2 Timothy 2:15-17, The Message

Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won't be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they're not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul.

This is another good passage on living authentically. Authenticity and integrity are very similar, I think I prefer the word authentic because it doesn't sound as formal or rigid. I'm a more laid-back, casual, simple thinker and I like the thought of living true to me in that informal way, and not feeling like I need to conform to a stale word like "integrity." I can't seem to help it, but if someone talks about "living with integrity," I tend to think of an unpleasant stereotype of Christians who are afraid to get dirty or say what they really think or do something out of the ordinary. On a different note, I like using the word "integrity" when it comes to a specific instance of using time well, making an agreement with someone, etc. But an overall umbrella instruction of "have integrity" has never been easy for me to follow. If you get too far off track, you'll find that you've become what these verses say to avoid becoming. You need to pursue a godly life and let your efforts (with God's help of course) manifest themselves in visible ways, from the inside out, so that people know you have integrity and are living authentically.

Luke 1:76-79, New Living Translation

“And you, my little son,
will be called the prophet of the Most High,
because you will prepare the way for the Lord.
You will tell his people how to find salvation
through forgiveness of their sins.
Because of God’s tender mercy,
the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.”

This is the end of Zechariah's prophecy for his newborn child. I wonder if many parents pray this same prayer for their children today. If I were a parent right now, I would want my child to be a servant and prophet of the Lord, someone who speaks truth and oozes with God's love. Kind of in the same way, I think God the Father sees us as His sons and daughters and wants us to tell the rest of His people how to find salvation and that God offers everyone mercy. Because I'm blessed with a wonderful earthly father, I don't usually struggle with the idea of God as a Father. In fact, I can only imagine how Awesome my God the Father is comared to my earthly dad. But also, I need to be careful to not forget that God is three in One and the Father is equal to the others in this threesome. I need to remember to obey my heavenly Father and bring honor to Him as a loving daughter would do.

Job 19:25-27, New Living Translation

"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
and he will stand upon the earth at last.
And after my body has decayed,
yet in my body I will see God!
I will see him for myself.
Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
I am overwhelmed at the thought!"

My mind is easily overwhelmed by God and thoughts of His coming, His grace, His love. I was talking with a friend tonight about my quest and calling to live authentically. "Full disclosure" is another term I used to describe my personality, I don't have a whole lot of secrets and don't mind my life being a fairly open (and interesting) book. That said, I still can't fathom the feeling of knowing that someone could every know everything about me. Asking questions that no one else things to ask, know the inner dark thoughts that I may not even know exist, reading every expression on my face... it's intimidating and makes me feel exposed and vulnerable to think about. But here is the kicker, God sees me. God allows me to see Him. It's the most beautiful and intimate relationship in my world's existence. But it blows my mind. Just when I think I have it all figured out, God surprises me and shows me more of Him and, as a result of seeing more of Him, I see and know more of me. And, Lord willing, the more of me I discover, the more Christ will take over.

Philippians 4:8-9, The Message

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

I was thinking of these verses today because I felt like I wasn't doing a good job of controlling my mind today. Following Christ in obedience, I should be putting my head knowledge into practice.

I waited until late tonight to write this and now I'm very sleepy and can't think of much else to add on, although if I had the energy and another hour or two I might be able to think of a new thought to share. Maybe as I fall asleep...

1 Timothy 6:6-8, The Message

A devout life does bring wealth, but it's the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that's enough.

I might have blogged on these verses already, I'm not sure. But Gabe spoke on these verses tonight when speaking about contentment and desire. Another translation says "But godliness with contentment is great gain (wealth)." I find it fascinating that our God is the source of true gain/success/wealth. We seek it in other ways, but God (among all else that he is) is still the answer to every question.

This world has nothing for me, and this world has everything. All that I could want and nothing that I need.

Colossians 1:15-20, New Living Translation

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

This passage seems like an apostle's creed. By that, it seems like a good daily reminder that we should read every day, speak out loud, and claim in our hearts before we go through our day and forget Who we serve and represent with every breath. Christ is supreme.

1 Corinthians 10:13, The Message

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

The senior pastor of my church, Gary Brandenburg, came to our 6pm church service on Sunday night to preach. His sermon on desire was brilliant and was the topic of our discussion at small group tonight. Using the verses from Numbers about the Israelites grumbling about manna, to the verses leading up to this one in 1 Corinthians, we talked about how God has given us desire (lust is actually a neutral word) and we have perverted it and He is ready to redirect it. Somewhere else in his sermon, Gary clarified "testing" and "temptation." I was grateful for this definition because I have caught myself getting them confused.

God tests us. He tests us to refine us (remember: clay+potter=refinement) and when He tests us, He knows we can make it. The devil, however, is the tempter. He wants us to fail and he tempts us to set us up for a fall.

Romans 1:20, The Message

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

I'm still constantly surprised that The Message translation gives verses such new meaning. I've heard the biblical phrase "not by works, so that no man can boast" from Ephesians 2:8-9. But read that verse I put above - "men are without excuse." Jesus/Father/Holy Spirit - God made Himself known through creation. He also gave us grace to save us. God knew our human tendency would be to glorify ourselves, even though we were create to glorify Him. Humans also take credit for every little thing we do, and even take the credit away from others too. In our quest for success and good appearances and impressive resumes and flawless reputations, we're unaware that we look like idiots because God didn't desire earth for it to work this way. So when we claim that our landscaping made the yard beautiful, that our hard work was the leading factor in a sale, or that somehow we're "good" enough to deserve eternal life, we're making excuses for the inexcusable. God is All. He did it this way on purpose. It's all for Him and all about Him.

John 10:14-18, The Message

"I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They'll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd. This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again. I received this authority personally from my Father."

This is a familiar parable using the similarity of shepherding (which was well known at that time) and Jesus as a Shepherd. (haha, that could be the most obvious sentence I've ever written!) But really, it's a good example for people like me. I could talk about why God is like a shepherd and I could talk about how I'm like a sheep. But really, what I appreciate most about these verses tonight is that they show how Jesus can communicate on our level.

Think about it. Jesus is God. Jesus is more vast than we can comprehend. We don't even know a fraction about God. I could study my whole life and never be satisfied. And this same God, this non-human all-knowing Being, chooses to communicate with us on our level. I'm glad that Jesus doesn't feel insulted when He has to use simple words, or that he doesn't get frustrated when He has to tell us the same thing over and over again. He's awesome and we'll never know just how awesome He is.

Hebrews 4:14-16, New Living Translation

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Jesus is our "great High Priest." He is the One with total access to God, there is no veil separating Him from the Father, no policy for Him to approach the Holy One. This fact alone gives us the confidence to boldly approach God for understanding and grace. God is kind and gracious and gave us Jesus so we can ask for forgiveness and so He can show us the full extent of His grace.

I don't realize how incredible this is half the time. I can try to find wisdom or some common understanding with friends, pastors, mentors when I have a weakness that I'm wrestling with, but no human can really fully understand. But Jesus is vast enough that He knows and He resisted and He is our hope. He is our link to God and our Savior. Praise the Lord, we couldn't approach God without Him. What a mess our lives would be then.

1 John 4:10, The Message

This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

This isn't the story that you see in fairy tales. But it should be. Most fairy tales have a female who needs to be rescued, a good prince, and a bad guy with his humorous sidekick. But in reality, this isn't how it works. The reality of humans is that we are more sinful than we could ever have dreamed. It's not pretty, life is tough, there is more hurt and pain than we would choose and it's all inflicted by other humans, it's not a storybook tale. However, the main theme of rescue still exists. But instead of being a helpless damsel in distress, we often continue on in the drudgery of life without realized the blood spilled and Life lost for our sake. "Once upon a time" would more accurately read "once for all of time God gave up His son to fix the damage we caused."

1 John 4:9, NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This verse should have fine print. If I wrote it, the fine print would say: "While God ultimately used Jesus to show us His love please do not misunderstand that God's love is shown to humans every day through creation, nature, breath, free will, and physical needs. We recommend that everyone who has the eyes to see God's love take advantage of it and share it with everyone you can."

God wants us to live with Him through Jesus. This is love. So, in order to return the favor, I think we should do our best to live with God through Jesus and then allow others to get to God through us and our knowledge of what Jesus did for us.

How else can we show our love for God?

1 John 4:8, The Message

"The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love."

Unfortunately, I think it's easy for me to dismiss this verses because I don't feel like I refuse love. I am blessed with a loving family, loving friends, and the ability to love back. Therefore, I assume that I understand love and, as a result, understand God.

However, looking deeper into this verses tonight I see that my description of love is about giving and receiving. That's not what it's about. To know about God you have to be able to love the unlovable. When I say a cruel word about a stranger, I'm refusing to love them. When I create a stereotype, I'm refusing to love. When I see outward appearances and don't take the time to look inside, I'm refusing to love. Whatever I don't do for "the least of these," means that I am refusing to love. And that is why I sometimes I feel like I'm distant from God or don't understand His word. To understand the magnitude of God, I need to love with every thought, action and conversation.

Matthew 25:34-45, The Message

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'

"Then those are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'

"Then he will turn to the ones on his left and say, 'Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—

I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'

"Then those are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?'

"He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.'

Matthew 5:13, NIV

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

I had salty popcorn for a snack today, but it didn't give any new perspective on this familiar verse. Let's try it again: "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage."

Good, better. So the question now is, how do I keep my saltiness? How am I maintaining the "flavor" of God in my life? I'm a pretty open person, I don't keep many things secret about my life. I think, at least I like to think, that in some ways this creates an honesty and vulnerability that is noticeable. A lot of people are surprised by this fresh flavor because it can penetrate their walls of fake emotions and secrets. Also, just like my last post, I want scripture to always be on my mind and bubbling out in my words so that the taste of the Lord will be given to those I speak with. Finally, adding the courageous faith needed to trust God with each step will be the final spice I can maintain the goal of being the "salt of the world" each day.

Matthew 4:10, The Message

Jesus' refusal was curt: "Beat it, Satan!" He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness."

I chose this verse tonight because it stood out to me that Jesus used scripture three times to rebuke and respond to Satan. I used to memorize scripture all the time, but it's a discipline I haven't practiced in a long time. Here I can see the example that Christ gives of the power and necessity of quoting memorized scripture. These words are a powerful attack on our enemy. For instance, often during worship/prayer services at church I will get severely dizzy or experience shaky eye vision. When that happens, I recognize that it is the devil trying to distract me from intimate worship with God. So, what I do is call out the name of Jesus or start praying hard using words of Truth and it always ends. The devils attacks, we fight with Truth. It's what Jesus would do.

1 Corinthians 1:18-19, NIV

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

This strangely unfamiliar to me (surely it was an AWANA verse?!), but twice in the last four days I've heard it used. It's appropriate for Easter weekend and also ties in to my last post.

Church was really crowded tonight and I found myself distracted during the sermon when considering whether or not the guests in attendance were following the service. Words like "congregation," "sanctification," "offering," and even "the cross" or "the Gospel" could potentially confuse someone who isn't familiar with Christianese. In that same thought, I was sad for the Christians who forget the significance of Easter and sad for those who don't know the Lord (aka: the lost) and are frustrated by the Good News because it sounds foolish.

Haha, my thoughts have disappeared now. I feel like most of my posts are half-thoughts, incomplete at best, but I usually finish them in my head at some point. Good for me, confusing for you reading this...

Isaiah 53:7-10, The Message

He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.

Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

These verses were on my mind today as I watched The Passion of the Christ. "Did anyone really know what was happening?" Would I have known what was happening if I had been there? Probably not, unfortunately. I know this because God is doing things every day every where and I believe that the few times I actually realize it don't even begin to scratch the surface of the reality of how much He is at work.

When Jesus' Heart Broke

a prayer written by Henri Nouwen

Dear Lord Jesus,

You, “the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for whom all things are created in heaven and on earth, everything visible and everything invisible,” you hang dead on a cross. You have just spoken your last words, “It is fulfilled,” and given up your spirit.

I look at your dead body on the cross. The soldiers, who have broken the legs of the two men crucified with you, do not break your legs, but one of them pierces your side with a lance, and immediately blood and water flow out. Your heart is broken, the heart that did not know hatred, revenge, resentment, jealousy or envy but only love, love so deep and so wide that it embraces your Father in heaven as well as all humanity in time and space. Your broken heart is the source of my salvation, the foundation of my hope, the cause of my love. It is the sacred place where all that was, is and ever shall be is held in unity. There all suffering has been suffered, all anguish lived, all loneliness endured, all abandonment felt and all agony cried out. There, human and divine love have kissed, and there God and all men and women of history are reconciled. All the tears of the human race have been cried there, all pain understood and all despair touched. Together with all people of all times, I look up to you whom they have pierced, and I gradually come to know what it means to be part of your body and your blood, what it means to be human.

As I look, my eyes begin to recognize the anguish and agony of all the people for whom you gave yourself. Your broken heart becomes the heart of all of humanity, the heart of all the world. You carry them all: abandoned children, rejected wives and husbands, broken families, the homeless, refugees, prisoners, the maimed and tortured, and the thousands, yes millions, who are unloved, forgotten and left alone to die. I see their emaciated bodies, their despairing faces, their anguished looks. I see them all there, where your body is pierced and your heart is ripped apart. O compassionate Lord, your heart is broken because of all the love that is not given or received.

Blood and water flowed from your broken heart. Lord Jesus, help me to understand this mystery. So much blood has flowed through the centuries: blood of people who did not even know why they were trampled underfoot, mutilated, tortured, slain, beheaded and left unburied; blood caused by swords, arrows, guns and bombs, tainting the faces of millions of people; blood that comes forth from angry, bitter, jealous, vengeful hearts, and from hearts that are set on hatred, violence and destruction. From the blood of Abel killed by his brother to the blood of the Jews, the Armenians, the Ukrainians, the Irish, the Iranians and Iraqis, the Palestinians, the South Africans and the countless nations and ethnic groups victimized by the evil intentions of their sisters and brothers in the human race, blood has been covering the earth, and cries have gone up to heaven: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?”

Let the blood and water that flow from your heart give me a new heart to live a new life. I know that in this world water and blood will never be separated. There will be peace and anguish, joy and tears, love and agony. They will be there always—together—leading me daily closer to you who give your heart to my heart.

Psalm 8, The Message

God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.

Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?

Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.

God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.

For some reason, I had similar thoughts to these of God today. Strangely enough, I think what made me think along these lines was when I was driving to/from work and church responsibilities and I saw two separate cars that each had a dog riding in the passenger seat with it's head out the window in the wind. I couldn't help but wish that I could drive with my head out the window, enjoying the majesty of creation. How can you see and yet not understand? Praise the Lord that my heart was not (and hopefully will never be) hardened to the splendor of my King.

Galatians 2:19-21, The Message

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

In a group discussion tonight on how our Church community can become more like Christ in character and ministry, we discussed these verses above. These verses are a great definition of my key word, authentic. Christians can get hung up on following the rules and "being good," but that's not grace, that's not what Christ did on earth. Christ, while being obedient to His father, broke all the rules, went to the bad places and talked to the people covered with shame. He wasn't cool and He wasn't selfish. He was humble and gentle, strong and outspoken, honest and tempted. Our lives as Christ-followers should not be based on the opinions of others or our appearance, but strictly focused on following Christ as He followed the Father and encouraging others to follow our example to become disciples of the mighty Lord.

Romans 1:1, NIV

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.

At church we've been hearing a sermon series called "breaking free." Each week at the Metro service (6pm smaller urban-professional service) during this series we've seen a video story from various staff members from the church. Each video starts with this introduction: "My name is ___, and I was a slave to ____." These stories feature stories of control, expectations, perfection - but Jesus is the main character in very story because, as each person shares, you hear about these chains that created bondage were broken by Jesus and made each person set free. Every video ends with "My name is ___, and I am a slave to Jesus Christ."

Similarly, in the verse above, Paul defines himself as a servant of Christ. I'm sure some people are confused when Christians share about the freedom we have because of Who we believe in... yet we all claim to be servants/slaves to that same freedom bringer. It's still a concept that I find baffling to hear, but completely assuring to wordlessly understand in my heart. This is the nature of Truth. This is the life of a Christ-follower. This is the description of grace. Believing in things unseen, things words can't define, the things that are the difference between bondage and freedom. As confusing as it sounds, just remember that God is a God of distinction and if you have eyes to see, the distinction is clear.

John 1:16-18, The Message

We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.

These words were spoken by John in preparation of the Messiah's arrival. I like the explanation of how we live "off of His generous bounty." We have nothing without God, we survive because of what He's given us. And, he didn't have to be generous. This verse could read "we live off of the necessities." But no, we have gift after gift after gift, exuberant giving and receiving.

Also, don't you love the phrase "endless knowing and understanding?" I'm not even sure what it means, but those words captivate my heart and stimulate my mind. Jesus is all these things, generous, omniscient, one-of-a-kind and plain as day. Hmm... plain as day and endless knowing and understanding? Sounds contradictory. But at the same time God is mighty enough that you feel close to him and that you understand Him while always feeling that you can't know enough and will never fully grasp this Lord who exists at the very heart of the Father.

Next!

I just realize that this was the last of the book of Acts. I enjoyed what I learned and read, but I'm excited to move on to something else. Reading through one book verse by verse, chapter by chapter, is easy enough. This time I think I'm going to do a study on a topic, and then search for passages and verses from that topic.

This is difficult though. How deep do I want to go? Should I keep it basic or get specific? What subject has the Lord been laying on my heart that I want to know more about?

I'm going to study Jesus and love. That's what the bible is about. So really, that's what the results of my thoughts will be for each passage. But I love love. I really want to take a closer look at Jesus' time on earth so I'll study Jesus' mortality and years as a part of our world.

Acts 28:24-27, The Message

Some of them were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe a word of it. When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted: "I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knew what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet:

Go to this people and tell them this:
"You're going to listen with your ears,
but you won't hear a word;
You're going to stare with your eyes,
but you won't see a thing.
These people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won't have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won't have to look,
so they won't have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them."

This passage makes me sad. It makes me sad because I realize how God's heart must hurt when he sees people refuse His word. Hearts that God created for the soul purpose of loving Him and serving Him. These hearts are made hard and cold, by the free will given to us as a gift from God. Not only do people deny God, we harm our bodies, we fight and kill each other, and we do things that destroy what He created. Oh how His heart must ache every moment.

Acts 28:10, New Living Translation

As a result we were showered with honors, and when the time came to sail, people supplied us with everything we would need for the trip.

Paul and 276 people were just shipwrecked onto an island, then Paul was bitten by a snake, now he has healed all the sick people on an island. Paul knew that it was in God's plan for him to go speak before Cesar and he wasn't going to let fear or circumstances prevent him from being obedient. Wherever Paul was he served. Even though Paul probably wondered how all of the events he'd gone through were ever going to end with him in Rome, he simply kept following this crazy path. His lack of nagging God and pure ease/flexibility of "going with the flow" should be my example. I get fussy if I feel like life isn't going anywhere and I'm not doing the right thing to be getting to the next best thing. What I should do, is work more at having the heavenly mindset of appreciating every moment, using every movement and breath to show love, and to seek God regardless of where I am or who I'm with. Praise Jesus, He speaks in the loudness and the silence and if we don't sing His praise or work toward His mission - the rocks will cry out! Creation and humans alike are groaning to know more of God.

Acts 26:28-29, NIV

Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?"

Paul replied, "Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains."

This should also be my prayer as I work through my day. I should pray this prayer for my family members who don't believe, for my coworkers, strangers on the street, and even for my customers. Nothing is impossible with God and He can use our words and actions to persuade and help others to believe -- even those we may have "given up on" and also those we just met. To borrow a biblical parable of the seeds: keep sharing God's love with others because we might be the water that helps nurture, the gardner that puts the seed where it's suppossed to go, or the harvester who gets to see the seed find home.