Hungry?

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled” Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

What does it mean to hunger?

 According to the Apple dictionary, it means –to have a strong desire or craving

  We all know the sense of hunger.  We all get it at one point or another.  Some get it more than others.  We all have that point in a day where we can hear our stomach telling us to get some food to satisfy our needs.  It tells us that we need some sustenance to put in our bellies to give us energy to burn and the vitamins and minerals that we need to continue living. 

  Once you feel this hunger, what do you do? You will more than likely find something to eat, and eat it.  It’s really not that difficult of a concept.  When you are hungry, eat some food! 

  Though this may seem quite simple, many Christians lose this understanding when it is applied to spiritual matters.  Oftentimes, we as Christians cry out to God, “We are hungry for You.  We crave Your presence.  We want to see Your face.” Now inherently, this is not a bad thing to tell God.  It is imperative that we discuss with God our desires and our hearts cry.  These statements become a problem when the hunger stops there.  If a Christian cries out to God that they are hungry for Him, but spend no time in His word, how do they expect God to fill them.  That might work for babies.  All they have to do is start crying and they are fed.  However, we are not babies forever(thank the Lord!)  We eventually learn how to feed ourselves.  We learn how to use utensils that help us eat more effectively.

It makes no logical sense for a hungry person to not eat food that is provided for them.  It would be pure stupidity.  Yet we as Christians do that exact thing!  We hunger but when we are provided with food, we don’t eat and continue to tell of our hunger. 

 Matthew 6:33 (NLT) “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

  The wise thing to do in this situation is to take the food we have been given, the word of God.  If we hunger for God’s presence, we should read the book that describes his presence in a million different ways through a million different people.  If we wish to see his heart, we should read the book full of people moved by God’s everlasting love and eternal faithfulness. 

  The best part of this is that once you start feasting on who God is and how He moves, your appetite only becomes whetted.  What you thought beforehand would satisfy your desires, only leaves you begging for more!  You just want to eat and eat.  This is how it should be.  Us spending our time every day in God’s word and in fellowship with Him.  Talking with Him. Praising Him.  Worshipping Him.  Loving Him.

  When I was a growing lad, my mother always called me a bottomless pit, because I ate so much.  My eating habits have since changed as I have grown wiser about the care of God’s temple, but that is what our spirit man should be.  We should be bottomless pits in the spirit.  Always getting more of the word and God’s presence. 

 In summation:

If you are hungry, then eat.  If you want to see God, open your eyes and look at Him.  He’s everywhere.  Don’t let the confines of religion make this more complicated than it is. 

 My prayer to day is this:

 That I never quit spending time with God and that I grow closer to Him daily.  That I eat when I am hungry and that I open my eyes when I need to see.

 

P.S.  Just in case you didn’t realize this, God is an awesome God.  He supplies your every need, He protects you from danger, and He loves you with such an insurmountable love that no human mind can comprehend the depth or power of it (by their own power).  Ephesians 3:18

God Bless You!

Red Letter Redneck Day!

Today was a great day! It started out with an awesome time of fellowshipping with God and digging into his word.  After losing track of time I ate lunch and went snake hunting by Gillespie lake. 

 There we sharpened a broomstick and attempted to spear big 'ol bullfrog tadpoles.  Sadly, we were not successful.  Oh well.  I then proceeded to watch a couple of 24 episodes.  

Great Stuff!  For dinner I enjoyed a good 'ol fashioned Crawfish Boil!   MMM... MMM.. Good! Everything tasted great and the corn was very spicy.  Just the way I like it!  

And to top it off,  I have strike for a show tonight.  That always involves some good man work! gggrrr ugh ugh!(Man Grunts) And finally hitting the sack after a good day's work, with a little sunburn!

The Fellowship

 

Romans 6:11 (AMP)

Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

Fellowship - companionship,companionability, sociability, comradeship, camaraderie, friendship,mutual support; togetherness,

I'd like to keep this one simple.  One of the most foundational and fulfilling parts of christianity is fellowship with God.  The more time I fellowship with God, the more I love Him and appreciate Him. 

Another beautiful thing about fellowship, is when you fellowship with fellow believers, God can use them to encourage you and lift you up.  So inadvertently, while fellowship-ping with my friends, I ended up fellowship-ping with God too.

Isn't God Great!!!!!!! 

My prayer to day is this:

That God bless those who I enjoyed fellowship with tonight.  That they stay warm and they continualy see new sides of God.

P.S. Jackie & Jesse, Ya'll are awesome!  Love Ya'll!

Homeward Bound

As a child, this had to be one of my favorite movies.  It always astounded me how diligent the animals were in finding their way home.  Obviously, home was an extremely important thing to them.  As I contemplated this,  I began to realize that  it wasn’t the town itself that the animals cared about.  Instead, it was the people who lived in that town that daily devoted time to love the animals.  This is seen by the multiple lines of the animals concerning their owners. 

           

            This leads me to the joyous conclusion that home is not about a place, but people.  Throughout my life, I have traveled a moderate amount and met a lot of people.  However, always I have had one home.  That is the beautiful town of Fort worth, Texas.  I have lived their all my life.  If you’ve never been there, you need to pack up and head there right now! Well….not really, but you get the idea. But as my conclusion stated the beauty of Fort Worth is not in its inherent beauty, but in its people. 

 

            At this moment, I believe it is appropriate to give a brief description of these people.  Imagine that a million tough circumstances hit you all at the same time.  Well, it was my friends, both related and not, that helped me get through these things.  These friends would pray with me, encourage me, advise me, impart wisdom into my life, prophesy over me, and smile at me when I needed it the most.  Are they perfect? No. As great as they are, no human is perfect.  But But I love them anyway.  So to all of you, thank you so much!  Ya’ll are awesome!

 

            But when I began college, I began a process of adding another home.  It was an interesting experience; leaving everything I ever knew to go out on my own to an unfamiliar place.  But thanks to my Lord and Savior, I easily transitioned into this new place He called me to.  I have met some really awesome people that I get to work and fellowship with daily.  I especially enjoy the nights where the guys get together and get sucked into the world of 24! For anyone who hasn’t seen 24, you are missing out on one of the most well written, well produced, and well acted show!  It is pretty much the Best Show EVER!!!!!  But anyway, God has truly blessed me with awesome friends in Jackson. 

 

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”

 

It has been a great first year and I am extremely excited about what God has planned for me in the next three years!  I will definitely enjoy these last few weeks at school but I already feel the pull to be homeward bound.  As this season is closing, another begins.  God has got some awesome things planned for this summer that are going to radically change people’s lives.  I’m excited, thrilled, and exhilarated that I get to be a part of it. 

 

My prayer to day is this:

 

            That God will bless and comfort all of those people that I have come into contact with.  I pray that they ever increase in their capacity to love and that they continually seek the one that made them and gave them a purpose in life.

PS. Jack Bauer is the ultimate man!