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So what are you listening to?

As I get on the internet each day and pull up Facebook to see what everyone is up to, the "status" box taunts me with the question "What's on your mind?" Although most of these status updates are superficial and filtered, it is an interesting question. It's amazing how many people, myself included, have learned, adopted, and accepted these negative tapes that play in our minds. (I guess I need to move into this century and change the lingo to CD's?) Anyway, part of learning to live life following Christ is that we need to get rid of the old, worn out, negative CD's that play over and over in our minds..."I'm not good enough", "I'll be imposing if I ask for help", "I'll do it so I won't have to feel guilty for saying no", etc. etc. etc. We all have them because we have all grown up in a sinful world! Romans 12:2 tells us that we are "transformed by the renewing of our mind" and Romans 13:14 tells us "do not think about gratifying the desires of the sinful nature". If we want to turn from sin and toward God then we must work to train our mind to think Biblically. We must move toward having a Godly perspective.

Lord, help me to think about life the way you designed it to be and not in the twisted way the world views life. Thank you for your love and your continual patience as I try to follow you. Amen.

May God Himself...

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

This is a great verse to pray in many situations. First lets define sanctify. This simply means to be set apart as important and valuable. These verses come at the end of a letter that Paul wrote and offers a blessing to those people.

I love the beginning of this because it tells that this is not about a person doing something or offering the blessing, instead it is “God himself”! Second, our lives are often confusing and stressful and this blessing is coming from God who knows and offers to give us perfect peace. At the same time God has set us apart as valuable and not that just one piece of us is valuable but all of us (through and through). Too often we think that we have value because of one good talent – say playing basketball or drawing – but God values all aspects of us because He created us.

The middle part of this blessing asks is a continuation of asking God to do something in us. It’s not that we are perfect but that God himself is perfect and can work in us to keep us on the right track.
The last part is my favorite because we know that people and situations in this world fail us. We all have made mistakes and those mistakes hurt other people. That’s why everyone has some trust issues. This is a difficult, stressful, and disappointing world that we live in. BUT God is faithful all the time, everywhere, and in every situation.

So what is the “it” that God will faithfully do?
1. He has set us apart as valuable since He created us.
2. He offers peace.
3. He will help us stay on the right track (work toward being blameless).

Prayer: “Lord thank you that you are always faithful. Thank you for creating me and valuing me. Thank you for giving me peace in a stressful world. Help me to stay on the right track. Amen”

Earning Power

In a capitalist society we understanding earning power. As Christmas becomes more commercialized and as we continue to watch the current state of the economy, earnings seem to be more scrutinized. We teach our kids to stay in school, go to college or trade school, and learn as much as possible so that they can increase their wages. Christmas brings an interesting dichotomy because we attempt to balance wages with giving. On the receiving end of this season we are faced with wages earned and gifts received. Most would agree that we haven't really earned the gifts received. In fact, they make us kind of uncomfortable. Wages, on the other hand, we are much more comfortable with because we can justify the efforts that "earned" them. In Romans 6:23 we clearly see what we've earned and the gift we've been given. It's difficult to accept but, in our relationship with God we have earned death! Thankfully he loves us so much that he made the sacrifice necessary to "gift" us eternal life through Jesus.

Lord, thank you for your gift and for the reminder that through your mercy I will not receive the wages for my choices. Thank you for your love that saves me! Amen.

Stand On and In

My sister is preparing to build a log house and hoping that they will break ground in about a week. I am looking forward to watch the project progress. I'm really interested to watch the laying of the foundation. We, christians, often talk about the importance of having a good foundation. After all, no one wants their house to sink or shift or fall. However, as important as the foundation is we need to be careful to not end there. I had a friend who's house was hit by a tornado. Thankfully no one was in their house because the house was literally swept clean off the foundation. The foundation remained but the house was gone...not flattened but gone! Many places in scripture we are instructed to stand firmly on His foundation - His Word, His Spirit, His Grace. However, Romans 5:1-2 states it a little differently saying "by faith into this grace in which we now stand". Did you catch that? Not on which but in which we stand. Imagine if my friends house had not just been built on the foundation but was literally in the foundation! Although that may not be practical for the house it certainly is for us. Not only are we called to stand on His grace but also we are instructed to be IN His grace. Do you realize how much harder it would be for us to get knocked off His foundation by temption, struggles, trials, etc. if we were wading IN His grace? We would be so much more secure if we were doing both standing on and standing in.

Lord help me to not only walk on Your Foundation but to wade IN Your Grace. Engulf me as I walk through this life. Amen.

Honor

What does that word mean? Its not a word I hear often and I certainly haven't pondered it's depth and breadth. Honor is simply acknowledging the value of someone or something. One of the things about honor is that it is a choice. An example I heard of this was when someone places something of high value in front of you, you sigh and gasp. You are concerned about touching it for fear of breaking or scratching it. The other thing about honor is that it is a place. Things that we honor are given a place of honor in our home or office. So, think about what this means about how we view God. In church this past Sunday we sang a song that had this phrase..."May You receive the honor that You're due". Once again I found myself asking for forgiveness. Have I really give God the honor that He's due? Not just a worldly dose of it but what He actually deserves from me?! Oh, how I fall horribly short! So, it started me done this thought path. I need to honor God by being amazed to be in His presence. In the presence of The most valuable! WOW that He allows me to approach Him! WOW that I can call on His name! WOW that He wants me to! WOW that He loves me...even though I forget to give Him the place of honor. Lord, forgive me for not giving you the honor that you deserve from me. Lord, help me to give up the seat of honor in my life and let you, rightfully, have it.

How Can It Be?!

This past Sunday we sang a song during worship that always seems to grab my attention. The words that get me are "Amazing love how can it be that you my King would die for me?". I can't help but to contemplate the depth of that question. How can it be? It is extremely difficult to comprehend why He would chose to do that for me! The depth of the love that God has for us is absolutely amazing. Later in that service we sang another song with the words "Jesus You gave Your everything for me, I give my all to you". As these words were sung I had an internal struggle to reconcile these two songs. It came out something like this..."How can it be that You my King would die for me? I've failed to give you my all...How can it be, How can it be?!" I found myself acknowledging that as much as I wanted to sing the last song, I couldn't honestly say those words knowing the sacrifice that was made on my behalf! At the same time, it's incredible to attempt to fathom the depth of love that God has knowing that I would fall consistently short and He wanted to make sure that despite my failures he made a way for me to stay in relationship with him.

Thank you Lord for Your grace and mercy!