Forgiveness

So I was going through these really cool websites where people can post anonymous stories. I have it linked to the side. One of the side links off of this website is called Kids Give Me Hope. I began reading and just am blown away by, well, kids and what they are willing do. Here is and example.
                          

       Yesterday, my daughter died in a hit and run.

        She was biking home. A passing stranger found her and called 911.

        Sadly, she died at the hospital from blood loss and brain trauma.

        The doctors told me her last words were "forgive him."

        Her forgiveness and love GMH.

What forgiveness, what love. Yes this was a tragic accident for the family but the forgiveness of the child. Of all the things she could have said like tell my family I love them, or I hate the man that did that, or something else, she opted to forgive that man. How quick are we as Christians to forgive? I mean many times we find ourselves in a battle to come through and forgive and yet she was so quick. So my challenge to you is to look and see how quick you are to forgive, and if God can forgive you so quickly then shouldn't we also forgive? You see, God makes it very plain in the Bible. If you forgive others, I will forgive you. If you don't forgive others, I can not forgive you. So making that plain, where do you stand? I encourage you to forgive freely and to check out both websites to see just what some people are going through.

Bored....Spiritually Bored?

I ran into a problem today. It wasn't big, but it definitely was a problem. I became bored. Gasp, what, a teen becomes bored, breaking news! Yea, it happens to all of us and more then we realize. I didn't realize how much time I was going to have on this break and well, I am out of ideas on what to do. This got me to thinking though, about what I can do with my life, like a hobby. I talked with my mom about it and we prayed about it but she did tell me one thing. I wrote both her and my dad poems for Christmas this year. I wrote them at one in the morning as well after I did my devotion time and went through my time that I spend with God. I decided that I wanted to do something different for them, and something with a homemade touch if you know what I mean. My mom told me I had a talent in writing and I should use my time to write. Seeing as I will be heading out of town most likely in the next day and will have zero computer access, it might be a good idea so I don't go crazy. The only problem I seem to have is that I can never sit down and finish something very easily. Even a poem that has four or five stanzas with four lines in each. I know it sounds crazy, but I just can't do it. So I guess my question for you would be, would you be interested in reading some of them if I posted them and should I pursue this? I really do want some feedback because I am not totally sure on what to do.
Secondly, I really started thinking about the whole idea of being bored and how you could apply to your own spiritual life. Take a minute and evaluate your life, do you read the same devotions year in and year out, or maybe the same chapter of the Bible every year? To me that is being spiritually boring. I am not saying that it is bad to go back and look at something again or reread the same thing but I guess it just has to do with your attitude while you spend your time with God. See, our God wants a relationship with us, and not just some flimsy one but a deep and lasting one. There has to be a two way street though, one person can't do all the work. So if you are putting no effort into the relationship with God by taking the steps to further your relationship with him, I am considering you to be spiritually bored which can quickly lead to spiritual sickness if you leave it go to long. So my underlying challenge to you is not to be spiritually bored. Get yourself active in your seeking heart and relationship with God because he will come like a thief in the night, whether you are ready or not. 

Relationships With Others

Everyone in this life wants to be loved, treasured and accepted by the people around them, for the most part. Not too many people that you or I know go around hoping that everyone that they see or meet dislikes them. It is part of human nature, the longing to be loved and accepted. Going into high school I made it a goal to just be nice to everyone and not have anyone dislike me or start rumors about me, you know, that sort of thing. I just wanted to be known as the happy guy that didn’t dislike anyone and that was not disliked by anyone else. I quickly came to realize that you can’t do it. No matter where you are, in work, school, or any public place there is no way that you can have one hundred percent of the people like you. People are always going to have their opinions and their own way that they view you and you can do nothing to change that. Sounds kind of scary, huh? I got really close, to about ninety eight percent or so, but no matter what I did I could never get the last two percent to change their minds. I tell you all of this to say that no matter what you do in life you are always going to have people that don’t like you and won’t accept you for who you are. Most of the time though, we get so caught up in wanting a relationship with that person, or wanting that person to like us and accept us so much that we forget a key fact in life. The only persons thoughts, feelings, emotions, and attitude that you can control is your own, and no one else’s. You cannot make someone like you, or accept you by force. They have to have a change in attitude or feeling. I mean, look at the life of Jesus. He wasn’t accepted by all or like by all. The Pharisees were always trying to kill him, and countless others saw him as a fool and a fake. So after saying all of this here is my challenge: Check your own heart, and your own mind and thoughts. If you think someone is holding a grudge against you check your own heart. Are you holding a grudge against them? Is there a thought in you that is unkind towards them? Remember, how are you going to take the speck out of your brother’s eye if you have a plank in your own eye. Relationships as human beings are important to us and God, so strive to make sure you don’t have a plank in your own eye, so that you can carefully and skillfully take the speck out of the eye of your brother.   

What is the Meaning?

As we approach the Holiday season and as everyone is going around getting ready for Christmas, it seems that as Christians we get caught up in the world’s way of celebrating Christmas and the world’s meaning of Christmas and we forget what we are really celebrating. Yes, Jesus came to the earth to save the world but this goes so much farther than that. God gave up his only son to the earth to be born in a stable. He came in the most humble way, and yet the point I want to stress is that God gave up his only son, from  the heavenly thrown, and allowed him to come to earth to fix our messing up. I can’t imagine even though I am not a Dad, giving up my only son to save a bunch of people that sinned over and over again and continually mocked me and spit upon my name. I’d have enough trouble just forgiving them let alone giving up my only son to die for them. I want you to take a couple of minutes right now and think about what a sacrifice that this was and what really took place on that night. Think about the discipline of Jesus life, to live it perfectly, and then to die a horrible death. Then just reflect on the people, you and me, which he did it for. He did it to save the sinners of this world, and gave us an opportunity to live with him forever. He gave us a chance to have a relationship with him once again. I challenge you to this; when you get up on December 25^th, think about this sacrifice first. I know it will be hard and not the easiest thing as you may think about the presents or the food or all of the cooking and cleaning you have to do for family. Try, and spend some time with him that morning just reflecting on what he did for you and the world. I don’t think you can have the same outlook on this part of the year again if you remember and make what he did the most important thing of all.

Bible Study Challenges

Well, another week is upon us. Christmas is right around the corner and now the snow has begun to fall here in Cleveland. The snow also brings cold weather and wind, so we have embarked upon the winter journey that who knows when will end. I have my Bible study in school tomorrow and isn’t it always interesting how we have no idea what God has in store for us when we start upon these things. I may decide on Saturday or Sunday to do one topic but then boom, God gives you something completely different. We are starting to face some light resistance to what we are doing so tonight I have to go online and brush up on the law and the reasons we are allowed to do this and meet in the high school. I also need to let everyone else in the group know the rough sketch of what is going on. I really don’t look forward to doing this because I know that it might get technical but you do what you have to do. I just am really looking to make a bigger impact at school and I want to be able to just let others see God through me. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me and the rest of the group.  

You Won't Relent

You Won't Relent

Misty Edwards

You won't relent
Until You have it all
My heart is Yours

I'll set You as a seal upon my heart
As a seal upon my arm
For there is love that is as strong as death
Jealousy demanding as the grave
And many waters cannot quench this love

Come be the fire inside of me
Come be the flame upon my heart
Come be the fire inside of me
Until You and I are one

I really like this song, singing and playing it. It wasn’t too long ago that I finally really listened to the lyrics and just let God speak to me through them. I just realized how amazing our God is because after you and I have messed up time and time again, he is still coming and running hard after us to know us better and to have us have a relationship with him. That he will not relent until he has everything that our life is just blows my mind. The creator of the stars and the universe that is so vast and so great wants to know me and have a relationship with me, a small human being. We were created in his image but still why would he want you and me? He created us to be with him in heaven for ever and to bring him glory and honor with our life. I want this so bad but it seems so many times I start out and then fall flat on my face after taking a couple of steps. We could never do enough good to cancel out our sin; we can’t do any good to cancel any sin. “For the wages of sin is death….” So why live life if we know that we can’t make it through without sinning and messing up? What is the point of trying? God gave us his son, his perfect son, to die in our place. He came to earth and lived a perfect life so that you and I would only have to turn to him and then we would have everlasting life. He conquered death by raising himself up from the grave and then ascending to heaven. We don’t have to be perfect because he is perfect. He has given us the chance to have a relationship with him, it is a free gift. He doesn’t promise that things will get easier and neither will I, but he does promise to be with you every step of the way whether you know it or not. He does promise you everlasting life with him in heaven. All he wants from you is your life and everything that is involved with your life, and a willing heart to serve and grow with him. He is waiting for you, are you going to run to him or walk away once again?

Too Full..... Or Too Empty?

Well, Thanksgiving is gone all too quickly it seems. So is the break from school. Tomorrow everyone heads back to the work force and school to brave out the week. It just seems as if the weekend flew by and we now stare Monday straight in the face. It just seems so hard to take a break from what you have been doing and enjoying. For the next couple of weeks I have to do just that though. I got over my head with involvement in the church and my health took a beating because of it. It just is so hard though not to go up to church and be involved in an event almost every night especially because that is all that I knew for the past couple of months. I had to decline worship band for this Wednesday because I need to get completely caught up with school and I needed a break so I could rest physically. I also did not go to church tonight for our late night contemporary service which is normally one of the highlights of my week. I enjoy doing things so much in the church and I enjoy serving but sometimes you just need to get out of the way so that God can do his thing. You also need to have control over what is on your plate and not have a extra full portion that you can’t eat. I had way too much on my plate and I think it just finally broke me down physically. I need to get back to the basics and what God wants me to do instead of just doing everything. You have to get to a point where you know that you need to say no to the activities that come your way. I challenge you to look at your life and your plate and see if you need some adjusting. Maybe your plate is to full and some things need to come off of it so that you and God can fully communicate and you can be ready to do what he asks. Maybe your plate is pretty empty, and you know that God is calling you to do something and you are ignoring him. Tonight, ask God to give you the right portion and for wisdom to make the decisions to give you the right portions. You could be amazed at the results that follow.

Fear of Daily LIfe

Have you ever found yourself scared of something, maybe it was the dark when you were a little kid. Well, for school I had to write a school paper that forced me to look at fear and describe it. I knew I had a problem when I used the word fear about 26 times in the first two pages so I decided to go online and find some words that I could replace fear with. Here is what I came up with: anxiety, concern, cowardice, despair, dread, fright, horror, jitters, panic, scare, terror, timidity, trembling, unease, and worry. As I read this list and though about the words and how I could use them I came to a scary realization, that this is what had described my Christian life at the high school and middle school for much of my life until recently. I continued thinking about it and tired to think about why this was and why as Christians we seem scarred of our faith and what others think about us. No matter where you are whether in school or in a work setting we have to deal with this aspect of life. This is what I came up with. When the world hears the word Christian they associated that with perfect, and happy and having everything together when in fact we know for sure that this is not the case at all, we know that we are anything but perfect and that we are far from this. Because of the title that we are given though we feel like we have to live up to this and if we don’t that everyone will hate us even more. In all reality there is only one thing that separates us from everyone else in the world. It isn’t the church we go to, or the way we view life, or the pastor that we listen to on a Sunday morning. It is the God that we worship daily and that created us with perfection and is living in us daily. When you have God in your life, your life should be different and your life style should be different from that of the world but that doesn’t mean that you have to have everything all together and not have any problems. What this does mean though, is that when you do face the problems and hardships in your life you will be able to overcome them and stand through them on our rock and salvation.   

Fire

I’m really not sure on what I am going to make this post about. I just wanted to make one though because I hadn’t posted in a couple of days. I’ll tell you, I am pretty tired from the just past day. I am so glad we only have two days this week because I am not so sure I would make it past that. Anyways, I was reading in Hebrews today, and I came across chapter 10. This chapter just seemed to really stick out to me because it was talking about sacrifice. Now that might seem weird on how that had anything to do with me, but just hang in there with me. I was reading about how they had two tents and one was for the sacrifices and the other was the holy of holies that only was entered once a year. Then it when on to say that when Jesus, our sacrifice died on the cross, they no longer needed the priests of the day to offer the sacrifices for the people. Jesus had been the final priest and offered himself as a sacrifice that was the final blood spill for man’s sin and there repentance, and now we could have a personal relationship with him.  He tore down the curtain blinding the common man from him. He enabled us to become as one with him, to when people look at us to see God instead of you. It is something so hard to grasp sometimes in my own mind but God gave me this body, it is his, and I want to live as if I don’t own it, as if I no longer posses any of my mind but that it is totally devoted to him and what he wants for my life. I want God to burn inside of me, not my own will or passion, not my own wants or needs. I need to realize that every other fire that is inside of us will fizzle out and will not succeed, but that God will reign and triumph over all. And when judgment comes, and believe Him when He says it is coming, I want as many people to be ready to stand up and to be called into his kingdom with him forever. Shouldn’t this be our ultimate goal anyways? Think about it.

Priorities in Life

What is number one in your life? Well, the Sunday school answer would be God, right? But truly look at your life and tell me what is number one. Is it your car, house, kids… or maybe it is a friendship or other relationship? Why isn’t God first? What could you do to change that? God needs to be priority and you need to run to him and go after him with everything that you have, and anything that hinders you should be cut off. Maybe this means to literally get rid of it, and to discontinue it in your life. Or maybe you need to take a break from it to cast all your attention on God and his plans for your life. I am striving to make sure that God’s plans are the plans that in my life I follow and that it is his wisdom I seek, not man’s. If you can’t run this life’s race going after God and you let other things hinder and distract you, you may find yourself running the course the wrong way. So I guess my question for you is, are your priorities straight, and are you running after God with him first in your life? That is my goal, to follow him with everything that I have and to do his will. What is your goal?