disciple class week 3-4

I talked a couple of weeks ago about the prophets of old...this week in Disciple class we focused on Amos...one of my favorite prophets...he was one of the first written prophets who was prophesing in Isreal while Homer was writing in Greece.

He is a poet...he stepped of his comfort zone and went North, when God called, to tell them how corrupt they were.  How evil they were.  He stood up for what he believed in...even though he was standing alone...he could have been the poster boy for that saying!!

The line everyone knows from Amos is 5:23.."But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." 

I am reading "When God Whispers Your Name" by Max Lucado...in it I highlighted Exodus 14:14..."The Lord will fight for you."  This is his job to fight...our job is to trust...just trust...not direct...or question...or yank the steering wheel out of his hands...our job is to pray and wait.

That is what Amos did...he knew God was fighting for him and left his homeland without a worry and marched North...Lucado described it as...if you were in a street fight and your dad was standing right there who would you yell to help you?  It is your father...your God.

This past year and a half...I have trusted...I have tried not to question...i have yelled to God for the help in the fight...I know God sees the top of the puzzle box...I just see that piece I'm trying to fit in the puzzle...force in the puzzle...

Trust...unconditional trust is hard...
Next week we study Hosea and Gomer his adulterous, faithless wife...this should be a good study for me!
Amen and Amen!

it isn't what it seems

This divorce and adultry has had some wierd consequesnces for me... i think and believe nothing is what it seems...there are motives to everything...nothing is done just because.

I see two people together in a parking lot and I think...they are having an affair...
I see two people not talking at dinner...he is cheating on her...
I see a man in a sports car and "Born to be Wild" blasting out of radio and I think...mid-life crisis
I see a single man and I now look immediatly for their wedding ring or ring line (Mark never wore one...that should have told me something! Wonder if Kathy can get him to wear one)
I see these pictures on e-harmony and think...what do men think?  A few extra pounds can be seen in your profile picture.

The internet has a language all of its own!
What's with these online profile names? and all these Harley references?
I read in the book "Still Hot"
If his profile says:
I'm looking for my soul mate:   He's been out there for a long time, and will remain there...
If it says would like a non-demanding woman:  He has intimacy issues.
I'm semi-retired:  He occasionaly gets up out of the barcalounger to look through his Start Your Own Business book shelf.
I quit the rat race:  He spends his days in an overstuffed armchair at Barnes and Noble reading Hustler for free.
He describes his body type as "above average":  He only looks in the mirror on the medicine cabinet.
He says I've been told I am handsome:  Yea by his mom!

Divorce does crazy things to you...and one is not believing a word anyone says, or trusting anyone, wanting to know everything about someone just to make sure he has never hurt another woman.
I know God tells us not to judge others...but really, some men...
I know God tells us to trust him with our own heart, lean not on our own smarts...

 God is a man (maybe a man) I can trust in...

obedience school

Vena and I went for a walk the other day and ran into an older gentleman we've met before and his dog...his dog is uber obedient...then you have Vena and I...she listens to me when she feels like it...sort of!  The other dog opened the cage in the back of the truck and got in it himself without being told.
Vena is the one dog of all of mine who has been to obedience school.  Vena listens when there isn't something distracting her.  When there are no other puppies, when there are no rabbits, when there are no deer...she may listen.   She is a German shepherd...she is a protector...and I know when push comes to shove she will protect...I always laugh at that little diddy that goes around about how a dog changes a light bulb and the german shepherd will get to it once she has checked the perimeter, rescued all the children and deems it safe.  That is Vena...no other dog goes outside without Vena standing at the door watching it all.


She is sort of like me and God...when there are no other distractions...I can be sort of obedient...when there are no friends, issue, problems, worries...I can be obedient....on Sundays I can be obedient.  Why is it so hard to always follow what God asks us to do...there are times I ask myself if it is even possible to be that good all the time?  Should we even try when we know we can't live up to that bar that has been set for us?


Life is hard enough and there are pressures enough why add another one that doesn't even seem reachable.

Deuteronomy 30:16 - For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.  I know the story of Job, he is put through hell, but never waivers in his love of the Lord and his trust in the Lord and he lives to prosper and have a good life.  Those who trust in the Lord live to prosper and live a good life. 

So I will keep on plugging along, looking up at that bar...knowing when I trust the Lord, when I put him first, when I get this obedience thing down...there are good things coming my way...I will live long and prosper.

Thank the Lord!