What a Dark Cloud Really Means

There’s this great song called “My Soul Longs For You” by Jesus Culture. I’ve heard it lots of times, and even have it on my iPod, but today I listened to it- and learned something completely new. 

One line, just one line, says, “I see the cloud and I know the rain is coming.”

So many times we ask God to pour out His Rain on us and our lives. And He does. 

But sometimes, before we feel the rain, it gets dark. Dry. Darker. More dry. 

We cry out, “God where are You?!” We face trials. 

We feel worn out and thirsty, desperate for some rain.

So I got thinking about what happens before a real-life rain shower...?

Well, it gets dark. Really dark. Something about the air changes. Sometimes there is thunder and lightning and still no rain. And it just looks totally and completely awful.

Then the winds change. And usually out of nowhere, the rain comes. It pours and the beautiful earth soaks in it. The flowers and trees drink it up, desperate to be filled.

That is what I want to happen to me: I want to get desperate before God. 

I want to trust that the gloomy sky doesn’t mean the end of the world, but that the rain is on it’s way. I want to trust that the dark cloud is not a sign of despair, but a promise of a Cool Drink to a thirsty soul. My soul. 

Click on the link below to listen to the song I was telling you about. It's pretty catchy! And it's also a little twist on the Let it Rain song... 

My Soul Longs for You by Jesus Culture

The Walls Came Tumbling Down

It always amazes me that I can hear a story dozens of times and still not really get it...

I grew up singing the “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho...” song. I knew the story. God’s people did what God said- and God brought victory.

I guess my seven-year-old self enjoyed the story or the song because I remembered it all these years, but I hadn’t yet learned.

Joshua was commanded by God to lead His people. The land of Jericho was to be their land. Unfortunately, the people of Jericho weren’t too thrilled about giving it away. They’d have to fight. To make the odds stack higher against Joshua, the city was surrounded by a huge wall.

Then, at the risk of being completely humiliated, Joshua (who had just spoken to a man of God) had to tell the people that they would gain victory by marching around the wall. Once a day, for six days. And seven times, on day seven.

I’m sure at least one person said, “Really Joshua?! I’ve got this great new sword that I really wanna use.. couldn’t we fight this battle with some weapons?”

I’m sure that more than one person agreed with him. Yet, they did exactly as God commanded them. They displayed crazy, victory-making-faith by simply doing what God said. Yes, they looked odd. Yes, they were laughed at. And Yes, God showed up.

In the radical and illogical situation, God made a way. Just as He did at the Red Sea, He worked and brought victory against all odds. And because of His past miracles, the people of Jericho feared the Israelites (Joshua 6:1). It’s funny how I never even knew that part.

So what have I learned/relearned from the story of the battle of Jericho?

Well, for some reason, I see so clearly that the battle of Jericho was a miracle. 

There is no way that marching around a wall should make it fall, but it did. 

There is no way that the Israelites should have won that battle, but they did. 

God calls us to have crazy-faith. He wants us to trust Him and His mighty power. He wants to give us a Promised Land, even if common sense says No way!

He wants to fight the battle and bring victory. If we could just obey Him..

Ah, obedience. There is the lesson learned. Obedience is the strongest weapon we have. It is stronger than the sword. It is stronger than your own plan. Why? Because obedience is self-sacrificial. It’s  Not-my-way-Lord in action.

When we deny ourselves and just obey God, we open the door for God to do whatever He chooses. When we rely on our own power, our own weapons, we fail miserably. You see, we need God. 

On my own, I am not strong/perfect/good enough to do anything worthwhile. But when I just obey, I allow God’s power to take control and go exceedingly above my own little expectations.

Obey God. And watch the walls fall down.

Omnipresent

I work with preschoolers. They are crazy, but they often say or ask something really profound.

Tuesday was one of those days for me. A little girl showed me a picture from the Bible Stories book, a picture portraying the story of the Good Samaritan. My Man #3 story. The compassion story. (A theme of my life it seems.) The little girl excitedly asked me to tell the story. A new girl, who has never heard the story before, joined our little circle.

She stared, eyes wide, as I told her that TWO men “walked on by” without helping the hurt man. We talked about compassion again, what it means, and how God shows us compassion and wants us to show compassion to others. The new girl asked quite seriously, “So where is God exactly?”

“In Heaven,” a sweet girl answered.

“And in your heart if you ask Him,” I added.

A few minutes later, the new girl was off playing- and the sweet girl said to me, “So how can God be in so many places at the same time??”

She was very curious. She’s a pretty quick girl for her age, so I told her that I had a huge word to teach her, that I knew she would understand: Omnipresent.

“Ooomniiipresent,” she said back slowly.

“Yes,” I said, “that big word means that God can be everywhere, all at the same time. He’s in Heaven and your heart and at the beach and at Mommy’s job and in your house! Pretty cool, huh? God is the only one who can do that all at the same time.”

She looked at me, with eyes that looked genuinely and perfectly happy.

One of the teachers asked me to pick out a book to read later. I grabbed a kiddie book on Jonah.

I read that Jonah didn’t want to obey God because he wanted the people of Nineveh to be punished (how anti-compassion!) so he tried to hide from God. He got on a boat, going the opposite direction. He even got swallowed by a whale. But he couldn’t get away from God. Because God is everywhere. 

Yes, in Nineveh. 

Yes, on the boat. 

Yes, in the dark belly of the whale.

The sweet girl’s face lights up. She blinks and sits a bit straighter. She looks at me- and I can see that she gets it.

Omnipresent.

The kids share what they learned from our Jonah story. They said simple (and a few non-Jonah-related) things. But they shared how God is always with us and that He loves us.

And in just a few minutes’ time, we changed gears. We ate snack and watched The Lion King.

But my heart is still in that moment. 


And though I've heard the story of Jonah more times than I can count, it's different this time. Usually it's, Oh, God sees us wherever we are and He knows if we're bad... But instead I'm thinking, Even at my lowest, God's there. Even if I were in the belly of a whale, God's Perfect Love would reach me. 


I can't escape it, and I wouldn't want to.

Omnipresent. He is here. 

He is in my heart, home, car, and workplace.

He is (I pray) in yours.

He is in the busy city.

He is in the tiny, undiscovered tribe.

He is in a genuine “I’m sorry.”

He is in a leap for joy.

He is in the compassion-tears.

Omnipresent. He is here and there, at the same time.

God is in these moments, always showing us and teaching us and bringing growth.

He is omnipresent, always with me, always with you. 

"Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the Lord. “No, I am far away at the same time. Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord.

~Jeremiah 23: 23-24

All God Wants is: "Yes"

I’ve said before how the promise-hunting began in Psalms for me. Well, I also found answers to questions that used to haunt me when I was younger. Looking back, I see how far I’ve come. No, not perfect- just progressing.

Reading the Word of God is what is really radically changing the way I think. I don’t want to think like everyone else. I want to be transformed by Christ and think completely different.

So I’ve also said before how I grew up in church. Something that used to be really hard for me was the hypocrisy. I saw many people come to church and get some of God, but then curse and gossip in the school bathroom. It was beyond hard for me not to judge them for being so fake. I hated seeing them do whatever they wanted and never getting caught. I knew I had to be careful so I didn’t become them, but also felt like I was being unfairly treated by God.

I guess you could say I was having a David moment. I was confused and wanted to know why people who do wrong succeed?!

So I sat down one day to look for some promises, and found Psalms 73. Verses 1-8, 13 are below: 

Surely God is good to Israel,
    to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
    I had nearly lost my foothold. 

For I envied the arrogant
    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

They have no struggles;
    their bodies are healthy and strong.

They are free from common human burdens;
    they are not plagued by human ills.

Therefore pride is their necklace;
    they clothe themselves with violence. 

From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
    their evil imaginations have no limits.

They scoff, and speak with malice;
    with arrogance they threaten oppression.

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
    and have washed my hands in innocence.

After reading that, it was like a flashback to those moments where I encountered fake “Christians”. Then I kept reading and discovered something else. Verses 16-17 are below:

When I tried to understand all this,
    it troubled me deeply

till I entered the sanctuary of God;
    then I understood their final destiny.

Ahh, so it’s okay if this troubles me sometimes. It’s okay if I don’t understand. But when that happens, I better enter the sanctuary of God! I better get to His house fast, so God can teach me. Sometimes we really just need to get into the presence of God.

There’s a song that I heard called “Yes” by Shekinah Glory Ministry. I heard it for the first time after a sermon in my youth group. It’s words are powerful and life-changing if they become your prayer. “My heart and soul says Yes.”

The words also brought a challenge and an explanation. This desire to know why people could do bad things and not get caught, but I couldn’t- was answered in that song. (Actually, it's from Luke 12:48!) But on that night of the sermon, with Shekinah Glory Ministry playing, I heard it clearly: “There is more that I require of thee.” Over and over that line is repeated- and it stuck with me. 

I can’t do whatever I want, because God requires more from me. 

I can’t listen to the trashy music, because God requires more from me. 

I can’t go to that party (that I wasn’t even invited to), because God requires more. 

I can’t lower myself to that standard, because God requires more from me. 

So much more.

And even though He requires more of me, still I’ll say Yes. 

I say Yes to His will, His plan, His purpose- because it’s perfect and the only place worth being.

Click the link below to listen to this amazing song. It's long, but completely worth it!

"Yes" by Shekinah Glory Ministry

P.S. I didn't tell anyone that this was my next topic to write about. And a few days ago, a friend came up to me and started talking about this song, how because I talked about it- they've started listening to it more. It was a confirmation to me. Then, as I'm typing this on the computer, my iPod (which was on shuffle) started playing this song. Double confirmation! Thank you God, that you speak Your Word into our lives in so many different ways. I'm beyond thankful.

Lost and Found in His Word

Reading my Bible has always been kinda hard for me. I read the whole New Testament when I was younger, but since then... I’d say days would go by and I wouldn’t even think about it. I’ve always been a reader, though- so I had no idea why reading the Bible was so hard. I read good, uplifting books, yet the Bible would just sit there.

Part of what contributed to my lack of interest in the Bible was that I thought I knew it all already. (Pride, that’s a tough one.) I thought, how could I learn anything else? Growing up in the church, sometimes makes you think you’ve seen God in as many ways as possible already. Sometimes you’re almost less amazed at the awesomeness of God because you’ve seen it for so long.

The time came for me to pray for some people. What I felt God wanted me to pray into their lives was His promises. I thought I knew them, but when I opened my mouth to claim the promises, I had nothing. Sure, I knew the phrases, (“I’ll never leave you or forsake you”, “You’ll call and I’ll answer”, “I’ll bind up the broken hearted” etc) but I couldn’t tell you the reference. This, for some reason, bothered me. Knowing the lingo wasn’t good enough, I wanted to SEE it.

So, it was when I went promise-hunting in Psalms, that the desire to read the Word of God was activated inside of me. I began to realize that I was headed towards a dangerous place. I had to decide that I didn’t want to limit God to doing what He’s always done. I wanted to be amazed constantly by my amazing God. 

So I went searching. I found what I was looking for. I found promises, guarantees of God’s goodness. I found the hope, the amazing Hope that is there for all who believe.

And more than that, as I read more of God’s Word, I learned more. I saw verses as I never have before. God showed me that no matter how long I’ve been saved, He always has some new and crazy thing to show me. Sometimes to see, you have to go looking.

No, I don’t have a reading plan. No, I’ve still never read Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy (yet!). I jump from Psalms to Hebrews to Isaiah to Romans - and am always surprised at the “new” verse I discover. Always a promise and always a wake up call.

I’m in Romans today. Chapter 5, verses 6-8. 

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Message says in verse 8, “But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”

And though I’ve read it before, today I see. 

I see the pure beauty of God’s love. 

I see Christ’s world-shaking sacrifice. 

I see how incredible it is, that Jesus would die for people who were of no use to Him. Can I honestly say that I would give up my life for a murderer, liar, thief, and gossiper?  Christ did. For me and for you. While we were still in sin, He died for us. He died for us! Not because we were holy, but because He is.

So there you have it. God is again stretching me and remaking me. He is opening my eyes to my imperfections, but showing me that it is then that His mighty power will be displayed. Because an imperfect person needs saving- I need saving. We all need saving.