God trully wants whats underneath...

Well.  I wrote on facebook that I'd write a blog about Thirty Three Miles' song "underneath" which has a mind blowing message if you'd ask me. 


First of all, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He didn't JUST die on the cross to bear our sins.  I think some have that mindset, where they might think, well He just died on the cross to take away our sins.  WRONG!  THAT IS SOO NOT TRUE!  Think about it in detail.  People say they've actually heard the gospel and know what Jesus did...but they don't even know his real motives. And folks, im not saying that our sins being erased was not one of Jesus' motives, it was just NOT THE ONLY ONE!  And I think all of us at some point get a little wrapped up in that.  But here are a few other things to keep in mind when thinking about the wondrous cross...

1. When Christ was on the cross, HOPE was instilled into His blood, that was shed to save us from our very own damnation.  He offers us a brand new hope that we can not have apart from Him.  John 15:5 says "I am the vine, you are the branches.  Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.  For apart from me you can do nothing." 
2. We are called, to "die to self" every single day.  When Christ died on the cross, the bible says, "our old flesh was nailed to the cross" Galatians 2:20-21 says "My old self has been crucified with Christ.  IT is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I do not treat grace of God as meaningless.  For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die!"  He gives us the opportunity to lay everything at His cross. All of our sin, our junk, our wants, our needs, and our prayers....and our old sinful disgusting flesh.  Ya see, our old sin remains with us still, and God asks us to nail it to the cross piece by piece, flesh by flesh, everyday.  The old is gone, and the new has come.  "We are a new creation in Christ"
3. Jesus set a standard, a way to live, and a culture, that is a command to be separate from the world.  1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love this world nor the things if offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.  For the world only offers a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and successes."  We are to live a life, that is apart from the lusts of this world, the pleasures and success of this world.  Jesus lived a life as a poor homeless beaten punished man.  But He created a new life, a new way to live, that is holy and a living sacrifice (Romans 12:2).

Jesus was born, had a great ministry, performed many miracles and casted out many demons.  This world will not be a better place without Him.  He walked 33 miles with a cross on His back, He was completely demolished and punished!


Now for the good stuff!  He also wants you to feel like you can tell him anything.  Like you could be the most comfortable you've ever been in your life.  Now....we all have this stuff down in our hearts, and in our minds that we hide.  We have junk inside of us that can hold us back, keep us from being happy, or even be on the verge of something unhealthy.  I like to call it the stuff that's "underneath."  There is only one way to be completely free from your stuff that is underneath.  And that's through accepting Christ into your very own heart, and giving the underneath to Him.  And the last thing, is the fact that Jesus actually loves that!  He loves it when we bleed a little, and are vulnerable, and show that we love Him and that we don't care about what the world says.  That's part of being separate from this world.


We are all beautiful people, no matter what you believe in.  Whether or not you believe in a God that loves you, whether you look at a person of the opposite sex and drule, or if you respect the opposite sex too much to look at them like a piece of meat.  All of that doesn't matter, because the truth is, God see's our beauty, and He is the one that created us, and chose us over animals, mountains, the beautiful blue sky, and the sun, moon, and stars.  HE CHOSE US TO BE HIS NUMBER ONE.  How awesome is that!?! 


May an all knowing, all loving, all purposeful, all forgiving, all merciful, all graceful God grab a hold of your heart tonight and give you a sense of peace and comfort that you have never known before...and always remember one of the things that God loves the most...and that's....the stuff that you hide....."underneath"

"My chains are gone"

Acts 12

James Is Killed and Peter Is Imprisoned
1 About that time King Herod Agrippa* began to persecute some believers in the church.2 He had the apostle James (John's brother) killed with a sword.3 When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.*)4 Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover.5 But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.

Peter's Miraculous Escape from Prison6 The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate.7 Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, "Quick! Get up!" And the chains fell off his wrists.8 Then the angel told him, "Get dressed and put on your sandals." And he did. "Now put on your coat and follow me," the angel ordered.
  9 So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn't realize it was actually happening.10 They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.
  11 Peter finally came to his senses. "It's really true!" he said. "The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders* had planned to do to me!"
  12 When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer.13 He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it.14 When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, "Peter is standing at the door!"
  15 "You're out of your mind!" they said. When she insisted, they decided, "It must be his angel."
  16 Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.17 He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. "Tell James and the other brothers what happened," he said. And then he went to another place.
  18 At dawn there was a great commotion among the soldiers about what had happened to Peter.19 Herod Agrippa ordered a thorough search for him. When he couldn't be found, Herod interrogated the guards and sentenced them to death. Afterward Herod left Judea to stay in Caesarea for a while.
The Death of Herod Agrippa20 Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they sent a delegation to make peace with him because their cities were dependent upon Herod's country for food. The delegates won the support of Blastus, Herod's personal assistant,21 and an appointment with Herod was granted. When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them.22 The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, "It's the voice of a god, not of a man!"
  23 Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people's worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.
  24 Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread, and there were many new believers.
  25 When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission to Jerusalem, they returned,* taking John Mark with them.


I was reminded of this passage of scripture in Vacation Bible Study a few nights ago, and while I was listening to the story of how Peter was imprisoned, this analogy came to my thoughts.  Peter went to jail for sharing the gospel, and being a bold christian.  They locked him up in a prison that was in the middle of wall after wall, door after door, like a chamber and he had two guards chained to him, and two more in front of him. 


While I was listening to the rest of the story about how the angel came to release Peter, this is what I was thinking.  Think of yourself as Peter, put yourself in his body in that musty, nasty prison with chains on your arms, and four guards holding you captive.  Now think of it this way, that's all of us!  We're all tied down by chains (our sin) and we're held back by guards (this world's culture, and ways), and there is a God that loves us that wants to set us free just like Peter! 


Jesus Christ loves you, as He does me, and everyone who has ever lived, and ever will live on this earth.  But He gives us the choice to love him back and serve him and as a gift He gives us an eternity spent with Him in heaven when we die.  Opposite of that is eternal damnation to hell. 


Now for some hope! 1John 2:15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.  And Romans 12:2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. One more!   Ephesians 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.10 For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
So, all we have to do is accept Jesus into our hearts, and turn away from our sinful flesh as much as we can, and we can be free just like Peter!  God is waiting for us to come to Him, and whether or not you believe that, He is drawing us all closer and closer to Him everyday.


May the Lord Jesus open your heart to His word, and to Himself, so that He may use your very life that He gave you to bring Him the glory that He won on the cross! God bless you all :)

A broken concept....

I've been pondering this concept that I read in a book a while back.  Its "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and in it the author talks about how we shouldn't let our singleness get in the way of making a difference as a christian.  He uses the terms preparing for marriage in several different ways.  Im going to use that message the way that I've been thinking about it! 


I think we all have something that holds us back from experiencing God at an all time high level.  Whether it's something small or big, that's ok.  God understands.  One of my biggest things at a point not too long ago, was the reason that I'm reading I kissed dating goodbye.  I never understood what was happening to me.  I was completely blind to the fact that I was trying to find love in places that I shouldn't be longing for.  Ya see, me wanting to find an awesome girl to share my life with at the wrong time didn't allow me to fully experience what God has for me.


And I think it's safe to say, that we all have something that holds us back.  I read a book about teen expectations in this world.  And it talked about a concept that involved an elephant held down by a small piece of twine.  A piece of twine tieing down an elephant?  That's unheard of.  But maybe we are just like the elephants....they say "we humans, hold so much potential, but we are also held back by twine, we're held back by the lies that this world's culture has"  we are exactly the same as the elephant, holding so much strength, so much power, so much potential.  But we're held back by some sort of lie that we constantly tell ourselves.  For instance, ah, im not good enough for God, or in our minds we have something that we put above God.  In high school mine was definitely sports.  I knew everything about sports, I could tell you any stat, any player's background, anything!  But I knew nothing about God.  And I let myself be blinded by something small like that. 


Do you ever think about how much time we all actually waste on non-important things in life?  We're constantly thinking about that person we're crushing on, or that test that's coming up, or what in the world am I  going to do for my future??  If we would realize that sometimes Satan actually uses an opportunity for God to blind us from what God actually wants us to do, we'd be better off.  Sometimes the enemy uses opportunities to get in the way of what God wants.  When we ponder them all the time, sometimes they can become a distraction.  It's fine to think about things and desire to make a safe and sound decision :) but I hope you see what I'm getting at.

So If you're in a spot where you're just like, I'm not good enough, how can a God love me, where am I going to be for college next fall, why am I not happy, why am I SO depressed?  The answer is in your heart.  Every single one of you has a choice to surrender to His wonderful and merciful love. 

Let me tell you something :) Jesus not only died on the cross to take our junk away, but when He died, He in scripted something in His atoning blood.  And it's called HOPE.  And that's something that this world either has nothing of, or puts it in things that won't last.  Hope is only found in the name of Jesus Christ.  And the things is, it's so easy to love Jesus, the bible says, whoever will confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, will be saved.  Ephesians 2:8 says for it is by grace that you have been saved....(what I remember version) not by works from us, but completely by what God has done for us!  Wow! That's good news at its best :)

No matter what your circumstance in life, Jesus will always be there.  The bible says I (God) will never leave you nor forsake you.  A lot of people may argue that they never feel like God's there, but I guarantee you He is!  You may just not see that He's actually been working all around you, you just haven't noticed.  So the next time you're out for a walk, or you see someone who loves God, pay attention to the nature of God's love and His magnificent creation :)

Matthew 25:13 "So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return"

What a powerful scripture!  To think that the King of Kings is soon to come back, and rescue us from this world, and from our very own sinful disgusting nature, is very refreshing to hear!  Be prepared because we do not know the day or the hour when Jesus will return....whether or not you're a christian I'd like to tell you something that makes a lot of sense to me.  When I was growing up I didn't know a thing about being a christian...but I do know that i was definitely headed down the wrong path. 

To keep his fairly short, my father got really sick, and had seizures on our couch July 27th, 2008, and died three weeks later, Aug. 18th, 2008, but I gave my heart to Jesus Christ the day before dad died.  One of the things that I came to understand right away and ya also hear a lot of Christians and pastor say this.  But what if we're right and you're not?  If we're wrong and there is no God, which I believe with all my heart there is! But if we're wrong, we don't lose anything, we're just awesome people trying to show people love....but on your side if you're wrong, you could be sent straight to hell.  That's not my opinion, that's a biblical principal straight up....harsh reality.

That honestly scared me.  So now my soul will soon be rested in heaven, and we who have Jesus will have our glorified bodies. No more sickness, no sin, just awesome glorified bodies :) so why not just give your heart to the God who created you in the first place.  All He wants is a relationship with you.

Listen, some one's out to get you....Satan has the most evil plan and path for your life.  Jesus Christ has the most perfect path laid out that you could ever imagine.  So let's take the steps we need to in life to prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of heaven!

Matthew 6:33 "Seek the Kingdom of God above all things, and His righteousness, and these things will be added to you"