So, since I'm jobless (not by choice) and have no life going on right now, I watch a lot of TV :). Last weekend, I think it was Saturday night--remember, no life right now--I was watching the Terminator II. I thought it was pretty cool, you know, seeing Arnold in action again. Well, I didn't think much of it until Sunday when I was at church.
I went to this different church than I normally do to try it out and to see if I wanted to be a regular attender. It was okay, but one thing that really struck me was during the sermon when the pastor was talking about how he became a Christian.
Now, if you're reading this you may not know the exact definition of a Christian the way it's meant to be lived--it often gets lost in this jumbledness of the world. A Christian is a person looking to Christ as his or her personal savior and dedicating one's life to following God in his or her life. A Christian is not a person who's parents were Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. A Christian is not a person who attends church on Sundays, even Bible studies on Wednesdays, or even church functions any other day. Christ defines the Christian--not the person.
Anyways, the pastor was talking about the veil that covers our eyes--the one that separates us from knowing God and Christ for who They are and for what They've done. He was talking about how Satan is the one who holds this veil over eyes until enough is done that this veil is tore down and everything suddenly, makes sense. Well, I thought that was interesting and then all of a sudden, the Terminator starts playing in my mind--awesome. haha
What was kind of interesting was the way God was helping me to visualize this idea. The movie has this cyborg dude who is made of some type of pretty awesome liquid metal/mercury type deal that makes him unstoppable. When you shoot the dude, homeboy just morphs back into his little human front while barely even slowing down. He just keeps coming back--it almost seems impossible to stop him!
Well, at the end of the movie, good ol' Arnie has this huge shotgun that he's using to blast this dude. Every time he shoots him, the guy stumbles back just a little bit at a time and his human-like appearance is shattered more and more. But here's the thing, there is a huge cauldron of molten metal at the edge of this platform that the cyborg is inching towards each time he's shot. Right when he's getting ready to go over the edge, one more shot would obviously do it, Arnie runs out of ammo. Ah shoot! The mom, kid, and Arnie thought they were defeated until someone (I honestly can't remember who) pulls out a gun and shoots the dude to make him plunge to his ultimate demise. Game over. He doesn't come crawling back on this one. He's dead. Defeated. Gone.
This is EXACTLY how it is when we share the love of Christ with strangers, family members, friends, co-workers, whomever. We keep shooting at the veil, that cover that shields their eyes from knowing Christ for who He truly is. We get to a point where we feel defeated because it seems like it's impenetrable, an unstoppable force that we just cannot seem to kill once and for all. It is a process, it is something that we have to keep shooting at, keep speaking truth into that veil to make it burn until it is no more. I tell you, it is not impossible. It is not unstoppable. It is not impenetrable. Don't give up hope, don't lose sight, and for the love of God never stop sharing the best thing that ever happened to you!
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
August 13, 2009
July 31, 2009
The Enemy Has Been Defeated...We Lift Our Voice in Victory!
Some of you know the hardship that my oldest brother has had to face and how hard it has been for him to have to go through that. Recently, my family and I realized that we needed to do more for him because he needed it desperately.
I know that I've been praying for him hardcore to get to know Christ and the hope He brings. I started to realize that all of this that my brother was going through was for God to simply bring him to his knees and help him realize that he can't rely on himself...only God has control and only God can bring him through this. Unfortunately, as these tragedies kept coming his way, he only seemed to be driving farther from God--I even thought for good reason. It was hard to sit by and watch all of this inflicted on my big brother who has always protected me.
Well, after our family realized that more needed to be done Wednesday morning, we all gathered at his side. My other brother, mom, dad, and me went to his house Wednesday evening just to be with him, comfort him, and love him.
Sitting down across from me in an empty room he told me that he felt like Job in the Bible. This made me laugh a little, on the inside, because when I was on my way home from Bloomington I knew that I wanted to talk to him about Job and his life. Shortly after that thought, my sister told me that I should read him Job 5 and she never even read the book! Okay God, you're working here, I see it.
Well, he went on to tell me that he didn't finish Job...I smiled and I told him that the end is where we find hope. God revealed to Job that He was testing him and that he was trying to get Job to realize that God alone is who he should depend on--not himself. After a conversation with Job, God gave Job EVERYTHING that He had taken from him and even doubled it. In the second part of Job's life, God blessed him so much greater than the first part.
My brother had tears in his eyes and I continued to share with why God is likely doing this same thing with him. He wanted him to come to God with 100% of his life. I went over and I cried with my brother...yeah, we cried a lot. My other brother came in, who is the reason why I'm even a Christian today, and told him, "She's telling you the truth man." The three of us sat there and we cried hard, my mom walked in from the other room and cried too.
My other brother and I continued to share our experiences and why we knew God was the answer. Becoming a Christian won't take these situations away, but man oh man does God give you hope like never before in those situations! To be honest, I can't remember much of what even came out of my mouth that night...they had to of been God's words, not mine (thankfully).
At one point, my brother even grabbed me in a huge bear hug where we just wept in each others arms.
He told us that he wanted to change, that he didn't want to do it on his own anymore. He wanted God to be the center of his life. WOW!!!
We prayed with him, for him, and helped him to accept Christ into his life and to take his burdens on His shoulders. My brother told us that he felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders already. Ha, oh yes!
It was probably the best night of my life to witness that, be a part of that, and to finally have the six of us in our family back together again--just each other (once my sister came after she got off work). We ate a very late dinner together, reminisced, and laughed like we were a true family. It will be forever ingrained in my memory, THANK GOD!
I couldn't stop smiling, laughing, thanking, and praising God ever since and I hope I never do. My God is a God of miracles, love, grace, and power.
Don't give up, don't quit, and never EVER think God can't move an entire mountain range...or even that pebble. God is love, AMEN!
I know that I've been praying for him hardcore to get to know Christ and the hope He brings. I started to realize that all of this that my brother was going through was for God to simply bring him to his knees and help him realize that he can't rely on himself...only God has control and only God can bring him through this. Unfortunately, as these tragedies kept coming his way, he only seemed to be driving farther from God--I even thought for good reason. It was hard to sit by and watch all of this inflicted on my big brother who has always protected me.
Well, after our family realized that more needed to be done Wednesday morning, we all gathered at his side. My other brother, mom, dad, and me went to his house Wednesday evening just to be with him, comfort him, and love him.
Sitting down across from me in an empty room he told me that he felt like Job in the Bible. This made me laugh a little, on the inside, because when I was on my way home from Bloomington I knew that I wanted to talk to him about Job and his life. Shortly after that thought, my sister told me that I should read him Job 5 and she never even read the book! Okay God, you're working here, I see it.
Well, he went on to tell me that he didn't finish Job...I smiled and I told him that the end is where we find hope. God revealed to Job that He was testing him and that he was trying to get Job to realize that God alone is who he should depend on--not himself. After a conversation with Job, God gave Job EVERYTHING that He had taken from him and even doubled it. In the second part of Job's life, God blessed him so much greater than the first part.
My brother had tears in his eyes and I continued to share with why God is likely doing this same thing with him. He wanted him to come to God with 100% of his life. I went over and I cried with my brother...yeah, we cried a lot. My other brother came in, who is the reason why I'm even a Christian today, and told him, "She's telling you the truth man." The three of us sat there and we cried hard, my mom walked in from the other room and cried too.
My other brother and I continued to share our experiences and why we knew God was the answer. Becoming a Christian won't take these situations away, but man oh man does God give you hope like never before in those situations! To be honest, I can't remember much of what even came out of my mouth that night...they had to of been God's words, not mine (thankfully).
At one point, my brother even grabbed me in a huge bear hug where we just wept in each others arms.
He told us that he wanted to change, that he didn't want to do it on his own anymore. He wanted God to be the center of his life. WOW!!!
We prayed with him, for him, and helped him to accept Christ into his life and to take his burdens on His shoulders. My brother told us that he felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders already. Ha, oh yes!
It was probably the best night of my life to witness that, be a part of that, and to finally have the six of us in our family back together again--just each other (once my sister came after she got off work). We ate a very late dinner together, reminisced, and laughed like we were a true family. It will be forever ingrained in my memory, THANK GOD!
I couldn't stop smiling, laughing, thanking, and praising God ever since and I hope I never do. My God is a God of miracles, love, grace, and power.
Don't give up, don't quit, and never EVER think God can't move an entire mountain range...or even that pebble. God is love, AMEN!
June 14, 2009
Trust...Is It a Must?
It's so hard to believe that a little over a year ago now I was in the second week of the best summer of my life. In fact, just a few weeks ago on June 2, I couldn't believe that a year ago that day I was on a plane from Chicago, IL to Manchester, NH to start an amazing adventure without a clue of what to expect. The fact that I'd meet the best friend I've ever had and my boyfriend along with meeting 50 other awesome, amazing people who I'm so blessed to call my friends and siblings in Christ was nowhere in my mindset heading into project. I never dreamed of having that type of experience...I never dreamed that a year later I would be traveling through the Great Plains storm chasing either! Wow, what will it be next June 2? It was a few days before that anniversary that I wrote this in my journal...something that God started to show me as I sat in a van driving through the middle of nowhere:
5/30/09
It's always been an issue for people finding it hard to believe that what is in the Bible is true. This is [mainly] because people wrote the Bible (physically). The thing is, don't people physically do every kind of reporting [there is] on this earth? Don't we trust doctors to be truthful and honest in giving us reports about what's wrong with us physically? Don't we trust psychologists to tell us what's wrong with us mentally? Why can't we, then, trust the people who have talked face-to-face with Jesus to tell us what's wrong with us spiritually? Isn't that also an important aspect of our health? Actually, since we all agree that everyone dies at some point, thus leaving us without a body and mind, wouldn't our spiritual health be most important to preserve and to make better?
My point is this, we trust people every day to share with us their expertise, experiences, knowledge, and advice. Why does that stop with spirituality? Yes, man in general is faulty and imperfect...so is this planet! Doing mathematical models and physical tests, we realize that real-world phenomena does not precisely follow the physical and mathematical principles that govern this planet. If it did, we wouldn't have to run so many experiments and have to calculate error into our findings. Just ask a physicist, a biologist, a doctor, a meteorologist, a chemist, you name it!
Is it because of our experiences with faultiness and imperfection that we can't understand a perfect God? Is this maybe why we refuse Biblical Scripture to be true, because we have an imperfect perception of a perfect God?
God came down to this earth in the form of a humble man. Why? He wanted to reach us on our level. He wanted to be like us so that He could reach us in the best way possible. When you talk to a child, do you talk to them as if they were another adult or a child?
Maybe, just maybe, God chose people to relay His amazing message in one book because He knew what He was doing. Just saying. God knows that we think in imperfect methodology because that's all we know. We've never experienced any perfect thing apart from Him and we can't even experience that without Him "dumming" it down for us. Am I saying Biblical Scripture is imperfect, heck no!
I fully do believe Biblical Scripture is the God-breathed, people-penmanship of God's exact Word. Do people who have autobiographies written normally physically write the work for themselves? No. They speak and it's written. Secretaries do this all the time. Does this mean that there will be a few mistakes in the writing the person does? Sure, sometimes. That's why the person dictating the letter, book, whatever re-reads it afterwards and edits the work.
Now think about it, if God is the One dictating this book, would He not make sure that what's in it is 100% correct? Remember, He's the only perfection ever existing!
As far as "creating" the Bible that we know today, I think the reasoning is simple as to how books were chosen and books were left out. Theologians and other experts who studied ancient texts, geography, geology, and all that knew what was in correlation with God's ways and customs and what wasn't. They're experts who studied the validity of each book in terms of credibility. Don't we normally trust experts?
Now I'm just saying that I don't think this is a valid claim to disagree with the Bible by saying it's because people wrote it. The fact that it's written by over 40 men in a span of about 1500 years in three different languages makes me believe in its credibility all the more. The fact that there are no known contradictions in the original texts and the fact that these men did not see each other's work when writing their own makes me believe in its credibility all the more. The fact that Jesus fulfilled over 360 prophesies from Scripture dating over a thousand years before his birth makes me believe in its credibility all the more. The fact that archaeological findings, well-known and trusted historians, and Josephus' writings continuously agree with the Gospels makes me believe in its credibility all the more.
You can say what you want about men writing the Bible but I challenge you to gather over 40 men from all around, 3 different languages, over 1500 years and tell them to write about their God and their experiences of Him and this so-called Messiah. Let me know what happens.
5/30/09
It's always been an issue for people finding it hard to believe that what is in the Bible is true. This is [mainly] because people wrote the Bible (physically). The thing is, don't people physically do every kind of reporting [there is] on this earth? Don't we trust doctors to be truthful and honest in giving us reports about what's wrong with us physically? Don't we trust psychologists to tell us what's wrong with us mentally? Why can't we, then, trust the people who have talked face-to-face with Jesus to tell us what's wrong with us spiritually? Isn't that also an important aspect of our health? Actually, since we all agree that everyone dies at some point, thus leaving us without a body and mind, wouldn't our spiritual health be most important to preserve and to make better?
My point is this, we trust people every day to share with us their expertise, experiences, knowledge, and advice. Why does that stop with spirituality? Yes, man in general is faulty and imperfect...so is this planet! Doing mathematical models and physical tests, we realize that real-world phenomena does not precisely follow the physical and mathematical principles that govern this planet. If it did, we wouldn't have to run so many experiments and have to calculate error into our findings. Just ask a physicist, a biologist, a doctor, a meteorologist, a chemist, you name it!
Is it because of our experiences with faultiness and imperfection that we can't understand a perfect God? Is this maybe why we refuse Biblical Scripture to be true, because we have an imperfect perception of a perfect God?
God came down to this earth in the form of a humble man. Why? He wanted to reach us on our level. He wanted to be like us so that He could reach us in the best way possible. When you talk to a child, do you talk to them as if they were another adult or a child?
Maybe, just maybe, God chose people to relay His amazing message in one book because He knew what He was doing. Just saying. God knows that we think in imperfect methodology because that's all we know. We've never experienced any perfect thing apart from Him and we can't even experience that without Him "dumming" it down for us. Am I saying Biblical Scripture is imperfect, heck no!
I fully do believe Biblical Scripture is the God-breathed, people-penmanship of God's exact Word. Do people who have autobiographies written normally physically write the work for themselves? No. They speak and it's written. Secretaries do this all the time. Does this mean that there will be a few mistakes in the writing the person does? Sure, sometimes. That's why the person dictating the letter, book, whatever re-reads it afterwards and edits the work.
Now think about it, if God is the One dictating this book, would He not make sure that what's in it is 100% correct? Remember, He's the only perfection ever existing!
As far as "creating" the Bible that we know today, I think the reasoning is simple as to how books were chosen and books were left out. Theologians and other experts who studied ancient texts, geography, geology, and all that knew what was in correlation with God's ways and customs and what wasn't. They're experts who studied the validity of each book in terms of credibility. Don't we normally trust experts?
Now I'm just saying that I don't think this is a valid claim to disagree with the Bible by saying it's because people wrote it. The fact that it's written by over 40 men in a span of about 1500 years in three different languages makes me believe in its credibility all the more. The fact that there are no known contradictions in the original texts and the fact that these men did not see each other's work when writing their own makes me believe in its credibility all the more. The fact that Jesus fulfilled over 360 prophesies from Scripture dating over a thousand years before his birth makes me believe in its credibility all the more. The fact that archaeological findings, well-known and trusted historians, and Josephus' writings continuously agree with the Gospels makes me believe in its credibility all the more.
You can say what you want about men writing the Bible but I challenge you to gather over 40 men from all around, 3 different languages, over 1500 years and tell them to write about their God and their experiences of Him and this so-called Messiah. Let me know what happens.
May 17, 2009
Hyp, Hyp-hop, Hypocrosy?
I recently read a blog by my friend Kaitlyn about apparent hypocrosy surrounding the modesty deal with Christian girls. While I won't go into modesty and the importance of this topic, I do want to go into hypocrosy in today's church and today's society.
If we live one way with Christians and another around non-Christians, what are we proclaiming? If we say it's not good to steal and we go and borrow a CD and never return it, what are we proclaiming? If we say it's great to encourage each other and go and slander someone or use profanity, what are we proclaiming? If we say it isn't good to lust and then we watch innaprop movies or shows that have strong innuendo, what are we proclaiming? PROCLAIM THE NAME!
One thing that always gets me whenever I find myself questioning my motives and whether or not I'm for some reason being hypocritical, is the first line of the DC Talk's Christian song, "What if I Stumble." It says, "The single greatest cause for atheism today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and and deny Him by their lifestyle. That's what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
I know this hits home to pretty much any and every Christian who listens to this song but I think it gets written off as just another nice thought--like the old cliche sayings always do. This, friends, is NOT just another nice thought or good thing to think about. This is for real!
Newsflash: We are in a spiritual battle of God vs. Satan! Period. --ironic I know ;)
How can we as Christians, soldiers for God's end, say all of the "Christanese" and not live the Christian keys? Wake up brothers and sisters, Satan is alive and well and he will most definitely use all your mistakes against you. If we aren't advertising for Christ then we're advertising for Satan--there's only two sides to this war.
Now, don't let this scare the poo out of you by thinking that you have to be perfect or everyone dies. That's just pure foolishness. Sometimes, however, I do get caught up in this thought process that I need to be perfect or someone's gonna see that discrepency between my talk and my walk but that's why there's the rest of this song, you see. That's why there's grace!
DC Talk goes on to ask what happens if they stumble or fall when they're doing the Christian walk (the lyrics and song are great if you wanna check them out!). The song talks about all of their fears about needing to lead by example and how hard that is when non-Believers scrutinize our faith to measure how worthy God is of their time and love. The end of the song sums it with truth when it says, "I hear you whispering my name, you say, my love for you will never change."
God knows when you stumble, He knows when you fall. He knew all of this before you ever even began to walk on this earth--or as my dad would say, God says, "I knew this since before you were born!" This should be even more encouraging!! God knew that you weren't perfect at birth, when you became a Christian, when you live the Christian life but you know what, this didn't stop Him for one second from dying for your very life. He knew your weaknesses, your failures, your faults and yet this one Holy and Perfect God of all things great and small died for YOU!
This blows my mind and it scares the bejeebers out of me to think that my own selfish will and hypocrosy can and sometimes will stop a person from wanting to experience this same exact love. I know that I can't be perfect and God knows that I can't be perfect, but this gives me absolutely no excuse to keep on living for myself and to keep on talking without walking. A baby talks before he walks but at some point he picks himself up and walks until he only stumbles just a few times.
Don't continue to crawl around babbling about our God like He's something to take for granted, stand tall and proclaim the glory of our Risen King and Glorious Father! What do you have to lose? Yourself. AWESOME!!!
If we live one way with Christians and another around non-Christians, what are we proclaiming? If we say it's not good to steal and we go and borrow a CD and never return it, what are we proclaiming? If we say it's great to encourage each other and go and slander someone or use profanity, what are we proclaiming? If we say it isn't good to lust and then we watch innaprop movies or shows that have strong innuendo, what are we proclaiming? PROCLAIM THE NAME!
One thing that always gets me whenever I find myself questioning my motives and whether or not I'm for some reason being hypocritical, is the first line of the DC Talk's Christian song, "What if I Stumble." It says, "The single greatest cause for atheism today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and and deny Him by their lifestyle. That's what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
I know this hits home to pretty much any and every Christian who listens to this song but I think it gets written off as just another nice thought--like the old cliche sayings always do. This, friends, is NOT just another nice thought or good thing to think about. This is for real!
Newsflash: We are in a spiritual battle of God vs. Satan! Period. --ironic I know ;)
How can we as Christians, soldiers for God's end, say all of the "Christanese" and not live the Christian keys? Wake up brothers and sisters, Satan is alive and well and he will most definitely use all your mistakes against you. If we aren't advertising for Christ then we're advertising for Satan--there's only two sides to this war.
Now, don't let this scare the poo out of you by thinking that you have to be perfect or everyone dies. That's just pure foolishness. Sometimes, however, I do get caught up in this thought process that I need to be perfect or someone's gonna see that discrepency between my talk and my walk but that's why there's the rest of this song, you see. That's why there's grace!
DC Talk goes on to ask what happens if they stumble or fall when they're doing the Christian walk (the lyrics and song are great if you wanna check them out!). The song talks about all of their fears about needing to lead by example and how hard that is when non-Believers scrutinize our faith to measure how worthy God is of their time and love. The end of the song sums it with truth when it says, "I hear you whispering my name, you say, my love for you will never change."
God knows when you stumble, He knows when you fall. He knew all of this before you ever even began to walk on this earth--or as my dad would say, God says, "I knew this since before you were born!" This should be even more encouraging!! God knew that you weren't perfect at birth, when you became a Christian, when you live the Christian life but you know what, this didn't stop Him for one second from dying for your very life. He knew your weaknesses, your failures, your faults and yet this one Holy and Perfect God of all things great and small died for YOU!
This blows my mind and it scares the bejeebers out of me to think that my own selfish will and hypocrosy can and sometimes will stop a person from wanting to experience this same exact love. I know that I can't be perfect and God knows that I can't be perfect, but this gives me absolutely no excuse to keep on living for myself and to keep on talking without walking. A baby talks before he walks but at some point he picks himself up and walks until he only stumbles just a few times.
Don't continue to crawl around babbling about our God like He's something to take for granted, stand tall and proclaim the glory of our Risen King and Glorious Father! What do you have to lose? Yourself. AWESOME!!!
April 24, 2009
This Guy Named Jesus
So, I hope that you found the last post helpful about just seeking God. If you are starting to think about getting to know God better I encourage you to think about someone in addition to that. I would like to introduce you to Jesus. Hey, how are ya? Now you've met. Once again, don't automatically write this off, just check it out.
Who is Jesus? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? No? Okay. Jesus is a very important guy when it comes to getting to know God, actually. Some of you may disagree but just hear me out, it'll only cost you your time that it takes for you to read this--which I'm very grateful by the way. See there's this issue, this problem that actually separates us from getting to know God--for all of us in fact....Sin. Whoooa whoaa, what the heck, Kristin! I didn't sign up to read about sin and all that now! I know but it'll be okay, really. See, I'm sinful now, before I knew God like I do now, and will be in the future before I happen to die. Unfortunately, all of us are sinful...including you. I hope I didn't just lose you...
The question that many people ask now is, "If we're all sinful, does that mean that God makes us sinful?" The answer: HECK NO. God made us to have that relationship with Him, to have a bond with Him. If sin is the bondage breaker then it wouldn't make any sense for Him to create us with built-in-sin, kind of sounds like a car huh...cupholders maybe? Keep in mind, also, that God is perfect, holy, righteous, without blemish, good, and everything that sin is not...it would be impossible for God to create sin and He did create us...thus in order to make us with a sinful nature, God would've had to create that sin too. See, sin is just disobeying God's laws by either active rebellion (willingly looking at the law and going your own way) or even through passive indifference (just not caring what it has to say). Adam is the one who kind of messed things up with humanity...I know, I know, easy to pass the blame to him for screwing us all, but put yourself in his shoes, really, not that easy. Satan is the master of deceiving people into questioning this law that's set before us. It's because of the devil that Adam even had an option to sin and disobey God's single rule of, "Don't eat the fruit from that tree."
Okay, I hope I haven't lost you to this point. Please just continue because if you don't gain anything else from this maybe you'll have a trivia question someday on this, and hey, you could become a millionaire ;)...okay maybe that's a long shot, but honestly this seems a little more interesting than some of those weird visions we get of Jesus and God from those outlandish paintings and books and what not, at least I think it is. Okay, so to recap, God loves us like whoa, He created us to be His bestest buddy and to have an amazing relationship with Him, that original relationship was broken when Adamsinned, now there's this issue because:
Before, we were able to be right next to God...now there's this annoying barrier, or line haha, that separates us from being right under God's arm. You guessed it, sin is that barrier. See God is all of those things I listed up there and He can't be around sin because He's so perfect and without blemish. Since we've been infected with this horrible disease, God just can't be near us as He wants to and used to be able to. Do you have a child? Me neither, but if you do and if you could imagine your child being infected with this terrible, horrible disease and this made it impossible for you to hold your son or daughter's hand or to kiss him or her on the forehead, wouldn't that drive you ABSOLUTELY NUTS?! You would try to find a solution to that real fast wouldn't you? So did God. It drove Him insane that He couldn't be with us anymore because of this horrible disease called sin. He loves you too much to lose you to this horrible disease. Thankfully, God is...well God. He had/has the perfect solution to rip that barrier down once and for all. God found that cure...Himself.
Because sin separates us from God, this is an eternal...think about it, ETERNAL--long time...separation because there is nothing that ever takes that barrier down. We're people and don't have that power to break sin and God is so holy and pure that He can't be near it and we're the only two parties who even care that we can't have this relationship now. As a result, God in His infinite wisdom found a loophole, if you will. See, someone has to pay the price for these sins for this disobedience because that's what happens with disobeying orders. Remember when you were a kid and you lied to your parents or you sat in the camper in the backyard even though your dad forbade you to and then you ran past him and hid in the bathroom when he found you in the camper because you were terrified of getting in trouble (yes, I actually did this)? What happened? You got in trouble or you experienced the "wrath" of your parents if you will. Well, this thing that God did for you and for me was that He decided to send His Son to take all of that punishment that we well deserved on Himself. Someone had to be punished for this and God didn't want us to experience it so He gave us another option. Yes, the Easter story.
Jesus came to this earth just so that He could die (willingly) so that you could have your relationship restored with your and my very God. That's how much God cares. That's how much you mean to Him. Every single sin that you've done, are doing, and will do laid heavy on Jesus's shoulders as He was tortured and hanging on that cross. Was that easy? HECK NO! Remember that He did have a fully human body so He felt EVERY single lash, EVERY single nail going through His flesh, the starvation, the inability to breath as He hung in that position for hours (usually suffocation is how the people actually died when crucified) all for YOU. What does this mean now?
Well, God asks one thing from you in return of Jesus's very very precious and dear gift of taking on our punishment. All He asks is that you would accept this gift from Him. Accept that you want that relationship back with God. Accept that Jesus died for you so that peace could be restored. Now you're saying, "Um dumby that's three things and you said He wanted one thing." Are those three separate things? Truly? They're all saying the same thing just in different ways.
Please don't get confused. Okay? Sin is a result of not following God's "rules" and such but that's not the way to be a Christian or to restore that relationship with God. We can't just try to be "good" people and follow as many rules as possible. That's a little absurd to even think possible if you ask me. What defines a "good" person anyways? What's good for you isn't necessarily good for me. I realize that I said that we will always be sinful while on this planet up above when speaking about myself being sinful, but it's important to say that while we're still sinful, we have a bridge around the sin through Jesus. That's how our relationship is restored. Once we accept Jesus's gift that doesn't just eradicate sin, it just extends God's hand to us so that we can have that passageway back to Him. The way to God and the way to be a Christian is to simply do what I said above, accept the gift. God will do the rest...with your help of course :)
Now I ask, who do you trust with your life, yourself or God? Do you trust that the very One who created you also wants what's best for you? Now for the challenge. I challenge you to simply say, kind of like before, "God if this stuff about Jesus is true, you know about Him dying in my place and all, then show me what that's all about. Show me why that's so important for Him to do that for me." Once again, what do you have to lose? If God does truly exist, which I'm pretty certain He does, and if this is true about Jesus, then what do you have to gain? Think about it ;)
Who is Jesus? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? No? Okay. Jesus is a very important guy when it comes to getting to know God, actually. Some of you may disagree but just hear me out, it'll only cost you your time that it takes for you to read this--which I'm very grateful by the way. See there's this issue, this problem that actually separates us from getting to know God--for all of us in fact....Sin. Whoooa whoaa, what the heck, Kristin! I didn't sign up to read about sin and all that now! I know but it'll be okay, really. See, I'm sinful now, before I knew God like I do now, and will be in the future before I happen to die. Unfortunately, all of us are sinful...including you. I hope I didn't just lose you...
The question that many people ask now is, "If we're all sinful, does that mean that God makes us sinful?" The answer: HECK NO. God made us to have that relationship with Him, to have a bond with Him. If sin is the bondage breaker then it wouldn't make any sense for Him to create us with built-in-sin, kind of sounds like a car huh...cupholders maybe? Keep in mind, also, that God is perfect, holy, righteous, without blemish, good, and everything that sin is not...it would be impossible for God to create sin and He did create us...thus in order to make us with a sinful nature, God would've had to create that sin too. See, sin is just disobeying God's laws by either active rebellion (willingly looking at the law and going your own way) or even through passive indifference (just not caring what it has to say). Adam is the one who kind of messed things up with humanity...I know, I know, easy to pass the blame to him for screwing us all, but put yourself in his shoes, really, not that easy. Satan is the master of deceiving people into questioning this law that's set before us. It's because of the devil that Adam even had an option to sin and disobey God's single rule of, "Don't eat the fruit from that tree."
Okay, I hope I haven't lost you to this point. Please just continue because if you don't gain anything else from this maybe you'll have a trivia question someday on this, and hey, you could become a millionaire ;)...okay maybe that's a long shot, but honestly this seems a little more interesting than some of those weird visions we get of Jesus and God from those outlandish paintings and books and what not, at least I think it is. Okay, so to recap, God loves us like whoa, He created us to be His bestest buddy and to have an amazing relationship with Him, that original relationship was broken when Adam
Before, we were able to be right next to God...now there's this annoying barrier, or line haha, that separates us from being right under God's arm. You guessed it, sin is that barrier. See God is all of those things I listed up there and He can't be around sin because He's so perfect and without blemish. Since we've been infected with this horrible disease, God just can't be near us as He wants to and used to be able to. Do you have a child? Me neither, but if you do and if you could imagine your child being infected with this terrible, horrible disease and this made it impossible for you to hold your son or daughter's hand or to kiss him or her on the forehead, wouldn't that drive you ABSOLUTELY NUTS?! You would try to find a solution to that real fast wouldn't you? So did God. It drove Him insane that He couldn't be with us anymore because of this horrible disease called sin. He loves you too much to lose you to this horrible disease. Thankfully, God is...well God. He had/has the perfect solution to rip that barrier down once and for all. God found that cure...Himself.
Because sin separates us from God, this is an eternal...think about it, ETERNAL--long time...separation because there is nothing that ever takes that barrier down. We're people and don't have that power to break sin and God is so holy and pure that He can't be near it and we're the only two parties who even care that we can't have this relationship now. As a result, God in His infinite wisdom found a loophole, if you will. See, someone has to pay the price for these sins for this disobedience because that's what happens with disobeying orders. Remember when you were a kid and you lied to your parents or you sat in the camper in the backyard even though your dad forbade you to and then you ran past him and hid in the bathroom when he found you in the camper because you were terrified of getting in trouble (yes, I actually did this)? What happened? You got in trouble or you experienced the "wrath" of your parents if you will. Well, this thing that God did for you and for me was that He decided to send His Son to take all of that punishment that we well deserved on Himself. Someone had to be punished for this and God didn't want us to experience it so He gave us another option. Yes, the Easter story.
Jesus came to this earth just so that He could die (willingly) so that you could have your relationship restored with your and my very God. That's how much God cares. That's how much you mean to Him. Every single sin that you've done, are doing, and will do laid heavy on Jesus's shoulders as He was tortured and hanging on that cross. Was that easy? HECK NO! Remember that He did have a fully human body so He felt EVERY single lash, EVERY single nail going through His flesh, the starvation, the inability to breath as He hung in that position for hours (usually suffocation is how the people actually died when crucified) all for YOU. What does this mean now?
Well, God asks one thing from you in return of Jesus's very very precious and dear gift of taking on our punishment. All He asks is that you would accept this gift from Him. Accept that you want that relationship back with God. Accept that Jesus died for you so that peace could be restored. Now you're saying, "Um dumby that's three things and you said He wanted one thing." Are those three separate things? Truly? They're all saying the same thing just in different ways.
Please don't get confused. Okay? Sin is a result of not following God's "rules" and such but that's not the way to be a Christian or to restore that relationship with God. We can't just try to be "good" people and follow as many rules as possible. That's a little absurd to even think possible if you ask me. What defines a "good" person anyways? What's good for you isn't necessarily good for me. I realize that I said that we will always be sinful while on this planet up above when speaking about myself being sinful, but it's important to say that while we're still sinful, we have a bridge around the sin through Jesus. That's how our relationship is restored. Once we accept Jesus's gift that doesn't just eradicate sin, it just extends God's hand to us so that we can have that passageway back to Him. The way to God and the way to be a Christian is to simply do what I said above, accept the gift. God will do the rest...with your help of course :)
Now I ask, who do you trust with your life, yourself or God? Do you trust that the very One who created you also wants what's best for you? Now for the challenge. I challenge you to simply say, kind of like before, "God if this stuff about Jesus is true, you know about Him dying in my place and all, then show me what that's all about. Show me why that's so important for Him to do that for me." Once again, what do you have to lose? If God does truly exist, which I'm pretty certain He does, and if this is true about Jesus, then what do you have to gain? Think about it ;)
April 23, 2009
Where I Stand
So, this is my first ever blog post...weird. I truly was inspired to even begin blogging after just truly wanting to share some of the things that I really felt laid on my heart by, yes, God. The fact of blogging never truly crossed my mind until I saw some of the posts that my friend Kaitlyn made and that my Bible study leader Alicia made. I thought, hey, that's pretty sweet, maybe I should try that sometime and an hour of insomnia later, here I am haha.
Before I dive into the heart of blogging, truly, I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about the Real God--the God that I've come to know and love whole-heartedly. Before you write this off as another "Holy-Roller" talk or "churchy" talk, please just read this. I bet this will be different than what you're used to if you're usually turned off by talks about God or anything to do with religion. This is more to people who may be reading this who don't necessarily know God. Yes, you may know of Him or know stories about what He supposedly has done, but do you truly know Him? You may say, "What the heck is the difference between you using italics to describe 'know' and not using italics to describe 'know'? Who cares," right? Well you may say you know someone when in actuality you just know of that person or you know what his or her name is and maybe one or two facts about that person. Does that mean that you truly know a person? I say no. You know about that person but you don't necessarily know his or her interests, heart, goals, ambitions, fears, people he or she looks up to most. How do you get to know a person? You spend time with that person asking questions about him or herself because you're truly probing to find the real core of that person.
This is EXACTLY the type of relationship God wants with me, with each of us, with YOU. I, nor anyone else, is here to judge any one of you, nor am I even capable of doing so. Why? We're ALL screwed in theory. I can't judge you or anyone else based on what you do because I don't know you near enough to make that call. Man, I don't even know myself enough to make that call. I don't know your personality, your background, your struggles. All of that information is between you and God. I have no desire to make that judgement call against you and I'm not even qualified so please don't think that that's EVER my intent in getting to know you at any time.
With that said, I invite you, I encourage you, I beg and plead with you to just take the step in saying, "Hey God, if you are real and if you do truly want to get to know me, please show me who you are. Please just open my eyes to who you are and why I'm here. Help me to know why you're God, why I'm a person, and why the heck I would ever want to get to know you." If you say this in your heart and you truly and honestly want to see what happens, if anything, then what do you have to lose? Maybe like 10 seconds that it takes for you to say this? Seriously, even if you don't think God even exists, what do you have to lose?
See that's all I wanted to say. God loves you (He truly truly truly does), He wants so much to have a relationship with you, and He wants to show you how much He desires that connection. It does not matter....wait, let me repeat, IT DOES NOT MATTER what you've done, what you are doing, who you think you are because God TRULY loves you for you. Don't think for a second you're not good enough because God wants to tell you otherwise. Don't for a second think that you're not cut out to follow God or to be one of those "religious folk," because who truly is? It's all a process and it's all a part of the learning curve. Just please, please, please, let God meet you where you are and let Him show you who He is.
Before I dive into the heart of blogging, truly, I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about the Real God--the God that I've come to know and love whole-heartedly. Before you write this off as another "Holy-Roller" talk or "churchy" talk, please just read this. I bet this will be different than what you're used to if you're usually turned off by talks about God or anything to do with religion. This is more to people who may be reading this who don't necessarily know God. Yes, you may know of Him or know stories about what He supposedly has done, but do you truly know Him? You may say, "What the heck is the difference between you using italics to describe 'know' and not using italics to describe 'know'? Who cares," right? Well you may say you know someone when in actuality you just know of that person or you know what his or her name is and maybe one or two facts about that person. Does that mean that you truly know a person? I say no. You know about that person but you don't necessarily know his or her interests, heart, goals, ambitions, fears, people he or she looks up to most. How do you get to know a person? You spend time with that person asking questions about him or herself because you're truly probing to find the real core of that person.
This is EXACTLY the type of relationship God wants with me, with each of us, with YOU. I, nor anyone else, is here to judge any one of you, nor am I even capable of doing so. Why? We're ALL screwed in theory. I can't judge you or anyone else based on what you do because I don't know you near enough to make that call. Man, I don't even know myself enough to make that call. I don't know your personality, your background, your struggles. All of that information is between you and God. I have no desire to make that judgement call against you and I'm not even qualified so please don't think that that's EVER my intent in getting to know you at any time.
With that said, I invite you, I encourage you, I beg and plead with you to just take the step in saying, "Hey God, if you are real and if you do truly want to get to know me, please show me who you are. Please just open my eyes to who you are and why I'm here. Help me to know why you're God, why I'm a person, and why the heck I would ever want to get to know you." If you say this in your heart and you truly and honestly want to see what happens, if anything, then what do you have to lose? Maybe like 10 seconds that it takes for you to say this? Seriously, even if you don't think God even exists, what do you have to lose?
See that's all I wanted to say. God loves you (He truly truly truly does), He wants so much to have a relationship with you, and He wants to show you how much He desires that connection. It does not matter....wait, let me repeat, IT DOES NOT MATTER what you've done, what you are doing, who you think you are because God TRULY loves you for you. Don't think for a second you're not good enough because God wants to tell you otherwise. Don't for a second think that you're not cut out to follow God or to be one of those "religious folk," because who truly is? It's all a process and it's all a part of the learning curve. Just please, please, please, let God meet you where you are and let Him show you who He is.
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