Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola have something profound to say in their new book “Jesus Manifesto.” Sweet and Viola point out that Christians have fallen far away from the basis of our relationship with the Lord. Christians have begun to care so much about part of their faith, rather than the main reason for faith.
The book goes like this, “What does Jesus want from us? Leadership? Or love? Unfortunately, we cannot properly love Him if we haven’t caught sight of how incredibly glorious He is. But once we do – once we catch a sighting of Jesus Christ in all His glory – we will gladly exchange out dusty rites, Christian-speak, and pop culture church-building tactics for the joy of becoming a walking breathing ‘Jesus Manifesto’.”
Amazing words and wisdom are found in Jesus Manifesto. Faith is not singing, sermons or even trying to be like Christ, it is fully being consumed with our crucified, risen and reigning Lord. “He (Jesus) will ooze out of every pore.”
I totally encourage everyone to read this book. It brings you back to the heart of worship and reminds you why we choose to follow the risen Lord.
Special thanks to Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze for providing this complimentary book to read and review
This afternoon I was reading through the lastest issue of Prevention magazine and they had an article about Geocaching. A friend had told me a few weeks ago and then the article came up on an afternoon when I had no definite plans.
So I decided to see what it was all about. I went to the website and typed in my area and there were actually quite a few caches in my area.
Caches are hidden plastic containers that have a log book and sometimes a treasure inside of them. So, I set out on my bike to find the ones closest to my house.
I failed on both attempts. I downloaded a program on my phone that had maps, a radar and a compass, but I was unsuccessful in both attempts. I think I should have brought my GPS as well to put in the latitude and longitude.
I searched high and low, but I did not find what I was looking for. I definitely learned that it would have been much more fun and probably a lot more successful if I had brought friends along.
It also taught me seeking a geocache isn’t always easy and nor is seeking God, understand His will. But, we have an amazing road map, just like the coordinates for each hidden treasure on Geocaching.
The Lord will meet us where we are. Daily I hear stories of how songs, sermons or encounters with people brought someone in need of God’s guidance brought straight to them in their time of need.
Today I was gently reminded that seeking isn’t easy. I didn’t find the treasures I wanted to find today, but I am not going to stop trying. I am going to gather more knowledge, more tools and more people who have more knowledge than I do.
This same thing goes with my walk. I need to constantly search, gather more knowledge, read more of the Bible and find more words of wisdom from others who love the Lord and gain knowledge in His strength.
These girls have been my best friends since college. We all lived on the same floor and have gone through the biggest parts of our lives together. We have been best friends for almost ten years. We have stood up for each other as we married our soulmates and now we are gathering around Patty who is having the first baby in our group. These girls are amazing and no matter what, I know they will be my best friends for the rest of my life.
Thank you girls for being amazing. You are gifts from God and I thank Him every day for blessing me with 5 amazing, beautiful, talented, creative and faithful friend. I know that not everyone has friends like I do, so I hold close to you and will never take you for granted.
I am around! I promise! I kinda feel like I am out of the loop in the blog world, but "real" life just sneaks in and takes up all the time.
I just started a new business, Wildtree! It is a direct sales company that I totally believe in. It has been really fun sharing the products with my friends and family, and hopefully soon, the world! Lol. Wildtree is all natural products without preservatives, additives, dyes and chemicals. They rock on top of that! My husband loves getting to try all the products and I just had my first launch party tonight to share the products with some of my friends.
I really hope that this business will give me some great connections to people and help them to live healthier lives.
But in the midst of all of this new business excitement my day job got super busy. I am putting in tons of hours and lots of brain power so that has been a bit stressful.
I am just working really hard and am so busy that I realize how easy it is to push the biggest and most important relationship onto the back burner. I really need to start sacrificing time I would rather chill and watch TV with reading the bible and praying and getting back into the best relationship I was ever given.
Wildtree has thought me something huge. We have gone so far away from healthy food, filling our food with chemicals that are slowly killing us. Like food, we have filled our world with so much entertainment, busyness and distractions that we miss out on the relationship with the Lord, the whole reason we are given this life.
JACOB: I don’t really know where to start. HURLEY: How about why you brought us to the island? JACOB: I brought all of you here because I made a mistake. A mistake I made a very long time ago, and now, because of that there’s a very good chance that every single one of you and everyone you’ve ever cared about is going to die. SAWYER: What mistake? JACOB: You call him “The Monster.” But I’m responsible for what happened to him. I made him that way. And ever since then he’s been trying to kill me. It was only a matter of time before he figured out how, and when he did, someone would have to replace me. And that’s why I brought you all here. SAWYER: Tell me something, Jacob. Why do I gotta be punished for your mistake? What made you think you could mess with my life? I was doin’ just fine til you dragged my ass to this damn rock.
JACOB: No, you weren’t. None of you were. I didn’t pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn’t find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you. KATE: Why did you cross my name off of your wall? JACOB: Because you became a mother. It’s just a line of chalk in a cave. The job is yours if you want it, Kate. JACK: What is the job? JACOB: There’s a light at the center of the island. You have to make sure it never goes out. That’s how you protect it. SAWYER: Your monster friend said there is nothing to protect it from. JACOB: Hmm. You have to protect it from him. . . You must do what I couldn’t. What I wasn’t able to do. JACK: You want us to kill him? . . . Is that even possible? JACOB: I hope so, because he is certainly going to try to kill you. HURLEY: So . . . how you gonna pick? JACOB: I’m not going to pick, Hugo. I want you to have the one thing that I was never given--a choice. KATE: And if none of us chooses it? JACOB: Then this ends very badly. JACK: I’ll do it. . . This is why I’m here. This is . . . this is what I’m supposed to do. JACOB: Is that a question, Jack? JACK: No. JACOB: Good. . . Then it’s time.
For any of you other Lost fans out there, Tuesday’s episode really struck me as if it was a scene out of the Bible. This last and final season of lost has become very religious sounding. There is a definite good and bad on the island, almost like God and the Devil. There are choices to be made and life changing results.
In this scene Jacob (who is the island’s protector) tells a select group of chosen people why they are on the island. After 6 seasons with no real answers, we finally see their destiny. I was awestruck by the words Jacob chose, because they were like words that have once come out of Jesus’ mouth. Jacob tells the group that they were chosen. They were hand-picked. But there were not hand-picked because they were prefect, far from it. There was a murder, a conman, an addict, a “crazy” depressive loner. There were not high ranking officials, perfect house wives or model citizens. They were flawed. They were all searching for something they couldn’t find, that was, until they came to the island. Jacob, like Jesus, went looking for people who needed him, who would be able to give it all and really succeed. Jesus spent time with the flawed people, the tax collectors, and the prostitutes. He gave everyone a chance. And another thing that really struck me in this episode is that Jacob gave the group a choice. Something that he was never given. Jacob knew that free will meant that the new protector of the island will want the job, desire to protect it. God knew that by making us slaves to His will we would never really desire the relationship He wants to have with us. We have to step up and say “I’ll do it….this is why I’m here. This is what I am supposed to do,” We are chosen to be protectors of our faith; we are given the free will to have an amazing relationship with God. I love how a show like Lost can suck people in and I really hope that as the series comes to a close people will see behind the storyline and see that given the choice to protect the island, or to have faith in an amazing Lord, is a blessing.
Look at my new avatar! Jerryfrom Here is My Cup Lord designed it! He totally captured me and even added my favorite colors and my precious camera! Check him out if you blog needs a new spin or personality! He is amazing to work with!
I swear life goes in waves for me. Sometimes I have way too much time on my hands. I can sink into the couch for an entire weekend with no plans, no immediate needs, and just simple nothingness.
But then, like right now, it feels like life has swallowed me up. I am pulled in a million directions and lie in bed wishing that my brain had a shut off button.
I have always been one to be SO inflamed with passion about something that interests me. I so deeply desire to do something, learn about something, learn to do something, create something amazing. But, after a few minutes, days, weeks or months, that flame has been snuffed out.
My walk with the Lord has gone through these waves and man, do I make it into a rollercoaster ride. In high school I had so much activity that it was easy to keep God in focus. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and some Saturdays were spent at the church. I easily surrounded myself with Christian friends.
Then came college. I started strong, but did not follow through with Christian friends. I became nervous to stay close to the people that I had met instead of going to Christian activities alone, which meant remaking new friends. (I can easily fool people into believing that I am super outgoing, but inside I am super terrified).
This lead to a downward wave in my Christian faith. I barely thought about God, barley attended church and definitely did not outwardly speak to all of my friends about my faith.
God and I were quite. There were moments when I would cry out to Him in the darkness of night, but those moments were met with sleep and the relief of the morning sun.
After college I moved out on my own and was left with myself, my TV and my faith. I became closer to God again. I desired to get involved in a church and meet new people. I went to a HUGE church, and although the praise and worship was amazing, my insecurities and the mass amount of people were daunting.
After a year and a half God really changed my heading and I started a new job and started actively praying for Christian friends. An amazing girl came into my life through work. I finally had someone to talk to, to understand my faith and to attend church with. Another guy from an old job came back into my life and we started hanging out, having amazing conversations and growing in our faith.
God then helped me move through new friends, add new confidants into my life and even lead those old college friends even closer to Him.
Looking back, no matter how much I created waves, silenced God or felt so completely far away from Him, he was there. It is like the footprints poem, He was carrying me, seeking me, working within me to bring me back to desiring Him.
Even when I let life get in the way, He quietly reminds me to take these moments with Him. Tonight I sat outside, 80 degrees, sunny and beautiful. I pondered all that He has created me to be. Even though this moment in my life feels like chaos. I feel so completely calm right now. The world around me has continued to move, but I am still. He is brought me to stillness, brought me to knowing.
1. A position of the body or manner of carrying oneself
2.a. A state of mind or a feeling; disposition
Grace is freely given to those who believe and accept the amazing gift of faith. But the gift doesn’t come without strings attached. If we are to fully receive the entire gift of Heaven, then we need to make a major change in our daily lives.
Accepting the gift of salvation gives us release from the world and all the evil within it. We are called to leave this old life and be born again into a new life, and with that new life, a new attitude.
1 Peter 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
We are to live each day of our lives with the attitude of Christ and how could we not desire to live with this new attitude after we have come into the body of Christ? We can never do anything to fully repay Christ dying on the cross for us. That was the most selfish act, given completely out of love. We need to choose to work for the rest of our lives on earth to “repay” that love.
The Bible gives us tons of stories about Christ’s attitude and actions. Each day we are to live out the lessons that our Lord has taught us. Philippians 2:5 says “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 4:22- 32 gives us clear instructions on how to live our lives during our time here on earth.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
The hard part is knowing that it isn’t going to be easy. We are constantly tested. I know in my daily life the devil gets a foothold by making me believe that I am not good enough to be a Christian. That certainly is an issue for many, including many of our favorite players in the bible’s history. I constantly feel beaten down, knowing that I may not be standing out from my non-Christian friends. I do not feel as an alien in this world and sometimes feel sucked into it, into the life that I have been given on earth.
The more I learn about the attitude of Christ, the more I follow His word, the more I know that I will become farther and farther away from the world and closer and closer to the arms I so desperately desire. I must sin no longer. I must guard my tongue. I must clear myself of all bitterness, rage, anger, things that boil up within me when I leave my thoughts unattended. I need to guard myself and continue to train in the ways of my Lord.
As I continue to learn, pray and receive guidance from the Holy, bitterness will be replace with kindness, rage with compassion, and anger with forgiveness.
Since I am not perfect, it won’t be easy, but since I have some powerful friends on my side, I know that I will be the person I and God seeks me to become. Like Esther’s 12 months of beauty treatments I will seek attitude treatment.
This weekend we spent our first weekend at the cabin recently purchased by my mom and my aunt. It was so awesome getting the family all together and we are super excited for all the new memories we will create! Plus it is a great place to relax and take in the amazing scenery our Father created just for us!
We went shopping at all these super cute stores in Park Rapids and I found this sweet firepit that was perfectly shadowed in the amazing sunshine!
I have struggled with my weight since I was in high school. It was easier to stay in shape in high school, with constant activity in sports, but as I hit college the freshman fifteen quickly packed on. I was lazy, I didn’t force myself to go to the gym and I ate what every other freshman eats, pizza.
I made a huge effort my first year out of college and lost 40 pounds. It seemed to come off so easily. But somewhere in the mix I plateaued and cannot seem to lose any more. Yet, I can completely see why. I do not exercise enough; I do not eat as well as I should. These things take self-control and I lack the self-control necessary sometimes.
So, this time around I am holding on to the hand of the Almighty. Self-control is probably my biggest goal in gaining the fruit of the sprit (Galatians 5:22) in my life. I want to lose weight for various reasons, but the main on being my health. I want to be healthy for myself, my husband, my family and possibly someday, children.
Proverbs 25:28 - "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control."
My body is a broken down city when I am not eating well or exercising. No one can gain energy from watching four hours of TV a night. I need to “get off the couch” and go outside or turn on one of my exercise DVDs in the basement.
So today, above all the days of struggling to lose weight and gain a healthy perspective with food, I know that the only way to really get back into a happy body weight is by using the strength from the giver of all strength.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:13-14
I hope that I can find some friends on this journey, some extra encouragement, some to help me during the hard times when that brownie is calling my name ;) We are fearfully and wonderfully made and we cannot make a difference in this short time if we become sloths.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.1 Corinthians 10:31
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
I am going to Vegas in less than a month and I am so excited to spend the entire long weekend at this pool paradise! I need a break from work, housework, and even, dare I say it, the computer! I am planning on bringing my bible, some books I am reviewing, and SPF 50 and spending the day resting!
A sentence from Psalm 101 has been both
challenging and convicting for me: ‘I will walk in my house with blameless heart‘(Psalm 101-2 NIV)
When God speaks to me about being more loving,
this verse reminds me to make application in my family first—and then to others.
It forces me to ask, ‘Am I more spiritual, more loving, or more fun somewhere else? Who gets my best—my family or others?”
by Jean Fleming
I love my husband dearly. We have been together for 2 ½ years, married for a little over 6 months.
My husband and I are alike, but very much different as well.is every bit as geeky as I am; I think that is what attracted us to each other in the first place. Heck, we watched Star Wars on our first date.
My husband
We enjoy doing similar things, can make each other laugh and fully feel like we can be ourselves around each other.
We are different in a few areas, such as my husband tends to be more pessimistic and I try to be optimistic as much as possible. He is a bit more introverted and I tend to be extroverted. He can spend countless hours by himself and not get lonely; I need someone around, even if they are just watching TV with me. He enjoys staying in his comfort zone where, as much as I enjoy being home, I crave adventure. He and I come from different family backgrounds.
These key differences can cause friction in our marriage, but they are working to help us grow to change and love one another more.
I love spending time with my family and they are a lot closer to where we live than my husband's. This means that my family gets more visiting time than his a lot of the time. Plus, my parents are divorced, which doubles the amount of time spent. I also love my husband spending time with my family, and cherish the moments with his. I love playing cards with his dad, shopping with his mom, and going completely out of my comfort zone and “hunting” with the boys.
Money has also been a learning experience for us. We both are learning to have a joint account, stay balanced and share. Sharing money is a crazy hard lesson to learn. We have been doing pretty well and are open to communicate about it, but I still know that we have some more years of learning to work as a team to prefect this craft.
The other thing we are working on is communication. I am a crier and he gets silent. I have learned that me crying doesn’t help his situation and that I need to honestly tell him my feelings and give him some time to think about what we were talking about. He normally comes back after he has calmed down and we can talk things over.
Marriage is definitely a task. I don’t think two people will ever be able to live under one roof without some conflict, but I have learned that a marriage without love is going no where. My parents divorced when I was 10 years old. I saw them go through this process and it has only made me a stronger wife. I will not give up on my husband, even when I am hurt by his actions.
I know that people are imperfect and our Lord is the only one who is perfect. We need to look at ourselves before we look at our husband’s “issues.” My husband and I have growing to do in our marriage, in our love for each other, in learning how to make each other happy and, I have found, most importantly, in compromise. Two people are not always going to want to do the same thing, especially as their partner does, but this requires some compromise and “taking one for the team.”
But the biggest thing I have learned is that marriage cannot be one-sided. No matter how hard I try to grow my marriage, without my husband holding onto my hand we are going no where. Marriage is a road we must walk down together, hand in hand, for the rest of our lives. Each step growing in love, faith, trust, honesty and truth.
Tonight I finished The Hole in the Gospel and I am definitely surprised. I got the book without really knowing what it was all about.
Once I was into the first few pages I was sucked in. Richard Stearns has an amazing story and testimony. He took a long time to become a Christian. He dated a Christian girl who would have deep conversations with him about her faith, after a while he finally told her that he would not believe in her God and they broke up.
During their time apart God worked in him and he soon was a believer and engaged to his former girlfriend. Life went pretty quickly from then. He was very lucky in his businesses and became a CEO.
This whole time God began working on him to become the president of World Vision. With much, much resistance Stearns finally took the position. And it changed every fiber of his being.
Stearns calls us out to go beyond just believing and really putting our faith into action. We need to love our neighbors, be good Samaritans, and give to those in need.
And even though this seems daunting, he encourages us to know that a little faith goes a long way.
Tonight I was reading through Genesis on my journey through the Old Testament. I came upon the story of Joseph. I have read, heard and even watched the play of the story numerous times. But I swear sometimes you can read a verse and all the sudden God’s wisdom pops out in new ways.
Tonight I realized how much God loves us. He was with Joseph through all the hard trials and helped him benefit in all the situations he got himself into.
Genesis 39: 23b “Because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.”
Even when Joseph was sitting in prison, the Lord was there protecting him. Even though the people around him treated him horribly, sold him into slavery, and got him put in jail for not committing adultery, God was there. God is there.
Sometimes I feel so diminished after a day of work. It feels like a battle ground some days. It is always an us-against-them mentality. I feel disrespected and unimportant to those on the “opposing team.” Although I am not 100% sure the other side really understands how they make us feel, it is so hard to go into work every day when I know I have to fight to get my job done.
I am sure there is no real fix. It would really take a lot of time that the company probably doesn’t want to give.
I am sure this is reality for many of us in the corporate world. It is hard to have ranks and feel at war with your co-workers. But today’s reading made me realize that even though sometimes work feels like a prison cell, God has been working with me. I have gotten some great benefits from work and prospered even in these tense circumstances. I just didn’t pause and realize that they were from God. I would have nothing without God being there with me.
We are truly blessed to have a Father who loves us enough to be with us in our trenches.
The sun is shining today! It is the first day I haven't woken up to rain in over a week! It is amazing and feels like God is totally saying I am here! So, it almost seems a little odd that I am going to post a song about wind and rain, but yeah. This song was one of those songs that I could just feel. I was sitting in my car, waiting for the green left turn light, when this song came on. I totally was in my own place of worship in my car! Check out the lyrics!
Hurricane by Jimmy Needham
I have built a city here Half with pride and half with fear Just wanted a safer place to hide
I don’t want to be safe tonight
CHORUS I need You like a hurricane
Thunder crashing, wind and rain
To tear my walls down
I’m only Yours now
I need you like a burning flame
A wild fire untamed
To burn these walls down
I’m only Yours now
I’m only Yours now
I am Yours and You are mine
You know far better than I
And if destruction’s what I need
Then I’ll receive it Lord from Thee
Yes, I’ll receive it Lord from Thee
(Chorus)
And it’s Your eye in the storm
Watching over me
And it’s Your eye in the storm
Wanting only good for me
And if You are the war
Let me be the casualty
‘Til I’m Yours alone
I am only Yours
I am Yours alone, Lord
For more of awesome songs check out today's host Amy!
I seriously struggle some days to be a person of character. I work with loan officers, who are sales people. They main goal is to obtain individuals to do loans, filling their goals and commissions.
I process these loans. I work with the documents, the legal jargon, and the nitty gritty parts of the file.
I care are about the documents, have to follow the rules and are regulated by the government. A lot of the times we are filling in the holes left by the loan officers. I can fully understand how this situation comes about. It takes two different types of people to make this business run. The front runners, the loan officers have to be personable, outgoing, in the public eye. They need to know their stuff on mortgage programs and find the right fit for their customers.
The background people need income verification, need tax returns, verification of employment; the legal documents (Good Faith Estimate and Truth-in-Lending) need to be perfect.
This is where the divide really comes in. The loan officers care highly about getting people in the door, getting the business. I care about everything being right for the loan to be legal and to make sure that the individuals are going to honestly be able to pay their mortgage.
So, this causes some disagreements, some chaos almost daily. There is a lot more stress than I would have ever imagined getting into this field. I know that God is testing me to be a person of character in my job. I need to learn daily how to walk in the loan officer’s shoes. And as much as I would love for them to give me that respect as well, I know that this won’t always happen. I need to respect them, need to forgive them, need to offer kindness in all situations.
This is just one more place where the Lord is guiding me to learn the fruit of the spirit. I am trying to model Esther is my work situation. She didn’t really want to be in the castle, didn’t understand God’s role for her there, but she was there. I am here.
The Lord also whispered in my ear through a fellow blogger. Check out the burning bridges post from Dan Miller.
Lord, use me and help me to be the best model of you where I work, and feel like I live. Please help me to love my co-workers, to understand our differences, to be more patient and learn to handle every situation without frustration.
I open the fridge and stare. The day old macaroni and cheese is staring back. The once creamy and cheesy dinner is now dry and kinda oily. There is no way I am going to eat that. I pass it up hoping the hubby will decide it is the most decedent thing in the fridge.
I start digging behind the front row runners in the fridge. Pulling the milk out I find expired yogurt, which definitely will not do. There is something in a Tupperware; it has passed the stage of previously being leftovers to being a blob in the fridge, probably becoming part of the plastic. You know what I mean
Finally, annoyed and distraught, I slam the fridge door shut and pull out a box of cereal. I dig in pulling Cheerios out in clumps and shove them into my mouth.
This is probably a typical event in our lives. We barely pay attention to the leftovers till it is too late. Bacteria and mold have invaded the once fresh and tasty pizza. There is no way that we want to deal with those leftovers anymore, and they definitely are not desirable.
What about the leftovers we give God? A lot of the time that is all He gets. How would you like to be only given greenish pizza for dinner and never once get to taste the fresh from the box, just delivered, ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness? I can’t honestly say I wouldn’t be eating nor satisfy with green pizza, especially when I know what the real thing is like.
God, on the other hand gets the “green, moldy pizza” part of our lives on a daily basis. We satisfy ourselves with all the entertainment this world provides and then, 5 minutes before we fall asleep we make a feeble prayer to act like we had spent some of our day with our heavenly Father.
Not good, not fair. We need to change our habits, because it will change our lives.
I know TV sucks us in; there are millions of channels, million of sitcoms, food shows, reality TV, cartoon, soap operas and talk shows. We could not move off our couch for weeks and still not see everything on TV. TV is one of the hugest distractions in our lives. The average American family watches 4 hours minutes of TV a day! That blew my mind! I had to read the statistic over and over because I couldn’t believe it. 4 HOURS? How is that even possible? Plus, 66% of families watch TV while eating dinner. USAToday stated that most American households have more TVs than people, and that one is true in my family. Only my husband and I live in our home and we have 4 TVs, plus I often watch TV on my laptop, so that makes 5. That means pretty much no matter what room we are, we can continue watching TV.
Another huge vice is playing video games or surfing on the internet. There is so much to do on the Internet, and to most of us our blogs are very important. But sometimes we forget to take the moments with God, because we are so worried / excited to get our next post up. We would have nothing to blog about without God.
Novels are another vice for me. I love to read (lol, see the reviews below). I always read before bed. I can read until I am falling asleep with the book in my hand, face down in the book. So many books, so little time. I try to justify it a bit because I often read Christian literature, but really, isn’t that still giving good the leftovers?
Devotion is a hard thing. It is so hard to give our time to God, but He is the one that gave our time to us. He needs to be a priority in our lives instead of us “fitting Him in” and treating Him like a leftover.
I am going to set a schedule in my own life to study and take time with our Father. The more I spend alone time in His presence the more I desire it, thirst for it.
I hope that we can all start giving God the ooey, gooey, and even cheesy parts of our lives. I can’t imagine how amazing our lives would be if everyone we knew was completely in “tune” with the Father.
A few fellow bloggers have written in the last few days about how God works through movies or written word, sometimes even secular work, to bring aspects of their walk to life. Today’s In Other Words quote did just that to me.
“Help me to honor thee by believing before I feel, for the great is the sin if I make feeling a cause of faith.” Holy Potatoes!
This is exactly what I wrote about yesterday. I was feeling like a stumbling block yesterday because I didn’t get the feeling of God’s presence. Today he has HIT me right on the nose and said, “Dear Child that is NOT what you need.”
Faith is:
·religion: a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny
·complete confidence in a person or plan etc; "he cherished the faith of a good woman
·religion: an institution to express belief in a divine power
·loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person
All of us can see NONE of those definitions say anything about feelings, anything about physical presence. Nope, faith is completely confidently believing with complete loyalty.
Lord, thank you for helping me seek you and showing me who you really are. Lord as much as I long to have your physical presence near me you always come to me in my time of distress. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord!
The book goes like this, “What does Jesus want from us? Leadership? Or love? Unfortunately, we cannot properly love Him if we haven’t caught sight of how incredibly glorious He is. But once we do – once we catch a sighting of Jesus Christ in all His glory – we will gladly exchange out dusty rites, Christian-speak, and pop culture church-building tactics for the joy of becoming a walking breathing ‘Jesus Manifesto’.”
