The Power Of Prayer

Well. I have a bunch of long posts that I'm refining. So until I can get one of them postable (The question being, Should it be the music post, a love post, or an evangelizing post?) this is a short post. About prayer.

Prayer is important. We all have heard this at least, even if we don't get it. And, most of us don't get it. Why is prayer important? Does God need us to ask Him? Does His mind require changing? I thought He was omnipotent, and all knowing. Doesn't He know things need doing? Doesn't he care enough to help me on His own? 

The easiest example to use probably speaks to guys the best. How long does a relationship last when the girl expects the guy to know all of her needs and desires? Guy gets girl a purple scarf, she's mad cuz her favorite color is blue. But she never told him her favorite color, and most of her clothes are purple, so he guessed and was really excited to find her the scarf.

(You: but God knows everything)

Yes, yes He does. That wouldn't be a relationship, now, would it? That would be rather one sided. You get everything you want or need, and you don't ever talk to Him. Except occasionally to thank Him. 

(You: But.. He's God. He's above all that.)

Above all what? We were made in His image, complete with His emotions. Including sadness. Sorrow. Pain. You thought God was immune to that? No.

God feels pain. 

God feels pain every time you arrogantly expect Him to cater to your every need. 

Every time you turn from Him and try to fix it on your own instead of simply killing your pride and asking Him. 

Every time you get mad at Him for not being there. 

God feels pain when you do. Did you know what? The same way when someone you love is hurt, you want to fix it and help them and you empathize with them... God's like that. 

That doesn't make God more human. Because remember, He came first and made us in His image. Not the other way around. 

We were made to partner with His heart, to ask for things and pray for burdens so that it could be a shared joy.

He doesn't need us. He wants us. 

~Silver

A matter of Perspective.

Our perspective of God: We are chess pieces in a sick and twisted game.

God’s perspective: I’m training an entire world of people. To judge angels.

Our perspective: Hell? That’s just cruelty.

God’s perspective: So, you have two choices. Life with me and life without. But to live with me, you have to love me before you love others, and you have to love others as you love yourself. Sound simple? Great. If you don’t want to do that, and you’d rather hell, then hell it is.

It’s up to you.

Our perspective: Yeah, I accepted Jesus into my heart. God’s pretty far away though. In heaven somewhere.

God’s perspective: Jesus and I are one. I am inside of you. My name is the Holy Spirit.

Our perspective: Why would I say yes to you? You won’t tell me what you’re doing!

God’s perspective: I wish you’d just say yes. You’re dying. I’m trying to save you. And if you’d just listen to me and stop trying to fix everything, you’d know exactly what I’m doing. And, you’d stop dying!

Our perspective: We got kicked out of Eden… For one person’s sin?

God’s perspective: I made mankind, planning to teach them how to love. But they chose to love themselves. They won’t listen if I keep them here in Eden, if I overlook their selfishness. But look, for one person’s death I’ll save all of them. Fair? Thought so too. Glad we agree.

Our perspective: So we just have to repent and be forgiven? Sounds too easy. I bet God stays mad at us for a week. And we have to do penance. And be extra good.

God’s perspective: … I forgave you. Why are you avoiding me? That’s nice that you’re being extra good but… I like talking to you. Why won’t you respond? I thought we were friends?

Our perspective: I have to change. That way I can get closer to God. He won’t see me unless I fix myself.

God’s perspective: So.. Here I am, living inside of you….. Closer to you than I am to the angels… But you’ve locked me in the guest room so you can clean your house. Except you’ve got mud all over your feet and you’re just knocking things over and making it worse. If you’d let me, you know, I’m God… All powerful, all knowing, and I am Love… I could… Help you.. Fix you….

I didn’t make you to change yourself you know. I made you to lean on me. I made it so we’d work together on this.

Our perspective: We have to pray and change God’s mind!!!!

God’s perspective: I love it when you pray, when you agree with my heart. I love that you’re partnering with me on this! This is what I want to do! Thanks for asking! I love you. I love when you agree with me.

Wait, what? Change my mind? …. But.. I don’t… change o.O

Our perspective: I have a guardian angel. He keeps me safe. So God can go do other stuff.

God’s perspective: I feel like I’ve said this before. Oh wait. I have. I’m living in your heart.

Btw I’m omnipresent. I am everywhere. I can do everything at once. Or did you forget?

Our perspective: I’m a terrible person. And I’m ugly And worthless.

God’s perspective: So once upon a time I had this thought. This thought was you. And you were perfect in my head. And then I made you. Know what? You’re even better now! Cuz everything I make is perfect. I make no mistakes. And I don’t make ugly worthless things.

And you especially? You were made in my image.

Our perspective: God loves us, but that’s as far as he cares.

God’s perspective: Love is everything. I love you. I want to give you everything and make you happy and alive and you know what? I enjoy you. And talking to you. I care about you more than anything else I’ve created.

Our perspective: Love is just a feeling.

God’s perspective: Love is everything.

It’s the reason you breath.

It is all I am.

It is the reason for pain, it is the reason for joy.

It is the reason for anger. it is the reason for fear.

Love is the reason for death.

It is the reason you are in this world.

There is nothing that isn’t rooted in love.

We really don’t know the God we worship. And even if we know it so often we don’t

really believe it. There is so much more depth and reality to what we think but we spend so much time being afraid of getting close, believing lies even if we know better.

We are so, so weak. It’s time we wake up to this and let Him fix us.

Amen?

~Silver

What is your music calling you to?

I’ve neglected to take a stand on music. It’s always been a hard subject for me. That’s part of the reason I never finished my purity series. I knew I’d have to write about music and what is good and what is bad, and I didn’t want to have to do that.

Ok, so maybe that was more than part of the reason. That was the reason. (Well, and I’m lazy. But you know.)

So, I apologize for that. Here’s a post on music. This is probably one of the most important things I’ll ever write.

(You: So here’s the part where you say music is bad, yeah?)

Well. Sort of. I’m not going to up and say, all music is bad. I will personally think a lot of music is bad for the heart, but I’d rather let you come to that conclusion yourself. 

Instead, I’m going to simply talk about music.

What do we know about music? We know a lot, right? (You: No. I’m tone deaf.) That’s not what I mean. I mean, what do we know about music as a force in society and how it affects us. (You: Yeah, I’m still drawing a blank)

Well think about it. If you’re depressed what are you going to listen to? Depressing music, right? And if you’re mad you’re probably going to listen to someone else just as angry. It makes you feel better, because you feel like you have power. Classic example being a depressed chick listening to Three Days Grace, and an angry arrogant white kid listening to Eminem.

Yes, I did just stereotype people by their music. Get over it. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

(Actually what I did was stereotype music by who’s listening. But you were gonna be too mad to catch that.)

I hear a lot from Christians that, it’s ok to listen to music as long as it has a good message.

This is one of the most singularly stupid statements I have ever heard. It’s like saying “It’s ok to listen to Hitler as long as you forget the holocaust.”

No. No, no, absolutely not. Music comes from the heart. We listen to music that calls to our hearts. If it matches how we feel, then we listen to it. Thing is, by doing this you’re supporting how you feel. You want to know why, even though life is great and you have a good job and a good family and you’ve never been molested used or abused in your life, you feel like killing yourself? It’s cause you’re busy listening to artists sing about their break ups and the people that have cheated on them. You’re listening to society justify itself, and all its anger, and all its emptiness.

Struggling with porn? Stop listening to Brittney Spears and Ke$ha.

Struggling with anger outbursts? Sick Puppies and Linkin Park are not for you.

Country music is not good for anyone.

The majority of music celebrates the strength of man. And Christian music isn’t counted out. You think Thousand Foot Krutch is good and Christian? I listen to them singing about how broke humanity is and I wonder, why is the focus on how much we Don’t see God?

Shouldn’t our focus be on Seeing God?

Christian music is based on the problems. It’s based on God saving us. It’s based on us being weak.

I don’t want to play your games, cuz lonely was a safer place. But you changed me when you called my name.

That worships God, right?

It’s not based on the places in the Bible where David’s singing about how even in his weakness God is strong. How even as man we can reach God because God loves us. Instead I hear Superchick singing about how we should stand our ground and be pure.

 Ok, so maybe I am a little over the top. But you have No Idea how much my heart burns on this subject.

Now, I’m not straight up condemning TFK and Superchick, or Relient K, or anyone else. I’m just using them as examples. I’m sure that, even if all their songs aren’t really worshipping who God is or calling Christianity to a higher standard of Holiness, their still good people.

That’s the problem though. They don’t call us to a higher level of holiness. It’s music about how God meets us in a place where we are, in our brokenness.

Saying nothing about how we’re falling to our faces out of respect.

It’s simply… So… Lazy. So self-loving.

I can’t stand it any more. I want music that tells me who God is, why I’m worshipping Him, and why I’m falling on my knees in worship. I want music that, instead of saying how it’s ok that I’m broken cuz God will save me, says God is my strength and I can look to Him. That I don’t have to be broken. That I am not of this world.

I want music that, instead of bringing God to this world, rather brings me to His world.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Next week, or sometime next anyways, I’ll post about secular music. And I'll probably read this over and post again so I have something more.. Concise. Better said. Right now I’ll just sit back and watch people comment about my biased, unabashed music bashing. (Cuz those comments are wonderful. They give me something to write about. They let me refine what I say till it has no mistakes. So please do flame this post. Kthxbai)

There really is no way to summarize and end this post.

~ Silver

Waiting....

Waiting.

What is waiting, other than something christians seem to do a lot of?

I'm learning to wait.

Right now, what I think it means is sitting still. You know, be still and know He is God? That sort of thing. But can you do stuff in stillness?

Maybe. I don't really know.

I think... I think waiting and being still means you aren't trying to make yourself do anything. It means you're not trying to make yourself stronger or more honest or more faithful or a harder worker.

It means you're just.... Being. It means you're sitting (Well, not literally sitting but whatevs.) and Thinking.

(You: Oh, well that's easy. I can do that)
No, you can't. cuz it's not thinking like... I think Sally and Mindy are cool people but they need to stop fighting over Jake cuz he and Rose make a perfect couple already.

That's easy thinking. Or thinking about yourself. That's easy too. Or thinking about what you're gonna do later, or what you're gonna wear or what your friend will say when you tell her what happened today... That's not being still. That's planning a future. And that's definitely not waiting.

You know when you're picking up a friend for school and they're taking forever and you're sitting in your car bored out of your skull and worried that you'll be late for class but you can't do anything about it?

That. That is waiting.

And if you read the old testament, people did a lot of that. They have to wait for Moses to go talk to God, they have to wait to go into the promise land, they have to wait for God before they can go decimate people in battle.

And if you pull a Saul and decide, screw this waiting sucks, you get immense consequences. Saul got his entire kingdom stripped from him.

Of courseeeeee...... God knows us. He knows how impatient we are. he knows how our tiny little selves are only so disciplined.

And he toook the kingdom from Saul not just cause he didn't wait, but mostly because Saul had a long history of doing what was bad from Israel simply cuz he wanted to look good.

God knows your heart. He punishes and rewards us based on that, not based on our actions. (Though... Actions do stem from the heart, most of the time.)

But back to waiting.

It's a discipline.
(You: So where does thinking come in?)

Fantastic question! The discipline set before us is meditation. Which is thinking. (You: Right. Got that. Still confused.)

Have patience I'm getting there.
Waiting, which is sitting still and thinking, which is meditation, has to be focused on something or else we humans tend to focus it by accident.

(You: Ok. Still confused though. What am I focusing on.)

God.

(you:......)

Right. Exactly. There's my problem. I think... Well, I sort of know anyways, what that means meditating on who God is and who He says I am. If you're thinking of yourself it's not good but if you're thinking of what God thinks of you (And asking Him. Not just thinking.) Then... That's good.

And you're waiting for an answer.

But... What if other than that you don't know what you're waiting for or what needs answered, you just know you're supposed to be waiting. What then?




~Silver

Holiness, which doesn't fit inside my head

So, I wrote this paper for my class. And about a third of the way through it, I thought Hey, this would make a great blog post!
So yeah.
It's written more formally than other posts (Obviously).

Tell me your thoughts... It's due tuesday. I don't actually know how formally it had to be written. But yeah. If you feel like pointing out mistakes, comment :)

We are human. Holiness has become to us as a people similar to what love is: a shallow shadow of the truth. There is no real way to describe the holiness of God. Holy, to the world, really just means divine or consecrated. Sometimes it means perfect. Most times it’s part of something to exclaim when you stub your toe, like “Holy crap!” This is what the American culture has created out of God. They’ve made Him and any description of Him something so shallow that it can be fit into and used in their own unfortunate lives. As Christians, however, we cannot live with this shabby definition, this imposter of Holiness. So what, then, is the Holiness of God?

Holy, as the Greek word ἅγιος (said ag-ee-os) means “set apart” or “other than,” originally anyways. That our God is holy means, obviously, that He is other than. Other than what? Other than human. Set apart from anything of this world. Completely other than and set apart from anything that is not God. That is what He is other than. This may not fit into our heads but then again, if it did, would it really be the truth? Holiness is the entirety of just how much and how perfectly God is separate than man. The infinity of that can never and probably will never really make sense to us as humans but that’s ok. The moment it makes sense to you is when you should start worrying.

Having said that, this is what me, in my weak and unfortunate understanding of the complete other-ness of God, knows. People can say that they are other than other people. Especially in this age, everyone is “unique.” But that’s not holy. Yeah, God is unique. But that is because He is perfect. He is like nothing else because any similarities a person can have to Him makes that person like God, not vice versa. Holy speaks of every aspect of God. It speaks of His Justice. Who else could judge perfectly in love? It speaks of His infinitude; He is like no one because there is no one He can be like. He came first. He always was and always will be. He isn’t like a fire. Rather, fire is like Him. He had to make things to represent himself because His Holiness, He Himself, is so vastly unfathomable that we need something to compare to Him. And He doesn’t change to be more than or less than anything; He simply is. And He simply is perfect. Unlike the world, there is no part of God that makes bad decisions, that protects itself, or that unexpectedly is born into a bad place. There is no such thing as unexpected for God!

What I have said barely even scratches the surface of the Holy One who decided to create a form in the dust and breathe into it. And it doesn’t really say what Holiness is. Is Holiness righteousness? Yes. But that isn’t all it is. So is it loving-kindness? Yes. But that still isn’t the entirety of Holiness. Holiness is the only word that can describe who God is as a perfect Judge, a perfect Lover. Holiness is just how high above creation God is.

This is what moves my heart the most; that as big of a word as Holy is and as big of a God our God is, He sees us. This is a being, an entity, so beautiful and glorious that we have to use barely definable words to describe Him. And at the same time this is a Man. The God so vast that He can’t fit into logic or reason lives in the innermost center of our hearts. This is a spirit dwelling within dust. This is the breath that we breathe. Holiness, the concept of separation, likes me. It washes me in the blood of its Holy Son and it calls me clean. It tells me I can be Holy as it is Holy. And it doesn’t do this grudgingly and it doesn’t sigh and shake its head at me. Holiness does not say I AM higher than you. Holiness says I AM love and I will teach you how to be like me. Holiness says “Come up here” (Rev 4:1). It calls us to repentance and to reverence for our good.

What sort of God do we have that it could create the heavens and the world and molecules and atoms and make everything work perfectly, but then turn around and Love the very definition of immaturity and imperfection? How much unlike humanity is He! How can He love us? It is because He is Holy. He is a trinity that lives, and loves, and died, and lives again. Who came and stayed in our hearts changing us to be with Him in Holiness.

Our God is Holy, but He is not unattainable. Our God is not a slave driver or a impulsive mass murderer, rather He is Just. Our God is not like the gods of this world. Our God is Holy, and a mystery, and that is why our God is real. Because if we could understand how Holiness works and how we are allowed into the throne room, (Trust me, you can’t. There’s logic to it but the logic and reasoning itself doesn’t even make sense.) then He wouldn’t be God any more. He would fit in our heads. We’d have conquered the mystery, just like we have “conquered” the rest of the things of this universe.

Holiness wants us. It is the greatest and most beautiful mystery. Dwell on that; if it doesn’t shake you at all, even to make your brain stop working for a second so all you can hear is your fragile heart beating as you realize Holiness is the reason for it, then you have a serious problem on your hands.

~Silver

The image of God... Sins?

Continuing the last train of thought, lets go from the fact that we’re made in his image to why, if we are reflections of the living God, do we sin?

Let’s think about this logically.

God made man in His image, the image of love (See last post).

But he didn’t just make these mature beings who would know the very power and purpose of love. He made Adam and Eve and gave them a choice: to love him or to love themselves. Surprise of surprises, they chose themselves over Him. We all do. Every day. Which is where the concept of sin came from.

Here. I’ll make an acronym for it. Selfish Intentions Named Supreme. That is what our sins are. Straight up.

Make sense?

Because every day God chooses us over himself. Every day God chooses to love us.

In fact, Jesus, the exact representation of the father, decided to give up his place in heaven watching us… So he could walk with us… Be hated by us… And then.. Get beaten and die. And not just get beaten and die, but be forsaken by God. And now he sits in heaven not just watching over us, but spending his time Pleading for our lives, giving his life still every day so that we can be whole. Reminding his father of what he did.

Not that God forgets. But we see it everywhere in the bible, “Remember your servant oh Lord…” and especially with Israel, in Genesis and Exodus. Moses reminds God over and over again of God’s promises.

Honestly, I think God likes being reminded. Because when you’re reminded of a moment that was important to you, a moment that still is important to you, it takes you to that moment and you re-live it for a moment. It also means that the person reminding you remembers it to. That that moment is not forgotten by the others, that it still holds importance and that it hasn’t been cast off. Moses still holds to the promises God made, and because Moses remembers and wants to keep it still, doesn’t want it broken off and isn’t rejecting it, it means God has a partner….

But that’s an entirely different subject.

See, most people think the opposite of love is hate. But let me tell you why it’s not. Let me explain why it’s selfishness.

Firstly we have to have a right definition of love. What does that mean? Does it mean you want to be close to someone all the time? That you want to take care of them? And hold their hand? And kiss them and make out with them and then marry them? Well, sure those can be Related to love. As in, affects of love.

But this is not love.

Loving is giving. In first and second John, he writes that Love is that we walk according to Gods commandments. (Don’t believe me? Go find it. I gave you the books didn’t I?)

Obviously this is not the only definition of love. But it’s the definition I’m working with right now we can discuss others later.

(you: discuss? I don’t see much discussing here.) Well, maybe if you commented we could have an actual discussion but so far there’s been no one to actually discuss With.

Anyways.

To Love is to Obey God’s commands. (You: well that sounds… Painful. And useless. How can that be love?)

Well, to get back to genesis and exodus, notice how obedience results in good things. In fact, in all of the OT (Old Testament). Like… David loves God with all of his heart (which, speaking of God’s commands psalm 119 is dedicated to God’s law.) and look, he became a king. Of all Israel. And then his son became king. And generations later, he becomes the many time great grandfather of the son of God.

Not that it was a cake walk. But he waited on God. Instead of saying, “God why not now can’t I be king Now and do whatever the heck I want now?” he waited for God’s timing. Meaning, the selfish ex-king Saul chased him all over the Middle East trying to kill him.

See, Saul was a good person. But he didn’t follow God’s commands, instead he chose what would make himself look better and feel better. He loved himself, not God. So the spirit of God left him and he was tormented by demons and had no rest and died knowing he had separated himself from the destiny God had had for him.

That is probably the best contrast of love and not love.

David does slip up once or twice, I know. Bathsheba, instead of leading his army in war he decided to love himself and to give himself a vacation, which lead to him stealing another man’s wife, which led to pain.

See, selfishness was his sin. Selfishness was Saul’s sin. (You: Yes yes I get the point. Selfishness is a sin.)

So, think about every sin and ask yourself, what’s the core reason for it? Adultery? Is pretty much always done for pleasuring self. So selfishness. Lying? Is used to protect self or to get self things. So selfishness. Murder? Is used to punish for a “wrong” done to self. So selfishness. Stealing? Is used to get things for self. So selfishness.

Sin is Love. Love of Self. 

(You: But, what if a man is stealing because his family can’t afford food?)

It’s still a sin because instead of leaning on God for protection, he is choosing his own strength. He is choosing himself, saying his decisions are greater than Gods and that he can provide better than God the provider can.

God, who rained bread from the sky to feed thousands of people.

The God of the Old testament has not changed. But we, in our weakness, want to say he has because he has not saved us when we wanted to be saved. He has not provided for us when we wanted to be provided for.

He has not given us what we want, so why should we give him anything?

But see here’s the thing: All that we deserve is Death. We have, ever since Eve denied God and chose to benefit herself by eating the fruit, consistently chosen ourselves.

God loved us first. He made us in his image, he gave us his own breath, and then to save us his own son, literally a part of him, became one of us and lived selflessly so he could (still selflessly) die.

He already did the hardest thing. But we think it’s too hard to let go of ourselves and to be take care of.

Isn’t it funny? All God wants us to do is follow his commandments so that he can take care of us, but we don’t think it’s fair that we have to do what he wants instead of what we want?

As if we can satisfy our own souls.

Comments are welcome, arguments are welcome. You can find everything in the bible; 1^st and 2^nd Samuel have David and Saul’s lives, Psalms has David’s personal cries to God… Etc.

Blessings, and I hope you love today J

~Silver

Images

Who’s image were You made in?

I know, I’m supposedly doing the purity thing this week, well actually last week’s last last week… but as you can see I’ve lost track. I haven’t had the time to continue upon that train of thought. Fire in the night keeps me pretty busy.

So. Back to the question.

Who’s image were You, the reader, not your friends parents Or enemies, made in?

Don’t know what you think, but I was made in the image of God. To be a reflection of who he is, to showcase an aspect of Him.

And I’m pretty sure you were made the same. Actually, I know you were. The beginning of the bible says man was made in the image of God.

I like to think of man as like a moon, reflecting the sun. Without God we have no real light of our own. I think maybe God thinks of it that way too. He’s built a lot of analogies and stuff into the world. But I won’t speak for him. That may take it too far.

I mean think about it. God made angels, and according to the bible and people talking about encounters, a lot of angels are similar in shape to Man. (Which sounds insane only if you’ve decided that God couldn’t Really have made angels and let people see them. Which if you think that, then you sound like the insane one to me. Just sayin’)

What then does it mean to be made in the image of God? Does it mean we have free will? Well, obviously the angels had that or we would have no Satan and therefore probably not so much sin.

God made angels, and then he took dust and made us. What does that even mean???

Actually, I don’t know what it means, but I’ll tell you what little me, in my weak understanding thinks. God made us in his image so that we could love as he loves and so we could rule and reign with him. He put his beauty and his power into us. He made us each unique. You could raise two kids exactly the same and not get the same results.

God made the angels to serve him. Then God was all like, but I want someone to love. Remember when he made Eve so Adam wouldn’t be alone? (No, he didn’t make Eve just to populate the earth.)

Yeah. I think God made Man because he wanted a partner too.

Partnership of man and woman being a reflection of partnership of human and God. I told you there was a lot of analogy symbolism type stuff.

(BIBLICAL INSERT TIME!!!1!!!1!!!!)

Genesis 1:26-27

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Se, also by this I think that means God made Adam and Eve here, and then the story just gets told next chapter. Maybe you all figured that part out already and I’m just slow. But whatevs.

And then, and then guess what guys????

(OMG ANOTHER INSERT!!!!)

Genesis 2:7

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

We’re made with the breath of God!!!!

Does that not make you excited about breathing? No? Well fine then.

Anyways. Now we have that God made us, from dust, but then put his breath within that dust, called it man, decided man would need a partner.

(ANNND ANOTHER!)

Genesis 2:18

18 And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."

So he made man someone so man would not be alone. He made man so he would not be alone. He made someone comparable to man so man would not be lonely. Following the analogy, what does this mean? Exactly.

Now I realize, it sounds vaguely like I’m saying we are gods. I want to be very clear here and say We Are Not Gods In Any Way Shape Or Form. Thank you very much.

What I am saying is that who you are, who God made you to be, is very specifically a reflection of him. Not just any reflection. You, yourself, individually, were made to be an image bearer. You are not the same image bearer as your brother. Or your friend. Or your parents. Or your pastor. Or anyone else.

You were made to be You. You have God’s breath in you. You were made to be his partner. Not that he needs one, I mean come one guys, he’s God. Uncreated light and power and beauty. But he wanted one. He wanted you. Specifically.

It’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around, isn’t it?

Now to go back to the analogy, what do man and woman do? They love each other. No, I’m not being all over-sensitive and avoiding saying sex. If I meant it I’d say it. I mean love the emotion which kills while bringing life at the same time.

God made man and his wife to love each other. Some people say that was just so they wouldn’t kill each other. My opinion on those people is that they simply haven’t fallen in love yet and if they have, they need to forgive and get healing.

My point being, if God made a dude and his partner for love, what do you think he made man initially for?

If you said for love you got it right.

If not pray that God would kiss you with the kisses of his word, pray it every day, pray it every moment you can, and read Genesis, Song of Solomon, and Revelation.

(Sticking in more verses. Don’t freak)

Isaiah 62:1-5

1 For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns. 2 The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name. 3 You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God. 4 You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.

Breaking this down real fast, we have God not holding his peace and/or resting until Israel is made beautiful and his people shine among unbelievers. Yes, non-jews, you are his people. If you don’t think so read Ephesians 1:6. Or Acts. Or both.

Then you have him calling you beautiful and lovely and His, for He delights in you. And then you have him rejoicing over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.

Hpw do bridegrooms rejoice over brides? Is it like, Yay good job you did it! No. Is it… YAYY I’m so glad to finally see you!!! Sort of but… No.

It’s more like… You are SO Beautiful and I get to MARRY you I’m so Excited!!! This is Awesome! You are Amazing and I Love you!!

Yeah. And that’s God rejoicing over you.

That’s what it means to be a Christian, you know. It means we partner with God, we live by Matthew 5-7 (Which, btw, people tend to think this is simply a rule book but all of 6 is basically saying God’ll take care of you if you follow him so don’t worry. Or, best said. God is the best cure for stress if you follow the directions.) and it means that we get to love God as he loves us.

Isn’t that cool?

It also means the rest of the universe hates us but that’s besides the point. If the God who made them loves us who cares who hates us… right? Right.

Sometimes I feel like when I blog my trains of thought they decide to take the scenic route to my point. This is one of those times.

His is a long journey of thinking and reading. Here, have a map.

!. God made You (Out of dust) in His image so that

@. You could partner with God and rule an reing with God because

#. God wanted a bride, someone to love who would love him.

$. God made You a partner so You could get a small taste of this.

It’s all so much more interesting when you replace the “man”s with “You”s.

Now we get to the most important point. Stick with me for a little bit longer, kay?

God made you individually to be a unique lover of Him. If that’s who you are what happens when you try to copy someone else cause you don’t like yourself?

You deprive the rest of the world of the unique image of God that you are.

When you try to not be you, you deprive everyone around you. And yourself, in fact. And!! You hurt God. Sounds ridiculous but you know how you feel when you take a lot of time thinking and planning something for someone and then you give it to them and they’re all like “Meh, whatever”? And then your hearts all like “I have just deflated in your chest and am in fact sinking down into your stomach”?

God takes forever, from before time exists till the moment you were conceived, thinking and planning you. And then you’re born and you grow up and are like Meh whatever.

See where I’m going?

So the only think you can really do is ask God who you are. Don’t ask other people. Did they make you? Maybe your parents made you I guess but… Not really no.

God made you. Therefore he knows you. And he likes what he made or else he wouldn’t have made it.

Ask God to show you how he sees you. Read Isaiah 62, the part I stuckup there, over yourself. And read song of songs. Look in the mirror and call yourself beautiful and God’s beloved cause that’s what you are.

Make sense? Great.

Doesn’t make sense? That’s what they invented the comments section for.

Peace, blessings, love, and tribulation to you. Amen.

~Silver