Disciple

"I'm a Christian," says 76% of America. Okay, cool. That's nice. But what does that really mean? I hear the phrase quite often in my home country, and am a Christian myself, yet I still wonder what people mean when they say they're Christians. Think about it for a minute. Do you even know either?

I think that we subconsciously picture Christians as nothing more than those who attend church every so often. Unfortunately, this image is true of more people than it should be. And while those people may have accepted Christ as their savior, they most certainly are not living that fact out. I myself am guilty of this. (Though I try quite hard to be the best Christian that I can.) So in wondering "What is a Christian, really?" it's only logical to go straight to the source: Jesus Christ Himself.

In Matthew 16, Jesus says that

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me."

(Matthew 16:24)

Do modern Christians seem to do that? Do we deny ourselves? Do we take up our crosses and chase Jesus? No. Not most of us, anyways. I've met far too few Christians who, for the most part, live out their faith. But even those people don't necessarily have the lives that Jesus intended for them to. (Not that I've got the best life that Jesus could have for me; I'm still working on that.)

As we all know, Jesus goes the extra mile. And believe me, it's not just in physical tasks--it's also in spiritual ones. Here's the next mile of true discipleship:

... "He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."

(Matthew 10:38)

It's not just that Jesus would rather you not follow if you didn't "take up your cross." It's that you're not worthy if you don't. Picture this: you've got a group of people that you love. They don't really know you, but you know them. And God has given you a deep, eternal love for them. This love is so powerful and inexplicably indestructible that you would do anything to save these people. Anything. You would die for them.

So let's say you die. You sacrifice yourself, only to find that, while some are grateful, many are not. Many people mock you and hate you, and you don't know why. After all, you gave up your life for theirs.

Here's a shocker: I just put you in Jesus' shoes. And you'd agree with me that, if you did something like that for someone, the least that you could ask of them is that they spend their lives, which they only have because you sacrificed yours, to spreading your message of love and life. Wouldn't you expect others to repay you for what you did? I'm assuming so.

So, even if you're just a "casual Christian", your "goal" is to become like Christ, correct? To follow Him? To become His disciple?

Jesus says, as recorded in Luke 14, verse 33,

..."Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple."

And that's where the tough questions come in. We begin to wonder at who we really are. We compare what we say we believe to what we actually live, and we see that they pale. They are oftentimes not enough alike. This is the time when we look at this verse and have to notice that Jesus doesn't merely say what He prefers. He says what is true. You cannot follow Him if you do not abandon yourself. If you don't become a spiritual martyr (ooh... that shall become a post at a later date!), then you can't be alive in Christ. If you're not practicing what you preach, you are not being a true disciple. (It's a tough pill to swallow. I myself am having a hard time with it.)

He touched their eyes and said, "Become what you believe."

~ Matthew 9:29

If you read the back story to that verse, you'll see that there were two blind men who wanted Jesus to heal them; they wanted to see. Jesus asked them if they truly believed He was capable. Eagerly, they said, "Yes!" Enter verse 29. He heals them. And then commands them to become faith. So, here it is. Straight from our Savior Himself. "Become what you believe."

If you believe Jesus is the Christ, and have accepted Him as your Savior, the next step is to become a disciple. The next step is to forsake yourself. Going back to where we are a few paragraphs ago, most of us aren't actually disciples. We may think we are. But then you have to ask yourself:

Have we forsaken everything for Him? Actually, have we forsaken anything?

A true Christian is always a disciple in the making. We will stumble, yes. We will not be perfect. But we will work towards discipleship. Let discipleship be one of our main goals. Selah.

Well, this was an incredibly long post. If you're still with me, I take it as even more proof towards God's existence. If you managed to stay reading and not bored by my somewhat circular entry (I'm quite tired, though I shouldn't make excuses), I recommend these two links:

What is Discipleship? -- a great resource. It explains rather clearly what I so convolutedly attempted to communicate.

What did Jesus mean when He said "take up your cross"? -- again, great resource. It goes into further detail about taking up one's cross.

Free will?

So, today, I thought about possibly going into an entry centered on free will, and whether it exists or not. But then, I decided not to.

Case closed.

Gerald Ford, Gandhi, Jesus, and you

Even though this is late in an election year, there is no way we can go forward except together and no way anybody can win except by serving the people's urgent needs. We cannot stand still or slip backwards. We must go forward now together. 

~ Gerald R. Ford

Okay, so maybe it's not an election year. Ignore that bit and just look at what America's 38th President is telling us. 

Since his statement is rather self-explanatory, I'd feel a bit redundant going into detail over it, but I suppose redundancy is just unavoidable here. 


I'm not trying to say that Gerald Ford was the greatest leader that my country has ever seen. (I wasn't even alive during his office.) I honestly don't know all that much about him, actually. Basically the only thing that I know about President Ford is that he was born, he lived, he said what I quoted, and then he died. I don't think they ever covered him in grade school, and they most certainly didn't cover Nixon! But I digress. (I've always wanted to say that, you know. Now I can die happily.) 


What I was trying to say was, Ford was entirely correct. The only way for us to progress not only as a country, but as people, is for us to come together. We need to get over ourselves. We need to erase the lines that we've drawn in hate and demolish the walls we've built out of pride and prejudice. (I promise that that was an accidental Jane Austen reference.) And further still, I agree that the only way for anybody to be victorious is to serve others and care for those around us. As Gandhi famously once said,

You must be the change you want to see in the world. 

And again, I completely agree. We can't leave the job for someone else to do. If there is a need, meet it. Don't wait for someone else to come along. 


I know that while those words are easy to say and even easier to type, they are extremely difficult to act upon. Believe me, there have been quite a few instances in which I saw a need that I could meet but I opted out. Now, looking back, I view each of those moments as times in which I did not represent Christ. Every single time that I've failed to help, I've betrayed my role as ambassador. And I have absolutely no excuse.


Christ didn't die so that I could flaunt my freedom. He didn't lay down all of His heavenly glory so that I could live my life alone. He didn't humble Himself so that I could take all His riches. He died so that I could spread the freedom. He laid down His glory so that I could live my life with others. He humbled Himself so that I could share His riches and help bring Him more co-heirs. In that last verse, notice how it says that if we suffer, then we will be glorified. 


God didn't give us salvation so we could take it and then run off and party. He gave it to us so that we could work for Him, give Him our lives, and enjoy the journey. As Christians, our goal should ideally be for us to become like Christ. Although we can't ever be perfect, we must do our best to represent Him accurately. And the only way to do this is to do what He did.


He dined with the social outcasts. He spent time with the children who were otherwise frowned upon. He performed miracles, which we are also fully capable of performing! He empowered the powerless, blessed the poor, fed the starving. And there is nothing that He gave to the people in His time that we cannot give to the people in ours. (Aside from salvation, but I think you get what I'm saying.)


So let's not stand still. Let's not settle for less than God's glorious best. Let's come together (I'm resisting the urge to sing this right now) and serve. Let's suffer, because He first suffered for us. I think we owe it to Him.

Isaiah 2

So today I read Isaiah 2. I did quite enjoy this chapter, filled with daring prophecies of God's reign. I find so much of this chapter majestic, especially starting with verse 10.

Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty.

Imagine it for just a moment. Just think about it. God's glory and His majesty are so magnificently, incomprehensibly great that our souls quake, knowing how incompetent we are compared to Him. His beauty is so overpowering that it should terrify us. His glory is so majestic, His majesty so glorious, that our spirits just know that we are unworthy.

The remaining verses go on to talk about prideful men being humbled, because one day, on the Lord's day, He "alone shall be exalted..." Isn't that beautiful? That one day, pain and suffering will no longer reign on the Earth? That one day, all glory will be to God? Evil will be done away with, and all that remains is our King.

The more time we spend with God, the more I hope we realize His perfection and regality. We worship a God who transcends the human understandings of beauty and grace and power and majesty and dominion (forever and  ever. Amen. ...Yes, that was said slightly jocularly). Imagine the greatest being that you can. Then multiply its perfection by infinity. That, my friends, is 1% of God.

  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
      The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
      And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
        For the day of the LORD of hosts
      Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,
      Upon everything lifted up—
      And it shall be brought low—
        Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, 
      And upon all the oaks of Bashan;
        Upon all the high mountains,
      And upon all the hills that are lifted up; 
        Upon every high tower, 
      And upon every fortified wall; 
       Upon all the ships of Tarshish, 
      And upon all the beautiful sloops. 
       The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, 
      And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; 
      The LORD alone will be exalted in that day, 
       But the idols He shall utterly abolish. 
        They shall go into the holes of the rocks, 
      And into the caves of the earth, 
      From the terror of the LORD 
      And the glory of His majesty, 
      When He arises to shake the earth mightily.
      ~ Isaiah 2:11-19 (NKJV)

I'm an ex-con.

I bet you weren't expecting to hear that now, were you? (Honestly, I wasn't really expecting to, either.) But when inspiration comes... you have to accept it. And then make use of it.

Today's inspiration, in a roundabout way, actually comes from The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, which is one of my favorite movies. I love the movie for about a billion reasons. Not only is the acting fantastic, but it's well-scripted, heartbreaking, inspiring, touching, and not to mention based on the true story of a missionary to China. If you've not seen it, I recommend it heavily. Although I don't usually seek out "old" movies (this one came out in '58), I adore this one. Okay, enough of my gushing.

So while we were watching the movie back on Mother's Day, there was this one scene where a character sacrifices his life for a group of children. I hadn't been in the room for the entire movie, so I asked my dad if that character was a convert. But you know how men are when they're watching movies--they don't usually hear you. And if they do, they usually don't hear you correctly. My father's answer? "Yeah, he was a convict."

At the time, his response made my brother and I laugh. My father's answer seemed so different from my question and it wasn't until just recently that I realized something: what I asked and what he answered went hand in hand.

Think about this for a minute. We all know what a convert is; it's someone who was once not a Christ follower who then becomes one. (This is the story of every Christian and the potential tale of everyone else.) And we all know what a convict is; it's someone who was, well--convicted of a crime, typically sentenced to some sort of punishment. And then an ex-convict is someone who had been convicted of the past, but has since served or been relieved of their sentence.

So, bear with me here. If you're a Christian, it means you've been convicted of your sins. You've realized them, and moreover, you've realized the One who can redeem them. If salvation were a courtroom drama, you'd be the defendant, Jesus would be your lawyer, and God would be the Judge. (More about how God can be both just and merciful simultaneously at another date.) The default sentencing for criminals is death and a life full of nothing but punishment. However, since you've got yourself a good lawyer and a passionate judge, you can get out of the death sentence! Before you know it, the trial's over. But wait--you have all those fees to pay your lawyer.

The great thing about making Jesus our lawyer is that He doesn't charge you thousands of dollars. Instead, He asks you for your life. He asks you to spread the news that He's an excellent lawyer. He asks you to take this second chance at life and make His time working for you worthwhile. He wants you to help those who are less fortunate. And He wants you to help them without reserve. After all, that's what He did for you!

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

~ Galatians 5:13 (NKJV)

Make the most of your freedom. Embrace your identity as an ex-con and never forget your lawyer.

Therefore, remember that you [were] once Gentiles in the flesh, … that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens to the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope. … 

~ Ephesians 2:11-12 (NKJV)

Though you may be acquitted, at times you will feel like the sentence looms above your head. All I can say is this: serve your time. Know that your lawyer is on your side. Know that your judge wants what's best for you. Humble yourself to the level of your inmates. Be gracious when you receive parole,

For if we sin willfully after we have received knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment. ...

~ Hebrews 10:26-27

And whatever you do--pay your fees. Respect the judge. And don't violate your parole.

Galatians 1 and Isaiah 1

Well, it's a Friday night, and what am I doing? I'm sitting on my couch by myself, watching The Cosby Show, eating a cheese sandwich (Emmentaler and Fontina!) and drinking lemonade. And there may or may not be Nutella involved; I'm not at liberty to say. ;) And speaking of Nutella, enter this sweepstakes. Anyhoo...

In my most recent post, I challenged you--and myself, also--to read a minimum of one Bible chapter per day. Yesterday, I read Galatians 1 as my chapter. I must admit, I'm a pretty big fan of Paul's. I love his writing style: educated yet simple, elegant yet understandable, intelligent yet accessible, challenging yet uplifting. Oh wait--I just described the entire Biblical message! Although the entire chapter was well-executed, there's always been one verse in the first installment of Galatians that I really love:

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 

That verse, ever since I first discovered it, has spoken volumes. There's not much I feel like I could extrapolate on; the verse is pretty self-explanatory. If we're not "seeking those things which are above" (Colossians 3:1; see the next verse also), then we are inadvertently seeking the things that are of this world, and not of God's perfect universe. The point of this verse is to show us that we can't live in two worlds. There are no grey areas. In formal logic, the law of the excluded middle clearly states that something is either true, or it isn't. (Sounds redundant, I know.) But applying this logical law to other areas of our lives, we see that we can't have our cake and eat it too. (My quoting of that possibly has something to do with Holiday in the Sun, which I watched today for nostalgic purposes.) Fact of the matter is, we can't serve both God and ourselves.

Today, I read the first chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah is one of my favorite books, and for so many reasons! I love its poetic prose and powerful elegance. And not only that, but the book is prophetic, featuring a lot of Jesus (although the first chapter isn't Christ-centric). In this chapter, I really liked verse 15, and the image that I got when I read it. I now suddenly have the inspiration for a drawing... Also, I think of "Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."

Also to my liking were the 16th and 17th verses:

Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of My sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. 

I love these two verses for their straightforward commands. (Though they are by no means easy directions.) To cleanse oneself spiritually takes quite some time. In fact, I don't think the process, once begun, ever truly stops. We must give up our evil ways and hide them not only from ourselves, but from the Lord. We must learn to do Christlike things. We must be just and help those who are less fortunate, including orphans and widows. And it's not easy.

In some ways, to me, this little passage is just as powerful as The Great Commission and in many ways, you can't have one without the other. In order to spread the gospel, we must first live it for ourselves. Instead of being stereotypical hypocrites, we should be exemplary human beings. We should practice what we preach.

Are you in?

For five days now, my well of literary musings has left my blog dry. This isn't supposed to happen yet; I've not been blogging for even a month! So what happened? Where did the inspiration go?

I've a feeling that, perhaps, I haven't been able to come up with anything "just right" in the past almost-week due to the fact that I've been bad--I haven't read my Bible. To tell you the truth, I was never all that great at reading the Bible. Growing up, it had always been there; it had always been around. And we all know that when something becomes familiar, we lose most of our interest in it. Of course, I wasn't born with the urge to bury my nose in the Bible all the time, but... I think you get my point.

Perhaps one of the reasons that I haven't really been able to just sit down with the Bible and gobble it up is because I made the classic "kid trying to read through the Bible" mistake: every single time I made the endeavor, I always began with Genesis 1:1. At the very least, I've read the first five chapters of Genesis 20 times. (At the least.) And I'm not even kidding. Now, years later, I still can't bring myself to read Genesis. I've simply drowned in those first few chapters a few more times than I would care to have.

And then that's when the "guilt" kicks in. As I hold my Bible, I subconsciously believe that it's "just a book", not really all that special. Sure, it's about God, but... why can't I just read Agatha Christie? And save the God stuff for Sundays? And that, my whole slew of about three readers, is what most of us Christians tend to do, whether we mean to or not.

Since I've not ever been the best example of a Bible-reading Christian, I can't really tell you to get over your Bible slump and inundate yourself with God's word. But I can, however, ask you to take this journey with me. "And what journey is that?" you inquire.

Well, to tell you the truth.... I don't actually really know. I do, however, know the ends I wish to reach: falling in love with the Bible, reading it at least once a day, becoming closer to God than ever before. (And let me tell you, at some times, I wasn't sure where I ended and God began. Yes, it IS possible to be so involved in the Spirit that your own self just doesn't really matter anymore. I've been there once or twice.) So how about it?

The challenge: to read at least one chapter of the Bible daily. (That's not too much to ask, is it?) Just one chapter. And take my advice, don't start this off with Genesis chapter 1. Start with a different book. It'll be easier in the long run. Though I don't know where I'll start, I advise Daniel, Song of Solomon, Esther, Colossians, Romans, or Ecclesiastes. In my opinion, those are some of the best books out there. Random fact: whenever I need courage, I read Esther. Or, I watch One Night with the King. You know. Whatever floats your boat. (Perhaps even this!)

Next part of the challenge: realize what it is that you have. In America, Bibles are easily accessible, and those who own them usually don't face any persecution for the fact. While some people may call us some not-so-nice names, that's practically the worst of it. (For now.) Do people die in America for owning Bibles? No. Are Christians slaughtered for their beliefs here? Nope.

Image from Wikipedia

Do people die in North Korea for owning Bibles? You betcha. Are Christians slaughtered for their beliefs in Saudi Arabia? Absolutely.

As American Christians (though hopefully I'll gain plenty of non-American readers), we are largely complacent and nonchalant about faith. Truth be told, many of us would not be willing to die for Jesus. Which, when you think about it, is truly quite sad, considering that He died for us first. Shouldn't we return the favor?

Anyways, that's a discussion for another day. What I want to help you realize now is this: The Bible is the inerrant, eternal, holy word of the Living God, who was, and is, and is to come. Shouldn't we be ecstatic to have access to this book?

So, how about it, readers? Will you do this with me? Will you read a chapter of the Bible each day, and pray at least once a day? I'm gonna go for this. Now that you've got the guidelines (read a chapter, then pray. Or, pray then read. See how laid back I am? ;P), only one question remains:

Are you in?

God's Hand

Don't you just love it when God sends you a Bible verse or passage at just the right time? While I can think of quite a few examples of this in my life, Proverbs 3:27-28 comes to my mind immediately.

In the summer of 2009, I opened up my then-favorite translation of the Bible (The Message by Eugene Peterson) to these two little verses. So let me tell you a little something about that summer.

2009 gave me the toughest summer I had ever seen. God really tried and tested me. One test in particular, actually the main event of that summer for me, came in the form of a new-found friend who shall be referred to as Brie. Brie and I had met in 2008 through mutual friends, then finally hit it off in spring of 2009. A little too quickly we became inseparable, closer than sisters. As the friendship progressed (or in some ways, regressed), new details came to light. One of those said details was that my dearest Brie had been battling with depression and suicidal tendencies.

And I just didn't know what to do.

I'd never been put in a situation like that. There was no 7th Heaven episode with explicit guidelines on how I should handle this information! It was never covered on Boy Meets World! (Well, I'm sure that there was some time devoted to depression, especially in 7th Heaven's case. But still.) I knew I needed to help my friend, but how? How would I go about that? I was so afraid of what might happen if I told someone what was going on--but I was even more afraid of what would happen if I didn't.

So, knowing God, and how He has impeccable timing, I "stumbled upon" these verses:

Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand is God's hand for that person. Don't tell your neighbor, "Maybe some other time," or "Try me tomorrow," when the money's right there in your pocket.

36 words in all, Proverbs 3:27-28 came to me at the most perfect time imaginable. I still believe, to this very day, that those 36 words saved her life. I find it so amazing that God used something written years before Christ's birth to save somebody's life in 2009. Looking back, I can see that I was God's hand in that friendship.

These tiny little verses impacted not only Brie's life, but mine as well. And you know what? The great thing about God's Word is that it's the gift that just keeps on giving and nothing can stop it. God can use my past experiences to help you. And since He's a creative, conscious God, He can recycle them for me. I can once again learn my own lesson!

One thing that I especially drew from the whole ordeal was that I waited too long. I had known about her problems for awhile, yet I just sat there and let them worsen. I would offer my sympathies, maybe say a short prayer here, a little bit of a longer prayer there. But did I do anything? No, not really. Not until I opened my eyes to see what God was trying to tell me. When I finally did, I got Brie the help she needed. Though it was tough, I did what needed doing. In the end, I sacrificed the friendship for the friend.

But something we have to realize is that God doesn't specialize in comfortable callings. While He offers us comfort and safety in His name, He never once claimed that life His way would be easy! In fact, the Bible is filled with God's people being persecuted and tried and oppressed. But here's the good, glorious news:

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

~ 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (NKJV)

The beauty in that passage is that we are enduring such horrors without defeat because of Jesus. While there are so many fantastic theological discussions to be had on those three verses, the point that I'm trying to make here is this: our surroundings do not decide the livelihood of our joy.

The people and circumstances around me do not make me what I am, they reveal who I am. 

~ Laura Schlessinger

We are called to survive these great difficulties triumphantly. (I totally just heard Keanu Reeves say that in my head. If you get this reference, I'm exceedingly proud of my generation. If not, I hereby command you to go and watch Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.) Though my difficulties with Brie were not what the apostles faced, they were deserving of the title "difficulties". There was much pain involved on both sides. Although I honestly really don't know how Brie's doing today, I do know that God used her situation in my life to bring Himself glory. And to begin to bring me back to Him.

If you read my 'about me' page, you'd have seen that I mentioned 2009 bringing me closer to God. Well, it was through the entire Brie ordeal. Although things reverted back to their old nature with the evolution of time, God's power as demonstrated in the summer of 2009 was truly just the beginning. It was a holy seed, planted to bring me where I am today.

So how about this: let yourself help somebody else. Allow God to work in that situation to not only help those in need, but to instruct you as well. Attach yourself to the vine. Become a branch. Bear fruit for God's glory. (John 15:5)

Reach out. Be a hand of God.

An Active Hope

Dum spiro, spero.

Do you recognize this little Latin proverb? Just three words in a row, ordinarily nothing special, and certainly not remarkable on their own, until you realize their true power and meaning:

While I breathe, I hope.

What imagery! (For me, that is.) I, for whatever reason, imagine myself standing in a field, watching the sun set. The wind surrounds me gently, nature sings, and I breathe. And while I am breathing, I am hoping. (The proverb could actually also be translated as "While I am breathing, I am hoping.") One interpretation of the proverb could be that, while we're still alive, the story isn't over, the curtains haven't yet closed. If we're still here, there's still something to be done. What can we do with what we have, right now?

We must think of this instead of what we were once able to do and what we will be capable of accomplishing in the future. Look at it this way: the moment that we call 'now' is so brief, yet all-encompassing. "Now" was once the future, and by the time we've realized that there even is a "now", it's already become the past.

Robert Kiyosaki once said that

Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.

So if we are to hope, we must not do so complacently. If we are to hope, we must do so actively. If we are to believe God will do great things in and through us, we must first show Him that we are capable of receiving such grace right now. If you've ever seen the movie Facing the Giants, you'll probably recall one particularly memorable concept of preparing for rain. In the movie, one of the characters tells a story about two farmers who both prayed for rain, but only one farmer received the true blessings of the rain. Why this one farmer, and not the other? The answer is straight to the point: one farmer prepared for rain, while the other didn't.

You see, it's one thing to pray and ask God for something glorious and miraculous. You must also believe it, and not only that--you must believe it so much that you begin to do things right now while you're waiting on God. That, my dear readers, is what is called "preparing for rain."

So what are you doing with your hopes at this moment? What are you doing with your prayers? Are you just halfheartedly hoping that God will come through and answer your prayer? Or are you praying with hope, knowing that eventually, all droughts must end?

Here's my challenge to you: instead of merely hoping, hope actively. Hope on its own is nothing more than a flimsy wish, which can easily be brought down. But an active hope--a hope that prepares for rain instead of dreaming of it--focuses on the knowledge that God can and will provide.

Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.

~ Zig Ziglar

So do what you can, in this moment, with the resources God has placed in your hands right now. Do what you can, with who you are, where you are. God has put you in your particular place at this particular time for His particular reason. Don't let Him down.

To paraphrase Field of Dreams...

If you prepare the fields, then He will make it rain.

You Can't Hate Hannah and Love the Lord

You can safely assume that you've 

created God in your own image when it turns out that God 

hates all the same people you do. 

~ Anne Lamott

Sometimes, I'm not too proud of myself. 

Sure, I love God, and I long to see His love shining through in my life. But the process is hard, the road is long, and the transformation is difficult. I'm most certainly far from perfect. I may write this blog and "preach" my sermons, but deep down inside, I'm just the same as you are. I'm simply human. 

I'm a hypocrite, just like everyone else. I'm a sinner, just like everyone else. I'm selfish and I'm impatient, just like everyone else. But then, I've been redeemed by the beautiful blood of Christ. And that, my readers, is sadly not the case for every person on this planet. One of my goals with this blog is to help lead others to Christ and to reignite the dying passions of customary Christians. (I used to be one of those "customary Christians" by the way. But then, somebody helped reignite me.) 

Anyways, there's this one thing in particular that I'm not proud of having done recently. I kind of hated somebody.

I know it's wrong. And I don't actually hate this person. I don't wish death upon her, and I don't wish that she'd never been born, and I don't pray for bad things to befall her. But I did harbor some ill will towards her; it was one of my most recent raging battles.

Though I won't go into too much detail, I'll give you the quick rundown. Let's change this girl's name to Hannah for easy referencing. Anyways, Hannah and I met within the past year. I tried to be nice to her; really, I did! It's not that she'd wronged me in the past; I'd never even met her. I don't know what it was about her, but she and I just didn't hit it off. She was the oil and I the water. We could co-exist, but never mix. 

As much as I tried to give Hannah a chance, she just wasn't interested in giving me one. She was rude to me, shrugged me off, avoiding talking with me, gave me the worst death glare you've ever seen, etc. And the more time I spent around her, the more annoyed I became. And the more annoyed I became, the more frustrated I ended up. Before I knew it, my frustration grew into aggravation and my aggravation to disgust to a pretty strong dislike. 

What killed me the most was how much everyone seemed to love Hannah. "Hannah is the sweetest girl I've ever met!" they'd say. "She's just so on fire for God and it really shows," they'd declare. "Hannah's such a great Christian!" As people would say this, I would wonder what they saw in her. I wondered what actions Hannah committed that made her appear to be the exemplary Christian. How could everyone love her, when she was so hateful towards me? (I of course later realized that by thinking such things that I was in fact no better than Hannah herself.)

For awhile, my fleshly nature got the better of me. I vented to a few people about how much I despised Hannah. This ended up being my partial theme song:

And this one, too, though not in a practical manner; it just somewhat captured my emotions:

....Not a proud moment for me, I must admit. I let this hatred (let's venture to call it that) boil within me until I couldn't loathe Hannah any more than I already did. But then, after a substantial amount of time, this Bible verse came to me:

If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 

~ 1 John 4:20 (NKJV)

And then this one, also from 1 John, this time chapter 3, verse 15:

Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them. 

Well, let me just say, that is surely a blow. I surely wouldn't have gone up to Hannah, gun in hand, and shot her! I'd never even dream of such a thing! Yet I somehow justified my "hatred" of her. How could I do that? I still don't understand myself. Although I eventually felt a strong God-inspired conviction to love Hannah, I did what many people do: I ignored it because it was an inconvenience to me. Knowing how perfectly pushy our Lord can be, He reminded me of the verse where Jesus says that if we don't forgive others, then our Father will, in turn, not forgive us. (This goes back to "you reap what you sow.")

So after some time, I was growing so unhappy with loathing Hannah that I just decided to pray for God to bless her. I didn't really mean it at first. But after awhile, He moved in my heart and He slowly changed me, taking me from hating Hannah to wishing to befriend her and praying good things over her. Among the many things I learned through this experience:

You can't hate Hannah and love the Lord.

Buy "Gives You Hell"
Buy "Pray for You"

Driving past

Yesterday, I went shopping with one of my best friends. Being the middle of July, the sun is, suffice it to say, ridiculously hot. I'm not entirely sure what we were thinking when we decided to just park at one spot and walk to our other two destinations. You see, the mall, the supermarket, and several restaurants are all within walking distance. Being ambitious teenage girls without a hold on common sense, we elected to simply trek from place to place on foot.

However, after just a few minutes out in the 100+ degree sun, we really started to feel the heat. Dizziness, fatigue, and dehydration were just a few of our lovely minuscule heat stroke symptoms. But still... we marched on.

(I just couldn't resist to add this music video. Sorry for my randomness; you'll get used to it, I promise.) After visiting a friend at the market where she works, we walked to get ice cream, and from there to the mall. By the time we got to shopping at the mall, we were about to collapse. Unfortunately, the A/C in the mall wasn't working too well, so we decided to abort the mission and go home.

On the way out of the shopping district, we grabbed a few waters and went on our merry, dehydrated way. As we stopped at a curb, we saw a man there, holding up a sign that read

HUNGRY

THIRSTY

ANYTHING WILL HELP

and you know what we did?

We drove right on past him.

It's not like either one of us would have died if we'd given up one of our waters. My friends' house was a mere five minutes away and surely we'd have survived that long with air conditioning and one water between us. But yet, we chose to pass up an opportunity to witness to someone who may never have seen God's love in action. Looking back, I ask, "How could I have done such a thing?" In some ways, my inaction made me feel like a monster.

But there's something I've always got to remember: Inaction is just as much if not more effective than an action. As I sit here today, I wonder what made me subconsciously decide to not help someone who was in need. Was it selfishness? Pride? Was I too lazy, too inconvenienced? I claim to be a Christian yet I denied someone of the most basic right of water on a blistering day. Who am I? Who am I really? Jesus said (this is my paraphrase, by the way) that if we help the poor, our reward in Heaven will be great. (Matthew 19:21) Of course, this is NOT to say that our entire motivation for serving others is accumulating "points" to redeem in Heaven. But I think you get what I was trying to say. 

So let me ask this: what actually prevents us from helping people like this man? Is it laziness, selfishness, personal inconvenience  pride? What makes us pass these opportunities up? And even moreso, How do we justify these actions--or rather, inactions--to ourselves? 

The more I thought about it, the more this situation reminded me of a particular Matthew West song:

To be honest, many times I wonder if the people on the side of the road are actually legitimately poor. I always wondered where they got the cardboard and Sharpies from. (It is a valid question, though.) In some ways, giving to roadside beggars is somewhat like an investment, and that's how many of us view it: if we are going to put time, money, effort, etc. into something, we want to know that it's a veritable thing to invest in. We want to see some immediate return.

But think about this for a second.

While I don't believe in the Eastern definition of karma, I believe quite firmly in the Bible's version: 

...Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

~ Galatians 6:7-8 (NKJV)

It's pretty simple; what goes around comes around. (Or, according to Cory Matthews, "What goes around, goes around and around.") If we spend our time "investing" in the wrong things, we won't reap much. But if we invest wisely and through God's lenses, we will eventually reap that which we have earned. The way I see it, if you give to someone like the man that we passed up, you will one day see a return in one way or another. The glorious part about it is this: even if the people you give to are posers, their wrongful actions will someday come to bite them in the butt, and you will receive your reward anyways. ...It's pretty beautiful.

Bottom line: With God, you just can't lose.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all...

~ Galatians 6:9-10 (NKJV)

(Emphases added)

Buy "Marchin On" by OneRepublic

Buy "My Own Little World" by Matthew West

Desert Song

This is my prayer in the desert, 
When all that's within me feels dry...

So begins one of Hillsong United's songs. The song, entitled "Desert Song" (my goodness I feel like I've said 'song' a lot), is one of my all time favorites, and I probably would never have found it had it not been for iTunes' $0.69 songs. While music shopping one day, I stumbled upon a good helping of Hillsong music, all on sale. Although I, up until that point, hadn't really been a fan of Hillsong, I sampled the music. And I was surprised.

I actually really liked some of their music! This was particularly remarkable because, though I'd grown up around Christian music, I never really liked it. For years I had refused to even stand during worship at church, but here I was, in 2011, going crazy buying Hillsong music! I ended up buying a handful of songs, one of them being "Desert Song", which I quickly fell in love with.

This is my prayer in my hunger and need,
My God is the God who provides...


The more that I listened to this 4 minute, 40 second song, the more I began to appreciate it. I began to notice the chords and the melody, the passion in the song's spirit, and most of all, the inspired lyrics. Then, several weeks after purchasing the song, I had one verse in particular in my devotional: Matthew 4:1. I'd read the verse before, and growing up, I'd heard the story behind it in Sunday school. But it wasn't until reading it in my devotional that I fully understood it. It says,

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.
~ Matthew 4:1, NIV (1984 version)

This is my prayer in the fire,
In weakness or trial or pain...

When you first read it, you think, "Okay yeah. Jesus goes into the desert and then He's tempted, the end." But what happens when you look at this seemingly simple verse again, this time under a closer lens? This is easiest when the verse is broken up into several parts.

//Then Jesus was led by the Spirit//into the desert//to be tempted by the Devil.//


There is a faith proved of more worth than gold,
So refine me, Lord, through the flame...


Before we go into detail with the segments, notice how the verse doesn't say, "Then Jesus walked into the desert and there He ended up facing some temptations." It says that Jesus was led by the Spirit. Meaning that Jesus had received the beautiful gift of the Holy Spirit (if you really devour my statement, you may get confused, considering that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are technically the same... so, don't devour it. We can discuss the Trinity some other time.) and He allowed It* to change Him. He allowed the Spirit to speak and move in His life, and He obeyed Its call. (Hmm, we could take some cues from this Jesus guy!)

When we let the Holy Spirit lead us, we will find that what we had once called "life" was really nothing at all in comparison to what God will give us. But that's not to say that a Spirit-led, Spirit-filled life will be easy. Because it won't.

I will bring praise, I will bring praise,
No weapon formed against me shall remain...

Life led by our Father isn't meant to be easy. It's meant to be difficult, and it's meant to require perseverance and faith. And it's meant to be joyous and glorious. Thought it may seem as if those two contradict, they really don't. Take a peek at some verses from 2 Corinthians:

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. ... In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.
~ 2 Corinthians 6:10, 7:4 (NIV, '84)


I will rejoice, I will declare,
God is my victory and He is here...


You see, our circumstances don't determine the level of our joy. The Spirit that fills our souls determines that.

Anyways, Jesus, Spirit-filled, ventures out into the wilderness of the desert. (As a quick sidenote, think about this: you must be filled with the Spirit before you enter your true desert.) There He finds torrid, dry days and bitterly frigid nights. In the desert, there is no comfortable or easy time. Water is scarce, the sun is cruel, and the moon is crueler. Cacti reign and scorpions patrol the sands. There's nobody around for miles. All you can see is sand, sand, and more sand, and all you can feel is weather beating at your back. It feels hopeless, your situation filled with despair.

This is my prayer in the battle,
When triumph is still on its way...

Though Jesus was in a literal desert, most of us won't actually find ourselves alone in one. Our "deserts" will be more metaphorical--your mom is in the hospital, your spouse was just diagnosed with cancer, you're impoverished--but trying nonetheless. When someone you love is dying, or when you yourself are facing hardship, it's quite easy and convenient to fall into depression and weariness. But if you have joy in your heart...

Well, if you have joy, you will be able to withstand the beatings. In one way or another, God will pull you through, and you'll survive, hopefully with your faith even stronger than before.

I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ,
So firm on His promise I'll stand...

Sure, deserts suck. But we must stand firm in knowing that God has led us there for a purpose. And that, if we stick with Him, our blessings will be immense, and His glory will shine.

"Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." 
~ Matthew 26:41 (NKJV)

I will bring praise, I will bring praise,
No weapon formed against me shall remain...

So where are you right now? Are you in the desert, just as Jesus was? Let me tell you something about deserts. If you're not in one, that probably means one of two things: 1) You're not Spirit-filled and Spirit-led... yet. You can always turn to God and He will  never let you down. or 2) You've already been there, and you're waiting in the oasis. But the next time that you encounter the desert... you'll know that no matter how long and winding the tunnel, there is always a light at the end.

Let "Desert Song" become one of your staples. "In every season" know that God is "still God" and that we "have a reason to worship." To quote Galaxy Quest, "Never give up! Never surrender!"

If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.

~ 2 Timothy 2:12

Buy "Desert Song" (Amazon mp3)
Desert image from Wikipedia, music video from Youtube.

*I refer to the Holy Spirit as "It" in this entry to avoid confusion. See this passage.

The Pusher

Dominoes. Interesting objects, are they not? If you line them up correctly and push just one, the entire series will fall into the place that they were destined to be. Have you ever found life to be the same? Have you ever thought that maybe we're all just dominoes, positioned perfectly? When one is pushed, a whole slew of reactions just come...almost like magic. 

But maybe it's more than that--maybe it's not really magic at all; maybe it's power. Divinity. Truth, beauty, perfection, authority. After all, every domino that falls had to have been pushed. So who's lining the dominoes up? And who's making them fall into place?

The world has obviously concocted countless answers to this vital question, but only one can be correct. While this is an entire debate on philosophy and faith alone, it's not what I'm going to explore today; I already have my answer: the triune God. Just as He is the one setting the dominoes up and making them fall into line, everything around us is a domino (including ourselves). One domino falls and it inspires an entire parade of reactions and consequences, good and bad alike. So here's part of my domino story:

Born of and raised by Christian parents, I became a Christian myself at a young age and I grew up believing. Sure, I had my occasional doubts, but I was overall certain of my faith... yet I was somewhat embarrassed by it. Sadly, I think that's the tendency with many Christ followers; we might be totally sure of what we believe in, but maybe we're shy or afraid of someone else's beliefs making more sense. Depending on the person and/or circumstance, it could be something entirely different. But whatever the cause, it must stop. And for me, at least for a few months in 2009, it did. Something just changed and suddenly I was closer to God than I had ever been. But then, a couple of other things changed, and I was drifting away once more. Sure, I still believed. But I no longer truly lived it. And yet again, something else has changed. A domino has fallen.

About six months ago, while cleaning/organizing my room, I stumbled upon one of my several Bibles. I opened it up "randomly" to Romans 2:1, an unfailingly powerful verse:

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

It spoke volumes, and it hit me hard. So hard, in fact, that I just had to write it on a note and stick it by my bed. Before I knew it, I was collecting other Bible verses and placing them by my bed. Whenever I see a verse that just speaks to me or that I read and go, "Oooh. Wish I'd written that..." it goes on a Post-It and finds its place on my wall. Not too long after that mini hobby started, I got the idea to do a blog about Bible verses, their practical applications, etc. And then, a great title came to me: When Life Gives You Sermons. 

So in September of last year, I made my account on here and it just sat there for awhile. Life happened, and one thing or another was preventing me from actually publishing anything. When the New Year began, I knew it was my chance to sit down and write this thing. Though it's been several months since 2011 rolled in, I'm finally here.  

As I write, you read. And, hey. Who knows, maybe a domino will fall.