• Welcome to CruisinSusan.Com! This site is currently being re-developed, so please be patient as I work to create the new site.

    The primary purpose of this site is to post thoughts, revelations, and ramblings related to living a Christian life that is fun, powerful, and relevant. I welcome your thoughts and comments as well, so come back often, read, and post!

When Do You Worship?

0
January 16, 2011

This morning in church we sang what is perhaps one of my favorite songs – “Here and Now” by Dan Pringle, Steve Deal, and Darren Elliot. Some of the lyrics are:

When I’m on the mountain, I’m gonna worship.
When my world is falling, I’m gonna worship.
When my spirit is soaring, I’m gonna worship.
When everything’s broke, I’m gonna worship.

In the center of it all, You’re the One who breaks my fall.

As I have mentioned, I have been reading the book of Job. I bet that if Job ever wrote a song, this would have been it. There’s no one else I know of who went through more devastation than he. Yet, even when everything was stripped from him, he still acknowledged the Lord in worship. “Yet though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.” (Job 13:15) There is no greater statement of worship than this. No matter what I go through, and no matter what happens to me, I will still put my trust and faith in my God.

When we are on the mountains and when our spirits are soaring, it’s easy to worship. The only thing that usually stands in the way of worship in this scenario is pride. When everything is clicking, it’s easy to get to a point where we don’t see the need for God in our lives and we let our worship slip. It’s important to remember that God has favored us and acknowledge Him with a worshipful spirit in thanksgiving.

When our world is falling and everything is broken, it’s easy to blame God. It’s in our nature to blame something or someone. In Job’s case, he knew he had done nothing to incur God’s wrath, even though everyone else thought he had sinned greatly. In their eyes, it was the only way to justify what seemed to be God’s vengeance pour out on Job. Yet, as this song says, Job knew that God was still the only One who could break His fall and bring Him salvation.

No matter whether things are going great, or things are going terrible, the key is to continue in a state of worship before God. Cast your hope and faith upon Him, for He will see you through. Our earthly afflictions are only temporary, but our worship will last a lifetime. And when things are bad, no matter how bad, He is the one who can break the fall. Only worship!

: Daily Life

Job’s Insight

0
January 12, 2011

I’ll have to admit that Job has always been a bit confusing for me. The whole premise behind it is amazing to me, though. Job is a righteous man before God, and it’s almost as if God and the Devil decide to play a tug-of-war power match over him. God knows Job’s heart, even better than Job does himself. He knows Job will not turn from Him. The Devil feels otherwise, though. If allowed to strip him of everything he has – even his own health – he’s convinced Job will turn on God. In this case, God says, “OK – go for it.” I suppose that sometimes the enemy needs to be proven wrong, even though God knows the outcome.

In reading through it as part of my daily reading this morning, I found something I hadn’t seen before. In 16:19 and 21, Job says, “Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high….I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.” (NLT) What an incredible insight for Job! This is years before Jesus is ever mentioned! Yet he pegs the role Jesus plays perfectly. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus “lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.” Again, we see in 1 John 2:1, “If someone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.”

Without even knowing about Jesus, Job knows that there is a part of God who intercedes on his behalf with God. Not only does this show amazing insight from Job, but it also represents another strong argument for the Bible being the inspired Word of God. How could those words be written so many years previous to Jesus’s birth, yet match so perfectly to the role our Savior plays for us in the heavens? Our God is indeed an awesome God!

: Bible Study Notes

Seeing the Hidden Well

0
January 9, 2011

Hagar must have thought she had it made. She had borne a son to Abraham when Sarah could not. In the absence of any other heir, Ishmael would soon inherit a great deal of wealth and possessions from an aging Abraham. And then the unthinkable happened – at over 90 years of age, Sarah birthed a son and all of a sudden, the great dreams of Hagar disappeared with the cries of a new born baby boy, Isaac.

When Ishmael was found mocking Isaac in Genesis 21, Sarah laid down the law to Abraham. Hagar and Ishmael had to go. With the promise that Ishmael, too, would become a great nation, Abraham sent the two off with food and water to go find another place to live.

Instead of purposefully trying to find a new place to live, however, Hagar goes out and simply “wandered in the desert of Beersheba”. When the provisions given to her ran out, she tucked Ishmael under a bush and went several yards away to die.

God hears their cries, however, and intervenes. He tells Hagar that a great nation would come from Ishmael. God had a purpose for Ishmael, and would not let the two of them die. In verse 19, “God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.”

Hagar was so totally focused on her problems and her circumstances that she could not see the well God had for her. When we get so enthralled in our pity parties, we miss the purpose and provision God has for us. We pitch our fits, whine and cry, when all the while if we would just open up our eyes, we would see the answer God has already provided laid out right before us.

Do you have a problem that needs a solution? Do things look impossible? Keep your eyes focused on your God, not on your problems, and allow Him to show you the well of provision He has provided. He provides “streams in the desert”. He is Jehovah Jirah, the God who provides. The well is there, we just need to look with His eyes in order to see it!

: Bible Study Notes

God is Active

0
January 2, 2011

I decided to do the 365-day Bible reading plan for this year. I don’t always like or want to be on a specific script in terms of my reading, but there’s nothing to say I have to limit myself to the specific readings for the day in the plan. Besides that, it’s been a while since I’ve read through the entire Bible, and I figured it was about time to do so.

In reading the first 3 chapters of Genesis – chapters I’ve read over and over – it struck me at how active God is. In the very first verse of the Bible, our “introduction” to God, we have two action verbs associated with God – He “created” and He “moved”. So from the very beginning of time, God’s Spirit was moving. The first part of Genesis is filled with action verbs like “created”, “moved”, “said”, “named”, “saw”, “put”, “made”, etc. We also see verbs like “blessed” and “commanded”.

Isn’t it comforting to know that we serve a God who is active? He did rest for one day, but the other days are filled with activity. And He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means He is still active on our behalf! No matter what we have going on in our world, we can know one thing – God is actively involved in our circumstance. Yes, even when it doesn’t feel like it or look like it. His nature is not one to sit on the sidelines and watch. He didn’t create everything and then say, “OK – I’m done now. I can just sit up here in heaven and enjoy Myself now!” No, He is engaged in battle with us. He is actively working things out for us. Now we just need to be like Him, and be active as well! Let’s not sit on the sidelines and watch as life goes by, but let’s get actively involved and mix our action with God’s action. Incredible things lie in store for those who take up this position!

: Bible Study Notes

New Year Resolutions – Keys to Keep Them in 2011

0
January 1, 2011

Happy New Year’s! This is typically the day people set “resolutions” for the current year. They are usually very good resolutions, but unfortunately we rarely follow through with them. Some have gotten so disenchanted with resolutions either forgotten or gone bad they have just given up altogether on making them. So the question is asked – why even set resolutions, or if  we do set them, how do we keep them?

Maybe it’s just a matter of semantics, but I’d rather call them “goals” instead of “resolutions”. Proverbs 29:19 teaches us that without vision (translated also as revelation), people perish. Vision includes goals. Vision doesn’t just happen – we have to make goals toward making the vision happen. So let’s set goals this year – goals toward our vision (and if you don’t have a vision, then spend some quiet time with God and let Him give you one).

The first key in keeping the goals we set lies in the goals themselves.  We have to set realistic goals. It’s always good to make the goal a bit beyond ourselves, otherwise there is no room or need for God to work. Our goal needs to be at least 80% attainable by ourselves, leaving up to 20% attainable only with God’s help. Then we have to set specific steps that will get us to that goal. And finally, regularly do a self-check. How are we doing towards making the goal? What needs to change in order for us to get back on track if we are off? Don’t be afraid to tweak the steps and possibly even tweak the goal.

With these keys in mind, I do believe we can set New Year’s Goals that will make a difference in 2011! Go bold, and may 2011 be the best year of our lives!

: Daily Life