I have decided, after much deliberation, to continue blogging with Blogger (rather than WordPress). I have kept up both blogs for the past year, but as my blogging (and writing) is getting more serious, I would rather stick with one.
The link is the same (A Heart After His Own), only it will be found at “blogspot.com” instead of “wordpress.com”.
Here is the link: http://aheartafterhisown.com
Thank you for following me on this journey, and I look forward to seeing you over at Blogger!
Blessings,
As it is Word-Filled Wednesday, I thought that I would encourage you this week. No matter what you’re going through, be blessed by these words:
Property of Aysha Gerald
We have no reason to fear.
We have no reason to worry.
Father, lead us to the Rock that is higher than our sorrows, higher than our problems, higher than our burdens.
Blessings,
This idea has been on my heart a lot lately.
Anger.
More specifically, God’s anger, and what that looks like. I think it’s easy for a lot of us to look at God and see Him as loving, compassionate, merciful and gracious (don’t get me wrong, He is all of those things), but He is also a just and jealous God.
We seek justice, daily. A person wrongs us and we want to pay them back. An unborn child doesn’t make it to their day of birth, and we want immediate answers. Our boy/girlfriend or spouse resorts to cheating, and we want them to feel the pain that we felt.
All of these things, and more, cause us to seek justice. But that made me wonder..if we seek justice for these pains in our lives, imagine how God felt (and still feels) when we turn our backs on Him, wrong Him, sin blatantly against Him, or even deny Him.
Anger rises within us when justice isn’t served. If we feel that our anger is justified, because the situation can’t be, then God’s anger is all the more righteous, and justified.
The problem is that our anger usually results in sin, whereas God’s anger is rooted in His love for us. Picture this: A little boy is playing in his driveway, when his ball rolls into the street. He has been told over and over that he isn’t allowed to go past the end of the driveway. As he looks around, he doesn’t think that anyone is watching, so he runs into the street, grabs the ball, and on the way back to his driveway (thinking that no one has caught him), a car turns the corner and misses him by inches. The father, who watched the ordeal from the window, immediately runs outside, picks up the little boy and holds him in his arms. The anger that is produced is a kind whose roots are found in love. It was because he loved his son that his anger surfaced. It was righteous anger.
Now, that story can be translated into God’s own love for us. Here we are, running after work, relationships, money, etc., when all of a sudden those things slip away from us. We know that God has commanded that we shall have no other gods before Him, and that the things of this world won’t satisfy. But because of our nature, we want to chase them. When we think that no one is looking, we run to catch the thing that has enticed us. And all of a sudden, something happens that jars us awake. All the while, God is watching us, and as soon as we are in a position that calls for the hand of God, He comes. In His love, He scoops us up, and shields us, but with that love comes righteous anger. An anger that says, I’ve warned you what would happen if you strayed from my commands; it’s because I love that I’m angry with you.
We have wronged God in so many ways. A wrathful, revengeful anger should be expected, yet He doesn’t produce it.
God is love, and in that, His anger is brought forth from a place that says, I understand.
Maybe today you feel as if you’ve wronged God and He’s turned his back on you. Maybe you feel that you’re being punished because you’ve somehow angered God. Let me be the first to tell you, that is not true. Even on our worst days God’s grace is sufficient.
His anger is that of a father. A father who loves His child more than one could possibly imagine.
Is your anger causing you to sin? Or is your anger righteous?
Blessings,
Enter in the Holy Spirit.
The third member of the Holy Trinity.
God the Father.
God the Son.
God the Holy Spirit.
God sent His only Son to this earth, as a sacrifice for our sins. We all know the story. After His death, Jesus laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea for three days. On the third day, He rose from the dead, breaking the chains of death, because He had never known sin. On the day that He ascended into heaven, He told His disciples that He was leaving, but that He was sending someone to be with us always; the Holy Spirit.
John 14:15-17 — If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
John 14:26 — But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
We have never seen God. We live in the age after Christ walked the earth. But as it has been said many times throughout Scripture, we are never alone.
So who then, is with us? The answer is the Holy Spirit.
When we are comforted in times of hurt..when we feel joy while praising God..that is all the work of the Holy Spirit. Many times, the Holy Spirit is forgotten, yet He is one of the most important aspects of having a relationship with Christ, and therefore, a relationship with God.
When do you most feel the work of the Holy Spirit?
Genesis 10:6-14 — The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.
One of the classes that I took this past semester was Old Testament. I went into the semester worrying about how I would understand the history of Israel, and more importantly, what God would reveal to me concerning Himself. The Bible is a self-revelation of God to His creation, and the Old Testament was a way for Him to be revealed to His people, the Israelites.
In this passage from Genesis, the name Nimrod is brought to our attention. History Rewind: Creation had been breathed into existence and called good, but everything following the fall has been nothing but chaos, disorder, destruction, wickedness and evil. Humanity has fallen, judgment has been ordered, the earth and everything on it (excluding Noah and his family) has been erased. After 40 days and 40 nights of rainfall, Noah, his wife, their three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth) and their wives exit the ark.
From the Biblical story, we come to learn that Ham’s line becomes cursed (after looking upon his father’s nakedness). Shem is blessed, and his brother Japheth will be blessed as well.
So we come upon these verses in Genesis 6.
Ham had a son: Cush. And Cush fathered a son: Nimrod.
We are told that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord, but his character wasn’t that of righteousness in the sight of God.
Just as Adam and Eve had 3 sons, where Cain’s heart was evil, Noah and his wife had 3 sons, where Ham’s heart was also laced with evil. And through his line, the descendants that would rise up were found to be wicked in the sight of the Lord as well (such as the Philistines).
So back to Nimrod.
A mighty hunter.
But not the kind of hunter you would assume. He was a human hunter, as we find out in other Old Testament narratives. He sought power and destroyed any man that stepped into his path. God wanted humans to “be fruitful and multiply” and Nimrod wanted to contain his power to certain kingdoms, which was a direct violation of God’s commands.
Nimrod was angry, but through that anger, he proved that he was also a fool. He sought revenge against God for the destruction of his forefathers and the curse placed on his grandfather’s line. He ordered the building of the Tower of Babel, which was erected to either: (1) reach the heavens, (the Ancient Near Eastern people — separate from the Israelites — believed that the deities could be pleased) and understanding that Nimrod was not of God, then it can be understood that he most likely served other gods as well, or (2) be high enough off of the ground that, in the event another flood should come, they would be safe. In a way, the latter gives us this notion that Nimrod believed that he could personally thwart God’s plans to accomplish his own.
It is in Bible passages such as this, that I am reminded that we have a choice to make. We can be found righteous in the sight of the Lord, or we can be found wicked. We can receive blessings or curses can rain down upon us. Our hearts must make a choice.
What is the state of your heart? Is it one like Nimrod’s, revengeful, hateful, prideful and haughty? Or is that of Shem, or even later, David, who would find themselves in the presence of God Almighty?
“A single thought raised is a perfect prayer, to God.”
As I was driving by a local church the other day, their marquee read these words.
In our churches, in our youth groups, in our circle of friends, we are burdened with the thoughts of our prayers being too long, too short, too in-depth or not deep enough. How are we supposed to know the “correct” way to pray? Or is there even such a thing?
This message ran through my mind over and over again, and then I was reminded of this verse:
1 Thessalonians 5:17 — Pray without ceasing.
Seem impossible? Not so.
I believe with all of my heart that God seeks to have a constant, ever-growing relationship with each one of us, and when we train our thoughts on Him, our thoughts become prayers before Him, and continual prayers at that. Prayer is about communicating with God. When we are ritualistic with Him, we lose the relationship component of our connection. Jesus outlined the concept of prayer for His disciples in Matthew (chapter 6), and through that, we learn that prayer is so much more than finding time in the day to connect with God just to repeat words for the sake of having done it.
Living a life of prayer is not about “penciling Him in” our day planners.
It is a living, breathing, constant interaction with Him; a connection from His heart to our own.
What thoughts are you raising to God?
As I was reading an article from Leslie Ludy’s Set Apart Girl Magazine called “Forsaking All,” I came across lyrics to a hymn titled, “What Grace is Mine.”
Here are the lyrics.
What grace is mine, that He who dwells in endless light
Called through the night to find my distant soul
And from His scars, poured mercy that would plead for me
That I might live, and in His name be knownSo I will go wherever He is calling me
I lose my life to find my life in Him
I give my all to gain the hope that never dies
I bow my heart, take up my cross, and follow HimWhat grace is mine, to know His breath alive in me
Beneath His wings my wakened soul may soar
All fear can flee, for death’s dark night is overcome
My Savior lives, and reigns forevermore
Christ’s domain and nature is light. In His graciousness, He calls to us, no matter where we are. He pleaded for our life, by means of His broken body. It’s in His name that we are known. His breath has given us life. We no longer have to be afraid, for night is overcome.
The chorus of the hymn is a challenge to our hearts, minds and souls. Are we willing to go where He is calling? Will we lay down our lives in order to find life in Him? Is our hope one that never dies?
The challenge is there, in the final line of the chorus. We must bow our hearts, take up our cross…and follow Him.
Blessings,
A.
If you would like to read the article further, here is the link: Forsaking All
What are you following? What is your heart’s constant longing?
