THOUGHTS FROM JOHN

August 28th, 2006. The Prayer Room. Reflecting on teaching notes. Asking the Holy Spirit to make them alive.

1 Peter 2
V9 - We are a chosen generation, called to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into light

V7 - To those who believe He is precious, but to those who do not, He is rejected, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
- they stumble, being disobedient to the word, TO WHICH THEY ALSO WERE APPOINTED

V5 - The will of God is that by doing good we silence the ignorance of others

V6 - As free, yet not using liberty (the freedom where we choose) as an excuse or disguise to cause vice/wickedness
- We must pursue God because He is the only one who can change our hearts, only for the love of Him can we freely choose and be truly changed right down to the core of our being; therefore, seek Him and pursue His heart so that you may be pulled close. But this is not only a one way relationship...we must do our part and work with God, posturing, agreeing with Him even on things we know nothing about or think otherwsie. Seek that heart agreement with Christ.
- We understand grace (many of us) but today, grace alone, without a heart connection or understanding...leads to lives of compromise and dullness, where we are constantly in a battle with temptation because He has not captured our hearts. It is our responsibility to seek Him, to position ourselves in such a way that we are not constantly busy or distracted, to do whatever is necessary to give Him space to work on our hearts. In this day and age that will probably come in the form of something radical, because IT IS A VERY CHANGE IN LIFESTYLE THAT WE NEED, cooperating, not just waiting for Him to break in while we live our lives as we see fit. So many times God and our current lifestyle are not compatible. So many times we do not even know what a God-centered-heart lifestyle would look like. But do we really take the time to find out? Not if it means upsetting our routine or daily schedule. We have so been immersed and grown up with the worldly needs and values on our minds that many times we feel that it would be impossible to jeoporadize our families financial future by breaking out of the mold. But it has to do with priorities. Are your priorities rooted in this life?
- I am having to unlearn the responsible thing to do (in this life) in order to discover the life He has for me. It is so hard to just let go of these things in life, but is it really "irresponsible" if I am not just letting go in disregard, but rather, letting go and putting these things, my life, in His hands? For some people it may not be this hard, this drastic, and for others it may be harder. But this is what I needed to do for my soul, for my heart, so it would not get any harder or calloused or dead. For me to live a normal life was death to my soul; I crave more and if I don't get it then I'll slowly die so that I might accept a lesser life. Because truly, these things of God, His calling, His plans, are so much bigger than I would allow for myself. But when my assurance, my security, my life is truly in Him...then I can live life holding on to things loosely while holding tight to the things of God. (Which are the things that matter that are so easy to live without if my heart were dead and dull.) In fact, this life of God gives new enjoyment to life and the things of this world, knowing that you do not depend on these things and that they are not your identity or worth. They can be taken away as freely as they are given, but who you are in Him can never be taken away from you. These things are everlasting, shall never perish, and will be with us forever.
- We spend our whole lives being educated by the world, it is our responsibility to do the same with God. No wonder we struggle when we sit at the feet of God for just minutes a week, while the world comes at us 24/7. But we are so concerned about being responsible to life. But what if we all bought into actively pursuing God, changing anything in our life that we needed to change to do so? Will He not honor that? Will He not take care of us? Is our flesh so in control that we cannot bring ourselves to do it? We are fighting a losing battle if we maintain our lifestyle while trying to fit God in somewhere. The mistkae we make is that GOD IS SUPPOSED TO BE OUR LIFESTYLE, our motivation to make decisions, where we live, what we do, who are. If following Him means a shift in everything we know and are comfortable with, then so be it. He will honor our committment, extend His grace and His life beyond what we thought possible. But our flesh won't like it. But God doesn't want or care about our flesh. His purpose is to rid us of the flesh so that we may be more like Him. I'm not talking about our bodies, but about our nature, our will, our desires that are based on our own physical prosperity and comfot. The thing is that we can't accept part of God's will and desire for our lives while discarding the part about laying down our life completely to Him and His will. Accepting God means that something's going to change. The very premise, for many of our lives, is a worldly foundation. God can take and use this, but first we need to seek Him, to be re-educated by Him as to what makes life real, important, and worth living. If you think that this can just be done by listening to a few feelings or sermons, you've got another thing coming!