THE BATTLE OF PRAYER

I confess that my prayer life has been interrupted by the cares of this world, and while I have been often reminded of the need to be on my knees before God, I confess to my shame that I did not end up there. I often wonder if other Christians find themselves in this same predicament. You miss a day, or two, which you turn around 2 weeks later and wonder what happened and where your prayer life went. As Jesus silently sits in the corner waiting to be acknowledged, I trudge through day after day without talking to Him. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? How is it that the Creator of the universe could be ignored by such an one as I? Immediately the adversary steps in and begins his litany of accusations and the guilt of my shame agrees with him. Why is it that we find ourselves so quick to do anything but pray?

Momma and I began reading the sermons of Charles H. Spurgeon this morning. I have to confess that the sermon we read on the Immutability of God (immutability means to be unchanging) left me with little doubt as to the condition of the modern day Christian (myself included ^_^ ).  We think as Christians that God's Promises are immutable, but the thing we do not consider, and most certainly do not hear preached from our pulpits, is that if the promises are immutable, so are the threats. Now, you may say that God does not threaten, but I put to you dear reader that He does. Every warning, every commandment carries with it the weight of the diametric opposite of a promise, and that is that if the warning is not heeded, the commandment not obeyed, there is a dire consequence. I am not here to make a case for or against 'once saved always saved' as I do not believe there is space on the internet for such a discussion. I will tell you however that this Christian has decided that my future in God's immutable plan is directly related to my understanding of my need of Him on a moment to moment basis, and I believe that decision to be wise because it is far better to err on the side of caution than to risk the eternal weight of the consequences. My discernment is that we as Christians have become sloppy in our reverence of Almighty God, we have made His Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent presence something that is common and normal. I put to you this day that He is not common, and most certainly not normal, and a return to the reverence due to the Almightiness of God is what our churches, our society and our world need. I know most certainly that I do. And without doubt I will continue in that understanding until He Returns.

God Bless You.

TO BE LOVED OF GOD

I confess this past week has been a battle. The only problem with being an artist/illustrator and saving every piece of work you've ever done is that sometimes going through those old drawings reveals your old nature. The enemy wakes up the ZOMBEY (the life that I laid down the day I declared Jesus Christ my Lord) and it's time to do battle. It's not that I sought out my old man, but he woke up from his grave and bit me and it has been an uphill battle ever since. Wrestling with Zombey is really hard, and consequently I learned that even when you're not looking for your Zombey, he is ALWAYS looking for you. I've been doing a lot of sorting and organizing while I've been re-arranging my room this past week, making room (as well as cleaning out items that belonged to Zombey) and the time involved has been astronomical due to the fact that I can stand there and obsess about one tiny thing for 20 minutes, which turns out to be a complete waste of time because what I'm obsessing about has absolutely no relevance to the completion of the mission at hand. I found myself doing this over and over and over and over again. Finally I realized how much time I was consuming with these 'country bumpkin roads' and I finally put a stop to it. I really believe that this behavior was a result of Zombey and the lifestyle that he was involved with. I apologize if this sounds like rambling, I assure you that this information is pertinent to the subject matter at hand though... So beyond wrestling with Zombey, my Scripture time has been under attack, as well as my prayer time. You get one guess as to who is responsible for those.  O_o

Today I woke with a different approach. I've been doing my morning devotionals as the Proverb for the day (today, being the 29th, I read Proverbs 29). Wow, that is all I can say. Now, I read out of the King James Bible, because it is what I was raised on and I find it INFINITELY easier to understand than any other version. God met me in an amazing way that He never has before and the understanding that I have of the first 5 verses alone is incredible. And exceedingly time consuming. Now Momma depends on me for keeping lil' Nate occupied while she is cooking, doing things that cannot be interrupted, or bears some danger to Nate. I really enjoy the time I spend with Nate, and I am so blessed to have him in my life. I tell you this, the child is teaching me more about life every day. I am continually amazed at how he perceives everything around him with such awe and wonder, it reflects on my walk with God. On the one hand I have the time now to study the scriptures and spend time with God, but I also have to be mindful of the time that I have to be available to Momma. So yesterday I spent some time in the Word while Nate was napping, and today I did it in the morning and continued it this afternoon. God expounded upon His Word and gave me a wonderful and informative Bible study.

Despite the many setbacks this past week, I went to church as God has permitted me to faithfully, and even though we were late, the time spent in worship was refreshing. The last two songs that we sung were "These are the Days of Elijah" and "Even So Come". I was amazed at how much I FELT the songs as I sang with all my heart. I gave myself over to singing "Even So Come" and the Presence of the Lord was so tangible in the church that I was driven to my knees, all I could speak was 'Unworthy...I'm unworthy...' I was ashamed, I was amazed...I was absolutely astounded that God would even give me the time of day after the week I have had. But God... I love those two words...But God had other plans. I was overwhelmed with the work He was doing in me, I could sense it, I could feel it... He was burning dross off of me... I was DRIVEN TO THE FLOOR prostrate before His mighty hand. I was keenly aware of my unashamed weeping before him, but even as I wanted to be cognizant of it, all I could HEAR was weeping and wailing, as He ministered to His saints. I don't know if I heard it in the Spirit, or if everyone in the church had been weeping, but it was such a precious weeping. It was reverent and worshipful, it was broken and joyful... it was AMAZING. Even now recounting these events I am weeping before God for the incredible love that He has for us. For me. Oh God, how good You are to us.

I continue to walk with Him because He is so FAITHFUL to me, I cannot help but want to be near Him more. God Bless You All. G'nite.