a few thoughts

I started this notebook that I fill with thoughts on passages that I come across in the Bible and how they stick out to me.
I was glancing at Job the other day and here is what I got out of it;

"Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable." (Job 36:26)
As humans we so often think we understand God and can comprehend his actions. But we totally can't, and that just goes to show how awesome and amazing he is! Our human minds are so limited we can't begin to understand his glory and majesty until we see him face to face, and even then it'll be mind blowing.

"For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?" (Job 27:8-10)
I just read these verses and they really stuck out to me. It makes me realize how much we have when we put our trust in God. When we're living for His glory, and trusting in Him. I love the last verse; "will he take delight in the Almighty? will he call upon God at all times?" So much joy comes when you become a Christian. Hours of time just with God. And they truly are delightful. And yes, we know we can call upon God at all times. Which is just so amazing. I mean the mere fact that he knows you better than anyone, and that he takes that time to know you, to love you. oh, not to mention he does that to everyone else on the planet. What an awesome God we have!

Here is another passage that I wanted to share my thoughts on. It's not from Job, but it's one of my favorite parables that Jesus tells. It's the story of the Pharisee who goes to the temple to pray and the tax collector who goes also to pray. I'm not going to post the entire story, just the last 2 verses.

"But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather then the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:13.14)

It really stuck out to me that these two men are both approaching God in the same way, prayer, which I consider as an act of worship. They are both approaching him at the same time, same place, and yet they are both coming before Him in two totally different ways. The first is coming with his eyes totally focused on himself. While the other is coming in complete humbleness and submission, his eyes on God.
How are we coming before God when we come to worship? Whether it's on Sunday mornings at church, or maybe at youthgroup, or even in our daily devotions and prayer. Are our eyes like the Pharisees, focused only on us? Or maybe it's not even that they're on us, maybe it's something else that's in our life. Like financial troubles, shaky relationships, peer pressure, or our job.
Or, are we like the tax collector. Totally wrapped up in God, submitting to Him our faults and failures, falling before him saying "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" If our eyes are not on God and yet we're coming before Him for worship, we are not going to be able to give him the worship that he deserves.

of knitting

I haven't posted any of my projects to recently, so I thought a knitting post was due. I have three to show. The first is of my Goodale which is complete! yay! I really like it, although I wish had split for the sleeves a little sooner.

The 2nd is my adorable baby sweater! I finally finished it, and was able to give it to my cousin on Sunday at his birthday party.
in the making....

and tada! so happy I'm done with it, but also very happy as to how it came out :-)

and last, but not least. These are actually my favorite :-)

Found the pattern on ravelry and just had to make some for my little Valentines sister who turned 7 on Monday! I am officially addicted to them and will be making many more. :-)
Hope you all had a very awesome Valentines day, filled with much love.

Raising the Bar

"Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven"    -Matthew 5:19

     I don't know about you, but to me it sounds like Jesus is not joking around in this passage. "Will be called least in the kingdom of heaven." Now that's pretty harsh. For most people, we want to be first. And we want to get the best. And most of the time we want to do that with little effort involved. (Well, I do at least ;)
     But that's not what Jesus is asking us for. He's actually asking us a lot. More then we can do on our own. If you read all of Matthew 5 you'll see that Jesus is raising the bar. In the Old Testament God gave his people a set of rules. And if they broke those rules, which they very often did, they had to sacrifice something. Well, when Jesus died for us, He became our sacrifice. Now instead of needing to kill a sheep or bird or something everytime we sin, we know that if we have been saved, Jesus has already paid the price.
     God knows us to well though. He knew that if he left it at that we would very often ignore our sin knowing that it was paid for by Jesus already. After all, it's not like I murder someone weekly. That's why he raised the bar. To make us more aware of our sin, and to slowly make us more like him. Now he says, don't just not murder people, don't even hate them in your heart because that's just as bad as murder. Not only should you not commit adultry, you should never even look lustfuly at someone.
     The sad part of it is, we often ignore our sin anyway. Or we tell ourselves the lie "He expects too much, we're human after all. We're not perfect."  No, he doesn't expect to much. Of course you can't do it on your own. It would be stupid to even try, which we often do. We need God. We need his love, his strength, and his power. There's no way we can do it on our own. He raised the bar knowing that we couldn't do it, just so that we would have to rely on him even more.
     Ephesians 6:10-11 says:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."

     It then continues on to tell what the armor of God is. If you have never read this passage I would strongly encourage you to do so. And if you have, you should still go re-read it. :)
But here's the point of this post: Jesus raised the bar, are we now striving to achieve that? Are we trusting and relying on God to help us? Are we putting on the armor of God so as to fight against the devil who is trying to tear us down? We can't just sit back and hope for God to change us. We have to act. We have to pray. We have to read the Bible so as to grow. If we're not growing Satan is winning.
     I'm not posting this because I'm the perfect church girl who reads her Bible daily. I'm posting this because it's a struggle for me everyday. And God is making me more and more aware of it. (I actually have a post on that for tomorrow on how God is working in me through that area.)
Every little choice we make has an effect. Satan is going to attack in ways that will seam harmless. Are we ready for those attacks? Are we even noticing it's him? Or are we so caught up in this world that we're losing sight of God?
     My challenge to you is this:

"To put off your old slef, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:22-24)

 "So whether you ear of drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1Cor.10:31)

 "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." (Romans 12:9) 

We won't be silent

I posted this on Facebook, but then I realized that not everyone has facebook. So this is for all you non facebookers ;)

"Shout it out the world must know, God is love"

     Amazing and powerful things happened this past weekend. I don't know about you, but starting Saturday night I truly felt like we had become a part of the body of Christ. We were able to put away distractions, open up and be real with one another. I had come to the retreat with high expectations. God went far beyond those. I had been praying for connection among us. God unified us. I was praying that we would be real, but God opened us up even further. Not only were we real with each other, we were real with God, and real with our worship.
     The retreat was just for a weekend, but it doesn't have to end there. God started something in us, and we need to carry it on. Like Adam said, we can't just let those feelings go and go right back to our old life. We need to leave our sin behind, and walk the path that God has laid out for us. Maybe this past weekend was the starting point of that walk, or maybe it was a milestone. But whatever it was for you, don't hide it. Don't be silent. Because that's what Satan wants. Shout it out. The world does need to know God's love.
     Now, if you're anything like me, today was really hard. School, work, family issues... it's all back. And all I want to be doing right now is worshiping our God with all of you. But sadly, life is not like that all the time. We got to keep going and living our life. But even though the music has stopped, our worship doesn't have to. And it shouldn't. Everything we do should be an act of worship. Obviously, this is easier said then done. And that's where friends come in. Are we helping each other build a life that is worthy of our calling? Are we encouraging and praying for one another?
     Guys, I'm serious. If we want more of what we had Saturday night, we have to help each other. Communicate during the week. Share with each other how God's working. Admit to sins that you need to change, and give advice. God is at work, but so is Satan! We can't just sit back and say "well, that was awesome. I hope it happens again." We have to work together for that to happen again. Because it's more then just a group thing, it comes down to where we are individually. Most likely there will be a certain friend, or group of friends that you're going to go to more often with your problems. But we still need to get to know each other better, and reach out a hand to those who need it.

     This is getting long, so I'll end it now. But one last thing I want to say, if you haven't already, go read Matthew 5-7 which is the Sermon on the Mount. It will help you put everything into perspective. Well... it did for me :)
     I love you all a lot, and you are all in my prayers.

"Submit yourself therefor to God. resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." James 4:7-8

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the reace that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despsing the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow tired of fainthearted." Hebrews 12:1-3

We also have this awesome  group going where we just post whatever. Scripture that helped us, prayer requests, etc. But we're going to move that to a blog thinggy/forum or something like that so everyone can see it, and not just those on Facebook.
Anyway, hope your week is going well  so far!