#10

#9 The King of Glory!

So I was reading the scriptures one time and I got to Psalm 24.... I love this Psalm. It says: "1The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.2For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.3Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?4He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.5He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.6This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.7Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.8Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.9Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah."
That last part, verses 7-10, looked a little strange to me at first and I knew that I had to meditate on it.
I found a sermon that Paul Washer preached and, well, I never thought about it the way that he presented it but when I heard him it made perfect since to me... I can't remember the exact way that he put it so I'm going to paraphrase..
Imagine in heaven for the first time in all of history a...man...speaks to the gates of heaven.."Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of Glory may come in!" And a brave soul from inside the gates yells to the other side: "Who is this King of Glory?" "The Lord strong and mighty The Lord mighty in battle" says the man from the other side of the gates. And then you can go on to imagine the man(The Lord) walking up the steps....bold! It was His right. He sits at the right hand of God the Father... The Father looks down at the Son and says, not as a question but as an affirmation, "It is finished". And the Son looks up at the Father and says, "Father, it is finished indeed".
Jesus is the King of Glory that is mentioned in the text! Like Pastor Brunson says, 'you can find Jesus on every page'!
Peace and Love in the name of Jesus

#8 Entertaining Angels

The other day I encountered an unique person while I was walking downtown. I remember right before I left the office, I remembered Rev.King and Smirl's sermons and how they both mentioned talking to random people about things of God, so I prayed. I asked God to open a door for me to share....I told God that if he would open a door for me than I would walk through it.
So anyways, I was walking and this little old black woman who was talking on her cell phone stopped me and asked me where the BB&T bank was...I told her that it was right the place where I was going....an opened door! I said: "its this way. Come on I'll show ya!".
So while we were walking and talking, I was trying to gather up the courage to say something about Jesus, and then she turned the tables on me! She started talking about the way we were towards each other...she talked about how kind we were towards each other....and she said: "The scriptures say to be nice to strangers because..", and before she could finish, I said: "....Because you could be entertaining angels". As soon as I said that she waved her hand in the air...as if she was praising God..it gave me goosebumps.
And then she mentioned when Jesus said that 'you will know them by there fruits' and I said Matthew 7...because that's where that's where that scripture is found...as soon as I said that, she waved her hand in the air, once again, praising God.
She asked for my name and I told her. I asked for hers and she told me that her name is Shirley. I experienced true christian fellowship with another believe that day.
We got to the place where she was going so she shook my hand and I told her that I'll see her again someday...talking about Heaven.
I can't help but wonder... what if that woman was an angel put there by God to encourage me to speak about Him more... I thought about the story of Lot and Abraham in Genesis 18 and 19 where two angels visited Abraham and then Lot. The wicked men of Sodom did not recognize them as being angels so...lets this be a lesson to you: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it (Hebrews 13:2)."

#7 Sancified Troublemaker

I was at camp this past week and during one of the services they played ths song by the rapper Lecrae called: 'Rebel'. I thought this song was amazing. During the song there is a preacher in the background saying things about the subject. One thing that the preacher something like sinning is no longer rebellion because everyoone is doing it... sinning is conforming...if you want to rebel then read your Bible cause no one is doing that.
The song states that Jesus was a rebel. Jesus was the greatest rebel. I want to be a sanctified troublemaking rebel.

#6 While My Guitar...I Mean...Ukulele Gently Weeps

#5 Hell Yeah

Today, I was at church (my first day of my new class), and I heard something interesting and very common....The person who was speaking said that Hell was separation from God for all of eternity. As I heard that I thought to myself..'that's not right'.. I recall in my past studys on the subject, Hell isn't Hell because God's not there but rather Hell is Hell because God is there. Just like people blaming the Jews or Romans for the death of Jesus...'But the LORD was pleased to crush Him putting Him to grief;.."....It pleased YAHWEH to crush(kill) Jesus!
So I was trying to explain to one of my buddies about this concept and I thought of something that I heard from one of my favorite preachers, Paul Washer... Picture Jesus standing with both arms spread out, one inviting the sinner to repentance and the other holding back God from unleashing his wrath out on all of humanity.....and one day Jesus will drop both arms... no longer open to giving forgiveness and unleashing an untamed, angry God to satisfy His wrath. I then continued to ask my friend...'When you're saved...what are you saved from(another Paul Washer reference)?'.. When you are saved you aren't saved from your sins or death. You are saved from God.
In conclusion, Heaven is Heaven because God is there and Hell is Hell because God is there. The difference is that the recipients will be experiencing different parts of Him.

#4 The Luck of the Irish

I bought a CD today off of Itunes. It is an acoustic album by John Lennon. There is a song on there called "The Luck of the Irish". It's a very good song! Yoko sings in it and it sounds awful, but entertaining. Anyways, there is a line from the song that goes "why the hell are the English there anyway? As they kill with God on their side blame it all on the kids the IRAAs the bastards commit genocide! Aye! Aye! Genocide!". It made me think about the War on Terrorism and how both sides believe that God is on their side.
Isn't it interesting that every world view thinks that they are right and every other view is wrong? I believe in the Christian God because of two main reasons: 1) because of the fulfilled prophecies and 2) because of His love. I can't think of any other god like that...
Another thing that this song made me think of is all of the times that the Jewish people have been targeted by other nation who tried to wipe them out....'genocide". This has happened all through out history... the Germans, Persians, Babylonians, etc. The way I see it, if the real God wasn't on their side, then they wouldn't be around anymore....so I guess I would fall into the category of people who believe that their world view is the only right one... Peace and Love.