Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category

Posted on April 29, 2009 - by bj

The Intangibles

So i’ve been thinking about this quote for some time now….it’s from Lee Stroble’s book, The Case for Faith. I don’t know if he said it or if someone else did but anyway, it says….”Only in a world where faith is difficult, can faith exist.” And how true this is!  We wouldn’t need faith if we never endured hardship and all we knew was good. This is also true for many other intangible things such as love and courage. Courage can only exist in the presence of fear and difficulty—we must overcome fear to be courageous. There will always be “something to lose”/consequences as a result of our actions (there is a right and a wrong). We won’t always experience them (consequences) but they’re still present. If they were not, we would never have any reason to work hard and try our best at things—we would never need to depend on God b/c we would never have to make that choice–He would have been a mere provider. We would never have to choose right if that was all we knew.

LOVE—- It’s because of an evil and corrupted world that we can understand the depths of love because of what Christ does through people during hard times. i feel like we couldn’t love other people wholeheartedly if there were no reason to reach out to them…which i guess turns into there not being any reason to love at all. i mean, if your teacher said that they were giving you an A on a test no matter what, would there be any reason to study?  1 Cor 13:4-8 wouldn’t exist unless we understood what love wasn’t.  “⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸Love never fails…….” Patience and kindness can only exist if people have the choice of being impatient or unkind, and etc…. LOVE NEVER FAILS—–we could never know this unless we knew that failure exists in the absence of love (We see this in the world everyday).  “Love never failing” happened when Jesus gave His life for you and I–which was the perfect display of love.  Love never fails, God is love, God never fails.  Love you all

                                                                                                

Posted on April 27, 2009 - by bj

To honor our parents……..

So, lately i’ve been thinking about what it means to honor our parents. i think alot of times, people translate the word honor as meaning “obey.” And i disagree with that. Yes, we are called to obey our parents, but Ephesians 6 says ”Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” So there is a difference in merely obeying your parents and obeying them in the Lord. It seems as though this scripture is saying two things: 1) We should obey our parents, assuming they are followers of Christ and 2) If they are not, our decision to obey must be in line with His word. One thing i don’t know is if the word “children” is refering to certain aged individuals (as in a young child) or children of God, which would be all Christians. However, i don’t know how relevant that is to understanding what this means. Anyway, as i stated earlier, i don’t think that honor=obey. For example, if you are a believer and your mom or dad was not and you obeyed everything they commanded of you, there would clearly be some decisions on your part that were in conflict with the word of God…..b/c your parents aren’t Christ-centered. If your mom or dad said to go steal money for them to go buy drugs and you did that, you would be obeying them, but not honoring them or yourself b/c that isn’t what’s best for them and you would be breaking a commandment and the law. Basically what this translates to is that there could possibly be times that we have to disobey our parents in order to honor them. There will be times that we disobey them to “obey them in the Lord.” To honor them is to love them as Christ does, and to act as Christ would. We have to be bold and keep our faith.

i live a different life than my parents. i have hope and faith in Christ to work through me and others to reveal himself to them….i see this at work on a daily basis through our conversations, and when i’m able to spend time with them at home and it’s very exciting. But there have been many situations that required the “flipping over of a table, or two.” Sometimes we have to be bold and take a stand for what we know is right. And all of this is up for interpretation……  what do you guys think about this issue (want to add anything?)

Posted on April 24, 2009 - by bj

Water would be nice

So, i’ve been in a funk lately…..i guess the best way to describe it is just being spiritually dry, or possibly complacent. i feel like it’s stemming mainly from my personal time, or lack thereof, with the Lord. There hasn’t been a lack of daily dialogue with Him, but it’s been hard for me to stop and rest in the word—not that i don’t have the time, but that when i do sit down to read, i’m not all there. i’m very distracted by external things. Honestly, my desire to be in the word is basically missing. What i want and what i desire are two different things right now. i want to be in the word, i’m obligated to read the word, and i should be in the word….but i don’t desire it right now (i want to desire to be in the word). Because of this, i’ve noticed that i’ve been getting frustrated easily with people and i thank God that it isn’t being played out in my actions and that i haven’t blown up at anyone, but i literally feel like i’m imploding. Another contributor is a lack of community—on a one on one basis. i’m surrounded by a great group of people and we have amazing times of fellowship each week and i work with some amazing men and women everyday but it’s hard to disciple and pour into other people when you don’t have someone doing the same for you. i’ve sought that out now and the Lord has provided, which is very exciting. my mood is actually changing as a write this post. Maybe i just need to write things out more often.

Can anyone else relate?

Posted on April 20, 2009 - by bj

Rejoicing Through the Tears

A couple of Thursday’s ago, one of my really good friend’s mother passed away from pancreatic cancer. She was a wonderful woman and had an amazing heart. She was a joy to be around and never had a hard time cracking a smile. i found out about the diagnosis this past summer and it hit me extremely hard, and no doubt, many others as well. It was a very empathetic time….it’s so hard to comprehend empathy as being a gift from God when it hurts so badly. However, i know that it’s empathy that leads us to love others the way that Christ did. i rejoice because of what Christ did through her and her family and because of where she is now. Funerals are never easy, but when i think about it…..the beginning of life actually starts with a funeral–when we die to ourself and choose Christ.

Posted on March 27, 2009 - by bj

It’s enough to make me go crazy

Jesus’s main concern is not that we stop sinning, but that we experience and live in His love and grace. He didn’t come to earth to make us stop sinning. He didn’t come to turn bad people into good people. He wanted to be with the people He loved forever. He was and is the means of an eternal relationship with the Father. We were hopeless without Him. He paid the price that WE DESERVED. So in knowing what we really deserve, why is it that we somehow get in the mindset that we deserve certain standards from this world–particularly from people. For example, we think we deserve to be treated nicely by others, we think we deserve a thank you after every good deed, etc… And when these things don’t happen, many times it effects us. This world is so corrupt and we expect so much good from it, which doesn’t make sense at all. And yet…..i do this far too often. Jesus was rejected his whole life, was beaten and spit on, and nailed to a cross–dying a criminals death to bring life to the world and here i am getting upset because someone didn’t thank me after i gave them a compliment, or wasn’t appreciative of my help. My gosh, who am i serving here?…..certainly not the Lord. The answer is myself. i know there’s a problem when i do something for someone and i let it affect me negatively because they didn’t act a certain way or didn’t say what i expected. i’m no longer serving them or God at this point and never was in the first place. We are a culture so insulated within our own selfishness and pride that we’ve lost what i means to wholeheartedly serve our neighbor. Our idea of service is, many times, based on the benefits that we receive as a result of serving……I want to do something for someone because it makes me feel good; I want to do this for him/her so they think highly of me; I want to give some money to my church or this organization so I can get a charitable contribution deduction on my tax return.  Here’s the thing……..when we make these our ends for serving, whatever it may be, that’s all we get—you might feel good….for a little while, but it won’t last. All these things are temporary fixes to a problem that is much bigger than we understand–our pride, which fights to have control over us everyday. i just think it would be so amazing if we could learn to serve the Lord first and allow His love to pour out of us into the lives of others. i feel like that’s what real service is–i mean, He loved us first and He is love. When we learn to serve the Lord, and only Him, we’ll find that all of the things mentioned above and so much more will be thrown in—yes, even the tax deduction. So i ask, what does it look like for you/for us to serve wholeheartedly?

Posted on September 7, 2008 - by bj

some thoughts on prayer and life

Many times i’ve prayed, and heard other people pray something along the lines of, “God, give me the strength to …….. so that i can stand up to these enemies,” or “God, please get me through this situation so that i can……….and be a strong man/woman of God,” and other similar things. This is something that i’m really trying not to do in my prayer life. When we pray like that, we are only focused on ourselves and the situation at hand. We/I basically push God out of the way to focus on those things. Now, i do believe that our motives can be right and we just word it this way, but it’s still hard for me to make the connection between the two without feeling that something is “off” there. However, it’s not my place to make any conclusions b/c God searches and knows the motives of our heart.
Continuing….i think praying for strength is pointless anyway. We were given all the strength we would ever need when we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. So, we can’t get additional strength from anything else b/c it comes from God. i think what we must do is embrace the fact that we are weak and can do nothing apart from Him. It’s only when we fully surrender our lives (whether it be school, work, relationships–all types, marriage, raising a family, etc…) to Him that we’ll understand what real power is. We were made in His image. We all want our character to be in line with His. But the only way that can happen is if we deny and humble ourselves before Him because He is everything that we are not. So that means focusing on ourselves is focusing on what we are not because we are saved and redeemed sons and daughters of God–that is who we really are. Focusing on ourselves leads to death. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” - Proverbs 14:12 ….AND we can’t allow ourselves to be manipulated into thinking things that are really of this world are of God–i’ve been there and this happens when we’ve become complacent in our faith. We end up trying to find satisfaction in the things of God and of this world which lead us away from Him. We eventually get to a point where we can’t even discern between the things of God and the things of this world and we just live our lives thinking that everything is God….little do we know that we’re really killing ourselves and wounding others in the process. We become impatient and allow ourselves to be guided by mere emotion and feeling. Like i mentioned in a previous post–we end up building walls around ourselves and it’s just a bad and dangerous place to be. The thing we have to understand is that there is no emotion attached to faith–just because we can’t feel it doesn’t mean we can’t believe it and vice versa. Emotions are like a trailer being pulled by a truck–they will follow along with whatever is in control. If we allow the Spirit to be in control, our emotions/feelings will help us experience God and will lead us to Him. But, if we allow them to control us and we think about ourselves and our situations, we will be led away from God, becoming one with the world and not one with Him. The truth of the world is contrary to the truth of God. What seems like a good idea is actually something that blinds you from the truth and if you stay on that road too long, you end up crashing, possibly wrecking others as well–it’s like trying to drive in the fog with your bright lights on.
i pray that our entire lives, including our prayer life will be God-centered. He is our strength, He overcame death and saved us because of His mercy. We did nothing to deserve it. What we long for the most is Jesus, although we sometimes don’t realize it. Nothing of this world can satisfy our needs, so there is no use in searching in it. Sometimes when i’m going through tough times, i just want to “get away” from life. We must understand that He is where we go to do that. i’ve found, and i’m sure you have as well, that to “get-away” in something other than Him, in the end, becomes a huge distraction and we end up walking a path of sin. Everything we need can be found in Him. We need to declare this and embrace the strength we have in Him and live in the truth of who we really are.

Posted on August 27, 2008 - by bj

who, what, where, when, why, how….but, for WHOM??

This post is in reference to a friend’s blog post that talked about facing tough decisions and trying to discern God’s will for our lives. It also proposed our take on adventure.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.” 1 Cor 10: 31-33

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Prov. 16:3

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Col 3:16-17

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Col 3:23-24

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” Eph 1:4-12

For me, and i think for everyone, it’s not so much about the details of life concerning “what.” It’s whatever we do, do for Him. In the verses from Ephesians, it says that He works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. i’m not saying that we can sin and say, “oh, i did it for the Lord” at all, or that we don’t/will not have to make tough decisions in life–b/c we will. i’m also not saying that we should put ourselves in bad/dangerous situations where we know that we will be tempted, using “God will work it out” or “I’m a child of God” as a means of justifying it. It becomes extremely tough to guard our heart in those situations, b/c the situation usually keeps us from discerning what is healthy and best for ourselves. However, i think that the main thing we must do is not sin. We shouldn’t only think about ourselves when making a decision or what benefits we may reap as a result. We shouldn’t try to write a conclusion to something that hasn’t happened yet, but embrace where we presently are and where we know that we’re going. i think we must put our trust in the Lord that no matter what route we take, He will eventually lead us to where we are supposed to be. Just because we make a decision that causes us to take the long way around doesn’t necessarily mean that the decision we made was sinful. If i didn’t know what colors mixed together made orange, and i just tried mixing red and blue, i would find that they do not make orange. Not only would i know that but i would find out how to make the color purple. If i continue to mix different colors and then eventually try red and yellow, i will find that they do make orange. i’ve taken the long way to get to orange through trial and error and i also experienced something cool along the way–i found out how to make the color purple and probably other colors as well. i guess for me, the main thing is to not focus so much on the details of life and ask myself…”Is this God’s will for me?”, but rather it’s “What do i know to be true from His word? i try to focus more on God instead of consuming myself with the decision that has to be made. i then make a decision and stick to it. i know that even if the door ends up closing, at least i’ll learn something along the way; at least i’m a child of the most high God, who loves me unconditionally no matter what. Sometimes we have to just go out on a limb since that’s where the fruit is, right?— i remember reading this quote somewhere but i’m not exactly sure where that was…. But it makes sense–the limbs stem from the Trunk and as we reach for the fruit, we may break a few limbs in the process; but we must continue to get up and try again if we want to eat, knowing that we can’t use the same limbs as before. But anyway, i’m also not a husband or responsible for raising children yet, and i haven’t been thrusted into some major situation where i have to act as an agent on behalf of someone else so i haven’t had to make, what you might call, the “super-tough” decisions of life—so all of this is much easier for me to say.
About adventure– i love adventure. But, i think what i do wrong alot of times is i try to seek out adventure. Point being, because we’re children of God, adventure will automatically come our way. When we seek adventure, we end up creating our own personal standards and we make the adventure about ourselves. It seems, so far, that the main adventure in life for me is uncertainty–not knowing what tomorrow will bring–and that is exciting for those who are in Christ. i think we experience adventure everyday and a lot of times we experience adventure but just don’t realize/acknowledge it.

Posted on August 22, 2008 - by bj

NOT me, BUT YOU

So many times, we (at least this is true for me) end up consuming ourselves with the things of God instead of God himself–the One who created us in His image and gave us passions to pursue to bring glory to His name. The message at encounter last night was quite similar to what’s been on my heart lately. It was on the subject of keeping our purpose in check as we pursue passions and goals (things) in life. To sum it up, our purpose is to KNOW HIM and glorify Him in all that we do–to surrender and humble ourselves as we walk through life, to love ourselves and others as He loves us, and everything else in between. The “What” in life will probably change pretty regularly, but the “Why” will never change and when we lose sight of the “Why,” we’ve lost our purpose. We end up coming to the point of trying to find satisfaction in the things of Him–people, school, individual passions, etc… which eventually lead us to a place of unhappiness and loneliness. “Things” end up becoming means in themselves. As a result we end up making life about ourselves and we try to create our own purposes. We build up our own walls to keep other people out of our life and in that, we push God out of our lives as well. Point being, Jesus is the WHY and is the only thing that can bring revelation.

What’s been on my heart recently: Our happiness depends on how we respond to God’s touch. The areas of our life that bring us pain and suffering and cause us to stumble are the areas that God wants to have control over—this isn’t limited to experiencing emotional/physical grief and pain from external circumstances that we have no control over but also the pain and suffering we put on ourselves from the choices we make–usually choices made based on emotions or impulses. God wants to have control over all of this and can if we allow Him to.
Our minds and emotions can prevent us from experiencing the fullness of God. Our mind and emotions are not bad things—He gave them to us to use for His namesake. Our emotions and thoughts were designed to help us engage and focus on God so that we can perceive people and situations/events with His understanding. God is consistently putting His hand on these and other areas of my life and yours. He massages our souls in the form off gentle, quiet realizations and whispers. God doesn’t want bad things to happen to us and i don’t think He truly wants to take extreme measures to get His point across—He does this quite often when we choose ourselves over Him. We must lay all of our personal ambitions and idols aside and focus on his gentle caress. It’s when we choose to consistently take pride in ourselves and base our life on and around the things of this world that extreme measures are allowed to get certain points across. And usually we don’t realize what we should have done or been doing until something extreme happens. Or we sometimes, sort of test God by continuing in something that we know is wrong and we try to justify it with something that sounds godly, or that it’s permissable b/c of what he/she said or did, or we might say something like..”I’ll stop tomorrow, or if I’m in this situation again, I won’t do this.” This is all going through our head as Christ is continuously speaking to us but we just choose to not respond. And then…BAM!!!—we get blind-sided. Of course, the perception of the magnitude of what we end up experiencing will be different for each of us—what is considered very extreme for one person doesn’t necessarily hold true for another. But…..His gentle caress turns more into a slap across the face that knocks us silly. He’s basically saying, “Hey!!!!!! Wake Up!……Peel those scales from your eyes and turn to ME!!!!” We must die to ourselves, NOT kill ourselves. The only way that we can die to ourselves and experience the fullness of God is if we allow Him to fully come alive in us. i’m not saying that we won’t sometimes experience intense pain and heartache, but we must not make the mistake of focusing on and trying to die to certain issues that are causing that pain. Doing that makes us pre-occupied with what we are not—we are not defined by our sins or insecurities, but by the CROSS! When we live in spirit and truth, Christ makes us occupied with Him. When we allow God to come alive in us, we become alive in Him, and this automatically makes us dead to ourselves. Sure we have struggles, but God knows our struggles and does not condemn us for them, so we shouldn’t kill ourselves with condemnation and guilt. It says in His word that His mercies are never-ending and are new everyday–each day is “New,” because of His mercy. Despite our insufficiencies, we have the opportunity to enter into His presence every day WITH confidence because of His love and grace. He welcomes us with open arms and embraces us with a huge hug when we run to Him. And……we can’t wiggle out of this if we try.

Posted on July 13, 2008 - by bj

PRAYER REQUEST

Hey everyone. I don’t really know who reads my blog, but for those that do, one of my best friends—Meredith— and her family need prayer. Her mother is having health issues. They are still waiting to hear more information from the doctors, but pray that she gets the treatment that she needs and that the process will be smooth and timely. Prayer is probably the most powerful thing that we can do as children of God, and our God is a God that saves and heals. Please keep her and her family on your hearts.

Here is some information from Meredith…….

No one wants to hear the word cancer out of their mother’s mouth
This Friday I found out that my mom has pancreatic cancer. I was shocked- Still am. I don’t know some of you that well, but some of you have become my very closest friends and hope that becomes true for all of you.The location of the malignant mass is blocking function to my mom’s other organs, causing backing up of bile. Jaundice occured, causing her to be alarmed, because that was one of the first signs that my grandmother, who passed away of pancreatic cancer had. Jaundice, causes yellowing of the eyes and skin. Specifically, she hasn’t been eating hardly at all or sleeping. She is in pain and is exremely fatigued. We won’t know anything about the procedures or dates of operation and medication until we hear back from the hospitals that offer the best surgery options. Please pray that she is blessed with an opening for immediate operation, and the operation runs smoothly( it is an 8-15 hour procedures and about a two week recovery) and that after the surgery, the cancer will have been defeated. I really don’t know what else to say. If you’ve read this far- thank you. I love you all very much.PLEASE keep her in your prayers, our family and friends

Posted on July 9, 2008 - by bj

Far from comfortable

The other day, i was having lunch in chick-fil-a. It was around 3:00 and i had a little time before i needed to go into work, so i decided to eat there instead of the usual “grab-and-go.” i don’t know if it was the time of day or some other factor, but i was the only customer there at the time; of course, a few more people came in and out while i was eating, but for the most part i was the only one. So, i’m sitting there enjoying my #4 combo and i look outside and notice that the drive through line is backed up a good ways–there were probably 7 or 8 cars in line. Initially, i didn’t understand why this was happening–why people were choosing to sit in a long line instead of coming in to order. Then it hit me (and you’re probably already on top of it); it’s all about convenience and comfort. Now i have nothing against drive-throughs, i love them and i’m glad we have them. i’m also not knocking the people that use the drive-through on a regular basis—i’m usually one of those people. But, how often do we refrain from doing something because we’re too comfortable in our current situation, or, how often do we make a decision based on how comfortable it will make things. Even though the Lord shows us truth, many times we disobey God because we don’t want to leave our comfort-zone…..”I’m going to stay in this horrible situation, because it’s just too convenient and comfortable.” “I’ll just keep so and so around because it’s comfortable and move on later.” “I’ll get to that some other day; I’m too comfortable right now.” Our walk with God brings us so much joy and happiness, but it is far from something comfortable. God is definitely our comforter, but we would not need Him to comfort us if we were never uncomfortable. Basically what i’m getting to is that we MUST stop living according to what we ourselves think is comfortable. When we create our own standards, it leads to complacency and backsliding. And on top of that, it limits the power of God–what He can do in and through us. The Lord is our savior; He desperately loves us, and He has forgiven us and covered us with His grace. But He’s also the God that calls us into uncomfortable situations to bring glory to His name; He’s the Warrior that calls us into battle to fight the good fight.

i just graduated with an accounting degree and i’m finishing up the last classes that i need to be able to sit for the CPA exam–to become a certified public accountant. This is something that the Lord has given me an interest in, it could probably be considered a passion. But, just because doing public accounting would be comfortable for me and my family (if i’m blessed with one), and even if i love it, doesn’t necessarily mean that i’m making plans to be doing that all my life. i have somewhat of a general idea of where i’ll be starting, but the Lord may have me doing accounting for a year and then have me ministering to Eskimos at the North Pole after that—i have no idea. i just know that the Lord has given us many interests/passions/gifts for a reason–to bring glory to Him. In thinking about my passions, next to the Lord, people are at the top. i also have a love for music, and as hard as it probably is for you to read this…accounting as well. Think about a hot fudge sundae or a shiver from TCBY ;)……each is made of different types of ingredients such as yogurt, peanut butter cups, chocolate syrup, etc…Each of these things would be amazing by themselves—we would probably enjoy having each as a treat. But, while each ingredient is independently great, how amazing is it when you combine them all together to make one finished product. And now, i’m getting hungry. i know that the things that i’m passionate about will always be part of my life and i’m trusting the Lord to somehow intertwine them and possibly reveal new passions down the road as He forms me into the man He wants me to be.

Wherever the Lord has us, whether it be in Auburn, AL; Atlanta, GA; New York; Australia; Africa; Russia; or some other place that no one has heard of; there is a need. He puts us in places where we’re needed. When the Lord puts something or someone on our heart, there is a need–whether that be through prayer, a phone call, or flying many miles from home to help stop human trafficking (forced labor, prostitution, servitude—mainly female children) in Mexico or Thailand. It’s important for us to keep our heart and mind open to the Lord, no matter what our current situation is. We need a huge awakening and i think that starts with us focusing our eyes on the Lord. We’ve got to stop seeing Jesus for who we want Him to be, and start seeing Him for who He really is.