Thanksgiving

I was looking through some of my notes on Facebook the other day and I found this post that I had written for Thanksgiving last year, and then last night my pastor preached a message on giving God praise so I thought I would share because MY GOD IS WORTHY TO BE PRAISED!!

"Thanksgiving week is coming to an end, but that doesn't mean I need to stop giving God praise for the countless blessings He has given me in my life. This year has not been easy by any means, but I'm thankful that God has never left my side. I've turned my back on Him so many times, and yet He always welcomes me back with open arms. I'm thankful that four years ago He found something in me that was worth saving. I'm thankful that He has given me hope and a future. I'm thankful for His Love, His Grace, and His Mercy. I'm thankful that He is not only my Father, but He is also my Best Friend. I'm thankful that He has given me peace, comfort, and understanding in the moments when I needed it the most. I'm thankful for the lives of those He has taken from my life. I'm thankful for the difference they made on this earth and the lives they impacted while they were here. I'm thankful for the vision He has given me for my life. I'm thankful that He has led me to a school where I'm surrounded by amazing people who are full of His Holy Spirit. I'm thankful not only for His guidance and direction, but for His discernment and confirmation as well. I'm thankful for the spiritual leaders, encouragers, and prayer warriors He has placed in my life. I'm thankful for my amazing family, the constant stronghold in my life. I'm thankful for my amazing church family, the church that Love is building. I'm thankful for my amazing youth group, the bloodline of Christ. I'm thankful for new friends God has placed into my life and the joyous mystery of what is yet to come. I'm thankful for old friends God has placed back into my life and the unfolding of His mysterious, magnificent plan. I'm thankful for His Holy Word and all that He has taught me through the years. I'm thankful for the power of His conviction. I'm thankful for His daily inspiration. I'm thankful for His perfect plan. I'm thankful that He knows me better than I know myself. I'm thankful that He is in control. I'm thankful for the valleys where He has grown me and the valuable lessons learned. I'm thankful for answered prayers. I'm thankful for His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His return. There aren’t enough words to describe how Great He truly is, nor how grateful I will forever be. But I trust there will come a day when I can finally give Him the praise He deserves, and I can only imagine what a glorious day that will be!"

Looking Up, Seeking More

          As my last few posts have revealed, I've been struggling a lot lately and my mind has been a scattered mess. I've been frustrated with the way people handle situations, and aggravated by the way God's people have become so wrapped in playing religious games that they lose sight of who He is and what His vision is in their life. I'm tired of people thinking they have the right to tell others how to serve God instead of focusing on their own calling and serving Him in their own way. We are the body of Christ, but we each have our own role to play. No one person in the body of Christ is any better than another. We are all broken people, only made whole by the love and mercy of God our Savior, so why do we try so hard to tear each other down instead of building each other up? If only we would fall back in love with God, we would see that religious matters don't really matter at all. If only we would get to know our Savior on a personal basis, we would see that it's not up to us to dictate how our fellow brothers and sisters should worship. My heart is breaking for God's church and His people. My only desire is to make God proud and bring a smile to His face. He deserves so much more from us than what we choose to settle for. Something has to be done, but I don't know what to do or where to start. I'm crying out. The songs "If We've Ever Needed You" and "Lord Move or Move Me" have been playing on repeat in my mind. Then one day last week God began to speak to me through a passage in the book I was reading...

"For this great sickness that is upon us no one person is responsible, and no Christian is wholly free from blame. We have all contributed directly or indirectly, to this sad state of affairs. We have been too blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too self-satisfied to desire anything better than the poor, average diet with which others appear satisfied. To put it differently, we have accepted one another's notions, copied one another's lives and made one another's experiences the model for our own. And for a generation the trend has been downward. Now we have reached a new place of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the pasture of the blessed. It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselves loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways. But it can be done."

- from A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God

          Those words were written over half a century before I ever read them, but it seemed as if they were written for the sole purpose of speaking to me in that very moment. It reminded me of the day I accepted Christ as my Savior because every question and every doubt I had was answered in only a few short minutes. God broke through my madness and clearly revealed Himself to me. If I am this disappointed in God's people right now, I can't even imagine how disappointed He must be. I kept thinking about the children of Israel. Every time I read their story I say to myself, "How does God still love them after they've turned away from Him so many times?" and "Why do they continue to turn away from God after all He delivered them from?" It's no secret that the children of Israel are symbolic of the church of Christ. We are no different than them. God blesses us and we turn away from Him. God delivers us and we reject His plans. God saves us and we live as if we were actually worthy of His salvation. We are not worthy, so we need to start living like it and stop taking God's grace for granted. Recognizing a problem within God's church doesn't make me a saint by any means. It's easy to talk about change, but it's another to actually enact change. Pointing fingers doesn't make me any less of a sinner, but disobeying the conviction of God does make me more of a sinner. God assured me through this writing from Tozer that hope does exist. God can still use the church despite it's flaws. God can still use me despite how many times I've let him down in the past. As a body of Christ we need to come together and cover each others weaknesses, not expose them. We need to remember where God brought us from and the countless ways in which He has blessed us along the way. We need to seek after God in a way that we never have before. We need to thirst for Him like we thirst for water. We need to crave Him as if He's a drug we're addicted to. We need to stop viewing ourselves as self-righteous and worthy of God's love. We need to open our eyes to needs of this world and the needs of our own souls. Our one and only focus in this life needs to be to know God more and invite others to do the same. Only then will the problems within the church vanish. Only then will discord become unity. Only then will we be healed from the sickness that has infected the church of Christ for so long. We need to put God back on the judgement seat where He belongs, we need to look to Him to solve our problems, and we need to seek His will above all others. He alone is worthy of such a position.

Missing What's Behind

          The other morning as I was driving I noticed that the sky looked dark and dreary ahead. There was no doubt that rain and possible storms were on the way. It seems as if there has literally been a storm every day this summer. I'm not a fan of storms, and I was dreading driving into yet another one. But then I glanced up and noticed in the rear view mirror that the sun was still shining brightly behind me. It was as if one of those cartoon light bulbs went  off in my head. That is exactly what my life has felt like lately. Everything seems dark and dreary on the road ahead of me. I've found myself questioning if this is really all a part of God's plan. If trials only make us stronger, then why do I feel so weak? If the rain brings the harvest to fruition, then when will we ever reap what we've sown? I've found myself missing the days behind. I miss the days when there was no doubting that I was exactly where God wanted me. I miss the days when I was able to worship freely and without hindrance. I miss the days when there was a fire within God's people that couldn't be contained or even put into words. Where is that joy? What happened to the days of sunshine? Then God began to speak. He showed me that the rain and the storms serve temporary purposes, but after every rain shower there is a rainbow and  beyond every dark cloud the sun will shine again. It was as if He were saying, "Beloved, just wait it out. This storm will pass like all the ones before. Don't give up hope. Just be patient and let Me do my work." So I'm going to take Him for His promises. I'm going to wait on Him, and in the meantime I'll praise Him in the storm. This BarlowGirl song is a perfect representation of my prayer of surrender...



Changes

"All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward."

          The more changes I experience in my life, the more I find this quote to be true. The opposite of growth is stagnation or decay. It breaks my heart to sit back and watch people change in ways that are not pleasing to God. I've seen people I love experience that slow fade until they are completely out of God's will. I've watched as people I care about allow others to change them and transform them instead of letting God have control in their lives. I've seen people try so hard to imitate the actions of others that they lose sight of their own vision and eventually forget that God created them for a unique purpose. They've become stagnant, and some have even begun to decay and wither away. This is not the kind of change God wants to see in our lives. God wants to see us get on fire and burn for Him. God wants to see us take the vision He gives us and run with it. God wants to see us love others and reach out to those in need. God wants to see us grow in Him, not away from Him.



Wisdom is a Shadow

          Last night I was studying in the book of Ecclesiastes and I found a passage that was both interesting and confusing at the same time. The first three verses in chapter 7 said things like "better is the day of death than the day of birth... it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting" and "sorrow is better than laughter." What?! That didn't make sense to me at all, but I reminded myself that God's thoughts are not my own and His ways are higher than mine. I read the notes in my Bible to try to get an idea of what point the Word of God was trying to get across, and suddenly it made perfect sense. The notes in my Bible read, "Mourning and sorrow are better than feasting and laughter because they cause a man to reflect wisely on the brevity of life... Both good and bad days are the work of God and are used, apart from our ability to understand them, in God's sovereign plan." Wow! As I looked back over Ecclesiastes 7:1-14 everything began to fall into place, and God began to speak to my heart. He showed me six points throughout the passage and gave me the answer to every "Why?" I asked along the way. My God is an awesome God!

1. Death is better than birth (v.1) - Spiritual death is better than birth because you have to die to your sins in order to be born again. Physical death is better than birth because it is better to leave a sinful world and enter a sinless world than to leave a sinless world and enter a sinful world. There is a quote that says "When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice." That is so true!
2. Mourning is better than feasting (v.2) - Mourning is better than feasting because it is a time when you focus your thoughts inwardly on the life of another being. On the other hand, feasting is a time when your thoughts are focused outwardly on selfish things. 
3. Sorrow is better than laughter (v.3) - Sorrow leads you to reflects on the brokenness and brevity of life, while laughter drowns out these thoughts. Sorrow leads you to seek out answers, while laughter leads you to forget there was ever a problem to begin with.
4. Rebuke of the wise is better than the song of fools (v.5) - The rebuke of the wise (teachers, parents, pastors, etc.) convict your heart and instruct you to make a change, but the song of fools (worldly musicians and celebrities, non-believer friends, etc.) try to convince you that all is well and eventually lead you down a path of destruction.  
5. End is better than the beginning (v.8a) - In the beginning of a story the character, who is usually immature and naive, is setting out on a journey of self discovery that is full of obstacles and opposition. However, by the end of the story the problem has been solved, the character has been rescued, and a valuable lesson has been learned. 
6. Patient in Spirit is better than proud in spirit (v.8b) - Patience is molded and perfected through death, mourning, sorrow, and rebuke. But pride is molded and perfected through feasting, laughter, and the song of fools.

          Last, but not at all least, verse 12 says "Wisdom is a defense." When I looked up the word "defense" it said that it meant a "protective shade" or a "shadow." I found that to be an interesting comparison and I wanted to look into it more. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my shadow reflected on the wall to the left of where I was sitting. It was the middle of the night and I was the only one awake in the house. I suddenly remembered when I was younger and how scary I used to think those big black things on the wall were. As soon as that thought entered my mind, I looked to my right and saw my lamp sitting on the table beside me. It was the only source of light in the darkened room.  

God Moment! 

          God's Word is our only source of light in this dark world, and by it we receive wisdom. Like the shadows on the wall when I was younger, wisdom can be scary when you first encounter it. After all, according to verse 12 it has the power to give life to those who have it. Like this passage when I first read it, wisdom is difficult to understand at first. But when you break it down and let the words sink in, it will minister to your soul. A shadow is defined as "an imperfect imitation or copy, a mirrored image or reflection." Let the Word of God illuminate you, because we are imperfect people, but with God behind you your reflection can be bigger and bolder than you could ever imagine. Remember that wisdom is also defined as a "protective shade" and there is nothing better than to rest and find comfort in the shadow of God, safe under His wing.