Eb and Flow: our relationship with God

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long, life has been busy...hopefully now I have more time to blog.

Over the past year I have seen tremendous growth in my relationship with God and I wonder why I am not always growing, always seeking, always hungry for what God has in my life. As I look back, growing up I was pretty involved in my church at a pretty young age (sometime in middle school). I think I have always been a little different than most because I really knew there was something more out there and I took things a bit more seriously than most. I think people always took it as "Oh Sam is so serious all the time, can't take a joke." when I think really, me looking very serious is really just me thinking hard and deep about a lot of things. So...in light of that information. I have been looking back through my life as a Christian and looking at the different seasons in my life. Times when I have been on fire to follow God wherever he wants me to go and times when I struggle with it. As it goes I am a pretty steady keel and my seasons last longer than a lot of people, when I get something in my head it stays there for a very long time (sometimes whether good or bad or positive or negative). In middle school I was an active participant in the youth group at my church, in high school I was a very active participant in "Ground Zero" (an other youth organization organized by my church to minister to the high school). I remember to going to an "Acquire the Fire" event put on by TEEN MANIA MINISTRIES and was one of those kids they talk about who grew up going to church and just went because their parents went or because their parents asked them to. I remember Ron Luce asking if we new our birthday, not our physical birthday, but the date we committed our lives to live totally and completely for Jesus Christ. I couldn't remember the day I ever made a commitment. Like stood up in Church in front of all my friends and family and said, "This is what I believe, please be with me in it and keep me accountable to it." It kind of scared the crap out of me. I couldn't remember committing. Then I had this tug of war in my head and heart. Oh should I go down there and committ? All my friends already think I'm committed. All my friends think I'm saved. If I go down there right now they'll think I was putting on a show for them all this time. But what if i'm not? What if there was never a time when I could actually think for myself when I made a declaration to commit to Christ, to God? Seems like something kind of silly to get turned away for. I think it was one of the hardest things up to that point for me to do. Get up in front of all my friends, who thought I was saved, and say, "Guys I don't know if i'm saved, I am going to commit right here right now". It was pretty cool, not one thought any less of me, in fact it was like a celebration. What was I so scared of? This is when I consider my birthday to be May 21, 2002, the day I made a commitment to follow Christ through good times and hard times, no matter what people think of me. no matter how badly I screw up. no matter anything.

Ok, so now, i've made this commitment...so I should be steady, like a rock for the rest of my life, things are good, taken care of. I know God, He knows me. Everything is fine and dandy. haha. From that point in my life there has been all sorts of "Eb and Flow" with my relationship with God. Sometimes these seasons last for weeks, sometimes they last for months, sometimes they last for years. I believe everyone has great times of strenth and knowledge in their relationship with God and I believe everyone, and I mean everyon has times of great weekness, and falling away in their relationships with God, no matter how hard you think you or they seem like you or they have it all together. No matter how much you or they seem like they have this super close and intimate relationship with God, everyone goes through peaks and valleys in their relationship with God.

This past year I have had a really great relationship with God, I was convicted on some serious pride issues in my life. God pretty much brought me to the end of myself emotionally and spiritually, but has come through and blessed me incredibly even though I continuously fail Him. So in this past year I have been studying my Bible, probably harder than ever and really seeking after God harder than ever for His will and direction in my life. This last week, someone near to me has been struggling with just stuff in general and hasn't felt very close to God. This is hard to hear because I look to this person for stability and guidance in my life and in my relationship with God also. In my quiet time for a while now I have been praying for this person and studying my Bible and God showed me some interesting trends. Everyone, dare I say everyone again, struggles with their relationship with God. Just for a couple of examples of Gods nearest and dearest servants: King David in the old testament, considered to be "A man after God's own heart", the one God chose to be king over Israel. David had some royal screw ups because of his sinful nature, on namely killing a man so he could take his wife. In the book of Psalms a lot of King Davids Psalms are about thanking God, and God leading and protecting David. And about Gods loving kindness. There is one Psalm I read this morning that hit me like a ton of bricks.

Psalm 44

This Psalm is all about David not feeling God. Feeling abandoned by God. David is not feeling a relationship with Him. He is still hungry, desperated for one, but does not feel it. King David, one of the biggest Icons in the Old Testement a man we look to and admire for his relationship with God, he still had seasons of doubt and spiritual dryness.

In the New Testement, I have been reading through the book of Matthew. Near the end of the book (Matthew 26:69-75) is the story of Jesus profesying Peters denial. Peter is pretty adement he will not deny Jesus is his Lord, but Jesus knows he will. Peter was Jesus' closest desciple, Jesus' favorite. The one who listened the most intently, the one who followed the closest. You could say the one most passionate about his relationship with Jesus, but still he has a major moment of weekness a falling away in his relationship with God. When he denies being associated with Jesus and knows it instantly, but was powerless to do anything about it.

I think every Christian at times is very outwardly "gung-ho" with Gun's blazing, yelling at the top of their lungs, "I will never leave your side God! I won't ever fall away! I will be there till the end! Thick and thin! I will not fail You God!" I think every Christian goes through periouds of spiritual dryness and times when they don't feel close to God, when maybe they don't even want to think about God. I would like to encourage you, don't loose heart. Don't be down on yourself, but keep pressing in. I think sometimes God brings us through spiritually dry times because He wants us to work a little harder for it. Or He sees a pride issue in our lives that needs to be taken care of. Or maybe a control issue. Ask God to reveal what it will take to get back to a close relationship with Him. Sometimes that might mean, spending an extra couple of hours on your knees pressing in to find him. It might mean relinquishing control of something in your life to Gods plan and direction. Whatever it is, I promise if you keep pressing in God will reveal what He has in store for your life to you and He will provide a way to get there.

Thanks for reading.

Thankfulness

Wow, this fall has been an incredible season for me. I don't know that I have experienced life so richly ever before. God has poured out so many blessings to me I can't even begin to count them; they are so numerous I can't help but wonder why and sometime wonder how long they will last.

Lately I feel as though God has given me the world and I have to remember He is only entrusting it to me. Everything I have is His. I am so Thankful to enjoy what he has given me. I want to make it my prayer that I live in a state of thankfulness always and that everything I have is God's to do with what he pleases and if what He has entrusted me with leaves me and is entrusted to someone else to be thankful for the opportunity to use it for God's sake.

This is my prayer I want to breath with every breath I have.

THANK YOU LORD, GOD, FATHER! THANK YOU!

Political Priorities

This weekend I spent some time with my girl friend, Christina, in Seattle and as it would, the subject of who are we voting for came up. We had a pretty short discussion, but no one really wanted to talk about the subject at great length at the moment.



Then this morning I was a the Seattle Quest Church, and Pastor Eugene spoke on the issue. I commend him for his view on the matter. He encouraged his congregation to not subscribe to a political party or even a political candidate, but rather a set of Biblical principles of what we should be looking for in a leader. He took no sides and encouraged the congregation to really dig into what the candidates have to say about policy they will implement.



As a Christian, or if you like better, a redeemed follower of Jesus Christ I have to look to Him and His character to see what I would look for in a candidate for president. Now, I do find both candidates wanting along the lines of Christ-like, but I do think there is quite a difference in the moral scopes of each candidate.



In Matthew 22 Jesus is having a political discussion with the Sadducees and is asked a pretty interesting question regarding the law. The question was, " What is the greatest law, or the most important law?" Jesus said, "the greatest law is to love God with our total being, and the second greatest is like it; love your neighbor as yourself. All the other laws hang on these two".

So I have to ask myself, which candidate is going to love God and love their neighbor as themselves. What I believe everyone values the very most is life. So what candidate has the greatest respect for life?

I really like pastor Eugene's thoughts on the Sanctity of Life: From Womb to Tomb. Taking into account:"Womb to Tomb" one candidate has demonstrated a stand for the sanctity of life and one has not.

An other issue I find to be very important to me is the treatment of the poor. I do not believe it is the Governments Job to give out handouts to the poor. I believe that results in a spirit of laziness from the people. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10 Paul says, "if a man will not work, he shall not eat." I know there are people who are physically incapable of working, but there are also an astounding of able bodied people on welfare because they are too lazy to go to work. I believe it is the people who should be there to help those in need, not the Government. It is as simple as "Give a man a fish and he will be fed for a day, teach a man to fish and he will feed himself for life". We need to empower the people who are poor and hungry to get out there and work for what they need. If we simply give them the end, not the means to the end, we will have to continually support them.

On foreign policy. One of our candidates for president has shown an incredible heart for diplomacy and has relationships with people and governments, literally all around the world, especially in the impoverished places in the world. He knows all of them by name and has spent countless hours traveling around the world making friends and pursuing peace.

We have one candidate who has shown this country, and the whole world, he is a servant and he leads by serving. Everyone knows about his impeccable record of public service going back 50+ years.

Unfortunately I am stretched for time and these are only a select few of the issues which are important to me, but I am Voting for John Mccain. I have not taken this decision lightly. I know my single vote does not count for a whole lot, but I believe it is more about what is important to me and where my heart is. If anyone wants to talk politics, intelligently, I am always happy to hear all sides. I may not have an opinion, or I might, some of the time, the most important issues are the ones we have never brought up.

Justice, Mercy, and Convenant

Recently the same issue has been brought up from several important figures in my life: If God is so good how can he allow so many horrible things to happen in the world. In fact, it was God himself who rained down a genocidal flood upon the earth killing all but 8 of its human inhabitants. In fact, it was God who obliterated two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, except for 4 of its inhabitants. And finally it is God who will finally destroy the earth at the time of Armageddon, except for the souls who seek a relationship with God. So the issue...how can God, who is supposedly "good" allow so many terrible things to happen, and in fact how can God, who is supposedly "good", by his own hand, destroy and kill so many of his creatures. This particular subject brings in so many subjects it can become overwhelming very quickly, so I am going to do my very best to stay as close to the main topic as possible and leave other issues it may bring up at a later time.

I am going to start at the beginning. The Bible says, "[God created the heavens and the earth, and the sun and the moon, and the plants and it was good.]" (Gen. 1& 2) I am also going to point out, God created only one woman, Eve, for Adam. Not Eve, Evy, and Evline, just Eve, singular. Now that I have pointed out that God the earth and everying in it and man and woman and called it "Good", lets move to the first major descruction of man kind by God, the flood.

In Genesis 6, the Bible speaks of the next stage of the corruption of mankind after the fall and the first murder in history (Cain killing his brother Abel). "2...the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were beautiful; and they took wives (plural) for themselves, whomever they chose." Then it goes on the talk about the Nephilim, the children of the men and women who bore them out of covenant relationship (marraige) with each other. These children were the epitomy of sin and continued to participate in this orgy of sexuality and debochery continually breeding more and more evil and sinfulness. "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of [mans] heart was only evil continually." --Genesis 6:5 They were so far away from God and the relationship he longed to have with them, they made God "sorry he made man on the earth" and forced him to "blot out man and all the creatures of the earth".

At this point we have to remember the big picture. God, created Adam (mankind) to have a relationship with him. Mankind is Gods great love. God loves mankind so much He looks for ways to show His grace and mercy so we can come back to Him and have the relationship He wants to have with us.

Now I don't know this for fact, this is my own conclusion drawn from what I have read in the scripture, but I think God, in His endless pursuit of a relationship with His beloved (human kind) he sees the entirety of the human race about to fall into endless sin, an eternity without a relationship with God. "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of [mans] heart was only evil continually." He actually waited till there was only one family left (just barely enough people to repopulate the earth) who were still good in his sight. The story of Noah, is yes, a picture of God's righteous judgement and terrible destruction upon mankind, but more emphatically also a picture of his eternal devotion to His beloved, the human race.

Could you imagine the restrain of God, to wait until there was only one more family left on earth who had a relationship with Him before he annilated nearly the entirety of what he had created. He gave the human race every chance in the world to repent and turn back to Him, but they didn't to the point where they threatened the very last relationship God had with His beloved on earth. Could you imagine what would have happened if he didn't wipe out the entire human race, and save Noah and his family? It would be only a matter of time before they and their decendants fell into the Godlessness of the rest of the human race. God never changed his will or desire, to have a relationship with human kind, he made new way for that to happen.

Then we see God make a convanent with Noah, with the human race. He promises he will never destroy the entire earth again in that way. God never wanted to have to destroy the entire human race again, and he will never let man go so far from Him again.

The next instance of destruction by God in the Bible is in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. This story is presented to us in Genesis 18:17-19:29. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah returning to the state of sinfulness we see just before the time of Noah. And in an effort to prevent the sin from spreading like a cancer across the land again, God destroyed the city and everyone in it except for the few who were loyal to Him: Lot and his wife and daughters. This is yet an other example of how long God will give mankind to return to Him before destroying what he holds most dear.

The Bible finally speaks of Armageddon, the final chance for man to repent and seek a relationship with God, in Revelation. There will be a time when there will be so much sin on the earth it will threaten the very existance of the relationship between God and his beloved and God will intervene so that doesn't happen. He has already made a way for us to have a personal relationship with him through His own son Jesus. Now is the time when God has said, "step onto the Ark before I destroy the world" and "run away from the city which I am about to destroy". This is your last chance to get out, to seek a relationship with God who desperately wants to have one with you.

Yes, the Bible is full of stories of God's vengance, his justice, his anger, but if you don't take a step back and ask why and look at the big picture you'll miss the whole story. The Bible is the story of God, who is in love with human beings who keep screwing up. It is a story of God making every possible effort to show us how much he loves us in spite of all of all of humanities screw ups and continuous tendacies to turn our backs on Him.

A new blog from Sam Jurekovic

Hello, all...This blog is meant to be a discourse of some pretty deep issues that come up in life. Some of them have very hard moral answers and most will be very controvercial philsophical issues. I hope to put forth my best foot in stating my opinion and backing it up first with scripture, then with other supporting imperical evidence. Other times it may just be my honest thoughts on the issues. If you have questions for me specifically on what my view is on a topic I will do my best to formulate an opinion I truly stand behind. I am a follower of Jesus Christ and he teaches me new things every day and is constantly challenging me to take a stand on hard issues.