A Little More from Jonathan Edwards

Roller coaster.
Skiing.
Go Carts.
Surfing.
Sky diving.
There’s a thrill. There’s a rush. Kids try or want to try those things because of the thrill, the rush, the feelings of danger and intense excitement. But when it’s over, it’s just over. That thrill does nothing to help you in your life. It is just a thrill.
God does that too. There is a thrill, a rush in the presence of God. Very few people in very few churches have seen anything close to what I am talking about so you think I am just saying God is like skiing because they are both good and they are both fun. That is not it at all. I am really talking about a thrill in church. Most honest kids would say that God is really one of the most boring things in their lives. Sadly those kids want God, but they have never felt anything from God. Never any excitement, never any joy, passion, rush, thrill.
You can have that from God. You can have the presence of God that you can feel like a rush of excitement. But when it’s over, it’s not done. When you find God’s presence, you want it more and you love God more. But God’s presence also makes it easy to change your dirty life.
New Year’s is change time. Last week this page was about resolutions. Change for the better is a great idea but almost no one does it alone. If you get the presence of God, you could really make the change you want to make.
So as 2010 begins, a resolution is a great idea. If you want it to work, pray for the presence of God to hit you and pray for God to help you change. Last week I listed twelve resolutions from a dead guy named Jonathan Edwards. I am going to list a dozen more. But first here are a few facts about a great guy to copy.
· Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703. His birthday cake would have to have 306 candles. But to get more exact, he was born 111,856 days ago. He’s been dead for 91,944 of those days.
· Jonathan Edwards had four older sisters and six younger sisters. He had no brothers.
· Jonathan Edwards was super smart. I am almost sure he was smarter than the smartest kid in your class. At age 10 he wrote a paper about the human soul. At age 11 he wrote a paper about flying spiders.
· Jonathan Edwards started college when he was 12. When he finished college, he had the best grades in his whole class.
· Jonathan Edwards first worked as the pastor of a church when he was 19.
· Jonathan Edwards was a great pastor, preacher, and writer. In 1734 he wrote about the great revival in his church when almost 300 new people came to God.
· Jonathan Edwards most famous sermon is called, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This sermon and others like it helped a huge revival in the 1740’s.

Through all of his years as a pastor, a writer, a dad, a teacher, Jonathan Edwards practiced living for God all of the time. His 70 resolutions helped him. Here are some of my favorites written in my words.
1. Make everything I say, have some kindness in it.
2. Tell God the truth about me. Tell Him my sins, what’s hard, my fears, my hopes, my dreams.
3. Any time I hear something good about a person, try to copy it.
4. My personality, my mood will always be good, sweet, quiet, peaceable, giving, humble, forgiving, and honest.
5. No other way but God’s way will ever rule what I do.
6. Never from today until I die act like my life is my own. It is God’s.
7. Over and over again renew my love for God and my plan to serve God all the days of my life.
8. Ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year how I could have done better.
9. Never think any little bad thought about my mom or dad. Never show a bad thought with my words, my body, or my eyes.
10. Check my soul to see if I care about Jesus Christ or not.
11. Always care about Jesus Christ.
12. Never stop or let up even a little bit in my fight against rottenness, sin, evil, selfishness.

Jonathan Edwards read his 70 resolutions every week and he prayed for God to help him keep them. You should copy a little of that. Pick at least one thing to change about you. Write it down. Read it every week. Pray for God to help you do it. But also pray and pray and pray that you could know the presence of God, because that is how lives are really changed.


Here is a church where people find the presence or God and lives are changed: World Revival Church

Find more of Nathan’s writing on Amazon and Helium.