God's Word

     This post is going to be about the importance of reading God's word and why I think we often don't read it. However, I wrote it out, and then I realized that it might just be taken the wrong way. So I want to make a few key points before I start.
   First, I'm not trying to say that if you don't read the Word every day that you therefore have no relationship with God. I think reading the Bible is very important, but I also know that a lot of other things contribute to your relationship. Such as prayer (which in my opinion is more important then reading the Bible daily), personal experiences, reading other peoples experiences (like devo books, and other works like that). So don't think I'm trying to say that your relationship is entirely dependent on how much of the Bible you read.
   And then also I guess what I'm really trying to get at from this post is, how are we approaching Bible reading? I think why we often don't read is because we're coming with the wrong attitude.

Ok, hopefully that'll clear stuff up.

Here we go...

     The other day I was texting with a friend who is going through a lot and who hasn't been feeling God's presence in her life lately. As we texted I encouraged her to read her Bible daily because earlier she had mentioned how she hasn't been of late. She then replied as to how she didn't want to read or pray, because it felt like no one was there. No one to hear her. I replied to her with this:

"Think of it this way; when you say to yourself "I'm not going to read my Bible today because I really don't want to", tell yourself "and Jesus isn't going to forgive my sins today 'cause he really doesn't want to be nailed to the cross." Sometimes we've got to do something we really don't want to for love. We love God. Even though sometimes it feels like we don't. But because we're human, we're selfish. And we forget that God asks us to be like Jesus. I bet you Jesus wanted nothing to do with the cross. Nothing. He even asked God to take it away in his prayer. But God put him through it anyway. So even if you're thinking "I don't want seek God today because he isn't there", think of Jesus. God wasn't at the cross either. He turned his back on his own son so that you might be forgiven. Don't ever think Jesus doesn't know what you're feeling. He understands the most."

Yes, that was all one text. If you've ever had a real convo with me over text you know I can go on forever haha!
      Anyways, I'm really not sure how I thought of that. But yet, it's so true. What if Jesus decieded he wasn't going to die for our sins today. Now, before you get off on a debate of "well, Jesus died for our sins over 2,000 years ago, so it doesn't matter how he feels today because it's in the past blah, blah, blah..." That's not my point. So be quiet. God works out of our time and space. Just get use to it. This is also just an example.
     We often make excuses for ourselves for not reading the Bible or spending time in prayer. "I'm to tired","I have homework to do", "I'm to busy", "I'm with friends", "God isn't there", "God's to busy fixing Obama to spend time with me", "I'm sick". It goes on and on. Couldn't Jesus have said the same things, the same excuses, so as not to have died?   I'm not trying to say we should do a guilt trip every time we read our Bibles. That shouldn't be our motive. But I think we need to put it in perspective. This isn't about being the perfect Christian. This isn't about doing evey thing right so God will bless you.

     This is about love.

     This is about your relationship with God.

     He understands you more then you probably realize. And he wants that time with you. The more you immerse yourself in the Word, the more knowledge you gain from studying righteous things, the more time you spend with  God... the more you will be intune to Him, and the more you will hear Him in every area of your life.

     If you claim to be a Christian right now, and you say you have a relationship with God, are you holding up your end of the relatioship? It takes both sides to make it work. And believe me, God's doing his part.

Are you?

The Hartford Project 2011

"You're the God of this City/You're the King of these people/You're the Lord of this nation/You are/ You're the Light in this darkness/You're the Hope to the hopeless/You're the Peace to the restless/You are/There is no one like our God/There is no one like our God
For greater things have yet to come/And greater things are still to be done in this City/Greater thing have yet to come/And greater things are still to be done in this City"

 "God of this City" by Chris Tomlin
Amazing song, and definitely the theme song of my past week. We have a local mission trip each year into our state capitol, Hartford. It's called The Hartford Project (THP), and it's amazing.
First, a little bit of a background, for those of you who may not know. CT is one of the richest states in the US, and yet Hartford is one of the top 10 poorest cities. It has a very high violence rate, and it has a lot of brokenness in it.  However, Hartford has not always been like that. It was originally founded by Thomas Hooker and a bunch of pilgrims, who dedicated it to the Lord praying that it would be "a city on a hill and a light to the nations."  Hartford is anything but that...Thus, the Hartford Project. Started back in....oh boy...2004...I think. (Sorry if this is messed up a little, I'm trying my best :P) And the hopes of it was to first off, bring God's love into the city, connect the churches in Hartford, and give teens a better look at the city and mission work. Pretty much it's four days of living in the city, and doing volunteer projects with local churches, and for local communities.
     Over the years though, THP has grown a lot. The first year I went (I have now gone these past three years), I think there was probably only 100 kids. This year there was over 300. And every time I have seen amazing things happen and God has taught me some life changing things.
The first year probably had the biggest impact on me. It was pretty much the first time that I realized what it looked like to live a Christian life on a day to day biases, and not just on Sundays. To actually live for Christ. Every moment, every choice, every word. To live for Him. I was already saved...but I think that's when I really started putting my faith into action. It was also the first time I felt God calling me into missions work.
The next summer I had a chance to go to the Dominican Republic (DR) for a short term mission work, and also once again to THP. This time I knew that this is what God wanted me to do. At least through high school and college.
     Also, the past two years I've had a lot of really neat experiences in the city. Praying for people, seeing people come to Christ...stuff like that.
This year...not so much. Which was kind of disappointing. But God did teach me a lot. First off, I got a really good look at the city. I realized what a really, and I mean really, beautiful city it is. One of the days we went up to the top of this really high tower/building thingy and you can see all of Hartford (and much more.) It was sooo cool, but it made me realize just how pretty the city is. And how much it could be. I also came to realize how much Hartford does have already. Even in it's state of poverty and brokenness, it has a lot to offer those who look. Which makes me wonder just how amazing it would be if it did become 'a city on a hill.'
     The other really big thing I got out of it was, once again, how much I want to do mission work. And I'm starting to believe even after college. I don't know what that would look like for me...Whether it would mean moving back to CT and doing it right here in Hartford. Or maybe going to a totally different country. Or maybe to some random state. I don't know. But I'm realizing how much I want to live my life dedicated to Christ. Spreading his word, his love, his mercy and his grace. He has given me so much, how can I not want to share it with others?
It's really kinda scary when I start thinking about it...but yet I'm excited. I don't know what God has in store, but I know it's gonna be awesome. And it's going to bring him glory. And that's what I want. Is for people to see Him, and come to know Him.

God's Anger

   I highly apologize to anyone who bothers to read this blog about not having posted in the past few weeks. I try to at least once a week, but as you can tell I fail a lot. I have been very busy though lately with SAT prep, but that is now out of the way (thank God!) and so I have a little more time on my hands.
  Anyway, I wanted to talk er...write a little about something that has been on my mind a lot lately. And that is God's anger. I think we tend to get too caught up in the "God is a forgiving God thing" that we forget His anger. Don't get me wrong, he is. He is amazingly forgiving. More then we ever deserve. It says in the Psalms;

"For His anger last only a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime." (30:5)

  But I think that we tend to forget his anger. We forget how much he abhors sin, and how it pains Him to see us fall. I think we will also use the fact that he is forgiving as an excuse. It makes us not so guilty to do something wrong if we've already been forgiven.  We also forget that God is a jealous God. He is very jealous of our worship and praise and hates it when we give that to something or someone else. Just look at the Isrealites history. They were continually turning away from God to worship false gods, and He got really angry. He sent prophets and strong leaders to bring them back, but often they wouldn't. Or they would but then a year later they would be right back to where they had been. So God would eventually punish them.
  Obviously He doesn't punish us in quite the ways he did to the Israelites. And I think that's where the problem is. Because we're not seeing cities destroyed by God or all the first born males dying we think God doesn't get angry. He does. He is a jealous God. He's jealous of your love. Of your praise and worship. He covets it. It's a sweet smell to him when we bring him glory.
  I'm not trying to say be in cowardly fear that God is going to kill you the moment you do something wrong, I just think that sometimes we need to realize that God does get angry, and he hates our sin even though he does forgive us of it.

Thoughts and/or comments are highly appreciated and welcome. I really would love to hear what you think of this, or if you see any flaws in my reasoning (which I'm sure there are.)

The Holy Spirit

  Last night I got to go to Angel's bible study with her, and it was a lot of fun. It was really cool to see young married couples come together in fellowship and spend time taking a deeper look into God's word. One of the topics we got talking about though was the Holy Spirit. It was more towards the end though, so we didn't get a long chance to discuss it. Anyway, the dude who led, Mike, was saying how lots of things changed in our relationships with God after Jesus. Such as now we no longer have to make sacrifices to God for our sins because Jesus is our sacrifice. There are no longer walls between God and us like there were with the temples and the holy of holies and all that kind of stuff. Mike also mentioned that now the Holy Spirit is more active too because of Jesus. In the old Testament you only saw the Holy Spirit when miracles were performed. It often says "and the Spirit of God fell upon them and such and such happened". But now the Holy Spirit is continually with us and active inside us.

Well, that got me thinking, and I disagree. First off because you do see cases when the Holy Spirit is living in someone and doesn't just 'come down' for a time. Like when David is anointed king it says, "And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward." So the Spirit was continually with him. And you can find several other passages that are similar to that. So obviously the Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit was very present in the Old Testament. But I can also understand where Mike was coming from when he said that, because in Acts you do read a lot "and they were filled with the Holy Spirit." And you do see much more of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament then in the Old. But here's something else I thought. In the Old Testament it was God. They thought God was just God. I don't think, and I can't find  anywhere, where they mention the Trinity in the Old Testament. The people didn't even know of Jesus because he hadn't come yet. But did that mean that Jesus didn't exist? No! he very much did! So maybe they didn't really understand that the 'spirit of God' was the Holy Spirit. 

Blah... I don't know how well I'm getting my point across, and I know I'm saying this a lot out of ignorance and more based on my own thoughts and feeling then on Scripture. But I guess what I'm trying to ask you guys is what do you think? Do you think that the Holy Spirit became more active after Jesus' death and resurrection? or do you think he's always been just as present? I guess what my point is, is that God never changes. We know that. I think that as time goes on God reveals himself more and more to his people. So to the people in the OT, they didn't fully understand the Trinity, or didn't even know that God IS three in one. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that now we do fully understand the Trinity. Far from it! But because we already have a foundational truths from all the generations of Christ followers before us, we're beginning to know God more and more. 

So, I need your help! I'm totally going to be searching God's word for more answers, but any thoughts, or questions, or whatever from you all would be awesome! Hope my thoughts came across as some what clear...

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.

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!

The evil little thing called "Gossip"

So I know I promised a discussion, here it is. This is actually not the subject I was originally going to talk about, but that subject has lost interest in my mind for the time being, so I thought up a new one. And it's on gossip.  Of course we all know that gossip is bad. After all it does say in The Good Book

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Eph 4:29

but, my question to you is what IS gossip and what ISN'T gossip? Because often you hear people say that gossip is talking about people 'behind their back'. But to tell you the truth, I talk about people 'behind their back' allll the time. often me and my sisters will end up on a bed talking about our friends, siblings and other such stuff when we're really suppose to be doing our school. If we didn't do that i wouldn't know a lot of things about a lot of people. But my question is, is that gossiping? or is gossiping tearing people down? when does having a nice little chat turn into tearing others down?
I want to hear your thoughts, so please post them!