"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2Cor 5:17
It's baffling how many lessons can be learned through this thing we call life. There are a ka-jillion-zillion different things we could decide to pursue in life. There are so many roads in which we can take. The possibilities are unlimited. You could become anyone you dream to be. And this isn't just limited to a career. We have been given the ability to create ourselves. You can become who you want to be and decide what you want to do in this life. We have the power to change the world. We have the power to change lives. We have the power to make Jesus known in this world. We have been given the choice to follow God's perfect will for us or deny His ways and chase after our own plans.
How we live our lives will depend upon our choices. Will we decide to make a difference and stand for Christ? Will we be different from the world? Or will we just become another number in the sand. My question to you the reader is, "What will you chase after?" Why not take time to examine where our life is going? Why not ponder the intentions of our heart? Why not meditate on our ambitions, dreams, and desires? Who are we focused on glorifying? I am not here to lecture, or preach as if i got everything together. To be completely honest, I often find myself only concerned with what I want. I find myself chasing the approval of others. I find myself indulging in only myself, thinking only about my temporary desires, and serving only myself. As i attempt to organize my thoughts and reflect on what God has been teaching me, I pray that someone would be able to take something from this blog.
1) Loving Others
2) Recess
3) New Year's Resolutions
4) Identity
5) Discipline
1) Loving Others
This has been a reoccurring theme again and again. So this is definitely a new year's resolution. What does it truly look like to see others how God sees them? Now days our love is often superficial and conditional. God has been giving me dreams, pointing me to how i should be loving others. The first step to loving others is reaching out to people with attention. I know tons of people who would just like a friend to spend a little time and listen to them. Friendships and new relationships with others needs to be intentional. Taking a step to meet and greet someone may take an ounce of courage, but imagine the impact and joy we could bring to someone who is just lonely or down. If you wish to change or impact someone, you must first learn to love. And it's impossible to love others without filling up on God's love first. Soak up on God's love, then glorify Him back by loving other people.
2) Recess
Remember back in the day when were only a few feet tall? Remember back in elementary school when they had breaks throughout the day? What did they call those 15 minute breaks again? That's right. They called in Recess! Recess is what we need today. Whens the last time you ran around laughing with friends just for fun. When is the last time you played a game of kickball, tag, foursquares, or dodgeball? Whens the last time we sat down and decided to catch bugs and put them into sand mazes. ( i did that all the time, lol) When we were kids, we knew how to enjoy life. Now days we trap ourselves in dark theaters, sit down in front of television screens, and spend hours watching someone else live life. We're addicted to movies because we consider them more entertaining than our own lives. We watch other people chase their dreams, experience love and live their lives. Why?? Because we want to escape our realities. We rather watch some imaginary people on a screen rather than be the main character in life. Im not saying movies are bad, (Avatar was bomb!). Im saying we need to relearn how to create our own realities instead of getting caught up with every new sitcom. Why spend hours listening to music, when you can go out and create your own unique tune? Why watch a basketball game when you could go out and shoot some hoops? Why not experience life for ourselves? Don't waste your life in the audience when you could be out chasing your own dreams and passions. Recess is a time to go out, experience God, play at the beach, have a water balloon fight, and create memories with friends. Recess is a time to meet with God and soak up His infinte love. Recess is a time to forget about all your stupid worries. Recess is a time to live, play and enjoy being a child of God.
3) New Year's Goals
Many people use the New Year to bring about a fresh start. This New Year is a time to reflect on our mistakes, forgive ourselves, direct our focus on our goals, deepen our relationship with Christ, sharpen our character and look forward to what the future holds. This year my walk with God has had its ups and downs. It's great to hear the voice of God say "I love you my child", "Dont worry, I am with you." It's great to see the Holy Spirit alive and active in your life. It's great to truly connect with God and embrace His salvation. I grew a lot in many areas, but also had many dry seasons. It's so easy to get distracted from your goals. It's so easy to lose sight of your ambitions. Anyone can make goal, but only few hold themselves to it. My main goal for 2010 is to spend more quality time with God. I have been lazy and sloppy in my pursuit at times. I want to learn what it truly looks like to trust Him daily, to have a life of intimate prayer, and to abide in His love. I want consistency and growth. I want my heart obsessed with Jesus. I want to grow in knowledge. I want a stronger pursuit of righteousness, and joyful obedience. I want to sanctify my sins, and leave them at the cross. I want to grow in the transformation of my mind, and set my heart on 24/7 worship mode. These things all come down to spending more quality time with the Lord and by living by the Holy Spirit. The more i soak up God's love, the easier I can love and help others.
4) Identity
The reason i wanted to talk about Identity, is because it seems many are looking for who they are. Not everyone is searching. Many have given into false identities. (Living as someone they really arn't.) Some have given up. Others have never tried or even pondered the thought. Why settle for the status quo? Why aim for average? Why are so many satisfied with just following the american dream? Why have we become more concerned with finding our significant other, with the number in our bank accounts, with our social networks, with our apperances and reputations, with the new fashion styles and new restraunts? We have numbed our minds and are no longer even curious about God. It's probably because it has become inconceivable that there is anything greater than this world. As John Piper says it, "We have become so awashed in the water, we have become like fish. We no longer dream of air anymore. We have lost our capacity to even know we miss it, because we are so comfortable down below in the warm water." Most people are still craving a sense of purpose, meaning and significance. We all want to be loved and valued. But don't bother looking to the greatest lover. We all want a sense of fulfillment. But we continue to turn to the approval of others rather than seeing ourselves through God's eyes. We all look for a place to fit in. But the only way to find our true meaning and purpose is to first find our identity. I believe our identities can all be found in Christ. When we realize that we are a beloved child of God, it becomes clear in what we are to do. Why be defined by social standards, by other people or even by ourselves, when we are already defined as a child of God? What does a child of God really look like? How exactly do they live? What does their heart look like? If you're searching for yourself, I would suggest finding who you are in Christ. How does God see you? Who does God say you are? What's His will for you?
5) Discipline
One of my goals i forgot to mention in my goals, is Discipline. I definitely need to grow in self control. It's easy to follow Christ when you're on spiritual highs and your heart is on fire for the Lord. But when trials arise and competition against God distract us, it comes down to how we manage ourselves. God disciplines us and calls us to repentance, but we also have a part in disciplining ourselves. How do we accomplish our goals when we lose our motivation? I think it can be solved with just devoting time to God. If we can truly sit and wait upon the Lord, and just talk to Him as our Abba Father, then I believe He empowers us with the Holy Spirit. Getting just a taste of God's love should be enough to motivate us to live for Him. When you're in your time of need, trust upon God, and He'll give you the strength to accomplish your goals.
"Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever." Psalm 73:25-26
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Rejuvinated
"But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Worship
Lately God has been reminding me of the importance of worship. God calls us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices as our spiritual act of worship. True worship is giving our entire heart to God, and standing strong for Christ daily. We worship God through our joy, obedience, and through loving others. In fact we were created to worship and glorify God with our lives. We worship in Spirit and Truth to life His name high. I find it interesting that while we worship and praise Him, God fills us with the Holy Spirit to help, strengthen and guide us. Worship brings the believer into a closer and deeper intimacy with the Lord. Worship and prayer is a direct window to connect with the Living God.
In this busy and stressful season, God has shown me that He is truly everything i need. I lack absolutely nothing because i am completely satisfied and delighted in Jesus as my treasure. When i walk through storms, God speaks and says "Don't worry, I am with you." There is no greater comfort than knowing how faithful our God is. God basically tells us to abide in Him, and to lean, trust and rely on Him. His love diffuses and surpasses all our fears. We have all the reason to worship and rejoice, because our God has redeemed us, conquered sin, and by His grace given us eternal salvation in Him. We need to be reminded of these things daily and not take our eyes off the cross.
In the book of John, I love how Christ testifies for Himself. He basically talks about Himself in third person and points to Himself as the Way, Truth and Life. He says that God the Father glorifies Him! That He is the Light to this dark world. He reveals Himself as the Good Shepherd. He is also the gate unto salvation. He is also a King, a Cornerstone, a Vine and the Resurrection. On of the best illustrations is how He depicts Himself as the Bread of Life.
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."
John 6:35
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:14-15
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
John 15:5
In this busy and stressful season, God has shown me that He is truly everything i need. I lack absolutely nothing because i am completely satisfied and delighted in Jesus as my treasure. When i walk through storms, God speaks and says "Don't worry, I am with you." There is no greater comfort than knowing how faithful our God is. God basically tells us to abide in Him, and to lean, trust and rely on Him. His love diffuses and surpasses all our fears. We have all the reason to worship and rejoice, because our God has redeemed us, conquered sin, and by His grace given us eternal salvation in Him. We need to be reminded of these things daily and not take our eyes off the cross.
In the book of John, I love how Christ testifies for Himself. He basically talks about Himself in third person and points to Himself as the Way, Truth and Life. He says that God the Father glorifies Him! That He is the Light to this dark world. He reveals Himself as the Good Shepherd. He is also the gate unto salvation. He is also a King, a Cornerstone, a Vine and the Resurrection. On of the best illustrations is how He depicts Himself as the Bread of Life.
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."
John 6:35
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:14-15
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
John 15:5
Friday, November 20, 2009
Idolatry
"We may as well face it; the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone.. We have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost." - A.W. Towzer
Idols are the things that we worship and love more than God. Sometimes everyday things can become idols because they start to consume our hearts, desires and become our main source of enjoyment. Idols are the things that we worship below ourselves. Therefore we are becoming more like our idols and lowering ourselves to our idols. But when one worships God, who is above all else, he/she will begin to increase in looking like Christ. Worship idols > decrease self Worship God > increase self
"If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him." Deut 13:1-4
Question. What or Who are you worshiping?? Money? Sex? Food? Work? School? Appearances? Boys? Girls? Comforts? Yourself? IF we worship anything besides the one true God, it becomes an idol! We are serving so many false gods and material things! Who should our eyes be set upon? Where is our heart at!? To whom shall we place our devotion? Do not yield to the people who worship idols, and do not yield to the numerous false prophets that teach false claims about God. The Lord is testing us to see if we will obey His commands in faith and love Him with our entire lives. Who will you worship? Jesus simply says, "Come and follow me."
Who will win the battle of our hearts? Will we settle for our own selfish desires, or will we praise God with our lives? When you give ur entire heart to Christ, your life will dramatically increase in His likeness, and your heart will begin to be directed to worship the One who is perfect, holy and worthy of all praise. Speaking first hand, there is no greater peace, love and joy.
Lately, I've been having a lot of idols. My heart has been so easily distracted that ive been struggling just to do daily devotions, which is sad. I honestly haven't been spending my time wisely and have again neglected setting aside quality time to just wait upon God. Sometimes the best thing we can do all day is to just sit in stillness and actually meet with the almighty God who is above all creation. This seems to be a reoccurring lesson lately.
Lately, God has reminded me of my work and role in the harvest of His people. I need to first of all draw closer to Him and pursue righteousness, and then i also need to invest, teach, and love on others. True greatness is one who will lay down his life for others, as Christ perfectly demonstrated. I desire to follow in His foot steps and become a servant to many. If i am truly called to become a leader, that means i am also called to be a humble servant and to diligently pursue a life of righteousness by walking by the Holy Spirit. Have i done these things perfectly lately? Far from it. But as of today I am ready to move forward and surrender in humble submission to God's plans. I pray that my will would become His will, and that my desires would becomes His desires.
_________________________________________
Deuteronomy 4:23-40 The Lord is God
Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.
Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.
___________________
Psalm 63:1-8
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think if you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Idols are the things that we worship and love more than God. Sometimes everyday things can become idols because they start to consume our hearts, desires and become our main source of enjoyment. Idols are the things that we worship below ourselves. Therefore we are becoming more like our idols and lowering ourselves to our idols. But when one worships God, who is above all else, he/she will begin to increase in looking like Christ. Worship idols > decrease self Worship God > increase self
"If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him." Deut 13:1-4
Question. What or Who are you worshiping?? Money? Sex? Food? Work? School? Appearances? Boys? Girls? Comforts? Yourself? IF we worship anything besides the one true God, it becomes an idol! We are serving so many false gods and material things! Who should our eyes be set upon? Where is our heart at!? To whom shall we place our devotion? Do not yield to the people who worship idols, and do not yield to the numerous false prophets that teach false claims about God. The Lord is testing us to see if we will obey His commands in faith and love Him with our entire lives. Who will you worship? Jesus simply says, "Come and follow me."
Who will win the battle of our hearts? Will we settle for our own selfish desires, or will we praise God with our lives? When you give ur entire heart to Christ, your life will dramatically increase in His likeness, and your heart will begin to be directed to worship the One who is perfect, holy and worthy of all praise. Speaking first hand, there is no greater peace, love and joy.
Lately, I've been having a lot of idols. My heart has been so easily distracted that ive been struggling just to do daily devotions, which is sad. I honestly haven't been spending my time wisely and have again neglected setting aside quality time to just wait upon God. Sometimes the best thing we can do all day is to just sit in stillness and actually meet with the almighty God who is above all creation. This seems to be a reoccurring lesson lately.
Lately, God has reminded me of my work and role in the harvest of His people. I need to first of all draw closer to Him and pursue righteousness, and then i also need to invest, teach, and love on others. True greatness is one who will lay down his life for others, as Christ perfectly demonstrated. I desire to follow in His foot steps and become a servant to many. If i am truly called to become a leader, that means i am also called to be a humble servant and to diligently pursue a life of righteousness by walking by the Holy Spirit. Have i done these things perfectly lately? Far from it. But as of today I am ready to move forward and surrender in humble submission to God's plans. I pray that my will would become His will, and that my desires would becomes His desires.
_________________________________________
Deuteronomy 4:23-40 The Lord is God
Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.
Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.
___________________
Psalm 63:1-8
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think if you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Suffering
Lately ive been learning how God purposely removes Himself from our senses. David who wrote the psalms constantly cries out to God, asking why He would hide His face. We know God is always there for us, but how come sometimes it may seem He has abandoned us or been absent for a meeting? Why does He allow for us to undergo such hardship and suffering? We find ourselves constantly battling our sin, constantly feeling far from God, and distracted from following Him.
I believe this is the next step in sanctification. He tests our faith, to see where we'll turn when these trials arise. He doesn't immediately intervene with His comfort because He watches how we deal with our suffering. His discipline may sometimes involve Him separating and hiding from us. This allows us to chase after Him. This actually sharpens and refines our faith. Will we trust in God's sovereignty, faithfulness, holiness and perfect love even when we're completely surrounded in darkness?
This is a similar story to the life of Job. Everything came crashing down on him all at once. Perhaps God took away Job's worldly blessings as a consequence for trying to make sin sacrifices for his children. Perhaps God wanted to see if Job could endure Satan's temptation. Perhaps God removed His face from Job to see if he would turn from God's promises.
The apostle Paul is also known for persevering through much suffering
"Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches" 2 Cor 11:24-28
Paul also mentioned how he had a painful thorn on the side of his body, and 3 times Paul cried out to God to remove it, but God answered back "My grace is sufficient." This gives light to us that it doesn't matter how much we have to suffer in this life, it doesn't matter if we lose everything in this life, it doesn't matter if we become sick, get persecuted or thrown in jail. Even while Paul was facing death each day, he was found worshipping God and singing songs of praise. Although he lived an uncomfortable life, he became rich in spirit, rich in knowledge and rich in grace.
Yesterday as i was swimming, God reminded me of His love again. I have been found wandering off from His love. I have been found seeking after other things, and putting other things in front of God. I increased my own will and put God on the back burner. Everyday i back stab God, everyday i betray the One i love. And yet everyday my God is full of love, grace and forgiveness. I learned once again that nothing else matters when we embrace God's love. I lack nothing, for i know my God loves me unconditionally. My God has reminded me of my purpose to live to glorify Him and to share the good news of His wonderful love.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me. Psalm 13:5-6
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horna]"> of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies. Psalm 18:1-3
______________________________________________
In this day and age, men are still focused on serving themselves. Men are still only concerned with accumulating more wealth and gaining more worldly pleasures, when one day these things will pass away and they will have to forfeit their very souls. God has already sent enough messengers. God has already made His warnings very clear. A day is approaching where God will judge each man for the work of his faith. He will separate the righteous from the wicked. He will gather the wheat into His barn and throw bundles of weeds into the fire. He will separate the Sheep from goats. Families will be separated. And not everyone who will cry out "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven.
What did we do with what God entrusted us with? Will we be like the servants who multiplied what God gave them? Or will we dig a hole and hide our faith? Will we live out our faith bold and unashamed? Will we be like the 5 bridesmaids that we're prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom, or will we be like the 5 bridesmaids that we're unprepared and missed the bridegroom and we're left with the doors closed shut? Will we be like the people who trusted the ark of Noah and we're saved from the flood? Or will we be foolish and reject the saving hand of God?
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matt 7:13-14
"If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." 1 Cor 3:12-15
I believe this is the next step in sanctification. He tests our faith, to see where we'll turn when these trials arise. He doesn't immediately intervene with His comfort because He watches how we deal with our suffering. His discipline may sometimes involve Him separating and hiding from us. This allows us to chase after Him. This actually sharpens and refines our faith. Will we trust in God's sovereignty, faithfulness, holiness and perfect love even when we're completely surrounded in darkness?
This is a similar story to the life of Job. Everything came crashing down on him all at once. Perhaps God took away Job's worldly blessings as a consequence for trying to make sin sacrifices for his children. Perhaps God wanted to see if Job could endure Satan's temptation. Perhaps God removed His face from Job to see if he would turn from God's promises.
The apostle Paul is also known for persevering through much suffering
"Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches" 2 Cor 11:24-28
Paul also mentioned how he had a painful thorn on the side of his body, and 3 times Paul cried out to God to remove it, but God answered back "My grace is sufficient." This gives light to us that it doesn't matter how much we have to suffer in this life, it doesn't matter if we lose everything in this life, it doesn't matter if we become sick, get persecuted or thrown in jail. Even while Paul was facing death each day, he was found worshipping God and singing songs of praise. Although he lived an uncomfortable life, he became rich in spirit, rich in knowledge and rich in grace.
Yesterday as i was swimming, God reminded me of His love again. I have been found wandering off from His love. I have been found seeking after other things, and putting other things in front of God. I increased my own will and put God on the back burner. Everyday i back stab God, everyday i betray the One i love. And yet everyday my God is full of love, grace and forgiveness. I learned once again that nothing else matters when we embrace God's love. I lack nothing, for i know my God loves me unconditionally. My God has reminded me of my purpose to live to glorify Him and to share the good news of His wonderful love.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me. Psalm 13:5-6
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horna]"> of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies. Psalm 18:1-3
______________________________________________
In this day and age, men are still focused on serving themselves. Men are still only concerned with accumulating more wealth and gaining more worldly pleasures, when one day these things will pass away and they will have to forfeit their very souls. God has already sent enough messengers. God has already made His warnings very clear. A day is approaching where God will judge each man for the work of his faith. He will separate the righteous from the wicked. He will gather the wheat into His barn and throw bundles of weeds into the fire. He will separate the Sheep from goats. Families will be separated. And not everyone who will cry out "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven.
What did we do with what God entrusted us with? Will we be like the servants who multiplied what God gave them? Or will we dig a hole and hide our faith? Will we live out our faith bold and unashamed? Will we be like the 5 bridesmaids that we're prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom, or will we be like the 5 bridesmaids that we're unprepared and missed the bridegroom and we're left with the doors closed shut? Will we be like the people who trusted the ark of Noah and we're saved from the flood? Or will we be foolish and reject the saving hand of God?
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matt 7:13-14
"If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." 1 Cor 3:12-15
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Daily Devotions
"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord." 1 Peter 3:15
Today i went to starbucks, because i cant seem to get anything done at home. My computer itself is more than enough to distract me. So i actually got to dig into God's Word and journal. I often forget how essential daily devotions are. Spending quality 1 on 1 time with God draaamatically changes our mind set and replenishes our weary hearts. So often do we leave our homes without starting the day off right with Him. So often do we forget to acknowledge His incredible love n grace. If we say we love Him, shouldn't we therefore live and obey Him?
So today I am once again reminded of the high importance of spending time with my God. This seems to be a reoccurring lesson im supposed to learn. We can so easily say and commit to things, and yet it can be so difficult to actually walk them out daily. Ive really been struggling to set time aside for God because my heart has been distracted by too many other responsibilities, hobbies and comforts. I seem to make time to eat, sleep, do hw, go exercise, hang with friends, and watch my fav tv shows and yet i dont nearly put enough focus on what i claim is my greatest treasure. If we truly say we desire Him, then why can't we set aside time for Him?
Our hearts are constantly in a battle between the flesh and the spirit. Have you ever noticed how easily our desires can change? Our deepest and greatest desire should be what motivates us and overrides all other desires right? Im not saying we need to be perfect, because we all fail at that. But im suggesting that we strive for holiness, because He who called us to be holy set the perfect example. By pushing to grow into His likeness, we will definitely mature and strengthen in our faith. And one day God will perfectly direct our hearts on what they were created to worship.
Here are 4 key aspects of keeping Christ the center and abiding in Him. Fellowship with Him, includes God's Word and Prayer. Fellowship with others includes, Discipleship and Evangelism.
God's greatest two commandments we're to love Him and love others. We can't really obey one of them and not the other. The two come hand in hand.
In our relationship to Him, it's important to put emphasis on prayer slash worship and on His never failing Word, the Bible. God's voice becomes so much clearer when we train our minds to listen and recognize the sound of His voice. Secondly, our relationship with Christians and non-believers will also refine our faith. Discipleship by other leaders, accountability from friends, and pouring into other believers helps us to grow more than we imagine. Evangelizing which can often be scary, is something that i specifically need to work on. But before Doing, we must recognize the importance of Being. Because we are absolutely useless when we're running on empty and dry of the Holy Spirit. But when we're seasoned in His Word and in prayer, we become so much more fruitful in sharing God's love with others.
So perhaps we need to stop and reflect on where we stand with God. Perhaps we need to reorganize our priorities. Perhaps we'll find ourselves in dire need of the Lord, and realize how lost we are without Him. Perhaps this is a time to start taking our walk more seriously.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you." James 4:8
Today i went to starbucks, because i cant seem to get anything done at home. My computer itself is more than enough to distract me. So i actually got to dig into God's Word and journal. I often forget how essential daily devotions are. Spending quality 1 on 1 time with God draaamatically changes our mind set and replenishes our weary hearts. So often do we leave our homes without starting the day off right with Him. So often do we forget to acknowledge His incredible love n grace. If we say we love Him, shouldn't we therefore live and obey Him?
So today I am once again reminded of the high importance of spending time with my God. This seems to be a reoccurring lesson im supposed to learn. We can so easily say and commit to things, and yet it can be so difficult to actually walk them out daily. Ive really been struggling to set time aside for God because my heart has been distracted by too many other responsibilities, hobbies and comforts. I seem to make time to eat, sleep, do hw, go exercise, hang with friends, and watch my fav tv shows and yet i dont nearly put enough focus on what i claim is my greatest treasure. If we truly say we desire Him, then why can't we set aside time for Him?
Our hearts are constantly in a battle between the flesh and the spirit. Have you ever noticed how easily our desires can change? Our deepest and greatest desire should be what motivates us and overrides all other desires right? Im not saying we need to be perfect, because we all fail at that. But im suggesting that we strive for holiness, because He who called us to be holy set the perfect example. By pushing to grow into His likeness, we will definitely mature and strengthen in our faith. And one day God will perfectly direct our hearts on what they were created to worship.
Here are 4 key aspects of keeping Christ the center and abiding in Him. Fellowship with Him, includes God's Word and Prayer. Fellowship with others includes, Discipleship and Evangelism.
God's greatest two commandments we're to love Him and love others. We can't really obey one of them and not the other. The two come hand in hand.
In our relationship to Him, it's important to put emphasis on prayer slash worship and on His never failing Word, the Bible. God's voice becomes so much clearer when we train our minds to listen and recognize the sound of His voice. Secondly, our relationship with Christians and non-believers will also refine our faith. Discipleship by other leaders, accountability from friends, and pouring into other believers helps us to grow more than we imagine. Evangelizing which can often be scary, is something that i specifically need to work on. But before Doing, we must recognize the importance of Being. Because we are absolutely useless when we're running on empty and dry of the Holy Spirit. But when we're seasoned in His Word and in prayer, we become so much more fruitful in sharing God's love with others.
So perhaps we need to stop and reflect on where we stand with God. Perhaps we need to reorganize our priorities. Perhaps we'll find ourselves in dire need of the Lord, and realize how lost we are without Him. Perhaps this is a time to start taking our walk more seriously.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you." James 4:8
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Chasing The Wind
We make so many commitments.
We set so many goals.
We make promises and vows.
We declare and confess our love.
We pledge "From here on out, I'll be different, I'll change."
And for a while we do.
We stood strong in our devotion.
We took up our cross and followed You with determination.
We even went on further to make progress and growth.
But what about the next day?
Soon after we find ourselves betraying the very One we said we'd love.
We like sheep have gone astray,
We hide in our shame and sit paralyzed in our guilt.
We have blinded ourselves in darkness.
We have trapped ourselves in fear.
We deceive others by putting on a mask,
And pretend that everything is okay.We then conceal our sins like sweeping dust under the carpet.
Some of us have withered because we took no root.
Many of us have been choked up by thorns.
Others have become dry and scorched by the sun.
At one time we used to stand in awe.
At one time we used to stand amazed.
At one time our hearts used to burn with great passion.
But the compromises kept knocking.
The competition for our heart never seemed to cease.
And it's impossible for us to serve two masters.
So quickly have we lost our hope.
So quickly have we let our guard down.
So quickly have we turned from Your grace.
Why do we so often go off in the opposite direction?
You'd think we would have learned by now.
Throughout our day we set our eyes on carnal lusts.
We have allowed the world to seep through and take hold of our minds.
How easily are we entertained and captured by pettiness.
How foolishly do we seek the approval of others.
We like the attention on ourselves.
But again we say "No, problem i got 'em. I know what I'm doing."
And slowly begin to plant our feet into the sand.
Where we are so easily shaken.
And why do we chase after the wind,
When nothing is ever new under the sun?
Why do we continue to dig for shiny gems,
When we have already found our greatest treasure?
Is the treasure hidden in the field not worth selling everything for?
Then why do we get caught in between?
We profess "Surely, I will never disown you."
And even before the next day, we find ourselves drawing short.
Why do we settle for these temporal pleasures over our deepest joy?
Is He not worthy and enough to satisfy?
Is He not worthy to endure suffering for?
Is He not worthy to lay down our life for?
Even after encountering the Author of Life,
The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,
How bizarre is it that we still continue to pursue our own objectives.
Who's glory we're we supposed to be living for?
Why have we exchanged the glory of God for worthless idols?
Why do we seek after broken cisterns that can never hold water,
When You say that You are the living water and eternal spring of life?
What do we think about most?
What do we desire most?
What do we spend most of our time doing?
What are we investing into?
What motivates us?
What is it that we so dearly cherish?
Where do we seek our happiness?
Where have we placed our security?
For there is our God.
Why store our treasures on earth where moth and rust will destroy?
Why cling to valuables that are perishable and will one day fade away?
For where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also.
We used to sing sweet songs of praise.
We used to worship You in our utmost highest.
We surrendered our hearts and died to ourselves.
But then why do we go running back to our old ways?
If we have been crucified with You, then why still live for ourselves?
Have we become idle in our selfishness?
Have we forgotten the One who has delivered us out from sin?
Have we forgotten the Almighty Source of comfort, peace and joy?
How easily do we forget of the One who loves us.
How easily do we get distracted from our heart's desire.
How easily it is for us to complain and worry about our troubles.
But who is it that stands unshaken when all else fails?
Who remains faithful and endures to the very end?
Who's footprints keep going when all other paths disappear?
Often without even realizing it,
We stand in rebellion against God and indulge in our disobedience.
We fall short everyday by serving our idols, and worshiping ourselves.
We begin to blend in and look exactly like ordinary people of the world.
But since when did settling for mediocrity and a safe life become the goal?
Why do we settle for just getting by?
How far does Christianity lite take us?
Shouldn't we give You our all and our best?
After all it was You who laid down Your entire life for us,
And You who suffered for our sins on that cross.
God doesn't care if we dress nice for church.
God doesn't want just people who go through the routine.
"But I said a prayer before, I took communion and was baptized!
I have good morals and even gave money to charity!"
Even if we had all the spiritual gifts, but have not loved,
We gain nothing, and do not truly know you.
You have only been concerned with our hearts.
You desire nothing else but for Your children to come sit at Your feet
Anyone can claim a religious status.
Who wouldn't want salvation, blessings and heaven?
Everyone wants a Savior, but not everyone wants a God.
Everyone wants to accept a gift, but not everyone wants to surrender.
Once persecution, storms or suffering arise we are so quick to abandon
I'm sure our perseverance has often been quite embarrassing.
What happened to our deep faith, our trust, our love?
Our commitment often goes until there's a cost of discipleship.
"What I have to lose my life to save it? What I have to be a servant?"
To what extent are we willing to follow Jesus?
How much suffering will I endure for the cross?
How serious do I want to take my walk?
How close to Jesus do I want to be?
We who were created have become foolishly prideful.
As Your enemies we hated righteousness, justice and Your Word.
We have refused your discipline and ignored your rebuke.
You call on us to repent and believe,
For You take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
You warn and cry out to turn from our evil ways.
You have been patient and full of grace.
You have sent countless prophets and leaders.
You have even sent Your only Son as a Messenger and Savior.
And yet it was our very own sin that nailed Him to the cross.
But it was You who drank the cup of suffering.
It was You who endured the cross for the joy set before you.
It was You who paid the propitiation.
It was You who took the wrath upon Yourself.
And You who had no sin, became sin for us.
So that we might become the righteousness of God.
You bore our guilt and our shame,
just so we could stand before the Almighty God.
You offered us forgiveness, reconciliation and new life.
And it is You who rose again from the grave
And You who reigns forever in the highest glory.
And it is You who says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
And "I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
How sweet are Your words?
How pure and holy are Your ways?
Give us a taste of Your love.
Give us a compassion for those that are lost.
Give us a glimpse of You standing transfigured before Your throne.
Show us the full and mighty power of Your Spirit.
Help us to love You back for our hearts easily grow dull.
Direct us on Your path of righteousness and remind us of Your salvation
You work all things for the good of those who love You.
Let us place our trust in You.
Let us eagerly wait upon You.
And set our minds on things above.
Synchronize our heartbeat to Your perfect will.
Conform our desires and grow us into the likeness of Your Son.
May we no longer be a slave to sin.
Break off our chains of guilt, shame and regret.
Push us forward into a deeper walk.
Grow us into obedient children, becoming mature and bold in faith.
And may we find delight in Your way, truth and life.
Train us to have a heart of worship.
Forgive our sin, and heal our land, O Sovereign God.
Let the nations know that You are coming.
Let the people know of Your true supremacy.
Redeem Your lost. Rescue Your children. Rise up leaders.
Speak to our hearts. Transform our lives.
And may the Lamb of God receive the reward of His suffering.
How far does our own strength and wisdom take us?
Who can save himself?
How little do we seem in the hands of the most infinite God.
When the mountains and oceans act in glorious obedience.
We turn back and say "No!"
We have lost our capacity to even know how deep our betrayal is.
We no longer stop to appreciate the newly painted sky.
We have become so adapted to this life,
That it has become inconceivable to us that there is anything better.
How many times have we missed a moment of fellowship with You?
How many more times will we pass another opportunity?
How many times have we broken Your heart O Lord?
How many times have we disgraced Your Name?
When was the last time we cried out "Abba, Father!"
When was the last time we sat down to meet with You?
We have so easily been entangled by the craftiness of men.
And fallen into this pit of despair.
Where we can no longer see the way out.
Where we can no longer see how far we have gone from You,
But You came running after us.
And as a Father, You took hold of us and placed us upon Your lap
So therefore let us no longer be infants,
tossed back and forth by the waves.
But let us stand firm upon Your solid cornerstone,
And rejoice in Your redemption
But even in our sin and failures
You unconditionally love us.
It is because of Your wonderful love,
that You have set us free.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
For Your love is better than life.
And Your grace is more than sufficient for all my needs.
Rekindle our first love, O God.
May we find rest in You and comfort in Your voice.
And even though we may run astray a thousand times,
You relentlessly come chasing after us,
and tightly squeeze us in Your arms and You say "Mine!"
For no matter how far we go,
You always draw us back to you.
We set so many goals.
We make promises and vows.
We declare and confess our love.
We pledge "From here on out, I'll be different, I'll change."
And for a while we do.
We stood strong in our devotion.
We took up our cross and followed You with determination.
We even went on further to make progress and growth.
But what about the next day?
Soon after we find ourselves betraying the very One we said we'd love.
We like sheep have gone astray,
We hide in our shame and sit paralyzed in our guilt.
We have blinded ourselves in darkness.
We have trapped ourselves in fear.
We deceive others by putting on a mask,
And pretend that everything is okay.We then conceal our sins like sweeping dust under the carpet.
Some of us have withered because we took no root.
Many of us have been choked up by thorns.
Others have become dry and scorched by the sun.
At one time we used to stand in awe.
At one time we used to stand amazed.
At one time our hearts used to burn with great passion.
But the compromises kept knocking.
The competition for our heart never seemed to cease.
And it's impossible for us to serve two masters.
So quickly have we lost our hope.
So quickly have we let our guard down.
So quickly have we turned from Your grace.
Why do we so often go off in the opposite direction?
You'd think we would have learned by now.
Throughout our day we set our eyes on carnal lusts.
We have allowed the world to seep through and take hold of our minds.
How easily are we entertained and captured by pettiness.
How foolishly do we seek the approval of others.
We like the attention on ourselves.
But again we say "No, problem i got 'em. I know what I'm doing."
And slowly begin to plant our feet into the sand.
Where we are so easily shaken.
And why do we chase after the wind,
When nothing is ever new under the sun?
Why do we continue to dig for shiny gems,
When we have already found our greatest treasure?
Is the treasure hidden in the field not worth selling everything for?
Then why do we get caught in between?
We profess "Surely, I will never disown you."
And even before the next day, we find ourselves drawing short.
Why do we settle for these temporal pleasures over our deepest joy?
Is He not worthy and enough to satisfy?
Is He not worthy to endure suffering for?
Is He not worthy to lay down our life for?
Even after encountering the Author of Life,
The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,
How bizarre is it that we still continue to pursue our own objectives.
Who's glory we're we supposed to be living for?
Why have we exchanged the glory of God for worthless idols?
Why do we seek after broken cisterns that can never hold water,
When You say that You are the living water and eternal spring of life?
What do we think about most?
What do we desire most?
What do we spend most of our time doing?
What are we investing into?
What motivates us?
What is it that we so dearly cherish?
Where do we seek our happiness?
Where have we placed our security?
For there is our God.
Why store our treasures on earth where moth and rust will destroy?
Why cling to valuables that are perishable and will one day fade away?
For where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also.
We used to sing sweet songs of praise.
We used to worship You in our utmost highest.
We surrendered our hearts and died to ourselves.
But then why do we go running back to our old ways?
If we have been crucified with You, then why still live for ourselves?
Have we become idle in our selfishness?
Have we forgotten the One who has delivered us out from sin?
Have we forgotten the Almighty Source of comfort, peace and joy?
How easily do we forget of the One who loves us.
How easily do we get distracted from our heart's desire.
How easily it is for us to complain and worry about our troubles.
But who is it that stands unshaken when all else fails?
Who remains faithful and endures to the very end?
Who's footprints keep going when all other paths disappear?
Often without even realizing it,
We stand in rebellion against God and indulge in our disobedience.
We fall short everyday by serving our idols, and worshiping ourselves.
We begin to blend in and look exactly like ordinary people of the world.
But since when did settling for mediocrity and a safe life become the goal?
Why do we settle for just getting by?
How far does Christianity lite take us?
Shouldn't we give You our all and our best?
After all it was You who laid down Your entire life for us,
And You who suffered for our sins on that cross.
God doesn't care if we dress nice for church.
God doesn't want just people who go through the routine.
"But I said a prayer before, I took communion and was baptized!
I have good morals and even gave money to charity!"
Even if we had all the spiritual gifts, but have not loved,
We gain nothing, and do not truly know you.
You have only been concerned with our hearts.
You desire nothing else but for Your children to come sit at Your feet
Anyone can claim a religious status.
Who wouldn't want salvation, blessings and heaven?
Everyone wants a Savior, but not everyone wants a God.
Everyone wants to accept a gift, but not everyone wants to surrender.
Once persecution, storms or suffering arise we are so quick to abandon
I'm sure our perseverance has often been quite embarrassing.
What happened to our deep faith, our trust, our love?
Our commitment often goes until there's a cost of discipleship.
"What I have to lose my life to save it? What I have to be a servant?"
To what extent are we willing to follow Jesus?
How much suffering will I endure for the cross?
How serious do I want to take my walk?
How close to Jesus do I want to be?
We who were created have become foolishly prideful.
As Your enemies we hated righteousness, justice and Your Word.
We have refused your discipline and ignored your rebuke.
You call on us to repent and believe,
For You take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
You warn and cry out to turn from our evil ways.
You have been patient and full of grace.
You have sent countless prophets and leaders.
You have even sent Your only Son as a Messenger and Savior.
And yet it was our very own sin that nailed Him to the cross.
But it was You who drank the cup of suffering.
It was You who endured the cross for the joy set before you.
It was You who paid the propitiation.
It was You who took the wrath upon Yourself.
And You who had no sin, became sin for us.
So that we might become the righteousness of God.
You bore our guilt and our shame,
just so we could stand before the Almighty God.
You offered us forgiveness, reconciliation and new life.
And it is You who rose again from the grave
And You who reigns forever in the highest glory.
And it is You who says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
And "I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
How sweet are Your words?
How pure and holy are Your ways?
Give us a taste of Your love.
Give us a compassion for those that are lost.
Give us a glimpse of You standing transfigured before Your throne.
Show us the full and mighty power of Your Spirit.
Help us to love You back for our hearts easily grow dull.
Direct us on Your path of righteousness and remind us of Your salvation
You work all things for the good of those who love You.
Let us place our trust in You.
Let us eagerly wait upon You.
And set our minds on things above.
Synchronize our heartbeat to Your perfect will.
Conform our desires and grow us into the likeness of Your Son.
May we no longer be a slave to sin.
Break off our chains of guilt, shame and regret.
Push us forward into a deeper walk.
Grow us into obedient children, becoming mature and bold in faith.
And may we find delight in Your way, truth and life.
Train us to have a heart of worship.
Forgive our sin, and heal our land, O Sovereign God.
Let the nations know that You are coming.
Let the people know of Your true supremacy.
Redeem Your lost. Rescue Your children. Rise up leaders.
Speak to our hearts. Transform our lives.
And may the Lamb of God receive the reward of His suffering.
How far does our own strength and wisdom take us?
Who can save himself?
How little do we seem in the hands of the most infinite God.
When the mountains and oceans act in glorious obedience.
We turn back and say "No!"
We have lost our capacity to even know how deep our betrayal is.
We no longer stop to appreciate the newly painted sky.
We have become so adapted to this life,
That it has become inconceivable to us that there is anything better.
How many times have we missed a moment of fellowship with You?
How many more times will we pass another opportunity?
How many times have we broken Your heart O Lord?
How many times have we disgraced Your Name?
When was the last time we cried out "Abba, Father!"
When was the last time we sat down to meet with You?
We have so easily been entangled by the craftiness of men.
And fallen into this pit of despair.
Where we can no longer see the way out.
Where we can no longer see how far we have gone from You,
But You came running after us.
And as a Father, You took hold of us and placed us upon Your lap
So therefore let us no longer be infants,
tossed back and forth by the waves.
But let us stand firm upon Your solid cornerstone,
And rejoice in Your redemption
But even in our sin and failures
You unconditionally love us.
It is because of Your wonderful love,
that You have set us free.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
For Your love is better than life.
And Your grace is more than sufficient for all my needs.
Rekindle our first love, O God.
May we find rest in You and comfort in Your voice.
And even though we may run astray a thousand times,
You relentlessly come chasing after us,
and tightly squeeze us in Your arms and You say "Mine!"
For no matter how far we go,
You always draw us back to you.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
My Treasure
_____________________________________________
"The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose, he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever." A.W. Tozer
All i need is You. None but Jesus. You're everything to me. We have sang these songs before, but is it actually true that Jesus is all that you need? If you we're to sell all your possessions, donate all your money to the poor, and some how lose your family and friends, Would you still be content? Would it be enough to have Christ, and Christ alone? Would you truly be satisfied?
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him" Phil 3:7-8
"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Phil 4:11-13
What good is it to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your very soul? What good is it to have everything but Jesus? In truth one would actually have nothing. It would be better to have Christ in your life, than living with all the money, possessions and material of this world. There is no hope, no salvation, no life, no forgiveness, no redemption, no healing, no comfort, and no true love apart from God.
Life is absolutely worthless, meaningless, empty and dark apart from knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior. And yet we who claim to be Christians often have one foot on the rock and the other on the sand. We still catch ourselves building on the wrong foundations, investing our happiness in things that dont last, and trusting in our worldly pleasures that will never truly satisfy. We go searching to fill and satisfy ourselves in all the wrong places. We turn to addictions, relationships, entertainment, possessions, comfort, securities, jobs, friends, technologies, medicines, material wealth, sports, hobbies, and false religions.
Running on our own strength is like performing on dry batteries. We get drained out, we lose hope, and lack the power to fulfill our hearts. But when we plug into an infinite source and strength of God, He charges us up and reminds us how wonderful He is. He demonstrates His love, He meets with us personally, He rescues us from sin, solves all our stressful problems, empowers us with His Spirit and satisfies all our needs. He alone is good and He alone is worthy of all praise.
Is Jesus truly my treasure? Is a heart after God truly my core desire? These are the questions that i ask myself. Because if Christ can become the center of my life, then it should be no problem to love, it should be easy to make time for Him daily, it should become a great joy to pray constantly, it should be automatic to have a heart of worship, and it would grow my love deeper and deeper for Him. Having Christ the center of my heart would transform my entire life and behavior. Christ at the very core matures faith into a joyful obedience and deep trust. Lifting God up high in our lives makes it easier to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.
Nearness is likeness. The closer we draw to Him, the closer we'll start to look like Him. The more we desire Him, the more we'll start to live for Him. God's desires should not only override our own, but should also become our heart's desire.
If Christ were all that I lived for, and i humbled myself and allowed God to have His complete way with me, then i would see the super charged Holy Spirit living in full power in my life. The Holy Spirit is a gushing spring that outflows love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. But even if i were sin and miss the mark in obedience, then I would also know that my God would catch me, being full of nothing but comfort, forgiveness, love and grace. Just one touch of Jesus is enough to be changed for an entire lifetime. A close love relationship with Jesus lasts forever until eternity.
Like any other treasure, we must go searching to find it. And when we do find this marvelous treasure, we must ask ourselves "Is it really worth selling everything else i have?" God is an infinite provider, healer, and comforter, but we dont nearly take enough time to Ask for His empowering Spirit. Do you truly value and cherish God as your treasure? "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Matt 13:44
______________________________________
Seminary for a WeekI've been in LA for 4 days now. Today (tues) I got to check out the Talbot Theological Seminary. I was greatly impressed by Talbot's teachers and faculty. One of the teachers who was a pastor, gave a great sermon in the weekly chapel's service. Later i got to sit in on a hermeneutics class. I was amazed at how ordinary it would be to have such powerful and spiritually deep teaching everyday at school. A counselor and main pastor of the school also took me out to coffee, and spent half the day just having a good conversation.
I was perhaps most impressed by the student body. In between classes, i saw tons of people reading their Bibles, people studying godly Bible doctrine books, a bunch of people worshiping on the grass, and i overheard people talking about how they were sharing God to their friends just as i was walking to the cafeteria. People in class knew their theology. You could tell that people were just madly in love with God. It was shocking to be surrounded by so many Christian believers wherever i went. Ive always imagined what an everyday life of ppl filled with the Holy Spirit would look like, and this passed my expectations. Now the mission is to get the rest of the world to look like this.
Today (weds) I went to visit Fuller Theological Seminary. I felt like i didnt get to experience the seminary that well because they actually wernt in classes yet, so there wernt any faculty or students on campus. I think both fuller and talbot offer many options in ministry degrees, and have a broad stance on their doctrines and teaching. That can be either a good or bad thing in depending on one's circumstance. I think it may also be dangerous in bringing in experimental classes of psychological spiritual formation that may drift from Biblical teaching. Although i do generally see that they have a passion for deepening their intimacy with God. Today (thurs) I had another great "seminary for a day" experience at the Master's seminary. At first it was pretty intimidating because i was the only person wearing jeans and bball shoes in a crowd of 500 men. Everyone was dressed really formal with coats and ties. I also felt really young because most of them were already married, and plus they had beards. But I was really impressed at how well they lifted the authority and inerrancy of scripture. After class they gave some time to actually pray for each other in class. I can tell that these men really take their sin seriously and see the high importance of pursuing a healthy character in righteousness. It really felt good to be surrounded by men that have a true heart for the lost and have a desire to disciple and preach the Word of God. Of all the seminaries i think these men had the most reverence for God's Word and were most addicted to His spiritual truths.
i do feel like im at an important fork of decisions in my life right now. And it'd be very easy to make my choices based off my own desires and will, but right now im confused if my choice matches up to God's will.
"The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose, he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever." A.W. Tozer
All i need is You. None but Jesus. You're everything to me. We have sang these songs before, but is it actually true that Jesus is all that you need? If you we're to sell all your possessions, donate all your money to the poor, and some how lose your family and friends, Would you still be content? Would it be enough to have Christ, and Christ alone? Would you truly be satisfied?
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him" Phil 3:7-8
"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Phil 4:11-13
What good is it to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your very soul? What good is it to have everything but Jesus? In truth one would actually have nothing. It would be better to have Christ in your life, than living with all the money, possessions and material of this world. There is no hope, no salvation, no life, no forgiveness, no redemption, no healing, no comfort, and no true love apart from God.
Life is absolutely worthless, meaningless, empty and dark apart from knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior. And yet we who claim to be Christians often have one foot on the rock and the other on the sand. We still catch ourselves building on the wrong foundations, investing our happiness in things that dont last, and trusting in our worldly pleasures that will never truly satisfy. We go searching to fill and satisfy ourselves in all the wrong places. We turn to addictions, relationships, entertainment, possessions, comfort, securities, jobs, friends, technologies, medicines, material wealth, sports, hobbies, and false religions.
Running on our own strength is like performing on dry batteries. We get drained out, we lose hope, and lack the power to fulfill our hearts. But when we plug into an infinite source and strength of God, He charges us up and reminds us how wonderful He is. He demonstrates His love, He meets with us personally, He rescues us from sin, solves all our stressful problems, empowers us with His Spirit and satisfies all our needs. He alone is good and He alone is worthy of all praise.
Is Jesus truly my treasure? Is a heart after God truly my core desire? These are the questions that i ask myself. Because if Christ can become the center of my life, then it should be no problem to love, it should be easy to make time for Him daily, it should become a great joy to pray constantly, it should be automatic to have a heart of worship, and it would grow my love deeper and deeper for Him. Having Christ the center of my heart would transform my entire life and behavior. Christ at the very core matures faith into a joyful obedience and deep trust. Lifting God up high in our lives makes it easier to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.
Nearness is likeness. The closer we draw to Him, the closer we'll start to look like Him. The more we desire Him, the more we'll start to live for Him. God's desires should not only override our own, but should also become our heart's desire.
If Christ were all that I lived for, and i humbled myself and allowed God to have His complete way with me, then i would see the super charged Holy Spirit living in full power in my life. The Holy Spirit is a gushing spring that outflows love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. But even if i were sin and miss the mark in obedience, then I would also know that my God would catch me, being full of nothing but comfort, forgiveness, love and grace. Just one touch of Jesus is enough to be changed for an entire lifetime. A close love relationship with Jesus lasts forever until eternity.
Like any other treasure, we must go searching to find it. And when we do find this marvelous treasure, we must ask ourselves "Is it really worth selling everything else i have?" God is an infinite provider, healer, and comforter, but we dont nearly take enough time to Ask for His empowering Spirit. Do you truly value and cherish God as your treasure? "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Matt 13:44
______________________________________
Seminary for a WeekI've been in LA for 4 days now. Today (tues) I got to check out the Talbot Theological Seminary. I was greatly impressed by Talbot's teachers and faculty. One of the teachers who was a pastor, gave a great sermon in the weekly chapel's service. Later i got to sit in on a hermeneutics class. I was amazed at how ordinary it would be to have such powerful and spiritually deep teaching everyday at school. A counselor and main pastor of the school also took me out to coffee, and spent half the day just having a good conversation.
I was perhaps most impressed by the student body. In between classes, i saw tons of people reading their Bibles, people studying godly Bible doctrine books, a bunch of people worshiping on the grass, and i overheard people talking about how they were sharing God to their friends just as i was walking to the cafeteria. People in class knew their theology. You could tell that people were just madly in love with God. It was shocking to be surrounded by so many Christian believers wherever i went. Ive always imagined what an everyday life of ppl filled with the Holy Spirit would look like, and this passed my expectations. Now the mission is to get the rest of the world to look like this.
Today (weds) I went to visit Fuller Theological Seminary. I felt like i didnt get to experience the seminary that well because they actually wernt in classes yet, so there wernt any faculty or students on campus. I think both fuller and talbot offer many options in ministry degrees, and have a broad stance on their doctrines and teaching. That can be either a good or bad thing in depending on one's circumstance. I think it may also be dangerous in bringing in experimental classes of psychological spiritual formation that may drift from Biblical teaching. Although i do generally see that they have a passion for deepening their intimacy with God. Today (thurs) I had another great "seminary for a day" experience at the Master's seminary. At first it was pretty intimidating because i was the only person wearing jeans and bball shoes in a crowd of 500 men. Everyone was dressed really formal with coats and ties. I also felt really young because most of them were already married, and plus they had beards. But I was really impressed at how well they lifted the authority and inerrancy of scripture. After class they gave some time to actually pray for each other in class. I can tell that these men really take their sin seriously and see the high importance of pursuing a healthy character in righteousness. It really felt good to be surrounded by men that have a true heart for the lost and have a desire to disciple and preach the Word of God. Of all the seminaries i think these men had the most reverence for God's Word and were most addicted to His spiritual truths.
i do feel like im at an important fork of decisions in my life right now. And it'd be very easy to make my choices based off my own desires and will, but right now im confused if my choice matches up to God's will.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Redeemed
"How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!" -Psalm 119:103
For the past few days, God has shown me the importance of abiding in Him. He says to "Remain in me, and I will remain in you". We often get so distracted by the world, that we take our eyes off of Christ. We often just forget about God's love for us. I am constantly being reminded to stay in communion with Him. The world is constantly draining us, but God is constantly replenishing us through His living Spirit. When we're dry and lost in the desert, we really arn't growing. But when we're planted near the streams of living water, we become very fruitful and strong towards worship.
We need to spend more time absorbing God's love, because God never stops pouring out His infinite love on us,. He tells us to just sit at His feet, and surrender the pains of our heart. He offers us a calm rest in His love. When we wait upon the Lord, we renew our strength, and become available to the Lord. He says to stay close in worship, prayer and in His Word so that we'll be far from sin, and live a joyful and abundant life.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." -Romans 15:13
Today i had a very joyful day. I was in awe, adoration, astonishment, amazement, and very appreciative for His never ending love for us. I was reminded to never stop counting our blessings. I am so grateful to have such a glorious God. Sometimes i forget how blessed i truly am. Today i reflected on how blessed it is to have legs to walk, eyes to see, friends/ family to share love with, to have an education, to have a heart connected to God, and a mind to ponder His truths. All my problems started to look small, and I began to have more fruitful interactions and love for my relationships with others. Take time to remember the cross. Take time to embrace God's love for us. No one can ever separate you from His love. And nothing else matters when you know that your God loves you.
My soul faints with longing for your salvation,
but I have put my hope in your word." -Ps 119:81
I was also reminded of His gift of salvation. We are nothing but sinners without His grace. We are useless without His strength. We are completely empty without His love. We are all like lost sheep, but God came to redeem us! God is mighty to save. His love is better than life. He maintains the universe with ease. He is a super charged intimate God with an extreme love for His children. He delights in all His creation to an end. He loves to see us laugh and be full of joy. He washes all our sins, sets us free from slavery, and tells us to live as children of light. We are created to imitate Jesus, and reflect His glory. He tells us to have a heart after His and conform our desires to His. He is our constant source of strength, and our greatest treasure in life. He never stops chasing us with His love.
Today I got to witness to someone in the UH gym. I saw an old classmate, and we just started to have a normal conversation. Eventually he asked what I was planning on doing after i graduate. He seemed pretty interested in what I had to say about who God was. He told me that he wasn't much of a church person, and is very skeptical because of the amount of deception now days. I agreed with him that there is a bunch of bogus teaching out there, but that it shouldnt prevent us from seeking truth and coming to know Christ. Then some other guy nearby must of overheard us, and just stood next to us listening to our conversation about God. I mainly got to tell them that the gospel is through grace by faith in Jesus Christ, and that it's not a religion, but an intimate relationship. I could tell that they were very curious about Jesus, prayer, sin, the Bible, religion, churches, discernment of truth, the Holy Spirit, and the transformation in my life. It was pretty crazy, because they just kept starring at me wanting to know more. Even when people dont make an instant decision to surrender to God right there, I have a feeling that it makes a huge impact on what their hearts and minds begin to ponder about.
I want nothing but Jesus. I want the likeness of Jesus. I want to be engulfed in His love. I want Him as my deepest desire. I want to continue to grow, learn and love. I want to die to my sin, kill my evil ways and surrender it to Christ. I want to follow in a relentless pursuit for righteousness. I want to hunger and thirst holiness. I want to have a changed heart with nothing but passion and intimacy for the Lord. I want nothing else on my mind but the beautiful love of my Savior and King. I want to humble myself, so that I may be overwhelmed with a joyful obedience. I want to draw closer and closer to the Lord. I want to become stronger in faith, and lead by the Spirit. I desire to glorify my God forever and worship Him as my eternal treasure. Lord help me to stay true to your desires.
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.
"The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence,
for the LORD has laid it on him. Lam 3:22-28
sweeter than honey to my mouth!" -Psalm 119:103
For the past few days, God has shown me the importance of abiding in Him. He says to "Remain in me, and I will remain in you". We often get so distracted by the world, that we take our eyes off of Christ. We often just forget about God's love for us. I am constantly being reminded to stay in communion with Him. The world is constantly draining us, but God is constantly replenishing us through His living Spirit. When we're dry and lost in the desert, we really arn't growing. But when we're planted near the streams of living water, we become very fruitful and strong towards worship.
We need to spend more time absorbing God's love, because God never stops pouring out His infinite love on us,. He tells us to just sit at His feet, and surrender the pains of our heart. He offers us a calm rest in His love. When we wait upon the Lord, we renew our strength, and become available to the Lord. He says to stay close in worship, prayer and in His Word so that we'll be far from sin, and live a joyful and abundant life.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." -Romans 15:13
Today i had a very joyful day. I was in awe, adoration, astonishment, amazement, and very appreciative for His never ending love for us. I was reminded to never stop counting our blessings. I am so grateful to have such a glorious God. Sometimes i forget how blessed i truly am. Today i reflected on how blessed it is to have legs to walk, eyes to see, friends/ family to share love with, to have an education, to have a heart connected to God, and a mind to ponder His truths. All my problems started to look small, and I began to have more fruitful interactions and love for my relationships with others. Take time to remember the cross. Take time to embrace God's love for us. No one can ever separate you from His love. And nothing else matters when you know that your God loves you.
My soul faints with longing for your salvation,
but I have put my hope in your word." -Ps 119:81
I was also reminded of His gift of salvation. We are nothing but sinners without His grace. We are useless without His strength. We are completely empty without His love. We are all like lost sheep, but God came to redeem us! God is mighty to save. His love is better than life. He maintains the universe with ease. He is a super charged intimate God with an extreme love for His children. He delights in all His creation to an end. He loves to see us laugh and be full of joy. He washes all our sins, sets us free from slavery, and tells us to live as children of light. We are created to imitate Jesus, and reflect His glory. He tells us to have a heart after His and conform our desires to His. He is our constant source of strength, and our greatest treasure in life. He never stops chasing us with His love.
Today I got to witness to someone in the UH gym. I saw an old classmate, and we just started to have a normal conversation. Eventually he asked what I was planning on doing after i graduate. He seemed pretty interested in what I had to say about who God was. He told me that he wasn't much of a church person, and is very skeptical because of the amount of deception now days. I agreed with him that there is a bunch of bogus teaching out there, but that it shouldnt prevent us from seeking truth and coming to know Christ. Then some other guy nearby must of overheard us, and just stood next to us listening to our conversation about God. I mainly got to tell them that the gospel is through grace by faith in Jesus Christ, and that it's not a religion, but an intimate relationship. I could tell that they were very curious about Jesus, prayer, sin, the Bible, religion, churches, discernment of truth, the Holy Spirit, and the transformation in my life. It was pretty crazy, because they just kept starring at me wanting to know more. Even when people dont make an instant decision to surrender to God right there, I have a feeling that it makes a huge impact on what their hearts and minds begin to ponder about.
I want nothing but Jesus. I want the likeness of Jesus. I want to be engulfed in His love. I want Him as my deepest desire. I want to continue to grow, learn and love. I want to die to my sin, kill my evil ways and surrender it to Christ. I want to follow in a relentless pursuit for righteousness. I want to hunger and thirst holiness. I want to have a changed heart with nothing but passion and intimacy for the Lord. I want nothing else on my mind but the beautiful love of my Savior and King. I want to humble myself, so that I may be overwhelmed with a joyful obedience. I want to draw closer and closer to the Lord. I want to become stronger in faith, and lead by the Spirit. I desire to glorify my God forever and worship Him as my eternal treasure. Lord help me to stay true to your desires.
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.
"The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence,
for the LORD has laid it on him. Lam 3:22-28
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Resolved
[Contents]
1)Meditations
6-09 Always Faithful
6-18 Tremendous Joy
6-21 Replenished
6-22 Sufficient Grace
6-24 Comfort of the Flesh
7-19 Rescued
7-12 Adopted
7-28 Oh My God!
8-04 Living For God
2) Man’s Pride
Living Through God’s love
Seeking Approval
3) Sanctification
Reaffirming our Love
Ready to Move Forward
Redeemed
Conviction
4) All For His Glory
Worship
Holy Spirit
Fighting for Joy
Practicing Godliness
5) Between God and His People
The Body of Christ
Loving Others
Absorbing God’s Love
6) A New Heart
Unregenerated
Born Again
Atonement
Surrdendering
7) Feeling Like God
Relating to God
Power of Emotions
Synchronizing our Hearts
Spok
Willpower Christianity
Mental Christianity
Emotionalism Christianity
Emotivation
Discernment of Emotions
8) The Stand
All In
Easy or Right?
Compromising
Salvation
Sharing the Gospel
Suffering for Christ
9) Analogies
Bride of Christ
Basketball
Soldiers
Swimming
Gifts in Heaven
10) Desert Song
1) Meditations
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
The following is devoted to share my recent life experiences, revelations, and the lessons ive learned through many ups and downs. Nevertheless, my God is with me through thick and thin. He never leaves me and always holds me in His hand. What has God been teaching you lately?
"I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." Psalm 9:1-2
"I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."
Psalm 18:1-2
____________
June 9
Always Faithful
God is so good! His love and mercies are new each day. He reaches down deep into our hearts, and pours out His infinite love. He constantly cries out to us to repent and believe, because everyday we run astray. It never ceases to amaze me how refreshing His love is. His love chases after us intensely. He calls me by name, comforts me through every trial, and catches me when I fall. And no matter how many times i have ignored God, no matter how many times i have doubted Him, and no matter how many times i betrayed Him, He is always faithful to take me back. In fact, He's the one who draws us back to Him.
Each day He watches over us. He surrounds us with His overwhelming love and grace. He breaks down our stubborn walls and engulfs us with His spirit. He never lets us go. He continues to reveal Himself as righteous, pure, perfect and holy. God is always reliable because His love never changes. He is always sovereign, always supreme and always infinite. He is all that is good.
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." 1 Peter 2:24-25
"He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
1 Cor 1:8-9
____________
June 18
Tremendous Joy
Right now i am not only full of joy, but i am overwhelmed at the sheer awesomeness of God. This morning I woke up late, which leaked into a lazy afternoon, and as i was on the ground tryin to sleep.. God stirred a sudden rush in me. I am completely swept away by His faithfulness and goodness. I cant express my gratitude enough. Every time i fall away from God, He picks me back up, again and again. He never, never, never fails. These past few days, i haven't been able to stop thinking about Him, and i love it. I cant get Him off my mind! He constantly reminds me how wonderful He is. I absolutely love it when He starts a spark in me. He sends Himself in the Holy Spirit and awakens my heart. He comforts, encourages and speaks to me. I could be just pumping gas at a gas station, then BAM! and a tremendous rush flow of the Holy Spirit will overtake me, and consume me with His powerful and furious longing.
____________
June 21
Replenished
Today is Father's day. At church we went over how God is our perfect, loving Father. God isnt just our King and Creator, but He is also our personal and intimate Father. The most common title Jesus gave God was illustrated as "Abba, Father". Jesus showed us that our relationship with God is like being His children, and how much He takes pleasure in watching us grow. This Father's day was not only good time to appreciate and honor our earthly fathers, but also to remember and thank our Heavenly Father.
This late afternoon i took a walk. As usual i was quickly met by God. I continued to be fascinated by the creation of nature. I felt like a little boy that has never seen the world before. I believe that's how all of us should see the world. Think of how a little child adventures out in nature for the first time. A child becomes curious, amazed and astonished by such a wonderful environment. There are so many wonders to ponder and appreciate. Today i saw God's beauty in the vast orange sky, shining it's last warmth to the clouds and mountains, and then down to the tiny little flowers, full of variety and colors. I actually stopped to smell some of the flowers, like gardenias and pikake flowers. (lol i kinda sound like a hippie) It was so groovy. haha totally righteous man.. All of God's blessings are meant to be observed, embraced, enjoyed, and experienced. I lastly met God in a restful nap in the grassy field, and got to watch the clouds blow by. The rush of the wind always seems to carry God's voice of love, which tells me to just rest in His arms.
As i was walking i was greeted by the kindness of a stranger with two little dogs. One reason i like dogs so much is because they are always happy and smiling. They love attention from their masters, and enjoy being pet, fed, and taken care of. They love to play fetch, go for walks, and run around with so much joy. In the same sense, we need to be like dogs. Dogs take time to enjoy life, and always seem to come back to their masters.
If you were to pick the petals of a flower, for each petal, God would say, "I love you, I love you, I love you, I still love you, I will always love you, Hey guess what? I love you." With the amount of love God pours out on us, we should be spending more time soaking it up. We are to drink from the Holy Spirit, and feast on God's Word. If theres one thing im learning this month, it's how important it is to just pause, be still and know that He is Lord. Meditate on God's Word, marinate on His truths, and soak up His love.
Waiting upon Him, is being ready and available what God has planned. An often mistake that churches, organizations and ministries make is that they become so concerned with Doing and Working, that they forget to Wait and Worship Him. When our hearts are most satisfied in Him, and joyful just being with Him, Then it becomes easier to live and do things for God. We need to slow down like Mary did, and sit at His feet. God's greatest commandment was to just love Him. Surrender to His love, embrace this intimate relationship, and live through the power of His touch.
It seems every time i take a short walk, i am replenished. Often times i see ourselves as dry plants. We become shriveled up, brown, and most of all thirsty. Plants that arn't thirsty, will burn up and die away. But those who place themselves under the rain get restored. And those that spend extra time with the gardener will get ever more nourished. We must make it a point to stand under the fountain spout of the Holy Spirit. God often portrays His love like a gushing spring. The plants that are rooted near this stream of life will flourish with green leaves and bright fruit. How much time are we spending with the Lord? Are we dry, and struggling in the heat? Or are we thirsty, and refreshed with cool water? Which plants do you think are growing the most?
"The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." Rev 22:17
For the past few days, i have felt like a plant soaking up the water in my roots and getting much nutrition. Go look at your grass outside.. Your grass is either screaming for water, or already burnt out by the sun. If someone were to ask me how i would describe the Bible right now, i would say it's Delicious. My soul is yearning for more and more of Him. Soak it all up. Get your nutrition.
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands. -Psalm 63:1-4
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June 22
Sufficient Grace
Often times we feel too ashamed to look up to God. Sometimes we just want to creep in the back of the church, and hide our faces down, because w're so ashamed of our sins. But thats not what God wants us to do. He says "I see your pain and your hurt, I will heal you. Look up! My grace is sufficient for you. I love you no matter what. Lift your head up, and come to me! I will restore you my child. Your sins are forgiven, now go and sin no more." Thats the perfect love and grace of the Father.
To be honest.. for this last month i've really been struggling in my walk with God. I was actually supposed to have blogged this all for the month of May, but found myself putting it off. I realized how much ive been putting off God for other things. This summer i definitely fell into a lazy attitude. It's so easy to fall into comfort, and waste the day playing video games or sleeping. Even though i have tons of things to do, i've been struggling to be productive with my time. Perhaps the reason i got so far away from God was because i slacked on doing daily devotions. I pridefully chose to do other activities rather than spend a few moments with my God. One of the most important things we can do to keep ourselves close to Christ is to meet with Him daily in some intentional quiet time.
When summer began, i quickly dropped my pursuit in growing towards my goals. I lost strength and determination in living for Him. I made compromises little by little, which lead me far off into the darkness of my sins. I allowed my sin to separate me from coming to Him. My self-condemnation ate me up for making so many bad decisions and mistakes, that i hide my guilt from God, rather than running back to Him in repentance. Breaking off close communication in prayer, being angry at myself, taking things too easy, and being distracted by the world really threw me off course. I constantly want to strive for holiness and righteousness. I want to be close with God, and find deeper joy, peace and love in Him, but often times i get way too easily distracted.
Paul Washer once said.. "How can He be so glorious, and yet my heart so dull? How can He be so wonderful and yet my mind be attracted to other things? Alot of people are excited about going to heaven because there will be no more sin and death, which is all very true. But one of the things I look forward to most is finally having my foolish heart directed rightly." Somethin along those lines..
I hate it when i sin against God. I hate it when my heart falls away into worldly lust and becomes distracted from the most beautiful treasure. My heart is so broken that i settle for weak pleasures over the love of Christ. Some days i find it so hard to come to Him, I find it pitiful that i have to try and force myself to pray for jus 5 minutes. It's pathetic that i would have to force myself to read my bible. It should be an extreme joy to spend time with Him. Wouldnt it be sad if you had to force urself to love your spouse? Why does our passion burn out when we are invited into such a intimate relationship? We should never see following Jesus as something we hafta grudgingly do, but as something we get to lovingly do. We are in desperate need for God to fill us with new desires. Im glad that God will one day complete His work in me and have fix my heart in full worship to Him.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph 2:8-10
What desires are we feeding? Where are our eyes? Are we feeding our lust? Or are we feeding our Spirit? What are we craving? What is our deepest desire? What kind of life are we practicing? Being called a Christian is not a title, it's a lifestyle.
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June 24
Comfort of the Flesh
Today i was very unsuccessful in my spiritual walk with God. My entire body is super sore from working out yesterday, so i decided to stay home and rest. I basically watched tv and played video games all day. For some reason i have a the hardest time making time for God, when i have a lot of time. I think it's because it's super easy to just push God on the side for later. I constantly find my flesh persuading me to be lazy and take it easy, while the Spirit is eager with excitement, burning passion and a heart after God. Our souls must constantly make a decision to either allow the Holy Spirit to move within us, or a decision to deny Him. The sinful flesh will win many battles over our hearts and minds, but in the end it will be the Spirit that triumphs in victory. It seems God works the most when we are broken in our failures, full of repentance, and see our desperate need for a savior. We must decrease so He can increase.
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July 19
Rescued
There is nothing compared to God’s love. Nothing so beautiful, glorious, and pure as my God. He satisfies every single one of my needs. Today is the zillionth time God has knocked me off my feet and shown me His ridiculously awesome love. Oh Lord how many times have I broken your heart? And yet you still forgive all that I am, and smile graciously upon me.
He hugs me tighter and tighter, never letting go. He increases my faith, builds me up in devotion, trains me in His righteousness, teaches me His holy ways, picks me up from trials big and small, fills me and empowers me with His Holy Spirit, His voice speaks and pierces my heart, He transforms my heart to extreme joy, grants me calm peace, makes my heart beat with stronger determination, He raises me on wings like eagles, He shows me visions and dreams, He surrounds me when im lonely, He holds me in His warm embrace, He sweeps me with His deep compassion, He disciplines me when I go off track, He justified me when I was lost, He constantly sanctifies me from all my unrighteousness, He convicts me of my sin, helps me to deny my sinful nature, protects me from temptation, (gasps for air)
He lifts me up from all my insecurities, He expands my territory, He blesses me with an abundant life, He adds great people into my life, He shepherds me when I get distracted, He lends me divine strength and motivation to follow Him, He pushes me when I cant go any further, He ignites a burning passion and rekindles my flame, He comforts me in all my sorrows, He encourages me to evangelize and disciple, He calls me to serve others, He helps me to build on old and new relationships, He provides shelter through the storms, He quenches all my thirst, He rejuvenates my spirit when im dry, He heals me from all my iniquities, He furiously longs for me to come to Him, He rejoices when I have a heart of worship, He reveals Himself more and more, He shines His incredible light through me, and most of all He loves me unconditionally as His precious child. I am in complete astonishment and amazement of how blessed I am to have such a faithful and intimate God.
My soul will rejoice, dance, shout praise, and sing. When darkness, tribulation, and evil come knocking, I will declare God as my holy king. I will stand up and say with confidence that my God reigns supreme over all the universe. I will delight in His ways. I will drink from His Spirit. I am breaking through my shame, doubt, fear, and unhealthy guilt. He constantly rescues me from my self-condemnation and selfish pride. He continues to wash me whiter than snow. His Word is written on my heart, and is sweeter than honey. My soul yearns for more of Him. I will no longer bow down to man made images, cultural norms, and worldly idols. For my God holds all authority, all power, and all glory.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. Psalm 18:16-19
I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. He stirs me up in relentless pursuit. I’ll stand with my heart wide open. I’ll sit in stillness and wait upon Him, I will lift my hands to His holy Name. For I have been saved, and made alive in Christ. He has breathed life into me. What I once considered gain, I now consider loss. All my works of righteousness have become rubbish, dung and filthy rags. For now I know truth that He is Lord of all Lords, and King above all Kings. He is of infinite worth and perfectly wonderful no matter what the world says. No one can take my God away from me. Nothing can separate me from His love. No one can snatch me out of His hand, including myself. I am His forever. I am locked away, secure, and hidden in His holy kingdom. I am extremely proud to be a called a child of God, and be able to call Him my Abba Father. I am a new creation, being beautified, and being molded into His likeness. No matter how much the world may change, God is the same yesterday, today and forever. I am not perfect, but I worship a God who is.
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July 12
Adopted
I once was fatherless. I was a stranger with no hope. I was an orphan. I was blind and consumed with darkness. I had nothing but a broken heart. I was empty, lost, and a slave to sin.
But now I have a perfect Father, because He adopted me as His own child. He has given me a hope, and assurance of my faith. He has healed my eyes and gave me sight to see His light and truth. He has redeemed my soul, regenerated my heart, and filled me with His Spirit. He rescued me to give me new life and freedom. Now I have become a bond servant, selling all my freedom and everything that I am back to my Master, because no one else can protect, care or love me as much as my Father in Heaven can.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Cor 3:17
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July 28
Oh my God!
Today i woke up to a lazy start. I pushed aside quiet time with God because of summer skool and other church responsibilities. When i came home i easily wasted a few hours watching tv and taking a nap. But after i woke up, i got motivated to go to the gym. And it seems every time i go to the gym, my thoughts are allowed to reflect on my heart. I was actually completely unaware of God, and oblivious to Him, until a rush of wind blew all around me. All of a sudden God consumed me with His love. He attached a magnet to my heart, which drew me towards His heart. His Spirit poured out tons of revelations which I continued to meditate on for a few hours. I relearned a tremendous amount of knowledge and truth just by spending time with Him.
Abiding in Christ
Perhaps the biggest revelation i was reminded of was how important it is to abide in Christ. We need to practice godliness, train in His righteousness, seek to glorify Him, deepen in loving others, and dwell in His word, will & way. If you are feeling tired, weary, stressed out, empty and burnt out, go and meditate on God. Listening to sermons on the computer, tv, and radio have really strengthened my walk. We must always remember to abide in Him, because branches not connected to the vine do not bear any fruit. Remain in His love, and He will prune and sanctify us for His glory. If you seek to grow in your relationship with God, we must wait upon Him, seek after Him, and cry out to Him. Are you standing under the spout of God? Are we being a vessel, funnel, messenger, and instrument for His glory?
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-5
Today it was evident that Christ lives in me. God's truths pierced deep into my heart. I am continuously witnessing how true God's promises in the Bible are. God never breaks His word, and is always faithful to what He says. God once told me personally, "I will make you strong in me." He revealed that He would use me for His work. Moses saw himself as an unlikely leader, but God used him and constantly strengthen him to lead His people. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in me, He told me that my words will be His very words, that He would speak through me.
Today He reminded me not to attract attention to myself, but to point all the glory to Him. He said not to seek praise and appreciation from men, but to exult Him as Lord. I am not the teacher, educator, or leader, but He is. Everything i am is really His. I can confidently say that I lack nothing, because all i truly need is Him. There is nothing greater in this world. He has shown me life. It doesnt matter what happens, it doesnt matter what anyone says or does, because I have God's love that can never be taken away. If God is for us, who can be against us. This is the secret of being content in plenty or little, whether the skies are blue or gray, He reigns sovereign over all. He sustains and upholds the entire universe without effort. He goes far beyond out tiny minds. He is extremely perfect in every way. He is most holy, mighty and worthy. His love is all powerful.
Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus
As i mentioned before, God's love is new each day. His love is exciting, addicting, crazy awesome, passionate, powerful, amazing, motivating, surprising, and full of blessings. He is constantly thinking about you, full of emotion. We are all important and significant in His eyes. I have been captured by His love, and I love that He wont let me escape. He says "You're mine. You are my child." He doesnt care what ive done, or who ive become, He just wants me to come home to Him. He wants me to see who He is, and how He can wash away all my filth. It's never too late to cast your sin, sorrow, and stress on Him, and allow Him to renew you.
Denying Our Sin
Keeping our eyes on Christ also helps us to deny our sinful desires.Its quite amazing having God break down our stubborn and prideful walls we build against Him. He gives us a choice, our sin or Him. Life or death? Blessings or curses? What path will you take? Which will you choose? Which is better? When we're living for Him, we're not living for our self. When we're looking forward, we arnt looking backwards. When we're looking towards God, we arnt looking towards ourselves. When God's desires are first in our hearts, we no longer care to please our flesh. Yes we will continue to sin, fall short, and lust after other things, but the question is, will you stay there? Or will you get up and move forward? God tells us to let go of our burdens and the sinful baggage that we lug around. He always gives us a way out of temptation, and also a way out from the road that leads to destruction.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:8-10
A little boy once put his hand into a valuable vase. He couldnt seem to get his hand out. His dad came and tried to yank it out but it was still stuck. The father said, "Now my son, try once more, but this time open your hand and hold your fingers out straight and then pull." The boy responded, "Oh no Daddy. I couldn't put my fingers like that because if I did, I would drop my penny." This story is pretty funny, but it really does portray how unwilling we often are to surrender everything. We often want to hold on to a sin that prevents us from accepting God's freedom.
Worthy
God is worth both living and dying for. We go from glory to glory. He is worth suffering for. For now we are engaged with His promises. But God is completely worth waiting for, because one day we will be worked to completion. We will have a perfect union with Him. We can settle for our puddle or pool, or be blessed with the gigantic ocean God has in store for us. We can either settle for little worldly shiny things, or fix our eyes on the greatest eternal treasure, worth more than all the rubies, riches, and gems of the world. He Himself is that treasure. He is of eternal value and truth. His love endures forever. Seek after me with all your heart, and you will surely find him. He reveals even to those who arnt seeking Him. He offers shelter and comfort to the lonely and lost. He influences our decisions and guides us to choose Him, and yet allows us to be responsible for our choices.
"I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, 'Here am I, here am I." Isaiah 65:1
"The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble." Ps 9:9
"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deut 4:29
"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." 1 Chronicles 28:9
God's Perspective
Ever wonder why we often automatically smile when we see little children? I believe this is how God sees us. He delights over our enjoyment of life. He rejoices when we're full of joy and come to Him as His children. Psychology is what man thinks of man, Theology is what God thinks of man. And philosophy is a confusing mixture of the two, lol. The more we read God's word, the bible, we are enlightened with His perspective. We learn how He worked through people, a nation, and through Himself manifested in a man. He became our perfect Lamb, everlasting atonement, and rescued us from our sins. Why did God go through all this creating, and working? Why does He tells us to turn from our sins? How does He command we live? All of this for what purpose? Does God really need a people to glorify Him? What is His true character? How does God see us? One of the biggest keys to genuinely loving people, is by seeing others through His perspective. How does God see you?
August 4
Living For God
Today I realized that I still live so much for myself. I shy away from talking about Christ, and that i allow the fear of man prevent me from challenging others, because i dont want to make others feel uncomfortable. I think often times we just let people go their own ways, and dont try to intervene even when they're going in the wrong direction. Sometimes we're shy to correct because we dont want anyone to feel offended. If we claim to be Christian, Shouldnt we be living completely for Christ? How much time do we really spend waiting upon God, listening to what the Holy Spirit has planned? Do we really have an intimate relationship with Christ? Why do we continue to push God aside for our own pleasures? Shouldnt God be everything in our lives, the most important person in our lives? Christians cannot be ashamed of the gospel, and not ashamed to talk about Jesus. Are we really committed to saving the lost? Shouldnt it be a great joy to share our redeemer with others? What does truly loving on others look like? Are our lives really reflecting Jesus? Are we living with the faith of the disciples? Is God a reality to us? How serious are we about following God? Are we living just like everyone else? God doesnt want lukewarm christians. It's all or nothing.
Jesus was a scandal. People hated Him for the truth that He spoke. There we're crowds of chaos because of the things He taught. Imagine if Jesus never wanted any conflict with anyone, and didnt want to risk being different. He stood for truth and righteousness, even if some people might have been offended by it. If we arnt challenging anyone, if we arnt living as we're called to be, then we arnt conforming into His image. We should live in His likeness, and be bold in faith. If the first thing you do is surrender to Christ in humility, and pray to live by the Holy Spirit, you are already living 100% for Him. Step out of comfort, be and live as a child of light. Jesus said to go fourth and make disciples in His Name. Are we?
2) Man’s Pride
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Living Through God’s Love
Are we motivated by Selfish love or God's love? I believe those are the only two options. Love for others will ultimately fall under one of the two. Are we giving glory to ourselves or God? By observing God's Word, we begin to observe ourselves, and start to see ourselves at our deepest essence. We constantly need to examine our hearts to see who we've been living for. I find it strange that God designed us for His glory, and yet we have foolishly lifted ourselves as idols. Compare the difference between following Selfish love and God's love. Who are you living for?
Selfish Love
Living for Self
Love others for yourself
Very conditional love
Doing all things to please self
What we see best
Worldly and carnal pleasures
About what we get out of it
Living for now
Comfortable
Shortcuts
Worships self
Only concerned with self
Appearances, self image
Pride
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God's Love
Living for God
Sharing God's love to others
Pours out unconditionally
Doing all things to praise Him
Connected with God's will
Living for eternal things
How to glorify Him in all things
A joyful heart
Worship/Prayer
Our highest pleasure
Integrity, Kindness
Humility
Okay so we can clearly see that we should be living through the Spirit of God. Now how exactly do we live for God? I believe it starts by seeing our true selves, and being broken over our sin in repentance. We must come to God with everything that we are, and just allow Him to love you. Intentionally try to fill yourself with God's love, accepting His grace, mercy, healing, blessings, and guidance. We can only love God back by being motivated by His love for us. As children we must work on receiving and believing everything He wants to give us. It's not so easy to accept such an extraordinary gift when we know we're not deserving. I believe repentence, obedience and surrendering to Him requires Faith, trusting that He will hold us. God's love for us and the beginning of our love back to Him, will start a deep love relationship, which will dramatically change your life, and should automatically pour out into loving others.
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." 2 Cor 8:9
"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2 Cor 5:14-15
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Seeking Approval
ME. ME. ME. We naturally seek attention, approval of others, and social acceptance. Our souls greatly hunger to be loved. From infants we began seeking to be cared and thought about. We wish to be significant and valued. We want all our needs satisfied. The problem is that we are seeking these things from others rather than from God, who perfectly satisfies our empty hearts. God's love fulfills our deepest thirst, offers us the greatest peace, joy, accepts us just as we are, and is never, never, never based on our performance. If your struggling to find God, truth, and this whole thing we call life, then try starting at God's love for us.
Sometimes we like people to recognize our good works and spirituality. Sometimes we boast about our knowledge, our self righteousness and our good deeds to steal some of the glory for ourselves. We seek to be praised by men or at least seen for our good actions. Sometimes we must ask ourselves, "Who deserves the glory? Who am i honoring? Am i trying to impress and please men?" Even when we're trying to worship God, it can easily become worshiping our own image. Do all things for His glory, for He see's all our intentions of our heart. God is sometimes most glorified, when things are done in secret. Whether Christian or not, try catching yourself on how you change your behavior just because someone is near you. You'll begin to realize how much we're concerned about our self presentation.
"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10
"On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else." 1 Thes 2:4-6
Sometimes we can get so obsessed with teaching that we don’t realize how much we really need to learn. Men have so many different answers. Everyone has a belief in some way. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone wants to be right. Instead of being focused on sharing our opinion, we must come to the Word of God. Because when we come to scripture, there is no other authority or truth. Everything comes down to “What does God say?” and what is “God’s opinion?” We need to spend less time teaching what we think, and actually study what God thinks. This is why I stress the severe importance of holding all truth to God’s authority in scripture. We need much discernment, and be able correct, rebuke, and judge righteously with love. Rather than just letting people go their own way and go to where their headed, Sometimes the most loving thing we could do is tell someone to stop and really look where that path goes.
The number one thing people like to talk about is themselves, their life and what they know. By nature we want to boast our own image because we want to be liked. Im sure all of us have been in conversations where we meet someone who can talk about themselves for others on and on. On the flip side im sure we’ve been in conversations where all we’re doing is talking about ourselves. Sometimes it takes more love and humility to just listen and care about what others are talking about. We need to be others minded in expressing our love. Try guiding conversations by getting people to share about their life. Taking the time to listen and ask ppl questions about themselves, will show them that u take an interest in their lives and that they are meaningful to you. Try catching the amount of times where all we’re doing is talking about ourselves. Take the time to speak into someone’s life, and share Christ with them by building on relationships.
I still often find myself caring so much what other people think. I catch myself often trying to impress or look cool to people. It's funny how easy it is to get caught up with appearances and how we try to appeal to people. We are so concerned with what we want. We get so caught up with our appearances and reputations, We need to stop living for ourselves. We need to stop focusing on being self pleasing and people pleasers and become God pleasers. Are we worshiping our own image or the Son of God?
"To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men." -A.W. Tozer
We as Christians are called to be different than the world. Im not saying that we need to stop caring for ourselves. Im saying we should be more intentional with loving others, and putting others before us. We need to be able to sympathize, and be considerate of including people, and making them feel appreciated and valued. If Christians are still living the same, loving only themselves, stuck in carnality, only thinking about themselves, without salt, and living with a very dim light, then one must examine if one is truly a saved Christian.
"For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men." 1 Cor 7:22-23
Could you imagine going to heaven, and God saying, "I never knew you, Away from me evildoer!" Are we living lukewarm? Are we still in our easy comforts, and living it safe? Christ calls us to be ambassadors, royal priest, the light to the world, and a witness to all. Our lives should reflect Jesus. The Holy Spirit should be obviously evident in our lives. We must continue to die to our sinful nature, until God works us to completion. We must be as a bridesmaid, devoted, beautifying in good works, increasing in our love, living righteously, and waiting anxiously for the bridegroom so we can be in perfect union.
3) Sanctification
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One of the main things I like to talk about is pursuing righteousness and sanctification. The evidence that we’ve been justified is that we are being sanctified. Are we growing? Are we taking our sins seriously? Or are we okay with living in a sinful lifestyle? Do we even recognize how we’re living? What would you think if you saw a Christian pastor practicing a sinful lifestyle and not even feeling convicted or guilty about it? We as Christians need to examine our lives and hearts constantly.
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Eph 4:22-25
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Reaffirm
Many of us have confessed our life, many of us have made the decision to follow Him, but yet we still find ourselves falling into routine, empty words, and familiarity. God is never boring and old. He's love is actually refreshingly new each day. He continues to increase our faith, spark up joy, draw us closer, and reveal Himself more. Now it's time to follow what we have claim and declare. It's time to walk our Christian walk. We must constantly rededicate, devote, surrender and profess our allegiance in living all for Him. We must unite the church as a strong army, following under our King, and willing to lay down our lives for Him. Paul says "For to me, to live is Christ" He understood that Christ is the only one worth living for. For there is no gain in death unless we are in Christ. We must stand up as God’s people, and live through the Spirit.
Reading in 2 Cor, it talks about how we must reaffirm our love. We must become the aroma of Christ and the fragrance of life. We must clothe ourselves with God’s Spirit. We must have God's Word written on our hearts. God invites us to share what He has shown us. He lets us take joy in spreading the gospel, and lets us reap the rewards of tending His people. He lets us play a role in His divine plan, so we can be a part of His purposes and be a living witness of God's greatness.
"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." 2 Cor 3:2-3
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Phil 1:20-21
"..because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Cor 4:14-18
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Ready to Move Forward
I am ready to leave behind my old lifestyles, habits and sins. I want to move forward in my relationship with Christ. I am ready to take my faith and walk more seriously. I am ready to grow, ready to learn, ready to surrender, ready to follow, and ready to love. I desire a heart after God. I have gone through a season running on my own strength, and running dry of the Spirit. I now see how meaningless and empty life is without Christ at the center. I have looked to other places to satisfy this quenching thirst, only to find that God is the only one who can ever satisfy.
I have been met by His love personally. I have felt the rush of His beautiful love. I have been swept away by His compassion. I have found incredible and powerful joy in Him. He has given me rest and peace throughout my trials. I have become addicted to Christ. And although i have fallen short of my goals, pursuit, and obedience, He still looks down and loves me regardless of my performance.
"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them." 2 Cor5:14-19
I am a new creature, a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come. I am reconciled to Christ. And because He who had no sin, became sin for me, I am forgiven of my sins. I am set free from the chains of sin. I am born again in Spirit. I no longer want to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I offer my body as a living sacrifice and my life as a spiritual act of worship. God my Father has adopted me as His child. He comforts me during my distress, loneliness, and worry. He heals me of my pain, hurt and sorrow. He strengthens me when i am weak, tired and broken. He guides me when im lost, empty, and distracted. But most of all, He never stops loving me in all situations.
Lately i have been feeling extremely convicted. Sometimes the greatest sins are of omission. We think, "Well hey im not doing anything wrong, im just doing what i want to do." I am sick of tired of putting myself first over God. When we are not seeking to glorify God, we are already in sin. Thank God His grace covers all of my sins! His Word tells me that i no longer have to be conquered by my sins, and that i can stand for righteousness, leave by heavy burdens behind, take up my cross and live in victory. I am no longer a prisoner of war, but rescued by Jesus. I am ready to march forward. I hope you will join me in this pursuit.
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
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6/29 Redeemed
Today i felt like i had another break through. I began to look at how far God has taken me. I began seeing how transformed my life had become. I am increasingly being conformed to the image of Christ. Jesus has become my life. He has become my everything. He is not just a part of my life, He has changed how i see and do everything. God has changed me at the core, and changed the way i see people, time, money, family, friends, relationships, conversations, thoughts, actions and life itself. God is pouring out into every aspect of my life.
I pray that you wouldnt see this as boasting about my spirituality, but as a witness and testimony. It's not just what God has done, but what He is continually doing in my life. Perhaps the reason Paul boasted about his weaknesses, was because he was really boasting about how God had become he's strength. I think God's grace is more evident, when we acknowledge our weaknesses and sinful heart. The more we strive for humility and obedience, the more we'll see God work in our lives.
For the past two weeks or so we've been having a guy prank calling our house. He calls at any hour of the day, but mostly between 2-7am. He tries to talk to my mom and lead it into a very sexual and perverted conversation. Every time i talk or tell him to stop calling, he just hangs up and calls later. My mom has been tolerating it, but i basically ended up retaliating. This guy would not give into polite request or patience, so I basically yelled and told him off. Its strange how deep anger can often lead into compromising with sin. We finally called the phone company and they settled the situation. But reflecting back, I should have handled the situation better. Loving your enemies and those that wrong you is much easier said then done.
So today, as i driving to the gym, and walking to the gym, God showed me how important He is compared to everything else. Nothing in life really matters except the question, "Do you have Jesus?" Having Christ in your life should change your life dramatically. I can see how i was once in darkness, blinded from any form of truth, and then how i was rescued, redeemed, saved, and given eyes to see the light. My heart continues to be stunned in amazement at God's infinite love. I can see how my desires need to be constantly transformed by Him. I can see how He teaches me new things, reveals more knowledge and guides me by the Spirit. And even when i choose to follow my own ways, God is always there, never leaving me alone or forsaking me. He always prevails, always comforts, and always loves. Finding joy and peace in Him go beyond anything of this world. We have spiritual weapons that can demolish strongholds. We can defeat our fleshly, worldly temptations by turning to the power of Christ. When God is on our side, there is no problem to big or too small, nothing and no one to fear. At this very moment, I am being comforted, valued, strengthened, blessed, loved, cared for, and cherished in the eyes of my Father. Nothing can separate me from the love of my God. That gives me a reason to worship, a reason to live, and a reason to rejoice.
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." Titus 2:11-14
Conviction
What is conviction? Conviction is more than declaring yourself guilty. Conviction normally leads to repentance. When we come to see the goodness, righteousness, and holiness of our God, we cannot help but see that we have missed the mark. Perhaps this is why people dont want to see God. People don't want to see their own sins, failures, and bad decisions, so we sweep it under the rug, and pretend that we're a decent, good and respectable human being. The gospel is not preached to condemn and punish the guilty. The gospel is the "good news". The gospel speaks of a cure for our sins. The gospel isn't just to lighten a heavy burden of guilt, but to set us free from the chains of a slavery of sin. By no means am i saying once you truly come to Christ you wont ever sin anymore. Rather i am saying that God, will no longer choose to see our sins, because the One who was blameless vouched for us. Christ not only covered our unpayable debt, He not only forgives us of all our wrongs, but He has graciously given us new eyes to see the truth, a new heart that beats for God's love, and a new life that is secured away in eternity.
In the Christian life, we should see Christians coming to greater and greater repentance. In this journey that we take, little by little we should be deepening, strengthening, and growing closer to Christ. There's no improvement if we settle for where we are. The deeper our convictions, the deeper our repentance, the stronger our faith builds, the more confident we should be in our salvation, and the more we should be filled with the Holy Spirit. A deeper revelation, a stronger pursuit for righteousness, and a greater zeal for Jesus will lead to unsurpassing joy.
"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." 2 Cor 7:10
When we look at Saul, aka Paul in the New Testament, we see a great conversion of his life. He was completely against Christians, he jailed them, punished them, and murdered Christians. On his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians, he was blinded by a bright light which was brighter than noon day. He encountered a voice, which he addressed as "Lord". Jesus said "Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?" The people with him also saw the light and heard the voice. For three days he didnt eat or drink, while he was still blinded. He underwent such a radical change from seeing the truth. He was met by the resurrected Jesus, the very man he was out to disprove. His entire world was shaken, his foundation was completely turned upside down, his whole life and reality basically disintegrated, he began to see that everything he believe in, everything he was, was all a lie! But from this encounter with Christ, his heart was regenerated, his eyes now began to see the truth of Christ as Lord. He spent the rest of his life enduring the persecution of the Jews, giving up everything to preach the good news to the churches and all that would receive Jesus as Lord.
4) All For His Glory
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God did not create us because He needed us. He created us for His glory and His delight. All of God's creation is meant for the end means of giving Him glory. He can plant a rose in the middle of a forest, that no man will ever pass, just so that He can delight in His glory. In the same way, we are created in His own image, and are a small reflection of His spiritual being. Why do people like to have children? Not because they need them, but because they delight creating a being that they can share love with and grow in an intimate relationship.
One of the things i cant wait to experience, is hearing the amount of praise in heaven. We’ll get to partake in a huge party celebration forever. Heaven will be one glorious anthem of praise. I cant wait to hear all the angels and God's children shouting, rejoicing, praising and singing to His glory. I cant wait to finally meet my Redeemer face to face.
“God by nature is infinite and we are limited. Thus what we now merely apprehend about the creator we will spend an eternity seeking to comprehend. Imagine finally beginning to get a handle on how God is one in nature and three in person. Imagine exploring the depths of Gods love wisdom, and holiness. Imagine forever growing in our capacities to fathom his immensity, immutability and incomprehensibility. And to top it all off the more we come to know Him, the more there will be to know.” –Hank Hanegraaff
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30
Worship
We are all ceaseless worshipers of something. And if you’re a Christian, your number one goal should be seeking to glorify and worship God in everything that you do because He deserves all praise. Our entire lives must reflect God’s image, not only so we can draw others closer to Him, but because it lifts up God’s name in praise. It is not enough to acknowledge God or believe in His existence. A heart of worship is what God desires. Every single day we have a bunch of choices to make. Each choice will either be for ourselves or for the glory and praise of God. Which is better God or your sin? We must examine our lives to see if what we say, think, and do is worshiping God. Are we following in God’s ways or following in our own? Who or what is your god? What do we watch? What do we think about others? How do we behave around others or by ourselves? How do we spend our time? Are we truly spurring others onto love and good deeds? Are we bearing fruit by keeping with repentance? Are we trusting in God’s grace, and putting our faith in Him alone? Are we emptying ourselves and surrendering our lives in humility? This is why we need to seek and pray for the Holy Spirit, because without God in our lives it is impossible to worship Him. Choose God over sin, because He’s better.
Holy Spirit
It’s easy to point out all the wrong things about how we’re doing Christianity. It’s easy to see our failures and sins. But instead of focusing on what things we shouldn’t be doing, we should be looking at what we should be doing. This generation along with the rest, will always be in dire need of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to have any sort of spiritual heart transformation without God in the picture. The Holy Spirit is actually what lead us to choose Christ in the first place. The Holy Spirit constantly intercedes for us in prayer and worship. The Holy Spirit does not gratify the desires of our sinful nature. The Holy Spirit reveals truth, stirs up joy within us, offers us rest, leads us to repentance, gives us God’s desires, empowers us, comforts us, counsels us, teaches us, speaks through us, helps us to love others and do good deeds. We can do nothing good or right on our own efforts and strength. Everything we do that is pleasing to the Lord is actually powered by the Holy Spirit. Lastly, the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of our sin and works on transforming us into the likeness of Christ.
"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." Gal 5:16-17
"We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:13-16
Fighting for Joy
Following God’s ways without Joy is raw obedience. A life that has no joy in Christianity is an empty religion. A life full and abundant of joy is an intimate relationship with God. Joy is essential in serving, worshiping, and loving others. Happiness is usually conditioned on events, rewards, and positive feelings. But Joy is based off of God’s love. Life is much more appreciated when we are in awe of our blessings, when we’re thankful for little things, enjoying relationships, and grateful for a perfect redeemer. If you examine your walk with God, you’ll see that He doesn’t just redeem us once and abandon us. He redeems us constantly, over and over again from the unhealthy guilt of our sin. He redeems our dried out spirit. He redeems our joy in Him. Joy is worth suffering for. Joy is worth fighting for. We must be intentional with pursuing God. Wait upon Him. Seek Him. Desire Him. Hunger and thirst Him. Surrender and give up your own efforts. Fall into His grace. Find love, joy and peace in Him.
When we are most filled with the Holy Spirit, we have the most joy, and automatically worship God. When we are close to God we are far from sin. When we are in love with Him the most, we begin to love others more. Our deepest desire shouldn’t be for a heaven, or to have better morals, or a desire of spiritual gifts, or a feeling of joy or peace. Our deepest desire should be Him alone. All we should want is Him, and not just His gifts, power and forgiveness. Love Him for who He is, and not just what He does.
"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." -CS Lewis
"These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:7-8
Practicing Godliness
This blog is titled "Resolved". Another word to describe my pursuit, would be Determined. I am determined and resolved to pursue godliness. Godliness is moving closer to looking like Christ. We want to reflect His glory by living with pure and holy lives. The Bible constantly tells us to be blameless. Once we are saved from the bondage of sin, we should no longer look back on our old lives. When temptation and flesh desires arrive, how does God want us to respond? In order to move forward, we must deny our old selfish ways.
Practicing godliness is living with integrity, and loving on others. When Christians pursue righteousness we are able to shine the brightest, and give Him all praise. Surrendering our selves, giving Him everything, and all that we are should result in a deeper relationship with Him, a greater joy, and stronger love for others. We must become resolved to our convictions, moved by the Holy Spirit, and live according to His word, will and way. Sanctification always increases our spiritual growth, and cleans us from our unrighteousness. We all suffer from our addictions, anger, pride, lust, etc.. We must allow God to discipline us, train us, and empower us to conquer over our sins.
5) Between God and His People
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The Body of Christ
Sometimes I can be quick to criticize churches and christians living in sin. My discernment has a distaste when I hear hypocrisy and false teaching. Sometimes it can be easy to complain with how ministries run their agendas. Sometimes I catch myself in legalism. I can be quick to say “Woe” to those that are very prideful. But one thing that God has been convicting me of is that I should really be saying “Woe to me!” Examining my life I can see so much compromise, hypocritical teaching, short fuses, slow to exhort others, a lack of edification, lack of obedience and lack of eagerness to serve. I find myself complaining, slandering, and speaking negatively about people. My sinful heart, selfish motives, and lazy attitude is quite obvious to me. Thank God that He is working on His people and covers us with His infinite grace.
On the other hand, I feel like I haven’t been judging other’s actions righteously. I believe we are called to rebuke our fellow Christian brothers and sisters, but with a dramatic heart filled with love. I have such a fear of correcting or warning others about sin, because I’m afraid of their reaction. So in this area I tend to hold my tongue and shy down from preaching God’s will. I would encourage Christians to encourage, rebuke and spur each other on towards love, good deeds and also righteousness. So this is an area where God is definitely challenging me lately.
We need to meet for more small groups, bible studies, fellowship, worship and prayer nights. I definitely feel that we need to raise up a stronger church. We have heard enough entertaining, self help, time management, psychological modification, prosperity, religious morals, and how to get out of debt messages. The gathering of the church is primarily meant to build up saints, equipping them to preach the gospel. The gospel is the most appealing thing we could be teaching. Doctrines of salvation, repentance of sin, grace, justification, sanctification and Jesus need to be preached, even if it may offend some. Yes the church must be relevant, but we mustn’t cheapen the gospel. Soft churches raise up soft Christians. We need to be a body pursuing truth, righteousness, prayer, devotion and holding to the authority to scripture. Christ should be the head pastor and the Holy Spirit should be running the ministry. It’s time for us as Christians to take our walk seriously and move forward.
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:22-23
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Loving Others
I am becoming more broken for the lost, and more loving towards people i don't even know. Its not just the poor, lonely, and sick, but also the rich, popular, and prideful that we are to love on. We are to love our enemies, strangers, young and old, and treat everyone with the same love. Regardless of who people are, where they're from, what they've have done, or what they look like, we are should see people through God's eyes. We need to strive to love as God loves.
One of the most difficult things that im striving for is truly loving on others. I can easily catch myself thinking negative thoughts about others, and can find myself getting irritated with some people. Have you ever come across someone who is only concerned with him or herself? Someone that only talks about things that interest them, and only do things that benefit themselves? I find it very difficult at times to humble myself, listen to them, and respond in love. I know that often times I still do things for my own convenience and personal benefit, and God calls that selfish pride. But I know God is transforming the way i see and respond to people. Sit down with people, listen to those who like to talk. Maybe they'll start to listen and respect what you say. Humility is a huge key for unlocking the Holy Spirit in your life.
I just realized how many opportunities that I have missed to love on others. Sometimes I don’t express it very well. We need to be like children when we approach others. Children are accepting. They reach out. They arnt afraid to approach you and give you a free smile. It’s interesting how easy children arnt afraid or shy to hug and say “I love you.” It natural for children to be playful and full of joy. Perhaps this is also why God has called us His children of light.
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7/6 Absorbing God's Love
If you look at the life styles of those that are obsessed with God, you'll see that they have a giant funnel for God's love to pour into their lives. Those that are addicted to Christ, want nothing else but Him. Those that are starving for more, tend to have a pretty deep relationship with God. I am convinced that we need to spend much more time absorbing God's love. One of the most difficult things to do is to just accept God's love for us. Sometimes it's so hard to believe that God loves us as much as He says. Sometimes it's hard to surrender and just let God's love heal our wounds. Cars that dont fill up on gas tend to die out and stop moving forward. This also applies to our constant need for God's love. The reason i often find myself "burnt out" is because i havn't took the time to absorb God's infinite love and mercies. Become a sponge and soak up His love. He never abandons and never fails. Fill up on the Spirit. Find peace, rest and joy in Him.
We don’t need a formula. We don’t need to figure out God and understand everything. Because otherwise we might miss out on the relationship with Him. We are to just embrace his love and all that He is. Yes, God is infinitely bigger than we can imagine, but the more we seek, the more He reveals His character. Chase after God’s heart. And make time to wait upon Him, listen to His voice, and be carried away by His intimate love.
6) A New Heart
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Unregenerated
In the Bible they often talk about the human heart. The human heart is the deepest essence of who we are. Psychologist and counselors often try to help people through behavioral modification. The problem is, that people don’t truly know the source of all their problems. The source of all our problems is the human heart. Our hearts are born tainted with sin. We are naturally born spiritually dead.
“but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:17
So by Genesis 2, we learn about the problem of sin. Man no longer has a perfect communion and relationship with God because humanity died spiritually. Our hearts are born broken, desiring evil and full of unbelief.
When God commands the mountains to raise up, they do. When God calls the oceans travel and move upon the earth, they do. When God commands man to "follow me", man looks back and says "No." Our lives are a contradiction, because we do not do what we were created for. We turn from our creator and worship ourselves. This is sin.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:11-12
Our sin deserves death and complete separation from God, but out of God's love and grace, He gave us One worthy of atonement of our sins. Jesus was sent to take the place of all our evil sins, so we could enter into a relationship with God with who we were created for. Now, this doesnt mean that we become perfect, because we still live in our flesh, but through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we are being worked to completion, so that we may become in His likeness and finally find perfect unity with Him in Heaven for eternity.
Why do we need a new heart? Because we are born with an evil heart full of unbelief. We are born with a selfish and sinful heart. Why? Because we were born from the first Adam, who is the father of flesh. But the second Adam, which is Jesus, gave birth to the Spirit. Just as flesh gives birth to flesh, the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
Born Again
"Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again." John 3:5-7
"For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."
1 Cor 15:21-22
"If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." 1 Cor 15:44-49
"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." Romans 5:15-19
"We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5:21
Now if we skip ahead to the gospel, we are introduced to the hero of humanity. A man named Jesus begins fulfilling choke prophecies. I think He fulfilled over 300 prophecies regarding the Christ. He began teaching in parables that many could not understand. He comes across a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who wonders what He must do to inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus plainly tells him that he must be born again. And I find it funny how Nicodemus gets confused, thinking he must reenter his mother’s womb. But im sure I’d be pretty confused about what it means to be “born again”.
"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again. John 3:3-7
Atonement
Now things start to piece together. Through Adam we became sinners. He is the first father of humanity. But through the human flesh we have all fallen. Now Jesus begins to explain that He is one with the Father of the Spirit. Through Him, we become born again, and are given life with the Holy Spirit. Becoming born again means we have Christ within us. Christ came to abolish the old covenant, and set up a kingdom that will rule for eternity. But this kingdom is not like any earthy kingdom, it is the kingdom of God. Once born again we realized that we are eternally secure and locked away in this spiritual kingdom, where God reigns supreme forever.
"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."
1 Peter 3:18
Okay, so how exactly do we enter this kingdom and become born again? We’ll only people without sin are welcomed into this perfect kingdom. People will try to find all sorts of ways into the promise of salvation, but there is only one door. As im sure you've heard, Jesus is the Son of God, and came to this world to reconcile us. He came to redeem His people. He does not count man’s sin against us once we choose to follow Him.
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5:21
"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture." John 10:9
Surrendering
Okay so how do we receive this new heart? Well, it starts by surrendering our pride, and asking Him. Once we come to the reality of our sins, we seek to be cleansed. We can start by saying “Hey God.. please save me from my sins. Begin to work in my life I’ve gone searching in all sorts of directions, and now you’re my only hope. Im tired of trying to do things on my own. Im sick of carrying this burden on my heart. I repent of my sins. Please forgive me for the evil in my heart. Please be my Lord and Savior. Please help me in my unbelief, help me in my weakness, and help me to live the life that you created me for. Thank you for loving me so much to send your Son Jesus to die for my sins. Come into my life and change me at the heart.”
So once we begin to surrender, we begin to see God work in our lives. When we continue to seek and ask for Him, God starts to take over. He fills us with the Holy Spirit, and helps us to come to Him. Some people think that just by saying the sinner's prayer means that their saved. However this is only the first step in making a decision to follow Him. We must continue to cry out from the depths of our hearts, until God reaches down, saves you, and truly forms a relationship with you. You'll begin to live completely different, have a changed heart, and have new desires to grow closer to Him.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:26-27
Just because we have come to Christ before, it doesnt mean that all our sinful desires just disappear. But once we truly come to know Him, we no longer have any excuse to sin. We are no longer under the law, but under grace. And because we are freely saved by His undeserving grace we should be turning from our old selves and fight for righteousness. If someone gave you sight, wouldnt it be foolish to continue living with your eyes closed? Why stay locked up as a prisoner to sin when Christ as gave us freedom? We cannot deliberately continue sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth.
7) Feeling Like God
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Out of this entire blog.. I think this is perhaps the most important chapter. I read a book called "Feeling like God" by Chris Tiegreen. It covered a lot of stuff that i already knew, but added beautiful imagery and expanded on the importance of feeling like God. A Christian walk with God is meant to be emotionally, intimately and passionately felt. Much of this chapter is paraphrased from Chris Tiegreen, and I thought it’d be good to share the lessons ive learned about the emotional side of discipleship.
If you're like me, you’ve kinda been confused with where our emotions should go. Should we reject all our spiritual feelings? Can we trust our emotions? Im sure many of you have heard the saying, "Dont trust your feelings. Dont let your feelings lead you." And for a while i was super confused if i could trust these strong feelings of God. When i feel God's, i feel the closest to Him. This book will probably change your thinking at how we deal with our emotions and feelings.
Relating to God
"The Bible far more often describes God as an emotionally charged being who is deeply, relentlessly in love with his people and who interacts with them regularly on that basis."
Were you curious when you first heard that God was a jealous God? He is jealous because we have turned away in so many directions and have so many other idols that we worship. If you look at His emotions in the prophetic books you'll see that His most prominent emotion is heartbreak. Sometimes we question why God is so wrathful especially in the Old Testament. It's because He lavishly poured out His affections for His people and they repeatedly throw it back in His face. Could you imagine if you had a spouse that betrayed you, cheated on you, and became a prostitute? God Often comes across as a lover who's been stabbed in the back. And even though we as a church, His bride, have gone astray to seek other things to fill, He takes us right back.
God has the capacity to feel multiple emotions at once. God has mixed feelings all the time. At this very moment, for instance, God is comforting someone who's hurting, feeling anger at someone's stubborn rebellion, rejoicing over a sinner who just repented, delighting in the prayers of his children, grieving over the tragedies we inflict on ourselves, and remaining at perfect peace about his plans for the world. God's unchanging personality feels a lot of different things in a lot of different places at the very same time. He is always moving and never stilled by the status quo. It is in his unchanging nature to be dynamic. Getting to taste how God often feels can be a huge window in getting to know Him more personally.
To know God is more than to acknowledge his characteristics and describe his attributes. To know him is to bond with him and to grow continually deeper in our connection with him. That can't be done apart from emotions. Shared information and experiences in themselves don't draw us closer. It's the shared emotional responses to that information and experience that creates closeness.
Power of Emotions
Sometimes we can get so focused with Bible knowledge, theology, apologetics, bible studies, doctrines, and getting truth right in all its details, that we miss the joy that the truth is supposed to lead to. His ultimate goal is for us to rest in his presence and to experience his joy, it's the room temperature of heaven. And most of all He wants us to connect, bond and grow in a relationship with Him.
God is an emotionally charged being, and He created us in His spiritual image. We cant really get to know Him unless we know the emotions that He feels. Connecting to Him is not always by objective truth, often times it's how subjectively we experience Him, helps us to grow closer to Him.
Why does a sport team at it's home court or field often have somewhat of an advantage? We cant really plug the crowd's cheering into a formula, but we do see that the passionate home crowd adds a sense of momentum, and creates a climate of victory. Emotions are contagious, motivating, and very powerful.
The Bible often uses extreme terms to describe his feelings. We don’t want to bring God down by humanizing His emotions, but should get a glimpse of the emotions that God experiences. And instead of seeing God’s emotions as exaggerations, they are probably understatements. His feelings, both positive and negative are more relentless than ours and infinitely higher and lower than ours. He has to hold back the full intensity of His emotions because they would be way too powerful to be unleashed on mere mortals. So He uses small does, which can still overwhelm us and have enough force to move the universe.
Synchronizing Our Hearts
Try putting yourself in God's shoes and image that you created every single person you have come into contact with. How would your feelings change for them? How much more would you begin to love and grieve over the creation of man.
God has given us our feelings like joy, hope, love, anger, jealousy, grief and more so that we can connect to His emotions to a degree. But at the fall of man, emotions got sinfully distorted. So now we base them on the wrong values and perceptions and direct them at the wrong targets. The problem isnt their existence, but their distortion. Instead of using emotions to humanize God down to our level, it actually gives us a highway connection to getting closer to His character. What does God love? What does God hate? Why does God rejoice? Why does God grieve? Mimicking our emotions correctly to how He feels, will indeed draw us closer to knowing and following Him.
Theres a bunch of emotions that God never feels, like despair, fear, discouragement, stress, bitterness, and resentment. When we feel them, we are out of sync and not consistent to His heart. We must conform our emotions and feelings to those of His. Our feelings are good triggers for telling us when we are and arnt correctly tuned to God. We are to follow His passions, desires, and purposes, conforming our hearts to hate what God hates, and love what God loves.
Didja know hearts begin to beat at the same rhythm when they are close to each other? Synchronizing our hearts to His brings us closer to Him. Often times subjective experiences lead us to deeper growth and can have a lasting impact, even though they might not lasted long. Experiencing God is often fuel for ones faith, and a key to opening a deeper relationship with Him. God who is an intensely emotional being, designed us to relate to His feelings. Being born spiritually of Him, we find that our desires and feelings were placed by God to pull us in a certain direction and share His heart. From protecting our hearts from going astray, we must not deny our God given emotions that lead us to Him.
In order to transform our hearts towards His, we must spend more time with Him. This changes the upstream hard work spiritual discipline which can often seem like an obligation or duty, into a joyful appetite and deep pleasure in bonding with the love of our Father. Have you grieved over a lost one who never knew Christ? Have you held a new born baby? Has your love ever been rejected? These emotions and experiences can be a doorway to connecting with God, that textbooks cannot explain. Every emotion we feel, whether positive or negative, is an opportunity to connect with God.
Spok
The book talks about Vulcan Christianity. I found it pretty humorous because i just watched Star Trek. Vulcan Christianity is basically a walk without the emotional side to it. Spok from Star Trek is a Vulcan, who didn't feel emotions, He only followed his logic to make decisions. He would analyze everything rationally, and not let emotions interfere with his judgments. He had a very difficult time feeling any sort of love, anger, trust, or compassion, because he wouldnt allow his feelings to cloud his mind.
"By downplaying emotion, we're elevating the human mind and will as the most stable elements of the soul. If we define stable as unchanging, we may be right. But if we define it in terms of reliability, we're fooling ourselves."
"Our minds draw all kinds of intellectual fallacies from inspired truth. So if we're listening for God's voice only through our own mental reasoning applied to his Word, we're going to be wrong pretty often."
Our human soul includes a mind (intellect), a will (intention to act) and emotions (sentiment). Generally we emphasize the importance of understanding God's Word and applying it, which covers the mind and will, but we miss out on how our feelings connect us. Try having a relationship and taking all emotions away from it. Try worshiping and praying without emotions. Try having a birthday party and hiding all your emotions. Go to a funeral, and suppress you feelings. Doesn't a walk with God, and life in general would seem empty without our emotions? Im not saying that we should only base our lives from our emotions, but saying that we should give it it's rightful place. Our mind, will and emotions act coequal, like the trinity. The three should inform another, and function as a single unit. Following just one will leave us with only a shallow connection. I have fallen into each of these following categorizes and left behind a certain aspect of Christian discipleship.
Willpower Christianity
When the will becomes the primary emphasis of discipleship, the result is legalism. We focus on "doing" it's all about action, whether the heart's in it or not. It doesnt matter if we dont understand why God commands something, just do it. And if we dont feel like doing it, do it anyway. And sometimes that maybe the right approach but a terrible lifestyle, that can easily burn one out. Just following willpower on denying ourselves and dying daily without the joy of the resurrection living in us will seem like a heavy burden. Raw obedience to a law, without a relationship to the Lawgiver and without our hearts in it, isnt true obedience. If we follow just the willpower of Christianity without including our emotions, we confine ourselves to only spiritual habits and disciplines. If we just run on empty obedience, we would look pretty close to the religious Pharisees.
Mental Christianity
Would you connect motivation, passions, pleasures, and desires with the thinking of your mind, or with the feeling of your heart?? When the mind is the main focus we are overly concerned with only understanding God. But cognitive understanding, systematic theology, philosophies, apologetics, academic exercise and intellectual truths will only accomplish so much. After all even demons believe in God. Mental Christianity isnt enough to save or satisfy. Many people understand the gospel, people may have knowledge that a man named Jesus died, that He bore our sins, and rose again. And yet it has no impact on them, because they havnt been touched, moved, broken, changed, rescued, swept by the Holy Spirit or felt the love of God.
Emotionalism Christianity
An overemphasis on emotions and feelings is just as imbalanced as a primary focus on the mind or will. Emotionalism is dangerous because it includes very little truth and obedience. So people are right when they warn against only following your feelings, and leaving out reason and pursuit. But taking the emotional side of discipleship completely out would be wrong. We are to follow only our right mind, will and emotions. It takes much discernment to figure out which are our right emotions to follow and which arnt.
Emotivation
We will only grow as much as our motivation drives us. When we really want to pursue something, we'll persist only according to the strength of desire for it. When we know we should do something, but dont have the desire for it, we'll pursue it for a while but eventually stop because the lack of enjoyment. Our motivation is directly tied to our emotions, so Chris Tiegreen called it Emotivation. Motivation is definitely a heart issue, because everything comes down to whether we want to or not. We also care enough about greater benefits other than immediate gratification, which produces our desire to accomplish task that arnt pleasurable. Ok, so yeah, we're mainly driven by our motivations. This is why it's so important to have a regenerated heart to follow God. A heart without passion, desire or joy of Him has no chance of truly following, conforming, or loving Him. This is basically a complex way of saying that the only way we'll be motivated to follow Him, is by asking Him for that heart of motivation.
We've heard that mountaintop experiences never last, emotional worship is superficial, and emotional feelings have nothing to do with the Spirit. We'll the Holy Spirit is actually full of emotion. We have tried so hard not to allow room for our emotions, not to be motivated by feelings and never let them be the basis of a decision. We stay completely away from our emotions because we dont want to be ruled by them. Why do we try so hard to suppress the heart God has given us? Eliminating our feelings is not the solution. We must not deny our feelings, but conform them to God's emotions.
I find it interesting how David the psalmist wrote. The psalms are full of passion, emotion, rejoicing, shouting, weeping, dancing and falling in the presence of the Lord. I believe a familiar emotion of David was joy. He greatly expressed his struggles of sin, the cries of his soul in repentance, gratitude of his heart, yearning passion for a deeper connection, and joyful heart in bringing God praise.
Have you ever come across a strong Christian? Have you ever noticed that the most contagious, most inspiring, and most passionate Christians are the one's who have encountered Him most emotionally? I hear so many people who say that they havnt been touched directly by God's love. So many people say they never felt God's tremendous love and powerful Spirit. I believe Christians should be able to hear God, see God's work, and taste the fullness of God. I think all Christians should be experiencing mountain top encounters with God every now and then, and not just when they were saved, forgiven and justified.
Sometimes we can feed our minds full of cold doctrine study, and completely miss out on the joys of just being God's loved child. I believe an abundant life is only met by embracing, delighting, resting, dwelling, and pleasuring in the love of God, so shouldn’t we be spending more time seeking to be engulfed by His daily invitation of love? Knowing that God loves you, and Feeling that God loves you are two completely different things. Knowing that God can hold you, and being held by Him are again very big differences.
Discernment of Emotions
What we really need to be occupied with as we grow into the likeness of Jesus is not denying human emotions, but having the right ones at the right times to the right degree. Which we could do much more easily if we really understood how God feels. It's kinda like eating food. Instead of denying ourselves of all food, we should be careful to see which foods are healthy and unhealthy.
We must learn to correctly embrace the emotions of God and feel as He feels. We mustn’t make the mistake of elevating feelings above other aspects of discipleship, but we mustn’t underestimate their importance either. It will takes much discernment to separate the godly feelings from the distorted human ones. It takes much training to be able to identify and separate which feelings are right and wrong to embrace.
"Why is it that we have heard not to trust out emotions? It's probably because we've been trained to suppress out feelings and count them as unreliable, which basically points that our understanding, reason, and actions are reliable. Why do we trust objectively and treat subjectivity with such suspicion, as if it were second rate to our rational processes."
Often times love wins over reason. Sometimes we must follow our passion over principle. The things of God are not intelligible to the rational mind and can only be perceived intuitively. Revelation often comes through communion with the Spirit, and the mind has to catch up later and try to figure it all out. Truth often penetrates into our hearts before it hits our heads. I think that's why so many people have a hard time trusting in Jesus, because they want to fully understand the atonement and working of salvation. It takes a lot of courage and faith to jump into the hands of God. We must see that our own ways just havnt worked at all, and must surrender ourselves believing that God will catch us. So even though I dont completely understand salvation, looking back i see that God has caught me each time ive jumped in with faith. Even though i dont quite understand how Jesus bore my sins and prove God with sciences, I have come to know truth by His love.
People often see truth as picking their favorite song. People see truth as an option or preference. When truth is actually quite narrow, exact, accurate and absolute. Now who are Christians to say that they know truth, and that other religions are false? Well the source isnt Christians, but the Word of God. Now who says that Jesus and the Bible are true? Well again, these truths can only be determined by the One who created these truths. God's truths are unseen to many people. We want to see physical evidence, something we can dissect, and prove. But because we want everything to make perfect sense, to be explained, to be proven, and fit into our minds we end up denying God. God's love cannot be captured and placed under a microscope. We cant dissect souls. We cant take a trip to heaven, test experiments on God or interview the Holy Spirit. Truth is not only determined empirically. The human mind and heart are both finite and fallen. Our human reasons and passions can both lead us astray. Knowledge of truth only comes through the Spirit of God. This world is blinded from these truths, and hidden from the worldly wise, so that it may seem as foolishness.
God has revealed His truth to the small, poor, broken, and humble, so that His glory may be seen clearly over the wisdom, arrogance and prideful heart of men. Dont you find it interesting how He makes something huge out of something so small, little, and what may seem as insignificant? He made David as a boy conquer the giant Goliath. He rose up Moses who was least seen as a leader. He used a little boy's sack lunch to feed thousands. He gathered fishermen as His disciples. He transformed a Christian hater to start shepherding the early churches. God turns sinners into witnesses.
"We quell our emotions because we don't want the devastation of having them remain unfulfilled. It isn't possible to have the heads of a coin without the tails, but it's better to have both than throw the coin away."
Sometimes we detach ourselves from our emotions and feelings, because we're afraid to experience any sort of pain. People are slow to invest in their affections because their hearts have experienced feeling pain and suffering. So the solution we often come up with, is just avoiding and suppressing all our desires, feelings and emotions. My spiritual walk greatly grew when i realized how key and vital the role of our emotions are. Waiting upon the Lord, receiving the Holy Spirit, soaking up His love and marinating on God's Word are meant to be felt. We must of course discern our God given feelings from the deceptive ones, but we should never deny all of the emotional side to our souls.
“When emotion is absent, people aren’t very productive. And when God’s emotions are absent, Christians aren’t very fruitful.”
“Many of us don’t exactly experience His pleasure. We have a deferred hope, not a daily celebration.”
“If we keep having to tell ourselves, “It’s an arrangement, not a romance; it’s an agreement, not an emotion,” we’re missing out on the very purpose of the marriage itself. If we’re engaged but our hearts are not, our minds are fighting an uphill battle that they will probably lose.“
When we examine deep within our hearts, we realize that we are in need of constant transformation.
8) The Stand
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All In
Imagine if Jesus only died for only part of your sins. What if He died for only 75% of your sins? Well, then there would be 0% salvation, and 100% torture in hell. Ok you can stop imagining, because Jesus gave it ALL, He covered ALL of our sins. The question now is, are we giving it all? You either want God entirely or not at all. You are either saved or not. You cannot have God remain just a part of your life. He calls us to take up our cross and follow Him with everything. You cannot serve both God and ________ (your idol). He tells us to surrender All that we are. He calls us to give Him full control. Often times we try to hold on to something for our own, rather than give it in God’s hands. We compromise thinking that it’s okay to keep some sins for ourselves. There’s no such thing as a lukewarm Christian, you’re either hot or cold. “Uhh I’m kinda Christian. I love Him sometimes.” Don’t get caught in the middle. The World or Jesus? Is Jesus worth everything? Or is there something your still holding, something you’re still refusing to surrender? It should be ordinary to be a radical Christian for Jesus.
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cant be is MODERATELY important."-CS Lewis
If we arnt willing to let God be the center of our lives, and keep Him as just a God we turn to only in need, then we have missed the gospel completely. A true Christian walk strives to make God part of everything in their life. And God ends up becoming your everything. Being born again should change how we see the world and lives completely right side up. If we are still living for ourselves and practicing our sins then maybe we really havnt taken that step over the line to surrendering our entire life to Jesus. Perhaps our faith is only an acknowledging belief or religion, and not a intimate worship and relationship with Him. It’s kind of a scary thought thinking how many people who are claiming to be Christian will be turned away during judgment because they only professed His name, and didn’t truly know Him. It’s a scary thought thinking how many sincere religious people, who even practice their traditions and rituals still wont be able to find salvation.
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Easy or Right?
I'll be honest. I've really been struggling to follow Jesus in this past month. It seems ive been trying to walk in my own direction. I've been choosing tons of other things over God. Church or sleep? Bible study or basketball? Youth group or movies? Prayer or video games? Devotions or computer? Hang with friends or Jesus? Anger or love? Self or Jesus? I've made all the wrong choices before. Of coarse all these things have a place in life, but should never come before Christ. I've been worshipping so many things above God. One of my most challenging sins is laziness, because it leaks into pride, lust, and idleness. I think our sins of omission greatly out weight our sins of commission. Don’t settle for a enough, by living a safe and easy life. Live by faith and not lazy comfort.
I always find myself between two choices. What's easy? Or what's right? This is why i drifted so far. Because my flesh desires comfort, laziness, quick pleasures, and fun all the time. Anything that requires work can wait till later. That's normally my attitude. Although choosing what's right requires more effort, it normally leads to more growth. If life was always easy then we wouldnt learn or mature from our experiences. Following Jesus is often difficult because we are meant to become stronger by overcoming the many challenges in life.
Francis Chan once demonstrated how life is like a balancing beam. We're so afraid of falling off the plank that we become paralyzed in fear. We dont wanna be bold because people might think of us differently. We dont wanna step up to the plate because we're afraid of striking out. I know i like to settle for enough. I like to do things just to get by. I like to take short cuts and easy routes rather than completing things with 100% effort. This needs to change.
If we are not intentional, it’s easy to become distracted, carnal, and fall into our default comfort.
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Compromising
A pastor once told a story of how he had a bug problem in his house. He said he saw huge spiders, centipedes and cockroaches. The exterminator told him that he had to get rid of the smaller bugs in order to get rid of the big bugs. Small bugs will lure in the big bugs.
We often takes small steps of compromise that leads us into sin. We try to get up close to the sin line because it's so tempting. We try to see how far we can go without actually doing anything wrong. Eventually we make up stupid excuses to allow ourselves to sin. When we compromise with God, we are really trying to follow our own ways. Compromising with truth, integrity, holiness, obedience, devotion, goals, responsibilities, worship, and with God, is basically cheating God of His glory. We are going against what we we're designed and created for, so we can praise ourselves. Compromising with temptation will lead us straight into sin. When we compromise with what God intends, we slowly push God to the side and go after worldly things. Small compromises can have big consequences.
"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Cor 6:12
So often do we see a Christian walk as a set of rules. It's not about what we can't do, but what we get to do!
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Salvation
America is way too noisy. There's so much confusion because Satan has perverted and distorted Christianity. There are so many false teachings, so many half-truths, and counterfeit Christianity. There is only one God, and one way, isn't that enough? So many people claim to follow God, but have a completely wrong view of who God is. Claiming to be Christian almost doesn't mean anything now days because we have shaped Christianity, the Bible, and God into so many different things. It's way too noisy. That's why i think its most important that Christians get their biblical truths down clear. Teachers need to spend more time reading their bible than preaching. We actually need to dig into our bibles, pray, and research our questions before we jump to claim to know anything. Rather than spending time teaching the things we think to be true, we should be focusing more on studying Biblical truth and the truth of God.
Perhaps the majority of people don't actually care to find truth. Many people arnt interested in knowing Jesus, because they arnt too concerned about anything spiritual. Many people don't even know where they stand. If someone doesnt make a choice for God or against God, that puts them on the against side. Ignorance and not knowing is wont be an excuse on judgment day. Many people believe in a higher God or existence of God, but that does not make them Christian, that would follow under theistic views. But just believing that a God exists doesnt save, only a relationship with Jesus can truly offer us freedom from sin. Religion doesnt save either. Getting baptized, taking communion, following traditions, fasting, listening to teachers, saying a prayer, doing good deeds, meditating, reading spiritual books, or going to church does not save.
Trusting on Jesus, living in faith, repenting of sin, coming to God daily, having an intimate relationship with Him, and following in His ways will save you. God promises that all those who follow after Jesus will be saved. And once we truly come to accept God into our lives, He gives us a new heart and the Holy Spirit to help us follow Him. So what exactly is salvation? What are we saved from? If you havnt heard the good news yet, Jesus Christ died for our sins, so we could come to God personally. Heaven will be a perfect unity of God and His people. Our hearts will finally be able to enjoy the infinite completeness of Him. A perfect relationship with God is our reward and treasure in Heaven. Can you imagine an infinite worship, infinite love, infinite joy, and infinite awe of being in His presence?
"Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
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Sharing the Gospel
The cost of discipleship clearly says that we'll be hated by the world, and that we should suffer for gospel. So sometimes we keep Christ to ourselves. We shy down from sharing Jesus, because we fear man's rejection. We're so concerned about our images that we play it safe. Taking a stand for Jesus, means that you will probably offend people, and find a lot of criticism. Yes it would be a whole lot easier to be a Christian if there were less opposed to Jesus. I really need to grow in boldness and actually talk about God more to others. Perhaps the most important part of speaking truth, is that it must be spoken in love. God wants to have the fragrance and aroma of His heart so we can attract others to Him. If we really want people to come to Christ, we need to be focused on building relationships and loving on them intentionally.
Why do people not like Christians? Because Christians that actually talk about God often make people uncomfortable. Anything that threatens their beliefs makes people defensive because no1 wants to be wrong. No one likes to acknowledge their failures and sins. People hate getting into heated arguments and controversies. People have misconceptions about God and the bible. People just want to believe in whats comfortable for them, or hear what they want to hear. People often look at Christians rather than Christ. This is why its so difficult to even talk about Jesus to others. In order to reach out to people, we must leave behind our insecurities. Smart apologetics and wisdom usually doesnt convince many people, rather it is God's love that breaks down walls. God's love goes beyond reason, God's love softens peoples heart, and triggers people to investigate what all this talk about Jesus really means.
When Jesus preached the truth and claimed to be the Son of God, people hated Him, because they didnt want some carpenter to be more superior than the religious leaders. Even Satan decided to oppose God because he wanted to be of equal power and authority. People rebel against God because they refuse to surrender to anything higher than themselves. So people stand against Christianity because they claim to know Christ who is the only way, truth and life. Being a Christian does not mean that they are above or better than anyone else, in fact Christianity preaches to live in humility. We are all sinners, but Christians lift up the one who is perfect and worthy of praise.
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Suffering for Christ
If your human, you probably don't enjoy suffering. But as Christians we are called to suffer for Him. Suffering is painful to the flesh, because the flesh opposes discomfort. But often times we are called to choose discomfort over comfort, because when life is easy and comfortable there is no growth. But the Spirit actually rejoices when we suffer for Christ. Is He worth suffering for? Is He worth living and dying for? I'm not saying we should all be martyrs and want to be persecuted to death, but rather to rejoice in our weakness.
Look at Jesus, and even how Paul suffered intensely for the joy set before them. Jesus will reap the glory, joy, and praise for suffering the most extreme pain of suffering on the cross. Not the physical pain, but the spiritual pain of all our sins. And if we look at Paul we see such determination for expanding God's kingdom. But why did he suffer, being chased by men, being ship wrecked, going days without food, and being constantly thrown in jail? All for the glory of God. He found joy in his trials, pains, and sufferings because he knew that the reward was in heaven. He completed the task given to him, so that he could be useful and be an impact for the glory of God.
"You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." 2 Tim 3:10-12
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor 12:9-10
"Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything." 2 Cor 6:4-10
9) Analogies
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Bride of Christ
I have heard this illustration a few times that kinda gives us an image of how God has saved us by His love and grace. Imagine a prostitute, slave girl on the block. She is completely a wreck, covered in filth, drunk, poor, and beat up. She is not only being sold, but ought to be. She is sold at a very cheap price, and not worth much. But then comes along God, who doesnt pay with gold or silver, but buys her with His own precious blood. He cleans her, dresses her, works to beautify her, and finally delights in her to an end.
Honestly thats how low and undeserving we are. We as the church are described as a whore, who has looked to so many other places to satisfy our desires, rather than coming to the perfect lover of Christ. He always takes us back even though we dont deserve such a great God. But thats how strong His love is. He delights in the church, His people, and in His children to an end. Christ suffered, sacrificing it all, and endured the cross for the joy set before Him. He now enjoys and delights in the fruits and effects of His suffering. He has set us free, giving us new life, and an opportunity to unite with Him where we can find full satisfaction in His love.
God often feels heartbroken and betrayed when His people run astray. He grieves over the sins of the world. But He also rejoices when He finds one of His lost sheep. When one of His return home He leaps and runs to greet us, shouting in joy, throwing a party and wraps us with a ring and a robe. Ponder the joy of the Lord. Try to sympathize how God’s heart feels. It will draw us closer to Him when we discover what He loves and what He hates.
Basketball
What would you say if someone told you that their favorite sport is basketball, but they didn't know how to dribble, pass or shoot, and they only watched two basketball games last year. You would probably tell them that they really dont seem like a huge fan of the sport, because they dont really know the fundamental skills or know much about how to play. Someone who deeply loves basketball would train, practice and probably be quite good at it. The same applies for Christians. People can easily claim that they believe in Jesus, but don't practice any of the fundamentals, dont follow in His ways or know Him personally. Anyone can say that they are something, but if their lives dont match up anywhere near it, they probably arnt what they're claiming to be.
I think playing a game of basketball is an excellent illustration of the Christian walk. It doesnt take any skill to sit on the bench and watch other players play. I often see myself and other Christians just sitting on the sideline, and observing others do the work. Sometimes we become so afraid of failure and discomfort that we're afraid to jump into the game. Once we're in the game, we hafta know our purpose. Which team are we on? Whats the point of the game? What's my position? Who's on my team?
We can easily jump into the game and have no idea what the strategy plan is because we havnt practiced enough. A Christian life requires us to train hard, practice our skills, and learn from the coach. The coach of the team, normally has a lot of experience and offers us guidance in order to succeed. Many Christians are trying to play the game without listening to the coach. Our coach often tells us to follow the play book. The play book is something worth studying because we must truly learn and remember it well, in order to apply and demonstrate the coach's plans. Basketball is never just one skill. Basketball is composed of dribbling, passing, lay ups, blocking, defense, screens, free throws, 3 pointers, and running plans effectively.
Using teamwork to score is like the importance of fellowship. We should know our team well, help those who are new to the sport, and learn to train with other skilled players. Throwing an assist is like training someone in discipleship. Recruiting a new player is like evangelizing. Scoring would probably be worshiping and glorifying God. Getting back on defense is also very important in the game. The enemy is very good at scoring on us, and we need to be able to play a strong defense. Sometimes we can slack off and become too comfortable, or lose our pursuit for purity and righteousness, this is perhaps when the enemy scores the most. However there should be nothing to fear, because we're playing in a game that has already been won. We are already given victory over sin and death, but still must train under the coach in order to grow and improve on conforming into His image.
Soldiers
I dont have any experience going to war, but sometimes the Bible speaks to us as if the Christian walk is like going to battle. We must become courageous and put our life on the line. We must become an army behind the head commander of Christ. We must be soldiers preparing, equipping, training and deploying out into the world. The Bible tells us to put on the full armor of God, and use weapons not known to man. We have a spiritual war that we must be equipped for. Christ calls us to stand strong in boldness and in the Spirit, instead of hiding as others fight the war. Satan is on the attack, like a prowling lion, constantly looking for people to devour. The enemy is out to steal, kill and destroy us from God's plans. But always remember that we have victory when we stand behind our King. Our King calls us to stand firm in faith, endure hardship, pursue holy righteousness, truth and justice, and fight with relentless passion. For when we stand ready to fight, He makes us alive and strong in Him.
“Every man dies, but not every man lives.” -Waxer Tipton
"Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops." 2 Tim 2:3-6
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." 2 Cor 10:3-4
Swimming
As a little child, were you ever afraid of jumping into a pool? Our Father reaches out His hands and says "Jump!" So with faith we trust that He'll catch us. He quickly begins teaching us how to swim. He warns us of the dangers, and how to use the right techniques. He then demonstrates how to free style, as He tells us to mimic Him. We try to keep up, but realize that we are too weak on our own strength to complete the entire pool length. We quickly burn out, using all of our energy, and begin to panic. We may hit the wall, go off in the wrong direction and start to drown. Our Father quickly lifts us up, and makes sure if we're okay, and then asks us if we're willing to continue training and growing closer to becoming like Him.
Imagine now, if we never had the guts to jump in. Imagine if we were too afraid of drowning. If we never had trust in our Father, then we would never grow and develop swimming. The good news is that after everything is done, we see that our Father is always has His eye on us and helps us when we grow tired. He shows us the importance of playing in the water, and enjoying time with Him. So after encouraging us to push and strive for the goal, He lifts us out of the water, saves us from the deep and dark water, gives us rest, and says "good job son." In life we dont hafta see the end of the pool, in order to jump in. We dont need to see the way, all we need to do is trust the One who knows the way.
Gifts in Heaven
Stop to marvel at God and His blessings. Stop to wonder how great He is. Imagine how many gifts are still wrapped in heaven because we havnt asked for them. Look at how much we ignore the gifts of God. Jesus repeated said that we can ask for anything from our Father and He’ll be faithful to give it to us according to His will and glory. Pray for strength, ask for peace, joy, new desires, guidance, comfort and for the Holy Spirit, Ask and receive like a child. Come boldly asking. But one thing you’ll never hafta ask God is for His love, because God is always loving us. Nothing can separate us from His love, Hallelujah!
10) Desert Song/ Hillsong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WYK6TxWX7s&feature=related
This is my prayer in the desert
When all thats within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides
This is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flame
And I will bring praise, I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice, I will declare
God is my victory and He is here
This is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand
All of my life, In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've received I will sow
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1)Meditations
6-09 Always Faithful
6-18 Tremendous Joy
6-21 Replenished
6-22 Sufficient Grace
6-24 Comfort of the Flesh
7-19 Rescued
7-12 Adopted
7-28 Oh My God!
8-04 Living For God
2) Man’s Pride
Living Through God’s love
Seeking Approval
3) Sanctification
Reaffirming our Love
Ready to Move Forward
Redeemed
Conviction
4) All For His Glory
Worship
Holy Spirit
Fighting for Joy
Practicing Godliness
5) Between God and His People
The Body of Christ
Loving Others
Absorbing God’s Love
6) A New Heart
Unregenerated
Born Again
Atonement
Surrdendering
7) Feeling Like God
Relating to God
Power of Emotions
Synchronizing our Hearts
Spok
Willpower Christianity
Mental Christianity
Emotionalism Christianity
Emotivation
Discernment of Emotions
8) The Stand
All In
Easy or Right?
Compromising
Salvation
Sharing the Gospel
Suffering for Christ
9) Analogies
Bride of Christ
Basketball
Soldiers
Swimming
Gifts in Heaven
10) Desert Song
1) Meditations
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The following is devoted to share my recent life experiences, revelations, and the lessons ive learned through many ups and downs. Nevertheless, my God is with me through thick and thin. He never leaves me and always holds me in His hand. What has God been teaching you lately?
"I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." Psalm 9:1-2
"I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."
Psalm 18:1-2
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June 9
Always Faithful
God is so good! His love and mercies are new each day. He reaches down deep into our hearts, and pours out His infinite love. He constantly cries out to us to repent and believe, because everyday we run astray. It never ceases to amaze me how refreshing His love is. His love chases after us intensely. He calls me by name, comforts me through every trial, and catches me when I fall. And no matter how many times i have ignored God, no matter how many times i have doubted Him, and no matter how many times i betrayed Him, He is always faithful to take me back. In fact, He's the one who draws us back to Him.
Each day He watches over us. He surrounds us with His overwhelming love and grace. He breaks down our stubborn walls and engulfs us with His spirit. He never lets us go. He continues to reveal Himself as righteous, pure, perfect and holy. God is always reliable because His love never changes. He is always sovereign, always supreme and always infinite. He is all that is good.
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." 1 Peter 2:24-25
"He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
1 Cor 1:8-9
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June 18
Tremendous Joy
Right now i am not only full of joy, but i am overwhelmed at the sheer awesomeness of God. This morning I woke up late, which leaked into a lazy afternoon, and as i was on the ground tryin to sleep.. God stirred a sudden rush in me. I am completely swept away by His faithfulness and goodness. I cant express my gratitude enough. Every time i fall away from God, He picks me back up, again and again. He never, never, never fails. These past few days, i haven't been able to stop thinking about Him, and i love it. I cant get Him off my mind! He constantly reminds me how wonderful He is. I absolutely love it when He starts a spark in me. He sends Himself in the Holy Spirit and awakens my heart. He comforts, encourages and speaks to me. I could be just pumping gas at a gas station, then BAM! and a tremendous rush flow of the Holy Spirit will overtake me, and consume me with His powerful and furious longing.
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June 21
Replenished
Today is Father's day. At church we went over how God is our perfect, loving Father. God isnt just our King and Creator, but He is also our personal and intimate Father. The most common title Jesus gave God was illustrated as "Abba, Father". Jesus showed us that our relationship with God is like being His children, and how much He takes pleasure in watching us grow. This Father's day was not only good time to appreciate and honor our earthly fathers, but also to remember and thank our Heavenly Father.
This late afternoon i took a walk. As usual i was quickly met by God. I continued to be fascinated by the creation of nature. I felt like a little boy that has never seen the world before. I believe that's how all of us should see the world. Think of how a little child adventures out in nature for the first time. A child becomes curious, amazed and astonished by such a wonderful environment. There are so many wonders to ponder and appreciate. Today i saw God's beauty in the vast orange sky, shining it's last warmth to the clouds and mountains, and then down to the tiny little flowers, full of variety and colors. I actually stopped to smell some of the flowers, like gardenias and pikake flowers. (lol i kinda sound like a hippie) It was so groovy. haha totally righteous man.. All of God's blessings are meant to be observed, embraced, enjoyed, and experienced. I lastly met God in a restful nap in the grassy field, and got to watch the clouds blow by. The rush of the wind always seems to carry God's voice of love, which tells me to just rest in His arms.
As i was walking i was greeted by the kindness of a stranger with two little dogs. One reason i like dogs so much is because they are always happy and smiling. They love attention from their masters, and enjoy being pet, fed, and taken care of. They love to play fetch, go for walks, and run around with so much joy. In the same sense, we need to be like dogs. Dogs take time to enjoy life, and always seem to come back to their masters.
If you were to pick the petals of a flower, for each petal, God would say, "I love you, I love you, I love you, I still love you, I will always love you, Hey guess what? I love you." With the amount of love God pours out on us, we should be spending more time soaking it up. We are to drink from the Holy Spirit, and feast on God's Word. If theres one thing im learning this month, it's how important it is to just pause, be still and know that He is Lord. Meditate on God's Word, marinate on His truths, and soak up His love.
Waiting upon Him, is being ready and available what God has planned. An often mistake that churches, organizations and ministries make is that they become so concerned with Doing and Working, that they forget to Wait and Worship Him. When our hearts are most satisfied in Him, and joyful just being with Him, Then it becomes easier to live and do things for God. We need to slow down like Mary did, and sit at His feet. God's greatest commandment was to just love Him. Surrender to His love, embrace this intimate relationship, and live through the power of His touch.
It seems every time i take a short walk, i am replenished. Often times i see ourselves as dry plants. We become shriveled up, brown, and most of all thirsty. Plants that arn't thirsty, will burn up and die away. But those who place themselves under the rain get restored. And those that spend extra time with the gardener will get ever more nourished. We must make it a point to stand under the fountain spout of the Holy Spirit. God often portrays His love like a gushing spring. The plants that are rooted near this stream of life will flourish with green leaves and bright fruit. How much time are we spending with the Lord? Are we dry, and struggling in the heat? Or are we thirsty, and refreshed with cool water? Which plants do you think are growing the most?
"The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." Rev 22:17
For the past few days, i have felt like a plant soaking up the water in my roots and getting much nutrition. Go look at your grass outside.. Your grass is either screaming for water, or already burnt out by the sun. If someone were to ask me how i would describe the Bible right now, i would say it's Delicious. My soul is yearning for more and more of Him. Soak it all up. Get your nutrition.
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands. -Psalm 63:1-4
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June 22
Sufficient Grace
Often times we feel too ashamed to look up to God. Sometimes we just want to creep in the back of the church, and hide our faces down, because w're so ashamed of our sins. But thats not what God wants us to do. He says "I see your pain and your hurt, I will heal you. Look up! My grace is sufficient for you. I love you no matter what. Lift your head up, and come to me! I will restore you my child. Your sins are forgiven, now go and sin no more." Thats the perfect love and grace of the Father.
To be honest.. for this last month i've really been struggling in my walk with God. I was actually supposed to have blogged this all for the month of May, but found myself putting it off. I realized how much ive been putting off God for other things. This summer i definitely fell into a lazy attitude. It's so easy to fall into comfort, and waste the day playing video games or sleeping. Even though i have tons of things to do, i've been struggling to be productive with my time. Perhaps the reason i got so far away from God was because i slacked on doing daily devotions. I pridefully chose to do other activities rather than spend a few moments with my God. One of the most important things we can do to keep ourselves close to Christ is to meet with Him daily in some intentional quiet time.
When summer began, i quickly dropped my pursuit in growing towards my goals. I lost strength and determination in living for Him. I made compromises little by little, which lead me far off into the darkness of my sins. I allowed my sin to separate me from coming to Him. My self-condemnation ate me up for making so many bad decisions and mistakes, that i hide my guilt from God, rather than running back to Him in repentance. Breaking off close communication in prayer, being angry at myself, taking things too easy, and being distracted by the world really threw me off course. I constantly want to strive for holiness and righteousness. I want to be close with God, and find deeper joy, peace and love in Him, but often times i get way too easily distracted.
Paul Washer once said.. "How can He be so glorious, and yet my heart so dull? How can He be so wonderful and yet my mind be attracted to other things? Alot of people are excited about going to heaven because there will be no more sin and death, which is all very true. But one of the things I look forward to most is finally having my foolish heart directed rightly." Somethin along those lines..
I hate it when i sin against God. I hate it when my heart falls away into worldly lust and becomes distracted from the most beautiful treasure. My heart is so broken that i settle for weak pleasures over the love of Christ. Some days i find it so hard to come to Him, I find it pitiful that i have to try and force myself to pray for jus 5 minutes. It's pathetic that i would have to force myself to read my bible. It should be an extreme joy to spend time with Him. Wouldnt it be sad if you had to force urself to love your spouse? Why does our passion burn out when we are invited into such a intimate relationship? We should never see following Jesus as something we hafta grudgingly do, but as something we get to lovingly do. We are in desperate need for God to fill us with new desires. Im glad that God will one day complete His work in me and have fix my heart in full worship to Him.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph 2:8-10
What desires are we feeding? Where are our eyes? Are we feeding our lust? Or are we feeding our Spirit? What are we craving? What is our deepest desire? What kind of life are we practicing? Being called a Christian is not a title, it's a lifestyle.
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June 24
Comfort of the Flesh
Today i was very unsuccessful in my spiritual walk with God. My entire body is super sore from working out yesterday, so i decided to stay home and rest. I basically watched tv and played video games all day. For some reason i have a the hardest time making time for God, when i have a lot of time. I think it's because it's super easy to just push God on the side for later. I constantly find my flesh persuading me to be lazy and take it easy, while the Spirit is eager with excitement, burning passion and a heart after God. Our souls must constantly make a decision to either allow the Holy Spirit to move within us, or a decision to deny Him. The sinful flesh will win many battles over our hearts and minds, but in the end it will be the Spirit that triumphs in victory. It seems God works the most when we are broken in our failures, full of repentance, and see our desperate need for a savior. We must decrease so He can increase.
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July 19
Rescued
There is nothing compared to God’s love. Nothing so beautiful, glorious, and pure as my God. He satisfies every single one of my needs. Today is the zillionth time God has knocked me off my feet and shown me His ridiculously awesome love. Oh Lord how many times have I broken your heart? And yet you still forgive all that I am, and smile graciously upon me.
He hugs me tighter and tighter, never letting go. He increases my faith, builds me up in devotion, trains me in His righteousness, teaches me His holy ways, picks me up from trials big and small, fills me and empowers me with His Holy Spirit, His voice speaks and pierces my heart, He transforms my heart to extreme joy, grants me calm peace, makes my heart beat with stronger determination, He raises me on wings like eagles, He shows me visions and dreams, He surrounds me when im lonely, He holds me in His warm embrace, He sweeps me with His deep compassion, He disciplines me when I go off track, He justified me when I was lost, He constantly sanctifies me from all my unrighteousness, He convicts me of my sin, helps me to deny my sinful nature, protects me from temptation, (gasps for air)
He lifts me up from all my insecurities, He expands my territory, He blesses me with an abundant life, He adds great people into my life, He shepherds me when I get distracted, He lends me divine strength and motivation to follow Him, He pushes me when I cant go any further, He ignites a burning passion and rekindles my flame, He comforts me in all my sorrows, He encourages me to evangelize and disciple, He calls me to serve others, He helps me to build on old and new relationships, He provides shelter through the storms, He quenches all my thirst, He rejuvenates my spirit when im dry, He heals me from all my iniquities, He furiously longs for me to come to Him, He rejoices when I have a heart of worship, He reveals Himself more and more, He shines His incredible light through me, and most of all He loves me unconditionally as His precious child. I am in complete astonishment and amazement of how blessed I am to have such a faithful and intimate God.
My soul will rejoice, dance, shout praise, and sing. When darkness, tribulation, and evil come knocking, I will declare God as my holy king. I will stand up and say with confidence that my God reigns supreme over all the universe. I will delight in His ways. I will drink from His Spirit. I am breaking through my shame, doubt, fear, and unhealthy guilt. He constantly rescues me from my self-condemnation and selfish pride. He continues to wash me whiter than snow. His Word is written on my heart, and is sweeter than honey. My soul yearns for more of Him. I will no longer bow down to man made images, cultural norms, and worldly idols. For my God holds all authority, all power, and all glory.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. Psalm 18:16-19
I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. He stirs me up in relentless pursuit. I’ll stand with my heart wide open. I’ll sit in stillness and wait upon Him, I will lift my hands to His holy Name. For I have been saved, and made alive in Christ. He has breathed life into me. What I once considered gain, I now consider loss. All my works of righteousness have become rubbish, dung and filthy rags. For now I know truth that He is Lord of all Lords, and King above all Kings. He is of infinite worth and perfectly wonderful no matter what the world says. No one can take my God away from me. Nothing can separate me from His love. No one can snatch me out of His hand, including myself. I am His forever. I am locked away, secure, and hidden in His holy kingdom. I am extremely proud to be a called a child of God, and be able to call Him my Abba Father. I am a new creation, being beautified, and being molded into His likeness. No matter how much the world may change, God is the same yesterday, today and forever. I am not perfect, but I worship a God who is.
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July 12
Adopted
I once was fatherless. I was a stranger with no hope. I was an orphan. I was blind and consumed with darkness. I had nothing but a broken heart. I was empty, lost, and a slave to sin.
But now I have a perfect Father, because He adopted me as His own child. He has given me a hope, and assurance of my faith. He has healed my eyes and gave me sight to see His light and truth. He has redeemed my soul, regenerated my heart, and filled me with His Spirit. He rescued me to give me new life and freedom. Now I have become a bond servant, selling all my freedom and everything that I am back to my Master, because no one else can protect, care or love me as much as my Father in Heaven can.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Cor 3:17
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July 28
Oh my God!
Today i woke up to a lazy start. I pushed aside quiet time with God because of summer skool and other church responsibilities. When i came home i easily wasted a few hours watching tv and taking a nap. But after i woke up, i got motivated to go to the gym. And it seems every time i go to the gym, my thoughts are allowed to reflect on my heart. I was actually completely unaware of God, and oblivious to Him, until a rush of wind blew all around me. All of a sudden God consumed me with His love. He attached a magnet to my heart, which drew me towards His heart. His Spirit poured out tons of revelations which I continued to meditate on for a few hours. I relearned a tremendous amount of knowledge and truth just by spending time with Him.
Abiding in Christ
Perhaps the biggest revelation i was reminded of was how important it is to abide in Christ. We need to practice godliness, train in His righteousness, seek to glorify Him, deepen in loving others, and dwell in His word, will & way. If you are feeling tired, weary, stressed out, empty and burnt out, go and meditate on God. Listening to sermons on the computer, tv, and radio have really strengthened my walk. We must always remember to abide in Him, because branches not connected to the vine do not bear any fruit. Remain in His love, and He will prune and sanctify us for His glory. If you seek to grow in your relationship with God, we must wait upon Him, seek after Him, and cry out to Him. Are you standing under the spout of God? Are we being a vessel, funnel, messenger, and instrument for His glory?
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-5
Today it was evident that Christ lives in me. God's truths pierced deep into my heart. I am continuously witnessing how true God's promises in the Bible are. God never breaks His word, and is always faithful to what He says. God once told me personally, "I will make you strong in me." He revealed that He would use me for His work. Moses saw himself as an unlikely leader, but God used him and constantly strengthen him to lead His people. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in me, He told me that my words will be His very words, that He would speak through me.
Today He reminded me not to attract attention to myself, but to point all the glory to Him. He said not to seek praise and appreciation from men, but to exult Him as Lord. I am not the teacher, educator, or leader, but He is. Everything i am is really His. I can confidently say that I lack nothing, because all i truly need is Him. There is nothing greater in this world. He has shown me life. It doesnt matter what happens, it doesnt matter what anyone says or does, because I have God's love that can never be taken away. If God is for us, who can be against us. This is the secret of being content in plenty or little, whether the skies are blue or gray, He reigns sovereign over all. He sustains and upholds the entire universe without effort. He goes far beyond out tiny minds. He is extremely perfect in every way. He is most holy, mighty and worthy. His love is all powerful.
Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus
As i mentioned before, God's love is new each day. His love is exciting, addicting, crazy awesome, passionate, powerful, amazing, motivating, surprising, and full of blessings. He is constantly thinking about you, full of emotion. We are all important and significant in His eyes. I have been captured by His love, and I love that He wont let me escape. He says "You're mine. You are my child." He doesnt care what ive done, or who ive become, He just wants me to come home to Him. He wants me to see who He is, and how He can wash away all my filth. It's never too late to cast your sin, sorrow, and stress on Him, and allow Him to renew you.
Denying Our Sin
Keeping our eyes on Christ also helps us to deny our sinful desires.Its quite amazing having God break down our stubborn and prideful walls we build against Him. He gives us a choice, our sin or Him. Life or death? Blessings or curses? What path will you take? Which will you choose? Which is better? When we're living for Him, we're not living for our self. When we're looking forward, we arnt looking backwards. When we're looking towards God, we arnt looking towards ourselves. When God's desires are first in our hearts, we no longer care to please our flesh. Yes we will continue to sin, fall short, and lust after other things, but the question is, will you stay there? Or will you get up and move forward? God tells us to let go of our burdens and the sinful baggage that we lug around. He always gives us a way out of temptation, and also a way out from the road that leads to destruction.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:8-10
A little boy once put his hand into a valuable vase. He couldnt seem to get his hand out. His dad came and tried to yank it out but it was still stuck. The father said, "Now my son, try once more, but this time open your hand and hold your fingers out straight and then pull." The boy responded, "Oh no Daddy. I couldn't put my fingers like that because if I did, I would drop my penny." This story is pretty funny, but it really does portray how unwilling we often are to surrender everything. We often want to hold on to a sin that prevents us from accepting God's freedom.
Worthy
God is worth both living and dying for. We go from glory to glory. He is worth suffering for. For now we are engaged with His promises. But God is completely worth waiting for, because one day we will be worked to completion. We will have a perfect union with Him. We can settle for our puddle or pool, or be blessed with the gigantic ocean God has in store for us. We can either settle for little worldly shiny things, or fix our eyes on the greatest eternal treasure, worth more than all the rubies, riches, and gems of the world. He Himself is that treasure. He is of eternal value and truth. His love endures forever. Seek after me with all your heart, and you will surely find him. He reveals even to those who arnt seeking Him. He offers shelter and comfort to the lonely and lost. He influences our decisions and guides us to choose Him, and yet allows us to be responsible for our choices.
"I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, 'Here am I, here am I." Isaiah 65:1
"The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble." Ps 9:9
"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deut 4:29
"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." 1 Chronicles 28:9
God's Perspective
Ever wonder why we often automatically smile when we see little children? I believe this is how God sees us. He delights over our enjoyment of life. He rejoices when we're full of joy and come to Him as His children. Psychology is what man thinks of man, Theology is what God thinks of man. And philosophy is a confusing mixture of the two, lol. The more we read God's word, the bible, we are enlightened with His perspective. We learn how He worked through people, a nation, and through Himself manifested in a man. He became our perfect Lamb, everlasting atonement, and rescued us from our sins. Why did God go through all this creating, and working? Why does He tells us to turn from our sins? How does He command we live? All of this for what purpose? Does God really need a people to glorify Him? What is His true character? How does God see us? One of the biggest keys to genuinely loving people, is by seeing others through His perspective. How does God see you?
August 4
Living For God
Today I realized that I still live so much for myself. I shy away from talking about Christ, and that i allow the fear of man prevent me from challenging others, because i dont want to make others feel uncomfortable. I think often times we just let people go their own ways, and dont try to intervene even when they're going in the wrong direction. Sometimes we're shy to correct because we dont want anyone to feel offended. If we claim to be Christian, Shouldnt we be living completely for Christ? How much time do we really spend waiting upon God, listening to what the Holy Spirit has planned? Do we really have an intimate relationship with Christ? Why do we continue to push God aside for our own pleasures? Shouldnt God be everything in our lives, the most important person in our lives? Christians cannot be ashamed of the gospel, and not ashamed to talk about Jesus. Are we really committed to saving the lost? Shouldnt it be a great joy to share our redeemer with others? What does truly loving on others look like? Are our lives really reflecting Jesus? Are we living with the faith of the disciples? Is God a reality to us? How serious are we about following God? Are we living just like everyone else? God doesnt want lukewarm christians. It's all or nothing.
Jesus was a scandal. People hated Him for the truth that He spoke. There we're crowds of chaos because of the things He taught. Imagine if Jesus never wanted any conflict with anyone, and didnt want to risk being different. He stood for truth and righteousness, even if some people might have been offended by it. If we arnt challenging anyone, if we arnt living as we're called to be, then we arnt conforming into His image. We should live in His likeness, and be bold in faith. If the first thing you do is surrender to Christ in humility, and pray to live by the Holy Spirit, you are already living 100% for Him. Step out of comfort, be and live as a child of light. Jesus said to go fourth and make disciples in His Name. Are we?
2) Man’s Pride
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Living Through God’s Love
Are we motivated by Selfish love or God's love? I believe those are the only two options. Love for others will ultimately fall under one of the two. Are we giving glory to ourselves or God? By observing God's Word, we begin to observe ourselves, and start to see ourselves at our deepest essence. We constantly need to examine our hearts to see who we've been living for. I find it strange that God designed us for His glory, and yet we have foolishly lifted ourselves as idols. Compare the difference between following Selfish love and God's love. Who are you living for?
Selfish Love
Living for Self
Love others for yourself
Very conditional love
Doing all things to please self
What we see best
Worldly and carnal pleasures
About what we get out of it
Living for now
Comfortable
Shortcuts
Worships self
Only concerned with self
Appearances, self image
Pride
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God's Love
Living for God
Sharing God's love to others
Pours out unconditionally
Doing all things to praise Him
Connected with God's will
Living for eternal things
How to glorify Him in all things
A joyful heart
Worship/Prayer
Our highest pleasure
Integrity, Kindness
Humility
Okay so we can clearly see that we should be living through the Spirit of God. Now how exactly do we live for God? I believe it starts by seeing our true selves, and being broken over our sin in repentance. We must come to God with everything that we are, and just allow Him to love you. Intentionally try to fill yourself with God's love, accepting His grace, mercy, healing, blessings, and guidance. We can only love God back by being motivated by His love for us. As children we must work on receiving and believing everything He wants to give us. It's not so easy to accept such an extraordinary gift when we know we're not deserving. I believe repentence, obedience and surrendering to Him requires Faith, trusting that He will hold us. God's love for us and the beginning of our love back to Him, will start a deep love relationship, which will dramatically change your life, and should automatically pour out into loving others.
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." 2 Cor 8:9
"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2 Cor 5:14-15
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Seeking Approval
ME. ME. ME. We naturally seek attention, approval of others, and social acceptance. Our souls greatly hunger to be loved. From infants we began seeking to be cared and thought about. We wish to be significant and valued. We want all our needs satisfied. The problem is that we are seeking these things from others rather than from God, who perfectly satisfies our empty hearts. God's love fulfills our deepest thirst, offers us the greatest peace, joy, accepts us just as we are, and is never, never, never based on our performance. If your struggling to find God, truth, and this whole thing we call life, then try starting at God's love for us.
Sometimes we like people to recognize our good works and spirituality. Sometimes we boast about our knowledge, our self righteousness and our good deeds to steal some of the glory for ourselves. We seek to be praised by men or at least seen for our good actions. Sometimes we must ask ourselves, "Who deserves the glory? Who am i honoring? Am i trying to impress and please men?" Even when we're trying to worship God, it can easily become worshiping our own image. Do all things for His glory, for He see's all our intentions of our heart. God is sometimes most glorified, when things are done in secret. Whether Christian or not, try catching yourself on how you change your behavior just because someone is near you. You'll begin to realize how much we're concerned about our self presentation.
"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10
"On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else." 1 Thes 2:4-6
Sometimes we can get so obsessed with teaching that we don’t realize how much we really need to learn. Men have so many different answers. Everyone has a belief in some way. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone wants to be right. Instead of being focused on sharing our opinion, we must come to the Word of God. Because when we come to scripture, there is no other authority or truth. Everything comes down to “What does God say?” and what is “God’s opinion?” We need to spend less time teaching what we think, and actually study what God thinks. This is why I stress the severe importance of holding all truth to God’s authority in scripture. We need much discernment, and be able correct, rebuke, and judge righteously with love. Rather than just letting people go their own way and go to where their headed, Sometimes the most loving thing we could do is tell someone to stop and really look where that path goes.
The number one thing people like to talk about is themselves, their life and what they know. By nature we want to boast our own image because we want to be liked. Im sure all of us have been in conversations where we meet someone who can talk about themselves for others on and on. On the flip side im sure we’ve been in conversations where all we’re doing is talking about ourselves. Sometimes it takes more love and humility to just listen and care about what others are talking about. We need to be others minded in expressing our love. Try guiding conversations by getting people to share about their life. Taking the time to listen and ask ppl questions about themselves, will show them that u take an interest in their lives and that they are meaningful to you. Try catching the amount of times where all we’re doing is talking about ourselves. Take the time to speak into someone’s life, and share Christ with them by building on relationships.
I still often find myself caring so much what other people think. I catch myself often trying to impress or look cool to people. It's funny how easy it is to get caught up with appearances and how we try to appeal to people. We are so concerned with what we want. We get so caught up with our appearances and reputations, We need to stop living for ourselves. We need to stop focusing on being self pleasing and people pleasers and become God pleasers. Are we worshiping our own image or the Son of God?
"To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men." -A.W. Tozer
We as Christians are called to be different than the world. Im not saying that we need to stop caring for ourselves. Im saying we should be more intentional with loving others, and putting others before us. We need to be able to sympathize, and be considerate of including people, and making them feel appreciated and valued. If Christians are still living the same, loving only themselves, stuck in carnality, only thinking about themselves, without salt, and living with a very dim light, then one must examine if one is truly a saved Christian.
"For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men." 1 Cor 7:22-23
Could you imagine going to heaven, and God saying, "I never knew you, Away from me evildoer!" Are we living lukewarm? Are we still in our easy comforts, and living it safe? Christ calls us to be ambassadors, royal priest, the light to the world, and a witness to all. Our lives should reflect Jesus. The Holy Spirit should be obviously evident in our lives. We must continue to die to our sinful nature, until God works us to completion. We must be as a bridesmaid, devoted, beautifying in good works, increasing in our love, living righteously, and waiting anxiously for the bridegroom so we can be in perfect union.
3) Sanctification
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One of the main things I like to talk about is pursuing righteousness and sanctification. The evidence that we’ve been justified is that we are being sanctified. Are we growing? Are we taking our sins seriously? Or are we okay with living in a sinful lifestyle? Do we even recognize how we’re living? What would you think if you saw a Christian pastor practicing a sinful lifestyle and not even feeling convicted or guilty about it? We as Christians need to examine our lives and hearts constantly.
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Eph 4:22-25
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Reaffirm
Many of us have confessed our life, many of us have made the decision to follow Him, but yet we still find ourselves falling into routine, empty words, and familiarity. God is never boring and old. He's love is actually refreshingly new each day. He continues to increase our faith, spark up joy, draw us closer, and reveal Himself more. Now it's time to follow what we have claim and declare. It's time to walk our Christian walk. We must constantly rededicate, devote, surrender and profess our allegiance in living all for Him. We must unite the church as a strong army, following under our King, and willing to lay down our lives for Him. Paul says "For to me, to live is Christ" He understood that Christ is the only one worth living for. For there is no gain in death unless we are in Christ. We must stand up as God’s people, and live through the Spirit.
Reading in 2 Cor, it talks about how we must reaffirm our love. We must become the aroma of Christ and the fragrance of life. We must clothe ourselves with God’s Spirit. We must have God's Word written on our hearts. God invites us to share what He has shown us. He lets us take joy in spreading the gospel, and lets us reap the rewards of tending His people. He lets us play a role in His divine plan, so we can be a part of His purposes and be a living witness of God's greatness.
"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." 2 Cor 3:2-3
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Phil 1:20-21
"..because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Cor 4:14-18
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Ready to Move Forward
I am ready to leave behind my old lifestyles, habits and sins. I want to move forward in my relationship with Christ. I am ready to take my faith and walk more seriously. I am ready to grow, ready to learn, ready to surrender, ready to follow, and ready to love. I desire a heart after God. I have gone through a season running on my own strength, and running dry of the Spirit. I now see how meaningless and empty life is without Christ at the center. I have looked to other places to satisfy this quenching thirst, only to find that God is the only one who can ever satisfy.
I have been met by His love personally. I have felt the rush of His beautiful love. I have been swept away by His compassion. I have found incredible and powerful joy in Him. He has given me rest and peace throughout my trials. I have become addicted to Christ. And although i have fallen short of my goals, pursuit, and obedience, He still looks down and loves me regardless of my performance.
"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them." 2 Cor5:14-19
I am a new creature, a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come. I am reconciled to Christ. And because He who had no sin, became sin for me, I am forgiven of my sins. I am set free from the chains of sin. I am born again in Spirit. I no longer want to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I offer my body as a living sacrifice and my life as a spiritual act of worship. God my Father has adopted me as His child. He comforts me during my distress, loneliness, and worry. He heals me of my pain, hurt and sorrow. He strengthens me when i am weak, tired and broken. He guides me when im lost, empty, and distracted. But most of all, He never stops loving me in all situations.
Lately i have been feeling extremely convicted. Sometimes the greatest sins are of omission. We think, "Well hey im not doing anything wrong, im just doing what i want to do." I am sick of tired of putting myself first over God. When we are not seeking to glorify God, we are already in sin. Thank God His grace covers all of my sins! His Word tells me that i no longer have to be conquered by my sins, and that i can stand for righteousness, leave by heavy burdens behind, take up my cross and live in victory. I am no longer a prisoner of war, but rescued by Jesus. I am ready to march forward. I hope you will join me in this pursuit.
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:3-11
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6/29 Redeemed
Today i felt like i had another break through. I began to look at how far God has taken me. I began seeing how transformed my life had become. I am increasingly being conformed to the image of Christ. Jesus has become my life. He has become my everything. He is not just a part of my life, He has changed how i see and do everything. God has changed me at the core, and changed the way i see people, time, money, family, friends, relationships, conversations, thoughts, actions and life itself. God is pouring out into every aspect of my life.
I pray that you wouldnt see this as boasting about my spirituality, but as a witness and testimony. It's not just what God has done, but what He is continually doing in my life. Perhaps the reason Paul boasted about his weaknesses, was because he was really boasting about how God had become he's strength. I think God's grace is more evident, when we acknowledge our weaknesses and sinful heart. The more we strive for humility and obedience, the more we'll see God work in our lives.
For the past two weeks or so we've been having a guy prank calling our house. He calls at any hour of the day, but mostly between 2-7am. He tries to talk to my mom and lead it into a very sexual and perverted conversation. Every time i talk or tell him to stop calling, he just hangs up and calls later. My mom has been tolerating it, but i basically ended up retaliating. This guy would not give into polite request or patience, so I basically yelled and told him off. Its strange how deep anger can often lead into compromising with sin. We finally called the phone company and they settled the situation. But reflecting back, I should have handled the situation better. Loving your enemies and those that wrong you is much easier said then done.
So today, as i driving to the gym, and walking to the gym, God showed me how important He is compared to everything else. Nothing in life really matters except the question, "Do you have Jesus?" Having Christ in your life should change your life dramatically. I can see how i was once in darkness, blinded from any form of truth, and then how i was rescued, redeemed, saved, and given eyes to see the light. My heart continues to be stunned in amazement at God's infinite love. I can see how my desires need to be constantly transformed by Him. I can see how He teaches me new things, reveals more knowledge and guides me by the Spirit. And even when i choose to follow my own ways, God is always there, never leaving me alone or forsaking me. He always prevails, always comforts, and always loves. Finding joy and peace in Him go beyond anything of this world. We have spiritual weapons that can demolish strongholds. We can defeat our fleshly, worldly temptations by turning to the power of Christ. When God is on our side, there is no problem to big or too small, nothing and no one to fear. At this very moment, I am being comforted, valued, strengthened, blessed, loved, cared for, and cherished in the eyes of my Father. Nothing can separate me from the love of my God. That gives me a reason to worship, a reason to live, and a reason to rejoice.
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." Titus 2:11-14
Conviction
What is conviction? Conviction is more than declaring yourself guilty. Conviction normally leads to repentance. When we come to see the goodness, righteousness, and holiness of our God, we cannot help but see that we have missed the mark. Perhaps this is why people dont want to see God. People don't want to see their own sins, failures, and bad decisions, so we sweep it under the rug, and pretend that we're a decent, good and respectable human being. The gospel is not preached to condemn and punish the guilty. The gospel is the "good news". The gospel speaks of a cure for our sins. The gospel isn't just to lighten a heavy burden of guilt, but to set us free from the chains of a slavery of sin. By no means am i saying once you truly come to Christ you wont ever sin anymore. Rather i am saying that God, will no longer choose to see our sins, because the One who was blameless vouched for us. Christ not only covered our unpayable debt, He not only forgives us of all our wrongs, but He has graciously given us new eyes to see the truth, a new heart that beats for God's love, and a new life that is secured away in eternity.
In the Christian life, we should see Christians coming to greater and greater repentance. In this journey that we take, little by little we should be deepening, strengthening, and growing closer to Christ. There's no improvement if we settle for where we are. The deeper our convictions, the deeper our repentance, the stronger our faith builds, the more confident we should be in our salvation, and the more we should be filled with the Holy Spirit. A deeper revelation, a stronger pursuit for righteousness, and a greater zeal for Jesus will lead to unsurpassing joy.
"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." 2 Cor 7:10
When we look at Saul, aka Paul in the New Testament, we see a great conversion of his life. He was completely against Christians, he jailed them, punished them, and murdered Christians. On his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians, he was blinded by a bright light which was brighter than noon day. He encountered a voice, which he addressed as "Lord". Jesus said "Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?" The people with him also saw the light and heard the voice. For three days he didnt eat or drink, while he was still blinded. He underwent such a radical change from seeing the truth. He was met by the resurrected Jesus, the very man he was out to disprove. His entire world was shaken, his foundation was completely turned upside down, his whole life and reality basically disintegrated, he began to see that everything he believe in, everything he was, was all a lie! But from this encounter with Christ, his heart was regenerated, his eyes now began to see the truth of Christ as Lord. He spent the rest of his life enduring the persecution of the Jews, giving up everything to preach the good news to the churches and all that would receive Jesus as Lord.
4) All For His Glory
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God did not create us because He needed us. He created us for His glory and His delight. All of God's creation is meant for the end means of giving Him glory. He can plant a rose in the middle of a forest, that no man will ever pass, just so that He can delight in His glory. In the same way, we are created in His own image, and are a small reflection of His spiritual being. Why do people like to have children? Not because they need them, but because they delight creating a being that they can share love with and grow in an intimate relationship.
One of the things i cant wait to experience, is hearing the amount of praise in heaven. We’ll get to partake in a huge party celebration forever. Heaven will be one glorious anthem of praise. I cant wait to hear all the angels and God's children shouting, rejoicing, praising and singing to His glory. I cant wait to finally meet my Redeemer face to face.
“God by nature is infinite and we are limited. Thus what we now merely apprehend about the creator we will spend an eternity seeking to comprehend. Imagine finally beginning to get a handle on how God is one in nature and three in person. Imagine exploring the depths of Gods love wisdom, and holiness. Imagine forever growing in our capacities to fathom his immensity, immutability and incomprehensibility. And to top it all off the more we come to know Him, the more there will be to know.” –Hank Hanegraaff
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30
Worship
We are all ceaseless worshipers of something. And if you’re a Christian, your number one goal should be seeking to glorify and worship God in everything that you do because He deserves all praise. Our entire lives must reflect God’s image, not only so we can draw others closer to Him, but because it lifts up God’s name in praise. It is not enough to acknowledge God or believe in His existence. A heart of worship is what God desires. Every single day we have a bunch of choices to make. Each choice will either be for ourselves or for the glory and praise of God. Which is better God or your sin? We must examine our lives to see if what we say, think, and do is worshiping God. Are we following in God’s ways or following in our own? Who or what is your god? What do we watch? What do we think about others? How do we behave around others or by ourselves? How do we spend our time? Are we truly spurring others onto love and good deeds? Are we bearing fruit by keeping with repentance? Are we trusting in God’s grace, and putting our faith in Him alone? Are we emptying ourselves and surrendering our lives in humility? This is why we need to seek and pray for the Holy Spirit, because without God in our lives it is impossible to worship Him. Choose God over sin, because He’s better.
Holy Spirit
It’s easy to point out all the wrong things about how we’re doing Christianity. It’s easy to see our failures and sins. But instead of focusing on what things we shouldn’t be doing, we should be looking at what we should be doing. This generation along with the rest, will always be in dire need of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to have any sort of spiritual heart transformation without God in the picture. The Holy Spirit is actually what lead us to choose Christ in the first place. The Holy Spirit constantly intercedes for us in prayer and worship. The Holy Spirit does not gratify the desires of our sinful nature. The Holy Spirit reveals truth, stirs up joy within us, offers us rest, leads us to repentance, gives us God’s desires, empowers us, comforts us, counsels us, teaches us, speaks through us, helps us to love others and do good deeds. We can do nothing good or right on our own efforts and strength. Everything we do that is pleasing to the Lord is actually powered by the Holy Spirit. Lastly, the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of our sin and works on transforming us into the likeness of Christ.
"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." Gal 5:16-17
"We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:13-16
Fighting for Joy
Following God’s ways without Joy is raw obedience. A life that has no joy in Christianity is an empty religion. A life full and abundant of joy is an intimate relationship with God. Joy is essential in serving, worshiping, and loving others. Happiness is usually conditioned on events, rewards, and positive feelings. But Joy is based off of God’s love. Life is much more appreciated when we are in awe of our blessings, when we’re thankful for little things, enjoying relationships, and grateful for a perfect redeemer. If you examine your walk with God, you’ll see that He doesn’t just redeem us once and abandon us. He redeems us constantly, over and over again from the unhealthy guilt of our sin. He redeems our dried out spirit. He redeems our joy in Him. Joy is worth suffering for. Joy is worth fighting for. We must be intentional with pursuing God. Wait upon Him. Seek Him. Desire Him. Hunger and thirst Him. Surrender and give up your own efforts. Fall into His grace. Find love, joy and peace in Him.
When we are most filled with the Holy Spirit, we have the most joy, and automatically worship God. When we are close to God we are far from sin. When we are in love with Him the most, we begin to love others more. Our deepest desire shouldn’t be for a heaven, or to have better morals, or a desire of spiritual gifts, or a feeling of joy or peace. Our deepest desire should be Him alone. All we should want is Him, and not just His gifts, power and forgiveness. Love Him for who He is, and not just what He does.
"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." -CS Lewis
"These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:7-8
Practicing Godliness
This blog is titled "Resolved". Another word to describe my pursuit, would be Determined. I am determined and resolved to pursue godliness. Godliness is moving closer to looking like Christ. We want to reflect His glory by living with pure and holy lives. The Bible constantly tells us to be blameless. Once we are saved from the bondage of sin, we should no longer look back on our old lives. When temptation and flesh desires arrive, how does God want us to respond? In order to move forward, we must deny our old selfish ways.
Practicing godliness is living with integrity, and loving on others. When Christians pursue righteousness we are able to shine the brightest, and give Him all praise. Surrendering our selves, giving Him everything, and all that we are should result in a deeper relationship with Him, a greater joy, and stronger love for others. We must become resolved to our convictions, moved by the Holy Spirit, and live according to His word, will and way. Sanctification always increases our spiritual growth, and cleans us from our unrighteousness. We all suffer from our addictions, anger, pride, lust, etc.. We must allow God to discipline us, train us, and empower us to conquer over our sins.
5) Between God and His People
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The Body of Christ
Sometimes I can be quick to criticize churches and christians living in sin. My discernment has a distaste when I hear hypocrisy and false teaching. Sometimes it can be easy to complain with how ministries run their agendas. Sometimes I catch myself in legalism. I can be quick to say “Woe” to those that are very prideful. But one thing that God has been convicting me of is that I should really be saying “Woe to me!” Examining my life I can see so much compromise, hypocritical teaching, short fuses, slow to exhort others, a lack of edification, lack of obedience and lack of eagerness to serve. I find myself complaining, slandering, and speaking negatively about people. My sinful heart, selfish motives, and lazy attitude is quite obvious to me. Thank God that He is working on His people and covers us with His infinite grace.
On the other hand, I feel like I haven’t been judging other’s actions righteously. I believe we are called to rebuke our fellow Christian brothers and sisters, but with a dramatic heart filled with love. I have such a fear of correcting or warning others about sin, because I’m afraid of their reaction. So in this area I tend to hold my tongue and shy down from preaching God’s will. I would encourage Christians to encourage, rebuke and spur each other on towards love, good deeds and also righteousness. So this is an area where God is definitely challenging me lately.
We need to meet for more small groups, bible studies, fellowship, worship and prayer nights. I definitely feel that we need to raise up a stronger church. We have heard enough entertaining, self help, time management, psychological modification, prosperity, religious morals, and how to get out of debt messages. The gathering of the church is primarily meant to build up saints, equipping them to preach the gospel. The gospel is the most appealing thing we could be teaching. Doctrines of salvation, repentance of sin, grace, justification, sanctification and Jesus need to be preached, even if it may offend some. Yes the church must be relevant, but we mustn’t cheapen the gospel. Soft churches raise up soft Christians. We need to be a body pursuing truth, righteousness, prayer, devotion and holding to the authority to scripture. Christ should be the head pastor and the Holy Spirit should be running the ministry. It’s time for us as Christians to take our walk seriously and move forward.
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:22-23
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Loving Others
I am becoming more broken for the lost, and more loving towards people i don't even know. Its not just the poor, lonely, and sick, but also the rich, popular, and prideful that we are to love on. We are to love our enemies, strangers, young and old, and treat everyone with the same love. Regardless of who people are, where they're from, what they've have done, or what they look like, we are should see people through God's eyes. We need to strive to love as God loves.
One of the most difficult things that im striving for is truly loving on others. I can easily catch myself thinking negative thoughts about others, and can find myself getting irritated with some people. Have you ever come across someone who is only concerned with him or herself? Someone that only talks about things that interest them, and only do things that benefit themselves? I find it very difficult at times to humble myself, listen to them, and respond in love. I know that often times I still do things for my own convenience and personal benefit, and God calls that selfish pride. But I know God is transforming the way i see and respond to people. Sit down with people, listen to those who like to talk. Maybe they'll start to listen and respect what you say. Humility is a huge key for unlocking the Holy Spirit in your life.
I just realized how many opportunities that I have missed to love on others. Sometimes I don’t express it very well. We need to be like children when we approach others. Children are accepting. They reach out. They arnt afraid to approach you and give you a free smile. It’s interesting how easy children arnt afraid or shy to hug and say “I love you.” It natural for children to be playful and full of joy. Perhaps this is also why God has called us His children of light.
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7/6 Absorbing God's Love
If you look at the life styles of those that are obsessed with God, you'll see that they have a giant funnel for God's love to pour into their lives. Those that are addicted to Christ, want nothing else but Him. Those that are starving for more, tend to have a pretty deep relationship with God. I am convinced that we need to spend much more time absorbing God's love. One of the most difficult things to do is to just accept God's love for us. Sometimes it's so hard to believe that God loves us as much as He says. Sometimes it's hard to surrender and just let God's love heal our wounds. Cars that dont fill up on gas tend to die out and stop moving forward. This also applies to our constant need for God's love. The reason i often find myself "burnt out" is because i havn't took the time to absorb God's infinite love and mercies. Become a sponge and soak up His love. He never abandons and never fails. Fill up on the Spirit. Find peace, rest and joy in Him.
We don’t need a formula. We don’t need to figure out God and understand everything. Because otherwise we might miss out on the relationship with Him. We are to just embrace his love and all that He is. Yes, God is infinitely bigger than we can imagine, but the more we seek, the more He reveals His character. Chase after God’s heart. And make time to wait upon Him, listen to His voice, and be carried away by His intimate love.
6) A New Heart
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Unregenerated
In the Bible they often talk about the human heart. The human heart is the deepest essence of who we are. Psychologist and counselors often try to help people through behavioral modification. The problem is, that people don’t truly know the source of all their problems. The source of all our problems is the human heart. Our hearts are born tainted with sin. We are naturally born spiritually dead.
“but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:17
So by Genesis 2, we learn about the problem of sin. Man no longer has a perfect communion and relationship with God because humanity died spiritually. Our hearts are born broken, desiring evil and full of unbelief.
When God commands the mountains to raise up, they do. When God calls the oceans travel and move upon the earth, they do. When God commands man to "follow me", man looks back and says "No." Our lives are a contradiction, because we do not do what we were created for. We turn from our creator and worship ourselves. This is sin.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:11-12
Our sin deserves death and complete separation from God, but out of God's love and grace, He gave us One worthy of atonement of our sins. Jesus was sent to take the place of all our evil sins, so we could enter into a relationship with God with who we were created for. Now, this doesnt mean that we become perfect, because we still live in our flesh, but through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we are being worked to completion, so that we may become in His likeness and finally find perfect unity with Him in Heaven for eternity.
Why do we need a new heart? Because we are born with an evil heart full of unbelief. We are born with a selfish and sinful heart. Why? Because we were born from the first Adam, who is the father of flesh. But the second Adam, which is Jesus, gave birth to the Spirit. Just as flesh gives birth to flesh, the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
Born Again
"Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again." John 3:5-7
"For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."
1 Cor 15:21-22
"If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." 1 Cor 15:44-49
"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." Romans 5:15-19
"We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5:21
Now if we skip ahead to the gospel, we are introduced to the hero of humanity. A man named Jesus begins fulfilling choke prophecies. I think He fulfilled over 300 prophecies regarding the Christ. He began teaching in parables that many could not understand. He comes across a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who wonders what He must do to inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus plainly tells him that he must be born again. And I find it funny how Nicodemus gets confused, thinking he must reenter his mother’s womb. But im sure I’d be pretty confused about what it means to be “born again”.
"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again. John 3:3-7
Atonement
Now things start to piece together. Through Adam we became sinners. He is the first father of humanity. But through the human flesh we have all fallen. Now Jesus begins to explain that He is one with the Father of the Spirit. Through Him, we become born again, and are given life with the Holy Spirit. Becoming born again means we have Christ within us. Christ came to abolish the old covenant, and set up a kingdom that will rule for eternity. But this kingdom is not like any earthy kingdom, it is the kingdom of God. Once born again we realized that we are eternally secure and locked away in this spiritual kingdom, where God reigns supreme forever.
"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."
1 Peter 3:18
Okay, so how exactly do we enter this kingdom and become born again? We’ll only people without sin are welcomed into this perfect kingdom. People will try to find all sorts of ways into the promise of salvation, but there is only one door. As im sure you've heard, Jesus is the Son of God, and came to this world to reconcile us. He came to redeem His people. He does not count man’s sin against us once we choose to follow Him.
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5:21
"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture." John 10:9
Surrendering
Okay so how do we receive this new heart? Well, it starts by surrendering our pride, and asking Him. Once we come to the reality of our sins, we seek to be cleansed. We can start by saying “Hey God.. please save me from my sins. Begin to work in my life I’ve gone searching in all sorts of directions, and now you’re my only hope. Im tired of trying to do things on my own. Im sick of carrying this burden on my heart. I repent of my sins. Please forgive me for the evil in my heart. Please be my Lord and Savior. Please help me in my unbelief, help me in my weakness, and help me to live the life that you created me for. Thank you for loving me so much to send your Son Jesus to die for my sins. Come into my life and change me at the heart.”
So once we begin to surrender, we begin to see God work in our lives. When we continue to seek and ask for Him, God starts to take over. He fills us with the Holy Spirit, and helps us to come to Him. Some people think that just by saying the sinner's prayer means that their saved. However this is only the first step in making a decision to follow Him. We must continue to cry out from the depths of our hearts, until God reaches down, saves you, and truly forms a relationship with you. You'll begin to live completely different, have a changed heart, and have new desires to grow closer to Him.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:26-27
Just because we have come to Christ before, it doesnt mean that all our sinful desires just disappear. But once we truly come to know Him, we no longer have any excuse to sin. We are no longer under the law, but under grace. And because we are freely saved by His undeserving grace we should be turning from our old selves and fight for righteousness. If someone gave you sight, wouldnt it be foolish to continue living with your eyes closed? Why stay locked up as a prisoner to sin when Christ as gave us freedom? We cannot deliberately continue sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth.
7) Feeling Like God
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Out of this entire blog.. I think this is perhaps the most important chapter. I read a book called "Feeling like God" by Chris Tiegreen. It covered a lot of stuff that i already knew, but added beautiful imagery and expanded on the importance of feeling like God. A Christian walk with God is meant to be emotionally, intimately and passionately felt. Much of this chapter is paraphrased from Chris Tiegreen, and I thought it’d be good to share the lessons ive learned about the emotional side of discipleship.
If you're like me, you’ve kinda been confused with where our emotions should go. Should we reject all our spiritual feelings? Can we trust our emotions? Im sure many of you have heard the saying, "Dont trust your feelings. Dont let your feelings lead you." And for a while i was super confused if i could trust these strong feelings of God. When i feel God's, i feel the closest to Him. This book will probably change your thinking at how we deal with our emotions and feelings.
Relating to God
"The Bible far more often describes God as an emotionally charged being who is deeply, relentlessly in love with his people and who interacts with them regularly on that basis."
Were you curious when you first heard that God was a jealous God? He is jealous because we have turned away in so many directions and have so many other idols that we worship. If you look at His emotions in the prophetic books you'll see that His most prominent emotion is heartbreak. Sometimes we question why God is so wrathful especially in the Old Testament. It's because He lavishly poured out His affections for His people and they repeatedly throw it back in His face. Could you imagine if you had a spouse that betrayed you, cheated on you, and became a prostitute? God Often comes across as a lover who's been stabbed in the back. And even though we as a church, His bride, have gone astray to seek other things to fill, He takes us right back.
God has the capacity to feel multiple emotions at once. God has mixed feelings all the time. At this very moment, for instance, God is comforting someone who's hurting, feeling anger at someone's stubborn rebellion, rejoicing over a sinner who just repented, delighting in the prayers of his children, grieving over the tragedies we inflict on ourselves, and remaining at perfect peace about his plans for the world. God's unchanging personality feels a lot of different things in a lot of different places at the very same time. He is always moving and never stilled by the status quo. It is in his unchanging nature to be dynamic. Getting to taste how God often feels can be a huge window in getting to know Him more personally.
To know God is more than to acknowledge his characteristics and describe his attributes. To know him is to bond with him and to grow continually deeper in our connection with him. That can't be done apart from emotions. Shared information and experiences in themselves don't draw us closer. It's the shared emotional responses to that information and experience that creates closeness.
Power of Emotions
Sometimes we can get so focused with Bible knowledge, theology, apologetics, bible studies, doctrines, and getting truth right in all its details, that we miss the joy that the truth is supposed to lead to. His ultimate goal is for us to rest in his presence and to experience his joy, it's the room temperature of heaven. And most of all He wants us to connect, bond and grow in a relationship with Him.
God is an emotionally charged being, and He created us in His spiritual image. We cant really get to know Him unless we know the emotions that He feels. Connecting to Him is not always by objective truth, often times it's how subjectively we experience Him, helps us to grow closer to Him.
Why does a sport team at it's home court or field often have somewhat of an advantage? We cant really plug the crowd's cheering into a formula, but we do see that the passionate home crowd adds a sense of momentum, and creates a climate of victory. Emotions are contagious, motivating, and very powerful.
The Bible often uses extreme terms to describe his feelings. We don’t want to bring God down by humanizing His emotions, but should get a glimpse of the emotions that God experiences. And instead of seeing God’s emotions as exaggerations, they are probably understatements. His feelings, both positive and negative are more relentless than ours and infinitely higher and lower than ours. He has to hold back the full intensity of His emotions because they would be way too powerful to be unleashed on mere mortals. So He uses small does, which can still overwhelm us and have enough force to move the universe.
Synchronizing Our Hearts
Try putting yourself in God's shoes and image that you created every single person you have come into contact with. How would your feelings change for them? How much more would you begin to love and grieve over the creation of man.
God has given us our feelings like joy, hope, love, anger, jealousy, grief and more so that we can connect to His emotions to a degree. But at the fall of man, emotions got sinfully distorted. So now we base them on the wrong values and perceptions and direct them at the wrong targets. The problem isnt their existence, but their distortion. Instead of using emotions to humanize God down to our level, it actually gives us a highway connection to getting closer to His character. What does God love? What does God hate? Why does God rejoice? Why does God grieve? Mimicking our emotions correctly to how He feels, will indeed draw us closer to knowing and following Him.
Theres a bunch of emotions that God never feels, like despair, fear, discouragement, stress, bitterness, and resentment. When we feel them, we are out of sync and not consistent to His heart. We must conform our emotions and feelings to those of His. Our feelings are good triggers for telling us when we are and arnt correctly tuned to God. We are to follow His passions, desires, and purposes, conforming our hearts to hate what God hates, and love what God loves.
Didja know hearts begin to beat at the same rhythm when they are close to each other? Synchronizing our hearts to His brings us closer to Him. Often times subjective experiences lead us to deeper growth and can have a lasting impact, even though they might not lasted long. Experiencing God is often fuel for ones faith, and a key to opening a deeper relationship with Him. God who is an intensely emotional being, designed us to relate to His feelings. Being born spiritually of Him, we find that our desires and feelings were placed by God to pull us in a certain direction and share His heart. From protecting our hearts from going astray, we must not deny our God given emotions that lead us to Him.
In order to transform our hearts towards His, we must spend more time with Him. This changes the upstream hard work spiritual discipline which can often seem like an obligation or duty, into a joyful appetite and deep pleasure in bonding with the love of our Father. Have you grieved over a lost one who never knew Christ? Have you held a new born baby? Has your love ever been rejected? These emotions and experiences can be a doorway to connecting with God, that textbooks cannot explain. Every emotion we feel, whether positive or negative, is an opportunity to connect with God.
Spok
The book talks about Vulcan Christianity. I found it pretty humorous because i just watched Star Trek. Vulcan Christianity is basically a walk without the emotional side to it. Spok from Star Trek is a Vulcan, who didn't feel emotions, He only followed his logic to make decisions. He would analyze everything rationally, and not let emotions interfere with his judgments. He had a very difficult time feeling any sort of love, anger, trust, or compassion, because he wouldnt allow his feelings to cloud his mind.
"By downplaying emotion, we're elevating the human mind and will as the most stable elements of the soul. If we define stable as unchanging, we may be right. But if we define it in terms of reliability, we're fooling ourselves."
"Our minds draw all kinds of intellectual fallacies from inspired truth. So if we're listening for God's voice only through our own mental reasoning applied to his Word, we're going to be wrong pretty often."
Our human soul includes a mind (intellect), a will (intention to act) and emotions (sentiment). Generally we emphasize the importance of understanding God's Word and applying it, which covers the mind and will, but we miss out on how our feelings connect us. Try having a relationship and taking all emotions away from it. Try worshiping and praying without emotions. Try having a birthday party and hiding all your emotions. Go to a funeral, and suppress you feelings. Doesn't a walk with God, and life in general would seem empty without our emotions? Im not saying that we should only base our lives from our emotions, but saying that we should give it it's rightful place. Our mind, will and emotions act coequal, like the trinity. The three should inform another, and function as a single unit. Following just one will leave us with only a shallow connection. I have fallen into each of these following categorizes and left behind a certain aspect of Christian discipleship.
Willpower Christianity
When the will becomes the primary emphasis of discipleship, the result is legalism. We focus on "doing" it's all about action, whether the heart's in it or not. It doesnt matter if we dont understand why God commands something, just do it. And if we dont feel like doing it, do it anyway. And sometimes that maybe the right approach but a terrible lifestyle, that can easily burn one out. Just following willpower on denying ourselves and dying daily without the joy of the resurrection living in us will seem like a heavy burden. Raw obedience to a law, without a relationship to the Lawgiver and without our hearts in it, isnt true obedience. If we follow just the willpower of Christianity without including our emotions, we confine ourselves to only spiritual habits and disciplines. If we just run on empty obedience, we would look pretty close to the religious Pharisees.
Mental Christianity
Would you connect motivation, passions, pleasures, and desires with the thinking of your mind, or with the feeling of your heart?? When the mind is the main focus we are overly concerned with only understanding God. But cognitive understanding, systematic theology, philosophies, apologetics, academic exercise and intellectual truths will only accomplish so much. After all even demons believe in God. Mental Christianity isnt enough to save or satisfy. Many people understand the gospel, people may have knowledge that a man named Jesus died, that He bore our sins, and rose again. And yet it has no impact on them, because they havnt been touched, moved, broken, changed, rescued, swept by the Holy Spirit or felt the love of God.
Emotionalism Christianity
An overemphasis on emotions and feelings is just as imbalanced as a primary focus on the mind or will. Emotionalism is dangerous because it includes very little truth and obedience. So people are right when they warn against only following your feelings, and leaving out reason and pursuit. But taking the emotional side of discipleship completely out would be wrong. We are to follow only our right mind, will and emotions. It takes much discernment to figure out which are our right emotions to follow and which arnt.
Emotivation
We will only grow as much as our motivation drives us. When we really want to pursue something, we'll persist only according to the strength of desire for it. When we know we should do something, but dont have the desire for it, we'll pursue it for a while but eventually stop because the lack of enjoyment. Our motivation is directly tied to our emotions, so Chris Tiegreen called it Emotivation. Motivation is definitely a heart issue, because everything comes down to whether we want to or not. We also care enough about greater benefits other than immediate gratification, which produces our desire to accomplish task that arnt pleasurable. Ok, so yeah, we're mainly driven by our motivations. This is why it's so important to have a regenerated heart to follow God. A heart without passion, desire or joy of Him has no chance of truly following, conforming, or loving Him. This is basically a complex way of saying that the only way we'll be motivated to follow Him, is by asking Him for that heart of motivation.
We've heard that mountaintop experiences never last, emotional worship is superficial, and emotional feelings have nothing to do with the Spirit. We'll the Holy Spirit is actually full of emotion. We have tried so hard not to allow room for our emotions, not to be motivated by feelings and never let them be the basis of a decision. We stay completely away from our emotions because we dont want to be ruled by them. Why do we try so hard to suppress the heart God has given us? Eliminating our feelings is not the solution. We must not deny our feelings, but conform them to God's emotions.
I find it interesting how David the psalmist wrote. The psalms are full of passion, emotion, rejoicing, shouting, weeping, dancing and falling in the presence of the Lord. I believe a familiar emotion of David was joy. He greatly expressed his struggles of sin, the cries of his soul in repentance, gratitude of his heart, yearning passion for a deeper connection, and joyful heart in bringing God praise.
Have you ever come across a strong Christian? Have you ever noticed that the most contagious, most inspiring, and most passionate Christians are the one's who have encountered Him most emotionally? I hear so many people who say that they havnt been touched directly by God's love. So many people say they never felt God's tremendous love and powerful Spirit. I believe Christians should be able to hear God, see God's work, and taste the fullness of God. I think all Christians should be experiencing mountain top encounters with God every now and then, and not just when they were saved, forgiven and justified.
Sometimes we can feed our minds full of cold doctrine study, and completely miss out on the joys of just being God's loved child. I believe an abundant life is only met by embracing, delighting, resting, dwelling, and pleasuring in the love of God, so shouldn’t we be spending more time seeking to be engulfed by His daily invitation of love? Knowing that God loves you, and Feeling that God loves you are two completely different things. Knowing that God can hold you, and being held by Him are again very big differences.
Discernment of Emotions
What we really need to be occupied with as we grow into the likeness of Jesus is not denying human emotions, but having the right ones at the right times to the right degree. Which we could do much more easily if we really understood how God feels. It's kinda like eating food. Instead of denying ourselves of all food, we should be careful to see which foods are healthy and unhealthy.
We must learn to correctly embrace the emotions of God and feel as He feels. We mustn’t make the mistake of elevating feelings above other aspects of discipleship, but we mustn’t underestimate their importance either. It will takes much discernment to separate the godly feelings from the distorted human ones. It takes much training to be able to identify and separate which feelings are right and wrong to embrace.
"Why is it that we have heard not to trust out emotions? It's probably because we've been trained to suppress out feelings and count them as unreliable, which basically points that our understanding, reason, and actions are reliable. Why do we trust objectively and treat subjectivity with such suspicion, as if it were second rate to our rational processes."
Often times love wins over reason. Sometimes we must follow our passion over principle. The things of God are not intelligible to the rational mind and can only be perceived intuitively. Revelation often comes through communion with the Spirit, and the mind has to catch up later and try to figure it all out. Truth often penetrates into our hearts before it hits our heads. I think that's why so many people have a hard time trusting in Jesus, because they want to fully understand the atonement and working of salvation. It takes a lot of courage and faith to jump into the hands of God. We must see that our own ways just havnt worked at all, and must surrender ourselves believing that God will catch us. So even though I dont completely understand salvation, looking back i see that God has caught me each time ive jumped in with faith. Even though i dont quite understand how Jesus bore my sins and prove God with sciences, I have come to know truth by His love.
People often see truth as picking their favorite song. People see truth as an option or preference. When truth is actually quite narrow, exact, accurate and absolute. Now who are Christians to say that they know truth, and that other religions are false? Well the source isnt Christians, but the Word of God. Now who says that Jesus and the Bible are true? Well again, these truths can only be determined by the One who created these truths. God's truths are unseen to many people. We want to see physical evidence, something we can dissect, and prove. But because we want everything to make perfect sense, to be explained, to be proven, and fit into our minds we end up denying God. God's love cannot be captured and placed under a microscope. We cant dissect souls. We cant take a trip to heaven, test experiments on God or interview the Holy Spirit. Truth is not only determined empirically. The human mind and heart are both finite and fallen. Our human reasons and passions can both lead us astray. Knowledge of truth only comes through the Spirit of God. This world is blinded from these truths, and hidden from the worldly wise, so that it may seem as foolishness.
God has revealed His truth to the small, poor, broken, and humble, so that His glory may be seen clearly over the wisdom, arrogance and prideful heart of men. Dont you find it interesting how He makes something huge out of something so small, little, and what may seem as insignificant? He made David as a boy conquer the giant Goliath. He rose up Moses who was least seen as a leader. He used a little boy's sack lunch to feed thousands. He gathered fishermen as His disciples. He transformed a Christian hater to start shepherding the early churches. God turns sinners into witnesses.
"We quell our emotions because we don't want the devastation of having them remain unfulfilled. It isn't possible to have the heads of a coin without the tails, but it's better to have both than throw the coin away."
Sometimes we detach ourselves from our emotions and feelings, because we're afraid to experience any sort of pain. People are slow to invest in their affections because their hearts have experienced feeling pain and suffering. So the solution we often come up with, is just avoiding and suppressing all our desires, feelings and emotions. My spiritual walk greatly grew when i realized how key and vital the role of our emotions are. Waiting upon the Lord, receiving the Holy Spirit, soaking up His love and marinating on God's Word are meant to be felt. We must of course discern our God given feelings from the deceptive ones, but we should never deny all of the emotional side to our souls.
“When emotion is absent, people aren’t very productive. And when God’s emotions are absent, Christians aren’t very fruitful.”
“Many of us don’t exactly experience His pleasure. We have a deferred hope, not a daily celebration.”
“If we keep having to tell ourselves, “It’s an arrangement, not a romance; it’s an agreement, not an emotion,” we’re missing out on the very purpose of the marriage itself. If we’re engaged but our hearts are not, our minds are fighting an uphill battle that they will probably lose.“
When we examine deep within our hearts, we realize that we are in need of constant transformation.
8) The Stand
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All In
Imagine if Jesus only died for only part of your sins. What if He died for only 75% of your sins? Well, then there would be 0% salvation, and 100% torture in hell. Ok you can stop imagining, because Jesus gave it ALL, He covered ALL of our sins. The question now is, are we giving it all? You either want God entirely or not at all. You are either saved or not. You cannot have God remain just a part of your life. He calls us to take up our cross and follow Him with everything. You cannot serve both God and ________ (your idol). He tells us to surrender All that we are. He calls us to give Him full control. Often times we try to hold on to something for our own, rather than give it in God’s hands. We compromise thinking that it’s okay to keep some sins for ourselves. There’s no such thing as a lukewarm Christian, you’re either hot or cold. “Uhh I’m kinda Christian. I love Him sometimes.” Don’t get caught in the middle. The World or Jesus? Is Jesus worth everything? Or is there something your still holding, something you’re still refusing to surrender? It should be ordinary to be a radical Christian for Jesus.
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cant be is MODERATELY important."-CS Lewis
If we arnt willing to let God be the center of our lives, and keep Him as just a God we turn to only in need, then we have missed the gospel completely. A true Christian walk strives to make God part of everything in their life. And God ends up becoming your everything. Being born again should change how we see the world and lives completely right side up. If we are still living for ourselves and practicing our sins then maybe we really havnt taken that step over the line to surrendering our entire life to Jesus. Perhaps our faith is only an acknowledging belief or religion, and not a intimate worship and relationship with Him. It’s kind of a scary thought thinking how many people who are claiming to be Christian will be turned away during judgment because they only professed His name, and didn’t truly know Him. It’s a scary thought thinking how many sincere religious people, who even practice their traditions and rituals still wont be able to find salvation.
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Easy or Right?
I'll be honest. I've really been struggling to follow Jesus in this past month. It seems ive been trying to walk in my own direction. I've been choosing tons of other things over God. Church or sleep? Bible study or basketball? Youth group or movies? Prayer or video games? Devotions or computer? Hang with friends or Jesus? Anger or love? Self or Jesus? I've made all the wrong choices before. Of coarse all these things have a place in life, but should never come before Christ. I've been worshipping so many things above God. One of my most challenging sins is laziness, because it leaks into pride, lust, and idleness. I think our sins of omission greatly out weight our sins of commission. Don’t settle for a enough, by living a safe and easy life. Live by faith and not lazy comfort.
I always find myself between two choices. What's easy? Or what's right? This is why i drifted so far. Because my flesh desires comfort, laziness, quick pleasures, and fun all the time. Anything that requires work can wait till later. That's normally my attitude. Although choosing what's right requires more effort, it normally leads to more growth. If life was always easy then we wouldnt learn or mature from our experiences. Following Jesus is often difficult because we are meant to become stronger by overcoming the many challenges in life.
Francis Chan once demonstrated how life is like a balancing beam. We're so afraid of falling off the plank that we become paralyzed in fear. We dont wanna be bold because people might think of us differently. We dont wanna step up to the plate because we're afraid of striking out. I know i like to settle for enough. I like to do things just to get by. I like to take short cuts and easy routes rather than completing things with 100% effort. This needs to change.
If we are not intentional, it’s easy to become distracted, carnal, and fall into our default comfort.
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Compromising
A pastor once told a story of how he had a bug problem in his house. He said he saw huge spiders, centipedes and cockroaches. The exterminator told him that he had to get rid of the smaller bugs in order to get rid of the big bugs. Small bugs will lure in the big bugs.
We often takes small steps of compromise that leads us into sin. We try to get up close to the sin line because it's so tempting. We try to see how far we can go without actually doing anything wrong. Eventually we make up stupid excuses to allow ourselves to sin. When we compromise with God, we are really trying to follow our own ways. Compromising with truth, integrity, holiness, obedience, devotion, goals, responsibilities, worship, and with God, is basically cheating God of His glory. We are going against what we we're designed and created for, so we can praise ourselves. Compromising with temptation will lead us straight into sin. When we compromise with what God intends, we slowly push God to the side and go after worldly things. Small compromises can have big consequences.
"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Cor 6:12
So often do we see a Christian walk as a set of rules. It's not about what we can't do, but what we get to do!
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Salvation
America is way too noisy. There's so much confusion because Satan has perverted and distorted Christianity. There are so many false teachings, so many half-truths, and counterfeit Christianity. There is only one God, and one way, isn't that enough? So many people claim to follow God, but have a completely wrong view of who God is. Claiming to be Christian almost doesn't mean anything now days because we have shaped Christianity, the Bible, and God into so many different things. It's way too noisy. That's why i think its most important that Christians get their biblical truths down clear. Teachers need to spend more time reading their bible than preaching. We actually need to dig into our bibles, pray, and research our questions before we jump to claim to know anything. Rather than spending time teaching the things we think to be true, we should be focusing more on studying Biblical truth and the truth of God.
Perhaps the majority of people don't actually care to find truth. Many people arnt interested in knowing Jesus, because they arnt too concerned about anything spiritual. Many people don't even know where they stand. If someone doesnt make a choice for God or against God, that puts them on the against side. Ignorance and not knowing is wont be an excuse on judgment day. Many people believe in a higher God or existence of God, but that does not make them Christian, that would follow under theistic views. But just believing that a God exists doesnt save, only a relationship with Jesus can truly offer us freedom from sin. Religion doesnt save either. Getting baptized, taking communion, following traditions, fasting, listening to teachers, saying a prayer, doing good deeds, meditating, reading spiritual books, or going to church does not save.
Trusting on Jesus, living in faith, repenting of sin, coming to God daily, having an intimate relationship with Him, and following in His ways will save you. God promises that all those who follow after Jesus will be saved. And once we truly come to accept God into our lives, He gives us a new heart and the Holy Spirit to help us follow Him. So what exactly is salvation? What are we saved from? If you havnt heard the good news yet, Jesus Christ died for our sins, so we could come to God personally. Heaven will be a perfect unity of God and His people. Our hearts will finally be able to enjoy the infinite completeness of Him. A perfect relationship with God is our reward and treasure in Heaven. Can you imagine an infinite worship, infinite love, infinite joy, and infinite awe of being in His presence?
"Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds." Ps 73:23-28
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Sharing the Gospel
The cost of discipleship clearly says that we'll be hated by the world, and that we should suffer for gospel. So sometimes we keep Christ to ourselves. We shy down from sharing Jesus, because we fear man's rejection. We're so concerned about our images that we play it safe. Taking a stand for Jesus, means that you will probably offend people, and find a lot of criticism. Yes it would be a whole lot easier to be a Christian if there were less opposed to Jesus. I really need to grow in boldness and actually talk about God more to others. Perhaps the most important part of speaking truth, is that it must be spoken in love. God wants to have the fragrance and aroma of His heart so we can attract others to Him. If we really want people to come to Christ, we need to be focused on building relationships and loving on them intentionally.
Why do people not like Christians? Because Christians that actually talk about God often make people uncomfortable. Anything that threatens their beliefs makes people defensive because no1 wants to be wrong. No one likes to acknowledge their failures and sins. People hate getting into heated arguments and controversies. People have misconceptions about God and the bible. People just want to believe in whats comfortable for them, or hear what they want to hear. People often look at Christians rather than Christ. This is why its so difficult to even talk about Jesus to others. In order to reach out to people, we must leave behind our insecurities. Smart apologetics and wisdom usually doesnt convince many people, rather it is God's love that breaks down walls. God's love goes beyond reason, God's love softens peoples heart, and triggers people to investigate what all this talk about Jesus really means.
When Jesus preached the truth and claimed to be the Son of God, people hated Him, because they didnt want some carpenter to be more superior than the religious leaders. Even Satan decided to oppose God because he wanted to be of equal power and authority. People rebel against God because they refuse to surrender to anything higher than themselves. So people stand against Christianity because they claim to know Christ who is the only way, truth and life. Being a Christian does not mean that they are above or better than anyone else, in fact Christianity preaches to live in humility. We are all sinners, but Christians lift up the one who is perfect and worthy of praise.
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Suffering for Christ
If your human, you probably don't enjoy suffering. But as Christians we are called to suffer for Him. Suffering is painful to the flesh, because the flesh opposes discomfort. But often times we are called to choose discomfort over comfort, because when life is easy and comfortable there is no growth. But the Spirit actually rejoices when we suffer for Christ. Is He worth suffering for? Is He worth living and dying for? I'm not saying we should all be martyrs and want to be persecuted to death, but rather to rejoice in our weakness.
Look at Jesus, and even how Paul suffered intensely for the joy set before them. Jesus will reap the glory, joy, and praise for suffering the most extreme pain of suffering on the cross. Not the physical pain, but the spiritual pain of all our sins. And if we look at Paul we see such determination for expanding God's kingdom. But why did he suffer, being chased by men, being ship wrecked, going days without food, and being constantly thrown in jail? All for the glory of God. He found joy in his trials, pains, and sufferings because he knew that the reward was in heaven. He completed the task given to him, so that he could be useful and be an impact for the glory of God.
"You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." 2 Tim 3:10-12
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor 12:9-10
"Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything." 2 Cor 6:4-10
9) Analogies
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Bride of Christ
I have heard this illustration a few times that kinda gives us an image of how God has saved us by His love and grace. Imagine a prostitute, slave girl on the block. She is completely a wreck, covered in filth, drunk, poor, and beat up. She is not only being sold, but ought to be. She is sold at a very cheap price, and not worth much. But then comes along God, who doesnt pay with gold or silver, but buys her with His own precious blood. He cleans her, dresses her, works to beautify her, and finally delights in her to an end.
Honestly thats how low and undeserving we are. We as the church are described as a whore, who has looked to so many other places to satisfy our desires, rather than coming to the perfect lover of Christ. He always takes us back even though we dont deserve such a great God. But thats how strong His love is. He delights in the church, His people, and in His children to an end. Christ suffered, sacrificing it all, and endured the cross for the joy set before Him. He now enjoys and delights in the fruits and effects of His suffering. He has set us free, giving us new life, and an opportunity to unite with Him where we can find full satisfaction in His love.
God often feels heartbroken and betrayed when His people run astray. He grieves over the sins of the world. But He also rejoices when He finds one of His lost sheep. When one of His return home He leaps and runs to greet us, shouting in joy, throwing a party and wraps us with a ring and a robe. Ponder the joy of the Lord. Try to sympathize how God’s heart feels. It will draw us closer to Him when we discover what He loves and what He hates.
Basketball
What would you say if someone told you that their favorite sport is basketball, but they didn't know how to dribble, pass or shoot, and they only watched two basketball games last year. You would probably tell them that they really dont seem like a huge fan of the sport, because they dont really know the fundamental skills or know much about how to play. Someone who deeply loves basketball would train, practice and probably be quite good at it. The same applies for Christians. People can easily claim that they believe in Jesus, but don't practice any of the fundamentals, dont follow in His ways or know Him personally. Anyone can say that they are something, but if their lives dont match up anywhere near it, they probably arnt what they're claiming to be.
I think playing a game of basketball is an excellent illustration of the Christian walk. It doesnt take any skill to sit on the bench and watch other players play. I often see myself and other Christians just sitting on the sideline, and observing others do the work. Sometimes we become so afraid of failure and discomfort that we're afraid to jump into the game. Once we're in the game, we hafta know our purpose. Which team are we on? Whats the point of the game? What's my position? Who's on my team?
We can easily jump into the game and have no idea what the strategy plan is because we havnt practiced enough. A Christian life requires us to train hard, practice our skills, and learn from the coach. The coach of the team, normally has a lot of experience and offers us guidance in order to succeed. Many Christians are trying to play the game without listening to the coach. Our coach often tells us to follow the play book. The play book is something worth studying because we must truly learn and remember it well, in order to apply and demonstrate the coach's plans. Basketball is never just one skill. Basketball is composed of dribbling, passing, lay ups, blocking, defense, screens, free throws, 3 pointers, and running plans effectively.
Using teamwork to score is like the importance of fellowship. We should know our team well, help those who are new to the sport, and learn to train with other skilled players. Throwing an assist is like training someone in discipleship. Recruiting a new player is like evangelizing. Scoring would probably be worshiping and glorifying God. Getting back on defense is also very important in the game. The enemy is very good at scoring on us, and we need to be able to play a strong defense. Sometimes we can slack off and become too comfortable, or lose our pursuit for purity and righteousness, this is perhaps when the enemy scores the most. However there should be nothing to fear, because we're playing in a game that has already been won. We are already given victory over sin and death, but still must train under the coach in order to grow and improve on conforming into His image.
Soldiers
I dont have any experience going to war, but sometimes the Bible speaks to us as if the Christian walk is like going to battle. We must become courageous and put our life on the line. We must become an army behind the head commander of Christ. We must be soldiers preparing, equipping, training and deploying out into the world. The Bible tells us to put on the full armor of God, and use weapons not known to man. We have a spiritual war that we must be equipped for. Christ calls us to stand strong in boldness and in the Spirit, instead of hiding as others fight the war. Satan is on the attack, like a prowling lion, constantly looking for people to devour. The enemy is out to steal, kill and destroy us from God's plans. But always remember that we have victory when we stand behind our King. Our King calls us to stand firm in faith, endure hardship, pursue holy righteousness, truth and justice, and fight with relentless passion. For when we stand ready to fight, He makes us alive and strong in Him.
“Every man dies, but not every man lives.” -Waxer Tipton
"Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops." 2 Tim 2:3-6
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." 2 Cor 10:3-4
Swimming
As a little child, were you ever afraid of jumping into a pool? Our Father reaches out His hands and says "Jump!" So with faith we trust that He'll catch us. He quickly begins teaching us how to swim. He warns us of the dangers, and how to use the right techniques. He then demonstrates how to free style, as He tells us to mimic Him. We try to keep up, but realize that we are too weak on our own strength to complete the entire pool length. We quickly burn out, using all of our energy, and begin to panic. We may hit the wall, go off in the wrong direction and start to drown. Our Father quickly lifts us up, and makes sure if we're okay, and then asks us if we're willing to continue training and growing closer to becoming like Him.
Imagine now, if we never had the guts to jump in. Imagine if we were too afraid of drowning. If we never had trust in our Father, then we would never grow and develop swimming. The good news is that after everything is done, we see that our Father is always has His eye on us and helps us when we grow tired. He shows us the importance of playing in the water, and enjoying time with Him. So after encouraging us to push and strive for the goal, He lifts us out of the water, saves us from the deep and dark water, gives us rest, and says "good job son." In life we dont hafta see the end of the pool, in order to jump in. We dont need to see the way, all we need to do is trust the One who knows the way.
Gifts in Heaven
Stop to marvel at God and His blessings. Stop to wonder how great He is. Imagine how many gifts are still wrapped in heaven because we havnt asked for them. Look at how much we ignore the gifts of God. Jesus repeated said that we can ask for anything from our Father and He’ll be faithful to give it to us according to His will and glory. Pray for strength, ask for peace, joy, new desires, guidance, comfort and for the Holy Spirit, Ask and receive like a child. Come boldly asking. But one thing you’ll never hafta ask God is for His love, because God is always loving us. Nothing can separate us from His love, Hallelujah!
10) Desert Song/ Hillsong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WYK6TxWX7s&feature=related
This is my prayer in the desert
When all thats within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides
This is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flame
And I will bring praise, I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice, I will declare
God is my victory and He is here
This is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand
All of my life, In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've received I will sow
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