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From the heart the mouth speaks.  When our heart is filled with good, thankful things, it will spill out goodness.  

You know you are an official adult when you plant trees.  You also get a certain level of excitement when you see said trees begin to grow. I had never planted trees before.  I just dug a whole, put in the ground and packed dirt around it.  Now it's up to the good Lord to make it grow. 
I was mowing the lawn yesterday and saw to my astonishment that the trees had begun to bud and grow.  Most of them had an inch or so of growth.  WHOOHOO!  Get stoked, get excited!  Trees are doing what trees are supposed to do, GROW!  
My immediate reaction was to say, "Praise God, Thank you Jesus!"  After I said this, I stopped and thought about what just happened.  Out of my heart at a moment's notice came a song, a SHOUT of praise to God.                    ( I don't say this to tell how overly spiritual I am, trust me, I am as broken and distracted as anyone.)
But it caused me to pause and think about worship and living a life of worship.  Worship leaders say all the time that "we worship God with our whole lives."  But what does that mean?  It sounds like a great thing, but what does that look like?  I think for a moment I realized the depth of worship through trees.  Odd, huh?
I really want in every situation to be praising God, understanding that everything good is from Him.  I don't want to reserve my praise for Sunday morning or during my favorite Gungor song.  I don't want any reserve in my praise, in my worship.  Praise should flow.  Praise should come out at all times because of the good works God has done.  I find when I spontaneously, naturally praise God the distractions melt away, temptations are weakened, and I get fresh perspective.  
My encouragement to you is to spontaneously praise God this week.  Don't reserve your praise!  Don't wait; this breathe is a moment of praise!   Find it is trees or sunsets, in laughter or peace, in silence or in noise.  Find praise in children or in work, in friends or strangers, in every and all things God is working.  Praise is everywhere!

Funny verse for me today because I've not been feeling the best the last few days and I've been sleeping more.  We must be motivated and not allow ourselves to become lazy.

God put lessons in His creation.  The ant is a hard worker.  Ants work in unity.  Amazing.

It may seem like God doesn't come to the aid of his people.  That is not the case.  It's God's heart that all come to salvation.  This reminded me of a story that an inmate told me.  The inmate was at a concert and there was a guy on the corner talking about Jesus.  The crowd shouted from him to stop.  He wouldn't.  The crowd began to physically hurt him. He wouldn't stop.  The inmate obviously involved in the incident was bothered that the guy would keep on.  "Why didn't he stop," the inmate asked me.  I told him it was his dedication to Jesus.  

1) The Christian Vista

It tends to be that no perception of God is more biased than the Christians. We all hear unbelievers blaspheming the name of God. We all struggle at the close-mindedness that those who are lost have against the possibility of a man named Salvation who came to give them himself. We all feel hopeless sometimes, when the unbeliever's perception of God is twisted by popular culture and history, and consequently they see Him in a different light.

But how about ourselves?

I often use the analogy of the square and cube. Evangelical Christians tend to see God as a square, one who's persona and reality is completely defined within their understanding and the lines that they have drawn. Then there's the truth, in which God is more like a cube, including that square but also baring many other sides which usually exist outside the comfort zone of the Christian. This is the heart of denominational Christianity, in which factions of believers simply refuse to see anything other than what they like of God, and ignore his whole representation which is plainly there in Scripture. 

2) The Cost of Omission

Many Christians, though they would say otherwise, exhibit their total view of God in their actions, their worship, their prayer, and their mindset. The popular God exhibits the favorable qualities of forgiveness, love, compassion, mercy, grace, freedom, joy, etc. So what then, is the cost of omission? What is the cost of picking and choosing who we want to believe He is?

Yet how many times have we seen God angry? Scripture says that He expresses anger every day. 

People do not choose to see Him as he truly is in completion, one who rages in holy fury. They choose not to see authority in Him, but sympathy in Him. They choose not to see a Father who commands them, but a Father who surrounds them with grace. Think about it. The liberal mindset saturates the modern perception of God, in that subliminally we begin to think we're equal. You could say, that's not true, but in general, where are the expressions of: "I submit to you God?" Where are those that fall to there faces before God in church sanctuaries, and at worship conferences, who truly understand and mean the submission they are enacting.

How can you understand and mean submission, if you know not who you submit to or before whom you should be shaking in fear? This is the cost.

Modern mentalities are deemed prevalent. In truth, God hates. Let that sink in. God hates. He hates with all passionate intensity, all evil and sin in this world. We choose, however, to censor this part of him, including his vendetta against the powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12). 

We dont like a fearsome God, one who will be exalted and will be magnified in the glory of his authority. 

I believe this is one of the reasons that spiritual warfare is not as embraced as it should be. We cannot war until we realize that He wars, and with every part of himself, not just the parts we pick and choose. Thus, in this omission of God's reality, His Son, our captain in battle, is misrepresented as a 'tame lion'.

In my mind, this an affront to God. This is treason. Our King Yeshua said, "He who is not with me is against me; He does not gather with me scatters." Being with Him means to strive to be ALL of Him, to be emulating his character, to be replicating his work, to be representing his truth, and NEVER diluting or twisting his reality into something that we can bare. If we bare a false representation of God, and as a result then assume that we can serve him by simply doing good work, not looking to advance His Kingdom...what is going to stop Him from looking at us on the final day and saying: "I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers."

3) The Problem

Matthew 22:29 -- "Jesus Replied, 'Your mistake is that you don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God.'"

Not only do many Christians pick and choose what they like about God, they pick and choose what they want to believe from His Word. Scripture says that the Word was there in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the Word become flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. (John 1:1,14) Now, realizing this precious truth, we realize that when we are selective about the Bible, we're being selective about Jesus himself.

It says that we saw his glory! We saw him in flesh. We see him in Spirit. We should see him in entirety.

4) Repercussions

I tell you, as a result of the failure to acknowledge God fully, things are beginning to crumble.

Just look at this current generation, it has become absolutely unfamiliar with respecting authority and honoring that authority with a willing spirit. In America today, there is a truly monumental level of rebellion within the household concerning children acting out against parents. So much so that I wonder how we can ever presume to follow God...The ever present mandate of Romans 12:1 will never be completed until this kids grow into men and women of God who know what it means to submit.

Yet Satan has built an empire of rebellion within the modern mindset. Ultra-liberalism so saturates culture with the concept of equality, that the structure of authority and leadership that God set down with the inception of the family is all but destroyed. 

The domino effect comes from our spiritual lives, where we rebel against God, because we don't know how to submit to him. I know because I am guilty.

In the home, sons rebel agains their fathers, I know because I am guilty.

In school, students rebel against teachers, I know because I am guilty.

In war, soldiers rebel against leaders, I know because I am guilty.

Put two and two together. Satan attacks the relationship between son and father, because he knew the relationship between the Son and the Father, and how he was DEFEATED AS A RESULT. He doesn't want that to happen again, with each of us submitting like Jesus did to God, furthering that defeat. Satan attacks the relationship between student and teacher, because if we truly listen to our Rabbi Yeshua, to our true God, we will be indestructible. He attacks the relationship between soldier and leader, because he knows the possibility of a unified army of Christ will annihilate him.

Just look at everything wrong with this country and you will find Satan at its root, taking an axe to the family tree of God, trying to separate us from Him. Satan does not want the Christian to realize who God is as a whole person, deserving of uncompromising loyalty. He's fine with us thinking we can shed a few tears during a worship service because of how God loves us so, but leaving it at that for the rest of our lives. It's when we start advancing the Kingdom, that he starts getting nervous and begins attacking us.

Yet, James 4:7 echoes through my mind again and again, not only for my own life, but for this nation.

Victory is His.

~

And so as the Will of God lies idle in dusty bibles, men continue to preach that He is a floating nebula of love and forgiveness. While he is that in part, the whole modern era of Christianity refuses to ascend the hill and know God in whole. Until we march under the banner of the FULLY RECOGNIZED God, his roar will not be heard to the edges and ends of the earth. Half of God resounds only so far, but God, whole and without blemish of theology or interpretation, resounds throughout everything.