I have very much wondered through my life whose feelings and good time matters the most? For so long in my life I have always made other people’s feelings come first. So even if it meant me staying home alone on a weekend, I would not make other people invite me alone. If someone didn’t want to do what I wanted to do, when deciding what movie to watch or where to go, I would go with them. I thought I would rather one of us have a bad time then both of us. I thought I was being the bigger man in giving up what I wanted to let other people have a good time. Or a final example is that I would keep my true feelings hidden so that other people could feel better about themselves.
Lately I wonder if that is the right thing to do? I have often not said how I felt so that the other person would not feel guilty or pressured into something. But should have I? Should I hid who I am or how I feel so that other’s feel better about themselves? Should I hold it in when people hurt my feelings so that they still have a good time?
What makes your feelings so much more valuable then mine? Now I know that sometimes we are not justified in how we feel, but yet other times we are. So if I am hurting, as a friend should I not be able to tell you that? Why should I have to hid the hurt inside as it festers and infects my life? I thought friends should be understanding, willing to help their friends when they are down and hurting? Or am I just wrong about friendships and feelings? Needing a new definition and book on proper etiquette on both?
Friday, July 17, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Service
It was a really good day and I enjoyed myself quiet a bit in it. I like it when you are told something, but then the next day you experience it. Rob just told me the other night that service is something that I have been lacking in my life. For reading and prayer are good but sometimes those things do not do anything for you, in the fact that they can be pretty blaw sometimes. Going on from there he commented on my own life, saying that the most fulfilled time that he has ever see me was after I returned from Mexico. I was ready for change and ready to leave it all being just to go out and serve the people. Today I felt the truth of that once again, for it has been weeks that I have felt fulfilled by anything… reading, prayer, friends, even sin that I am sorry to say that I have engaged in, but then today when I was serving people at a service station I felt really good. I was happy, I was joyful and I loved every minute of it. I loved pumping people’s gas and talking with them, sometimes about nothing, but yet I got to met and talk to people who I would never even look at on the street. Instead I talked to this guy with a bald head, but long hair around the sides. We talked about me and talked about him and in that three to five minutes I connected with another person in this world without even trying. It felt good to just talk with this guy for no reason. Service, how can something that simple be so powerful that it can combat the couple weeks of depression and loneliness that I have suffered through? This time in my life I am relatively free of all things and responsibilities if I want to. So why wouldn’t I do all that I can to serve the people all around me that need Christ while I wait for the next step in my life.
Something that I don’t think about much about is the opposite side of my service and how that makes the other people feel. But because I live in a small town my mother hears about my good deeds from the old people who love to talk. While filling in a while back at the service station, I helped this old lady by taking her car through the carwash. Explaining to her how it works and that all she has to do is watch the signs and stop here… Later that week my mom came up to me and told me about how this old lady at the senior center was so impressed and blessed by my service. The sad thing about all of this is that I was only doing what comes natural for me, but the truth about all this is that people suck! So when people like me come by it is something abnormal and admirable. Oh Church we have such an opportunity to show Christ in the actions of our daily life and jobs. You may think that doing the right thing goes unnoticed, but someone is watching.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Submitting to Authority
So many times I hear people complain about the Covenant, with comments everywhere from “I should be able to make those decisions on my own” to “They are making unmoral decisions into morals.” It doesn’t matter what you think, because the only truth is that which comes from the mouth of God and from his mouth came the Holy Bible for it is written, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Dear friends before I go on from there, I want to make sure that you know that I come before you in humility, for I am no better then the worse of sinners. I have been a hypocrite many times in my life and have called people to follow the covenant, infact rebuking them for not even knowing what it says. But the fact is that I am one of those people who have broken the covenant many times, for we all are all sinners and come before our most high God guilty unless we stand under the blood of Christ. For it is only in the blood of Christ that we are clean. It reminds me of a quote by Rich Mullens, “Whenever people say, 'Christians are hypocrites,' I say, 'duh, every time we come together we are confessing that we are hypocrites, weaklings in need of God and each other.” The truth is, to be a Christian is to be a hypocrite, because we stand in Church and agree to live by the standards of God, “Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Who of us can live up to a standard like that, of course we are going to fall, but that does not mean that we should unless stop from giving our heart away to the effort of “walking as Jesus walked.” So as I say all these things I say them also to myself, as I point a figure at you I am pointing the rest strait back at me.
Now going back to 2 Timothy, I am coming to you in a effort to rebuke you of false thinking and correct you that you might be ready to be trained in righteousness by the Christian authority of Crown. The Bible makes it very clear that we need to summit to the authority that is placed above us. It is so important that it is restated three places and then elaborated in the third. First Paul addresses it in Romans 13, “EVERYONE must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is NO authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” Paul makes it very clear in the first two verses of the chapter that everyone needs to submit to the authorities because God put them there, for there is no authority that God has not placed there. For even the evil of nations that conquered Israel were put there by God. He is trying to make the point that because we are free in Christ doesn’t mean that we should be lawless, but rather law abiding. Then in verse two Paul makes a strong point for submission, for if you rebel against the authority it is the same as rebelling against God which brings judgment onto you!
The second passage is from Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Here the writer of Hebrews is imploring them to obey so that they will not be burdened by the law that they are under. For when we rebel against a law or an authority above us, there is always a consequence fro our actions, even if we believe that the actions were justified or the rules unfair, the punishment still is there. So why not rather submit so that it will not be burdensome for us, because even if we rebel we now have the punishment and the rules to bear instead of only the rules to follow. For even Jesus talked to this, for in his time on earth the Roman empire was ruling over the Jewish culture imposing their laws upon the children of Israel, but did Jesus say that they should right against them as a zealot? Far from it, instead he said, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” Jesus never wanted us to rebel, but instead show love in our service to that authority.
The final scripture that I want to bring to your attention is that of 1 Peter 2, here is a passage from the man that Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Someone who has been given authority by God and Jesus for the building up of the Church, aka someone we should listen to. In his first letter he says this, “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” (1 Peter 2:13-14) Peter addresses the same issue that Paul addressed twice before, that we are to submit to authority, but he makes another statement in there, “for the Lord’s sake.” (is that like saying for Pete’s sake?) You are not doing this because you want to look good, but rather that you are doing this as unto the Lord. He continues on in this right after that on the issue of respect, “Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’” (1 Peter 2:17-22) Peter takes this to every part of life or social status, make sure that all who read understand that we are not to shun authority or be disrespectful to the cops or even the president, no matter how much we dislike them. He says show everyone proper respect, and not just the ones who are nice to you, but even to the ones who beat you or mistreat you. Slaves are not suppose to hate their masters, but rather show them respect and submission. But do not stop at only the outward, for out of the heart comes all things, just as you are to live the example of Jesus, who “no deceit was found in his mouth.”
I leave you with the words of John, “ We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:3-6)
Friday, May 8, 2009
Gospel Presentation
“In the beginning God created the heavens and earth” (Genesis 1:1). Then on the sixth day God created man, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground’" (Genesis 1:27-28). So in the beginning God created man to rule over the earth, to taking care of all that God had created from the plants and trees to the beast of the field and the birds of the air. But that was not the only reason that man was made, for God created man so that he might have a relationship with them for, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:8-9). God was not some powerful force that sat in the heavens and just watched the world take its course like a TV sitcom, but rather He wanted a relationship with His creation. God would walk with man, showing that there was an intimate relationship between the two. He calls out to them, “where are you?” and engages with them.
But God had allowed for his creation to have free will, as seen in Genesis 2:16-17 when God tells man, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Here you see that God clearly gave man a choice to obey what he was told or to disobey; free will. Again it is seen clearly in chapter 3 where the snake tempts the woman; God doesn’t stop them but allows her to make the choice. Finally it can be seen in the way that the devil has to tempt her to take the apple by giving her a twisted truth, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1) He put doubt into the heart of the woman and she decided to eat of the tree that God had told them was forbidden, “she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked” (Genesis 3:6-7). When God came to them during the cool of the day He called out to man, but they hid from Him and when they had told him what they had done, he placed a curse on man and woman. To each he cursed them and their pain is ours to bear as well, for the Bible says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). So because of the sins of the first man and woman, we have all sinned before God. We have been born into sin, completely unable to do anything about it, for it says in Psalms 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Then also in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” clearly stating that we can’t make it to God’s glory on our own. Some will say that they are a good person, but no one is good enough to meet the standards that God has called us to, for it says in Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” The standard is set far beyond anything that we can match for it also says in Isaiah 64:6, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” and so we know that we are completely effortless to do anything about our helpless state.
For the majority of my life I have tried to live a good life in the eyes of my church, parents, and friends, but because it was only in their eyes, behind closed doors, or when no one was looking my life was not the cleanest. I went to youth group, but there was nothing that could ever really help me get past the sins in my life. For I have always tried to live a good life, following the commandments in the Bible in an effort to be a good Christian, yet my life was still void and I couldn’t figure out why I was so empty. In my senior year of high school I was not walking with the LORD, but I had not walked away from him, so I knew that when I chose a college it had to be a Christian College so that I could grow with God. So when I finally found Crown College I knew that God was calling me to go there. I knew it was a calling to come here because I was challenged to a faith that was more then just my law abiding mentality that I had when I was younger, but instead I gained a relationship with the God. My faith and love for God and people has grown leaps and bounds since coming here and I praise His name. He set me free from a lifestyle that was fruitless and void of life with Him.
The change that happened to me while in college was due to one Man, and if it was not for Him, I would still be living a worthless life trying to serve God with my fruitless labor; with my “filthy rags.” But when I came to college I met Jesus for real, and this Man’s life changed mine. If you don’t know Him or if you think you know who He is, let me explain what the Bible really says about Him or even what He said about Himself. First, you have to understand that Jesus was a man yet fully God, for in John 1:1, 2 it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning” and then in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is the word of God and testifies to that in John 14:6 when “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” So we know that Jesus was God and man, stating that he was and is the only way to Heaven, the bridge to bring us back to a relationship with God. For it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
So how do we respond to all that? It may sound like the work is done and I don’t have to do anything, because Jesus already did it. This is only half true. For in Romans 5:8 it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We did nothing deserving God’s plan of salvation or restoration but God loved us enough to give His Son to bridge that gap so that we could come back. So yes, the work has been done for us to come back to a relationship with God, but you have to accept that hand that Jesus offers to come across the bridge. “For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13), because “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus did all the work for us to come back to God, but it is still up to us to accept that love. The first and hardest part is done, all that is left is for you to believe it and confess that Jesus is LORD.
But God had allowed for his creation to have free will, as seen in Genesis 2:16-17 when God tells man, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Here you see that God clearly gave man a choice to obey what he was told or to disobey; free will. Again it is seen clearly in chapter 3 where the snake tempts the woman; God doesn’t stop them but allows her to make the choice. Finally it can be seen in the way that the devil has to tempt her to take the apple by giving her a twisted truth, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1) He put doubt into the heart of the woman and she decided to eat of the tree that God had told them was forbidden, “she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked” (Genesis 3:6-7). When God came to them during the cool of the day He called out to man, but they hid from Him and when they had told him what they had done, he placed a curse on man and woman. To each he cursed them and their pain is ours to bear as well, for the Bible says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). So because of the sins of the first man and woman, we have all sinned before God. We have been born into sin, completely unable to do anything about it, for it says in Psalms 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Then also in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” clearly stating that we can’t make it to God’s glory on our own. Some will say that they are a good person, but no one is good enough to meet the standards that God has called us to, for it says in Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” The standard is set far beyond anything that we can match for it also says in Isaiah 64:6, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” and so we know that we are completely effortless to do anything about our helpless state.
For the majority of my life I have tried to live a good life in the eyes of my church, parents, and friends, but because it was only in their eyes, behind closed doors, or when no one was looking my life was not the cleanest. I went to youth group, but there was nothing that could ever really help me get past the sins in my life. For I have always tried to live a good life, following the commandments in the Bible in an effort to be a good Christian, yet my life was still void and I couldn’t figure out why I was so empty. In my senior year of high school I was not walking with the LORD, but I had not walked away from him, so I knew that when I chose a college it had to be a Christian College so that I could grow with God. So when I finally found Crown College I knew that God was calling me to go there. I knew it was a calling to come here because I was challenged to a faith that was more then just my law abiding mentality that I had when I was younger, but instead I gained a relationship with the God. My faith and love for God and people has grown leaps and bounds since coming here and I praise His name. He set me free from a lifestyle that was fruitless and void of life with Him.
The change that happened to me while in college was due to one Man, and if it was not for Him, I would still be living a worthless life trying to serve God with my fruitless labor; with my “filthy rags.” But when I came to college I met Jesus for real, and this Man’s life changed mine. If you don’t know Him or if you think you know who He is, let me explain what the Bible really says about Him or even what He said about Himself. First, you have to understand that Jesus was a man yet fully God, for in John 1:1, 2 it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning” and then in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is the word of God and testifies to that in John 14:6 when “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” So we know that Jesus was God and man, stating that he was and is the only way to Heaven, the bridge to bring us back to a relationship with God. For it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
So how do we respond to all that? It may sound like the work is done and I don’t have to do anything, because Jesus already did it. This is only half true. For in Romans 5:8 it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We did nothing deserving God’s plan of salvation or restoration but God loved us enough to give His Son to bridge that gap so that we could come back. So yes, the work has been done for us to come back to a relationship with God, but you have to accept that hand that Jesus offers to come across the bridge. “For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13), because “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus did all the work for us to come back to God, but it is still up to us to accept that love. The first and hardest part is done, all that is left is for you to believe it and confess that Jesus is LORD.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Shut Up and Listen!
I hate people who try to comfort me with their shallow attempts at wisdom. They have nothing for me but empty words from their minds, but nothing that comes from the heart of God. Human agreements and pathetic human desires for the a perfect world makes me sick and more depressed then when I started! How do you know that this is not what God has called me to do? Have you been seeking God’s heart in my favor for a while now? This is what God has been showing me, so listen to what I have to say before you spit on it, cause this just might be the will of God in my life. So get out of my face with your simple words, cause if you don’t have anything from God to say then you are tearing me down cause you are not listening. Hurting people just want someone to listen to them, not someone to talk about themselves or what they need to change in their lives. Yes, there is a time for someone to help someone with telling them that they have this flaw that is causing this problem, but first they just need to let the crap come out before the wound can finally be ready for healing! So shut up and listen, and if you can’t listen then leave me alone!
I wrote that blog when I was in an angry state of mind, the content being good but the presentation was not accepted by all like I wanted it to. The point of this blog was not to offend, but to make you think about what you say when you try and comfort someone. So many times I have had people come to me when I am in need of someone to talk to, but I am not ready for words, or even when I am ready for someone’s advice they give this sweet, everything is going to be perfect answer… The point I am trying to make is this, when a person talks with someone the best thing to do is listen. People need to be heard, but so many times when they are pouring out their hearts the “listener” chimes in and gives a sweet, everything is going to be ok answer, but in reality the person just needs someone to listen to them. The other part is that when they are ready for the other person to talk, that person just talks and doesn’t say anything that is worth while. The point I am trying to make is simple this, when someone needs to talk, listen (that doesn’t mean a dialog but a monolog). The second is this when the person is ready for someone else input they shouldn’t give it, but rather ask God to give them the words that the person needs to hear, not wants to hear, needs (Ephesians 4:29).
An Old Lesson Not fully learned...
(Part 4 of Revelation through a Friend)
The more I grow older I come to realize that maybe God has set me out to be friendless and live a life that doesn’t desire friends or friendships. That maybe I am meant to be alone in this life and only have my Savior to keep my company as I go out and preach the Gospel of my God! Now before you go and tell me the crap of your shallow attempts at comfort, listen to what I am saying. (See Shut up and Listen, Oh Be Careful Little Mouth What you Say, Another Thought From the Book). I was struck by the unfaithfulness of my “friends” again today when I asked one of them why they were so tired, and she said oh yeah we were watching movies til 3 in the morn! I buried that emotion in my stomach so deep that I didn’t show it to her, but when I got back to my room I broke down! I mean seriously?!? What is wrong with me that they never call me to hang out!? Every time that I can remember that I have hung out with these people is because I was the one who called them! Am I that undesirable or annoying or what that these people who call me ‘friend” never call me to hang out? The lies of the devil stabbed me again and again in the heart and in the back. I fall to my knees crying to God, “What do I do God? What do I do? Help me know what to do!? Do I forget them cause they are going to leave soon or do I have to make amends that I might grow, but yet I don’t have the energy or the time to do that in finals! And then by the time that I am done with finals they are gone and done with school and I will never see them again!” These are the thoughts and feelings that fill my head as I try and think of something, but yet all that comes is the evil of my sinful nature, “F*** you D***s! I hate you all” But yet, what does that do for me!? Nothing, my heart is filled with hate and resentment, and I am dying inside like a cancer that eats me slowly. So I have to get this off!? But yet God I am justified in these feelings! These people care nothing about me or they would know how I feel and how deep I am hurt. No one wants to take the time to listen to my heart, but yet I feel that the ones that do heart my heart forget it as soon as I leave them. So why should I allow them to win!? I am sick of them winning and I hate that I am always the one that is humbled! Can I just once get to be glorified in my emotions and make them kiss my feet in repentance?
God I know that all that I said is not of you, but of my flesh and I ask you to help me crucify that flesh to the cross once again. I can’t even count the number of times that I have taken those nails out and helped him back down and into my life. God help me to be selfless and loving and caring and a “follower of Christ,” once that honors you in the hard times, in the depressing time, and in the good times. I know that if I want to answer the call of mission work on my life I need to able to live on you and you alone. It is off every Word that comes from your Mouth, Oh God, which I must live on. Not by the support of my friends, but only through your love and glory that I live. I know that your will for my life is so much more then what I think that I want, that what my life is about is pleasing my creator and not myself. Just like I have claimed you as my Master, I will do what you say because that is what the servant does, no question, completely out of loyal service. Help me to listen to you first LORD, that the lessons of my past would never leave me, but would be the further foundation of my walk and service to you.
tell all my friends I’m dead
I’m leaving you
this time it's for good
tell all my friends that I’m dead
it won't be long before you'll forget my name
can't you tell that I’m losing myself?
I think I’m trying too hard to
let it show
to let you know
don’t trace your footsteps back to me
I’ve been gone for a long time
waiting on the sidelines
hoping for a chance to play
well i thought i would never leave anything behind
i also never thought I’d say
tell all my friends I’m dead
I’m leaving you
this time its for good
tell all my friends that I’m dead
it wont be long before you forget my name
can't you tell that I don’t know myself?
I need someone to remind me
to let it go
please let me know
don’t trace your footsteps back to me
I’ve been gone for a long time
waiting on the sidelines
hoping for a chance to play
well i thought i would never leave anything behind
i also never thought I’d say
tell all my friends I’m dead
I’m leaving you
this time its for good
tell all my friends that I’m dead
it wont be long before you forget my name
and if I had the chance to do it all again
I wouldn’t expect anything less
and if I had the chance to do it all again
I wouldn’t expect, I wouldn’t expect
any thing less
tell all my friends I’m dead
I’m leaving you
this time its for good
tell all my friends that I’m dead
it wont be long before you forget my name
forget my name
I know that this is not a Christian band, nor a Christian song, but yet just like their name… I have a “New Found Glory.” This is the glory that God loves me and that I love him and the glory is not like the world knows… it is one that the world doesn’t understand. It is the life of Jesus Christ, and I feel that even the Christians (followers of Jesus) don’t even know… It was one of poverty, of loneliness, of betrayal, of pain, but yet in all of that He loved God 100% and was not going to let Him go. In all of that he served and saved thousands by being faithful to the call on his life. He could have ruled the whole world and made the Romans his foot stool, if he would only bow down to the devil. Well the devil is offering me the world if I bow down to him, but I know that this world is coming to an end and my glory and my treasure is in heaven. To that Kingdom I work and bleed for. To that kingdom I will endure loneliness, hardship, poverty, but it will be to the glory of God as I serve him with all of my heart!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Humility
Humble yourself before the Lord and seek his heart! People humility
before God is not some word the pastor says but it is a condition of
the heart! You will never be able to worship God until you soften
your heart so that you can hear God! The Lord wants to speak to you
but you have all these walls built of pride and idols you have made (gf/bf, sports, clothes, movies, rebellion, sin.) You will never me able to change until you are humble and bow low face down on the floor saying God make my life a prayer to you. You have to be willing
to give it all up before you will be able to go anywhere! You have been dragging things in this race that we have been called to! Paul said to throw off all things that hinder, but we have put more things on! The Greeks when competing in the Olympics would be naked, they would have nothing that would hold them back from being all that they could be. Now Paul knew what he meant when he gave those people that visual, there is to be nothing that holds us back from the race that we are going to run. Why do you think that Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything, giving it the poor, and then to follow him. Jesus knew that when you hold on to the things of earth you will not be willing to lose them, and will instead lose Jesus in an effort to keep it. You know this is true, how many times have you heard a call to missions work in a third world country, but you don’t want to go cause that means that you have to give up your stuff! This was something that Jesus was serious about and we know that for how many times he tells people this! There is the account in Luke 9 that lists two men who are holding on to earthly things unwilling to give it all. The first one wanted his fathers money before he would go out to serve and the second wanted his family before he would go, but Jesus said, “NO.” Jesus told the first, “let the dead bury the dead” and then to the second that once his hand is on the plow that he ain’t going to turn his head back. Why can’t we turn our heads back once we have our hand on the plow? If any of you have ever tried to turn around and look in your backseat while driving and then you know that you take your eyes off the road and some of us turn back so far that we jerk the wheel, swerving. We can’t turn back with out consequence. Once we have set our eyes on Christ we can’t take them off or bad things will happen! Look at Peter and what he did when his eyes were on Christ, but yet as soon as he turned his eyes away he sank! People we can’t take our eyes off Christ if we are going to serve him, not for a relationship, not for a car, and certainly not for ourselves.
If we don't come to the alter in humility then we will never be able do the work that the alter has for us. It is a place where we lay down our faults and admit that we are less then perfect, but give that imperfection to God! Saying "God I can't do this on my own! I need you!" but not you! You have come to the alter of God and spit on it! You have come with pride! You have come with apathy! You have come with complacency! You idiotlters! God has called us to a relationship with him and only him. He is a jealous God and will not share a thrown with anyone! So why have you turned your hearts from him? Come to him, but come with an open heart. Come to him and ask him to open your eyes to the things in your life that you hold onto. The ones that the devil has blinded you too. The Word of God is called a “light” for the Bible says, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. You have taken God’s holy light and let it collect dust on your self. You have opened that DVD case 100 times before you think of opening that Bible. You have fallen asleep in the light of God, you have fallen asleep in the warmth of the “good feelings” or the “mountain top.”
"Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord"
You know it's all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds
And He cares for your needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in,
Oh, can't you see it's such a sin?
The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can't fight
Cause it's asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you've been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can't even get out of bed
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on, get out of your bed
Oh Church of the Most High God! Wake up! Come to God and open your hearts that you might hear what he has called on your life!
The message is oh so very simple
You gotta be like a child to see
'Cause Jesus said "Let the little children
Come unto Me"
You try to make things too complicated
But you really don't have to be so smart
You don't learn a thing
Until you soften your heart
Soften your heart! Dear children of God, come to in humility that you might hear the beautiful calling on your life. Quit acting like you live in this country?! “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4) You are not an American! “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20). So let us not live like we live here, but instead let us “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:20) For we have no need for worldly wealth or things, for they are worthless and the Bible says, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55:2) "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-34)
before God is not some word the pastor says but it is a condition of
the heart! You will never be able to worship God until you soften
your heart so that you can hear God! The Lord wants to speak to you
but you have all these walls built of pride and idols you have made (gf/bf, sports, clothes, movies, rebellion, sin.) You will never me able to change until you are humble and bow low face down on the floor saying God make my life a prayer to you. You have to be willing
to give it all up before you will be able to go anywhere! You have been dragging things in this race that we have been called to! Paul said to throw off all things that hinder, but we have put more things on! The Greeks when competing in the Olympics would be naked, they would have nothing that would hold them back from being all that they could be. Now Paul knew what he meant when he gave those people that visual, there is to be nothing that holds us back from the race that we are going to run. Why do you think that Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything, giving it the poor, and then to follow him. Jesus knew that when you hold on to the things of earth you will not be willing to lose them, and will instead lose Jesus in an effort to keep it. You know this is true, how many times have you heard a call to missions work in a third world country, but you don’t want to go cause that means that you have to give up your stuff! This was something that Jesus was serious about and we know that for how many times he tells people this! There is the account in Luke 9 that lists two men who are holding on to earthly things unwilling to give it all. The first one wanted his fathers money before he would go out to serve and the second wanted his family before he would go, but Jesus said, “NO.” Jesus told the first, “let the dead bury the dead” and then to the second that once his hand is on the plow that he ain’t going to turn his head back. Why can’t we turn our heads back once we have our hand on the plow? If any of you have ever tried to turn around and look in your backseat while driving and then you know that you take your eyes off the road and some of us turn back so far that we jerk the wheel, swerving. We can’t turn back with out consequence. Once we have set our eyes on Christ we can’t take them off or bad things will happen! Look at Peter and what he did when his eyes were on Christ, but yet as soon as he turned his eyes away he sank! People we can’t take our eyes off Christ if we are going to serve him, not for a relationship, not for a car, and certainly not for ourselves.
If we don't come to the alter in humility then we will never be able do the work that the alter has for us. It is a place where we lay down our faults and admit that we are less then perfect, but give that imperfection to God! Saying "God I can't do this on my own! I need you!" but not you! You have come to the alter of God and spit on it! You have come with pride! You have come with apathy! You have come with complacency! You idiotlters! God has called us to a relationship with him and only him. He is a jealous God and will not share a thrown with anyone! So why have you turned your hearts from him? Come to him, but come with an open heart. Come to him and ask him to open your eyes to the things in your life that you hold onto. The ones that the devil has blinded you too. The Word of God is called a “light” for the Bible says, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. You have taken God’s holy light and let it collect dust on your self. You have opened that DVD case 100 times before you think of opening that Bible. You have fallen asleep in the light of God, you have fallen asleep in the warmth of the “good feelings” or the “mountain top.”
"Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord"
You know it's all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds
And He cares for your needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in,
Oh, can't you see it's such a sin?
The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can't fight
Cause it's asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you've been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can't even get out of bed
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on, get out of your bed
Oh Church of the Most High God! Wake up! Come to God and open your hearts that you might hear what he has called on your life!
The message is oh so very simple
You gotta be like a child to see
'Cause Jesus said "Let the little children
Come unto Me"
You try to make things too complicated
But you really don't have to be so smart
You don't learn a thing
Until you soften your heart
Soften your heart! Dear children of God, come to in humility that you might hear the beautiful calling on your life. Quit acting like you live in this country?! “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4) You are not an American! “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20). So let us not live like we live here, but instead let us “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:20) For we have no need for worldly wealth or things, for they are worthless and the Bible says, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55:2) "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-34)
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