A Powerful "Mistake"
My parents and sister thought that the Campus Outreach retreat this weekened was also for the Troy Campus Outreach... turned out it wasn't! So I just tagged along with the Montevallo group, but somehow I was blessed beyond what I have the capacity to explain.
I was humbled beyond what you would believe... there was a woman there who has been pretty much through hell and back, and still loves God. Every pain that I can think of in my life she has experienced times a thousand. The most painful loss I have experienced of loving someone and loosing them is loosing a boyfriend or a guy I like. To me that seems too terrible, and yet she had a husband, they had kids, and then he left her and she doesn't know where he is right now.
My heart bleeds for her... I felt sad when my cousins baby died... this woman lost her own baby. Then her other kids were taken away from her. She is destitute. She is insulted. She relates to Christ... she has problems trusting people, and I don't blame her. I would too... if I were her, I think the pain would be too unbearable... I think I would have already killed myself.
Then there was just the message... the gospel truth... the truth of grace.
I felt sooo relieved to be reminded once again that God forgives me. Not only that, He gives me the power to turn from my sin, and not only that, He gives the fruit of the spirit in place of the fruit of the flesh.
I got a computer from my cousin Jason this weekend. I almost got a major virus infection on it yesterday, but a friend helped me out a little bit with telling me how to fix it. I was just thinking though, what if I had a programme on my computer and the only thing it was doing was causing problems and making my computer perform worse, and someone randomly came along and offered to freely erase that infected programme from my computer and not only that but gave me another programme which was awesome... it could like do all this cool stuff and made the computer work much better.
That would be cool. Imagine I turned it down. I would have to be about insane to do that. That would just be dumb!
Well, that's kinda what we often to with God. Christ offers for FREE the changed life, a life full of way more meaning and subtance than life which is lived selfishly, and yet we go for our infected lifestyle instead. It's not like it's good for us, or makes us happy. I have been miserable living for myself. This weekend was a real turning point for me.
I decided I don't want to be living selfishly any more, trying to glorify myself, and trying to just live for the moment and let myself feel good. I don't want to be too timid to witness for Christ, and live the way I know He wants me to, and the way I know He will help me to. I'm ready... I'm ready for change. I know my salvation is solely dependant on Christ, and that nothing I have done or will do is ever going to be held against me because of what Christ has done.
I just want to give Him more of me, and I want to know Him more. I want that change... I want to be able to love God and people truly, instead of really loving myself while claiming I really love other people.
I'm scared, because it won't be easy. But even suffering with Christ is better than relaxing or being happy with just myself.
I was humbled beyond what you would believe... there was a woman there who has been pretty much through hell and back, and still loves God. Every pain that I can think of in my life she has experienced times a thousand. The most painful loss I have experienced of loving someone and loosing them is loosing a boyfriend or a guy I like. To me that seems too terrible, and yet she had a husband, they had kids, and then he left her and she doesn't know where he is right now.
My heart bleeds for her... I felt sad when my cousins baby died... this woman lost her own baby. Then her other kids were taken away from her. She is destitute. She is insulted. She relates to Christ... she has problems trusting people, and I don't blame her. I would too... if I were her, I think the pain would be too unbearable... I think I would have already killed myself.
Then there was just the message... the gospel truth... the truth of grace.
I felt sooo relieved to be reminded once again that God forgives me. Not only that, He gives me the power to turn from my sin, and not only that, He gives the fruit of the spirit in place of the fruit of the flesh.
I got a computer from my cousin Jason this weekend. I almost got a major virus infection on it yesterday, but a friend helped me out a little bit with telling me how to fix it. I was just thinking though, what if I had a programme on my computer and the only thing it was doing was causing problems and making my computer perform worse, and someone randomly came along and offered to freely erase that infected programme from my computer and not only that but gave me another programme which was awesome... it could like do all this cool stuff and made the computer work much better.
That would be cool. Imagine I turned it down. I would have to be about insane to do that. That would just be dumb!
Well, that's kinda what we often to with God. Christ offers for FREE the changed life, a life full of way more meaning and subtance than life which is lived selfishly, and yet we go for our infected lifestyle instead. It's not like it's good for us, or makes us happy. I have been miserable living for myself. This weekend was a real turning point for me.
I decided I don't want to be living selfishly any more, trying to glorify myself, and trying to just live for the moment and let myself feel good. I don't want to be too timid to witness for Christ, and live the way I know He wants me to, and the way I know He will help me to. I'm ready... I'm ready for change. I know my salvation is solely dependant on Christ, and that nothing I have done or will do is ever going to be held against me because of what Christ has done.
I just want to give Him more of me, and I want to know Him more. I want that change... I want to be able to love God and people truly, instead of really loving myself while claiming I really love other people.
I'm scared, because it won't be easy. But even suffering with Christ is better than relaxing or being happy with just myself.