The Journey Of Desire

In his book The Journey of Desire, John Eldredge writes, "We all share the same dilemma- we long for life and we're not sure where to find it. We wonder if we ever do find it, can we make it last?... Our days come to us as riddle, and the answers aren't handed out with our birth certificates. We must journey to find the life we prize. And the guide we have been given is the desire set deep within, the desire we often overlook or mistake for something else or even choose to ignore." Yes the desire for meaning and purpose. We want so bad to know why we are here, why we were created. We desire to find the source of it all. Who or what can help us to know?, that is what we find ourselves constantly asking. But often times questions of the heart require a true search of the soul. They often require a faith that often seems to conflict with what we know. They often require us to trust in the one who created us all. For only the one who created us can fully know us and our purpose. So if your Journey has seemed to have led you to a question of faith and about God. It might be a good time to ask Him if He has the answers you have been looking for. After all He might be the one thing you have desired.

Questions

As I think about my life and this Journey that I have been on, I realize that my life has been series of questions and seeking answers for those questions. As I talk with others I find this pattern is repeated in their life. There are questions about relationships, and money. Questions about the future and the past. Questions about injustice, about pain and suffering. There are questions about fear and about hope. Questions about life and death. And questions about God. And I find that the questions about God brings about the most difficult searching. The most gut reaching introspection. The questions about God brings about intense dialog and debate. But it's the questions about God that will not let me rest, until I have found the answers. I wanted to know if there was a God. And I wanted to know if this God cared for me. I wanted to know how I could find Him and how I could talk to him if He was there. I wanted to know His name and why He created me. I wanted to know what happens to me when I die. I wanted to know if I would be with Him then. Yes so many questions about God and for me I could not rest until I started to get the answers to some of these questions. If your anything like me, you have many of the same questions. Don't just push them aside, for they will return. Seek out God and may I suggest that you start with asking Him to reveal himself to you. In the Bible is a book called John. Go to chapter 20 verse 31 and just read it. I found that was a great place for me to start my search for this God.

Remedy

As I sit here at O’Hare airport in Chicago, listening to David Crowder (song remedy) it suddenly hit me. Jesus came as the Remedy for us. Yes a remedy to make us whole again. Sin has taken an incomprehensible toll on all of us. We have been affected in every area of life, our relationship with God and others, our hope for the future, our physical bodies, and our view of life. And only Jesus can cure all those things. He alone can give us right standing with God, and enough love to care for others with real unselfish love. He can restore our hope in the future because he holds the future in his control. He alone can bring complete healing to broken bodies and minds. And only through His eyes can we see the world as it should be seen. Yes as the song states “He is the one who has saved us, He is the one who forgave us, He is the one who has come and is coming again he is the Remedy“ So if you feel the need to be made whole, I invite you to turn to Him, the Remedy.

Good Things

Have you noticed that the world seems to overlook the good things of Life. Yes, I know that right now things look really bad, the economy, Swine Flu, wars everywhere. So where are the good things? Well today I realized that the good things happen when people set out to do them. Often time when I'm in a store I make a point to say something kind or nice to someone and it never fails to see the surprised look on the persons face. Sometimes it's just a smile, often times it's a thank you, and even sometimes a complete change of attitude. And if I have the ability with just a kind word to do a good thing, and make others day a little better. What would happen if we trusted in a God that has the ability to do really good things. Things like change someones life. Change hate to love and change pain to joy. Yes Good things happen when we give a good God permission to work in our lives. Now I'm not talking about the good things like money or success , I'm talking about the really good things. Things that will last for eternity, things that are truly good and make a difference in the hearts of people and becaues of that make the wrold a better place. Because people would be truly better people. And thats a really Good Thing.

Faith

Why is it so hard for people to believe in God, or to see how He is working in their life and in their world. Well I think it often comes down to having Faith. You see Faith is that thing that tells you in your gut when something is real or true, even when you can't see it. I know that faith is a word that so many in the world think is foolish. And often time those who confess their faith are thought of as weak, stupid, or foolish. But when you really think of it, most people have faith in something. Take for example (people have faith in themselves) They believe if they work hard and do the right things that they will be rewarded for it. But how do they know for certain, they don't, they just have faith that it is true. Some people have faith that this life is all there is. Now there no way to know that for sure, but they have faith that their belief is true and they need no evidences to prove it. So faith in a God that is good and has created all things should not seem that unreasonable, even in a world that swears that faith is foolish. But a world that has faith in so many things, as long as those things do not include a good, loving, compassionate God

Teach us to Pray

Today as I was reading ( LUKE chapter 11) I was surprised by the question that the disciples ask Jesus. Lord teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples? You see I have read this chapter many times. But today that question that the disciples ask Jesus hit me hard. You see in my life I have never asked Jesus to teach me how to pray. Now I often pray to God in the name of Jesus. But I don't ever remember asking Jesus to teach me How to pray. So today I asked Jesus to teach me something that I thought i could do without him. And today my prayers where more alive, and I felt I prayed the prayers that God would have me pray. Not just random prayers, but prayers from my God. So if you have never asked Jesus to teach you how to pray, today is a very goodday to start.

Pressing On

I wrote this poem during a hard time in my life, a time i really needed hope. It was during this hard time that God really spoke to me. And now I share it with those who read this blog.

Pressing On

Do you ever get tired of this fight that we’re in
Do you ever just once want a victory to win
Will you press any harder, will you give any more
Does your soul now feel empty, is your heart now not sure.

Do you feel now abandoned, all alone once again
Can you lean on your own self can you lean on a friend
I have been there right with you, does God even care
I have questioned God’s love, I have questioned my prayer.

Can I fight without ceasing, can I trust and obey
In a God who is lifeless who has left me this day
Press on they all tell me, don’t you ever give in.
Don’t you lose what you fought for, don’t you do it my friend.

Press on they all tell me when I’m feeling this way
Not one of them hears me, can’t they hear what I say
I know not how to go on, I know not how to fight
I have lost all my courage, I have lost all my might.

Press on, press on, these words ring in my ears
I try to suppress them, but they have awakened my fears
“Go away! Go away!” my heart and soul cries
Can I look to the heavens can I look to the skies.

Would one dare try to tell me this lament is unreal
Would one care to show me how my heart dares to feel
Till this soul within which no longer gives
Heal this heart that keeps me but no longer lives.

I have searched every corner I have sought every cure
I have given my all I have learned to endure
I have tried with all effort to understand it all
I have given my best on God I now call.