get after it

So at one, or maybe at several actually, of the first Life Group meeting(s) with my amigos from Journey Church, Pastor Gary prayed for me and the gist of that prayer has stuck with me. He perceived what amounts to a fulfillment, or a continuation, of what God revealed to me in Pete and Theresa last semester (see whispers divine via the link on the right). It was shortly after the new year that Gary prayed that he felt God preparing a year for me unlike any other. He prayed for a year of jubilee, a year of restoring me to what God made me, of calling me home to His purposes and growing me more than I could expect. God is going to allure me. He is going to draw me even deeper, and continue to give me a desperation for intimacy with Him. I've taken it as a promise. God will do these things, this year will be all that He wants it to be, and I will pursue Him with purpose. I say these things with a certainty that I admit is not-quite-certain: it takes more faith than I have to trust in my heart and have confidence in a few small words through a pastor or leading woman, and believe that they have the Divine Authorship my mind is telling me they have. My Spirit is willing, but my Flesh is weak. Yet I choose to assert with boldness the promises of God, to risk humiliation or error in pursuit of Truth. All I know is I want Him, and I am throwing myself at His feet and almost indignantly demanding that He use me and heal me and annoint me. It's as if I'm begging God to just let me serve Him. I know there is Kingdom work to be done, and I am like a second grader waving my hand wildly, just desperate for my Teacher to see me. I think of three Old Testament accounts which I hope I am not hubristic in identifying with. In the order that God brought them up in my life, we'll be traveling first to Isaiah 6, which Men's Group read lectio divina style on Thursday; then to 2 Kings 2:1-12, which Gary spoke from on Sunday; and finally we'll end up at Exodus 33:12-23, from whence Mika lead the WCF Leader's Team in yet another lectio divina study. I encourage you to read each of these accounts, and also to get a feel for their contexts, because I hope to, for the sake of you readers, be brief.
In Isaiah 6, we share in Isaiah's vision, in which God calls Isaiah into his prophetic ministry. Many parallels or similarities might be made between the state of his nation and the state of my own, but I'll leave those convictions for another day. The highlights are that God reveals himself to Isaiah, who in the midst of angels crying out exaltation to God, says "yes" to God's call. Isaiah virtually collapses under the terror of seeing God, for various reasons, and he cries out:
5 "Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."
In response, a Seraph (an individual of the Seraphim order of angels) flies down and touches his lips with a burning coal proclaiming that his iniquity has been removed, and his sin forgiven. Where you will see the silver thread running through my life is in the following call and response. Almost daily I find myself repeating the words of Isaiah in verse 8:
8 "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?"
Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
In 2 Kings 2:1-12 we will find the story of Elijah and Elishah. Specifically, it is the story of Elijah's being taken up into heaven (one of only two recorded persons ascending directly to God and skipping death - the other being Enoch in Genesis). At the beginning of the chapter we read:
1 And it came about when the LORD was about to take up Elijah by a whirlwind to heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
Now, basically what happens is Elijah asks Elishah three times times to stay behind at the three different stops between Gilgal and his rondezvous with God, once at Gilgal, once at Bethel, and once at Jericho. And each time Elishah insists, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." At each city the prophets from that city would come out and remind Elishah that God was going to take his master from him. And each time Elijah would respond "Yes I know, be still." Finally, once they've crossed the Jordan (miraculously, I might add), for whatever reason, Elijah just stops and confronts Elishah.
9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elishah, "Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you." And Elishah said, "Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me."
10 He said, "You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so."
Then the chariot of fire and the horses of fire come down and whisk Elijah away in a whirlwind. This story is powerful for me because of the persistence of Elishah. He who would come to replace Elijah as God's specially annointed Prophet, had to doggedly adhere to his wiser predecessor and if he even let him out of his sight for a moment, he might miss his chance. But if he proved faithful, God would give him a double portion. I find myself clinging sometimes to my elders, suckling, if you will, from their relationship with God. And isn't Pastor Gary repeatedly urging us to pray for our later generations, that they might outdo us, that they might have a greater portion than we do, and be greater men and women of God?
And now we come to Exodus 33:12-23, which "coincidentally" makes a perfect conclusion to this silver thread. Here we see Moses, the deliverer of Israel, talking with God. His feathers are ruffled, and what surprises me about this and stand out so clearly, is how demanding Moses is with God. There is much more here than I will delve into, but here are the highlights:
13 "Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people."
14 And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest."
Reflect on this you guys, seriously, we are talking about some good stuff. And as if this weren't juicy and good enough, it gets better.
15 Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here."
16 "For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the ground?"
Notice the emphasis not just on himself, but on his kindred, his blood, his brothers and sisters all around him?
17 The LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name."
Then check this out, I can't believe Moses! Can you believe his audacity?!
18 Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!"
Moses is over the top, man. But what's more, God listens. He does show Moses His glory, to the fullest extent that God can be seen this side of heaven. That's what I want - I want to see God's glory. I want to see Him, be annointed by Him, and make it clear that I am here. LORD, if it is you, command me. Show me your glory. Appoint me for your works. Your will be done LORD. Here I am.

Rock on!

There is a chance (and it is looking like a relatively decent chance) that the Worship Band that I hope to sing with this summer during the annual Columbia River Bible Camp will be able to get together before hand and record an album of the standard camp songs. Christian music might be berated by many, but even critics have to acknowledge that a lot of new music gets pumped out all the time, attempting to keep the Christian genre up to date with the secular world. What about the good old songs? There is something uniquely profound, uniquely comforting, about worshipping God in the ways in which you were raised. I love "What if Cartoons Got Saved" and "Lord You're Beautiful", but sometimes I need to hear "Our God is an Awesome God" or "The Battle Belongs to the Lord". So now it may very well turn out that all the kids who come to camp every year and may not hear some of those songs until the following summer, will in fact be able to take home a compilation of some of those songs most near and dear to there hearts. I'm super excited about that prospect. If you're a reader of mine, and someone who tends to pray, you should pray for this: for humility, for wisdom, for kingdom success and kingdom dreams - you know, that His will be done.

my word

Today God said (vicariously through Matt): I will raise up in you strength of character to match your eloquence. (He actually used that word, "eloquence") In the same way that you have been able to express yourself for so long in words, you will come to express yourself through the strength of your actions.
I told God: Alright, I'll take it.