Wax on, wax off

Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. The drone of every day life can sometimes muddle our true purposes. Daniel Larusso can't seem to grasp his mentor's (Mister Miagi) odd approach to training him in the highly skilled form of martial arts. He participates in activities such as cleaning his car, doing the dishes and sweeping the floors. It is a point of irritation for our protagonist, but by the karate tournament something magical happens. All of the menial tasks that he thought served no purpose actually were training him for the large goal at the end: to win the tournament. (I'm sorry if you've never seen this movie but he wins the tournament and gets the girl, classic)

There seemed to be a time when I could think with confidence that I understand this world, that the things I see all work together for my own personal good...In other words, I was naive. God sees and knows every facet of our lives. There are tasks we complete drudgingly every day that seem to have no purpose or meaning...Why would balancing my checkbook further God's glory? What does good grades have to do with His eternal love for us?
What most people can't see is that EVERYTHING we do affects His kingdom and His glory. My friend has a sign right under her front door that says, "Your are now entering the mission field" and this should ring true with everyone. All the people we see are influenced by us in some unforeseen way.

He has mighty plans for us, "Plans to prosper and not destroy, plans to give us a hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11. With that in mind we should be living on easy street right?
Well, no. This is a cruel world full of fallible people. Life is hard and living out your faith is even harder. But we can take courage in this: "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith,"John 5:4. 

But we are all born from God not of Him...until something awesome happens. We die to ourselves and become more than we could ever be alone. "You however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you,"Romans 8:9.

Anyways, I don't know where I was really going with this but there are two points you should take from this post:

1.God works in mysterious ways but we should learn to trust His path for our lives (even if it should seem meaningless at times) and carry ourselves as if we are accomplishing the greatest task in the world.(Because we are, people!)

2.We are not enough to fulfill God's plans here on Earth. Without the Holy Spirit we would surely fail (I fail every day as it is). So take heart how incredible you are (or could be) with the unlimited potential of God's love and power sitting right inside of you every day waiting to fulfill what God has in store for us.

I'll stop there because this was a jumble of different idea trains, but I will leave you with this.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, Ephesians 3:20

Worship: its what's for lunch

Doing yard work, hot and sweaty. You feel at least 5 pounds of sweat at any give moment escaping from your body. Burned to a crisp, you think there is nothing worse than this, but it's quite the opposite. Nothing could glorify God more! "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Rev. 4:11. Because He created all things, in all things we can glorify Him: meaning we can worship God at all times through all things.

We have been called to worship God and we are a people that love to worship. In our every day lives you find things to worship and devote your time to, I know recently the Zimmerman trial got an absurd amount of media coverage and people could not get enough of the trial and its proceedings...this is an example of worship. If you've ever seen a video of fans during a Michael Jackson concert, they are jumping yelling, doing things they would never do in the "real world" passing out and fantasizing about Him in an unnatural way. That is worship. Even down to college football, putting so much into every week, knowing players and the amount of passion displayed at every game--worship.

So you see, we worship whether or not God is involved at all. "The Lord said,'These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized,'" Isaiah 29:13. 

We worship God with our words, our hearts and our deeds. These are things that we use every day even (going back to my first point) when we're baking alive in the sun. This means we have the opportunity to worship God the Father in even the most random of times! He made us to worship and made us to cut grass, why not kill two birds with half a stone, am I right?

"So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you; Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him. THIS is the true worship that you should offer," Romans 12:1. 

We can offer ourselves up to God in every situation presented to us. We must be different than those of this world, a city on a hill burning brightly, the salt and the light. We have to distinguish ourselves so people can think, "What is it they have that I am missing?" 

What do we have, are we different? Does my life mean something more? 

The answer is YES and we should praise God for that! He formed us in our mother's womb to be special, full of an everlasting peace and joy--that's awesome. Sounds like a reason to celebrate! 

So what if you decide to celebrate while you're cutting the grass.

Liar jumps to shallow pool

So at what point do we realize that people lie? I know as a kid, you hear things from your friends, teachers and even parents such as the classic "Oh put your tongue on it, it won't shock you"(Speaking on the 9volt battery (EVIL)) but these things we take with an unperceived grain of naivety. As an adult, the adverse reaction occurs. 

Me on the phone with a friend: "Hey man(its a boy), whatcha up to later? Wanna hang out?"

The friend: "Ah I can't, I have so much studying to do! Maybe another time."

"He just doesn't want to hang with me or he has plans with someone better," your mind is the thing that takes us into the sullen pit of negativity. 

...Later you find out after hanging out on Facebook for an hour playing Candy Crush he decided to go play some mini golf with another friend. 

First off, 'cmon I love mini golf!!!

Second, the people in this world are going to let you down. It's a fact, we live in a fallible world where sin occurs...But we can't blame people for acting of the world. "For everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard" Romans 3:23. 

Everyone messes up, it's okay and lying is one of those things. We have to step back and say "Im gonna make a conscious effort not to lie and (insert sin) anymore" Until that day, we are not better than those who live a life full of sin and wrongdoing. But that can't be enough.

We aren't good enough to resist the temptation the devil leaves before us on a daily basis...That's why we have our not so secret weapon. 

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2.

Well good, pleasing and perfect sure beats stealing, killing and destroying. The devil wants us to conform, to fall in line with sin, but God wants for us so much more. He wants for us to love and be loved, spread His good news and and be at peace. 

Welp, that sounds pretty good to me--and that's no lie.