Saturday, November 25, 2006

"Rain Gutters"

I did not know what to blog about. So I thought about it for a bit. I came to the idea that I would blog about something I did today. I helped my dad clean the rain gutters out today. Well I held the ladder when he went up and cleaned them. I thought as he was up their cleaning them, that our lives can be the like the rain gutters. Once every few months we clean the crap out of them, so that the rain will follow out. We need to let God come in to our lives and begin to start cleaning the crap out in our lives, but much like the rain gutters do not clean themselves. We as people need to say I think it is time to clean the gutters. We need to say it time to let God to come in a clean the crap out of life. So that He can follow out of me so when people push my buttons the grace of God follows out not the overflow of my own self. This is hard because we need to say to God, come in a search my life and begin to clean the crap out. I did this a few weeks ago and He has started to clean the crap up, and when I started to see what He was clean up in my life I was like no. Why are you clean that out? I also thought if this is what it takes to get closer to God, then I want this crap cleaned up. So God can follow out of me much like the rain follows out of the gutters once they have been cleaned and do not have the crap to block it. I am not saying I will be perfect once this crap is cleaned up, there will be more to work on after.
Questions: What is the crap in your life that God needs to begin to up? When He starts to do this will you have a problem with what He is cleaning up? If so how will you deal with it?

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Emotions are elastic

Hey I am sorry for those of you who came on last Saturday to read my blog, I had one of those weeks. Where I did not get around to writing it Saturday. I attend an event on the Saturday and was really tried went I returned home. The event was Promise Keeps. It is an event for men. Some of the men at my church wanted me to attend so I went. I had a great time the speakers were really good. It was great to hear what they had to say.

Now on to the blog this week. It is not going to have to do with Promise Keeps, nor what I learned them. This weeks is about a song on C.D. I have been listening to in my car, so I have been driving around. The band's name is 311. I only own one C.D. by them so I do not know to much at their music. The C.D. I have is entitled 'Evolver', released in 2003. The one song I really enjoyed this week is #10 on the C.D. it is entitled 'Other Side of Things.'

There is one line they repeat a come during the song. The words go like this:

Emotions are elastic
they stretch out and back
stretch out and back
sometimes they just snap
they don’t go back
they never go back

What I like about these words are, our emotions are like elastics we stretch them so far and sometimes they come back to normal. And we can keep stretching our emotions. I also like how it says something they just snap, they don't come, they never come back. We stretch our emotions so far that sometimes they snap and never come back. I do not know about you but I use to wear elastic for the fun of it, on my wrists. I would have friends that would stretch them so far back and then let go of them and they would snap down my wrist and it would hurt. We stretch our emotions sometimes far like that and then we they snap back they hurt. I also pulled the elastics myself and sometimes they would brake on my and they would snap back at me and hurt to. We stretch our emotions like that when they snap back they are going to hurt us.

I am not saying do not have emotions. Emotions are good things to have. But when we make decisions based just on our emotions, sometimes our emotions get stretched and they don't come back.

I think sometimes in the Christian life we make decisions, based on our emotions. I do not think this is the right thing to do. A lot of people make the decision to have a relationship with God based on a emotional feeling. Jesus was about people making decisions to follow Him. He did not use emotions to get people to follow Him. He just said come and follow me, and people would follow Him and when they followed Him they say the difference He made, and decisioned to follow Him based on that.

If we base our whole relationship with God on an emotional feeling. What happens when things get things go wrong, because things are not perfect, we are going to have hard times in life. The emotional feeling might get stretched like the elastics and it might snap and never come back.

So do not base your whole relationship with God on a emotional feeling, because some days you might not feel Him, but He is still there. So base your relationship on what He does and who is He. Not because of an emotional feeling someone created in a service you attend. Let God do that.

Please leave your comments. I love reading them.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

Saturday, November 04, 2006

“Pause Button”

Do you ever wish sometimes in life you could hit the pause button and stop everything? It was one of those weeks for me. I just need to slow everything down. I am in the middle of reading this book on pray entitled “Too Busy Not to Pray” by Bill Hybels. It has really made me think that I need to slow life down. So this week I have tried to slow life down a bit. I had a few talks with people who feel the same way; life feels like it is going 1000 miles an hour. Thursday at band practice for Sunday worship, we decided as a worship team the four people that were there, would slow life a bit and spent the time praying instead. It was a great time I believe we all need it! After leaving there I wished I had a pause button to push everyday and do that. When thinking about slowing life down I was drawn to the Bible.

"Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything." (Ps. 46:10 MSG)

I like how is says step out of the traffic. We need to pause life, and take a long loving look at God. We need to hit the pause button and look at God to hear what He wants to say us. He is above everything and I need to look to Him.

So will you hit the pause today and look to God? I know I will and more than once a week.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden