Hosea 10:12

When Hosea was told by the Lord to prophesy and preach to the children on Israel, he was supposed to stress the point that Israel had gotten away from God and had started to do their own thing. He was more of an object lesson because God told him to marry a whore and have children and show the nation of Israel what exactly they had been doing. Israel had gotten away from God and took on different worldly things and started to serve the world instead of God. This verse is toward the end on the book of Hosea but he is starting to wrap it up with them and he is saying to them break up that fallow unused ground and start seeking the Lord again. Fallow ground is land that had once been used to lay crops and was used to planting and farming but is now lying dormant and dried up unused ground. That is the way that Hosea is trying to tell Israel that they had become. Israel was once a great nation and one that fallowed God but they started to get involved in different worship and not in the Lord. That is what Hosea is saying to them is they have not been used in a long time and they have been dried up spiritually as a nation. Hosea is stressing that point on them and saying they need to break it up. When farmers break up the fallow ground it becomes much softer and more soil like then from when it was hard and dried up. When they break up the dry ground it opens the ground back up for buisness and allows them to plant and grow crops again. Hosea is telling them that they need to break up that dry, unused ground in their lives and allow the Lord to come in and start working in them and through them again. That is what Hosea was telling the children of Israel. But how does this pertain to us these present days? Sure this is a great story of how God spoke to the Israelites and how they got away from God. But how do we take this to heart and try to learn from it? Well I have three things of where without a doubt us as individuals, as church's, and as Christians serving God have gone dry and where we have allowed ourselves to be hard and unused. There are many more, I'm sure, but these are three obvious things that should be quite common and an easy part of our everyday schedule. The first to look at would have to be praying. Christians all over America have really slid back and become lazy on their prayer lives. Not only as individual Christians are we lacking prayer but even as whole church families we have began to slip back in the time we take to talk to the Lord and praise Him. People do not pray as much anymore, and when we do pray it does not have our full respect and attention to the fact that we are talking to God. When we pray sometimes it just becomes a habit to just say stuff and not really think about where your saying it to. We often times forget that we are actually talking to our Lord and Saviour, the one who died for us. There is not much respect and adoration toward Him anymore. Most people only call on the Lord when they want something and they feel like He is some magic jeanee that if we ask for what we want from Him and tell Him what we need we will get it. But not many of us spend the time to go to Him and thank Him for what He has given to us and praise Him for all He has done. Prayer is a lot about asking Him for what we want now days rather than just wanting to talk to Him. I mean if you ever try to pray and talk to God without asking for one thing its hard because that is what we normally think, but if you try to not ask for anything and just go to Him just to talk and praise Him it really is a sweet time in fellowship with the Lord. It's just that now days we either go to Him to ask Him for something we want for our greedy selves or we don't go to Him much at all. This is where we are really starting to lack and become dry in our hearts and I'm thinking that we need to start breaking up that fallow ground and pray and fellowship with the Lord more.

The second thing that we are lacking in as Christians is reading our Bibles. Even though there are many who may pray there are very much even fewer people who read their Bible. Usually when people pray they think that God answers them and they can just hear Him inside them. Many times that just our consciounce telling us the answer that we want to hear. God doesn't speak back to us by telling us in our head what to do. Now the Holy Spirit does lead us and guide us with right and wrong but the Lord does not talk to us in our minds. How God answers back is by when we read and study His word and seek His will. The Lord speaks to us through the reading of His word and when we study it the Holy Spirit reveales and teaches us things that help us grow and walk closer with the Lord. Many people today don't read their Bibles I believe because they think it might be a waste of time and its just a bunch of stories. And while it may be a lot of stories it is all truth and we can all take something out of each and every passage and apply it to our lives and try to better ourselves and serve Him better. Only people that read the Bible regularly can tell you what a blessing it is to just read and spend time studying the Word of God and the many lessons it has for us. And we ought not just read it when we really need help with something like the prayer deal. We shouldn't only go and search the Bible when we need some advice and direction in our lives and let it only be a blessing to us then. The Bible should be a continuious non stop blessing in our lives and always a pleasure to dig deep in it and find out what it has in store for us as Christians. That is another thing where we are becoming fallow in our spiritueality and its time for us to break it us and use it again and get back to serving God with it.

The final most obvious thing we need to start to break up the ground in is our soul winning and witnessing to other people about the Lord. There are many people out there that are lost. They more than likely out number us Christians and it is up to us Christians to witness to the lost and show them the way to the Lord and lead them to Him. It's not just a good nice courtesy thing that Christians should do because they think its good but it is a command from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself. Matthew 28:18-20 is the great commision and it commands us to go and teach to everyone and show the lost the only way to be saved and lead them to the Lord. This is probably the biggest lack now days out of reading the Bible and praying. Not many people go out on one day a week with their church to try to tell the lost about the Lord. And those people that don't even take the opportunity to go out with the church probably don't even witness to any of their accuantenses in their every day life. If people don't take the wide open opportunity to do it with other people the more than likely defanitly don't do it by themselves. It's a very sad thing to hear that we don't care enough about other people to try to show them the way to go to Heaven and keep themselves from burning in hell but it is a very true thing.
The reason for us all being this fallow and dried up in our walk with the Lord is because we have become lazy and satisfied! Satisfaction is the worst thing that we can have in our Christian walk with the Lord and our witnessing. When we become satisfied with where we are it causes us to become lazy and changes our mindset to where if we just do this only its good enough and thats all I will do. It is never enough!!! There is no such thing as enough in our Christian walk and shame on us for getting to the place where we are spiritually satisfied and content with our walk with the Lord. As a closing I will just say that we should never become content with ourselves. We should always want more and more and more and never stop until He comes and takes us home. We need to break up that fallow ground because we are way past due and it is time to seek the Lord now, and serve Him more now, and keep going higher until He comes again!

44 Random thingsabout me

1. Do you like blue cheese? not really.

.2. Have you ever jumped off of something higher than 30 Feet? yeah. i jumped off a platform pool jump that was like 35 feet.
3. Do you own a gun? me not but my dad has like 7

.4. What flavor of Kool Aid was your favorite? i dont know. just the regualr i guess. im more for gatorade

.5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? not at all!!! i think they are fun! i would not be nervous at all if i had to even get major surgery!!! lol im stupid like that! i would think it was fun...

.6. What do you think of hot dogs? they are made of discusting but i dont care cuz they are awesome!!!

.7. Favorite Christmas movie? elf and the grinch!!! great movies.

8. Favorite thing to drink in the morning? very cold water and ICE!

9. Can you do push ups? yeah. not as many as i should be able to do though. im a fatty!!!

.10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? well i dont have any! but my wedding ring when it comes to that!!!

11. Favorite hobby? I really like racing! but thats gone now. i just like to be with my friends as much as i can!

12. Do you have A.D.D.? no

13. What's one trait you hate about yourself? too many to list. but the biggest one is that im not very self confident at all. im self concious about a lot of things. but thats what i like about my friends cuz they make me feel better.

14. Middle name? Wallace
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment. I hope Jimmie Johnson wins on sunday, I wish the Lord would come back, I wish i were with the Esteps.

.16. Name 3 drinks that you regularly drink? gatorade, water, and juice

17. Current worry? my family...

.18. Current hate right now? Kyle Busch and his stupid fat goofy ugly disgusting face and his arogant attitude!!! :@

.19. Favorite place to be? with the Lord! and with my friends. dont matter where. they are great everywhere.

20.How will you bring in the new year? its a whiles away!!!

21. Where would you like to go? Australia and Hawaii

22. Name three people who might complete this. i dont know. they already did...

23. Do you own slippers? yeah.

24. What shirt are you wearing? a gatorade shirt!

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? never hae. i would like to see though!

.26. Can you whistle? yeah.

.27. Favorite color? some blue that i still wish i could find the exact name for it!

28. Would you be a pirate? sure! NO!!! thats stupid! they are gross! talk about personal hygeane! i bet they stink real bad! lol

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? whatever i play on my iPod dock when i have it in there. if not i usually just sing in my head about how tired i am and wish there wasnt school that day!!! lol

.30. Favorite Girl's Name? i like sydney a lot. but my wife will pick them...

.31 Favorite boy's name? i like hayden. but it dont go well with how i imagine my kids. i also like kale a lot!!!

32. What's in your pocket right now? dont have pockets in these shorts.

.33. Last thing that made you laugh? reading the answers to this deal from Sarah's

34. What vehicle do you drive? 95 peice of junk camaro. but its standard so i love it!!! :D

35. Worst injury you've ever had? uhmmm. maybe when i flipped my go-kart in a race. i hurt my back preaty badly!!! and another time when i jupmed a kid at nationals and i came out of my seat and then hit my back on the seat when i hit the ground. that hurt too!!! but i havent had many injurys!!! OH and my sprained ankle! that i forgot about.
36. Do you love where you live? Yea. It's great here.

.37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2

.38. Who is your loudest friend? i dont know. im prolly the loudest! Jordan is preaty loud!

.39. Do you have any pets? no:(

40. Can you balance a spoon on your nose? no thats gay!!! lol

41. Your favorite book(s)? the Bible.

.42. Do you collect anything? certain Gatorade lids... :D

43. Favorite Sports Team? KU

No.44. What song do you want played at your funeral? thats interesting how this question is last! what is this a death wish? lol. i dont know. God's Been Good!!!

Ok, now is your turn. Copy and paste and give me your answers. I would love to have you fill this out and let me know about you.Or if you just want to comment that would be fine too.

Joyful News!

Last night i had the privilege of receiving some very wonderful and HAPPY:) news! i had just got done walking around outside at about 8 at night and praying and spending time with the Lord when i come inside and look on my computer and on the status beside the name of one of my best friends beside her msn messanger name it said I got saved tonight! WOO HOO Praise the Lord :P when i saw that i couldnt help but start rejoicing and praising the Lord for this! i almost broke down and cried i was soo happy! well i went to bed still rejoicing but little did i know it wasnt over. this morning whn i got to school one of the teachers said i saw on Jordans facebook that she got saved. and i didnt say anything but i was confused cuz i thought it was Sarah that got saved. and then one of the kids said and Sarah did too! so that completly blindsitted me and confused me for a minute but i was rejoicing all over again because i had found out that another one of my best friends got saved last night! so that was just some joyful news i received last ngiht and this moning and i praise the Lord that it happed! they have the blood of Christ flowing through them now and i cant help but go back to when i felt that! it was amazing. and i just want them to know i am praying for them both all the time and i pray they stay close to the Lord and never let anything come first before Him! stay close to the Lord guys! im excited for you two and love you guys!

Life Verses

Hebrews 12:1-2 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Many people seem to have a life verse that they choose to define their lives or to live their lives after and use as an encouragement to keep them going. If I had to choose one it would be this one. I call this verse my life verse. About maybe a year and a half ago I felt kind of stupid because a lot of people were talking about their life verse and telling why it is their life verse. I felt left out because I didn't really have one. A little while later I came across this verse. When you look and just gaze over it it is a good verse. And that is just what i saw was the basic surface of what it meant. Then further on through my walk with the Lord I began to understand and discover more things about it.
I will look at the whole first verse as one whole because I'm finding it hard to break it up into parts and using explanations for them without it going into what the next part of the verse says. So first of all because we have those witnesses, which it talks about in chapter 11 of Hebrews, we ought to look at them as a witness and an inspiration and see that they were able to endure many hardships and still serve the Lord. So taking that into consideration of our own lives we need to "set aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us," I have raced go-karts for about 8 years and whether you choose to look at this as a running race or a motor vehicle race it doesn't matter they both make the point. When i raced go-karts there was a higher weight limit for the higher classes. For instance the minimum weight that we had to weigh in my pro stock class was 350 lbs. with the kart and the driver and all his gear as one weight. with me being a big chunky kid we exceeded the weight of that and weighed about 375-380. the little adults that would end up weighing less than that minimum weight would have to add led weight to the kart to make it that requirement weight. they had the best situation because they could add the weight freely and make their weight close to the minimum weight and therefore go faster than a heaver weighed kart and person because they didnt have as much weight bogging them down. so it's safe to say that in preaty much all instances of racing the less you weigh the easier it will move. same with a running race. I'm preaty sure but maybe not that a 170 pound guy could out run a 500 pound guy. but thats just what i see. so that is exactly what it is talking about when it says lay aside that weight and sin that besets you. people may not think that sin and burdens weigh you down in your walk with the Lord but they really do! as it was with racing it is with our walk with the Lord. things will go soo much easier and smoother when we dont have that weight holding us back. the easiest way to get rid of those weights is to take them off you and put them on the Lord. the Lord knows how to handle and deal with burdens and sin and when we just give them to Him it makes our load much lighter and causes us to focus on what we really need to focuz on and that is the race. I looked up the definition of beset and it is absolutely perfict for this ilistration that I'm using. the definition of beset is - To trouble persistently, or to attack on all sides. I really want to look at trouble persistently. that weight that i had extra never got lighter in the race. the only way for it to come off was for me to lose it! like if i had all that weight in lead weight instead of in my stomache it would be foolish of me to not take it out. it would slow me down if i left all that extra 20 pounds in the kart. so if I leave that weight in the kart and i race like that, that load wont get lighter if i just leave it in there. it will trouble me persistently and never ease up. but if i take it all off how can it any longer trouble me? so refering back to we just need to give it all to the Lord and focus on our run with Him! the next part of that verse is to run with patience the race that is set before us. races take time. races arent over in a split second. if we were to clasify our life and walk with the Lord in racing it would have to be an endurance and long distance race! I enjoy watching NASCAR! its absolutly awesome to watch! (GO JIMMIE JOHNSON) but even I get annoyed sometimes when they take 4 hours every single weekend to race! it gets tiring. i come home from church and watch the start fall asleep around lap 50 and then wake up and there is still 50 laps to go when i was passed out for 2 hours. so if you watch NASCAR you know that the races arent over just like that. it takes time and it takes a lot of patience on the drivers parts and on their teams parts! they have to be calm all through the race and just take it one lap at a time. as impossible as it seems the race does end though. it takes forever but it does end. and thats what i beleive it is talking about here in this verse is we have to run our race with the Lord with PATIENCE! i have heard of people and even I myslef get inpatient with how slow time is moving! it always seems looking ahead on something time doesnt move but looking back on something time flew! well when we get frustrated with where we are and how annoyed we get cuz its taking forever to get somewhere in our walk with the Lord its cuz we are not running the race with patience. it is as simple as that! it simple to see but hard to do a lot of the time. but thats is what is awesome about the Lord is He is willing to look past our short commings and mistakes and He is willing to help us and give us that patience we need to run this long distance race. now in verse two. keep in mind it is still talking about the witnesses that we have. and when i look at verse two i cant help but think that the Jesus Christ should be our ultimate inspiration and witness. as it says "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." we see that Jesus offerd up great pleasure and joy to come down to this sinful earth and be in the presance of sinFULL man and He endured the cross. kind of refering back to running with patience, He had to endure that cross. I gaurantee that He didnt want to suffer on that cross! when Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane He prayed that the if it was possible that God would let that cup pass from Him. but it was the will of God that He die for our sin. Jesus didnot find pleasure in dying on the cross! it was great suffering. but because we see that He endured that cross and forgot and layed aside that shame that could have besat Him and now He is in great glory on the right hand of the throne of God. we ought to see Jesus as our ultimate inspiration and strive to follow after His doing and attitude when we see what He had to endure! there is glory in the end no matter what happens now to those of us who know Christ as our personal Saviour. so i dont see any excuse of why we cant endure things, and set aside weights and sins, and why we cant just run that race that is set before us with patience! Do you?