The Lion and the Lamb

   A frequent request has made it into my prayers the last year or two: "God, let me come to understand more facets of who You are and understand them more fully." With this prayer has come much reward, I think.  I have come to better understand my role as the Bride of Christ, I have come to know God as not only a Father, but a Friend... there have probably been many more ways this prayer has been answered that I don't even understand yet.
   In all of this, though, I sometimes forget what is perhaps His most obvious role: GOD. King. Lord. Far beyond me, far above me, far greater... I think here at ORU we (I) tend to get very consumed with God as friend and so on.  For me, it has almost been this phase of "I got this whole Christian thing down." Live my life, say, "Hey Jesus" throughout the day, read my Bible, and listen to worship music.  Easy.  Ask Him what He wants me to do, take that into consideration, learn the fine art of Christian jokes and the fine line of what is blasphemy and what is just funny.
  But last night God kind of disturbed all that. A lot.  As I was praying, I decided to listen... and a word kept coming to me that at first I thought must not be God. I felt as though He was saying I had "defiled" His presence in my life.  Thinking that God is incapable of being defiled, I tried to ignore this thought. It just kept coming.  Soon I realized I had done just that.  I have put God in a neat little box and not seen Him as Holy. Lion of Judah.  Majestic. Magnificent. Beyond understanding.  Glorious.  Lord of Lords. King of Kings.
  Don't treat His commands as trite, don't see Him as a mere companion to life without seeing Him as the Lord.  Don't think that you have this life down so well that You only need Him as one of your friends that you can pull out whenever you like.  He spoke this world into existence, so how much do you think His name means? And the Bible says that we bear that name. Don't use it in vein.  Remember the weight and power of His presence.

Hmmm... -insert chin stroke here-

      For those of you who regularly read my blog... If there is anybody out there who regularly reads my blog, perhaps you have noticed a trend that I like to write only after I feel I have mastered a new lesson, or at least that I have figured the lesson out and must then work it into my daily life. I don't like to write about what I don't know, when I don't have answers. I like using my voice when it is to bring knowledge or wisdom I feel I may have, not to submit new thoughts into the deep waters of what we don't know.
     What I'm realizing though is how much freedom there is in the unknown.  What I mean is not intentional ignorance, but understanding that even what I think I have figured out, what I think I am an expert on... I simply am not.  I know God is good.  God loves me. The Bible is his Word.  That is it.  Life is not black and white... or maybe it is, but my vision is inadequate at discovering the fullness of what is black and the fullness of what is white. I get it mixed up.  A lot.
      I like it that way.  I don't have to know everything.  I just have to know my God and trust that He sees through all that I cannot decipher.  He is my rock, my foundation, my answer, my comfort.
     The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is my road.