He is STRONGER!!!

Last night at church our pastor shared about how we shape our theologies/what we believe by the sufferings, shame, and all those hard times we go through. My pastor wasn't saying that you are wrong if you do that because that's just how we humans do things. The question I had was how do I get away from thinking like that? I mean there are things that happen to us that we just can't wrap our heads around and because of that our minds just start wondering. Things like, God are you there, God do you ever care, why is this happening to me I didn't do anything wrong? I personally believe that those thoughts are perfectly normal but I also believe that we need to not get hung up on those questions. I say that because those types of questions should only consume someone who doesn't know God. Notice I didn't say understand God, I said know Him. I don't believe we could ever fully understand God because our humans minds can't handle it, but I do believe that we can truly know who God is. The Bible is full of stories that reveal who God is. By knowing who our God is will help us to not think those types of questions anymore. I'm not saying you are going to find answers to all your question but if you do know who God is then those questions I listed before will answer themselves.
So who is God? I really don't have the time to lay it all out for you but I want to share one detail of who He is. We sang a song last night that is titled Stronger.(Hilsong) There's a part in the chorus that says:
You are stronger, Sin is broken, You have saved me...
Our God is a strong God! He is stronger then anything. This touched my heart because we need to be reminded of exactly how strong God is. I know people who are held down by fears, failures, shame, guilt, and so much junk that they can't experience God's love or joy. God is stronger then all those things, in fact He died and conquered death so you would no longer be held down by those things. Don't believe me, then try it for yourself. My pastor ended the service by telling the congregation to release all their cares and burdens on Him. Not because they deserve to but because God wants them. So if you're struggling in any of these areas and are tired of feeling like this then do yourself a favor, give all your worries, hurts, heartaches, pain, and anything that you are tired of dealing with to God and watch the Lord restore you and make you whole again.
So my prayer for us today is that we be reminded of how strong God is and by knowing that we would be released from all our fears and worries. I pray for faith and strength for us to let God be God.

Being willing.

So my last post I talked about how we don't need to be great because ultimately it's God that needs to be great through us. Even though we know that, that doesn't mean that we can't be great because God can and will do great things through us. Last night at growth group we talked about how awesome it is that God will use just average people to do great things. The Bible is full of stories of how God uses these what me might call not so great people to do amazing things. One area I talked about in my last post was how it is ok to just be you. We don't have to be someone we aren't. The thing that is on my heart about this area of being used in great ways by God is the area of being willing. Just because we know that God can use you and wants to use you doesn't mean that He's always going to use you.We talked about this last night and one thing that stood out to me in this discussion was how we might miss out on things because we weren't willing to do what God asked of us. I can't help but think about what I could have done if I didn't walk away from the Lord for a good chunk of time. Now I'm not saying that we should be bummed out and always think about what we might have missed out on, I'm just saying that we should always have that thought of maybe missing out on something great which should make us willing to say yes to whatever God asks of you. I want to close with this; God doesn't need us to do His work, He's perfectly fine without us. When God asks us to do something it's not because He needs us, it's because He loves us enough to allow us to partner with Him.  So my prayer for us is that we would be willing to be used by God no matter what it is He asks of us. I pray for protection over the weekend. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

I don't need to be great...

The idea of being great isn't a bad thing, it's actually something that I hope I can be for the Lord. Ever since I was 12yrs old I was told that I would do great things for the Lord. When I first heard that I was super excited but as the years went by and as I started to think of what I've done since then and where I'm at now, I don't feel like I've done anything great. I have been fortunate to be apart of some great things but overall I really don't feel like im doing anything great. By having this mentality that I'm not being great can really be a stumbling block in becoming great, let me explain. We all have our own ideas about was greatness is and what we might need to do in order to achieve greatness. What I was doing was trying to compare my ministry with other geat ministries. Because we see great ministries like Joel Osteen, Hilsong, and any other "mega" ministries out there and when I see these ministries that what I see as greatness. I see these "mega" ministries and then compare my ministry to theirs and I can't help but think that I'm no where near greatness. By comparing these ministries with mine all I'm doing is putting unnecessary pressure and unreal expectations on myself. This past Sunday the Lord really spoke to me and lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. This idea of being great and having an unreal expectation of greatness was changed for me. First off I realized that only God says what's great and what's not. I'm not saying that these "mega" ministries aren't great, but these ministries are only great if God says they are. It doesn't matter how big or small a ministry is, we shouldn't judge them by numbers or human standards, we should just make sure we are doing them to bring God glory and we need to let Him be the judge of greatness. The thing that really took all the weight off my shoulders was knowing that I don't have to be great because the only thing that will make me and my ministry great is God being great through me. I will never be great if I'm trying to be great, all I need to do is walk in righteousness, obedience, and allow God to be great through me.
So you want to be great? Then stop trying to be great, just let God be great through you. I'm not saying that we shouldn't do anything, remember we always need to keep our ends of the deal up. So my prayer for us today is that we would let God be great in our lives. I pray that God would relieve us of any unnecessary pressures we put on ourselves because we are trying to do it all on our own. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.  

Where did God come from?

So today at work my friend asked me a question that many have asked and it's even a question I've thought about. The question is where did God come from? She was reading Genesis and we know that God was there before the creation of everything but knowing that there had to be someone or something before everything in order for these things to be created then our minds might wonder then who was before God? Well here's the answer that I've come up with....(drum role) I don't know. I know this idea that God was just there before anything and that nothing created Him is kind of mind blowing. Even though I can't really explain it to someone this is what I do know, He was there before everything, He's still here now, and He will always be. I told my friend that God just always being there is what makes Him God. There is no beginning to Him and there is no end either. He is the source of everything. I know that we as humans always want to know where everything came from and how everything is made. To be honest if God thought that we could handle all the mysteries about Him then He would reveal them to us. But since we can't this is something that we just need to have faith in and be ok with just knowing that our God is and will always be. I relate this to those difficult times in our lives when we aren't sure exactly why things are happening. Life is full of situations that we really don't have answers to. The only piece of advise that I can give you is that no matter what we might be going through, we need to seek the Lord and if He doesn't answer we just need to always know that God is good, faithful, and that He is and will always be.
So my prayer for us today is that God would free us from these questions that don't have answers to. I pray that if these questions do have answers that God would grant us the knowledge to understand these answers or give us the patience to wait for these answers. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

Just enough.

The message that my pastor shared this week was the story of Elijah and the widow. If your not too familiar with the story it's in 1 Kings 17 and it starts in verse 7. To give a rough summary God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath and that he's going to dwell with a widow and she will provide for him. So he goes and finds her and he tells her to go make him something to eat with what she has but she responds to him pretty much saying I ony have enough for me and my son to eat and because it was so little they wouldn't have enough to survive and they would die even after they ate what they had. Then Elijah knowing what God told him told her to do it and God would take care of everything else. (Rough summary) So God came through and the flower and oil didn't run out. The way I use to think of this story was how awesome that God blessed them so much. But not trying to take away from the awesomeness of God, but he really didn't give them much. Yes He provided but it wasn't like He blessed them with meat, wine, and better bread, He gave them just enough. Last night at our growth group something new from this story spoke to me. When it comes to the area of God blessings for our lives I believe many of us tend to expect what I call "super abundant blessings" to be poured out on us. I'm not saying that we shouldn't want that, because I believe God can pour out an abundance of blessings on us but that's not how He always does things. Let's be real here we get super excited about the "super abundant blessings" but not so much for God giving us just enough. What spoke to me in this story was how much just enough really was. After talking with the group last night it was pretty clear that when we hear the phrase "just enough" we think of the bare minimum. But in this story we don't see that. When Elijah first asked this widow to make him the cake to eat and she replied that there was barely enough for her and her son to eat but it wasn't enough to even keep them alive, after God provides just enough I now see that God's just enough is more then the bare minimum. They went from having pretty much nothing to having enough for three people to eat. After realizing that we talked about how we need to realize that God just giving us enough is more then we need.
I know we want the "super abundant blessings", I know I want that. I just think that instead of putting such a high expectation/value of the big blessings we need to know that no matter how big or small God choses to bless us, it's way more then enough. So my prayer for us today is that we be super thankful and realize just how much God has blessed us. I pray that in times of trouble and hardship we would take sometime and reflect on all the goodness God has blessed us with. I pray for safety and protection over our weekends, and I pray for faith and strength for us to let God be God.
Have a great weekend, see you back on Monday!

Let's prosper!

Today I read about Joseph, the one in Genesis, and I just couldn't help being kind of jealous of how blessed and favored this guy was by God. I know it started rough for him, (sold by his brothers) but in chapters 39-40 we see how God blessed him. At the end of 39 he was in prison but it said in verse 23: because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. How awesome for Joseph but then I start to think why not me? I want everything I do to prosper. So how do we get to that place, what do we need to do for everything we do to prosper? Gee I wish there was a book that would tell us how to do that.... :-)
¹ Blessed is the one 
   who does not walk in step with the wicked 
or stand in the way that sinners take 
   or sit in the company of mockers, 
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, 
   and who meditates on his law day and night. 
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, 
   which yields its fruit in season 
and whose leaf does not wither— 
   whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)
I have to admit something, as I thought about how can I prosper like this I felt pretty dumb. The reason for this is because if I just looked at the inside of my arm I would see this portion of scripture and be reminded of this awesome promise, that is the reason why I tattooed it on my body. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and saying that we all want our lives to be prosperous, right? Well we see that we can as long as we put God first and do our part we can live a prosperous life.
So my prayer for us today is that we would start living a life worthy of being prosperous. I pray that God would give us the discpline needed to walk righteously and meditate on the Lord day and night. I pray for faith and strength for us to let God be God.

Do you know who your God is?

Last night my friend Reed talked about the hope we get when we know who our God is. People might think that they know who their God is so what's the point of this topic. So the question I asked myself is; Who exactly is my God? Well I know my God to be all powerful, all knowing, the creator of the universe, my redeemer, my savior, the healer, my refuge, the list can go on and on. I hope you agree with this list but after thinking about all these great characteristics of God another question popped into my head, if I say God is all these things then why do I get bummed or doubt when things aren't going the way I want them to? Two things, either what we say we believe we really don't buy into it 100% or God is a liar and isn't all these great things He claims to be. Now I think we all know which answer is the right one, but I'm not hear to call anyone out when it comes to the area of buying into these great things we say God is. I know things get tough and our faith sometimes gets on the low side, but all I want to do today is remind you to remind yourself about who your God really is. This hope and excitment that my friend was talking about can only be experienced by knowing exactly who God is. The Bible is filled with tons of stories that give us insight about who God really is. After reading and studying about God I can tell you that He's bigger and better then we probably give Him credit for. The God of the Bible, our God, knows, cares, and loves you more then you can imagine. No matter where you are or how far you've walked away from Him, He still loves you. There's nothing that can keep you from God's love. If you want to find out who God is pick up a Bible and start finding out who He is. By doing so you can have a hope,peace, and experience a love that can't be put into words.
So my prayer for us today is that we take the time to find out who our God really is. I pray that by doing so we trade our worries and concerns for the peace and hope that is found in knowing who God is. I pray for faith and strength for us to let God be God.

Who are we doing things for?

This was something that hit me like a ton of bricks last night as I was sitting in class. The idea of who am I doing these things for pricked my heart. I'm in a busy season in life with school, work, and ministry and things have been kind of feeling like it's just one big routine. When you have a routine for sometime you can start getting tired and start wanting something different, something new. Feeling that way isn't what I would call a bad thing but it's something that can really derail what you are involved in. By wanting something new or different might cause you to lose focus on what God has you doing right now. I know that as I started wondering about what's next in my life I could notice that my hunger and desire for the things I was involved in were slowly fading. Because of that I wasn't giving my all in these areas. What I was reminded of last night was who am I doing these things for? Am I going to school for my personal gain, am I involved in ministry because it looks good? As we started talking about Jesus in class and how He went to the cross for us, not because He wanted to, (remember what He prayed for in the garden) but because that was the will of the Father. Jesus did everything that the Father asked of Him. His sole purpose in life was to be obedient to the Father no matter what the cost. Jesus understood who He was doing these things for.
As I was driving home I was so convicted and had a long talk with God. I realized that I was doing things for God and myself. Once again it's not always bad to do things for yourself but I don't want to do anything except what God wants from me. I understand that I go to school to further my education and hopefully my degrees will help with a career but I don't want that to be my main foucs. I want to always remind myself that with this education I can be used more effectively by God and hopefully do my best to advance His Kingdom. I don't want school to be the only thing, I want to live my whole life for God. Everything I do I want to do it for the Lord. As I started to ask God for forgiveness and to help me to live my life solely for Him, I could just feel that fire being stired up again and all that excitement that comes with knowing God is allowing me to partner with Him to advance His Kingdom.
I don't know if anyone feels like I do, whether it's feeling like you're stuck in a routine or maybe you haven't been doing things for God like you know you should be but my prayer for us today is that God would change our hearts desires. I pray that He would give us the hearts to serve and the desire to make our lives living sacrifices to Him. I pray for faith and strength for us to let God be God.

Staying patient.

Man it's been tough for me lately being patient. I've just been so ready for things to change, to get better, and just see where God is going to take me in my life. Anyone in the same boat? I'm not saying that having this feeling of wanting to go now is a bad thing but it's something that we need to make sure that doesn't consume our life. Last night I was talking with a friend about how life is going and how I was doing. It was a good conversation and as I think about what was said the one thing that I believe the Lord is speaking to me is patience and remembering that God is faithful. Sometimes I just can't help but think of when God is going to get this show on the road? When is He going to start fulfilling those promises? The funny thing is how easily I forget that His timing and plans are not mine. I know it's natural for us to want these things to happen but we have to step back and remember that He has everything in control and that He is faithful. That's what I love about the Bible. There are so many stories and examples of how faithful God is. The stories I love the most are the ones where God promises something to someone but doesn't fulfill it right away. The reason for that is because we can relate to that. I think of the story of Abraham. How he wanted a son and God told him He would give him a son. Now it's not like as soon as God said He would Abraham had a son, he was around 100yrs old when it all happened. There are others I can share but what God has been speaking to me these past few weeks is to just trust Him more and more. The one thing that I hold onto is the fact that if God says He's going to do something then He will, no if ands or buts. The trick to it all is letting Him do it and having the patience and faith and making sure we keep our ends of the deal up.
So my prayer for us today is that God would give any of us who might be struggling in this area more patience and faith to trust in God's perfect timing. I pray for strenght and faith for us to let God be God.

Reach for Jesus.

You ever feel like things aren't getting better? Feel like there's no hope insight? I know there has been many times in my life where I would say I didn't completely feel like there was no hope but I did feel like giving up because things weren't moving as fast or the way I wanted them to. So what do we do in times like this? Should we just sit around and remind ourselves of the promises of the Lord or should we do something about them? First I want to say that we do need to be reminded of the promises that God has set before us but I also believe that instead of just sitting there and thinking about them, we need to walk in faith and take action. In Matthew 9 there is a story of a women who was bleeding for 12years. Imagine the lack of hope this women had. I know if things don't happen my way within a month then I start to worry and I can tell my faith starts to decrease. I'm sure that the thought of never being healed crossed her mind many times. What she does next is what I believe we need to do when we find ourselves in situations that just seem impossible. She goes to the one who is the only person who could help her, Jesus!
I know that we see how her faith was awesome but I'm not sure we really understand how awesome her faith was. We might say to ourselves that of course she would go to Jesus, who wouldn't? Remember this, she didn't know Jesus like we do. We have the luxury of knowing who Jesus is by all the accounts in the Bible. We know that He is the Messiah and that He died and rose again. She didn't. This lady might of heard word about Jesus but there's no way she knew what we do, she had no idea of what He would do on the cross. Even though she didn't fully understand who He was she still said "If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well" (Matt. 9:21) This lady recognized that there was something special about this man and she put all her hope and faith that Jesus would heal her and He did. After reading this I got gut checked. I know Jesus, I love Jesus, and I have the luxury to read about Him and study Him but yet my faith lacks in troubled times. I know it's hard to have such great faith when things suck all around you but that's still not an excuse. I don't want to bum anyone out but maybe we just need to ask ourselves how great is our faith? Do we really trust in the Lord in our what we call impossible times and are we going to have the faith to persevere? No matter what you are going through Jesus is there to help, heal, and get you through these rough spots in our lives. All we need to do is trust in Him and let Him do all the hard work.
So my prayer for us today is that God would give us strength and faith for us to let Him be Him. I pray that we would cast all our cares on Him and that He would restore any lack of trust that we might be having. I pray for help in our lacks of faiths.

Going the extra step.

Today I read the story of Rebekah, how she was the one choosen to be Isaac's wife. Abraham told his oldest servant to go get a wife for Isaac. So he did and he asked the Lord very specific details about this women. He was at the well and all the maidservants were drawing water and he said that the wife for Isaac would be the one who would draw water for him and his camels. Rebekah was the one who did that and the rest is history. What stood out to me was how Rebekah took that extra step. I know that this was the Lord at work but just think of the hard work that she had to do. Drawing water is a pain in itself but drawing water for camels as well is way over the top. Camels drink tons of water. I personally believe that God didn't force her to do that, I believe that was just the kind of person she was. And because of her character she would be blessed for that. The reason why I think this stood out to me was because I witnessed something like this last night. A new girl came to our college group and she was sitting all by herself and people said hi and introduced themselves but one of the girls took the extra step to make this girl feel welcomed. Instead of just introducing herself and then leaving she had her sit with her and hungout with her the whole night. She made this new girl feel like she was part of the group. What I take from Rebekah's story and what happen yesterday was how important it is to put others before ourselves. How important it is not just for us but for others to go that extra step. This totally rubbed off on me today at work. I wasn't doing because I wanted to get something out of it, but because I know that God would have me do that. Hello the second greatest command is to love others.
Now you might be thinking that going the extra step is a waist of time or it's not as important as I'm making it out to be. But by going that extra step to say hi to someone, love on them, even just seeing how they are doing can really make a huge difference in someones life. I end with this, one of the greatest feelings I've ever experienced is being apart of making a differenece in people's lives. It's an unexpessible joy. Joy isn't the only thing you will experience, I believe just as Rebekah was blessed so will you when you go the extra step to put others before yourself.
So my prayer for us today is that we would start seeing people the way Jesus did. I pray that our hearts would change so we would want to put others before ourselves. I pray that we would take things one day at a time and for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

What are we willing to sacrifice?

As I was going through my reading plan this morning I read the story of Abraham and Isaac. Now I've read this story before and heard pastor preach on this story. I'm not saying that I've never received anything before but after reading it this time this story stood out way more to me. We see how Abraham had gnarly faith in God because he was going to sacrifice Isaac. We see how obedient Abraham was because he didn't even question the Lord's gnarly request. As I was reading this (Gen. 22) when I came to the part where Abraham and Isaac were by themselve and Isaac asked his dad where is the sacrifice was, I put myself in Abraham's shoes. I asked myself could I follow through with that? I love the Lord with all my heart but I don't know how I would act if God told me to sacrifice my first born son. That hit me hard because I can't wait to be a dad, I want a son soooo bad. I'm super in love with my niece Brielle, I could only imagine how in love I'm going to be with my own kids. Having a family is a prayer of mine just as it was for Abraham. Imagine praying for years to have a son and nothing happens for a long time but you just keep praying until it happens. Then when it finally happens and your so relieved and super happy then God says "ok I want it back", how bummed would you be? Besides being super bummed, would you give whatever it is back with no questions asked with total faith and trust in the Lord?
Now I'm not writing this today to make you feel bad if your faith isn't at this level, I don't know what I would do if I was ever asked to do something so gnarly as Abraham was asked to do. I believe what I got out of this story is that no matter what God asks of us we need to be willing to do it. No matter how gnarly it is. I will say this I don't believe God will ask of you something that He knows that you can't do. I believe God knew the level of faith that Abraham had so that's why he would ask that of him. The greatest thing about this story was we see how the Lord blesses obedience. The Lord blessed Abraham and provided a sacrifice for them. I do believe that God will ask of us to sacrifice things that we hold dear, not because He's mean or needs them, but because He wants to see how much we will trust Him. And just like Abraham was blessed we to will be blessed for our obedience to God.
So my prayer for us today is that God would help us to trust in Him more each day. I pray that we would say yes to Him no matter what is asked of us. I pray for us to take things one day at a time and for faith and strength for us to let God be God.

So I dont know really how to title this entry but this entry has to do with the topic of worry. Yesterday my pastor said something in his message that has really been helping me today. He said that God is only going to give you the strength to get through today. By saying that he was trying to get the point across that we don't need to worry about tomorrow, Jesus said to let tomorrow worry about itself so what my pastor said was accurate. So as I left service I was feeling good about the day then as soon as I got into my car I started to worry about this upcoming season in my life. School starts today and I'm going to be busy with a lot of ministry so the thought of me juggling my school work and ministry time is really stressing me out. The funny thing is I know that God can give me the strength to do all this but the thought of "how" is really what's killing me. I think what do I have to give up, am I going to have time to hangout, and am I going to sleep less because of all this? Even today I'm stressing about the rest of this week. But what's been helping me is what my pastor told me and I believe we can all find peace in all our chaos, we need to take things one day at a time. I know that is so cliche but it's so true and we always look at the days ahead of us. My pastor wasn't saying that we should plan things out but we shouldn't worry about tomorrow. The reason I love the idea of God only giving us strength for today is because it causes me to stop looking foward for tomorrow. I know that I need God's strength to get through my days and if I know that I'm going to need Tuesday's help tomorrow but can't get it till Tuesday then I wont bother worrying about it until I wake up Tuesday!
So my prayer for us is that God gives us the strength to trust Him more. I pray for an increase of faith and less worry. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

Fabulous Friday.

I think I wrote about this before but this was put on my heart after reading the word a few days ago. In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus says that we are the salt of the earth. Now I'm sure that doesn't seem like such a great thing to be, who wants to be known as salty? The thing about salt is it can be used for so many things. It melts ice away on roads, it preserves, and it can also enhance flavors. Now this all seem like great things but remember that too much salt can ruin things. The way this spoke to me was we see that salt can be used for good or it can ruin things. Two questions came to mind, first off Am I salty? Second, if so am I making things better or ruining things? Depending on which one you might answer to we have to remember this and I believe this is what Jesus was talking about, salt can only have an impact whether good or bad if it's applied to things. Salt can't ruin things or enhace things if it just stay salt all by itself. Same for us, we want to be the good qualities of salt but if we are not doing anything then what good are we?
So my prayer for us today is that we would be salty today, and for that matter that we would always be salty. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

Can we hide from God?

I hope this entry isn't all over the place. After reading a few days ago about the fall of man in Genesis 3, one event takes place that's been stuck in my mind so I want to share it with you and who knows maybe it sparks something in you and it sparks something in me too. So after Adam and Eve ate the of the fruit from the tree God told them not to they heard God walking in the garden and then they hid. I do believe that most of us would do the same if we just disobeyed God and heard Him coming. What strikes me is what God does after, He calls out to Adam and says "where are you". Now I know God is all knowing so He had to have known where they were, so if that's true why didn't He just say come out of the bushes because I know you're there? After reading a footnote on this the commentator said that it's so wonderful how God comes after us even when we sin and were disobedient. I get that and I'm super thankful but I still can't help but think why God needed to do that? I don't believe that it's a bad thing to wonder about things because I'm not saying that I don't think it's right, it's a great thing because it makes me wonder more and more about our God.
The thing that I just started to think about just now is the idea of hiding from God. I believe we forget that God can be everywhere and anywhere when He wants. What pops into my head are the times I sin but I don't do it infront of someone or I do things when I'm all by myself, what an idiot!!! How easily we forget that God sees everything. I will say that Adam and Eve don't make me feel that dumb because God was walking with them and they were the only two on earth and they still thought they could hide from him :-D But the fact of the matter is knowing that God can be everywhere at anytime and I think I can sneek one by him makes me just as bad.
So my prayer for us today is that we would be reminded that God is always watching us and by that we would be aware and make the effort to walk pleasing in the sight of the Lord. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

Let's keep it simple part 2.

So as I was doing my daily reading this simple thought came to me, it's a thought that many of us know but yet we don't put that much importance on it. What I'm talking about is simply obeying God. Now I know that seems kind of simple (that's the title :-) but I believe that's the point. So many times in my life I want to know what to do or how I can do things that would bring glory to God. Which is totally fine but I believe we concentrate on things that aren't as important as just simply obeying God. Now I'm not saying that ministry and loving on people are bad things because I do believe that they are super important but what I'm talking about are the things we place infront of obeying God. I guess an easier way to put this is these things are the stresses and worries we place on ourselves that we think make us better Christians or things that please God. They could be anything from how much we read our Bibles, how much we are involved in church, how much we pray, and how we live. These things are all good but so many times  people put such a huge emphasis on these things like how much they read, how long they pray, and even set a bar so high in their walks that it becomes unrealistic to achieve. By setting these standards we can expect to face failure because let's be real no one is perfect but because we set these standards we feel that if we don't live up to them then God will be mad at us and that we are failures. The funny thing God knows we aren't perfect and He doesn't hold us to rediculous standards.
The idea of keeping it simple by losing those unrealistic standards and focusing on just simply obeying God came from reading Genesis. We see that God created Adam then Eve and they had it made. They walked and talked with God and life was good. God even gave them dominion over everything. But we all know what happens next, they disobey and God takes it all away and now they must face the consequences. A few chapters later Noah comes on the seen. God tells him to build an arch, Noah obeys God and he's blessed for it. The cool thing about Noah's blessing is it wasn't just a pat on the head with a good job attached to it, God gave Noah the dominion that Adam had. So I know that this was a quick overview on these 8 chapters (read them and find out more ;-) but there is such a great comparison on what happens when you obey God and when you don't. Once again I'm not saying that we shouldn't strive after things to advance God's Kingdom, I'm just saying we should focus more on simply obeying God and not stressing on all those little details.
So my prayer for us today is that God would give us the strength to obey him more this year. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

Let's keep it simple.

This entry was sparked by a conversation I had with a friend today, so if your reading this I think it's awesome that God could use our conversation :-) My friend had a question from an outline they got at church that they didn't understand. So we just took a few minutes to discuss what we thought. You could tell that my friend was stressed because they didn't understand what the question meant. After a few minutes it was clear what my friend was doing, it was something I use to do a lot and I believe that many people do, my friend was just confusing themselves. My friend was trying to understand what this meant by our human mind but I believe that in order for us to understand the scriptures we need to let the person who helped write the Bible do all the teaching, The Holy Spirit. So many times we want to know the "deep theological" meanings of the scriptures. That's a good thing but I think by doing that we can get hung up on certain things which makes us lose sight of what God is trying to tell us. Searching the scriptures in a scolarly way is great, that's what I go to school for, but I do believe that if that's the only way we read the scriptures then we can miss out on a lot of things.
So how do we keep it simple for this new year? I want to share with you something a professor shared with me that I can say is the best thing I've been taught at Vanguard. He told us to "marinate" in the scriptures. What he means by that is taking the time to read a short portion or chapter of a book in the Bible and after just let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Ask God to tell you what he wants to speak to you about. That's what I told my friend today, that instead of reading the God's word with the mentality of "what's the deep theological meaning behind this" we should read it with the mentality of "what do you want to speak to me today Lord?" Remember this, we can do all the studying and research we want to find out about God and his word but we can only learn/know what He allows to.
So my prayer for us today is that instead of putting such a huge emphasis on what the Bible says, we would be more concerned with what God is trying to speak to us through His word. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.

A fresh start.

Happy New Year everyone!!! This is the time that people get super excited about a fresh start. The idea of a new year makes people see that we have a clean slate for this up coming year. I don't know about you but I'm super excited for this up coming year and have great expectations for 2011. The thing I want to talk about today is the idea of the enemy trying to rob us of our excitement for a great year. I'll be honest there were things that I did last year that were wrong and I wish I would have never done them. I made sure to ask God for forgiveness and repented of those things, but so many times the enemy would love to tell you that there's no way that God could forgive you for the bad things you've done. Even though we know the truth he's really good at twisting things around. I'm starting to read the Bible all the way through this year and we see how Eve was easily tricked in Genesis. So many times the enemy will get in ours heads and tell us that what we did was too bad or that God will only forgive us a certain amount of times. One of the things I pray for you all is that God would open our eyes to the lies and plans the enemy would try on us. The truth of the matter is that God is willing to forgive us if we confess our sins to him. "IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS, AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." (1 John 1:9)
Now even though we know this, it doesn't give us the green light to keep on sinning. The thing I want to leave you with is something that a professor pointed out to me which I overlooked but it brings great comfort. When it comes to the idea of God being so mad at us because we messed up or disobeyed him is true because I believe that it upsets God when we sin, but that doesn't mean He will just leave you/give up on you. Now I'm sure we all know the story of Adam and Eve, they disobeyed God and He scolded them but did you ever notice what He did after that? In verse 21 in Genesis 3 it says that God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Now if God was super mad and wanted nothing to do with them then why would he clothe them? If He was such a mean God and if He's strictly someone who only punishes people for doing wrong then why would he take care of their needs? That's why our God is so great, yeah He will punish us for what we've done but not because He's a mean God but it's because He loves us that much. Also God isn't going to hang our sins over our heads, the Bible says he remembers our sins no more. God loves us so much that even though we will fail him and disobey him He is still there to love us and take care of us. But here's something to think about, just because He's always there doesn't mean He's your personal genie. You need to make sure that you do your part by honoring God in everything you do.
So my prayer for us today is that we would be filled with an excitement for a great new year. I pray blessing and favor for this new year. I pray for strength and faith for us to let God be God.