I want to start by saying that these are all my own personal thoughts and things that God has given to me. I don’t have strong support scripturally but I know that you will see my point. I may ramble for a minute to get all my thoughts out there but please bear with me. It will make sense at the end.

Lets begin,

I am sure you all know that marriage is a symbolic picture of Jesus and His bride (the church….you and me) We are called His bride many times in scripture. Simple stuff.

You may be thinking “what does marriage have to do with God allowing man to sin and become condemnable?”

Think of this….

When a man looks for a wife he does not just go pick some random woman and take her as his wife regardless of whether or not she even loves him…. No no… A man will find a woman who wants to be his wife as much as he wants to be her husband. Everyone desires mutual love…. That is how love and marriage work. 2 people have to love each other.

So if we are made in Gods image then why would we expect Him to feel differently?? Why would we expect Him to make a bride for Himself and not also desire that she mutually desire and love Him back??

Starting to make sense???

Going on,

God created man and women… Adam and Eve… The very first marriage… God brought them together and gave Eve to Adam as a wife. A perfect of picture of Jesus and His church…

Why then did God allow man and woman to sin and become susceptible to hell?

This is what I feel God shared with me about this.

God desires a bride who chooses Him back. Just like us. We want to marry a person who wants and desires to marry us. So that’s just it….

What if God allowed man to fall so that we would have to choose Him? So that it would not be God making a bride for Himself who He desired deeply to have but in return never even had the chance or desire to have Him back?? He lets us go about into the world with other idols and gives us the chance to choose to want Him like He wants us…

Maybe I am just crazy but I feel that God gave me this thought.

       Last night I woke up at 4 am and could not sleep again. God urged me to get out of bed and lay face down on the floor so He could speak with me. What He spoke to me really touched and encouraged me and I hope it does the same for you.

    We will start with the concept of dancing. One leads and the other follows. If the leader moves into position to twirl or dip or whatever it is then the follower just goes along with it and the product is a wonderful dance.

So what God spoke to me is this…..

    When we are born again and enter into relationship with the Almighty God of the universe what we are really doing is entering into a life-long, intimate slow-dance with the Creator of the Universe.

God leads…

We follow…

      Occasionally we decide that the fear of not knowing what the next step is or our natural desire to be the leader of our dance(life) causes us to have small mess ups (sin).

This small stumble does not mean the end of our life-long dance. No, not at all. It simply shows us the importance of our role as the follower and our desperate need for a leader.

    Beloved of Christ…. Trust the loving hands of the Lord who loves you. Trust the leading steps of the Almighty One….

Sometimes it may be a bit confusing and sometimes you may not know what is going to come next or if you will be able to do it right…

BUT

Trust in the Leader who is in control of this dance. He will not lead you to stumble.

Just trust and follow and focus on the love of the one who is leading you and stop trying to control what happens next.

He will simply lead you into a beautiful dance that will ultimately not only work out for your good, but also for all those who are gazing on from the outside perspective.

Your obedient following will lead others to desire to begin in the life-long dance that you are part of.

This is Christianity and this is showing the world Christ.

Simply follow.

Isaiah 45:9-13 

9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
 a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
 or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
 or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

11 Thus says the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
“Ask me of things to come;
will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?
12 I made the earth
and created man on it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their host.
13 I have stirred him up in righteousness,
and I will make all his ways level;
he shall build my city
and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,”
says the Lord of hosts.

My first thoughts on this verse are simply drawn to the fact that we are CREATION…. Not CREATOR. Therefore in what way do we have any right to question the works of the Lords hands!!! We are all at His disposal! Thank God then that He is loving and merciful right???

Secondly, my heart is drawn to God’s justice. God is Just. That statement is non retractable and no one can bring it up to question. Even if we wanted to bring it into question we couldn’t! We abandoned and forfeited any chance for us to question the justice of God when we rebelled and sinned against Him. In that instant we lost the right (as if we had any right in the first place). 

Therefore we have NO RIGHT (forfeited by sin) AND NO POWER (creation not creator) to question ANY of the works of the Lords hands!! He is Just to do with each of us as He will!!

BUT THANK GOD AS I SAID EARLIER THAT OUR GOD IS LOVING, PATIENT, MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS.

Prayer: Dearest, Holy, Merciful Lord. Let our hearts understand the height and depths of your justice and the exceedingly abundant mercy and grace of your heart. Lord, do with us what you will and let us stand in submission of your decisions and not harden our hearts to them..

amen. 

littleflurry:

SO GOOD.

The bible talks sooo much about christ and his bride and the marriage of them both and such ya know? so marriage is kinda like a little “heaven on earth” if you get what i mean. kinda like a forshadowing of what heaven will be like! the woman gets to submit to a christlike man and get just a small taste of what heaven will be like to be in full submission to christ and being led soo well :) and the husband gets a forshadowing of how incredibly much christ loves his bride! how important it is to lead her and guide her right! but all we get is just a TINY taste :) but it is a sure piece of heaven on earth :)

cool thought yes??

So God revealed this to me right before we were playing and on stage. Pretty stoked about it.

I have been semi-discouraged lately because I  haven’t had the chance to pray with ANYONE this entire tour other then small requests people send via twitter, facebook, email which is TOTALLY awesome and I am sooo stoked to pray for those also, but it just seemed to me like there was not a lot going on at shows like I would hope.

So my mind started wandering and thinking… well maybe Matt’s message is just getting repetitive and just becoming more habit then heart.. I started wondering if we needed a change until God spoke to me with this.

I have recently been battling the thoughts of “I am not doing enough for God and I need to be doing more to be truly saved” and have been trying to beat it in my head that not a thing we do will ever gain or lose God’s favor. Our “good works” are like dirty rags to Him. NOT to say that we should not do them!! Because we are most definitely save into a life of good works, just not saved BY them!! Jesus did it all. Anyways..

So what God showed me through this… it doesn’t matter what message Matt or anyone feels like speaking that night. Whether it be repetitive or really something burning from your heart, OUR FOCUS IS NOT TO BE ON WORDS BUT ON EXPECTING JESUS TO DO SOMETHING!! We should not worry about what we are saying anywhere near as much as just having FAITH that Jesus is tugging on someones heart!! 

God in NO way responds to our fancy talking and “good prayers” or any of that junk!!

God wants a LIVING FAITH!! A Faith that when we stand up in a crowd of people our personal reputation would cease to exist because all of our focus is on watching and waiting to see what God does rather than what any single person thinks about us!!

So after the show.. I got to pray for 2 people immediately after playing :) God is Great!!!

God responds to Faith.. period.

Love you guys. Be blessed and encouraged. Always be expecting God to work and let your faith be strong!!

and remember… Faith comes by hearing the word of God!

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

littleflurry:

1 more day until I get to see this again!

about time! I miss this every day! :)

wedidithoneybee:

viasquaredd:

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Hey guys!

I am going to start giving guitar lessons on the road! I can teach different techniques, warm ups, etc to just help you guys out with furthering your guitar playing! I will be charging $20 for an hour. Anyone who is interested please email me at samuelpenner@aol.com. I appreciate and love you guys! Can’t wait to see you on the road!

-Sam

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.