this.  He tells them how it is.  Look at him telling them that they don't know his Father, and they are liars.  He isn't going to lie to them.  They are the liars.  They won't like what he has to say, but he's JESUS.  He can tell them how it is.  He could have done much more than this, but he knew the proper place and time for all of it.  Then he says "before Abraham was born, I am!" I love that!  "I am!" He is over all, and through all, and in all.  He was, and is, and is to come.  He sees Abraham and he sees me.  Now that I'm putting all of this into writing its really hard to explain what I feel about it.  It just makes me want to cheer for Jesus.  "You tell 'em, Jesus! Don't let them say that to you!"  Its terribly difficult to put into words, but I trust that the Lord will come close to you as you read this and show you what you need to see.

I'm So Happy, So Very Happy!

I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart.
WHERE?
Down in my heart.
WHERE?
Down in my heart.
I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart.
WHERE?
Down in my heart to stay!
And I'm so happy, so very happy!
I've got the love of Jesus in my heart!
YEEHAW!
And I'm so happy so very happy!
I've got the love Jesus in my heart!

Woooooooooooo. Thank you, Lord!

He Wakes Me Up

I never seem to have anything to write about, but today the Lord showed me such a beautiful and comforting word in His love story. He showed me Psalm 3 which talks about all the enemies that are piled up against us as Christians. Verses 5 and 6 say this:

I lie down and sleep;

I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

I will not fear the tens of thousands

drawn up against me on every side.

Wow. What a wonderful way to think about our trials and our troubling times. We can physically feel ourselves waking up everyday. We know that it is happening. God is doing that. He is waking us up and making our bodies live and move and breathe and work. That one simple fact can lead us to the conclusion that we do not have to be afraid went there is an army of tens of thousands lined up against us. Obviously, the Lord is with us because we woke up that day.

Lord, you are so good to love us enough to show us these things. How wonderful You are.

Relentlessly Pursue Me, God

Sometimes I feel like God is just laughing at me. Like I'm just sitting down here squirming and trying to figure everything out and He's up there just laughing His head off. I know its not true, but I'm just kind of tired of feeling like I can't get a straight answer. He's blessing me. He loves me. I know He does. I just want to be joyful and not have to wonder if I'm really joyful because of Jesus or because I'm finding temporary happiness in the world.

I want to be satisfied in Jesus. I want Him to be my one and only. I want Him to be the one that I need and look to and cry to. I want to run to Him, but right now I feel like I don't know where to run. I need Him close to me. I need Him to come to me. I'm trying to find Him, but I'm feeling my way around in a pitch black room. Illuminate things for me, God. Maybe things really are illuminated and I'm just closing my eyes. Either way, I need you to relentlessly pursue me. Even if I don't act like it all the time, that's what I really want.

Tuesday Night

I seem to have a tradition to write a blog about returning to school.  This year I haven't written such a blog yet, and now that I think about it, I haven't written many blogs at all this whole summer.  I think I thought about it, or sat down to start one, or opened the page to begin writing at least 10 times since my last post, but nothing ever came out.  No thoughts ever came to my head. I think that's how I run most of my life.  I just go along with things and if something comes, then it comes, and if it doesn't, then I'll move on.  Anyway, I moved into school 9 days early this year for a leadership conference for work and since I'm here so early I am in my nice, big, empty apartment all alone.  I spent the first night alone just singing in the beautiful, empty space enjoying the acoustics of the bare walls.  I spent the second night eating left-over Chinese food with the top of a pudding cup (which works curiously well) and galavanting all around town trying to find a store that was open late at night where I could find brownie mix so that my friend and I could make brownies (which, if you were wondering, turned out very well... they were cookie brownies).  We went to CVS (who did not have any), and then saw the Food Lion employee lock the doors as we were pulling up, and finally we decided to give up on the hunt and just go for Walmart... the solution to almost every problem.  We got the brownies (along with butter, 2 wooden spoons, some plastic cutlery, and dish washing detergent) and went on our way.    It was great fun, and then I had one of those dreams that I woke up in the same situation but in my dream it was terrible and so confusing, but we won't get into that.

I hope the rest of world had as fabulous of a Monday night as mine.

Does anyone else get tired of the world?

Right now I am just so sick of being stuck inside my own body.  Its terribly difficult to fight myself.

I just want things to be clear and easy.

Jump for Jesus Joy

There are too many people that walk around thinking that their faith in Jesus is just a duty or a discipline.
Now, I see nothing wrong with some discipline.  Its good to create good habits and its even better to implement some discipline into your life with Jesus.  If you don't spend time with Him simply because you just don't feel like it, then when will you ever really start spending time with Him if you don't start doing it out of discipline and obedience.  If God is telling you to go overseas and you wait until you feel like doing it, then you'll probably wait forever because you'll never learn all that He'll do that is so great if you never actually go.
At the same time, Christianity is MORE than a discipline.  It goes from discipline to joy.  The discipline gives room for Jesus to put joy into us so that we do start to feel like doing those things.  We start to love those things because of how He's blessed them.  And there is a reason that the word joy is contained in the word enjoy.  We are called to enjoy Jesus.  He wants us to love Him and enjoy His company and His relationship.

I believe that, as Christians, we should make a point to pray for the joy of our precious Lord to invade our hearts so that our faith oozes out of every word we speak and everything we do because we're always jumping for Jesus joy.