Disappointment: Pain

Another question that I'm sure at one point or an other we have thought these things. "God why all this pain?"  "Why must I endure and suffer all this pain?" "Why must the world suffer all this pain?" "Being a all loving God how can you watch all this pain and not do something?" I know I have thought this things, and I can probably put money on the fact I will probably think it again at some point.  

I had one person say to me one time "How can God look into the face of an innocent child and not save them from pain and suffering?"  " How could He not rush to help them?" "How could He let such awful things happen to then?" Honestly in that moment I had no idea what to say.  When we think about it don't all of us in some way want to scream this from the top of our lungs some times too.  "How can you let such evil happen God?"

There are 2 things that I have come to understand a little better in my search to understand disappointment with God and pain.  The first thing is that if we have all powerful God and a all loving God to the purest sense, then we have one thing for sure.  This one thing is that Love in its most purest form is not coercive.  Now if someone would ask me if love was coercive I would obviously say no, but I will have to give credit for this thought and say I heard this idea from a wonderful sermon from Ty Gibson called, Through Tears.

True an utter love is not coercive.  True love is not generated by coercive tactics.  You can't hold someone at gun point and say "love me!" and suddenly their heart goes a flutter for you.  Their heart my flutter for sure out of fear, and they might even say they love you, but they would not Really love you. If you really want someone to truly love you, you have to show love to them and try and draw them by your love.  You have to give them freedom right?

If true love requires freedom then there has to be choice. There has to be an option to walk the other way away from love.  You could love someone soooo much and long for them to love you and do all these great things for them, but they could still choose to walk away from you.  So then love is risky.

This is how Ty writes it Love=Freedom=Risk.  

This concept seems so simple but honestly is very deep if you think about it.  It blew the lid off my jar of cranky complaints against God.  For it helped me see how an All Powerful  & LOVING God could have a world like ours, like Ty would say, "On His hands".  Pain exists because God will not force anyone to love Him.  

This brings me to my other thought.  As a medical professional I see  a lot of people with pain.  Nearly every person I see is suffering from pain and looking to me to help them get better.  Now is pain a bad thing? Well.... in some ways yes... but is pain always bad? No.  From the physical side of things pain can be a very good thing.  It warns the body something is wrong.  Pain saves lives many times! If you get a huge gash in your leg and you have no pain you could bleed out and die before you noticed enough to get help. 

Honestly, even emotional pain is a warning system that tells us something is wrong and we need help.  Even emotional pain can and will kill us from the inside out if we don't get help.  Pain in many ways is a gift and an opportunity to get the help we need to survive.  

Now looking at pain from a broader perspective gets a little harder.  We look at our world and see that their are innocent people being tortured, killed, displace from their homes, starving, living in war zones.  If we thought of the world like the human body, this would be warning signs that there is something majorly wrong. This world has a huge infection and needs help.  Are you following me?  Its true right?  Most of us would agree with this.  

So an all powerful God made this world and man, but because He is all loving as well, He gave freedom.  He was up front and told Adam and Eve there is a disease out there that will kill you.  "If you do this one thing you will be infected and die." But He didn't force them to stay in His love, He gave them freedom.  True to the all loving God He is. We know the story.... Adam and Eve chose to turn away from God and the horrible infection started for the whole of the human race, Sin.  

We are lovers of sin, but God knows this is fatal.  But He allowed freedom because He is a God of true love.  He restrains Himself from just vaporizing us, because He first loved us.  He longs to save us from our condition but He still has to allow freedom.  So He made a plan to cure our disease.  Jesus!

• John 3:16-17 - " For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" NIV

So He personally sacrifices Himself!  This All powerful & All loving God permanently marries Himself to the Human race because He SO loves us.  And as pure love would do, is willing to die and take on the whole worlds infection to cure us!  And hopefully show us how much He loves us so we will chose to love Him and be saved!

This is the true message of the Gospel!  Why the Gospel is such Good News Right!!!  So in some ways we can begin to understand and believe that This all powerful God is truly All Loving and does hurt with everyone of us suffering on this planet, but also doesn't take all pain away because each person has choice.  Pain is an indication we need our savior and we live in a war zone. You cannot expect that your life will be peachy in a war zone. We have an infection each one of us.  But God does not force anyone to choose love over hate.  It is not love if it is by force.  So we have ones that chose love and ones that don't.  This is war.  We suffer and have pain.... but honestly in a way it is a gift because it lets us know something is wrong and we need to turn to Jesus!!!

Paul in his ministry talks about a thorn in his side and that he asks God 3 times to take it away.  God tells him this:

• 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 - "   But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." NIV

I look at this verse in a whole new light.  God says "No" to Paul 3 times in his hardship.  Are you feeling like that?  Are you having some major pain in your life and you are begging God to remove it?  God seems to be telling you "No" over and over?  Take courage!  Paul suffered the same!  God told him basically "Paul, I know this is hard for you but I will help you to endure this" "My grace is sufficient for you!"  "When you are feeling your worse and the world is pressing in and you feel totally weak and helpless, I will show my power to the world when you are at your weakest!"  He told Paul "your suffering is not in vain, and I will help you through, and reach many others through it"

Isn't that the truth so many times.  We are inspired and see the love and power of God when someone else that suffers way more than us witnesses for Jesus and finds ways to show the world Jesus love despite their disability or horrible abuse done to them or losing several loved ones to war.  Don't we look at them and realize in the deepest part of our hearts there HAS to be a Loving, powerful, and Amazing God out there if some can endure all that and still witness and do all they do despite all that has happened to them? I know I sure do! 

So in my search recently, I have to say and beg to point out that pain is relative.  And in many ways pain can be a gift to us and this human race.  I know some one reading this may want to punch me for saying that, especially if in the middle of major pain in life,  but I challenge you to really think about it.  God has the cure!  It isn't to remove all of pain in this world it is to surgically remove the cancer eating our souls. It Will be painful, we Will suffer, not because He wants us to.  Its about saving us spiritually and eternally from the inside out, not from the outside in.  Pain is relative, but doesn't ever have to be in vain.  Ultimately Christ suffered most so we could suffer less! Remember, God's grace is sufficient for you too! Take courage!

Singing Over You!

"The Lord your God is in your midst,
 a mighty one who will save;
 he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing"

Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

I was just recently introduced to this verse.  I just so love the picture it paints of God.  That He rejoices over us as His kids!  That He quiets us with His love and is so overwhelmed with love for us He sings loudly over us!  

Can you imaging God walking around heaven saying your name and how much He loves you and starts singing in joy over you and the relationship you have together, like a Dad sings to his kids to comfort them, or be playful with them, or be proud of them because they are HIS kids!  

Dear friends in Christ!  Please know this today that God loves to sing over you!  May you be encouraged this day! 

My Father and Your Father!

Happy Easter! I guess a little late for some and I'm sorry.  It has been a busy weekend with all the events and special gatherings. It was a weekend full of God, good times with family, and friends for me.  I hope it was for you too.

This year was a little more special for me because of one of my dear friends pointing me more to Jesus.  She is super musical and has such a great heart for music and the message of music.  She also has had a burden to show more of Jesus sacrifice and His great love by His death and resurrection this Easter.  More than usual for her.  It has pushed me to consider more deeply Jesus personal care and love for each one of us.

I was reading this morning in John about Jesus death and resurrection.  Honestly I think it is cool that Mary Magdalen is the first to see Him.

• John 20:15-17 - "He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
   Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
   Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" NIV

Can you imagine how He must have spoken to her?  Reading it this morning, I imagined He said her name with such tenderness and love yet with such a heart of excitement to have her see that He was really alive and savior to the world! That as He asked her why she was crying, He was just waiting, with a smile on His face, to see Mary recognize His voice and go from utter sorrow to pure joy!  What a tender beautiful personal encounter with Jesus!

The next part just hit me between the eyes this morning! Jesus says "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God".   My Father AND your Father! My God AND your God!  I wonder how amazing it must have felt to Jesus to know that sin and death was conquered and that now each and every person could now say "My Father, My God!"  We could all now become His kids full fledged papers and all :) Adopted into God's Family because of Jesus sacrifice! He had just erased over 4 thousand years of sin before the cross and 2+ thousand years to forever in the future for all who believe in Him!

Oh how I wish every person could grasp even a small glimpse of this Amazing Love for each one of us! Oh dear reader, whoever you may be, whatever brought you to this page..... let this really sink into your heart, the knowledge of Jesus dying for you and the joy He has seeing you realize He really isn't dead.... He is Alive with more love than you could ever imagine! So that you can be free from sin and call Him Dad!

It Doesn't get any better than that!

Changed For Change

Have you as a Christian wondered how to relate to your non-Christian friends?  This has been a battle for me for the longest time.  I always felt that I never could really show that I was a Christian to my non-Christian friends, and honestly up until a certain age I really didn't even have but 1 or 2 non-Christian friends because of it.  I felt they wouldn't understand me and judge me.   I was scared.  

As I got older I began to feel bitter about my Christian upbringing and felt that the church was too strict and legalistic.  I began to more and more mold myself around the idea I needed to be more like the world for non-Christians to want to be a Christian, or honestly for them to like me.  Out of college I even decided it was more about being a good person and not about any do's and don'ts.  

My thought was that being a good Christian was about being "Culturally Relevant" so I formed myself even more so to the world. Dressing more like my non-Christian friends, I picked up drinking with them, listening to the same music even if it didn't have a good message, going places I knew were not good, going to shows that I knew were just filled with cussing and all kinds of graphic jokes or material that was totally making light or entertainment of sinful things. 

Up until only recently in the last couple years has God been slowly turning my heart around to see things differently.  Now that I am spending more and more time in worship and reading the Bible, it is becoming more and more clear to me that Jesus did not at all command His disciples to conform to the world.  

• John 15:18-19 - " “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." NIV

Then after Jesus warns His disciples the world with hate them, He then prays for them and defines more they are not of the world and asks God the Father to protect them.

• John 17:14-16 - "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." NIV

So these kind of passages have been cutting to the heart for me lately. Mainly because I have changed so much over the last couple years with my decision to surrender to God even my greatest dreams to Him.  I have turned almost a total 180.  There is a list of things that in the last year I have given up or done that I would never in a million years been able to do.  It has only happened by the strength of God in my life, because I could never will myself or even have the desire to change them before, and believe me I've tried.

But these things make me more and more different than my non-Christian friends.  I am feeling the separation and I notice that they notice that I don't do the things I used to with them. No one has written me off or anything, but I notice they look at me a little different, and I see the question in their eyes why is she not doing that?  No one has asked me yet, but I'm sure in the near future it may come up.

So interestingly yesterday the sermon was talking about this. The point being made was of this very thing. The example given by the pastor was one of his own experience.  He stated that he ran into old friends and they got together to eat and drink.  He went with them to hang out and He was the only one in the group that did not drink.  He said it was awkward but it opened up conversation about God and what God had done in his life since they had seen each other last.

This was really encouraging to me and reinforced to me what I think God has been trying to get across to me over the last couple years.  My job as a born again Christian is not to conform to the world, looking more like the world, doing things more like the world.  My job is to focus on God and be renewed my mind in Christ, bathing myself over and over again in worship with Him and His word so He will transform the world around me for His glory!

Did you hear that?  Our job as disciples is NOT to change ourselves to be like the world, but to focus on God so HE can change the world around us for HIS GLORY!

•  Romans 12:2 -  "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will" NIV

I never could get this before.  I always thought the Christian message is too hard and my church is too legalistic.  Now, churches can be legalistic and my church is no exception.  But the message of Christ stands true ALWAYS and will draw hearts by the power of Jesus and His love.  So the idea of don't throw the baby  out with the bath water.  I'm also Not saying we should hate and banish all our non-Christian friends, just that we should keep to what we know to be right even when we are with them.

Jesus message, the word of God, and His example of reaching the world, by being different, being love to the world and standing for what is right and true, should be our compass! What does the verse above say? " Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is"  We do not have to be more like the world to reach the world.  It is Jesus job to save it, is our job to be like Him, vessels full of Him, so HE can Save through us!

Contemplating this is such a relief isn't it?  Takes the pressure off. But also comes the understanding that the world will not like us either sometimes and treat us badly.  But the Savior Himself has prayed for us so we can endure and be protected from the devil and his evil schemes.  What a Loving Awesome God we serve!

So as I was looking for a picture for this post I also ran into this picture too.  I thought It was so beautifully symbolic for this message as well.

Even me going to Church since a baby, I looked like my friends, like these matches.  But when God touch me and with the flame of the Holy Spirit I became a new creation!  I became Changed!  Guess what happens to all the matches standing next to the one touched?  They catch fire!  

So don't worry about what the matches around you are doing.  Your job as a Christian is to let the Holy Spirit's fire in you, set the rest of the world around you on fire, For Our Loving Savior and His sacrifice for Us!  Isn't that So COOL!!!! 

So Take Courage My Friend!  When the world around you tries to pressure you to change to be the same, remember let the change in you be your witness!  You might be surprised what God can and will do!  

Amen!

Kori

 

ALL IN! not a fan

I just finished this book called not a fan by Kyle Idleman.  This book has totally blown out of the water some of my thoughts about being a follower of God.  The idea that Jesus has lots of fans but few true followers.  Being a fan is easy, but being a follower is way harder and demands much more than some of us are willing to give. It has really made me re-evaluate what I'm really willing to surrender and do for my Savior and my Love. How serious am I? 

On this weekend focused on human love, there are all kinds of overtures people make to show love.  Some of them are cards, candy, nice dinners, and romantic get-a-ways. But you don't see people selling all they have to following their love around the city or to then ends of the earth very often.  Oh people love to sing about how they would run 500 miles, and 500 more, just to be the person that walks a 1000 miles to fall down at their door.  :D (yes I'm a little silly blame it on me being a late gen X 'er) LOL
But not many are truly serious about it.  If we were, the divorce rate probably wouldn't be so high.

Kyle tells a story about a person that comes up to him and complains about their family member being to crazy about God and talking too much about good sermons and giving too much of his hard earned money away to the church.  The person asks him to tell the family member that the Bible says "everything in moderation" and it doesn't have to be all or nothing. I paraphrased a little there... but basically, what was said.  Kyle as nicely as possible quotes part of Revelation 3 and tells them God asks us to go ALL IN.

• Revelation 3:14-22 - "  “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
  These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
   So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
   You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. ’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
   I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
   Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
   To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches" NIV

So I have a tendency to want to be a fan.  Don't we all! Our sinful natures want the benefits but not the hardships and the trials that come with being a true follower of Christ.  We think we look like the picture above.  Cool collected fashionable with a little bit of the world and God mixed together in one so the non-believer can swallow Christianity easier.  We look in the mirror and say secretly to ourselves and say "I don't look half bad today, someone out there is going to want to be a Christian like me" I confess I have had this thought sometimes.  "Thanks God looking pretty good now"  But really the times we think that, are the times we look like this.

The minute I'm thinking I'm all fly and strutting my stuff, I'm looking in the mirror the devil threw up.  I really traded my gold and my white robe for wretched, pitiful, and blind.

Now this said I don't think we need to wander around thinking we are garbage and get stuck in guilt. But we have to keep things in perspective and remember that, wretched, pitiful, and blind is where we come from and if we want to be more than lukewarm.... We have to go ALL IN.  We have to give up Everything to experience the full measure of His love.  He gave EVERYTHING for ours!  He walked more than a 1000 miles in the dust for us to knock at our hearts door!

Won't we let Him in?! Won't you let Him in?! Don't settle for lukewarm.  Don't just be a fan.  Lets go ALL IN! What does He promise?  Jesus promises He will come in and eat with us! Personal and real, giving us gold refined by fire (riches this world cannot buy), white robes to cover us, and salve for our eyes so we can REALLY see.

Oh Great the Fathers Love For Us! How Vast Beyond All Measure! That He should give His ONLY Son. To make a wretch His Treasure!

The best Love EVER!

Not a fan......  Follower!

Praise to you God!

all my <3 ....kori

Tree By The Water

Jeremiah 17:7-8

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.” NIV

This verse really hit me this last week.  I long for it to be the theme for the year.  To stay focused trusting God so that my life is a constant witness to His Glory, Power, And Great Love.  Amen

God bless you this year!

Kori

Every Good Gift is for You!

This season is soooooooo busy, and for me,  this year is even more so because I'm driving farther to work than usual.  So this is  why I haven't blogged for a week or so.  But along with that, I have had a big storm in my life as well. 

Those of you that have read my blog from the beginning, know that there is a big rift in my family.  Two sides that, over something small, have been at odds for almost 2 years.  This makes the Holiday's harder for me being in the middle trying to be family to both sides.  This combined with a huge communication problem at work has consumed my thinking over the last week and a half.  

Sometimes when I get my head wrapped around some things, it is so hard to let go of them.  I'm a problem solver by nature and long for harmony, so I get trapped sometimes in circular thinking of conversations and words that could be said or things to do to bring back balance.  Sometimes they are good ideas and sometimes they are not because they come out of a place of anger and frustration. 

Both work and family things, I brought before God and asked for answers of what I should say or if I should say anything.  I desperately wanted God to write in the sky for me.  Now in saying this, whether I want to admit it or not at the moment, there is another part of me that secretly hopes God doesn't answer so I can do what I want to do.  However, in the past I have made that mistake and had everything blow up severely in my face and destroy relationships.  So I'm learning but the waiting is miserable sometimes and I start feeling that God has forgotten me.

I was feeling so much this way.  I wanted God's answer and to hear Him telling me the best way to go.  The work situation I kind of waited and then took over some. Part way through, I begged God to help.  It worked out but went rough.  And the family one,  God never gave me the green light to speak and I waited in agony feeling awful, trying to not loose faith in His love and desire to speak to me.  

Sometimes in situations like these I am so blinded!  He was speaking to me all along trying to show me He was there.  Someone that I rarely talk to texted me and told me they missed me, one of my pt.'s looked right at me and told me I was so pretty, others at church that I normally don't talk with that often, came to talk with me.  All these things, signs, God mobilizing the world around me to reach me in my pain.  Then last night, I learned the very family member I wanted to talk to was already making an effort to mend fences in the family!  Without any word or effort on my part, God working.

How easily I forget..... but I'm learning..... Every Good and Perfect Gift is from God!

•  James 1:17 - " Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" NIV

Everyone that opens the door for you, everyone that smiles at you, everyone that lets you merge in crazy traffic, every flower, every hug, every warm bed and cup of coffee, heartwarming tune.....ALL of it!  Is God taking a moment to whisper He loves you and has not forgotten you!  

He does not say to us "I love you today..... but don't know about tomorrow"  He does not change in His affection for us!  The devil tries to make us believe those lies, with the struggles on this earth, but God does not change.  And Every Good Thing is a direct message of Love to YOU from Him!  He is Always Faithful! Even when answers don't seem clear, there are signs He is there.

So I hope this Christmas you will look around you and see with your heart how much God loves you and is telling YOU, through Every Good and Perfect Gift He gives you this season and always! 

God Bless :) 

And God Be Forever Praised for all He gives and has given!

Kori

Trees, Dirt, and Eternal Glory

The great outdoors.... Ah yes I love the woods and going camping.  So Fun!  This has been the reason I haven't blogged for over a week. I signed up to go camping with the church school's Senior Survival.  It is where the school takes the senior class out into the woods for 5 days and teaches them survival skills as well as ties them to life skills and spiritual skills to reach the world for God.  

So I was super stressed before the trip.  Not because of the woods, but because of the teenagers.  :)  I don't know why I volunteered, they caught me on a super good day or something. :)  Because normally I'm terrified of youth work especially teenagers.  For some reason I'm scared they won't like me or will rebel and i won't have the guts to keep them out of trouble.  But this must be the year that God feels like stretching me by getting me to volunteer for things I never would before (thinking of the Triathlon running thing as well) :)

So the whole car ride there my heart was pounding and I was starting to panic a little.  I road with another women I know from church that has been through many a camping trip with these girls and assured me the whole way that things would go fine and I had no need to worry.  That helped some and it was nice to know she was along too in case things got crazy :)

Long story short, 2 days in I started my monthly friend 2 weeks early, my hormones were a little wonky, and I was getting emotional about reading a simple Bible verse.  The girls were starting to complain about everything and I was feeling way inadequate.  After a good talk with the other woman on the trip and few shed tears, God showed me that He was with me and I needed to focus on what He thought of me and not what the girls thought. 

By the last day, I finally realized that God had a plan for not only the girls but for me too.  We were all physically and emotionally spent, but most everyone was glad they made it through and overall had a good time.  

The last morning I got up the courage to do a worship a short worship with the girls, sharing a verse close to my heart. So I shared that my best friend in junior high was terminally ill with leukemia. One night before she died she wanted her mom to read her a verse.  Her mom opened the Bible to this verse, but couldn't bear to read it so she searched for other verses till my friend begged her to read the first one she opened to. 

•  1 Corinthians 4:16-18 - "   Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" NIV

I compared this to our experience of the days in the woods and life.  And as I said these words to the girls I was realizing myself how true they are.  We cannot control life.  It will give us whatever it gives us.  The difference between Christians and others in the world is that we have hope in Jesus, that inwardly we can be renewed and we have eternal life.

It's not about what goes on around us that matters it is what goes on within us in our hearts with Jesus that makes all the difference.  I realized that my beautiful friend had realized this before she died and found comfort in these verses.  And I realized at that moment that God had worked in my heart as well as these girls.

Whether these verses had impact on them I don't know, but I hope in a small way one day it will come back in their memory and give them strength when they face some of the hard times of growing up and what life will throw at them.  Fixing our eyes is the key to peace and change within. Focusing on Jesus and what is unseen is what gives us life from within despite what goes on around us externally that we see.

The girls decided I was okay at the end, and I decided it was a good thing for me to go despite my fear.   So the woods was fun, hard, and wonderful all at the same time. This momentary trouble a step closer to the eternal glory God has in store for us. Trees, Dirt, and Eternal Glory AMEN!

I Am With You

I Just started reading this book this morning called 

Love Does by Bob Goff

The first chapter already has me tearing up.  The chapter is called I'm with you.  It is a story about when He was a teenager and he wasn't quite done with high school he wanted to go to Yosemite and be a rock climber.  There was a a guy that didn't go to his high school but would come by and hang out at the school and try to talk with him about Jesus.  After a while they became friends. 

Well Bob, the author, decided he was going to cut school and drive to Yosemite and he went to say goodbye to his friend, his friend thought for a few mins and invited himself to go with him saying "Bob, I'm with you".  No chastisement or "what are you doing?" Just "I'm with you"  

So they head out to Yosemite in VW and Bob tries to find a job and can't find anything and is running out of money. So he decides after 2 days of not finding anything and only enough money to get home, he would head back.  Again his friend just said to him "I'm with you" 

When they get back and Bob goes to drop his friend off at his house they go into the house and Bob sees there are wedding gifts half opened, and realizes that his friend had just gotten married to his girlfriend and sacrificed part of his honeymoon to go with him to Yosemite to make sure he was safe and ok. 

I was so moved by this story.  We are told all the time God is with us over and over.  But there is a big difference between just some higher being that looks down us and says "I'm with you" and watches over us, from a true friend that looks us in the eye that packs their bags and says "I'm with you".

My family moved around a lot when I was a kid because my dad was in the air-force.   It kind of made it hard for me to make friends. That may sound a little crazy, because you might think that would make me be good at making friends.  But being an introvert, you kind of get more and more shy of making friends because you know you will soon have to say goodbye and move.  

I think it was almost after I started my first job out of college that I met a friend that really was truly "with me" for the long haul.  I am so grateful every day for her she is my dearest Sister.  

• Matt 1:22-23 Says:  "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us)”NIV

 God didn't just stay in heaven, He came down to earth and was born as a human being to BE WITH US!  :)  Isn't that Cool!

God is totally the guy that packs his bags or the sister that packs her purse :)  and says "I'm with you!" "For the long haul, whatever it takes"  Even if He knows we are bent on heading into the fray without a single lick of sense or preparation.  "I am with you"  "I am your confidant, comrade, your bestie, your BFF"  "I got your back"  

Great reminder that God is always closer than we think in a so much more personal way than we give Him credit for.  How has God told you lately that He is with you? Remember this week, He is more than just with you..... He is All In, packed His bags,  WITH YOU AlWAYS! AMEN!