Taste and See

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see-how good God is. Blessed are you who run to Him. Psalm 34:8

I am blown away by the goodness of God.  He has opened my eyes a little more each day to His unconditional, unrelenting love.  Starting a few weeks ago I have been seeing how in our lives, we really taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Worship God if you want the best; worship opens doors to all his goodness. Psalm 34:9 

On Sundays, Wednesdays, or even just in the confines of your secret place, we sing praises to God in worship.  He is so worthy of our praise and delights in it.  But when we try to give our worship to Him, He only pours so much more back into us! This is the God we serve! He doesn't sit there and listen to us sing about His goodness, He pours Himself even more into our lives.  After times of worship, I feel so full of joy, peace, and alive!

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Psalm 19:7-11

His goodness is shown through His commands.  David covered this part really well in this psalm.  He describes God's laws by what they do.  They "refresh the soul", "give light to the eyes", "give joy to the heart"... God is not trying to hinder us or be a Nazi rule-maker. He has given us His heart and His love through His commands.  They protect us and allow us to see God.  Jesus said "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled...Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Matthew 5:6, 8.

Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:22-24

His commands then lead me to think of His grace.  And how we are justified through faith, not by our works.  All we have to do is accept this wonderful gift.  No, we do not deserve it, but out of His goodness and love for us, He has given us an atonement for our sins.  Too often, I get caught up with all the other things of God, but we must gaze back at the Cross and thank Jesus with our lives.

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:9-13

All God does is give, give, give.  He is a deep, deep well, satisfying all our thirsts.  Our great and glorious King is so gracious to us that He has not only given us His law, faith, and Jesus, but also His Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit is in us, we can delight in His fullness.  He gives us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Who wouldn't want all of that! But that is not all. His Spirit is a promise to us, guaranteeing our inheritance through Jesus. His Spirit gives life and speaks to us and through us.  Also, after Jesus conquered death He gave us His Spirit of power and love and self-discipline. Paul sums this up in Romans 8.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:15-17

Finally, we haven't even tasted the full goodness of God until we meet Him face to face in Glory.  We are only on this earth for a short time.  Even as we struggle through this life, He is preparing a place for us.  By walking with Him, we are storing treasures that will last forever in heaven.  On that glorious day when we meet our Creator, we will be able to clearly see His goodness and celebrate in His gift of eternal life with Him.  And sing with the angles "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty!"

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:28-29

Give Me Your Eyes - Brandon Heath

One of my favorite songs. I love listening to it on the radio. 

Song and article I found online about our God's uncomprehensible, furious love...Happy Easter! ~Evangeline

furiouslove

At the turn of the last century, G.K. Chesterton described God's love as the "furious love of God." Brennan Manning picked up on that description in his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel. Why furious love? Seems oxymoronic to say the least. But it's a good start toward understanding the single most important concept and lesson of our lives.
God's love is described as perfect, unconditional, unfailing, and indiscriminate. This last adjective is the hardest. God's love is so perfect that it falls on the just and the unjust alike. God's love is so unconditional that it takes no note of accomplishment or lack thereof. God's love is so unfailing that it is available anywhere, anywhen we turn to face it. God's love is so indiscriminate that it is not fair.
notfair
It's not fair that our efforts don't count. It's not fair that everyone gets the same love no matter what, where, when, who, or how. But then, if God's love wasn't unfair, then there would be no Good News, now would there? In fact, scripture describes God not as all-loving, but as being love itself. God is love. God doesn't "do" love the way we do. We put on love like a coat and take it off just as quickly. For God, love isn't a verb, it's a noun. He is that thing we experience as love. In Aramaic, that deepest desire, purpose, and power is called sebyana. It describes something akin to the paths of the planets in their orbits, something utterly predictable and stable, something following an immutable course born out of the deepest state of being--like DNA code inevitably carrying each embryo to be the creature that it is, whether frog or human.
In others words, God is the substance of all we call love. If we get close to him, we will experience that love. It is always on, always full blast...like a firehose. There is no more or less, off or on, we can stand in the blast zone or we can move out of its way, but nothing we can do can affect the fact of God's furious love. If God is love, then God can't love us any more and God can't love us any less. As Philip Yancey said, "There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less."
notbehavioral
Here's a really hard one: if God's love is truly unconditional, then in the face of God's love, our behavior doesn't matter at all! Reread the stories of the Gospels. Jesus forgave before cleansing; healed before repentance, and accepted without any preconditions. In the face of our moral sense and the effort we put into "being good," this is an outrage. Just as the older brother of the prodigal was outraged, just as the workers who worked from early in the morning only to get the same pay as those who came late in the day were outraged, we are outraged. But Jesus calmly tells us that this is the way we are loved, and the way we should love all those in our path.
Before I lose some of you completely, if we are truly in love with God and each other, our behavior will take care of itself. (See James 2) But the principle remains: God's love does not demand any particular behavior from us in order to be showered upon us. This is the great lesson of our lives. We can either live in fear or in love. We can live constantly afraid of never gaining what we want and need (envy), of losing what we have (jealousy), or we can remember to trust that anything and everything of value can never be taken from us because it was never ours to begin with. It is God's unconditional gift of acceptance. The first book of John tells us that fear is the opposite of love, because only perfect love casts out fear. If we don't understand the perfection and ferocity of God's love for us, we will always live in fear, and that is the opposite of the abundant life Jesus came to show us.

Grace

Saw this video in church last Sunday, really enjoyed it & had to share.

Just Listen

Be still. Be silent. Just Listen.

"Be still, and know that I am God..."
-Psalms 46:10


Ever stop and just think, maybe ever pray along with it? Stop for one second of your "busy" life to think, I mean really think about God? Think of what He has done in your life. Think of who He has placed in your life. Think of His beautiful creation. Think about how He created the ability to think.
Mind-blowing. Right? He has made everything & is in control of everything. Think about that.

I feel that I stop & think all the time but it isn't about our Creator, its meaningless things, like worries or other random things. Right now as you are reading this just stop & think for a few minutes. Pray, but just listen. Think about everything the Lord has done in your life. Be still & silent. Listen.

...

It's almost too much to take in at one time.

Recently I haven't been listening to what God has been telling me. Sure I have been praying to Him, but I never just listened, instead I pour out my petty problems & never wait for a response. It's been more of a one-sided conversation, & sadly I've been doing all the talk. A relationship consists of two-way conversation. It's all about the communication. Listening & talking. Sometimes we (especially me) forget the listening part. We just do the talking. And there is nothing wrong with asking the Lord for help, we need His help because we can't do this, thing we call life on our own. But at times we need to simply listen. I know we all struggle with this at some point, just listen to the Lord. He has wonderful things to share. .

This week I encourage you (& myself) to just listen to what God is telling you. Whether you are sitting in traffic or waiting in line at the grocery store. If you have time to look at this blog, look at a text or check your Facebook then I positive you have time for God because He wants to talk to you. But are you listening?

-Jenée

Conquering Lion

God is all we will ever need.

Let that soak in. For the first time, or at least in a while, I really felt the love of GOD. He has been showing me lately the personalities and the beautiful relationship of the Trinity. I feel like I’ve fallen in love with Jesus, who’s so easy to befriend but my heavenly Father was beckoning me to come sit on His lap. A couple nights ago, someone illustrated God as a lion, like Aslan. She read a portion of the Chronicles of Narnia…

"Aslan?" said Mr. Beaver. "Why, don't you know? He's the King. He's the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand. Never in my time or my father's time. But the word has reached us that he has come back. He is in Narnia at this moment. He'll settle the White Queen all right. It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus."

"Is—is he a man?" asked Lucy.

"Aslan a man!" Mr. Beaver said sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion."

"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

I love that Aslan is not safe…anyone in His presence trembles. He is fierce and strong but also soft and love. He is power and strength but also compassion and grace. Just picture the great and beautiful lion in a pasture, He’s there looking at you with nothing but love in His eyes. He beckons you to lean against Him, feeling His warmth and power. He offers strength when you have none, peace when the storm is raging inside of us. I guess God has always intimidated me and I never really understood Him at all. He is so great and mighty but is intimately acquainted with His children. WITH ME! I am His daughter; I am royalty. He fashioned my smile, my laugh, my eyes. He knew me before I was born; He knit every detail of me in the womb.

I had a distorted mentality that if I gave enough money or did enough service projects or knelt on my knees every night that I might somehow be worthy of Him. I was missing the point entirely. God doesn’t need me but by His grace and love, HE CHOSE ME. And all His desire is to have a relationship with me. I can’t put conditions on God. He works how He works. I was caught up in all the legalistics of religion while all He desires is a romance with Him. Like Paul did, I should embrace my weaknesses, because only through that can God work and show His glory. He chose lowly fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes to reveal His glory through them.

I’ve made “surrender” some weird thing in my mind where if I surrender this part of my life God will be satisfied. I’ve been caught in the in-between. God wants EVERYTHING. Literally. He will NOT relent until we lose control. I got to the point where I felt like I was in a desert with no direction or sign telling me where to go. I searched for God but wasn’t willing to be vulnerable. I wanted things my way, but finally accepted that I am WEAK and NOT WORTHY and DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING. And I cried out to God and accepted my great NEED FOR HIM. When I finally closed my mouth and listened, He ever so gently and softly whispered, “All you need to know is that I love you and I’ll bring you through this.” God never ever says ‘suck it up’ or ‘get over it’ (even though we may deserve just that). Instead, He gets down on the ground beside us and gently and kindly with loving hands holds us and helps us up. But like sheep we can’t get up on our own, it takes a Shepherd, and even once we’re up we often fall again, just like sheep, but God remains patient. His love never fails, never gives up, never runs out. There is so much FREEDOM in a dependency on God. This statement makes no sense in man’s terms but it is the TRUTH. I have never in my life felt such a freedom. The Conquering Lion broke the chains from myself and my “being good enough”. All the weight is lifted so we can dance with Him.

This is all summed up in Colossians 2-3. Verses 11-14 and 20-23 say...

“Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets…So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? "Don't touch this! Don't taste that! Don't go near this!" Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they're just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.”

And one more thing…

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

I do not know how many hundreds of times I have read this verse. I’ve even memorized it. God has led me to the realization, plainly stated, that Faith is a GIFT from God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God. But faith comes from God. This shows once again our desperate need for Him. He calls us to have childlike faith. Think of what a child is like…children are skilled at letting their mom know that he needs her and for every need too. Children cry when they’re hungry, when they’re uncomfortable, when they’re distressed in any way. And that is exactly what God wants from us: a constant, desperate need of Him.

Evangeline

Maybe this is what it looks like to have a childlike faith...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwwpwY4lyOo&feature=player_embedded