During praise and worship at my church this morning, my pastor said he saw God running after those that had fallen away from Him. He asked us to stand if we knew family members, friends, realitives.........that had known the Lord, but are not serving Him right now. I have heard about God running before, there was a song some years ago about "When God Ran".
We all have a mental picture of God in our mind, more then likely it is of a old man with a white beard, sitting on a throne in all His glory. He never moves off the throne, because He is God. We don't think of God getting up from the thorne and especially running. Just dosen't fit our preconcived notions.
But God left the flock of sheep because one was lost, He found the lost sheep, and brought him back to the flock. I think there had to be some fast walking, hiking, climbing up and down hills and mountains .............before He found that sheep. God will persue us. He cares about where we go and what we do. Not in a place you would feel comfortable knowing God, the creator of all things would be, well, He is there, trying to convince you to come back to Him.
There was an old country song many years ago, something about not being able to find God in the bottom of a glass. I understand what the writer was saying, but I do believe that God is there when your trying to find solace in a glass, or bottle, or ciggarette, or whatever your doing to replace Him. You see, He loves you , I mean HE LOVES YOU> No one, and I mean no one has ever loved you as much as He. His Son died for you, because without Him, we all would be going to hell. There would be no way we could avoid it.
God will go to the end of the world to find you, and remind you He loves you. Remember the parables in the Bible? The "Prodical Son" The Lost Coin, and as we have already talked about, the Lost sheep. All these parables are showing us what ends God will go to so He can stop us from not feeling His Love.
You see, when we run from Him, He still loves us, but we feel so ashamed due to our sin, we cannot see Him. Guilt, that is the key issue. Guilt. With it we have no love or without it, we can see and live in Gods love.
So you see, God runs, He runs after those He loves, namely everyone of us.
I would like to reverse that in my life, I would like to run after God. I would like to want the things of God so much I run and sprint and chase Him and the things of Him, which are so wonderful for me.
Did you know God loves us so much that He is building a place for His people, that is so awsome that right after the rapture of the church there is going to be 30 minutes of quiet. Why? Because of the beauty and awe inspiring wonderful things that He has made for us, we will not be able to speak one word. We will be litterlly "Awe Struck."
I love the fact that God will run after me, but I don't want Him to, I want to run to His throne and receive all He has for me. If you do have friends realitives ,,,,,,,,,,, that need Jesus in their lives, tell them about how God runs after them because He wants them so badly to know Him.
Remember when you were a kid, and you could run all day? We could just play and play ............ like crazy and never be tired (My Mom really got tired of this, and I could never undertstand why?, Boy now I do.) God will never get tirerd, never stop from running after us, trying to stop us and reverse our course. He wants us to run after Him.
Stop, turn around let Him give you a fantastic hug, He'll pick you up if your to tired to go on. It seems if your anything like me, most of the time we run untill we can run no more, then stop and give up to Him. I don't know how much ground I have given up because I was running the wrong way. But He ran after me, and walked with me as I tried to make up the ground lost.
God, He is just like us in some respects, after all we were made in His image.
He will run after us no matter where we go. Thank you Lord.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
ROT
This weekend is the ROT (Republic of Texas) Motorcycle rally here in Austin. I live on the east bound side of US 290 East. This is right in the path of about 40,000 motorcycles and the HQ of the rally. Motorcycle riders, it seems, take pride in how loud they can make their "rides". For about 5 years I have complained, dreaded, ..............the fact that during this weekend, I don't get a lot of sleep, due to the noise as they travel from Decker Lake and town.
But yesterday, I was bored, so I took a trip out to Decker Lake, (Where most of the rally takes place, expect for a "Parade" down Congress Ave. in downtown Austin right in front of the Texas capital.)
Guess what I found? Yes there where people drinking, partying, and being loud and "in your face" as you would think, but more then those there were families, children, bar-b-ques, campers, food (LOTS of food). There were Christian Motorcycle groups that were talking to everyone who would listen about Jesus Christ. (note here: they were not "in your face" if someone did not want to talk, they just moved on). I visited these people, and found they were very nice, freindly and respectful.
I had planned to just drive through and check out what was happening here, but what I found was people just like me. There were Heads of business', there were construction workers, there were trash truck drivers and workers (like me, I immediantly "bonded" with these guys), I found people of all color, those that liked Country music, rock and roll, classical, christian,,,,,,,,,,,you name it they were playing it. But mostly I found just people.
I spent several hours just talking to people, I was offered LOTS of food and talk. I saw some incrediable motorcycles and people who were pretty proud of them, as they should be. These Guys and ladies were respectful, and from every age group. There were children, teens, 20's 30's 40's 50's .......................There was even a couple in their 80's that had been every year since 1992,
I returned to my home, with a little more respect for these motorcycle enthusists.
Now, when I hear them go by, I look out my window and think: "I wonder what kind of bike that is, did I meet those guys when I was out there? I learned something yesterday, and that is, just because I don't understand something dosen't mean it is wrong. Yes, the noise of these bikes on the highway very close to my bedroom window did make me lose some sleep> BUT I meet some really nice people, who are no different then me. I found out that people all over are just people, who need Jesus. Yes I did talk to a few about my faith, but that was covered out there by a great group of christians. I mainly, just met great people, who have something in common, they just love bike riding and bikes.
We, as christians, must see people as people. They aren't making a lot of noise, or otherwise trying to make our lives miserable on purpose, they just love what they are doing.
Sometimes if we take time to put ourselves in someone eles's place, and see what they are all about, it helps us see them for who they really are. Who are these motorcyclist "really"? Easy, just people who love life, love to ride, and love each other. Wow, how different is THAT?
But yesterday, I was bored, so I took a trip out to Decker Lake, (Where most of the rally takes place, expect for a "Parade" down Congress Ave. in downtown Austin right in front of the Texas capital.)
Guess what I found? Yes there where people drinking, partying, and being loud and "in your face" as you would think, but more then those there were families, children, bar-b-ques, campers, food (LOTS of food). There were Christian Motorcycle groups that were talking to everyone who would listen about Jesus Christ. (note here: they were not "in your face" if someone did not want to talk, they just moved on). I visited these people, and found they were very nice, freindly and respectful.
I had planned to just drive through and check out what was happening here, but what I found was people just like me. There were Heads of business', there were construction workers, there were trash truck drivers and workers (like me, I immediantly "bonded" with these guys), I found people of all color, those that liked Country music, rock and roll, classical, christian,,,,,,,,,,,you name it they were playing it. But mostly I found just people.
I spent several hours just talking to people, I was offered LOTS of food and talk. I saw some incrediable motorcycles and people who were pretty proud of them, as they should be. These Guys and ladies were respectful, and from every age group. There were children, teens, 20's 30's 40's 50's .......................There was even a couple in their 80's that had been every year since 1992,
I returned to my home, with a little more respect for these motorcycle enthusists.
Now, when I hear them go by, I look out my window and think: "I wonder what kind of bike that is, did I meet those guys when I was out there? I learned something yesterday, and that is, just because I don't understand something dosen't mean it is wrong. Yes, the noise of these bikes on the highway very close to my bedroom window did make me lose some sleep> BUT I meet some really nice people, who are no different then me. I found out that people all over are just people, who need Jesus. Yes I did talk to a few about my faith, but that was covered out there by a great group of christians. I mainly, just met great people, who have something in common, they just love bike riding and bikes.
We, as christians, must see people as people. They aren't making a lot of noise, or otherwise trying to make our lives miserable on purpose, they just love what they are doing.
Sometimes if we take time to put ourselves in someone eles's place, and see what they are all about, it helps us see them for who they really are. Who are these motorcyclist "really"? Easy, just people who love life, love to ride, and love each other. Wow, how different is THAT?
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