Category Luke”s Ponderings

I know it may sound wrong in our “politically correct” christian circles to ask such a question. We might even hear someone comment “don’t say that you might get struck by lighting” like we are going to step on God’s toes or something for questioning Him. But in these last couple of years I have found myself asking it more and more even out of anger sometimes. I just could not shrug the feelings of guilt and obligation that I felt in my soul. I know the Sunday school answer God wants our “everything”. I am always like what does that mean everything? What does that look like because the people that are usually telling you that are the ones whom themselves are just living the typical christianized american lifestyle.  But before I run off on a rabbit trail I don’t think I have it all figured out yet but I would like to share some of what I have been learning. This morning I was reading Psalms 1-5. One part struck a nerve with me that I wanted to share. Psalms 2:10-12  ¹⁰Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. ¹¹Serve the Lord with fear,  and rejoice with trembling. ¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Now I am sure you are a little puzzled but bare with me for one minute. I am going to substitute a couple of words for other words that could also be used.

O ____ insert name, be wise: be warned, O people of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Pay homage to the Jesus, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

The reason for substituting the words kings and rulers for more general words like your own and people was to show that this passage could be personalized it is not just some Psalm written long ago for a single purpose but it can hold meaning for us as well. As you can see I substituted Kiss for pay homage to. If you look up that word in the greek that word can also mean “do homage” so out of curiosity  I looked up homage and it means – a feudal ceremony by which a man acknowledges himself the vassal of a lord. I also substituted Son with Jesus because any time you see the word Son capitalized it is referring to Jesus. So when the psalmist said “Kiss the Son” what he was saying was pay homage to your lord acknowledge yourself to be his subordinate.

So to go back to my original question, what does God want? I believe what he wants from us is total surrender and to stop serving everything els in this world and to serve him with everything in us. For us to give up everything in our lives that distracts us from Him. Most Christians here in the States say that they don’t pray and read their Bibles more or at all because they are to busy. Busy doing what? Working to make money or spending that money on more or better things. So what we are really saying is that serving money and things is more important to us than spending time in the presence of the one we call our Lord and Savior. What He desires is more than our words saying thanks or singing praises with hands raised. He desires total and utter submission and obedience to His will. That is the hardest thing for us to give because we want control, we want to decide what to spend our money on and time doing. We don’t want to really believe that God is going to hold us accountable for how we have spent the time and resources that God has given us. We like to think that so long as we thank Him for all that He has given us that it is up to us how we use it. We don’t have to worry about the billions of peope that have little to nothing. I am not trying to tell you what you should or should not do but I am saying seek after your Lord pay homage to Him, surrender yourself to His will, put yourself at His mercy before you are out of time and find yourself on the day of Judgement and find that you have wasted your life seeking after the comforts this world has to offer and missed it and have to suffer His wrath.

[alimage align=”left”]
[lightbox shadow=”2″ full=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Bullens-94b2.jpg” thumb=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Bullens-94b2.jpg” title=”A right aligned image”][/lightbox]
[/alimage]

Well this is my first blog post ever! To be honest I am not sure what to say or where to start. So I am sure the best place to start is to introduce myself. My name is Luke Bullen I am fixing to be 26 years old next month, I am married to Misti Nichole, we have been married for 3 years, we have 2 children Joy almost 2 years, and the new addition to the family Joseph who will be 4 months on the 23rd. I work for the the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (corrections) and have been there almost 3 years now but my hearts desire is to go into full time missions work. I am sure some of you are wondering and if not I know I am. So why now? We have seen your dad around and heard him talk about missions and seen him serving orphans but we have not seen you not even in any of the pictures. Well to be honest I do have a pretty good excuse but thats all it really is but here it is. I had just gotten married in April of 09 two months before my dads first trip to Bogota prior to that I had been working in Dallas Tx for about 4 months and had been doing my own thing. I had pulled away from doing ministry work after going to college I tried to get my heart back in it when I came back but after my family had gone though a rough patch my heart was no longer in it. I was more focused on my job and education. Don’t get me wrong I helped out with my dad’s church even sang in the coir but thats what it was my dad’s church I never really took ownership. While away at college I had given the devil a foothold in my life and have up to this point not been actively pursuing God. Believe it or not marriage has taught me a lot about God. God has been using being married to my sweet wife to knock me to my knees. As well as working with some of the worst of humanity at the prison. Over the past couple of years the questions would come to mind questions like what does it really mean to be saved?, what does it really mean to have a relationship with Christ?, and is it enough to just get by? and not just the sunday school answers I know all the sunday school answers I have been the one to tell them. I want the true answer the one that stings when you hear it cause it make you have to get up and do something or make a change in your life. What I mean by that last question is is it enough to just go to work every day and go to church on Sundays, if you can make it, and live the Christian cultures spin of the american dream is it enough to get you into heaven. One question I have wanted to ask someone is what is you biggest fear? Mine is to come to the end of this life and have never done something worth doing. To find myself at the judgement seat of Christ and not hear the words well done good and faithful servant. So why now? because I have come to the conclusion that living life just trying to make it is not enough. If we do not actively pursue God with everything we have until the day we die and live life like He is watching us and it matters to Him how we live it. We will be surprised when we come to the judgement seat of Christ and our name is not called and we hear the words “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matt. 7:23 What I get from that verse is that we must actively pursue a relationship with God almighty for Him to “know” us. Sure He is God He is all knowing He knows everything there is to know about us. He knows us better than we know ourselves but in the end according to Matt 7:23 if we do not walk daily with Him and actively pursue that relationship we might as well stop lying to ourselves and live it up because all we are doing is playing at it and it will get us know where in the end.

Please give me your feed back or questions I will answer them in later posts. I will be writing another blog as a continuation of this one this is just an intro. I want to talk more about what it means to have a relationship with Christ. I am on a path to learn what having a relationship with Christ really looks like and invite you to walk with me.