Jeremy & Sandy Hudson

Yesterday we had the privilege of visiting Cornerstone Outreach again. If you’ve read these notes before, you know how every time we go over there, God likes to do things out of the ordinary. I love the people who hang around Cornerstone Outreach. I can’t help but think that this would be one of the stops that Jesus would make if He were walking around Amarillo. The presence of God showed up yet again there… and it was awesome because Jeremy and I were in charge of the whole service. It’s amazing what happens when you just let go of yourself and allow God to take over. In fact that was what we talked about!

A friend of ours (Ken Cronce) and some of his family (Susan and Jerry) came to visit us a few months ago and Ken was wearing a shirt that had a picture of a bear hurling himself toward a hiker with hearts all around with the words, “Bears Love People” and right under it in smaller letters, “They taste like chicken.” I LOVED that shirt so much that when we went on vacation, I found the same shirt and bought it. I know. I have an illness. Yesterday, as I was getting ready for the day, this t-shirt came to my mind. It was dirty or I would have worn it… but God really directed me to use that shirt as an illustration on what our enemy likes to do to us. He comes at us making us think he loves us… like he is our closest friend and biggest ally. Like he is the one who is looking out for us. He did the same thing to Eve in the garden. When all he wants is to cause the heart of God pain because we are God’s most precious creation. We are CLOSE to the heart of God. Who better to strike at and fool than the most precious thing to the heart of God? Satan “loves” us like the bear “loves the hiker”. All he wants to do is destroy us and hurt our Father’s heart. He does not want us to realize who we are and fulfill what God placed in us to fulfill.

On the other hand….

God desires to consume us not to destroy us, but to give us life and life to the CRAZY maximum. He wants us to fulfill everything our little hearts desire. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at yourself. What did you used to pretend to be and do when you were a little kid. What was it that you would spend hours and hours playing at? For me (and this is so embarrassing) I would sing into my curling iron (it had a cord like a microphone after all) and imagine myself standing in front of huge crowds singing my guts out. I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. Don’t despise those days of childhood. Too many times we look at those memories as foolishness, but God is reminding us ALL how precious little children are to Him. In fact, He said that we must become like little children in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ve also noticed that He likes to chase after the ones who honestly think they could never amount to anything. Just take a look at Gideon (Judges 6 [show]Judges 6 Midian Oppresses Israel [6:1]The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. [2]And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. [3]For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. [4]They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. [5]For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number--both they and their camels could not be counted--so that they laid waste the land as they came in. [6]And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. [7]When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, [8]the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. [9]And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. [10]And I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice." The Call of Gideon [11]Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. [12]And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." [13]And Gideon said to him, "Please, sir,(1) if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian." [14]And the LORD(2) turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?" [15]And he said to him, "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." [16]And the LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." [17]And he said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. [18]Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay till you return." [19]So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah(3) of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. [20]And the angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them." And he did so. [21]Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. [22]Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." [23]But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die." [24]Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. [25]That night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it [26]and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down." [27]So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal [28]When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. [29]And they said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And after they had searched and inquired, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing." [30]Then the men of the town said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it." [31]But Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down." [32]Therefore on that day Gideon(4) was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, "Let Baal contend against him," because he broke down his altar. [33]Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. [34]But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. [35]And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece [36]Then Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, [37]behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said." [38]And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. [39]Then Gideon said to God, "Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew." [40]And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. (ESV) Footnotes 1. [6:13] Or 'Please, my Lord' 2. [6:14] Septuagint 'the angel of the LORD'; also verse 16 3. [6:19] An 'ephah' was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters 4. [6:32] Hebrew 'he'
). He was hiding out in a wine press threshing wheat because he was so afraid of his enemy. It was in that place that The Angel of the Lord came to him. And instead of saying something like (paraphrased, of course), “What are you doing in HERE you big weenie?” He said, “Hello, mighty man of valor!” Gideon, at that moment, was not acting valiant. BUT the God who created him, knew who he really was and God spoke to THAT Gideon. The Word of the Lord brings life! Those words pierced right through into Gideon’s spirit and they rooted there and sprung to life. The story later says that the Spirit of God went into Gideon. The words there actually translate to, “God put Gideon on like a coat.” Can’t you just see that? In other words, Gideon was POSSESSED by God to the point that it was no longer Gideon inside of Gideon, but it was the Spirit of God using Gideon to walk around. Gideon had lost himself to the Spirit of God.

This is what I desire more than anything. I don’t want Sandy walking around. I want God walking around using my skin. I want to lose myself completely in Him. Because it is in that loss that I will truly FIND myself… the person I was created to be. The person that God has seen from the very beginning. The person who my enemy is scared of. So, this morning, I just say, “Jesus, take over. Spirit of God, take over. I am NOTHING without you.”