Taste and SEE

I really liked this story that I found on the internet - it really does speak to a personal experience with God.

 Have You Tasted My Jesus?

At the University of Chicago Divinity School each year they have what is called "Baptist Day." It is a day when all the Baptists in the area are invited to the school because they want the Baptist dollars to keep coming in. On this day, each one is to bring a sack lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area. Every "Baptist Day" the school would invite one of the greatest minds to lecture in the theological education center.

One year they invited Dr. Paul Tillich. Dr. Tillich spoke for two and one-half hours proving that the resurrection of Jesus was false. He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection the religious tradition of the church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense. He then asked if there were any questions.

After about 30 seconds, an old, dark skinned preacher with a head of short-cropped, woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.

     "Docta Tillich, I got one question," he said as all eyes turned toward him. He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it. "Docta Tillich ..." CRUNCH, MUNCH ... "My question is a simple question, "CRUNCH, CUNCH ..."Now I ain't never read them books you read ... "CRUNCH, MUNCH ... "and I can't recite the Scriptures in the original Greek ... " CRUNCH, MUNCH ... "I don't know nothin' about Niebuhr and Heidegger ..."CRUNCH, MUNCH . He finished the apple. "All I wanna know is: This apple

I just ate, was it bitter or sweet?"

 Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: "I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven't tasted your apple."

The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at Dr. Tillich and said calmly, "Neither have you tasted my Jesus."
The 1,000 plus in attendance could not contain themselves. The auditorium erupted with applause and cheers. Dr. Tillich thanked his audience and promptly left the platform.

(Source unknown)

Psalms 34:8 says - "O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!"

I simply want to ask you all a couple of questions.

For those who have not tasted, who have never experienced Jesus coming into your life - today look at your life - and if you say - "I can't remember a time when I ever experienced Jesus coming into my life."

Then today - you need to "taste and see that the Lord is good." His love and forgiveness are sweet not bitter and HE wants you to experience His grace and mercy.

For all you Believers out there. some of you might say -

"I can't remember the last time I felt, or experienced the Holy Spirit's presence or God working in my life."  When was the last time you were "wowed" by God, when was the last time you experienced God working in your life. you see - if you haven't experienced God in your life for awhile then you need to check your heart. Yes, I know life can deal you some pretty bad situations -

But when you can truly experience Jesus changing you, when you can taste and KNOW that His love is sweet, you will find that life takes on new flavor, new meaning and purpose. When you can experience God's Spirit working in your life you will understand what it means to have "living waters" refreshing and renewing everyday!

It is only a prayer away - what are you waiting for?

Dreams and Hopes

Nehemiah 1:11 

     I want to tell you today about a great example of living in the Old Testament... think back to the dreams and hopes and aspirations that you had… what kept you from them, what kept you from reaching them? Sure life is difficult, sure life has its twists and turns but life can be lived with an upward calling…

Let’s look again at the beginnings of what was driving Nehemiah – 1:1-11(read)

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.

Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capitol, ² that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem. ³ They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.”

 ⁴ When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. ⁵ I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, ⁶ let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. ⁷ We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. ⁸ Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘ If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; ⁹ but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ ¹⁰ They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. ¹¹ O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man.”   Now I was the cupbearer to the king.

I love the life of Nehemiah; what he did, what drove him, how he went about his calling… in his life you can see several aspects of a person living upwards…

Had heart (1:4) – when he heard the suffering and demise of the people his heart was broken; he felt for them and that feeling lead him to do something.

Held on to prayer (1:4-11, 2:4, 4:9, 11:17) – he knew it was the one thing that would get him through anything. All through out his story you can see an attitude of prayer and it was something that he relied on.

Had a servant’s attitude (2:5) – many people today have this attitude that the world owes them a living, I don’t want to surprise you but the world is not here to serve you… and some of the best leaders the world has ever seen have been those with a servant’s attitude… that others’ needs were greater than their own.

Had determination (4:22-23) – no matter the opposition, no matter the threats he was not going to stop with what he knew was more than good – it was God’s greater.

     Nehemiah was a determined leader and a determined follower – He led the people and followed God, and nothing was going to deter him from that.

Had a hard work ethic (5:16) – “And I also applied myself to the work on this wall…”

     Nehemiah wasn’t afraid of hard work; the evidence was that not only did he call the people to work he stayed shoulder to shoulder with them. Work wasn’t his life – God was his life, serving God and the people and work was just a part of that.

 Held onto his dream (5:19, 6:15) – His dream of being used by God to rebuild for the good, the thing that moved his heart he did not let fade. Because he held onto that dream God accomplished through him a remarkable feat – the walls were finished in an unheard of time – a short 52 days. God can do more in two months through a person focused on their calling than most people can do in a life time…

Held on to God’s Word (8:1, 18) – when the “work” was accomplished the first thing they did was stand together and hear from God’s word…

     Yes – I pray that you keep your dreams and hopes – those passions to do great things, I pray that you who may have let yours slip away will search your heart, seek God’s purpose and desire for your life and that you can begin –

Living and Leading the Upward Life –

      A few years ago, I was visiting with my extended family about the time a cousin of mine was graduating from high school and I made the comment that “now you can go out and change the world” to which my aunt replied – “that is an impossible dream and sort of an unfair challenge.”   Honestly – it wasn’t an unfair challenge– the people in the bible who stepped out for God changed their world… and so too can Christian men and women today change their own world.  HOW?
 

CARE More (Nehemiah 1:4) – Getting ahead in life you cannot step on others, in fact helping others will be one of the most satisfying things you can do in your life and you can’t truly help others without truly caring for them.

PRAY Big (Nehemiah 1:11)– Norman Vincent Peale said – “When people pray big – big things happen.” Nehemiah prayed constantly, Nehemiah prayed for big things, he asked for big things and big things happened, he prayed about everything that he was about to, while he was doing it and offered a prayer of thanks after he did it.

DREAM Large (Nehemiah 2:17) – know where you want to go, know where you want to be 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now. In Nehemiah 2:17 he said – “Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach."

     This was a HUGE undertaking but he saw something bigger, greater and was willing to see it come to being…  If you’re going to lead in life make sure you know where you’re going. If you’re going to follow, make sure that you are following someone who knows where they are going!”
 

WORK Hard (1 Timothy 6:18) “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” – Don’t be afraid of work, don’t be afraid to work with good motives. Listen to some instruction from Proverbs that hard work has good returns -

     Proverbs 16:3  - “Commit your works to the Lord, And your plans will be established.”
     Proverbs 16:26 -  “A worker's appetite works for him, For his hunger urges him on.”
     Proverbs 22:29  “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings…”

LIVE Higher (Philippians 3:14) – Paul understood this and lived it when he said – “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

     Nehemiah lived to a higher standard and a higher dream than did the people of his day, Paul lived to a higher standard and a higher drive with a desire to live for Christ and be an example to Christ’s followers. You do that by staying true to God’s Word…

     Don’t take your eye off the goal, don’t take your eyes off Christ – He is where you will find the strength to overcome, to achieve and make life worth living… where you start living and leading for the higher goal.