you are home

What is loss? A commitment relinquished, a story that's been told, a moment when you realize you won't see someone ever again...
Life has little meaning on it's own, its the relationships you build and the love that is shared that make all of this evil sin filled world meaningful.

"For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." 1 Thess. 5:9-11. 

On days such as today, we reflect on lives lost. Men and women who have carried on past this world in search of paradise through Christ. I pray for the families of the lives that were taken on 9/11 and any other time, because when is death ever greeted, much less expected.
But we should find strength in those that leave us to be with God because they have reached a place much more incredible than this place we try to call home. 2 Corinthians says: "So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."
So you see, Earth is not our home. We long for our Lord as the Sun longs for the breaking of a new day. So don't be discouraged by the death that looms around us, take heart! Our Lord is a mighty defender and a strong deliverer. He is our strength when we are weak, our All in All.

I personally want to say that I am sad for the losses that have incurred on this day, but I rejoice in the fact that the Lord's children are on their way home. I'll miss you Mamaw.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

in His eyes

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil." Proverbs 3:7. 
In many ways, evil can be present in your life. Sometimes it is found in things you would expect. Don't drink that, don't smoke that, no looking over there, shouldn't be hanging out with that person etc etc. But sometimes evil can be found in much more persistent and scary places such as your own mind. Sin is defined by some people as the the absence of God: this can definitely be applied here. 

8:30 Wake up, Shower. 
9:00 Frantic breakfast, scurry to work.
12:00 Lunch, alone.
3:30 Find coworkers to ease the pain of boredom at office.
5:30 Head home tired, ready for dinner.
7:00 Settle for box dinner, sit at television.
10:30 Wake up and head to bed in preparation to start another day the same.

What is wrong with this picture? At what point did this person break from the tedium of this world and find his comfort, his joy, his security from the one person willing and able to love us unconditionally with no restraint? 
"But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30. 
We are so much more than ourselves when we give our lives to Christ, we are more than conquerers and burning with the passion of a never-ending God. We need God daily to replenish our reserves, to flush out the sin and poison that this world fills us with constantly. Without Him, we crumble and fade. 

When you wake up you will most likely make the decision to brush your teeth, but if you don't then missing a day isn't a huge deal. Miss another day and you'd be fine. Miss a week, then two? Most likely you will be receiving a firm slap on your wrist from your dentist and another appointment because now you have cavities or worse. Keep up this habit and before you know it you are gumming soft foods and chugging nutritious milkshakes because your teeth are gone now. 
Basically, not giving God some time out of your day will make your teeth fall out...Okay that's not true, but without Him you will surely crumble and fall. His wisdom is greater than anything we could hope to accomplish on our own. 
So next time you don't brush your teeth, just remember how God would feel about that.

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

Interruptible

The five-year plan. The perfect world where you graduate college, find a wife, step into an awesome job generator and get immediately put where you will live happily your entire life. This is what society feeds us. The entitlement our generation faces comes from the individualistic culture we have thrived under this far in our short little lives. There is no room for error, and if you don't know what you are going to be doing for the next 30 years at this exact moment--well you're screwed.
And He said to them,"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed Him." Matthew 4:19-20.
This would not happen today: "Yeah, what kind of benefit packages are we talking about? Will I have to travel a lot? But y'all don't even have an office near the neighborhood I want to live, that would be a crazy commute...you should see their pool"
The disciples left everything behind. Their jobs, their security, their friends, their money; their lives. We are so self absorbed that many times God becomes the afterthought to our plans, hoping that He can squeeze His way in somewhere in there.
It's been really heavy on my heart these last few weeks that we, as Christians, need to be more interruptible. There are people with needs everywhere and all around us. Most of the time these needs are not recognized because no one will slow down to acknowledge them (sure makes it easier to disregard them when you don't have to see them).
Maybe God isn't calling you to teach English in Japan to impoverished children, but your neighbor down the street has found out they have a tumor on their spine and needs someone to do their yard work every month or so....or maybe it was a broken leg, no no it was a shark attack...You'll never know unless you open yourself up to the needs of others and become more perceptive to what God is calling you to do. Before I made you in your mother's womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work. Jeremiah 1:5
Be inspired. Listen to what He is telling you! Are you going to cram 20 hours into a Summer semester at school? Why not intern at a church for the summer instead. Thinking about going into graduate school? What's wrong with taking a year off to work in a mission in Africa educating the men to be better farmers...There are so many needs in this world and God uses us to further show His love.
It's the little things: paying for someone's lunch at another table, not getting that crazy cool watch and putting it towards a donation fund, even giving someone a ride to work. This is how love works, the more you give the more you receive: maybe not even from the other party but in ways you could never imagine until you take a chance, change a life, be who God has made you to be!

Slow down, listen. What is God saying?
Listen
Listen
And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him" 1Kings 19:11-13

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.

Find a reason

Prayer has many applications and God calls us to pray without ceasing. But how is that even possible?

Could I pray literally every minute of every day, would it completely consume my thoughts and actions to the point where I can't interact with the world as I used to without prayer running through my noggin? I know we can't text and drive anymore but prayers and driving might get a little hard for me to do.

The point is: prayer changes us. It is an open pathway for God to talk with us and we should be impassioned by the idea of being in God's presence constantly. 

Today at church, our pastor talked about Acts 12 when Peter was captured by the Romans and there are many things they do right in these passages that allude to how we should pray. 

Firstly, they are praying together. The people of Peter's church have seen a need and they understood that together they could accomplish more and be more in tune with God's Spirit.

Next, it says they were praying in earnest. And this is described as with a passionate longing. If we could seek God in earnest through our prayers as opposed to the sometimes mindless jargon we throw around, I believe we would see a substantial difference! I know personally, when I am decided upon to pray before a meal, I can easily spit out 10 seconds of babble that isn't meaningful or from the heart (taking it any longer than 10 seconds starts taking away from meal time (especially if you're leaned over your hot delicious food and your mouth has started watering)). We should take our time with God SO seriously. Imagine Him looking over you as you are praying, because He is in your presence as you pray. 

Finally, they don't pray for Peter out of perfect faith. What?? In verse 15 the party of believers says to the woman who answered the door, "'You're out of your mind,' they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel.'" Keep in mind that they were praying the entire time that  this exact thing happen to Peter that they were now questioning directly. This is so huge because we don't pray perfectly as we are imperfect beings, but God and His plan is perfect for us. 

Therefore, our faith doesn't have to be perfect because our God is. 

In our failures, He is absolute. In our iniquities, He is light. In our doubting that what we need has been provided, He comes through anyways. Needless to say, they finally went to the door and saw Peter standing there. 

Our prayers don't have to be perfect, but they have to be there if we want God to help us. Today, let's be transformed by the renewal of our minds. Let's pray continually and find more reasons to be in the presence of the Almighty God. 

HE is our refuge and none can keep us from that.

for the love of water

Ah the beach. A list about things I love at the beach:
1. the relaxation that comes as a standard when you are there. Its not a vicious theme park where if you arent riding at least three coasters an hour there is a good chance your head will explode.
2. Not having to wear a shirt anywhere. Seriously, back home you cant even walk into Kroger without a shirt on and not get dirty looks...much less church. "No shirt, no shoes, no thank you" is what I always say.
3. Beach Volleyball. It doesnt get much better than this boys. What better way is there to meet new people in a non creepy way and have fun and get a workout AND build instant camaraderie.
4. the ocean, I know thats a big DUH but its just crazy fun to play in and let the waves overtake you. There's a real beauty to how grand and vast our ocean really is. Most people can't fully understand how little of it we've actually seen even with all the crazy technology we have. I'll put it this way, we have Mars more mapped out than the ocean. In fact, humans have only explored around 5 percent of the ocean! Its the last frontier on this planet....So what makes it so hard to explore and discover more of?
It's very inhospitable to us, first off. I can barely swim to the bottom of the deep end without my ears punching my head, screaming to swim back up.
35,853 feet....6.8 miles down, try swimming that!
Where am I going with all of this? That's a great question and I'm gonna figure it out as I type this.

God's love is somewhat like the ocean...At times it can seem overwhelming and it can almost be scary how much he loves us, but we know this--Just like the ocean, his love won't be going anywhere. His presence is constant in our lives and we can't do anything to get away. Sometimes you may feel far from that love but those are the times you have to take another trip to the beach and step back into His great love for us. "'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you," Isaiah 54:10. 
It is unshaken and unfailing. Global warming or not, the ocean is always going to be there. Rise and fall as the tides sweep in, the current remains. God's love may be felt more at some times than others but we have to step back and evaluate where we are in our relationship with God. Are we trying to reach Him or are we waiting for our heavenly welfare check or weekly church visit to tide us over, through all of our difficult situations.
I'll let you in on a little secret: we can't do it alone. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him," Genesis 1:27. To say we can do without that which we were created from is like saying a watch can work without its batteries. A garden cannot work without its gardener and sheep cannot survive without their shepherd. He is our shepherd and all we do has been molded from His image. That encourages me because He is perfect and I want to know what that means. I am far from it and getting anywhere near that just gets me Excited! Anyways, this has started to get ranty so I'll nip this thing in the bud.

God=Ocean=Unfailing, Unchanging
He loves us and that's incredible.