Looking for meaning

I'm reading this GREAT book! It's called "Birthright" by David Needham. Get it! Read it! Embrace it! :)! It's about our identity in Christ and who we are as Christians. So I'm going to share a little bit about it. Chapter two talks about how non-christians are always trying to find meaning in life, why they are here. We were created to know God, to have this rich, full, satisfying relationship with our creator. Thats what we were made for. But since Adam and Eve sinned, we could no longer have that relationship. Sin separated us from a perfect, holy God. This expression of the will to live and the will to discover meaning is found in what Paul calls "the deeds of the flesh".

"Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these." Galatians 5:19-20

The first three deeds, fornication, impurity, and licentiousness, obviously relate to man's attempts to get at meaning through his body, his senses. Idolatry is very broad. An idolater is one who has made up his mind on where and how he will find life. And whatever it is, he will work feverishly to get it, guard it, sacrifice to it, and worship it. To lost it is to lose life. Sorcery focuses on the search for meaning in the occult. Enmities, strife, jealousy, and anger reflect the standard reactions of one who is frustrated with a given set of circumstances. Either some supposed meaning in life has been taken from him, threatened, or kept just beyond his reach. Quarrels, dissensions, and factions point to conflicting ideologies as to where life really is, where values are. Envy is clear enough. You and another person are nominated for senior class president or cheerleader.. and you lose. Your associates at work gets a promotion and raise and you don't. You got the smaller scoop of ice cream. Someone else has made it and you want it. I believe at moments like these, consciously or unconsciously, we feel threatened by whatever we thought made living significant. Meaning- even as lowly a meaning as "right this moment, life for me is a stomach full of ice cream, stimulated taste buds, a satisfied nose"- has been hurt. Some one else got the bigger scoop.
The final two deeds, drunkenness and carousing, reveal that we have given up.
We no longer have any desire to seek meaning. We've tried and tried to make some sense out of life. We're through trying. We want out.

Praise God that as christians, we have Jesus! We have meaning, we have purpose. None of that stuff even makes sense with Christ!

* I would also like to welcome April Meyer to the blogging world :)!

Do you know him?

What is Gods will for my life?

That is such a popular question amongst christians today, isn't it?  What is Gods will for my life?  What does he want me to do?  As I am about to graduate from college, along with a lot of my friends, and I hear that a lot, especially from friends back home. As I think about it, that's kind of a funny question for a christian to ask because, well, this life is not about you.  You're not the center of the world, Jesus is!  I am going through the "Experiencing God" workbook with Alex and it says,  "The proper question is, "What is Gods will?"  Once I know God's will, then we can adjust our lives around Him.  In other words, what is it God is purposing to accomplish where I am?  Once I know what God is doing, then I know what I need to do.  The focus needs to be on God, not on my life!"  We need to figure out what he is doing.  God's will is for you to know know and experience him through the advancement of his kingdom.  You need to center your life around that.  And his desire for people to come to know him is through the local church.  Commit your life to your local church and to the brothers and sisters there, lay down your life, and reach your city with the gospel.  That is Gods desire.  And when you do that, you shouldn't have to worry about a job, or a place to live.  Because God's will is that other people will come to know him, and he will take care of all the minor details.  

"My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.  I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.  Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these."  John 5:17,19-20

"If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.  If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."  John 12:26

Hosea

At Roosevelt High School Ministry yesterday, we talked about Hosea!  Yay, my favorite book of the bible!!!  Anyway, we showed them a story that someone wrote that made it easier for them to understand.  I thought it was great and such an awesome picture of Jesus and his love for us.  So I'm going to share that story, it might be kinda long!  Hosea was a prophet and a man after the Lord.  God told him to marry Gomer who would turn from his to prostitution.  The story picks up after Gomer had left Hosea and their three kids for prostitution.  

"But poor Gomer passed from man to man, until at last she fell into the hands of a man who was unable to pay for her food and her clothing.  Her first lover had given her a mink stole, but this one made her clothe from the Goodwill store.  News of her miserable state came to the prophet and he sought out the man she was living with.  He knew where he would find him, down at the local tavern, and when he met this man, the conversation may have gone something like this: "Are you the man who is living with Gomer, daughter of Diblaim?"  The man must have said, "If it's any of your business, I am."  Hosea said "Well, I am Hosea, her husband."  A tense moment followed.  But the man said, "What do you want? I haven't done anything wrong."  Hosea said, "Listen, I'm not interest in causing any trouble.  But I know that you are having difficulty making ends meet.  I want you to take this money and buy Gomer some clothing and see that she has plenty of food.  If you need any more I will give it to you."  The man probably must have thought, "There's no fool like an old fool.  If this sucker wants to help pay her expenses, that's all right with me."  So he took the money and bought her some groceries and went home.

Now you may say, "That's a foolish thing for a man to do!"  But who can explain the madness of love?  Love exists apart from reason and has its own reasons.  Love does not act according to logic.  Love acts according to its own nature.  And so Hosea acted on the basis of love.  Undoubtedly he watched from a distance to catch a glimpse of the woman he loved as she rushed out the door to take the groceries from the man's arms and to thank him for what he was bringing to her- the gifts that true love had provided, and that villainy offered, and that folly accepted.     

Well, how long this went on we don't know for sure, but at last word came that the woman Hosea loved was to be sold as a slave.  The brokenhearted prophet didn't know what to do.  He went weeping to God.  And God said, "Hosea, do you love this woman in spite of all that she has done to you?"  Hosea nodded through his tears, and God said, "Then go show your love for her in the same way that I love the nation Israel."

So Hosea went to the marketplace and he watched Gomer brought up and placed on the dock and there she was stripped of all her clothing and stood naked before the crowd.  The auctioneer pinched her and prodded her and showed how strong she was, and then the bidding began.  Somebody bid three pieces of silver and Hosea raised it to five.  Somebody else upped it to eight and Hosea bit ten.  Somebody went to eleven; he went to twelve.  Then Hosea offered fifteen pieces of silver and a bushel of barley.  The auctioneer's gavel fell and Hosea had his wife back.  

He went to her and put her clothes on her and let her away by the hand and took her to his home.  And then follows what is perhaps the most beautiful verse in all the Bible.  As Hosea led her away he said to her:

"You must dwell as mine for many days; you shall not play the harlot, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you." Hosea 3:3b

He pledged his love to her anew.  And that was all this poor women could take.  She had gotten down to the very dregs of shame and disgrace, but the love of this man broke her heart, and from this time on Gomer was faithful to Hosea.  She became an honest, industrious, faithful wife."

Can you see in this beautiful story all the elements of the eternal triangle?  There is the loving God, the faithless human heart, and the deceptive attractiveness of the world.  This is your story, and my story, isn't it?  So many times we try to satisfy ourselves with the lying idols of self-importance, or wealth, or a good time.  Ours is the blindness that, like Gomer's, cannot distinguish between lust and love.  We try to run from God and drown our miseries in empty pleasure, or drink, or work, or social life, but, as surely as we think we have escaped, as surely as we think we have run far enough, God touches our sleeve with his love saying, "My child, my name and my nature are love and I must act according to what I am.  When you tire of all your running, and your wandering, and your heartbreak, I'll be there to draw you to myself again."  That is the story of the Bible isn't it?  At Bethlehem God entered the slave market where the whole human race was putting itself up for auction, prostituting itself and its humanity to be a cheapened life.  But on the cross the Lord Jesus paid the price, the full price for our freedom, and bought us back.  This is the story of God's love and God's heart- his loving desire to mke of his people the full persons he intended them to be.

"The man without Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."  1 Corinthians 2:14

"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" John 1:5

Isn't that crazy?  Isn't it crazy that non-christians cannot even understand the things of God?  I sure think it is.  Have you ever tried to read the bible with a non-christian?  Its crazy because as you read it, most of them time it's like you're reading to a brick wall.  They can't grasp what it means.  I was thinking about that today and how the more and more I live for christ and change my life in order to glorify him, the more and more people think I'm crazy!  But praise God, because they should think I'm crazy!  They just don't get it, they don't understand why we live like we do.  One of my dear sisters in Christ is getting a lot of crap from her friends and family for her passion for Jesus.  It's because how she lives her life is foolishness to them because they do not have the Spirit of Christ living inside them.  So when you get discouraged from people, or people just think you're too radical, praise God because then you know you're doing something right :)!

Be like Job

Here is a post that I recently wrote in my other blog. That website is www.xanga.com/dybs220

So I've been reading Job. Wow.. great guy! I was thinking that the church doesn't talk about Job very often. Ya, we bring him up if we are having tough circumstances and we can model his faith in saying "Blessed be the name of the Lord". But when circumstances are great, when life is looking good, we don't tend to turn to Job. Why is that? Well, because we don't want to be a Job. I don't want to be a Job. We don't want to have to lose everything, lose our house, our family, our health, everything, and be tested in that way. Job is not a very comfortable story. It kind of makes your stomach turn a little bit, doesn't it? One thing I do want is to be used by God. I beg God to use me! I beg him to display his glory through my life. Job did that. In chapter one, God is having a conversation with Satan. Satan thinks the only reason that Job is worshiping God is because God has blessed him. He doesn't think its out of love. But God knows Job. He knows that he will stand true. Does he know that about me? Could he bring my name up in a conversation with Satan the same? God really put his name out there on a count for Job. He believed that Job would bring glory to his name. Could God say that about us? Could he say "Satan, you may do your worst but he will not bend; you may bring in your biggest guns but she will not break; they have built their house upon a rock and they shall not be moved. They shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not faint. For I know them. They are my sons, they are my daughters, they my servants and they will not fail me." Looking at Jobs life, the same can be true about Jesus. "Oh, I'd hate to be that guy! I'd hate to have to go through what he did." But in reality, the Christian life is not just about getting to know God, but also becoming like him, to bear his shame, to carry his purpose, to share in His suffering, and to be a bearer of His glory. So I pray that I would have a desire to be like Job, to be like Jesus. I want the God of the universe to bring up my name in a conversation with Satan and choose me to be the vehicle though which he will bring forth His glory, even if it is a great cost to myself.

He loves you!

Oh boy, here we go again.  I have attempted to start many blogs over the years, and have never been consistent with it.  Like I always say, I will try to be, but I can't promise anything because I know myself too well.  My roommate just started one, and she kind of got me hooked.  My desire is to encourage you with what the Lord is teaching me.  This life is so messed up and we live in such a wicked world.  If we don't continue to encourage one another, and spur one another on towards love and good deeds, then we are bound to fall.  Satan is so real and determined to destroy us.  We need to be aware that we are in a battle and we need to be getting our face in the word and constantly pumped up for Jesus!

I titled this blog enthralled because I wanted to find a word that could some how grasp the concept on how much the Lord loves us.  Psalm 45:10-11 says "Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house.  The King is ENTHRALLED by your beauty; honer him, for he is your lord."  Jesus Christ, the creator of this universe, your royal husband, is obsessed with you.  He is enthralled with you.  So women, just like in verse 10, forget this world, forget all the lies that Satan throws at us, forget it!  Jesus is so stinkin in love with you, lets honor him, lets give him our lives and run after this king :)!