Called to live

If today were your last day, what would you say that you did with the life you were given? Did you truly live like God intended you to or did you just follow the crowd? A Francis Chan quote I have really come to like is : "God  is a creator, not a duplicator." Too many times I try to be this incredible person, I believe that I need to act a certain way, be just like so-and-so, and have to live just like the person I admire(Which happens to be Hudson Taylor). I'm not saying that having heroes is a bad thing at all. We all need to feel encouraged when we hear about people  who lived their lives for Christ alone.But lest we forget, the only way they were able to do what they did was though Christ. Hudson Taylor almost died early on in his life. The only way he survived was by a miracle of God. Can any of us say that we have that much faith? That we give up the security of being healthy to serve him? I can say I want to live a radical life, but will I live radically for Christ where I am? Sometimes we can forget that we were made for God's purpose, not our own. We get caught up in what we want to do for Christ with our life and end up missing the mission field in our own lives. God calls us not to live in the mountains but to bring joy down to the Valley of Despair. I saw a movie about a lady named Dorothy Day this past weekend. She started out wanting to further her and others agendas through political marches.She got introduced to the work of Christ through a Catholic nun. The nun ran a food kitchen for the poor. Dorothy saw that this lady was not getting anything out of the deal,so she got curious. To make a long story short, Dorothy made a place for the poor in her own  house. She eventually got so stressed with everything, so she went to her church and cried out to God. She wanted to see Christ in the people she served, just like Christ said "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me." She eventually did. Her love for those people is a shining light for all. Her ministry was called The Catholic workers. How often do we see Christ at our doorstep? In our homes? Inside our brothers and sisters? Let us live each day as our calling. We don't have to wait for God to "call us" to missions, he set us in one. It's called daily life.

A great song/ thought for today!

Watch this video before continuing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4xp6ygQoAo&feature=related




I could not finish this song without tears. It is a prayer of longing for those who are in love with Christ. For those who tend to go inward with their thoughts, this song is cleansing! It stirs up the inward parts(unless you are faking it of course). It may not affect you the same way that it did me, but the words are very deep. Everyone who really is a disciple/lover of Christ should be able to hear the words and think about them.

Obsessed by God

Can you honestly say that the consideration of God fills every waking thought? I know that I can't. I tend to have things that are more important than God. Things that feel my day and push me further away from God. One of them is how much time I spend on the computer each day (Meaning this won't be a long post.).I consider time with God to be a chore. It is something I do to keep my day going well, to fulfill some "quota,"or only when I truly need something. Getting stuck in doing just enough is like what the Jews did with the law. We tend to strive to give God our "leftovers" in the words of Francis Chan. We give God only whats required, then wonder why we feel so empty of the Spirit. The goal of Christ was to call us higher. We can never give enough, be humble enough, or praise him enough to satisfy him. He wants our all. He wants us to be so obsessed with him that we have to trust in him for our daily necessities. when Christ called his disciples, he told them not to go back for supplies for their trip. No extra money, tunic,or walking staff. This type of devotion caused the disciple to be intimate with God. He was forced to trust that the Lord would provide. In the story of Abraham, he had to rely on the fact that God would provide. What would have been like if Abraham had killed his son only to be mocked by others for having faith? Are we so afraid to have faith that God will provide for all of our needs? I know I have many times. When hard situations arise, I tend to get really anxious, forgetting what Christ has done for all who had faith in him before me. Becoming obsessed with God means letting go of all our anxieties and focusing on him, making every experience we go through cause us to want him more, to fall madly in  love with him. Like we were meant to do.I pray that he would do this in me. He is our provider and we are his delight.When you fall in love, like everyone knows, you don't need to be reminded to think about someone, they are on your mind all the time. You will no longer serve God because you have to, but because you are so deeply in love that not serving him would be crazy.

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.

I'm going try something new ....

I have started listening to the audio book Crazy Love, Overwhelmed by a Relentless God  by Francis Chan. I want about to see if I can blog about this book a little. Hopefully it will be an inspiring journey we can share. 

P.S. The idea to get this book came from reading Dossi Park's blog one day. I've also viewed a couple of his (Francis Chan's) teachings, which I thought were INCREDIBLE! 

An awesome teaching by Francis Chan

Not in this world you are not.

Today I watched a preview for the new Narnia movie The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I've  already read all the books and have enjoyed the previous two movies. anyways, in the beginning of the  preview, you see Edmund Pevensie trying to sign up for the Royal Guard. He does not think that he is a no body, for in
Narnia, he was and is a king. But not in England. A king in Narnia is not one in the human world. This idea is true for disciples as well. C.S. Lewis wrote his books with thoughts like this.

We are not children of this world. Our Father's kingdom is of another realm,lest we soon forget. People of this current place we live in will make us think that this is it. That we are a no body, there is no battle among heaven and the powers of darkness in this world, and most importantly, that God cannot exist. This is a lie from our adversary. Many disciples know this, but we all can and will get our guard down. The adversary wants us to believe that our fellow brothers and sisters are just out for themselves and that we are alone in our struggles.

A perfect example of this is:

This past week I've been bombarded left and right by thoughts from the past. Things that I didn't think got
handled right at the time, offenses that I supposedly let go of, and old offenses that I seemed to never get rid
of, just stuffed it down inside. On the way home from work today, I got to talk a little about some of the
things eating at me with John Bob, one of my good friends. I truly felt like I was going to eek on
everyone.(which I may have, I am sorry to all those affected) John bob reminded me that all those thoughts
were brought by the accuser of the brethren, and that the biggest weapon he has right now is to turn us against
each other in our minds, forgetting the real battle. And believe me,it is hard once you are at this place to turn back around. sometimes it's painful to look back on the "wake" you left  behind when you were in that state of
mind.Our job is to  keep our eyes fixed on him. Every time we look away, we can become dismayed by the struggles around us. When our eyes are focused on him, we can do anything! We are sons and daughters of the King of Kings, children of his promise sent here to represent him.Let us never forget that.

  "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1Jo 2:15)

"And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Rom 12:2)

Long live Aslan!