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| Oh Lord, take me away to your Kingdom forever!! |
Part 1 of 3
The anticipation of a romantic rescue and a daring magic carpet ride held Jennifer's heart for ransom! "Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling, on a magic carpet ride! A whole New World! Don't you dare close your eyes!" (Lyrics from the Disney hit, "A Whole New World", written by Alan Menkin).
As though Jennifer was actually on the magic carpet, she could feel the breeze and the force of the wind carrying her heart high in the sky! Freedom! Freedom! All the trials and all the troubles of Jr. High school were suddenly gone, as Jennifer flew higher towards the call that promised freedom; a magic carpet ride and a magic kiss from a handsome prince were promising to take her away from all of the pain. For a young girl who was trying to close her eyes through a difficult time, the promise of a prince that would take her away where she could experience life where it was safe just grabbed Jennifer! As we study together the call God gave to Jonah, we will also discover so much about the call God is sending to all of us; we are all called to surrender our lives in full. That's right!! No refunds, no excuses, and no turning back when we decide to follow Jesus! Oh! Freedom, glorious freedom will abide for us all in the Lord Jesus Christ!! As we will all discover through our study and wild ride upon the waves of doubt, the fastest way to sink our dreams is to run away from God's extreme! Yes, the fastest way to sink our dreams is to run away from God's extreme!! As well, the only way to follow God's extreme is to know Him and that He is good all the time!!
The truth is, there are many bumps in the road as we dare to follow Jesus! Yes, we can all relate to times when trusting left a bad taste in our mouths! No worries! As we will see, there is no taste that a little living water cannot wash away..and there are no scars that cannot be made beautiful in the potter's hand! Incidentally, the Lord took more than a few blows to lead us home. Perhaps we can remember that when the enemy tries to bring us down, or when the world leaves us lonely?? Perhaps we forget too easily how well the Lord can relate to feeling alone, abandoned, and abused?? For any of us to realize the reality about God, we must first start knowing Him and not just knowing about Him. Let's talk about how a young girl of 14 faced a few giants, wished for a magic carpet ride out of reality, and ended up finding out that she only knew about God, and she didn't know Him.
Growing up in the Lord is not really the best way to make friends!! Now, some of you are going to resist that statement. So, if the hairs on the back of your neck are standing on end for a minute...keep reading while I attempt to explain! Please understand that as Christians, we have all made a choice!! Sometimes it's so easy to forget that when we say yes to something wonderful, we are saying no to something else, the world! The Holy Bible is very clear about God saying, "no" to being friends with the world; we must not love the world or anything that is in the world, right? Let's look at the word of the Lord and let Him answer everything for us,
15 "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[a] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world" (I John 1:15-16, NIV).
Furthermore, we learn from the book of James,
"You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" (James 4:4, NIV).
Ultimately, we are all choosing a different king, a different influence, and the wrong direction when we choose anything other than God alone!! Just like Jonah, we choose another path that promises freedom and we run from the presence of the Lord!!
Consider a word from Joshua,
"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15, NIV).
Friends, we are not friends with this world and friends with God!! When you choose to become a Christian, you have chosen one God and one God alone!! He name is Jehovah, Emmanuel, Elohim, Jehovah Rafa, and Jesus, for He saves you from you sin! We are monotheists, not polytheists right?? There is no room in your heart for two masters, two ways to go, or two voices waring for your soul! Not surprisingly, a few of us will experience rejection if we endeavor to friend God, right? As a result, we find Jennifer, a Christian in Public Jr. High school, with no room for anyone or anything that might distract her from God!! "Yeah! Go Jennifer!!" we all shout. However, before you think Jennifer is so strong and needs some applause, let's take a look at what was really going on inside! I suppose all of you will humor me a bit as I attempt to share some really difficult struggles of mine through the book of Jonah, with hints from the movie, "Aladdin"??? Funny how this blog is about finding Nineveh and following God's call, considering the fact that Aladdin's story takes place in the middle east, not far from ancient Assyria and the capital city of Nineveh!
So, here we find a lonely girl of 14, who was following what she knew about God! To be sure, loneliness and a lack of a deep, personal relationship with the Almighty is not good combination. So many young girls out there struggle with self image and end up not believing that they are worth very much! Well, I'm one of those who really struggled with the idea that when the world rejects you that that means you must not be valuable!! Yes, I did choose Christ alone and following Him sometimes meant the world said, "no" to me!! Even though God completely values us more than we could ever imagine, we don't always understand that do we?? What's more, we don't always understand the lengths God went to rescue us from death and destruction; God's rescue tops 10 times over any magic carpet ride or any daring rescue mission. However, make no mistakes about rejection and how the enemy will use it to tear down the Christian!! Yet, the enemy can never win in the attempt to destroy the light, if we are truly plugged into the source, Jesus! Therefore, if any of you reading has a daughter, sister, or if you are a young teen, I hope this post will show you what I wish I could have seen at the age of 14! Oh how I wish that I had known my Savior intimately and not merely accepted Him on the basis of what I knew about Him!! Have you ever done that?? Have you ever kept using a product on the basis of the testimony others have made about the quality or usefulness? Well, how many rashes later do we throw the product away from our own personal encounter?? Honestly, we don't wait too long before we decide the product must not be good based upon our own experience! Have you ever been reluctant to try something another insists is good because you know that it could burn you?? Perhaps you, like me have been burned before?? Are you reluctant to trust God on the basis of fear??? How many times, as we will read, would it take Jennifer to get burned by rejection before she just said, "enough"!! Friends, we must stop knowing about God and start Knowing Him, if His perfect Love is going to drive out all fear...!!
Ok! OK! Let's get into the story of the magic carpet, the rejection, and how God still waits to accept us, if we'll only let Him! We will have this magic tale in three parts, so make sure to read more about the God that always has a plan to free us! Well, Let's talk about Aladdin!!
Can you remember wanting that first kiss?? I know you know what I mean, right? Well, when the movie, Aladdin came out, I was going through a really tough time! To be sure, I wanted to follow God and completely had accepted that He was good for my life. Well, let's just say that that's all I had ever been taught and I had no reason to believe that the greatest story ever told was not true! In Fact, I believed that God was good and would therefore produce a great fairytale ending to my lonely teenage predicament in no time!! I had no idea that God was the prince, and the happy ending to every tear and to every struggle. Would you like to hear the tale?
Jennifer shuddered walking down the hallway at her JR. High school between classes! So many were involved with drugs and sex and I'll save you the details!! Knowing that the Bible teaches that all those things were wrong and taboo, Jennifer stayed away! As a result, many tears were shed during lonely weekends and long classes with no one to whom Jennifer could relate. Yes, I'll never forget turning 14, living in Kansas and really feeling lonely!! I know meeting Timothy was a great thrill for me, a 13 yr. old looking for a fairytale, but the reality was that Timothy could not save me from the friends I didn't have!! Timothy couldn't take me away from the fact that my Christian standard eliminated any chance I would ever have of fitting in at school. As well, I remember how Timothy even wrote me a letter after I returned home from the beach that summer and how my heart just soared! As it appeared to me, Tim accepted me and no one was accepting me!! On November 24th, 1992, Aladdin hit the box office!! I was barely 14, and I completely could not believe my eyes! Oh my heavens!! Aladdin looked just like Timothy!! Wow!! Seriously, the Disney animators mind as well have asked Tim to pose for Aladdin!! Now, I know that I was barely 11 when the Little Mermaid captured my heart (I posted that incorrectly on my other blog, sorry!!), but I had not thought it possible for Disney to top the magical escape Ariel beckoned me to take!! Never could I have been more wrong about Disney!! When I first saw Aladdin come on the screen, I was completely smitten!! Not only did I get out all my sketch pads and start to draw his adorable face, but I learned every bit of that song, "A Whole New World"!! As well, I proceeded to sing the lyrics all the time, almost as if I was sleeping beauty dancing the dark fears away in an enchanted forest!! Being a classical pianist, I also purchased the musical score from the Aladdin movie and learned to play the songs by heart!! Naturally!! Inevitably, I began to dream of a whole new world, where Timothy and others accepted me for who I was and the pain of rejection and the traps of the world could be taken away with one single kiss!! Hold it...!!! Wait just a minute!!! Magic carpet rides and Cartoon fantasies are not the hope that we have in Christ!!!! Are you kidding me?? How on earth did I not realize that Jesus was offering me His love, love that could never be taken from me, never!! Look at this tale of my life!! "Look! I'm so ticked off that I'm molting" ( from the scene in Aladdin where Iago just lost the chance to have the golden lamp). As for what Jennifer would have needed to know, let's read the promises of the Bible,
As the Scripture says,
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-38, NIV).
Again, I did not know or understand how personal God really wanted to be with me, or that His love was really accessible!! Rejection hurts, and when you are rejected because of your chosen standards at 14, you either rejoice because God accepts you or you turn to something else that promises to accept you!! Confession time is upon us, and I declare to you that Jennifer had turned to something else that would accept her for lack of understanding that the only one who's acceptance she needed was God's! The trouble is the same as always when we make friends with the world! The whole new world that promises freedom will always disappoint and will always fade away...!! In large contrast, the hope of God is eternity with Him in His Perfect Love!! Nothing!! No, Nothing can separate you from it and it can never ever die!! Now, that's happily ever after...!!
However, we have to know that the greatest story ever told in the gospel is not just good news about God...!! We have to understand the freedom it truly offers to us all!! We will continue with the crash of the magic carpet, the crash of a first kiss, and the beginning of a dark cave of wonders, where Jennifer wondered deep down if God was worth the fight! Again, Jennifer turns to a safe distraction..a delay of sorts on the narrow road to God's grace and Love. Sadly, Jennifer was about to find out that those little distractions would not last, and her false image of God would never hold up against the arrows and disappointments that this world affords!! As we tell more about my life in the next few blogs, we will discover that rejection from the world will kill you fast, without a true understanding of our personal God and how He is good all the time!! Truly, I appreciate the readers allowing me the detour away from Jonah for a blog or two!! As the story unfolds, we will read more about how an authentically personal walk with the Lord makes all the difference. Moreover, we will learn more about how Jonah needed a face to face encounter with the Almighty, where knowing about God would become knowing Him!! If you've ever felt rejected and wondered if you cannot take it anymore...please keep reading...whether you are 14 or 74..I'm certain the message will touch your life the way it's touching mine; God's still in Love with you and He accepts you! Oh for sure, He accepts you where you are, for who you are! Finally, God is completely willing and able to take you on a magic carpet ride where the magic never ends, for the Power of God's Love can never run dry!!
So, here we find a lonely girl of 14, who was following what she knew about God! To be sure, loneliness and a lack of a deep, personal relationship with the Almighty is not good combination. So many young girls out there struggle with self image and end up not believing that they are worth very much! Well, I'm one of those who really struggled with the idea that when the world rejects you that that means you must not be valuable!! Yes, I did choose Christ alone and following Him sometimes meant the world said, "no" to me!! Even though God completely values us more than we could ever imagine, we don't always understand that do we?? What's more, we don't always understand the lengths God went to rescue us from death and destruction; God's rescue tops 10 times over any magic carpet ride or any daring rescue mission. However, make no mistakes about rejection and how the enemy will use it to tear down the Christian!! Yet, the enemy can never win in the attempt to destroy the light, if we are truly plugged into the source, Jesus! Therefore, if any of you reading has a daughter, sister, or if you are a young teen, I hope this post will show you what I wish I could have seen at the age of 14! Oh how I wish that I had known my Savior intimately and not merely accepted Him on the basis of what I knew about Him!! Have you ever done that?? Have you ever kept using a product on the basis of the testimony others have made about the quality or usefulness? Well, how many rashes later do we throw the product away from our own personal encounter?? Honestly, we don't wait too long before we decide the product must not be good based upon our own experience! Have you ever been reluctant to try something another insists is good because you know that it could burn you?? Perhaps you, like me have been burned before?? Are you reluctant to trust God on the basis of fear??? How many times, as we will read, would it take Jennifer to get burned by rejection before she just said, "enough"!! Friends, we must stop knowing about God and start Knowing Him, if His perfect Love is going to drive out all fear...!!
Ok! OK! Let's get into the story of the magic carpet, the rejection, and how God still waits to accept us, if we'll only let Him! We will have this magic tale in three parts, so make sure to read more about the God that always has a plan to free us! Well, Let's talk about Aladdin!!
Can you remember wanting that first kiss?? I know you know what I mean, right? Well, when the movie, Aladdin came out, I was going through a really tough time! To be sure, I wanted to follow God and completely had accepted that He was good for my life. Well, let's just say that that's all I had ever been taught and I had no reason to believe that the greatest story ever told was not true! In Fact, I believed that God was good and would therefore produce a great fairytale ending to my lonely teenage predicament in no time!! I had no idea that God was the prince, and the happy ending to every tear and to every struggle. Would you like to hear the tale?
Jennifer shuddered walking down the hallway at her JR. High school between classes! So many were involved with drugs and sex and I'll save you the details!! Knowing that the Bible teaches that all those things were wrong and taboo, Jennifer stayed away! As a result, many tears were shed during lonely weekends and long classes with no one to whom Jennifer could relate. Yes, I'll never forget turning 14, living in Kansas and really feeling lonely!! I know meeting Timothy was a great thrill for me, a 13 yr. old looking for a fairytale, but the reality was that Timothy could not save me from the friends I didn't have!! Timothy couldn't take me away from the fact that my Christian standard eliminated any chance I would ever have of fitting in at school. As well, I remember how Timothy even wrote me a letter after I returned home from the beach that summer and how my heart just soared! As it appeared to me, Tim accepted me and no one was accepting me!! On November 24th, 1992, Aladdin hit the box office!! I was barely 14, and I completely could not believe my eyes! Oh my heavens!! Aladdin looked just like Timothy!! Wow!! Seriously, the Disney animators mind as well have asked Tim to pose for Aladdin!! Now, I know that I was barely 11 when the Little Mermaid captured my heart (I posted that incorrectly on my other blog, sorry!!), but I had not thought it possible for Disney to top the magical escape Ariel beckoned me to take!! Never could I have been more wrong about Disney!! When I first saw Aladdin come on the screen, I was completely smitten!! Not only did I get out all my sketch pads and start to draw his adorable face, but I learned every bit of that song, "A Whole New World"!! As well, I proceeded to sing the lyrics all the time, almost as if I was sleeping beauty dancing the dark fears away in an enchanted forest!! Being a classical pianist, I also purchased the musical score from the Aladdin movie and learned to play the songs by heart!! Naturally!! Inevitably, I began to dream of a whole new world, where Timothy and others accepted me for who I was and the pain of rejection and the traps of the world could be taken away with one single kiss!! Hold it...!!! Wait just a minute!!! Magic carpet rides and Cartoon fantasies are not the hope that we have in Christ!!!! Are you kidding me?? How on earth did I not realize that Jesus was offering me His love, love that could never be taken from me, never!! Look at this tale of my life!! "Look! I'm so ticked off that I'm molting" ( from the scene in Aladdin where Iago just lost the chance to have the golden lamp). As for what Jennifer would have needed to know, let's read the promises of the Bible,
As the Scripture says,
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-38, NIV).
Again, I did not know or understand how personal God really wanted to be with me, or that His love was really accessible!! Rejection hurts, and when you are rejected because of your chosen standards at 14, you either rejoice because God accepts you or you turn to something else that promises to accept you!! Confession time is upon us, and I declare to you that Jennifer had turned to something else that would accept her for lack of understanding that the only one who's acceptance she needed was God's! The trouble is the same as always when we make friends with the world! The whole new world that promises freedom will always disappoint and will always fade away...!! In large contrast, the hope of God is eternity with Him in His Perfect Love!! Nothing!! No, Nothing can separate you from it and it can never ever die!! Now, that's happily ever after...!!
However, we have to know that the greatest story ever told in the gospel is not just good news about God...!! We have to understand the freedom it truly offers to us all!! We will continue with the crash of the magic carpet, the crash of a first kiss, and the beginning of a dark cave of wonders, where Jennifer wondered deep down if God was worth the fight! Again, Jennifer turns to a safe distraction..a delay of sorts on the narrow road to God's grace and Love. Sadly, Jennifer was about to find out that those little distractions would not last, and her false image of God would never hold up against the arrows and disappointments that this world affords!! As we tell more about my life in the next few blogs, we will discover that rejection from the world will kill you fast, without a true understanding of our personal God and how He is good all the time!! Truly, I appreciate the readers allowing me the detour away from Jonah for a blog or two!! As the story unfolds, we will read more about how an authentically personal walk with the Lord makes all the difference. Moreover, we will learn more about how Jonah needed a face to face encounter with the Almighty, where knowing about God would become knowing Him!! If you've ever felt rejected and wondered if you cannot take it anymore...please keep reading...whether you are 14 or 74..I'm certain the message will touch your life the way it's touching mine; God's still in Love with you and He accepts you! Oh for sure, He accepts you where you are, for who you are! Finally, God is completely willing and able to take you on a magic carpet ride where the magic never ends, for the Power of God's Love can never run dry!!
Jennifer what amazing insight; I had no idea that children being raised Christian could experience loneliness and rejection. I was not raised Christian; yet I experienced those elements too; which I thought was normal. I guess we are all outcasts; and few become the rising stars. We live in a fallen world controlled by the forces of darkness. Therefore making life a challenge and perilous. In this past week I've have fought a heavy battle; forces that seem to try to sabotage every area of my life. I feel as though I am getting nowhere; just spinning in circles. I put on the armor and I wonder: Are the battles getting harder to fight? or Are the battles making me to weak to fight?
ReplyDeleteWhenever we are getting no where fast...we definitely need His direction; I know I do!! However, the daily armor we put on should be minute armor..especially as the battle gets think and the road gets tough..when the heat is on...Increase the protection..Load your Gun, the Bible with many bullets..Prayer and watch the enemy melt away!! Just knowing we live in a fallen world is half the battle...the other half is knowing that the Savior has already won the fight..that's how we trust..we know that God is Lord of our difficult times and therefore capable of suiting us for battle and fitting our feet for readiness!! Also, weak is not bad as long as it reminds you to run to the Savior..when we are weak..He is strong!! I've wondered too if the battle is just too hard..am I supposed to drown??? Yet, the moment we reach up and say, "Lord! Save me!" and really mean with our whole heart that we want Him to be in charge of the whole storm...That's when the sea's violence fades into the peace of His beautiful promises: His promises Never fail...I've been reading Lamentations 3 again and again...New promises every morning..enough for a thousand attacks...Bless you..you always inspire me!!
DeleteHi Sisters,
ReplyDeleteThe Lord bless you both as you follow Him "with rejoicing!"
A favorite verse: Forgetting what is behind, I press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Let it all go...
"Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him." -Oswald Chambers
Love you Linda!! I love that verse..Yes.. we press on toward the goal..and prize is God!! Can you ask for a better king??? No, not ever...
Delete