Monday, October 19, 2009

"Come to Jesus meetin"




Over the last few weeks my pastor (PM) has been starting an “Up Rising” at our church.  He has challenged us to “put on our big boy pants”, “to become a team player” and to check our A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E (check out C3.com and watch the message to know what that means).   All of our study has been from the book of Ephesians, which has so much to offer to every believer, no matter where you are in your faith.

So…I decided last night to put away all the books other then One.  They are all great books, and I will go back to them, one at a time, after a while, but right now, I only want my heavenly Father to pour into me. 

My PM suggested a good place to daily read the bible is in Proverbs, there are 31 and you can read one chapter a day, so this morning, since it was the 19th I started with Proverb 19.  It was me, my bible, my laptop, so that I could look up things I didn’t understand, and my pen and journal.   I just have a question, “How on earth can you read one of these per day?” 

I didn’t get past the second verse before I knew that God and me were fixin to have a “come to Jesus meeting”.  (Have you ever had a come to Jesus meetin? It’s when you sit down to have a heart to heart (in love) with someone and really speak to them plain and honestly and most of the time it’s pretty intense).  Think about having a “come to Jesus meeting” with God.   Well, that was me at my dining room table this morning when I read the following verse: 
           

Well, first of all I gotta make an appointment with my pastor because evidently I’m not doing this read a Proverb in a day right.  I started at 5:45 a.m. this morning and me and God, we spent a good hour just on that one verse.  I’ve heard people talk about verses “jumping off of the page” and man not only did it jump but I think it might have even hit me upside the head a time or two. 

So with this verse I stopped, and I read it again, and I wrote it down and I broke it down.  (Knowledge I have gleaned from “Becoming More then just a Good Bible Study Girl” by Lysa TerKeurst).  The entire time I’m doing this I’m asking God to help me understand and how can I apply this to my life  and what He wants from me?  (Lots of hard questions.)

I defined zeal, and knowledge, and hasty and I asked how do I "miss the way"?

Zeal:  I get fired up, excited, ready to “take on the world” and that’s a good thing, BUT, if I don’t know, (lack knowledge) that’s not good.  I am  NOT saying that in order to be a disciple we have to have a bunch of letters at the end of our name, but we DO need to understand and spend time with God and allow the desires of our heart, what we are passionate about, what we are eager for, ardent or have active interest in, we must gain the knowledge to sustain it.  I could want, be excited about, love, and desire to be a surgeon all day long, with all my heart, soul and body, but are you going to let me operate on you if I’ve never even opened a medical book?  Um, no….

No, I’m not saying that I think you have to have a degree to tell people about God and His love for them, Jesus didn’t chose a bunch of learned men, he chose men that had a heart, were willing to follow Him and accepted His invitation, men that could get fired up, excited, and ready to “take on the world” after He had equipped them, by giving them examples, teaching, and then sending the Holy Spirit to live in them.  Guess what, we have that today.  We have His examples, we have His teachings, and we all have the Holy Spirit.  Guess what that makes us?  Disciples.  But I gotta go to His Word and allow Him to teach me daily so that the zeal I have may be enlightened, not ignorant or misdirected. 

Wow, that’s just one part of that verse.  Pastor Matt, you and me gotta talk cause I need to spend even more time on “nor to be hasty and miss the way” (the rest of the verse). 

My reason for all of this is one thing; God has so much He wants each of his children to understand.  Stop today, just stop, and give Him some time to find out what He knows you will need today.  Is your day important enough to start it out going to God for His direction for you?  Come on, have a “come to Jesus meetin with me!”  It really is an amazing experience. 




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just what I needed to hear this morning! ~Kathy M

Karen Dawkins said...

That's what I call time with God. And now you know how I could spend an entire month in the book of Haggai :)

Love ya, girl. Keep it up!!!!