WE have no words to describe what we are. What our purposes are. We ought to be nothing more than hollow, plastic game pieces for all we're worth, but for some reason, God--or Brilliant Creator--gave us LIFE.
An intricate breathing method, a complex digestive system, and an amazing (by our poor standards) brain. Oh, and He gave us those standards, too. Thoughts. Ability to reason. Opinions. We CAN choose to ignore the obvious--that we are nothing more than an often confused and dysfunctional mind trapped in worthless skin--but in doing so we deny (we're supposed to believe the opposite, that we're DISCOVERING) who we really are and who we're really meant to be.
In today's culture, it's nearly impossible to fully grasp this notion that we are completely not OURS. That our thoughts, our talents, what we like to do, what we don't like to do, are ALL part of a jaw-dropping plan that God our Master set into motion.
In the process of us humans using these "thoughts" that we have (What are "our own thoughts" really, when they're given to us from God? Can we lay claim to anything?) and "opinions" and "words," we, because we're NOT God (in fact, we're the antonym of God, the un-God, the anti-God, the anything-but-God), screwed up and began "thinking" that things (time, money, thoughts, women, power) were actually ours. So we started treating each other like crap and looking out for ourselves. Even the "good ones" who went to church (Is it even more than a building built with our greedy human hands?) and gave 10% of "their money" were in it for themselves. They were the ones God said He'd spit out of His mouth. Guess He doesn't like the taste of hollow plastic.
Oddly enough, though, after all this nasty, wicked cycle of sin had been set into full swing, God--the same One who hung the stars and Who's with you reading this over your shoulder--came to Earth and experienced it all like we have. The thoughts. The opinions. The words. They were all Love. He is Love. We are made in His image. Let us learn to love.
But WE can not!!! First, we have to come to grips with the life-changing truth that God loves us! While He spent His time on Earth, He Loved. So he could receive glory. Then, He died and rose again to glorify Himself and show dominion over Satan. In doing so, He raised us all up and filled our rotten, hollow core with His Love and saved us! He takes JOY in saving us! I'm blown away...
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
Grace, make your way.
Dear Satan,
I wish that you would go away. I do a good deed, and pride ensues. I thwart one of your flaming arrows, and pride follows close behind. I give in, and you rub my face in the mud with shame. I am locked in a prison of sin and, just when I'm about to escape, you remind me of the shackles of guilt around my ankles. You make me question my every move. Am I noble or selfish? Loving or self-righteous? Caring or pretending? I'm sick of you.
God's child, Raleigh
I wish that you would go away. I do a good deed, and pride ensues. I thwart one of your flaming arrows, and pride follows close behind. I give in, and you rub my face in the mud with shame. I am locked in a prison of sin and, just when I'm about to escape, you remind me of the shackles of guilt around my ankles. You make me question my every move. Am I noble or selfish? Loving or self-righteous? Caring or pretending? I'm sick of you.
God's child, Raleigh
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Love.
I just feel like I need to chronicle this awesome journey of love that God has taken me on...
After Nathan died, I felt this overwhelming urge to, like Nate, tell people about Jesus. I wanted to be outgoing and loving and caring and compassionate for lost people. For all people. I wanted to be an outspoken, loving Christian! Somewhere in all of this, I realized the person that I had become. An unraveling self that spent my days pretending to love and pretending to care and pretending to tell lost people about Jesus. I would see people I knew and--remembering awesome Nathan's example--I would rush to them, "excited" to see them. I would ask them how their week was, how their relationship with Jesus was, all the while pretending to listen and pretending to care while harboring my own selfish agenda. After these interactions, it was as if I asked myself, "Well, was I nice enough? Was I kind enough to him? I hope he likes me..."
See, I wanted nice things said about me. Actually--great things! I wanted people to talk about my faith and my witness and my care of others. Kinda like they did with Nathan. It was all about me.
CS Lewis wrote:
All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love--a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Just like that scholar's parrot didn't really know Greek, I don't think that I can really know love. At the core, we as humans are such miserable, helpless, selfish, rotten people, left on earth to plunder and pillage others for our own sakes. So, when people wonder what's wrong with the world, I want to, like Miller, raise up a sign that says I AM THE PROBLEM! It's us!
When we start being SELFLESS, even if its just for a little while, five minutes (which is about five more minutes than we normally give to others), one conversation, we start realizing that God calls us to love in this way. That's what I wanted that Nathan had! It wasn't that he was hyped up on Red Bulls and he was energetic and excited to see people...he really CARED about people! This gets harder and harder the more you think about it, though...I'm to love smelly homeless people? Yep. I'm to go out of my way to talk to that mentally retarted person at school? You got it. And what about that girl that thinks she's better than me? Surely I am exempt from loving her...No way.
God is so big and mighty and clean and bright that we can't even begin to wrap our minds around the thought. From childhood, I have been hearing that God sent his Son to die so that we could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But that phrase in itself becomes so commonplace and so cliche, we forget its unbelievable, supernatural power! HERE's what we should be teaching in our churches, in our schools: God, who is completely in love with us, came from his throne in Heaven to this selfish world (that's you and me, by the way) and died a gory, brutal death. He did all of this because He is infinitely in love with us; In love in a way that--to steal a line from my favorite band, As Cities Burn--is lost in second chances WITHOUT END! Husbands and wives say that the are "in love", but can we really ever know romance like this?
After Nathan died, I felt this overwhelming urge to, like Nate, tell people about Jesus. I wanted to be outgoing and loving and caring and compassionate for lost people. For all people. I wanted to be an outspoken, loving Christian! Somewhere in all of this, I realized the person that I had become. An unraveling self that spent my days pretending to love and pretending to care and pretending to tell lost people about Jesus. I would see people I knew and--remembering awesome Nathan's example--I would rush to them, "excited" to see them. I would ask them how their week was, how their relationship with Jesus was, all the while pretending to listen and pretending to care while harboring my own selfish agenda. After these interactions, it was as if I asked myself, "Well, was I nice enough? Was I kind enough to him? I hope he likes me..."
See, I wanted nice things said about me. Actually--great things! I wanted people to talk about my faith and my witness and my care of others. Kinda like they did with Nathan. It was all about me.
CS Lewis wrote:
All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love--a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Just like that scholar's parrot didn't really know Greek, I don't think that I can really know love. At the core, we as humans are such miserable, helpless, selfish, rotten people, left on earth to plunder and pillage others for our own sakes. So, when people wonder what's wrong with the world, I want to, like Miller, raise up a sign that says I AM THE PROBLEM! It's us!
When we start being SELFLESS, even if its just for a little while, five minutes (which is about five more minutes than we normally give to others), one conversation, we start realizing that God calls us to love in this way. That's what I wanted that Nathan had! It wasn't that he was hyped up on Red Bulls and he was energetic and excited to see people...he really CARED about people! This gets harder and harder the more you think about it, though...I'm to love smelly homeless people? Yep. I'm to go out of my way to talk to that mentally retarted person at school? You got it. And what about that girl that thinks she's better than me? Surely I am exempt from loving her...No way.
God is so big and mighty and clean and bright that we can't even begin to wrap our minds around the thought. From childhood, I have been hearing that God sent his Son to die so that we could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But that phrase in itself becomes so commonplace and so cliche, we forget its unbelievable, supernatural power! HERE's what we should be teaching in our churches, in our schools: God, who is completely in love with us, came from his throne in Heaven to this selfish world (that's you and me, by the way) and died a gory, brutal death. He did all of this because He is infinitely in love with us; In love in a way that--to steal a line from my favorite band, As Cities Burn--is lost in second chances WITHOUT END! Husbands and wives say that the are "in love", but can we really ever know romance like this?
Sometimes, I burn popcorn in my room...
This is not merely a phase!
Yes! Sometimes we endure peaks, valleys, and periods of moderation, but our relationship--our personal marriage to the Lord and Savior Jesus--is forever!
Never think that your spirituality is fading...that whatever you 'felt' is over. And never desire and place energy in regaining that 'feeling.' Continue seeking HIM.
Yes! Sometimes we endure peaks, valleys, and periods of moderation, but our relationship--our personal marriage to the Lord and Savior Jesus--is forever!
Never think that your spirituality is fading...that whatever you 'felt' is over. And never desire and place energy in regaining that 'feeling.' Continue seeking HIM.
Our big, smiting God
I wish that I could elaborate further on this thought, but because of 1,643 obligations in my life I am currently exhausted. So...I semi-hate posting these type of thoughts on here because 1) I feel that somewhere out there (cough...Michelle) there is someone who can paint these word pictures so much more elegantly and 2) I absolutely want to keep from preaching or talking down to anyone. I aspire to be ever-humble.
Think about this for a second (and I can't claim these thoughts as entirely my own, they are mostly ripped from Rob Bell; but I still want to make others aware of this)...we always talk about and hear sermons about and read scriptures about and drive by billboards about having faith in Jesus. This is awesome. There is no one, no thing that is capable in any capacity for carrying one ounce of our problems, our fears, or our humanity. Except for Jesus. Jesus...ohh man I could type pages and fill up journals writing His praise...what an incredible choice to put our faith in Him.
But what about this...how hard is the decision to accept the simple fact that Jesus--this same Ruler of the universe, Lord and God of all--puts His faith in us? (Ok, this is where the Rob Bell plagiarism begins...) In Matthew 14, when Jesus says to Peter, who has just been lifted from the stormy waters, revealed as a doubter (as a human), "Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?" most of us assume that He is talking about faith and doubt in Jesus. Well, what about Jesus and the amazing faith He has in us ? We, as Christians have been handed this huge responsibility of taking the Gospel--not the gospel of hollow works or righteous deeds, but the Gospel of love and listening and accepting--to the ends of the earth, and you actually think God left it all in our hands hoping that it would get done?
Please stop living in fear of a smiting God and live with boldness--for truth--under a faithful and real God. He has a purpose for you and believes in you.
Why doubt yourself? God doesn't...
Think about this for a second (and I can't claim these thoughts as entirely my own, they are mostly ripped from Rob Bell; but I still want to make others aware of this)...we always talk about and hear sermons about and read scriptures about and drive by billboards about having faith in Jesus. This is awesome. There is no one, no thing that is capable in any capacity for carrying one ounce of our problems, our fears, or our humanity. Except for Jesus. Jesus...ohh man I could type pages and fill up journals writing His praise...what an incredible choice to put our faith in Him.
But what about this...how hard is the decision to accept the simple fact that Jesus--this same Ruler of the universe, Lord and God of all--puts His faith in us? (Ok, this is where the Rob Bell plagiarism begins...) In Matthew 14, when Jesus says to Peter, who has just been lifted from the stormy waters, revealed as a doubter (as a human), "Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?" most of us assume that He is talking about faith and doubt in Jesus. Well, what about Jesus and the amazing faith He has in us ? We, as Christians have been handed this huge responsibility of taking the Gospel--not the gospel of hollow works or righteous deeds, but the Gospel of love and listening and accepting--to the ends of the earth, and you actually think God left it all in our hands hoping that it would get done?
Please stop living in fear of a smiting God and live with boldness--for truth--under a faithful and real God. He has a purpose for you and believes in you.
Why doubt yourself? God doesn't...
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