Light for Jesus

I read 1 Samuel 4 and something occurred to me as I was reading it... the Israelite's brought out the Ark of the Covenant (which represented God's presence) to the battlefield, thinking that it would help them defeat the Philistines. They took something holy that represented God's holy presence and treated it like a good luck charm.

.... but how often do we do the same thing?....

I mean think about it: we read God's Word or pray a quick prayer or go to church and think that we are 'good to go'. We think about how 'good' we are, we think about how we'll have a good and happy life since we've fulfilled our 'Christian duties'. We treat things like that like a good luck charm. And sometimes we treat God like a genie. We 'rub the lamp' for the genie to pop out and we tell God what we want. We talk to Him when it's convenient.

I was talking to a friend about this, about what God had been teaching me through His Word and she said "we really need to be in a constant conversation with God"... wow. A constant conversation.
Think for a second about one of your friends, who you talk to constantly, Snap Chat or message on Instagram? Who you talk, face-time, or talk to on the phone constantly? I mean you don't have to be with them to talk to them because they are one text away, or one message away.
God is one word away. He's actually already there. All you have to do is speak.

I had this other thought... it only takes one spark to ignite a flame. And if it only takes one spark to ignite the flame, why can't I be that spark? I mean think about it, we live in a dark, lost, and honestly pure evil world. If we don't rise up to shine His light, who will?

It's not going to be easy. I love the way my friend put it, "Jesus didn't call us to be comfortable, He called us to go." And that is so true. No where in the Bible does it say follow Jesus and live a happy comfortable life. No, it says the opposite. Jesus Himself told us we would be persecuted (John 16:33), but He also says to have courage because He has conquered the world.

To sum it up-- we live in a dark world so we need to step up and shine His light. We need to be in a constant conversation with Him, to not treat Him like a genie.

Matthew 28:18-20, "Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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When the world sees us what do they see? Are we shining Jesus? Are we living in a constant conversation with God? Do we treat God like a genie or go to church or read our Bibles as a good luck charm? Are we willing to give our all for Jesus?

Feel free to comment your answer(s) below :)


Note to readers: I'm going to be posting every Tuesday now (as long as I don't forget :) )

Glory to God

We serve an amazing God.

I mean think about it... God, He is the One True King, He rules forever.

He split the Red Sea so His people could walk through it (Exodus 14:15-31), He rose a dead man to life (John 11:39-44), He gave the blind man sight (John 9:1-6)... and He did, does, and will do much more than I can even begin to name.

I think a lot of the time we focus on "growing in Christ"... but do we truly spend time getting to know the One in Whom we want to grow? God is so amazing and beyond description... how often do we praise Him? How often do we worship Him?

A lot of the time we don't think about what worship really is... worship isn't just singing; it is anything you do that glorifies God.

Worship can be in the form of writing, singing, playing an instrument, dancing, serving, and really anything that you do that glorifies God. Worship is simply bringing glory to God's name.

I love Psalm 104, the writer gives a very detailed image in mind of God's glory and giving glory to Him.

Psalm 104:1-4,
"My soul, praise Yahweh!
Lord my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with majesty and splendor.
 He wraps Himself in light as if it were a robe,
spreading out the sky like a canopy,
laying the beams of His palace
on the waters above,
making the clouds His chariot,
walking on the wings of the wind,
and making the winds His messengers,
flames of fire His servants."

God is worthy of our praise, so let's worship Him and praise His name.

It's time to turn our focus off of ourselves and onto Him. I think we focus on ourselves a lot (which is very easy to do, I am guilty of doing it) and we don't focus on God. We focus on "growing" in Him, or making sure we get done our goal of spending time in His Word everyday, or praying for at least five minutes a day... but when we do we often then we don't focus on Who we do it for.
I'm definitely not saying it's wrong to have a goal or trying to grow in Him... we should spend time in His Word, pray, and grow in Him... but when we focus too much on it we forget Who we do it for.

Instead of focusing on spending time in His Word let's think about what/who His Word is about. I mean God's Word, the Bible, is His words to us. We should cherish them, not rush by to get it done.
Instead of focusing on praying for a long time let's think about Who we are praying to. Praying is simply talking to God, why do we make it such a chore? We should simply pour out our heart to God (more on that in another blog post soon).
And instead of focusing on "growing" in Him let's think about Who we are trying to grow in. I mean God is so amazing... how can we not want to get to know Him?

Let's turn our attention off of ourselves, our Christian "goals", and let's focus on Who life revolves around.

Let's worship God.

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How often do we truly worship God? How much time do we spend dwelling on the greatness of God? Do we spend more time thinking about growing in God or about God Himself?

Proverbs 31:25 part 2

Proverbs 31:25 (HCSB), “Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come.”

Last week we looked at the first part of the verse (God’s Word is so deep and mysterious we can never capture it all!) about strength and honor being our clothing. Today we will focus on the second part of the verse, about laughing at the time to come.

What does that mean?

The Modern English Version (MEV) uses the word ‘rejoice’ instead of ‘laugh’. Again, have to use dictionary.com to look up the words….

Rejoice – “to be glad; take delight. To make joyful; gladden.”

Laughter/laugh/laughing – “to experience the emotion so expressed.”

To me laughter is having joy so full that it overflows into laughter.

When are you most joyful? What do you usually laugh at?

Luke 6:21, “You who now weep are blessed, because you will laugh.”

Psalm 9:2, “I will rejoice and boast about You; I will sing about Your name, Most High.”

To me, I can laugh and rejoice at the time to come because I know that God holds it in His hands.

Sometimes we’re so worried about what the future holds we forget Who holds it all.

Are you worried about the future? What are you worried about?

God is in control, in Him we can have joy.

Jesus is joy. Only in Him can true joy be found. Happiness depends on your circumstances, joy is eternal because of Who you can find it in. Laugh and rejoice at the time to come.

Proverbs 31:25 part 1

Proverbs 31:25 (HCSB), “Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come.”

What a beautiful verse. A little background: this passage (Proverbs 31:10-31) is talking about ‘in praise of a capable wife’. You don’t have to be married to learn from this.

Strength and honor are her clothing. What does that even mean? I looked up the verse in a few different versions (this is cool to do if you really like a verse and want to dig deeper), ESV version used the word ‘dignity’ instead of ‘honor’.
Below are the definitions of those three words (from dictionary.com) I’m not using the entire description, but my favorite or the one I thought best fits it.
Strength – “moral power, firmness, or courage.”

Honor – “honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions.”

Dignity – “bearing, conduct, or speech indicative of self-respect or appreciation of the formality or gravity of an occasion or situation. Nobility or elevation of character; worthiness.”

That’s a lot to swallow.

Courage. Honesty. Self-respect.

Where do you find your courage? How are you honest? And how often are you not? Do you respect yourself?
Philippians 4:14 (HCSB), “I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

I can only do things through Jesus Who strengthens me. He is the Truth, so He is where my honesty is found. He is a Rock, so He is my strength. He is in control, so He is where my courage is found. He is my heavenly Father, so my identity is in Him so in Him I have self-respect.

Look back at your answers…. Think about the questions and your life… how you’re living.
Jesus is my strength and honor so I will wear Him proudly.

Letting Go

It occurred to me the other day that although we think we have let go... there are still things we hold onto.

It's hard to let go... sometimes we don't even realize we are. But I have a question for you, and be honest with yourself: What are you afraid of?

It's hard to let go of fear... we might be afraid of snakes, spiders (I do NOT like spiders). robbers. murderers, death... fear shows we aren't trusting God.

I'm not condemning you... I am afraid all the time, it's hard to break a habit we've had since birth.

But if we trust God, we let go of our fears. Because if we look ahead, and if you're truly saved, then if we die we will be with Jesus. There is nothing to be afraid of.

Matthew 10:28, "Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

When we fear then we are holding on. For instance: I realized recently that I have been scared to death if one of my family members died. But I also realized I was holding onto them. I love them, but I know that if something happened to them - or to me - we would be with Jesus and see each other on the other side,

So I surrendered.

Surrender is hard, because it's completely laying yourself and what you're holding onto in God's hands.

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Maybe you aren't afraid of things like that... are you afraid of expressing yourself? Of being who God has made you to become? Are you afraid of what others will think of you? Are you afraid of not being who God has made you to become?

These are hard questions to answer... and honestly right now I'm in the process of completely letting go (every time I think I have then God shows me something else). Take your time to search inside, pray.

But let me tell you this truth :::::: In Christ you have been made FREE. REDEEMED. Your CHAINS HAVE BEEN BROKEN. We have a freedom in Jesus Christ that a lot of the time we don't embrace.

But we are FREE in CHRIST JESUS. In Him we can let go.

Are you letting go? Surrendering your all?

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Before I even wrote this then God laid on my heart to write something expressing what I was feeling. So I wrote a poem entitled 'I Can Because of You'. The first few lines are about how I want to be free, ect., .... then a few lines about how I'm free because of Christ. The last part is about how now I can be free... because of Jesus.

Here are a few of those last lines...

"I can dance around,
Not caring if I fall on the ground.
I can let my hair fly proudly.
I can sing loudly,
Not caring if I sing off key.
I can be wild and free.
I can because of You.
I’m letting go.
In the wind my fears, doubts, and worries blow.
I’m releasing it all.
I know sometimes I’ll fall.
But I know You will be with me.
Even if You are all I see,
That’s okay with me.
I can because of You."

It's time to let go.