1000th Posting

"Give us this day our daily lifestyle...forgive those who seek to take it from us for Yours is the Kingdom and Power and Glory to keep us in the lifestyle we are accustom to."

We would never pray such a prayer out loud.
We would never be as blunt and open as the words I have written here, but let me confess to you that this was a prayer I prayed for 2 years. Oh I didn't use those words, I couched them in religious terms and made them sound really well. But when I was left to my own thoughts and my own heart, God uncovered me for what I was. A selfish man. I had attained a certain level and lifestyle and had convinced myself that it was God who was blessing me. Little did I know or understand that God really didn't  have an interest in my lifestyle. He was more concerned with my maturity and character development. I ear that we cast God in places that He has no interest in going.

I hear many stories today from many different people about fear of the future. Fear of economic collapse. Fear that a level of lifestyle will be affected by the events we see playing out around us today. This fear causes people to cower and withdraw from God. Oh they don't withdraw their presence, they continue to go to church and worship. But they withdraw their tithes and offerings from God. They sing about the greatness of God and yet doubt that He truly will give them their "Daily Bread." This is not time to be tight- fisted with God. Now is the time to lean into Him and acknowledge Him as the supplier of our needs. Either the words of Scripture are true, or they are not.

I understand the fear.
I understand the selfishness that people go through.
But I also have been brought to the place of learning to trust God in everything.
Houses are just houses....
Cars are just cars.....
Things are just things...
But the love and presence of God is eternal and I wish not for Him to turn from me because of my doubt and fear and love of the world. I want to learn to love God more than anything else. This is where real life begins.

Life with God is not free from pain.
Pain is a part of life and God wants to help us.
He will either:
1.) Heal you from it.
2.) Take you out of it.
3.) Allow you to walk through it so you can learn.
No one really wants to learn life lessons by going through pain, but this is the place we can see God unlike any other. I don't run looking for pain, but I don't want to run away either. I want to hold God's hand tighter and simply follow Him.

In October of 2003, God spoke to me about a time of shaking that was coming in which everything that we possessed that wasn't from His hand would be destroyed. All that would be left would be the eternal things. I'm not so sure that lifestyle may, in fact, be one of the things God is shaking. People are trying to maintain a lifestyle that is self-centered and not from God. We want God to bless us in such a way that we can maintain this lifestyle but I don't really believe that this is part of God's plan.

Call me a doom and gloom nay Sayer.
That's o.k.
I think many have lost their love for heaven and have fallen in love with life here on planet earth.
The sweet by and by has become home here an now.
My home is not this planet and I don't not look for fulfillment here, but hold unswervingly to the hope of glory that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. One day, whether because Jesus comes to get me or I pass over by death, I will stand changed. I long for that day. I yearn for that day. This world has nothing to offer me. As a friend of my mine said so eloquently in a song he wrote....."So I'm saying, "Good by world."

God on you.....
mb