It is time once again that I begin keeping up with my blog. I have plenty of time to do it, I'm just a complete slacker. Time to change that! So here are some fresh words of wisdom, brought to you straight from this weeks sermon.
Let's first take a look at the Scriptures. Let's look specifically at Matthew 6:25-34. Now, I like to generalize passages so that we can better understand them before we really dive into them. So the general idea here is that we shouldn't worry about anything. I'm sure most of you will agree that this is much easier said than done. But let's look at a couple key verses. First, verse 27. It says "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" What is the point in worrying? We worry because we arent sure of the future. The future scares most people because its unknown. Believe me, we can never know what God is up to in our lives. I can tell you from experience. This verse really says "what's the point?" On either side of this verse we have short passages telling us that God provides for the birds and the flowers. If He provides for things as insignificant as these, why would we ever think He won't provide for us? That brings me to another verse that I really want to stress here and that is verse 30. There are only a few words I want to emphasize: "O you of little faith". Those 5 words are HUGE for the meaning of this passage! The problem with worrying is not that its pointless; the problem is that worrying shows a lack of faith in God! In case you didnt know, our God is ALL-POWERFUL! The power of God will always outweigh the problems you are going through in life. I dont care if its divorce or death or poverty, GOD IS BIGGER! He brought His people out of slavery and not even the Red Sea could stop Him. He brought them to the Promised Land and the desert couldn't stop Him. He brought salvation to all and even death itself could not contain Him. I tell you with confidence that God is bigger than any problem! So don't toil your time away worrying about tomorrow. Give all your worries to God. He is BIGGER!
0 Comments
Lately I have been studying the book of Acts. I hope to begin my route to becoming a pastor soon so I decided I should study the church as a body. I came across this passage in Acts 5. A guy named Gamaliel is speaking to the Sanhedrin in defense of the apostles. Toward the end of his speech, he says this:
"Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if its from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Have you ever noticed just how unstoppable God is? Let me give you an example. I knew when I went to MCGC preseason that MC was the place for me. My call to that place was unbelievably strong. But I ignored it. I pushed it to the back of my mind. I applied to colleges, got scholarships, starting filling out paperwork. I thought I had escaped MC for good. Then I went to file for loans. I couldn't get a loan. I had no credit and no credible co-signer. I was stuck. But I couldnt just sit around at home for another year. Then I remembered MC. And it all made sense. Masters Commission absolutely changed my life. No, wait, scratch that. GOD changed my life through Masters Commission. God's purpose for my life was unstoppable. So many times we fight against what God wants us to do. We go our own way. If that is where you are now, let me know how far you get with that. When God's calling is clear, there should be no other route but His route. "For if (your) purpose is of human origin, it will fail." Follow God's plan. Nothing is stopping you and nothing ever can. As it says in Romans, "if God is for you, what can stand against you?" During prayer, I decided to walk out to the parking lot. I noticed this white rock in the middle of the blacktop. I picked it up and took it with me. It had nothing spectacular about it, it couldn't do much in comparison to myself. But I kept it in my hand the entire time I prayed. Once prayer ended, I went to go back inside, but I still had the rock. For some reason, I really didnt want to put it back down. I kenw I had to because the parking lot is where it needed to be. In the end, I grudgingly let it return to the pavement and went back inside.
I asked God what this whole experience was about during my prayer time later. I believe that experience demonstrated how God feels about us during our prayer and worship time. He picks us up out of this world and cares for us, even though we are nothing compared to Him. When we are praying and worshiping, we get a glimpse of what heaven will be like. We are taken out of this world where we get run over and stepped on and come to His presence for just that short time. God would like to keep us there all the time, but that is not our purpose. This world still has souls that need Jesus and it is our job to reach them. God must place us back in the dirt and grime so that His people can be found. We must always remember that God has us here for a purpose and whether your job is a firemen or a CEO, your purpose is to spread the good news and to show His love and mercy through our every day actions. "We all fall short of the glory of God" but "love covers over a multitude of sins". The other day I said I had something good to post here. This is not that post but something different lol Anyways, I was reading Leading With A Limp last night and I came across another quote that I liked alot. It says this:
"Courage never takes away fear; courage simply redistributes fear to get the job done. Courage is fear that has said its prayers." What a great quote! To have courage does not mean that we dont have fears. Any situation requiring courage is going to be fearful, full of wrong turns to make and bad roads to journey down. Some roads will look good from here, but eventually take a turn for the worst. This is why the last part of the quote is my favorite. When we are faced with the difficult decisions that require courage, we pray. We pray becuz we serve an ALMIGHTY GOD! Our God will guide us to places we could never have dreamed! But we have to learn to make the hard decisions....through prayer. Prayer is our strength. I had a great amazing Holy Spirit-inspired post to put here...and then we computer deleted everything I wrote before I could post it :( I shall try again later, right now I am very discouraged. I wrote for 15 min on this blog and it got deleted. Soooo discouraging!
Yesterday I felt the beginnings of a sickness coming on. So I took medicine all day hoping it would go away and it didnt. So before I went to bed, I took my medicine. Only it was daytime medicine. I think I got a total of 3 hrs of sleep. So my word of wisdom for you is this: never take daytime medicine before bed. Ever! It will keep you up forever and ever and ever and ever. Ech!
Last night, I reconnected with God. I had strayed away from Him for awhile and now I'm back again. Anyways, I believe that is why I am getting so much today. God is blessing me with wisdom again. With that said, I have yet another impactful quote from The Final Quest that I just read.
"Those who really believe that My words are true, will also be true to their own words...If you are not faithful to your own words, it is because you do not really know Me." This was like a punch in the face from God. I am sooo guilty of not keeping my word all the time. SO guilty. I apologize to anyone I have ever not kept my word with. I am truly sorry. I have never before connected my inability to keep my word with doubt in God's word. But looking back now...I have had doubts in God's word. Many of them actually. I once doubted that He really does have a plan for me like He said in Jeremiah 29:11. I no longer doubt that, but the whole moving mountains thing? Idk. I have plenty of doubts but they dont make me any less of a Christian. It just means I need to connect more with God. And with other people. As I learn to keep my own word, I will come ever closer to ridding my doubts of God's word. I have yet another post today containing wisdom for any of you who care to actually read this. This one also comes from The Final Quest and it concerns faith and love.
"So you must seek love first, and then faith. You cannot please Me without faith. But faith is not just the knowledge of My power, but the knowledge of My love and the power of My love. Faith must first be for love. Seek faith to love more, and to do more with your love. Only when you seek faith to love can I trust you with My power. Faith works by love." Love is such an important asset to us. Without love for God, Jesus would not have been sent to save us all. But so often we place more emphasis on faith than we do love. Jesus wants us to love first. The above quote says it all. Faith must first be for love. Faith works by love. If we have faith and no love, where does that leave us? Do we really have faith at all? Let's answer it this way: why do we have faith in God? Because He LOVED us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us. I argue that without love there is no faith. We must love. However, with that said, I do still believe discipline is needed in our lives. A loving discipline. If we can't accept discipline as love from those above us, we are in grave danger. My parents used to always say that they spanked me because they loved me. I never believed that when I was little, but now as a leader, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were telling the truth. Discipline is love if done in the right way. I have read some more in The Final Quest and once again I didn't make it far until I found something that hit me hard. It was this quote:
"Paul did walk with Me as close as any man ever has yet. Even so, he was also beset by fears and weaknesses that were not from Me. I could have delivered him from these, and he did request it several times, but I had a reason for not delivering him. Paul's great wisdom was to embrace his weaknesses, understanding that if I had delivered him from them I would not have been able to trust him with the level of revelation and power that I did...He knew that when he was beset with weaknesses, or fears, that he was not seeing from My perspective, but from his own. This caused him to seek Me, and to depend on Me, even more." Many times in life I have wished that certain ailments would leave me. Many things have arisen that just..well, they sucked to be blunt. However, looking back, these things brought me to God on a level that I had never come before. Never. I know that God did not send these things to me, but only allowed them so that I would seek Him. I will no longer question why things happen, but merely accept them as needed. I will know that these things are meant to bring me to God. Thank you God. I recently received a new book while in Indiana. It is called Integrated Lives by Dale Stoll. I'm currently two chapters in and I believe it is already an amazing read. The quote I want to blog on right now is this:
"We do not break the laws of God; we break ourselves on them. If you leap from a tenth-story window, you will not break the law of gravitation, you will only illustrate it." What an amazing quote! I am reminded of how often Biblical principles fall into line with Masters (crazy, I know. Its like we"re a Bible-based program). In Masters, we have all these rules set down. But they shouldn't be considered rules to harm you. They sshouldn't even be considered "rules". A student comes to the program knowing exactly what is expected: no dating, no bad movies, etc. So technically, these rules are self-inflicted. They are voluntary. Like a fast. A student gives up these things to find God. Just like in this quote, the rules are in place so that the STUDENT doesnt get broken, not the rules. Who cares about the rules, the student is what matters. The rules are set to protect the student, not hinder them. When someone chooses to break the rules, they are hurting themselves, not the rules. The rules just written words, they cannot be harmed. This is why rules are made: to protect people. What an inspiring thought! If we could embrace that simple fact, how much easier it would be to not only stay within the rules but go beyond them! For example, instead refraining from R movies, we also choose to say "ya know, that PG13 isnt so good either". What a REVOLUTION we would stir up in our generation! | PurposeI absolutely love to teach. I love sharing knowledge. This blog is one place you can find just a few pieces of that. ArchivesFebruary 2011 Categories |
Welcome!
RSS Feed