I don't feel like being a Christian today. Part 2

If you haven't read I don't feel like being a Christian-Part One yet...STOP!!!!!

Simon Peter
He was a man who was very close to Christ. Always up front, walked on water,and was a go-getter. He also told Christ that no matter what happened, whether everyone else left Jesus, he wouldn't. Christ told him that the Adversary wanted to sift him like wheat....just like Job. He did. Peter denied that he knew Christ three times, each time more and more belligerent...even unto cussing and swearing. Peter was ashamed after the rooster crowed and  like that.... the veil had finally been lifted from his eyes. Would you believe I actually told God 3 years ago I would not be like Peter, I'd be strong. Guess what. Yep. Worse. I was two hours away from walking away from God completely. Nothing in me wanted to still follow. It was only God himself that kept me.


Do you depend on your own strength to follow God? I have that weakness...God has been very patient with me on that.


Do you follow God for the blessings? Because you were told to?

He is the I AM after all.

Like in marriage, you wouldn't marry someone just because you like the way they look, the way they treat you, or fleeting emotions would you?

I'm not married, so I am just comparing this to people who I've seen with good marriages. They aren't the ones whose lives were rainbows. They had their battles. Still do. One thing different is that they don't see marriage as a thing to get out of. They may not feel like loving their spouse some days, the looks that attracted them may have faded, and attitudes may have faded. But they are constant. One major thing that connects them is Christ. They are children of God  devoted to him, so they devote themselves to each other as to God.

Never give up. Even when the world falls apart around you! Blessings to your week dear readers!

Fragrance and fruit

I'm writing this post so late at night..well it's 1:45 in the morning, so I hope it is coherent. 


Song of Solomon 

¹³ Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates 
   with choice fruits, 
   with henna and nard, 
 ¹⁴ nard and saffron, 
   calamus and cinnamon, 
   with every kind of incense tree, 
   with myrrh and aloes 
   and all the finest spices. 




These are the words of the Lover to the Beloved. The scent of the beloved attracts the Lover. 

Christ created in each of us a garden. A place in which we can walk with him in the cool of the day. 


A tabernacle of the Most High. 


In this place, fragrant aromas are wafted out. They bring many into the place of worship. Is your life fragrance Love? The aroma that comes  from a drying, crushing, and a burning in most cases of your very being. 


 Through those trying times in which Christ seems to have turned his back, you feel pressure from all sides closing in, and those times you feel absolutely spent. Out of those times, the greatest fragrance can come. Those times give us something to draw out of both while in the circumstance and the fragrant offering afterwards. 




The fruit we bear by taking in the light of the Son, is transformed into the nourishment of ourselves and others.This is a perspective of a good friend of mine who does that subject justice. (From-sunlight-to-food-or-aspiring-to-be-more-of-a-vegetable)




To  deny the process of converting Christ into a living example causes us to shrivel up.  Our life is connected to His. When we called on Him to enter our lives to be like Him..He makes us Him on earth.


Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 


Meaning now. We must now be Him on earth. Feeding His sheep and bringing the world back to Him.







OK.
  
That makes you cringe a little.


 Good. 


I myself feel my flesh rise up against it many a time. This body in it's self is about preserving the self. But I am owned by Christ. He is inside the garden and is illumining the darkness of my soul and causing a lot of shaking.






But also don't forget that God's mercies are new every morning. That you are His delight and He created you for a great purpose.(Not always grand in our eyes, for we are made of dirt!) Also most of all He lived and died so that you would have a path to walk out. 




I hope that you are encouraged more to be a fragrant tree that brings delight to the nostrils of the Lover.

Be Salty

 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Matthew 5:13




 What is food without salt? Some of it is very tasteless. 


Let me throw an aspect which I'm sure is not new to most of you. 


First , a common fact. Salt makes you thirst. It makes you crave liquid. Simple. 


We as disciples should, in our lives, cause people to thirst after the everlasting water of Christ. Our lives should not need to answer. Because the answer is Christ. We are a means to show others (together) what He looks like.

 Like a mirror.




 The "greatest" men and women in history have pointed to Christ as their strength.

If we as disciples lose our ability to point to Christ as our refuge and salvation..we become useless.

Francis Chan's thoughts/ New Book!

This is worth a look at. I watched it yesterday via a friend and thought it was VERY relevant to what is going on in discussions these days.

Committed?

 I want to ask you an honest question. Are you committed to Christ?
There is no right or wrong answer...but it is between you and Him.  Please be honest. I'm not asking for an answer, just that you think on it, meditate on what it really means, and ask Him to show you what it is. Please have the courage to ask.

A small confession of myself

I know for me, even being "single,"  I am owned. I belong to someone.  Christ has committed Himself so that no matter how much I fall or how much I want to give up (and have!) He will never : give up or let up.

Without Christ, I am nothing. I realize that I'm only 25, but he has shown me a little of me. He has revealed that on my own: I am a blasphemous, wicked, cowardly, lustful,and SELF-RIGHTEOUS  thing .



 But he also promised never to leave.

How can I say more?

Whatever you ask..do you really believe this?

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13 (KJV)


Have you ever really thought about this verse? Not just a fleeting thought but had your mind truly fixed on it? This verse means different things for each person, so here is an example of it that happened to me this week.


Well, let me start a little back in time. A few years ago, I read Hudson Taylor's autobiography. Within his life he had many examples of this verse. Whenever he asked Christ to put him in situations that would cause him to have to draw closer to the Creator, it happened. Most of the time, it really tested his faith. Hudson became so close to Christ that he eventually went to China. In his time in China, the lessons he learned before arriving caused him to trust that Christ was in control. 


Just last week, I had a similar situation. Wednesday I asked God to cause a deeper relationship with himself,no matter what it took. I've had a few times like this before.


Well, He gave me an opportunity. 


I have been wanting to go help a friend in Mexico for a few months now. I started saving money this past week and had a budget plan. Everything seemed to fall into place. 


Now  comes the fun  part. 


Friday I got a text from a brother who I live with that I was behind on my ministry dues. For those few non-RCV'ers who follow, we have been supporting "Mercy Homes" in India see http://mercyhomes.org/),  a couple orphanages in Myanmar (formerly Burma) through Heaven's Family (see http://www.heavensfamily.org/), and helping a church in Africa by micro-loans to start their businesses.


I wasn't just a little behind, I was $215 behind! That really hit me. It wasn't a convicted reaction either. I threw a fit. A 25 year old disciple of Jesus Christ, someone who is supposed to have given up everything to follow him...threw a fit. I said I didn't understand. My good friend and brother in Christ,  John Bob, told me that it was my responsibility. He told me (not perfectly quoted) " you want to be a missionary, but miss God right in front of you." He was right. I found out later after I made a payment plan to get caught up, I had overdrawn my bank account recently. All my "savings" for Mexico had disappeared. 


It was then I heard, "No matter what?"


Yep. As you can guess, I got a first hand example of Him answering my prayer for His glory. 
I believe even more.


May He always get the glory in my life. 


No matter what.

Losing Control

 I have stepped into dangerous waters. I've found one of my biggest problems is...control. I want to be in control of my life. God cannot use someone who is in control. He must lead and guide them, but sometimes he allows them to seemingly wander away from him so they can be truly drawn closer. God sometimes uses chaos to do his bidding.


It seems like whenever chaos ensues, we figure just how controlling we are. I speak of myself in this with very much humiliation. I tend to think when things aren't going according to plan..God isn't in control of everything. How easy is it to forget what he has done for us when we have held back from him a key to our salvation. When we are "in control," the world seems sunny to us, life is sweet, and we feel like it is God's will.


 But wait...is it? 


Doesn't God want us to live a happy life? To be free?


But when the chaos comes we get to see the illusions we have allowed ourselves to believe. (that's for another  post though)


And often we feel the chaos that we face in daily life is from the adversary just to withstand us. Could be....don't forget...he must get permission from the Father to tempt, pain,and otherwise try to knock us out of the fight. 




Come deeper with me. 


Trust....to believe. 


The earliest example ironically of a person who lost control of their life and trusted was..Abraham. He was promised that his descendants would be like the sands of the sea. Also, that Abraham and Sarah would have a son that would be the fulfillment of His promise. 


Seemed like things were on the up and up for them both.


But we all know the story. Abraham was told to sacrifice that promise as a lamb on an altar. Wow. Quite the hit to the gut. I'm sure that Abraham didn't leap at this. But we know that in the end, God saw his trust and counted it as righteousness and Issac didn't die. 


An archaic thought. To let go...lose control. To trust that out on the water is Christ in the midst of the storm going on.It's a step towards losing ourself..VERY scary! the most amazing thing is that when we are able to surrender control, we can reach out and touch people. We, like Mother Theresa said, "are only a pencil in a hand."

It's the foolishness that Christ calls wisdom. 




It's not easy, it goes against everything in us.


Even though I can write this post as if I completely understand the concept of letting go...I in no way don't.