check your eyes.

"Every major spiritual decline in the history of Christianity has come when the church has lost sight of the primacy of faith and begun to stress works instead." -John MacArthur-


In other words, stopping focusing on what you can do for God and keep your eyes on what He has done for you.

[talkin' life over]...

The world is broken and I can't fix it.

But what I'm realizing is that it was never one of God's commands to be the ones to do that.

No matter how much I hope, pray, and crave life and redemption for one of the broken, it's ultimately God who reaches them.

I find it frustrating that I could be a blameless sinner who was perfect in every way, yet no matter how hard I tried, I'd never physically, emotionally, and spiritually change another person.  But doesn't that sound familiar? I can't imagine how He felt when His sandals trudged on earth's dirt paths. I can't fathom the incandescent love that He has for us, that He would hold open hands to us with this incredible sacrifice and promise of life, yet give us the choice to reject it completely.  
What an unextinguished love that He's given us the chance to embrace!  I mean, if you really sit and peruse over God's grace, it's unfathomable. Imagine pouring out your heart to someone that you love and then having them silently ignore or openly reject you.  I wonder how God rests when there are so many lost. So many that He continues to woe and call, but so many that will never hear His voice. And so many that think they're the good soil, but are choked out by the thorns of worry.

Do you think God pursues the people that He knows won't choose Him?

I believe God does. God is awesome beyond comprehension, yes?

We are in His image. We must do the same.  Love knowing that a lot of the people we love may never see the Light.  Love knowing that they will curse and blame God the rest of their lives regardless of what we say.  Love knowing they will live eternally apart from God's grace and acceptance no matter how hard we pray for them.

So, loving others isn't really about the other people.  God's hand is already upon them, tugging at them. I'm just a tool. Everyone has their own connection with God, be it passionate, cordial, strained, or non-existent. Loving people changes me, just like prayer.  God doesn't need me to be anyone's guardian angel.  He's bigger than that.  He wants me to love others because it the most incredible way for me, and the people in my sphere of influence, to get closer to Him.  It's the process of sanctification.  God is moving and working through each of us, through each other.

But in the end, it's just me and God; you and God.

world.

Why is it that everyone on this planet, at one (or two, or three, or four...)  times follows the status quo?

Why do we mimic the world in small ways, yet rebuke and judge each other for mimicking the world in "big" ways?

Why is it that we so easily accept what we've been given and never challenge ourselves to seek truth?

Why do we treat our bodies and spirits like trash and than feel so frustrated when we aren't respected?

Why is there no hope in our culture?

Why are we so selfish?

I'm so frustrated by all these questions. I read God's word and it's so contrasted by what I see in my everyday life. From myself and the people around me. I see fear, I see anger, I see me, me, me, mine, mine, mine. I see instant gratification seemingly effortlessly thrown in my face.  I see disrespect and hatred for one another. I see dissension. I see lust. I see insecurity. I see "just do it," "do what tastes right," "obey your thirst" and "have it your way."

I see the world.

It's kinda gross to me at the moment. It makes my stomach twist and my chest tighten up.  It must've been the most glorious masterpiece before the fall.  But sin slithered it's way in and disgraced everything that the Lord had made.  And now we're left with a desolate land filled with all kinds of evils.  Some of which have been consider ugly and hidden until just recently. Now it seems that we flaunt it for the world to see.

Look at my car, my body, my new music, my third husband, my child that wasn't meant to be yet anyway.  Do you know how God sees all those things?  God says, look at how Man desires stuff more than Me.  Look at how they desecrate my holy temple.  Look at how they use the talents I've given them to put blasphemy and immorality to a good tune. Look at their sexual immorality strewn all over the billboards and tabloids.  Look at those beautiful babies that no one wanted to watch over because it was "inconvenient."

It's disgusting quite frankly.

Jesus came and tried to show us with all His might that our way doesn't work.  He tried so hard to drive this point home to us that He

died. 

Not only that, but He suffered in death.

He took the form of a man and died to save our trashed lives.
And what do we do to show Him our gratitude?
We covet, we steal, we worry, we lie, we engage in every kind of evil.
And not only that, but those of us who recognize all this evil afoot, don't do squat about it.
Because why?

we. are. afraid.

Why are we afraid?
Because doing something about it would put us on the map. On display. Laid bare.
It would require rising above the status quo and being confident in it.
It would take courage and effort. :O *gasp*
It would take sacrifice. A church word. It means to give of yourself.

Noooo... because that would be difficult. And life can't be difficult. Right? How can you "have it your way" when life is difficult?

It's time to step it up.  It's time to make them wonder what you've got.  It's time to be bold and brave and joyful and beautiful when everything sucks.  It's time to listen. It's time to rejoice. It's time to build up and tear down. It's time to fight.

Pray. Read. Love. Raise the bar.

Because that's what Jesus did.

"You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be." John 8:23,24


"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who love his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me." Matthew 10:37, 38

fabric.

 

We are to be like God. Be holy and perfect, as He is holy and perfect.

When I read scriptures that tell me this, I often lose touch with the words because I know deep down that it's impossible for me to be perfect and completely set apart all on my own.

If I asked you right now,

What do you think God is like?

What would be your answer?

Maybe you'd say

 

"Powerful" or

"Almighty" or

"Faithful" or

even "loving."

 

What do we know about God's heart? I mean His core. What do we really know about the fabric that makes up the God of the universe?

Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Do you ever wonder what is in God's heart?

 

He says His burden is light and His yoke is easy.

He says that He is humble in heart.

And He says that we will find rest with Him.

 

"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young." Isaiah forty, eleven

 

God's heart is gentle, humble, perfectly holy, and desires to gather you in His arms and carry you close. Throughout the entire Bible, God is threaded through people and situations. And God's word, taken in totality, is a huge blanket of love for us!

God wants [insert your name here]

Say it out loud.

Say it again.

Let it sink in…

God wants a wretched, complaining, worried, sinful, selfish mortal like me?

 

Oh how He wants us.

He created us because He wanted us.

He created us to want Him back.

 

And we're supposed to be like Him.

He wants us to love all of other wretched, complaining, worried, sinful, selfish mortals of the earth.

And to be like Him, we have to do what He does.

 

His heart will long for us for eternity. The Psalmist writes, "But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." Psalm thirty three, eleven

There's so much to God, but when you intimately know His core, you have a little more insight and understanding of why He does things the way He does.

Although, His "thoughts are not your thoughts, nor [His] ways your ways." Isaiah fifty five, eight

We can still begin to understand His core desire. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings." Proverbs twenty five, two

But God wants all of us, not just a piece of our hearts. "'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I (Jesus) will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." Matthew seven, twenty two through twenty four

 

How awful would it be to see God's face tomorrow and hear those words come from His mouth! "Away from me, you evildoer, I never knew you!"

Instead, we strive to know Him. And what a rewarding and beautiful adventure it is to pursue the heart of God! There's so much to learn. No matter how deep I dig, I've never found the bottom of God's love for me. "If you love me, you will obey what I command." John fourteen fifteen I believe this verse is a palindrome, "If you obey what I command, you will love me." It's the mixture of obedience and love that pushes your relationship forward. Not one before the other.

Nothing on earth can compare to the vast expanses of God's humility and desire for His children, "as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings."

And in a desperate, lovesick reply, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." Psalm forty two, one