The Goal of Our Instruction

     Lately the youth band and I have been on a journey through scripture. This month we are in the book of 1 Timothy, and a huge thing that has stuck out to me in this book is what Paul says is the goal of the instruction given. 1 Timothy 1:5 Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a PURE HEART, a GOOD CONSCIENCE, and a SINCERE FAITH! Thinking upon these things makes me want to go look up definitions for these words to get a much better idea of what he is saying.

SO I DID :)

Pure- free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; free from extraneous matter

Good- Satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree

Sincere- free of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness

     So the goal of our instruction is 

love that is free from anything of a different, inferior or contaminating kind 

love that is satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree 

And love that is free of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness

     Well then that helps me out a lot! Love with no strings attatched. That is the goal of the instruction given to us in God's word. That we would love God and love each other with no strings attatched. True love, not that dollar general off brand stuff. Continuing on reading what instruction is given I can see that this must truly be the goal. Paul says he wants us to lift up holy hands together without arguing, but instead us together in love worshipping the God that we love. 

AND REMEMBER

THESE AREN'T JUST PAULS IDEAS

ALL SCRIPTURE IS INSPIRED BY GOD, AND IS PROFITABLE FOR TEACHING, REBUKING, FOR CORRECTING, FOR TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS SO THAT THE MAN OF GOD MAY BE COMPLETE, EQUIPPED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK

2 Timothy 3:16-17

    Needless to say... Paul isn't just throwing out ideas here. When he calls overseers to be above reproach the goal is love. When he calls women to be modest, not dressing to seek attention to themselves his goal is love. True love. Without a hidden agenda and without contamination. When he calls us to these things, He's simply sharing with us what God has called us to. 

I'm super stoked to continue reading through with this Scripture in mind

right now I'm on chapter three with my band, but as I read a proverb a day(or try to) 

I keep this scripture in mind. Since reading this scripture and actually letting it sink in, the way that I've read the Bible the past couple weeks has been changed when it comes to instruction I'm seeing more and more that not only does God give us instruction because He loves us, but also because He desires for us to love each other.

Truly Live

      Today has been a pretty good day, though I can not get some things off of my mind. This morning there was an employee meeting at my job discussing how we would soon have a different name, and be working for a different company. The meeting went very well, and afterwards I stuck around and talked video games with some co workers and my GM.
     Since I've been home I've had a hurtful relationship on my mind. One I had to walk away from. It's been kind of bothering me today because I know I only would get hurt out of that relationship, and recently the person text me. I have yet to respond and it's been a couple days, but there's still that urge to text that person back. So I have to stay strong. It's rough, but I know God is going to bring me through this. God didn't bring me this far through it just so that I could fall back down into that hole. It helps to have the people I love here to talk to about it. It really does help when I can just lay out on the table what is really on my heart. I think that's how God intended us to be with each other. To be able to lay our hearts out on the table with our closest friends. Ya know the ones that stick closer than a brother.
     I can say that God has definitely been growing me in the past few weeks when it comes to trusting in Him with all of this. My eyes are also being opened as I said in my last blog. I want my life to glorify Him. I want to live they way Jesus lived. Jesus lived a life of love, a life of action, and a life of war. I'm seeing that God has definitely given me the freedom, power, and opportunity to do that. He gives us all the freedom, power, and opportunity to truly live. He is glorified when we truly live. These are things He's been reminding me of through the bible, and the book "Waking the Dead."
     God not only calls us to truly live, but supplies the power to do so. When we trust in Him with our hearts, He wakes them up. He makes our hearts beat fully alive, and it's so amazing.

I am more alive now
than I've been in a long time
all because of Jesus
   

Just keeping you posted

Well it turns out I did get something out of the GIC
I've been away from blogging for a while
been out enjoying the adventures of life
Hanging out with friends
finding new opportunities to just live out loud
Going after opportunities that God has given me to share Him through music

Things have been a little stressful lately, but I'm keeping my focus in the right place.
Remembering that trials will come. They will come until the day I die, and when
I endure, my faith grows because when I endure I get to see that God has something
amazing at the end that will glorify me so that I can glorify Him.

This week I auditioned for We've Got Talent

for those that don't know it's a talent show
I've made it to the finals which means I will be playing
at the Pensacola Interstate Fair October 21st

I'm very excited about this!
Very excited!

I'm also playing at Beulah Free Will Baptist Church on November 2
I can not wait!

I'm starting to see, as my focus is getting back to where it needs to be, on God, that
there have been opportunities all around that I've missed focusing on things that
don't matter

I'm happy that God has not let me go so blind that I don't get to see opportunities
now, even though I didn't see them then.

Now it's time to get on the so called GRIND

Empire being built correctly
on who He is
He's gonna hold everything up
even in the worst storms

GIC DAY 1

          Last night was the big kick off of our Global Impact Celebration at church. I must say that I was very reluctant to attend. The previous night we had band practice for the event, and things did not go well at all. Stuff was getting messed up, the music sounded terrible, and one of the main people singing did not make it to the practice. We seemed to do a lot more talking than practicing, which kept us there until 9:30pm. I almost came to the point of just saying that I refused to play. I was highly annoyed, but kept asking God not to let that get in the way of me seeing, and hearing Him. I even made it a point to have someone else pray for me on that same thing.
        When yesterday finally rolled around, I tried to keep the previous practice, and the thought of playing far from my mind until I needed to actually think about it. I went to see Taken 2 with some friends. It was okay. Then it was time. I got to church and everything just felt so rushed again, seeing as we started practice late. Honestly I wasn't really feeling it. Yes it was worship music we were playing, and no it's not all about us, but it was a most definitely stressful practice environment, and unnecessarily stressful at that. By the end of that practice there was just so much noise going on in my head, and I was afraid that maybe I wouldn't get to see God move.
       Finally the service started, and I had a peace in my heart. Once we began to play I just focused on one thing. The words of what we were playing. God was giving me peace and reminding me of who He is through the music we had been playing. The music went well, can't say that I really really heard the message though. I know it was about passion and obligation for missions. But I'm praying that God use these next few days of this conference to really speak to me. Beyond all the noise of band practices, band stress, and other things that go on in life.

I really want to see Him move
and I really want to hear Him speak

Back to battle

Lately that's how it's seemed
I remember a time in my life when I felt overwhelmed
thinking that I was too involved in ministry

Granted I was doing a lot of stuff

The problem was never the stuff that I was doing
The problem was where my heart and mind where when I was doing so much
I can remember the joy that these things brought me when I was focused
Focused on the bigger picture

Lately my focus has slowly gotten back toward the big picture
here's what I know about the big picture
It's so big that I cannot grasp it fully,
but I have a huge part to play in it

God has shown me adventure in the past few weeks
I've been helping out with 1st Priority Washington High school
I missed it this past week and it broke my heart to have to
I'm looking forward to seeing what God does with us

I realize that God has more for me than just helping out at our youth group
on wednesdays and the band on sunday mornings sometimes
there's so much more out there that God has for me
not that I'm not blessed by those things

Because those things are such a blessing on my life
there's just more blessings to be had
more battles to be won

there's just so much more to see than
wednesdays and sundays could ever hold
I'm looking forward to what He does with me at my job
what He does with me at my school
what He does with me in my home

there's much to be done
much God to be experienced
much war and adventure to be had

there's a bigger picture out there

Lord let the sight of my eyes become irrelevant
and the sight of my heart become everything