Come Home

"Come to Me, all [you] who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

"For My yoke [is] easy and My burden is light."

Matthew 11:28-30

A couple days ago I was switching between radio stations. For the record, I normally don't listen to much radio, usually I just

have music being played through my Ipod. Fact is I don't

really like any of the radio stations in the Spokane Wa. area..

which is pretty much standard local radio, you got your Christian

stations, most popular probably being Air 1 and your mainstream

pop/rock stations, what you would find in any state really..

If I happen to be in the car listening to the radio I do a lot

of switching between stations. Air 1 is barely tolerable for me

as I am not a fan of most Contemporary Christian Music, once

in awhile they'll play something I actually like more often then not

though it seems to be a repetitive stream over and over again of

the same songs. Same thing can be said for the local Rock station

here Rock 94 1/2. Anyways I figured I'd check out Rock 94 1/2

and listen to some new mainstream rock..maybe I wanted to

annoy myself I don't know, the point is I was listening and this

song came on and it sounded pretty good, lyrically it sounded

like the style and flow of something I would write,

that is when I was writing a lot of poetry/lyrics.

The vocals sounded somewhat familiar to me but I couldn't

figure out who it was.

Then the chorus started and I sat there perplexed at what was

being said. Well not really perplexed per-say, the whole

chorus very much reminded me of who I use to be, how I use

to think and had in every aspect the same type of mood and feel

of what I would cling to when I was blind.

Don't get it TwiSted, i'm not crapping on the band…

or going into a tirade on how messed up I think they are.

This is about how I take the lyrics, and looking at them through

a Christ-like perspective.

I'm sure you are wondering what song I'm talking about,

it's called "Fix Me" by 10 Years, a band I am familiar with as

I had their first album. Just to be clear, 10 years doesn't

claim to be Christian, to my knowledge nobody in the band does..

personally I didn't even know they were still around, and really

I shouldn't be surprised by the lyrics as it's coming from

a secular band and the meaning of the song I would be supporting

today if God didn't change my unrepentant heart.

It's taken a lifetime to lose my way A lifetime of yesterdays All the wasted time on my hands turns to sand And fades in the wind Crossing lines, small crimes Taking back what is mine I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me So lost for so long to find to my way I failed to follow, I'm out of place Crossing lines, small crimes Taking back what is mine I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me I would assume that screams to you what it did me. The chorus is very humanistic centered..very self imposing...a very anti God message. A I'm going to do things my way even if it's destructive and don't care attitude. Really it's the view of the worldly person who complains about there life being crappy or how bad the world is but at the same time screams I don't need fixing. I'm fine in the fire I feed on the friction I'm right where I should be Don't try and fix me Simply says "I'm fine with self-destruction, I'm fine with burning" "I feed on the sin you hate, it pushes and motivates me and I enjoy it" "I'm right where I should be, and thats away from you" "Don't try to fix me I don't need fixing...I love who I am and everything I am is against you" I don't think it takes a rocket scientists to see that a person who claims they don't need fixing is unrepentant and delusional. Kinda hard to find God when you think you are God. I found the song interesting, and it really motivated me to write after listening to it, so I pretty much wrote lyrics in reply to it. It's called "Come Home" Its been years since you've been sober, Just want life to be over. every desire under the sun brings you back where you started from can't see the lies in your excuses redefine all your reasons BLIND in your selfish state of mind. Don't sleep in your failures Reluctant to see your forgiven Salvation comes -and- you.. are free to come home Don't sleep in your failures Reluctant to see your forgiven Salvation comes -and- you.. are free to come home Repent from your freedoms These chains can no longer hold you Your demons will only devour If you don't surrender this hour for Christ was pierced through To fulfill what you can't do but you... can't see the lies in your excuses redefine all your reasons BLIND in your selfish state of mind. Don't sleep in your failures Reluctant to see your forgiven Salvation comes -and- you.. are free to come home Don't sleep in your failures Reluctant to see your forgiven Salvation comes -and- you.. are free to come home Your weakness is you, worst enemies.. but still you continue, feeding all your desires until you find it doesn't fix.. now you sit eyes transfixed looking within to find help again, not realizing God came in the form of man and only through Him can you ever find happiness. You were meant for so much more then you've settled for and you... can't see the lies in your excuses redefine all your reasons BLIND in your selfish state of mind. Don't sleep in your failures Reluctant to see your forgiven Salvation comes -and- you.. are free to come home Don't sleep in your failures Reluctant to see your forgiven Salvation comes -and- you.. are free to come home

Patience in Faith

"By your patience possess your souls."

Luke 21:19

By patience in your faith, by repentance…take heed,

let not your faith crumble do not worry or tarry

for the gift of salvation is yours.

Lay your burdens to rest, at ease with all things in life,

Our Father creator of the Universe is in control. Patience

brothers/sisters, onward Christian soldier in your walk

with our Lord and savior. Again patience…by faith you walk,

and by faith in the one true God you stand, do not let

the cares of YOUR life affect your walk, In this world

with it's distractions, it's easy to forget what is important,

it's easy to worry and stress and even become diluted

in self grandeur. This life of self is what our culture thrives on…

self-improvement

self-importance

self-Idolatry

Which is why there is so much

worry/stress

un-fulfilment

depression

suicide

A generation with immoral values because we don't live

accountable to anyone, and we live for our pleasure, our glory,

all for our satisfaction. We are our own man centered philosophy,

and we measure ourselves by our ideals NOT by the creator

of the universe, not by God who gave us life in the first place.

God didn't create you to get pleasure out of yourself, He created you to glorify Him, created you for His own pleasure and will..NOT yours.

Looking to SELF, no matter how much you want to, you'll never

find perfection or God, because simply put only God is perfection. There is only one GOD, and you can have an actual relationship with Him and one day be in His very presence because of Jesus Christ taking the wrath we deserve.

So why do we constantly look at OUR happiness? and OUR

pleasure and OUR will and NOT God's? I'm not even talking about the spiritually blind, I'm talking about those who claim

to know Christ, and yet have no patience in their walk…

have no patience in the faith and live exactly like the spiritually

blind world does..

self-improvement

self-importance

self-Idolatry

Where is God's glory? when is He magnified and glorified?

When is He put first when you are worrying

more about getting pleasure out of this world? When you are worrying about fulfilling the American dream rather then Gods plan for your life.

How is God put first when you care more about trivial

worldly blessing then you do HONORING Him.

When is God put first when you know more about Hollywood

gossip and a television show then you do His Word.

Even more true, How is He glorified by you just knowing

the word? Christ said "Follow"…He said "Do"…not

"Think about"…"just believe"

We all need to get our priorities straight, Honor God and give Him glory, surrender your will and stop worrying and stressing

over things, have patience and FAITH that God is in control.

Seek to glorify God NOT yourself, not for salvation because that

isn't earned it is and was given by the grace of God, and knowing this we surrender and give honor to Him seeking for His will to be done.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence,

add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,

to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

For if these things are yours and abound, [you] will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

1 Peter 1:5-9

For your own Good

The LORD showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

One basket [had] very good figs, like the figs [that are] first ripe; and the other basket [had] very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad."

Jeremiah 24:1-3

Putting Jeremiah 24 in historical perspective, This time in history King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has already come to Judah and he took as prisoners King Jeconiah(Jehoiachin) and his mother along with all the captains and mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all craftsmen and smiths. (2 Kings 24:13-16) Nebuchadnezzar left the poorest people in the land and then made Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah King, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

So Judah at this time was wiped clean, Jeremiah was there amongst the poorest in the land, while all the men of valor and builders and craftsmen, all the strongest and most useful were taken into exile to Babylon. So in Jeremiah 24 the LORD shows Jeremiah two baskets of figs, one basket has good figs and the other basket has bad figs…which Jeremiah can easily see, and then the LORD says..

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for [their own] good, into the land of the Chaldeans.

'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull [them] down, and I will plant them and not pluck [them] up.

Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I [am] the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

Jeremiah 24:4-7

God is painting a picture for Jeremiah, He is using the example of the bad and good figs for a purpose. God says that those who were exiled into Babylon are the good figs, are you following this? Would it not seem more logical in OUR eyes that the good figs would be the ones who are still living in the land? Isn't it not more logical to think that the bad figs would be the one God let the Babylonians take away into their pagan land? But no, God says he sent them away for THEIR OWN GOOD, these same people who didn't listen to Jeremiah, these same people who said "God wouldn't let us be defeated" these same people who didn't realize how far they've fallen, God says He has sent them away for their own good. God even says that He will give them a heart for HIM!

THINK about this, here is the tribe of Judah living in the land God promised them, and they get taken away in chains to be slaves to a Babylonian Pagan empire(Daniel being one of these slaves) and God allowed it to happen for their own good. You see, this is a perfect example, just one of the perfect examples in the bible that we give God glory in GOOD and BAD. Things happen sometimes that we can't explain or understand.

God allowed it for a reason, trials and pains they come and go, the important thing is we continue giving God glory in good and bad, especially when it seems like everything is going wrong I.e not the way we think it should be going. God used the exile of Israel, the prisoners in Babylon and said He would bring them back, He would build them up and He would give them a heart for Him.

The exile wasn't something they wanted and it was hell to go through, and living in a foreign pagan land doesn't sound like a Blessing to me, but in the end it was, because through it.. God saved them, through it and by the grace of God their hearts were opened up. God made them realize how far off the path they were.

God is absolutely in control, and he deserves all honor and glory at all times. Nothing surprises Him, and in the end it's all apart of His plan.

I pray that all who are reading, and for myself that we would give God all glory, that no matter what we are going through, no matter how big our troubles look… realize that God is much bigger!

just honor Him..

just surrender..

Those who know my testimony know that I failed in this, I didn't give God glory, I didn't have faith or even ask why? I went straight to cursing God when I was going through a transplant. I now know everything happens for a reason, and although it wasn't an ideal situation and their were and are obvious struggles, I know now that I wouldn't want to change a thing, that it took this situation for Him to open my eyes. What I thought was a bad situation at the time, I know now it was for my own good, so God could give me a heart to know Him.

Seek God in struggles and tribulations because they will come,

and hope can only be found in God, we are confident in our Faith.

Confident that God will give us peace, Confident in the fact that our health and well being ,

riches and fame are all meaningless without a surrendering selfless life in Christ.

Humble...young man...Humble

The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly,

not for dishonest gain but eagerly;

nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

1 Peter 5:1-4

I want you to read that….wait, actually before you read any more, before you read any blog post of mine(Brothers/Sisters in Christ), I want you to pray to Almighty God, pray that He reveals Himself through what you are reading, Pray that He reveals whatever scripture I am quoting, gives you complete understanding and knowledge in that scripture.

Look at what Peter is saying "Shepherd the flock not by Compulsion..but willingly" I.e not by force, not by your irrational motives. "Not for dishonest gain..but eagerly; Nor as being lords over those entrusted to you."

What does he mean by "lords?" what does that even mean? It means a person who has authority over others. I.E don't shepherd people like you are the authority. You must always point people to God and what He says,

without puffing yourself up in the process.

Yeah, you can just read over all that is being said in 1 Peter 1-5 and be like "yeah ok", and maybe even say "yeah this is for clergy men or preachers" but no!

this is for everyone.

A lot of people like to puff themselves up, they like to think because they know this scripture or that scripture or because they can quote this or that, that they're better then a brother or sister in Christ, or better then a non-believer in general. Yet we must remember, we are not to put ourselves or our knowledge on pedestals, who gave us said knowledge? God, that is who we glorify..NEVER ourselves. To put what Peter is saying in even more simplistic terms; Yes indeed, some of us may have more knowledge of the word. Some of us may have a closer walk with Christ, but it is not US that we are to glorify for that.

We also don't lord our knowledge over others like we are to be praised for it, we share what we have learned and give all glory to God. For nothing that I have or you have is worth boasting about, for it all comes from God almighty. We share what God has revealed through His word and our lives with each other, not to praise ourselves but to praise God, not to gain knowledge of ourselves but to gain knowledge of God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God,not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For who makes you differ [from another]? And what do you have that you did not receive?

Now if you did indeed receive [it],

why do you boast as if you had not received [it]?

1 Corinthians 4:7

Why do you boast of which you didn't achieve?

It's not about "look at what i've done.." "Look at what knowledge I have" it's ALL about look at what Christ has done, look at what God has given.

It would be like if I got injured in a basketball game, and then the person who came into the game for me.. hit the game winning shot, and then I ran around boasting about how awesome I am.

putting yourself on a pedestal and lording your knowledge of God on others isn't how you shepherd, the knowledge you've gained by Gods grace and through the Holy spirit isn't for the purpose of YOUR GLORY! It IS NOT for you to hold in and puff yourself up with, and to show how great you are and knowledgeable….NO

It's for Gods GLORY! you humble yourself and you share what knowledge you've gained with others so that they may also boast in GOD and what He has done for them.

Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to [your] elders. Yes, all of [you] be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for

God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.

Surely He scorns the scornful,

But gives grace to the humble.-(Proverbs 3:34)

Therefore humble yourselves

under the mighty hand of God,

that He may exalt you in due time,

casting all your care upon Him,

for He cares for you.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

1 Peter 5:5-8

Interesting is it not? Do you not see what Peter is saying?

do you not see how much he is warning?

Look how he says to humble yourselves to be submissive to one another, he is talking about young people to respect older…yes, but ALL to be submissive to each other. Again not to lord knowledge over each other, not to put yourselves above each other but to be clothed inhumility.

Can we safely say we are this way? I know I can't say I have been in every situation. Notice how Peter warns of humbleness,submissiveness and then as it would seem brings the Devil up out of nowhere? But he brought him up for a reason didn't he, it's because satan is the ultimate form of prideful, the classic example, the king of pridehimself. So Peter warns us if we don't humble ourselves before God, if we start to get on the path of self righteousness and lording our knowledge over others, and boasting in ourselves we are being children of the devil in danger of being overwhelmed and devoured by him.

Pride [goes] before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

"A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God’s power that he is upheld and provided for, and that he needs God’s wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him."

Jonathan Edwards

100% Silver

I scream and shout

don't do that man

it doesn't glorify God,

and I scream and shout

FATHER FORGIVE ME

I am not living up to the image you created me to be

...I read your word today…

.

don't know how I do without

.

...I read your word today…

.

it tore me inside out

The line is right there in front of me

straight and narrow to eternity

but here I am, like a drunk man,

stumbling and falling... not able to stand.

I put your name to shame

as I fall out of place

SCREAMING come save me LORD

because I'm unrighteous to the core…

...I read your word today…

.

don't know how I do without

.

...I read your word today…

.

it tore me inside out

Is this it? you saved this?

for what purpose?

I can't promise I won't disappoint you!

every breath I take is undeserving

just calling on your name

LORD I AM NOT WORTHY

I'm evil…spiteful, wicked and undesirable

LORD JESUS you LOVE ME? HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?!

My works are like filthy rags

SO WHAT DO I HAVE TO OFFER?!

I'm nothing…i'm nobody

my words mean nothing, promises of being Holy for you

are like little pieces of paper that disintegrate in your Holy waters.

LORD WHAT DO I HAVE TO OFFER?

Your 100% pure silver

I'm like a rusted tin can of dirt..

Yet you say you'll take this worthless material

and make it new, make it 100% pure like you

LORD WHAT DO I HAVE TO OFFER?!

The answer is NOTHING

yet you refine this unclean soul

through the wrath I deserved….

took my wickedness and faced the punishment

Now I offer this life of servitude

dying daily to the flesh you've subdued