Spiritual Energy

I got to play some volleyball this evening and we did much better then last week spiting the games 2-2. Although I noticed something throughout the game that seemed to make us better. The key for our success was energy plain and simple. The other key was not to make mistakes that gave away points. Playing volleyball is just like playing life. No not the board game, but actual life. When it comes down to how you live your life you always have choices. The same thing goes in your spiritual life. When you have spiritual energy and the people around you are supporting you and cheering you on and you are just being yourself, then things tend to be easier. When you get down because things aren't going your way and you start questioning why that aren't going the right way things can get tough. You can get easily frustrated and that is when most people seem to quit the Christian walk it when they get down. This is short and sweet and to the point and what I want you to try and do is have energy in your spiritual life, and place the people around you that can help you through the tough times and then you can turn around later and help them. You never know what the next day will bring, so prepare today and have a spiritual walk that can't be broken by the rough times that may lie in wait ahead. 

The Days and What Lies Ahead.

Each day that goes bye is another day closer to something. Another day of opportunistic, and another day of failures. Another day of good and bad. Another day of sweet and sour. Some days have more of one then the other but rarely does a day go bye where both are not incorporated. Another thing each day brings is people. People who know Christ and those who don't. People that are nice and people that are mean. The responsible and irresponsible. The loved and unloved. Everyone on this earth is the same, in the way that one day we will all be together in judgement day. God will judge the actions of the people and he will look to see who's names are in the Lamb's Book of Life. Everyone around you will have to face this day. Not everyone's name is in that Book and yet we continue to sit back and let others take care of it, because maybe, just maybe the people aren't important to us. I want to tell you something though, they are completely and one-hundred percent important and loved by God. He sees them in pain when we just pass them by and he sees their future in hell while all we see is our future in heaven. I am leaving to go to Peru in the middle of this summer. I hope to be their about two weeks on a missions trip. It isn't my first one but it is definitely the first one out of country. I have to have an interview with some of the advisors and my youth pastor and basically they ask me questions to make sure I am willing to go and am growing in my walk with God. I am not scared of the interview, or the plane ride, or getting lost, or the animals in the rain forest, the thought of being attack, the thought of being unwanted, the thought of being imprisoned, the thought of being killed, the thought of not coming back, the thought of injury, the though of lose, or the though of not being in technology range. Their is one thing though that I am deathly afraid of though, and that is that when I get to heaven and seeing my heavenly father and not hearing, "Well done my good and faithful servant." What do I want to bring back from this trip? Nothing. Sure the memories and the experiences will be there but I want to exhaust myself for these people, I want to be spiritually exhausted, I want nothing to come back with me and I want to hold no part of my self from God because he is the reason I live and he is the reason that I am going. He is the reason the citizens in Peru are their and he has awesome plans for them. I don't want to mess God's plans up for them though because I was selfish with my energy, or I turned someone away who was interested, or I didn't make that one child feel loved and excepted. Everything I am is God's and I want him to be all powerful their. If I come back with something I will be disappointed with myself. I am doing what God is calling me to do and I am asking now what are you willing to do for him? What are you willing to surrender for the people around you? Anything? Anything at all? Take a moment and think about this as you go through your life. Think of what our God demands and how you don't fill it. Think of what he did for you on that cross. Then think of the people that are going to hell because they don't know about him. Does it make you want to start living a more passionate life? It does for me.

New Year Physically and Spiritually

     As we begin into 2011 many times people come up with New Year's resolutions that they want to try and fulfill and things that they want to succeed in. Most times people don't set a goal for themselves that they don't want to achieve, and if someone did, well that would be completely foolishness. Many times as well though, we get to mid January and then the goal just goes right out the window. I'm not here to tell you to get a New Year's goal or to tell you to try and grow with Christ this coming year, although both of these things are something that would be worth your time, but instead I am here to take this part of the year and compare it to the Bible. When someone comes to know Christ they can't just stop there. They must continue to nourish themselves with Christs everlasting water, and the must equip themselves with the tools to survive the battle that Christians go through everyday. The new year and the fresh start that is many times associated with it goes along represents a new Christan in many ways. The uncertainty of what is to come, the want to go after a new passion and succeed, these things are the same in both cases. The best way that I could discribe this would be Jesus's own words when he was here on earth. This comes from Matthew 3.

"3A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the see, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears let him hear."

     I really don't think that you could describe it any better than that. I won't type out exactly what Jesus said when he was explaining it to his followers but I will just summarize it. Here is the twist though, I am going to do it as it applies to this idea of new year's resolution and accepting Christ. Those who fall upon the path obviously don't except Christ when the hear about him and they are the ones that decide that a new year's resolution with a fresh start is pointless, and that having new life is just not worth it. Those who spring up quickly are those who mean well but just don't have the spiritual backing to keep growing. Their zest runs out within a few weeks of the new year. They are scorched as the trials come and not everything is as easy as the person in the front of the church made it out to be, but don't get me started on that because it could be an entire post of it's own. Those that fall along the thorns are those that get started and make it past the first hard aches but have no one for the second time of trial, or they just find the old way easier. These are the people that in the New Year's resolution may make it the first couple of months but see everyone else dropping their resolutions and by that influence they decide to do the same. The one's that fall upon the good soil are those that except Christ and run hard after him. These are the people that make their resolution a reality not just for one year but for the many years to come.
     I think these are the four main people that you have in life, those who don't care, those who are easily influenced to fall away, those who see everyone else dropping out and the decide it is not worth it, and finally those who decide to stick it out to the end. Of course their are probably people that are in between these but most people can be put into one of these four categories. However, the good news is that unlike the seeds, we as humans have the option and the freedom to chose are destiny, and to be able to chose how badly we want to grow and flourish. It is a new year for you physically and so now you have the option if you want to start and new year spiritually, or maybe you want to change where you fall. You never know when he will come back, as the Bible tells us that he will come like a thief in the night, and now could never be too late. It is all up to you to decide your own destiny, I just hope that you won't regret the decision that you make, because once our God comes back you will not be able to change where your seed is growing.    

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.