Sensory Overload

Sensory Overload

Let me start today off with an apology. It has been a week and a half since I posted and I am sorry for the time gap, I promised a weekly post and I failed to deliver. Thank you for coming back though, I'm so excited you decided to click on the link and come here. Today is about taking scripture and maybe seeing it in a different light. 

The passage for the week is found in 1 Kings 18:20-40, now it is super long and so I am not going to post it here exactly. Here is a link that you can read it at though: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2018&version=ESV For those of you who don't feel like following the link, let me summarize very quickly what occurs in this passage. A man named Elijah is a prophet of God, and the evil king Ahab has decided to challengethe fact that Elijah is truly a prophet of God. So Elijah being the clever man he is decides to have a showdown between the God of Israel and the god of Ahab, Baal. 

They meet on top of Mt. Carmel under these terms, two bulls will be chosen and prepared for sacrifice. They will put the bull on an altar but not set it on fire. Whichever God answers by calling down fire on the sacrifice must be the true God. An important note is that Elijah is the only prophet for his God, but Baal has 450 prophets. Baal is up first and his prophets do the preparations and start signing and dancing calling down for fire. Nothing happens. Elijah pokes fun at them and throws some sarcastic comments their way while this occurs. The prophets of Baal then start cutting themselves, as was their tradition. Still....nothing happens. After a few hours of this, Elijah steps up and says that it is his turn. He builds his altar and then digs a trench around it. He pours about 14 liters of water on his offering, and decides it's not wet enough. So he does it again, and again. After all of this water is on the sacrifice, he calls up to God. He answers. A pillar of fire comes down from heaven and burns up all of the water and the bull. Winner=God of Israel.

Now this may be a story that some are familiar with, but maybe some are not. Now here is where we are going with today, sometimes we hear the stories of the bible so many times that we become complacent to them. We become hardened against the wonders that the bible holds as these don't seem relative to us. Imagine if you were there though. We are going to walk through the story a little differently. Just like you are experiencing where you are right now, using your senses.

What would we smell if we were there? I imagine people are sweaty. There are two bulls being slaughtered for sacrifice. I've never been around a dead bull before, but if it sat out in the sun for hours I can't imagine it smelling too pleasant. 

What would we taste? Sweat rolling off your lip as you watch this process occur. It doesn't mention people bringing food to this instance, I can image that I would be picturing what had I eaten for breakfast that day, what was I going to eat for lunch? 

Touch? There are tons of people gathered around for this. The god that they worship has just been called out by this man. He calls them liars in essence because they worship something that's not real. People are crowded on top of Mt. Carmel. I can even imagine trying to push through crowds trying to find a better vantage point to see. 

Hearing would be huge. There are 450 people dancing, screaming, and cutting themselves right in front of you. I picture people cheering for their favorite musician before they come on stage for a concert. Only the performer would never show for these priests. Crowds laughing at Elijah's taunts to the priests. People questioning why Elijah is pouring water on his sacrifice. How foolish of him to wet his sacrifice if he wants it to burn. The insults and the shame being thrown at Elijah.

Then we see it though. We see literal fire fall from the sky. No small amount either! A pillar of fire comes down and consumes this sacrifice! I'm sure we can feel the heat as this massive wonder appears in front of our very eyes! God has been called upon and we SEE Him answer. How amazing would it be to see God answering with a pillar of fire in front of your very eyes. 

You see the bible isn't just a collection of stories. Someone didn't write these out of fiction deciding that the people of today should have another book to read when they finish Harry Potter. No, these are real stories lived out by real people. By putting ourselves in the story and trying to imagine how it was in their time, we can more easily see how these lessons apply to our lives today.

Thank you for reading and God bless. 

Disguise

Disguise

 Ephesians 2:8-10

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Our passage this week discusses an idea that all of us will face at one time in our lives, or maybe you are going through it right now. This passage and this message apply to you, no matter who you are, because we are each made in the image of God. If you stop reading right here and see nothing else, I want you to know that God loves you and carefully designed every aspect of what makes you you. 

This weekend I attended a convention in Atlanta and people dressed up for this convention in extremely elaborate costumes. It was quite an experience to see and be around as you saw people not responding to their real names but rather to the names of the characters that they had dressed up as. All weekend I got to see people be so comfortable in the skin that they were wearing it gave the entire city a sense of self confidence that I have not seen in many places before.

I was reminded of this passage in Ephesians, as it discusses that we are God's workmanship. God put careful time and thought into each of our lives. He allowed us to all be a unique individual that is a part of the incredible whole of humanity. Yet I had to ask myself why I don't receive this same sense of confidence everyday as I did this weekend at the convention. 

Why was it that walking around with fantasy characters seemed more comfortable than walking around my own college campus. That's when the truth really sunk in, comfort. It seems that in today's world we have no comfort. There is some flaw in each of us that we hold onto, whether it be our looks or our personality, something is always holding us back. We can't seem to shed the discomforts of the flaw, and thus we aren't able to be comfortable in the wonders God has blessed us with. As verse 8 mentions, it is not by us that we have achieved this. It is a gift, God didn't have to make us fearfully and wonderfully made. God could have made us all average humans who just mindlessly turn around and praise Him. 

That wouldn't be love though, that wouldn't be a choice on our part. You see I firmly believe that God has made each of us incredible so that in the end we see we are reflections of an even greater God. Verse 9 even states this, so that no man may boast. So what is it? What are you holding onto right now that is denying your vision of being made in God's masterpiece. You see a masterpiece isn't put underneath a blanket. The Mona Lisa isn't sitting in a closet, it's out on display for all to see the wonderful work that was created.

God calls us to do the same. Now once again, I'm not telling you the bible wants you to walk onto the street corner and say, "Everyone look at me! I'm so incredible and oh yeah God made me too." That would be awkward and people might throw things at you, but rather embrace the fact that you, in your entirety, were created by a marvelous God.

I'll close with this idea, some of you may think to yourselves I don't know how I could be God's workmanship. I've failed too many times, I've done too many bad things, I'm not a good person. I've let God down and I don't know how I could ever be a reflection of Him. The Skit Guys used this phrasing exactly in their skit God's Chisel: "'I let you down so many times God.' 'No my child, you were never holding me up. I hold you up with my victorious righteous right hand. Never forget that, in this relationship I hold you up.'" He holds up His masterpiece, we just have to be willing to accept His love. 

Thank you for reading and God bless.