The Rock of the ages is not someone to play with.  Yes, He is love and merciful and forgiving, but He is also a God of righteousness and justice and wrath.  Have we forgotten what Israel went through when they abandoned their first love?  Have we forgotten what happens when we become lukewarm?  Have we forgotten what happens when we do not bear good fruit?  Have we forgotten what happens to the unfaithful servant that goes around beating the other brothers while partying?  Have we forgotten what the ten commandments are really about?  Have we forgotten that the sons of God are known by their love for the brethren?  How did we get here?  How do we get out?  Do we even care?

God I pray that You would light us up.  Wreck us.  I am so sorry for what we’ve done.  We’ve sinned against you.  We’ve beaten Your body; we’ve spit in Your face.  We’ve called good evil and evil good.  I’m sorry that I have grieved Your Holy Spirit.  I’m sorry that I haven’t listened when you spoke.  I am so sorry that I have done my own thing leaving the hurting people to walk to their death.  I didn’t even care and I’m so sorry.  Please forgive me.  Show me what I did.  Show me how bad it really is.  Show me what it could have been like if I had only listened.  Please show me how to make it right.  I know I have let you down, but I promise that I will do my best to listen and do what You would tell me to do.  I want to truly know You, to see as You see, to have ears that hear, to truly know Your heart and how You feel.  I have really made a mess of things, and I want to make it right.  Please show me how.  O Lord God, hear my cry.  Wash me in the blood of Jesus so I can be pure and clean and white again.  Here I am; here’s my life…I want to be a living sacrifice.  I am climbing up on the alter.  Let Your consuming fiery Truth fall on me and burn me up.  I want to be like Jesus.  Show me how.  I ask for true wisdom that comes from God and not of man.  Empower me with Your Holy Spirit to follow through with whatever you would ask me to do.  I thank You, O mighty God.  I ask for more fear of the Lord that would destroy any fear of anything else that would try to limit me.  I place myself in Your hands, fully.  Have Your way with me.  Place Your hedge of protection around me, cover me with the blood of Jesus, and close any door that I may have left open.  I live for You now, I am not my own.  I thank You, Jehovah.  I seal this in Jesus name, amen.

Do not be afraid…God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.  Our daddy (God) is so good!  He is our comforter and our joy.  When I think of the times ahead for our country, and for the world in general, I really have two feelings: sadness and excitement.  I am sad because of the pain that the world is going to go through, but excited because God is the one who wipes away the tears.  God’s mercy is never far off from His wrath.  When God’s crushing hand of judgement comes it offers an opportunity, the gift of repentance.  God’s judegment is intended to humble us so that we may turn back to Him.  Before God’s judgement or discipline ever comes, He warns us with an opportunity to humble ourselves.  Unfortunately most of us are too hard hearted, seeking after other things, to hear the call of God.  He says don’t go that way; I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; don’t go that way. 

God has been calling out to us for some time now.  We are on the verge of the wrath of God.  How bad will it have to get before you will humble yourself before God?  Will you continue to put it off until tomorrow?  What if tomorrow never comes for you?  The world is full of lies and liars, deceit and distraction…there is nothing good out there to follow after.  For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions–is not from the Father but is from the world (1 John 2:16).  Desire a consuming relationship with Father; with the eternal Bridegroom.  In the presence of God, all fear is gone, it’s where we belong, it’s where we were created to live. 

Father,
I haven’t been following after You
I have been seeking other things and other ways
Forgive me for my selfishness
For my pride and arrogance
I thought I could do it on my own
Or at least take a break for a little while
Please forgive me

I have called good evil and evil good
I have misrepresented You
Even tried to be Your judge
Cleanse me of my iniquities
Of my unrighteousness
The blemishes that stain
Remove the shame
Breakdown the condemnation

Establish in me a right spirit
A desire to know You more
To seek Your face and rest in Your presence
I need You

Show me how to be humble
Help me
I want to know You for who You are
New understanding of You
Your Word
Change the way I think
My desires
Help me receive
Help me give
I need You

I beg for God’s forgiveness, when I have none to give.  I ask God to love me, while I only love myself.  I ask God to bail me out so I can go back to doing what got me in trouble.  I hope to be judged by a merciful God, while I scrutinize other people’s behavior.  I call myself a Christian, but…I don’t look anything like Christ.

As humans, why are we satisfied with compromise?  Compromise leads to death.  We like the “easy” way; we like comfortable; we like deception; we like death.  If we are not entirely set apart to Truth, we are set apart from Truth.  We choose God to be on our team like He’s a player, or like He can be our teammate.  We say that He is our copilot.  If He is the copilot, that makes me the pilot and puts me in control.  I don’t know how to fly.  What the heck am I doing then as a pilot?  Either Truth lives through me, or death.  Only one can occupy the thrown of my life: Truth who brings Life, or me who lives death. 

If Jesus is sitting on the throne of my heart, and Lord of my life, what does that mean?  That makes Him my King and Master, and I would be His servant.  If He is Master, but I do whatever I want, it either makes Him a horrible leader, or He is not my master.  Jesus said that I can choose to submit myself to the master of my choice: God or Satan.  God is selfless; Satan is self-serving.  If my behavior is self-serving, which one would most likely be my master?

God is calling His people to be worshippers.  He is looking for those who would forsake all else to follow after Him.  It is not about where you go to church, or how many times a day that you offer up prayers, but about a heart that seeks after God and wants to be intimate.  God has met the church where it was, continuing to call it up.  We must not be satisfied with a relationship that our parents had or their parents before them.  This is a whole new level that is calling for a whole new intimacy.  Will you press in farther; will you answer the call?