A few months ago I read "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. (Y'all should probs read it) It is a great read. Pretty much it is about living a great story, letting God author our lives. I wrote a few posts about it back when I was reading it so feel free to go back and read those. But I have recently revisited that theme in my life; living a great story and letting the author write the pages.
I just graduated college which is insane really. But as happy as I am to be a graduate, I am terrified for what the future brings. In the book Miller talks about how we, the characters, often try to write our own pages, we hijack the story from the author. We write our own chapters and mess up the story God wants us to actually live. He of course will alter the path and still author a great story IF we allow him too.
Right now I want to take over my story, I want to write the next chapter. I want to be in control of where I live and where I teach/if I teach, all that fun stuff. But I know that the Lord is going to write a great story. But uncertainty is scary. Not knowing what the next chapter holds in unsettling to me. But recently I have been repeatedly reminded of God's grace and his amazing ability to author our lives. Monday night at my church's Young Adult service our pastor shared how Moses, one of the greatest figures in the Old testament, how he himself did not want to let God author his life at first. He wanted someone else to be chosen. He ended up accepting the task and the rest was history.
That is just one example of the importance of letting God write our stories. As I look to my future, I have no clue what it holds and yes, that is scary. I don't know if I will be in Toledo or Hamilton. I don't know a lot of things, but I do know that it's in the Lord's hands and that in the end is all that matters.
"I will not fear the war. I will not fear the storm. My help is on the way"
Love y'all
Opher
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Opher the Pharisee
Tonight I was at Soma, my church's the young adult gathering, and the Lord straight up blindsided me. Now the message itself was on the glory of God and how much He weighs. And our young adult pastor, Sammy, did a great job of communicating this to us. But that main message was not what the Lord slapped me with. Instead, the Lord through Sammy spoke to me about how I worship. How worship should be our whole lives. Allow me to clarify a little.
Sammy was sharing the story of Moses in Exodus 33. And how the Glory of God will literally kill us because of its power. Then he said something along the lines of this, "When I am singing the song 'Open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you' I now am like "Open the eyes of my heart Lord, metaphorically speaking, I want to see you.' Because if I really saw him, his Glory would kill me."
That tiny part of the message stuck with me. What the Lord wanted me to gain was that I should truly consider the words I am singing while worshiping. I should stop and let them sink in. I often am getting down while worshiping, really loving the Lord. But am I truly living those words I worship with? This may be confusing, but I will give lyrics to two of my favorite worship songs.
"There is no one higher, no one greater, no one like our God. There is none more able, Christ our Savior, Great and glorious." -I know this to be true, but am I living my life in a way that reflects this? Honestly, probably not very often. If I truly lived this out, then I would not try to get through things on my own, I would go to the Lord because there is no one greater, there is none more able than him. But, I don't often do that.
Another example.
"I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned, I awe of the one who gave it all. I'll stand, my soul Lord to you surrendered, All I am is Yours" - Again, I do not truly live in this manner. I don't often fully surrender to the Lord, I know that all I am is his, but I do not live that way. To truly live out those words is to truly surrender to God. To fall on my knees and know that I am only His. But again, I often think to highly of myself to live in that manner.
My point to all this is simple. It is easy to put our hands in the air and sing a song during church. It feels great, just about everyone seems to love worshiping. But worship does not simply belong in church and belong with music. We should be worshiping with our whole lives, our full existence. And if we are belting out words and raising our arms and dancing around, then we better believe those words, we better be living those words out. Sadly I often do not. And it truly reminds me of the pharisees. They stood around belting out words about God, but they were in no way living it. So yes, that makes me a pharisee. Not someone that many of us want to be likened to.
So, I thank the Lord for using Sammy's great sense of humor to reach out and slap me. I need to live out my worship and not be a pharisee.
Love Y'all
Opher
Sammy was sharing the story of Moses in Exodus 33. And how the Glory of God will literally kill us because of its power. Then he said something along the lines of this, "When I am singing the song 'Open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you' I now am like "Open the eyes of my heart Lord, metaphorically speaking, I want to see you.' Because if I really saw him, his Glory would kill me."
That tiny part of the message stuck with me. What the Lord wanted me to gain was that I should truly consider the words I am singing while worshiping. I should stop and let them sink in. I often am getting down while worshiping, really loving the Lord. But am I truly living those words I worship with? This may be confusing, but I will give lyrics to two of my favorite worship songs.
"There is no one higher, no one greater, no one like our God. There is none more able, Christ our Savior, Great and glorious." -I know this to be true, but am I living my life in a way that reflects this? Honestly, probably not very often. If I truly lived this out, then I would not try to get through things on my own, I would go to the Lord because there is no one greater, there is none more able than him. But, I don't often do that.
Another example.
"I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned, I awe of the one who gave it all. I'll stand, my soul Lord to you surrendered, All I am is Yours" - Again, I do not truly live in this manner. I don't often fully surrender to the Lord, I know that all I am is his, but I do not live that way. To truly live out those words is to truly surrender to God. To fall on my knees and know that I am only His. But again, I often think to highly of myself to live in that manner.
My point to all this is simple. It is easy to put our hands in the air and sing a song during church. It feels great, just about everyone seems to love worshiping. But worship does not simply belong in church and belong with music. We should be worshiping with our whole lives, our full existence. And if we are belting out words and raising our arms and dancing around, then we better believe those words, we better be living those words out. Sadly I often do not. And it truly reminds me of the pharisees. They stood around belting out words about God, but they were in no way living it. So yes, that makes me a pharisee. Not someone that many of us want to be likened to.
So, I thank the Lord for using Sammy's great sense of humor to reach out and slap me. I need to live out my worship and not be a pharisee.
Love Y'all
Opher
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