The Message: RemixTag Archive -

Conversations With The Man Upstairs

August 22, 2008 in Semi Serious In Nature,Spiritual with Respond Now!

As I have talked about before, I have a one year Bible that I have been reading through.  Just recently I started reading through David’s psalms.  I have read these tons of times, but something hit me this time a little different.  As you read through them, its great to see that even David had major ups and downs and to see how he handled them.  We all go through those times in life but we don’t all handle it the way he did.  He would talk with God.  Not just praying like we tend to do.  I think in our culture we have trained ourselves to pray (and sometimes rather often) but when we do we are mostly praying the basics (forgive me, thank you, can this happen, prayer request).  I don’t believe that there is anything wrong with that at all, but what I am seeing from the way David prayed was that it was pretty much a constant conversation with God.  It wasn’t just the “ok we just sat down to dinner so we have to pray” prayer.  He prayed all the time.  When I say he prayed I mean prayed, sang, talked, yelled, cried, begged, etc.  

This was kinda a wake up call to me.  I mean, he when from times that he was expressing thanks to expressing grief or pain.  The one that hit me the hardest was one that he was demanding God hold up His end of the bargain.  I’m not saying we should constantly demand things of God, but that maybe David was on to something with this “talk to God no matter what is going on” thing.  I don’t pray like that.  It isn’t a lifestyle like that to me and I think it should be.  Sometimes I do great, but generally I get so caught up in my life and what is going on around me, I forget that God is really the center of it all.  When I don’t realize that, I get onto the detour that takes me in a different direction away from Him.

I want a prayer life not just a prayer time.

Listening To The Prophets

July 28, 2008 in Semi Serious In Nature,Spiritual with Respond Now!

Last year I got one of those 1 year Bibles for Christmas.  I got into it for a little while, but trailed off as we tend to do many times.  So this year, I decided that I really wanted to get back into it and continue to create that habit of reading every day (the Bible that is…not just reading in general…I still try to steer clear of that).  So every night I take my time after KK has gone to sleep to read.  Yeah!  Congrats!  Blah, blah, blah, you say, but that’s not the point of this post.  I still have my times that I don’t read or forget or fall asleep in the middle of reading.  Anyway, on to the point.

The 1 year Bible that I am reading is The Message: Remix Pause.  It matches up a reading from the Old Testament with some from the New Testament and then poses some questions for thought at the end.  It doesn’t necessarily go in order, but for the last couple months the OT readings have been the major and minor prophets.  For those of you that didn’t grow up in church, that is a bunch of guys that the Lord sent to Israel and Judah to tell them how bad they suck.  So basically, that is what all these guys messages have been to the two countries.
So, many times I have found myself complaining about the fact that I have been reading these books of the Bible where God seems to be continuously saying the same freakin’ thing to them over and over and over and over again.  Many times I have found myself asking why the crap they don’t listen to the messages from God and change their lives.  Good times.  But the more I read it and the more I actually think about what was going on when they were preaching these messages, the more I start to think, am I actually listening to the things that God is telling me?
A good friend of mine is on his way back from London and has blogged about the perspective that he has gained from seeing and experiencing many of the things that he did there.  I think that reading these sections of Scripture is doing the same for me.  It is easy to look back and say, what the crap were you thinking?  The Lord is sending obvious messages but because it wasn’t what you wanted to hear, you tuned Him out and ignored Him.  Think about that!  Gain some perspective on what you might want to say to yourself looking back at your life in 20 years.  Over the past year or so, being the head of the household and trying to be the spiritual leader God has called me to be, I have had ample opportunity to rely on God and Him alone and listen to what He was saying…even when it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.  As a pastor, as a husband, as a friends, as part of a family, we MUST continue to listen to what the Lord is saying.  Even when it calls us to action or calls us to make that hard choice.  I don’t know.  That’s just what I’m thinking about at the moment.