The Underside of the Tapestry

God is not like me.

How long has it taken me to learn this?
A lifetime.
And yet in a few startling minutes in His Word this morning, I think I finally understood it fully. Why do I measure His decisions and His works by my opinion? How can I stand up to Him and say: “What you just did was not right; it was unjust, unnecessary, or just plain wrong?” I am looking upwards at Him . . . see His universe. And I only see the underside of His tapestry, and the whole picture is hidden from all excepting Him.
So I am blind to His motives.
I cannot understand what He is doing and why. All that I know is that He does love me with an everlasting love, and that He is not only worthy of my honor and praise--- but worthy of trust. Able to hold my dreams, wishes, pain and sorrow. His hands are the safest place I can put my deepest longings and fears. And not only can He keep them safe, He holds them so that I don’t have to bend under their burden.
Isn’t my God amazing?
Think of this for a minute: There is a God. He is great, mighty, and so powerful that we can’t even imagine it. He spoke and the universe formed. He breathed and His creation of man came to life. The whole enormous universe He set into motion is only one of many that He created merely to show off His glory, and all of them put together are immensely dwarfed by He Himself. He never did wrong. He never was created. And yet this awe-inspiring being loves you. And cries over your pain. Feels your sorrow. Carries your load.
Yes, this is my God. And this is the one who reigns in my heart and controls my life. And I am so glad He does.

Check this out!

Hey, guys!

Check out this group of teenagers fighting against suicide and teenage depression in person using their faith in God and a little personal experience. Great cause, great fire for Christ! Support them by liking their page. . .they still need more likes to be able to help more people.
thanks! :)

http://www.facebook.com/Stayaliveforme

Anger: A Ruthless Killer

This is an amazing devotional I found written by Anabel Gillham. Very powerful stuff!

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord .
But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?
"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it (he) desires to have you, but you must master it (him)."
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Genesis 4:2-8 NIV

You can rip the life from someone and never be brought to court, never be found guilty, never have to answer for that death. It happens when love dies.

" Aren't you getting just a bit over dramatic?"

No, I don't really think so. What do I mean? I mean that the results of physical death and emotional death are very much the same. You cease to be able to feel, it doesn't seem to matter anymore. You can't function, you don't have the ability to reason things out, there's no motivation to go on living. You give up, you don't try any longer. You exist. You separate yourself from living, from feeling, from the world. You look back and think, How did this happen? When did it start? It wasn't a clean, quick cut; it was more like a beaver nibbling through a red oak. Who would have thought such little, insignificant things could fell a giant?

Once upon a time there were two brothers. I don't know if their mom and dad ever talked to them about controlling their tempers, about how destructive patterns for anger or harsh words can build, or if they suggested constructive patterns of communication. Maybe it was Dad who said, "Oh, Honey, brothers have to argue and fight. That's normal. They're just getting socially acclimated. It's their way of becoming their own person. They have to learn to stand on their own two feet in this world." So they sat back and watched.

The boys grew up and lived in the same neighborhood, each in different lines of work, each successful in his own field. Then came the day when the younger of the two brothers received quite an honor; it caused resentment and hatred to blow all out of proportion, and the big brother killed his little brother.

That was in yesterday's newspaper, wasn't it? No. It's the first recorded act of anger in the Bible, and the brothers were Cain and Abel. With just a few lines--giving us only the facts--we see the full fruit of uncontrolled anger ripen, and the first family grieves and remembers when "the boys were little." Oh, how could this have happened? They used to play together for hours! Remember the time when we all went . . . an empty bed. An empty chair at the dinner table. Lonely walks.

I wonder how much time passed between verses seven and eight? How much time did Cain spend brooding over the honor that Abel was given? What thoughts did Cain practice over and over in his mind?

Hurt pride? "My offering was as good as his. I'd spent just as much time on mine."

Self-pity? "I did the very best I could do. Why do things like this happen to me? Nothing seems to go right--no matter how hard I try."

Failure? "Seems like my best is never quite good enough. I just don't do things well--never have, never will."

Jealousy? "If only I had thought of doing that. He was always the favorite.

Resentment? "Why should his offering be accepted and mine not be accepted? Any way you look at it, that's not fair!"

Rejection? "How could God treat me this way? Why was my offering turned down? What's wrong with me?"

Bitterness? "I don't have to put up with stuff like this. And I don't intend to put up with it! I'll take care of this my way. I'm sick of Abel and everything about him! I'll show him!"

The full fruit of anger, ripe. Cain probably felt and thought a lot of other things before he felt and chose revenge. One little thing plus another little thing plus other little things and suddenly you have a mountain of little things you can't see around, a mountain that comes between you and that person and there's death on that mountain.

Abel played out his part, too.

"What part? He was the innocent one, wasn't he?"

Yes. But he must have known. He couldn't be with Cain and not pick up on the tension, the moodiness. If Abel had been sensitive to Cain's feelings, if he perceived that Cain was troubled about something, that there was a rift in their relationship, he could have gone to him: "Hey, Cain. What's the problem? I can tell something's bothering you. Look, I don't want our relationship to be like this. I don't want a barrier between us. Let's try to talk this thing out."

Maybe the story would have ended differently.

The Lord talked to Cain about what was going on inside of him: "Cain, why are you angry? So you didn't do well this time. There's always another time when you can try again. Every time you sulk like that you miss a chance to smile or laugh. Come on, Cain. Look, sin is right there at your door. You can send him on his way or you can invite him in. He wants to ruin you. Don't let him do it. He's not your master. Tell him to peddle that anger somewhere else. It's your life, Cain, that will be ruined. Revenge is only sweet until you swallow it, and then its like a heartworm in a dog: It grows and eats the very life out of the body. Listen to Me, Cain. You can do it!"

But Cain had made up his mind. Getting the bitter revenge out of his system was more important to him than the results that might follow. You see, he thought about it, rehearsed it, went to sleep thinking about it and woke up thinking about it. I know I'm reading a lot into the story that isn't written down. But its your story, too. What did happen? You were there. Death comes in a lot of different colors.

"Well, I can see that you are not bothered with anger. If you were, you'd understand a little better just what goes on in a person who has a temperament like this."

No. I'm sorry. You're the one who doesn't understand. When you were born again, that person who had that temperament died in Christ, and you are now a brand new person, with Christ as your very life. A power that cannot be conquered. A power that cannot be controlled. A power that overcomes!

Some day, when you're bored and don't have anything else to do, blow up a balloon. Big. Then, let it go. Watch it fly around the room! It hits everything in sight, and if it had any weight, it would be like a bull in a china closet. Now, blow it up again. Bigger. Give it to someone and ask him to hold it gently in his hands. Watch the "hot air" come out, watch the balloon shrink--harmless.

You see, we have something those boys didn't have, something their mom and dad didn't have:We have Christ living inside us. His hands are open. See them? Strong hands. Ugly scars right in the middle. Tender hands. Place that anger in those hands. Choose. See the anger spewing out of that balloon--slowly, harmless. It's over. Now, your emotions won't join your parade right away, but go ahead and march without them. They'll catch up eventually. And your story will have a different ending. That's a promise. You have His word on it.

The Fear of Man

Fear.

In the biblical sense it's a much broader word than we use today. It includes being afraid of someone, but it also extends to holding someone in awe, being controlled or mastered by people, worshipping other people, putting your trust in people, or even-- needing people. However you put it, "the fear of man" can be summarized this way: we replace God with people. Instead of biblically guided fear of the Lord, we fear others. Of course, the "fear of man" goes by other names. When we are in our teens it's called peer pressure, when we are older we call it "people pleasing", and most recently it goes by the name "co-dependency". With these labels in mind we can spot the fear of man in our lives:

1) Are you over-committed? Do you find it hard to say no, even when wisdom tells you you should? You are a people pleaser, another euphemism for the "fear of man".

2) Is self-esteem a critical concern for you? If self-esteem is a reoccurring theme for you, chances are, your life revolves around what others think. You are controlled by the "fear of man", because you need them to fill you up and be a buttress for your sense of well-being and identity.

3) Do you ever feel like you may be exposed as an imposter? The sense of being exposed is another expression of ---you guessed it--- the "fear of man." It means that the opinions of other people--- especially their possible opinion that you are a failure---are able to control you.

4) Are you always second-guessing your decisions because of what other people might think? Are you afraid of looking bad in their eyes??

5) Do you feel empty and meaningless? Do you experience "love hunger"? Here again, you need others to fill you, and you are controlled by them.

6) Do you get easily embarrassed? If so, people and their perceived opinions probably define you. Or, to use biblical language, you exalt the opinions of others to the point where you are ruled by them.

7) Do you tend to lie to other people, especially those little white lies? Lying and other forms of living in the dark are forms of making ourselves look better before others. It also covers our shame before them.

8) Are you jealous of other people? You are controlled by them and their possessions.

9) Do other people often make you angry or depressed? Do they drive you crazy? If so, they probably are the controlling center of your life.

10) Do you avoid people? Even if you do not need people, you are still controlled by them. Isn't a hermit dominated by the "fear of man"?

11) Aren't diets, even under the heading of 'health' still dedicated to impressing others? The desire for the praise of men is one of the ways that we exalt people above God.

>Have all of these descriptions missed the mark? Perhaps the most dangerous "fear of man" is the 'successful' fear of man. Such people think that they have made it. They have more than other people. They feel good about themselves. But their lives are still controlled by other people rather than what God thinks.<

This is the first post in a series on peer pressure. :) I figured I would start with something to get you thinking. . .I don't know about any of you, but I didn't think that I struggled much with the "fear of man" until I started reading a book by Edward T. Welch, called, "When People are big and God is Small". I know that this hit me really hard about many different ways that I am paranoid about driving my life to impress others. It isn't so easy to say that peer pressure isn't a big deal, huh?

Walk worthy, guys.

"I wear the mask; it does not wear me."

Being real is tough. It really is.

There's always a chance of someone we love or admire not liking who we really are, and walking away. When we're real, we are more vulnerable to insult, to words. But, Christians, God calls us to be real, and live in genuine faith without only white-washed tombs for souls. Half-hearted Christians are useless vessels.

And even though this seems like a bottomless habit we've fallen into, we won't have to save ourselves from the darkness. Christ is with us, encouraging us, picking us back up as we fall. His children will always be His. He will never walk away, never leave us, never forsake us. No matter who else in our lives walks out, He WILL be there. Trust Him. Fall in love with this Father who promises to uphold you in trial, and strip away the layers of falseness we try to hide under.

"God has given you a face, and you make yourself another." ~William Shakespeare

It does take courage to be and become who you are. But God has created you the way you are for a reason, and exemplifying His creation of you is only another way of glorifying Him. For in the long run, no man can climb outside of the limitations of his character.

May He get the glory for sincere friendships, real people, and a genuine walk with Him.

Challenge: Week 1

In a effort to walk worthier of the calling--- to be more like my Saviour, the challenge I have put myself on for this week is this. Christ has sacrificed Himself for us in an act of selfless, radical love that singles us out, as His followers. We should be giving of ourselves in ways that prove our devotion to our God. In acts of mercy and compassion.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:32-36

This is my challenge for this week. This is my goal; my way for learning to live daily more like the One who gave me life itself. And I want to invite you too, to follow through with loving others--- especially those who don't seem deserving.

God bless you all, and give you the strength to love.

Knowing your purpose

What drives your life?

Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life. Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose. God says, “I know what I am planning for you… I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NCV)

Knowing your purpose simplifies your life. It is impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough time to do God´s will.

Knowing your purpose focuses your life.

Knowing your purpose motivates your life.

Knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity. Many people spend their lives trying to create a lasting legacy on earth. They want to be remembered when they´re gone.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21, NIV

“Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God… Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God. “ Romans 14:10, 12 NLT