Fragility

What makes a person change?  Its seems as though when we go through the various stages of our lives we make changes for the good and bad, but why do we make changes for the bad?  Why can’t it be like economics where the rationality assumption states that no one will make a decision that would make them worse off?  Maybe they are misinformed or maybe they believe that the decision they are making will end up making them better off when really in the end it won’t. How can someone claim to be one person at one point in their life and then when they hit a new stage they become someone different.  We hear all the time about wearing a face in front of a certain crowd and putting on a show for others to make ourselves look good. However, this is different.  Why is it that people put on a new face when they get to a new stage in life? I believe the reason for this change is that our lives are fragile.  We are by nature, beings that are weak and unstable.  We cannot do life on our own.  We fail at many things.  We break under pressure and give up when life gets too hard.  We are by nature-fragile.  It is this fragility that shows the need for Savior.  Think about it. If we were stable then we would not be in need of salvation.  We would not be in need of a God to send his Son to die for us and save us from a life destined for hell.  I praise God that he has made me a fragile human being.  However, along with this fragility comes the choice. Do we choose to accept his salvation…..DAILY? Or do we simply try to do life on our own and put on a face that shows we are stable?  Most of the time we try to make our lives look stable on the outside and we do this by changing to what is around us.  This brings me back to stages in life.  We change and adapt to our environment in life.  We live up to the expectations that society has put on us.  We do all of this to appear stable and firm.   Eventually (and it may take time and many stages in life) we will realize that we can’t do it on our own and we need a Savior to give us strength and power to live today for Him.   Don’t get me wrong, I am not talking about accepting Christ for the first time.  I believe salvation is something that happens daily. In Philippians Paul tells us to “work out” our salvation with fear and trembling.  This must happen daily if we really are to rely on Him for our strength and not our own.  Otherwise, we are just going through the stages of life, changing as people because of the expectations of the world.  We are fragile humans beings in need of a Savior who can bring us true life.  All of this for His glory the one and only!! 

Discipline

I was looking at a blog entry written by Steven Furtick today and I was offered some hope from the scriptures. The passage comes from Hebrews 12:5-7.

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,because the Lord disciplines those he loves,and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

After reading this, it is obvious that because God loves us, He disciplines us. At times I think we wonder why God leads in a certain direction. And at times we get frustrated and question why He does things to us. The answer to all of this is because He loves us. If He didn’t then He wouldn’t put us through tough situations or discipline us.

I feel that at this time God is disciplining me. Maybe He is building me up for something better? Maybe He is training me to deal with frustration? Maybe He is preparing me for a different kind of ministry? Maybe He is doing all of these things? Only prayer, and God’s guidance will tell. My prayer is not that He would lead a certain direction, but that He would give me the strength to follow His direction when He reveals that to me. I also thank God that he loves me enough to cause me pain in order to discipline me and build me up to be stronger. I feel God is taking me in a new direction and I pray that its all for His Glory the One and Only.

Stranded

I was recently eating ice cream at Sonic- one of the best places for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blast!! It was great!!! As I was eating I had not come the realization that my headlights were still on. Upon realizing it, i quickly turned them off and continued devouring the sweet sensations of my Blast! When I attempted to leave, the car would not crank. AHHH!!!! I was sooooo frustrated. What a stupid move on my part, I should have turned the lights off as soon as I got there and then this would not have happened. Another thing to add to my troubles was the location of the Sonic- York. So I then was stranded until my dad came to the rescue to jump start my car.

Have you ever felt stranded in your spiritual life? Have you ever felt like God just wasn't there when you needed Him most and there was simply no hope? I know I have. So what is going on in these times? Why does God seem so distant?

The reality is that God hasn't gone anywhere. If we are believers in Christ then we know that He is always with us no matter what, through thick and thin. But there are times in every believer's life where God seems distant and we feel stranded. So what do we do in order to become closer?

What i have found to be the key to getting closer to God is to spend time with Him. WOW, big revelation, in order to get closer to someone-spend time with them. Its not a complex or complicated idea, but what is hard is actually doing it. Its called "Daily Faith Renewal" In order to have an on-going intimacy with God we must DAILY renew our faith and trust in Him. This renewal can be different for everyone, somtimes its prayer, reading, writing, or music, but the key is having one-on-one time with the Creator of Universe. This is where the abudant life truely lies. Spending time with Him, the giver of all that is good, is the onlly thing that will keep us close to Him.

However, so many times we are tempted to fade. We get home from a retreat or mission trip and we are on fire and we feel close to God, but then we begin to fade. We get back to the "real world" and things get real again. We fade more and more as the days go on and our present tense faith is no longer evident. This is the time when we must honestly face the reality of what has become of our lives. We must ask God for forgivness and dive back into His word so that we can become intimate again.

Its an easy concept (spend time with the person who you want to be close to), but it is just as easy to fall to temptation and fade under the pressures of the "real world". What is hard is to stick with it. No one said that the Christian life would be easy, and its not. But if we truely want to honor God then we have to spend time with Him. Isn't that the point? Isn't it all for His Glory the One and Only?

"Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presenc, nut now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."
Philippians 2:12-13

A great song that goes along with this idea is Santus Real's "I'm not alright". Check it out on itunes!!!

Faithful-Not Successful

When I was Indianapolis this past June I got the opportunity to meet Tony Dungy, the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He was signing copies of his book, Quiet Strength. Seeing as buying a copy of the book would give me the opportunity to shake his hand and talk to him for all of about 1 minute, i gave in and purchased a copy. I got in line and got up to him and sopke with him for just moment and he signed the book and that was that. But then I was very interested in what the book was about so I read it, and man was it incredible. I would highly recomend the book to anyone and everyone wether you are a die-hard NFL fan or don't know how man points a touchdown is worth. The faith of this man is one that is inspiring and motivitating.

As I was getting to the end of the book and Mr. Dungy was wrappin it up a quote stopped me dead in my reading. He wrote that "God has not called me to be sucessful-just faithful" This struck me in a tremendous way. I always think that I have to be sucessful in life. To reach for the top in everything and that if I don't earn a bunch of money and am high up on the ladder then I'm not legit. But this is not at all what God has called me to do. He has not called me to be the spotlight of everything or to be sucessful in EVERYTHING that I do. All God wants me to be is faithful to Him. God blessed Tony Dungy in many ways and with a lot of sucess-winning the Super Bowl and having one the best football programs in the NFL. However, after reading his book it was evident that he didn't strive to be successful, he strove to be fairthful and God blessed him with success.

I think the world tells us all the time that we aren't anything if we aren't "successful", but God tells us something totally different.

Matthew 6:33"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you"Success is never promised, but faithfulness is blessed!

Everything Glorious

What's up folks? I just got back from Indianaplolis. I was attending the Southern Baptist Convention as a Page. I got to run around and make copies of important papers and do odd jobs here and there. As boring as this sounds it was an AMAZING experience because not only was I able to visit a cool city but I was able to meet some really neat people. But anywho. I was traveling on a small 15 passasnger bus from North Greenville University. It was a very bumpy and long trip but on the way we went straight through the Appalachian Mountains. As we were riding I couldn't help but be reminded of a song written by David Crowder. (yes i am a huge fanatic of David Crowder) This past year he won a Dove award for the song Everything Glorious as the best Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year. the lyrics to the song are

The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than its hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?

My eyes are small but they have seen
the beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
there's light enough to see that

(chorus)You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory
You are glorious You are glorious
From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious
Which leads me to believe
why I can believe that

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious.
You are glorious. You are glorious.

and as i was riding i was able to see the amazing creation that god has made, and i was awestruck by the enormity and heinousness of the mountatins and landscape. These huge figures aren't something that someone simply looks and at and goes "yea that's cool". They are something that you stand and look at in mere wonderment and if your like me you can't stop starring. It was soo easy to see how God truely does make everything glorious. It seems that everytime I visit the mountains I am reminded of the vastsness and huge character of God. He made everything that I see and it IS glorious. This gives me hope that even when my days aren't going great or things are tough in life, God makes everything glorious. He makes the day brighter and the night lighter. This can lead me to believe that he makes everything glorious.

Another part of this song that struck me was the line "What does that make me?' I think what Crowder was trying to get across was that when we can wrap our small minds around the fact that GOD makes everything glorious (and not us) then we are left with the question "What does that make me?" We realize that its not about us and it is all about the one who is glorious and the creator of the universe, the maker of all that is good. This is mainly what I got out of this song and experience in the mountains. that when we realize God makes everything and we are small with small eyes and small minds and small bodies then we will be left in question of who we are and the answer to this question is that we are nothing when it comes to the enormity of God and we must die to ourselves and submit our renewed minds to the one who makes everything glorous!!!

Coming Soon

What's up guys, thought i would let everyone that i will be bloggin more often pretty soon here. Had to take the school year off because of IB, but i hope to be able to write more now that school is out. More coming soon.

Authentic Worship

Sometimes I think that we as Chrsitians think that worship is something that we do on Sunday mornings when we sing songs, pray and listen to the preacher say a few words. I realized a few years ago that worship is not only this but it is an ongoing process and lifestyle that we should strie to have.I was reminded of that today. Worship isn't something that just happens on Sunday morning. Its a lifestyle that gives worth to God. That is the definition of worship "giving worth to God". Isn't that we are doing in a service? Giving our attention over to God and giving him all the praise and glory. But should it stop there. Defenitely not. its not something that only happens from 9 to 10 on Sunday morning, its something that happens from January 1st to January 1st. Worship is when we take the focus off ourselves and turn it towards God. This choice of where our focus is happens everytime we are faced with a decision. Should I read my Bible or watch TV, should I go to youth group or go hang out with other friends, should I sreve others or just worry about myself. We are faced all the time with wether or not to give worth to God by doing what the word says or give worth to ourselves by doing what the world says.

After realizing that worship isn't something that just happens for an hour I think we need to ask ourselves what is authentic worship. Are we faking our way through life by doing the right thing simply besause its the right thing to do. Or are we doing the right thing becuse it is what God wants us to do and we want to give the praise and glory to him? Is our worship authentic? When we sing the songs on Sunday morning are we sining them because we really mean them and they are our prayer? Or are we doing it to show off our vocal skills? (I know the anwser for some of us would defenitely not be to try to show off our vocals). But are the words really coming from the heart?

I think in today's society it is sooo easy to fake our worship. It is easy to do the right thing because it makes us look "spiritual" and it makes us look good in front of piers. i constantly have to check myself and ask myself if i'm just going through the motions or do I really mean what I say and do. i also have to ask myself if I am constantly worshipping God. If I am constantly giving all my attention over to him all the time. That is so hard to do. But i don't doubt God when he says that the rewards will be awesome.