The Human Race...

Have you ever thought about the human race? I watched a movie the other day called "The Switch" and the main character made a statement about the human race that caught my attention. He said "Look at us, running around, always rushed, always late. I guess that's why we call it the human race." I think that this statement was dead on. We are always running in this imaginary race towards the end... the end of what though? Grades, graduation, work, marriage, retirement. We strive to make these things the best they can be. We have our plans set in stone, we know where we want to live, where we want to work, people we want to date; but what if these plans got completely flipped upside down. What if our race turned into a steeple chase with a hurdles and a flood of water that greets us when we fail to clear the hurdle properly? Recently, it seems that I've fallen into that pool of water and all that I was running for has disappeared. So here I am stuck in the middle of a race with no idea where I'm going. All I know is that I am moving forward and when I get to a turn I turn left. And when I get to a hurdle I jump. And when I'm told to stop I'll stop. In Matthew 6:25-33 it says"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than the clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH? Therefore do not be anxious, saying 'what shall we eat?' or 'what shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. BUT SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED TO YOU!" I absolutely love that passage and I think about it every time I hit the hurdle and I land face first in that gorge of water. We all worry about so many things, but really there is nothing to worry about. So what if I stumble. So what if I fall. Jesus was bruised and bloody for me when he left, and I am not greater then he, so why should I live a easy, carefree life. I think the best illustration of this is to have a group of people draw a picture together. No one is allowed to talk, and when they draw they can only make one mark at a time. The picture in the end will look nothing like the picture any of them expected at the beginning. And the reason is that sometimes there is a greater picture that we have yet to see, and that is what everything is working together to create! The actor in "The Switch" concludes the movie with the thought "Every once in awhile in all the randomness, something unexpected happens, and it pushes us all forward. And what I'm starting to think. And what I'm starting to feel is that maybe... the human race isn't a race at all." I think this sums up life in a statement. In the midst of all our struggles, the curve balls, the failures, something great will happen that God has planned. So why be anxious because God will propel us forward, and to this finish if only we keep running.

Power In Him

So I recently finished my book "Forgotten God" and it was a great book. It really got me thinking, and examining my life and my faith. I'm sure you know this, but examining your life sucks. You always see all the things that are wrong in your life, and it's so much easier looking at the flaws of other people, then looking at the flaws of yourself. Just the other day, I caught myself thinking about how I could not believe people would come to church and play on their phones and not pay attention. Then I realized I had spent the last 5 minutes daydreaming about how rude the people on their phones were and here I was practically doing that same thing. I was lost in thought and could not recall the last few points the preacher made. However, I think the worst part about examining your faith is all the planks that you find. The reason being when you figure out the ways you are sinning or things that the Bible says to live by, and we ignore those things, then we are falling further from Christ. And it's hard to pull a plank out of your eye. It hurts. I really don't think that Hollywood portrays this well because it seems like every war or action movie when someone gets stabbed or has something protruding from their skin, they just sternly rip it from their flesh and toss it aside. I wish I was this strong. Capable of simply ripping my daggers or planks from my flesh, tossing them aside, and continuing on my way. But instead, I'm a coward crying in the corner, holding onto my daggers, afraid to remove them because of the blood that might gush forth and the empty wound that would need tended to. I wish I was as strong as the apostles who threw away everything to follow Christ and believe. Or Zacchaeus who repaid all that he had stole and then some just to follow Christ. These people are true heroes in my eyes, who truly ripped out their daggers and filled their wounds with God. I have been a coward for practically all my life, avoiding the issues that I had, and that I partook in, and I was never sure how I would ever overcome these hindrances. But Francis Chan gave me a little insight on how we can get through. Chan encouraged the reading of John 14-16, and a verse that really stuck out to me was John 14:15-18. It says, "If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU AS ORPHANS; I WILL COME TO YOU." I just find this passage so comforting. It tells me go ahead pull these daggers out because you are not alone. My Helper is within me and he will take care of me as I spend time here on Earth. But the last part just gives me goosebumps when I read it. It just shows that no matter what we do, we are never alone or rejected, but instead God is here, WITH ME. Your average male. Not rich. Not poor. Not sick. No extraordinary works or deeds. Just your everyday person, and God chooses to be with me, watching me, in me, involved in everything I do. Why? It's simple. He loves me. Whether I rebuke him or ignore him. Spit in his face or shame him, he will always love me and be with me. And that is truly remarkable. Now, I know that God can do miraculous deeds and I believe that he can work through me or anyone who allows him. Just like Elijah's sacrifice being lit from heaven, we can all do great things through him. So my prayer today comes from Elijah in 1 Kings. "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be know this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that these people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back." THE LORD, HE IS GOD. THE LORD, HE IS GOD

Questions

Fear is something we all have. We fear spiders, heights, needles, the bogeyman, or peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth (its a real fear look it up), but what are our fears about God? I began to formulate a list of all the things that I have feared in my life, and I would have to say I'm probably not alone in some of my fears. My first fear was what if God doesn't exist? What if i spend all my life trying to live up to the standards of something that isn't real? But this question is short lived because a trumping question is what if God does exist? What if God is real and I didn't acknowledge he existed? Then I have an eternity in hell, and for what? Maybe 80 years on Earth? The illusion I like to use with younger kids when talking about this ism, if I gave them their favorite candy what would be better. A trashcan full or a mountain? Yeah the trashcan is probably better for their teeth, but the mountain will never run dry. They will always have candy. The trashcan will soon run dry,but the mountain will be never ending. So why take the chance of having a trashcan full of good times, when you can have a mountain of amazing times.
My next question was what if I'm not good enough. I mean I have fallen well short of the mark that people should uphold in all aspects of my life, so why would I have any dominion in the kingdom of heaven? This is not as easily answered, but at the same time there is an simple solution. It's just hard to believe. Too often we view our bodies as a source of sinfulness and our corruptness, but in all reality the Bible talks about our body being a temple and the Spirit dwelling with us (1 cor. 3:16). This means that God the Spirit desires to dwell in our broken, dirty, sinful bodies. He knows all our mistakes and he is praying for us to overcome our struggles and I don't know about you, but having God desire to dwell with me and pray for me gives me a sense of confidence that I am worthy of all, and can do all.
My final question was what's holding me back from complete surrender to God? I thought about this for awhile, and all the answers I could think of were excuses. I'm not holy enough. I'm busy. I'm too young. I'm poor. The list can go on and on, but all I sound like is when I was 5 and I got in trouble, and I whimpered all the way to the corner. I think the true reason that is holding me back, and probably holding a lot of people back is... Your ready for this? We are afraid. Afraid that God is going to make us change. People don't like change, people like the normal everyday routine. If I surrender to God what if he asks me to go. Say. Do. I mean it's scary to think that God may call us into something we weren't expecting. What if God's plan is a complete 180 to where I am going? All these are things, ideas, excuses (what ever you want to call them) that are holding me, you, anyone back from completely surrendering to God. The answer to this question is faith. Faith that God will direct us, supply for us. I mean he did create me, he developed my plan. Why not let him drive? So my prayer today is "Lord, I know you are real. I know that everything about this world is a part of your creation and your plan. I thank you, Lord, for the Holy Spirit which is here with me, guiding me, and praying for me to succeed. I pray that you begin a transformation in me, which allows complete submission to you. Take my life, Lord, and make it yours. Amen"

So I decided to start reading. I been wanting to expand my relationship with God, and I decided that I needed some guidance. So lately I have been reading Francis Chan's Forgotten God book. To be honest, if you get the chance to read Francis Chan anything... DO IT! He is an amazing author with great insight that could help you fully understand anything better. But enough promoting the book, time to talk about what I'm reading. The book talks about the Holy Spirit being the forgotten God that people really don't think about anymore, and it made me question what do I know about the Holy Spirit? After thinking about that for awhile, I came to the conclusion that I really don't know much at all about the Holy Spirit. I knew that he was of equal value as Jesus and God and deserved worship because in church we sang a song that talked about the God head three in one... Father, SPIRIT, Son. So I guess that was a start. In the book, Chan pointed out that the Holy Spirit is our God on Earth. Jesus came to be on Earth, but he was crucified for us, which means he is no longer with us on Earth. So God and Jesus are in the heavenly Realm drinking milk and honey and we are down here with no God. Until God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us on Earth. So if I knew that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, why do I ignore it? Why do so many people ignore it? Its something I don't understand yet, and I'm hoping as I read more into the book I will understand it more. One thing I do understand is the Holy Spirit is not something we turn on and off. We can't just turn him on when were in church, or in a difficult time then off every other time. The spirit should radiate in our bodies always. People should look at me and know that I am different because I have the Holy Spirit in me. But that's the kicker... We don't always radiate. Actually we hardly flicker, we are too busy trying to fit in or conform to the everyday norms that we sometimes don't even look like Christians. This made me think of an octopus. Its called a mimic octopus, and if you have ever seen it this thing is probably the most fascinating sea creature you have ever seen. What this octopus is a master of doing is it can morph its body into different shapes to make it appear to be a different species then it really is. That way predators don't attack it because they think it is something else. I think that this is how a lot of our relationships with God are. When we see persecutors coming, we dispel who we really are and our beliefs, so that they leave us alone and we can go back to our small flicker of a life. In James 3:11, he says "Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water." We must always radiate with the Holy Spirit. Not just sometimes. This is my prayer, "Lord, please make the scripture be living and active to and through me. Let the words penetrate all my wrong doings and expel any ill-conceived notions I have collected along the way. Let me radiate always for you Lord. Amen"