Longing thirst

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2)"

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2)."

We serve and awesome God. The nation of Israel was set apart and as a people endured a lot (captivity in and Exodus from Egypt, entering into Canaan, etc.). So much of the story of Israel (the people) is the story of waiting, expectation, & longing for the one who would ultimately ransom them, Jesus.

Israel's story is our story. We are a continuation of the story that started with Adam & Eve and continued through Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. The redeemer that they longed for came and redeemed us all. "Come thou long expected Jesus" is a song about the longing of the nation of Israel, of us, for the messiah. We think, "I didn't need to wait very long" because we don't have the mindset of the collective "we" as in human kind... but "we" waited a long time, thousands of years for the one who would redeem the world. As individuals, we don't need to wait any longer for the messiah to come, but now we wait for the messiah to return. However, as we wait, are we longing for His return? And are we longing for the presence of God in our lives? Our we longing that the spirit of truth would infiltrate our hearts & minds?

I believe this generation is designed to long for God - perhaps not for the entrance of the Messiah, but for the reality of God in our midst (the kingdom of God on earth). Are we deer panting for the water of God or are we just hangin' out by the stream? May our souls thirst for God.

Job

This week the Biblical Growth Class I was teaching was centered around the life of Job from the Bible. Job went through unbelievable trials with the loss of his entire family, livestock, and possessions. Then he went through the loss of his health and the support of his wife. Ultimately Job had many discussions with his friends and with God that created in him a transformed, contrite, humble heart before God... he came to the point where he realized he had been living a holy and upright life for the sake of obtaining protection and blessings from God, rather than living that life as simply a way to honor and give praise to his creator. It was through Job's repentance that God opened the avenues of blessing and he was able to live long life and God doubled all that he originally had.

The theme of "we" that I talked about last week carries over into the lesson of Job. Job had to go through more than most of us feel we could ever handle, but ultimately his suffering was for the glory of God. But let's not also forget that God allowed Satan to kill other humans as part of this whole story. There was tremendous suffering by many individuals, but the glory God brought about was for all of creation.... when we consider our own suffering and how God might bring glory in and through us, I wonder if that might be a little short-sighted.... perhaps we need to consider how God might bring glory in and through others because of the sufferings in us. If we can somehow wrap our minds and hearts around this, then we can perhaps gain insight into what community is and how "we" are going through life's journey together.

We

During the Biblical Growth Class, we have started putting the pieces of the Bible together starting with Genesis and moving forward in God's story for us. I was sitting in on the first part of both classes and shared during the second one that I have had this overwhelming sense of "We" throughout God's chosen people. As Joseph struggled in captivity and ultimately understood his purpose, he spoke of how his purpose related to all of Israel. So many times, the people of Israel used a universal "we" when speaking of their struggles, victories, etc. This seems so different from our personal view of struggles, victories, etc. We discuss God and his will in terms of his will for our individual life, rather than his will for humanity. We talk about our own struggles and victories rather than the struggles and victories of "us" as God's chosen people.

Perhaps this feeling is why I get so excited about doing life and experiencing life together in community. Perhaps that is why I get moved by taking communion together (as we did today) or saying the Lord's prayer and singing "Amazing Grace" together (as we did last week). Perhaps that is why I desire a strong small group where we truly do life together. I think God does have direction he gives to each of us, but I think the story of redemption is about redemption of an entire people... each of us write a chapter and continue the story, but I don't know if any of us are the central theme of the story.

Amazing Grace

Today at church we finished up a 5-week teaching series on the book of James. James is very passionate about teaching how to live the life we are called to live. At the end of the service, we took time out to recognize the greatness of Gods's grace when we miss it. We sang together the traditional and acoustic version of Amazing Grace. It was a sweet time of unified worship as we recognized how God's grace turned us from the blind lost wretches into the seeing found saved.

As we prayed with people after the services, I found myself once again in awe of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. What a humbling experience to have people I've never met pour out their heart as they try to get a handle on the fact that God can forgive even them; or that God has a plan for them; or that an enemy exists that we have authority over. These experiences drive me to continue our intentionality about the church being a family.

The psalms end with "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord." Sometimes there is nothing left to say, except, "praise the Lord".... so, "Praise the Lord."