The Tales of Tomba

devastation and destruction

2011-12-22T00:23:00.000-08:00

I've had enough!!!
The torment of playing this game!
(A roulette on my soul)

Radicated aversion
is all I've come to see!!!

Don't you remember me!?
In a Time where I was not stained
(Your Bloods on my hands)

I am, I am so sorry!

You're beautiful! So Beautiful!!!!

lying in a bed of crimson; As I drove the spear through your side!!!

What have I become?
tell me?
WHAT HAVE I BECOME!?!?

They've flung me into the pit!
stone by stone! Is cast upon me!
the water! floods over my head!
AM I LOST?!

I called on your name in the depths of the pit!
you came near! you came near and held me close!
you said "Do! Not! Fear!"

With a high hand I ignored your law!
Yet you hear my plea?

It began with a kiss, and it turned to so much more!

How? Can I live with myself?
knowing I'm a man who lost his word?
How? Can I live with myself?
knowing I ignored your word!

with action bears consequence
this is the reaping of what I've sewn!

though I still cry out!
you hold onto me!
as I'm screaming out!
you hold onto me!

still promising me.

DO. NOT. FEAR. x6

A great quote once said, "It's so hard to be objective when your reason is defective"

2011-04-10T00:48:00.001-07:00

It's truly sad when the church is divided amongst itself, and the world only see's Jesus Christ as a thing to hide behind or a fictional character. Lately I have been wonder alot about being a "Christian" per say. Now I am not trying to say being a Christian sucks now, or that I am one of those guys who wants to ditch the title of a Christian and just be a Jesus Follower, but I don't want to just be a Christian, "I WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN"

Jesus had and lived a life style unto which was completely BOLD for God and showed what he was truly about while still showing the true LOVE of what God is as well. He stood directly in the middle of the line and walked it and showed the narrow road which we all had lost along the way and yet I can not help but feel that as Christians we have this great message still and can convey it in as many different ways as possible but with out the true Bold Love that Christ had I can not help but think that it is squandered away lost in a way that can not be touched because in one hand, we want to say God says this you are wrong, and in the other Jesus said love and that is that.

When God made a Covenant with the Israelites he always had two parts. the first part was always pretty simple, follow me and I will bless you and help make life good even when the bad comes around. With the other, If you choose to not follow me I will have to punish you because because you agreed to be with me. So it is pretty obvious what is to go on. Yet the true purpose of this was to assure and confirm are love for God it was not for God to just say hey I will only love you or only hate you. Although somewhere along the lines we lost sight of that, and have come to the ultimate conclusion(since we can comprehend God now cuz we're sooooooo smart xp) that he is only one or the other not both, and if he can't be both because we said so and are able to make are own "God in a box"

So how can we walk this line? How can we follow in the foot steps of the perfect Rabbi? What is it that we are to do when all we know how to do is try?

In my honest opinion I think it is Love with the Passion that God had. Not only in this passion was it with God, but it was shown through God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as well.

God Continues to Love us regardless of how we can hold up on our own, as long as we walk with him we will be shown what we really need to do to be a CHRISTIAN.

A perfect example of this in my opinion is Jesus at the well.
We all know the story, Jesus Goes to the well and the woman at the well fetches him some water. They start having a chat.(Note that this is like rule number one and two broken because she is a woman highly looked down on in this culture and two she was a Samarian and if you were a Jew like Jesus was you're not supposed to talk to them) then the conversation takes an interesting turn. lets read it shall we?

John 4:2-42

¹⁵ The woman *said to Him, “^[c]Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” ¹⁶ He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” ¹⁹ The woman *said to Him, “^[d]Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is ^[e]spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus *said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

I think right in 23 is where it nails it on the head, no bible pun intended, but he states "the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth; for such people the father seeks to be his worshipers"

What is the truth? Gods Covenant.

How can we follow it? in spirit and in truth.

it seems almost sooooo easy!!!! but yet the truth we divide and split lines. the spirit we squander and hide away only wanting to what we like about it and the rest we hide for our own desires.

It is heart breaking to me to know that we all do this. We all fall short, even I do(not saying i'm super holy or something just to clear that up now. just a regular guy who likes the Bible and Jesus.... Alot....) but instead of seeking the truth or the calling in which we feel from the spirit we try to run another way and we try to pass it off as if it was nothing.

Why?

Where are these worshipers that God so desires? Where are the one who want to walk in the spirit and the truth? why is it that we are so afraid of not only God but ourselves that we choose to let the pettiest things cause a division among us so big that it leaves the devil with a grin across his face.

In Jeremiah 6:16 it says

¹⁶ Thus says the LORD,
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

It clearly says Stand and watch and ask for the ancient paths and with God we can find rest for our souls. That we can walk in the good way, and that The Lord has said too.

So now I ask. Can we all look for this ancient path? Can we all have the truth and the spirit be with us and in us so that we can have our God look upon us and say" You, you are my CHILD, you are my CREATION, you walked in my SPIRIT, you are my CHRISTIAN. you are my TRUTH"

thanks for reading and Gods Blessings.

Tommy Burkhardt.

I am the Foreigner, For I am not of my own

2011-02-24T02:22:00.000-08:00

Ezekiel 28

A Prophecy Against the King of Tyre

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“‘In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are a mere mortal and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god. 3 Are you wiser than Daniel[a]? Is no secret hidden from you? 4 By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself and amassed gold and silver in your treasuries. 5 By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, and because of your wealth your heart has grown proud.

6 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“‘Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god, 7 I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations; they will draw their swords against your beauty and wisdom and pierce your shining splendor. 8 They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas. 9 Will you then say, “I am a god,” in the presence of those who kill you? You will be but a mortal, not a god, in the hands of those who slay you. 10 You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners.

I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.’”

This scripture has inspired me to write, normally i would say it is like a song or simple idea but this time it is writing with a full fledged reason, and a just anger, and righteous furry because I am so irritated with the fact that we simply sit by and get stepped on by Satan (yes the devil) and just wait to see something happen. It is Time to take action for the war of are souls is a battle to be fought everyday.

"I am the Foreigner, For I am not of my own."

I refuse, for this willingness to let the uprising come of a dark agenda.

King of Trye, my eyes are aimed towards you

Abaddon, Your destruction shall be overwhelmed

Serpent of Old, my fathers blade shall overcome you!

For I am the hands and feet, the weapon for Gods cause

I am the chosen of the almighty, the hands he has prepared for war

The fingers made ready for battle

Corrected, Trained, Rebuked, and lifted through righteousness

My heart burns with justice towards you!

For I see the eyes of lion, stalking after the lords sheep,

I feel the fangs of the beast, as it digs into my inner being trying to tear me down

As i slowly bleed you watch, waiting for me to fall

waiting to claim victory, for tormenting one more soul

But I refuse, For the Lord is my strength

I refuse For my God has bleed out mercy

I refuse, For I am not my own

But the Foreigner in a land placed by God

Sent in to face a war beyond just flesh and blood

I am the presence in which you feared

I am soul overtaken by love

who refuses to foolishly ignore your works.

As the power of darkness dressed as the angel of light

I have seen through you Deceiver

Behold as I hold My LORDS Blade high

and Come to tear you off your throne

Behold as I will Shred through your beauty and wisdom

As MY GODS TRUTH pierces your false splendor

Here to deliver a holy war, I have been sent

I am the Foreigner, For I am not of my own

But a child of God.

Today was a good day or more of yesterday?

2010-12-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to write this the other night but I was pretty dang tired so I kinda fell asleep while doing it so now that I am up I shall finish what I started!

For being sick and having my day start out pretty bland it ended up getting much better. I woke to no one else in the house being up so I was bored and watched some anime because that's how I roll when I'm bored haha but yeah so I watched anime for a next two hours and slowly felt my life being wasted away so I wanted to start to do some things around the house, only to the avail of my mom waking up and coming down stairs so I stopped.

Later my mom made her awesome french toast and I had two slices which were awesome and then the show maneaters started showing on the t.v. and it was on GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!! probably my number one favorite killing machine that scares me to death to even think about getting in the water when they're in it haha but that's just from to much shark week and studying

anywhoo after chuck came over for are ever tuesday pilgrimage to Bj's to go eat some nice flat bread pizza and see are favorite waitress Ann Marie (AKA Dr. Pepper Girl) so we went and didn't see her so we sat in another area only to see that she was there. After a few of our random encounters of her saying hey and us asking where is are dr. pepper it was getting towards the end of the meal.

Now as most people know I have just gotten out of a pretty Eh relationship and I feel as if I need to start dating again but not in a serious matter more of just a date to date have some fun and see if it happens again. So in doing so before we left I decided that I was going to give Dr Pepper Girl my number and see how it goes, and on top of that chuck had to call me out saying I didn't have the balls to do it. So there was my positive and negative motivations to back me.

So when I flirt I guess I try to be clever or just cheesy? I don't really know haha but I had received a gift card for bj's for CHRISTmas so in the little holder that it came with it fold open and closes. So on the outside of the holder I crossed out my name and put to: dr pepper girl (ann marie) and on the inside I put my name and number and below it I put " one free trip to el taco and a dr pepper, merry xmas"

So now with my oh so perfect set up before we left I went over and told her here this is for you and said if she would like to hang out she gets one free trip to el taco and a dr pepper and that if she doesn't want too no hard feelings I'll still be coming around. She laughed and said okay awesome and she opened up the card and saw that I actually put those things and my number. So I don't know if that is good or bad but either way I DID IT!!! and it felt good haha :)

I don't know why but it just feels nice to have fun and be me and not have any restrictions to me being me. Also it's nice to just go out there and not worry whether or not the person is going to entirely reject you. if they dont call they dont call if they do they do but either way it's still just enjoyable haha

so that is the tale of dr pepper girl and we will see if it goes anywhere or not.

OTHER THAN THAT! I had some good ol guy time with cory and stephen pate. Got some coffee and talked at starbucks for almost 3 hours coming up with ideas for the kids because that's what we do.... in 3D!!! (inside joke but we love william wood and his 3D movie references) but we have come up with lots of ideas and I can't wait till we get to tell the other leaders about it. I really think they are good!!!

Along with that we watched the latest resident evil movie not in 3D though it was not as bad as the last one or the first. either way it was just eh but it was enjoyable mocking it and hanging out because it's rare too do these days. Also for later on in the evening myself and Cory ventured over to Paddys house and messed around on the halo game where it consisted of cory trying to kill me because I was stealing his golf balls and I don't know why but it was very enjoyable.

So overall the day and night was good and I am pretty content with how it went. So there is my tale haha

i'm out

recent pictures 2009-2010

2010-11-05T04:49:00.001-07:00

above: sea turtles are awersome. this one even came to say hello

above: my ding bat dog pooka

above: after the sea turtle said hello he said goodbye

Above: BY THE NIPPLES OF NEPTUNE!!! IT'S A UNICORN FISH!!!

ABOVE: i guess he is photogenic

above: is a modified picture of a door at my dads shop it seems like it would lead to narnia or something so i played around with it for a bit and changed a few colors.

above: this is just a regular picture of the door dunno why but i do like it

above: my teacher said i couldn't draw so i did the next best thing and made a skull with my eraser

above: my cat sheer kon loves sleeping with her forehead on the floor

above: i pissed off this eel just so i could get that picture haha totally worth it.

above: a picture of the clouds in arizona under a sky so blue

above: i just call this one "down the road" another arizona pic

above: i love the way the hills look in that shot

above: again i was trying to get a better picture of the hills it turned out okay for just a cell phone picture

Above: just a random picture of dr pepper i brought it to bjs brewer because they dont serve it, the waitress thought it was awesome.

my recent drawings and works

2010-11-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

Above is a random drawing i did of a twig man who is about to be eaten by an alien frog monster wtf thing. i call it, Goodbye Twiggy.

The drawing above came from a song i listened too by the band Thrice the song is called the lion and the wolf. it basically talks about how sin leads to death and the course goes "the lion waits outside of your door the wolf is in your bed" i drew the wolf the rest needs to be worked on.

if i recall i think me and cory were at one of our sisters concerts and i was bored so above is a mummy with a peg leg. the title is on it but gotta love church notecard drawings

above is my next tattoo idea i need to still color it though and a few other drawings but the idea is from Lamentations and the nick name for Christ is the Man of Sorrows. on the banner i'll put lametations on the top and the chapter its in on the bottom.

this is my ruff sketch of my shirt i need to make. it'll be called the Jesus the original party guy

if not obvious this was a burn shirt idea i had for the boys at the burn we will see where it goes

originally i just drew a flower and did a little touch up with my computer graphics. i was going to make it a a girls burn shirt but i dunno we will see where it goes

some art to come

2010-10-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

well i since school has started and been around for a while me creative process has been flowing while restricted to a desk with two things, a pencil and blank paper. so in the process and with some help with some friends(paul wallace) i have been able to work on some new designs and create some random yet fun drawings. so hopefully by next week latest i'll have those up and along with this i'll be adding up some pictures i have taken over the past year so i'll see how it goes. so until then

FACEBOOK...... DELETED!!!!

2010-05-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

HAHAHAHA!!! i don't know why but it feels so liberating getting rid of lamebook. don't get me wrong it has it's useful purposes but other than that i see no point for it unless i want to keep in touch with really long distance relationships. otherwise why not call em up and hang out!

also out of my pondering i wonder why everyone and their mom(literally some of my friends moms were like don't delete it!!!) acted like it was a sin of the highest account to delete it. is it not my choice to keep it or not? any who i am now going to start blogging. so here i am and ready with some new ideas!!!!

in which will come soon so GOODBYE FACEBOOK!!!!!!! hello sweet sweet blog :)

I've returned!

2010-05-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

Okay so i've decided to get rid of my facebook and write on here instead because i feel that this is more personal and people who actually care will voice their opinion. sooooo hello blogging i'm back in action and i have some new ideas that will really make them scream!!! just kidding about the screaming part but i'm back

The Merchants Cries

2009-04-28T11:40:00.001-07:00

okay well besides trying to write just about bible thought i also write poetry believe it or not, and lately God has just been telling me so much about the world and how it's foolish to dwell in it's toils, i have been reading and these verses came up and then i got an idea to write. so here are the verses and then after that the poem

Ecclesiates 9: 11-12

¹¹ I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

¹² Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come:
As fish are caught in a cruel net,
or birds are taken in a snare,
so men are trapped by evil times
that fall unexpectedly upon them.

and Revelations 18: 11-17

¹¹"The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more— ¹²cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; ¹³cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.

¹⁴"They will say, 'The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.' ¹⁵The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn ¹⁶and cry out:
" 'Woe! Woe, O great city,
dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet,
and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!
¹⁷In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!'

okay now for the poem,

The Merchants Cries

Ruined, for it's all ruined

meaningless it's meaningless hear the cries ring

As the babylons suductress falls

Seducing the world seeking desires of man

she falls and burns, this is what's too come

The merchant cries! The merchant cries!

The hours near when the world shall burn!

The time is near when the city shall burn!

the time will come!

So hear the merchants cries!

under the sun toils laid to waste

for when it sets, the flames will crawl

my God, my God where will we be in it all

great wealth brought to ruin, in the hour unseen

will we be standing strong or mourning on our kness

what will we choose? shall we forfeit our souls?

For the merchant cries, hear him weep

the merchant cries hear them mourn

for the hour is near, where their world shall be torn

and the merchant shall cry

hear the merchants cries!

Push

2009-02-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

^{Proverbs 3:5-6
5} Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight

Why is it that people are always trying to do something, whether it's going out with friends, heading to a job, grabbing a bite to eat, trying to convince one another, looking for adventure or looking for fate. Maybe trying to see what direction they are pushing towards and how they want to be pushed?

Being pushed.... Sometimes it can be interesting, some times it can be annoying, or some times it may be for the better but in the end you usually land where the push leads. Some times you may try to push back if being pushed, sometimes you let it just knock you over, other times you stand strong until there is nothing else to do but let yourself be moved, but yet still it is a push to where you are GOING.

I took the liberty of just looking up some definitions of the word push and these seemed to be the best ones to cover the area we are headed too

1. The act of applying force in order to move something away

2. The force used in pushing

3. Strive and make an effort to reach a goal

4. Enterprising or Ambitious drive

5. A press, drive, or impel (someone) to action or completion of an action

Do you know when you're being pushed?

I mean common yes it's obvious when a person is there and literally pushing you or you know when you are pushing someone else, but do you know when YOU are being pushed?

For the majority of the time people usually know when they are but if I lost you somewhere along the way I'll tell you the kind of push I m talking about. It's a real push. Call me crazy or stupid but I'm sure a person can push themselves very easily. We see it daily. People striving to do better, make themselves a better person. Increase their standard of living so that they can be where they want, prove how they pushed through their struggles.

So what would one call this push? Is it a push from God? A push from ourselves? A push towards something better or worse? what is the push

Now in my last writing I wrote about having faith having a feeling, and we all have the feeling and this feeling is in the heart. Now we have this feeling we know it's there we can address it but why do we not just go off having faith in this feeling. In all honesty I am going to say that this feeling causes a desire and it's a desire to PUSH forward.

Now this push comes from the heart, and faith comes from the heart, and are faith comes from are hearts, and it has been placed into our hearts to create a desire,

A desire to push us away from the ways of the world,

A push to help reach and maintain are faiths goal.

It's drive to to move us forward, and have us finish an action that has already been started

A push to go out and be lights in the darkness.

It's funny how a push works because most of the time we either see what happens instantly and other times we just never know.

One day I was driving home from college, I had just finished going through my grouling english class with a teacher who was off in her own little world and I'm sure at times she took enjoyment in stumping us but I was tired and all i wanted to do is go home eat dinner and work on my assignments.

Now on my way home i couldn't help but notice a woman on the side of the road and she was trying to push her jeep into a driveway out of the flow of traffic. She had her daughter in the front seat steering the car and she kept trying to push and push while the daughter was telling her just how close she was(i know this cuz i was right next to them at a red light) so i sat and thought to myself on how that is terrible but they'll be okay. it was still daylight and they had about another good hour of daylight so by then they would be able to get it out of the way and walk to a gas station.

So as the light turned green i drove past them and was okay with the idea, but then something happened. I was about two signals down now, and i was slowly turning onto the next when when i had a feeling. Now this feeling wasn't just at my core it was in the depths of my gut, it was in my head, in my heart, and it felt like something was telling me to turn around. Now i don't know why but at first i was like blah i want to go home but then the feeling just got stronger. So when i got to the next stop sign i went past turned around and came back only to see that the woman was still trying to push the car, and that her child was still sitting there in the front seat telling her the same thing.

I went past them again, turned around, and parked my jeep. then i walked over and asked the woman if i could be of any help to her and the look on her face was just happiness, like she had been praying for someone to come and just move the car. and she told me "YES!"

So we pushed her car out of the way and i figured i was done doing my deed but then she asked me if i had any gas? Her car had run out and she was wondering if i could spare her some but that's when my problem came into play beacuse i don't carry extra gas on me.

Now she had a small bit of gas in a worn out container but wouldn't help in the long run, and we had no way to get it into her tank because the tip was broken. So we tried to make a funnel out of paper which worked horribly so then i told her that there was a gas station down the road and that i'd be more than willing to give her a lift to it. Then out of the blue a man walked up....

He looked at me, then at the woman.

In his hand he had something.

That something was a small can of gas.

He looked at the woman and said

"I was working in my shop across the street, and i couldn't help but notice what you two were trying to do. I want you to take this, and it should be enough to get you home or to a gas station depending on where you are goin."

the woman asked if she could pay him or if she could do anything and he just replied

"It's free of charge"

then he walked back to his shop.... I was in awe.

It went from me being pushed to go back, to me helping the woman, then when the next problem revealed itself it already had an answer waiting across the street, and what puts me into such AWE is the fact that it all just started with a little PUSH.

You know in the bible there are countless stories of people being pushed. You see them either trying to push their way into a different direction or you see God just push them into the way he sees fit

Normally I'd try to find a real light hearted piece of scripture but one kept coming back to me that is far more than light hearted at all, and that is the Story of Jonah.

Now I know what you're thinking, Jonah and the whale?

Isn't that more of a childrens story?

But to be honest I believe this story is far more relevant to be left as just a mere childrens story.

Jonah a prophet from Galilee, is told by God to go to the Nineveh, and tell them to repent because if they do not they will surely pay for their wickedness. So the biggest problem would be this. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and at the time this was going on Assyria was Isreal's main enemy at the time. So basically God is saying hey Jonah go over to a land where they are more than willing to kill you and tell them about me.

Now for Jonah he heard this but he wanted to go in a whole different direction For starters Jonah did not like the Nineveites and he knew that if they did not repent God would surely punish them. So with that in mind and the fact that if we would be going to a land that hated him he figured it would be best for him to push in a different direction and he left for Tarshish.

So Jonah a PROPHET of God, decided to go against him in his own way but with every action comes a reaction, or in his case a bigger push from God. just read it^!

4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. ⁶ The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."

⁷ Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

⁸ So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

⁹ He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."

¹⁰ This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"

¹² "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."

! Jonah had to throw himself into the sea. Now there is one thing i would like to point out really quick about this, back those times, the sea, was not like the place where all the fish were hiding, the sea was aplce to where no one knew anything about. It was mysterious, it was dark, it was terrifying but here Jonah is being willing, and letting himself be thrown into the see. I'd like that think that chossing to do an act like this shows that the man pushed himself but it also shows an even great deal of him having fatih to push himself to do that.

Now as we all know after he jumped he got eaten by the whale, and was spit up after three days of being in the belly, then he went out after and did what he told to do. Now I know this story is mainly focused on ohh Jonah disobeyed God but i see it more as Jonah being a human, and not knowing what he only knew, saw where he would be if he had been pushed by God to go do so.

He was Afraid

He was Hateful

He went his own Way

but yet He was still a man of God....

now despite the fact that he tried to go where he wanted to it is clearly shown that God gave him a push, and even though he pushed back, he still landed where he was pushed to go.

Now i'm not saying in the long run God is going to make every choice for you and have you swallowed up by a whale or the earth will open and you'll land on the other side of the world just because he wants you to do it. He is going to see the outcome of every situation no matter what the deal is it just depends on what way you are willing to be pushed

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight

Trust with all your HEART

lean on not YOUR own understanding

ackknowlede him in ALL ways

and he will make your PATHS straight

because the kind of push he is going to give us, is the best possible place to land, I can promise you that, and it is going to be somewhere where we thought we'd never see ourselves.

Gods Blessings
Tommy Burkhardt

Faith in the Faithless

2009-02-06T00:58:00.000-08:00

Everyone has a feeling. Now when I say this I don't mean like people feel something I mean that people FEEL something inside. It's a feeling inside their heart, a feeling that needs to be acknowledged. Sometimes people dont trust this feeling so they let it be and other emotions start to slowly engulf this feeling. Most of the time people say oh it's love that I need or if they just did the right thing instead of the other that this feeling would be complete. Sometimes they try to satisfy this feeling with other things but they're just not doing it right. So eventually they feel alone. Well I know this may sound weird but at times I think it's interesting how people can honestly wonder why it feels like they're alone. Sometimes could it just be the business of life, the lose of someone important, maybe they isolate themselves because of certain situations going on that they think no one needs to know about, or maybe they just feel alone.

I think how many times have I felt this and countless others have as well. We wonder why at times does it seem like I am the only one trying to do something myself. Why at times do I have this drive? Why do I have this feeling? Why do I have faith in this feeling? Why do I have FAITH?

Recently in my life I have been struggling to no ends because I have suffered some serious damages that have been brought upon myself and my family, and for part of it knowing I was the cause as well. To start it off simple and for most people who know and didn't, I was kicked out of my house for a short period of time because I choose to be unfaithful to my father and mother. Their wishes were that I get one tattoo and that was it. I agreed happily then low and behold about 8 months down the road after the first I asked to get a second and if you guessed right they said no. So somehow with me being a teenager/young adult and in my oh so genious brain I conjured up a plan, so that I would never get caught. Now this plan consisted of me getting my 2nd tattoos while keeping them hidden from my parents. It was the middle of winter so my shirt was never going to becoming off for a while so if I got them in a place where they couldn't see I would be safe. But the one thing I didn't end up thinking about is getting sunburned when spring came around, and then most people know but if you didn't I was kicked out of my home.

In all honesty I think it was ironic on when I got kicked out because 4 days after I left for Ecuador on a mission trip and that helped me do some soul searching, and while I was doing it I came to a point to where I had to ask myself.

Why am I doing this?

Why do I have this Feeling?

Why do I have this Faith?

In Matthew chapter 6 you have a section called Treasures in Heaven now Jesus is talking about how we store things that are pointless to us now on earth and we should focus on the real treasure. But I think besides earthly matters he was talking about something on a deeper level than just gold. It says in the 21 verse "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

My treasure? What is my treasure? Is my treasure this feeling? Could this treasure be my faith?

Now if you look up the definition of the word faith the normal translation you get is it's a belief in something that cannot be proven. Yet countless people believe in faith Christian and non Christians alike. So in this world the word faith has grown to have many different translations, some of which a person would think it's complete nonsense. While others make it seem like the simplest of things one could do but I find one translation a bit more interesting than the rest. So this different definition for the word Faith when translated into 'Poly' is the word 'Sada' and the literal meaning of the word "is to place the heart upon" (this is Buddhist translation I believe)

Now scriptures says for where your treasure is there your heart will be also, and if we look at Sada (aka faith) we are to place upon the heart. We have a faith and it's to be place upon our hearts, our heart holds our treasures, and our treasure is this faith.

We have this faith. It's in our hearts. Why it's there we don't know, but if we are to place faith upon our hearts and make it our treasure, make it our desire, make it our passion. Then what would this faith really be?

Would we be capable of finding a love that no one can comprehend? Would we finally be capable of finding a treasure that will bring us eternal fulfillment that one can only dream of?

So we know of this Faith, we can address it and start to see why it's there but then one must ask.

What is the faithless?.

Is the faithless feeling alone? Is it that we feel that we are not good enough for this, that maybe this just isn't us our that we could never reach this standard.

Once again I have to admit I find it very interesting when people think this way, and I say this because of my life really. I have grown up in a christian home, I went to a christian school, and I went to a christian church. Now I honestly don't know how my life could of been even more filled with a christian influence unless my parents gave me away to a church but back to my point.
I was SURROUNDED by Christ, yet I had this feeling. A feeling of lonliness, a feeling that I had wanted to be filled. A feeling that had been slowly building up over the years, and I was just yearning to know what it was.

At first I figured it was just me, that I was the oddball of the so called "Christians" and that this feeling would just remain forever. Now this really bugged me because if anyone should know a thing about Love it should of been me. Like I said before I was raised in a Jesus enviroment and one of the big things he promoted was Love, yet all I could do was feel alone.

So did this mean I was faithless? Was I to be one of the seeds who was tossed into the thornes only to be choked out? Wasn't this faith in God supposed to be enough? Soon what was the object of my affection became the target of my frustration, and just having a faith in God was not enough...

God not enough?

He's everlasting

Alpha and Omega

The well spring of life

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords

yet I somehow thought I wasn't getting enough?

Was it that I had taken this word for granted? Have I left myself so open to God that I was to be only crushed by him? But then I read something. It was later in matthew there is another story, now this story is different and it's in chapter 14. Jesus had dismissed his disicples onto a boat, and he was dismissing the crowd. Afterwards he went to a mountain to pray. After he came back and the boat had already been moved out because of the waves. So on the disciples fourth watch Jesus comes out to them on the water and it says

26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

27But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

28"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."

29"Come," he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

31Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

Now this is very interesting in itself because you have Peter the "Rock" a man of faith, and here Jesus is saying

"You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Now we're pretty sure that Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ because before he even got out of the boat he yells "Lord, if it's you" looking at this it would seem to be pretty hard for Peter not to have the faith in the Lord but then one should ask

What about the faith in his heart?

What about the feeling he has?

What about the drive he has to get out of the boat and walk to the Lord.

Jesus knew Peter had faith in him, but what Peter didn't know was Jesus had faith in him. When you look at it Jesus had faith in us all, otherwise he would have never come, and I'd have to say this feeling in our hearts. This Faith is not only to believe in something not proven but to place in ones heart the faith in the assurance of themselves, to know that this drive is a drive given by God to let us know...

That we are not alone. That we are capable of anything through Christ if we can have Faith in him and in ourselves

in John 15:16 it says "16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."

This is Faith, a Faith that God has, and he has passed it down into his image, as he breathed life into the dirt he filled it with Faith. A faith placed upon our hearts to go and bear fruit in his name. To go be his image and show that with faith we can do all things through Christ. That with faith we could move mountains.

So as you go out today, please I ask you to just take a second and wonder, what am I going to be placing upon my heart today? beacuse as said in James 2:18

18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

Now with this assurance knowing that even though we have faith, we know that God has faith in the faithless and that we may realize it's time that we should as well. So let it be shown by our hearts that your faith is shown by what you do.

Gods Blessings
Tommy Burkhardt