GREENE STREET LETTERS: I Want What He Has!

Friday, July 9, 2010

I Want What He Has!

Reading in the book of Genesis today.
Chapter 6 where everything begins to unravel.
God has watched as mankind has spiraled downward into complete darkness spiritually.
God's patience is greater than mine (duh?).
He waited and talked and shared and warned but no one listened.
Now there is only one man.
One human being on the face of the planet that is following him.
Wow! Do you think Noah was ever intimidated? Do you think he felt out of place amidst all the glitz and glamour that sin has to offer? Do you think that he thought to himself, " What if I'm wrong? What if the way I see things is not right? After all.....EVERYONE IS DOING IT!"

Verse 8 in Chapter 6 of Genesis is so powerful when you really stop and chew on it.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
The word found, according to Strong's Concordance, means to exist, to occur, to appear. In other words, Noah was living right and the Grace of God........The empowering presence of God which enabled Noah to be who he was created to be and for Noah to be able to do all that he was created to do...was imparted to him.

Noah found grace.
In the middle of the darkest time the earth has ever known. When the heart of God and the purposes of God could only be found in one individual, God gave grace to Noah.
Noah didn't have 24 hour Christian TV and Radio.
There was no Zondervan or Destiny printing houses.
No Time Life Worship series on CD or Ipod to listen to.
Just Noah and God.
Maybe we clutter our lives up with a bunch of stuff that may not be as important as we think it is.
Maybe all we truly need is the presence of God.

Another interesting thing I saw in my reading this morning was in Chapter 6 - verse 22 -- "thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him, so did he."
If you go over to Chapter 7 and read verse 5, you'll see almost the same thing. "And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him."
Did you catch that subtle shift in Noah's relationship with God.
Verse 22 -- God commanded.
Verse 5 --- Lord commanded.
Something happened that moved Noah in his relationship to seeing God not just as God, but as Lord.
Noah submitted and grew in this relationship to the point that he surrendered his life completely to God.
Making God Lord over his life. Now that's what I'm talking about.
You be Lord over me today.
I give up.
I hoist the white flag.
I throw down my guns..
My hands are raised.
My heart submitted to you, Lord.
Now, lets build an ark.

God on you.............
mb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Friday, July 9, 2010

I Want What He Has!

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD