Convenient or not!

Today I finished up 2 Timothy. Now I've read this book a few times in my walk with God, but today God decided that He would rip two things out of His word and smack me in the face with them. One of these things is in the beginning of chapter three as Paul is warning Timothy about the people in the last days he says something that stands out like crazy. 3:5 holding to the form of religion but denying its power. Now Paul is talking about wicked people here. These people are listed among those who are traitors, reckless, and lovers of pleasure over God. People who hold to the form of religion yet deny its power. I live in a city where there is a church on just about every corner. It's a good ol place called Pensacola. Most people here will tell you that they go to church somewhere. Many will even claim baptism and a relationship with Christ. And many of the many also deny the lifechanging power of the gospel every day. Can I be honest and say I have my days where my heart can be so cold to the power of my relationship with God that I'll just simply go through religious motions yet not seek to love on the hurt and broke, not seek to help the helpless, and not seek the glory of the kingdom. I have my days and by the grace of God He pulls me back to Him. My prayer after reading this is that I would be alert to the condition of my heart. Whether its a rock or an open door for Christ to work in. If rocky then God break it open and if it's a door COME ON IN and work on me more!

The second part that stood out was 2 Timothy 4:2 PROCLAIM THE MESSAGE; PERSIST IN IT WHETHER CONVENIENT OR NOT; rebuke, correct, and encourage with GREAT PATIENCE AND TEACHING.

Now that convenient or not part. That's stands out to me. How often in our walks we go with what we feel is convenient at the moment. This goes back to the alertness of the heart, because if I'm just embracing religion and denying Gods power then eventually I'm going to quit embracing religion. It's going to become a burden. When I embrace Gods power and love, walking in His commands is not burdensome! When I try to do all this with a rocky heart I run to convenience eventually. I start out going through motions, then I do what I think is good for me.

God calls us the chase His heart!
Not just religion!
When we chase His heart
We constantly find what fills our hearts
His power!
His love!
When we find His love
We are compelled by His love
To walk in His ways whether convenient or not
And when we mess up
And when we stray
We can come back to Him
In fact He pulls us back to Him
With His love

#knowGod

:)

Ya know. Nights like tonight. They make me wonder what heaven is gonna be like. If it gets better than this then I'm in for a treat lol. And the awesome hope that I have says that I does get better than this. This doesn't even compare.

It's good to be around those you can really call family. The people you can really be who you are around. No need to try and please because you're already pleasing.

This is what it's all about.
Must admit I'm blessed.
Blessed to have true friends
We all have them
Im blessed to have the wisdom
To see who they are

Str8 up

Who are you?

Hmm a question that most will never admit that they say to the mirror. Today I listened to a song on repeat called free by Dara Maclean. It really spoke to me about the grace and strength of God.

This is what I took away.

God has made Himself available to us. God is the solid rock in a work of sinking sand. This means we don't have to live lives of instability. He is love in a world that is craving love. This means we don't have to live love starved lives.
He is peace in a world that calls for
War. This means that even in the midst of the war peace is available to us.
He is joy in a world that is broken hearted. This means that the brokenness can be healed.
He is Hope in a world that can't come through. This means we don't have to live hopelessly.
He is everything that our souls crave. Which means we don't have to live broken.
He is powerful over all, and the strongest of us is still weak.

My strength alone will never be enough, but His arms keep lifting me up!

Finally He brings us identity.
In a world that tries to tell us who we should be He makes us who we are MEANT to be. Apart from Him we don't get that.

In Him we are free to be who we're truly meant to be!

Only in Him

Always Been or Getting Worse

            Today, while browsing facebook, I came across an artical about a lady who died of skin cancer
at the age of 26. The thing that really stood out to me the most wasn't the fact that she didn't make it, but the fact that new studies find tanning beds to be more deadly than we once thought. This raised the question in my head. Has it always been that deadly, or is the world still crumbling from sin?

Think about it though
how often do we hear about new studies
that tell us that what was once good for us
is now bad for us

it's crazy isn't it

it's like the world is barely able to stand anymore

things are becoming more deadly than they used to be

The earth seems to be crying out

Where is the hope!?

Things are not as the should be

things are not as they were created to be

We live in a fallen world

no we live in a failling world

This world is in desperation!

Where is the hope!?

John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son

so that whosoever believes in Him shall not parish

but have everlasting life

3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it,

BUT TO SAVE IT!!

THERE IS THE HOPE!

WE HAVE HOPE!

in a fallen world there is hope in Christ who is Victorious over all!

Evaluation

I stopped and did that today. Just took a moment to evaluate the past couple weeks. The things I've done and why I've done them. I've done some things I'm proud of others I'm not. I fell into a black hole the past week and really kind of kept myself there without telling anyone, but my recent break up seemed to hit me harder than I thought last week, and what ended yesterday in a conversation that would kind of wake me up from my slumber. It was a rough place I can assure you and to be honest I didn't even realize I was there until yesterday. I hate getting to the point of antisocialism. I don't try but sometimes I make it there. I have to be really careful not to let myself get there because if I don't then I begin to make up what seem like good excuses to not be social. Like "I have home work." that never really gets done until the day it needs turning in there are other excuses that I make that I don't realize I'm making until its way to late. All I know is. I gotta get out of this house and avoid black holes. My very being began to crave interaction and it was filled last night hanging out with r3droom. It's always good to have interaction.

Here is one big thing I know.
The break up was a serious let down, but I can go on loving and being loved. God has shown me true love and taught me how to do that. My let downs may really suck, but they won't stop me from letting people in.

Running

I don't know what has compelled me
to run so much lately. I do know this thought. It's a great time of worship as I get to run in peace listening to songs of praise and worship and it's a moment to see that God is my endurance. I get to see Him not only push me to my limits but take me past what I can do on my own. Today I ran through my neighborhood non stop and I got this amazing feeling near my house. When I got close I began to run harder. Not give up because I was close but run harder. It reminded me that as Christians we ought to run harder and harder with Christ. We ought not stop running with Him unless He says to stop. Just as in the old testament. When God moved the people were to follow and when He stood still they were to be still with Him. I'm learning to move. Soon I'm betting God will begin teaching me to rest lol.

Socially Posted Salvation?

So I saw this conversation posted on Facebook today and thought to myself. . . I'm Santa would have to be real for this conversation to exist ;) and really when we die God is not going to judge us by whether we reposted things like this on Facebook. It's about living for Him not postings on social networks.

I get really offended when I see the
Re post this because Jesus is watching you photos.

That's a false gospel all the way.

Salvation is only found in Christ the Savior of the world.

Jealous Love

Many of us know of the song "How He Loves" by John Mark Mcmillon right. Well the first five words of that song always get me. "He is jealous for me!" when I hear those words I'm reminded that we as the church are the bride of Christ. I'm also reminded that humanity once walked in perfect fellowship with God until Sin came in and broke that fellowship. Where we were once together we became separate. Talked into separation by Satan. Seduced. . . Reading proverbs this morning something hit me. The foreshadowing of victory over Satan.

6:34 for jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. 35 He will not be appeased by anything or be persuaded by lavish gifts.

Satan has already been defeated. God will have vengeance on Him out of His love for us.

We must remember that Satan is in utter defeat and He knows it. He's going to try to bring us down with him. That is what he does. He simply lies to us to seduce us. Against God he is powerless. He's nothing more than a seductress who tries to desperate us from God. He uses methods of fear, delight, and hey he even uses scripture
out of context to get to us.

We have to stay near to the one who is truly jealous for us. The one who truly wants what's best for us. Our God!

Yahweh

ADS

. . . Advertisements . . .

Genesis 3:4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God,knowing good and evil.”

. . . .

the very first advertisement ever!

and we see where that got us :/

advertisements they tell us what we want to hear. . . but for the most part
they leave out all the bad stuff or try to toss it in subtly
that way the bad things just don't sound so bad

many advertisements follow the model of Satan's
promising what seems good at the moment

let us continue

⁶ Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.


Now her husband was right there watching the same commercial as her
sitting on the couch with her knowing that it wasn't good for the both of them
and instead of speaking up in the middle of the commercial and saying
"That is so stupid! Why would anyone want that!"
He simply decided to give it a shot

we follow Adam and Eves examples here many times

we either see something we want at the moment that isn't good for us

and because it looks like it's nice to have we go after it

or we approve of each other going after what is not good and even join in

even though we know it's not good

We must be on our guard

This world throws many things at us

things that look desirable but only end badly for us

we say sill things like

"You only live once so you may as well try it!"

but that is no way to live at all

That's not taking risks it's simply taking death pills

there's a big difference in living to the fullest

and living to the foolest

Life won't be found in these trivial things that end 

in nothing more than destruction for us

True life is found in only in the arms of Christ

He is the one truly worth living for

He is the only one that can fill the infinite void in all of us

Because He is infinite!

We once had fellowship with Him

then we took the first advertisement at its word

when we did that we stopped trusting God

We became broken

He is the healer

other things can numb the pain for a while

but in the end they still leave us broken

Tips and Red Drank

Yesterday was an amazing day that I didn't get to write about.
I played in the band yesterday and it was somewhat refreshing to play my electric guitar
it's been a while since I played it

we also had communion. .
which consists of red drank and crackers

. Our youth put on an amazing desert auction so that they
could raise money for camp. It always amazes me how well those auctions go, and if you were there
you know why.

I'm amazed at how much God has grown our church since i first started going.
When I first started going the youth group was very much alienated.
Now I am proud to say that they are now a part of the church, and seen as important.

I'm proud of my church family!

So about those gigs. . .
Looks like the Chik fi la is a no go, but I am still stoked for the
opportunity to play in may with GNS, and also playing this coming saturday
at avondale park with the Revelation Band

God is opening doors for me at school also
I'm beginning to see a revolution as christians are starting to rise up
on my campus and I'm' excited about this

more to come

ta ta for now

A new Song

So about an hour ago God woke me up
with a song in my heart that just brought me to tears
I'm about to start recording it, but all I can think is wow
God really just wrote this onto my heart

While I was writing it I kept thinking I'm going to need
help form someone to write it, but God just kept telling me what to say
He just kept going and it was like He knew what I needed to hear
from myself. . .well He does and I know that.

Well I'm about to record it and I may post it on this blog
I pray that God just use this song in many places
in other churches to heal broken hearts of other people
and to bring hope to hopeless