My co-worker and I successfully sojourned through Ephesians, James, 1 Peter and 2 Peter. I have so enjoyed our time gleaning such wisdom from these books, and application to our lives. Every word we read had such direct application for the season that we were in, it was almost unbelievable. God is very present right now.

We decided to take a break from the NT, and go old school. Old Testament that is. Where to go? We got a ticket to Ezra and have decided to settle in to a  little history.

Ezra starts out right at a time where the Jews were finally able to return home, and to rebuild the temple.

Chapter 2 is jam packed with names and tribal numbers. I think its really easy to skim over this section, and not take anything from it. But I just think that God cares about each one of his people to list them in His book. God cares about each and every one of us.

Ezra caries on talking about rebuilding the temple. To be honest this part was like reading a hebrew textbook on how to rebuild a temple, and the faithfulness of the people who began to worship before the temple was even finished. Towards the very end of Chapter 7 to the end Ezra speaks directly to us.

In chapter 8 verse 15 Ezra says, “I assembled the exiles at the Ahava Canal, and we camped there for three days while I went over this lists of the people and the priests who had arrived. I found that not one Levite had volunteered to come along.” (NLT)- How easy is it for us to simply ignore a calling. God had called us all for a special purpose. Do I respond to the call, or do I feel content sitting on the sidelines?

God is working in my life renovating it and rebuilding me as a new creation. The re-build doesn’t just happen in one day, or even a month, but takes years of purposeful building.

In chapters 9 & 10 we see the sin that crept into Israel. Men and even priests were marrying pagan women, and they were asked to send their wives and children born of these relationships away. The reason for it was so that no pagan children would inherit the land of Israel. In today’s world we cant imagine such things especially in inter-marriages.

As someone who is married to a non-christian I am grateful for what the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:13-14, 16, “If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” (ESV)

I love God patience. “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness built is patient toward you, not wishing that an should perish but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9 (ESV). Perhaps these verses don’t go together at all, but this is what I thought of when I read them.

I’m curious for those of you who’ve read Ezra. In general, what do you think about this chapter?

Have you ever legitimately considered what it will be like to stand before the Great I Am?

There aren’t even words to type, yet formulate in my head.

All I can picture is this completely amazing throne with God on it, Jesus and the Holy spirit on either side.

The four creatures and 24 elders in a circle around him

and then all of the angels

and then all of us.

Singing – “Holy, Holy, Holy. Is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

Have you ever been to a rock concert… standing room only, and you’re trying your darndest to see the singer up on stage… but all you can rely on is the side screens, if the venue even has that?

I don’t think that’s how its going to be in heaven.

I think we will all be as close to him as we want to be. All of us. There will be no straining of necks, or relying on side screens.

I’ve been thinking about the identity of God lately. What I do know of him, is that He is Love. He Is Patient as 2 Peter v. 9 teaches us.

Play some worship music today/tonight. Let the power of the Great I Am just permeate your soul.

He has mine tonight!

I’ve been seriously lacking in the consistency strength that my “Strengths Finders 2.0” says is one of my top strengths in the blogging department. Tonight at House Groups [through my church] we filled out Personal Renovation Plans which has you put into writing your goals throughout the year. My goal is to stay in the word, and to reignite my blogging which I feel takes what i’ve read to a deeper level.  So here I am to rE-Ignite.

For the past few weeks my co-worker and I have been on this amazing journey through parts of the new testament. We decided that we need to get in the word regularly and keep each other accountable through Google Hangouts, and have been hosting our own bible study together, and prayer. I can tell you that these past few weeks have been absolutely MIND BLOWING. The kind of work that has been stirring up is only explainable with the words Holy Spirit in the same sentence.

We started out in Ephesians which each chapter was laden with the words we absolutely needed to hear on those particular days such as Eph 1:7-10,  “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earth.” (emphasis mine).

Last Saturday night (October 5th) her and I were out hanging a sign for the marathon and we decided while literally on our knees hanging a sign on a bridge on a busy road in Minneapolis/St. Paul to pray over the marathon which was going to take place the next day. We prayed for God to place a blanket of protection over the marathon. Over the runners, the spectators, race officials and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  We closed out the prayer asking God to use us in a very apparent way, and to make it known to others that we are working for the glory of His name.  Little did I know that the entire prayer was about to come true.

While biking in the “back of the pack” on the course the next morning,  I ran (figuratively) into this older gentleman adorned with an adorable white beard, winter hat with pom pom, and running in short sleeves, and shorts. He was convinced he was NOT going to make the cut off. (six hour course limit). When he first had told me this, we were at least a mile or two ahead of the sweep bus, so I knew he had it in him to finish in time. I checked on some volunteers in the course intersections, and checked on runners as well.  I kept coming back to this man however as if a magnet was drawing me near to him I had to make sure that he finished, and encourage him to do so. I rode with him and paced him on my bike over the last two miles of the marathon. I found out he had done them all but once, and that THIS was marking his very last race.

Well, he finished, and I couldn’t have been more excited. Tears of joy were falling down my face, and it was such an amazing time.  Afterwards I went up to him and congratulated him.

The next day he wrote to our marketing manager to tell us that an Angel [he named me]  helped him finish the race. That he knew he could not finish in the time and that his pace was around 14:30 minute miles, but that he would go out to the marathon just for the Glory of God. Everything that I had prayed for he had written in this e-mail. It was so obvious that it was God I wrote to him to tell him that I was a believer, and I prayed the night before – for this moment.

Be open to God. Be open to him wanting to reveal something to you. Be open to bold prayers of putting yourself out there. Let your evening prayer, or morning prayer be, “God, use me tomorrow/today in anyway that you see fit, and let it be known to others that I am working for the Glory of your name. Let me be your instrument of comfort and healing, and encouragement to this broken world, and let me be open to what you have in store for me.”.

My prayer is that THIS is everyone’s prayer this week!