Following the Star

When the Wise Men followed the star that lead to where the Messiah was born, they weren't on an exploration of just awe & wonder but one that would be a completion of all their years of eager anticipation, dedicated work & heart-filled passions. What is amazing is that this "completion" did not end with them standing up as the kings of the world, but bowing down to The King of the world. God has a plan for our dreams & desires. That thing or things you're passionate about is purposeful. You're searching & longing all have meaning. And on that day when all you've ever hoped for comes to be, may it bring you to your knees at the feet of Jesus. (Matt. 2)

Some say Jesus was just a great teacher. Some even say a prophet, but what about friend? Lover? Savior?

Being a Philosophy minor (& living in Denver) I hear a lot of crap thrown onto Christianity. We shake our heads at religion & curse it's name for what it has done/is doing. 

At work we are taught not to apologize because we can not (personally) be found liable for a person's injuries. However, as I am a Christian & obviously human (who by nature is broken; thus, I do stupid things). I take my responsibility in apologizing for any time I have misrepresented my Jesus who loves you. My brothers & sisters (called The Church) may have also hurt you & misrepresented Jesus, who loves you. 

I am sorry you have experienced pain. But I am also sorry that you let an emotion then dictate what you believe. 

I heard today at my job a lady converse with another lady about a bracelet. This particular bracelet was silver with dragonflys engraved upon it. The one wearing it stated that wearing the silver healed her pain within her body & the dragonfly delivered her prayers to the gods.

#denver  

What I don't understand is why we look to creation to do what we can already do? How's come we trust ininanimate objects to do the job God has already given us the power to do? Does a stone or metal really heal you? Or is it just in your perception? Does an insect or animal really know what you're thinking, or does the Creator who made both of you know?

Don't get me wrong & go to a Burning-Man Festival (or whatever it is called) just because I said the power is inside you. What I refer to is not just our consciousness, but our consciousness connected with the Holy  Spirit.

 

People snuff at religious freaks who say "turn or burn". I am not a "religious freak"...but as the 90's DC Talk says "I am a Jesus Freak."

Yes, I preach of love & forgiveness. However, this cannot be taught without also the fact that we are fallen. God's mercy & wrath are different sides of the same coin. You can't get one without the other. Praise be to Jesus though for being the mediator so we just experience mercy!

It has been said by a great philosopher, that if you don't understand something you don't know it.

I don't understand how that can be true ironically-for there are a lot of things we don't understand & yet we know them to be.

-gravity

-space

-love

-ourselves

And the greatest of these being God.

The philosopher would then continue to say, "What I meant was, if you can not explain it or properly define it-you do not know it. And if you do not know it, how can it truly exist?"

Well, the same can be said about telling an Anglo-Saxon American to wear a camono while doing the rain dance. The White-Anglo Saxon American couldn't explain either due to lack of previously being taught. Do those things not exist then?

And who can ever know something without being taught? How can someone be taught if no one goes to teach? And how can someone go to teach without being sent?

Plato got one thing right in his Theory that we were born with a prior a  knowledge. That knowledge being God exists. (Romans 1-2)

Yet, Satan has put many blinders on our eyes & before we know it we have over 2 thousand gods! 

We are deceived in thinking that similar to spokes on  a wheel of a bike, there are many paths (or religions) that lead to the same end. My friends, this is incorrect. There are many stories (like paths), but there is only One Road and that is walking with Jesus. We all have different ways we come to know Jesus, but it is all about knowing Jesus. And the Word says that if you know Him (Jesus), you know the Father (God).

Ever notice how people get so angry when you say "Jesus loves you," but not when they say something like: "May Krishna bless you?" 

I think this is for several reasons:

1) people need to experience His (Jesus's) love before telling them it just exists (remember Thomas)

2) people think Christianity is old & dying (so though Thomas)

3) people like to be intrigued by what they don't understand (Thomas was brought to his knees)

*side note: Thomas (one of the apostles) brought the Gospel to Asia.

And let me tell yah something, those people passing out Vedas & chanting mantras don't know to whom they worship. Just like the Ancient Greeks.

All who lack understanding, just ask & it will be given to you. (James)

God did not put you in this world, in this society, in this culture & time period to confuse you. He wants you to know Him & tell the world that He alone (out of all the gods) lives. 

Don't be fooled, the days are sort; thus live as wise men.

You Will Be Great

Have you ever had people tell you that you would be great? Or have you ever told someone else this? Isn’t it typically after they have already done something great? Isn’t it typically after they just hit that winning home-run, or shot the winning basket in the very last second, or gave that profound speech that brought everyone to tears?

• What is your idea of greatness?

Lately, I have had a lot of people telling me that I will be great.

I sigh because I don’t feel great. And thus, I just shrug it off.

In Matthew 18: 1-5 Jesus disciples ask who will be the greatest in heaven. His response is not what they were expecting; it was more like a slap in the face if you ask me.

Again in scripture the disciples fight over who will be the greatest and Jesus knowing their secret thoughts responds, “Whoever will humble himself and become a servant will be the greatest.”

If we investigate what really made the disciples great it wasn’t because they won first place. Rather, we admire them because through obstacles and pain they stood their ground.

Check out Hebrews 11.

• What is God’s idea of greatness?

Corresponding to my last post, I’m sure you have gathered that I am not perfect. Recently I have been focusing more on my wants and desires than serving God. Between you and me, my weakness is sexuality. I put on a good facade, but really truth is “I’ve been there & have done that.” I don’t see why or understand how through it all God still accepts me…could still call me…

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine…

Because you are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you..

No one can take anything from my hand.”-Isaiah 43

I pondered this morning the first scripture I gave you. This concept of “humbling yourself like a child…” I think of my little sister. She is so adorable. But man, is she blunt. “I’m hot. I’m bored. That’s ugly.” Haha, she makes me laugh! And yet, God says, “let the children come to me; for it is they who will inherit the kingdom of God.”

When a child typically falls, it depends on the response of the adult on how they will respond. Have you ever noticed that? When a child wants something, they typically don’t beat around the bush-they come right out & say it!

Too many times I think I act like a child…in the negative sense. I can be stubborn. I can be selfish. I can be what some would say “rude.” And yet, God says He loves me.

God said I will be great. I had thought that meant I’d be…for lack of other words-“perfect.” I would be that perfect Christian girl who meant what they said & said what they meant, I would never swore & just listen to “God-honoring” music, I would always wear modest cloths no matter how hot it was, I would never watch R-rated movies, and I would most definitely never be alone with a guy in the dark…

Rather I have done those things I didn’t want to do and haven’t done the things I wanted to do…Like Paul. Then there’s times when I’ve done things I wanted to do and not what the Holy Spirit wanted me to do…like Peter. Sometimes I doubt and think all this stuff about grace & forgiveness is just a myth…like Thomas.

And yet, after everything is said and done, God whispers in my ear His Truth:

“So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. The whole building is being fitted together in Him and is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.”-Ephesians 3:19-22

My brothers and sisters, you are not alone and you never forsaken. Our God is a good God and He has came for you. He knows your story, He uses your story. He waits for you, His child to come home…to start over…to be made new. Most importantly, whatever path you choose know He loves you.

Perfectly Fallible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfyWct2FJBU

Have you ever seen this commercial? I love it not only because it has destruction but seems to display a philosophical truth-“Humans…we are perfectly fallible creatures…”

Many times people think that being a Christian means that you must be perfect or are perfect. This is a false. 

If you consider yourself a “Christian” and are reading this, let me get you off the hook: you don’t need to be perfect nor are you called to be perfect.

If you don’t consider yourself a “Christian” and are reading this, let me be frank with you: as Christ-Followers we are human being just like you. And just like you we fail, fall, make mistakes, make people angry, and more often than not get angry at ourselves. We may get a big head, we may embarrass our church, do things that contradict what we preach. We are not perfect. We know this. But we also know that we are saved through grace by faith in Jesus. It is He who has made us new creations and who’s Spirit we consistently must allow to mold us.

Ok Christ-Followers, let us dive into our Father’s Word.

First thing is first. I want you to repeat with me: SATAN, YOU WILL NOT WIN.

Go ahead, say it. Say it out-loud. Again. Good. I want you to repeat this simple phrase each morning for the next week.

Now grab you Bible or go on Biblegateway.com and read with me Ezekiel 22.

I want you to realize, just like I had to, that we can not have God’s grace and forgiveness without first a need for such. The message of redemption comes after the message of our failure. I fear that as the Christian dogma has matured over the centuries we’ve moved from God’s righteous angry/wrath toward our sins into being too charismatic about God’s great love for us. Where is the middle ground? Where is the balance?

Now turn to Ephesians 3: 14-21 but read it slowly and carefully. I want you to fully grasp each word.

“How wide…how deep…is the Father’s love for us…”

Funny how we can comprehend such words, but never in all eternity can we ever fathom such love and pardon.

I want you to know that Jesus knows you. He sees you. He created you. He knows your every thought, your every action, even every word before it ever rolls off your tongue! And He still very very very much loves you. Do not wallow in your sin and shame. DO NOT LET SATAN WIN! Do not run from God’s open arms after you have done something you regret! DO NOT LET SATAN WIN! Don’t turn away this hand that’s reaching out to pick you back up! DO NOT LET SATAN WIN!

If it one thing we remember from church as children it is the do’s and do not’s of Christianity.

Being the type of person I am I like to follow the rule, abide by the list, and please the person in charge. I am a perfectionist. But as much as God loves me, He desires to restore me. He can’t fix something that’s not broken.  And if something not broken, how can it be made new? He says, “Samantha, you are not here to be perfect. You’re here to do my will.”

…”whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” –Colossians 3:17

Now like the apostle Paul reminds us, we do not/cannot go on sinning so that grace may increase. No, those who do such are just crucifying their Lord again. JESUS DEFEATED DEATH! And you can/will too.

Satan did not win. Satan will not win. Do not let Satan win.

Recently I read Deuteronomy 7 and I was intrigued by verse 6.

“For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord you God. The LORD you God has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.”

Has it ever stuck you that you were chosen? Have you even pondered why you were chosen?

Well, I have asked those questions a lot of times, even as I read this scripture. But as I continued to read this chapter a few more things stuck out to me that seemed to answer my questions.

Verse 7=we were the fewest

Verse 8=we were enslaved

Verse 15=we were hated

In other words, we are the outcast, the troubled, the poor, the crippled, the “un-cool” kids, the straight D’s through high school person, the one last picked for the team, the one beat up for lunch money, the widowed, the hungry, the child beaten, the laid-off, the cheater, the liar, the thief, the murder, the adulterer…and ect.

But one thing set us apart from all the rest who may or may not have done what we have done…that is we loved God. Most of all we acknowledged our debt and we surrendered to Jesus.

Check out 1 John 1: 5-10  

Can you find the promise?

We are holy. We are set apart, although we are perfectly fallible creatures. We are a new creation and we too (along with all the apostles) are being built into a glorious dwelling place for God’s great Spirit.-Ephesians 2