talkative...

So, this morning I woke up early and went for a run - and I gotta be honest; I love the weather just like it is. It's not too cold in the morning and it stays beautiful all day long - awesome! After I got home and got cleaned up, I went into our prayer room and normally I begin with journaling, but today - I just began speaking to God. And as I poured out my heart before him, something began to happen - he began to reveal to me how much I mean to him, and how much He means to me.

It was pretty cool as I sat there and was spending time in the heart of God, that He began to speak and He told me to read Jeremiah 2:19 - which says that it is evil and bitter to forsake the Lord your God. As I thought about that - I heard Revelation 19, which is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, so I read that, and God opened up the flood gates.

I don't know that I realized this, but Jesus is not just coming back kicking butt - He is coming back with an ARMY, and leading the charge. HOW AWESOME IS MY SAVIOR!?! Most of the time, I think about Jesus coming back and I know He is gonna be slaying people and putting Satan in his place, but this morning, God showed me that when He comes back, there is an army behind him... but Jesus is out front! God hit me a harsh reality - most of the time, I am living my life with Jesus behind ME - not the other way around.

A game my son and I love to play is walking in shadows...basically it goes like this; he tries to walk in my shadow, and I will move to the right and left, or speed up or slow down, and he has to try and keep up, and stay in my shadow! Pretty fun, and it always gets us giggling.

What if, I played that game with God - just decided that I was gonna get so close to him that His Shadow covered over me. I didn't try to keep God in my shadow, but rather spent my life trying to stay in His? I think that sounds like a much better arrangement.

I then went and read Genesis 1-3, and realized that there is a lot that goes on in the first 3 chapters of our Bible. God creates paradise, we wreck it, and God lays out his plan to fix it again. What stuck out to me today, though, was that from the beginning, man has tried to blame our sin on others, and when we sin, our natural response is to hide from God. Adam and Eve fall - they hide from the presence of God (must have broken His heart), God asks Adam what's up - he blames Eve. God asks Eve whats up - she blames the serpent. God then curses the serpent, the woman, the man, and creation. Then - he shows them the door out of Eden (so they don't mess up and eat from the tree of life, and have to live forever separated from God) but not before he cares for them and meets a need of theirs - clothes! Our God is so real, so personal, and so tender - I love it!

Finally God had me read Romans 6 - 8 and as I was reading that one verse in particular jumped out at me - and I have decided I am gonna lock it away in my heart. Romans 8:15 says "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have receive the Spirit of adoption as son, by whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"

Do we know who we are? Do we realize that we have been made sons of God! That we are heirs to the kingdom of God? Do I settle for slavery and fear, when my right is freedom in the Spirit as a son of God? Unfortunately I do...but I don't have to. And praise God - a day is coming, when Jesus will return, leading an army from heaven and with a sword from his mouth he will slay all who stand against him, and in that day, my flesh will forever be put to death, my will will be finally conformed to that of Christ and the little glimpse of heaven I get here, will become my eternity.

How sweet that day will be.