Cheese and Crackers

 This story is a repeat from my Teen challenge group by the lead Facilitator:

 Once there was an old man, who wanted to go on a cruise before he died. So, he spent 4 years saving up and afterward bought his ticket. Since this man had very little money  he could not afford to buy the fancy dinners on the cruise, so he packed his suitcase full of cheese and crackers. During the cruise, while everyone else sat inside eating luxurious dinners of steak, seafood,and many other delicacies..the old man ate his cheese and crackers. 


On the last night of the cruise, as the old man sat eating his crackers..a man walked out to see him from the dining room. 


The man asked the old man why he would not come eat with the everyone else. He exclaimed "I haven't enough money"


The man then said "The meal was a part of the ticket price..you were supposed to eat with everyone"












How often do we just sit outside being settled with eating our "cheese and crackers" instead of entering into the fullness of Christ? He paid our ransom from sin and we are okay with just floating along. 


Instead let us seek his fullness no matter what it may cost.

Our lives? 


HE IS NO FOOL THAT GIVES WHAT HE CANNOT KEEP TO GAIN WHAT HE CANNOT LOSE
-Jim Elliot 




Our reputation?




He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.


ISAIAH 53:3 








Family?


If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.


Luke 14:26






When we follow Him and enter into His fullness, he adds to us: His Life, His reputation, and His family which are all eternal. 


Lets not be satified with even the place we are now with God, but go FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN!

Neat quotes to think about this week by one of my favorite people.

James "Hudson" Taylor 


It is the consciousness of the threefold joy of the Lord, His joy in ransoming us, His joy in dwelling within us as our Saviour and Power for fruitbearing and His joy in possessing us, as His Bride and His delight; it is the consciousness of this joy which is our real strength. Our joy in Him may be a fluctuating thing: His joy in us knows no change.
..........................................................
Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning...He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all...Depend on it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. 
............................................................
In Shansi I found Chinese Christians who were accustomed to spend time in fasting and prayer. They recognized that this fasting, which so many dislike, which requires faith in God, since it makes one feel weak and poorly, is really a Divinely appointed means of grace. Perhaps the greatest hindrance to our work is our own imagined strength; and in fasting we learn what poor, weak creatures we are - dependent on a meal of meat for the little strength which we are so apt to lean upon. 


.........................................................
We are supernatural people, born again by a supernatural birth, kept by a supernatural power, sustained on supernatural food, taught by asupernatural Teacher from a supernatural Book. We are led by a supernatural Captain in right paths to assured victories. The risen Saviour, ere He ascended on high, said: 'All power is given unto Me. Go ye therefore." 
...............................................
The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus. 










(I wish I would have read that last quote a while ago! I could have used it. But, that is God's timing.)

Walking in the rain with your love.

Walking in the rain with the love of your life can be romantic. I can vouch for this.

 I mean you want to be together through everything right? Rain or shine? Sometimes you're even closer in the rain in fact.

LOL....

 The SUNNY DAY
Walking through life with THE LOVER is similar. You seem to feel close (at least I do) to God when things are easy, problems seem to fix themselves, and you feel in love with God.

RAINY DAY
Then the rains come. Most people as soon as the rain starts run for shelter. But sometimes there is some crazy lovestruck pair that seem to refuse to get to shelter. They find it "romantic" to spend time walking in the rain.

 Then compare it to the relationship with Christ. Many Christians today tend to run for "shelter" when the difficulties arise. They feel safe from the storm and seeming alot smarter than the couple walking out in the rain.

Now to the beloved's point of view.

You feel more alive than ever! This storm has caused you to draw closer together! As you feel the warmth of walking beside the Lover, you see those poor people out under their "shelters" with the leaky roofs,  cold and without light . As you call out to them many just point and laugh. Others are curious, so they venture out towards you. As they get closer, they too feel warmer. You start to realize the storm brought others to HIM who is the warmth and the light. This experience causes obsession. After a while warmth feels a great area and those who are filled with the warmth are sent to the shelters of the COLD and DARK. They bring news of the great light who makes it all.


I think I just got an idea for a story!
WOW! GOD IS AMAZING!

New look

I decided to do a template change, so I'll be trying to find one that'll best fit. It has almost been a year since this blog was started. I can tell you that God has done many things in everyone that I know. Most of them are absolutely amazing. My prayer for this year is that he would continue what he is doing in my life, making others more important to me than even myself. Because honestly, I love myself. It makes a sort of nausea to hit my stomach how true this is.

The Awesomeness of our Creator.

Psalms 19:1-4: For the choir director: A psalm of David. The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.( NLT)

These verses are so incredible. How true they speak of our Father's work. To the conscious mind, we may sometimes think,  "Oh thats a neat sun-set" or "Wow that storm sure made things green,"  but when do we really stop to awe at God's creation?

Here's two awesome videos from Francis Chan  to better explain my point.

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_awe.html

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_stop.html

Recently I've been really struggling to grasp a relationship with God. 

   What should I expect? How does it happen? Why did He choose me?

 I don't have answers for these questions yet, because I'm new, but I thought they would help inspire a radical change in mindset. The one thing I can say about becoming intimate with Christ is: It is not easy.  The closer you get, the more you are exposed. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, you become naked in front of  the throne of God. It is an embarrassing time. All your faults, even the ones you believed had disappeared, come  to the light. Most of the time, the light that reveals you is the actions of a friend. Someone can be short with you, treat you unfairly, or defile your justice. Then it is all over. What you didn't realize is that the closer the m Father drew to you the more obliterated the very shadows that your faults hide in disappear. Like I said, embarrassing. No matter what you have done or how sincere you were at the time you realize the truth: 

I AM EVIL.

For some people (LOL...like me), we have hidden for so long, that when we are revealed, we shun from the light. We think we are too far gone for God to want to deal with us, so we feel we were better not  knowing how we are. Our only remedy is to look at his face and cling to him. Instead of pushing away in the  pain of the moment, draw closer to Him. But don't worry if you haven't experienced the brightness yet, God  reveals more the closer we get to becoming his Beloved. He allows certain intensities of light in our life at a time, sometimes just more than what seems bearable.

Passage story

It's been a long time since I've written, so I will have a little to write tonight. About a week ago, my youngest brother had his passage (WOW! It shakes me every time I think about it!) For those who are following this blog that don't know what a passage is; it is when we acknowledge that a young person has started being a man  or woman in Christ. We usually celebrate by holding a day in which we give portions of what God has given us in our lives(usually this means a story or analogy) to help the young person in their life. Anyways, my youngest brother Brandon and his friend Noah had their "passage" last Saturday. We started it out by having a nature walk "Audubon style." We learned a lot about nature in that hour-and-a-half.  Then, for the passage, we went to a restaurant in Holly Springs, Mississippi called "Anne's" (This was a great place to eat as well). Most of what we gave was Brandon is a "light-bearer" ( might have something to do with his videography) and that Noah is a safe place. To better explain this, I'll tell my gift to both of them. To Brandon, I gave a torch stand. I said this represents him. I then put the actual torch in it and said " God has filled you with his life through your experiences." When I gave him the oil for the torch, I made him see that it contained lemon grass. This was a representation of the "bitter experiences" that cause us to draw closer to Christ. It also keeps the "spiritual mosquitoes" from draining our life essence. Then, because we were inside and I couldn't light it, I just told him that God sent a spark into him that ignited his heart on fire for God. Also, that he must remember that he is the stand, nothing of this light is "his" he is just the vessel. Just a side note, before this night he was just a brother, as the passage went on, he slipped his way into my selfish heart. I can honestly say that I truly love him now. I don't know for sure what God has in store for him, but I hope that I can boost him up a little. To Noah I gave a cedar bird house. I told him that like the bird house, he gives shelter  to those who are injured spiritually as well as his friends. The cedar aroma  represents the love of Christ that  leaks from his very being. Noah is a great friend, whenever he sees someone looking down, he does what he can to lift their spirits. Both are awesome men, I look forward to the adventures they will have.Praise to the King, who brings us up to his highest.

P.s. Sorry, no pictures yet!

From Spiritual infancy to adolesence

 I have been thinking about my relationship with Christ. He called his disciples to leave everything. Their families,jobs,lives and to follow him. After Christ ascended, they we They were lost until Christ's spirit fell on them. They didn't know what to do. They had become separated from their own lives. After Christ spirit fell on them, they didn't jump up and evangelize. It took persecution to spread the seed of the gospel throughout the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" and eventually the Gentiles. 

Jesus calls us today to follow. He tells us that we must leave all, only to become connected to himself alone. At first, our relationship is like that of an infant. Christ feeds us and we are swaddled in his love. His promises are wondrous and  we are usually full of zeal. But we are not able to stay here. 

Whether it takes months, years, or decades we eventually move on to the next stage. I think I have just gotten to this point.He wants to cause us to be his alone. We then  step into the "adolescence" of our relationship with Christ. I have felt that this is probably the hardest time in our walk with Christ. Zeal starts to run out, we start to really feel the consequences of truly following, and  Christ's promises seem distant to us. In this time, we truly find out that it is not our steps in our own strength that help. It can even be a hindrance for us to succeed in our way. We need God most in this stage.It is our dependence on him alone and not his promises to us. 

Hopefully this post doesn't sound mixed up....I cannot think clearly right now. I feel that moving only to be an extension of Christ, not what we feel we want to do for him, but what he will do through us.

  

 

  

Hudson Taylor, one of my favorite people

I just finished a re-read of a Hudson Taylor autobiography entitled "Hudson Taylor, God's adventurer" It was an amazing story! His faith was amazing,throughout his life going through almost dying very young of malignant fever to almost being killed at sea,and more! God definately looked after him. He is one of my best inspirations of a person who really had a relationship with Jesus. I hope one day that the faith he had, God would allow in me. I have been reading and praying more this week for Chinese Christians and for God's work in his people.  Everyday been another step towards a closer relationship with Christ. This week God has been targeting the way I say things to people without thinking of the conscequences. So far it has been like climbing a mountain by trying to change the way I've been for years. I believe that God can change anyone, even me! So excited to see what the future holds.

Wisdom from Jeanne Guyon

I read a little out of Jeanne Guyon's "Intimacy with Christ." The passage I read was about how God deals with us to make us his own. She said that there are many situations we are put into AREN'T for making us stronger, but to weaken our resistance. He wants to make us like children that depend on their Father. "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt.18:3)

This thought is far from most of adults these days. To be like a child? To be absolutely helpless? It is truly a hard pill be swallow for us individaually oriented people. We want to be able to look strong, our prayers even echo this. We pray that God give us strength to help others.His answer is usually that he sends circumstances that makes us feel helpless.We feel that God has abondoned us. We blame the Adversary's attacks.(He is just the messanger boy,but we forget!) I know this is not something I look as fun. Anyways, I thought I'd just share this new step I came across today. I hope that I can learn this one day.