Sow seeds. Sow love.

I found this verse in 1 Corinthians. I'm sure I have read it numerous times before but never really grasped it, or had a reason to apply it to my life...possibly to my own fault. Anyway, it reads like this in chapter 15, verse 58, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of The Lord, knowing that in The Lord your labor is not in vain." 

There are days when we are doing work for the good of the Kingdom, but it doesn't seem like anything is coming of it. I know. I've been there. I'm there now. When you work with kids who don't want to be here and don't want to have anything to do with the Good News that you try and expose them to at every opportunity, you can get very discouraged. You may think, "why, God??" But really, seeds are being planted even if you may not think there is any fruit. Take heart, my friends!! Spread the seed an trust God to make it grow. Paul says earlier in 1 Corinthians that, "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives growth" (3:7). 

Let God do the hard work. We can't make people see and respond. God has to work in the hearts and lives of those we are working with. If we try to do it all ourselves, we will just get burnt out because it is a God-sized job. Just love people with all the love God gives you (and trust me, that is a lot). When you love people with the love of Christ, you are planting seeds for God to work with. 

This could be as much of a reminder for you as it is for me. I'm a control freak. Yep, I said it. I am. I like having control of my life and the things around me. I'm not necessarily proud of that, but it's something I've come to realize and something I have to work on so I can let God do what He needs to do. 

Look into your own life. Where do you need to sow the seeds and where do you just need to let God do what He does best? It's not easy, but it is so worth it. 

Who you are meant to be.

Working at a group home gives some interesting perspective on life. There are the highs and lows and ins and outs and you can never be quite sure what to expect from any of them. But there is one thing that is always a constant: brokenness. Broken homes, broken lives, broken bodies. You name it, it's probably been broken somewhere along the lines for these kids. They need the love of God in their lives, and yet they are hesitant to take that step and let God work wonders in their life.

Though we may not be that hesitant in our own lives, I think we still struggle to let God work fully in our lives. He has so much more planned for our lives, more than we could ever think or imagine if we only just let him work in our lives. Dr. Larry Crabb said it beautifully in 66 Love Letters. "I have found a way to supply the power you lack, the power you need, to become the person you most long to be, the person you most truly are, the person I alone can make you: a worshipper of Me in any circumstance; a lover like My Son who desired forgiveness for His murderers; a dancer who hears heaven's music on earth and moves freely in rhythm with My Spirit in a worshipping, loving, dancing community of friends who feel indebted to reveal My Son to the world by the way they relate and through the creative expression of whatever gifts they possess and opportunities they find." This excerpt is written as a dialogue from God to us, and I fell in love with it the first time I read it. It tries to sum up the entire message that the book of Romans is trying to say. He goes on to talk about how we can get caught up in the doctrines and traditions of religion and focus on knowing the facts instead of letting the facts fill us up and change us from the inside. We can't possibly become the people God meant for us to be if we don't let him in to change us. His truth can't be something that we just observe and take notes on, it has to be something we experience. The experience is what causes us to grow and reach that full potential that God has planned for us.

We are God's beautiful creations. He tells us so in Psalms 139 and we can't try to limit His power by telling Him we can't possibly be something that He created us for. If we try, we are about as useful as the dry bones in Ezekiel. It's time to embrace what He can do for us and let something amazing happen in our lives. You might be amazed at the peace and contentment you feel when you are living your life to its fullest potential.

My chains are gone. But are they really?

God has recently set a fire in my heart for the people who are trapped in modern day slavery. I don't know how many people actually know what a problem slavery is in today's society. Around the world, there are 27 MILLION men, women, and children being forced to do things every day that we can't imagine for ourselves. Every day, evil people are exploiting these people's lives. Such that, they can no longer live a normal life. They face death in the far every day and we don't reach out to them in an effort to alleviate their suffering.

I was thinking today that our "first world" societies are much like the Capitol in the "Hunger Games." Our products and services come from people who are forced to provide such for nothing. Thy don't get to see the fruits of their labor and we are oblivious to their pain, much the the citizens of the Capitol were. We take without thinking about where these things come from. All of these people are calling for freedom. And all of us have the ability to make a difference in some way. Our God is the God of immeasurably more, don't limit the work He would be able to do through you.

I encourage you to go to slaveryfootprint.org and find out how many slaves you have working for you. It won't be pleasant but the only way to start the transformation and give freedom to the lives of the oppressed is to understand how much you support the slave industry without realizing it. I need to give you a fair warning though, once you understand and see there will be no going back.

Even if you can't do anything you can go to enditmovement.com and sign the pledge to spread the word and encourage 10 of your friends to do the same thing.

God has given us love and freedom and we shouldn't keep it for ourselves. Once we became His, we were no longer our own. His breath is in us and we need to share the awesome life He has given us. I challenge you to let God work in and change your life and for you to not be afraid of the direction He gives you, no matter which direction it may take you. God has done amazing things for me and I want Him to do the same thing for you.

Prosperity.

I was talking with a friend today about the American society and the concept of the American dream. Everyone has some kind of dream and I'm totally not saying that's a bad thing. I just think we've lost the truth in the Word of God when He tells us that He WILL provide everything we need. This is in complete contrast to the American dream. The American dream is all about being self sufficient and providing for yourself and your family. This dream has the white picket fence in the perfect neighborhood with play groups every week for the kids. It's having everything you want and still having the money to pay for life in general. Why? Honestly, if you look at all the stuff in your house or room or wherever, you will see plenty of stuff that you could live without. I am the exact same way. It's a part of showing people that we are living well because we have all this..stuff. That's not what God wants for our lives at all. He wants people to see that our lives are great because he is living in us and making changes in our lives. A lot of churches have adopted the "prosperity gospel" mindset. They tell the people what they want to know, not what they need to know. They tell people that by believing in Christ they would receive everything they want and be prosperous in this life. Their whole mission is to draw as many people to their church as possible, so they will remain "healthy". All this does is make for some very watered down Christians in a self minded society.

Just take a look at any part of the Bible. God gave challenges to the Israelites to prove their strength and devotion. Jesus challenged his followers to be radical in the ways of the world and stand apart, be different. Not blending in with the rest of the world. 2 Corinthians 6 says "to go out and be separate." it doesn't say to stay in and do what they do. Romans 12:2 tells us "not to conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind." He wants to renew the way we think about what is necessary. Its a change from our pre-Christ mentality to our post-Christ mentality. Nowhere in the Bible does God promise an easy life, that's just what some people think we deserve. And we don't. God is the one who deserves everything part of who we are, not vice versa.

Just remember this. The Word of God is not a palatable teaching. It was written to convict, challenge, and change. There needs to be a change in life in response to his word. He never promised that we would have an easy life. Just one that is in close relationship with him.

A lotta bit of life in a little bit of text.

This blog may be a little unorthodox, but I believe it needs to happen. In Hebrews, Paul says to confess to other believers what your struggles are and what you have been falling short of so that they can keep you accountable in the future. So, that's what I'm going to do. I honestly hope you take something away from this as I go through something that has been on my heart for the past few weeks.

I'm not sure if you have noticed (though you may have, I have no way of knowing), but I haven't written a blog in a long time. One thing I decided when I wanted to make a blog was that everything I wanted to write needed to be biblical and it needed to be something God was telling me at the time. Well, the problem with the past couple of months is that I haven't been hearing what He has been telling me because I haven't been living everyday in Him. Don't worry, I've been working on it. God's been working on my heart to get me to abide in  Him. It's not just an every Sunday at church or Thursday at Challenge kind of thing. It's every day. All day. Without ceasing.

A while back I came across a verse in 1 John 2. It tells us to abide in Him and He will abide in us. That's a pretty big commitment. If you don't know what abide means let me help you out. It means to stay, reside, remain, dwell. I love some of these words because they just feel...heavy. Not in a burdensome kind of way. Just in a "these are not to be taken lightly" kind of way. And they really shouldn't be. God doesn't want our seconds. He wants the first choice, the best choice in our life. No, scratch that. He wants it all. When He gets all of us He can work wonders in our life when we let Him take over it all.

It's amazing what can happen when we really truly live like this. God just comes in and takes away all the parts of our lives that are dragging us down. He turns our hearts to live for His plan and His glory and the awesome thing is that we end up wanting to do that for Him. He gives us joy beyond anything we can imagine because we do live fully and truly in Him. The list just goes on and on.

Like I said, I hope something has helped you or opened your eyes, but I understand if not. Some things we just have to figure out on our own.

That 4 letter word called love.

Love. One of those four letter words that defines much of our human existence. Every girl wants to hear it when they find "the ONE." Almost every movie made in today's society has the phrase "I love you" in it at least once. My point is our perspective of what love is supposed to be is a little skewed. Everyone wants to feel loved and accepted and our culture simply tells them to find it in the nearest guy who will give her the time of day or in temporary experiences that he should use to define the kind of man he is. It depresses me that we have gotten to this state in our world where the ones who are in a relationship with the one true Love are unable or unwilling to step out and embrace the lost in our world. The issue of love is not a new one. Christians (and everyone else) have been struggling with it for centuries. I don't intend to solve the issue in one blog. Never that. That's impossible for one person to accomplish. Only by an act of God will anything be changed dramatically.

I think the best way to start letting God's love shine through us is to start loving our brothers and sisters. In my experience, Christians can be some of the worst when it comes to judging others. Why this happens, I don't have an answer. It could be that we get up on a high horse and think we are better than everyone who's not a Christian. Or maybe we don't take into consideration that not everyone has the same values as us. Whatever the case, churches are one of the most avoided places because people feel JUDGED when they enter. My friends, this should just not be so. When asked, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Now I know a lot of people have heard that verse over and over, but are you REALLY hearing it? Scripture can't be read and then forgotten when you put the Bible down. It has to be allowed to sink in and affect change in our lives. I deal with it too. I could be tired or in a rush so I'll read a couple verses and run off and completely forget. James talks about that as well, but that's for another time.

In John 13, Jesus talks about this concept of loving our brothers and sisters. He says the world should be able to tell we are Christians by the example we set in loving one another. And I'm not just talking about your best friends. I'm talking about the outcasts and the downtrodden and the people who don't naturally draw your attention. I struggle with this too. I'll feel that nudge that says, "Go talk to them." And I ignore it. I don't want to get involved. I don't really like them. I make up excuses to stop that little nudge. But honestly, this is what Jesus was talking about. We HAVE to step out of our comfort zone and embrace them. It could be just what they need.

Please don't let your "comfort zone" get in the way of doing the work of the kingdom of God. I pray He opens your eyes to see those who need help and gives you the spirit and courage to act upon what you see.

Glory in Pain

A few weeks ago at church, my pastor was preaching out of Isaiah 6. In this particular passage, Isaiah was in the presence of God and was absolutely deathly afraid that he was going to be struck down because of his sin. But one of the seraphim took a live coal from the altar and touched his lips and made him clean. It might just be me, but I have a feeling getting touched on lips with something that just came out of the fire would be downright painful.

I think this is something God wants us to get out of this passage that gets overlooked quite a bit. God never told us being cleansed of our sins would be easy. In this instance, even, I think he's telling us that it's going to be difficult and painful and most probably life changing. I know from experience that a lot of times it feels like the pain is pointless and isn't helping you at all. Let me assure you, it really is. God wants to prune us, to cut us off at our sin and make us a new person completely.

Another thing that crossed my mind was that kind of heat would burn enough to leave a scar of some kind. We will never be able to cut out our past and deny it ever happened. It's a part of who we are, where we came from. It's difficult to distinguish dwelling on the past to using it to grow because it really is a fine line. No one should use the past as a reason for not moving forward. Instead it should be a motivation, motivation to move away from the life we once had and to keep moving to the one God has planned for us.

Struggles in this world with temptations and fleshly desires make us stronger in our walk with God. He doesn't expect us to be perfect, just to strive for it. James tells us to be joyful in our trials because it develops strength. Look at it this way. A young tree is weak. It can be bent and broken by the weakest of winds. But as it grows, it gets stronger. And the wind has a harder time pushing it over, taking it to the breaking point. If you take a look at the inner rings of the tree you can tell when it had hard years and it created a unique layer that added to its durability. I believe people are extremely similar. Every tough time and situation gives us a unique depth to us and makes us stronger for the long haul.

I know I hit on a lot of topics, but I really felt these on my heart. I pray that God will bring tough times into your life to test you and draw him closer to you.