How Deep the Father's Love for Us...

     As I reflected this afternoon on the words of “How Deep the Father’s Love,” I was reminded and convicted of a truth that I, and probably other Christians, overlook. We have been given a Divine, eternal, invincible grace: that God would humble Himself to the point of becoming a man; that the God-man, Jesus Christ, would live his life exceeding the expectations set by man and meeting the mandates set by God; that this perfect man, after living a life which no human has or can match, gave Himself up to be ridiculed, tortured, and brutally murdered in the most shameful way; that before His dying breath, He asked that God forgive His murderers; that after dying, after lying in a tomb for three days, Jesus Christ was resurrected by His own power, as He had foretold to His disciples; that He, after spending time with His disciples, ascended to Heaven; that He did not abandon His followers, but sent His Spirit to live amongst them; and that He has promised everlasting salvation to anyone who believes in Him and repents of their sin.

     There exists no story greater than this. There can exist no story greater than this, because this is the story which God Himself has orchestrated and which He is bringing to completion. Indeed, because of the greatness of this story, we who have been changed by it are compelled to share it with others, so that they might also share in our Joy and Life.

     Yet we often consider this a burden. We often consider this a task that we are called to complete, but which bears no real consequence when we leave it unfulfilled.

     Thus the truth I was reminded of: we are called to share and show the Gospel because, if we do not, people will go to hell. In the balance between life and eternity, there hang millions, billions of souls, who, upon encountering the King in their current state, would be damned for their sin and punished beyond the end of time.

     Allow me to note that I’m not saying we are responsible for other people’s salvation—we aren’t, and thank God for it, or none of us would have that salvation. However, we must remember that the command to share the Gospel, the call to make disciples, was the last thing said by Christ before He ascended into heaven. These were his last words, not just passing remarks.

     The question this raised in me was simple: Do I care enough?

     Do I care enough about the people around me that I’m willing to risk discomfort, risk even my relationship with them, so that they might hear and respond to the Great Story?

     Good God, make it so.

Stuff Happens. Get Used to It.

So, today was interesting. I'm going to skip practically all of it so that I can get to my reason for writing this post.

Around 6:30 or 7:00 PM, mum and dad left the house to go on a date (it was much needed and well deserved). After they left, I made dinner for all of us kids (yes, I do include myself in that statement. Even men are boys at heart :P). Once everyone had eaten and I cleaned the kitchen, I went and watched TV. While looking for the remote, a few minutes later, I noticed that Abby (my dog) was shivering. She never shivers unless something's scaring her. This realization brought be back to the real world, and I immediately smelled/saw smoke filling the living room. When I ran into the kitchen, I saw that the microwave was cooking something.

In case you didn't know, it's never good when smoke is filling the house while the microwave is running. This is what I learned when I opened the microwave and found the remains of my brother's attempt to cremate a toquito. Impressive, eh? This thing was so fried, it couldn't have weighed an ounce.

Now, for his sake, I will not say which brother did this. I will say that I don't think he actually wanted to cremate a defenseless little Mexican chicken/cheese roll. However, I still can't believe that he decided to microwave ONE toquito for FIFTEEN MINUTES. Yes, you read that right. Fifteen minutes. Apparently, he confused the BAKING time with the microwaving time. Yes, that same microwaving time that wasn't on the package to begin with.

Mum and dad are still on their date as I write this, and they have no idea that anything is out of the ordinary. No need to interrupt their date. However, I felt like I needed to share this story with the world.

On another related note, my house is really cold because I had to leave all the doors and windows open so that the smoke would leave. BABY, IT'S COOOLD OUTSIIIDE!!!

Something to think about: Flattery.

Hello! I would say something like, "It's been a while," but this is only my third post. I'm not saying something like that after only 2 posts. Anyway, while I was at Brook Hills today during the service, a random thought came into my head (God uses this method quite a bit to get my attention). The thought was this: "there is no deception of any kind that does not involve flattery." I wrote it down and put it out of my mind for the time being, but when I came back to it, I realized the truth (and the meaning) of it.

First, allow me to give a definition of flattery. Flattery, according to Google dictionary, is "Excessive and insincere praise." Bearing that in mind, think about this with me. If you're lying to someone, what are you really doing? Telling them that you would not, did not, would do, or did do something, when the opposite is true. In doing this, you are either flattering yourself --"of course I would do this for you, I'm a good person." or "I would never do something like THAT!"-- or you are flattering them -- "I would never do anything to hurt YOU!" Think of every kind, sort, or fashion of deceit. No matter what it is, I guarantee that you can find some way that flattery connects to it.

What's the point, though? So deception involves flattery. Big deal, right? I believe it is. I believe it's a perfect picture of man's heart.

When we are deceptive, we are breaking God's laws. This is enough to separate us from God forever and condemn us (without Christ) to hell. If it's that bad, though, why do we ever practice deceit? In the moments we are deceitful, we state by our actions that we don't think God is God. If we are acknowledging Him as Lord of heaven and earth, why would we ever want to flatter anyone? If flattering someone is lavishing "excessive and insincere praise" on them, we are placing them above God when we flatter them. Remember what happened when Moses tried putting himself EQUAL with God once? Not pretty. Placing another human on level with or above God is a major deal, and one of the reasons Solomon says that God hates a lying tongue (Proverbs 6: 16-17).

This hits home for me, but I believe all of us can get something from it. If we profess to follow Christ, we can't put other things in front of Him.

I wasn't expecting to say anything close to this, and I really hope it all made sense...

Funny How Things Work Out

Hello, again! It's been a week or so and I'd like to post every week if not more, so I'm seizing the free time I have here to try and get a post in.

So. Yesterday, while doing some reading, I came across Proverbs 29:19. It says, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." The first thing I thought was: "WOAH." You know, like that face you see sometimes when someone realizes they're about to get owned by Jason Bourne? Yeah, that face. That's kinda what mine looked like. The reason is this: I don't know many other places the Bible says something so important in such a blunt fashion. Unfortunately, I also don't know many things in the Bible that seem to be ignored more. How many times do we plan our lives, not knowing whether we'll even see tomorrow? My CEF team was led in a short Bible study by a woman named Mrs. Yancey, and one of the biggest things she stressed was the fact that all the time we have is now. Before then, I hadn't really thought about it, but she's right. Christ really is coming back, and we don't know how long we've got. However, we do know that we have now. Because of this, it's our responsibility to use all the time we have showing Christ to the world. Seems like a big sacrifice, and it is, but it's nothing compared to what He gave for us.

These were the things I thought about after reading Proverbs 29:19. Then, a quote was brought to mind: "The past has passed, the future is a mystery, but now is a gift. That is why they call it the present." Now, ignoring the fact that I'm quoting a turtle from Kung Fu Panda, the quote actually has some truth to it. We can't do anything about what's passed. It's gone. We don't even know if there will be a future, and the concept OF the "future" is confusing anyway. However, what we have is the here and now. This time IS a gift, a present, and we will be held accountable to God for how we use it.

I titled this post because of something it meant to me, in relation to Proverbs 29:19. As you might know, I was blessed with the chance to spend my entire summer teaching kids. Six weeks in Birmingham, and another week in the streets of third-world Guatemala. But before the summer started, I was worried: I wanted to work with CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship, the first six weeks), but I wanted to do it for the wrong reasons. I was in a spiritually dark time, and didn't know if I would be approved to work that summer. I can tell you right now, I shouldn't have been. I was really out of touch at that point. However, God allowed me to get accepted, and then to be surrounded by some of the strongest teenage believers I've ever met for 7 weeks straight. God used that time where I was actually serving to bring me to Himself, and I'm so incredibly grateful to Him for that.

So, in relation to the verse, God had a plan for me even though I had my own. His plan won, and I'm extremely happy about it. It's like Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future." I feel closer to Him at this point in my life than I probably ever have, all because of His plan. His presence is constant, and it actually reminds me of a quote by Relient K. "Loneliness and solitude are two things not to get confused, because I spend my solitude with You..." - Relient K, Therapy. God changed my heart this summer and gave me a heart for Him and his Word, and I pray that He'll continue to fan the flame in my heart. Actually, that reminds me of another quote from the same song. "The past cannot subtract a thing from what I might do for You..." I'm obviously a huge Relient K fan; their songs shall serve as basis for quite a few of my posts at some point, provided Christ doesn't come back first.

"Believe"

Hello! So, I was sitting on my bed the other day with my iPod on shuffle, and a song by The Bravery came on called "Believe." The lyrics hit me like an angry ninja. The chorus says,

"Give me something to believe;

I think I'm living just to breathe.

There must be something more

Than what I'm living for.

Give me something to believe..."

These words have such a cry of desperation in them. "I think I'm living just to breathe." Without Christ, what is there to live for? Hearing this song and thinking about what the words mean broke my heart. People all over the world, billions of them, living with no purpose at all. During my time in Ukraine I noticed, immediately upon arrival, that NO ONE smiles there. NO ONE. EVER. SERIOUSLY. So incredibly sad, seeing people living without hope. Then, in contrast to that, I saw people in Guatemala smiling everywhere. Mayans are quite literally "the least of these" in Guatemalan culture, living in extreme poverty. Yet through all this, they are Believers in Christ and are filled with an infectious joy. This joy set them apart. This joy made them different. When I got back to the States, I looked around and felt like I was back in Ukraine. The joy that was so prevalent in our Guatemalan brothers and sisters was seemingly lost here. Why is that? I saw that it was because they had nothing hindering them from Christ. He was their sole focus, and it was obvious that He was pleased with what they were doing.

As I spent more time thinking about it, my heart exploded into confetti. I had so much holding me back. I realized that in saying I wanted nothing but Christ, I was lying. Straight up. Funny how God chose to use a song that had no direct connection to Him as my teacher. He showed me that even though I thought I was all for Him, I was still holding on to the things of this world. I was ignoring the plank in my eye, while searching the forest for wood. Since then, He has helped me see those things that I was holding on to, and they are no longer here to hold me down. I'm sure there are still others, due to the fact that I'm still human, but those particular things are no longer a problem. Graciously, He has enforced my faith through this and has given me more confidence in Him. Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know." That basically sums up what I plan on doing: calling to Him in faith that He will answer. Of course, I can't even do THAT without His help, but that's why He's holy and I'm me. It's much better this way.