THE ANCHOR

I have come to find the heart is an odd thing.  One day it sings with joy and the next, it cries with pain. What I find so odd is that I’m not sure what causes the switch. As I walk this journey of life, I have also come to find that there are few anchors for the soul. There are very few things that you can place your hope in. And even fewer people that care enough to help you along the way. I’m not saying that there aren’t kind people, for on my journey I have meet many. But what I often find is that they are either too busy, they beat down themselves, or they’re not sure how to go about helping.

Or maybe I have looked to people to do that which only Jesus Christ can do. Maybe the anchor for my soul is that one who died for my soul. Maybe my heart is telling me that I need to have an anchor that cannot be moved, one that is constant in the storms of life. Maybe the highs and lows of life are just God’s way of letting me know that there is only one true anchor in life, and the people I have met along the way were never meant to be the anchor, but are there to help me see my need for the only true anchor of the soul, Jesus Christ!!! Yes life is an odd thing, but there is one who can make sense of it all.

Spur One Another

Over the past few weeks I have come to understand, one simple truth about myself, I am not the greatest at spurring others on. In Hebrews 10:23 &24 the Bible says,

(And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.)

This verse has impacted me so much, that many years ago it became my life verse. I thought in my heart, I have failed so many people and have hurt people with my selfishness,  I wanted to change that, I want to encourage and spur people on to love and good deeds. I wanted to become someone that loved people and built them up in Christ. Well I have come to realize that loving people and spurring them on means that you must truly care for them. It cannot be about you or even what you get out of it. It must be a Christ centered love and you have to work at it all the time. Now I have become better at encouraging people and even loving people. I’m not saying I’m perfect at it; there are times when I really fail and there are still times that my selfishness gets in the way. There are still times when I let people down and hurt them, but I’m getting better.

But this bring me back to my opening statement, I’m still not where I should be. I have to pray that God would help me to be more Christ like in the area of spurring others on towards love and good deeds. I can’t just encourage them, I have to find things that spur them on. I have to try to find those things in people that will cause them to fight for love and good deeds. It is not enough to just to love them and encourage them I have to find the things that will stir them up and spur them on. You see I have gotten better at encouragement, but the verse also tells me to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. So my prayer is that God will continue to change me, so that I can do just that and not allow me to remain selfish and love myself so much that my love of self will ultimately cause me to have the ability to not become the person I want to be. I want to be more like Christ and I want to spur people on towards love and good deeds. 

Saved

I have spent much time with people who love to fight over theology, especially the issue of election, free will and loss of salvation.  Now I’m not a theologian and would not truly be able to do justice to this debate.  However, as I have read Romans 8, I will say one thing.  I think that the main point of the text is not about how we are saved or if we can lose our salvation, but it is our position in Christ as a believer.  Paul lays out the reality of a true believer.  He says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  As I sat and thought about that, I was overwhelmed.  Think about it, if the God of all creation is for you, who can stand against you.  He also states, “For I am sure that nothing can separate us for the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

Again, I just have to think that Paul is saying that we have a trustworthy God who can save, who does save, and who is for us if we have truly called on the name of Jesus Christ to save us.  Can you lose this salvation?  I personally do not believe so.  I think the greater question is, have you ever received the gift of salvation?   Then have you ever looked at you life and asked if God is at work in your life, because if you have received Christ you will truly be able to tell.  You will still sin, you will still have failures, but there will also be a desire to conform to the person of Christ.  If you are saved, sin will cause you to seek God and ask for forgiveness, no matter how often you fail, and you will know that the God who is for you will be there for you.  Yes he may discipline you, but he will always be for you.  That’s what being saved is about, a God who is for us and not against us.  We should stop worrying how if we choose God or God chooses us and start living in the reality of our salvation.  We can stop worrying about losing it, and start walking in a manner worthy of it, in a way that is obedient to the one who saved us.  What I’m saying is this, whether it is God who elects, or we who choose, or somewhere in the middle, if we are saved we should be sure of it, and obedient too it, and live a life worthy of one who belongs to the God of Creation. 

Trying to make sense of it all

At times like these, I am at a lost for words. The recent shootings in Newtown CT, has touched so many people in so many ways, and most of us just don’t know how to react. We want to know why, we want to ask the questions, how could this happen again? We want to have someone, something to blame. All in all we want to make sense of it. But more than making sense of it all, we need to allow our hearts and prayers to go out to those who have lost loved ones. It is not the time to make sense of it, because it makes no sense. We live in a world that wants to understand, but there are times we can’t. We may never know why, or how someone gets to this point. We may never know the motives of a heart that can do such a thing. But we can know how to love those who need our love, and more importantly how to pray for those who need our prayers. Making sense of it all won’t change anything. But praying may change a heart, and a nation.

 2 Chronicles 7:14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.   

I’m not saying this event was cause by our wicked ways, I’m just saying that God’s people at times like these need to pray. Right now we don’t need to make sense of all of this, we need God to change the hearts of those who would ever consider such a thing. And we need God to heal the hearts of those who have suffered lost.

Lately

Lately I have found myself in a very odd place. I have been very introspective, but I am unsure to as why. I am finding that Life is a very odd thing. I am, not happy or sad, content or discontent, peaceful or in unrest, but I seem to be all these things at the same time.  I know that my hearts desire is to love God and love people, but I find I do not do either very well. I know that God is calling me to a much deeper relationship with Him, but I feel I can’t get to where He is calling me. I want to be Holy, but I feel that there are to many things that fight against me being just that, being Holy. I feel that I would love to ask Jesus, the same questions his disciples did when they said “Lord teach us to Pray” And I am sure that only Prayer can get me out of this place, that only God can cause my heart to know how to beat again. I want to love life again and only God can cause that to happen, and maybe that’s the lesson I needed to learn. Lately I have come to understand, that if I seek anything more than I seek Him, life becomes unclear and complicated. And you end up in a place like this. You end up in “LATELY”

So if you are in this place, fall on your knee, fall on your face, and seek the God of all creation, he will come to you and he will heal your heart.

Love You Guys.

Jeremiah 29:13  “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me, with all your heart”

If My People

 As I sit here, I think about all the talk about the election.  How some people are so upset and others are overjoyed.  I am taken back by how sure we are as people, that we know what’s best for everyone else.  We are convinced that our opinion is the correct one. We are sure that anyone that does not agree with us is at best an idiot, or at worst not a true follower of Jesus Christ.  As People we are so convinced that we are right, that God himself could not tell us any thing different.  Now I believe that this election was a very hard one for many Christians as neither person was a great choice, but it was the choice we had.  Both men seem to be good family men, but neither seems to follow Christ.  People say we must vote for the lessor of two evils, but I just don’t see that in the Bible.  What I do see is what God tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 

So, I think what we should do is what God tells us to do, we should pray.  We need God to move in our land, in the heart of our president, and in the hearts of our senators and congressmen.  Yes we want God to move, but he must first move in the hearts of His people, and then he will work in our land.