conspiracy plot

this morning i have felt like i'm surrounded by people who could potentially be doing harm to me. i'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but it's a feeling i have nonetheless. i prayed to God to give me wisdom to say the right things; to carry out the right actions.

after praying i flipped my Bible open and it landed on jeremiah 12...this chapter starts off with a great series of questions to God.

"...why are evil people successful? why do dishonest people have such easy lives? you have put the evil people here like plants with strong roots..."

but the Lord answers jeremiah's questions in such a poetic and yet definitive way...

"if you get tired while racing against people, how can you race against horses? if you stumble in a country that is safe, what will you do in the thick thornbushes along the jordan river? even your own brothers and members of your own family are making plans against you. they are crying out against you. don't trust them, even when they say nice things to you!"

later in jeremiah 12, God describes how he will "pull up" the evil and wicked people and "throw them out of their land." He even describes how He will teach these people a lesson, but if they do not learn their lesson, He will "pull it up completely and destroy it." He is talking about a nation riddled with evil people.

God's intent here is to protect His children who already give Him praise; and give the evil children a second chance to proclaim His name.

i think that jeremiah's questions were answered by God. i think that God's answer, though poetic, was very direct in saying that as believers in Christ, we are protected. that He will not let harm happen to us. similarly, i believe God is telling jeremiah; "leave the evil people to Me, I will take care of them. don't worry yourself with these people."

with my feelings this morning, i know that God had me read this passage for a reason. i need to let Him handle anybody who may be trying to harm me...and i just need to trust Him in that.

are we predestined?

lately i have had several conversations with a variety of people who believe that we are predestined by God. in other words, we have already been chosen by God to enter into the gates of Heaven or not. for me personally, i go back and forth on predestination. part of me would like to believe that we are not, but the other part of me says that we are because of some very descriptive verses.

one of these verses is from romans 8:28-29 states:

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified."

ephesians 1:11-12 states:

"In Him we were also chose, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory."

and perhaps the most powerful statement comes from ephesians 1:4-6:

"For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves."

i find these verses very interesting and they lead to a string of thoughts within me. as believers, we understand that God is a fair and just God. He does not play favorites. we also understand that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation. if God were to choose a person's salvation based on works, it would imply that God would have some sort standard of measure, correct? and if there is a standard of measure, we would have to admit that none of us are worthy of entering into the gates of Heaven. we all sin, we will always sin and therefore, we are deserving of Hell!

romans 3:28 says:

"For we maintain that man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

ephesians 2:8-10 says:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. for we are God's workmanship, created in Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

titus 3:5 also says:

"He saved us, not because of righteous things that we had done, but because of His mercy..."

ephesians 2:10 even backs up that perhaps God had plans for us before we were even born.

so what if we are predestined? what if God has already chosen and known the names of people who will enter into His kingdom and serve Him in Heaven? wouldn't that mean that we really don't have free will?

in my opinion, no. we still do have free will. but God already knows how our life will end up. He will know the moments that we will return to Him, confess our sins, and take up our cross for Him. He knows who we will reach out to, He knows everything...everything!

but we are His tools, He still needs us to spread His word! He still needs us to reach out to others to make it known to them they are called by Him to become His tools here on earth as well.

i haven't completely bought into the idea of predestination, however, in reading a variety of scripture verses, i can't help but think that predestination is a reality.

where is the love?

i've been sitting at the dealership for about 1.5 hours now and have been watching the news channel that is on the television. the current topic of discussion is about happiness...particularly, they are discussing a study that describes the happiness of men vs. women. the study has shown that women are not as happy as men. they have interviewed several people and "gone out on the streets" to get some opinions. but as i watch this segment, i can't help but react.

many of the women they have interviewed have said that happiness is found in career advancement, higher education and the degrees associated with higher ed, and the overall competitiveness with men (a woman trying to make it in a "man's world"). one woman even said that happiness came from working her way up the corporate ladder so she could buy more things to make her happy.

all of this spins into an amazing world of marketing in which we live in. i passed by an ihop advert today that said, "come hungry. leave happy" and i can't help but feel sick by our society's constant drive to find happiness in things. in the case of ihop, i won't be happy unless i have a full stomach. and then i look around and see how obese our society is. consumer goods are no better. marketing would lead us to believe that we won't be happy unless we have the glorious experience of dyson vacuum cleaner or dove body wash.

even in my own life, i suffer from consumerism. i try to rebel against it, saying that "God is all i need." i try, but fail miserably at this. yet, God intends His children to need only Him! in my own life, i am bombarded by expenses and a dwindling bank account, yet i still try to grab hold of the american dream; i still worry about FICA scores and debt-to-income ratios.

why is it so difficult for us to reject what our society sees as "successful" and just rely upon what God will give us. does the Bible not say that if God will take care of the birds in the sky, how much more will He take care of us?

so here i am, listening to a bunch of "experts" describe how we "should" find happiness...and yet, God is not mentioned one bit. what they do mention is that to be happy we should focus on other "things" rather than the "things" we are focusing on. but no mention of God.

what would it look like if we really took action and lived out what God plans for us? what would our lives be if we focused on true happiness in God, rather than temporary happiness in things? to quote a buick commercial, "it's not the new lexus. it's not the new audi. it's not the new mercedes benz."

God as omnipotent...

last night i was at our tuesday night service here at school...overall the message was about joseph and his technicolor dreamcoat. not bad. i learned a lot about the time in Genesis chapters 37-59. but at the end, the young pastor stated this, and it got me really thinking!

"God's plan for us was not to be sinners, but to live here on earth in paradise. He wanted us to be with Him on Earth...He did not intend for us to be sinners."

i was like wow! that's a powerful statement. i wrote it down to think on it, research on it and challenge it. here's why i think this statement is untrue.

1) if God did not intend us to be sinners, wouldn't this mean that God is not omnipresent and omnipotent? if our life is not what God had intended from the creation of adam and eve, does that mean that God was surprised when adam and eve ate the apple? even to another level, wouldn't this mean that we would be able to hide things from God because if His creation did not turn out as planned, then there would be things that God doesn't know. He wouldn't be omnipotent and omnipresent!

now i realize, this a very surface level of challenge. and i wouldn't just challenge a statement, especially one this bold, without some biblical back up. so....

2) there are many references to God's omnipresence and omnipotence. God revealed to isaiah about the coming of Jesus many times.

exodus 9:16 reads "but i have raise you up for this very purpose, that i might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

deuteronomy 4:37 says, "because He loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of egypt by His presence and His great strength..."

in john 13:18, Jesus says, "i am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. but this is to fulfill the scripture..."

and again in john 15:19, Jesus says, "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..."

reading these passages and knowing a bit about the book of isaiah and the prophesies that have come to be true, i can't believe that God's plan for us didn't go as He had planned. by saying that "God did not intend for us to be sinners" is to admit that God did not have a plan for His creation. it would be like God had to fall back on "plan b" because adam and eve ate the apple. i don't see how this is possible. God knew what would happen. He had to.

Nehemiah

I spent a good portion of today preparing for the lesson I will be giving in church this Sunday and the talk I am leading a discussion on talks of Nehemiah from the Old Testament. I didn't know much about Nehemiah, but as I read about it, I loved something he said.

Nehemiah was being threatened and ridiculed for rebuilding his people's city in Jerusalem. The threats and persecution became very dangerous to the point where on 4 occasions, his enemies tried to lure him out of the city to do him harm. Each time his response was, 'I am doing a great work and so I cannot come down.'


Dieter F. Uchtdorf then expands by saying,

'What a remarkable response! With that clear and unchanging purpose of heart and mind, with that great resolve, the walls of Jerusalem rose until they were rebuilt in an astonishing 52 days.

Nehemiah refused to allow distractions to prevent him from doing what the Lord wanted him to do."

We live in times of great challenges and great opportunities. The Lord is seeking men like Nehemiah—faithful brethren ... He seeks to enlist unfaltering souls who diligently go about the work of building the kingdom of God—those who, when faced with opposition and temptation, say in their hearts, "I am doing a great work and cannot come down."

When faced with trial and suffering, they respond, "I am doing a great work and cannot come down."

When faced with ridicule and reproach, they proclaim, "I am doing a great work and cannot come down."

Our Heavenly Father seeks those who refuse to allow the trivial to hinder them in their pursuit of the eternal. He seeks those who will not allow the attraction of ease or the traps of the adversary to distract them from the work He has given them to perform. He seeks those whose actions conform to their words—those who say with conviction, "I am doing a great work and cannot come down."

I found the talk to be inspirational and wanted to share it with you!

critical thinking...

i know it's been a minute since i posted my last blog here on OWT. but it has been a crazy two months in the pursuit of God's plan for my life...

lately, i've been given the great opportunity to learn, read and hear several people speak God's Word. it has been amazing to learn so much. but one thing that i have noticed in my walk with Christ is this; the older i get and the more mature i become in my walk, the more i dive into the meanings of biblical passages.

for instance, i am now involved in co-leading a small group at our church for 11th and 12th graders...as a result, i need to be up on Bible stories. we are exploring the beatitudes, and this week i get to talk about the 2nd. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)

when i read this, my first question was, "who am i supposed to mourn for?" i mean, after all, we mourn at funerals, therefore, we should mourn for somebody. but as i researched and studied, i found out that we are to mourn for our sins! God asks us to lament, to anguish over our sins. the result of mourning? going to our Heavenly Father and asking for a clean heart.

the second question i had was, "how will we be comforted?" and again after research and understanding, comfort comes in the form of God's grace. but this can only come after we mourn our since, repent of them, and ask Him to renew us!

so here's what it all leads up to...if we critically look at what we read, we can begin to understand just what God is trying to teach us. because He knows that i would have interpreted this passage as, "if i cry for a deceased relative, i will be given a big hug."