Hey God Part 2

Hey God,

Look,  I have a lot of questions that I could ask about my health, my life, my future… but I’ll leave those on the back-burner for just a little while. I know my focus has been really selfish for the last week or so, and I want you to know that I’m sorry.

After everything that’s happened, I just really want to spend time with you… not to find an answer, not to find some miraculous healing (although that would be nice), but just to get to know you better. I know you can meet all my needs, but can you please just meet me here? In my brokenness? In my feelings of worthlessness? In my tiredness and fatigue? Can you meet me?

God, I don’t understand everything that’s going on at the moment, but I know that you are amazing. It’s not easy right now, but I’ll choose to remember all the great things you’ve done in my life…

So here are ten things that I’m amazingly thankful for. God, I remember you.

1. My sister. The most beautiful person in the world. She has probably the best friend I had growing up (even if I didn’t realise it at the time). She was faithful. She loved you. She is probably the reason that I know you. God, how can I thank you enough for this amazing and beautiful young woman?
2. My mum and dad. Yeah, I know they’re a little rough around the edges (aren’t we all?), but the too have been amazing influences in my life. They’ve met every need in my life, they raised me in a super loving environment, they’ve showed me heaps of affection and reinforced that I’m pretty much the best person in the world. God, I don’t know where I would be without them.
3. My brother. I have no idea what’s happening between you and him, but I know there’s something huge going on. Thanks for everything you’ve taught me through his life. Thanks for his heart to seek you (even though he may not realise that he is). I know you’re going to do huge things in his life. I can feel it, and I know i’m not the only one.
4. The night I first felt forgiven of sin. You remember, don’t you? That night a few years ago; the music, the dancing; the amazing sense of weightlessness. I still remember that feeling… although it seems a long way away right not. Thanks for that, and for the (more or less) continued feeling of forgiveness. I don’t feel especially forgiven right now, but I know I am …
5. For the awesome family at YWAM Newcastle. God, I know they care about me heaps, and that they want me to get better. I hate the fact that I can’t really hang out with them, and you know that, but I am still super thankful to be here in the first place. Thanks for making it happen.
6. Sports DTS. God. Seriously. Every time I think about this school I have to pinch myself. I know that this is a gift straight from your hand. There’s no other way I can explain it. You’ve put me exactly where I need to be to do exactly what I need to be doing at exactly the right time. You’ve blessed me so much.
7. The ability to run and play. God- you’ve created me to run free. At the moment I feel like I’m losing touch of that (this stupid sickness!), but I know that’s the purpose and desire of my heart. Although it may be on hold for a while, I know that you’ve blessed me with that, so thanks!
8. That day at Presence Conference 2008 when I finally surrendered control of my life to you. That wasn’t a small thing, and I know that it was real. Your presence (haha!) in that place was so tangible, so real, so … good… that I just knew that’s where I belonged. So, I gave you my life that day, and things haven’t been the same since. Thank you that you didn’t let me continue in my sin, but you loved me enough to bring me out of it.
9. LAMMDOGs. Thanks for speaking freedom into my life. Thank you that I’m no longer a slave to pornography. Thanks for using me to help other young guys (and girls!) get free of this stuff! Thanks for using me to speak value and identity into the lives of those people around me.
10. Future. Thank you that my future is entirely sure. Thanks that everything’s going to be okay in the end. Thanks that you are good, even when I feel like crap. Thanks that you love me, even when I feel so unlovely. Thanks that you’ve given my life meaning, even when it seems to have been put on hold for a little while. Thanks that you’ll never let go. Thanks that you’ll always be there…

God, thank you. I like you a lot. And I trust you.

Talk to you soon…

Jesus The Revolutionary Part 1

Revolutionary: /ˌrevəˈlo͞oSHəˌnerē/ (adjective) Involving or causing a complete or dramatic change.

Before I attempt to explain the way Jesus changed things, it’s important to know a little about what was happening when he was growing up…

We had these teachers (you’ll also hear them called the “Experts in the law”, the “Pharisees” and the “Sadducees”) who spent all their time studying scriptures, trying to find eternal life. As a result, they knew a LOT about the law of God and the importance of not breaking any of God’s commandments. So, they put additional rules in place, as a sort of buffer, to keep people from getting too close to breaking God’s rules…

Say I have a vase, and I want to protect it… I could say “Don’t touch the vase” and leave it at that. I could put the vase in a glass case. I could put guards around the case, security cameras, lasers, security passwords, retinal scans… to remove even the possibility of anyone coming even close to it. The Pharisees and Sadducees put a glass case and security guards around God’s commandments. Here’s an example…

God says “Remember the Sabbath (the day of rest) and keep it holy”. God’s intention is ‘Relax for a bit, hang out, recharge your batteries. You’re not slaves anymore- trying to work to keep yourselves alive…” The Pharisees took this, messed around with it and put strict guidelines in place to stop people from breaking the Sabbath… essentially saying “You can’t do any work at all. You can’t pick up your donkey if it falls into a pit. You can’t walk more than 1000m, because that’s considered working, and that’s breaking the Sabbath!” (ironically, making them a slave to their rules… entirely missing the point of God’s commandment in the first place).

Jesus the revolutionary had many confrontations with the Pharisees and Sadducees. One example, specifically relating to the Sabbath, is Matthew 12:1-8. Jesus’ disciples were picking some grain as they passed through a field. When the Pharisees got all uppity because they were ‘working on the Sabbath’, Jesus said “Shelf it. There are more important things going on!” (That’s my paraphrase).

Jesus also said “Woe to you, experts in the law, because you load people down with burdens (teachings) they can hardly carry (laws that are impossible to keep), and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” (Luke 11:46)

God’s idea was always that his community would be inclusive, loving and accepting of all people. At a time where the experts in the law had turned God’s community into a ‘religious elitism’, Jesus came to bust all that up and say “Shelf it, boys! You’ve got it all wrong. This is how God really wants it done.”.

He also said (Matthew 11:28) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke (that means ‘teaching’) upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Kicking the butts of the religious leaders at the time; Jesus the Revolutionary.

Jesus The Revolutionary Part 0

I saw about 30 of my Christian friends share this video on Facebook and dozens of people like and comment on it. It didn’t really have any significance in my eyes until my un-Christian (is that a thing?) brother shared it with me. He was also the one who suggested I do a blog series about “Jesus the Revolutionary” because of an earlier post entitled “Dance Dance Revolutionaries“. This one’s for you, buddy!

Ezekiel Part 2

Well, I started the last post wanting to tell you about this awesome dude named Ezekiel, a prophet (messenger from God) who was sent to bring some pretty rough news to the nation of Israel (God’s chosen nation). I must admit I got a little side-tracked with the back-story, but I thought it was pretty important to carry on with that line of thought.

So, Ezekiel is living in a depraved society, commiting ‘abominations’ left, right and center. People are having lots of sex, sacrificing children to false gods and gloating in the strength of their city. Let’s just say it’s not exactly a great environment to raise a family… As a result of all this ‘sin’, Israel gets smashed by Babylon, the people get carried off into distant lands and a lot of people die.

In the midst of all this God says to Ezekiel “I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels who have rebelled against me.” (2:3) He must be tripping out! Here’s the way I would react “Ahhhhh! What are you talking about you’re sending me as a prophet to Israel? They’ll eat me alive… Literally!!” With that in mind, you can understand why God would go on to say “Don’t be afraid of them, nor of their words… whether the people hear your words or not is not your concern. You just do what I say… that is all I ask” (Paraphrase of 2:6-9). So, Ezekiel goes to some of the exiles (Israelites) “and sat there overwhelmed among them seven days” (3:15).

So, Ezekiel is freaking out and the world is falling apart. Cool. But God reassures him, saying “say whatever I tell you to say and your life will be spared” (3:16-21).

This is where things get a little fruity… (as I’m writing this I’m realizing that I may have to post 10 blogs about all this…) check out chapter 4.

God says … “Take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave upon it a city, Jerusalem. And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel”.

This guy sits there, building a little scale model of Jerusalem and planning out an enemy’s attack against the city. If you find this hard to picture, think of the Battle of Helm’s Deep (from the Lord of the Rings). What on earth is God telling him to do this for? As a sign for the Israelites that (even more) bad things are about to go down … Skip forward a few chapters (Chapter 24) and we see that this is exactly the way things went down. The city is besieged (Help’s Deep style, but Israel didn’t have any White Wizards) and burned.

Moral of the story; God tells Ezekiel to do something crazy in order to give a message to Israel. He does it. It comes to pass. People know that the Lord is God. That’s the message that’s repeated a LOT in the rest of the book, but I’ll close with this.

What if God told you to do something that didn’t make ANY sense, in order to convey a message to someone that needed it? How would you respond?

What if you wake up at 2 o’clock one morning feeling terribly sick. What if God then tells you to go and knock on someone’s door and ask them to pray for you? Would you be willing to? From my experience this week I can tell you that my honest answer is no…

Obviously there’s still a lot more that God and I need to work out…

@_cookiemate

Ezekiel Part 1

For the last 6 months I’ve been following through one of those ‘year through the bible’ reading plans. Right off the bat I want you to know that it’s amazing, and I would strongly recommend you doing it. I’ve found it has helped me be focussed and disciplined in my daily bible reading times. But that’s just a side note…

I’ve been reading through the book of Ezekiel, and I wanted to share a little bit about what God is teaching me through the life of this guy. He’s not one of the most flamourous or popular dudes in the bible, but there’s something about this guy that really gets me going…

There’s a lot of back-story that I would need to describe to paint this picture for you properly, but I that’s not really my intention. I’ll nut-shell it for you…. God’s chosen nation (Israel) make an absolute mess of God’s plan by worshiping other Gods and sacrificing to idols and doing all these dirty things with their sisters and cousins and whatnot. After hundreds of years of warning and loving rebukes through the prophets/judges (follow the story through the book of Judges and you’ll see what I mean) God comes to the point where He can no longer bare the sins of His people.

Here’s something that nice Christians hate to hear, and Athiests just love. God does something. He acts in judgement. “Oh no”, say all the Sunday Christians, “God would never do something like that!”. He raises the nation of Babylon (The Chaldeans) to crush Israel, to scatter the Israelites or to carry them into captivity. A lot of people die, a lot of land is torched and a lot of cities are destroyed. God did something about the sin of Israel.

One question you could ask is “How could a loving God let (or even MAKE) something so terrible happen to His beloved Israel, who He’s nurtured and looked after for so long?” I mean, didn’t he lead them out of captivity in Egypt, across the seas, through the wilderness, drive out nations ahead of them in the Promised Land and give them a land of milk and honey? Essentially, God had soon fedIsrael with everything they needed up until that point, so why would he change his behaviour toward them?

Here’s an illustration that I heard somewhere along the way that pretty much blew my mind. God is like a father to Israel and He desperately wants them to view him as such (Check out Jeremiah 3:19). As the story of the Old Testament continues, Israel grows from a baby (that needs to be spoon-fed in order to survive), to a child (who needs to be disciplined in order to learn the right way). This is why God has no choice but to act to discipline the child…

Another question … what sort of loving father would leave his child to play around in a fire pit? God saw that his children were playing around with some things they didn’t fully understand (worshipping other, sacrificing to idols, sleeping with their relatives, all that sort of stuff). He knew He had no choice but to act to correct Israel’s behaviour in order to save her life.

How does that sit with you? There’ll be more on this is a little while.

@_cookiemate

About Cookiemate

Kiwi by blood, Aussie at heart, the incredibly handsome and wonderful Michael Cooke was a highlight of the 2011 Sports DTS, changing lives with hi breath-taking humility and dashing good looks. He eats and breathes sport, whether it be Football (the beautiful game), some cheeky Ult. Friz. Or just going for a bit of a jog, he’ll have a red-hot thrash at it. He’s also passionate about identity, discipleship and (unbeknownst to most) poetry.

Tweet him; @_cookiemate

Heart’s Desire Part III

Let me tell you the story of how God gave and then started to use the desires of my heart in a way that brings Him glory. I’ll be straight up with you, and my purpose is to not tell you how great or how obedient or how faithful I am, but to tell you how great and faithful God is.

Firstly let’s look at this bible verse Psalm 37:4 which says “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart”. I know that I have previously mentioned and blogged about this verse, but this is just a continuation along the same line of thinking. If you haven’t read that blog yet, check it out here…

• Heart’s Desire Part I
• Heart’s Desire Part II

Now, let’s progress to one month down the track. I’m sitting here in YWAM Newcastle, head spinning and stomach an absolute mess (got hit with some weird sickness last night), thinking about how amazingly faithful God has been to me.

Since responding to the invitation to staff the Sports DTS, God has really been confirming the word that He spoke to me at the beginning of the chapter… ‘This is what you were created for’.

As I mentioned previously, my top three desires are 1) Sport, 2) Discipleship and 3) Telling people about Jesus. God has led me to a position of influence and has used me to speak into many peoples lives; mainly relating to their identity in Christ and freedom for sexual sin- Two messages that God has equipped me to share.

While playing soccer with many of my students last night, I almost had to pinch myself to make sure this is really happening. “Is this really my life?”, I thought as I watched the sun set over the park where we were playing.

God spoke to me through that and repeated His initial message … “This is what you were created for!”. It’s no accident that I’m here, doing exactly what I love to do with people that I love to do them with. So I’m thanking God for every little thing and starting to realise that …

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

My question for you, dear reader, is a rather simple one, but at the same time rather complex. Do you know what you were created for? Perhaps it may be worthwhile to take some time out and ask God what He thinks …

But, again, the decision to respond is yours. I hope and pray that you will find the fulfillment of your hearts’ desires in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

@_cookiemate