Occupational Hazard

Over the past couple of days I have been watching several movies. This is quite out of character for me, I am not one to sit in front of the T.V. for hours and hours. However, recently I have had my wisdom teeth taken out. So to pass the time by I have been watching movies. To be honest I have watched about 8 movies in the past 3 days. That is right... wow!
Well, one of the movies was Prince of Egypt, it is a personal favorite from my childhood. Anyway, I am babbling but have a point. While watching the Prince of Egypt I noticed many things, but one of the biggest that stuck out to me this time was near the middle/end of the movie. Moses said, "Pharaoh has the power. He can take away your food, your home, your freedom. He can take away your sons and daughters. With one word, Pharaoh can take away your very lives. But there is one thing he cannot take away from you: your faith. Believe, for we will see God's wonders." This made me think about my own job. God has allowed me to work with international students for the past two years. I have been so afraid to live radically for Christ for fear of losing my job. Lately I have been convicted about this thought. No, I am not going to do anything stupid like stand on top of my office building yelling "turn or burn." I mean, God has given me this job for a reason. God has allowed me to be where I am to fulfill His purpose. My boss has the power to fire me from my job. He does not have the power to take away my faith.
Living in fear of the "what if's" and the "could be's" and so on is not going to get us/me anywhere. God's word tells us we are not to fear anyone but Him. The "Pharaoh's" in our lives seem to have so much power over us, yet we fail to see that God is bigger than anything else on this earth. He is the Creator. He is the Author of Life. He is the God of love, the God of hope, the God of salvation, He is the great I Am! There is nothing we can do to make God lose any power. He is the creator of power for heaven's sake! My fear of getting fired or of having my boss upset with me because I use my job as a platform to share the gospel, really is the least of my worries. God places us exactly where He wants us in His timing to do His will. He has told us our purpose is to know Him and make Him known. So my life goal is to know Him and make Him known in all that I do. Our lives are not to be sectioned off like a pie chart. When you look at a pie chart of your life you see what consumes most of your time. For example: work, friends, eating, sleeping, activities, etc. There are so many "compartments" in our lives it is easy for us to want to section them off. Yet, each of our compartments tend to spill over into each other. Our friends at work start becoming our friends outside of work. Our job ends up coming home with us at times. Our activities tend to include eating and friends and more. God is to be in every part of our lives. God is not a section or compartment of its own. He is the center point of each of our pie charts for our lives. He is the controller of each little area of our lives.
Even when we feel like us making Christ known could cause us to lose everything we have. We can remember that who or whatever our Pharaoh is in that situation cannot take away our faith. God promises to protect His children. He tells us in several places that His children will not be ashamed. Although we may be persecuted for our faith, we can stand strong knowing that God knows exactly what He is doing. Our persecutors can never take away our faith in God. How relieving?!

The Great Gift of Ruin

Ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation- Quote from the movie Eat, Pray, Love

A few months ago, the ladies in the office I work in and I decided to go see the movie Eat, Pray, Love. I had never heard of the book or even the movie, but I went along anyway wanting to spend time with the lovely ladies I work with. The scenery in the movie was amazing. The places Liz (Julia Roberts), the main character, went and the food she ate... I would love to be able to go and do and eat haha! Anyway, the point here is not about me. The movie is basically about Liz discovering happiness and spirituality in Hinduism. Although I do not agree with that, one of the greatest quotes throughout the entire movie was "ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation."
This quote immediately made me think about my relationship with God and how I came into a relationship with Him. In order for me to come to Him, He had to completely break me. He ruined me of myself and brought me begging on my knees to Him for Him. I wanted nothing less than Him. In being broken and ruined II Corinthians 5:17 reminds us, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." To become a new creation it has to be transformed from the old creation. The ruin of ourselves is a gift. It is the greatest gift we could ever receive, it is the gift of salvation. Ruin is not only a gift but it is the road to transformation. John 3:30 says "He must increase, but I must decrease." We have to be constantly seeking Him and Him increasing in us to become more like Him. We cannot just expect to be little Christs (Christians)if we are not spending time with Him, seeking Him out in prayer, and begging Him to make us more like Him. We become like those we spend the most time with/around. So if Jane (random name for this) is spending most of her time praying, fasting, in His word, reading books about His character, etc. then she is going to become more and more like Him. Her lifestyle choices, movies, music, books, and all other entertainment of sorts will reflect her convictions based on His word. His desires will become her deisres. The things that break His heart will begin to break hers. Her life will look radically different than it did before she started spending time getting to know Him.
This brings a whole new light to Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." I am going to skip over a major part (to be writen about later...) to keep going on transformation. The more we are in His word, praying, seeking Him, desiring to glorify Him...the more we are being transformed. Our minds are being shaped into Christ-like thinking and we are being transformed into Christ-like people. We will not reach perfection this side of eternity, however, we should not stop striving for Christ-like perfection. Do not forget that your "ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation." Keep pushing on toward Christ-likeness.

God Bless!!