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.

Police

I'm going to try to tell this story without making it too long-winded. Let me start with a brief explanation of what I call my "police ministry".

• This "police ministry" is the starting of a tiny little mission I have where I want to let police officers know that they're appreciated. It may sound somewhat strange, but it's a desire that I now believe God put in my heart to bless law enforcement.

• Here in Los Angeles, I met a fantastic person whom I respect and appreciate. He, too, is in a police ministry and has enabled me to take my ministry a step further (so now we are standing together in it) by giving me books to give to officers together with my thank you notes.

Enough history. This is what's gotten me excited today:

• I was on my way back home when I reached a red light at an intersection. The car on my left was, you guessed it, a police car. I grabbed one of the books I had been given, opened my window and held the book outside the window (which I now realise might have been a dumb idea, but I needed to be quick because of the traffic light). I made a nice loud greeting and asked if I could give them the book; explained to them that my motives were just to appreciate their services and that they'd find a note of appreciation inside. BOTH officers took one.

Dang cool.

God is good, though very, very random. I've been asking for opportunities despite knowing it was hard for Him to give me any because I stay at home most of the day (yes, my fault). But He gave me that chance tonight and I'm glad I took it!

I must admit, I am ecstatic. Though I can't be sure if either my words, actions or the book I handed to the officers blessed them tonight, that sure was my intention. They will be in my prayers tonight, for sure.

My God, My Shepherd

I am at a loss for words and expression because of the awesomeness of our God. I open my mouth to give praise but all I can do is stutter in amazement.

I think God is laughing at me.

In Ezekiel 34:11-16, I so adored the way God promised how He would personally search for His lost sheep (people). While reading Ezekiel, y0u might assume that He is only talking about Israel but if you really read these verses, you’ll see how relevant they are to us today!

11 I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.

12 I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered…

13 I will pasture them…

15 I myself will tend my sheep…

16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.

This is exactly what God does today! He is forever seeking us out, personally, and when he does find us (or rather, when we allow Him to find us), He stays so true to His promise of providing for us, tending to us, healing us and strengthening us!

God wants to be so personal with us, but many times we don’t comprehend.

In v23 and 24, God also says that He will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.

The shepherd was written as God’s “servant David”. Literally, that sounds preposterous because David’s not around anymore, yet God said it. Then I realized that the term "my servant David” could very well mean someone from David’s line. Many, many, many years later, Jesus comes from David’s line and totally, perfectly fulfills this.

Can this, I ask, possibly be simply the work of scholars and authors? I find it impossible because there is no way that even the best minds could have “created” a story 66 books long and been able to sync them so perfectly with one another.

This is the Word of God.

I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.