What shall we think about this month?? 

What I'm hearing God say is that we must pursue 1) His Unfailing Love and 2)a reverential Fear of Him (and the contentment that brings) before we can pursue anything else.

We must FIRST become passionate about who God is BEFORE we can be Godly people.  It is impossible to be Christ-followers without first falling head-over-heels in love with God.

There is a great quote by Antoine de St. Expury that sums this up nicely:

If you want to build a boat, don't go out and collect a bunch of people and assign them tasks; rather, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

We can try to get Christians to build the Church boat, but if they are not passionate about God Himself and the ocean of love that He offers, the boat-building will only go so far. We will tire and bore of it, and cease its work.  But if we focus first on God and Who He is and what He offers, that inspiration and passion and awe and fear will give us all the encouragement and focus we need to build an amazing boat.

Or another way to put it: we must think about the details of who God is before we can think about the details of life's current situations.

So God reminded me that we must keep our priorities in a Biblical order.  He reminded me we have to first talk about the awesomeness of Christ, before we can discuss what it means to be a Christ-centered believer.

So for this Firewatch, I felt God leading me to share with you just a little bit about what I am learning concerning this ocean that we call God. Let me tell you what stirs up my passion for God.  As you're reading, I want you to be thinking about what stirs up your passion for God.  And if find that you are not yet passionate about God, then continue to discover Him in your Bible and prayer time, and get passionate.  And remind yourself that you must become passionate about God before you can be a Godly man or woman.

Here are three things that really get me excited about God, that really impress me and move me:

1. His Plans and His Ability to see them come to fruition

Proverbs 19:21, Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. 

Romans 8:28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose.

Philippians 2:13, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

We often say we know the LORD has a purpose for us, but then *we* define what that purpose is, rather than letting Him define it. And so just to be sure, let us remind ourselves what the LORD's purpose is, according to the Bible:

John 6:40, For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

1 Thessalonians 4:3, 5:16-18, It is God's will that you should be sanctified: ...  Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

and the oft-misquoted Jeremiah 29:10-14,  This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

So it is not the LORD's goal that we be healthy and wealthy. His Goal is that all humans come to believe in His Son, to begin a life-long relationship with His Son, and to be set apart from sin, by rejoicing, talking with Him and praising Him continuously. If health and wealth will help accomplish that, then He will give it to us.  But if poverty and suffering will also accomplish His Will, then we must just as readily and gladly embrace that path.

And so it amazes me God is always striving towards His Purpose: to introduce the world to His Son and to transform us because of who Jesus is.  And no matter what we humans choose, whether good or evil, God is powerful enough and focused enough to use it for His Purpose: to glorify His Son.  I marvel at that.

2. His Mercy and Grace when I stumble my way through His Plans (or ignore them)

For us humans, when we have a plan and someone goes against it, we stiffen and fight to stay in charge, often times brutally so.  And while God works to keep His Plan going, He is different than humans. He forgives us when we stray from His Path, and He gently and firmly and patiently nudges us back to repentance and the correct path.

Michah 7:18-19,Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?

You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us;    you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Colossians 2:13-14, When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made youalive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Hebrews 4:15-16, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

So it mesmerizes me that God gives me the freedom to make my own choices, is patient and merciful with me when I make the wrong choices, AND still uses my wrong choices to further His Plans. This does not mean that it's thus OK to make wrong choices; it just comforts me knowing that He will get His Way in the end, even when I screw up.

3. His 'final, forever' plans called Heaven

Another thing about God that really gets me stirred up is the Home He is preparing for us.

John 3:16-17,  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 14:1-4,"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

Revelation 21:1-7, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Any time I stop and think about what is going to happen one day, that my King is going to return and take me and His other followers Home, I get giddy.  I sometimes stop and imagine what that is going to be like:  the world goes utterly dark, and then the Son of Man comes traveling east to west as a strike of lightening, raising up His followers.  And we will be taken Home, to a new Earth and a new Heaven, with a huge city called the New Jerusalem.  There, we will walk through gigantic gates of pearl, down streets of gold, dining at huge long tables with our God.  Delicious fruit, savory wine. Laughing, singing, dancing.  A celebration intermingled with quiet times, where I can walk hand-in-hand with my Savior through beautiful gardens, down quiet streets, across lush mountains, or maybe even soaring through clear skies.

God loves me so much. And He has built a Paradise that He wants me to enjoy with Him forever!  And so when He asks me to make sacrifices, to endure suffering, to take risks, to build the boat that is His Church (and someday, to build the family that He gives me), I gladly step up and obey.  As with the prophet Isaiah,

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

      And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"  (Isaiah 6:8)

Knowing that He is pleased with my trust and obedience, and that He will reward that with a face-to-face relationship with Him, I stand in awe.

So what about you? Do you stand in awe of who God is?  Do you cry out 'Here am I! Send me!'?

If you want to be a Christ-centered Believer, get excited about Jesus!  Let that awe inspire you and move you to be the best Christian that you can be.Without that passion, your efforts will dry up and fail.  Rekindle your passion for Him, and let that take you to where He wants you to be and move you to do what He wants you to do.

Let me finish with this verse. It is 2 Timothy 1:6a, from the Amplified version:

That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you.

So go out and study and fall in love with the ocean that is God.  And as you do so, then go build your Church-boat exactly as He tells you to do.