he breaks chains

all of us are not thirsting enough, not hoping enough, and not letting God be everything.

that is something that we as humans tend to do. we have short attention spans and forget that God is our freedom.

we do things forgetting who gave us legs - it wasn't our parents.

when jesus came the israelites had been in chains for centuries at the hands of countless leaders. he was the messiah - the one coming to set them free, to save them. when he entered the gates of jerusalem on a colt they shouted "hosanna! hosanna in the highest!". 'hosanna' meaning "he saves". 

he doesn't want us in chains

do you get that?

he doesn't want you hurting

you digging?

this crap about living "half for him", praying when you need to isn't freedom. freedom comes with a commitment and obedience.

i love abandoned, free worship of the one who made me, and died for me. what i do comes from what he did. 

i've got a new family in my life that i love so much, i'm so blessed to have them, and i'm going to a new church this year where i've found i can get lost in his presence, and thank him. he continually renews me and revives me and i love the light so much. i cannot imagine what my life would be like without him showing up every day with signs and miracles.

hosanna

lover of light

this is one of my older posts that i really like, so i thought i'd repost it:


so lately i've been realizing something. mainly through a book i'm reading by thomas merton.

through this book, and through another book by a woman named doreen irvine, i've come to realize that most of humanity has a preoccupation with darkness, and all things negative. if i'm talking with someone, i've realized, i'm generally more interested in what's wrong, and what's frustrating than with what's good with their life. if i talk with someone more than likely, we talk about problems with the world, problems with our lives, sin, struggles, not what we're good at, and what God's blessed us with.

"those who live by the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires"

that's a quote from romans 8, one of my favourite chapters of the bible. what does the spirit desire? purity? love? grace, peace, light, joy? how often do we say "wow, God has blessed me with _____, ______, and ____"? not often do we have whole conversations about what our gifts are, and what God has given us. although, i think that would be more in line with what God asks of us.

"whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things"

when i started aspiring to be a lover of the light, i realized how interested i was in the bad, the shortcomings, the sins of others and of myself. but i've realized to look at the light isn't naiive, it's a virtue of God.

he has decided to look at the good in us, the praiseworthy things, and yet i still look at the darkness and sin.

i want to love light. and that is my prayer, that i might call myself a lover of the light, and set my mind on such things.

hmmmmmmmm

a few things i found interesting:

 - i just watched a guy park at the opposite end of an almost empty parking lot and walk 3 minutes to the variety store to get ice, and walk 3 minutes back. why didn't he park at the spot in front of the variety store? i thought it was silly.

maybe he's a secret agent

 - yesterday at blockbuster i saw an AMAZING father in action. he had two younger daughters, and a son and his friend. the son and friend were about 8 and the two younger ones, maybe 5 and 3? the father wanted the son to rent a movie for his friend, and the daughters to watch a movie together. the reason i thought he was awesome, was because he expressed a genuine concern about the content of each film his kids looked at. he was willing to have his son rent one movie and his daughters another just so that he could make sure they weren't desensitized at too young an age. the son instead picked out a g rated movie so that they could ALL watch a movie together, incredible.

 - and on another note, i think jesus is amazing. nothing new on that front, just felt like throwing that out there. i can't get the words "taste and see that the Lord is good" out of my head, i'm trying to figure out what God wants me to learn from that verse out of psalm 34.