Jealous Lover

"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." --{Deutoronomy4:24}

To be honest with you, when used to think of words that describe God, I did not think about "jealousy". For I thought how could God be jealous? God is good. He could never be jealous, because jealousy is wrong. Or so I thought...

That is until I heard about when it is good jealousy. There are times when it is okay to be jealous. Times when it is bad and even harmful. When it came to God, it was a holy anger that burned and was a consuming fire. God's jealousy would be so great that it would be a consuming fire. Think about that everything that He touches was consumed with His holy anger, and His holy jealousy. Have you ever been so jealous? so angry ? that it seems like it consumes you it takes over what you think and do?

It's like a spouse who has just realized that the other is having an affair. One is cheating on the other. One who is giving their all to make things work, has just found out that the other would rather find their love somewhere else. So jealousy consumes the one and takes over all you do. No matter what that spouse does, all they can think about is the other and how they betrayed them. Picturing how they were wronged in their mind and playing it over and over. It consumes their everyday life.

The Israelites came to know God's jealousy first hand. Moses had just led the children of Israel out of Egypt, and all the practices of Egyptians. All the of their evil rituals towards small "gods".

Though even though after all they had seen and experienced, God do for them...the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven...

They still turned to their old ways. Turned to other "gods", other idols. They gave their worship to all those except the one true God.

It is something that still true today. After all we see all God does for us, after it all...we turn our attention to our small "gods", our idols if you will. An idol is anything that you put before God. So what do you make your idol?

When Moses went up to get the ten commandments, God put one that dealt with this subject.

"You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments."---{Exodus 20:5-6}

He tells them to not bow down and serve other gods. To remember the good that God has done for them. How far He has brought them out of slavery. He remembers those who have done good in His name and those who hate Him, and all that He stands for.

Do we remember all that He has done for us? How far He has brought us? and even though we go back to the small gods, He still comes and rescues us. He still loves us.

"The Lord is a jealous God and avenging; the Lord avenges and He is full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and reserves wrath for His enemies." ---{Nahum 1:2}

Sometimes we need a wake up. Yes, God is slow to anger, but He also can act in holy anger. If we let it go on too long, that jealousy becomes a hard lesson. God may use various things to get our attention. Things that shake our foundations and at times bring us to where we have nothing, but the realization that we need God. Let's not wait for it to get that bad, that we need God to do something drastic to get our full attention...

Our God is a jealous God. He wants our love, He wants it more than anything. He wants our worship. (Important note to think about, that...He doesn't "need it"...for He is never is in need...He "wants it")God is a jealous God. "Man's chief end is to glorify God" (Piper) He will be glorified one way or another.

He loves us so much that He could not leave us where we are. He saw where we were going, on our own...so He chose to send His son to die on the cross and save us from our sins. So that way we can be in Heaven with Him.

He wants you. He wants our love. He wants to have a relationship with you. He wants your worship.

So much that it consumes Him...

He is a jealous lover!!!

be still

"Be still, and know that I am God.I will be exalted among the nations,I will be exalted in the earth! " =Psalm 46:10 (esv)

The other day, I was able to spend the day with my Mom. We took time to catch up on all sorts of certain subjects. My mom also told me a story about something she saw while she had been out shopping earlier in the day.

She said she saw this mom out shopping with her two sons. One of the sons was in a stroller and the other close to five. The five year old was trying to get the mother's attention, and the mother seemed to be getting a little frustrated at the time and she turned around and said "be quiet!"

About that time the little one started crying and the Mother decided to cut their shopping trip short. She started pushing that stroller fast on her way out the door. The point of this story that got me, is that at that moment the five year old said with a upbeat voice, as they left...

"I love you Mommy!"

Though the mother was too busy to notice and just kept going.

My mom said at that moment, God showed her something, that sometimes life gets so fast...we get so fast...so caught up that we don't hear the little things. At times we get so busy that we don't hear God say "I love you", we just keep pushing our way through...

Be still...be quiet...rest...reflect on God. Drink of His love, drink deep, drink often.

It seems life is never quiet any more. We seem to fill in the silence with music, talking, computer and anything else... We have come to the point that we can't stand silence.

Are we afraid that if we are quiet, we might hear something we don't want to hear?

we might become vulnerable?

We seem to also busy ourselves. I remember having something that involved church almost each night of the week. Somewhere I thought the more that I take on,the more that I do...The more spiritual I must be. Though I was running myself ragged. For those became empty and meant nothing. For they became fleshly,wordly...instead of doing it for God, I was doing it for self. For some it's church and for others many other various things.

Maybe if we busy ourselves enough we won't have to acknowledge our weaknesses our flaws, that we all have by the way...which shows how much our need for God.

Life doesn't have to be so complicated...Simplify. Cut back on empty rituals...and get back to God.

Everything buys for our attention. What will you allow to have yours? Surrender yourself to God.

Take time to quiet yourself...read your bible...focus on God and all He has done. Let things that need your attention wait (if truly possible)...let yourself rest and reflect and see what is truly important in life. Be quiet and hear God say

"I love you"

Put your head on His chest. If you are quiet enough...you can also hear His heart beating strong for you.

sam's

This sunday afternoon we went to one of the greatest places...Sam's!!!

They have everything there. Everything you could ever want and nothing that you need. When you get there you feel like you want it all though, I mean where else can you get 50 rolls of 2-ply for $3.97!? Don't forget about the free samples!!!

Do we need it?...No but it's there and it looks so good, that we want it, or we think we do...

It's just with in reach.

I could spend all day in there. And spend all my money in there as well. So many ailses, like a never ending labrynth.

Which makes me think...

Here in America. We have everything we could ever want. Think about it. Everything is at our finger tips. We have become a culture that wants more and more. We never really seem to be satisfied.

I also mean that about me. I have a bad habit with music. I like to buy cds. I can never seem to get enough of them. When a new music cd comes out, I can't wait to buy it.

Such much stuff...too much stuff...

Thank goodness that God is everything we need, and He does not always give us what we want (for at times it wouldn't benefit us and bring glory to Him).

We may not always get what we want, But thanks be to God we have everything we need.

In Him, we have joy, we have peace, we have strength, we have favor, we have the power of the living God inside of us.

Why not give to those who do not have everything they need? Sacrifice what you want.

Check out mars hill bible church and see about the opportunity to help those in Africa.

beyond measure

"But as it is written: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never come into a man’s heart, is what God has prepared for those who love Him." =1 Corinthians 2:9

My whole life can really be summed up with the word, "moving". We were always moving. I have 2 older brothers and one younger sister. So there was always a need to have more space.

Right now the Kerr household has moved a total of 5 times (that's not counting my brothers and their families now and me and my wife's future move as well.)

One house I remembered in paticular though that I wanted to share. It was our 3rd house. We had been there at that time for about 13 years. With my oldest brother married and moved out, and now my second brother doing the same it was time to downsize.

So my parents, my sister and I moved into a house that we were renting, during our time of looking for a new house. This house was very interesting...

Where do I start? The ants and bugs coming from everywhere in the house...the bad a/c...Or the constant leaks everywhere in the house. It seemed that during that time that our furniture consisted of plastic trash cans and towels surrounding our carpet. I remember especially, that in our computer room that the leak got so bad, that the roof crumbled down and left the room covered in pink insulation and water.

And we stayed there for 4 months...4 long months!!!

Then something happened. We had come upon a house that literally blew our mind! It was amazing. The guy who had owned it before, had designed it himself and it was only a few years old. It was a two story house, that had all wood floors within. It was truly my Mom's dream come true. It was available and it became ours.

And looking back, that verse became real in my life...

We had never seen anything like this with our eyes, never heard anything like this before, mind has not conceived, or entered into our hearts... all that God has in store for us!!!

I also applied this to life. That rent house, with all it's problems, and all that moving...is this world. With all struggles that we go through downhere. It is just a training ground. A transition stage...While we were there we believed this promise and believed something beyond measure was on it's way! (And it was and it is here as well.)

Then there is heaven. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind conceived, or entered into hearts all that heaven will be like. It will been beyond measure!!! no words will be able to express all that we'll experience!

random thoughts

This is something that has recently been on my mind lately...

There is a verse in the bible, 1 John 1:9, which says,"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

This is a very powerful verse in the Bible. It shows us what a great God we serve.

Though something grabbed my attention on the end of that verse. The word "cleanse" stood out. So I thought about going deeper, and looking up the meaning in the greek. It gave some other word choices, such as "purge" and "purify".

The Dictionary says about "purge"is =to rid, clear, free, rid of impurities, to put to death...
Then "purify" means = free from anything that debases, pollutes,adulterates, or contaminates...

Sometimes I would read this verse and not let it really sink in. I would use it, when I felt I had sinned and needed to be forgiven. Then quote this verse and believe the promise it contains.

Though this forgiving is not all that easy. It is a messy process.

purge...

Think of someone trying to clean a wound or cut. They might put something in it, to clean the wound out. It doesn't always feel good...no at times it hurts. That's because the impurities are working their way out, so that way we can be clean.

purify...

Or like a addict, who is on the road to recovery. That first few weeks (or could be longer), is hard because their body is craving and hurting for that drug of choice. It hurts to cleanse the body of those impurities, and bringing it back how it was made to be.

It hard whenever that purge, cleanse or whatever you want to call it takes place. It will always be different for each. Though it is tough, because it requires a change. A change that takes place on the inside. Remember that forgiveness is not just one sided it takes an effort of two people. God promised to do His, will we do ours?

Thank God that He has the power to work out those impurities, and has the ability to bring us back to how we are made to be.