Trying to ponder life... it's hard.
John MacArther, an author to many books, has gripped my reading time(which is never enough) with his book, Hard to Believe(the high cost and infinite value of following Jesus). I highly recommend it to anyone who reads this. So far, he has gone into his thoughts against the user-friendly, seeker-sensitive gospel. He calls modern day's Christianity, Christianity Lite(yeah, he's pretty sarcastic in this book at times, too). His challenge, from what I have gathered, is for the church to become unapologetic about the truth of the gospel, to get rid of this tendency of trying to be popular and appealing, and give people Jesus as a Savior, not a genie. He is fed up, like a lot of us, with the church loving people to hell, and I feel that we are soon becoming less of a minority among believers.
I try not to be one who is pushy or assertive about faith(through grace I have come quite a long way from doing that) anymore. With that said, I am going to try and be honest, unapologetic, and unassertive towards anyone except myself. I'm going to tell you that it sometimes sucks to try and live right. In fact, it sucks a lot, if not most of the time. But this fact shouldn't stop me, or stop any of you for that matter. Yes, I commit the same exact sins that I did a year ago. Yes, I'm tired of it and feel defeated. It's hard. Does that bother me? You bet it does. We were told too stinkin' much when we were young that this life(the Hip Hop Christianity Lite) was going to be easy... Guess what? Yep, we were lied to. Over and over... lied to. We were told that it was cool, that you make great friends, that you go on two out-of-state retreats every year, and oh yeah, bowling and ice skating is free for your "other" friends. But guess what else? God knew what He was doing when He put us through all of that stuff, and He knows exactly what He is doing with all of us right now. He is calling us(I think, and really hope) to desperation and dependency on Him... NOT each other. We are all equally really bad people. It's how He made us. Here's the BAD news from that: it(our depravity) makes us become like grass that withers with the wind when we try to manage things on our own. He does this to bring us back to remember that the cost is high and sacrificial for us to inherit the infinite value of being His child. The GOOD news: We have hope knowing in this. Are we His children? Well, it's bothering me, and I know it's bothering some, if not all of you. That is the sign of our inheritance. We are struggling, unhappy, and sick of our lives. Then we MUST be a child of His, or we wouldn't care! At a conference I went to this past summer, the theme was, "the fellowship of His sufferings." Needless to say, not a huge crowd showed up. But God called those of us there to inform us of our need for a Savior, and the fact that it will cost us our lives. It was amazing. I will let you read notes, etc. from it if you wish.
I beg of all who God has to read this, to pray for each other.. No matter how much we don't want to pray, especially for someone other than ourselves. But we all need this. We need Him, not each other. Where we come into play with each other is our prayers, it's a RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMAND given by God for us to be drawn to Him. God's Sovereinty and our Prayers changes our world. I love you all. May God grant us mercy and grace to be drawn back to Him as His Beloved children.
Goodnight, and go buy Jimmy Eat World's new cd, Futures. It's amazing.
I try not to be one who is pushy or assertive about faith(through grace I have come quite a long way from doing that) anymore. With that said, I am going to try and be honest, unapologetic, and unassertive towards anyone except myself. I'm going to tell you that it sometimes sucks to try and live right. In fact, it sucks a lot, if not most of the time. But this fact shouldn't stop me, or stop any of you for that matter. Yes, I commit the same exact sins that I did a year ago. Yes, I'm tired of it and feel defeated. It's hard. Does that bother me? You bet it does. We were told too stinkin' much when we were young that this life(the Hip Hop Christianity Lite) was going to be easy... Guess what? Yep, we were lied to. Over and over... lied to. We were told that it was cool, that you make great friends, that you go on two out-of-state retreats every year, and oh yeah, bowling and ice skating is free for your "other" friends. But guess what else? God knew what He was doing when He put us through all of that stuff, and He knows exactly what He is doing with all of us right now. He is calling us(I think, and really hope) to desperation and dependency on Him... NOT each other. We are all equally really bad people. It's how He made us. Here's the BAD news from that: it(our depravity) makes us become like grass that withers with the wind when we try to manage things on our own. He does this to bring us back to remember that the cost is high and sacrificial for us to inherit the infinite value of being His child. The GOOD news: We have hope knowing in this. Are we His children? Well, it's bothering me, and I know it's bothering some, if not all of you. That is the sign of our inheritance. We are struggling, unhappy, and sick of our lives. Then we MUST be a child of His, or we wouldn't care! At a conference I went to this past summer, the theme was, "the fellowship of His sufferings." Needless to say, not a huge crowd showed up. But God called those of us there to inform us of our need for a Savior, and the fact that it will cost us our lives. It was amazing. I will let you read notes, etc. from it if you wish.
I beg of all who God has to read this, to pray for each other.. No matter how much we don't want to pray, especially for someone other than ourselves. But we all need this. We need Him, not each other. Where we come into play with each other is our prayers, it's a RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMAND given by God for us to be drawn to Him. God's Sovereinty and our Prayers changes our world. I love you all. May God grant us mercy and grace to be drawn back to Him as His Beloved children.
Goodnight, and go buy Jimmy Eat World's new cd, Futures. It's amazing.