Set Apart in A Status Quo World

It's a beautiful Alabama morning, and the first day of a new month. And being that it's the begining of a new month, I decided that there's no better way to begin this month than with the Word of God. So here we go.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (3) For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (4) Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, (5) so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (6) We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying let him use it in proportion to his faith. (7)If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; (8) if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”- Romans 12:1-8.
If God calls us to be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him (Romans 12:1), then shouldn’t what we wear, what we speak, and the way we choose to live out our lives on a daily basis be based on the question “how does this glorify Him”? Because everything we do can be considered to be an act of worship. So here’s the big question, is the way you live your life holy and pleasing to God? When we chose to invite Christ to come dwell within us we were called to consecrate our selves, to set ourselves apart. To often we say “Here God, you can have this part of me, but you can’t have this, you can’t have my relationship with my boyfriend/girlfriend, I like this music, I know it’s not pleasing to you, but I like it, you can’t have it.” And we try to tell God what parts of us, what parts of our lives, He is allowed to be apart of, and we try to set boundaries for Him. But the reality is that God can’t be kept inside of a box. Wake up people, the reality is this, the life we do have, we only have because God has allowed us to live another day, another hour, another second, so why shouldn’t we give everything we are to the one who is life, the one who gave us life? I love the way the message reads, it states it like this: “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” We are to be set apart for Him, and for His purpose, and the change that happens will be a change from the inside out. We must first change the way we think before we can change how we act or what we say.
To do this, we must make the concise choice to take the road less traveled, to make decisions that my cause us to be rejected by our peers. 1 Peter 2:4-6 tells us that with the choice to follow Christ comes rejection, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him.” We are told that in this life we will experience the feeling of rejection, but it doesn’t end there, in fact it can only get better because we were chosen by Him. When the world discarded us, the King of kings chose us to be His very own, and not just that, He calls us His, we are precious to Him. It continues in verse five by saying “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house [a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (6) For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (NIV). As Christians God is shaping us for His purpose, and that purpose is to be a holy priesthood. He has called us to be in this world, but not of it. Yes, there is a difference, to be OF the world is to act the same way the world does, to talk the way they talk. To be IN the world is just to simply live amongst the people, not necessarily doing as they do, or talking as they talk. The people of the world should be able to look at our lives from a distance and say “hey, there’s something different about him, he’s not like the other Christians.” According to this verse we are not only chosen by Him, but we are “a precious cornerstone.” Something that is precious is something that is cherished or valued, it is something that is of a high cost or worth. Am I the only one who thinks that this is incredibly amazing? It continues to blow me away every time I read this verse and I still find it hard sometimes to believe that the King of kings finds us to be of such great worth that He sent His son to die for us. But He did, and I am so thankful for that!

Lust and Love

He meanders down a dimly lit road; his dark hood pulled over his head so that no one knows for certain who he is. He keeps his head tucked low, so those who pass by don’t recognize his face. With his hands tucked deeply into the pockets of his jeans, he’s got every bit the look of a shady, sly, deceitful character. He continues down this road a ways, and stops briefly for a moment, just before rounding the corner onto a well lit, highly traveled path. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a mask; quickly he places it over his dark, twisted face, making sure it’s secured before continuing. He is a master of disguise, and deceit is his favorite game. The name he goes by is one of shame, and humiliation, his name is Lust.

Having rounded the corner, his head comes up, and his face is no longer being hidden from view. He smiles at people as they walk by. He removes his dark hood to reveal a beauty no one ever thought possible. He chuckles a silent evil laugh to himself as those around him are fooled by what they see. You see my friend, not only does Lust love this game of masquerade he plays, but he has a favorite character. He enjoys nothing more then masquerading as the one called Love. To him there is no greater thrill than to have you held captive to him and then, just when your hopes are high, reveal his true self to you, and watch you crumble. But I have good news; there is one whose mission is to remove his mask forever, so that all will know who he really is. This one who will be the hero is called the Holy Spirit, but he cannot do so on his own, and he knows that. He brings a long one with him, the only one who can help undo what Lust has done, and his name is Love, yes, the very one that Lust mimics is the one who will help to open your eyes.

Holy Spirit and Love canvas the area in which Lust is known for dwelling, they seek him out, search high and low for any sign of where he’s been. And soon it becomes evident that though his trail is easy to follow, the mess he has made is not easy to undo, he has taken the lives of the innocent and he has broken them, built them up in order to tear them down. The air is thick with his promise of love, and the lies he has left behind him. The fear of trust is not easy to overcome; yet slowly but surely they begin to rebuild the wreckage left behind. And those who were hurt begin to take a stand, and join the crusade to reveal the true identity and nature of the one called Lust.

LOVE

I have this thing about writing what ever it is that is on my heart at the moment, and this one is no different.

 So gentlemen, consider yourselves warned, this one is for the ladies…not that you can’t read it, it’s just geared more towards the females, who knows, you might learn something!

I don’t know why I am writing about love, I guess it’s just something that has been on my mind lately, and I don’t have an answer as to why that is. It seems that as girls we are programmed practically from birth to start thinking about that day when we find “our other half,” the person we were created to spend forever with, I mean, what girl doesn’t fanaticize about how she will meet her “knight in shining armor”? Go ahead, admit it, we’ve all done it, we’ve all dreamt of how our wedding will play out, what our wedding shower will look like, it just seems to be innate in every girl, something guys will never understand. Let’s face it, love is a confusing thing for everyone….even us ladies. It’s been said that falling in love is not finding the perfect person, but it is learning to love an imperfect person. And this is true, because no one is perfect, not even “prince charming.”
I guess this topic has been on my mind a lot lately because I have recently come to the realization that I am now, by law, considered to be an adult. Well I’ve known that, but it just hit home a few days ago for some reason. I have realized that the day that we all dream of is no longer impossible for me, that if I were to fall in love with someone, and we decided we wanted to get married, there really is no stopping us. And that thought, to be quite honest, is a bit overwhelming, in fact, I’ll go ahead and admit that it almost literally scares the crap out of me, because I still feel so much like a child. The thought of growing up and having the responsibilities that come with that in general scares me. I suppose you could call me somewhat of a hopeless romantic, but hey, I don’t care, because that is who I am, that is who God created me to be.

But, as there is with all things, love can have its downsides, it has its own “dark side” to it. Think back to when we were little, remember how many “crushes” you had? Well they were just that…CRUSHES. You would “fall in love” with a certain boy one day, only to find out the next day, that he liked this other girl, or maybe he would say something mean, something that made you cry, and you would be crushed. Well that’s the downside to love. Now I am not saying that love is a bad thing…that is not at all what my point is! I’m just attempting to enlighten you somewhat on the subject.
Now we’ve all seen those romantic movies, where a girl falls in love with this guy, and vice versa, and everything plays out so smoothly, so perfect, and the happy couple lives happily ever after, then we think to ourselves, “if only loving someone was truly like that, then life would be perfect.” Well friend, we all know reality doesn’t play out that way, relationships with people in general have their ups and downs, their good days and their bad. The best book I have read so far on the topic of dating, and relationships in general would have to be “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” by Joshua Harris. Where he talks about the pit falls of dating in general, and about looking at the idea of dating from the viewpoint of commitment, backed up with the purpose of the relationship ending in marriage. I love the verse he uses, it’s found in 1 Corinthians 7:32 and says: “I want you to live as free of complications as possible. When your unmarried, you’re free to concentrate on simply pleasing the Master. Marriage involves you in all the nuts and bolts of domestic life, and in wanting to please your spouse, leading to so many more demands on your attention. The time and energy married people spend on caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming….holy instruments of God.”

What I really want to write about hinges off of this verse that was just mentioned. First off it says “I want you to live as free of complications as possible,” well that makes sense, if our lives are full of complicated things, then there is no way we can possibly focus on God, and on His plan for us. It seems like it’s pretty easy for our lives to become complicated, especially in the area of relationships. But God wants us to live free of complications so that we may better focus our attention on Him, and if our relationship with out boyfriend or our girlfriend is hindering that, then we need to re-evaluate our reason for being in that relationship. Because what is of God will not take away from our relationship with Him. One of the things that society today tries to cram down our throats from a very young age is the “need” to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. But by looking at this scripture, we can see that this idea is contradictory to God’s word. “When you are unmarried, you’re free to concentrate on simply pleasing the Master.” The world presents singleness to be almost somewhat of a disease, but we see through the Bible that singleness is a gift from God. It allows us the freedom we need to focus on Him, and what it is that He would have us doing in order to better serve Him while we are hear on the earth. We all long for that security that comes with having that boyfriend or that girlfriend, but the truth is, unless we are at that stage in life where we are ready for the commitment of marriage, there really is no point in pursuing a relationship, knowing it will eventually end, and possibly in heartache. By jumping from relationship to relationship before you are ready for the commitment that comes with marriage, you ever so slowly begin to give your heart away, piece by piece, bit by bit, until there is very little left. And no one wants to stand at the altar on his or her wedding day, and have but a fraction of your heart left to give to his or her spouse…even guys will admit to that. God’s gift of singleness is just that, a gift, and during that season in your life God will grant you the grace you need to walk through that time. Am I saying that it will be an easy thing to do? Well if I was, I would be lying to you! I know how hard it can be to see the people around you, your friends, having that relationship you so desire to have. Sometimes it can be especially hard for me because, not only do I have friends that are my age, but I also have friends who are also married, and many of the ones that are married also have children. I know that I am to young, at least in my book, for marriage, and far to young to be having kids, but that doesn’t mean that those desires aren’t there.
The point I just made are again stated in the next few sentences of 1 Corinthians 7:32, “Marriage involves you in all the nuts and bolts of domestic life, and in wanting to please your spouse, leading to so many more demands on your attention. The time and energy married people spend on caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming….holy instruments of God.” The time we have now, as single, unmarried people we can use to better serve God, to become His holy instruments. So be thankful for the time you have now, and use it to build strong, lasting friendships, and to build a strong intimate relationship with the Father Himself. And when the time is right, rest assured that God will bring that special someone into your life.

Thoughts on Christmas

 

  A good friend of mine and I were talking about this topic not very long ago, and I've been thinking about it since then. 

 

 What is the first thing you think of when you hear Christmas mentioned? I bet you thought of snow didn't you? Or of Santa Clause, and reindeer? 

   

   And that is typically what we all will think of, because that is what we have been taught. Most of us can recall our parents telling us that if we were good kids that on Christmas Eve Santa would climb down the chimney, and deliver toys and presents to us. Then he would climb back up the chimney, get into his slay that was pulled by flying reindeer, and take off to the next house...delivering all the toys before Christmas morning. Now I don't know about you, but I always wondered how it was that a man as fat as Santa could squeeze into such a small space. But that is not my point here. 

   The idea behind this blog is to get you thinking, and I hope I succeed. You see, we have a great problem here, we teach our kids almost from the day they're born, all about the story of Santa Clause. We build him up to be this great and glorious man, when he is just a man; in fact, he's not even alive anymore. Yes, there was a man who was called Saint Nicholas...FACT! Yes, he did believe in giving to people, especially those who were in need...FACT! But truth supersedes fact. And the truth is that all though he did exist, we, in our human nature, have blown the story way out of proportion! The truth is that we all face that day when our kids grow up, and become "to old" for the Santa story. That time when we have to sit them down, and look into their hope-filled eyes and tell them that everything we have told them about Santa isn't true, that there really is no Santa Clause. No fat man in a red suit delivering presents to all the boys and girls. And then we watch as confusion comes over their face as we attempt to explain to them the true meaning of Christmas.

 Oh! Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. Maybe a little too much. It's one of my favorite times of the year. But what I'm saying is that we should love it for what it is and not for the "fluff" that the world makes it out to be. Christmas is a time that we set aside to celebrate the birth of Christ, though most of us know He wasn't actually born on Christmas Eve. There's nothing wrong with setting up the Christmas tree, and decorating it, or going all out and decorating your whole home. But instead of using that time to tell our kids about Santa, why not use that time to explain to them the birth of Christ? You say, "But my 2 year old doesn't understand that though." Oh, I would beg to differ, they seem to understand the Santa garbage just fine, and you don't have to go into grave detail. Just have a simple conversation with them.

 I personally believe that one of the reasons Youth Pastors and Children’s Pastors have such a hard time getting our kids to believe the story of the birth and the life of Jesus, and all that He did while on earth, and all that He will do, is because from a very young age we fill the kids heads with garbage, with nothing but trash. And then as they get older we look at them and tell them, "Oh, Santa Clause doesn't really exist," "yeah, there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny," "but Jesus Christ, yes, He is real. He really did come to save us." How are they to know what to believe if everything else they have been told is false? Personally, I do not plan on teaching my kids anything but the truth from the absolute very beginning, no "fluff." Because I believe that it is important for them to know and understand the truth of Christmas. There is absolutely nothing wrong with joking about Santa, my family has done it for years. Thrown Santa's name on a silly, random gift. But we knew who the gift was really from. 

 Yes, I know, my thoughts probably seem crazy and out there, so what? Call me a scrooge if you would like to (though my husband will tell you I am anything but), but that doesn't change what I believe. I hope this got you to thinking about what you are teaching/have taught/will teaching your kids, and even possibly your grandkids.

Worship

Romans 12:1-2 “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable, or well pleasing and perfect.” Worship is a way to honor God, to simply love on Him. And people worship God in different ways, to some people worship may be lifting of the hands, for some it may be doing a crazy dance. But either way, they’re bringing glory to God. There are people who are so totally overwhelmed by God, that His glory brings them to their knees, or even down on their face before Him, and yet at the same time worship for some people is just standing there quietly. Just because one person appears to just be standing there, while the other one is on their knees, doesn’t mean that neither of them aren’t worshiping God, they’re just worshiping Him differently. Worship can be expressed through the arts, through music, through dance, through acting, through painting, and even through what we say and how we say it. In everything we do we can worship God, whether it be all out, hands raised worshiping, or it can be simply doing our very best for God, the Bible says that all we do should be done unto Him, for His glory (1Cor. 10:31), and by doing this we are offering worship to Him. We were made by God, for God (Colossians 1:15-18), and God has created us to worship Him, (Isaiah 43:21 “This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.”). We were formed for the specific purpose of bringing glory to God, Isaiah 43:7 says “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” Praise is the external form of worship. In Psalms we are told that His praise should constantly be on our lips, we are to worship Him with our voices. Psalms 34:1 says “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” We are to continually speak His praise throughout the day, even in those times when we don’t feel like doing it. Aside from praising God vocally we can also praise Him with instruments. Psalm 150:3-5 says to “Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet, Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!” Praise accomplishes several things; first off praise welcomes Gods presence. “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). The Amplified says it this way, “But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered].” God inhabits the praises of His people, praise draws God it, and it welcomes Him. Secondly praise is obedience to God Himself; Psalm 150:6 says to “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” God created us to praise Him, if we keep quiet and do not praise Him, the very rocks and stones we walk upon will cry out and begin to praise Him (Luke 19:40 “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out”). Praise and worship is a beautiful thing to God, He finds pleasure in it. In Psalm it says “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High” (Psalm 92:1). “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful” (Psalm 135:3). It also transforms the worshiper. If we have truly worshiped God, we will not leave the same way we came in, something within us will have changed, we will be someone else, or we will think differently. We become like what we worship, and the more we worship God, the more we become like Him; “Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them” (Psalm 115:8). The very essence of who God is, is worthy of our worship, “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3). Psalm 48:1 puts it this way “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountains of His holiness.” Just His name is worthy of praise, and His holiness causes us to stand in awe before Him. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 8:10). Who is God? And why is He worthy of our worship? Glad you asked. First of all God is all-knowing, meaning He knows how everything works, He has the answer to every problem we face, and He knows every fact, and every detail. God knows all about us, He knew us even before we were formed in our mothers womb, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). God is ever-present; He is every where at one time. He knows the past, He sees the present, and He has seen the future. God is not bound by time. He cannot be contained, or formed. In Psalm 139:7 the question is asked, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” The answer is no where, He is the source of all that is, He created everything, and He has always been, and always will be. “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” (Acts 17:24-28). God is much more than just all-knowing, and ever-present, He is powerful. He is the Lord God almighty, and is worthy of all our praise. There is nothing He cannot do; He healed the sick, made the blind to see, and the lame to walk. The mute to speak and He raised the dead. His character is flawless, there is none as perfect as He is. He is unchanging, and faithful, He is consistent, true to His Character. His love knows no boundaries, and He is wise. There are no other gods, Isaiah 45:22 says “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other.” Lifting of the hands is an outward showing of praise, by raising our hands in worship to God we are expressing our love towards Him, we are receiving Him into us. The raising of hands is also a symbol of our surrender towards Him. In Nehemiah 8:6 “Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” They raised their hands towards heaven as a way to express their love to the one who created them. Shouting and the clapping of hands is used in worship to show victory and triumph, to let Satan know that we are victorious. It intimidates him. Psalm 47:1 instructs us to “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.” Psalm 66:1 says, “Make a joyful shout unto God, all you lands,” and in Psalm 95:1-2 the Bible again says, “Oh, come; let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” The word “psalms” means “a song of praise accompanied by a musical instrument,” therefore we are again instructed to use both our voices and instruments to worship Him. “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). Bowing or kneeling before God in worship expresses humility and submission to His authority. It also shows surrender to Him. Revelation 19:4 says that “The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne saying “Amen! Alleluia!” 

 Sources: http://www.energizingword.org/Sermon%20Notes%202006/Worship/8%20%207-12-06%20AM%20The%20Body%20Language%20of%20Praise.pdf The Bible http://www.energizingword.org/Worship.html