I was reading through my news feed on Facebook earlier. Someone posted about a famous person being at a meeting or conference they were attending. They said they would be front and center in the audience while this person were speaking.
When I read that I though that If given opportunity to meet someone famous people stand in awe in their presence.
We have opportunity, not only every once in a while, but daily to stand in the presence of the true Famous One.
Do we treat our time with God the same we treat our time with a human who happens to be popular in the eyes of your peers or the world?
I'm not saying that we run around screaming our heads off and fainting like these preteen girls do for Justin Bieber.
What I am saying is that maybe we should be a little more excited for what God has done through Christ for us! We clap louder for a good play during a football game on tv. Should we not cheer that God has defeated death and given us eternal life? Isn't this something that we should be a little more than ho-hum about?
Anyway... That's my random thought for the day. I know it's not a very well written thought, but it's what was on my mind.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Rhinocehorse
I had a strange dream last night. Not that most of my dreams aren't, but this one stuck with me long enough to remember it.
I dreamed that I was at my parents house, and had to go outside to do something at 4am or so. It was more light than dark out, but I could sense that the time was around 4am. The color was not quite like dusk, but almost, that blue-gray-dark color that is still light enough to see detail but dark enough you know it isn't daylight anymore. I looked west beyond the corner of the porch as I headed back inside. Over by the fence I saw a horse looking creature. It was a greenish-gray color, and looked to be fairly muscle bound, like it was a body builder or something, its muscles were huge and somewhat foreboding. Its face looked somewhat angry or determined. It also had this large protrusion from its face, like a horn, but it wasn't a unicorn, because it did not originate from its forehead, but more the bridge of its nose, like a rhinoceros. Its horn was a good 3 or 4 feet in length, almost looking like a broadsword, but very dull and rough, almost like the weapon used by the Uruk-Hai in Lord of the Rings, except without the extra turn to the blade on the end.
The creature saw me and breathed out deeply, and changed course from south along the fence row to due east, directly toward me. It came down to a dip and up over the short rise near the very edge of the porch, and swung around toward me. As it came toward me I was wary, but not really afraid of it. Adrenaline was pumping, and I was in a fight or flight mode, but I let the creature come toward me, because I could not run fast enough to make it inside before we would collide. So I stood near the sidewalk, which was as close as I could get to the door, and I waited for it to come. When it did near me, I seemed to do one of those slow motion martial arts blocks with it. I stood there and stepped to the right, using my right hand across to simply push its horn to the left as I sidestepped. Since it was running at full speed, it had to continue in a counterclockwise run in a fairly wide circle around me.
I then ran inside the porch and latched the door. I thought that it was not much safer inside, since the door was a simple screen door, and the windows could obviously be punctured by that massive horn, but the creature circled a moment and left, once I was inside.
Then I woke up briefly, only to go back to sleep and dream other strange dreams that I don't remember. But this one I did remember.
I dreamed that I was at my parents house, and had to go outside to do something at 4am or so. It was more light than dark out, but I could sense that the time was around 4am. The color was not quite like dusk, but almost, that blue-gray-dark color that is still light enough to see detail but dark enough you know it isn't daylight anymore. I looked west beyond the corner of the porch as I headed back inside. Over by the fence I saw a horse looking creature. It was a greenish-gray color, and looked to be fairly muscle bound, like it was a body builder or something, its muscles were huge and somewhat foreboding. Its face looked somewhat angry or determined. It also had this large protrusion from its face, like a horn, but it wasn't a unicorn, because it did not originate from its forehead, but more the bridge of its nose, like a rhinoceros. Its horn was a good 3 or 4 feet in length, almost looking like a broadsword, but very dull and rough, almost like the weapon used by the Uruk-Hai in Lord of the Rings, except without the extra turn to the blade on the end.
The creature saw me and breathed out deeply, and changed course from south along the fence row to due east, directly toward me. It came down to a dip and up over the short rise near the very edge of the porch, and swung around toward me. As it came toward me I was wary, but not really afraid of it. Adrenaline was pumping, and I was in a fight or flight mode, but I let the creature come toward me, because I could not run fast enough to make it inside before we would collide. So I stood near the sidewalk, which was as close as I could get to the door, and I waited for it to come. When it did near me, I seemed to do one of those slow motion martial arts blocks with it. I stood there and stepped to the right, using my right hand across to simply push its horn to the left as I sidestepped. Since it was running at full speed, it had to continue in a counterclockwise run in a fairly wide circle around me.
I then ran inside the porch and latched the door. I thought that it was not much safer inside, since the door was a simple screen door, and the windows could obviously be punctured by that massive horn, but the creature circled a moment and left, once I was inside.
Then I woke up briefly, only to go back to sleep and dream other strange dreams that I don't remember. But this one I did remember.
Monday, January 7, 2013
The End of the World as We Know It
As I was driving back to my apartment tonight, I looked up and saw a small bright light coming straight down over the shoulder of the road. It looked like a shooting star. But it seemed a lot closer, like maybe 50 feet in front of me. It was probably a reflection from the lights of the car passing me on the left. I don't know. I thought it seemed a bit strange. Then I thought about if it were the end times (like for real, not like this is the age of the end times kind of thing) then how sudden would that be? And how strange it would look to people. What if this was it?
Then I thought about what we talk about in church all the time but I rarely see happening (of whose fault but my own?) - ask yourself -
How many of the people do I know would be going to heaven in the end times?
How many of them can actually say that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior?
How many of them think of His name as something other than a swear word when they are frustrated
How many just think He is an awkward and uncomfortable topic of conversation?
How many of them simply don't believe that He exists?
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."
John 3:16-18 NIV
You have been given a choice. We are not robots. You can choose to follow and do your own thing. Live your life how you want to live it. Out have that freedom. Or you can go after the good things. It means denying self. It doesn't mean this life here on earth will be perfect. But it means a security in your eternal existence. It means that you will not be bound for eternal torture, that you are trying so feebly to run from right now. Just look at what we do. We try to avoid bad situations an horrible things and circumstances. It's impossible to do so here on earth. But it's not impossible with Christ in the scheme of eternity. Think about that for a moment. Everything that hurts you. You could be living with that pain for eternity. Or you could turn it over to your Savior who took all that pain and agony on Himself, hung it on the cross, and separated it as far as the east from the west when He rose up out of that grave!
You can be mad at me for posting such things. Or you can study and see what the Bible is really all about. If you don't know something, study it. Be willing to learn. You cannot be open minded if you shut out the things you are unsure or have questions about. Ask questions. I may not be able to answer all of them, but I can try. If I don't know something I will do some research and try to find an answer for you.
You'll never get to know someone without having a conversation with them. I can at least help with the introductions. The rest is up to you, whether you keep that conversation going. I can only plant seeds, I can't make them grow.
Then I thought about what we talk about in church all the time but I rarely see happening (of whose fault but my own?) - ask yourself -
How many of the people do I know would be going to heaven in the end times?
How many of them can actually say that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior?
How many of them think of His name as something other than a swear word when they are frustrated
How many just think He is an awkward and uncomfortable topic of conversation?
How many of them simply don't believe that He exists?
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."
John 3:16-18 NIV
You have been given a choice. We are not robots. You can choose to follow and do your own thing. Live your life how you want to live it. Out have that freedom. Or you can go after the good things. It means denying self. It doesn't mean this life here on earth will be perfect. But it means a security in your eternal existence. It means that you will not be bound for eternal torture, that you are trying so feebly to run from right now. Just look at what we do. We try to avoid bad situations an horrible things and circumstances. It's impossible to do so here on earth. But it's not impossible with Christ in the scheme of eternity. Think about that for a moment. Everything that hurts you. You could be living with that pain for eternity. Or you could turn it over to your Savior who took all that pain and agony on Himself, hung it on the cross, and separated it as far as the east from the west when He rose up out of that grave!
You can be mad at me for posting such things. Or you can study and see what the Bible is really all about. If you don't know something, study it. Be willing to learn. You cannot be open minded if you shut out the things you are unsure or have questions about. Ask questions. I may not be able to answer all of them, but I can try. If I don't know something I will do some research and try to find an answer for you.
You'll never get to know someone without having a conversation with them. I can at least help with the introductions. The rest is up to you, whether you keep that conversation going. I can only plant seeds, I can't make them grow.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
The Greatest of These is Agape
1 Corinthians 13
New International Version (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Resolution/Revolution
New Year's. The cliche time of year when people make resolutions that typically last maybe a week. Maybe longer. But rarely through the year.
I don't really have any resolutions. Goals, maybe. But not resolutions in the traditional sense.
I'm currently sitting at my parent's house watching/listening to the International House of Prayer, Kansas City, onething conference. Ringing in the new year, not with watching a shiny crystal ball fall from a tower in NYC and listening to pithy secular music, but ringing in the new year with worshiping the One who gave us life. I desire to see the level of worship that they have at onething in the local churches here. The focus on prayer and worship, along with rightly dividing the Word.
My desires for the new year are to grow deeper in Christ. To sell out to Him. To lose myself for the One who found me. In my worship, in my prayer life, in my devotions, in my readings, in my life.
On Sunday, pastor Floyd talked about living wholeheartedly for God, and asked the simple question: Are you living wholeheartedly for God? Just a few days ago I was thinking about how I don't like who I am outside of church. I let my guard down. I don't pay as close attention to what I say, or how I react to things, or who is around me. It made me thing: What kind of Christian am I? A Pharisaical hypocrite! I don't want to catch myself wondering how I would act, or react, if I were around people from church. Because it doesn't matter whether I am around people from church, or if I'm in the middle of a crowd of strangers - there. is. always. ONE. constant. - and that is Christ. He is the only One I should care about how I act around. Which means the anger, and irritation, and annoyance (because I tend to be antisocial and jump to conclusions, etc [like walking into a store and being judgmental because they don't have something on the shelf that I think they should have and I let them know it), need to be transformed into love. So, in short: No. I haven't been living wholeheartedly.
Another desire for this new year... Which sounds like a cliche resolution at first: to lose weight/become more fit. But I want to do it, not only for health, or to fit into clothes I haven't worn since college... I want to get to a point where I can kneel in prayer again. Maybe that sounds silly. I know that how you situate yourself when you pray is not as meaningful as what you pray... but there's just something about kneeling in prayer. And I can't stand it that I can't kneel. So that's my biggest motivation for losing weight. Aside from all the other reasons (like maybe my knees wouldn't give me such issues in general, aside from not being able to bend to kneel). I want to be able to jump and lift my hands in worship without being self-conscious about how I might look (Coz I know it can't be pretty).
I also hope to continue to grow in my spiritual giftings/discovering them. Learning to walk in what I haven't yet fully discovered or had revealed to me.
I'm excited for what this year holds. I could recap this last year. It was full of firsts. Apartment. Full-time job. Car. It was also a time of transition and growth. Much of that to do with my church (no it's not technically mine, i don't own it, it's God's church, but it's where i go, and where i call home). A point of transition - spiritually especially, happened during out Women's retreat in August. I am blown away by the transformation in the women of the church, in myself, and in the church as a whole as a result of the things we learned that weekend. I feel like it accomplished what we set out to do: grow deeper in Christ, and get to know each other better and bring unity to our women's group. Although I have not been able to attend on Wednesday nights much since the retreat, I still feel that there is a closeness that was not there before the retreat. It brought us together. Most important it brought us closer to Jesus. I really feel like that weekend, although I was kind of distant all weekend due to personal battles trying to steal it from me, was a turning point for me to bring me out of the desert again.
I can't wait to see what God has in store for me this year, but also for the church. I'm looking forward - praying & believing - for immense spiritual growth, for courage to spread the Gospel, to speak to the surrounding people and communities, to show the people in this county who God truly is.
Anyway, that is all I have for now. I already started this post last year, and what do you know, a new year has already rolled around! (sorry for the stale new year's joke)
I don't really have any resolutions. Goals, maybe. But not resolutions in the traditional sense.
I'm currently sitting at my parent's house watching/listening to the International House of Prayer, Kansas City, onething conference. Ringing in the new year, not with watching a shiny crystal ball fall from a tower in NYC and listening to pithy secular music, but ringing in the new year with worshiping the One who gave us life. I desire to see the level of worship that they have at onething in the local churches here. The focus on prayer and worship, along with rightly dividing the Word.
My desires for the new year are to grow deeper in Christ. To sell out to Him. To lose myself for the One who found me. In my worship, in my prayer life, in my devotions, in my readings, in my life.
On Sunday, pastor Floyd talked about living wholeheartedly for God, and asked the simple question: Are you living wholeheartedly for God? Just a few days ago I was thinking about how I don't like who I am outside of church. I let my guard down. I don't pay as close attention to what I say, or how I react to things, or who is around me. It made me thing: What kind of Christian am I? A Pharisaical hypocrite! I don't want to catch myself wondering how I would act, or react, if I were around people from church. Because it doesn't matter whether I am around people from church, or if I'm in the middle of a crowd of strangers - there. is. always. ONE. constant. - and that is Christ. He is the only One I should care about how I act around. Which means the anger, and irritation, and annoyance (because I tend to be antisocial and jump to conclusions, etc [like walking into a store and being judgmental because they don't have something on the shelf that I think they should have and I let them know it), need to be transformed into love. So, in short: No. I haven't been living wholeheartedly.
Another desire for this new year... Which sounds like a cliche resolution at first: to lose weight/become more fit. But I want to do it, not only for health, or to fit into clothes I haven't worn since college... I want to get to a point where I can kneel in prayer again. Maybe that sounds silly. I know that how you situate yourself when you pray is not as meaningful as what you pray... but there's just something about kneeling in prayer. And I can't stand it that I can't kneel. So that's my biggest motivation for losing weight. Aside from all the other reasons (like maybe my knees wouldn't give me such issues in general, aside from not being able to bend to kneel). I want to be able to jump and lift my hands in worship without being self-conscious about how I might look (Coz I know it can't be pretty).
I also hope to continue to grow in my spiritual giftings/discovering them. Learning to walk in what I haven't yet fully discovered or had revealed to me.
I'm excited for what this year holds. I could recap this last year. It was full of firsts. Apartment. Full-time job. Car. It was also a time of transition and growth. Much of that to do with my church (no it's not technically mine, i don't own it, it's God's church, but it's where i go, and where i call home). A point of transition - spiritually especially, happened during out Women's retreat in August. I am blown away by the transformation in the women of the church, in myself, and in the church as a whole as a result of the things we learned that weekend. I feel like it accomplished what we set out to do: grow deeper in Christ, and get to know each other better and bring unity to our women's group. Although I have not been able to attend on Wednesday nights much since the retreat, I still feel that there is a closeness that was not there before the retreat. It brought us together. Most important it brought us closer to Jesus. I really feel like that weekend, although I was kind of distant all weekend due to personal battles trying to steal it from me, was a turning point for me to bring me out of the desert again.
I can't wait to see what God has in store for me this year, but also for the church. I'm looking forward - praying & believing - for immense spiritual growth, for courage to spread the Gospel, to speak to the surrounding people and communities, to show the people in this county who God truly is.
Anyway, that is all I have for now. I already started this post last year, and what do you know, a new year has already rolled around! (sorry for the stale new year's joke)
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Create
I have been trying to let my creative side out a little more lately. I have been doing some art projects on paper with yarn, as well as pen/pencil/crayon, and I have just re-installed my Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, which I had lost after moving, and just recently rediscovered.
Here are some of the things that I have been creating.
One of the first projects I did a few months ago. Just Sharpie markers and highlighter on paper.
Inspired by Luke 6:45 "A
good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and
an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.
For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."
My latest Sharpie/pencil project. The pencil colors didn't turn out as bright as I had hoped, but I didn't have markers that I wanted to use for them, because they were too bold. But these are the three panels I ended up with.
Got the idea for this from gracewaymedia.com/ and tried to do my best at recreating it. (I'd go buy theirs if I had the money - mine is not refined at all.)
Another attempt, with blue and purple, instead of two shades of blue. No snowflakes on this one either.
Red and tan diagonal stripes. I was trying to do something in my church's colors. It didn't turn out readable. So I made one with a bit of white over the top of it so text could be added.
640x480 attempt at following the tutorial from octotuts on YouTube.
HD version! lol. Didn't turn out great, but the scatter/fade/etc is not the same in Photoshop Elements as it is in the real deal. Wish I could afford CS-whatever-number-they-are-up-to-now. For Photoshop and Illustrator.
This was inspired by our pastor's description of what he plans to preach about next week. He's going to talk about how people are "fans" of Jesus, and "like" Him, but don't really FOLLOW Him.
There you have it. My most recent art endeavors. Just trying to do something somewhat productive with the artsy gifting that God has given me.
Here are some of the things that I have been creating.
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
There you have it. My most recent art endeavors. Just trying to do something somewhat productive with the artsy gifting that God has given me.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Fed Up
I am sick and tired of seeing stuff about Santa. I've seen several movies recently that talk a lot about believing in Santa, and completely ignore the real reason for the season. I know it's a cliche phrase for Christ, but it is true (well, after the church tried to get people to focus on Christ instead of the pagan nature worship they were doing at the winter solstice.)
I don't see how, actually I do but that's another point I have tonight, people can keep talking about believing in Santa - who has never been made out to be an all powerful god, just an old dude in a red suit zooming around the planet visiting all the children in one night via magic or something esoteric such as that - and they cannot even briefly entertain the thought that God might in fact be real.
Which brings me to my second point. I know that people so nonchalantly deny that God exists because of free will in this broken and sinful world.
I know that as Christians we are called to love. But I can't help but want to pound people/the media over the head with a few candy canes at this time of year when they keep talking about believing in Santa and they don't even touch on the birth of the Messiah.
Never mind that Christ wasn't born in the middle of December. But that's beside the point.
The point is that people have almost completely forgotten the Messiah. They have forgotten that God came to this earth to live as we did, yet without sin, and experience life as we experience it, only to take on himself all of our sins to offer himself as a sacrifice so that we could live.
There is a supernatural war going on. If that is not more evident in the events of this last week I don't know what will make it evident. These shootings weren't senseless acts of violence. They were sinful acts of violence.
We need to put Christ back in Christmas, and put God and prayer back in schools. The enemy cannot stand when Jesus' name is spoken. We need to pray for our nation, reach out to our neighbors, and spread the Gospel in love to these people that have no hope. In Christ there is hope. He is our hope. Not Obama. Obamas promises are empty, as each mans promises are. Only God will fulfill each and every promise He has made.
Anyway. This nation needs the Gospel. This nation needs prayer. And this blogger needs sleep. That's the summation of my post. I'm off to bed.
*Also, we don't need more gun control laws. We need self-controlled people. These shooters have no self control. They act on unnatural urges to do wrong. If you support gun control you should also support anti-abortion, because over 100,000 babies are aborted daily. If that is not at least as horrifying as this latest shooting, then I don't know what to say.
Ending my slightly political and possibly very emotionally charged post now.
I don't see how, actually I do but that's another point I have tonight, people can keep talking about believing in Santa - who has never been made out to be an all powerful god, just an old dude in a red suit zooming around the planet visiting all the children in one night via magic or something esoteric such as that - and they cannot even briefly entertain the thought that God might in fact be real.
Which brings me to my second point. I know that people so nonchalantly deny that God exists because of free will in this broken and sinful world.
I know that as Christians we are called to love. But I can't help but want to pound people/the media over the head with a few candy canes at this time of year when they keep talking about believing in Santa and they don't even touch on the birth of the Messiah.
Never mind that Christ wasn't born in the middle of December. But that's beside the point.
The point is that people have almost completely forgotten the Messiah. They have forgotten that God came to this earth to live as we did, yet without sin, and experience life as we experience it, only to take on himself all of our sins to offer himself as a sacrifice so that we could live.
There is a supernatural war going on. If that is not more evident in the events of this last week I don't know what will make it evident. These shootings weren't senseless acts of violence. They were sinful acts of violence.
We need to put Christ back in Christmas, and put God and prayer back in schools. The enemy cannot stand when Jesus' name is spoken. We need to pray for our nation, reach out to our neighbors, and spread the Gospel in love to these people that have no hope. In Christ there is hope. He is our hope. Not Obama. Obamas promises are empty, as each mans promises are. Only God will fulfill each and every promise He has made.
Anyway. This nation needs the Gospel. This nation needs prayer. And this blogger needs sleep. That's the summation of my post. I'm off to bed.
*Also, we don't need more gun control laws. We need self-controlled people. These shooters have no self control. They act on unnatural urges to do wrong. If you support gun control you should also support anti-abortion, because over 100,000 babies are aborted daily. If that is not at least as horrifying as this latest shooting, then I don't know what to say.
Ending my slightly political and possibly very emotionally charged post now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)