Sunday, April 29, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Our Purpose and calling as Women
The more I cry out to the Lord, longing to be closer to Him, the more
He shows me why I need to be close to Him. Marriage is a calling to
pour oneself out with no expectations as an act of worship. We women
were created to be helpers, we are a gift to our husbands and we need to
have our Lord’s perspective and continue to renew our minds that we may
be able to see clearly what our purpose and calling is.
As a woman, I sometimes long to be cherished honored and loved but that should not be the basis for praying/begging the Lord for a husband. Instead we should think about our Lord and rejoice in the fact that He is the perfect lover and offers all the things we long for as women and the wonderful news is that He freely offers it to us. There is nothing that we could have done to earn it, His love to us is a free gift! Let us focus on the lover of our souls and seek a deeper intimacy with Him as we long for companionship. Let us renew our minds and get lost in our romance with the Lord. I once read in a book “if we become a necessity to anyone we are out of God’s will.” That made me ponder… It went on further and said, “we ought to be the bridegroom’s friend first. We cannot continue to increase and watch Him decrease, we ought to be magnets that draw others to Him not to ourselves and away from Him.” Immediately I thought about being married and the desires that come with that like being number one, the one he cannot live without and etc.. and it hit me hard! Those desires aren’t Godly. If the Lord does call us to marry, we ought to be helpers to our mates by drawing them to Christ and not ourselves. The call of marriage is a call to daily surrender and self-denial. I have to give my husband back to the Lord every morning. To be consumed with him or have him be consumed with me is idolatry! We need to be running to our God together and seeking to glorify Him in all that we do. A mate is a gift and a blessing how sad would it be to forget our first love and seek to find fulfillment in one another. No man can fulfill/satisfy our longings like Christ. Everything this world has to offer will leave you empty, only what the Lord offers is eternal everything else is temporary, it does not last. Unless we are satisfied with Christ, we will be chasing after fulfillment in places where it cannot be found and we’ll only be left bitter. We must decrease and HE must increase. Marriage is a calling to pour out oneself for the glory of God. To live in a state of Continuous self-denial, putting our mates first to Honor the Lord no matter what.
My beautiful now married sister in Christ Ashley Strickland or her now husband Jeremiah once shared something with me that I didn't even think about! they said "Marriage does have an expectation, one of love and dedication. Just as Christ does desire and expect his bride the church to love him back, in marriage there is an expectation of a reciprocation of love and service."
This picture gets more and more beautiful everyday! How beautiful and perfect! Our God is good! but yes marriage a beautiful calling indeed!
As a woman, I sometimes long to be cherished honored and loved but that should not be the basis for praying/begging the Lord for a husband. Instead we should think about our Lord and rejoice in the fact that He is the perfect lover and offers all the things we long for as women and the wonderful news is that He freely offers it to us. There is nothing that we could have done to earn it, His love to us is a free gift! Let us focus on the lover of our souls and seek a deeper intimacy with Him as we long for companionship. Let us renew our minds and get lost in our romance with the Lord. I once read in a book “if we become a necessity to anyone we are out of God’s will.” That made me ponder… It went on further and said, “we ought to be the bridegroom’s friend first. We cannot continue to increase and watch Him decrease, we ought to be magnets that draw others to Him not to ourselves and away from Him.” Immediately I thought about being married and the desires that come with that like being number one, the one he cannot live without and etc.. and it hit me hard! Those desires aren’t Godly. If the Lord does call us to marry, we ought to be helpers to our mates by drawing them to Christ and not ourselves. The call of marriage is a call to daily surrender and self-denial. I have to give my husband back to the Lord every morning. To be consumed with him or have him be consumed with me is idolatry! We need to be running to our God together and seeking to glorify Him in all that we do. A mate is a gift and a blessing how sad would it be to forget our first love and seek to find fulfillment in one another. No man can fulfill/satisfy our longings like Christ. Everything this world has to offer will leave you empty, only what the Lord offers is eternal everything else is temporary, it does not last. Unless we are satisfied with Christ, we will be chasing after fulfillment in places where it cannot be found and we’ll only be left bitter. We must decrease and HE must increase. Marriage is a calling to pour out oneself for the glory of God. To live in a state of Continuous self-denial, putting our mates first to Honor the Lord no matter what.
My beautiful now married sister in Christ Ashley Strickland or her now husband Jeremiah once shared something with me that I didn't even think about! they said "Marriage does have an expectation, one of love and dedication. Just as Christ does desire and expect his bride the church to love him back, in marriage there is an expectation of a reciprocation of love and service."
This picture gets more and more beautiful everyday! How beautiful and perfect! Our God is good! but yes marriage a beautiful calling indeed!
SIX WAYS OF MINIMIZING SIN
SIX WAYS OF MINIMIZING SIN
DEFENDING
I
find it difficult to receive feedback about weaknesses or sin. When
confronted, my tendency is to explain things away, talk about my
successes, or justify my decisions. As a result, people are hesitant to
approach me and I rarely have conversations about difficult things in my
life.
FAKING
I
strive to keep up appearances and maintain a respectable image. My
behavior, to some degree, is driven by what I think others think of me. I
also do not like to think reflectively about my life. As a result, not
many people know the real me. (I may not even know the real me)
HIDING
I
tend to conceal as much as I can about my life, especially the "bad
stuff." This is different from faking, in that faking is about
impressing. Hiding is more about shame. I don't think people will accept
or love the real me
EXAGGERATING
I
tend to think (and talk) more highly of myself than I ought. I make
things (good and bad) out to be much bigger than they are (usually to
get attention). As a result, things often get more attention than they
deserve and have a way of making me stressed and anxious.
BLAMING
I
am quick to blame others for sin or circumstances. I have a difficult
time "owning" my contributions to sin or conflict. There is an element
of pride that assumes it's not my fault and/or an element of fear of
rejection if it is my fault.
DOWNPLAYING
I
tend to give little weight to sin or circumstances in my life, as if
they are "normal" or "not that bad." As a result, things often don't get
the attention they deserve. They have a way of mounting to the point
of being overwhelming.
Are You Performing Or Pretending?
Notes from Book/study "The Gospel-Centered life"
Great Book for Small groups!
Pretending minimizes sin by making ourselves out to be something we are not.
Performing minimizes God's holiness by reducing His standard to something we can meet, thereby meriting His favor.
Both are rooted in an inadequate view of God's holiness and our identity.
Because of indwelling sin, we are prone to forget the Gospel. When we are not anchored in the truth of the Gospel, our love for Jesus and our experience of His goodness become very small. We end up "shrinking the cross" by either pretending or performing.
If we are not resting in Jesus' righteousness, this growing awareness of our sin becomes a crushing weight. We buckle under it's load and compensate by pretending that we're better than we really are. Pretending can take many forms : dishonesty ("I'm not that bad"), comparison ("I'm not as bad as those people"), excuse making ("I'm not really that way"), and false righteousness ("Here are all the good things I've done"). Because we don't want to admit how sinful we really are, we spin the truth in our favor.
If we are not rooted in God's acceptance of us through Jesus, we compensate by trying to earn God's approval through our performance. We live a life on a treadmill, trying to gain God's favor by living up to his expectations (or our mistaken view of them).
To discern your subtle tendencies toward pretending, ask yourself this question: what do you count on to give you a sense of "personal credibility" (validity, acceptance, good standing)? Your answer to that question will often reveal something (besides Jesus) in which you find righteousness.
When we are not firmly rooted in the gospel, we rely on these false sources of righteousness to build our reputation and give us a sense of worth and value. (Think of anything that gives you a sense of being "good enough" or better than others.) These sources of functional righteousness disconnect us from the power of the gospel. They allow us to find righteousness in what we do instead of honestly confronting the depth of our sin and brokenness. Furthermore, each of these sources of righteousness is also a way of judging and excluding others! We use them to elevate ourselves and condemn those who aren't as "righteous" as we are. In other words, finding righteousness in these things leads us into more sin, not less.
Do you picture God as disappointed? Angry? Indifferent? Does his face say "Get your act together!" or "If only you could do a little more of me!" If you imagined God as anything but overjoyed with you, you have fallen into a performance mindset. Because the Gospel truth is that in Christ, God is deeply satisfied with you. In fact based on Jesus' work, God has adopted you as his own son or daughter (Gal 4:7)! But when we fail to root our identity in what Jesus has done for us, we slip into performance driven Christianity.
Performance-driven Christianity is actually a minimizing of God's holiness. Thinking we can impress God with our "right living" shows that we've reduced his standards far below what they actually are. Rather than being awed by the infinite measure of His holy perfection, we have convinced ourselves that if we just try hard enough, we can merit God's love and approval.
Our subtle tendencies toward pretending and performing show that failing to believe the gospel is the root of all our more observable sins. As we learn to apply the gospel to our unbelief to "preach the gospel to ourselves" we will find ourselves freed from the false security of pretending and performing. Instead we will live in the true joy and freedom promised to us by Jesus.
Great Book for Small groups!
Pretending minimizes sin by making ourselves out to be something we are not.
Performing minimizes God's holiness by reducing His standard to something we can meet, thereby meriting His favor.
Both are rooted in an inadequate view of God's holiness and our identity.
Because of indwelling sin, we are prone to forget the Gospel. When we are not anchored in the truth of the Gospel, our love for Jesus and our experience of His goodness become very small. We end up "shrinking the cross" by either pretending or performing.
If we are not resting in Jesus' righteousness, this growing awareness of our sin becomes a crushing weight. We buckle under it's load and compensate by pretending that we're better than we really are. Pretending can take many forms : dishonesty ("I'm not that bad"), comparison ("I'm not as bad as those people"), excuse making ("I'm not really that way"), and false righteousness ("Here are all the good things I've done"). Because we don't want to admit how sinful we really are, we spin the truth in our favor.
If we are not rooted in God's acceptance of us through Jesus, we compensate by trying to earn God's approval through our performance. We live a life on a treadmill, trying to gain God's favor by living up to his expectations (or our mistaken view of them).
To discern your subtle tendencies toward pretending, ask yourself this question: what do you count on to give you a sense of "personal credibility" (validity, acceptance, good standing)? Your answer to that question will often reveal something (besides Jesus) in which you find righteousness.
When we are not firmly rooted in the gospel, we rely on these false sources of righteousness to build our reputation and give us a sense of worth and value. (Think of anything that gives you a sense of being "good enough" or better than others.) These sources of functional righteousness disconnect us from the power of the gospel. They allow us to find righteousness in what we do instead of honestly confronting the depth of our sin and brokenness. Furthermore, each of these sources of righteousness is also a way of judging and excluding others! We use them to elevate ourselves and condemn those who aren't as "righteous" as we are. In other words, finding righteousness in these things leads us into more sin, not less.
Do you picture God as disappointed? Angry? Indifferent? Does his face say "Get your act together!" or "If only you could do a little more of me!" If you imagined God as anything but overjoyed with you, you have fallen into a performance mindset. Because the Gospel truth is that in Christ, God is deeply satisfied with you. In fact based on Jesus' work, God has adopted you as his own son or daughter (Gal 4:7)! But when we fail to root our identity in what Jesus has done for us, we slip into performance driven Christianity.
Performance-driven Christianity is actually a minimizing of God's holiness. Thinking we can impress God with our "right living" shows that we've reduced his standards far below what they actually are. Rather than being awed by the infinite measure of His holy perfection, we have convinced ourselves that if we just try hard enough, we can merit God's love and approval.
Our subtle tendencies toward pretending and performing show that failing to believe the gospel is the root of all our more observable sins. As we learn to apply the gospel to our unbelief to "preach the gospel to ourselves" we will find ourselves freed from the false security of pretending and performing. Instead we will live in the true joy and freedom promised to us by Jesus.
Friday, April 27, 2012
God's Faithfulness!
So I went to McDonald's and my food came up to 6 bucks which was way more than what I had planned to spend. My food was good but I kept worrying about my uncontrollable spending. I got back on the bus and went to school, right when I got off the bus there lay a 10 dollar bill on the ground. Everyone was gone from the scene so I couldn't ask who's it was.
I took it as God saying "Hey, you're my son, I love you. You will continue to make mistakes, realize that I love you regardless, and there's grace for you when you make mistakes. Now go and sin no more." PRAISE THE LORD!!! He gave back more than what I had spent. I got to enjoy my meal and have some extra cash in my pocket. God is good, my Daddy is tight!
HEALTH, WEALTH & HAPPINESS
I'm currently reading this book and it is so insightful! I'm reading and while reading the Lord is revealing to me errors and things I have believed and still believe because of my encounter with the prosperity Gospel in the beginning of my walk.
Two quotes from the book:
"Teaching or trusting in a false gospel has eternal ramifications."
"An incorrect theology will lead to incorrect beliefs about God, His Word, and His dealings with humanity."
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