God is your life. Living in surrender to HIM.

I have been studying the book Deuteronomy lately and I absolutely love it. I have realized that Moses did a lot of work and spent a lot of time with the Lord. He would spend 40 nights and days at a time in his presence totally consumed by him. Today that is nearly impossible for people. We have technology that exceeds the speed we have never thought possible. We have “to-do” lists that are extremely full and have no room for one more thing because it may be impossible to finish the tasks we have set before us for one day. We have the capacity to schedule years in advance at the touch of our fingers on our “smart phones”. Moses obviously didn’t have that; he had it much better and much more convenient than we do today. He had total access to God and his presence. You may be thinking, we have total access to God as well and you are absolutely right. Today I am going to explain the recent findings I have come across while studying the best tool given to humans today; the bible. In Deuteronomy, the main passages or the most important passages that have impacted me the most are these four that follow. Deut 30:20. …”you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” How amazing is it to think about the fact that the Lord is your life. What does that mean to you? Because to me, it means that all these things of this world are only a vapor, a short time, and the things we do today affect our eternity. In James it says 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. This makes me thankful for the life I have been given; the freedom, the free will to choose to love God and serve him whole-heartedly and trust in him for everything. I have never before attempted to seek him like I have since I have been here in Nicaragua. I have time to think. I could choose to use the time to make negative thoughts, think about what to do tomorrow, what I could be doing better. Those are all thoughts of the devil. Thinking about tomorrow is pointless because God holds the future. He holds your life, he is your life! Negative thinking is something that has been a huge part of my past. When negative people surrounded me, my attitude would turn and make a 180 turn down the wrong path. My mom even took notice to this. She could detect this change over the telephone (but all of us know our moms have a 6th sense and know when their children are hurting). If your thoughts are consumed with what you could be doing better; it’s the devil saying your not doing good enough. As missionaries, our boss is God. What we do for Him that brings glory to His name is all he asks. He desires a relationship with his children. Deut 20:4. “For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you your victory.” Now regress to what I just mentioned above; the devil putting negative thoughts in your head. God fights the enemy for you. When you devote your time to him and allow him access to the fears, He will take them and discard them elsewhere. I know this all to well. I have been afraid way to many times and haven’t given God my fears and tried to take them on my own. This is a heavy and hard burden to carry. It weighs you down, makes you tired, makes you want to give up, and even quit on the things God may have put on your heart for you to do. In Isaiah 41:10 it says: Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ I know this verse all too well because it is the verse my mom sent me once while I was down here and told her “I am done”, “I can’t do this anymore”, and “I want to come home.” God fought my battle and my time passed and now I am at peace and have confidence he is the one leading me each and every day. I used to wake up and think, “Ok, what do I have to do today?” With that kind of thought process, I was easily tired, and most definitely easily disappointed because I was trying to work, giving of my time, loving the people, AND trying to fight my own battles. People, trust me, it doesn’t work all that well (especially when you can’t understand the language your are engulfed in). Deut 10:17-20. “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God…” I absolutely LOVE this verse. I believe it describes the missionary life. We have the God of gods and the Lord of lords on our side! He doesn’t accept bribes. Our boss won’t let us leave early if we promise to work harder tomorrow. Each and everyday, he expects our best; our hearts, our souls, and our minds to be completely fixed on Him. He will then take our hand and lead us to where he wants us to go. He is mighty and awesome! I know those seem like mundane words that are used to describe our God, but in actuality the word “awesome” means something causing awe or terror. The word mighty means having or showing great power, skill, strength, or force. I would say these words fit God perfectly and probably will use them less now for the things of this world. Loving the alien is what us missionaries love doing (or at least I do). Loving the people most people ignore, loving the aliens that most people look down upon, and loving the broken who have lost hope in themselves and don’t know who holds their future. The little acts of giving someone food and clothes can go a long way in today’s world. And especially in the country we are in. The simple act of telling patients at the clinic that some medications are donated puts a smile on their face; a sigh of relief shortly follows. Its like I can hear their thoughts (“glad I don’t have to sacrifice my food tonight for 30 more pills to control my blood pressure”, or “Thank God this medication for circulation was donated because the doctor said my heart has a lot of hardened and almost clogged arteries and if I don’t get something to help me, another heart attack is right around the corner.”) It makes me happy that the people at the clinic I work at have the opportunity to receive free medicines and makes me appreciate the people in America a little more knowing they package and put time, money, and energy into us down here in Nicaragua. Fearing the Lord your God for Christians means something that is very much a relief to me. In Hebrews 12 it says 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. This reverence or deep respect and awe should be the motivating factor for us to surrender to the Creator of the Universe. Deut 4:29. “But if you from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This is a short verse, but so perfectly said. Think about how you personally seek God. Is it on the way to your job in the car? Is it praying in the early morning at 4:00AM before no one else is awake and the world is quiet? Is it at night right before you get into bed and prepare yourself for a new day ahead? For me, it is turning my music on, shutting my eyes, meditating on the words of songs and either humming them or singing them softly. They are my words to God. I absolutely love music and the beautiful sound it makes and when I turn music on to meditate and think about God, I feel fully consumed and devoured by his presence (in a good way of course). But you have to put forth the effort. God won’t open to door if you don’t knock. He won’t carry you if you hold on to your own baggage and fears. He won’t comfort you when you don’t confide in him. These are all things you have to surrender to him with ALL of your heart and with ALL of your soul. In Matthew 7 it says it perfectly 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. I am challenging my fellow friends and family to do just this. Spend your quiet time fully consumed by his love and his spirit and allow your thoughts to be his thoughts and your work to be his work. This is a hard task. We must renew our cup with his spirit and passions, because ours will eventually run out of fuel. This past weekend I was in Costa Rica and I absolutely loved it. At church the preacher had a candle and fish bowl and was preaching on a verse in Revelations but I could not understand much because the accent there is a little different and the echo of the microphone also didn’t help me pick up much. But, I kind of was thinking what I am about to share while he was preaching about something using the same artifacts. 1. Picture a fishbowl and picture a lit candle. The candle is you and your fire for God and the fishbowl is the world. 2. When you are surrounded by the fishbowl, upside down it represents the world. This world is heavy; though you don’t feel all the weight. This world is draining and surrounding you at all angles. This world is suffocating and will eventually burn your fire or light out if you are surrounded by it and don’t give up time each day for God to operate on your heart and allow you to breathe and share with him your heart. 3. Scientifically, the fire will eventually be put out because oxygen is not reaching the candle and allowing it to keep burning. 4. It metaphorically represents the world and the weight of the world on our shoulders. Like the verses earlier, we need to seek God with all out heart and soul, and allow him to fight our battles. 5. Now picture the fire lit and your inside the fishbowl and it is right side up. 6. This represents you in the world, but spending time with God each and everyday. The fishbowl represents God’s shield he places around your heart when you devote and dedicate your time to him. You won’t be burnt out and your heart won’t wear the weight of your problems and your shoulders will feel relieved and lightened when you hand over your problems to him. I ask you to think about when and where you spend the most time with God and this week definitely go there and give God your heart and your soul. He is your life! I absolutely admire the work God is doing in each of our hearts and each of us has an important role to play in this thing we call life. I can’t even begin to understand God and why he does the things he does. But I totally understand He loves me and desires me to love him and seek him with my whole heart and soul. He desires for all his children to spend time with him and he wants us to have a relationship with him. He wants us to surrender and he is willing to carry us when we fall and when we stumble. We will all make mistakes and none of us our perfect, but we have a God that made the world and is perfectly protecting our hearts.