Psalm 54

The passage is a amaskil of David that he writes when the Ziphites had gone to Saul and told him that David was hiding amongst them.

David pleads to the LORD for help as men are attacking him and seeking to end his life, "men without regard for God." But David says, "surely God is my help" and he knows that God, "in His faithfulness, " will, "destroy them."

The thing that gets me about this passage is that the last verse says:

7 For he has delivered me from all my troubles,
and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

"He HAS deliver me?" Earlier in the psalm David was pleading for the LORD's help and in the last verse he says that He HAS delivered him? This can be taken different ways:

Some people say that individual Psalms were written over a period of time and that is why there is such difference in the mood over 1 Psalm. However, I want to think that David recognizes the omnipresence and sovereignty of God. I like to look at this and think that David was downtrodden and is pleading to God and then, within the same prayer, in the middle of one of his tears falling off his tear duct and sliding down his cheek, David realizes that in God, we already have the victory! So immediately David turns to praise and sees his enemies defeated because he KNOWS that he is a man after God's heart, that he has found favor with God, and that God will never leave him! I feel like this is faith in action. We plead with God for Him to work in things... and He does. But a lot of times we don't think of listening to what He is saying in the midst of the problem. In my life, He has usually told me what He was going to do, so I started to praise Him for it. There is so much more joy in times of trouble when He has told us that He will give us deliverance and the rest of the time we just need to be faithful in putting our faith into action NOW, before we are out of the desert.

*singing* Go GOD, Go GOD, Go GOD!!!

You are always my deliverer and I LOVE to live in the uncertainty that humans see at the same time as in the certainty that humans see only when they are looking at everything through your eyes! People will ridicule me and think of me as an extremist, but that is SUCH a compliment because I WILL NOT COMPROMISE THE THINGS THAT YOU HAVE TOLD ME AND THE LIFE THAT YOU HAVE TOLD ME TO LIVE!! IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TO DOUBT THAN TO HAVE FAITH IN WHAT WE CANNOT SEE. IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TO BE A RATIONAL PHARISEE THAN TO BE AN IRRATIONAL JESUS!! HAHAHAHA, THE JOY THAT I GET WHEN I KNOW THAT I AM ALIGNED WITH YOUR SPIRIT!! THE WORLD CAN THROW A MOUNTAIN MY WAY AND MY MUSTARD-SEED FAITH WILL MOVE THAT MOUNTAIN IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE!!!!!!!!!!!! Satan, you might have the world and even some Christians fooled, but in the name of JESUS you are beaten and I will tell and tell and tell of HIS Victory over you then and now and forever and continue to point people to reality: Jesus IS LORD over everything that is logical!!

Brothers... sisters... Don't just STUDY the Word, LIVE the word... Don't just depend on the material and logical limitations to do ministry... LIVE the miracles of then by having the LORD do them through you NOW!!! If someone is sick... don't just pray for them to get better, have the faith to pray that they be healed NOW in the name of Jesus JUST like the disciples did!!Paul writes of "gifts of healing." Do you have it? DON'T ANSWER ME IF YOU NEVER EVEN TRIED TO USE IT!!! How would you know!?!?!? If your friend has a headache, pray for healing that comes as fast as when Jesus healed people!! LIVE YOUR FAITH!!! STRETCH YOUR FAITH!!! BLESS PEOPLE!!!

Where are my prophets and speakers of heavenly and worldly tongues? Where are my workers of miracles? Where are my Christians living IN the Spirit instead of just WITH the Spirit <-- that be sum TRUTH right thea!!! Leap out in faith and allow the LORD to lift you on eagle's wings to a new level of experiencing Him!!

LEAP
LEAP
LEAP into the abyss of uncertainty, because THERE you will be a leader fro Christ. THERE you will know a new God! THERE you will see His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How the HECK do we think that His will will be done on earth if we are trying to accomplish it within the box of rationality and human limitations that we place God in? IMPOSSIBLE. I feel that people read that verse that I just referred to and translate it in their heads to, "His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth, but not like in Heaven because that's impossible!"

HUH?!?!!?

IMPOSSIBLE?!?!

The word impossible doesn't exist to God, only to us! We made that word up and it hinders the ministry of the Holy Spirit! LORD LIVE IN THEM, LIVE IN ME!!! There are people right now SEEING Jesus!!! SEEEEEEEIIIIIINNNNGGG!!!

Impossible - - - LOL - - - DOUBT - - - LOL - - -

The Devil is TRICKING and WINNING in holding our faith back CHRISTIANS!!!

YOU are supposed to be Jesus NOW... SO DANG IT!!! DO IT!! BE IT!!! (I sound like a Nike commercial haha)... You Children of God have all of God's power on your lips-touched-by-hot-coal-from-Heaven and you never put those lips to practice according to Mark 16:17-20!!!

I end with two words:

HAVE FAITH...

Psalm 51: 16-19

I love my God... and I love David's writings...

Here is what this passage says:

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 The sacrifices of God are [c] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.



Sometimes we mess up and think, "I will do this, I will do that, I will stop this, I will stop that," all to prevent us from sinning. In the 'olden days' David and the Israelites sacrificed bulls and rams and goats and pigeons to YHWH in order to appease Him and be blessed and be forgiven. However, David notices VERY wisely through something that MUST be a revelation fro the LORD that the true sacrifice the LORD delights in is a broken and contrite heart! No wonder David was a man after God's own heart!!

This psalm was written by David right after he killed Uriah to try to cover up his sin of fornication with Bathsheba. A murderer and a sexual immoral man at this point. However, David KNOWS that his heart is away from his Daddy's heart! He feels it! He detests it and cries out. David truly is a man after God's own heart not because he is perfect, because he isn't, but because he knows and recognizes that HOLINESS IS LIVING A LIFE OF REPENTANCE.

And I love the end of this psalm. I believe that the key word in the last verse is the first word: THEN. God doesn't want us to focus on sacrifice and outward actions that show our faith if we have not gone to him to show him that we are truly repentant! Any outward sacrifice that has not started with a humble, broken spirit, and a contrite heart is not a sacrifice that the LORD desires or honors.

Selah

My First Logo

I don't really like the O; the color is too light. but then again, we only had 5 minutes to do it so it's quite alright for my first one...

hahaha

I'm actually pretty excited because I will get to do webs site button logos today in my class :) cool!!

Psalm 40:14-17

14 May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.

15 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
be appalled at their own shame.

16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
"The LORD be exalted!"

17 Yet I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.

I know the LORD is the same now and before and forever, because He CANNOT change His character. So, I wonder why the LORD allowed David's psalms over and over to show passages like this. I guess I could see the anger that David probably had. BUT, I can also see him praying these words without any anger. I can see Him praying to our Warrior God. I can see him praying to a God that has delivered him from situations like this over and over. I can see David remembering other battles that he has won because the LORD fought in front of him?

So....

What about me now? Can I pray this? I have prayed this. And I feel a little weird about that. It could be because people say over and over that holy war is not a way that the LORD works in this day. But I disagree. There is plenty of evidence that the LORD gave Christian people fighting physical wars in Sudan a miraculous intervention that won the war for them. ie. A rebel army full of only Christians prayed before they went to war and they won miraculously. Later, people that were on the opposing army recollected that battle and they remembered being really scared because they saw heavenly beings that were described as large and shinning a tremendously white and bright light. Just war? Heavenly intervention? I would say yes to at least the latter.

So....

Where is THAT warrior God in my life today? I will NOT downplay this and say something like - - our war is against the principalities of Satan's army. That is true, but just because I don't experience things in the US, it doesn't mean that the US has a lock-down on what it means to experience God. So I want to pray and say that May all who seek to take my lifebe put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. And I am not saying that out of anger, I am merely saying that out of the desire to give God the glory and yell out to my enemy and enemies, "HOW DARE YOU DEFY THE ARMY OF THE LORD!!!" I AM His chosen one (for certain things only of course) and NO ONE will go up against my King and win and defeat His purposes for my life! HOW DARE THE ENEMY PLACE PEOPLE AGAINST ME WITH LIES AND THINK THAT HE CAN WIN!! HOW DARE PEOPLE THINK THAT THEIR LIES WILL OVERTAKE THE LORD'S TRUTH!!! YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT!! OR WORSE!!!! YOU DO AND ARE TRYING TO CLAW AND SCRATCH WHATEVER SMALL DENT YOU CAN... IT MAKES ME FILLED WITH JOY TO READ THE PSALMS AND HEAR OVER AND OVER HOW THE LORD DELIVERS DAVID, AND HOW DAVID PRAYED...

LORD, YOU ARE MY ROCK AND MY DELIVERER AND YOU GO BEFORE ME AND THAT BRINGS A PEACE TO ME THAT I KNOW MY ENEMIES DO NOT HAVE. AND AS I PRAY TO YOU AND ALIGN MY HEART TO YOURS I SEE MYSELF ASKING FOR MERCY FOR MY ENEMIES... YOU ARE AMAZING...

Job 36

5 "God is mighty, but does not despise men;
he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.

6 He does not keep the wicked alive
but gives the afflicted their rights.

7 He does not take his eyes off the righteous;
he enthrones them with kings
and exalts them forever.

8 But if men are bound in chains,
held fast by cords of affliction,

9 he tells them what they have done—
that they have sinned arrogantly.

10 He makes them listen to correction
and commands them to repent of their evil.

11 If they obey and serve him,
they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment.

12 But if they do not listen,
they will perish by the sword
and die without knowledge.

13 "The godless in heart harbor resentment;
even when he fetters them, they do not cry for help.

14 They die in their youth,
among male prostitutes of the shrines.

15 But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering;
he speaks to them in their affliction.

16 "He is wooing you from the jaws of distress
to a spacious place free from restriction,
to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.

17 But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked;
judgment and justice have taken hold of you.

18 Be careful that no one entices you by riches;
do not let a large bribe turn you aside.

19 Would your wealth
or even all your mighty efforts
sustain you so you would not be in distress?

20 Do not long for the night,
to drag people away from their homes.

21 Beware of turning to evil,
which you seem to prefer to affliction.

AMEN!

Marriage

This has always been a hot topic, but it has been a hot topic within my family lately because the woman's bible studies in our church have been consistently talking about it for 3 weeks. It wasn't something that they planned, but once one of our "church leaders" decided to get divorced, all Sheol broke loose... :) - Sheol :)

Within this Bible Study group, they have:

1. One woman that was a Christian and got married to a non-Christian
2. Another that was a Christian at the time that she started living with a non-Christian man and then had 2 kids with this same man
3. Another that is getting divorced
4. Another that also got married to a non-Christian man and is now married to him with four kids
5. A divorced woman
6. A young girl that is a Christian but dating/wanting to date a non-Christian guy (the jury is still out on this one)
7. A girl whose parents are devorced and the dad remarried
8. A new Christian who has kids outside of wedlock (This is the case with just about all of our church members - - literally)
9. My mom
10. Another church leader that co-leads the Bible Study with my mom
11. And I know that I am missing some more people but I can't think of them right now

Regarless, this issue is a hot topic for our WHOLE church.

Well, it has been 3 weeks since this Woman's Bible Study has been talking about the same thing, but with all the dicussion going on between them, and then between our family (Cause my family ALL talk and discuss church issues). However, I am not going to comment more on the Woman's Bible Study because that was just for context. However, here are some of my thoughts.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE God and His mandates and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I don't have both the gift of Mercy AND the gift of Prophesy at the same time. It's really hard to stad up for God's Truth and Word AND be allow a gift of Mercy to reign as well. I'm not gonna get into that either, but I like the fact that I can be black and white about the word of God. To me, when it comes to God and what He desires, it's either you do it or you don't; you either follow God or you follow people. You either please God or you please people. You either do it the narrow way or the lax way.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 7:10-14, and I am going to let you read it so that it is not I that speak, but the LORD Himself:

10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how Paul says it. This is what I see. Paul was writing letters to churches and people like to use this to accomodate the Word to their own desires. Please have said that the Bible has to be read in the context of the days that it was written (which I agree) . But, they use this to say that some meaning - - MEANINGS - - of the Bible are irrelevant to today. My heart falls with sadness when I hear this. Anyway, I LOVE that Paul here makes it SOOOOO clear that it is the LORD speaking. I mean, even if this is a letter to a church, which it is, and even if this letter is regarded to as irrelevant to the people of today, there is NO WAY that ANYONE can or should say that when the Apostle Paul, chosen by God to take the Gospel to the nations (Acts 9:15), writes "(not I, but the Lord)" 1 Cor. 7:10, it is not of the LORD!!! C'MON!! REALLY!?!? People have the AUDACITY to say that!??! not me.....

There is so much more in these verses, but that's all I want to say about that for now... I have more thoughts though :)

Also, about marriage and the marriage covenant:
When a man and a woman enter into the covenant that God has created, I believe that they enter into this covenant with God. And, a covenant, as seen in the Old and New Testament, but especially in cotext of the time that it was created, is between parties; most of the time two parties. A covenant also has a close parallel with a contract, and a contract usually needs witnesses that sign saying that they were there and were witnesses to the people going into that contract. We do that now, when people sign the marriage certificate. You have the judge or appointed person representing the law that binds the two people, you have the husband and wife, and it is required that you have witnesses there as well.

I also believe that when you look at the context of how marriage worked in Israel, we get a good insight as to how people regarded the marriage covenant. If you read about marriages and weddings in Jesus' time, you will see that the whole town/area was invited to the wedding and most of them participated, that is why it took a week or so to complete the wedding. It was also a time of rejoicing among other things, but I want to concentrate on 'who' participated.

So, I see that that the whole town was not only invited to the wedding, but that they whole town was invited to the marriage covenant. I will stop using the word town now, and start using the word community, because back then, the town was a community of people that knew community in a much closer way than the way that the U.S. sees community within their towns. (That's a whole can of worms, but I think that in my context and experience contrasting Argentina and the Central Coast, Argentina as a whole does a lot better in being a community, but that's just my experience). Anyways, again, I this whole communtiy was invited to participate in the marriage covenant. We just need to look at the concequences of divorce or infidelity on either part and you quickly will see that the whole community was involved in the punishment that was in most cases stoning to death.

So, in the same way, I think that a marriage covenant is not only made between a husband, wife, and the LORD, but also includes the witnesses, i.e. the community. So, when two people are getting married, if I am sitting in the crowd, in the community, I need to realize that I am entering int othe marriage covenant as part of the community. And that when that couple is going through easy or hard things, that I am supposed to be in communtiy with them at some level. I toldsomeone that I wouldn't go to any weddings between an unevenly yoked couple or between a couple in which one or both have been previously divorced because I didn't want to enter into that covenant since I didn't agree with it. However, as I sit here writing this, I wonder if God even honors that covenant, I wonder if God is there but withholds His presence and blessings from this couple. I wonder if me being there merely could mean that I am like God, there but not accepting it or blessings it. Although, a wedding is supposed to be a celebration of the gift of the covenant and I think that anything that falls short of that by going against what the LORD requires is a perversion of this blessings. We human beings do that SO MCUH... pervert something that the LORD has created. So I would mostdefinitely not be celebrating anything if two people wish to be joined together in a marriage or union that to me clearly goes against the will of God. So can I be at a wedding or union (and I say union because a wedding me me signifies that the covenant is there and I don't want to continue to say wedding when to me it isn't) and not be spiritually or physically or mentally rejoicing an dcelebrating? What does God do? What should I do?

One request: if you decide to comment on this blog, please don't give me a response to these questions if you have not carefully read the whole blog and then thought about it before wriiting. It's kind of insulting that you would skim my blog and then respond without thinking. But please please please respond if you would like. I am just attempting to get people to think and converse with me in an informed manner.

Well, that's where I stand. Sometimes I think that a simple blog for me will turn into a book at some point in my life because I leave so much stuff off in the interest time: yours and mine. Well, another long blog, another unanswered question, another thing to think about.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE thinking about God and what He wants and then standing firm for what I believe His heart is!!!!

cause.....

*SINGING* I'VE BEEN CREATED TO MAKE HIS NAME GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS!!!