tell them: "I am coming"

     As I sit in a quite area of church today, thinking of the self study I am reading, I have to stop and ask myself......When did I put God into my "church" bag?  When did I take Him, and toss Him into the cute, little, hot pink backpack  that,  more often than not,  sits in my car, so that I won't forget it at service time?  He rides around with my extra bible, my lesson for the upcoming children's ministry, whatever self study I am doing at the time, pencils, old bulletins, and hard candy.  I would like to think I have taken Him out lately....He has certainly shown up in a mighty way in my life since the first of this year....but do I really keep Him with me, or do I sometimes, unintentionally toss Him in with my stuff....don't want to forget Him, don't want to not have Him within arm's reach, want to know that He is close by, just in case,.....but not really, all the time...every minute...of every breath....of every day....with me.   Yes, I know what the Bible says..."I will never leave you, nor forsake you", I get that....what I also get is there are times, I do the leaving.  I do the tossing.   I do the forsaking.

     The study I have started today, has blown me away...it is teaching the reverence of God.....the importance....more than that....the  vital necessity of understanding just who God really is.  His power, His might, His dimension, ....His rightful place.   The author of this book, describes in detail the size of our universe, how many light years the closest star is to our planet, how the farthest star that is visible to our naked eye is so far away, that it's light started to shine before Moses' parted the Red Sea, yet is just now reaching Earth......and how even though it would take 19 days to reach the moon, it's reflective light reaches us in 1.3 seconds!  Mind boggling.....but yet, we see in Is.  40:12, that God can span the entire universe with just His hand.....His hand....thumb to pinkie!  But yet, this is the same God, the same Father, who took, in relation to His size, a tiny....minute  speck of dust and created us....breathed life into us....and as the Psalmist says..."is mindful of us".    How do we fathom that?  How do we take hold of that?  More importantly...how do we take that God and toss Him into a church bag?   How do we expect to take that power, that might, that in-comprehensive sovereignty and treat it with an irreverence and yet, still expect Him to move on our behalf?  But yet, that same God....the same saviour....that same overpowering, unfathomable power, desires for us to know Him...on a small scale, intimate level.   He wants to indwell with us....to empower us....to deliver us...to save us.   He shouts Himself  and His love with every part of His creation.  He presents Himself in ways to make it easier for us to understand...make Himself  more approachable for us to draw near to....to make Himself mindful of us, and our limited, fearful, doubtful, human way of thinking.....and what do we do?   We toss Him into our church-bags.   Yes, we pull Him out when we need to pray about something, we pull Him out when we have fear, or sickness, or dare, I say it, when we need to "look"...or "sound"  like Christians......but is He truly part of every decision, every thought or desire that we have?  Do we really understand what we are doing when we take part of a worship service....do we understand that is our ticket into His throne-room...the same throne-room that is so Holy, that angels have to cover this faces with their wings, as smoke fills the room, and the doorposts shake, as they cry out, "holy, holy, holy"?  Do we yawn, or chit chat, or daydream as we are there?  Do we understand when God's holy words are read, that these are the same words, that bring the power of life or death?  Or do we balance our checkbooks, or think about who is winning the game, or what we are having for lunch?   What do we do when His inspired sermons are being taught?  Do we sit at the edge of our seat, anticipating what the God, that is so massive, that He literally can hold our entire universe in His hand, is saying to us?  Do we even remember what was spoken by the time we get into our cars, much less the next day, when it is time to walk them out and put them into practice?  I don't know about you, but God has spoken to me today....I want to never put Him, back into that hot pink backpack....in fact, I am beginning to see Him is such a different light, that I want Him right in front of me....I want to be shielded by Him....consumed by Him....with Him leading the way before me.   More importantly though, I want to truly, each and every time, I am given the opportunity to sing His praises....enter into His throne-room, hear His word being spoken....-(or reading it myself)....hear the lesson He has laid on a pastor's heart just for me....each and everytime, I want to give Him my utmost attention, hanging on every word, drawing all that I can out of that.  I know that each of you see the same stories that I do on the news each day...our rights are being slowly taken away....who knows how much longer we, as Americans, will have the chance to attend a beautiful place of worship, and we need to wake up and not take that for granted anymore.   He is calling people up to see dreams, and signs, and wonders, to see visions of things yet to come.....not to scare us, but to inform us, prepare us, remind us, "I am coming".  He wants each of us to be prepared when that time comes.  As much as I prepare my children for things, so that they will not be afraid, or caught off guard, or uninformed, how much more does He try to prepare us?  He desires that not one would perish, but that all would come to His life.  It is our job, our duty, our responsibility to share that, and just like Ezekiel in the old testament, if we take that for granted, if we toss Him into our church bags, and not tell everyone we meet, "He is coming, are you ready?", we will find ourselves in the position to answer for that someday.....not that fear of that should be the reason we tell them, how could once we truly take hold of who He is, and what He has done for us, not want to share that with everyone....if we truly get a glimpse of what is to come for those who do not listen, who do not know Him, it should break our hearts, ....after all it broke His enough that He gave all He had to make a way.   I used to make fun of the little old men, dressed in sackcloth, holding their signs, that announce "the end is near".....but the more I get to know Him, the more I fall in love with Him, the more I understand who He truly is.....the more I understand their dedication, and understand the importance of letting our lives become a reflection of Him, that Light shining into the darkness of this broken, dying world.  The more I understand the urgencey of what is to come, and our role in that, the more I have the desire, the boldness, the courage to tell everyone I can, "He is coming, are you ready"?

     Today, I am thankful for the lesson He brought to me in my quite time with Him.  I am thankful for the opportunity to see that hot pink backpack in a whole new perspective.....and I am thankful for Him opening my eyes to understanding more of who He is, who He was, and who He is meant to be....of giving Him, His rightful "feared" place in my life......onward to the next step of this journey, anticipating the chance to share what He has gratefully, lovingly shown me......but for the grace of God, go I.......