Chains Fashioned by Options and Possibilities

After reading a book called Just Do Something, I decided to follow its advice. There are so many options put before us that we just don’t recognize as open doors and so we’re constantly asking God to open doors for us. I think that rather than asking for open doors, we should be asking God to shut doors... or rather in my life there are just so many options, possibilities, and things that I could do but I can’t simply do all of them and fewer choices would be better and easier. I want to empty my life of all the extra things I’ve gathered to myself ‘just in case’ something happens’. I’m bogged down because the possibilities that I’ve stored up, especially in the instance of my clothes and my art stuff. I have so much clothes that I couldn’t possibly wear all of them, I actually only wear a very small amount of the clothes that I own but I play the what if game and so I build up safety nets, collecting clothing articles for every situation and circumstance possible ‘just in case’. It’s exhausting catching up to it all and realizing that most of what I wear everyday can be converted in some way in a different order to fit the circumstance so why do I need all the clothing options? I don’t.

I took the thing of just do something to a level of seeing that I have freedom in God to choose what I want to do and so I just have to choose something. Well I did that and now realize as I try to up-right my life that I was on a different path than one I had wanted. I took it to the extreme and picked a path that was what I wanted to do but not along God’s will. It was an open door in the sense of options between God and world, not a freedom of choice between 2 things that can glorify God. I turned from God in an unintentional way and yet at the same time I think I knew subconsciously that I was just dropping off of the God path to try out something that I liked and wanted instead.

A few Sundays ago, the high-school group at church were in Ecclesiastes where it talks about how everything is meaningless and then talking about grace and how if we know God’s grace, we will be ever joyful all the time. How things are only meaningful when you have God at its center and the constant drive of furthering the kingdom and such, constant striving for and toward God. Words are just symbols, they are meaningless until we give them meaning, until we make them something. In the same way everything is meaningless until God is at our center and the center of everything and gives our actions, success, failures, time, anything and everything a meaning which is Him. He is our meaning and everything’s meaning and if he is not then that it meaningless. Then a passage was brought up in Matthew talking about how God provides for the bird and flowers and yet these are the least of things so we should not worry about food, what to wear or any of that. Keep it simple. Don’t get bogged down, rely on God for everything and trust in Him.

No promises about it being easy. I guarantee that it won’t be. The question is this. Is something worth believing in and following if you don’t have to strive to achieve it? Is an effortless faith really faith?

Take care and have a wonderful day.

The Creator's Love: Conditional or Unconditional?

I am currently reading a book by Erwin Raphael McManus called Soul Cravings. The section I just read is titled 'What must I do to be loved?' and it talks about how we fail to grasp and understand the fact that God's love is unconditional.

If we allow ourselves to believe that God's love is conditional then we are all in a lot of trouble.  

The idea that God's love is conditional becomes the base line to all religions. The concept that God loves but on condition so if we meet the conditions we gain the love. Love is something to be attained. Forgiveness, mercy, acceptance, grace are all different words we use but that all mean love. In this, all religions appear to be the same. They give God a name and a set of rules that we are to follow in order to gain his forgiveness, mercy, acceptance, grace -- LOVE.  I think this is why a lot of people see religions as a lot of different ways of getting the same thing. Some girls want flowers and chocolates, others want fancy dinners, and there are some who want meaningful conversations. What is it all in search for? To be loved and find love. Some people pray five times a day, others have rosaries, memorize incantations, burn incense, light candles -- all for the same purpose: the acceptance of their creator. 

Based off of this, it is absurd to think that any religion would somehow get us closer to God. It's like falling in love with someone who has no interest in you. They like the attention you give them but have no intention of returning it. It's a one-sided relationship. They like you pursuing them so they get the brilliant idea to become more elusive so that you pursue them even more. If the concept that God's love is conditional and we must follow a set of rules in order to receive it and be accepted, it is better to say that God is some good-looking, smug, arrogant divine being who loves being the center of all our attention and affection.

The truth is that God's Love is unconditional. This is where a lot of people have a problem with Jesus. For centuries the church has been telling us that God's love is conditional, that if we want God to love us, we need to follow the rules. Prime focus has been on the sin problem rather than the love problem. This is the only way control is maintained over our lives because if love really is unconditional, what is going to keep us all following the rules? Don't we want people to be good above all else? Where the government has failed, religion has accomplished with an astounding amount of effectiveness:  Keeping people in line.

What if people discovered the actual message of Jesus Christ -- love is unconditional? what if we learned that God is not waiting for us to earn His love but that God has been pursuing us this whole time with His love? That God is passionately pursuing us with unconditional love, and we don't need to do anything to earn it, we just need to accept it?

Unfortunately it's not that simple. You see,  we choose a life of slavery mastered by rituals and legalism over a life of relationship and love. Why? Because we believe in conditional love and doubt the existence of unconditional love. This is why religion works.

There are those who fall into the traps of people who say they speak on God's behalf and that He is waiting for us to pay His ransom so that we can receive His love. Do not fall into the the trap and be duped into thinking that if you give enough money, God's love will be unlocked. Whatever kind of love you can purchase is not the love your soul longs for. If you have to buy love, it's not even worth the price.

Our dilemma: we can't earn love, we cant buy love, and we can't live without it.

We know deep inside our souls that love is unconditional and that if something is claiming to be love but is conditional, then it can't really be love. We know that if it is unconditional, we are neither the sources of it nor the instigators of such a love. This is another piece of our conflict: we want what we do not and cannot give. We long for what we seem incapable of producing.

How is it that we hold on to such a strange idea of unconditional love when we cannot even fathom it? And if love is such a profound emotion why and how is it that we love absolutely everything and anything?
     we love movies
     we love ice cream

     we love sunny days
     we love flying kites
     we love going to the beach
     we love coffee
     we love weekends
 
I think the fact that we love the most meaningless of things tells us more about our capacity to love than we think. What we have described as love has become something so thin and superficial that pretty much anything qualifies as love. If we really knew love-- real, deep , profound love-- then perhaps we wouldn't really love coffee or chocolate.
 
While God may appreciate these things, as the Creator, creation is not the object of his affection. When it comes to love, we exist in a unique category. There are a lot of things that are dispensable to God, he can just re-create them again. You, me, the kid next door, the lady at the cash register, and every other person in this universe are not on that list. Each and every one of us is unique and irreplaceable. "And We are beautiful, fearfully and wonderfully designed. Uniqueness."--Propaganda(spoken word artist)

YOU are the object of God's unconditional love.
Embrace it and spread the news.

A Life of Continuous Gratitude

I would like to point out how blessed I am. People tell me I am confident and am a free spirit. They say I don't care what others think of me, that I'm always happy and always smiling. What people don’t realize is that I am the way I am because of past experiences. I am covered with scars physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In the past I have cut and later I almost killed myself. I still have the occasional bad day. I’ve been at the point in a relationship where we’ve talked about marriage and when they found out I was leaving the area they said I wasn’t worth their time. I have serious trust issues and I push people away when they try to get close. During my weeks in India, I was grabbed and dragged into a brothel and two women fought the man that grabbed me so I could run out and rejoin my group I was traveling with. To this day, I am jumpy when someone comes behind me or touches me casually on the shoulder from behind if I am unaware who it is.

Through all of this, there have been people in my life who have helped me get through the day. I had friends sleep with me at night to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. I had friends who have proved over and over again that I am worth their time. I had friends pick me up off the ground and hold me until my tears have run dry or until I’ve fallen asleep. I’ve had friends help me become more comfortable in crowds and learn to trust strangers and not think the worst of them right off the bat. I have friends who tell me every day that I am beautiful, unique, pretty, spunky, fiery, confident, passionate, creative, caring, a good listener, loving, adventurous, and fun to be around. The thing is, I don’t necessarily believe them all the time but I think that’s ok because I know that it is because of them that I have turned into these things. I know that without them and their help, I would be dead and life, any little bit of it, would not be worth living without them. So thank you my friends for teaching me how to live and carrying me when I momentarily give up. Thank you for challenging me, slapping me across the face when I need it, telling me I am wrong, holding me when I let my guard down and just be a fragile young girl for a moment. Thank you for not giving up on me.

Thank you, Father, for blessing me with these wonderful people and filling my life up with them throughout my Journey.

I encourage you to recognize those who have helped you and then go and be that person for someone else.

Restless Heart

I've been full of an overwhelming sense of restlessness. As if I'm waiting for an adventure to find me and take me but the waiting seems to never end. How long must I wait before taking the reins and finding my own adventure? On the subject of waiting, when does patience turn into laziness? I was made for so much more than the average American life of having a decent paying job and a family and a medium sized house. I am a Christian and sitting on my rear is not an option for me because that American dream is just that, an American dream. I'm a Christian way before I'm an American and that life of comfort is far from the life I, and all other Christians, are called to. Those of the church who say that Jesus wants us all to live comfortably and safe in our homes where we stock up food in ridiculously excessive amounts, are not speaking the truth. It's actually quite opposite. JESUS WAS A BEGGAR. He was homeless and depended on others for food, shelter, and transportation other than his own two feet and yet he still served others and gave what he had to them. Jesus didn't stay in one place and wait for everyone from all over the place to come to him. He traveled to their cities.

          Jesus traveled to the people. He didn't expect them to find him on their own. In the same way, we can't expect to be able to live comfortably in our homes and go to the same church every day and expect those who need Christ and his love to come to us. Rather, we need to be Jesus and get off our lazy butts and start traveling to other cities. It didn't work to wait for then to come to us. We need to begin going out and reaching for them. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Mat 28:19-20 NRS) 
         Jesus traveled to cities. That place where all the people live. Yeah, we need to start focusing there instead of the suburbs. Everyone is moving to the cities. Why? Because that's where the jobs are, that’s where the transportation is, and that’s where all the people are. All the people. Those who are empty, angry, hurting, alone, the rich, immigrants, refugees, everyone is in the cities. How can we show them God's love if we are afraid to go to the cities? The world looks for security in cities. Cain built cities as a safe haven. People move into cities for a fresh start so why don’t the ambassadors of Jesus go there too and show them that not only is Jesus a great addition to a new start, he is the only one who can truly give you a new start with a fresh, clean slate. There is actually a word for white people moving out of cultural and ethnic rich urban areas into the suburbs. It’s called ‘White Flight’. Seriously, I’m not making this up. I would also like to comment that soon, the majority in the United States will be Mexicans/Hispanics.It's a real thing. Hopefully that will mean that Spanish will be a required languages in schools. I say this because we are the only country to not teach another language along side our native tongue. 2 years of a language is not enough to get by, passably, in another country.

That's all for now!

What a Wonderful Thing

I went home for a day to see my relatives visiting from North Carolina. I'm not very big on my family. I love them but I don't really like hanging out with all the relatives. Don't get me wrong it's nice seeing them and know that everything is going well but I'm not crazy about doing stuff with them. I've limited patience with them and only enjoy hanging out with them for a short period of time. There isn't anything that has happened or that they've done for me to feel this way. Completely opposite, I love hanging out with my friends and could do it all day long and have lots of patience with them. In a sense, my friends are more my family, feel more like my family, than my actual blood family is.

My little cousin is 3 and she has downs syndrome. I had only seen her twice before and she was too young to remember me (and I kind of avoided her because she was a baby and I usually make them cry) so her being wary of me was totally understandable. At one point, I pulled out my guitar and she came over. She was totally fascinated by it. It took a bit of coaxing for her to touch the strings but once she realized that she could make the strings sing....there was no putting the guitar away! She couldn't get enough of it! That moment of fingering chords as she brushed the strings with her hand to make music is undeniably one of my most precious memories that I will carry with me forever. I didn't want to put my guitar away. I didn't want that moment to end. That was the fist time with my family where I was completely and utterly happy and content with where I was and in what I was doing. I think that was the first time where there was absolutely nothing that I would rather do other than being there. She was so beautiful. Her face consumed with the joy and excitement at discovering something new. THAT is what childlike beauty and wonder is and I did something to cause that expression on her face. I want to be a part of that. I want to do that more often, not just with her but with other people too. If I could introduce people to something that fills them with joy and wonder....what a wonderful life that could be. This is what I want to do with my life. I want to travel and get to know people and share God. The joy and wonder He brings me each and every day in the simplest and silliest things.....if I could share that, if I could show people that....What a beautiful thing that would be.

Waiting For Our Call To 'Arms'

Do you ever feel like you're just drifting through life, waiting for the next thing? That's where I am right now. I took a year off of college, went on a business/mission trip to India for 3 weeks up and now I'm just waiting for college to start back up.In the big picture I'm waiting for my life to begin and travel, but there are things I need to learn and knowledge I need to gain for these travels and interacting with new people. That's what college is for. It's giving me the 'credentials' I need to be a traveling missionary. I am dying of boredom. Seriously, I get older every day.

When Jesus was born he had to wait before fulfilling his role. He couldn't go out and start teaching right away. He had to gain life lessons and he needed to study scripture. He knew this when He was young. When He was 12, He stayed behind as the rest of His family left Jerusalem to return home from the festival and it was 4 days before his found Him. When they did they asked Him why He had treated them that way and the boy Jesus replied, "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?".(Luke 2:41-52)  Jesus learned more and more as He grew up and as he did, He started performing miracles. Healing people and casting out evil spirits. The demons came out of many people, shouting "You are the Son of God!" But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was Christ. (Luke 4:41). It wasn't the right time for His identity to be revealed. There was a period of waiting that was needed for growing and making preparations before He became known as the Son of God. 

Similarly, We cannot just jump into the ministry life. There is a period of waiting that we need while our  knowledge of the Bible, our relationship with God, and our character grows into maturity. This does not mean that we should sit idle. Jesus certainly didn't. We need to practice characteristics of God, the fruits of the Spirit. Gain patience, and wisdom. Learn to love everyone. Serve. There is so much for us to do and so little time. Less time than we realize. Of all the areas of our life to procrastinate in, this is the worst place to display this bad habit, yet it's the area that displays it the most. We don't want to get stuck in the waiting process. When Jesus was ready to set out to spread the good news, the people in the area tried to to keep Him from leaving them. But He said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent."(Luke 4:42-44). When we dedicated our life to Christ, this also became our reason. So when our waiting period is over, and we've complete our schooling in Christ, we need to be strong and courageous and face whatever it is the devil throws in our way. We have nothing to fear of the evil one because if God is for us, then who can be against us?( Romans 8:31). Do not fear. With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

Spaghetti Thoughts

Ok folks, here is my first blog post. It's a mess of thoughts that have been pieced together. This is a lot of what's been on my heart and mind the past week so it doesn't exactly flow well but i needed to get it out. Enjoy!

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We are told to go into the entire world and preach, to go make disciples, to go proclaim the message, to follow Him. If we are told to go and seek and do these things, why haven’t we? Why are we sitting on our butts in a building instead of going? I understand that sometimes we get too old or we have to take care of someone and I understand that maybe our calling is a little closer to home but everyone has a role in the church. Elders, grandmas, preachers, all minister to the church body. What does this church body do with this knowledge? The message isn’t for us. We’ve already received, believed, and accepted Jesus as our Lord and savior and God as the one and only God. We got the message. So why are we holding on to it so tightly?

 

Church buildings frustrate me so much. People become attached to them, start to clean them up. Then they start adding ‘frills’ to it to try and attract younger people into the church. This usually results in some killer bills to pay for the lights and a fog machine and the big speakers. Then the church gets scared of telling people to go out and do things the further the Kingdom of God because if the church building doesn’t attract enough people, we won’t raise the money we need through offering to keep the building going and then the building will fail. Just because the building fails doesn’t mean the CHURCH does. The Church is made of a group of individuals that have joined together to become one Body in Christ. “Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20-21. We already have a ‘building’, so to speak, that was created by God so why are we trying to materialize it permanently? I wish that house churches were still a very real thing here in the States. Then people wouldn’t become so attached to the building as ‘home’. Missionaries are often alone and thought of as brave and radical for going out and living out of their comfort zone or in another country. I would just like to point out that ALL of us are called to go and make disciples and that in the bible many of the disciples were not alone in their travels. Paul was almost never alone as he traveled; he had people travel with him and they strengthened each other along the way. Paul never left his ‘home church’; he and those he traveled with were a church! So where have these ‘adventurous ‘people gone over the years? Has the ‘call’ changed from “go to all nations” to “go to people…if you are comfortable talking with them”? I think not. The ‘Call’ hasn’t changed at all, God is still calling us to ‘Go’, we just aren’t as willing to accept it with open arms. I think that sometimes God just gives a great big sigh and lets us stay within our comfort zones because we start to shut Him out if He tries to tell us something we don’t want to hear. He knows that we could be so much greater over there but we don’t want to hear it. We don’t want to leave our friends, and family, and our life here so we fight to stay here.

Many Christians are familiar with Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”. I do not understand why so many Christians say they look forward to the day Jesus comes back. I’m sorry if this is you, reader, but I just can’t see it as a happy day. We will have joy because we will finally be going home to heaven but that day will also be a terrible day full of pain and sorrow and guilt for those we lost, failed to reach, and failed to be an example to. And many, I fear, will be people of the church who thought they were ‘safe’. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” James 2:26. But in regarding these two verses I think it is wise that we are very careful in the reasons behind our deeds. We shouldn’t do good deeds because Jesus wants us to and we’re striving to earn His great act of love. This is impossible for us to do. We cannot earn such a great sacrifice; this is why it is called ‘mercy’ (He showed us mercy by saving us from eternal damnation). Likewise, we cannot earn heaven; it is a gift to us called ‘Grace’ (He showed us grace by giving us the gift of heaven along with saving us from eternal damnation. He gave us a bonus that we do not deserve). We shouldn’t do good deeds because it’s what Jesus/God would want of us. We should do them because we want to do them. If Christ lives inside us them His wants become our wants and His desires become our desires and there should be no way to separate them.

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Why are we judging those who aren’t Christians by Christian standards? They haven’t made the same commitment as us Christians. We chose God and the Bible, they haven’t, therefore we cannot hold them accountable to the things we are biblically held accountable to. Now back to judging, why are we doing it? I fully agree with Billy Graham when he said, “It’s God’s job to judge, the Spirit’s job to convict and our job to love. And we dare no mix those up!” Romans 14:10 says, “You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.” If all of us Christians could just get off our high-horses and show love to people, our life style/choice would be a lot more appealing. In Galatians it says, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Notice the last word in that first sentence, “gently”. If this is how we reacted when someone around us messed up, this next verse would be a whole lot easier to do. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16.

Comments would be awesome and don't be afraid to give constructive criticism. Have a wonderful day!

~Liz