Orange Pickup Trucks

Hey everybody :)
I was thinking and praying and reading my bible a lot yesterday. It was a good time. But I found myself asking God why life was so confusing, and why it's so hard to figure out where I'm suppose to go and what I'm supposed to do. WELL, I thought back to a blog post my brother wrote (http://theroc1217.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-we-hurt.html) and how he basically said that God gives us options in life. He GIVES them to us. We're free to make whichever decision we want, because both can be used to honor God. This obviously isn't always the case. Sometimes one choice is truly the right choice and the other is wrong. But I think a lot of the seemingly tough decisions are when you have two great options before you, and you can't pick just one. So basically what I learned is that God will give you peace no matter which choice you make, as long as you're seeking to honor him through it. Pretty awesome :)

Okay so here's a funny story. I was walking to the Hy-Vee gas station to visit the volleyball carwash (I'm not in volleyball but I pretended to be and it was very fun :P) and I was talking to God. I don't really know why, but He brought to my attention that He holds all the power in the entire universe. So how did he do this you might be asking? I saw an orange pickup truck drive by. That probably seems totally irrelevant to you now, but basically, I really really love the color orange, and I love pickup trucks. Seeing it drive by made me smile, and I was like, "You know what God? That's exactly what I needed. Thanks for blessing me with a reason to smile." I thought about this for a few more minutes as I was walking. Does God really have the power to do ANYTHING? Like, does he actually have such an elaborate plan that he led a random orange pickup truck owner's friend to live in the northwest part of town, and then call the owner to go visit that friend at noon yesterday, and then bring to my attention the opportunity to walk and talk with God at the same time, on that particular road, just so that I could see that orange pickup truck and smile? About the time I was thinking about and questioning this, guess what? The orange pickup truck drives by me again. I laughed out loud. God's plan is more complex than we can comprehend. He doesn't control us, but he does know our hearts, and like I said, he holds all power in the universe.
One more thing. Two blocks or so after the orange pickup truck incident, I was pondering the life of Paul the apostle, and how he went into dangerous situations and survived unharmed. I asked myself, or I guess I was kind of asking God this too... anyways, I asked if God still does that today. It seems like we hear so many more stories about attacks on Christians than about the deliverance of Christians. Well, I have a desire to reach people everywhere with the gospel message, and I don't plan on backing down from my convictions just for the purpose of safety, so I prayed that God would always keep me safe so that I can be effective in spreading the Good News of Christ. As I was praying for safety, a man rode up behind me on his bike. When he passed me he said hello cheerfully, and I responded, but a little less enthusiastically. The only thing running through my head was stories of a couple guys on bikes who have been trying to sexually assault young women on the bike paths around my house in the past 4 months or so. I honestly don't think it was that serious, but bad enough that I'm not allowed to be on the bike paths that aren't along streets anymore. So yeah, that was running through my head and I was sorta mentally freaking out as this man GETS OFF HIS BIKE right in front of me! And he stops and waits for me to catch up and starts talking really randomly. "I'm just out here biking... yep. I just got some blood drawn so I'm feeling pretty energized..." I sorta laughed and nodded, still freaking out in my mind. Thankfully, just then we reached the corner where I was supposed to turn, and so I did and I started walking away quickly, praying that this guy wouldn't follow me. He didn't, he just got right back on his bike and continued going straight. God delivered me! At least in my mind he did. That could've been really dangerous, but nothing happened. Praise God! Now, I feel kinda bad for describing this guy in such a negative light, in case he really was just a nice, sociable guy out for a bike ride. That's probably the case, but it was scary for me nevertheless, and God took the opportunity to let me know that I have nothing to fear.

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Isaiah 51:12-14
I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you that you fear mortal men,
the sons of men, who are but grass.

That you forget the Lord your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth,
That you live in constant terror every day
because of the wrath of the oppressor
who is bent on destruction?
For where is the wrath of the oppressor?

The cowering prisoners will soon be set free.
They will not die in their dungeon,
nor will they lack bread.

For I am the Lord your God,
who churns up the sea so that its waves roar-
The Lord Almighty is his name.

Things You Should Know

I probably shouldn't be writing this right now. I should be reading my bible, cuz I don't think I read my bible at all this week. Well, I did a tiny bit on the way to band camp this morning, but not enough. Which is just bad, bad bad bad. grr. I don't know why I haven't. I think it's probably Satan working on me to try to loosen my grip on my Jesus. Except, he forgot that it's not me who has a hold of Jesus, it's Jesus who will always have a hold on me :) So now I'll probably finish this post and then go read my bible more. Still in the book of Acts. I'm in love with that book. If you haven't read it all- do it!

Another thing I've been thinking about lately is forgiveness. It can be really tough to forgive someone when they hurt you. But really,what good is holding a grudge? It won't change the past at all, it won't fix a relationship, it won't make you feel any better. The same goes for forgiving yourself. It's kinda like pulling out a sliver. It hurts like crap and it definitely seems like you should just be able to leave it in there. Ignore it- it'll only bother you if you push on it. Still, you pull it out because you KNOW that it will get infected, that it's better to go through a the pain now because it will allow your skin to heal. The longer you put it off, the deeper it gets until you really don't know how you're ever going to rid yourself of it. Fortunately, Jesus is our healer. He pretty much just zaps all of our sliver-grudge-thingys away. Well, technically, he already did. Oh, and if you're wondering how exactly to pull out the sliver, here: When you're holding a grudge against a neighbor, you NEED to tell them about it. Get it out in the open. Then, you have to do something a little twisted- ask THEM to forgive YOU. Holding a grudge is a sin too, no matter what was done against you first. Then you let both sins go. Remember their sin no more, like Jesus does for us. There are three verses in the bible that talk about Jesus remembering our sins no more- Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12, and Hebrews 10:17. 3 times, must be important! Which brings me to my point about holding grudges on yourself. Forgiveness is what sets us apart from other major religions. Forgiveness is a beautiful free gift. Sometimes we take it for granted, and other times we deprive ourselves of forgiveness because we think we should. We think that in order for Jesus to do this amazing thing for us, we have to at least beat ourselves up inside, because then God will see that we're truly sorry and he'll be pleased... or something. NO! Guess what? There's nothing you have to do to recieve divine forgiveness. Jesus died even for those people who will never turn to Him, who will never acknowledge Him as Savior and Lord, who will never be repentant. So, regardless of who you are, the condition of your heart, your motives, WHATEVER- you're forgiven! Jesus doesn't remember your sins, so why do you hang onto them? Forget the guilt, the pain, the sin itself. You're allowed to do that, it's okay. The only thing to make sure of is that you know not to do it again. Don't forget in the sense that you'll forget the consequences and fall into the same sin again. But if you forgive yourself and do your best to follow Jesus' example, you should be good :)

ANOTHER thing I've been thinking about is how people change. Not like, "Oh you've changed over the summer" but the kind of change that takes effort and planning and time. When I was reading that book "Do Hard Things," I remember something they said about change. It was a little like this: If you want to change something on the inside, you've got to make a change on the outside. Like if you wish you had more time to read your bible and pray (tehe um... :p), then take facebook off your phone, get up earlier, and keep your Bible in a place where you'll see it! There. By making three physical changes, you've taken away a lot of temptation and replaced it with options to live out the change. (lol, I'm gonna do that now by the way!) Something else that applies to this topic is a bit of godly wisdom that I acquired recently, I think it was from a tweet containing a C.S. Lewis quote. Basically, it was saying that God is our strength. And God can do anything, he's perfect, and he wants to help us. So he can and will give us the opportunity and strength to be better people, or more brave, or whatever we need to be that brings us closer to where he is. Trust that God will change you for the better if you ask. We are like clay in the potter's hands. Offer yourself to be molded and changed, and then let God do a work in you.

Isaiah 64:8 "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; We are all the work of your hand."

So there's my random thoughts of today. Pray that God puts more blog ideas in my head so that I can keep blogging unrandomly. Oh, one more thought. We are in this world, not of it. We were not made to compromise, to forget who our Father is and make this earth our home. We were created to be different. Do not be afraid of judgement from others who don't understand. Make your faith obvious, show everyone the hope that you have in Jesus!

Gospel Mirror/Candles Grown Dim

Dear Father, none of us is perfect, and I ask you to give us repentant hearts, that we may always recognize our desperate need for a Savior. Keep us humble that we may be servants and helpers without judging. Amen.

Romans 3:22-24 says "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

I recall memorizing the middle verse in this passage, Romans 3:23, in middle school. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Verse 23 is the eye opening message here. Upon reading this, every prideful or judgemental person should be knocked off their high horse to fall at the feet of Jesus. Every strong man or beautiful woman who thinks they are doing just fine on their own should beg for God's mercy and help. I'm not saying that I don't fit any of those personalities, beacause I certainly do. I tend to fall into a cycle of pride > helplessness > surrender > healing.

For now I'll focus on the "pride > helplessness" part. Really, we have nothing to be proud of. For every single personal achievement that you mention, there's dozens of shortcomings that you probably have tucked away in your memory, dying to be forgotten. The Bible says that even thinking hurtful or lustful thoughts about someone is sinning against them. Just because you do more good things than most people around you doesn't mean you're a decent person. You don't come close to being worthy of Jesus' attention, much less acceptance into his perfect home, heaven. Even more, you can't do a single thing about it. You might have finally held up a mirror to your life and realized that you need to change, but you can't do it. It's a life or death situation- be perfect or perish eternally- and there's no possible way you can rewrite your past mistakes and prevent any future ones. On your own, the situation is hopeless, but hold on, think about the second part of my cycle.

"Surrender > healing." Surrender? Surrender to whom? To sin and death? No actually, there is one more option to consider, and it's the option of rescue. That's right, there's someone out there who can pull you out of a hopeless, pointless life and give you hope and purpose. His name is Jesus. Jesus the Christ actually, "Christ" meaning "Messiah," an expected deliverer or leader of a cause. Well, we are the cause and he's here to lead us. In the first two stages of the cycle, we admitted our need for a leader, so surrender to Jesus and let him lead you! Jesus IS God, and he beat death, offering us a path to life. He erased our sins, took them upon himself, paid the price with a horrifying death, then rose again! By his wounds we are healed. Jesus came to heal and save us. All we have to do is trust that what Jesus did is real, say we're sorry and open our hearts to recieve forgiveness from God.

So, the truly amazing part of Romans 3:22-24 is not the middle, but the beginning and end. We are a fallen people, but we can have the righteousness of God. God loves the sinners so much that he sent Jesus to die. Think about that before you judge someone. God loves that child of his. Everybody's got certain sins that they have trouble dealing with, you and I are no exception. All we can do is pray that God puts a mirror in front of that person so he/she sees his/her sin and develops a desire to change, then allows the Holy Spirit to work in his/her heart. Our goodness is not our salvation, but rather a testimony to the world about how God has changed our lives. Be a light to the world, and pray for those lights that have grown dim, so that may set the whole world on fire for Jesus.

YOU are loved.

God loves you.
You've probably heard that at least a hundred times in your life, if not more. It's not too crazy to hear that, and you might not have any trouble believing it. I can say I love all the orphans in Africa, and as true as it might be, I don't even know every orphan in Africa. It doesn't mean I think that any given orphan is special or unique in my mind. It doesn't mean I think about each individual orphan. It means I feel love for the collective orphans- the group. Today I want to tell you that God's love isn't like that.

God's love doesn't rain down on the masses. John 3:16 says "For God so loved THE WORLD." That doesn't mean His love is a general thing, that He doesn't really desire to love YOU. He individually packages up His blessings and love and continuously sends it to each and every person on Earth. God CREATED you! He didn't just sorta throw together a generic baby and then forget about you. He designed you- sketched your fingerprints and painted the unique color of your eyes. You are absolutely beautiful to Him. He knows your little quirks and talents, because He gave them to you! Never, ever feel like "God loves everyone" means that you blend in with the crowd. It's easy to fall under the impression that if you ran into God in the street he'd say, "Oh, I remember you. You're the one who was born on such and such a date and prayed to me every day. Thanks!" In my mind anyways, it'll be a little more like this, "(Insert name here)! I've been waiting for you! I was thinking you might need a hug. I saw someone laugh at you earlier, and I know exactly how you feel. Just to let you know, I made your hair the very same color as the Apostle Paul's was, because I knew you would think He was a cool guy. And my inspiration for your eyes came from this little place in France that I made where you can see the dark green trees at the base of the Alps with a glorious sunset in the background. That's what I wanted people to think of when they see your eyes. You're beautiful."
Not that I want this to be focused on just physical beauty, because God knows your inner self better than you do. He knit you together in your mother's womb. The one and only Almighty Artist designed your heart and mind. When you were concieved, God didn't release you into the world with a promise to see ya later. He proudly looked on as you took your first steps, clapped after you sang your first song, and cheers every time you smile at the gorgeous nature that He made for you. God not only loves you dearly, because He is your Father and the reason your heart beats, but He THINKS about you! As you're reading this, I pray and believe He's nodding and saying, "You'll never understand how much YOU (you as an individual) mean to me." This is God we're talking about. He is limitless. He can think about every single person specifically at once, and have a million things to say about every one of us in that moment. If He wants to (and I don't think He'd have to do this because He could just think about more than 1 thing at once) He can pause time and think about you for a little bit longer than there's time for. Some people have said to me, "I feel guilty for praying about such silly things because God has so many important things to be thinking about and working on." Don't feel bad for talking to God about little things! For goodness sakes, He's already thinking about you!! Might as well talk to Him, so He doesn't have to just sit there and listen to your thoughts like He's got a hidden microphone on you or something. Just because He's thinking about you and helping you pass a science quiz doesn't mean He's not at the exact same moment protecting a group of missionaries as they smuggle bibles into China, helping a Preacher say the right thing to touch his congregation of 5,000 hurting people, and freeing children from the human trafficking system in the United States.
True, God loves everyone, but that doesn't mean that His love isn't worth something. He doesn't HAVE to love everybody, He does though, because He created you perfectly. He created every person perfectly. Also, He doesn't love everyone in the same way. We are all his beloved children, and He will take care of us, but with one person He might say, "I love you so I'm going to bless you with a success in that business you're opening," and to another, "I love you so I'm going to make your business fail, because then you can start a daycare center and realize your amazing compassion for children." He knows you better than you know yourself. How has God loved you lately?

Galatians 4: 8-10 "In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real. But now you know the true God. Really, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to those weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again?"