Worthiness

How can I be so presumptuous to state that God is worthy of my praise. As if I am above Him and He is somehow beneath me, and I have somehow decided that He is worthy to be praised by me!
I can understand that in a world full of other gods, that one could deem God worthy of their praise. But that still says that I have some element of something above and beyond God.
God is worthy of praise, no matter what! Whether I deem Him worthy or not. We need to keep our motives in check. We can not elevate ourselves above God.
I can not deem God to be anything. I can simply agree with what has already been said about Him, by Him. I can not decree that God is purple. That does not line up with what we know about Him. I can say that He is trustworthy, because He Himself said He is, and I can simply agree or try to disagree. He is worthy, because His word tells us that He is worthy. I offer Him praise and worship because I want to. But I can not state that He is worthy of my praise and worship. He is worthy. Its simple. In my heart, I can not elevate myself above Him by stating that He is worthy, clean, tidy, neat and presentable, to be in the same room with me while I offer Him praise. I can not say that He is worthy of my praise, because He is sovereign and I am not. We seem to have forgotten to have an element of reverence toward God.


May Gods blessings shower down upon you. And may you be coated in the dust of your Rabbi!

Tried and failed... I just cant do it!!

I tried today to practice being an Atheist. I thought I'd try believing that my dog doesn't exist. Simply because, well, if I could be successful there, then I'd have a half a chance at believing that God doesn't exist.
The fact is, that the evidence is clear for the existence of both God and my dog.
God leaves calling cards laying around, and if our eyes are open then we will see them. Its the same with my dog, however, if you miss his calling cards, you may end up with something between your toes that you probably don't want between your toes!
Out of sight, out of mind, doesn't work. Like my dog, God has this habit of making Himself heard.
Whilst I'm sitting in the comfort of my lounge room, and my dog is "out of sight, out if mind", a truck, motorbike or dog will go past, and Hannibal will make his presence and thus, his existence known! God does this too. He shows up when I least expect it! How is it possible that I can "talk to the air" as some put it, and have answers?
I was questioned once about when I shared my testimony. I said that God showed up in my lounge room and after a short conversation I said to Him that He needed to prove His existence to me. He asked how I would have Him do that, and I replied, I want a child. And low and behold, 9 months later, a baby girl was born. The question that was put to me was, "didn't you have a partner and weren't you in a relationship, so isn't it possible that you dreamed the "God Experience" and simply fell pregnant due to your relationship?" This question was perfectly logical - for an idiot with only a fraction of information about me, my life, and my emotional state at the time!
At the time, I was trying to have a child and being completely unsuccessful, I was also a witch, and trying to ignore God, and I was a very angry person. And once a month I didn't want to know anyone, not even myself, because I had failed in the creation of a child. My practice as a witch had also failed me in the creation of a child and, there was no way I was going to willingly go to God, because I was trying to prove to myself that He didn't exist. Because if He actually existed, then my life was full of crap, and I was essentially in the wrong camp. I liked my life (except for the emotional rollercoaster) and if God existed, then I needed to change my life, and I didn't want to do that, because I would have to stop with the power trip, manipulations, cruelness and everything else. The existence of God would turn my world upside down. And I knew that people could doubt a conversation, but they couldn't doubt a baby. So I asked God for a baby. And He gave me a baby. As a consequence of that baby, my life changed. For the better.
So why am I trying to be an atheist today? To prove that I'm an idiot! How can I deny a God who granted me a child? How can I deny that my wonderful dog exists?  It's impossible. Unless I changed my world view and hardened my heart. Because of my experience, I can not deny the existence of God. Yet, by their experience others try to deny the existence of God. What hurts and bitterness are they carrying around that causes them the try to deny God?
I tried to deny God because of my mother and her religiousness. Because I was on the outside looking in, and all I saw was condemnation. That was partly why I tried to deny God. I was also in the wrong camp so to speak, as a witch. It became part of my duty to deny God, not only to myself, but to those around me! Yet, when things turned to shit, who was it I called out to for help? It wasn't any of my witchy friends, because I knew they didn't like being woken up at midnight, for something that wasn't a crisis to them. Yet, a God fearing christian friend answered the phone and prayed for me. And I survived.
There are so many times in my life where I have called out to God (or as some put it, spoken to the thin air) and had answers to my prayers. And some still call it coincidence. It reminds me of the last battle (Narnia stories). Where some dwarves were herded into a stable, they couldn't see that they were no longer in a stable. They couldn't see the Lion (Aslan) they could only see the stable. Their worldview was the stable, and in their stubbornness, they refused to see reality! Sounds like atheism to me!
So, how did I go with trying to believe that my dog doesn't exist? I completely failed - he looked at me with his cute puppy face. He made his face look sad. So I hugged him. So he exists, and I failed. Eventually everone is going to see that God exists, whether they want to or not!

May Gods blessings shower down upon you. And may you be coated in the dust of your Rabbi!

Australian Watcher On The Wall
http://australianwatcheronthewall.blogspot.com.au

He HAD to be different.

Where all religions where built on violence, either towards hu ans or animals, it was violence. What Jesus decided to do was so different. Yes he was beaten and suffered violence. But when someone pulled a sword and  cut off an ear, Jesus responeded by telling him to put away his sword. "Stop the violence on my part." Even at his arrest, he was doing things differently. He was shown violence, yet didn't respond in kind. Instead He responeded with non-violence. His entire death was violent, yet, He was the Son of God, He could have defended Himself. He could have called angels to help Him. He could have gotten off the cross and killed all those who put Him there. But because He loved, even those who put Him there, He chose non-violence. He chose to demonstrate love. I can understand why some would describe Him as "Jesus, meek and mild." But love is hardly meek or mild. It is as strong as death. Even possibly stronger. Why would He choose to turn the other cheek, was it so He would have matching bruises? Or was it that He had looked upon us humans and thought to Himself, "all they know is violence, so I will show them just what love is."
From the outset, there was violence. The snake caused emotional violence, then there was the separation, because of the sin. Then Cain and Able, then countless others. Wars, battles, murder.... All we've known is violence and pain. Even sickness is violent in what it does to the human body. Sacrifices. Its all been violence. Yet, Jesus decides, its got to stop. He needs to teach us what love is. He needs to teach us what grace is. And He started with His death. The sacrifice to end all sacrifices, violence to end all violence.
So why is there still violence in the world? Has everybody accepted Jesus' way of doing things? No - so violence still exists. We're in a fallen world. Just because Jesus died and rose again, didn't fix everything. He gave us Himself, and the Holy Spirit, in order to be able to live in a fallen world. And eutopia doesn't work. At least not when you are dealing with sinful natures.
To stop the violence, person to person, then maybe we should all take another look at the life Jesus has offered us to live. And maybe we should take Him up on His offer.

May Gods blessings shower down upon you. And may you be coated in the dust of your Rabbi!

Australian Watcher On The Wall
http://australianwatcheronthewall.blogspot.com.au