Blessing and Purpose

So I am now working on week 2 in God's heart for the nations.... This week it is on God's blessing and purpose for us.

The bible is made up of 66 books but this 66 book has a introduction, body, and conclusion which by literary terms makes it one book as a whole. The first 11 chapters of Gen is the intro and the body runs from Gen 12-Jude. The conclusion is Revelation. In the intro there are major themes that are tracked through the rest of the book. This week we are looking at two of the themes. These themes are found in Gen 1:28 1- God desires to bless his creation (blessings) 2- in the context of blessing we discover God's purpose and man's responsibility (purpose/respondsibility)

After the intro to the build of the bible the intro makes a statement that really hit home... "God will accomplish his purpose voluntarily or involuntarily." God told the poeple at the tower of Babel to go out and multiple and all they wanted to do was build a tower and stay right there. So God sent His judgement down and divided all poeple through out the earth. God will have His will accomplished in some way! This means we may go through difficult and hard things if we try and stop Him. This speaks even louder when you think about Abraham. God told Abraham to go and He would bless him and make him the Father of many and the Lord held he promise. Abraham was blessed because he did as God asked. It is the same with us...if we obey God and do His will like he has asked we will be blessed! But if not We will go through hard times!! Like the book said God's purpose will be accomplished! Am I willing to set my desires aside and Do as the Lord asks?

God wants me to be a blessing and wants others to be a blessing to me.
God also wants me to take respondsibility for my actions and do as He has asked and carry out His purpose... That in itself is such a blessing!! We don't deserve his favor, but he doesn't just give us favor, He says he will bless us and He loves us more than anything and WANTS us to be apart of His plan! What is hold me back?--->OUCH

The Perfect Man

Well this has absolutely nothing to do with the bible study I have been working on but I listened to Perry Noble out of New Spring and I was just crushed....The Lord just knocked me in the face!



I first saw only part of this serman but then downloaded the Podcast of the serman to hear the rest of it...The part I heard was Perry telling singles guys how they should be askin the girls out instead of being so scared!....However the whole serman was for women tell them how to be the Godly wife/future wife that God wants them to be.



He gave an accrosstick for the word WIFE....



W - Words - How do I use my words? Not just with talking with men but with talking to anybody! bc our speech is the over flow of our heart...So what is my speech saying about my character....Do i have an uplifting character? Or do i tare poeple down instead. The way I talk about men also factors in....Am i constantly degrading men bc of bitterness in my life.... This kinda got me! Sometimes my words are not so hot....Sometimes i forget to think before i speak!



I - Intentionality - Are you intentionally putting his needs before yours? This had alot to do with married women but the things that were said for singles were like WHOA!... When I am getting to know a guy....DON'T ACT LIKE I LIKE SOMETHING WHEN I DON'T! It is ok to just be me....bc if i am not honest about my likes and dislikes then that makes me a liar!!!... you can't build a relationship on lies! If you would like to watch him play a sport or watch a sport just to spend time with him then you need to tell him that!...BE HONEST!!



F - Forgiveness - Are you a forgiving person? Are you are person who seeks revenge or a person of mercy and grace? When Perry got here it was intense... Perry said straight to the single girls... that I can't let my anger and bitterness from previous relationships dictate how i treat all guys... I have to go let go of all that mess.. When i think about that the Lord taught me last week and how it relates to this week.. me holding on to that bitterness does me No good...and it brings NO Glory to God... that would be defiling His name... It is easy to say, but hard to do... Love unconditionally! Love with the AGAPE love... Be that reflection of Jesus in how i treat men.. Until i can do that The Lord is not going to bring a Godly man into my life...

E - Expectations - He started this one off and It hit me like a ton of bricks..."The Perfect man DOES NOT exist, so stop looking." WOW...OUCH! Girls are always makin their list and if the one thing is off then NOPE!... Gettin down to the eye color hair cut and hair color is a little crazy... Remember the Lord knows our wants and NEEDS... So while I wait on the Lord to show us the right one... I have to stay focused on Him and remember he knows my needs, and I can't be critical of what the LORD is giving me... Instead be forever greatful and thankful...

Even though I am no where close to getting married, I have got to trust the Lord and learn as much as I can while I am waiting on the Lord... This waiting is so hard, but the Lord has taught me so much. I have found that being single is actually great... hard, but great. Plus the Lord is always with me with Him I am never alone....

So why missions?

So the theme of "to the glory of God" continues today... However the scripture today looked at how I should live to glorify God. So I made yet another list...

• Glorify God with my body by what i eat, drink, wear, and do (1 Corithians 6:20;10:31)
• Glorify God with your talents/gifts (1 Peter 4:10-11)
• Glorify God with unashamed suffering (1 Peter 4:16)
• Glorify God with your death (John 21:18-19)
• Glorify God with creation (Psalm 72:19 Habakkuk 2:14)
• Glorify God with the way we live and shine His light (Matthew 5:13-16)

So...That is what I have to do to Glorify God with my life....well the first one gets a big OUCH!!.... 1 Corithians 6:20 says to glorify God with your body. In the verses before verse 20 it is talking about fleeing from sexualimorality and talking about our bodies being TEMPLES!! ok so what does that have to do with anything....well just think if you were living in a temple what would bring into the temple? Drugs, alcohol?....Nope i didn't think so...so why do we say trying it never hurt anybody? I bet that what that addicted said before he/she was hooked! WAKE UP The HOLY SPIRIT LIVES INSIDE OF YOU!!! and the Holy Spirit is one of the trinity...so that means that GOD lives in YOU!! YES YOU! So would you give God Drugs and alochol!? ummm...NO! Ok so those are obvious things! what about the things we eat and taking care of our body? How would you take care of a Temple? Constant cleaning, constant tiding up...And so it is with our bodies.....We have to constantly clean up acts wise and think about the food we put in our Temple! Is a constant stream of junk food keep your body nice and tidy!? No This can even relate to you outward appearance....Am I taking care of my Temple, keeping it in good shape?...OUCH....that hurt my diet! Now back to outward appearance....what i put on my body should Glorify the Lord...is my wordrobe one that says Glory to God? Or do i show off something that makes my brothers or sisters stumble.... bc i hate to tell ya making a brother or sister stumble is not bring Glory to God! I know i struggle with this...Girls like to be cute...and now days cute is not glorifying to God.... it prolly would make God throw up! Lord, what do i need to take out of my closet to better Glorify you!?

Number 2...Glorify God with my talents/gifts.... And we all say but i don't know what they are... I am calling your bull.... If you have a talent/gift more than likely you enjoy doing BC YOU ARE GOOD AT IT!! So guess what...God says I gave you that for a reason! TO GLOIFY ME! Is that what you are using it for? What talents might you have that you are scare to show poeple?..OUCH!!!... I think i need to sing more than I do... I let me fear of what people will think about my voice get in my way...I let sheer FEAR get in my way....OUCH.... letting fear get the best of me is like telling God he can't handle my fears!! better yet not using you talents and gifts that the Lord has blessed you with is like saying NO lord i don't want your blessings!...ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! You are going to tell an ALL POWERFUL GOD NO!!...OUCH....Or better yet am i using my talents to bring glory to the WRONG things!.....Holy Cow... talk about a jealous God!! remember GOD WILL NOT PLAY SECOND FIDDLE!!

Number 3...Glorify God through my suffering...wow! Now this....this..is hard!! So many times when we hurt we just want to get angry and pout and whine...when we should be praising the Lord for the hard times.... Hard times builds one up!... Plus lets quickly review... God goal is to Glorify Himself.... so us suffering and us turing around and praising him brings him Glory!! So when people say suffer for Jesus.... it is like basically saying To the Glory of God!... There is so many times when i get so caught up in the hurt and just throwing myself a pity part that i forget to Thank the Good lord above... Sound crazy...not when you weigh out the other end... Praise the Lord for suffering that will one day cease...or... Refuse to Glorify God for taking on the suffering that could have easily been ours on the cross... talk about perspective... our little suffering could NEVER compare to the suffering the Lord went through on that CROSS... Even Jesus praised God for His suffering on the cross! If Jesus can do it while HANGING on a CROSS... I am pretty sure we can praise Him through ALL of our sufferings!!....

Number 4...Glorify God with your death...ok now this i still don't think i complete understand.... In John 21:15-19 is when Jesus ask Peter do you love me? and Peter says yes Lord and Jesus asks him 2 more times.... And the last 2 verses says..." I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"....after doing some other reading I think the Lord is saying....no matter what may happen to you in death, make sure you live everysecond to the glory of God! It makes me think about this...When i die will poeple say She died for the Glory of God? not talking about dying a mrtyers death...but dying in away that there is no question who i worshipped and there is no question that for whom my life was lived for! EVEN OUR DEATH should bring Glory to God!!

Oh and number 5...Glorify God with creation...Oh how marvelous it is!! And the amazing this is that he gave it to us so we could enjoy it!! So are we abusing his creation?.... Are we allowing creation to Glorify Him or are we hiddinger that.... OUCH...littering...my littering can kill creation (animals)....

And Number 6 the last one covers and to me kinda ties in to number 4 with John... all i have to say is Matthew 5:16... "Let your light SO shine that they may SEE your good works and Glorify your Father in Heaven!" Do I live in such a way that the only reason they can give is God.... Does the way i live my life say "to the Glory of God" Will people literally say Glory to God...NO! but it should point them to God and NO WHERE ELSE!! Talk about a powerful verse!!

So all of this and what does this have to do with God's heart for the nations....well...this was in my book and I love the way they explain this...Glory is a noun which is used to describe the POWER of God. And then it says that God Glory "is the self-manifestation of God's character, atributes, and actions as he invades human reality." God's passion is for himself and his glory.....so that is the reason for ALL of His actions... This means that since God's passion is for is glory and if we are to have the heart and mind of God then our MAIN goal should be to bring Glory to God!! How does this die in with the nations? well God created all! And God's goal is to have ALL of his creation (which means ALL nations) bringing him GLORY...So what did he tell us to do...Go out and tell the Nations! about Him and his Glory... So that they too can bring him Glory... So how do I become a missionary for chirst... JOhn Piper is quoted saying "A heart for the glory of God and a heart of mercy for the nations make a Christ-like missionary."

So my challenge... Have a heart for the glory of God and a heart of mercy for all of God's people! Christianity is not just a US thing...God did not just write the bible for the US God wrote the bible for EVERYONE!! for ALL NATIONS... so ALL NATIONS! will bring Glory and Honor to His name...So Am I doing what the Lord is calling me to do for his ultimate Goal?...wow...What a question...

NO Record

So today I started out by looking at what God does for the "sake of His name." This study lead me through many different verse and at the end my list looked something like this

• Blots out my sins and keeps no record (Isaiah 43:25 & 1 John 2:12)
• Preserves my life (Psalm 143:11)
• Leads me and guides me (Psalm 31:3)
• Listens to my pleas and Opens my eyes (Daniel 9:17-19)
• Has me suffer for Him (Philippians 1:29)

After taking a min and really looking at that list....I got to thinking....PRAISE THE LORD.....If it weren't for the frist I would be DEAD! The second one made me think about a corny shirt i saw once that said "Jesus is my 'lifesaver,'" but this makes that shirt not look so corny! haha bc it is soooo true! The Lord saves/preserves my life....I actually like the word preserves better... He keeps my life for His use... If you preserve something you save it for a later use or for a better use well considering with out Christ our life would be no more He deff uses our life for the better...WOW..what a concept...The third one is what I struggle with the most...I am constantly saying Lord YOU HAVE MY LIFE....yet sooo many times I try and take certain parts back from Him...I have got to stop doing that!! God has preserved my life for better use...LET HIM USE IT!! I have become an Indian giver! I give God my life and then say oh no sorry i need that back...nope sorry that is not how it works!! I don't completely understand why letting the Lord guide me is so hard...I mean Duh Danielle He is God!! He has said he is not going to lead you the wrong way! He has promised me only good!! WHY DO I HAVE TO BE SUCH A CONTROL FREAK??...haha The forth one well i feel bad for the Lord cuz i know i prolly talk His hears off!! But The Lord doesn't see it like that!! HE LOVES HEARING FROM US....even if we are always whining about something! He still wants to hear from us and comfort us! HOW AMAZING IS THAT!?? And the cool thing is He not only listens He opens my eyes....WHOA! yeah he actually wants to give us advice and help us, but the 1 million dollar question is "Are we letting him talk?" Are we soo busy complaining and tell him what is wrong that we don't give him time to open our eyes and see what he is trying to tell us!? And the tough one...He has me suffer for His name sake...or is that tough...I would say no....but that depends on how deicated you are i guess....The Lord has given His all for us and then some...we should at least be willing to be uncomfortable and suffer!! God sent his SON to DIE!!! an aweful death....I think the least we could do is suffer.... Jesus we through all of that and never once complained!! yeah talk about a WOW!!!

After making my list the book brought Isaiah 42:8 to my attention, " I am the Lord; that is my name; I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols." He has said it again....I THINK HE MEANT IT!

Later in today I read a statement that was very interesting.... we always are using the statement for the GLory of God.....most would say that statment is just an attchable religious phrase.....Oh so not true....All of the verses i read today said over and over again that he Lord i PASSIONATE about His glory!! HE IS A JEALOUS GOD....and has every right to be!....He created us to be imitators of Christ!...but yet we do NOT show his Glory...we defile His glory....If you created something you would want it to praise you right....well the same is with God...except God is not like humans...if we weren't praised for our creation we would be angry and take revenge...but God is different like i saw yesterday HE LOVES US UNCONDITIONALLY!!

So "for the glory of God" is not to be used to emphasize a point bc THAT IS THE POINT!!! Everything should be for HIS GLORY!! HIS WONDERFUL AMAZING GLORY!!

AMAZING GRACE

Today message was a branch off of yesterdays....The Lord hit me so hard with Isaiah 48:9-11, I didn't make it past there.
In the book there is this quote from Nichousa Ludwig Zinzendorf, "I have but one passion - It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I an be most used in winning souls for Christ." WOW...That is my new life statement....I just want to live for Jesus!! I just want to go and do and be whatever Christs wants me to be! If that means I am in a country where my life is at risk, by God that will be home!! They always say "home is where your heart is" Well my heart is not on this earth!! My heart is in Heaven with God! So wherever his heart is there mine will be, and that will be my HOME!!
Ok so after my fire was lit with that quote...I read Ezekiel 20:5-14...And this is just telling the story of the Isrealites in a nut shell kinda....And I have heard the story over and over again, but i have never read it in Ezekiel so this was new...Well through Ezekiel i have learned alot! I like to keep things simple....but the story of leading the Isrealites is not as simple as i once thought.....The Lord always promised the Isrealites that he would deliever them and make them a great Nation...Well I always thought it was because they were after his Heart!!....NAHHH...WRONG!!! It says in verse 7 that God told them to "Cast away all the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and DO NOT defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD" ok so after God's spill the Isrealites did what they should have right...haha nope think again...and this is where it really got me....at the end of verse 8 it says that God was going to pour his wrath down on them...ok i was thinking "Yeah i would to...those dumb Isrealites didn't listen.." OUCH.....How many times does this dumby not listen!?? But you can't just stop there....The Lord goes on to say that he had to uphold his name!! So what did he do.....he brought them to the wilderness and this time he gave them the 10 commandments.....Did the Isrealites listen this time....haha NOPE!!....did the Lord send down his wrath yes!....He parted the Red Sea and kill all the Egyptians that were after them....
WOW!! Talk about a loving God!!.....That is something my mind can not comprehend! We mess up and we do the exact opposite that God tells us to and he still LOVES us....He still blesses us!!....does that mean that we should just keep doing the opposite NO!! Even the Isrealites finally got it!! How many times will it take for me, for the world to understand that God is not going anywhere and He LOVES US!!....And more than that He could very easily send His wrath but he DOESN"T!!! HE UPHOLDS HIS NAME!!! Over and over in Ezekiel and other places the Lord says MY NAME WILL NOT BE PROFANED!! Everytime we try to degrade God and tell him he is nothing....oh you got!...He will show you that he is something....Like the verse yesterday from Isaiah...I have my reputation to keep up.....I will not be second fiddle to any God or people!!

And we are Blessed that God's reputation is one of LOVE.....WOW!....Is my reputation one of LOVE....or is it one of revenge and haterd??...

Oh Lord...I cry out to you begging for forgivness because sometimes I am not known for Love....Lord help to love like you!!....UNCONDITIONALLY.... Lord I pray that i would not be like the Isrealites and not listen...but to earnestly listen to what you have to say to me... and then DO what you have instructed me to do!! Thank you Lord...for NOT pouring your wrath on me...even though I so rightly deserve it!!....Thank you for me a God of Love.....

A Jealous God

So....today i have started the bible study God's Heart for the Nations.....And I decided that I needed a better way to keep up with how the Lord is speaking to me....not just through this study but through life in general.....Plus my countless journals are not so easy to find anymore! haha

Okay so the first verse in lesson one is the memory verse for the week...Isaiah 48:9-11 The English Standard verse says it like this...."For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the same of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in th urnae of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should me name be profaned? My glory will not give to another." Okay so my simple mind did not truly get what he was saying...there were some words that just made that a little confusing...So I Visited the great site of Bible Gateway....I looked at serval different versions and the version from the Message really did it for me...
"But out of the sheer goodness of my heart, because of who I am,I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper. I don't wash my hands of you. Do you see what I've done? I've refined you, but not without fire. I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do. I have my reputation to keep up. I'm not playing second fiddle to either gods or people."
WOW!! From the beginning of this verse till then end...I was completely speechless....I am so thankful that He does have ahold of his anger and His temper...If it were anyother person they would let us be destoried! But OUR AMAZING GOD....doesn't! And most of the time we don't even stop to thank Him....OUCH......Then He doesn't just stop there he keeps going!! He is like a silversmith....constantly refining us to reflect HIS image!! Even though we will NEVER be perfect and HE KNOWS that He still refines us! He still wants to mold us and make us more like Him.....WOW...I don't know about you but if I am working with something/somebody and I know they aren't going to change I give up...it seems pointless to me...and God doesn't!! HE SEES POTENTIAL IN US!!!! The last line of that verse says it just like a good southerner would, "I'm not playing second fiddle to either gods or people." HOW MANY TIMES DO I PUT GOD SECOND!!! OUR GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD!!! I am so thankful He is because if He wasn't I would be destoried!!
This weekend I went to South Eastern Simenary with my church and Mark Driscoll spoke on worship! Anything we do that is not worship is a form of idolatery!! When he got done speaking I left hurting! There is sooooo many times when I put all kinds of stuff before God and most of the time i don't even think twice about it!! For example...School...So manytimes i don't go to church or i don't do my bible study because I have procrastinated and have to do my school work!...not only did i put school work before him but i didn't use my time in a way that would be a blessing to Him....
Oh Lord....Help me to ALWAYS keep you first!....Help to thank you, not just with my words but with the way i live, for being a jealous and GRACIOUS God!!....You looked down and saw me in my filth and lifted me up and made me WHITE AS SNOW!!!

I can't wait to see what the rest of this week holds!!.....