are you putting God in a box...

so, i was praying this morning and i got this bizarre image that sometimes our church and people in general put God in a box. We all want God to do awesome things, but we put restrictions on Him. God, heal me, bless me, do amazing things in my life, but don't make me give money to church or raise my hands in worship (oh no, not that!!!!) or talk to my neighbor and say good morning. How is God supposed to do amazing things when you are telling Him how a Christian should be and what a Christian should do. ahh, He wrote the book on it, i think.. hahahaha. So, I started thinking about all the amazing but pretty wild and crazy things God did in the bible. Telling Peter to step out of a boat onto a lake.. ahhh, would you do that? Moses led the chosen people right to the edge of the Red Sea and parted it.. right down the middle. Joshua marched around Jericho and on the seventh day, the city walls fell. There are so many.. So, Peter, Moses, Joshua.. did they put God in a box? Did they think God was crazy? Did Joshua tell God that marching around a wall for seven days blowing a trumpet was just insane and how in the heck would teh city walls crumble by doing that. They all had faith in what God said. When Peter's faith started wavering walking oin the water, he started to sink. When we put God in a nice neat little box, we also can start to sink. For us to receive all of God's power and blessings, we need to let him out of the box and we need to get out of the boat, letting go of ourselves and letting God do His thing.. Let Go and Let God.

Well, what is this box made out of. This box can be made out of many things.

Pride, selfishness, fear, lukewarmness towards God, and especially the things of this world: greed, lies, deceit, hate, old bad habits you don't want to stop doing...in general, SIN.

This world is ruled by Satan. The Bible says so. Just look around. Most world views go against God and his Bible. even small things like no prayer allowed in school, removing any reference to God in governing documents. Hey, this country was founded by Christians. So, who are you going to let run your life, the devil and this world here or God, the one who wants only the best for you. He wants to bless all of us. In Revelation, we can read that God wins. Its a done deal. Satan loses and him and all him buddies get cast into the eternal fire. ahhh, so which team do you want to be on.. the winning team or the team that gets thrown into the lake of fire forever. ahhh, I know my choice.

Let God out of the box. Let His Spirit flow. The best way to open this box and rip it down is thru reading the Bible and praying. The Bible is a gift from God.. His Holy Word. The more we read it and pray on the things we read, the more we can see how we can get God out of that box. How He wants to be involved in our life and how we are supposed to live. God tells us all about marriage, work, families, relationships, church, worship.. all these things. Find out what God says and get Him out of that box. Do not stifle Him. Do not hold Him back. Let God rule every part of your life and see the blessings and growth that can come.

wow, that is a ramble..

peace and be well

In Him