Is It Worth It?

Pride over Relationship, or Relationship over Pride?

It's a problem that we all have. None of us like of admit it, because our pride keeps us from admitting that we have a problem with pride. Pride is like an addiction. Once we get a taste of it, we want more and more, even if it means that we cut off the people that love us and it kills us. It's hard for most people to choose between their pride and their relationships, because their pride makes them feel like they have something, but really they are holding on to something that they don't have. Now you're thinking, "Wait a minute! I need to have my pride." No, the word you're looking for here is dignity  There is a difference to the two. You can have dignity without being prideful. Because, really all dignity is, is identity. We find our identity in what makes us important. And when we are labeled as dignified, we put our identity in that. But pride, pride cuts us off from people. it makes us think that we are better than everyone else, and so we put our identity in that and that it what makes people start hating us. Do you really think that people like it when you won't ask for help when you have a problem, or when someone else needs help and you refuse to help them because it is 'beneath you?' Really, pride makes you the lowest of the low. No one wants to be around you, because you cover yourself up with this shroud of pride, too thick for anyone to get under, too heavy for anyone to remove. So the most lonely people are usually the people to hold onto that shroud as if it is a lifeline. They sacrifice relationship, so that they can feel comforted by the lies that they have surrounded themselves by.

So, the question to think about is: Do you cover yourself in the shroud of pride, or do you value relationship?

Stay Faithful, Even When They Don't--Following God When No One Else Does

Yes, it's hard. It has always been hard. No one talks about how fun it is to be different from all their friends and family. But it's always worth it in the end. Whe people see how different you are, they notice that it's a good different, not a bad different. You aren't angry all the time, you aren't going out and getting high, or drunk. If you are, then you desperately need God. God saves people from the pit that they've dug for themselves. But he can't do it without their consent. I've noticed that some people, who have been Christians their entire lives, who grew up in a good home with Christian parents, and went to church all their lives tend to stop following God, because it's all fake to them. But those who have had a harder life, who were on a never-ending downward spiral to nowhere, when they hit rock bottom and have a serious God encounter, tend to still follow, even when things get hard. This is not everyone. This is just people that I've experienced and met, so don't get upset.

So, if you've been a Christian your whole life, but you're tired of it, I suggest you pray and you pray hard, because life without God is dark. It's so dark, it's depressing. If no one else around you follows God, they I suggest you pray. Because they are in that darkness. They need someone to be the tiny spark that gives them hope, that will lead them to the greatest hope of all.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: when you follow God when no one else does, you are being used by God to bring people into his light.

Heart Issue-Heart Disease and Its Cure

There is a theme running through the book of Jeremiah about the heart. Most of it talks about making the heart clean, repenting, in order to be closer to God. This not only applied to the people during the time of Jeremiah, but to people now. God has no love of sin, and when there is sin in our hearts it pushes him our. God is not going to force us to get rid of it, but he doesn't want it to stay. God gave us free will, so we have the ability to make the conscious choice to get rid of the sin, or keep it in our lives. By keeping it in our lives, we slowly push God out of our lives. It might not even be what we consider a 'huge sin' like murdering someone. It could be just lying about small things, to keep yourself out of trouble, or sleeping with your partner before you're married. In today's culture, these things aren't considered wrong. But in God's eyes they are detestable. But because he loves us deeply, he's not going to condemn us. He might place conviction in our hearts, so that we realize that we are committing sin, separating us from him. His conviction is not to make us feel guilty, but just to show us where we went astray. God never wants us to feel guilty. He sent his son to free us from our guilt. Our guilt, even after repenting, is another thing that keeps us separated from him. Guilt builds a wall around our hearts that God has to pull apart, brick by brick. It's a long process and it often hurts, but through the pain comes healing. Its like Eustace from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. He was turned into a dragon because he was greedy and wanted curse gold, which he didn't know was cursed at the time. I think that this story is a good analogy for our sin and the way that God frees us from it:

"The water was a clear as anything and I thought that it I could get in there and bathe, it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out lous or not. I was just going to say that I couldn't undress becasue I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly though that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, though I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peelin off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of if. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeing. So I started to go down into the well for my bath. But just as I put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough an wrinkled and scaley just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means that I had another small suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore agains and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bath. Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I though to mysled, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I lloked at my self in the water, I knew it had been no good. Then the lion said- but I don't know if it spoke- "You will have to let me undress you." I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thougt if had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, ot furn worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know- if you've ever pick the scab of a sore place. If hurts like billy-oh, but it is such fun to see it coming away. Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off- just as I thought I'd done it myself, the other three times, only they hadn't hurt- and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there I was, smooth and soft as a peeled switch and small than I had been. Then he caught hold of me- I didn't like that much, for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again."

In very much the same way that Aslan, the lion, tore away Eustace's scaly dragon skin, God tears away the hardened skin of our hearts, when we let him, and it hurts. Oh, it hurts so bad, but then he covers us with his love, and it stops hurting, and we realize that we are how he made us to be. We are clean, new, and beautiful and the stuff that was covering our hearts, is lying beside us, gross and ugly, and we are free to walk away from it.

So we all have heart disease, and there is only one cure for it. God. Make the choice to lay down and let God rip away the tough, ugly skin around your hearts, and become a child again.

The Day of the Lord--Punishment or Blessing?

The Day of the Lord, most people now see as the Final Judgment. The End of the World. The Apocalypse. However you want to say it. The final judgment is something to worry about. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, then you don't have to worry about whether you will be punished for what you have done in your life. Jesus steps in for you. He took the blame when he died on the cross. But what you do have to worry about is whether your friends or family will be in the same boat as you, or in the boat that has holes in the hull. Sinking. If you have friends and family that do not know Jesus as their savior, best friend, prince of peace, then you need to pray for them. You need to pray hard. They need to know. Then there's all those people who do don't really know; co-workers, bosses, teachers, classmates, neighbors.

So what are you going to do about it?

A For Real God

God is so different from our puny gods and idols. He is capable of loving and giving, not just demanding and receiving. 

C.S. Lewis said, "God doesn't want something from us. He simply wants us." This is so true. When you really start thinking deep, you realize that all your life, God has been looking out for you, keeping you safe and provided for. Maybe not in the way that you wanted it to happen, but that's what he's been doing. He doesn't just sit back and wait to see what happens. He loves you with a sweet, fiery passion that can't be snuffed out.

What Makes Yahweh So Great, Anyway?

Throughout the history of Judah, God has shown himself to be great. There is no denying it. Who else could create an entire universe with one word? Who else could cause the springs and the water tables to erupt out of the earth, covering it with water? Who else could cause ten plagues and stop them with a thought? Who else could split and entire sea so that his people could walk across to the other side, without even getting one toe wet? Who else could cause the walls of a great city to break apart and fall to the ground? Who else could use a small stone from a riverbed to knock down a giant? During all this, God was carrying one group of people through everything. He made Adam and Eve. He kept them even when they disobeyed him and ate the fruit that he specifically told them not to. He kept Noah and his family safe through a 40 day, 40 night deluge and then kept them fed while the water sat still upon the earth. He kept his people from being harmed by the plagues that he sent on Egypt. He destroyed Jericho. He killed Goliath. But he used somewhat small and insignificant people to do this, not because he needed to, but because he wanted his people to see his glory. Moses was a murderer and a shepherd with a temper and a stutter. Joshua was a simple warrior. David was a shepherd who became a king. All because they were obedient to what God had said.

The whole reason God has done these things is because of his great love for his people. That's what makes him so great. Sure, his power is amazing, but the other gods of the pagan nations surrounding Judah have power too. So what is it that makes Yahweh so mush greater than Baal, or Nisroch? It is is unfailing love. It is out of his love that comes his mercy, his compassion, his fair judgment. He is not a god that has to be appeased; he is not a god that can be manipulated. All he desires is simple obedience.

Hold On to Me

This song is like a prayer that I pray so much. I feel like I'm being spread really thin. There's no way that I can do life without God holding on to me. I don't really have that much to say, because this song says it all.