Reflect

I do no have enough time to write everything I want you to read. But, I want to say to you to reflect on the last 3 years of your life. Where were you 3 years ago? take a minute now to think about it. Think about work, family, people in your life, school, and where you were at in your life?

Is God so far away that you cannot see him? It says in Duet "that the word is very near you, its in your mouth and your heart so you may obey it."

Sometimes it takes us being quiet just to reflect on what He is doing. He is such a personal God, who cares about the details in our life, and who takes care of those details.

Can we just have faith and believe in something greater? Can we believe in something more?

Why do we settle with what our minds comprehend? Let us hope for greater things, and believe in the Lord Jesus for so much more than what we think this life will offer.

God wants to do great things in your life, all he wants is our worship, and in order to give Him that correctly, we have to be a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to him.

He only gave everything for us. Why can't we give everything to Him?

the invisible things

Matthew 14:22-32

verse 30

"but when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried to the Lord, save me!"

Peter saw the wind? What!?

The wind is a factor that makes the waves rough and choppy. Something invisible works against something that is visible and stirs it up. The forces against us may shake up waters in our life, and cause storms that will not relent. Though we cannot see these forces, we feel them internally and externally in our life. Of course we are human and will not succeed at everything, but imagine what it would look like if Peter never looked at the wind, he would eventually made it to Jesus, while walking in faith(walking on water cannot hold us up, sometimes we need to have faith that believes what we know will not hold us up naturally, will reach out for Christ and hold us up eternally.)

It is so easy to focus on the things that push on us, and complicated things, especially things that cause waves. The focus in this pursuit of walking in faith is walking through circumstances that war against us, and cause us to sink right into them, without giving into them. Knowing what God has promised, and believing that as long as we keep walking towards him when he calls, our doubts will turn into Great Faith.

Joshua never stood opposed to Jericho. God called him, and he walked around it once six days in a row, and on the seventh, he walked around it seven times and the city walls came crashing down.

Sometimes we might feel like what we are doing is pointless, or unfruitful. Or maybe we feel like where we are in our life isn't of God, even after God has lead us up to this point. Maybe we are tired of walking around this obstacle in our life, maybe we want to give up.

When does faith run out in your life?

I want to give up...

Trusting God seems harder now then ever before...

I am created for God, and by God. I will not sink. The invisible things will not cause me to make a decision based on doubts, or lack of faith. My focus is Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith.

The meaning of "grace" in my life

I have always been a compassionate person, in touch with the way I feel, and easily in tune to the feelings of other people. As a leadership group, we are fasting for 10 days. The first 2 days of the fast my body was pissed, I had a headache, and I was easily offended.

God has been dealing with me His grace this year, and as things start to unfold, nothing but blessings and favor have come pouring out this year in various areas of my life. I understand that it is by grace I am saved, that I am to pick up my cross and carry it because I am to die on it. For this Christian life is all about Christ; for He chose us(Eph. 1:4), He predestined us (Eph. 1:5), He freely gave(Eph. 1:6), in Him we have redemption through His blood (Eph. 1:7), according to His purpose(Rom. 8:28). I knew it in my head, and even in my prayers I have been praying a crucifixion of self; recently that has changed as I can recognize myself holding on to my pride, and to the way I think things should go. I am nothing, I have no value in myself, and I don't deserve a thing. I don't deserve to have such a great family, a father and a mother, a great job position, a HOME, a place to go where people care, I don't deserve a beautiful woman of God. I am realizing that without the power and "grace" of God, I cannot move. It is a free gift for us to receive, it just takes faith and believing Jesus died to give us eternal life; and faith comes by hearing the word of God. I have obtained only what Christ has apportioned to me, and all my strength, and all my hope, and all my worth is in Christ who has set me free from a world of chains. By Him and Him only I am who I am.

We are broken when we come to God, we are messed up, and though we grow in the word, through prayer, and the fellowship of other Christians, we are still weak. Now do not think me saying "weak" is a bad thing, for our strength comes from God and its not that we are physically weak, or in a state of weakness. I just mean, that, never by our power or strength can we live for Christ. Why would He say, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" if it had something to do with our strength? You see, there is still a burden, but we are to surrender our yoke and our burden because His is easier and lighter(Matthew 11:30.) What about, "No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (John 15:4) It is clear that we obtain our growth and nourishment from Christ, how would a flower grow unless it was rooted in something?

The ways of this world try to tell you that its all about your "strength" and to pick yourself up and keep going. Well I believe in picking my self up and to keep going, but it doesn't mean not acknowledging whats going on in my life, and ignoring the circumstances. Were we not baptized into His death so that we might have life in Him? Did we not put off our sinful nature in order to be raised with Christ? Christ says, "I will oppose the proud, but give grace to the humble." He made Himself nothing (Phil. 2:7.) This pattern of doing it on our own, this false sense of strength that comes through pride, and being better than the other person comes from the world. It comes through the prince of the air, and it is a lie. What about the saying, "if you want it done right, then do it yourself?" We are deceived to think we have it all figured out. Paul says, "but in humility consider others better than yourselves."

Paul begs the Lord to take his weakness away, and the Holy Spirit says, "When you are weak, I am strong. My power is made perfect in your weakness." Then Paul says, "all the more I will glory in my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me." So what does this say to you? Maybe you have had thoughts of living a life of strength, even in the church; thinking that since you live for God nothing can go wrong, and He holds you in His hand. Adam messed up and and sinned, and being conscience of that, tried to cover himself with a fig leaf. A fig leaf is inadequate to cover yourself up, it is insufficient; God had to kill an animal that was innocent, that did nothing wrong to cover our sin. Yet God came to Adam when he messed up, He didn't shun him, or strike him dead. He came to Adam in his brokenness and covered him. It paints a portrait for what was to come, God killing an innocent human being, that did nothing wrong, to cover us for our sins, in return to bring us back to Him. He has freely given us this, His one and only Son, to display His great love for us. Grace is not to be used by our strength, it is to be used through our weakness. I am not sufficient on my own, and I cannot do anything by my self. I am able to live daily by his bread that He so graciously gives me. I praise Him for my incredible girlfriend, for my job, for my family, for my HOME, for the people that are so close to my life, and for where He is taking me.

college small group and such

Once a week, a group of guys gets together and discusses things and new events that are going on in their lives. They pray for each other, encourage one another, and study the Word of God. They have started doing a study on Galatians, one chapter, once a week.

Galatians is huge! There is a lot of information in Galatians about being justified through faith, and not the law. It makes it very clear, that by observing the law no one will be justified. By trying to live your life by works and self effort, you fall from grace. It is by Christ we live and are justified by grace through faith in HIM. We have obtained His spirit through faith in Him. So many christians try to live "right" by the things they do, but fail to recognize that its not about the things we do which makes us righteous. There is no code, or list of things to check off in your life which sets you up for success. For if righteousness could be obtained by the things we do, then Christ died for nothing. He clearly chose to reveal Himself to us, to save us and make us holy in His sight. It is by our faith in Him that we receive His spirit, totally grace people. Nothing we do, or say can obtain this undeserved Love.

I want to hit on a couple things that stuck out to me(comment if you have anything else on this.) In Chapter 4 verses 21-31 Paul brings up Abraham and Sarah. He describes 2 situations and concludes with saying we are sons of the free woman. Well there is a ton of information on Abraham and Sarah, but in these few paragraphs, it deals mainly with their 2 sons. On one hand, you have a promise of God; things that are definite and true, and on the other you have self dependency; not knowing whats going to happen. God made a promise that Abraham would have a son, and through him, he would have as many descendants as stars in the sky. Well Abraham was a little over age, and so was his wife, so he had a hard time believing God. Well in Abraham's impatience(along with his wife's consent) he laid with their servant woman, and she became pregnant. She was a slave, she had nothing to do with God's promise. Abraham, in his human logic and thinking, thought that this might work out the promise. Well it didn't, and to this day there is constant war between the Jews and the Muslims. Abraham did have a son with Sarah, and he was the son of the promise. What's interesting to me, is it goes to show you that never by self effort can we work out our lives. It should be a full trust in the Lord, and dependency on Him to work out all things in our life. When we wait on Him, His promises become evident in our lives, and our fruit shows it. It's absolutely beautiful theology. It is Life.

In 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 It says, "Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will continue to deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us..."

It's all about Him, so let us continue to focus on Him and not ourselves.

We only live because He lives.

John 14:19

The book of John is incredible, He explains Jesus to us as the divinity. The four tenth chapter is truly amazing, one verse that stuck out to me is nineteen. And Jesus says,

"Because I live, you also will live."

Just chew on that for a day...

Who we are.

God you are everything. To live for you is to live fully alive. Who are we without our creator? Without the One who has designed us, and shaped us, who knows who we are, inside and out? Have we forgotten who we are, to turn our back on our true love, or is it that we think we can do it better on our own?

We will always have questions in this life we live, whether its short or long. Questioning everything it seems like;trying to figure out why we are here, what were supposed to do, who we are to fall in love with, and where we are going.

I ran into a homeless guy today after work, his name is Ron. About a year ago, I met him at Monroe Park in Richmond, Va with a group of friends from church. We had an idea to go and hand out food and water, and build relationships with people. It seems like organizations that feed the homeless are just feeding them food and leaving. However, we didn't have much food or water, but we stayed and talked to people at the park, and listened to their incredible stories. Ron was someone who sat down and listened to the heart of why we were coming, and we saw him a couple weeks in a row. Occasionally I would see him at gas stations and street corners in the city, trying to get back on his feet.

After seeing him today, I stopped at the ATM and pulled out $20, drove back to the corner where he was standing with a sign, and asked him, “If you want to make some money, then hop in”. I had him cut the grass at the house, then had a interesting conversation about God. Like so many others, he is on his own, everything is in his control, and he holds tightly to his life. He asked me, “ If there is a God, then how come the world is so messed up?”

After he left the house, scripture was racing through my head, idea's and questions about this life, this world, this desert of a place. I thought to myself, God has given us a promise to live forever, yet it comes with a choice, and He loves us so much that he does not force any lifestyle on us.

It says in Galatians 5:13 “You were called to be free.”

Like so many other people Ron is weighed down by the cares of this world, and he is tired. We are not supposed to have affliction that weighs us down. We are called to be free in Christ. Yeah, the world isn't perfect, and neither are people. Since the fall of man, it's a constant pursuit by God to have communion with his people. But its us who turn away! We are ashamed of our sin, so we turn and hide, and think we have to do it on our own. Whats the first thing Adam did when he rebelled? He covered himself up, and hid from God.

We are born into this world at war with our sinful nature. Everything is carefree, until you mention God, and people don't know how to act. We have a hard time admitting to ourself that there is a God, when everybody around us is doing it their own way. Sure it looks good, they look put together, they have what they want, whether it's a new girlfriend, or a new car. But inside they are hiding, from who they really are, who their created to be, hiding from God. I guarantee they wonder and ask, is there something more, something better, something that provides wholeness?

Ephesians 1:4 “For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

I believe that over the years and generations before us, people have tried so hard to live a life without God, that we have obtained principles and ways of living that do not depend on God. That sin passed down through generations have caused us to find ways to suite our ways, and our paths rather than the righteousness of God. Just look at construction or tools, we are advancing in technology to make things easier for us. We have prefabricated buildings that involve hardly in labor, just a crane to set it in place. So with our human nature, we have advanced in our theology, and basic lifestyles that are very task oriented, and have an appearance of wisdom, with self-imposed worship, and false humility, but lack any value in sensual indulgence.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

God had to send his son to save us, and He had to be in human form to take away sin and death from us forever. Jesus made himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant, and being found in human likeness. He humbled himself and became obedient to death on a cross for our sake. So we don't have to struggle to fit in this world. Only through the washing of his life can we become forgiven. And he saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing and rebirth by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

If we can just understand this, that there is a God, that there is a hope to live for, and stop judging people and making excuses for the reasons we don't believe or follow God. We were made in His image and created in His likeness.

Why would He send a savior, if we didn't need to be saved?

May the Spirit of glory and of God rest on you and keep you. May you attain the fullness of grace that has been poured out on you. May you run the race that is set before you, and only press forward to win the prize for which God has called you.   

A few thoughts from colossians

Reading from Colossians 3 

The chapter starts off with

(v.1-4)

 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.(2) Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (3)For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (4)When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

Paul writes to the church in colosse and is reminding them about the death that has took place, by the operation of grace. 

(v.1)All he is saying here is, now that you have put down your life, and have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated beside God.  Just as Christ died, he was raised up by the Father, and is seated next to him on the throne. When we die to sin, we undergo a death, which takes away everything that we want, our desires, our plans, our sinful nature and we leave it behind to follow Christ. We then, are raised up by God the father and seated with Christ. 

(v.2)We do not live by this world, or the position it is in at this current state. We have left all of it behind, and put our life in Christ. It is him who we focus on. 

(v.3)When someone dies, their presence is gone, we know them no longer. When we die to sin, we leave this world, and we are hidden with Christ in God. People of this world do not know, or understand our lives. There is no common ground what so ever;our eyes are fixed on completely different things. Our motives are not the same, beliefs, or ways of living.  We are hidden through our death to this world. 

(v.4)When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. "Who is our life", puts it in strong words. All that we live for is coming back, and when He does, we will appear with him in all His glory.

There is a lot more, unfortunately I have ran out of time. Hope to see you soon.