Showing posts with label scripture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scripture. Show all posts

Friday, June 8, 2012

Embracing Jesus- John 1:36-39

John said even he wasn't worthy to untie the sandals of Christ in John 1:27, and yet this Jesus, this amazing Jesus came to him, and to many, and comes to each of us when we call, none of us worthy, but he is more than willing.

My first "Embracing Jesus One Red Letter Paragraph At A Time" scripture came to a bit of a surprise to me.  I had not even opened my Bible before I decided to do this to see what I would read first , I did not decide which of the accounts I would use, but I opened to John,  so I will be using John.

The first red letters I found were on the second page in my Bible in the book of John.  And as I read them, I smiled and laughed.   In the notorious words of myself  "I literally LOL'd."

John 1:36-39 (NIV)

When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!".  When the two disciples heard him say this they followed Jesus.  Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked "What do you want?"  They said "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"  "Come" he replied, "and you will see."  

This makes me think of all sorts of things, but the first thing that came to my mind is the simplicity of Christ in this moment.  His first words He spoke to them were "come".  He did not give them a list of reasons why, but just "come".  He did not ask them about their history, their backgrounds, who were their friends, or anything like that.  He did not ask if they were perfect, if they had life figured out, he just told them to "come"



I am literally sitting back in my chair trying to elaborate on this and I simply cant.  I have gotten more out of this four letter word than in a million reads I have done lately,  as I discovered Him speak it to them on these pages and to me that I can only sit in awe.  They wanted to know where Jesus was staying... and when I read that I wanted to answer it for them for their future "In you!"  But He had not told them that, He was still flesh walking across the dirt.  He did not have a permanent residence, until He rose and filled His believers up with Himself and this was long after He spoke these words.  Our bodies become His temple, His resting place.  He was about to show them that and so much more.  Goosebumps.



Thursday, June 7, 2012

Embracing Jesus. One Red Letter Paragraph At A Time





















Over the past little while you may have noticed that I am trying to embark outward into a new bold crazy mysterious journey in my faith.  To really try to get my feet firmly planted again.  I feel for too long it has been a wishy washy in my journey with Christ.

While I know I love Jesus.  Like..I LOVE JESUS.  God is on my mind more than anything all day, I feel as though I need a jolt.  

I have claimed this journey as my own, hand in hand with Christ... sometimes though I start seeking the hands of others, and their Jesus thoughts... let me explain.

While I decided long ago I would avoid debating the crazy stuff, the tough things in Christianity that cause more division than unity,  now I face another delima.  That because I try not to let this stuff get to me, I have now sought after other people who have felt the same way- who are standing firm hands raised sending out a cry of joy saying "this is my journey, not yours, and He will guide me, not you." 

Now in searching for these people, I find myself reading their thoughts and while sometimes I sit at my computer screen or the book I am reading and screaming YES!! I also find myself comparing my journey to theirs, as if to say 'oh well she thinks this way but is seeking Him in a similar way to me.. maybe I am wrong."  I have even changed my mind about something I was so sure about because someone elses journey and that opinion they had was so convincing, then I fall down broken.

See how that can get messy?  No one has EVER told me to think this way, infact, I have always had very supportive people in my walk with Jesus, who have really shown me Christ can approach us in different ways, and they have always been supportive.  Where these thoughts and ideas of how I see the world came from I dont exactically know, but I know that it can at times hinder my walk with Jesus.

So tonight I laid in bed with our three year old and his spiderman and decided I needed to spend less time in the opinions of others, even if they are similar to mine.  That perhaps I just need to not be so involved in social media discussions, or blogging discussions... That I need to really unplug from even community online in order to seek Christ and know who I am in Him.   Im thirsty and hungry, I am weary.  Jesus says to me "come to
me" 

His words can anchor me

It never comes down to what church body you attend, or how you define a certain aspect of scripture.  It never comes down to if you worship with your hands held high or you sit quietly in your seat.  It never comes down to if you are shy in your walk or you scream it from the rooftops 

It never comes down to anything but Christ.

When I start to feel confused, its never His fault.  Its the fault of me seeking Him through the wrong avenues.  Im not saying that reading blogs are wrong, or to hear people's testimonies are wrong.  If we never heard a persons testimony, we wouldnt have the New Testament.  I LOVE hearing about a persons relationship with Jesus Christ.  What I am saying is that in order for me to firmly plant myself in Him (again and again), it has to be from Him.  From His breath, from His words.  If these avenues I am seeking at the end of the day are not making me feel more strengthened in my faith then why right now do I spend so much time seeking Him on them?  God is not the author of confusion.  He said that. 

I have decided to start a blog post "series" entitled "Embracing Jesus. One Red Letter Paragraph At A Time".  This is not to convince anyone to see things my way.  This is not for anyone to think I am a Biblical Scholar, or have it all figured out. 

This is my goal: To take each paragraph that is in those beautiful red letters, the words of Christ Himself, and to meditate on them.  To see what He wants to say to me in that section of scripture.  To write it down and to really discuss it with Him.  To not move on from that scripture until He says.  I want to share them here on my blog, not so someone would ever want to compare their walk with Christ with mine because I think when we do that, since I have done that so often, we miss out on the hugeness of Christ. 

I want it to be a time of intimacy, of thought and meditation, prayer and excitement.  To rediscover Christ over again in a way I havent before. 

So here I go...

Friday, May 11, 2012

Why are you hating on your church?

I have been reading a few blogs revently from frustrated Christians who are angry within the buildings they worship God.  They are not new believers trying to understand it all, they arent people who have no clue about Jesus or anything along those lines, these are people who have chosen to follow Jesus and have been and understand what He stood for and stands for.   From what I understand we ARE the church, not the building itself, but the building is a place the church comes together to encourage and build up eachother in our faith.  This should not be a place with constant anger stirring up within belivers.  To start hating on a church is to not hate on the walls or the photos on the wall, but the people inside. 

I do first of all want to say that I do firmly believe that God is fully capable and has and will call people out of a church body for His reasons. This has happened to me once, where I wasnt exactly trying to leave a church, but circumstances happened and He placed another church body right in our midst that we knew without a shadow of a doubt was where God wanted us to be.  There were no ill feelings, there was no anger involved, it just happened.  There was a peace that came from it.  No resentment, no eye rolling, just a peace.  I remember when we moved across province we were church searching and there were places we just knew thats not where God wanted us, so we did look at different churches, denominations etc till we found one we felt we were supposed to be at, but we were still only there for a short time till God called us to somewhere else.  These werent vain reasons, this was God telling us flat out "No"

BUT I do think also that God should also be the only one to tell you to leave a church body.  The question I think of is what is it that is causing a person to simply stew in their own anger/boredom  towards their church/denomination/etc  instead of being within that building and surrounded by fellow believers who none are perfect to worship the living God?  There is no perfect church body, there never will be till the day we are all with Jesus celebrating.  I think our goal should never be to find a perfect church, but the body of believers God wants us to be involved in.  There is a church body for everyone.

One thing I know for certain is that it does help to get involved, especailly in bigger churches.  All church bodies need the people to use their talents and gifts within the four walls of the church.  I attended a church for a little under a year that was significatly bigger than the one I came to know Christ in.  While it was overwhelming, I knew that it being overwhelming may not be a good enough reason to leave and find something I was more comfortable with.  So I got involved in small group studies and tried worship there for a bit.  While not all I tried to involve myself in worked, it got me to get to know the fellow brothers and sisters in Christ around me and not feel so shy and overwhelmed.   While its true that we also need the "regulars" of a church to step out and greet the new people ( I think this is very important), new people dont be afraid to step out as well.  Maybe there is not much happening at your church but you'd like to see something happen, like a study or something for the kids.  Maybe thats why God has placed you there, to start those things. 

Do you feel your church isnt feeding you?  Now before you go blaming it on your pastor, remember its not your pastors job to give you revelation Sunday after Sunday - its Gods.  Are you taking your notes, or paying attention, coming home and praying and asking God to teach you about what was spoken about at service that Sunday?  God will show you things about His word you dont understand, but its not soley your pastors job to do this.  Pastors have all different kinds of personalities, maybe the pastors personality doesnt quite click with your ears, but that doesnt mean that God cannot give you revelation.  Bible time doesnt start Sunday and end Sunday.  God is always speaking.  I think people put way too much expectation on their pastors.  They're just human.  Remember its God who gives revelation, and he will do that through Christians, but even if you dont feel you are getting that big "ahha!" revelation every Sunday, dont for a second think its your churches fault.  Make sure you are making an effort to seek God in the word too that is spoken so He can feed you.  We ask Holy Spirit to fill us, not our pastors, decons, teachers etc.   So in essesnse even if you were to find your speaker not quite your jive, know that God will still give you revelation in the end.

Do you have a "beef" with someone?  Now the Bible makes it very clear that we arent to go to bed angry, to stew in our anger and let it become a part of us, so if there is someone within your church body that is making you angry or anything that isnt fruitful, then that needs to be addressed.  Its awful to watch churches split, agrue, and have any sort of resentment towards others in the body.  It needs to be taken care of.   This could be the church body you need to be a part of, and hatred and all the other traits of the enemy's tricks can prevent Gods work to happen through you.  The Bible warns of divisions in the church.  We are warned, so when we see it happening, or are a part of it, then we should be praying and acting to make it change.  

Maybe your church is teaching things that clearly arent Biblical? I know denominations may approach "church" differently and Im not really speaking of that, Im not a denomination hater at all, but maybe you do have a huge issue with things that genuinley need addressing?  Then address them.  Pray, seek God and if God says go then go.  But its scary to think that the issue is never addressed.   I think it would be devistating if no one ever spoke up about a church that was teaching something that clearly isnt scriptural (ex: the Easter Bunny and Jesus are the same thing, corney I know, but just for example) and no one ever approached that it was wrong.  It doesnt mean you have to run in protesting and screaming "LIES!" but something needs to be said.  And if the church says "no you're wrong" when God has shown you what He's put on your heart to be right, then I think its safe to say you go.
Think about it-  the church building is a place you go to be surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ to come together and worship JESUS!!! We shouldnt be dragging our feet in there going "oh..yay..church time."  We should be jumping out of bed going "YAY CHURCH TIME!" and if you are like me you add a big ol "WHEEEE" to the end (I really do love my church family near and far! )   Church buildings are not the only place we worship, we should worship Jesus 24/7 but it is wonderful to gather with fellow believers to celebrate.
I think the world has enough haters of the church we dont need them inside, and maybe like I said you are genuinly not supposed to be in that church family and God is calling you somewhere else, but please let it be His will and not your will that you want to leave.  Make sure that the intentions are genuine and not happening because the enemy has tried to rip you out of a place God wants you or your flesh wants out of because of wordly reasons.  Get what Im trying to say here?  Church buildings are emptying faster and faster each day because Gods children cant always seem to get along and decide instead of thinking "what would Jesus do?" they do what the world says to do and thats to get angry, roll our eyes, gossip, hate, complain and every other thing that should just not be in a Christians vocabulary and run for the door.  This is the enemy doing a fine job at ripping apart congregations that could have done amazing advancement for Gods kingdom.  This is a perfect example and it happens far to often.  So I guess in the end I wanted to write this so that I could say that I really think it needs to be God that places you somewhere, not ourselves.  It may not look like what we thought it was to look like, but its where God wants us, for this time in our lives, and when we are where God wants us, then God will use it to his perfect plan and it will do amazing things for you, and/or the people around you. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Understanding God will be my comfort in childbirth








We are hitting our last trimester... Where did the time go.  In the words of my friend Daisy Im going to need my own postal code soon, I feel this little girl is running out of room in there, Im starting to see elbows poking out and you can really feel her kick.  Its a truly amazing blessing to feel a life growing inside you.  I have very much enjoyed carrying this girl, and as she begins to get bigger and we hit the home stretch of only 12 more weeks (which will happen super fast Im sure), I realize that the time for birth is coming soon. 


I started looking into water births yesterday.  Started to talk to moms who have been there about the pros and the cons.  Started reading lots and lots.  The cons started to outweigh the pros in our case.  Would there be room in our house for a birthing tub? (We are planning to have her at home)  Would there be time?  Is it what I really really want to do?  "Birthing plans"  can be overwhelming.  This labour will be different because it is a new experience, a new birth.  My three previous births were all very different from eachother.  A Mother can never fully prepare for labour, and Im sure it never ever goes 100% according to the plan.  But I cant help but try and figure it out. 

 

So then I laid in bed, almost stressed out about this birth and it was like God said "You have allowed me to take care of this pregnancy thus far, I will take care of your labour as well."

And the more I think about it, I dont want to make anything other than God my comfort measure, my "epidural" my "birthing tub".  There is no subsitute for God.  He is our comforter, our provider, our sheild.  He's madly in love with His children and ofcourse that means even during birth!  For myself and this child inside, He is fully capable of taking control. 

So I begin approaching this different. I planned on having worship music playing, Scripture near by and in my heart, definatly prayer, but these things I never put in the place of PRIORITY during birth.  Up until last night they were secondary.  But God wants to be first.

He wants me to seek Him continually. 1 Chronicles 16:11 says Search the Lord and for His strength; continually seek Him (NLT).  That means all the time.  Even during contractions, during transition, during things that may go wrong.  To never panic

(Philippians 4:6-7), or feel as if I cannot do it, because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)

I understand Gods power, I understand what He has poured out for me, and that Holy Spirit dwells within me and I have the ability to approach God with anything.  He see's the begining to the end.  There are no surprises.  He's already gotten it all under His control.  He is bigger.  It all comes down to trust.

So this is where I put down my stress about birth, about how its going to go down.  What position I wanna be in, where I wanna be in the home, and lay this birth down at God's feet, like I did with the pregnancy and say "have Your way Lord."  24 hours of stressing out about a birth I ultimatly in the end have little control over was 24 hours too long.  Time to shift it over to the One who gave birth to the entire universe, and allow Him to comfort me while brining Tehillah into the world. 

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Praise for Jesus- Walk with Him Wednesday


I used to write songs when I was a teenager, about being angry at the world, how nothing mattered.  I would scream into a microphone random rage.  Amplifers were cranked, distortion full blast. 

I have a very hard time writing for Jesus.  I dont know if its just because the journals and journals of music I wrote before were so angry, or what it is.  I have picked up my guitar on more than one occasion in my walk with Christ.  I have sang many songs that are not my own.  The past little while I felt Jesus nudging me to just play.  To play and sing to Him, about Him, about my walk.  Everytime I attempted too I got discouraged.  Our 12 string has strings missing, goes out of tune so very often... (kinda sounds like me some days)
Evenings after the kids go to bed, I usually put on worship music, new and old, and just relax. 

This past Friday night I was trying to learn a song on the guitar, and it wasnt working, I decided that I would play random notes and remembering Ann's post from this day,  I realized that in this moment could be time for worship.   It didnt all flow perfect at times, but I felt such a presence of our Lord. Even in the parts I edited out, where I didnt even know what to say, It felt right.   I wanted to share some of it with you. 


Our Church received a program for my daughters class to talk about worship.  I found this out on Sunday.  I thought, how funny is this that something that has been on my heart is now also going to be taught in her class!  We can really start to have conversations on it.  She was up in her room Monday with our guitar, writing songs for Jesus.  Just songs on how wonderful He has been to her, just regular conversations of thanks.  So simple and beautiful.  They just flowed.  She knows no chords, she doesnt know exactically how to hold this big instrument in her six year old hands,
 but it was still beautiful praise...

This is I think where worship is at for me right now.  To be free in it, to be free in Christ to raise my hands if I feel the urge, to kneel, to dance and laugh or cry and weap.  Worship has so many emotions in it.  They are not just melodies and lyrics, there is feeling and prayer to them as well.  If we are just harmonizing with those around us, but not focused on bringing glory to Christ, then are we doing it right?  I love it when the harmonizing is between me and Jesus.


Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ~ Colossians 3:16

Not everyone sings on key, or can play even a beat.  Some people sing quiet, or belt it out. Some with hymn books, others with projection screens and new music, some original, some inspired, some with drums and electric guitar, others with organ and piano.  I dont think it matters.  Singing in your car, singing in the shower, humming as you lull young ones to sleep.  All of it can be praise to God.  It doesnt matter how you sound to those around you... it matters though that you are doing it for HIM.  I think thats what He has been trying to show me

My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. ~ Psalm 71:23




Friday, February 18, 2011

Hungry for the word of God???

Okay... I know I have said I want my children to be hungry for the word of God... but seriously, I didnt mean it like this!!!!!!

This is my youngest son, Zayden-William Thomas, who is two. He's quite the character and even at his young age I understand how important to share with him what I know about God and what the Bible says. We do daily devotions that are geared towards children and are easy and fun to understand. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6 ~ Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.(NIV)~

But I keep telling him, "if you eat your Bible... we wont be able to read it!"...maybe thats another good reason for memorizing scripture!!!!