What is the one thing that everyone was afraid of as a child? What is it that makes us uncomfortable walking to our cars late at night? The dark. I think that God planned us to be uncomfortable in the dark. Darkness is, by definition, the absence of light...
Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we, believers, are the light of the world. Think about that for a minute, you are what keeps Gods light shining. You!
Think about a room that is completely dark. No light whatsoever. Now light a match, a little flame. You can faintly see everything around you. That little flame gave enough light for someone to be able to walk through the room with direction, instead of stumbling through the room falling over every pizza box you left on the floor. Now think bigger, the world we live in is a dark place. What is it that lets us see? Is it the light that radiates from the sun mixed with the receptors in our eyes? Think deeper. Lets not see with our eyes for a bit. Jesus' light gives direction and peace and we are commanded by Jesus himself to be the light of the world. Even in the dead of night there is a small light hanging in the sky that reflects light from a sun that is miles and miles away. You can walk outside at midnight and there is enough light to see, simply reflected from a huge source of light. I like to think about our walks as being little moons that reflect a much larger light.
So I know that most of us are not afraid of the dark. I would bet that most of us do not sleep with a nightlight or with the bathroom light on and the door cracked. Are we really not afraid or do we just understand the dark, and understand that there is nothing to be afraid of? We have been given a power that the darkness runs from, the Holy Spirit! Don't be afraid and let your light Shine!!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
LIFESTYLE OF SERVING
Hmm... I guess what I want to say in this blog is that I dont want our passion for the Lord and our passion for serving to be a sunday to sunday thing (fill in the weekday of your choice). We were made to love God and serve people! It is woven into our souls to serve, whether we serve healthy things or not is a completely different blog and discussion. I feel like many churches and many groups of people make serving into something that its not, they over-complicate it and add to it clouding the central message they are trying to get across. Love, thats it. Love is something that we never asked for, it was simply given to us for a price that we could have never afforded. Love is something that you dont have to have been schooled in, you dont have to be rich to have, you dont have to be smart to have, and you thankfully dont have to be perfect to have. It is something that answers some of the worlds most dificult questions but is so many times over-looked. Jesus was sent for our ransom because God loves this world and the people on it. John 3:16, everyone knows it but think about it "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life". So how do we make serving a lifestyle and how to we reach people? Do I even need to answer this? Ok I will because I know someone is scratching their head staring at the screen right now waiting for this sentence to end... LOVE!
We do not need to leave the country on a mission trip to reach people. Our neighbors need our help! Unfortunately we only have to look out of our front door to see people hurting. God's love is something that can be seen from the outside and is so contageous! So I challenge myself and everyone reading this to make serving the people that God loves, a lifestyle. You never know how simple it could be to plant that seed in someones heart, and the love shown through you just may be the light that saves that persons life.
"Many waters cannot quench love, many rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned." song of songs 8:7 NIV
"Flood waters can't drown love, torrents of rain can't put it out. Love can't be bought, Love can't be sold- it's not to be found in the marketplace." song of songs 8:7 the message
We do not need to leave the country on a mission trip to reach people. Our neighbors need our help! Unfortunately we only have to look out of our front door to see people hurting. God's love is something that can be seen from the outside and is so contageous! So I challenge myself and everyone reading this to make serving the people that God loves, a lifestyle. You never know how simple it could be to plant that seed in someones heart, and the love shown through you just may be the light that saves that persons life.
"Many waters cannot quench love, many rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned." song of songs 8:7 NIV
"Flood waters can't drown love, torrents of rain can't put it out. Love can't be bought, Love can't be sold- it's not to be found in the marketplace." song of songs 8:7 the message
Sunday, March 7, 2010
God in a bottle
For the longest time I wondered why miracles were a seemingly common thing when Jesus walked the earth but were almost extict in modern days. I really struggled with the fact that we never see seas part, or water turn into wine, or men healed of his blindness simply by speaking a few words. A few weeks ago at the college ministry I attend, this point was the subject of discussion. Dave Summrall spoke an entire message on this same topic that I struggled (keep in mind that struggled is past tense) with. So many times we ask God for healing over our bodies, relationships, ect. but when we ask for these healings and miracles do we truly believe that He is powerful enough to come through? I dont know about you but im not satisfied with living a dry spiritual life, I want to see some folks get healed! I want a blind man to look and tell me what he sees! Is our God not the same God that parted the sea and fed the 5,000? Has God changed?
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new touges; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:15-18
After Dave read this scripture he said something that changed my life. He said, "Its time we start believing that!"
God in a bottle? I had a conversation with a good friend today. We were talking about diferent missions work at we each had done. I can remember worshiping in Costa Rica in a church that was literally a square building made from concrete blocks with a paved floor and a few hanging light bulbs that hung from the ceiling. The folks in that church were going absolutely crazy praising Jesus! It was an experience I will never forget! Think about that for a minute... people with nothing, in a room with nothing, singing and dancing and screaming all in praise of our God! when was the last time you were in the states and were a part of a service like this? Im not saying the churches here are not filled with the Holy Spirit and are fake in any way and as a matter of act I absolutely love my church a feel extremely blessed to be a part of such an awesome church, but it just seems like we have made God's love and power into some kind of normal thing. My friend said it perfectly (when talking about his mission work in Africa) he said, "Its like we have put God in a bottle and limited his power" I have been thinking about this statement ever since our conversation and he's right! It seems like we have made God into another face in the crowd or put Him into a container and have put restraints on His power. I recently heard a story of a college aged girl that is a friend of a friend of mine and due to a rare illness she has not been able to walk for quite some time. One night her church was praying over her and her pastor took her aside and asked her if she had ever prayed for her own healing, she told him she had not so he told her to pray for healing of her body. She spent the next 45 minutes in her university chapel and in the middle of her prayer she felt a tingling in her legs, she then pulled the braces off of her legs and WALKED out of the building! God wants to heal the sick and raise the dead to bring glory to His name, we just need to actually and whole-heartedly BELIEVE that He can do these things!
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new touges; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:15-18
After Dave read this scripture he said something that changed my life. He said, "Its time we start believing that!"
God in a bottle? I had a conversation with a good friend today. We were talking about diferent missions work at we each had done. I can remember worshiping in Costa Rica in a church that was literally a square building made from concrete blocks with a paved floor and a few hanging light bulbs that hung from the ceiling. The folks in that church were going absolutely crazy praising Jesus! It was an experience I will never forget! Think about that for a minute... people with nothing, in a room with nothing, singing and dancing and screaming all in praise of our God! when was the last time you were in the states and were a part of a service like this? Im not saying the churches here are not filled with the Holy Spirit and are fake in any way and as a matter of act I absolutely love my church a feel extremely blessed to be a part of such an awesome church, but it just seems like we have made God's love and power into some kind of normal thing. My friend said it perfectly (when talking about his mission work in Africa) he said, "Its like we have put God in a bottle and limited his power" I have been thinking about this statement ever since our conversation and he's right! It seems like we have made God into another face in the crowd or put Him into a container and have put restraints on His power. I recently heard a story of a college aged girl that is a friend of a friend of mine and due to a rare illness she has not been able to walk for quite some time. One night her church was praying over her and her pastor took her aside and asked her if she had ever prayed for her own healing, she told him she had not so he told her to pray for healing of her body. She spent the next 45 minutes in her university chapel and in the middle of her prayer she felt a tingling in her legs, she then pulled the braces off of her legs and WALKED out of the building! God wants to heal the sick and raise the dead to bring glory to His name, we just need to actually and whole-heartedly BELIEVE that He can do these things!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
to the ends of the EARTH pt. 2
I have been studying the book of Matthew and a few verses in chapter 5 brought me back to the blog I posted a few weeks ago "to the ends of the EARTH"
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16). The world is dark and the moment we asked the Holy Spirit into our lives we became that light of the world, whether we realized it or not. So how do we do this? How do we reflect the light we have recieved? Do we stand on the corners and shout repentance over people that pass by? Do we walk thru our campuses and workplaces preaching to people telling them what to change in their lives to become more righteous? The other night a band, that my brother and I have become good friends with, was playing in a bar in downtown Auburn. We were really excited to see our friends and more excited to hear some really awesome music! On the way to the bar we stood on the corner waiting for a good time to cross the street and we were met by a few men that were handing out small comic book things about people that, due to sin, were condemned in hell... I took what they handed me and kept walking, I finally read the "comic book" they gave me, and I was honestly pretty upset! I took great offense to the "get out of hell free" pass they gave me. I wanted to run back to the corner they were standing on and tell them my entire testimony and tell them how much I love Jesus, but instead I kept my thoughts to myself and had a very fun night with some really good friends that love Jesus and love good music! Im not sure if anybody gave their hearts to the Lord that night because of the evangelism on the corner, but I cant help but to think that there is a better way to reach people!
Love is the answer to the questions in the last paragraph. God and love go hand in hand and we must set examples to our lost world by spreading love!! Proverbs 10:12 says "hatred stirs up dissention but love covers over all wrongs" this has been my favorite verse for years because I feel like it truly defines what it means to love. "All wrongs" wow, thats a huge statement, try to think of ALL things you have done in this life, if you are like me, many of the things were probably wrong to do. God loved us so much that he abandoned his only Son so that we were shown love that covers over ALL wrongs. Jesus sets an amazing example of what it means to love people in John 13. In this chapter Jesus washes his followers feet, try to picture walking into work tomorrow and your boss telling you to relax and that he would do your chores. The disciple's master was washing their feet! Verse 14 says Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one anothers feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
We as the light of the world need to relfect love over everyone we come across. I understand that it is super hard to love some people because of many diferent circumstances, but God could have turned His back on us, but He loves us entirely to much to do so!
He is love and we are made in his image, so what does that make us?
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16). The world is dark and the moment we asked the Holy Spirit into our lives we became that light of the world, whether we realized it or not. So how do we do this? How do we reflect the light we have recieved? Do we stand on the corners and shout repentance over people that pass by? Do we walk thru our campuses and workplaces preaching to people telling them what to change in their lives to become more righteous? The other night a band, that my brother and I have become good friends with, was playing in a bar in downtown Auburn. We were really excited to see our friends and more excited to hear some really awesome music! On the way to the bar we stood on the corner waiting for a good time to cross the street and we were met by a few men that were handing out small comic book things about people that, due to sin, were condemned in hell... I took what they handed me and kept walking, I finally read the "comic book" they gave me, and I was honestly pretty upset! I took great offense to the "get out of hell free" pass they gave me. I wanted to run back to the corner they were standing on and tell them my entire testimony and tell them how much I love Jesus, but instead I kept my thoughts to myself and had a very fun night with some really good friends that love Jesus and love good music! Im not sure if anybody gave their hearts to the Lord that night because of the evangelism on the corner, but I cant help but to think that there is a better way to reach people!
Love is the answer to the questions in the last paragraph. God and love go hand in hand and we must set examples to our lost world by spreading love!! Proverbs 10:12 says "hatred stirs up dissention but love covers over all wrongs" this has been my favorite verse for years because I feel like it truly defines what it means to love. "All wrongs" wow, thats a huge statement, try to think of ALL things you have done in this life, if you are like me, many of the things were probably wrong to do. God loved us so much that he abandoned his only Son so that we were shown love that covers over ALL wrongs. Jesus sets an amazing example of what it means to love people in John 13. In this chapter Jesus washes his followers feet, try to picture walking into work tomorrow and your boss telling you to relax and that he would do your chores. The disciple's master was washing their feet! Verse 14 says Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one anothers feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
We as the light of the world need to relfect love over everyone we come across. I understand that it is super hard to love some people because of many diferent circumstances, but God could have turned His back on us, but He loves us entirely to much to do so!
He is love and we are made in his image, so what does that make us?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
God is GOOD
"God is good" its a statement that is told to kids in vacation bible school. It was said before every meal I ever ate when I was young. It is on many stickers that hang on kids shirts. Its very easy to understand and very easy to recite, but is it over used?? I dont think so at all! Under- meant? maybe but certainly not over used! I dont think that it is said enough! We all try to use super fancy words in prayer and in small group meetings but the entire understanding of the Lord can be summed up in three words... God is good!!!
God is so good, and before I really focused my life the Lord I thought this was just another meaningless religious saying. The fact of it is, that God IS good and God keeps his children's best interest in mind. God created us so that we could love and worship him. God does not NEED any of us and if He wanted to He could wipe the earth completely clean of sinful people, us. The Lord provides for our every need, Luke 11:9-13 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy spirit to those who ask Him?" This is such an awesome example of God the Father, not God the ruler or God the master. God is very genuine and very sincere and longs to provide for his children! God will take care of us and never lead us down paths we cant handle and never present things in our lives that will break us to pieces. We get so stressed over school, and money, and relationships but we need to lean on the Lord and give all of our worries to Him because alone we could never survive in this world!
God is good, God is very very good! We need to adopt this phrase as sinful people and never forget that we are His children, and the Father provides for his children!
God is so good, and before I really focused my life the Lord I thought this was just another meaningless religious saying. The fact of it is, that God IS good and God keeps his children's best interest in mind. God created us so that we could love and worship him. God does not NEED any of us and if He wanted to He could wipe the earth completely clean of sinful people, us. The Lord provides for our every need, Luke 11:9-13 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy spirit to those who ask Him?" This is such an awesome example of God the Father, not God the ruler or God the master. God is very genuine and very sincere and longs to provide for his children! God will take care of us and never lead us down paths we cant handle and never present things in our lives that will break us to pieces. We get so stressed over school, and money, and relationships but we need to lean on the Lord and give all of our worries to Him because alone we could never survive in this world!
God is good, God is very very good! We need to adopt this phrase as sinful people and never forget that we are His children, and the Father provides for his children!
Friday, February 12, 2010
EASILY ACCESSIBLE
It is so awesome that we serve a God that is very accessible! So many times we think of God as standing in the center of a maze and once you make it thru the ever-changing maze you can see his glory. It is such a blessing that we dont have to search for the Lord! The God that spoke the earth into creation is within our reach and sent his son to die on the cross so that we may know him!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
to the ends of the EARTH
We, as Christians, are called to be living witnesses to a dying world. If God's only intention for our lives is to reach heaven he would have struck us dead the moment we asked Him into our lives. Our lives do not end at the cross, they simply begin with the cross! There are still places in the world where it is illegal to follow God, there are still places in the world where whole populations have never heard of our living God! The Holy Spirit is alive and powerful, we are simply God's instruments to reach the ends of the earth, places that might only have one link (YOU) between individuals and the creator of the universe!! We were not created to only worry about ourselves when it come to salvation, it is our obligation as followers of Christ to spread the word! Now, I understand that not all of us were called to be pastors and ministers, but our callings are all very personal and very appropriate! No matter your profession we are all called into the ministry! A coach can used his or her passion for a sport and their influence to spread the word of God, a teacher can use his or her love for educating to further the kingdom!! Lets face it, we are the next parents, teachers, business owners, husbands, wives, presidents, ect. if we want to SAVE the world it will be through our generation!! Its time to start believing that we can change the world, and its time to act on our calling...
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