Posted on by intentional4christ

Crossroads

When I was much younger, I used to keep dairies where I journaled activities of my everyday and I recently came across one such journal from 2007 and the early part of 2008. I picked it up last week and I was so humbled to read what my state of mind was in 2007 and 2008. My journal revealed that I trusted God for every single thing: I prayed about everything and it seemed like God was so present in my life. I would pray for something and a day or so later I would be writing a praise report in my journal about how God answered that prayer. My journal contained the most mundane things that I shared with God while counting and recounting all God’s big and small blessings in my life on a daily basis.

However, somewhere between 2008 and 2022 something changed. I stopped relying on God for everything and became self-reliant, cynical, a complainer, ungrateful, and a know-it-all. For the past few years, I have lived my life as if the things I have attained-my successes in life- are because of my own merit or because I am entitled to them from God. I have slowly drifted away from developing true friendship and a meaningful personal relationship with God and have used God as a genie-in-a-bottle who exists to meet my needs when I cannot do things for myself. Somewhere along the line, I stopped talking to God about everything and instead either complained bitterly to whomever would listen or took a cynical stance. Other times, I just took charge to problem-solve on my own, after all that’s why God gave me a brain, right? As I reflect, I realize that my sense of entitlement, ingratitude, cynicism, and self-reliance have severely hindered my ability to be fully in relationship with God. On the outside, people see someone who is well put together, can pray, can quote the right scriptures, provide the right encouragement, and speak the right words when needed. But recent situations in my life have exposed how far I have drifted from how I related to God in 2007 and early 2008. This week I realized a very haunting truth: I am at a crossroad and my next move will have ramifications for my life that would be as far-reaching as eternity. As I reflected on this, wondering what my next move should be, I picked up my bible two nights ago and my Good Father (who has stayed close by while I work through my life’s issues) encouraged me with this scripture:

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…(deliberate pause)”

Jeremiah 6:16 NIV

Goosebumps right! Well… there is more. This scripture was not only an encouragement about what I need to do get back on track with God especially now that His return is much more closer. This scripture is about choice and is also a warning. You’d think the people of Israel welcomed this invitation of God to return to Him ( just as He has invited me) with open arms. But No. See that scripture in its entirety:

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Jeremiah 6:16 NIV

And Jeremiah 6: 17-30 tells us more about what comes next for the Israelites because of their choice. I encourage you to read to find out more if you are curious. Today, I find myself at the same cross road with the same choice thousands of years later and God’s invitation is the same. I have a choice to ask for the ancient path, ask where the good road is, and walk in it or I can choose my own path. If you are at some cross roads in your life today, what will you choose? Rest or turmoil? I know I want rest. I am tired… I am weary… and I am worn… so Precious Lord hold my hand and lead me in the ancient and good path and lead me towards rest and lead me home. In Jesus’ name I pray for myself and for every one else who needs this prayer.

Yours truly.

Posted on by intentional4christ

A Relational God

In the past couple weeks I have been listening very closely to God about what it means to have a relationship with him. God has been speaking with me regarding this and it all starts in a garden. For those of you who missed last week’s post, this is coming from my realization that I do not know what it means to be in relationship with God so I asked God to teach me. I do so with the understanding that in order to persevere in my faith , I need to see clearly who Jesus is, and what he has done for me. So, let’s go to the garden…

In the beginning, God created humanity to have a relationship with Him. The full embodiment of the Godhead created Adam and Eve to be in the image and likeness of God and gave them creative power and dominion over everything (Gen 1: 26-30). God made humanity different from the angels- who are God’s messengers that do His bidding. He created beings who were a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory (Heb 2:7- 8) and filled them with many of His abilities and attributes so that he could relate with them on a different level- not as servants like He would the angels but as friends. He made humans with the ability to create beings in their own image and likeness like God had done; to call things into existence by speaking just like God had done; to have power over created things like God does; and He gave man the ability to take care of things, and to nurture and cultivate things just like God can. He even topped it all by giving humans the ultimate key to relationship with Him: CHOICE. (Relationship is all about choice- you choose who you want to be in relationship with and how much you want to give to that relationship. You choose whether people you meet will become strangers, acquaintances, friends, lovers, etc. The only thing man did not choose was to be created- because that choice lay in the hands of the Creator and that still remains true today for us as humans with the the ability to procreate, children do not choose to be born, that choice lay in the hands of the parents, the creators- but I digress). So on a daily basis, God came down and spent time in fellowship with Adam and Eve in the garden He made for them. Until one day, Adam and Eve chose to no longer be in relationship with God and chose disobedience over obedience; and the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil which is death over life. And that day, everything else broke. Humans still had everything that God had bestowed upon them in creation- the ability to create, nurture, to have dominion and to bring into existence things that are spoken- but what had changed was that because Adam and Eve chose death- everything that humans have created and done since then is tainted by the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the internal struggle of good and evil was reproduced in every human after that day.

In the meanwhile, humans were created by God, for relationship with God and God’s plan is to reconcile and restore humans back to that original place of relationship in the garden where God would come down and dwell with his creation and He promises to do this in the fullness of time:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelations 21:1-4 NIV

However, in order for humans to return to this place of relationship with God, they had to make a choice to reject the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil which is death and choose life. But how? Humans have tried for many millennia to find their way back into relationship with God but cannot on their own because everything we do comes from the nature and likeness of Adam and Eve which is not the same as the nature and likeness of God. For us to get back in relationship with God, our nature and likeness must be changed back to the way it was in the beginning because the only way to be in that kind of relationship with God as Adam and Eve had in the garden is to be in the image and likeness of God as it was in the beginning.

God had to remove the option of death so that the only choice left to make was life for anyone who is ready to make that choice. The only way to do that was to take on death itself by dying. In order to do this, God had to assume the human nature with its struggles between good and evil (which is death) and life. God in human form as Jesus (also known as Emmanuel which means God among us and with us), chose life for all, just as Adam and Eve had chosen death for all. He did so by being the sacrifice of death in the choice of life and death so that as many people who want to be reconciled to God no longer had the option between death and life- only life. This is what we call being ‘born again’- it is the act of choosing life over death and by so doing, taking on the image and likeness of God so that you can go back to being in relationship just as you were created to be.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons [and daughters] to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. For both the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. 

Hebrews 2: 9-11NIV

So in last week’s post, I admitted that I did not understand how God can keep forgiving over and over again and when His love would run out. There is still a mystery there but that does not negate or diminish the fact that Jesus revealed the depth of God’s love for humankind by taking our place and dying for us. It is this love, this yearning to restore relationship that is activated every time I pray for forgiveness of sin and choose life- even if it is 1000 times per day! This is why God can forgive me unconditionally because every time I renounce sin, I am choosing a relationship with Him and I am choosing life and that is all He desires- that no one perish but that all come to choose life, even everlasting life. He wants a Revelations 21 ending for everyone of His creation- to be back in relationship with Him forever as was intended in the beginning. And this is the simple gospel.

Yours Truly

Posted on by intentional4christ

This Thing Called Choice

Recently I came across a posting for a job that I considered applying for. So many people encouraged me to apply but I wanted to hear from God and get the final green light. For days I kept praying, looking for a sign and after many days of waiting it hit me. God was not going to give me a sign! Instead, He would bless my choice like He promises in His word:

For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. Psalm 1:6 NIV

God doesn’t make the choices for us. He orders our steps; He points us in the right direction through His word (Psalm 119:105) and through the counsel of trusted men and women (Prov 15:22); He may go as far as to give us the desire of our hearts to pursue certain choices (Psalm 21:2). But God will never make that final choice for us.

Two things intrigue me about Psalm 1:6 quoted above. The first is that my choices are not automatically the right ones because I profess to love and serve God. This scripture and others in the bible emphasize that this privilege is reserved for the godly, for the righteous. I need to be in right standing with God. When I am godly, I attract the presence of the Holy God into my affairs and He comes in, rejoicing over me with singing! How can my choices be horrible when God Himself delights in all the details of my life and is excited to share my successes and joys with me?

If you do what the LORD wants, he will make certain each step you take is sure/The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Psalm 37:23 CEV/NLT

The second thing from Psalm 1:6 was the emphasis on the word way. There is a binary contrasted here: the way of the righteous and the way of the sinner. Let’s read the entire passage that culminates to this ending.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. Psalm 1:1-6 NIV

By our choices, the way in which we walk, we are either blessed or condemned. I recently heard an argument by a so-called preacher for a God that loves so much He cannot send people to hell!  Well… to that I say God does not send people to hell. People send themselves there by the choices they make. What God did for man in that regard was that He himself paid the ultimate price of death for atonement of sin for everyone. He continues to love everyone regardless of race, creed,  sexual orientation, and any other socially constructed categorization. He earnestly wills and desires that everyone will be saved (1 Tim 2: 4). What God will not do is make the choice of life everlasting or eternal damnation for anyone.

“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. Deuteronomy 30:15 NLT

There is a way that leads to life and prosperity; and one that leads to disaster and death.  And the choice is yours to make. Scripture describes the way of life as narrow – a path less trodden; a path that seems contrary to mainstream thinking; a path you might be alone on in the company of your family, your coworkers, your spouse, your friends (Matthew 7:13-14). Finding the narrow way is very easy- Jesus said I am the way to life! That’s the first choice. Now staying on/ in the way of the righteous is a series of choices that we make daily. A line in one of my favourite songs is that “every choice is an act of war”– a war to stay on the path of the righteous or to walk in the way of the wicked. The comforting news here is that God watches over the way/ path of the righteous!

So what do you choose today?

…follow the steps of the good, and stay on the paths of the righteous. Psalm 2:20 NLT

Yours Truly.