NO GOOD!

lately I've been reading the book of Jeremiah and wow! I've made it to chapter six and I'm realizing how much this all applies to our lives. How people who turn away from God and start living like the world get mad at God when they start going through things. It's the same now that it was back then. The people who had turned on God would say "Where's God" or "Is God holding a grudge against me" when the honesty of it all is that they have turned on Him. He says "Just admit that you've done wrong and come back to me." But they play innocent. . . .

But when we look at God's word and look at the Ten Commandments, we see that we all have done wrong right. Then when we look at Psalm 53:3 All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.

that's where we are when we are turned away from Christ in our lives
we are wicked. Without Christ we are pure messes, and if we gain the world without Christ we are pure disasters.

NO ONE IS GOOD! NOT EVEN ONE!!!!
Yet Christ, the Holy one, look that word holy up btw, died for us on a cross. He took the punishment that we deserve! He rose again three days later having defeated sin and death(separation from God). Sin separates us from God and is worthy of death. Christ brings us back to Him, when we confess that we've done wrong in the eyes of a Holy God who is Lord, believe that He is our Savior, and are baptized. He frees us from the hold of sin in our lives. Not just our own sin, but the sin of others on us! How Marvelous! How Wonderful! He doesn't do it because He has to. He does this because He loves us!

Apart from His love we simply see disaster, but with Him we know abundant life!

The Smaller Picture

we're always told to look at the bigger picture, but what if we could see both the small parts and the big parts. I personally, being the type of person who can always see the bigger picture, wish I could see the smaller things. I always have huge ideas that I never know how to pull of because I don't see the smaller picture. I don't see the steps that need to be made. My head is full of ideas that I've never shared with anyone. HUGE ideas. Things I want and believe that God wants for me in life. Big events, dramas, music videos, worship intro videos, and other forms of "entertainment" that would glorify God. Why am I writing this stuff here? Simply so that I can put it out there. There's a lot in my brain that needs to fall out of it. Some days I feel like my brain is about to explode. There's no more time to waste. I need to find the smaller pieces that make this big picture that I see.

Picket Fences

(sigh)
     I'm Sitting here at Pensacola State College, and it's Fat Tuesday. There's a guy, in the most creepy of costumes, going around handing out flyers for some kind of event that is happening today. But that's not why I'm typing this :).
     Today a line of a song has been running through my head. "Fearless warriors in a picket fence." This line has been going at my brain and my heart all morning, because I just got it. I always wondered why fearless warriors would be in picket fences, and it just hit me today that I'm right. Why would fearless warriors be in picket fences. Shouldn't they be on the battlefield?
     As some may know I've been reading a book called The Barbarian Way. This book has me thinking a lot about what it really looks like to be a follower of Christ. I'm not talking about being an America or being a Christian, but I'm talking about being a follower of Christ who loved, rebuked, healed, preached, set free, and was persecuted for the glory of God.
     So often in life I find that we live on the as close as we can get theology. Which sounds like this. "I will get as close as I can get to the line of following Jesus without loosing my flesh." That's such a dangerous theology though. Makes me wonder if when Jesus said that few make it down the narrow path he was saying to us that only few are willing to cross that line. The line of truly living!
    Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying theres anything wrong with having a picket fence, but I am saying that when Christ calls us to something, we had better not hide behind our comfort zones. We often treat God as if we are the boss, but such is not the case. He is the King and we ought to do what He says to do. I'm reminded in Hebrews of people who did what He said to do. Some became kings and great leaders, and others were persecuted and killed for God's name sake. The bible speaks of those who were killed on behalf of God's name Hebrews 11:³⁸ The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.
   That just doesn't sound very cozy. It sounds like God called them to something and they went for it trusting that He is their life, and He is. He is our lives as followers of Christ that is exactly what we do. We follow Christ out of our comfort zones, and into the valley of the shadow of death, out of our homes, into places where people may pick on us, turn on us, or even try to kill us. We follow Christ to the cross, and we lay down our lives. We lose our earthly lives and we find our lives in the eternal Kingdom of God.


that's what we do.

pouring out

just yesterday I got to spend time with a group of middle school guys
discussing the word of God
During that time I was able to pour out into them
and it was a blessing to me.

All this time i've been worried about feeling dry,
but I've realized something.
I haven't been dry at all
I've been so full that I just need to pour out

That's my mission in life as a follower of Christ
is to pour out for the glory of God

I was so blessed to also be able to make it into the lifegroup this morning
where I was able to do the same thing
pouring out helps me get filled up
and when I draw back from pouring out
i begin to feel the weight of that

Lord God keep me pouring out
and remind me that I need to be doing that daily
wherever I can and however I can

pouring out myself for Your glory!

Uncivilize me

Acts 5 tonight. Reading the barbarian way and just looking at the early church I do see that passion in them. That barbaric untamed uncivilized passion. God has been re awakening in me that. Somewhere I do feel like I got "civilized" and started acting like everyone else. Well . . I say no mas! I mean to quote myself talking to God "In You I am free to be who I'm truly meant to be! I am living life abundant and oh so free! You are breathing Your life giving breath into me, and I'm complete!"

Oh to delight in You once again
as I once did
to fall away from the complexity of just being good
to delight in Your love like I once did
to be free . .
to be free . . .
free from who they ask me to be
free from who I think they want me to be
free to be who You call me to be
uncivilize me Lord
uncivilize me

beauty of my mess

So last night I was leading worship for our youth group, and honestly for the band it was sort of a rough night. We we're missing a bass player, I was missing chords, and I'm pretty sure we were all just having a rough time, and musically in the light of the past few weeks we were just a little rough, but something happened this week that didn't happen in the past few weeks. In the midst of what I thought was rough and messy God had been speaking to one of our youth through what it is that He was allowing us to do. Praise God!
He took what felt like a mess and made beauty of it. GLORY TO GOD!
I mean think about it. What if we had played really amazing last night and someone took away from it. In human arrogance it would've been hard not to get a big head about it, but God managed to cancel out that possibility. During the moment of prayer right before playing I'd been praying that God would make our time of worship about much more than music, but only about Him, and that is what He did. He is faithful, and sometimes His faithfulness requires the putting back of us, so that He can get all of the glory! I'm so stoked about this.

We just make messes, but He just makes beauty.
He sees the broken, and He restores it.
He renews!

it's been a minute =)

But i'm back
okay so it's been a crazy past few weeks
God has shown me a lot about my relationship with Him
and about His love for me.

Today as I was reading acts 1 I realized something
in verse 7 Jesus basically tells the disciples that what they are worrying about
isn't for them to know. It isn't for them to worry about
he goes on in verse 8 to tell them about what to focus on.

Often times in life we get sidetracked by things that really aren't for us.
We get so caught up in these things that we begin to drown out what it is that God has for us.
We get exhausted and beat ourselves up. Then we wonder why things are going bad.
I've been in this predicament many times. =P.

But the grace that God has to restore us when we overload ourselves
on things that aren't meant for us.
He restores and it's such a beautiful thing.
So when we are feeling overwhelmed in things we know aren't for us.

We gotta drop em!
That may be hard, but we gotta let that stuff go!
That way we can run towards God's plan for your life. =)

lets get rid of the hinderances