Psalms 100:2-5 Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into...
"Sinner? I don't kill, do drugs, drink or betray people, so I'm not that bad." "It's not like I go around doing harm...I live a good life." "I'm a good person."It's so easy to associate sin to scandalous behavior. Then, when we read in the Bible that we are all sinners and need repentance and forgiveness, it can be hard to picture us being "that bad". I mean, come on...all of us fall short? If we are sinners, and the "wages of sin is death", do we all deserve just that? Having a light, categorical view of sin can also diminish in our minds the sacrifice of Christ. After all, if you don't consider yourself a sinner, then Jesus dying for your sins is not of special importance. It doesn't bring you to your knees in thankfulness because you do not understand how you are saved through His sacrifice.
Me complicating things.[/caption]
It is so easy to complicate things...specially if you are a girl.
I know I always do. And because I do, my expectation of things - even that which I expect of myself - are often very demanding and far-fetched.
This can translate to many little things. To illustrate, I present to you:
Nath's List of Well-Intentioned Far-Fetchedness
Oh, did I mention I have a full time job, study full time (yes, it is actually possible) and serve in two ministries?
The things I placed on my list are good and necessary things. Exercising is essential for a healthy lifestyle. Writing a blog post every week is a great way to use my gifts and bless others in the online community. Praying for my loved ones is an important part of the Christian walk. Making time for my friends and family, as well as for myself is needed in order to have a balance in my life. I don't need anyone to convince me that I should be doing all these things. Nevertheless, often times I don't do them.
This can happen with our walk as Christians as well.
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up...
Cute? Check. Funny? Check. Christian? sort.....of.......! Somewhat...getting there!? Can hold a conversation? Check. etc. etc. etc.
As I identified my potential "loves", I started to do everything possible to draw them near. Conversations here and there, finding out what they liked, and simply being in their way. And hey! Sometimes it worked. Nevertheless, I found the process to be exhausting. As I went in and out of relationships, I left feeling more dissatisfied and lonely than I was before. God was never part of my "selection" process. To top it off, as I have the gift of mercy, I "attracted" - and felt drawn to - broken people. This meant that I was always the spiritual leader in relationships - thing that left me completely tired and distraught. It was a lot of work.
“You can do anything you set your mind to do!”
“Follow your heart!”
Nevertheless, when things don't go the way we've planned, we can feel disappointed, unfulfilled, anxious, sad -- even angry. We might have pictured our lives differently than they've turned out to be. But what does the Bible say about control? Are we called to carefully determine every detail of our lives, and expect them to come true? Are we called to strive for a planned life? Not quite.
For Christians, the process does not start with our "plans" or desires. We are called to deny ourselves.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh, with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:24Yikes! That sounds hard! But don’t worry. It doesn’t end there. When we commit our lives to Christ, and let Him take control, He not only reveals to us the things we should “let go” of, but He is with us every step of the way.
"And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20God’s intent is not that we would live a life of discontent, sorrow and shattered dreams.
“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” John 10:10A life worth living is a life with Christ. After all, it is the life each of us was created to live. There is nothing more fulfilling than living inside God's will! Do you want this rich and satisfying life? If so, what are some other things that you can do to let God "take the wheel"?
"How am I going to serve a God I don't love?"
"I don't really feel like praying, going to church or reading my bible"
"God doesn't 'speak' to me as He does to you"
"It's not worth trying it out, I don't feel anything"
"When I pray, I feel like I'm praying to nothing"
Ever asked yourself any of these questions? Ever thought of any of these?
Often times, we let our feelings define our actions. We do things when we "feel" like doing them.
Random guy: "So, you've got a Bible there...cool....I'm a christian too!"
Me: "Uhum?"
Random guy: "Yes, and you know what my favorite book is? "
Me: "Which one?"
Random guy: "Song of Songs" *gross wink*
When "episodes" like this one happen, often times we wonder what a true man of God looks like. After all, who you decide to be with in marriage is probably the second most important decision you're going to make in your life (the first one is accepting Christ as your Savior, of course).
It is wise to ask God for counsel and discernment as to who that man is going to be.
Have you ever been heartbroken? Felt rejected? Abandoned? Have you ever felt alone?
Are you tired?
In the book of Ruth, chapter 1, we see the story of two women that were going through some tough times. They, themselves, were heartbroken and alone (Ruth 1:1-5). Both of their husbands died and they were left without a place to go.These women were called Naomi and Ruth. Looking back at verse 1, the family had taken off from their homeland because of a famine. This was not a smart call of Naomi's husband, Elimelek, as he chose to move to Moab out of fear and lack of trust in God. As he saw that things got rough, he decided to run away from the problems instead of embracing them. To make things worse, both Elimelek and his two sons died in Moab - leaving their wives as widows. In his study on the book of Ruth, writer Ron Daniel states: "Instead of being part of the solution by repenting, this man sells his property in Bethlehem and takes off. He brings his wife and two sons to Moab to wait out the famine - it was supposed to be a temporary stay. Whenever we leave God's place and venture into the world, we always tell ourselves that it's only temporary. But rarely is that the case. Once in the world, we find excuse after excuse for staying in it. It is only when we, like the prodigal son, hit rock bottom that we come back in repentance."
When you look at yourself, what do you see?
Verse 10 of Proverbs 31 states the following:Proverbs 31 10 A woman of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.Do you know your worth? Sometimes, we don't see ourselves in the light of His truth. We see ourselves as "not enough", we point out our flaws and we think we have a long way to go in order to be truly and wholly beautiful. "If I could only change this, and that...if I were more like this, and that..." What if I told you that you can be beautiful right now? What if I told you you are already beautiful?
In our time and day, women are bombarded with pop culture, where issues such as priority of the physical and immediate fulfillment take the frontlines of the hearts and minds of young men and women everywhere.
We are called to obsess about our weight and looks, and we look up at celebrities as role models.
We are called to live like others want, and do what "everybody else is doing".
Topics such as values and virtues are shooed off, and are replaced instead with superficial, shallow and empty issues.
As pop culture proclaims "uniqueness", it really creates carbon copies of its model. The definition of a man and a woman is then distorted and blended into the next trend.
But God is good. He gives us direction in the midst of chaos, offering pictures of what it means to be true godly women and men.
To start off the series, we will be studying verse 10 of Proverbs 31:
Proverbs 31 10 A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.In this first verse of the epilogue, this godly woman is described as one with a "noble character", and in other versions, she is called "virtuous".
it that I felt pretty bad about my exceptional ADHD-like tendencies to lose concentration on whatever I was thinking and switch into thoughts about - like I said - the hows, the whens, and - most importantly - the who regarding God's love story for my life.
Thankfully, there is no condemnation for those who serve God, and He - as always - figured out a way to speak to my life and (lovingly) smack me out of it.
You see, the cool/amazing/awesome/neat/rad thing about God's Word is that it is alive:
"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
As an attempt to finish reading the whole Bible, I'm actually doing chronological bible studies in my devotional time. You would think that I would be asking God for mercy when coming into books like Leviticus and passages such as Joshua 13:3-5
"...from the Shihor River on the east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north, all of it counted as Canaanite though held by the five Philistine rulers in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron; the territory of the Avvites on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, from Arah of the Sidonians as far as Aphek and the border of the Amorites; the area of Byblos; and all Lebanon to the east, from Baal Gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath."Got that? Right. No, but joking aside, it has not been like that at all. God has been speaking to me day by day, verse by verse, chapter by chapter in the most timely, relevant way that you could ever imagine. (yes, I did learn something pretty rad about Joshua 13:3-5. Post on that coming soon!) Back to marriage - and my hopeless romantic tendencies - I learned a really cool picture of how God fulfills his promises and the process that can happen in order to get there. That's where Gideon's story comes in.
Be a 10. Really.
I've been meeting with some really lovely ladies like myself every Saturday for a time of prayer, worship, devotional and fellowship that is 100% centered on God. Last Saturday, we all decided to make index cards with messages such as "Be a 10" , "10", "Work for a 10", etc.
Why?
Just one question. What kind of man do you want as your husband?
Do you want a 5? a 3? or do you want a "10" man?
Now, before possible misinterpretation, a "10" is not considered a model, 6'5 ripped, 6 pack abs kind-of-man. This "grading system" in not based solely on physical things, but are aimed at areas like this: