What's Your Excuse?

Confidence….Another side of abiding.

This is a word that seems to either increase your ability to abide or completely destroy it! It seems as though there are a lot of “church Christians” – people who say they are Christians and will do anything for anyone as long as they are inside the church doors.

When you are given a free invite to enter into God’s presence, it is not until you reach the doorway that you stop and let your lack of confidence take over. You begin to think of all the reasons that you are not good enough or all the past events you wish you could take back. This lack of confidence purely shows your lack of knowledge of God’s forgiveness.

Now really…letting your confidence stop you at door is only slowing you down. It’s time to build the confidence, accept God’s invite, walk through the door, and receive the blessings He has in store for you! Abiding in Him is all about taking one step after another, after another, after another and growing closer to Him; don’t let the lack of confidence stop you at the door!

1 John 2:28 – “Abide in him. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, confident, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuse when he arrives.”

It’s time to evaluate yourself. So, what’s your excuse? Why can’t you seem to pass through the doorway? Are you abiding in Him constantly, and pursing the life He wants to see you live? Take the next step in your walk with Christ and see the joys and blessings that wait for you on the other side!

Abide

Abide. It has to do with “being” instead of “doing”.

“Doing” is like reading your Bible, going to church, praying, serving, etc. These are crucial points to increase your walk with God, without them your walk will suffer. But if we are doing these just because we are suppose to or are doing them with our OWN strength we will be missing out on the intimate relationship we need with God.

To abide, we must be in the “being” mode. We are still doing the things God has called us to, but we are doing it in HIS strength this time. The more we are abiding in Him, the more we will be faithful to what he calls us to do. “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.” Romans 1:11-12. With this, we won’t become works oriented, we will become Christ oriented and have more peace/understanding in our life.

To abide is to experience His presence. To bear patiently; waiting for God to reveal His will and Himself to us. When you begin to reflect on the word “abide” and how through your own time with God, waiting on Him, the faith that you have in your own life seems to expand and spread among those around you, without you even realizing it. That “constant, remaining, still standing” …ABIDING….moments with God can actually build up your faith, move, and encourage those around you!

Keep On Keeping On

As a college student there are always changes that occur. It could range from a chance in classes, work environment, friends, and relationships. Schedules are always jammed pack with the things that have to get done each day and in result can make life very stressful while trying to find a happy medium. College has been known as the time to figure out who you are and what you plan to do with your life after college. Trying to plan a weekend is hard enough, not to mention now I'm planning the rest of my life! Talk about overwhelming!

James 1:2-4 "When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, you endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."

Stress is an ultimate factor of defeat, motivation loss, and disappointment. When I have been asked by incoming freshmen what got me through the first year of college, my response has always been finding the right group of people, time managing, and prioritizing. Relying on the Lord and putting my complete faith in Him has got me to where I am today. He has blessed me with a great church, group of friends, a job, and he helps me manage my everyday tasks and turns them into opportunities to serve others! There is nothing more I could have asked of Him to make this college transition experience any better than it has been!

I feel like the endurance that is growing through my faith being tested is always expanding beyond what I could imagine! Which, to me, is a great feeling! This endurance is never fully developed, because we will never be "perfect and complete, needing nothing" but knowing that God is willing to give us exactly what is needed, when it's needed is such a blessing!

"For apart from me you can do nothing...But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!" John 15:5-7 I challenge you, and myself as well, to abide in Him and His word constantly! Through Him you will be able to accomplish so many things, but apart from him you can do nothing. Keep on keeping on and finish this race of life strong through the power, strength, and motivation God is giving you to glorify Him and His kingdom!

Are You Taking God Seriously?

Faith, it’s something that Jesus’ disciples seemed to be lacking in Matthew 17.

As the story goes, a man stepped out from the crowed came to his knees begging Jesus to have mercy over his son who was filled with a demon. He said he had brought his son to Jesus’ disciples but they were unable to do anything about it. So Jesus asked to see the boy and he drove out the demon. Later the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t drive the demon out. Jesus’ response was “Because you have so little faith…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus comment “Because you have so little faith” is so true in so many of our lives. Another version says “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously”. How many times to you approach a problem or a situation and think, “I bet I could do this on my own” or maybe “I know myself the best so I will make this decision for myself”. God knows you so much better than you even know yourself! He knew you before you were born and he knows everything you are going to do throughout the rest of your life.

To think about how small an actual mustard seed is and how much power you would have if you only had that much faith in God is unbelievable! That just goes to show that there is so much to learn from Jesus. We will never fully understand or comprehend all he has done. But we all know the gift of everlasting life he has laid down for us, and that is enough to make us have all the faith in the world! Nothing is impossible for you as long as God is living through you. So open you life up, lay your own life to the side, and start taking God seriously. Build up that “mustard seed” faith in Him and begin to move mountains!

Clean or Unclean

Matthew 15:11 ~ “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him “unclean”, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him “unclean”.

How often do you pretend to be a Christian to impress those around you? How many times do you say you are praying for someone, and really you never do? How many times do you say you give it all to God when really you are keeping a lot of it to yourself still? All of these things are common among many “Christians”

Matthew 15:7 ~ “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.” So now you must stop. Think about what you were/have been saying. And take this time to make things clean, truthful, and meaningful. Let God do the speaking through you, for you will reach many more people this way and you will have a pure heart.

Matthew 15:17-20 ~ Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man “unclean”. For what comes out of the heart come evil and makes a man “unclean”; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him “unclean”. It crazy to think of things this way; things that enter through your mouth will eventually come out but not necessarily make you unclean, it is what comes from your heart that is unclean. Now exam your heart. What is it that causes the evilness of your heart that in result makes you unclean? How can you fix this?

The importance of being a Christian is having the opportunity to bless those people around you who maybe don’t know Christ, so that one day they will have the opportunity to grow in Christ just as you have. Matthew 15 has really spoken to me and made me question the way I do things and the things I allow come into my life. Here are a few questions that got me to thinking and hopefully will speak to you too. How can you accomplish spreading Gods word with an unclean heart? How can you really grow closer to God if you are just acting the part? Don’t fall into the routine of everyday things. Not only does this damage your life but the lives around you. And finally don’t let the things of this world consume and pollute your life. Pray for a clean heart, one that will glorify God and allow you to accomplish His will for you!

What Are You Chasing After?

I was reading a devotional book the other day and I came across a crazy story. It said, “Some years ago, three hundred whales were found marooned on a beach. Scientists speculated that the whales had been chasing small fish and had become trapped in shallow water when the tide went out. So by chasing sardines, these gigantic creatures were led to their doom.”

Do you ever think that if you had the chance to do something over again, you would do it completely different? Of course, we all have that thought! But what makes us want to have a “do-over” in life? Could it be because we made a mistake, weren’t happy with how things ended, or think we could do better next time? Those are all great explanations, but why is that we don’t just do things the right way the first time? It probably has something to do with those “sardines” we are chasing after and get caught up with.

Its seems as though we get so caught up in the worldly things around us that we push God off to the side and pretty much tell him, “I’ll get back to you when I get everything else done or when I get bored and there is nothing else to do.” Life is so short to leave God out of the picture! James 4:14~ “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

The basic principle is to love God and to love others. 1 John 5:2 ~ “We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments.” If you really love God, you will naturally want to do the things that please Him. And with your eyes focused on Him, you will not be chasing after those “sardines” around your life, instead maybe those “sardines” will begin to chase after you in hope to receive the joy God has graciously poured out already on you! So what are you chasing after in your life, God or “sardines”?

Mind Blowing

As I look out my window tonight I look up to the dark sky filled with the stars all shining bright. As I gazed over the sky and spotted out the constellations I recognized I began to wonder how something this big and wonderful could have ever been created, much less thought of! Throughout the day we pass by trees, birds, and flowers and we can take in all of the wonderful things God has shined his light on. But how often do we take the time to admire such beauty at night?

I took an astronomy class my first year of college. The professor was overwhelmed by what was in our night sky. She would encourage us to get a group of friends together, pull out some lawn chairs, and pop a bag of popcorn and examine the night sky all night (of course we never did that because that just seemed silly). She was so familiar with every constellation. She knew each one by name and the exact declination from the horizon. But what she didn’t know was who could have created this.

I grew up in a very small town, so at night it seemed as though the stars were so much bigger and brighter there. Lying on the trampoline and looking at the sky never gave me a clear understanding of how wonderful these stars are. So during this class, we had labs on the outskirts of town; far way from all the city lights. I was told through the whole semester that the biggest looking star was actually Saturn. I had no idea, so I just said ok and went on. But it wasn’t until the last lab meeting that we pulled out the giant telescope and got to see for our own eye Saturn. We could see it in such detail; we could even see the ring around it!

This just blew my mind! All of those nights while lying on the trampoline I thought those were all just plain stars. And all of this time, my professor credited the power of this galaxy to scientist and technology, since of course they were the ones to provide us with the equipment needed to see farther than any eye could see. But she is totally wrong!! There was no use of technology or science for the creation of this galaxy it was just……

“God spoke: “Lights! Come out! Shine in Heaven’s sky! Separate Day from Night. Mark seasons and days and years, Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to Earth”. And there it was. God made two big lights, the larger to take charge of Day, The smaller to be in charge of Night; he made the stars. God placed them in the heavenly sky to light up Earth and oversee Day and Night, to separate light and dark…” – Genesis 1:14-19

Spoken!! How amazing is that!!! It seems like a lot of times today, we have to see things to believe them. I encourage you to start reading Mathew. You can’t actually see the miracles Jesus performed, but with His word being the Truth, that should mean everything and more to you! Take time not only to admire in astonishment the things around us God has created, but more importantly realize the power he has to just speak things and they become. Our God is a powerful amazing God. He is holding on to you, guiding you, and providing you with the strength for each day! Now that’s what I say is truly mind blowing!