Hello all!
This is just me talking about Jesus. I don't know if it is anything in specific.
It has been quite sometime since I have been blogging. I need to update part three of the Gospels. (Sanctification) Which is a big deal and is basically evidence in your life to test and approve your salvation. Good to know I would think!
Anyway I just wanted to let you all know that we are called to be SO obedient to the Lord.
Now this is a challenge but it is something that we need to strive for and press on. We need to FIGHT to know Jesus and who he is. There is no such thing as being stagnant.. you are either gaining ground or losing it.. (Dan Perkins was talking about this the other day) How in 1 Peter I believe the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. That is what we are up against as Christians.
We are playing against.. the dirtiest, roughest.. bunch of cheaters and malicious.. catty team you can think of!
There are no rules.
The enemy wants to crush you.
We need to be walking in Jesus's protection. His will for our lives and pursing the Lord protects us. Follow the Lord! FLEE from sin.
Paul says that all the time. FLEE from immorality. Not turn away, not walk the other direction. No, we are called to run away from things that will tempt us.
Jesus longs for us to sit in his presence. Jesus is a person.
He is a PERSON! We think of God as this big idea or .. concept and it is really hard for us to love a concept. It isn't hard for us to love a person.
It is hard for us to love someone we don't know.
Same thing with Jesus, get in the word! Read about how Jesus answered questions! His wisdom, his love and compassion for the lost and sick! He loves you!
The more we know about something the more we love it.. its true.
I seriously encourage you all to spend time with the Lord.
OWN YOUR FAITH. IT IS YOURS! DO NOT GET FED BY ANYONE ELSE.
don't live off of someone else's food and relationship with the Lord.
Do not think that because your friends know Jesus and you go to youth and you sing the songs and all this stuff that you KNOW Jesus.
We need to spend time with Jesus on a personal level. Lets think of it this way.. So Jesus died for you.
Specifically you, and so .. he clearly wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to spend time for you to get to know him.
He loves it when his children meet with him at youth, but guess what.
Let's turn this into a personal relationship.
With your best friend or your boyfriend or girlfriend.
Do you want to spend time with your friends alone ever? YES.
If you have a boyfriend or girlfriend you go on dates because you want to be intimate with that person, get to know them on a one on one level!
JESUS WANTS TO GO ON DATES WITH YOU.
How shallow of us to just meet with him when .. "well everyone else is going to be there."
wait. okay i have an idea. hopefully i can get my point across.
So .. your boyfriend/girlfriend wants to hang out with you..
He invites you to spend time with him/her.
You say.. yeah.. I will.. but who all is going to be there?
I mean is anyone else going to hang out with us? Or is it just going to be me and you? Cause I kind of think it would be more fun if other people were there. (Youth) I don't want to go if its just going to be me and you.
This is what we do to Jesus, we are good at meeting with him at .. "movie night" or a "party" but .. ehh I don't really know if I want to hang out with you alone Jesus.. that could be awkward.
We are friends.. in groups but .. not THAT kind of friend..
Do you guys no what I mean?
I am not trying to be like accusing but I really think we just want to spend time with Jesus when everyone else is doing it.
Pursue the Lord!!!
He is eagerly waiting for you. Get to know his voice! He is calling you! We just can't hear it.
It was weird .. the other day I was just sitting with Jesus thanking him for how much he loved me, and I was crying. I got down on my knees and was bowing before him.
But suddenly.. for some reason.. I had this feeling, I my head I thought..
"get up my child, I want to hug you, don't kneel before me, this isn't the time."
WOAH. haha It was kind of crazy I broke down crying! The Lord LOVES LOVES LOVES US! He wants to wrap his arms around us. There is a time and a place to worship him! and there is a time and a place to RECEIVE his love!!!
It was like.. Maybe the Lord was speaking to me.. "I know you know I am worthy of being praised.. but how about you just sit in my love for a second and soak it up."
It was good stuff.
This is a very random post.
But give Jesus the time he deserves. He loves it and smiles when you turn your face to his. He CAN see you. He is always watching .. more intently than Santa Claus..
He see's you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake.
He wants you to look up to heaven and seek his face! Look to the sky! Say Jesus! I am looking for you where are you! I can't see you but I know you are there! But I am a little kid, I am trying to see you but I just can't yet!
Someday we will see him. How glorious it will be.
Do you want to be someone who had been looking for his face all the days of your life? So that when he finally reveals himself and comes down from heaven.. He will feel your appreciation and excitement.
Or will your reaction be.. oh! Jesus you surprised me I wasn't expecting you.
or YES!! HERE YOU ARE! MY MESSIAH! My Savior!!!! Lover of my soul!!!!
YOU ARE HERE!!!!
I have no idea if this stuff makes sense. I think it does haha
Anyway .. that's all.
-Mali
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Gospels, Part Two (Justification)
Recap..
God is Holy and Just.. meaning that if he is Just righteousness is rewarded and wickedness condemned.
We are wicked (Man) we have fallen short and missed the mark and the plan God had for us. We are sinners.
So if God is a Just God, how can we be in his presence.. how can we reach the Father? We come to the Crisis Moment.. where we understand we are desperate NEED of a savior. And we realized Jesus Christ is the only way we can be justified.
Justification is a court term.. you are either Justified, or Condemned.
So.. God is more holy and just than we can ever imagine.. we cannot begin to fathom it..
We need to properly understand (more like try to understand) all the different attributes of God. Or not attributes necessarily.. we need to know who God is .. and everything that he is.. or strive to know the REAL God.
We know that God is love, he is kind, he is, slow to anger, but we also need to remember that the LORD is HOLY, and RIGHTEOUS, and JUST. (don't create an idol)
Now yes the fear of the Lord is important.. but we do not come to repent because we are.. scared of him.. and that he is some mean ruler.
We are drawn to the Lord because of the kindness we have received through his great love for us.
If you have a hard time understanding or viewing God in a certain way.. or one of his.. qualities or attributes of who he is.. then ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you!
Ask for the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom while reading the bible or a better understanding of what is being said.
So God hates sin and hates evil because it hurts us.. same thing.. Tyrel said that if someone was trying to hurt his child.. he would pay. Tyrel wouldn't let someone hurt his little girl.. and then get away with it.
Or there is a strong desire to protect our loved ones from things that hurt them.
God hates SIN. Sin hurts us. Sin keeps us from God. God hates sin because he loves us.
(hate the sin, not the sinner)
So.. Justice is us getting what we deserve.
When wickedness is justified and righteousness is condemned it is an abomination to the Lord.
In this world.. I think we see it pretty often.. we see things Glorified.. we see sin in our lives in the .. media or wherever.. schools.. Sin is glorified.. Wickedness is "okay" and doing the right thing is either made fun of or .. condemned.. looked down upon in our culture and GOD probably HATES it.
It is stripping Justice by rewarded evil. That is not just. Anyway.. that isn't really the point of this Blog its about OUR justification and being made pure through the sacrifice of Jesus.
But this is kind of one of the points.. we are not justified through God's kindness..
God wasn't like okay well i love you children.. so i am going to just pardon your sins because of the kindess i have on you.. NOPE.
God is Just : righteousness must be rewarded and wickedness condemned.
Our sin is NOT pardoned through kindness.
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
We should be dead. The payment of sin is death. We sinned.. we should be eternally damned.
We don't understand the GOOD NEWS of the gospel because we don't truly understand how fallen we are..
I was thinking about this the other day.. or while he was talking about all this.. and I was like you know what its absolutely true.
Ever since we are little.. we hear about Jesus..
We already know the good news.. we don't understand the magnitude of the sacrifice!
Our culture.. our our era's view on like the bible is we skipped ahead to the climax and the ending of a movie. We know what happens! We are like everything is okay! If we would have grown up reading the bible from front to back (obviously when we are little we wont understand) But like if we read the bible like a book. From beginning to end.. i feel like we would understand the LONG AWAITED MESSIAH a little better.
People were waiting for thousands of years! They were living under the law having to sacrifice animals and try and live a perfect life! They couldn't do it, and it was hard! But then! Prophets like Isaiah speak of a messiah.. someone who will come and set them free!
The people asked Jesus.. like John the bapstist.. "are you the one we have been waiting for?!" is it you! Is it true? has the time come!?
Jesus is HERE!!! He has come to set us free from our sins and our transgressions!
I think we take the bible for granted. At least I have.. I want to read about Jesus today.. okay yeah.. lets see here what do I want to read.. Mark? Luke? hmm i read Mark yesterday.. how about John!
We can just flip open the New Testament and read about him! and people before him were longing for him to arrive!
Anyway.. sorry about the tangent.
We are condemned Criminals being declared Justified (innocent) in the eyes of God.
1 John 2:1-2 "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense -- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
(pretty sure i have been spelling atoning "attoining" WAY incorrectly haha whatevs learn something new every day)
So how thankful should be be! Jesus speaks in our defense! Awesome, thank you thank you thank you Jesus!
In other versions it says he is our Advocate which is like a mediator or helper. His sacrifice has been appeasement for our sin. He has made amends and reconnected what has been disconnected.
So then in Isaiah 53 Well first of all you should absolutely read it. But the Lord was PLEASED to crush Jesus. Pleased to put him to grief. Because at that time.. Jesus bore the weight of all of our sin. God hates sin.
Blood must be shed for our sin.. someone must die. Jesus shed the blood and died for us. Pure, holy, Jesus, his blood has washed us clean. Nothing more precious.
Leviticus 16:8-10.. Read it.. but I am going to summarize
So there are two Goats.. one must be sacrificed for payment for the sin.. and they other is called the scapegoat.. they send the scapegoat into the desert and that symbolizes that all of their sins are carried away from them.
So Jesus is both of those for us. He payed for our sin.. and bore our sin.. he took all of our sin and took it away from us. Or this Goat thing is symbolic of Jesus.
Okay so.. Justification. Jesus died for us ONCE and for ALL! no more sacrifices.. no more payments. it is done, it is finished. we are made pure through him and accepting him as our LORD and SAVIOR.
Again.. Matthew 5 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." We must must must acknowledge that we are poor in spirit. We are depraved. We are sinners, and evil and bad and have fallen short of the glory of the Lord! But the Lord so loved us God so loved us that he sent his one and only son.
So that we could become purified again and take part in the Kingdom of Heaven.. to have relationship with the most Holy and Almighty God. Wow. How great is this love?
The love of God is the most powerful thing in the universe.
Romans 8:31 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Like .. you know the sacrifice made.. that is the representation of God's love. God's love is seen through Jesus! We get to .. have a glimpse at the Love of the father.
Ephesians 3:18-19 "may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled tot he measure of all the fullness of God."
Amazing, our Lord's love for us surpasses our knowledge.. I think my only response is why. Why? Why? What can we offer you Lord! I must offer you my life and dedicate my life to Glorifying you for you have given all for me. Thank you Jesus.
By the blood of Jesus alone we are saved.
Thank you for dying for us that way we could inherit you Kingdom!
Let my life be pleasing to the sacrifice you made.
-Mali
Monday, October 31, 2011
The Gospels, Part one: Sin (Don't read this if you aren't going to read parts two and three)
Alright, this is a three part Sermon. Tyrel Koenes spoke on this stuff, it really was amazing. So good to know why we believe what we do and just to really break down the Gospels and learn why we NEED a savior and pull out all of the truths and the depth of the things that sometimes we quickly forget to acknowledge or overlook.
Sin.
So, I think that all Christians would agree that they believe God is both Holy and Just.
Okay, so God is Holy. He is Holier than Holy.. we cannot even begin to understand how holy he truly is. The elders in heaven fall face down before him and sing day and night "holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come."
-He's HOLY.
Now our God is also Just God.
Meaning.. basically He will condem wickedness and reward righteousness. (You get what you deserve)
Let me look up the definition of Justice. one moment.
Justice : The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
Right, so God has these laws that he created. They are set.. The punishment for sin is death. We KNOW this.
So in a nutshell those are just two really important things that we know about our Lord.
He is holy, and he is just.
So what about us.. who are we?
Well we have fallen short of the glory of God. We have failed. We have sinned.. that means we are condemned.
God's will for our lives.. is a bullseye after a bullseye after a bullseye after a bullseye.. like PERFECT PEOPLE. Not just a bullseye but the very center of the bullseye. God is holy, he demands holiness and perfection. God cannot be around anything that is sin.
So all of us. Every single person. It is made clear in the bible that everyone has fallen short of the Glory of God! Therefore, we are rightfully condemned.
We deserve death.
We have sinned.. we are not holy anymore. God is holy we should not be in his presence.
God is just! So justice will be served. We are wicked and wickedness is condemned. We should have eternal damnation.
(Now if anyone is reading this and is like.. wow why is God making this so hard, why is he so uptight.. you need to acknowledge the Lord a little better. It is not up to YOU to decide what is fair and unfair .. and easy and right.. you are not God this is not your universe.. you are a creation of his Glory. So stop there. We need to understand that. We must understand our proper place in accordance to him.)
So a little story that Tyrel used to make us be able to understand this Justice thing with God.
Okay you, me, and about 30 other people watch a man shoot and kill another man.
We go to the trial as the Jury or something.
We all declare, "yes we saw the guy shoot the other guy."
The murderer is declared Guilty! (rightfully condemned.)
But then, after the judge declares him guilty.. he just lets him go free, no penalty. Just go.. its fine.
WHAT? we don't like that do we?
So here comes our problem.
This is the dilemma.. how can a Just God.. declare someone who is guilty innocent??
That is when Jesus comes in.. but that isn't this time that is in the next blog. (This is important I think. We need to really understand how much we need a savior.. we are going to continue to acknowledge our sin and how wretched we really are.)
So back to our sin.. (yay I know, but it is essential to understand our sin.. understand who we are without Jesus..)
By nature we are sinnners.
Titus 3:3-7 "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, DECEIVED and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteou things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."
So yeah, we sin.. we have been deceived.. If you don't think you sin you have been deceived.. (we shouldn't be offended by our sin either!) We should not get all .. annoyed when we hear we are sinners.. we should be sad yes. But we should not try and defend ourselves. We sin. We are not righteous.. we don't throw bullseyes, many times we miss the whole board. I do at least haha.
Romans 3:10
"As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one;"
Kind of repetitive.. I think Paul wanted to let us know that no one is perfect, .. not one of you people on earth is perfect.. and again if you didn't catch that .. NOT ONE OF YOU. Not even one.
Okay!!! we know i'm sorry.. haha
but really.. we just.. fail! We failed we failed. We cannot do it on our own..
God says in Genesis.. Genesis 8:21 "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood." He is talking about man.
EVERY INCLINATION OF OUR HEART IS EVIL FROM CHILDHOOD. God knows what he is talking about.. and the only good you have in you. It comes from God! The grace of God .. God revealing himself to you.. that is what holds us back from doing evil.. its this law of nature, Moral Law.. (ask C.S. Lewis.. Mere Christianity..)
So do we see how fallen short we are? We are evil, wicked little things. (Its okay if you hate yourself haha) But it isn't really hating yourself it is acknowledging the sin in you.. and then GET MAD AT THE ENEMY. HE IS WHY WE SIN!
We need to just walk in this conviction.. that wow. We suck and I hope something comes along to save us! Its a "sober judgement" like in romans.. just "don't think of yourself more highly than you ought."
So.. because we are sinners now the Lord has to give us the Law. Something to keep us in check and keep us from not killing each other.
Romans 7:7 "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'"
Okay, so it seems like God gave us the Law to identify our sin.. to know what right and wrong was!
Galatians 3:24 "Therefore the Law has become our TUTOR to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."
Again.. the law was given to us.. that way we can Learn how to try and live holy and righteous. The law are these standards that we strive to meet. It keeps us in check basically.
The Purpose of the Law has NEVER been to save.
The purpose is to expose sin.. so that we will stop hoping in ourselves and start hoping in God.
ROMANS 12!!! what what?? ;) okay
so it says. "In view of God's mercy!"
okay stopping there.. if we understand his mercy.. that he sent his son to justify us... because of his great mercy on us! .. then it says. "offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to god, this is your spiritual act of worship."
The only reasonable thing we can do in response to his mercy.. the mercy we have recieved is to offer everything we have to him. That is how we worship him is through our actions.
-It is because of what Christ did for us that we are able of anything, our hope is in what He's done for us.
-We can only appreciate what Christ has done for us by understanding who we are without him.
-IT'S ONLY WHEN WE COME TO THIS REALITY THAT WE MAY BE SAVED.
If you don't understand and acknowledge that you are in NEED of a savior. Then you cannot be saved. You have to not "want" a savior. You need one. We come to a crisis moment in our lives.. when we understand God's glory and Holiness.. how we don't match up and we go.. "oh no, I am doomed.. eternally damned, what can I do?"
Jesus did everything. You just respond to his action.
Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.
We must recognize that we are poor in spirit.. we are depraved. We are wicked.. We need a savior. We cannot possibly do anything holy on our own. It's through Jesus.
Do you ever onder why it seems that those that were drug addicts, alcoholics, thieves, prostitues, etc. seem the most radical when they come to the Lord? Because the have a deep revelation of who/what they are without him!!!
That is how we need to be people!! DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF. NEVER COMPARE YOUR SIN. "Do not think of ourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of ourselves in sober judgement in ACCORDANCE to the Measure of FAITH God has given you."
its like this.. i memorized Romans 12 right.. and I am like yeah! don't think of myself better than I am .. think of myself in sober judgement.. but you know how you do that?? yeah its that moment that part after.. Paul says.. in accordance to the measureof faith God has given me.. so the better i understand God. the better I understand how holy he is.. that is the degree that I can understand the truly think of myself with sober Judgement!! Cool right? The accordance of faith I have in the Lord.. the more i understand the Lord and myself.. the better i can understand how short i have fallen.
We are all equal to murderers, thieves and prostitutes.. do not DECEIVE yourselves.
(think about where you would be 1,000 years without God.) I know where I was when I was 17.. you know?
Luke 7 "Those that have been forgiven much love much."
We need to really understand how lost we are.
So.. The Law was given that we might identify what sin is and realize that we CANNOT save ourselves.
The only appropriate response is surrender, confession, and repentance.
And then he talked about Atheist and how he doesn't believe they are real haha.. so if you want to know about that ask me! It was really interesting his view of people who don't "believe" in God.
Ask me about it and I will break it down for you..
Anyway this is part one. Sin.. He encouraged us to make sure we listened to the other parts of his sermon to make ourselves feel better haha because this isn't the GOOD NEWS!
JESUS COMES AND SETS US FREE OF THE LAW AND OUR SIN!!
but first we must come to that somber realization that we have failed and have no hope unless God does something to show mercy.
You are a sinner. But God loves you anyway.
That's all
-Mali.
Sin.
So, I think that all Christians would agree that they believe God is both Holy and Just.
Okay, so God is Holy. He is Holier than Holy.. we cannot even begin to understand how holy he truly is. The elders in heaven fall face down before him and sing day and night "holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come."
-He's HOLY.
Now our God is also Just God.
Meaning.. basically He will condem wickedness and reward righteousness. (You get what you deserve)
Let me look up the definition of Justice. one moment.
Justice : The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
Right, so God has these laws that he created. They are set.. The punishment for sin is death. We KNOW this.
So in a nutshell those are just two really important things that we know about our Lord.
He is holy, and he is just.
So what about us.. who are we?
Well we have fallen short of the glory of God. We have failed. We have sinned.. that means we are condemned.
God's will for our lives.. is a bullseye after a bullseye after a bullseye after a bullseye.. like PERFECT PEOPLE. Not just a bullseye but the very center of the bullseye. God is holy, he demands holiness and perfection. God cannot be around anything that is sin.
So all of us. Every single person. It is made clear in the bible that everyone has fallen short of the Glory of God! Therefore, we are rightfully condemned.
We deserve death.
We have sinned.. we are not holy anymore. God is holy we should not be in his presence.
God is just! So justice will be served. We are wicked and wickedness is condemned. We should have eternal damnation.
(Now if anyone is reading this and is like.. wow why is God making this so hard, why is he so uptight.. you need to acknowledge the Lord a little better. It is not up to YOU to decide what is fair and unfair .. and easy and right.. you are not God this is not your universe.. you are a creation of his Glory. So stop there. We need to understand that. We must understand our proper place in accordance to him.)
So a little story that Tyrel used to make us be able to understand this Justice thing with God.
Okay you, me, and about 30 other people watch a man shoot and kill another man.
We go to the trial as the Jury or something.
We all declare, "yes we saw the guy shoot the other guy."
The murderer is declared Guilty! (rightfully condemned.)
But then, after the judge declares him guilty.. he just lets him go free, no penalty. Just go.. its fine.
WHAT? we don't like that do we?
So here comes our problem.
This is the dilemma.. how can a Just God.. declare someone who is guilty innocent??
That is when Jesus comes in.. but that isn't this time that is in the next blog. (This is important I think. We need to really understand how much we need a savior.. we are going to continue to acknowledge our sin and how wretched we really are.)
So back to our sin.. (yay I know, but it is essential to understand our sin.. understand who we are without Jesus..)
By nature we are sinnners.
Titus 3:3-7 "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, DECEIVED and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteou things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."
So yeah, we sin.. we have been deceived.. If you don't think you sin you have been deceived.. (we shouldn't be offended by our sin either!) We should not get all .. annoyed when we hear we are sinners.. we should be sad yes. But we should not try and defend ourselves. We sin. We are not righteous.. we don't throw bullseyes, many times we miss the whole board. I do at least haha.
Romans 3:10
"As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one;"
Kind of repetitive.. I think Paul wanted to let us know that no one is perfect, .. not one of you people on earth is perfect.. and again if you didn't catch that .. NOT ONE OF YOU. Not even one.
Okay!!! we know i'm sorry.. haha
but really.. we just.. fail! We failed we failed. We cannot do it on our own..
God says in Genesis.. Genesis 8:21 "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood." He is talking about man.
EVERY INCLINATION OF OUR HEART IS EVIL FROM CHILDHOOD. God knows what he is talking about.. and the only good you have in you. It comes from God! The grace of God .. God revealing himself to you.. that is what holds us back from doing evil.. its this law of nature, Moral Law.. (ask C.S. Lewis.. Mere Christianity..)
So do we see how fallen short we are? We are evil, wicked little things. (Its okay if you hate yourself haha) But it isn't really hating yourself it is acknowledging the sin in you.. and then GET MAD AT THE ENEMY. HE IS WHY WE SIN!
We need to just walk in this conviction.. that wow. We suck and I hope something comes along to save us! Its a "sober judgement" like in romans.. just "don't think of yourself more highly than you ought."
So.. because we are sinners now the Lord has to give us the Law. Something to keep us in check and keep us from not killing each other.
Romans 7:7 "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'"
Okay, so it seems like God gave us the Law to identify our sin.. to know what right and wrong was!
Galatians 3:24 "Therefore the Law has become our TUTOR to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."
Again.. the law was given to us.. that way we can Learn how to try and live holy and righteous. The law are these standards that we strive to meet. It keeps us in check basically.
The Purpose of the Law has NEVER been to save.
The purpose is to expose sin.. so that we will stop hoping in ourselves and start hoping in God.
ROMANS 12!!! what what?? ;) okay
so it says. "In view of God's mercy!"
okay stopping there.. if we understand his mercy.. that he sent his son to justify us... because of his great mercy on us! .. then it says. "offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to god, this is your spiritual act of worship."
The only reasonable thing we can do in response to his mercy.. the mercy we have recieved is to offer everything we have to him. That is how we worship him is through our actions.
-It is because of what Christ did for us that we are able of anything, our hope is in what He's done for us.
-We can only appreciate what Christ has done for us by understanding who we are without him.
-IT'S ONLY WHEN WE COME TO THIS REALITY THAT WE MAY BE SAVED.
If you don't understand and acknowledge that you are in NEED of a savior. Then you cannot be saved. You have to not "want" a savior. You need one. We come to a crisis moment in our lives.. when we understand God's glory and Holiness.. how we don't match up and we go.. "oh no, I am doomed.. eternally damned, what can I do?"
Jesus did everything. You just respond to his action.
Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.
We must recognize that we are poor in spirit.. we are depraved. We are wicked.. We need a savior. We cannot possibly do anything holy on our own. It's through Jesus.
Do you ever onder why it seems that those that were drug addicts, alcoholics, thieves, prostitues, etc. seem the most radical when they come to the Lord? Because the have a deep revelation of who/what they are without him!!!
That is how we need to be people!! DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF. NEVER COMPARE YOUR SIN. "Do not think of ourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of ourselves in sober judgement in ACCORDANCE to the Measure of FAITH God has given you."
its like this.. i memorized Romans 12 right.. and I am like yeah! don't think of myself better than I am .. think of myself in sober judgement.. but you know how you do that?? yeah its that moment that part after.. Paul says.. in accordance to the measureof faith God has given me.. so the better i understand God. the better I understand how holy he is.. that is the degree that I can understand the truly think of myself with sober Judgement!! Cool right? The accordance of faith I have in the Lord.. the more i understand the Lord and myself.. the better i can understand how short i have fallen.
We are all equal to murderers, thieves and prostitutes.. do not DECEIVE yourselves.
(think about where you would be 1,000 years without God.) I know where I was when I was 17.. you know?
Luke 7 "Those that have been forgiven much love much."
We need to really understand how lost we are.
So.. The Law was given that we might identify what sin is and realize that we CANNOT save ourselves.
The only appropriate response is surrender, confession, and repentance.
And then he talked about Atheist and how he doesn't believe they are real haha.. so if you want to know about that ask me! It was really interesting his view of people who don't "believe" in God.
Ask me about it and I will break it down for you..
Anyway this is part one. Sin.. He encouraged us to make sure we listened to the other parts of his sermon to make ourselves feel better haha because this isn't the GOOD NEWS!
JESUS COMES AND SETS US FREE OF THE LAW AND OUR SIN!!
but first we must come to that somber realization that we have failed and have no hope unless God does something to show mercy.
You are a sinner. But God loves you anyway.
That's all
-Mali.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Do you know the way you move Jesus?
Do you know the way that you move Jesus?
Do you understand the immense love that he has for us?
Do you understand the Grace we have received? That we are no longer under the laws of sin but of Love and Grace?
To be thankful of everything that God has done for us, we must really and truly understand how short we have fallen of his perfect plan for our lives! That we have missed the mark..
It isn't that we want a savior but it is that we NEED a savior. That is something that is crucial to understand.
The ways that we move Jesus in his love for us! Ah! He smiles looking at us. He smiles to pursue us. It's like this.. and I want to be careful of how I say it. It probably is going to be a duh moment like I already knew that.. haha But anyway I was thinking about it last night. It's like this. Jesus didn't die for our sins. (The motivation wasn't to die for our sins.) It was to die so we can be with him. When I type it it is so obvious again. For some reason.. its just deeper in my mind maybe. (I will just go with that ;)
But how great is the Love for us?
Completely unimaginable. We cannot comprehend the just unending love that he has for us.
The Love of Christ is MOST powerful force in the universe.
Nothing can come between it and us.
Romans 8:38 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
You cannot escape God's love ... you can only deny it and ignore it. Every single person on the planet. His love is all encompassing. It surrounds you. It is the air. It is as great at the highest height and small as the lowest low.
It is so great that it can be defined as everything.. and as nothing. Because we can't even grasp what nothing is!
The concept of nothing is just as powerful as the concept of everything. Try and think about what nothing is!!! What like the gaps between space? Gaps between the air molecules or atoms or whatever the heck I am breathing in!
Nothing .. NOTHING can separate you from the Love of God!
You can only deny his presence.
Because it is all around you.
Its up to us to aknowledge it. The more you speak about God and testify with one another and talk about him and get in the word. The more you see him move. You tap into the spirit and see what is going on divinely around you.. too often we focus on the physical of the world and we completely miss what is going on in the spirtitual relm.
Just get into the word more. God has placed an incredible description of himself and his majesty in front of us. It's called the Holy Bible. :)
We should read it more and more and feed on it. That should be our inspiration.. daily, to seek his face and KNOW Jesus.
There is so so so much. The word of the Lord is flawless. Just ask to look upon the face of Jesus. Pick a verse and meditate on it. Sit on it for a while and pull as many truths out of it that you can.
Do we know the way we move Jesus? What does he think when he looks at us. Even though our love is weak to him it is so pleasing. Do we know the things that we cause Jesus to do!? He is always with us.. longing for us just to turn to him.. just for a second. That he could feel that small glimpse of our love shooting up to him. He is just waiting and sucking it in once we do.
Jesus came and died for you to look at him!!
Jesus came for me and died for me .. a wretched sinful person .. because he just wanted to experience and feel my love for him.
Let me not ever hold any affections over him. Above him. Anything worldy should be below my hearts and minds desire of God.
Psalm 16:2 "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.'"
I have NOTHING good apart from Jesus.
good.. not great.. i don't even have one thing that is good.
Anyway..
seek Gods love! Seek his face! Listen to the song "Do you know the way you move me?" by Cory Asbury. That is Jesus singing to us.
And what else.. Listen to "One Thing Remains" Jesus Culture. DO IT.
Powerful songs conveying only a glimpse of Jesus's love for you.
That we would earnestly seek your face God! That our hearts longings would be to "know this love that surpasses knowledge."
That's all.
-Mali
Do you understand the immense love that he has for us?
Do you understand the Grace we have received? That we are no longer under the laws of sin but of Love and Grace?
To be thankful of everything that God has done for us, we must really and truly understand how short we have fallen of his perfect plan for our lives! That we have missed the mark..
It isn't that we want a savior but it is that we NEED a savior. That is something that is crucial to understand.
The ways that we move Jesus in his love for us! Ah! He smiles looking at us. He smiles to pursue us. It's like this.. and I want to be careful of how I say it. It probably is going to be a duh moment like I already knew that.. haha But anyway I was thinking about it last night. It's like this. Jesus didn't die for our sins. (The motivation wasn't to die for our sins.) It was to die so we can be with him. When I type it it is so obvious again. For some reason.. its just deeper in my mind maybe. (I will just go with that ;)
But how great is the Love for us?
Completely unimaginable. We cannot comprehend the just unending love that he has for us.
The Love of Christ is MOST powerful force in the universe.
Nothing can come between it and us.
Romans 8:38 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
You cannot escape God's love ... you can only deny it and ignore it. Every single person on the planet. His love is all encompassing. It surrounds you. It is the air. It is as great at the highest height and small as the lowest low.
It is so great that it can be defined as everything.. and as nothing. Because we can't even grasp what nothing is!
The concept of nothing is just as powerful as the concept of everything. Try and think about what nothing is!!! What like the gaps between space? Gaps between the air molecules or atoms or whatever the heck I am breathing in!
Nothing .. NOTHING can separate you from the Love of God!
You can only deny his presence.
Because it is all around you.
Its up to us to aknowledge it. The more you speak about God and testify with one another and talk about him and get in the word. The more you see him move. You tap into the spirit and see what is going on divinely around you.. too often we focus on the physical of the world and we completely miss what is going on in the spirtitual relm.
Just get into the word more. God has placed an incredible description of himself and his majesty in front of us. It's called the Holy Bible. :)
We should read it more and more and feed on it. That should be our inspiration.. daily, to seek his face and KNOW Jesus.
There is so so so much. The word of the Lord is flawless. Just ask to look upon the face of Jesus. Pick a verse and meditate on it. Sit on it for a while and pull as many truths out of it that you can.
Do we know the way we move Jesus? What does he think when he looks at us. Even though our love is weak to him it is so pleasing. Do we know the things that we cause Jesus to do!? He is always with us.. longing for us just to turn to him.. just for a second. That he could feel that small glimpse of our love shooting up to him. He is just waiting and sucking it in once we do.
Jesus came and died for you to look at him!!
Jesus came for me and died for me .. a wretched sinful person .. because he just wanted to experience and feel my love for him.
Let me not ever hold any affections over him. Above him. Anything worldy should be below my hearts and minds desire of God.
Psalm 16:2 "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.'"
I have NOTHING good apart from Jesus.
good.. not great.. i don't even have one thing that is good.
Anyway..
seek Gods love! Seek his face! Listen to the song "Do you know the way you move me?" by Cory Asbury. That is Jesus singing to us.
And what else.. Listen to "One Thing Remains" Jesus Culture. DO IT.
Powerful songs conveying only a glimpse of Jesus's love for you.
That we would earnestly seek your face God! That our hearts longings would be to "know this love that surpasses knowledge."
That's all.
-Mali
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Heart Inclination
So an awesome man of God spoke to us last Thursday.
He has been walking with Jesus for fourty one years.
He has never listened to secular music.
He has encountered the Holy Spirit.
We need to have pure hearts to encounter Jesus.
We were not BOUGHT by the PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS to ENJOY this World.
Our hearts must be like a compass.. they need to always point the same direction.
"David was called a man after God's own heart." We know this, and we also know that David messed up sometimes.. but his heart was immediate to turn back to the lord.
Our hearts need to be like a compass because.. even though sometimes the needle sways back and fourth a little.. (that would be when we sin and mess up) It never turns a different direction than north.
Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
Psalm 15!!! The whole Psalm basically.. it starts out..
"Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart and who does his neighbor no wrong.. ...
He who does these things will never be shaken."
Our heart inclination is so important. Everything comes down to our motives and heart motive.. If our acts are done not for the Lord then it is wrong. It doesn't matter. Our "good deeds" are cancelled out if our hearts are in the wrong place.
"If a ship doesn't have a rudder it doesn't do anything. Or it can't go anywhere important or planned. It is worthless it does not matter how fast or how much power the ship has. If the rudder isn't working the ship is useless."
"The rudder size relative to the ship is a very very small part; yet, the rudder is one of the most important parts." Our hearts are the rudder.
Galatians 6:7-8 "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
Friends, let us not deceive ourselves. We WILL reap what we sow. God cannot be mocked. That is powerful stuff.
Okay so what are we planting in our hearts? (We don't want to sow poision ivy.. that wouldn't make sense.. but we do it anyway.)
-Music
-Social Media Craze
-Everything that isn't of God.
It sounds radical and harsh but really. If it isn't of God then it is evil. God cannot be mocked. Let us not deceive ourselves.
We must pay attention to the things that we are sowing in our hearts because if it is of the secular world it is a weed and yes weeds grow faster than Godly things.
1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
The way he was describing this was really convicting..
We were bought with the most precious thing ... ever, in the entire universe, and we have the nerve to think that we can enjoy and put all this crap into our bodies. Once we understand that we are children of God and bought with a price we better be honoring that.
Honor God with our hearts and minds and spirit and everything that the body is.
So lets talk in greater depth of the seeds. God made the seeds. The seeds are perfect. Each seed has a different purpose. God will do all of the work if we just plant the seed. God will make the seed grow.. he will made the harvest but we have the choice of which seeds we plant.
1 Corinthians 3:6-9 "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."
We are God's field..
okay lets break this down.
So we are the field.. and a field holds different crops.. it isn't just one thing.
Our job is to grow the things of God. We bear the fruits of the spirit! Make sense!
That is why we are here on earth.. our bodies are supposed to produce God's Spirit and goodness.
(That is kind of a high standard to be held to.. that is why we shouldn't be planting junk in our lives.)
"Clean heart isn't the end, it's the beginning."
This is so true.. we strive to be pure.. and righteous and holy.. but let us not think that is the end of what we need to do. Once we accomplish that .. that is when we begin to receive the Holy Spirit at its fullness.
Having a pure heart is the beginning of our journey of learning who God is.
If we have a pure heart we can start to reach our full potential.
Okay so we have purified our hearts through the blood of Jesus! That is wonderful.
But then we begin to let sin slip in again. We have prepared this crop to grow. So the soil has all of its nutrients.. there is nothing else in the way! It is perfect for planting.
So what happens when we plant weeds in that garden. You better believe they are going to grow even more than they would have if it wasn't prepared and good nutrients. Its like if we are empty.. whatever we fill ourselves with is going to grow quicker. Clean slate and then letting sin in = bad.
The bible talks about the areas of our heart as a field. So some of us must be really good at understanding God's love and his peace and who knows what attributes he has.. but we don't really understand his Wrath and righteousness.
This is a problem. We need to have pure hearts all around. We need to understand every aspect of God, because if we don't then we are limiting God.. or even creating an IDOL of who we "think" God is.
BADD.
"do not deceive yourselves."
So then the day after this was spoken to us by this guy who walks with Jesus daily (I am super convicted at this point) the next day at the MILL which is a college ministry the pastor was talking about.. yes how our body is a temple.
Again what are we letting in our bodies!?
Junk? Crap? Jesus didn't die for us for us to continue to feed ourselves poison.
Isaiah 1:5-20 Get out your bible and read this.. It is too long to type but basically it is the Lord saying.. "I really really do not care one bit about your little times that you come and meet in my name, because all the other times you are messing around and not seeking me.
It says this! "Stop bringing me meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my sould hates."
"When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will HIDE MY EYES from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; was and make yourselves clean."
Wow. The Lord is saying quit being hypocrites. I hate you all. You act like you love me at church and then you are off living in sin the rest of the week?
I won't even listen to your prayers. I will turn away.. we are destestable to God when we do this.
So here we go again.. its this little thing called faith with out actions is dead.
He used an example of verbs and like sentense structure.
You need a verb + a subject to make a complete sentence.
Verb + Subject = Complete.
so...
Beliefe + Action = Complete.
"Out of the abundance of your heart the mouth speaks."
Let us examine our hearts and really see what we want. What our motives are.. and you bet your bottom dollar you better be looking at your actions to see if they are pleasing to the Lord or not because he will NOT TOLERATE this half faith stuff..
WE DO NOT PICK AND CHOOSE THE TIMES THAT WE SERVE JESUS. WE ARE NOT OUR OWN WE WERE BOUGHT AT A PRICE. HONOR YOUR BODY.
We need to wake up and quit thinking we are better than we are. "Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgement."
I pray that our modern day christianity is pleasing to God.. cause it is possible we might be living lives that are destestable to him and that .. he is not even listening to our prayers.
We must strive to be holy.
-Mali
He has been walking with Jesus for fourty one years.
He has never listened to secular music.
He has encountered the Holy Spirit.
We need to have pure hearts to encounter Jesus.
We were not BOUGHT by the PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS to ENJOY this World.
Our hearts must be like a compass.. they need to always point the same direction.
"David was called a man after God's own heart." We know this, and we also know that David messed up sometimes.. but his heart was immediate to turn back to the lord.
Our hearts need to be like a compass because.. even though sometimes the needle sways back and fourth a little.. (that would be when we sin and mess up) It never turns a different direction than north.
Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
Psalm 15!!! The whole Psalm basically.. it starts out..
"Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart and who does his neighbor no wrong.. ...
He who does these things will never be shaken."
Our heart inclination is so important. Everything comes down to our motives and heart motive.. If our acts are done not for the Lord then it is wrong. It doesn't matter. Our "good deeds" are cancelled out if our hearts are in the wrong place.
"If a ship doesn't have a rudder it doesn't do anything. Or it can't go anywhere important or planned. It is worthless it does not matter how fast or how much power the ship has. If the rudder isn't working the ship is useless."
"The rudder size relative to the ship is a very very small part; yet, the rudder is one of the most important parts." Our hearts are the rudder.
Galatians 6:7-8 "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
Friends, let us not deceive ourselves. We WILL reap what we sow. God cannot be mocked. That is powerful stuff.
Okay so what are we planting in our hearts? (We don't want to sow poision ivy.. that wouldn't make sense.. but we do it anyway.)
-Music
-Social Media Craze
-Everything that isn't of God.
It sounds radical and harsh but really. If it isn't of God then it is evil. God cannot be mocked. Let us not deceive ourselves.
We must pay attention to the things that we are sowing in our hearts because if it is of the secular world it is a weed and yes weeds grow faster than Godly things.
1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
The way he was describing this was really convicting..
We were bought with the most precious thing ... ever, in the entire universe, and we have the nerve to think that we can enjoy and put all this crap into our bodies. Once we understand that we are children of God and bought with a price we better be honoring that.
Honor God with our hearts and minds and spirit and everything that the body is.
So lets talk in greater depth of the seeds. God made the seeds. The seeds are perfect. Each seed has a different purpose. God will do all of the work if we just plant the seed. God will make the seed grow.. he will made the harvest but we have the choice of which seeds we plant.
1 Corinthians 3:6-9 "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."
We are God's field..
okay lets break this down.
So we are the field.. and a field holds different crops.. it isn't just one thing.
Our job is to grow the things of God. We bear the fruits of the spirit! Make sense!
That is why we are here on earth.. our bodies are supposed to produce God's Spirit and goodness.
(That is kind of a high standard to be held to.. that is why we shouldn't be planting junk in our lives.)
"Clean heart isn't the end, it's the beginning."
This is so true.. we strive to be pure.. and righteous and holy.. but let us not think that is the end of what we need to do. Once we accomplish that .. that is when we begin to receive the Holy Spirit at its fullness.
Having a pure heart is the beginning of our journey of learning who God is.
If we have a pure heart we can start to reach our full potential.
Okay so we have purified our hearts through the blood of Jesus! That is wonderful.
But then we begin to let sin slip in again. We have prepared this crop to grow. So the soil has all of its nutrients.. there is nothing else in the way! It is perfect for planting.
So what happens when we plant weeds in that garden. You better believe they are going to grow even more than they would have if it wasn't prepared and good nutrients. Its like if we are empty.. whatever we fill ourselves with is going to grow quicker. Clean slate and then letting sin in = bad.
The bible talks about the areas of our heart as a field. So some of us must be really good at understanding God's love and his peace and who knows what attributes he has.. but we don't really understand his Wrath and righteousness.
This is a problem. We need to have pure hearts all around. We need to understand every aspect of God, because if we don't then we are limiting God.. or even creating an IDOL of who we "think" God is.
BADD.
"do not deceive yourselves."
So then the day after this was spoken to us by this guy who walks with Jesus daily (I am super convicted at this point) the next day at the MILL which is a college ministry the pastor was talking about.. yes how our body is a temple.
Again what are we letting in our bodies!?
Junk? Crap? Jesus didn't die for us for us to continue to feed ourselves poison.
Isaiah 1:5-20 Get out your bible and read this.. It is too long to type but basically it is the Lord saying.. "I really really do not care one bit about your little times that you come and meet in my name, because all the other times you are messing around and not seeking me.
It says this! "Stop bringing me meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my sould hates."
"When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will HIDE MY EYES from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; was and make yourselves clean."
Wow. The Lord is saying quit being hypocrites. I hate you all. You act like you love me at church and then you are off living in sin the rest of the week?
I won't even listen to your prayers. I will turn away.. we are destestable to God when we do this.
So here we go again.. its this little thing called faith with out actions is dead.
He used an example of verbs and like sentense structure.
You need a verb + a subject to make a complete sentence.
Verb + Subject = Complete.
so...
Beliefe + Action = Complete.
"Out of the abundance of your heart the mouth speaks."
Let us examine our hearts and really see what we want. What our motives are.. and you bet your bottom dollar you better be looking at your actions to see if they are pleasing to the Lord or not because he will NOT TOLERATE this half faith stuff..
WE DO NOT PICK AND CHOOSE THE TIMES THAT WE SERVE JESUS. WE ARE NOT OUR OWN WE WERE BOUGHT AT A PRICE. HONOR YOUR BODY.
We need to wake up and quit thinking we are better than we are. "Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgement."
I pray that our modern day christianity is pleasing to God.. cause it is possible we might be living lives that are destestable to him and that .. he is not even listening to our prayers.
We must strive to be holy.
-Mali
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Why Do we Exist?
David Perkins talked about our purpose and Life and how to find it..
We many times want to know "Who am I going to marry? What am I going to do when I grow up? Where should I go to college? What is my career going to be?" And all these questions can be linked back to the very mind boggling and confusing question of..
Why do I exist?
So in our culture many times we are told .. "our purpose in life is to be happy."
Now us Christians here this and are like.. psh no.. its for me to serve God! (which is correct) but do we really mean that?
It is our purpose to serve God if we are feeling good about it. Deep down we want to be happy; however, being happy is not our calling. It is to serve the Lord. (and through serving the Lord we will recieve Joy and then.. eventually happiness.)
-We exist to know God.
-There have been people in the past and who are alive today that KNOW God. Will you be one of them?
(There were people in the bible who knew Jesus Christ and God. They encountered the Holy Spirit. It isn't some crazy idea that we can know God intimately. It is real and possible, it is just up to us to pursue him.)
-There will be times in your life when you don't feel "happy" seeking the Lord. Blah blah.. our little fleshly selfs may not be enjoying the hardship we face as Christians. The obedience to the word is a struggle! It isn't supposed to be easy. But YOU have the decision to press past that pain.. or inconvenience for our fleshly selves and seek the LORD.
This is very interesting.
-There is a war going on. It is the war of the Ages. It is not a war on wealth or land. There are wars happening because of that.. there are wars for resources and worldly things... but the war that is being spoken of is a War of the affection of the Human Heart.
-What does the heart desire? Wealth? Power? Comfort? you name it.. humans desire all kinds of things.. but the most important thing to focus on is what is the Hearts desire. Because out of the heart desire comes all of the evil.. (the wealth, power or whatever else greed and longings cause)
-Where your treasure is so is your heart? Yeah sound familiar. Its because it is true. Our heart dictates our actions.
(This is why faith without actions is dead.. you can "know" all the scripture you want and be getting in the word.. but if you are living in sin it really just doesnt matter at all.. it doesn't count. They cancel each other out.. so don't lie to yourself.)
Basically YOU decide who will possess the affections of your heart. You do. NO one else.. say your name.
(your name here) will decide who wins the affections of (your name here's) heart.
-You decide if you want the Worthy Lamb to have the affections of your heart or this worldly crap. (aka satan)
The war we face is a serious one. The bible has evidence to prove it.. it is a battle and a war is being waged for our souls.
John 10:10 the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
Luke 22: Satan has asked to sift us like wheat.
The enemy wants to CRUSH you. This isn't some little game. We don't get a second chance. You decide who holds your heart.
The enemy wants to steal eternal life and ruin us. So lets wake up and start fixing our eyes on the Lord putting aside our earthly desires, for we were created for a much greater purpose than our own. Let us not get caught up in the petty things of this world but keep our eyes set on the Lord, and desire to have a relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Jesus is looking for ALL of your heart. All of it .. not looking for the part of our heart that our sin is held in.. Jesus does not deserve for us to only turn to him for salvation and to pardon us from our sin. NO he deserves the Love, the Joy, the fruits of the spirit we bear. If not it is like we are just dumping our GARBAGE on Jesus. If we only look to Jesus to save us that is a complete slap in the face. wow. That we would have the nerve to think that the only reason Jesus came to this earth to humble himself and take up death on a cross was just for us to have eternal life? No. It is so we can ENJOY the Lord. To KNOW Jesus. He didn't come just to pick up and take away from us all of our sin and junk in our lives while we find our joy and happiness in things of this world! Like sports or t.v. or friends.
THE JOY that we receive in this life should belong to CHRIST ALONE.
What a joke.. to lie to yourself and think that Jesus came only to die for our sins and to not have a relationship with us. I would be pretty upset if I was Jesus..
Anyway besides that little tangent.
We are called to have a Magnificent obsession with Jesus.
To seek him daily, to want to understand the vast and full spectrum of his unending love!
-How do we stay facinated with the Lamb? (For years to come.. like a burning passion not just this ehh I was seeking God really hard for a while and I am kinda over it. NO like obsessed still and to be like ah what can I do for the kingdom! There is so much to be done! I need to keep working on myself! I will never be satisfied with knowing Gods love!!)
-It's as easy as SPENDING TIME WITH GOD. That is the number one way to grow in passion.
-Develope a hunger to be with God. (We crave what we feast upon.)
-It is possible to decrease our desire for something.. we lose desire.. if we don't work at love then we lose it and it fades away.
THIS IS SO TRUE.
-You care about the things you know about.
Think about it.. I don't watch football.. I don't look at statistics.. so when people start talking about football I am like whatever. If you were to start talking about soccer tactics and like.. idk moves and formations and strategy then I am all in.
-Same thing with God. The more you learn about him, the more you know about him. Then you have stuff to contribute! ( haha I just remembered this.. When i was first saved I didn't know very much about the bible or really have that many experiences with my personal relationship with the Lord, and so when Blase would start talking theology to me I would just sit there and be like yeah yeah yeah that makes sense. But when I went to CCU I was really learning about the Lord and I started to talk back and have an actual conversation and then before you know it I can't shut up about Jesus!!!)
Another cool little side note I PROMISE you the more you talk about Jesus the more you are .. allowing yourself to see how he is moving in your life and others.. When we share our experiences about Jesus with one another it is inspiring and we can relate and then we connect dots that God has placed that we might have missed otherwise... And since we saw that it matches up it edifies our faith! where as is we didn't speak about Jesus and God with one another we would first of all not be cultivating a passion for him and then secondly .. we would MISS the chance to see how he is moving in our lives .. so we MISS the oportunity to strengthen our faith :( it is a very sad thing that we could change just by TALKING about Jesus..
Which is so fun anyway I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to!
HERE WE GO PEOPLE!!! (Brent Batson you will like this.)
Okay.. we need to become self feeders.
-Feed yourself and you won't ever be let down by a church.
-Churches will always "hurt our feelings" or "fall short of expectations" or "blah blah it smells funny and that person looks at me weird so I don't want to go."
-The way to protect ourselves from being disappointed by the church is to rely on seeking God on our own.
-If people would take the time to seek Jesus FIRST and do that on their own.. (because after all our relationship with the Lord is personal it isn't based on the church community) then people will start to be less let down because they have their foundation personally with the Lord.
Church is like icing on the cake.. and you spending alone time with God is the cake. Don't confuse the icing with the cake people.
-When we fix our eyes on Jesus we don't need to worry about the church hurting our feelings or not satisfying our spiritual needs. It isn't the church or the pastors responsibiltiy.. (yes it is to encourage and give advice and to inspire others to grow deeper in the Lord and to share knowledge of the Lord) But it isn't their responsibility to Feed everyone. We need to feed ourselves.
So get out your bible and start eating it. Jeez Louise.
Here is another thing. If you are full of crap..
(yes crap.. like media, television, magizines, sin, bad friends, who knows you name it, anything that draws you away from the Lord.)
Then you won't have any room for what is important! If we are full then we won't be hungry.
When you begin to clean out your life and stop eating crap you will being to crave something... and then fill yourself up with the Word and the Lord and then you will be set and then you will still be hungry for somemore Jesus.
David Perkins used the example that his family was going to a Christmas breakfast or something (but at the time they weren't sure if there was going to be breakfast or not) so they stopped at McDonald's to get some food and they ate .. McMuffin's and whatever and when they got to the house there was a massive breakfast feast that the host family had been working on since 6 in the morning so when they got there they were full and could only play with their food.
So the point is.. are you eating some McDonalds when you could be EATING A FEAST THAT THE LORD ALMIGHTY HAS PREPARED YOU SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME!!!
you decide.
-Some of us have been eating vomit for so long that we don't even know it.. it tastes good to us and we are missing the feast in front of us. We are eating Vomit and we don't even know it is vomit.
(thats gross.)
Basically to sum it up.
-God wants to know you and already knows you.. its up to you to know him though.
-After the great commission is said and done.. us looking for some epic purpose in life.. it all depends on whether you knew him or not.
Know Jesus. Seek him, let him overwhelm you with his perfect love daily.
That's all.
-Mali
We many times want to know "Who am I going to marry? What am I going to do when I grow up? Where should I go to college? What is my career going to be?" And all these questions can be linked back to the very mind boggling and confusing question of..
Why do I exist?
So in our culture many times we are told .. "our purpose in life is to be happy."
Now us Christians here this and are like.. psh no.. its for me to serve God! (which is correct) but do we really mean that?
It is our purpose to serve God if we are feeling good about it. Deep down we want to be happy; however, being happy is not our calling. It is to serve the Lord. (and through serving the Lord we will recieve Joy and then.. eventually happiness.)
-We exist to know God.
-There have been people in the past and who are alive today that KNOW God. Will you be one of them?
(There were people in the bible who knew Jesus Christ and God. They encountered the Holy Spirit. It isn't some crazy idea that we can know God intimately. It is real and possible, it is just up to us to pursue him.)
-There will be times in your life when you don't feel "happy" seeking the Lord. Blah blah.. our little fleshly selfs may not be enjoying the hardship we face as Christians. The obedience to the word is a struggle! It isn't supposed to be easy. But YOU have the decision to press past that pain.. or inconvenience for our fleshly selves and seek the LORD.
This is very interesting.
-There is a war going on. It is the war of the Ages. It is not a war on wealth or land. There are wars happening because of that.. there are wars for resources and worldly things... but the war that is being spoken of is a War of the affection of the Human Heart.
-What does the heart desire? Wealth? Power? Comfort? you name it.. humans desire all kinds of things.. but the most important thing to focus on is what is the Hearts desire. Because out of the heart desire comes all of the evil.. (the wealth, power or whatever else greed and longings cause)
-Where your treasure is so is your heart? Yeah sound familiar. Its because it is true. Our heart dictates our actions.
(This is why faith without actions is dead.. you can "know" all the scripture you want and be getting in the word.. but if you are living in sin it really just doesnt matter at all.. it doesn't count. They cancel each other out.. so don't lie to yourself.)
Basically YOU decide who will possess the affections of your heart. You do. NO one else.. say your name.
(your name here) will decide who wins the affections of (your name here's) heart.
-You decide if you want the Worthy Lamb to have the affections of your heart or this worldly crap. (aka satan)
The war we face is a serious one. The bible has evidence to prove it.. it is a battle and a war is being waged for our souls.
John 10:10 the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
Luke 22: Satan has asked to sift us like wheat.
The enemy wants to CRUSH you. This isn't some little game. We don't get a second chance. You decide who holds your heart.
The enemy wants to steal eternal life and ruin us. So lets wake up and start fixing our eyes on the Lord putting aside our earthly desires, for we were created for a much greater purpose than our own. Let us not get caught up in the petty things of this world but keep our eyes set on the Lord, and desire to have a relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Jesus is looking for ALL of your heart. All of it .. not looking for the part of our heart that our sin is held in.. Jesus does not deserve for us to only turn to him for salvation and to pardon us from our sin. NO he deserves the Love, the Joy, the fruits of the spirit we bear. If not it is like we are just dumping our GARBAGE on Jesus. If we only look to Jesus to save us that is a complete slap in the face. wow. That we would have the nerve to think that the only reason Jesus came to this earth to humble himself and take up death on a cross was just for us to have eternal life? No. It is so we can ENJOY the Lord. To KNOW Jesus. He didn't come just to pick up and take away from us all of our sin and junk in our lives while we find our joy and happiness in things of this world! Like sports or t.v. or friends.
THE JOY that we receive in this life should belong to CHRIST ALONE.
What a joke.. to lie to yourself and think that Jesus came only to die for our sins and to not have a relationship with us. I would be pretty upset if I was Jesus..
Anyway besides that little tangent.
We are called to have a Magnificent obsession with Jesus.
To seek him daily, to want to understand the vast and full spectrum of his unending love!
-How do we stay facinated with the Lamb? (For years to come.. like a burning passion not just this ehh I was seeking God really hard for a while and I am kinda over it. NO like obsessed still and to be like ah what can I do for the kingdom! There is so much to be done! I need to keep working on myself! I will never be satisfied with knowing Gods love!!)
-It's as easy as SPENDING TIME WITH GOD. That is the number one way to grow in passion.
-Develope a hunger to be with God. (We crave what we feast upon.)
-It is possible to decrease our desire for something.. we lose desire.. if we don't work at love then we lose it and it fades away.
THIS IS SO TRUE.
-You care about the things you know about.
Think about it.. I don't watch football.. I don't look at statistics.. so when people start talking about football I am like whatever. If you were to start talking about soccer tactics and like.. idk moves and formations and strategy then I am all in.
-Same thing with God. The more you learn about him, the more you know about him. Then you have stuff to contribute! ( haha I just remembered this.. When i was first saved I didn't know very much about the bible or really have that many experiences with my personal relationship with the Lord, and so when Blase would start talking theology to me I would just sit there and be like yeah yeah yeah that makes sense. But when I went to CCU I was really learning about the Lord and I started to talk back and have an actual conversation and then before you know it I can't shut up about Jesus!!!)
Another cool little side note I PROMISE you the more you talk about Jesus the more you are .. allowing yourself to see how he is moving in your life and others.. When we share our experiences about Jesus with one another it is inspiring and we can relate and then we connect dots that God has placed that we might have missed otherwise... And since we saw that it matches up it edifies our faith! where as is we didn't speak about Jesus and God with one another we would first of all not be cultivating a passion for him and then secondly .. we would MISS the chance to see how he is moving in our lives .. so we MISS the oportunity to strengthen our faith :( it is a very sad thing that we could change just by TALKING about Jesus..
Which is so fun anyway I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to!
HERE WE GO PEOPLE!!! (Brent Batson you will like this.)
Okay.. we need to become self feeders.
-Feed yourself and you won't ever be let down by a church.
-Churches will always "hurt our feelings" or "fall short of expectations" or "blah blah it smells funny and that person looks at me weird so I don't want to go."
-The way to protect ourselves from being disappointed by the church is to rely on seeking God on our own.
-If people would take the time to seek Jesus FIRST and do that on their own.. (because after all our relationship with the Lord is personal it isn't based on the church community) then people will start to be less let down because they have their foundation personally with the Lord.
Church is like icing on the cake.. and you spending alone time with God is the cake. Don't confuse the icing with the cake people.
-When we fix our eyes on Jesus we don't need to worry about the church hurting our feelings or not satisfying our spiritual needs. It isn't the church or the pastors responsibiltiy.. (yes it is to encourage and give advice and to inspire others to grow deeper in the Lord and to share knowledge of the Lord) But it isn't their responsibility to Feed everyone. We need to feed ourselves.
So get out your bible and start eating it. Jeez Louise.
Here is another thing. If you are full of crap..
(yes crap.. like media, television, magizines, sin, bad friends, who knows you name it, anything that draws you away from the Lord.)
Then you won't have any room for what is important! If we are full then we won't be hungry.
When you begin to clean out your life and stop eating crap you will being to crave something... and then fill yourself up with the Word and the Lord and then you will be set and then you will still be hungry for somemore Jesus.
David Perkins used the example that his family was going to a Christmas breakfast or something (but at the time they weren't sure if there was going to be breakfast or not) so they stopped at McDonald's to get some food and they ate .. McMuffin's and whatever and when they got to the house there was a massive breakfast feast that the host family had been working on since 6 in the morning so when they got there they were full and could only play with their food.
So the point is.. are you eating some McDonalds when you could be EATING A FEAST THAT THE LORD ALMIGHTY HAS PREPARED YOU SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME!!!
you decide.
-Some of us have been eating vomit for so long that we don't even know it.. it tastes good to us and we are missing the feast in front of us. We are eating Vomit and we don't even know it is vomit.
(thats gross.)
Basically to sum it up.
-God wants to know you and already knows you.. its up to you to know him though.
-After the great commission is said and done.. us looking for some epic purpose in life.. it all depends on whether you knew him or not.
Know Jesus. Seek him, let him overwhelm you with his perfect love daily.
That's all.
-Mali
Sunday, October 2, 2011
"For your maker is your husband-"
Jesus loves me. Jesus love ME! What? Why haven't I been able to comprehend that. I understand it but I haven't felt the love of being wooed, and that is because I filled that love with something else, or someone else.
Jesus is teaching me to wait on him. I am His bride! How amazing! It's funny that it has taken this much hurt and brokeness to get me there. But I know that God wants to build me from the bottom up.
Jesus has been running around me, trying to speak to me from all sides saying, "Mali, I am here, can't you see me? I won't hurt you? I won't break you.. my love for you is infinite and perfect! Nothing in this world compares! Why won't you turn to me? I want to hold you!"
So basically I feel as though I have been hurt. (Sure I have the right to feel that way.) In this secular world I would like to call someone up and confront all of the lies that I had been told. The false ideas of my future. That I feel like it is unfair that I have been hurt the same way multiple times. BUT that is not what I am called to do.
When I begin to look at my life and hurts in the eyes of the Lord, everything is flipped and perspective begins to change.
It's like this. Was it fair for Jesus to die on the cross. Absolutely not.
Do I have a righteous anger building inside of me? Possibly.. but God is so much more righteous than I am! How can I be upset about some petty thing. Something that doesn't matter at all. God has every single reason to be mad at me for the things that I have done, so even when I feel wronged it doesn't matter because .. I must still examine myself and see that I have no right to feel correct.. because God is so much more righteous..
? If that is making any sense. I begin to see how short I fall of anything when I compare myself to God, yet he loves me the same.
So this is it. I am turning to Jesus. I am done, I am done with the hopes, I am done with the what ifs of the future. I will not tolerate being told lies by people or the enemy. I am seeking God. I am not conforming to the world. The Lord has mighty plans for those who seek him and that is exactly what I plan to do. I am paying for an environment to pray! Yes, that is crazy. But you know what.. I can do more. Can I NOT DEVOTE A YEAR OF MY LIFE SET APART AND SANCTIFIED FOR MY SAVIOR?
Who died for me! (If someone on earth who I knew died for me I am pretty sure I would be changed and my life would be radically different and dedicating time and thanks and gratitude always. So basically when the GOD of the AGES and the universe dies for me can I not change even more radically for him?)
Basically It is all or nothing. I could miss all other idea's of what I am supposed to do, or who I am supposed to be, as long as I do not forget the FIRST and most important point in my life. That is to know my Lord, savior. His name is Jesus. If you don't know him spend time with him.
I know that if I spend time with him I will be completely content. I will not even care if I ever step foot into another relationship if that is what God is calling me to.
I speak truth into myself. I was bought at a price.
I am a princess of the most high God and I will demand to be treated with the utmost respect.
Jesus will be my Husband and I am his bride.
I will seek him and I will find him.
I want to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life!
Isaiah 54:5-7
"For your maker is your husband-
the Lord Almighty is his name-
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
The Lord will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit-
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected," says your God.
"For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back."
Ahh Jesus make this my hearts cry. Be my husband Lord, you will never leave me or forsake me. You are constant and Holy and everlasting and pure! How I should just weep for those who do not experience your love!
Jesus let me learn to experience your love in ways I have not been able to comprehend.
I love you,
Mali
Jesus is teaching me to wait on him. I am His bride! How amazing! It's funny that it has taken this much hurt and brokeness to get me there. But I know that God wants to build me from the bottom up.
Jesus has been running around me, trying to speak to me from all sides saying, "Mali, I am here, can't you see me? I won't hurt you? I won't break you.. my love for you is infinite and perfect! Nothing in this world compares! Why won't you turn to me? I want to hold you!"
So basically I feel as though I have been hurt. (Sure I have the right to feel that way.) In this secular world I would like to call someone up and confront all of the lies that I had been told. The false ideas of my future. That I feel like it is unfair that I have been hurt the same way multiple times. BUT that is not what I am called to do.
When I begin to look at my life and hurts in the eyes of the Lord, everything is flipped and perspective begins to change.
It's like this. Was it fair for Jesus to die on the cross. Absolutely not.
Do I have a righteous anger building inside of me? Possibly.. but God is so much more righteous than I am! How can I be upset about some petty thing. Something that doesn't matter at all. God has every single reason to be mad at me for the things that I have done, so even when I feel wronged it doesn't matter because .. I must still examine myself and see that I have no right to feel correct.. because God is so much more righteous..
? If that is making any sense. I begin to see how short I fall of anything when I compare myself to God, yet he loves me the same.
So this is it. I am turning to Jesus. I am done, I am done with the hopes, I am done with the what ifs of the future. I will not tolerate being told lies by people or the enemy. I am seeking God. I am not conforming to the world. The Lord has mighty plans for those who seek him and that is exactly what I plan to do. I am paying for an environment to pray! Yes, that is crazy. But you know what.. I can do more. Can I NOT DEVOTE A YEAR OF MY LIFE SET APART AND SANCTIFIED FOR MY SAVIOR?
Who died for me! (If someone on earth who I knew died for me I am pretty sure I would be changed and my life would be radically different and dedicating time and thanks and gratitude always. So basically when the GOD of the AGES and the universe dies for me can I not change even more radically for him?)
Basically It is all or nothing. I could miss all other idea's of what I am supposed to do, or who I am supposed to be, as long as I do not forget the FIRST and most important point in my life. That is to know my Lord, savior. His name is Jesus. If you don't know him spend time with him.
I know that if I spend time with him I will be completely content. I will not even care if I ever step foot into another relationship if that is what God is calling me to.
I speak truth into myself. I was bought at a price.
I am a princess of the most high God and I will demand to be treated with the utmost respect.
Jesus will be my Husband and I am his bride.
I will seek him and I will find him.
I want to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life!
Isaiah 54:5-7
"For your maker is your husband-
the Lord Almighty is his name-
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
The Lord will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit-
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected," says your God.
"For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back."
Ahh Jesus make this my hearts cry. Be my husband Lord, you will never leave me or forsake me. You are constant and Holy and everlasting and pure! How I should just weep for those who do not experience your love!
Jesus let me learn to experience your love in ways I have not been able to comprehend.
I love you,
Mali
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