Isaiah 43:1-4
"This is what the Lord says--he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior... Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you..."
Hey, Internet! Looks like I haven't posted on this blog since April, but I've been busy. This summer, I spent 40 hours every week at an animal teaching hospital for an internship, which was the last semester of my degree program. Now, however, I'm done! Yay!
In my earlier duo-post Losing Perfection... Finding Peace, I talked about some pictures that I got from God that described what my second semester would look like. What I haven't mentioned since is that I've been asking him for pictures that describe every semester since then. It's been very cool to see what he's shown me!
For this past Spring semester, God showed me two pictures:
1) An extension of the journey through the dark valley. I had passed through the village and was on my way to the mountain on the other side. It was time to leave behind the people I had met--committing them to God's plans for their lives, and trusting him to take care of them--and climb the mountain that lay ahead.
2) I saw a huge wave, probably twice the height of my two-story house (it was very similar to the wave in the trailer for Exodus: Gods and Kings), bearing down on a lone figure. The person was on their knees with bowed head as the wave approached, but their shadow stretched out behind them in a standing position holding a sword and daring the wave to do its worst. It was like I was facing immense pressure, but the one who was living inside me was greater and fiercer than anything, and he was teaching me to be a warrior. I didn't know if the wave would crash over me, and I would emerge out the top, or if the wave would split and not touch me in the first place. My eyes were closed, trusting God, and he told me that he would take care of me. I was reminded of Isaiah 43:1-4, when God promises to be with us through the waves and waters that sweep over us.
That second picture was describing the time period from the beginning of Spring semester through my summer internship. They day after my internship finished, I saw the next piece:
I was standing, watching an ocean storm play out around me. Wind blew fiercely and the water was churning and rolling. I looked down, wondering what I was standing on, and it turned out to be water. But I wasn't afraid, because God told me that I had just overcome the wave, and had come out the top victorious.
God showed me more pictures which I talk about later. But for now, I want to glorify him and encourage you by describing how he proved faithful to me during the last six months:
1) "...I will be with you..." was one of the coolest promises I received from God this year. He phrased it in an interesting way one morning during my quiet time: "Don't forget to take me along." It was a gentle reminder for me to rely on him, a habit I had kind of gotten out of this summer. But he was always there for me, every single day. When I went to school on campus, I'd ask him what to print, what to bring, which assignments to do when, and which tests to study for. He always provided an answer, and he always proved right. The more I trusted him with, the more he proved faithful time and time again. It was hard, yes. It meant making the same choice thousands of times: Surrender my fears, worries, and tasks to God, because he will take care of me. And follow him, no matter what common sense said to do.
2) "I will complete the work I started in you" was another promise he gave me. It was one I referred back to when I didn't know how well of a grade I got on a homework assignment or test. It was also what helped me trust him when I had a couple classes go below the grade I desired. He helped me see that it didn't matter if I got A's, I just needed to pass. He told me that he was the one who had called me to do this degree, and he would bring me through no matter what. I needed to stop trying to be perfect, and seek him first. And then he used my finals to boost my grades back up to A's anyway, just because he could.
3) "Picture me doing it" was one that I've already written about in a previous post. He told me that when I had a project that involved an oral presentation, something I was convinced I was terrible at. Over and over, I was picturing past embarrassing moments, as well as picturing repeating them in the next context. But he put a stop to that with those words, and when he did the assignment, it was fantastic.
4)"...Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength..." "...his compassions are new every morning..." and "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" were the verses that carried me into and through this internship. The first verse (Isaiah 40:31) was also a reference to the picture I asked for and received to describe the summer:
I was an eagle about to launch into the sky and soar. The launch represented trusting him, because I was throwing myself into the sky not knowing if I could fly. He would catch me with the updraft I glided on, and I would be using wings that he gave me, which meant I would be doing what he designed me to do.
The second verse (Lamentations 3:22-23) was a reminder for me to not borrow trouble. I needed to trust that God would give me the grace I needed when I needed it. I didn't need grace for the next day, because that day hadn't arrived yet. So I needed to not worry about it, and choose to trust him and ask that his grace would be given to me for each situation I faced. Isn't it nice to pray for something you know he'll give you?
The third verse (Philippians 4:13) was one to post in my locker at the animal hospital. That way, I could see it and know that he would give me the wisdom, strength, and attitude I needed no matter what that day held.
So that's just a glimpse at all that God has been doing for me in the last six months. And since I'm already on a roll, I figured I might as well tell you what's next, as far as he's told me. But I'm warning you, it's not much. Here's why:
1) This was a picture that he gave me at the end of the Spring semester, when I was looking towards this summer and what lay beyond. It's another extension to the story about the journey.
I was still climbing the mountain, but then I reached the cloud that I had seen from afar that sat half-way to the top. In there, I wouldn't be able to see even the path in front of my feet, let alone what lay beyond the cloud. However, I just needed to focus on the sound of his voice leading me thorugh, and believe that he was taking me on the best path.
2) "I know the plans I have for you..." (Jeremiah 29:11) was the final verse/promise that God gave me during school. He has told me to follow him for every single step, and not worry about the long-term strategy. I need to leave it to him to decide, listen for his voice, and trust in his plan for me.
Therefore, I don't know if I'll be getting a job, volunteering, or just learning to "be busy at home". I just know that I'm following him no matter what.
So there you have it! A (hopefully brief) description of the last six months of my college experience. I hope it encouraged and challenged you to trust God no matter what you are facing: whether it be a huge wave, a dark valley, or a shrouded mountain path. He has promised to be with you... "when you pass through the waters; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." For he is the Lord, you are precious in his sight, and he loves you. Of all the lessons I learned in college, this was by far the most important one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teUxQpnhezY
Friday, August 12, 2016
Sunday, April 10, 2016
God's Seeds
So after learning about how Satan's seeds--which are lies--are like parasites, let's take a look at what God's seeds look like.
In dance this semester, we've been learning about how God sees us so that we can use that truth to counteract the lies that have been in our lives. This week, however, our focus changed a little bit. We learned to take the knowledge of how God sees us and who we are in him, and apply it to how we see fellow Christians who have been born again. Every Christian, after all, has become a new person in Christ and is being renewed. Each of us are loved by God, and are viewed by him as his children who have endless potential.
We were learning about how we sometimes forget that when we look at fellow Christians, especially if they've hurt us in the past (like if they provided a "mosquito bite" with their words that injected a lie into our life). But we need to surrender our relationships with each other to God, so that he can help us see those people with the redemptive vision that he has.
So that was the lesson this week. Our homework is to examine Matthew 12:34 ("Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks") in that context. We then had a time of reflection, and I saw a continuation of the heartworm picture. God compared that mosquito bite--which represents someone speaking negatively to us about ourselves that injects a lie into our lives--with an IV injection of medicine. The medicine is us speaking to each other with encouragement, to affirm the truth about each and reminding each other of who we are and how God sees us. Each of these things--the mosquito bite and the IV injection--come through the same route: injected into the blood stream. But the effects that they have on our hearts and lives are very different. The mosquito bite injects a deadly being into our lives that worms its way into our hearts and sucks our lives away. The IV injects medicine that builds up our body and strengthens our hearts.
The same is true for how we speak. Negativity and encouragement come through the same route: speaking. The negativity either plants or confirms a lie in the life of our hearer, which then worms its way into their heart and sucks their life away. Encouragement soaks into the heart in a way that benefits and strengthens the other person, preparing them to become more of who God made them to be.
So the point is: watch what you say. If your conversation is filled with Satan's seeds ("You're so frustrating" "Can't you do anything right?" Or "That was stupid"), you may need to spend some time with God so that your heart may start to overflow with his seeds instead ("I appreciate you in _____ way" "I admire ________ about you" etc.). The fruit that is born from his seeds in other's lives are the same as the fruit in our own: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So plant those seeds in your conversations with others. And I'll be trying to do the same.
In dance this semester, we've been learning about how God sees us so that we can use that truth to counteract the lies that have been in our lives. This week, however, our focus changed a little bit. We learned to take the knowledge of how God sees us and who we are in him, and apply it to how we see fellow Christians who have been born again. Every Christian, after all, has become a new person in Christ and is being renewed. Each of us are loved by God, and are viewed by him as his children who have endless potential.
We were learning about how we sometimes forget that when we look at fellow Christians, especially if they've hurt us in the past (like if they provided a "mosquito bite" with their words that injected a lie into our life). But we need to surrender our relationships with each other to God, so that he can help us see those people with the redemptive vision that he has.
So that was the lesson this week. Our homework is to examine Matthew 12:34 ("Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks") in that context. We then had a time of reflection, and I saw a continuation of the heartworm picture. God compared that mosquito bite--which represents someone speaking negatively to us about ourselves that injects a lie into our lives--with an IV injection of medicine. The medicine is us speaking to each other with encouragement, to affirm the truth about each and reminding each other of who we are and how God sees us. Each of these things--the mosquito bite and the IV injection--come through the same route: injected into the blood stream. But the effects that they have on our hearts and lives are very different. The mosquito bite injects a deadly being into our lives that worms its way into our hearts and sucks our lives away. The IV injects medicine that builds up our body and strengthens our hearts.
The same is true for how we speak. Negativity and encouragement come through the same route: speaking. The negativity either plants or confirms a lie in the life of our hearer, which then worms its way into their heart and sucks their life away. Encouragement soaks into the heart in a way that benefits and strengthens the other person, preparing them to become more of who God made them to be.
So the point is: watch what you say. If your conversation is filled with Satan's seeds ("You're so frustrating" "Can't you do anything right?" Or "That was stupid"), you may need to spend some time with God so that your heart may start to overflow with his seeds instead ("I appreciate you in _____ way" "I admire ________ about you" etc.). The fruit that is born from his seeds in other's lives are the same as the fruit in our own: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So plant those seeds in your conversations with others. And I'll be trying to do the same.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Satan's Seeds
In the medical world, most of our enemies are invisible. They're invisible because they're microscopic. You'd be amazed at how careful and precise we have to be cleaning surgery rooms, and even exam rooms, even when there's no visible debris. I imagine that if an outsider watched it happen, without knowing why, we'd all look like we had OCD for cleaning everything we touch.
But there is good reason. We have to be on the lookout for bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi, and even parasites (like heartworms). None of which we can see. Instead, we learn about the effects that they have on the animal's anatomy so we can hopefully recognize it when we see it. We also learn a little about what to do with it once it's identified.
In dance this semester, we've learned more about the character of lies and who they come from, as well as the character of the Truth (as in, it's not a lie, and as in "I am the way the truth and the life"). At one point, my teacher was talking about the role that surrender plays in fighting lies in our lives. She described a lie as a tiny little thing that we might not even believe at first, but as it keeps coming and we keep thinking on it and developing a relationship with it, it grows deep in our hearts and gets tangled up in them. It gets so tangled, in fact, that we can't remove it ourselves, so we must give our whole heart, tangled lies and all, to God so he can remove them for us.
I know it's a gross picture, but during our meditation time after the lesson, I suddenly saw my heart as it would look with the parasite heartworm. Being in vet tech school, I've seen such pictures, and they aren't pretty. Just imagine a normal heart with long, white, stringy, living things curled around and inside it. I pictured that, and it only took a moment for me to make the connection. Lies are parasites.
Heartworm is a particularly good example, because of its life cycle. As many of you likely know, heartworm is passed to our dogs through mosquitoes (much like West Nile Virus). The mosquito bites an infected dog, then carries the microscopic heartworm larva around until it bites the next dog, injecting the parasite. We've all likely been bitten by a mosquito and can relate to the discomfort they cause. Likewise, at dance we've learned that lies often stem from a hurtful comment or action from others, and that makes us more likely to believe them (in my case, anyway). It may seem like no big deal at the time, like an insect bite that will go away soon enough. But little do we know that it has injected something that can tangle in our hearts and suck our lives away.
That's the next stage. The heartworm larva that developed in the mosquito now moves into the tissues to grow up. After several months, it moves back into the blood stream and heart, where it develops into adulthood, and where it draws its life support. Likewise, lies grow slowly in the back of our mind, not quite affecting us yet. But then, after we've been considering it for a while, it moves into our heart as we start to believe it. There it thrives and continues to grow, developing more lies like a heartworm reproducing.
If a heartworm actually reaches the heart, the animal requires treatment. If it does not receive treatment, the animal will die. Treating heartworm with medication is painful and expensive. It used to be that the only treatment was open heart surgery. Now we have drugs that succeed most of the time, if we catch the disease early enough. The point is, lies must be addressed as soon as they are identified. They must be completely removed, and so must all their offspring.
Like with heartworm, the best treatment for lies is prevention. We have heartworm prevention medicine that we give to dogs on a regular basis, and it serves to destroy the heartworm before it reaches the bloodstream. It doesn't prevent the mosquito bite, but it does guard against the parasite itself. The most common brand is HeartGuard.
We have preventative measures that we can take against lies as well. We can try and learn about each and every lie that might one day come our way, but if we try that, we'll be overwhelmed and our focus will be in the wrong place. Instead, we need to learn the truth. Once we know the truth, we can tell that anything that doesn't look like the truth is a lie. We need to cultivate the truth in our lives, and develop a relationship with it.
I'm not saying that recognizing lies is easy, even when you do know the truth. Personally, the lies that stump me are usually "backed up" by scripture (like when Jesus was tempted to jump off the temple). And I'm personally going through the treatment as well as the prevention. But the good news is that we are not alone in this fight. God is more than eager to use his truth to set us free. And like my dance teacher said, when we surrender our whole hearts to him, tangled as they are, he will meticulously pull out parasite after parasite, replacing them with new healthy words from him until our hearts are functional again. I believe that I can be set free from the lies I believe, and I know you can too.
But there is good reason. We have to be on the lookout for bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi, and even parasites (like heartworms). None of which we can see. Instead, we learn about the effects that they have on the animal's anatomy so we can hopefully recognize it when we see it. We also learn a little about what to do with it once it's identified.
In dance this semester, we've learned more about the character of lies and who they come from, as well as the character of the Truth (as in, it's not a lie, and as in "I am the way the truth and the life"). At one point, my teacher was talking about the role that surrender plays in fighting lies in our lives. She described a lie as a tiny little thing that we might not even believe at first, but as it keeps coming and we keep thinking on it and developing a relationship with it, it grows deep in our hearts and gets tangled up in them. It gets so tangled, in fact, that we can't remove it ourselves, so we must give our whole heart, tangled lies and all, to God so he can remove them for us.
I know it's a gross picture, but during our meditation time after the lesson, I suddenly saw my heart as it would look with the parasite heartworm. Being in vet tech school, I've seen such pictures, and they aren't pretty. Just imagine a normal heart with long, white, stringy, living things curled around and inside it. I pictured that, and it only took a moment for me to make the connection. Lies are parasites.
Heartworm is a particularly good example, because of its life cycle. As many of you likely know, heartworm is passed to our dogs through mosquitoes (much like West Nile Virus). The mosquito bites an infected dog, then carries the microscopic heartworm larva around until it bites the next dog, injecting the parasite. We've all likely been bitten by a mosquito and can relate to the discomfort they cause. Likewise, at dance we've learned that lies often stem from a hurtful comment or action from others, and that makes us more likely to believe them (in my case, anyway). It may seem like no big deal at the time, like an insect bite that will go away soon enough. But little do we know that it has injected something that can tangle in our hearts and suck our lives away.
That's the next stage. The heartworm larva that developed in the mosquito now moves into the tissues to grow up. After several months, it moves back into the blood stream and heart, where it develops into adulthood, and where it draws its life support. Likewise, lies grow slowly in the back of our mind, not quite affecting us yet. But then, after we've been considering it for a while, it moves into our heart as we start to believe it. There it thrives and continues to grow, developing more lies like a heartworm reproducing.
If a heartworm actually reaches the heart, the animal requires treatment. If it does not receive treatment, the animal will die. Treating heartworm with medication is painful and expensive. It used to be that the only treatment was open heart surgery. Now we have drugs that succeed most of the time, if we catch the disease early enough. The point is, lies must be addressed as soon as they are identified. They must be completely removed, and so must all their offspring.
Like with heartworm, the best treatment for lies is prevention. We have heartworm prevention medicine that we give to dogs on a regular basis, and it serves to destroy the heartworm before it reaches the bloodstream. It doesn't prevent the mosquito bite, but it does guard against the parasite itself. The most common brand is HeartGuard.
We have preventative measures that we can take against lies as well. We can try and learn about each and every lie that might one day come our way, but if we try that, we'll be overwhelmed and our focus will be in the wrong place. Instead, we need to learn the truth. Once we know the truth, we can tell that anything that doesn't look like the truth is a lie. We need to cultivate the truth in our lives, and develop a relationship with it.
I'm not saying that recognizing lies is easy, even when you do know the truth. Personally, the lies that stump me are usually "backed up" by scripture (like when Jesus was tempted to jump off the temple). And I'm personally going through the treatment as well as the prevention. But the good news is that we are not alone in this fight. God is more than eager to use his truth to set us free. And like my dance teacher said, when we surrender our whole hearts to him, tangled as they are, he will meticulously pull out parasite after parasite, replacing them with new healthy words from him until our hearts are functional again. I believe that I can be set free from the lies I believe, and I know you can too.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
A-Z Psalm-like Thingy
I was reading Psalm 37, which my NIV tells me is one of the psalms that David wrote where each line starts with a letter of the alphabet. I decided that that sounded pretty fun to do, so here's mine:
All the ways of the Lord are good, therefore I will trust in him.
Because of his great love for me, I will not be afraid.
Can't you remember the faithfulness of the Lord? I bring all his acts to my mind, and find peace.
Darkness may overshadow me, but his light breaks through, because he lives in me.
Every hour of every day his ears are tuned to me. His eyes watch over my every step.
Forever I will dwell in his presence, because he has made a way to call me his own.
Goodness and love permeate his inmost being. Never has his way shown deceit.
Higher than the mountains and deeper than the seas, his grace and his love know no bounds.
Intimately, he calls me to him day by day.
Justly, he judges all the peoples of the earth. He will not let wickedness go unpunished, nor will the righteous go unrewarded.
Know, oh my heart, that he will never leave you. Your Heavenly Father will not abandon you to your enemies.
Because of his great love for me, I will not be afraid.
Can't you remember the faithfulness of the Lord? I bring all his acts to my mind, and find peace.
Darkness may overshadow me, but his light breaks through, because he lives in me.
Every hour of every day his ears are tuned to me. His eyes watch over my every step.
Forever I will dwell in his presence, because he has made a way to call me his own.
Goodness and love permeate his inmost being. Never has his way shown deceit.
Higher than the mountains and deeper than the seas, his grace and his love know no bounds.
Intimately, he calls me to him day by day.
Justly, he judges all the peoples of the earth. He will not let wickedness go unpunished, nor will the righteous go unrewarded.
Know, oh my heart, that he will never leave you. Your Heavenly Father will not abandon you to your enemies.
Living in me is the Creator of life. All his ways are good.
Many things the Lord has promised. All of them will come to be.
Not one person suffers that he does not see. Great is the mercy of the Lord.
One day, God will invite me to join him in paradise. I lack nothing in his presence.
People sinned, and he came to their rescue. Never has he forsaken those he loves.
Queer and wonderful are all the ways of the Lord. He weaves the story of the world with perfection.
Run towards the Father of life! Run into his open arms and find peace!
Sweet and nourishing are the words of the Lord. When I drink them in I find life.
Trust in him, oh my heart! Let him care for your every need!
Until I hear his voice calling in the morning I am dead, but he awakens my heart without fail.
Victorious, he will reign forever! The Lord is mighty in battle! He is powerful beyond measure!
Watching the earth day and night is his delight. He rejoices to care for his children.
X is for the Cross, the final resting place for my sin. Great is his love for me!
Year after year I wait and long for the day of the Lord. The earth will fade, but he will remain.
Zeal for the Lord consumes my soul! His faithfulness continues through all generations. His name is highly exalted!
Monday, December 21, 2015
I Can't
Merry Christmas, everybody!
As our year draws to a close, I've been looking over what I've learned this year, both in school and in my Bible-reading room. It has been a lot!
At the beginning of this year, I was just about to start on my first semester in my program at college. I would be taking 14 credits that spanned over five classes. I knew I'd be busy and in school a lot, so I was worried. I thought I wouldn't have time to spend with God in the mornings, and I thought I wouldn't have the brain power to learn spiritual things while I was cramming in so much school information. God reassured me and told me that I didn't need to worry about learning from him. He'd let me off the hook in that department. That was pretty comforting to me.
But I think I either misunderstood, or he was testing me. Because the fact that I determined to focus on school and push God into the background was what started the misery that was to overshadow me during that semester. My life became infested with worry, fear, and a drive to gain perfection on my own. The weird part is, I spent twice as much time doing devotionals during that spring semester as I did this past fall semester. I think it was because I was trying to get in a whole day's worth of spiritual growth in an hour.
I already spent two blog posts talking about what happened that spring, and what changed over the summer. So I'm not going to go over it again. If you need a refresher, you can read my posts "Losing Perfection...Finding Peace"
So, now to the point of this post, and why I entitled it "I Can't."
I recently read a meme on Facebook that quoted some famous person I don't remember. He (or she) said something on the lines of, "Don't limit your dreaming to something you can do by yourself (i.e., without God's help)."And I realized that I had been doing just that. I am more likely to discard an idea without prayer if I think I can't do it. I sometimes look at things through the lens of "If God doesn't come through, at least I can do it without him." But that's not something we, as Christians, ought to do. We need to be willing to say "I can't, but I will anyway." God may well call us to do something we cannot do without him, like walk into an inferno without dying. And there's a good reason for him to do that. He's teaching us, especially me, to rely on him wholeheartedly. He doesn't want us to have any reason to put our trust in ourselves.
The world says the opposite. They say, sometimes literally, "Never say the words 'I can't.'" They teach you to pursue the highest dream imaginable, but understand your limits. Even before you can read, they're telling you the story of The Little Engine that Could. And sometimes, we get confused. Like I did this spring. I compromised without knowing it. I said, "I'll get God's help." But I never fully relied on him.
We pray for God to give us the strength to do what needs to be done. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but we need to be sure that we have the right motives when we're doing it. We need to be doing it from the perspective of "God needs to do this, not me" instead of "I need to do this, but I need a boost."
That's the black and white version of that prayer. However, I find that I'm most easily deceived in the grey area. Like "I need to do this, but I can't do it alone." My advice is this: Stay in the white area. Trust God. Don't be afraid to say, "I can't" and mean it. Then, when God asks you to do the impossible, you can relax, knowing that he will take care of you.
As our year draws to a close, I've been looking over what I've learned this year, both in school and in my Bible-reading room. It has been a lot!
At the beginning of this year, I was just about to start on my first semester in my program at college. I would be taking 14 credits that spanned over five classes. I knew I'd be busy and in school a lot, so I was worried. I thought I wouldn't have time to spend with God in the mornings, and I thought I wouldn't have the brain power to learn spiritual things while I was cramming in so much school information. God reassured me and told me that I didn't need to worry about learning from him. He'd let me off the hook in that department. That was pretty comforting to me.
But I think I either misunderstood, or he was testing me. Because the fact that I determined to focus on school and push God into the background was what started the misery that was to overshadow me during that semester. My life became infested with worry, fear, and a drive to gain perfection on my own. The weird part is, I spent twice as much time doing devotionals during that spring semester as I did this past fall semester. I think it was because I was trying to get in a whole day's worth of spiritual growth in an hour.
I already spent two blog posts talking about what happened that spring, and what changed over the summer. So I'm not going to go over it again. If you need a refresher, you can read my posts "Losing Perfection...Finding Peace"
So, now to the point of this post, and why I entitled it "I Can't."
I recently read a meme on Facebook that quoted some famous person I don't remember. He (or she) said something on the lines of, "Don't limit your dreaming to something you can do by yourself (i.e., without God's help)."And I realized that I had been doing just that. I am more likely to discard an idea without prayer if I think I can't do it. I sometimes look at things through the lens of "If God doesn't come through, at least I can do it without him." But that's not something we, as Christians, ought to do. We need to be willing to say "I can't, but I will anyway." God may well call us to do something we cannot do without him, like walk into an inferno without dying. And there's a good reason for him to do that. He's teaching us, especially me, to rely on him wholeheartedly. He doesn't want us to have any reason to put our trust in ourselves.
The world says the opposite. They say, sometimes literally, "Never say the words 'I can't.'" They teach you to pursue the highest dream imaginable, but understand your limits. Even before you can read, they're telling you the story of The Little Engine that Could. And sometimes, we get confused. Like I did this spring. I compromised without knowing it. I said, "I'll get God's help." But I never fully relied on him.
We pray for God to give us the strength to do what needs to be done. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but we need to be sure that we have the right motives when we're doing it. We need to be doing it from the perspective of "God needs to do this, not me" instead of "I need to do this, but I need a boost."
That's the black and white version of that prayer. However, I find that I'm most easily deceived in the grey area. Like "I need to do this, but I can't do it alone." My advice is this: Stay in the white area. Trust God. Don't be afraid to say, "I can't" and mean it. Then, when God asks you to do the impossible, you can relax, knowing that he will take care of you.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
He's Always Been Faithful
Hi, everyone! Merry Christmas!
I have a couple of stories from this weekend about God's faithfulness that I wanted to share with the world. What better way of doing that than on the Internet?
The first one starts quite a ways back, in September. I started a new session at Celebration Ministry of Arts (CMA), and I volunteered to assist a class during an hour that I wasn't dancing. They put me with an older class because the teacher didn't expect to be able to fine-tune their dance during dress rehearsal, as she had a prior commitment. So they put me in that class to help out. God also told me to learn the dance really well just in case something happened to one of the dancers.
Well, something did. One of the dancers in that class dropped out just two weeks before the performance. And I was able to step in because God had told me to learn the dance really well.
But there was another problem. I was still supposed to be "cleaning" the dance at dress rehearsal. It would be the first time I'd ever done it before, and it's an extra challenge to clean a dance that you are in. So I was pretty nervous about that, but God told me not to worry, just trust him.
As it turned out, last Monday, the Monday before the performance, the teacher in that dance said that she would be able to make it to dress rehearsal after all, and she'd just be missing the performance. Tada! God solved the problem! Yay!
It was the first of many...
The next story starts on Friday, the morning of both dress rehearsal and performance. I was doing my devotional time, and praying extra hard for the performance, the audience, and the dancers. God told me that this performance was important, and therefore would be under extra attack. So I prayed earnestly against that, claiming the protection of the Holy Spirit. I distinctly remember asking that the auditorium would truly become a sanctuary. A place where people could come in, experience Jesus, open their hearts, and leave changed. I got the sense that even though we would be attacked, none of the attacks would prevail.
Dress rehearsal went really smoothly. I was responsible for supervising the class that I had been the assistant teacher for that semester. As I stated earlier, they were a little older, so when I was needed elsewhere I could trust them to behave themselves. They were released midway through the afternoon and told to return at least 45 minutes before the performance started.
To make a very long story short, here's a list of all the problems that were solved that night, some of them just in time:
-Me not having enough dinner. I had enough energy to last two dances and a finale, plus a lot of running
-One of the kids I was supervising was having some trouble breathing right after we got off stage. We found a friend who had an inhaler she could use.
-I finished a costume change literally less than five seconds before I had to be back on stage. It still went off without a hitch.
-Because I was busy with changing costumes, I didn't have time to get flags for the younger kids, who needed them as a part of the finale. One of my friends covered for me, and got the flags to them less than a minute before they needed them.
-I had enough energy to help clean up, pack up, and carry all the costumes, as well as my own stuff. Then I got home and collapsed with exhaustion, after being at the church for 12 1/2 hours.
Through all these instances, God proved faithful again and again. I never had to worry or panic, I just had to think on my feet a little.
However, the success of the performance is not the only great thing God did this weekend. Throughout November, I have, in addition to CMA and taking 15 college credits, been choreographing a dance for my church's Christmas Eve service. Not only has God given me the choreography for it, he also told me exactly who he wanted involved, and who he didn't want involved.
Well, that dance wasn't finished yet, just three weeks before Christmas. That's usually the time that you want to be wrapping things up, but we had only gotten through the first two verses and one chorus. I wanted to finish, but I also have school to think about. I'm about to take nine finals in the next week. Again, God told me to trust him, and I told the dancers that he would take care of it.
With all my school, and with CMA on top of it, I haven't had time to choreograph more... At least, not during the day...
So God decided that we would do it at night! Last night/this morning, God woke me up at 3:30am with the rest of the choreography for the dance. All of it! I spent an hour dancing in my head, and then in my room in the dark. And when it was time to teach it to the other dancers after church, I was able to remember everything!
So to conclude this post, Praise the Lord! He's always been faithful to me, and I know he always will be!
I have a couple of stories from this weekend about God's faithfulness that I wanted to share with the world. What better way of doing that than on the Internet?
The first one starts quite a ways back, in September. I started a new session at Celebration Ministry of Arts (CMA), and I volunteered to assist a class during an hour that I wasn't dancing. They put me with an older class because the teacher didn't expect to be able to fine-tune their dance during dress rehearsal, as she had a prior commitment. So they put me in that class to help out. God also told me to learn the dance really well just in case something happened to one of the dancers.
Well, something did. One of the dancers in that class dropped out just two weeks before the performance. And I was able to step in because God had told me to learn the dance really well.
But there was another problem. I was still supposed to be "cleaning" the dance at dress rehearsal. It would be the first time I'd ever done it before, and it's an extra challenge to clean a dance that you are in. So I was pretty nervous about that, but God told me not to worry, just trust him.
As it turned out, last Monday, the Monday before the performance, the teacher in that dance said that she would be able to make it to dress rehearsal after all, and she'd just be missing the performance. Tada! God solved the problem! Yay!
It was the first of many...
The next story starts on Friday, the morning of both dress rehearsal and performance. I was doing my devotional time, and praying extra hard for the performance, the audience, and the dancers. God told me that this performance was important, and therefore would be under extra attack. So I prayed earnestly against that, claiming the protection of the Holy Spirit. I distinctly remember asking that the auditorium would truly become a sanctuary. A place where people could come in, experience Jesus, open their hearts, and leave changed. I got the sense that even though we would be attacked, none of the attacks would prevail.
Dress rehearsal went really smoothly. I was responsible for supervising the class that I had been the assistant teacher for that semester. As I stated earlier, they were a little older, so when I was needed elsewhere I could trust them to behave themselves. They were released midway through the afternoon and told to return at least 45 minutes before the performance started.
To make a very long story short, here's a list of all the problems that were solved that night, some of them just in time:
-Me not having enough dinner. I had enough energy to last two dances and a finale, plus a lot of running
-One of the kids I was supervising was having some trouble breathing right after we got off stage. We found a friend who had an inhaler she could use.
-I finished a costume change literally less than five seconds before I had to be back on stage. It still went off without a hitch.
-Because I was busy with changing costumes, I didn't have time to get flags for the younger kids, who needed them as a part of the finale. One of my friends covered for me, and got the flags to them less than a minute before they needed them.
-I had enough energy to help clean up, pack up, and carry all the costumes, as well as my own stuff. Then I got home and collapsed with exhaustion, after being at the church for 12 1/2 hours.
Through all these instances, God proved faithful again and again. I never had to worry or panic, I just had to think on my feet a little.
However, the success of the performance is not the only great thing God did this weekend. Throughout November, I have, in addition to CMA and taking 15 college credits, been choreographing a dance for my church's Christmas Eve service. Not only has God given me the choreography for it, he also told me exactly who he wanted involved, and who he didn't want involved.
Well, that dance wasn't finished yet, just three weeks before Christmas. That's usually the time that you want to be wrapping things up, but we had only gotten through the first two verses and one chorus. I wanted to finish, but I also have school to think about. I'm about to take nine finals in the next week. Again, God told me to trust him, and I told the dancers that he would take care of it.
With all my school, and with CMA on top of it, I haven't had time to choreograph more... At least, not during the day...
So God decided that we would do it at night! Last night/this morning, God woke me up at 3:30am with the rest of the choreography for the dance. All of it! I spent an hour dancing in my head, and then in my room in the dark. And when it was time to teach it to the other dancers after church, I was able to remember everything!
So to conclude this post, Praise the Lord! He's always been faithful to me, and I know he always will be!
Friday, November 6, 2015
The Last Deception
In Matthew 27:64, the Pharisees and chief priests ask Pilate for security for Jesus' tomb, because if his disciples started claiming that he had risen from the dead, then "this last deception would be worse than the first." Therefore, there is something very significant about the fact that Jesus not only died, but was raised to life. Something that threatened the Pharisees (and by Pharisees, I mean all the religious leaders of Israel at the time).
But before we talk about the "last deception", let's talk about the first. Let's examine what the Pharisees might have seen in Jesus that was deceptive.
The Pharisees were convinced that Jesus was a lawbreaker, despite the fact that they could never prove it. That view tainted everything he said. He even had the nerve to tell them publicly, to their faces, that not only was he not a lawbreaker, but that they were. So they hated him. They didn't believe him. Believing him would have caused them to lose face. And because Jesus was "wrong" about them, nothing he said could be believed. This is the first deception: that Jesus knew more about God and the Law than the Pharisees, chief priests, and teachers of the law.
But even that was not the worst part of the "first deception". The worst part came when Jesus explained why he knew more than they did. He claimed to be the Son of God, which, as explained in John 5:18, was the same as claiming to be equal with God. We know this to be true, but the Pharisees saw it as an outrage. They killed him for it, and tried to erase the deception of the populace by mocking him and daring him to prove it once he was, in their eyes, powerless.
And yet, the claim and "deception" that Jesus made to be King of the Jews, the ultimate authority and judge of right and wrong, was not as great a threat than the claim that he could rise from the dead.
So what was it about the resurrection that was so threatening?
His resurrection is what made a national witness a global proclamation. It proved that he had been in control of his own life the whole time, that he had given it up willingly. Anybody can claim that the people who capture, convict, and kill them don't actually have the power. But if anybody but Jesus had said it, they would have had to back up the statement by coming down from the cross before they died, because their control over the situation would end in death. Not so with the Son of God.
1 Corinthians 15:12-22 explains that without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our faith would be "futile" and our preaching "useless". Verse 19 says, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, than we are to be pitied more than all men."
Why would our faith be "futile" and our preaching "useless" without the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Because it is because of the resurrection that our hope is not in death, but in life. I like to say that Jesus died to defeat sin, and he rose again to defeat death. That is true, but not a complete reason.
The resurrection proved that the cross was not a defeat, but a victory. It gave his disciples new hope and boldness, because the threat of death was no threat at all anymore. It means that whatever pain we go through in this life will end in our death, and we will live forever with new life. That is the power of the resurrection. That was the threat of the resurrection. The threat was not in the "deception," but in the possibility of people believing the witness, and what those people would be able to do. What we can do. Anybody can deny that the cross was an act of God, but nobody can deny that of the resurrection.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)