Are we there yet?

Remember when you had kids or even better when you were a kid and the BIG question everyone asked was “Are we there yet?”

Tonight at our Wednesday night prayer meeting church, I had a distinct impression of this question at the beginning of the evening.  I felt like the little kid impatiently waiting for the ‘prize’ at the end of the trip – just being done with the traveling already. Impatience. Expectations. Opinions. All part of our selfish focus. The one that places us at the center of the universe and everything is supposed to spin around us.

WOW! Where did we get that idea? Ummm. I think it was in the garden when a tempting serpent questioned the integrity and motives of our Creator. Did God really say? We decided there was enough of a question there that the One who spoke Existence into being just with His voice should have to answer to us.

Just like the little kid who doesn’t want to enjoy the journey – we want what we want. NOW.

This was a great day for considering.

It is the third day of a really great new career at the youthful age of 60. I have been waiting for this moment for maybe thirty years. I think it should have come much sooner. With much less pain. And a lot less doubt and confusion and much, much more intentional step-by-step directions.

But sitting at my computer in my new office, I realized this long journey has been a wonderful place to learn the lessons I need for this moment in time. To be here was a plan set in motion long ago. Lots of events along the way equipped me.

Hey God, would you erase all those questions and tantrums and self-focused opinions of mine over the years? I think trusting you is a much better way to live. I will try to enjoy the ride more and pouting less.

Thanks for the patience you have had with me. Love, a slow to learn son,  Just Me.

Then GOD said – Day 2

When GOD speaks, there is something to listen to of extreme value.  I am going through the Bible this year showing all the words GOD said and let them speak for themselves.  His Word is light.  His Word produces results.  His Word is always good and for our benefit.  His Word is love.

The NLT uses the phrase “then God said”.  It is as if He allows circumstance or even our opinion to be spoken first, then He has the lasting Word.  I like this.  He gives us a chance to see the real picture and then only guides and corrects as needed.  Of course, since we were born in sin, much guiding and correction is required.  But a Father loves in His correction and He is the chief example of this in His unfailing love relationship with us throughout time.

Genesis 3

9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” 13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” 14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. 15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will striket your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.t” 17 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you.  All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. 19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.” 22 Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beingst have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!”

Genesis 4

6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” 9 Afterward the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?” 10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! 11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. 12 No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.” 15 The Lord replied, “No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him.

Then GOD said – Day 1

January 1, 2011                 Genesis

When GOD speaks, there is something to listen to of extreme value.  I am going through the Bible this year showing all the words GOD said and let them speak for themselves.  His Word is light.  His Word produces results.  His Word is always good and for our benefit.  His Word is love.

The NLT uses the phrase “then God said”.  It is as if He allows circumstance or even our opinion to be spoken first, then He has the lasting Word.  I like this.  He gives us a chance to see the real picture and then only guides and corrects as needed.  Of course, since we were born in sin, much guiding and correction is required.  But a Father loves in His correction and He is the chief example of this in His unfailing love relationship with us throughout time.
Gen 1:  3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.”  11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” 14 Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. 15 Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” 20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” 22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals. 26 Then God said, “Let us make human beingst in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” 29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.”

Genesis 2

16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

Expecting in 2011

Mark 11:24 (New King James Version)

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

So we begin a New Year.  New things are promised in many places in the Bible.  But this is the verse I am starting this year holding onto as a reference point. He is committed to His word and to us.

Much more to say but this is my starting point.   May each of you be blessed in the next new thing GOD gives you every day.  REVEL in it!

It begins with life and breath and yet is so much more.

Jesus so loves you so much! So much more to come…in fact, the BEST is yet to come!