Day 11: What is Life Like? What is life with God like?

Day 11: What is life like? What is life with God like?

Read: Exodus 3:1-12; 4:1-17 (The Call and Mission of Moses)

Let me ask you a very important question: What is life like? I know that it is a very significant question to answer in just such a short space as this. But, none the less, I am asking you to ponder it for just a moment. I know and appreciate that there is much to ponder and may not know exactly where to begin. So let me help you with it.

"Life is like a bowl of cherries." This phrase came to us through the wonderful song written by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson, and sung by Ethel Merman in 1931 as part of her early performances in George Whites Scandals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_White%27s_Scandals). Her singing career began here and her early experience with this launched Ethel into 52 years of success as an actress and singer.

Lyrics:

Life is just a bowl of cherries;
Don't make it serious;
Life's too mysterious.
You work, you save, you worry so,
But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go.
So keep repeating it's the berries;
The strongest oak must fall.
The sweet things in life
To you were just loaned,
So how can you lose what you've never owned?
Life is just a bowl of cherries,
So live and laugh at it all.

Yes, Life is like a bowl of Cherries until you actually bite into it and realize that there is a pit inside. Yes, Life is like a bowl of cherries until you actually bite into one and realize that all cherries do not taste the same. Some are extraordinarily sour and others you immediately spit out of your mouth, there taste being so very bad. Or when you eat one too many just how so painful and upset your gut gets.

Or, like I used to like doing back home in my back yard when I was a kid. We had a cherry tree in our backyard. It was usually full of cherries just waiting to be picked. Some I could reach from the ground. Some I had to climb to reach. Some I used a ladder to get to. But there were always those in the very highest branches which stayed out of my reach. There were some years where extended periods of no rain or there were not enough bees around to pollinate the blossoms. Or the tree died.

Yes, life can be very much like a bowl of cherries.

Then there is this version of life:

"Mamma always told me: Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get."

This iconic phrase entered into our culture from Tom Hanks' character 'Forrest Gump' of the movie of the same name. Recall that the phrase that spawned this was set in Gump's family home. Consider the emotion packed scene when Forrest was called home from his shrimp boat business and ran to his mother's bedside. He is seen seated at his mother's bedside when she was slowly dying from cancer. What mamma said to her son were basically her final word's of loving advice to her son.

Yes, life can be like a box of chocolates until you realize you are or live with Diabetes in your home and you both have to be extremely careful about what you eat. Life can be like a box of chocolates unless you know or find out that you or someone you know or love are allergic to chocolate or worse to peanuts. No fun here!!! What if you do not like or cannot stand the taste or texture of nuts? What about when you realize that some chocolates are very very expensive. And for the sake of your home budget -- paying the mortgage or rent or utilities or telephone bills for example and buying food for your family to eat, you simply a luxury you cannot afford to buy.

Yes, Life can be very much like a box of chocolates.

Then there is this version to consider:

John Mayer (American pop music Singer and Song Writer) wrote his version of life:

"“Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-color boxes, but what you're really looking for are the 64-color boxes with the sharpeners on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64-color box, though I've got a few missing. It's ok though, because I've got some more vibrant colors like periwinkle at my disposal. I have a bit of a problem though in that I can only meet the 8-color boxes. Does anyone else have that problem? I mean there are so many different colors of life, of feeling, of articulation.. so when I meet someone who's an 8-color type.. I'm like, "hey girl, magenta!" and she's like, "oh, you mean purple!" and she goes off on her purple thing, and I'm like, "no - I want magenta!"”

What if you or your kids cannot stand crayons and will only use markers or pencils?

And how about these visions of life:

Life is like a garden - "We reap what we sow" (1 Corinthians 9:9-12)

Life is like a garden - "We live off the bounty that comes from what sprouts up and what flourishes through our loving care and attention." (Okay, my Mamma said this)

Life is like a game of cards: We have to play the game of life with the hands we are dealt and hope for the very best of luck after that.

Mamma said life would be like this (The Shirelles 1961):

Mama said there'll be days like this.
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.
(Mama said, mama said.)
Mama said there'll be days like this.
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.
(Mama said, mama said.)

I went walkin' the other day, ye-ay-ee-ah-yay,
Everything was goin' fine.
I met a little boy named Billy-Joe,
And then almost lost my mind.

Mama said there'd be days like this,
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.
(Mama said, mama said.)
Mama said there'll be days like this,
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.

My eyes were wide open,
But all that I could see is,
The chapel bells were tollin',
For everyone-a but-a me.

But I don't worry 'cause...
Mama said there'll be days like this,
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.
(Mama said, mama said.)
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.

And then she said, someone will look at me,
Like I'm lookin' at you, one day.
And then I might find,
I don't want you any old way.

So, I don't worry, 'cause...
Mama said there'll be days like this,
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.
(Mama said, mama said.)
Mama said there'll be days like this,
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.

(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey.)
Don't you worry.
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey.)
Don't you worry, now.
(Mama said, mama said, hey, hey.)

Mama said there'll be days like this,
"There'll be days like this," my mama said.
(Mama said, mama said.)
Fade.
Mama said there'll be days like this,
"There'll be-a days like this," my mama said.

Yes, Mama said there would be days like these but what she didn't say (Okay, maybe I wasn't doing such a great job of listening either) is that there would be many such days and there could be days when several will come along right in a row!! It could also be that I was having too much fun paddling down the long river called denial.

I guess by now you realize, prayerfully more so now that there are an infinite number of ways to say it or sing it. There are an infinite number of images we can assign to it. Each one is uniquely ours. Each one is equally special and each one is uniquely relevant to who we are and each one uniquely defines how we have lived and learned for our experiences along the journey of this life. Each one uniquely defines who we have become through these experiences. Each one uniquely defines who we were created to be when created us in His image and in His image He created us, He molded us and He shaped us (Genesis 1:26-28) for living in a relationship based solely on love (John 3:16, John 14:1-3,27; 15:1-5; 12-16.)

Now, let me ask you this -

What is the Christian life like? What imagery comes into heart? What heaven borne visions enter your spirit? What lessons might we take from today's Scripture that helps us move forward in faith through our journey towards eternal life in Christ?

1) From Exodus we can learn:

A. Is that God is always there waiting for us to notice Him. It doesn't matter how long it took for Moses to notice the burning bush but that he eventually did. He probably did not start the day saying to himself "today, I am going to notice any burning bushes. Maybe the burning bush was before his eyes for forty years and he paid no attention to it or dismissed it as something he could not or did not desire to use.

B. Even though you may not perceive it, you are being drawn ever forward through your life experiences. Your life experiences will sharpen your vision. Your vision will become more narrow and more focused on what is directly in front of you. There will be something about this vision which will empower your legs and feet ever forward.
(Exodus 3:1 - 3)

C. You will slowly begin to walk forward in faith. To find out what new sort of life awaits you, you will climb the mountain upon which the burning bush is planted. You will risk life, limb and property, just to satisfy your growing curiosity, to get to the top. You will be inexplicably drawn forward towards you know not what. But you know that you will do whatever it takes just to get yourself to the mountain top.

D. God will know that you have begun your journey of faith and He will call out to you (Exodus 3:4-6). You will find yourself being drawn ever closer into a relationship with the voice that is speaking to you from the Burning bush. He will emphatically call out your name and the sum total of your life will find itself responding with "I am here."

D. The first thing God will do is fill you with a growing sense 'awe' and 'wonder' that will stop you in your tracks. Then God will take the time to welcome you into His presence. He will tell you how to make yourself welcome, how to make yourself right at home. Then, as only God can do, He will identify Himself to you in a manner that is both easily recognizable and most emphatically unmistakable (Exodus 3:6,14 - 15).

E. It will be a fearful time for the sum total what your life has been like is now laid bare before you and placed at your feet for you are fully in the presence of God. It is a time of greatest uncertainty. What will happen to me now? What will life be like? There will be many questions on your heart awaiting answers that God provides.

F. God will not call you into a new relationship without telling you why He has done so. He will open up His heart to you in an up close and personal 1:1 conversation. He will talk to you as though He has known you forever, that this moment was always going to take place. He will tell you I have a new purpose or a plan for you in mind (Exodus 3:7-10).

G. You will hear it. You will try to listen attentively to what God says. Then .... the arguments and excuses begin. One reason after the other, your life experiences will berate God with all the reasons it can think of why you cannot and will not do it. Every reason under the sun will pour forth from the voice of your life experience. You will hear it, you will try to keep listening to it and you will keep trying to defend it. God will get angry. However, it will not last but for a moment (Isaiah 57:16). He will have infinite patience with you while your life sorts out all its assorted excuses. He will wait for your life experiences to convince itself that what God is asking you to do is good, is possible despite your beliefs to the contrary, and will eventually get done. (Exodus 4:1-17)

H. He will always reassure you that you are in the right place and at the right time. He will put people along side of you to help you and guide you so you aren't alone. God will always be right along side of you and will take care of the impossible so your life doesn't have to act on or believe that it has to go at it by all by itself.

I. You will be convinced and you will eventually go knowing and believing with all of your heart that the grace and love of God the Father is forever going before you. And God will make something good out of whatever happens (Romans 8:28-31)

Pray Psalm 139

Sing to Psalm 139

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX61GpxmY0