OUR AMAZING GOD! 5/26/13

CAN YOU write down all of the things that are amazing about our God? Can you imagine a life without a God like ours? Can you feel what it would be like if you had not chosen to believe and to follow Jesus Christ? I was watching a TV evangelist who was talking about our amazing life because of Jesus, and one of the things she reminded me of was; “Our God even causes the ocean waters to only cover the sand, and then it is to roll back to where it came from.”   WOW!

I REMEMBER as a girl thinking about other people, outside of myself, who had a life; an existence separate from me. What were they like? What did they talk about? I knew my skin covered my body but they had skin also to cover theirs? How could that be? Foolish thinking huh?   Just recently Jim express the same thoughts of when he was young and I thought if Jim thought about those kinds of things, then perhaps it was not just foolish thinking after all!

TODAY at 75, I wonder; what keeps other people outside of the Church? Why do they not see Jesus as their Savior? How can they live in this complex world without needing a Savior? We were all created the same, in God’s image! That image is with a built in desire to know God! Our amazing God is patient and kind! Why aren’t all the people in the world, standing in line to become one of His! The blessing of the day is “The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward everyone; not wishing that any should perish.” 2 Peter 3:9

ARE WE so use to God that we don’t see or hear Him like we use too? Shouldn’t we live in a state of amazement? Paul reminds Timothy to rekindle the gift of God that is within him and then he says; “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.”  1 Timothy 1:7   When we become lax in our walk we need to set a fire under our feet and listen to what God is saying to us. God’s love is amazing and what He did for us is amazing; we need to shake ourselves out of our state of complacency, and get on fire once again, about who we are in Christ

IN THE YEAR OF 1997 The Promise Keepers held a conference called “Stand in the Gap.” Jim and my son Danny were there! Faye, Jennifer, My sister Joyce and myself went along so that we could sight see. We didn’t see as much as we wanted because we became so engrossed watching a million and a quarter men, that had gathered together from all over this country, and who found a renewal of one spirit, as at one point they said in unison, the name above all other names; ‘JESUS!’

THESE MEN didn’t just say the name, they were filled with An unleashed vigor that resounded up and down the mall in Washington, DC. The Spirit filled those men, and that place, while God did amazing things in their lives. They experienced an up front and personal confrontation with Jesus Christ Himself that day, and us girls stood in amazement! It gives me chills to think of the name “JESUS” filling the square in a place that need’s Him so desperately then, and more so, today!

I TALKED with a biker who had been on the road for approximately 5 days. They had left San Diego, California and picked up additional bikers along the way. By the time they met in Virginia, to cross the bridge over the Potomac River, the authorities were alerted and prepared to direct over 9000 bikers to the RFK Stadium, because there was not a place large enough to house them in DC. Our God is amazing, you only have to talk to one of the bikers to know that God was at work in them!

“SO THEN the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” Mark 16:19    The Apostles and other disciples watched as Jesus ascended into heaven, and no one can convince me that they were not amazed! They had watched so many miracles! Each time they witnessed one, they stood amazed!

YOU AND I had been privy to the changes God has made in each one of us. We know where we were; we know where we are; and we know where we are going! Isn’t that amazing? There is an old song that says; “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene; and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean.” Jesus loves you and even me!    By Jane Ann Crenshaw 5/24/13