My Plans Are Your Plans

 

This is written for all wise servant leaders and those who ache to do God’s will

 

  “Here am I,” said Mary;

“I am the Lord’s servant; as you have spoken, so be it.”  Luke 1:38 (NEB)

 I surrender Lord. My plans are your plans. My wants are your wants.

Though I have doubts and fear; I trust you will show me the way. But count on me Lord to seek clarifications as I pray daily to be at-one-ment with you.

I need not fear for my sustenance; my needs are to fulfill the needs of those who call out in the “wilderness.”

I surrender Lord. My plans are your plans. My wants are your wants. All I ask Lord is that you offer help along the way.

Amen.

16 thoughts on “My Plans Are Your Plans”

  1. Hello, Mr. Tony Crisp.

    You have a “StumbleUpon” widget and it worked; I stumbled upon your blog. And so I hope you don’t mind if I ask you a question or two about something you wrote. Up above, on the Feb. 11th posting you state: “This is written for all wise servant leaders and those who ache to do God’s will.”

    Query: “God’s will?” How could you possibly know?

    Have you noticed “God’s will” is always according to a book written by men, i.e., the Koran, the Bible, the Torah, etc.,? For example, a practicing Jew does not believe Jesus is god any more than a Muslim. But they all believe they are following the “one true” religion, each which contradicts the other. So they can’t all be right, though they can all be wrong!

    So how do ANY of you know anything about any god’s will, except what you read in your chosen holy book and then believe, (“Just Believe;” see your previous post), without question?

    And so my question is somewhat twofold: Do you actually believe you have a relationship with a God (and can thereby know His will), or is your relationship really just with a book?”

    PS: If you have to look to a man-written self contradicting subjectively interpreted book to figure out what a God supposedly wants, then the question is already answered. If, on the other hand, you TRULY have a relationship with a God, then you should be able to get a direct answer from such God.

    You and I are perfect strangers, and yet you are getting a direct response from me and I can get a direct response from you. I suggest our relationship is not only direct, but demonstrably “truer” than any relationship you have with any God! (And yet we’re perfect strangers!)

    Sadly, and this is a fact, you and I both know that you will never in the history of your remaining life get ANY direct answer from any god whatever, to any question that cannot be answered by yourself.

    Try it. You will find that if you do not know the answer, neither does your God. What does this tell you?

    1. To Aces Lucky: I really appreciate your comment. This blog is about sharing our life/faith journey. I have been a seeker and yes, I believe that those who seek finds God. I also believe that various religious faiths and denomintations are irrelavant to God. God wants a relationship with creation and God uses various methods to include different religious faiths to communicate God’s desire to have a relationship with us. Yes, studying and reading God’s words from many sources, together with our individual experiences, can help with a person’s life or faith journey and that’s the goal of Faithscape, regardless, if the person is a believer, questioner or non-beliver.

      Thanks again for your comment; it challenged me and I hope others who reads it.

  2. Hi Tony. You wrote:

    “God wants a relationship with creation and God uses various methods to include different religious faiths to communicate God’s desire to have a relationship with us.”

    Tony, have you noticed that we can speak directly? Is our technology and language so far in advance of God’s that He cannot communicate as well as we? If He exists, and if what you say is true, there is no reason or lack of ability on His part preventing direct communication.

    And yet one group believes His will is one thing while another group believes His will is another thing and they are clearly contradictory. Obviously there has been no established relationship with a God in any way; only with their respective books!

    Real life doesn’t bare out your theory of what God wants, Tony, especially when a simple “Hello, everybody. I’m God and ‘this’ is what I want!” will do.

    See? Why so difficult? What’s stopping God from direct communication? We can broadcast a World Cup sports event to a BILLION people in real time unambiguously across the entire globe. But God’s own technology doesn’t surpass that of the first century??

    And so my question remains. On what grounds do you, or anyone, purport to know the will of any God? From one story to the next, they are ALL told and written by men who clearly had no communication with any god. (I.e., a creator god would know that the earth is not 3 days older than the stars, etc.)

    But good sir, if you believe that you have a relationship with a god, and can thereby know his will, then by all means… let’s ask your god a question, whose answer you cannot fake. And let’s see if you will ever get an answer. Simple enough?

    It is said, “The truth will set you free.” But I’m not trying to set you free, sir. I’m trying to get religious people to stop lying (and killing) in the name of a God.

    1. Hi Aces,

      We both agree on one thing and it is your statement that reads: “I’m trying to get religious people to stop lying (and killing) in the name of a God.”

  3. Hi Jim. Good of you to join us.

    “God is love.” Sounds good.

    But this is a metaphor and not literally true, and clearly doesn’t agree with centuries of torture by the Catholic Church, or of its thousands of priests that have molested children, or with Muslims that believe God wants them to kill the infidel according to their good book, or with the Old Testament God who commands the same, or with today’s evangelicals who preach hatred of homosexuals, even as they teach the love of Jesus.

    Let’s get real. Why can’t God communicate to us directly, as we can each other? And if God is love, why can’t he stop a poor teenage girl from being stoned to death for the crime of being raped? [ http://tinyurl.com/593×75 ] He could at least say “Don’t do that!” But He remains a perennial no-show whenever justice is usurped by religion.

    Jim, if God is love, why so much hatred and harm from religion for century after century?

    1. I stand by God is love. It must be said that the Catholic Church or any other church or faith is made up of human beings. The church is fallable just like you and I. The church is not God.

      To live in God’s will is to live out of love. Anything or anyone that does not operate out of love does not represent God or God’s will. Period.

  4. Hi Jim,

    I can’t equate wholesale killing and torture with love. I find it difficult the religious so easily can. Here’s an example of the bible god’s love:

    Deuteronomy, chapter 20

    God tells Moses when he comes to a city to give the inhabitants the opportunity of being their slaves. If they decide to fight for love of freedom, wife and child, Moses and his merry men are to kill them and take their possessions.

    20:14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

    20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

    (Note: with the Midianites, they got to keep the little virgin girls for themselves..

    31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

    31:18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.)

    Prey tell, Jim, if these commands were uttered by a Devil, could you tell the difference? Or perhaps the God of the bible is not the God to whom you refer? But I find Allah no more compassionate.

  5. I do believe in the God of the bible, and I believe God and Allah are one and the same seperated only by the chasm of language and culture. However, I do not believe the bibles every jot and tittle to be taken literally. A friend once asked me, “how can we explain the many negative images of God that one seems to find in the bible?” My friend went on to add, “If the bible is true then isn’t God just as wrathful, punishing, and vengeful, as he is loving?” Readers of the bible often ask, in fact, an intelligent reader will always ask both of these questions. These seemingly conflicting images of God are one reason that many, if not all, people give up trying to understand the scriptures. It is these very contradictions that you have outlined that lead people to doubt the existence of God.

    So, I believe, it is important to look at these questions and seek to find some answers. The first question involves the developmental or progressive image of God found in the bible, especially the Old Testament. The bible is a record of the religious experience of the people of Israel as they understood it at the time of its writing. Here are two examples to help to illustrate my point.

    – Nowhere throughout the earlier sections of the Old Testament does one find a belief in a life after death. It is only through the experience and maturing process that takes place as the Israealites progress toward the New Testament times that a belief in an afterlife begins to emerge.

    – In the earlier sections of the bible, prosperity was considered a sign of God’s blessing; and suffering a sign of God’s punishment. However, as the Israelites matured and reflected upon their experience (as in Job) they began to question this supposition. They realized that suffering was not related to God’s punishment because they could see that good moral people also experienced suffering. We see in the bible a developmental, dynamic image of God, and his people.

    The second question deals with the phenomenon of projection. A disobedient child experiences ones loving father in a tyrannical way and projects upon him an image of his or her (the child’s) alienation. The father may not have harmed his child, but only reprimanded the child. Maybe the father only gave a look of disappointment, or a “time out”. Nevertheless, the child’s inner experience is one of separation, one that sees the father’s demands as cruel and abusive. I believe the negative images that one finds in the bible are true images of God — but in reverse; they are images projected upon God as the result of an alienating experience. Wrath, and punishment are indeed the experience; but it is the experience of the people themselves as they are confronted by a harsh world in which God is considered responsible for everything. The so-called negative images of God that are in the bible are examples of how suffering, hurting, alienated people project their own alienation upon God.

    The God represented in the Old Testament and the loving image of God in the New Testament are not two different God’s, but two different images of God, as God was perceived at the time of the writing. The transition from a harsh and wrathful God to a gracious and loving God is a progression of the image of God by a people as they grow and mature in their understanding of God, themselves, and the world around them. God is a dynamic being of infinite possibilitie, not a static Old Testament God or a New Testament God.

    The bible also must be read with an eye to understanding the writer, his/her time and culture, and to include how they understood the physical world around them. In the old testament, for example, the writers had no concept of science and therfore had no idea of what created weather. To try to make sesne of their world, they put or projected upon God wrath, if it hailed and ruined their crops and appeasment if their crops were untouched and plentiful.

    I know from past conversations with those who hold similar beliefs to yours that this does not change your mind, but just consider this and open your mind to the possibility that every word uttered in the bible as the word of God is not always the words of God, but of people trying to understand their world and their God and how they relate to it.

  6. Hello All,

    What an interesting conversation. May I put in my two cents worth?

    AcestLucky: I will tell you, that I am a Christian and I believe very much in the Bible. Jim and Tony have known me for awhile. Nice to meet you.

    If you go back to the beginning of Genesis, it talks of a time when God and Adam and Eve, walked and talked together in the cool of the evening. As Jim said God is Love, but a Love that is so pure and powerful that it is very difficult for humans to understand. I have experienced an inkling of that Love the day that I was born again. It was as though God open the top of my head and poured Golden Liquid Love all through my body. It was so powerful and intense that I have not been the same since.

    When Adam and Eve’s God Spirit died as the result of disobedience, God had to stop presenting God’s self directly to the couple, so that the pure Love God is would not blot them out. God had to find another way to connect with the species of Man and for many years the Holy Spirit would converse with chosen people to talk to Man. After Jesus died and Pentecost came, then all Men had the privilege of being able to talk to God, with condition. One has to believe in what Jesus did for use and have a relationship. I have a relationship, and I do talk to God, and yes God talks back to me. Sometimes, a remembrances of a scripture will suddenly come to mind and answer what I was wondering about. Sometimes, in prayer that still small voice way down in my gut will converse with me. Sometimes, conversation comes as I interpret my prayer language. I will also tell you that God had Man write the Bible so God could talk to Man.

    As I believe that there is God, and God’s Heavenly Host, that serve God, I believe that there is a Satan and Beings that serve Satan. At one point, Satan was a powerful Angel, favored by God. The mistake Satan made was that Satan wanted to take God’s place, and lost everything. Still determined to be the head person, Satan started in on God’s Man, and convinced them to disobey. Over the centuries Satan had set up a system of worship to Satan’s self, that was extremely cruel and barbaric. Sex was used in worship services. Animals were used to represent various Gods, which were in reality Satan. Human sacrifice was used including passing babies through fire. Not at all Loving.

    God wanted Man back, and began a process to do that. God started with Abraham and most of the Old Testament is the story of how God worked the process. I believe that God is not double minded. God is not Hate and Love. So some of the Old Testament is strange to me. All I can see is my little corner of the world, and God can see the “big” picture of everything. I trust God, so I don’t judge, I have faith that all will be clear one day.

    Now, as to God “allowing” terrible things to happen in the world. 1)There is still a Satan in the world who works night and day to destroy anything good that God has created. 2)Jesus showed us the power of the covenant God made with us, in Deuteronomy. The Blessings and the Cursing. That is how Jesus did the things he did in the earth. When Jesus died and defeated Satan, he won back the earth, all that was in it and Man, for God. God in return gave Jesus power over everything in Heaven and in Earth, and with the use of Jesus name, Jesus empowered us to run things on Earth. Unfortunately it takes tremendous Faith to use that name and to believe in the authority we have. What we call “miracles” is supposed to be every day stuff for us. The bad things happen because we let them.

    About the history of Christianity. Well, there is a rotten apple in every barrel. Go to the Fruits of the Spirit. There are listed Fruits of the Holy Spirit and Fruits of Satan’s Spirit. Take your choice.

    God wanted Man to follow Good. Satan wanted Man to follow not so good. Which takes less Faith. Then there is easy and not so easy. God gave us rules to follow in the Old Testament. Rules that taught us how to Love and worship God and how to Love ourselves and our neighbor and things in the Earth. After Jesus gave us the ratification or New Covenant the rules were as Paul says “written on our hearts.” We are supposed to know or sense what is the loving thing to do from the Love that comes to us from God. Not follow dead rules. But to be able to develop that knowing or ‘sense’ we have to be in the relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Over the hundreds of years, Man that does not develop the relationship has no recourse but to follow the laws, which then gave us a shell of what Christianity was supposed to be. Satan with fine tuning then started influencing Man to tinker with the laws, mostly to please Satan and eventually to serve Man. You take it from there.

    Other religions. I have a tuff time with this. We are not supposed to judge, or speak ill of anything. So I will say this. I have considered the perks of most. I like what I see with Jesus, Holy Spirit and God. The truth is a path that is there only for our good. I can’t say the same for the others. One wants you to be a human bomb. One wants you to worship cows while people starve to death and go from there, etc.

    I am tired for now, but look foward to more conversation at a later date.

    God Bless,

  7. @ Jim

    You wrote: “To live in God’s will is to live out of love. Anything or anyone that does not operate out of love does not represent God or God’s will. Period.”

    I like that stand. It offers a gage by which actions and intends can be measured as it relates to the divine, or more specifically, to God.

    That being the case, who is the Being ordering the murder and rape in the Old Testament named Jehovah?

    You said, “I do believe in the God of the bible..” But clearly this cannot be the character named Jehovah. What “bible God” therefore are you talking about? Is there another?

    You wrote: “I do not believe the bibles every jot and tittle to be taken literally..”

    Isn’t this another way of saying that the word of God (i.e., Deuteronomy) is not factually (literally) true?

    My own understanding is that if God is inerrant, shouldn’t his word “at least” be accurate, and therefore true? After all, if God’s word is false… well, you get the picture.

    So in a succinct sense, if said god is ordering murder and rape, and god is supposed to be “love”… Either you are wrong, or the bible is.

    I know you fully understand this because you also wrote: “every word uttered in the bible as the word of God is not always the words of God, but of people trying to understand their world and their God and how they relate to it.”

    I agree! And that’s exactly the point! This isn’t coming from a god, it’s coming from HUMANS trying to figure things out before there was science.

    Ergo, the bible is NOT the word of a god, but of HUMANS trying to understand the world around them, to the extent of their creative imaginations.

    But to say “God is love” and then to say “I do believe in the God of the bible” is a direct contradiction. Either God is love or the bible’s description of God is completely false, making “god’s word” false.

    You wrote: “Anything or anyone that does not operate out of love does not represent God or God’s will. Period.”

    This clearly eliminates Jehovah.

  8. AcesLucky,
    Did you even read the rest of what I wrote? Here is how this dialogue is going. You have a mind that is made up and you are promoting those opinions. I am exploring and seeking and stayng open to the something bigger than myself that calls from within my deepest place. I am not proslytizing you. Your mind is made up. I do not believe that anything constructive can come out of any further dialogue between us. It has been interesting, talking with you.
    Peace,
    Jim W

    1. @ Jim,

      Yes, I read all of what you wrote. The examples you gave had nothing to do with the conversation.

      My questions were never concerned with “signs” or “projections” or “life after death” but about REAL LIFE communication with God today in the present.

      Instead, you constructed arguments that had nothing whatever to with the topic.

      It was YOU that defined God as Love (which I accepted), which is why I showed you that either your definition is incorrect or the bible narrative is incorrect.

      A closed mind will not accept the facts that contradict one’s world view.

      I am sorry, but unless you equate murder and the rape of children as the actions of “love” I’m afraid your definition of God cannot be true.

      To pawn it off as mistakes in the biblical narrative would only point to the fallibility of the god that inspired it.

      Back to the original conversation: can you communicate with any god? If not, how can anyone know his will?

  9. Hi Betsy,

    Sorry it took awhile to get back to you.

    In the framework of the original conversation you made a statement as follows:

    “One has to believe in what Jesus did for use and have a relationship. I have a relationship, and I do talk to God, and yes God talks back to me.”

    Great. This is important for determining the “truth” about god, his will, and his existence. Realize that a person who claims to know god’s will but who cannot communicate with god is in fact an impostor, purposely or unwittingly. They mistake their relationship with a book as a relationship with a God.

    Would it therefore be possible for your god to answer a question, whose answer, you don’t already know? A “yes” would serve as unequivocal proof that such a communication exists.

    In fact, it would prove two things:
    1. god exists (or at least a Being above your self), and
    2. you have a relationship with this Being and with whom you can communicate.

    So, staying on topic, I wish to clarify that you DO have a relationship with God, DO talk to God, and ‘yes’ God does talk back to you. Is my understanding of your relationship correct?

  10. As far back as the 11th, I asked one simple question. I inquired:

    “But good sir, if you believe that you have a relationship with a god, and can thereby know his will, then by all means… let’s ask your god a question, whose answer you cannot fake. And let’s see if you will ever get an answer. Simple enough?”

    Notice,… complete silence!

    Thank you all for responding. I hope eventually you will all some day come to appreciate truth over pretend. It simply involves being honest with one’s self and not being so ready to accept falsehood, no matter how good it sounds. Because if it’s not true… it’s false. Simple.

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