A Litle Pick-me-up

Psalm 118:1
"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
His love endures forever."
Psalm 107:1
"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
His love endures forever."
Psalm 106:1
"Praise the LORD.
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
His love endures forever."

Why do so many of the psalms start out this way?

We forget over and over again that God loves us, and we live our lives in such a way that fails to show others the love of God. The psalmists wrote this as a praise to God, and for others to remember that we can always rejoice and we can always give thanks to the LORD because He loves us and always will. I am beginning to understand how Paul found joy in all situations. Paul understood one simple truth: God is love. He knew that whatever mess he found himself in, whatever beating he took, that God still loved him and that's how he had joy that surpassed all understanding.

Remember today that God loves you. Let this fact shine so brightly through life that it touches someone else today.

What is Love?

Webster's defines love as an affection or feeling towards someone or something.
The Bible defines love as laying down one's life for another.

What does this mean to us? Even if we do figure out some way to define love, how do we do it? How can I love another person? How do I love God?

I am a prideful person. I think of myself as someone who has things pretty much figured out. I am smart, athletic, tall, and posses many qualities seen by the world as good qualities to posses. At the same time, I know that by myself, I am nothing. I am not bad, good, or anywhere in between, I am just nothing. Without the saving knowledge of Christ and Him crucified I am absolutely nothing. Without Christ, nothing I ever do will ever mean anything, nor will it amount to anything of any significance or importance. On the flip side, with Christ everything I do is meant to have eternal significance and importance. I am centering my life and career around this fact and hope that God will use me in some manner for His glory and for the furthering of His kingdom here on Earth.

All that to say that I find myself at times looking at other people who have such a skewed view of God and judging them. I think somehow that I am better than them because God chose me, when in reality, I did nothing to earn this salvation, and I am no better than anyone else ever. God chose me because He wanted to. I did nothing to earn His favor or His grace, He simply loves me and called me to be His son. I am writing to confess my pride and ask that you will pray that somehow I get it through my head that God is everything and I am nothing. I am asked to do things for God and that is what I do. He tells me to love, not judge, so that I what I need to be doing.

That being said, how do I love someone who has such a skewed view of God? Do I simply love them and live my life out in front of them hoping that they will see the truths about God lived out in my life? Do I talk to them in a kind and understanding way about why they believe what they believe? Do I, like Jesus, turn over the tables of their wicked ways and call sin what it is?

In talking this out, I see my pride coming through and have discovered what I need to do. I need to throw myself on the grace and mercy of Christ and pray that God will pull me closer and closer to Him, and that through my getting closer to Him, He will shine through me in ways I can't quite comprehend.

What is love? Love is submitting my life to Christ who called me out of the ashes and letting Him love through me.

Friends

We had some old friends over last night and it was awesome. There are so few people in this world that we really click with instantly and bond with and the Howers are some of those people. Brock and Heather Hower are missionaries in Mexico running a camp and conference center. We have known them for a few years now and have been to their camp a couple of times. They were in town for a day on their way back to Mexico from their home in New Orleans and just had a couple of hours to spend with us, but we loved it. They brought their youngest two kiddos, Rueben and Annie, which was awesome because they are around the same ages as our kids, so they had fun playing with each other. Talking to the Brocks (as I often refer to them) was refreshing because we are so like minded. We both love God and desire to serve Him in a culture other than our own. I love how God gives us people like them to come along side us and rejuvinate our spirits as we make the long journey toward Heaven.

On a crappier side of things, I had my first classes today and it's going to be a rough four months.

Vision

What is vision?

I started reading a book with a buddy of mine called "Visioneering." The book is pretty awesome so far. It helps me put words to a lot of thoughts I've been having. This book's goal seems to be to help the reader understand what having a vision for life is and how to discern that vision through the lenses of Christ in one's life. I will definitely write more on my vision as we progress in the book, but for now I am going to try my best to blog everyday. It may not be great, but it will be from the heart and will hopefully be an encouragement to all my reader.

Today I learned about humility. I tend to be a proud man. I have some really cool skills (like numchucks) and gifts, and a lot of the time I tend to rely on my own gifts to get by in life instead of recognizing that I am really nothing and Christ is the only way anything in my life will have any impact on anything. As I was having a conversation over lunch, I began to see why I'm not ready to be a pastor. I hate it, but the guy I was talking to was right. He told me how I need to be humbled leading adults to understand how to lead. I didn't want to hear it at the time, but I do desperately need humility in order for me to get out of the way of God in my life. I saw this again tonight at my small group Bible study. We were talking about prayer requests and I began to think to myself, "I'm way closer to God than all these guys." In reality, I've been somewhat depressed lately because I haven't been spending time with God reading and praying and meditating on Him because I've been too wrapped up in video games and movies. God smacked me in the face tonight. I can only hope and pray that I will learn from this experience and that God will continue to teach me that I am nothing without Him.


Thanks for reading

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