Am I,
just a little boy,
holding up pictures,
to Papa?
Words
and images
flash, ssshwip!
ssshwip! ssshwip!
Jotted down,
capturing
the blur…
Lifting it
High, do
you see?
Do you,
see??
Tag Archive: God
Scripture
Psalm 18:6-19 (NIV)
6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
7 The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.
9 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—the dark rain clouds of the sky.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
15 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
I like all sorts of films for sundry reasons. However, give me a good superhero film any day of the week. The thing with superhero films though, is that the hero can’t be everywhere at once. This notion, that our hero cannot be in two places at once, has often been brought up to challenge audiences and heroes alike. It’s a popular strategy of the villain to put our hero into a situation where they have to choose between saving person A or saving person B. This type of conflict isn’t isolated to superhero films or any particular genre. The term for this is “Sophie’s choice.”
Sophie’s choice refers to an extremely difficult decision a person has to make. It describes a situation where no outcome is preferable over the other. This can be either because both outcomes are equally desirable or both are equally undesirable (Dictionary.com).
We like superhero stories because we all want someone to come into impossible situations and save us. We like real-life heroes because they exemplify traits that we want to see in ourselves.
When I read these verses from Psalm 18 I can see God, with a “G” on His chest take off flying from His temple to rescue the Psalmist (David) from an impossible situation. What’s cool about these verses to me is that this is just what God does for us. He hears our prayers and cries to Him and then He does whatever it takes to save us from them. God isn’t like the superheroes we want to save us. God is real. He can save each one of us from anything we can imagine. He sent Jesus to die for us and then raised Him from the dead, defeating death so that we can have eternal life with Him. In this life, he heals us from every sickness and injury. The blind are made to see again, the deaf can hear and those who cannot walk are made whole.
Do you need a hero? You’ve come to the right place.
Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.
Scripture
Proverbs 19:2
Desire without knowledge is not good – how much more will hasty feet miss the way! (NIV)
Observation
I expect that everyone who buys a lottery ticket wants to win. I wonder how many people who buy lottery tickets plan what they are going to do if they win? I’m not talking about the, “if I won the lottery” thoughts that so many people have. If I ever win a lottery I’d be surprised since I’ve not been one who typically buys tickets. About 70% of the people who win a lottery lose or spend the money within five years or less, whether it’s $500 million or $1 million (Reader’s Digest). I’m going to guess and say that they didn’t plan and hire financial advisors.
In whatever you do or ask for you should be prepared to accept the consequences. Whenever Jesus was talking to people about eternal things he would graciously give earthly examples to help people understand, “‘Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?’ (Luke 14:28 NIV). When He asked this question He was speaking of the cost to those who want to be His disciples. The essence of the question still applies to our lives today. Whatever we ask God for in prayer we should be prepared to accept it as if God has done it if we believe (Mark 11:24).
People ask God for all sorts of things. If you can think of it then someone has likely asked God for it. When we ask God for anything without the knowledge of who He is then there can be trouble. I’m not saying that God is a “Monkey’s Paw” God. Although, you will hear people say to be careful of what you pray for. God is not like that. People who honestly believe that God will allow harm to come to them because they “prayed wrong” do not know the character of God.
Jephthah the Gileadite is a perfect example of someone who desired something from God without the knowledge of the character of God.
Jephthah was an illegitimate son of Gilead who was driven from his family into the land of Tob. During this time in Israel’s history, the people had no king and everyone did as they wished. Everyone was a ruler unto himself following whatever rules they so desired. We can surmise that Jephthah was a successful man during this time who followed the “rules” of the day, gathering “a gang of scoundrels” (Judges 11:3) as followers.
Jephthah had to have been a successful military leader since the people of Gilead, hard-pressed by the Ammonites, sought him out to lead them in battle (Judges 11:4-10). When Jephthah and his forces attacked the Ammonites he made a vow to the Lord: “‘If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering'” (Judges 11:30-31 NIV).
The Lord gave victory to Jephthah and Israel over the Ammonites and when Jephthah returned home his daughter, an only child, was the first to leave the house to greet him (Judges 11:34). Jephthah was horrified because of the vow he made to the Lord, he would have to sacrifice his daughter. Although Jephthah was called to be a judge in Israel, it was clear that he didn’t know the character of the God whom he served.
One of the gods that the Ammonites worshipped was Molech, One way people worshipped Molech was by sacrificing children in fire. In a time when the people of Israel didn’t know God and were worshipping other gods, Jephthah might likely have attributed characteristics of other gods to the One true God. Perhaps Jephthah didn’t think that his only child would come to meet him when he arrived home or he was hoping it would be someone else. I believe that the practice of sacrificing people by the people around Israel was so well known that the mindset had been adopted by Jephthah with a thought process that this was how people appeased their gods.
Jephthah’s ignorance of God’s character resulted in an unnecessary human sacrifice. Furthermore, Jephthah’s vow to the Lord was reckless and worthless. We know that, before his vow to the Lord, that the Spirit of God had come upon Jephthah before making this vow (Judges 11:29). God had already moved in Jephthah so any vow that he made, especially one regarding detestable human sacrifice, wasn’t necessary.
When we get to know God then His character will be revealed to us. If we, like Jephthah, continue to look at God through a worldly lens without knowing who it is we serve, then we may find ourselves with hasty feet that miss the way.
Scripture
Proverbs 3:24 (NIV)
When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
Observation
I should be able to tell when I’m relying on God and when I’m leaning on my own understanding. I can be busy all through the day until the moment when I lie down to rest my body. My mind, still teeming over the events of the day, keeps plodding on bringing up yesterday, hopes for tomorrow, and disappointments from today. I could have, I should have. I didn’t.
Regret lays heavy,
a wet cloth over my face.
Scattered thoughts whisper
the promises of God.
I reach out, grasping hands
holding the wind.
They are real, tangible-
they hold me up.
On butterfly wings
I float…
He is near, my broken heart
knitted together, wise words
filling the cracks, comprehension
dawns. I know Him,
rising from sullen earth.
Beatific beauty,
breathing life.
Stumbling steps, certain footing.
Lids lifting,
blink,
blink,
blink.
Sweet sleep,
mine-
forevermore.
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