What Do You Think About...

The past few days I have been listening to sermons by Francis Chan.  One thing I really like about him is his challenge to look beyond the scope of "typical Christianity."  You know, the "I go to church on Sunday...I give a few dollars for offering...I say thank you once in a while for the easy life I have."  Now, first, I don't want to generalize and say thing is everyone, because while I know people follow this pattern, I also know there are very strong believers out there, who are legitimately just wanting to follow the LORD.  I also don't want this to be just a post about the exact same things that he talks about.  I want to focus on one key question that he asks, which challenged me to think beyond my typical mindset.  Francis Chan asks the audience what areas of life do you need to change.  The thing I really liked about it was not that he asked that, but how he phrased it.  Basically, he is tells everyone to ask God what it is that needs co...

Every Sunday in church, after singing songs for worship, the screen always says "coming before the throne."  Seeing it every Sunday, I often don't think about what this means.  I was challenged recently about this idea of coming before the throne.  Although I don't remember what it was that triggered this thought, I remember just wondering what it truly meant.  Those who have not experienced a monarchy, often can have a difficult time picturing what this would look like.  I want to think about two different things when it comes to the phrase, coming before the throne.  First, I want to think about what the throne of God looks like vs. how I often picture it (maybe others can relate).  Secondly, what should our respond be when approaching the throne of God. Every time I think about coming before a throne, I start thinking of movies, because this is all I really have to go by.  Looking at different movies, they represent the throne room differentl...

Lately, there are been many different occurrences that which has really helped me understand both the power of God, but also the plan in which God has laid out for everyone.  One of those examples happened Friday night.  I decided to go on a prayer walk, so that I could spend some intentional time with God.  We have a very nice trail (White Pine Trail) right by my house, which made it easy to figure out where I could spend this time.  So I was walking on the White Pine Trail praying that God would soften my heart.  I know that over the years, one thing I have struggled with immensely is being so self-centered and as a result, my heart would be hardened to, well, pretty much anything that didn't have to do with making my life better. Little side-note in the story:  lately I have been trying to focus and understand what it means to meditate on God's Word. As I was walking, I decided that I would just start reading scripture verses out loud.  I opened...

These are two difficult things for me to imagine.  I think this is probably normal.  I think the reason for me that faith can be so difficult is because I cannot physically see the person of God standing right in front of me.  Now, this isn't to say that I don't believe in God, because I do, and I hope that my life demonstrates my faith in him.  What this does mean though is that this is one area where Satan can trip me up.  He tells me things like, "God doesn't exist, that is ridiculous", or "God can't love you, why would He ever love someone as messed up as you."  When I think about it too much, I can begin to believe these lies.  In a sense, the second one is true.  How could God love someone as messed up as me?  But it doesn't matter that, God doesn't tell me to make sense of every single detail in the Bible.  He simply tells me to drop everything, putting my trust in him and to follow him (Matthew 4:18-22).  But this is definit...

Last night I was thinking about a song that I hadn't heard for a long time.  It is a song by MercyMe called "Homesick."  In this song, they talk about a longing and desire to be with God.  It is like when a young child goes somewhere away from their parents, and feel the "butterflies" in their stomach, because they miss home.    When I listen to this song, it reminds me of what Paul says in Philippians 1:21, "to live is Christ, to die is gain."  Now, to be completely honest, I have felt these feelings that Paul is wrestling with in Philippians.  He talks about this struggle between wanting to be with Christ in Heaven, "which is better by far," and being in the body of Christ, which means "fruitful labor." In this conflict that Paul is dealing with, he completely gives up of the control that he could have.  He leaves it up to God.  He says that he is convinced that he is supposed to be here in the body.  Paul recognizes his purpo...