Changing Sites

I'm tired of the limited ability I have with Blogger. I use WordPress for work and it just makes more sense. From now on you can view my ramblings here http://fromchicagotonashville.wordpress.com/

So I'm Reading Again...

I used to blog all the time. I used to read all the time. They are directly related. So I'm reading again, and that means I might be blogging again. So I'm sorry and your welcome. You can choose what one you fall under. Side note I'm writing on my new MacBook Pro so I feel very trendy and educated. I am neither. But I am reading again....

I started reading the book of Jeremiah which I have never read. All I know from Jeremiah is 29:11 -For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I like this verse a lot and so I figured there must be more where that came from. Jeremiah was sent by God with a message to Judah of judgement. They had turned from God and were worshiping idols. That's an extremely simplistic explanation. Today I was reading Jeremiah 2.

The chapter starts with this -

1. The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,

“I remember the devotion of your youth,

your love as a bride,

how you followed me in the wilderness,

in a land not sown.

The chapter goes on to ask why Judah turned away from God and why they turned to idols.

And then these verses really hit me. -

13 for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water.

And this verse which has a sarcastic tone-

33 “How well you direct your course

to seek love!

What are your broken cisterns? What is the "love" that we're seeking? Mine? Fear. Control. I was afraid of getting hurt to the point that I couldn't feel anymore. If I didn't feel, I didn't hurt. If I didn't let people get close to me, they couldn't hurt me. If I could just stay in control of what people did to me or in control of my life, I wouldn't have pain. Peace was a non existant concept. Here is God offering living water and I'm drinking out of a cesspool. I didn't believe the Jeremiah 29 verse. "I know the plans for you.." I understood the concept but didn't take it to heart. Meanwhile I made myself miserable and hurt people around me. For this I am deeply sorry. It's sad to think of the life that I could have been experiencing if I was only willing to realize that God was in control. I'm not dwelling on it, just learning. A friend posted this on Facebook - What you know today can affect what you do tomorrow, but not what you did yesterday." -Condoleezza Rice

So this is my prayer for us all-

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

Because this love changes everything....if we allow it to.