Rainy Season

Some people find rain dreary, annoying, or depressing. Others think of the rain as a chance to go play in it, curl up and read a good book, or lounge around watching a movie. Regardless of what you think or do, the rain still falls.

Rain is one of my favorite weather patterns. It is always different but always has the same purpose. It rains to sustain life systems all around us (including us). Without rain we would have no plants. Without plants our animals die. If our plants and animals die, we die. See, doesn't rain seem so much better now?! Seriously though, God has shown me so much through the rain.

Things I have learned through the rain:
1. God loves His creation.
God has a reason for us being here. If He did not want us here He would take us out. Thus no more need for rain. He allows it to continue raining so we can continue living. He loves us enough to send the rain.

2. God is faithful.
Being in the south it gets super hot during the summer. That heat really doesn't bother me, not sure why God made me where I can endure heat but He did and I thoroughly enjoy not being miserable during the summer. One summer a friend and I were working at Discovery Cove in Orlando with a Christian summer project. It was super humid and hot and well ... we thought we might stroke out when we took the garbage to the back lot. So we sat down for a little rest. We both agreed we wished it would rain. So one of us suggested we pray. We looked at each other, bowed our heads and closed our eyes. Before I could even utter "Father, please..." it started pouring rain. God is faithful. He knows what His children want and need before we ever ask. He just wants us to ask. When we did it poured.

3. God loves the lost and wants to show Himself to them.
A friend of mine, who a few of us had been sharing with, was on her way to work with a relative. It started raining outside on her way to work. She told the relative in the passenger seat that she was going to pray for God to stop the rain long enough for them to go inside. She prayed. When they arrived at their office building it stopped raining. After they walked inside the rain started up again. God graciously answered my friends prayer and showed her that He has her best interest at heart.

4. God cries with us.
(Now this is not necessarily a biblical truth so do not quote me on this as anything more than my personal opinion.) To me it seems as if every funeral I am at or every time someone I know passes away it rains. It is almost as if God is crying with me and mourning with me. That very rain also comforts me and reminds me that God loves me and that He is faithful and that He loves the lost. He weeps over lost souls. He rejoices over the angels He gains when true followers pass on to be with Him. Yet, though He rejoices He knows we here on earth do not fully grasp the passing on to eternal life. In my experience (which is completely different than everyone elses .. I completely get that) He makes it rain. He comforts me through the rain and reminds me He is alive and real.

There have been many times when I have been driving and have begun praying and as I pray it rains. The longer I pray the more it rains. When I stop praying, it stops raining. There have been times I have prayed for rain and the rain has fallen. In the past year I have prayed in the rain, prayed for the rain, and happily walked through the rain with no umbrella. This has probably been the rainiest season of my life in all the best ways. Yet, as I write this and stop to think about my own experience with rain I wonder if it is raining for others in a completely different light. God shows His children things in different ways. Mine happen to come in the form of "rain drops fallin' on my head..." (yes, that song is now stuck in your head).

One of the most amazing things about rain is that it can be a perfectly cloudless sky and rain can be pouring down. Sometimes we do not see the rain coming. Rain makes things grow. If you are a child of God, He wants you to grow so He will give you many rainy seasons, not because rain is a punishment but because He loves you and cares for your holiness. When we go through hardships and trials we are stripped bare and refined. He sets us on fire to see what remains. He makes us holy, as He is holy. Rain is a good thing, a very very good thing. 

Happily Holy

The past month or so I seem to have been going through a dry spell. Which, to me, inevitably means that I am in sin. I can see the down spiraling of my actions and decisions from decent to bad to worse. As I actively choose sin over the love of Christ I, like everyone else who trust/loves/follows Christ end up far away from Him.

It has taken much for God to pull me back to Him and sadly enough, I am still nowhere near where I was or where I wish I was in my relationship with Him. Through recent events with a few of my friends who have also been going through dry spells, who have also seen the results of sin in their lives, Christ has shown me my own sin against Him and against others. Each one of us, in our own way, have actively chosen to pull away from our first Love. We have chosen to stray off that narrow way and try to hop the fence to get on the wide path that looks so appealing to us. Yet, God stops us and reminds each of us that we are His. He reminds us of the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7). When we, as the sheep did, stray from Him He will come find us and rejoice over us. He does not need us. He wants us. He chooses us for no other reason than to bring Himself glory. Yes, you … He chooses you to bring Him glory. The word chooses is not a typo, He actively chooses us everyday. He wants to make you righteous and holy and wants to remind you that you are loved and cared for by Him. This is not just a feel good message like the “Uncle Sam Wants You” campaign; no this is the God of the universe who wants to use you for His glory. But He declares us righteous when we are identified with Him.

Reading through Exodus proves to be difficult once I start trekking through the end of the book. All the information about how the temple was to be built and what was to be plated in gold. All the different tools and metals used and all of the measurements, OH the measurements!! But then I came upon chapter 29. Not necessarily very exciting to me, at least not until I came to verse 34 and 37. What do those two verses say, you may be asking yourself. Well I will tell you!

“It shall not be eaten, because it is holy” ~verse 34 c

“Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.” ~ verse 37

These verses are obviously referring to the rules about sacrifices. This particular way of preparing a sacrifice was only good enough for Christ. This sacrifice could be consumed on the day it was made set upon the altar but if there was any left over it was not to be eaten because it was holy. They could not eat it because it was holy. Holy means it was set apart, different, godly, pure quality. Holy has a whole slew of meanings and this is scratching the mere surface of the depth of the meaning. For now, we will leave it at “set apart” and “different.” This sacrifice was completely set apart. It was only for Christ, it was good enough for only Him. No one below the level of pure godliness could consume this. It was by far different than all the other sacrifices in the way it was prepared and what was to be with it at the end of the day.

We get down to verse 37 and see that the altar was to be consecrated and atonement was to be made for seven days. At this point the altar was considered “most holy” and “whatever touches the altar shall become holy.” After it had been declared holy, anything that touched it became holy as well. When we come to the Lord we are declared righteous and holy. He wants us to be holy as He is holy (Lev. 11:44 and I Peter 1:16). Whatever touched the altar that had been declared holy then became holy. Oooooo how I want this to be reflected in my life! If I am like Christ, who is holy, I should give off holiness. Those around me should be pushed to holiness and become more holy. All because Christ is holy! People rub off on me very easy. I pick up on mannerisms and quirky traits and even patterns of speech. When I think about rubbing off on others, this is what I want others to be getting. I want to love God so much that I would do anything to be holy as He is holy. Those that are around me (or as our pastor would say, in my sphere of influence) should be picking up on holiness more than anything.

Christ has called those who follow Him to a higher standard. We are to be holy as He is holy. Heck we should desire to be holy! Many times I catch myself wanting to be awesome as the world calls awesome rather than seeking Christ-like characteristics. Four and a half years ago I officially began my journey with Christ, well that is when I willingly began to journey with Him for He had already begun working in my heart long before then. My life is completely different from what it was 5 years ago. It is completely different than it was one year ago. Every year, month, and day I should be growing closer to Christ and being conformed to His image. This has not been an easy journey, then again nothing worth it ever is (still planning on writing a separate post about this quote).  We will never reach perfection and yet He still wants us to try. The closer we get to Him the more we should desire this. My appetite for holiness is far different than it was a few years ago as is my appetite for certain foods (ask my friends, I now eat egg rolls… crazy I know!). Just as we crave particular foods we also should crave the things of God in our love for Him.

Coming out of this particular dry season, God has taught me what it means to crave holiness and to crave Christ-likeness. Through a verse near the end of Exodus 29, He reminded me that I am to be holy as He is holy. God’s greatest concern for us is not that we are happy; it is that we are holy. People seem to interchange those two short words when they indeed should not be used interchangeably. The two are completely different. John Piper was quoted, recently, saying, “If God’s love for his children is to be measured by our health, wealth, and comfort in this life, God hated the apostle Paul.” Do you realize it pleased God to crush His own Son? God is not worried about how happy we may be while on this little journey here on earth. He wants us to be made like Him. Being made like Him does not necessarily include being sad, lonely, and depressed. I have known many who love God and have not met the adversity that Paul or Peter or many others have faced. On the other hand, I have known just as many who have experienced the tough trials and sufferings. God has a plan for each one of us and His plans for each person differ. Paul seemed loved God and was thankful to be found righteous in His eyes. I would even say he was happily holy. This too I desire to be.

A Gift of Love

One night after a big event at our university’s Student Union, a sweet friend leaned over and asked me if I thought true love could really exist. She told me she thought she could never be loved by a man the way our friend Sam* loves Brenda*. She went on to mention how Sam looks at Brenda and the way he talks to her and the way he treats her. This is just not something my friend had seen lived out by others.  This made me really sad for her. Then I realized, sadly I too feel that way and I have seen this lived out in the lives of those that are near and dear to me.

As of late I have been reading a book called A Man Worth Waiting For: How to Avoid a Bozo by Jackie Kendall. It seems to be written for girls that are in junior high, high school, or maybe even at the oldest their freshman year in college. None-the-less I am reading it and sticking it out. It is good and has great things spread through out the book. I came across the following in one of the chapters.

“A very successful hairstylist [told] me that over the years he has seen the saddest thing in the lives of most of his clients: ‘Women no longer marry for love, because they don’t believe true love exists. They assume it is an extinct reality. Instead of love, women now marry for money and power.’”

Jackie Kendall, A Man Worth Waiting For: How to Avoid a Bozo

Reading this made stop and think about how the young women I am around, as well as myself, view love and marriage. The sad truth is that we may crave love but we are willing to settle. We sadly think that God is not going to come through for us or that we have to choose our own fate so we take whatever looks good at the time. Ok, so I know someone who is reading this or will eventually read this is going to think, “I know God can provide and can provide a man worth marrying.” Do you really believe that? Look at your actions … Do you flirt with your guy friends for the sake of flirting? Do you feel like you just have to be in a relationship or you have to be liked by someone?

Your actions say more about what you believe than you think they do. A couple of Sunday’s ago our pastor was preaching on Knowing Who Really Matters and said, “What you are believing is what you are being.” That completely applies here. What you believe is shown through your actions. For example, if I believed that I would get hit by a train if I drove over the train tracks when the bars were down it would be stupid for me to drive over the blasted train tracks. So if I believed I would get hit and either be ridiculously injured or dead it would not be something I gave my life to doing. So if my continuous actions were dating anyone that asked me on a date or doing anything I could (within reason) to get a boyfriend, you can derive from that my beliefs that God will provide are pretty much non-existent.

It is not sinful to want to be pursued/courted or married, but if it is all you think about all day everyday … you might have a problem. If it is the thing that dominates your thoughts and actions you might do have a problem. I am a young woman, I think about marriage and having a family and being the mistress of my own home and blah blah blah. But I am also learning what it means to take every thought captive, to not dwell on those thoughts and the crazy day dreams and what not. God has made us to desire such things but He wants us to seek Him about them all. He wants to fill those desires with Himself.  To better explain this I will use a quote from a Mary Kassian sermon I listened to the other night.

“You see when God created male and female He created an object lesson a parable, as it where, of His entire redemptive plan. Manhood and womanhood, gender, sex, marriage all of those are mini lessons that proclaim the gospel. And when we talk about seeing Christ in the Old Testament we see Christ even in His creation of who He created us to be as male and female. The reason history started with God creating a man and a woman and a marriage is because it is going to end with a man, a woman, and a marriage. That’s why! It will end when Christ, the bridegroom, is united with His bride, the church, and the two become one. This marriage will be consummated throughout eternity. That’s why we have male and female, it’s not about me, it’s not about my husband, and it’s not about you as men and women. It’s about displaying a story. We tell a story by virtue of how we live our lives as men and women.” 

- Mary Kassian, the Gospel Coalition, the Feminist Mistake.

John McArthur said (in a sermon about God’s word), “The gospel is not a feel good message, it is about abandoning your life.” Far too often we think the gospel is supposed to benefit us and give us the warm fuzzies. The thing is, the gospel is not about us and it never was about us. God, in His mercy, allows us to have part in taking the gospel to others. He gave us the gifts of singleness and marriage as a picture of the gospel. Both singleness and marriage are extraordinary pictures of the gospel. With singleness we see God using us in total abandonment to Him. Having no spouse or children or other people to provide for other than the physical needs for self, we get to learn to be self-less and have the choice to live radically abandoned to Christ. Spending our time, money, energy, and efforts on taking the gospel to the lost community around us. We get to have uninterrupted fellowship with God. With marriage we see the example of Christ and the church working alongside each other to spread the gospel. Having fellowship with one-another and with God. Both singleness and marriage are hard work. “It ain’t going to be easy, but nothing worth it ever is,” quote from a television show (have a whole article about this one quote … well coming soon anyway).

God has you where you are for a reason. Know this, I am writing this more for myself than for others, simply because I know my own heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it,” (Jeremiah 17:9, KJV). God knows us better than we know ourselves (hello, read Psalm 139). He knows exactly what we need. If we are in Him, He hears our prayers. You would not believe the crazy things I have prayed for and God has answered [ask me and I will tell you … trust me, some of them are plain crazy]. We do not have, because we do not ask (James 4:2). Keep this in mind, God is not your personal genie in a bottle either (James 1:6-8). There are many things I have prayed and God’s answer has been silence. Not going to lie to you here, I have prayed for marriage quite a bit and guess what, still single as they come. Does that make God any less good? NO!! God knows what I need. He knows I would not be able to do what He has me doing right now if I was in a relationship. He has me in a unique little spot and I do not understand at times I am learning what it means to be obedient and how to have an obedient heart. He is not oblivious to my desires; He has put them in me. Just as He has put a desire in your heart for marriage or missions or a particular ministry and so-on and so-forth. He has a reason for that desire to be there. God says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope,” (Jeremiah 29:11). In Jeremiah 32:27 He says, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for Me?” Jeremiah, in Chapter 32, is praying for understanding and that is how the Lord answered his prayer … “is anything too hard for Me?”

Are you living in a manner that shows you trust God with your whole life? I know for me this is an area of my life I try to hold on to and occasionally tell God that this is my territory. God continues to show me that because I am His I am to live radically abandoned to Him. Even with my “love life,” or what I refer to as the lack there of, it is all His. God is teaching me when those tiny little thoughts pop up about how badly I want to be married or how nice it would be to wake up with someone next to me (especially as the weather gets colder and it is cold in my room), He is teaching me to look to Him. He is mighty to save (Zephaniah 3:17), He is continually saving me from my thoughts … from myself. He has paid the ultimate sacrifice and I am dead to sin and alive to God, in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11-12). I choose to be alive in Christ and dead to sin. The price has been paid, I need not pay more.

Going back to the beginning of this post where I shared about my friend, if we are in Christ we are loved far beyond our own imagination. The God of the universe chooses to love us although He knows everything about us. No man could ever love you the way God loves you. God did, however, make men that are worth the wait. He continually raises up godly men who love the Lord and pursue Him. God writes good stories, let Him be the one to write your love story. This comes like a ton of bricks in the face to me, because I, at times, am on the look out for whatever love story He may be writing for me. Which is probably why I am still single, God wants me to trust Him and submit my life fully to Him rather than be on the lookout for a man. It is possible to marry a man like Boaz (from the book of Ruth) who loves God and loves his wife. Love still exists, don’t settle anyone less than a man walking with the Lord.

*names were changed

Articles of Reference:

Mr. Right or Mr. Right in Front of You by Gabrielle Pickle

The Playground of Your Mind by Katie McCoy

When Beauty Shines Through

Most people who know me are typically shocked when I have on make up or have my hair fixed up a little more than usual. To be honest, it slightly offended me when I realized how shocked most people are when they see me dressed up. Then I realized they were seeing a completely different side of me. I heard a pastor say once or twice, “It never hurts to put fresh paint on an old barn.” And yes, he was talking about women wearing makeup. Since I became a Christian in 2007 I have always kind of felt like beauty was a passing pleasure. To me it did not seem important.

I listened to a sermon today by Mary Kassian, titled The Feminist Mistake. She told about her website in her sermon so I looked it up. When I got to the website I was immediately pulled into a particular article called Female Beauty Matters. Reading through it as well as thinking through some other things I have heard from my pastor, mentor, and friends from church made me look back and re-evaluate why I do not wear make up often. It caused me to look at the way I dress and the very way I conduct myself. For the most part guys see me as “one of the guys” which, as a girl, is super difficult because it seems to be a losing battle of trying to break that mold.

Men find beauty in women valuable. Women feel valuable when we feel that we look good. Even now as a single woman I feel valued when a guy finds me attractive or thinks I am pretty. It is one of those things that in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. But I know whoever I marry will want me to look nice. He will want me dress up for him, because looking good for him makes him feel valued. I am willing to spend the time to get dressed and all “dolled up” for him. Guys appreciate that and until recently I did not realize that, silly … I know, it is a pretty simple concept.

Within this very simple concept is a much deeper issue. God made men to admire beauty and women to desire beauty. I honestly think it all stems from God making us to admire and desire His beauty just as much as He made us to want to be beautiful to Him. We are made by Him, for Him. We are for His glory and His pleasure. He has a purpose for each and every one of us. That is sooo exciting! Our beauty may fade but through our prettiest and our ugliest days we get to point to a God far more beautiful than ourselves. There is nothing that can out shine His beauty. He chooses to let His beauty shine through us in the form of physical beauty and with internal beauty.

God has made each one of us exactly the way He wants us. He gave you the freckles on your face, your eye color, skin color, hair color … you name it, He gave it to you. Women tend to get really caught up in our looks. Then again, there are women like me who care very little and then when we do it shocks people. In trying to look attractive for your boyfriend, fiancé, spouse don’t lose sight of who God has made you. Someone jokingly said this to me the other day, “you are the only you there is.” Guess what, that is no lie. He was spot on. Don’t let our culture define you. Let Christ be what defines you. Give everything over to Him, including your beauty. Do not, let me repeat that a little louder DO NOT feel like you have to compare yourself to other women. Women on magazines, guess what… they are airbrushed. Your super hot neighbor that seems to always look great, guess what … she feels the same way you do. God does not intend for us to sit around wishing we looked like someone else or had that girls nose, her eyes, that hair, no! He made you, you. So dress according to what is modestly flattering on you. If it makes you feel more attractive to wear makeup, don’t feel bad about it either. Sheesh, I am pretty much talking to myself right now because that is exactly what I do. When I think about putting makeup on or dressing a little nicer I feel like a poser. Don’t feel like a poser, don’t be like me. Remember that God has made you beautiful and wearing make up is not a bad thing (don’t put so much on that you look like a clown though, that is sad and reminds me of the lady from the Drew Carey show … yeah, don’t be like her either). Let God’s beauty shine through you. When you let God’s beauty shine through, that is when everyone sees you as the prettiest. When you let yourself be beautiful to the King, others see that beauty. They may not realize it at the time but they are in the very presence of royalty. You are a child of the King. 

Setting Us Free

Here recently I have begun going through the entire Bible again. In spending time alone with God I want to know more of His character and know who He is. Just like getting to know a friend there are questions I have that can be and have been answered through prayer and reading through scripture. This morning (and by morning I do mean noon) I was going through Exodus 3-4. I didn't realize how applicable these two chapters were today until I read them again today.

Chapter 3 begins with Moses approaching the historical burning bush. As I read this I realized how hard it was for me to shake the movie Prince of Egypt out of my mind. Reading through this before I knew the movie was not quite accurate but then reading it again made me realize how inaccurate it really is. Not that I am knocking the movie, I like it and it is a good one to watch. Anyway, back on topic. Going through chapter three it is neat to see that God tells Moses Pharaoh's heart will be hardened. He tells him it will take time for the Israelites to be set free. Not just that but He reveals to Moses some of what he will be required to do.

God knew Pharaoh would order all baby boys to be put to death. He knew that Moses' mother would attempt to save him. He also knew that Pharaoh's daughter would find Moses. God had a reason for Moses growing up in Pharaoh's house, among the Egyptian people. He knew what was going to happen when Moses went to speak with Pharaoh to set the Israelites free. God was not surprised that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, God was the one who hardened his heart. He knows all things and sees all things. God is outside of time, He is the creator of time. He sees the end of time just as clearly as He sees today and the beginning of time. He knows all, sees all, and has created all. Nothing surprises God.

Just like God had a plan for Moses, He has a plan for you and me and everyone else. He had Moses grow up among the Egyptians because it allowed Moses to have a connection with the royal family. He automatically had an "in" so to speak. Pharaoh knew him, he was raised in Pharaoh's house. This had to be a humbling situation for Moses, going into a place where no one believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This was the family that he knew. He chose to leave the and be with the Israelites, the Hebrew's - his people. God has a plan for each of us. He has given us all the same purpose to know Him and make Him known. Moses was 80 when he and Aaron went to Pharaoh. He had been in the desert for 40 years, which means that Moses was raised in Pharaoh's house for 40 years. Do you get that? He was a grown man! He only knew what it meant to be a child in the palace. He was not raised as an Israelite at all. -Now do you see my problem with the Prince of Egypt? Haha, just kidding! - God has a reason for you to have been born in the family you are apart of, it was not an accident. It was ordained by God for you to have the parents you have, to have the brothers/sisters you have. God has had all things happen for a reason.

Look around and ask God why. Ask Him why you are in your family. Try to see what God's purpose is for you there. If you are a believer but your family is not God has had you come to Christ among a group of non-believers. You are on your own little island, your own mission field. You have a sweet opportunity to ask God to deliver your family from hell. Maybe you are a college student and live on campus or in your sorority/fraternity house and are surrounded by lost people. Whatever or wherever you are God has you in your own little mission field. We have been deceived to think that the only mission fields are a bazillion miles away. My heart is to see international students and people from other countries come to know Christ. But I also recognize it is not practical for every true believer to get up and leave the U.S. to go overseas to share the gospel. Who would evangelize the U.S.? Like I said before, God has you where you are for a reason.

"Then Moses said to the LORD, 'Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.' The LORD said to him, 'Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.'"
                                               ~Exodus 4:10-12

Chapter 4 we see Moses telling God how inadequate he feels. But God tells him He has made all and He can be trusted. Going back for a minute, God had Moses grow up in Pharaoh's house. God choose Moses to speak to Pharaoh and set the Israelites free. He hardened Pharaoh's heart. God was not blind to the situation. He was choosing to make the people see His power and His faithfulness. The Israelites were treated worse when Moses and Aaron went to set them free. The mental image in my head is the Israelites hearing about Moses and Aaron wanting to set them free. They all rejoice. Then Moses and Aaron speak with Pharaoh, Pharaoh makes the life of the Israelites worse. The Israelites are mad at Moses and Aaron for making things worse. Talk about fickle! Then again that is the image I have in my head. The Israelites were very upset that they were caused more pain but as far as the other stuff ... that is how I imagine it going down. God is showing His people He can be trusted. He uses a number of miracles to display His power: Moses and Aaron's staffs turning into snakes and swallowing the magicians snakes, all the water turned to blood, frogs all through out the land, insects and gnats everywhere, all the Egyptians cattle died, boils and sores on all the Egyptians and livestock, hail, locusts, darkness in all the land, and the deaths of all the first born among the Egyptians. God chose to display His power. He wanted His people to trust Him. He showed the Egyptians and the Egyptian magicians that He has power over all things.

God has power over all things. He has control over all the money in the world, all agriculture, all weather, all things! God is in control. Yet, here I am little ole me wanting to be in control of things in my life and thinking I have somehow earned the right to have that control. I cannot change people. I cannot change the weather. I cannot change myself. I have no control. Now if that does not leave you feeling helpless, I do not know what will. But because God is in control and God is the creator of all things (including you and me) He has designed a plan for us. He wants to reveal Himself to us and He wants to show us His faithfulness. He is our Father. We are a fickle people just like the Israelites were fickle. They were happy when things were good and they were angry when things were bad. We jump from thing to thing to find what we think is best for ourselves. Yet, we do not seek God to see what He considers best for us. We think bigger electronics, more stuff, and nicer clothes is what is best for us. We are sadly deceived. God's best for us does not involve wealth and prosperity (of an earthly standard that is). God does not intend for us to be in perfect health all the time. We are people, our bodies are imperfect, we are going to get sick. Health, wealth, and prosperity just doesn't seem to fit into the gospel. God has a plan for you and for me, but no where in scripture does it say we get a whole bunch of earthly stuff. God has you right where you are for a reason. So seeking out bigger and better is probably not going to be in that. It is a harsh truth but one thing we have to realize is the gospel is not about ourselves. The gospel does not revolve around me, or you, or your favorite pair of shoes. The gospel is all about Christ. It is all about God's love and mercy and grace. God sent Moses to set His people free just like God sent His only Son to give us an option to be free from the bondage of sin.

~*~ Challenging Questions ~*~
  - Where does God have you right now? Can you see why He has you there?
  - Are you trying to be in control of your own life? How can you turn this over to God and allow Him to regain control of your life (or begin to take hold of your life)?
  - Are you allowing God to set you free from sin in your life?

Crouching Sin at Your Door

Today has been quite an extraordinary day. This morning a few members from our congregation met together to pray for the nation we call home. Our nation has been going in a direction that is heading straight for destruction. Things scripture clearly tells us is sin our nation wants to support and pass laws allowing such things. Among those things are abortion and homosexual marriage. The shows on television make light of divorce, gay marriage, cohabitation, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. Our very culture tries to make the immoral normal. What we do not quite grasp is what our sin truly does to God. God sent Christ to die for the very sins we watch on television and laugh at. That is twisted and seems to me, very wrong. In thinking about this I wanted to look back, way back, back to the beginning of where all of this stems from.

Looking through scripture at the fall of other nations and people groups and seeing what happens to nations that follow this pattern of rebellion, it is not looking like a very bright future for our home land. When we look back to the garden and see the beginning of sin in the human realm (I say this because I truly believe Satan holds the depressing record of the first sin ... pride and wanting to be God, in which God immediately threw him out of the Kingdom of Heaven). We see Eve being tempted with envy. She is tempted to want something she cannot have. Then we do not really see any sin until we come to Cain and Abel. It says that Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground. Just a few verses before in Genesis 4:6-7 "The Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.'" Cain was angry and his face had fallen because his offering was not accepted by God yet his brother's was. Cain's offering was from the already cursed ground and Abel's offering was from the livestock. What gets me here is the last half of verse 7 "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Sin will crouch at our door. It desires us. We have to rule over it.

When I think of the word crouch I think of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, I have not seen this movie so there is no analogy using the movie just the name ... hehe. But even the title gives me this image of a tiger getting ready to attack its unsuspecting prey. A tiger is waiting in the brush near by as a deer grazes on the grass. The tiger inches closer and closer until it is close enough to attack. It pounces and has its dinner locked in its jaw. This is how I view Genesis 4:7. Sin is waiting at our door, it wants us, and it wants to rip us to pieces and eat us for dinner. Even though tigers have great precision in catching prey there are always the deer that get away. These deer are super sensitive and are watching out at every corner, knowing that it could be attacked at any point. We can be that deer that gets away. Sometimes we allow sin to seep into our lives and spread through us like cancer. But there are times that it sneaks up on us and we are its unsuspecting prey. Cain wanted his offering to be accepted by God but it wasn't. Why? Good question, my guess is that it was from the cursed ground, then again I cannot say for certain. I do know that the more Cain dwelled on it the more angry he became. The more angry he became the more the seed of hatred for his very own brother grew. That hatred grew into murder. It grew into the actual physical murder of his brother. His brothers blood cried out to God. Sin was ruling over Cain and not the other way around.

In the New Testament we see similar wording (well in English we do, I am not sure about the Greek or Hebrew... need to do some research on that) as that of Genesis 4:7.

"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as insturments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."                                                                                                                          ~ Romans 6:11-14

We have the God given ability to have master over sin. Does this blow your mind as much as it does mine? Think about it, if you are a truly born again Christian you can have master over sin. The song Whip It comes to mind right now (probably not the best song to use but I hope you get the point). We are told we can choose not to present our members to sin. There is so much goodness in this passage in Romans I could write a book about it, no worries, I am not going to write you a chapter book on this post. Maybe later though ... JUST KIDDING! Look at it again, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions." Do not let it reign in your body. Give it no leg room to move about or even wiggle.

So going back to the beginning of this post, our nation has come to a point where we not only let sin wiggle and move but we tell everyone they should join in and do it too. It is our turn. We need to challenge ourselves to follow God. Let Him take control of our lives and whip sin into submission. Do not obey the passions of sin. Remember it is waiting and is just outside crouching at your door waiting on you. There is hope, so much hope in Christ. Christ beat death. He beat sin. He is the savior of all.

A Force to be Reckoned With

You know what I find interesting? I find it very interesting that James 3:8-10 says what it does. It tells us that no human being can tame their own tongue. It tells us that out of the same mouth we bless and curse others. We tear apart our brothers and sisters with the same mouth that we praise our Lord and Savior with. I mean, am I missing something here. Does that seem awful to anyone else? Psalm 50 says "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; your own mother's son." James tells us "...no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison." Wow!!

When I think of a mouth full of deadly poison I think of a deadly venomous snake. A snake that slowly kills you from the inside and causes an unbearable amount of pain. What I don't realize normally is that our words have that same affect on those around us. We can build each other up or tear each other down. Words are far more powerful than we think. "With it we course people who are made in the likeness of God," James 3. We don't think about it like that, well ... at least I don't think about it that way. When we talk someone down or when we slander their name or when we use words to bully others, we are beating up those with the very likeness of God. Us, the very likeness of God. That brother or sister you just talked bad about or said mean things to, they are the very likeness of God. God made us in His image. He chose people, not deer, not sharks, not even fluffy bunny rabbits to be the likeness of God; NO He chose people of all things. He tells the mountains to only grow so high and they grow no higher. He tells the waters to only come up so far and they go no further. He tells man to know Him and we say we do not want to. He chose us and continues to choose us everyday. He gave us freedom of speech in the most unique of ways. He gave us the freedom of thought and the freedom of choice in what to believe. He does not force us to choose Him. He did not create us to be mindless robots, He created us to have a desire for something. That something is Him.

It says that no human being can tame the tongue, but God can. Coming to know Christ and grow in Him continually is a taming of the tongue. I do not speak the same way I did before I knew the Lord. My desires changed, my tastes for things changed, my speech changed. I fall into sin all the time. Ok, let me rephrase that. I do not "fall" into sin, I choose to sin. For example, when something frustrates me I choose to complain about it. I didn't fall into that, I choose it. People fall into holes that they didn't see, that I could see coming and simply chose not to deal with. I let sin creep into my life and I let it sit and fester. Not cool. Matter of fact, I am pretty sure that should be the definition of not cool. Anyway, that was an interesting rabbit trail. Just as a wild horse cannot tame itself, nor can we tame our own tongue. This has to be a God thing. We have to trust that God will tame our tongue and we have to make actions toward doing so. God has the ability to just zap us and say "tongue be tamed" and it could be done. He chooses to do things differently. If we were not learning from things we would expect everything to be done for us.

One thing my father has taught me very well is to work hard. This is learned behavior for me. It is something I have been taught my whole life. Just like having a tame tongue is learned behavior. God has done many things in my life to show me I need to work hard at having a tamed tongue and ask Him for His help since it is obviously not something I can do on my own. There have been times when I have said things and then later when the person found out I would have to apologize and be super embarrassed that I said such things. Even to this day I still catch myself saying things that have no business being said. "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." Proverbs 25:11. Somehow I think this could be a reason for our well known phrase "think before you speak". Doesn't that just make you think more about what you say? Do you realize scripture tells us we are accountable for what we say? I think if I thought that every time before I opened my mouth, my mouth would shut shortly after opening with no words spoken. Most of the things that escape my mouth are meaningless. Many people in my life can attest to this. Yet somehow some way ... I still talk, alot matter of fact, I talk alot more than any one person should ever talk about anything. Thank You Jesus for grace and mercy!!

Our tongues are such a force to be reckoned with. God's word is a tool for refining what we say and do and a tool to get to know Him better. He wants us to know Him more. The things I often talk about have absolutely nothing to do with God. Another one of my favorite phrases is, "the things you talk about the most are the things you truly love". Wow, not sure I want to know what I talk about the most. Then again, it would show me how I view God.

Do you love God? The things you talk about most are the things you love the most. So if you are not talking about God or if you run away from people who talk about God ... you might want to re-evaluate your love for Him. Peter was asked by Christ 3 times if he loved Him. The Greek word for love the first two time sChrist asks him is the word agapao. Agapao is a spiritual love. A sincere love that is outside the sensual. The third time is the word phileo. This means to have an affection for or to like alot. So the first two times Christ is saying "do you really love me". The third time He is saying "do you like me alot"? When Peter heard Christ ask Him the third time he was grieved. It hurt him because he realized his love for Christ was not on the same level as Christ's love for him. He was not loving Christ whole heartedly. But when you read in Acts you see that Peter is the ring leader and pushing everyone toward Christ. Christ lit a fire under him and set him a blaze. Peter denied Christ three times and told Christ he loved Him three times with the same mouth. He blessed and cursed the Lord with the same mouth. He too was made in the likeness of God. God has put so many wonderful examples in scripture for us to ponder over. It really makes a person think about what their words say about their relationship with God.




So what do your words say about your relationship with God?