Bleed Between The Lines

When I was younger I developed a lot of pride in my walk with Christ and God has spent the last 8 years striping me down to be a humble person. Well I hope I’m getting close because I get work off and on, my wife is the bread winner and we’re now on food stamps, but in all of this I’m thankful. I’m thankful for my wonderful family, for the friends that lift me up and even for those that don’t. I’m thankful that me and my family have food even if we need the government to get it. I’m thankful that God is in control and he has plans to prosper me and not to harm me.

In Psalm 143, David shows many beautiful characteristics of a man of God. He starts by asking for help in his time of need. In verses 3-6 he explains to God what he’s upset about and then in Verses 7-10 He asks to be saved from his trials. All of this we understand as humans but in verse 11 David does something we as people are not accustomed to doing. David states that the reason he wants to be delivered is for the name of God to be glorified. It’s easy for me to look at my tiny apartment and think I wish I had more room for my children and it would be easy to say I wish I had money to pay the bills so that my wife could stop worrying. But that shows a heart that doesn’t understand that God is in control. My kids are taken care of and my wife and I will be fine, we’re in God’s hands and there’s no place I’d rather be. We’re not going to be poor forever and when God delivers us we’re going to tell everyone we know that God heard our prayers. What ever you’re going through know that God will save you when you can’t save yourself, bringing glory to his name. So remember Love God, love each other, DIVORCE THE WORLD!

In our lives we see people getting cancer, dying in car accidents, moving to new cities, having chance encounters in stores and we say that it’s all part of Gods plan, This plan involves pain ad yet God has plans “not to harm”, this plan involves complex human decisions and yet we supposedly have freedom of choice. These apparent contradictions come not from an inconsistency with God but in our lack of understanding in how God plans. When we plan, it’s based on an assumed list of events and our assumed ability to affect the outcome. When God plans it’s on the basis that he exists outside of the boundaries of time or reason. When we make decisions they are based on physics and pattern. God is the author of physics and pattern. God weaves his plan around us and one of my favorite examples of this is Jesus and his mother at the wedding. Mary tells Jesus that their out of wine and Jesus says, “dear woman, it is not my time” and then guess what she does, she tell some servant girls to do whatever he says. She didn’t care that he said no! She knew what Jesus would do if she just asked him. While this principal can be taken the wrong way many times we need to understand that this biblical example exists.
I want to take this idea to the end times. In regards to the day of the Lord, Paul writes “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”
It is God’s plan that the end times will come and the Earth will become evil and rebellious. This plan isn’t because God will cause us to be rebellious, it’s because we will choose to be rebellious. Therefore we can also choose to be righteous. I don’t see the end times coming in the near future because I plan to get on my knees and I’m going to pray for revival. As God’s people we need to see that it is the desire of God that all would come to Christ. We should pray that his grace will spread and that all will come to know Jesus Christ. Their are so many doomsayers in the Church that it is hard to see revival as an option sometimes but we the hopeful have God on our side. We are soldiers and Christ’s cause is our cause. Take a moment today to pray for revival and maybe the world will repent and we can see God’s visible reign again.

One of the thing we can do to choke our relationship with Jesus is put a limit on what he’s worth. See Jesus was a blameless and perfect. His death was a sacrifice good enough to cover all the sins of all mankind. Like Peter sinking in the lake we diminish Christs connection with us when we don’t have faith in his worth.

There are many ways that we start to degrade Jesus. The first is by saying that Jesus isn’t necessary to get to Heaven. This is important because there are Christians who say “I believe that Jesus died for me but I don’t think he’s the ONLY way to heaven.” If Jesus’s blood isn’t the only thing that can get you into heaven then Jesus’s blood wasn’t necessary. Why would God send his Son to be insulted and beaten, to the point of death if it wasn’t necessary. Jesus’s blood is precious and God wouldn’t send him unless there was no other way.

The second thing we do is place boundaries on the sin Jesus’s blood can cover. We decide that if some one doesn’t look or act Christian then they can’t be saved. Or for more reasonable Christians, we can tend to believe that Jesus’s blood isn’t enough to cover murder or rape, or the idea that Hitler couldn’t be saved because he was TOO evil. We’re all wretched and deserving of death it is by the grace of God that we have any chance of redemption. By picking and choosing who we think can be saved we’re not highlighting the sins of the evil, we’re discounting the price of Jesus’s blood.

The third and most personally devastating thing we can do is decide that we don’t deserve forgiveness. Sometimes when we struggle with an issue (i.e. Anger, greed, lust, lies,…) We stumble after making a commitment and decide I’m not good enough to ask for forgiveness, I don’t even know if I really mean it. And then while we know we should ask for forgiveness, we sit by and deny God the ability to decide if we deserve forgiveness or not. This like earlier lowers the value of Jesus’s blood by us saying, I’ve sinned to much and I’m not sorry enough for Jesus’s blood to cover me. You’re a dumb human destined to mess up, Let God be God and he can decide if you’re forgiven. Jesus’s blood is enough to cover all sins from all people.

In the long run let God be God and you just do what you know is right. When we put limits on the power of Jesus’s blood we’re doing nothing more then playing god ourselves.

If you’re a follower of Jesus and you listen, God will tell you what he wants. After you hear him, it’s up to you to decide if you’re going to listen. As a Christian you need to know the difference between God’s voice and how you feel. When the holy spirit places something on your heart, it’s more then a feeling. God’s voice is a call that penetrates the deepest pores of our soul. Know your God sounds like such an impossible request but the truth is if you can’t recognize God’s voice then you need to take a serious look in the mirror and ask if you’re his sheep or not. I would never say that if you don’t hear God then you’re not a Christian but it’s a serious red flag. In John 10 1-6 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Many people who read things like this blow it off like it’s just opinion. The bible isn’t just opinion, it’s divine law. As Christians we should respect the bible and what it says about Christian living. Some things are harder to swallow then others but the truth is that pride should never get in the way of seeking God’s will for your life. Next time you read the bible see if you’re living up to what God asks of you and if not strive to be a better you. Many people claim a call to dance or sing or work in the nursery, usually these relate to a desire we already have in our hearts. But how willing would we be to hear Gods call to sing if we were terrified of it. What if God called you to look after your neighbors three kids every day without pay so they could go to work. What if God called you to die in the name of Jesus. We hear stories of people who loose their lives because they have a gun to their head and refuse to deny the name of Jesus. It’s called heroic when you are forced into a situation and make the right choice. I wonder what we would call it if someone outside of a situation, not in danger, chose to enter that situation and die because they were called.
What about giving, when I was in college I gave to every beggar that I came in contact with because I felt called to do it. I wonder what I would have done if God would have called me to go out one day and find a beggar and give him all my money for the week. I wonder would I have been like Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:8
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”
You can read a thousand books on hearing the call of God but the truth is if you want to hear from God simply close your mouth open your heart and listen.

God has a beautiful way of showing his hand in our work. Much of the bible study that I’ve written lately has been filled with the idea that serving God is the best way to serve others. Oswald Chambers wrote, “If I am only devoted to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will falter, but if I love Jesus Christ I will serve humanity, though men and women treat me like a door-mat.”
Are you exhausted today? Are you feeling finished, overwhelmed? If I could be so bold I’d like to ask who are you serving? If you are serving the church assuming that it’s God’s will you may be giving false worship in an area that God doesn’t want you to serve in. Think about any time you were truly serving God; doesn’t God have a way of peeking his head in and confirming the good work that you’re doing? If you can see God at work when you serve him than feeling tired and hopeless can be a good flag to reevaluate who you are trying to please. Are you working for the pastor or a spouse? Are you working for yourself in order to prove something? God is the best master to serve and he’s the best reward to receive. God is both the creator and the purpose of life and through the blood of Christ we can have a personal, meaningful relationship with the one true God.

I’ve been thinking lately about people and morals and some of the things many people believe about good and evil and then I thought about the word Love. Love is a strange word because it’s used so often in so many ways. You can love your wife or your child, you can love ice cream or hockey, you can love music or a pet… the list goes on forever. Recently I touched briefly on the idea that human love is shallow. When you love your family, it’s because it’s YOUR family. How much honor is there in that. Jesus said in Matthew 5 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

God loved us while we were sinners and because of this we get to see what real love is. Believe me I wouldn’t want anyone to tell me I don’t love my baby girl because no one knows how I feel inside, but it’s only because the word love is used so loosely. Understanding what real love is, comes from understanding that we all have fallen short of God’s glory and then deepening our relationship with Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit can perfect us and give us a deeper understanding of love. I love all of you, I’m praying that you will be blessed from this and blessed in life in general. Please I feel so blessed from my relationship with Jesus I just want to share it with the whole entire world. Remember you don’t need to be perfect to be perfect in God’s eyes. Have faith in Jesus and when he calls answer.

In life we’re given a very special brand of conditioning. When our goal is sustenance we use food as a means to meet that end. When we need rest we use relaxation and sleep to regain our strength. We even go on love finding websites to find a partner to meet our needs. When we get divorced it’s because the relationship was not meeting our needs or our needs changed. This is a very natural response birthed from survival instinct and yet it is a dangerous part of our nature which if left unchecked can lead to spiritual destruction.
When people talk about universalism and spiritualism, their referring to the actions and feelings that keep us high with a feeling of joy, things that give us a feeling of worth or a feeling of completeness. This is a disposable and renewable state of being that is based on endorphins, hormones and natural opioid production inside of our mind. As Christians we sometimes fall victim of this by looking at every part of our walk with God and asking, how can I apply this to my life? We want to know how we can use our growth with God to fulfill some sort of meaningful need. We need to understand that when we find a place in the presence of God we are fulfilling a meaningful need. We have a need for a relationship with God. God is not a Santa Clause figure that brings us gifts and toys. God is a gift and we are blessed because we can be close to him. I find it ironic and tragic that the human desire to keep afloat could be the very thing that brings most to their death. Another way to understand it would be to say that if you make God the goal then you will find happiness. If you make happiness the Goal you will be miserable or as C.S. Lewis said it,

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

1 Samuel chapter 24 is a perplexing chapter for lots of believers. David is being perused by King Saul and the king intends to kill David. This has been going on for a while and then in verse 3

He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.” With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Many times after reading that passage I hear people say, “David was crazy, if Saul was there for me to kill then I would have killed him” I want to look at this passage in a very abstract way and talk about a concept that David understood very well. As people we have things and we place certain values on them. Here is my car, I need it for my job. This is my job, I need it for my house. This is my house, I need it for my family. When you add other people into the equation, you can get other results. He hit my car, I’ll hit his face. My boss took my money, I’ll take my time on his project. He came into my house to take my stuff, I’ll shoot him in his chest. Or in more moderate examples; He is sitting in my chair I’ll give him the cold shoulder. He took away my authority on this project, I’ll choose not to participate. You didn’t take off your shoes in my house, I’m not bringing a desert to yours.In our lives we make so many decisions based on our things and what we want to do with them.

I’d like to introduce a simple principal to you that can completely change your outlook on how you live every aspect of your life. The house you live in, it’s not yours. Your wife and kids, not yours either. The very life you live belongs to God. If you are a follower of Jesus then you own nothing. You are simply a steward of Gods things and you should handle them accordingly. I want to make it clear to you that if you are at a restaurant and you witness one person collect all the money use the tip to pay for his own bill and then leave $2 for tip, you could leave it alone and say to yourself that’s between him and God or you could call him out on it and make him do whats right but either choice you make, make it with the understanding that you are dealing with God’s money NOT YOURS! If you can learn to approach life this way than you are bound to please God with your choices more often then not. David understood this and that is why he wouldn’t lay a hand on Saul. David respected the fact that Saul was God’s anointed. God ended up rewarding David and he became king. Remember if we want the world to change then we need to be the ones to change it. Love God, love each other divorce the world!

This is a short post about a short but important book and the moral of our story is don’t mess with God, The book of Obadiah is a vision sent to the prophet Obadiah about Edom and Israel. See when Jacob deceived his brother Esau we all look at Jacobs actions and say Esau was a hard worker and Jacob was a lazy liar so why did God love Jacob and hate Esau? The answer was in Jacobs heart, Jacob wanted the things of God while Esau lived under the banner that God helps those who help themselves. Esau didn’t rely on God and didn’t want anything to do with God, and for the most part neither did his descendants.

3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ 4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.

Because of this, the nation of Edom was always screwing with the nation of Israel. God didn’t like this at all so he decided to eliminate Edom.

18 The house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame; the house of Esau will be stubble, and they will set it on fire and consume it. There will be no survivors from the house of Esau.” The LORD has spoken.

All in all don’t screw with GOD! Love God, Love each other. Divorce the World!

I’ve talked before about eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus, but today I got a big lesson on what that really meant. Hello my name is Gregory Eugene and I’m pumped. I spent the day with God and I’ve never had a better feeling in my life then what I felt today. I spent about 9 hours in the bible and I was so filled with the holy spirit I really don’t want anything else. Jesus is my cocaine and he is more important then my wife, my baby girl or my music. He’s more important then the food I eat or the air I breathe. But unlike a drug that deadens you to the world around you, today I love my wife, my baby, and the world around me more then when I started.

Today I just want all of you to understand that Jesus is the answer and you can have real happiness if you just seek God with all your heart. In John 4, Jesus said that if you drink from a well you’ll just get thirsty later. But anyone who goes to Jesus and drinks the living water will never be thirsty again. I have a much better understanding of this today, after drinking the blood of Jesus like a Holy Spirit slushy, I’m on a blood lust kick that I can’t imagine coming down from. If you haven’t or don’t hear from God think about how much time you really spend with him and if it’s not a lot,.. spend more time with him. It really is that easy, God is gracious and if you ask, he’ll fill your heart. If you don’t ask, then he probably won’t. God bless and I love you.

P.S. this was short take 5 min and read your bible!