Show me the Ancient Paths..

Amazing. I can't sleep tonight. I watched a VCD on Anastasia. Beautiful movie. I recall i watched it 3 times.. but i keep forgetting it.. so today it's like watching it all over again.

Then now i still can't sleep,.. k i'm worrying about tmrw.. something i still haven't done. But that aside.. i just reflected on this movie.. and praise the Lord for the thoughts that just flowed..

Firstly, i remember how i've watched it at least 3 times, but forget the story again and again. How many times do we forget God's story? Indeed, how many times we forget OUR own love story with GOD? or do we have any? Like what? Like... The first time we realised God loved us? When??? The first time we realised that we couldn't survive without GOD, when was that? THAT is our own love story with God..

This movie made me believe in a beautiful love that can last forever.

Oh well.. the reason I wanted to blog was really actually about this concept/theme of "The Ancient Paths". Up till now, the words didn't make any sense. But listening to one P&W song that I had.. it said:

"Show us the ancient paths, lead us along eternal highways, we want to walk in the ways of Jesus, we want to enter your rest... "

"Show us the ancient paths, lead us along eternal highways, we want to follow the footsteps of Jesus, we want to enter your land..."

That got me curious. What is "THE ANCIENT PATHS"? Some secret path that God has for us?

I then did a search on the internet and found this amazing article:
http://stardust.blognz.com/archives/005527.html

Man it just blows me away, this concept of Ancient Paths.

Think about it, when God created us, there was a path HE intended for us. But mankind has just veered away from it.

"Because My people have forgotten Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head."
Jeremiah 18:15-16

Jeremiah 6:13-16 (New International Version) 13
"From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.
14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.
15 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the LORD.

16 This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'



After reading the article, I came across something the author said, which i share the same view: What then is necessary to set a course in the lives of Christian young people which results in their serving Jesus Christ all the days of their lives?

Indeed.. I find myself questioning myself every single day. Every single minute. WHY am I almost out of my mind? Have I gone crazy? This passion to do stuff for God, aka serve, aka do church-y stuff.. Who would understand? It doesn't mean i'm gonna be a nun... why can't people understand? That deep desire to see people come to know GOD! KNOW HIM FOR YOURSELF!

I don't know what has made me so broken to seek God in such a deep way. So far, nothing so 'terrible' has happened in my life. But I know. I just know. The path God has led me.. to seek Him.. to know Him.. and i desire to see more people taking a path towards God...

Indeed, perhaps, I have to do it even more loudly. Boldly. Trying best. But my suffering comes from the feeling that these efforts may be a result of over-spiritual hype.. covering up daily problems with a coat of spirituality. The fear of being a hypocrite in God's eyes. But then, reading Romans 8.. I am even more convinced that there is NO CONDEMNATION in those who love the Lord. Not to say we are without sin. But there is nothing which can stand against us if God is for us. Well.. that's another concept. Read Romans 8. WHOLE Loads of promises in there...http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Romans+6-8

Life in the Spirit
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. [6] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you [7] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [8] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Heirs with Christ
12 So then, brothers, [9] we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons [10] of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ?Abba! Father!? 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs?heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because [11] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, [12] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God's Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be [13] against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died?more than that, who was raised?who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [14] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
?For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.