I remember one of my good friends was upset. He was telling me about how someone in his class was attacking Christianity. She said that she didn't believe in Christianity because it was for weak people. People who couldn't deal with their own problems. People who couldn't pick themselves up.
Yes. That's true.
Matt 5:2-6
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Luke 5:31-32
And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
We are weak people. And we rely on God's strength alone.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Lose Your Life
Matt 16:24-25
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
And here I've been thinking that I must get my life together before anything else. No, the truth is that I can't even do that. I need only to follow Jesus.
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
And here I've been thinking that I must get my life together before anything else. No, the truth is that I can't even do that. I need only to follow Jesus.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Minimalism
I'm a minimalist at heart because I'm lazy. It's sin. I see it especially in my school work. What is the least amount of work I can put into this class that will get me a grade that I'm satisfied with? Often times, I misjudge and my grade comes out much poorer than I expect but I can't really blame anyone because I chose not to work very hard in the first place.
In any case, how I view school is wrong in the first place because my end thought is the grade that I will receive. Not, did I learn anything from that class? That's what school is supposed to be about right? The end goal often dictates how we view the entire situation.
Too often, I've also been a minimalist in my spiritual life. I've been a minimalist with God. God, what's the least amount of work I can do in order to be saved and go to heaven? It's not about meeting the bare minimum. If you're in the line of thought, you've already gone wrong. Thinking about achieving the minimum is already wrong.
If you do not love God more than anything else, heaven will probably not be enjoyable for you. After all, heaven is enjoying God forever and ever. Will there be pie? Who cares? God is infinitely greater than any love for pie. And you think you're going to be happy "enjoying" him forever and ever if you're not absolutely in love with him? If you've only given the minimum effort?
Don't scrape by. God, you'll forgive that sin, right? He will but sinning while knowing that he'll forgive it is the wrong line of thought. Thinking that is already wrong. And I think this way too frequently.
Lord, transform this heart to be sold out for you. What I think of as radical should be more thought of as normal. Normal to those who love you. What is not normal is sin. Help me to hold onto what is good and flee from what is evil.
In any case, how I view school is wrong in the first place because my end thought is the grade that I will receive. Not, did I learn anything from that class? That's what school is supposed to be about right? The end goal often dictates how we view the entire situation.
Too often, I've also been a minimalist in my spiritual life. I've been a minimalist with God. God, what's the least amount of work I can do in order to be saved and go to heaven? It's not about meeting the bare minimum. If you're in the line of thought, you've already gone wrong. Thinking about achieving the minimum is already wrong.
If you do not love God more than anything else, heaven will probably not be enjoyable for you. After all, heaven is enjoying God forever and ever. Will there be pie? Who cares? God is infinitely greater than any love for pie. And you think you're going to be happy "enjoying" him forever and ever if you're not absolutely in love with him? If you've only given the minimum effort?
Don't scrape by. God, you'll forgive that sin, right? He will but sinning while knowing that he'll forgive it is the wrong line of thought. Thinking that is already wrong. And I think this way too frequently.
Lord, transform this heart to be sold out for you. What I think of as radical should be more thought of as normal. Normal to those who love you. What is not normal is sin. Help me to hold onto what is good and flee from what is evil.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
My Summer (Part 3)
Long story short. Everything stems from loving God. And you need to ask God for the grace to love him. That should be enough to try to figure out for a while.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Twas the last fortnight
I have been struggling for the last couple weeks to find out what was wrong with me. I went through my school life fairly normally. I laughed with my friends, I fought through homework with them, I served at KCM and and I served at church. Something was wrong though. I couldn't put my finger on it. I sprained my ankle a couple weeks ago so I haven't been to the gym since. I thought I could attribute my weird feelings to that. Maybe it was a fall depression, something unavoidable. I didn't know how to describe it or explain it so I tried to categorize it as some problem far away and very distant from the actual reality I was going through.
The truth is that I was trying to distance myself from a problem that stemmed directly from my unrepentant heart. It wasn't that it was some mildly obscure issue that I couldn't recognize, but it was something at work in me that was far greater than I could comprehend. The Holy Spirit was telling me that I'm lukewarm. No wonder my brain couldn't figure out what was wrong. God is bigger than I am. Right now he's saying to me..."Are you seeking me with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength?"
Mark 12:30
"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
That's a command. A calling. Not an option. Thank you to Pastor David Tauler for revealing God's truth to me tonight.
I'm lukewarm because I got comfortable. I got comfortable being around other lukewarm Christians. I was comparing myself to them. Thinking, "it's okay to be doing this." "This is what this guy's doing and he's a good Christian."
I do not want to blame anyone. This is a result of my own sinful heart. But I do strongly believe that this has been a result of the interactions with Christians I know throughout the school year. I regret that I had not been a better influence on them. I understand so much that everyone is busy with school. It's easy to compartmentalize your life.
"God's called me to be a student." So true. Very true. God's called me to follow him first though. Jesus called his disciples while they were fishermen. They didn't make an excuse. God's called me to love him with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. That seems freaking impossible. You know why? Because I don't love God that much. But he can make a camel go through the eye of a needle. He can change me as well.
God is good and God is faithful. He has recused me so many times. So many times I've gone down the wrong path. He loves me and he's saved me. He works in a way I'll never understand. Praise him!
The truth is that I was trying to distance myself from a problem that stemmed directly from my unrepentant heart. It wasn't that it was some mildly obscure issue that I couldn't recognize, but it was something at work in me that was far greater than I could comprehend. The Holy Spirit was telling me that I'm lukewarm. No wonder my brain couldn't figure out what was wrong. God is bigger than I am. Right now he's saying to me..."Are you seeking me with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength?"
Mark 12:30
"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
That's a command. A calling. Not an option. Thank you to Pastor David Tauler for revealing God's truth to me tonight.
I'm lukewarm because I got comfortable. I got comfortable being around other lukewarm Christians. I was comparing myself to them. Thinking, "it's okay to be doing this." "This is what this guy's doing and he's a good Christian."
I do not want to blame anyone. This is a result of my own sinful heart. But I do strongly believe that this has been a result of the interactions with Christians I know throughout the school year. I regret that I had not been a better influence on them. I understand so much that everyone is busy with school. It's easy to compartmentalize your life.
"God's called me to be a student." So true. Very true. God's called me to follow him first though. Jesus called his disciples while they were fishermen. They didn't make an excuse. God's called me to love him with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. That seems freaking impossible. You know why? Because I don't love God that much. But he can make a camel go through the eye of a needle. He can change me as well.
God is good and God is faithful. He has recused me so many times. So many times I've gone down the wrong path. He loves me and he's saved me. He works in a way I'll never understand. Praise him!
Monday, September 12, 2011
My Summer (Part 2)
So where I last off, I kind of realized that I had to live a holy life for God. Not only that, but God was changing me in drastic ways to be able to fulfill that command.
"The strength to follow your commands could never come from me" ~ All I Have Is Christ by Sovereign Grace
I lived my next week, feeling free from sin. In the mean time, I went to CBCM's bible study, REM's bible study, and REM's youth group. I was very involved with church to say the least and this was normal. I had resolved to "make use" of my time and do all these things (almost as an experiment to see if it would burn me out).
But at the end of the week, I felt like I hadn't served God at all. I had resolved to live a holy life but was instead merely living a moral one. I did the things that I felt were right in order to keep myself away from guilt and shame. I had gone to each of these church events this week, not seeking to make God's kingdom known, encourage the saints, or even worship him in general. I was going through the motions, going mainly to hang out.
Another change was in order. I needed to be purposeful for the kingdom of God. In fact, I often realized that when I was not purposeful, I often stumbled myself or others. If I'm not aware that the message on Sunday that's being preached is the word of God and I'm just...not thinking anything; it's much easier to doze off. If my sinful flesh would passively do evil and wrong, then I needed to fight actively with the power of the Spirit. I had to live a purposeful life for God.
"The strength to follow your commands could never come from me" ~ All I Have Is Christ by Sovereign Grace
I lived my next week, feeling free from sin. In the mean time, I went to CBCM's bible study, REM's bible study, and REM's youth group. I was very involved with church to say the least and this was normal. I had resolved to "make use" of my time and do all these things (almost as an experiment to see if it would burn me out).
But at the end of the week, I felt like I hadn't served God at all. I had resolved to live a holy life but was instead merely living a moral one. I did the things that I felt were right in order to keep myself away from guilt and shame. I had gone to each of these church events this week, not seeking to make God's kingdom known, encourage the saints, or even worship him in general. I was going through the motions, going mainly to hang out.
Another change was in order. I needed to be purposeful for the kingdom of God. In fact, I often realized that when I was not purposeful, I often stumbled myself or others. If I'm not aware that the message on Sunday that's being preached is the word of God and I'm just...not thinking anything; it's much easier to doze off. If my sinful flesh would passively do evil and wrong, then I needed to fight actively with the power of the Spirit. I had to live a purposeful life for God.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
My Summer (Part 1)
After school had let out, I fell deep into sin. For the next week, I lived in sexual immorality. It's not that I didn't think it was wrong but that I had perhaps surmised that this was one hurdle I would jump over later in life. That as of right now, I would never conquer it and could therefore put it off for later. Is that how I look at sin in general?
I even went to my church retreat not even thinking about this. Not even going in thinking, "I'm going to fix this here" or "God's going to fix this here". Not that that is the right mentality, but that just shows me how unconcerned I was about my sin. The first sermon ended and I was about to head to my small group, more concerned about meeting new people than what had been preached. But before I even left my seat, I was told that I had been switched out. I thank God that I was. My new small group leader's first sentence was "We have to beat sexual immorality. Let's band together to kill this thing."
I was floored and it really brought to light the sin that I was facing. It was the first installment encountering a love in my church that wasn't afraid to be intrusive, wasn't afraid to ask hard questions that seemed awkward, and wasn't prepared to assume anything just because you didn't share that you were struggling with something. But after that retreat, I'd be lying if I said I was changed. Even after being shown the truth and having a genuine brother reach out to me, my hard heart remained. I needed God himself to change me.
The turning point was my church's first men's meeting. It was a real men's meeting. Asaph and I were the only college guys. Once again, the talk was on sexual immorality. My pastor said "This isn't normal. Why do we think that this is normal?" I realized that almost every prayer group I've been in has had myself or another brother struggling with this sin. If I'm struggling with it and that guy is struggling with it and maybe even my small group leader is struggling with it...then I'll start to think it's normal. I know it's wrong but this must be something God addresses with me much later on.
It's not normal. After that meeting, God did a work in me. I've lost count of the number of weeks since I last fell. I wish I could tell other people how I overcame it but the truth is that I didn't. Christ overcame that and changed me with his love. I did nothing.
I even went to my church retreat not even thinking about this. Not even going in thinking, "I'm going to fix this here" or "God's going to fix this here". Not that that is the right mentality, but that just shows me how unconcerned I was about my sin. The first sermon ended and I was about to head to my small group, more concerned about meeting new people than what had been preached. But before I even left my seat, I was told that I had been switched out. I thank God that I was. My new small group leader's first sentence was "We have to beat sexual immorality. Let's band together to kill this thing."
I was floored and it really brought to light the sin that I was facing. It was the first installment encountering a love in my church that wasn't afraid to be intrusive, wasn't afraid to ask hard questions that seemed awkward, and wasn't prepared to assume anything just because you didn't share that you were struggling with something. But after that retreat, I'd be lying if I said I was changed. Even after being shown the truth and having a genuine brother reach out to me, my hard heart remained. I needed God himself to change me.
The turning point was my church's first men's meeting. It was a real men's meeting. Asaph and I were the only college guys. Once again, the talk was on sexual immorality. My pastor said "This isn't normal. Why do we think that this is normal?" I realized that almost every prayer group I've been in has had myself or another brother struggling with this sin. If I'm struggling with it and that guy is struggling with it and maybe even my small group leader is struggling with it...then I'll start to think it's normal. I know it's wrong but this must be something God addresses with me much later on.
It's not normal. After that meeting, God did a work in me. I've lost count of the number of weeks since I last fell. I wish I could tell other people how I overcame it but the truth is that I didn't. Christ overcame that and changed me with his love. I did nothing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
