Ah, That's Perfect!

Hello all my brotha’s and sista’s. I’ve been meaning to blog the past couple of days, but because of my insanely busy schedule? I haven’t had time. No, I just have to be in the right frame of mind. And this morning I happen to be in that mind frame. Well, I don’t have a lot to say today, but I was really excited about what Justin had to say on Sunday. Which only makes me want to share it with my fellow bloggers. I also feel that the scripture answered a few questions from the last post and the comments that came afterwards.

Gitty-Up! Justin spoke on discipleship, which being a disciple of Jesus is living and walking as Jesus. Then emphasizing the purpose of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus, right? Living and walking is much more then just believing in Jesus as our savior, the word and truth are taken into our lifestyle. We chase after truth and live by the truth. We’ve talked about this before, being a Christian means being an active follower of Christ. But let’s take it to a whole other level.

The greatness of knowing Christ surpasses EVERYTHING. Do I/you truly believe that? If the answer is yes, then what are the implications of such a belief? God is better then anything and above everything. It’s a good thing. Not a dictatorship type betterness, a freeing, loving, and at peace betterness. I want to have a perfect relationship with Jesus, since it is the best possible life to live.

Philippians 3:12

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of what for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider yourself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

God wants a perfect relationship with us. I deem that awesome. That God of the universe wants to have a perfect relationship with me.

Sin exists, which keeps us from this perfect relationship, but do not let sin be an excuse. When I thought about this all I could think about was this idea of a Dead Christian (those words contradict themselves) versus an Alive Christian. A Dead Christian being someone who is stagnant in his or her relationship with Jesus. In a stand still, no growth. An Alive Christian, someone that is experiencing movement and growth towards Jesus. Each step taken to increase that relationship is a step taken towards establishing a perfect relationship with Jesus. No matter where we are at in our relationship. Conquering sin one step at a time. Though we determine how fast or slow we want this progression to take and the implications of our determination.

This is what God said to me on Sunday,

“I want a Perfect relationship with you. In that I will give you the greatest Joy, the most Strength, and the grandest power in Sharing who I am.”

In-Tent-Chin-Haul

Feels like forever since I last blogged. Quick life update. Spent some time in Iowa over the fourth of July, which I was able to spend with family. I love my family. It is amazing how I can look at my siblings, as not only family but best friends as well. I give all the credit to Jesus. Jesus lives within each one of my brothers and sisters and I know that is why our relationships are so unique. While I was in Iowa I said good-bye to my sister Ashley and her husband Joe for a while, since they left for their 27 month adventure in Mali, Africa where they will be working for the Peace Corp. I’m completely jealous, but also am excited to see how God molds their hearts during their experience. Other than that my life is exactly the same. No job, great friends.

Today I am going to take a break from the topic of community, though I have a couple more areas of community I want to discuss. This will be done later. Right now God has been throwing something else my way. For about the past few weeks God has been challenging me with this idea of being an intentional Christian.

This whole concept for me is hard to convey on paper, but let’s give it a shot. Through my own personal walk, being completely “on fire” for Christ one second, wanting to live out a life completely dedicated to him, feeling attached and devoted, wanting to love others, and allowing God to enter into various areas of my life which then transcends into a luke warm or a semi- 62 degree relationship. This is a concept; I believe every Christian can relate to, which is referred to a lot of time as the “spiritual rollercoaster”.

I hate the spiritual rollercoaster. I love it when I am completely sold out for Christ. So why? Why is it like this? Why can’t we just get it and live it always. This is what I’ve come up with so far. Quite simple, I think its cause we live in a world covered with sin.

The sin acts as a barrier to having a continuous whole-hearted relationship with Jesus. As humans we are slaves to sin, but the freedom lies within Jesus, righteousness. This is where the intentional part comes in. As Christians we must be intentional, each day, about being in an active relationship with Jesus, to seek righteousness and break us from this bon of sin. It’s an intentional lifestyle.

Romans 6:16                                                                                                                                             Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

We’ve made the point over and over, that life, as a Christian is not easy. Jesus calls us to much more than what “the world” offers. To reach that, to chase after that, I have to as a Christian intentionally and actively seek God everyday. A visit to church on Sunday, reading scripture every once in a while, praying when I want to, seeking God when it’s convenient, are areas that are going to keep me in this rollercoaster.

 Intentional – reading scripture everyday, maintaining a healthy prayer life, being in discussions with friends and family about Jesus, being involved with Church or other faith based organizations, pursuing a healthy Christian community, serving, sharing Jesus, allowing God to challenge your beliefs, continually learning, daily devotionals / “quiet times”, etc…

 Yesterday at Church, the Pastor Justin spoke about worship, which fits in exactly with this idea of being intentional everyday. I’m going to try to sum it up, very briefly, and suck at it, but bear with me. He spoke out of Romans 1:12 and how we are in active worship every day all day. Everything we do is because we are worshiping something. In these acts of worship we are given two choices, to worship God or someone/something else. For example, every night we choose to either worhip our body by going straight to sleep or worship God, by spending some time in prayer. A little more in-depth, many of us choose to worship image over God. Comparing ourselves to others, not being satisfied with who we are, wanting more, etc… Which leads to envy, insecurities, anger, and pulls us farther away from Jesus.

 Intentional. All day every day. Crazy. Worth it. The best thing about this whole concept, that I love, is that I want to be intentional about Jesus. It’s not cause I have this book with all these rules and regulations, which if I don’t follow I’m going to hell. It’s cause I’m in love with Jesus and in Jesus there is freedom from this dark, horrible, and depressing world. I want a life of freedom. I want to “live the dream” and “enjoy the journey”.

 Think about a life of no spiritual rollercoaster’s. You are always on a spiritual high, ready to tackle anything. Always feeling like that summer at Younglife camp, when you hear a good Sunday sermon, that drive home after a good discussion about Jesus, those times when you feel God the most. All day every day. The implications are huge. I want that.

 What are your guy’s thoughts? Any ideas of how to make this intentional life style easier? 

tangible LOVE

Tangible love, what a fun concept, figuring out how we can love on our neighbors. Doesn't get much better then that. After reading all the post and spending some time in the scripture, I have some thoughts:

I think we all have agree'd that Community is important, to have an active relationship with others (I believe Christian or non-Christian) is crucial. So does Jesus:

1 John 3:18
"Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

Love is active and in Truth. The actions that our love produces is guided by the Truth that God has given. That is awesome. These are a couple of verses I found that can guide us in this "Truth" love:

Hebrews 10:24-25
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another -- and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Loving others means encouraging one another. Encouraging friends, family, and strangers in life and in their relationship with Christ. "Spur" one another on toward love and good deeds. Push people into being stronger "lovers" and "better" people. I really enjoy this verse for a couple of reasons: 1. Encouraging to me, also means, spuring people to love Jesus more (the ultimate goal). 2. The more we spur other to love Jesus, the more power the body of Christ holds, which allows us to share the love, freedom, and salvation that Our savior holds to greater numbers.

Next, my sister Aubrey left a comment with this verse outlined:

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Love is PATIENT and KIND. Love is NOT JEALOUS or BOASTFUL or PROUD or RUDE. It does NOT DEMAND its own way. It is NOT IRRITIABLE, and it keeps NO RECORD of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH Love NEVER gives up, NEVER loses faith, is always HOPEFUL, and ENDURES through every circumstance."

Each section of this verse is a blog post alone, so I'm not going to dissect it too much. Read this verse and then think of the power of love. Though I've read this verse several times in the past, this time it rocked my world. I belive it's becasue I'm looking from a different perspective now. I desire to truly live a life in which I love my nieghbor, no matter who it is, with each of these characteristics. Though the nature of sin makes it nearly impossible, I believe there are levels of success, depending on how intentional (or serious) we are on showing Christ's love. Throughout the day, I catch myself in certain circumstances, reciting the section of this verse that is related to whatever is happening.

While you read through this, are there any verses that pop in your head that exhibit Christ's love and a love that we should possess? Share please! In the mean time:

Let's ENCOURAGE all lovers of Jesus to be intentional about LOVE