The past weekend has turned out to be purely comical by any means. It actually began on Thursday with the onset of the absolute worst PMS I think I have ever experienced (sorry guys). I'm not talking the typical mood swing/cramp type thing either...I'm talking, the world is coming to an end, life is not worth living kind of PMS. I know it was PMS b/c I went to bed feeling fine and woke up feeling like I never wanted to get out of bed again...ever.
So - with that I managed to survive Thursday and Friday, however, Friday mornining in the mad dash to get to work on time I managed to break my cell phone charger off in my phone...yes! That's exactly what I needed! Now, I have no cell phone and although the PMS is finally starting to subside, the memory is lingering a bit. It's cool though, I managed to live w/o a cell phone at some point in my life, right? Well, I don't have a home phone either, so it was a little challenging. However - I still had email and IM!! It was going to be okay...Until Sunday when I woke up and the internet was down - are you kidding?!?! Finally, I relinquished the fact that the Lord was trying to literally seclude me to the point of surrender. Needless to say I raised the tiny white flag and spent the day in solitude. No phones, no computer, no myspace or blogging, no email - I had music and a tv (which I used sparingly to watch Back to the Future - I couldn't resist!!)
I had a few Aha! moments during my weekend w/o technology - and now I will share.
How many times are we, in the midst of our obedience to God an answer to someone's prayers? I was actually struck with this during the testimony from church, about the tribe that fasted and prayed for 40 days only to be met w/ their answer on the 40th day. Now, while this is definitely a display of God working in wonderous ways - how much of this answered prayer hinged on the obedience of a fellow servant? If the man had not gone as the Lord was leading him to, would it have been the Lords unanswered prayer? Absolutely not! It would have been the disobedience of a man -- how often do we make this mis-assumption?
Later in the weekend I was jamming to some praise music and I thought...In the same way as the story above, Jesus, in His obedience to the Father was an answer to the prayers of an entire nation!! Had Jesus not taken the cup that was offered to Him, would it have been an unanswered prayer by God? Nope...it would have been the disobedience of a man. Granted you may think, ah well, it was Jeus of course he would obey - but let's not forget that while he was God in the human flesh, Jesus was fully man and fully capable of disobeying. Had he not been capable of sin, it would have made His sinless life and thus the ressurection meaningless.
AHA!
The next one I found in Ezekiel - the story of the prophet being called out by God to deliver a message to the land. The Lord hands him a scroll with His words and message on it and commands Ezekiel to eat it and fill himself with it and then to go and speak it bodly. 1 And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel." 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3 Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
The following is the section that really nailed me...
14 The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me. 15 I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days-overwhelmed
I sat on that for some time - why, would he have bitterness and anger in his spirit given the experience that he just had with God? I mean, he should be overjoyed! He should be elated! Right?? After doing some studying and praying about it...wow...
Ezekiel had just ingested, into his spirit and heart, a scroll of Gods words to Israel, of their wickedness and evil deeds, of their sin and of their unholiness. It was a message of warning and of wrath against the nation. Ezekiel was filled with the spirit and the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him - he was feeling the LORDS anger and bitterness in his spirit - not anger at anyone or any person, but the anger against sin, the anger against the disobedience of Israel
Man - if I could be that close, that in tune with God that the things that grieve him and that anger him would literally do the same in my own spirit - that I would become so intimate that sin would anger me as it does God, it would grieve me as it does God - not the person - but the sin. I was also reminded of the importance of ingesting Gods word into our own spirit and heart. How do we become more sensitive to the anger and grievances of God? We eat His Word until it fills us up...until we live, breath and speak the word of God - and then, we are more like Him than ever before. We will have transformed our minds to think and respond as God would and as Christ did. AHA......
The Lord is so good and faithful. He brought me into a place of gentle and subtle submission this weekend - He was relentless in His pursuit to get some true, uninterupted alone time with me and that alone makes me feel like a loved and adored child of God - that He would go through so much trouble for some time with me - well - it's nothing less than amazing to me.
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