The Garden Story-Replayed

It's the same story. We want peace, harmony, love, happiness, etc. But, we don't want to get these things the way Christ wants us to. We want that peace that passes all understanding, without having to get it from God. We want things to be the way they should without divine intervention. We want-WHAT we want WHEN we want it, without the help of the cosmos. Without God's innervating.

Just read the garden story. It's the same old story being replayed. I want peace. I want to be in my own mind WITHOUT having to be split into two selves: Flesh, and the Holy Spirit. I just want shalom.

The desire itself isn't bad, God Himself has put these desires in us all. We all want peace. Why? Because if you can imagine things the way they would've been (i.e. without the stain of sin in us) don't you think there'd be peace!? OF course! We can't exactly imagine that because we've never experienced THAT kind of peace. Mind you I'm not saying we've never experienced peace. I only mean we haven't experienced that peace-WITHOUT a sinful nature. Adam and Eve did for a time, before they sinned. We won't experience that until heaven. TANNNGEEEENT MUCH!!?

Anyways. We all desire peace. But to get the peace that passes all understanding comes from God. We cannot gain peace through ourselves, by ourselves, without Christ. To get peace God shows us through His compelling example by sending His one and only Son, who offered His own body for us sinners. You have to die. I don't want you to go get a knife and you know, "Ok God! I'm going to die like you did! La dee da!" If you read Romans 12 it tells you exactly how you are to die. Die to self. All your selfish desires, all your sinful desires, etc. are to be left behind. GO. Pick up your cross and follow HIM. If you read all the epistles of Paul you'll see how this man has suffered, and unbearably so. Yet, you always see Paul talking about how he is at peace. And the reaction that comes to mind is..WOOA WOA PAUL. LET'S BACK UP HERE..you're at peace? DUDE...what's going on..*psst maybe Paul's getting a little cuckoo from age..??* Seriously. How can you suffer and be at peace..? You have to place yourself in Paul's shoes. He's not just suffering physically, I'm sure he suffered mentally, and emotionally as well. Yet he was at peace.

Paul was at peace because He knew this life was NOTHING compared to where he would be going. He can deprive himself of the luxuries of life, and go and spread the gospel. WHY? Because NOW isn't the time to be worrying about "me" about what I "want" about what I'm "doing" what I'm "taking pleasure in"...no. Now is the time to pick up our Christ and march to Christ. We are to with ever fiber in our being, mirror Christ's image. We're like little stalkers..except YES we follow Christ around--but we do so with a little mirror in our hand. We wave those mirrors and shout out to everyone "HEY--LOOK AT HIM! LOOK AT THIS GUY! SEE HIM!? LOOK AT WHAT HE'S DONE!" That may be a bad analogy.."stalkers"? Sorry. We're to be transparent-to the point where someone looks at us and they see the reflection of CHRIST...not us....not the world..not our flesh...not the devil..not the filthy sinner we are...NO. THEY LOOK AT US AND SEE HIM.

Jesus says to come to Him, all who are weary and He will give us rest. We have a hope. We have a hope of an eternal life with Him. We have a hope of living eternally, of being made new, of things being the way they were originally made to be. When Christ comes back, He'll give us new bodies..now none of us know WHAT they'll look like our how they'll be. BUT, you can be sure of this: He will make you new, and what you were to be had you not been under the curse of sin.

Peace comes from God Almighty. He and only He, can quiet our hearts. We need to not harden our hearts towards Him. We need to open our chest, go to Him and say Father rip out all bitterness, rip out all unrighteous anger, rip out all impatience, rip out ALL THE WEEDS THAT ARE GROWING IN HERE. HEAL MY HEART. RENEW IT FOR YOU, CHRIST. TAKE AWAY ALL THAT WILL PREVENT ME FROM SERVING YOU. FILL THE WHOLES THE WEEDS MADE IN MY HEART WITH THINGS THAT WILL HELP ME TO GLORIFY YOU. TO BE MORE AND MORE LIKE YOU. Fill these wholes with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, humility, a burning desire to serve you, holiness, etc.

Go to God with your sin. Don't tarry. Ask Him for peace. Pick up your cross and follow Him. Some of you may ask well how is "dying" going to give me peace? How can suffering for Christ bring me peace?

Let me answer a question with a question, if you will. Is going against God going to give you peace? Is inclining an ear to bitterness, jealousy, anger, hatred, frustration, satan, the world, your flesh, is that going to give you peace?

You can wrestle with God all you want, but in the end He wins. I wrestled with God. I was angry and I realized that everything isn't "ok". I've just been ignoring my emotions that are telling me "heeeeyy we're bitter against this person" or "we dislike this person" or..WHATEVER...these emotions are flashing neon signs that are basically telling me "hey you need to go to God..because you've got some serious issues". Instead I've ignored them and moved on. Thinking "WOW things are great!" and when "injustice" is done (or a better way of putting it is when "things don't go MY way") my whole "great" world came crashing down. Hopelessness, frustration, bitterness, murderous anger crept up and seized me. I was frustrated with God. Why aren't things going MY way. Why haven't you stopped this? Why hasn't THIS and THIS happened? Why am I so angry!? As R. C. Sproul in "Holiness of God" put it, "I wrestled with God and lost". I did. But, I'm at peace right now. He has quieted my heart, and opened my eyes to the cross. I didn't have to fix myself before I came to Him. In fact, I was anything but fixed. He reminded me that I need Him. I can't control my life. And I certainly need to stop ignoring the flashing signals He's giving me on a daily basis. I am not with every fiber in my being, with every red blood cell, down to the last leukocyte, reflecting Him. I begged for forgiveness and the realization of how nasty I am, how much I need Him made me sick (of me..how I truly am..of how I want very much to reflect Him.)..I have not been (lately) living for Him, and Him alone. It's been more of "some of me" "some of Him"..you can't do that. If you are Christ's give Him your ALL. It all boils down to sin. It's the garden story replayed. I wrestled with God, and He reminded me who is holy and who is called to be holy. See the difference? There's the "is" and the "be" God IS. In and of myself..(this goes for every thing that has life) I'm no "is". God's made me to "be" but only God just IS. He IS and always has been! God's existed before the past even was there.. Well I mean before anything. Before time.. I better leave before I start talking nonsensically and well confusing you and myself.

Pray for me. I had a self check. And God's directed me back on the path of righteousness. Thank you Father in Heaven you are so good.

~Lissie


He is in total control in this story. are you coming under the rule of Jesus or are you asking him to come to yours?~Our Pastor

(Ps. was listening ..aggh italics is still on!! anyways was listening to a sermon at the same time as I was writing this (super multi-tasker I know!) and so the quote above is a quote from our pastor..and it really stuck out to me..I was like..wow. Um..before I wrestled with God I was asking Jesus to come under MY rule..until He reminded me it's HIS rule that I'M coming under...anyways I hope that the quote above is thought provoking for ya..:D Thanks for reading, and for baring with me here..pray for me..)

Ps. (sorry too lazy to take off italics ;p) The irony of all this is I'm reading this book called "The Cry of the Soul" and it's about how our emotions speak loudly of our relationship with God. It's basically about how your emotions are asking the deeper questions of God like, "Is God good"? And if you're like me..(or your human..:P) we tend to ignore our emotions..and it's very very dangerous to do. God put emotions in us (well for lots of reasons when it comes to the anatomy aspect of it ;) ) as flashing neon signs to tell us when things are going great and when they aren't and perhaps we need a self check. If only we'd examine just exactly "why" we're angry..or we're jealous etc. What is it that's causing us to be angry, or whatever the case is. That's what I'm trying to get at. So ask yourself next time you start to feel like emotional wreck. First calm down. Go in a quiet room, then ask..why am I feeling/acting this way. Then go to God. It is always going to boil down (if you are a Christian) to our cross is too heavy so inSTEAD of letting GOD carry the load, I'm gonna do it myself, my way. I'll just rest for a bit. That's dangerous. So go to God immediately with your worries and troubles and struggles. If you're NOT a Christian it'll always boil down to this: You're at war with God. You're not FOR Him. You're created in His image yet you refuse to go to Him..instead you want to keep on sinning. And when things go hay-wire (..is that uhum..correct spelling/usage of the word? hehe) you keep wondering..why you're back to square one. Why doesn't "my" peace last? It's because the cry of your soul is you are needy, weary, tired, sinful being who's created FOR God's purposes and instead of living out those purposes you're doing your own thing. You need HIM.

OK I'M DONE PREACHING---TOOOOOO MYSELFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-------------!!