Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Time is Now
Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. Psalm 39:4
This morning I received some sad news. A family member had died last night. Slightly shocking, but at the same time we all knew it was coming. Death is not a surprise to those who are old and those around them, but what about those who die "before their time." It is a shock, we are stopped dead in our tracks, utterly perplexed how someone young could pass. Each time it happens we wake up and realize maybe we do not have our whole lives to do something, but this realization leaves as soon as it comes.
How often have you had someone your age or younger, let's say college aged tell you that they will "do God" later, you know, when they are married, have a career and kids. Seems like the best time to follow God, after you do everything you desire to do. Do you or they know that God wants them to follow Him now?
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. James 4:13-15
A little over a year ago I was in a car accident while heading to church. I had planned on making it to Jr High small groups that night, but God had very different plans. I turned on what I thought to be a green arrow, when a motorcyclist hit the back of my car in cross traffic. She did not make it through, that night Miheala Zagoni died. She was 26 years old and had been riding her motorcycle for only 3 weeks, this girl had some serious plans. She had recently graduated from college as an architect and had a good job and now was taking up riding a motorcycle. Where ever she had planned on going that night, she did not make it there, God had very different plans.
We cannot trust in our lives because we do not know how long our lives will be. This is the time, now is the time to surrender our lives to God and put our trust in Him. We are born into a state of depravity, children of wrath as it says in Ephesians, deserving hell, but God came down in the form of man, Jesus Christ, to take on the punishment we so deserve after living a perfect life of no sin nailing it to a cross, so that we may gain salvation into the Kingdom of Heaven. Imagine, the eternity of hell for all those who become saved poured out onto one man. Being a christian and "doing the God thing" is not just going to church and raising your family to believe in God, it is a way of life, a life that no longer belongs to you. Please, I implore you to get rid of the worlds way of viewing God, because you do not know if you will make it to the end of this blog!
Christians! For us this means we need to be sharing the Gospel because it saves souls! I had never heard the gospel until I was 17 years old and praise God I lived long enough for someone to share it with me! Because whether death or Christ's return, which ever comes first, there is no "time" because the time is now.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
You've got a friend in me...
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13: 6-7
As I was reading in Matthew last night I realized something that struck me. When Judas comes to betray Jesus this is what is said:
While he (Jesus) was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him." Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" and kissed him. Jesus replied, "Friend, do what you came for." Matthew 26:47-50
I don't know about you but I was stuck here for a little, thinking "Friend?!? I mean in what way is Judus a friend to Christ??" Knowing who Christ says are his friends in John 15:14, there was no way Judus was doing as Christ commanded and thus how could he be a friend. Well, Greek is a much more specific language as I found out while checking out what my study bible had to say about it. It reads:
"Friend represents Greek Hetairos, implying not the closeness and the affection of the usual word for friend (philos) but only acquaintance and association. It was used previously by Jesus in parables concerning someone who has taken advantage of a privileged relationship."
How often are we like Judus? We like to think of ourselves better than that, I mean no one wants to be compared to Judus even those who are not christians. Well, the sad truth is we sometimes are.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4: 1-3
What an amazing and privileged calling we have received! But how often we neglect and abuse it; we put other things before what God has called us to do and we love things more than Christ, then on top of it, we justify our sin. When we are doing all these things we hide the gospel and do not share it and we do not stand up for Christ.
Yesterday, I was given by God the greatest opportunity to share the gospel, someone specifically said to me "I was never brought up around church, I have no knowledge of religion or belief." Oh boy did I blow it! God gave me this perfect opportunity and I turned my back on Him, I sold Him over for comfort, just like Judus did for some silver coins. I was not worthy of my calling at all in that moment and I was a hetairos.
My prayer is that each day I would less and less neglect the privileged relationship I have with Christ, because in the same chapter of Matthew I also saw how much He was about to go through for me.
As I was reading in Matthew last night I realized something that struck me. When Judas comes to betray Jesus this is what is said:
While he (Jesus) was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him." Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" and kissed him. Jesus replied, "Friend, do what you came for." Matthew 26:47-50
I don't know about you but I was stuck here for a little, thinking "Friend?!? I mean in what way is Judus a friend to Christ??" Knowing who Christ says are his friends in John 15:14, there was no way Judus was doing as Christ commanded and thus how could he be a friend. Well, Greek is a much more specific language as I found out while checking out what my study bible had to say about it. It reads:
"Friend represents Greek Hetairos, implying not the closeness and the affection of the usual word for friend (philos) but only acquaintance and association. It was used previously by Jesus in parables concerning someone who has taken advantage of a privileged relationship."
How often are we like Judus? We like to think of ourselves better than that, I mean no one wants to be compared to Judus even those who are not christians. Well, the sad truth is we sometimes are.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4: 1-3
What an amazing and privileged calling we have received! But how often we neglect and abuse it; we put other things before what God has called us to do and we love things more than Christ, then on top of it, we justify our sin. When we are doing all these things we hide the gospel and do not share it and we do not stand up for Christ.
Yesterday, I was given by God the greatest opportunity to share the gospel, someone specifically said to me "I was never brought up around church, I have no knowledge of religion or belief." Oh boy did I blow it! God gave me this perfect opportunity and I turned my back on Him, I sold Him over for comfort, just like Judus did for some silver coins. I was not worthy of my calling at all in that moment and I was a hetairos.
My prayer is that each day I would less and less neglect the privileged relationship I have with Christ, because in the same chapter of Matthew I also saw how much He was about to go through for me.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Dirty bathrooms, Rotting Bodies, and Filthy Hearts..Oh My!
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. Matthew 23:27
So, last friday I finally cleaned my bathroom, which was a huge event because it was disastrous. Gross right? I mean its probably the dirtiest place in the whole house, any bathroom that is. But for a long time to me it seemed perfectly fine because I kept things picked up for the most part so when you glanced in looked clean and fine, but we all know about germs and that nasty stuff that builds up in bathrooms so by actual definition this bathroom was not clean...we can become the same way.
In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Matthew 23: 28
After I has finished, which was hours later, I came downstairs and said to my mom "I think I know why I don't clean my bathroom very often...because I'm so OCD about it once I get going it just takes up my whole day!" (Go ahead moms its okay to laugh, I laugh at it now too) In reply my mother said "Well maybe if you just cleaned it more often it wouldn't take so long." In other words, stop being lazy...which I have recently really been revealed how bad this condition of laziness had become...but for now I'll stick to my point.
Now your probably wondering why I compared us to my nasty bathroom, if you haven't figured it out already that is! We pick up the things on the surface of our lives to appear "clean" because we are lazy (which is a sin, which means, yes, we are sinful). And then we see ourselves in the mirror of God's word and think, well all appears to look well, when on the inside we are dirty bathroom scum, just as Jesus said to the pharisees about them being rotting corpses inside a pretty white tomb. Day by day the build up of sin continues...making everything unusable.
This laziness causes a multitude of sin to build up inside our hearts and when its exposed ourselves and others around us are disgusted. Cleaning out that filthy heart build up takes way longer than if we had been checking our hearts for the beginnings of filth each day. Through doing this we become more glorifying and a more useful tool for God each and everyday!
So, last friday I finally cleaned my bathroom, which was a huge event because it was disastrous. Gross right? I mean its probably the dirtiest place in the whole house, any bathroom that is. But for a long time to me it seemed perfectly fine because I kept things picked up for the most part so when you glanced in looked clean and fine, but we all know about germs and that nasty stuff that builds up in bathrooms so by actual definition this bathroom was not clean...we can become the same way.
In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Matthew 23: 28
After I has finished, which was hours later, I came downstairs and said to my mom "I think I know why I don't clean my bathroom very often...because I'm so OCD about it once I get going it just takes up my whole day!" (Go ahead moms its okay to laugh, I laugh at it now too) In reply my mother said "Well maybe if you just cleaned it more often it wouldn't take so long." In other words, stop being lazy...which I have recently really been revealed how bad this condition of laziness had become...but for now I'll stick to my point.
Now your probably wondering why I compared us to my nasty bathroom, if you haven't figured it out already that is! We pick up the things on the surface of our lives to appear "clean" because we are lazy (which is a sin, which means, yes, we are sinful). And then we see ourselves in the mirror of God's word and think, well all appears to look well, when on the inside we are dirty bathroom scum, just as Jesus said to the pharisees about them being rotting corpses inside a pretty white tomb. Day by day the build up of sin continues...making everything unusable.
This laziness causes a multitude of sin to build up inside our hearts and when its exposed ourselves and others around us are disgusted. Cleaning out that filthy heart build up takes way longer than if we had been checking our hearts for the beginnings of filth each day. Through doing this we become more glorifying and a more useful tool for God each and everyday!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Prideful Comfort Sacrificed for Humble Counsel
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.” Philippians 2:3
Do you ever get uncomfortable with certain topics and do anything to avoid talking about them? I know I do! Recently though I found that it can become a sinful habit of placing yourself above others.
The last few months I have been working through a bible study through Ephesians and it is so awesome how much God has revealed to me and others through it, what great conversations have arisen from the scripture! But some conversations we wish to avoid, we all have those things we’d just rather not talk about. Once during a conversation something came up that I personally am awkward and uncomfortable with. That was it, another very close friend and I did all we could to stop the conversation and we succeeded....
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
About a month later the same friend called me up and began to talk with me about the situation. By the end of the conversation it was a mutual agreement that we had placed our own comforts above someone else who may have been crying out for help and counsel on how to deal with something. Now, we are not sure why the comment was made whether it be just for fun or if they really needed counsel hidden behind a kind laugh.
I felt horrible, why do I so often find that my comfort is more important than anyone else's needs. I mean, I was perfectly fine with any other topic or cry for help, I was even the one asking for advice sometimes, thinking, what other place would be best for it besides with your own sisters in Christ? Perhaps this lady was thinking the same thing and we shut her down so quickly because that was just something we felt is "awkward."
What a horrible habit to have, continually placing our feelings before others needs, this is not “bearing with one another in love.”
So, what creates this habit? Pride. We all have it and we all show it sometimes, some of us are just better at hiding it than others. Almost like a form of dress us girls play to be a princess, but at the end of the day they are just normal girls. Let's stop playing dress up Christians and truly clothe ourselves with humility and loving the body of Christ more than our own bodies, even if that means being a little uncomfortable sometimes.
Do you ever get uncomfortable with certain topics and do anything to avoid talking about them? I know I do! Recently though I found that it can become a sinful habit of placing yourself above others.
The last few months I have been working through a bible study through Ephesians and it is so awesome how much God has revealed to me and others through it, what great conversations have arisen from the scripture! But some conversations we wish to avoid, we all have those things we’d just rather not talk about. Once during a conversation something came up that I personally am awkward and uncomfortable with. That was it, another very close friend and I did all we could to stop the conversation and we succeeded....
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
About a month later the same friend called me up and began to talk with me about the situation. By the end of the conversation it was a mutual agreement that we had placed our own comforts above someone else who may have been crying out for help and counsel on how to deal with something. Now, we are not sure why the comment was made whether it be just for fun or if they really needed counsel hidden behind a kind laugh.
I felt horrible, why do I so often find that my comfort is more important than anyone else's needs. I mean, I was perfectly fine with any other topic or cry for help, I was even the one asking for advice sometimes, thinking, what other place would be best for it besides with your own sisters in Christ? Perhaps this lady was thinking the same thing and we shut her down so quickly because that was just something we felt is "awkward."
What a horrible habit to have, continually placing our feelings before others needs, this is not “bearing with one another in love.”
So, what creates this habit? Pride. We all have it and we all show it sometimes, some of us are just better at hiding it than others. Almost like a form of dress us girls play to be a princess, but at the end of the day they are just normal girls. Let's stop playing dress up Christians and truly clothe ourselves with humility and loving the body of Christ more than our own bodies, even if that means being a little uncomfortable sometimes.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
I can do it al by myself!...or can I?
So all the work on the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses. Exodus 39:32
So, I have been reading though through the Bible in a year with my church family at Compass Bible Church and we just finished Exodus today! I must admit it was difficult to get through and I just could not understand why I couldn't focus and wasn't learning anything, sometimes I felt as though I was wasting my time...and I was.
There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."
In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. Deuteronomy 1:31-33
Recently, I was talking to a wonderful, godly friend of mine and she turned and asked me, "What does it truly mean to be saved and how do you know that you are?" I answered "Through repentance and faith, right?" She replied, "Yes that how we are called to respond to the gospel but how do you know if you or someone else is saved?....It's a transfer of trust, from yourself to God, with your entire life." This really made me think and I was especially convicted when she said "I mean even when I go to have my Bible reading time I go and think 'Well I'm a big girl I know how to read.'" But we both agreed this was foolishness, how can we understand God's word, if we are not even asking Him for that understanding?? We cannot trust in ourselves to do anything without God.
Sure the Israelites finished the work of the temple with the work of their hands, but how, because God had not only given them the most clearest set of instructions but He also gave individual people within the camp specific skills to do the work (Exodus 28:3). After reading today I realized, I did nothing in the work done on the cross except give Christ that pain through sinning and yet God being so loving chose me to restore that relationship with me broken in Eden. And I don't have to wait once a year to enter into His presence I can do it anytime, any place. Now that I went off on a tangent let me get back and finish, because we can only trust in God for salvation, we can only trust in Him with our lives, every last detail, just like the temple work.
So, I have been reading though through the Bible in a year with my church family at Compass Bible Church and we just finished Exodus today! I must admit it was difficult to get through and I just could not understand why I couldn't focus and wasn't learning anything, sometimes I felt as though I was wasting my time...and I was.
There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."
In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. Deuteronomy 1:31-33
Recently, I was talking to a wonderful, godly friend of mine and she turned and asked me, "What does it truly mean to be saved and how do you know that you are?" I answered "Through repentance and faith, right?" She replied, "Yes that how we are called to respond to the gospel but how do you know if you or someone else is saved?....It's a transfer of trust, from yourself to God, with your entire life." This really made me think and I was especially convicted when she said "I mean even when I go to have my Bible reading time I go and think 'Well I'm a big girl I know how to read.'" But we both agreed this was foolishness, how can we understand God's word, if we are not even asking Him for that understanding?? We cannot trust in ourselves to do anything without God.
Sure the Israelites finished the work of the temple with the work of their hands, but how, because God had not only given them the most clearest set of instructions but He also gave individual people within the camp specific skills to do the work (Exodus 28:3). After reading today I realized, I did nothing in the work done on the cross except give Christ that pain through sinning and yet God being so loving chose me to restore that relationship with me broken in Eden. And I don't have to wait once a year to enter into His presence I can do it anytime, any place. Now that I went off on a tangent let me get back and finish, because we can only trust in God for salvation, we can only trust in Him with our lives, every last detail, just like the temple work.
Friday, February 5, 2010
My new life...
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. John 3:3
I was born at age 17, no not physically born, spiritually born. Nineteen years ago I was born into a sinful world in a sinful body, I was "dead." I grew up in two separate households, when one decided to start going to church, I followed; at age 11 I was Mormon. I went to the Mormon church for about 7 years, thinking I was perfectly okay and my works plus Jesus would lead me to where I wanted to go, I mean no one really wants to go to hell and be punished forever right??? Eventually, the hardships of life and my desires for horrible things took over, but I was still a Mormon of course going to heaven. Well, God disagreed and here’s where the real story begins, His story.
I was working at Jack's Surfboards, wonderful place, gotta love it...don't miss it. But never the less eternally grateful for how God used that job. Well, there was this boy whom I became fond of and visa versa, well to make a long story short after a long time of waiting he asked me out (later to know it was his mom who told him to and bring me to church :D) our first date church and a movie, pretty much the next few weeks followed in that pattern, after a while I began to see a difference from his church and mine, but I did not believe on any grounds that God could change a person, that was of course until Jordan was saved. Wow did I hear A LOT about God and the bible from both him and his mom (Mechell <3) they told me something I had never heard before, the Gospel. I was sinful, which deserved separation from God in hell, but Christ came and He took on those sins after living a life of perfect righteousness and then was punished in my place for all I had done and would ever do, this free gift of grace. Still, God couldn't really change someone...could He? I had seen how Mechell lived quite differently from everyone else I knew and now Jordan had radically changed! But, I was a "Christian" I "believed" in Christ.....
One night at work Jordan was talking to the other guys who worked there defending what he knew to be true but they were against him....I knew at that moment he was right and I wanted to defend God with him but God used that to show me that I was not a follower of Him and that I did not trust in Him with my life. That night after a long talk with Jordan, God replaced my heart of stone with a heart that yearned for Him, I repented of all my sins and placed my faith and entire life in the hand of the Living God...That night I was born into a true life, a life worth living, a life in complete devotion to Christ...
My prayer for this blog is that it would really be God's not my own. That it would be a blessing to not only myself but to others and to share what God has done in my daily life that is so captivating and so truthful!
I was born at age 17, no not physically born, spiritually born. Nineteen years ago I was born into a sinful world in a sinful body, I was "dead." I grew up in two separate households, when one decided to start going to church, I followed; at age 11 I was Mormon. I went to the Mormon church for about 7 years, thinking I was perfectly okay and my works plus Jesus would lead me to where I wanted to go, I mean no one really wants to go to hell and be punished forever right??? Eventually, the hardships of life and my desires for horrible things took over, but I was still a Mormon of course going to heaven. Well, God disagreed and here’s where the real story begins, His story.
I was working at Jack's Surfboards, wonderful place, gotta love it...don't miss it. But never the less eternally grateful for how God used that job. Well, there was this boy whom I became fond of and visa versa, well to make a long story short after a long time of waiting he asked me out (later to know it was his mom who told him to and bring me to church :D) our first date church and a movie, pretty much the next few weeks followed in that pattern, after a while I began to see a difference from his church and mine, but I did not believe on any grounds that God could change a person, that was of course until Jordan was saved. Wow did I hear A LOT about God and the bible from both him and his mom (Mechell <3) they told me something I had never heard before, the Gospel. I was sinful, which deserved separation from God in hell, but Christ came and He took on those sins after living a life of perfect righteousness and then was punished in my place for all I had done and would ever do, this free gift of grace. Still, God couldn't really change someone...could He? I had seen how Mechell lived quite differently from everyone else I knew and now Jordan had radically changed! But, I was a "Christian" I "believed" in Christ.....
One night at work Jordan was talking to the other guys who worked there defending what he knew to be true but they were against him....I knew at that moment he was right and I wanted to defend God with him but God used that to show me that I was not a follower of Him and that I did not trust in Him with my life. That night after a long talk with Jordan, God replaced my heart of stone with a heart that yearned for Him, I repented of all my sins and placed my faith and entire life in the hand of the Living God...That night I was born into a true life, a life worth living, a life in complete devotion to Christ...
My prayer for this blog is that it would really be God's not my own. That it would be a blessing to not only myself but to others and to share what God has done in my daily life that is so captivating and so truthful!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)