God Thoughts

When Moses asked God Who he was, what is the name of the God he was interacting in extremely real ways with, and he said...I AM...

I wonder if Moses was lookin for a little more...

Like really. Names say a lot. Maybe they aren't as meaningful in our culture as they are in others, but I sure get the impression that to the jews, names are huge. You are your name. There is power in a name. Its like a personal prophecy. Names got changed at times because the old name simply would not do anymore, it was no longer the definition of that character.

Names.

God said his name was simply

I AM

What do you do with that?

After all Moses had experienced I am sure that wasn't new information to him. Whoever it was he was dealing with, they were beyond real. Firestorms, Earthquakes, Red Seas. Actually, forget that being Beyond real. Thats simply real and we haven't even scratched the surface of what real is. Thats how I feel anyway.

What else can you say about a God who just...is? There are more facets to him than sides of a marble it would seem. Which is hard because if I can figure God out then maybe I can figure my life out. The longer I am a Christian the less I know. Which is where trust comes in, I just said to myself with an internal smirk.

But nothing else rightly can be said about God in our human languages, because anything else leaves something out. And no-one is left out in God's creation. He is above it all, he loves it all, he interacts with all of it. The Godman Jesus embodied this. Prostitutes, Destitute, Homeless, Rich, Poor, Lame, Normal, Insiders, Outsiders, Upside downs, Demon Possessed, Military people, Religious People, Athiests, he connected with all of them. GOD connected with all of them in meaningful and transforming ways. I heard a black guy speak on the bloodline of Jesus and how every ethnic group in existence today and members of every economic and social status are represented in the bloodline of Jesus. The blood at the the foot of the cross is the blood of everyone who ever lived and will live. No matter who you are or where you are, your blood is in there, amongst the thorns, flowing down the face and chest and dripping off the toes.

I don't know what lies ahead for me in my life and what steps I should be taking to get there. And it is currently frustrating me to the point of sleep deprevation last night. I simply cannot work my head around all this. I am in Gods hands and he has lead me here, and he will lead me from here, but for some reason that is not rest for me at the moment. If God were exclusively MY God, I figure I would not have these issues because I would have a much better understanding of him, cause he would be like me. Thank God that is not the case (no, seriously. Praise Jesus he is not like me. Or you. Or anyone you see on TV. Those people make pretty bad gods. Ok, really bad...) But if I am in the ha.....OK, here is another problem I have with Western Spirituality and Christianity and Culture, we are so independent and individualist that it makes me sick. I hate it. I seriously do. People so often expect you to figure things out with God on your own, and HOW CAN YOU? Dammit, you can't! Before there was even sin God said it was no good that Adam was alone. Sin hadn't even came into the picture! So how much more are we in need of community, of a bigger perspective on the God who created US, not YOU and ME, US. Yeah my life is in Gods hands, but guess what, so is yours, and that is reason enough to get to know you. Yeah God has a plan for my life, but GUESS WHAT, he has a plan for yours too and so lets work together to figure out what it is. This is what Jesus does, he brings people together who are TOTALLY different and says lets eat and they do and hes there and it works and its beautiful. The last time I ate with someone of a different socio-economic status or ethnic background would have been years ago probably (Nevermind, Moldova...three months :) WHEN was the last time I ate with a stranger?

Next time you eat with someone different than you, be thankful because that is a sacred blessing that most people today avoid.

Well I think I need to go for a walk or something because this is all just comin and it doesn't want to stop and I don't think I can type it out fast enough...pretty soon I will just be yelling and as much as I enjoy yelling, I would rather yell at and with God than this stupid computer screen. If you are feeling it too, I encourage you to go somewhere and yell with God (for those of you less adventurous folk, talking firmly is nearly as satisfying...) Get worked up about this stuff, I think he likes seeing his children active. God is bigger than your parents, he can handle whatever volume of activity you should choose to engage him with.