A Relationship with God

Genesis 2:18-20

God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn't find a suitable companion.

This is lovely, absolutely lovely. One Sunday service recently, oone of our leaders briefly talked about this verse, stressing on how God brought ALL the animals and birds to Adam and let Adam give them names. He stressed on how that was some serious time spent between God and Adam, and I absolutely agree! After all, we do have millions of animals on this planet :) At that point, I realized how much God has wanted to spend personal time with us from the very beginning. If God simply created man to live on his own like every other creature, He would not have bothered to spend that time with Adam. It is such an amazing thing to know that God not only would, but wants to, spend time with li'l ol' me :)

Today, I read this verse again. And I realized something else. Now listen and listen good. Read it out loud if you have to: God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." God had decided Adam needed a companion; a soulmate. And being God, He knew VERY WELL who the perfect companion would be. But instead of simply creating the woman and presenting her to Adam, God brought in all the animals and let Adam screen through them (naming them in the process) to find what fits his fancy.

Did you miss it? Is it because I didn't bold it? :)

God didn't just give Adam a treasure, He got Adam involved in finding that treasure. This is like a father who has an idea for a gift he knows his child will love. But instead of just getting the gift and directly giving it to the child, they go on a hunt for it together. They spend time together, they go on an adventure; it's fun, it's exciting!

But the child doesn't find the gift. Adam didn't find that suitable companion. So guess what Daddy God did - He put His child to bed and created that gift while the child slept. And when the child woke up,what a surprise he got. What a surprise! Read the following verses - Adam was delighted to finally have his treasure.

My point here is, when it comes to OUR personal relationship with God (yes, it is a relationship, not just a religious event!) - and this applies for everyone - He KNOWS what is best for us and He KNOWS the desires of our hearts. And as Eve was a suitable companion for Adam, God also wants to provide us suitable treasure. But He doesn't want to just give us, as we often ask for it. We're so impatient; we just want everything to be done for us or given to us immediately!

Listen - God would rather spend time with you on an adventure of life, letting you dream and learn and have fun along the way, than just drop a gift at your feet.

YES, He tells us He has treasure for us, so that we may get excited and hopeful. These are ourDREAMS.

YES, He brings us on hunts and trials, so we may learn to overcome obstacles and overlook the things that are just not that important. This is our EXPERIENCE and WISDOM.

YES, He lets us go through disappointment, so we may truly appreciate the wonderful surprise He has in store for us. This is our REWARD.

Come on now. Is God not wonderful?

Watch Your Tongue!

Eph 4:29 [Message version] says, "Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Sayonly what helps, each word a gift."

The NIV says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

I admit, this is something I still struggle with sometimes. Something I have learned over the years is that I have a gift of encouragement - this means, encouraging comes quite naturally to me; I love to say things that makes people feel good about themselves or what they do [of course, it's got to be worthy of encouragement. I will not encourage someone to shoplift or hurt others, for example] or give hope to someone's situation.

This ability to encourage comes from the ability to speak, but with the ability to speak also comes the ability to curse. These are two levels of cursing that I know of:

1) Obvious offensive / hurtful words. This includes foul mouthing people, spewing angry words at people, literally calling a curse upon people, bluntly putting people down, etc.

2) Subtle offensive / hurtful words. This includes making fun [teasing] of others, making light of a situation they may be in, (jokingly) calling them names or titles that really aren't appropriate, etc.

I've been guilty of both. In my walk with God, I have learned to throw out the first level of cursing and a portion of the second level. Admittedly though, there are times that I must still watch my tongue. The main area I need to do it in is making fun of others.

Oh Merr, does that mean we can't have a little fun? What a killjoy, what a spoilsport.

I'm not saying we can't have fun! There are many ways and many times I've had joking around with my friends. We laugh about it, we love it, we enjoy it. What I AM saying is to be wary and watchful of the degree of teasing we do or participate in. It's fine, it's good even, to do things all in fun, but once someone starts feeling uncomfortable or attacked, or if multiple people are ganging up on them, or if it is clearly not healthy for them to take so much embarrassment, are we to continue doing it?

I just stressed on the subtle level of hurtful words, but I think it applies even more so to the obvious level. If it is important to watch the way we talk in subtle, less abusive ways, then it is all the more important to watch the way we talk that OBVIOUSLY upsets others! Do you know why? Because Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue has the power of life and death..." This means what we say has the potential to build someone up or tear them down. It has the potential to help someone make something of their life, or crumble into depression.

Maybe it sounds far-fetched to you. But you never know how much your words affect someone because you're not them, and they might not tell you. This is why watching the way I talk is such an important matter to me. It's absolutely vital to speak words that encourage, strengthen, build up, benefit, bless and help others (or even yourself - you achieve nothing by looking down on yourself or beating yourself up), because I don't know about you, but I don't want to be the one who causes someone to feel hurt, offended and condemned that might follow them or bring them to their very destruction.

Police v2

Has it truly been one and a half years since I've written in a blog? It's quite astounding that writing blogs has not even been remotely part of my life for such a long time. I've been receiving spam on my posts and ignoring them all, until I received a comment on my most recent post that didn't have a link on it and stated that the person appreciated my blog.

Thank you, whoever you are. Thank you because it's reminded me of the power of a good encouragement, even if it's just 6 words long.

It's interesting that my last post talked about my police ministry. I'm glad I wrote that post down a year and a half ago - it marked the start of my ministry, so now I can remember when it all began :) I haven't done anything huge or radical since, but I've been steadily moving. LAPD, LASD, CHP - I'm still at large and still pumped with the passion Jesus has given me. And as long as He wills me to, I will pray for you and encourage you.