Last Weekend

Last Weekend

Thought I would drop an update on what happened last weekend.

I had asked a lot of you personally and in my blog all to pray.

Thank you for all that did pray for me.

I went up to Wakaw Lake to seek God on His direction in my life and just get alone with Him.

One non-spiritual thing I wanted to do was to Listen to the Saskatchewan Roughriders game on the radio against BC...which they won! What a game...

But I digress...

Actually this is the type of stuff God wanted to speak to my heart about.

Losing focus.

Even though a lot of Roughrider fans would say that watching our team win is a spiritual experience it was not the reason for my weekend.

I sought God and He met me.

I brought up a loaner guitar and my Bible and set out to find God's will.

I was looking for something profoundly miraculous.

God brought me back to the basics.

I was looking for a solution and miraculous end for my problems.

God brought me the grace to perservere though my problems.

And God bonked me on the head.

With His Bible.

Didn't you know that God was a Bible Thumper didya?

After worshipping Him during the weekend I was drawn to read through the book of Phillipians while I was out there.

This is what I have learned.

(Phil 1:19-24 NIV) 19 "for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance." 20 "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." 21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." 22 "If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!" 23 "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;" 24 "but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body."

God has a purpose for my life. I see part of the scope of this, but there is so much more. I do desire to be with God but know in my heart that He is not done with me on this earth.

(Phil 2:5-11 NIV) "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:" 6 "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped," 7 "but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." 8 "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" 9 "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,"
10 "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth," 11 "and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

(Insert WOW here.)

Servanthood, our Saviour, humbling Himself to death on a cross and glorification for endurance and perserverence and Obedience. Yowch. Obedience. Gotta stick in my boots whatever what.

(Phil 3:7-11 NIV) "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." 8 "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" 9 "and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." 10 "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death," 11 "and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Knowing Christ is Key. Faith in Christ is Key. Fellowship of sharing His sufferings is Key. Owch. Did I mention I don't do suffer well?

And the Doozie (as if the ones above were not)

(Phil 4:4-9 NIV) "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" 5 "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." 6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 7 "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." 9 "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

Rejoice. So important I am gonna say it again. Rejoice! Be gentle. DO NOT WORRY! Man that is a tough one. Pray and Petition with thanksgiving. And THEN the peace will guard my heart and mind. Not the other way 'round. That alone is a brain rattler. Then the focus verse. Think about the good things of God. Not how I am going to pay my bills, not how I am going to get though another day, but on God. Then just to nail the point home PUT IT INTO PRACTICE. It just ain't thinking about it here. Its doing.

As I think it was Snagglepuss in the old Hanna Barbera cartoons that used to say about Thinking:

"I'll do the Thinnin' Round here!"

I got to let God do the "Thinnin'" in my life.

I gotta be obedient and actually Trust that He has the best for me no matter what. Back to the whole faith issue. Do I actually have the faith to believe He has the best for me? Somedays I think so. Some days I know not.

So what happened this weekend? God admonished me, drew me close, let me weep, and get up off the ground...again. I met with God and He met with me.

It really does not matter that I fall. I will fall. It is the direction I am looking when I get up.

No instant miracles here. No fantastic lights or journey's to the 6th heaven. Just allowing God to get me back to basics in His amazing grace to accomplish all He has set out for me to do.

God's Real And Continual Enablement. Thats GRACE. And that really is amazing.

Blessings -Moose