I said "why is it that the computer I used 5 years ago allowed me to listen to WAY FM, chat on ICQ and AOL, and surf all at the same time, but this computer gets bogged down?!"
Katie responds "Why don't you play around in the registry. Move a comma and see what happens."
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL That was funny!
Monday, June 30, 2003
The Passion
Mel Gibson says that the Holy Ghost worked through him during the making of this film. At Church of the Masses, Barbara offers a "sneak peek" of the film in her post I Saw the Passion. Now, I can't wait to see it!
Where is Your Focus?
Last night I had the blessing of seeing a vision from God come to life. If you have visited the Sister's in Christ website, you may have read about God's Gift. I recently (like two minutes ago) realized that I left out what is probably the most important part of the testimony. I will have to add it later but for now I will just share. When I walked into the house I looked into the living room and I could see Bible study taking place. Every time I looked into that room, I saw the same vision. That is one of the main clues I had that this was the house that God wanted us to have. As we looked at other houses, I could not see the vision that I saw in this house. That was my key motivation for believing that we would end up here.
Our church decided to have a SaLT shake this summer where we would all stop meeting in the regular homes with the same group of people that we had been for some time now. In the effort to get us to meet more people and also to avoid the possibility of any cliques forming (this is a major goal in our church.......NO CLIQUES), they decided to have everybody living in the same area meet in their area. Our pastor's house was damaged in the recent severe weather that TN has experienced so his wife called and asked if we could host the SaLT meetings here! Hey, this is leading right into what my blog is about!
As we were closing in prayer last night, I felt a nudging of the Holy Spirit to open my eyes and see the vision God gave me come to life. I was and am blessed to the point of tears! I opened my eyes and saw a circle of about 13-15 men and women praying in one accord in the living room of the home that God gave us! I felt like God had just singled me out just to lavish His love on me in that moment. This moment wouldn't have happened if we had been meeting at Pastor's home last night. The point I'm trying to make is that we can't see the whole picture. God gave me a vision and I believed in it...in Him and that He gave it to me. I don't know if anything spectacular is going to happen because of our meetings here this summer, I only know He gave me His vision and I saw it take place here, last night because my Pastor's home is being remodeled. (Oh, and by the way, the tree falling on their house fell in a way that they are able to have some remodeling done that they've been wanting to do for some time. So this trial has turned out to be a blessing for them too!)
The point of my blog, "Where is Your Focus" comes from our discussion last night. We talked about how we focus on why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. We discussed that we have a tendency on focusing on the bad things that happen like why a child has to die from Cancer, or why a Christian mother and her children struggle financially and emotionally after fleeing from an abusive man...or why that man has to be abusive...Why can't God just change his heart? We focus on the bad that God has allowed instead of all the things that may not have happened because God didn't allow it. The child who died could have lived longer and suffered more. The parents of that child may have found God's unending, intimate love for them and helped others through these difficult times. The mother of the children may be in prison due to actions taken during a moment of temporary insanity. She may be addicted to alcohol or drugs. One of the children may have been permanently scarred.
We live in a fallen world. From the beginning God has given us free will and since the fall of man bad things have been happening to "good" people. Personally, I see "bad" people as a product of bad things happening to "good" people. We all react differently and we all have a nature to sin. God never promised us a just world. What He has promised is that He will be with us through it all. What he has promised is eternal justice in the end for all believers...eternity with God. That is our hope as Christians. We should focus on the prize that comes at the end of this life and at the beginning of living. We should do our best to take as many with us by going into all the world and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If that is our focus, we will not only get through the hard times, but we will grow stronger and closer to the One who is with us through them....the one who died to save us. Where was His focus?
Our church decided to have a SaLT shake this summer where we would all stop meeting in the regular homes with the same group of people that we had been for some time now. In the effort to get us to meet more people and also to avoid the possibility of any cliques forming (this is a major goal in our church.......NO CLIQUES), they decided to have everybody living in the same area meet in their area. Our pastor's house was damaged in the recent severe weather that TN has experienced so his wife called and asked if we could host the SaLT meetings here! Hey, this is leading right into what my blog is about!
As we were closing in prayer last night, I felt a nudging of the Holy Spirit to open my eyes and see the vision God gave me come to life. I was and am blessed to the point of tears! I opened my eyes and saw a circle of about 13-15 men and women praying in one accord in the living room of the home that God gave us! I felt like God had just singled me out just to lavish His love on me in that moment. This moment wouldn't have happened if we had been meeting at Pastor's home last night. The point I'm trying to make is that we can't see the whole picture. God gave me a vision and I believed in it...in Him and that He gave it to me. I don't know if anything spectacular is going to happen because of our meetings here this summer, I only know He gave me His vision and I saw it take place here, last night because my Pastor's home is being remodeled. (Oh, and by the way, the tree falling on their house fell in a way that they are able to have some remodeling done that they've been wanting to do for some time. So this trial has turned out to be a blessing for them too!)
The point of my blog, "Where is Your Focus" comes from our discussion last night. We talked about how we focus on why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. We discussed that we have a tendency on focusing on the bad things that happen like why a child has to die from Cancer, or why a Christian mother and her children struggle financially and emotionally after fleeing from an abusive man...or why that man has to be abusive...Why can't God just change his heart? We focus on the bad that God has allowed instead of all the things that may not have happened because God didn't allow it. The child who died could have lived longer and suffered more. The parents of that child may have found God's unending, intimate love for them and helped others through these difficult times. The mother of the children may be in prison due to actions taken during a moment of temporary insanity. She may be addicted to alcohol or drugs. One of the children may have been permanently scarred.
We live in a fallen world. From the beginning God has given us free will and since the fall of man bad things have been happening to "good" people. Personally, I see "bad" people as a product of bad things happening to "good" people. We all react differently and we all have a nature to sin. God never promised us a just world. What He has promised is that He will be with us through it all. What he has promised is eternal justice in the end for all believers...eternity with God. That is our hope as Christians. We should focus on the prize that comes at the end of this life and at the beginning of living. We should do our best to take as many with us by going into all the world and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If that is our focus, we will not only get through the hard times, but we will grow stronger and closer to the One who is with us through them....the one who died to save us. Where was His focus?
Prayer
I haven't prayed today. Instead, I am blogging about how I don't pray as effectively as I should. I feel close to God when I study His Word. He talks to me that way. I feel close to Him when I fellowship with other believers. I really feel close to Him during praise and worship and when listening to the preaching of His word. I try to walk close beside Jesus and live my life in a way that will glorify Him. But, when I pray (which isn't frequent enough) there seems to be something missing in the connection. There's something blocking me from intimate communion with the Love of my life. I find this discouraging and therefore am even less motivated to pray again at another time.
I am truly struggling in my prayer life as I am struggling in my personal life. The weird thing is......God still provides. I guess that goes to show that He truly does know the desires of our hearts even before we make our requests known to Him. He just wants to hear from us. So, I'll continue to work on this weak area in my Christian walk and I will PRAY for Him to draw me close. That can be scary because sometimes when I pray like that, circumstances arise that force me on my knees. I wonder..... if I prayed more intimately and regularly...........could that prevent some of those difficult circumstances? I imagine it probably would.
Father, I pray that you will cause others to pray for this weakness in my walk with You.
I am truly struggling in my prayer life as I am struggling in my personal life. The weird thing is......God still provides. I guess that goes to show that He truly does know the desires of our hearts even before we make our requests known to Him. He just wants to hear from us. So, I'll continue to work on this weak area in my Christian walk and I will PRAY for Him to draw me close. That can be scary because sometimes when I pray like that, circumstances arise that force me on my knees. I wonder..... if I prayed more intimately and regularly...........could that prevent some of those difficult circumstances? I imagine it probably would.
Father, I pray that you will cause others to pray for this weakness in my walk with You.
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Daily Biscuit
I posted a comment on one of Owen's entries on his site at Un.collected Entries. He asked if her could use it as a springboard for a Daily Biscuit and I said "sure".
This is giving me an opportunity to further expore my comment to his entry that day and also provide some answers for the Daily Biscuit today.
1. Did Christ have an advantage over us?
Please, avoid the pat and perfect theological answers. Be real.
2. What is the hard thing for you to yield control of?
3. How does your heart respond when you "can't 'see' it"?
1. As I go about my day and all the struggles I have through it, I sometimes wonder if Christ had an advantage over me in the way He could see situations or even the hearts of people. I go about my day and something may happen that stresses me out...which would be almost any day at work lately. Given way too much stuff to do and no time to get it done and it's already late by 2 weeks. I worry about getting it done. I want it done perfect. It drives me crazy, makes me irritable and no fun to be around. I worry non stop about how it will all get handled. Jesus teaches us not too worry about tomorrow because today has enough worries of its own. He sees things eternally. I am supposed to see things eternally, but in my limited humanity, try as I might...I am finite. I see today with all its worries. I see tomorrow and all its worries. I want to be like Christ and live for the moment that my Father has me in. I want to glorify Him in that moment, but I am distracted by life. Jesus was so focused on eternal life...He could see it. He was and is I AM. He lives eternally...is that an advantage? From my limited sight I think that being able to see the whole picture could be an advantage.
Also, as I go about my day I encounter other beings. Some bless me some make life even more complicated for me; the slow driver ahead of me, the customer that complains about anything and everything, the employee that is difficult to get along with. Some of these things are a definite problem with me...and how I handle things. But sometimes there is something about that other person that causes them to be difficult. Christ always was able to see the heart of a person. God sees the heart. He knows the reason behind some persons behavior. He knows exactly what that heart needs for healing. He supplies the balm. If I was treated poorly by someone, I think "wow! they were rude!" and my first "instinct" is sometimes..."loser!", but Jesus, knowing the heart of that person and understanding the hardship and suffering that person is enduring has compassion. Jesus, who sees the heart, knows that that person needs someone to listen to them talk about their heartache and gives them a shoulder to cry on. It seems to me that being able to see the heart of a person would allow me to be more compassionate and less judgemental.
Also, Jesus knows the end of the story...He knows the judgement of that person already. Did that knowledge influence how He handled people? Jesus was followed around by the religious elite of his day. Many of them followed Him around looking for the opportunity to "question" Him and "trap" him in contradictions or whatever they could to prove Him wrong in His teaching. Jesus did not always respond to people...but there were times He did. He knew exactly whose hearts were open to hear a Word from Him and whose hearts were hard.
As a Christian the Spirit of the Living God resides in me. My goal is to walk close to my Lord. To know God. As I grow in Him and become sensitive to the leading of His Spirit, should I not be given insight into the hearts of men? Can I not draw on that same knowledge that Christ did? I believe that it is possible, but until I have learned the how, I need to learn to treat people with compassion. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Let God handle the rest. I can not know a person's eternal judgement, but I must still do what God requires of me. That is to be loving, compassionate, patient and good (and every other good attribute!) I must remember that while "those" people may not "deserve" to be loved, neither do I deserve the Love God lavishes on me.
2. The hard thing for me to yield control of are my thoughts. I want to hold my thoughts captive to Christ and every day is a struggle. I pray that God would grow me into the likeness of His Son, so I guess the fact that it is something I struggle with is a good thing...means that I am getting somewhere. I can know that a thought was not Godly at all, try to retract it and replace it with something pure. What I hope someday to achieve is simply not having that struggle anymore and that my thought life would be more Christ and less me.
3. My heart responds poorly at times because I can't know the heart of another. I see their appearance, I see their circumstances (on the outside), I see their attitudes, but I don't know their hearts. Many times I "assume" what the state of their heart is..."well, if they weren't so lazy they could get a job and do something with their lives". If I took time out of my busy life filling it with treasures I can't take with me to my mansion, I might talk to that person, develop a relationship and discover that person's heart. HEY, THAT'S IT! GOD SENT JESUS TO RELATE TO US...TO HELP US BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM...TO KNOW HIS HEART AND KNOW OURS! HOW DO WE GET TO KNOW THE HEART OF ANOTHER? BUILD A RELATIONSHIP! WOOOOHOOOOOOO! So, I could respond more appropriately to that widow and mother of 2 young children who recently became unemployed, because I got to peek inside her heart.
Revelation through a blog. God is awesome!
This is giving me an opportunity to further expore my comment to his entry that day and also provide some answers for the Daily Biscuit today.
1. Did Christ have an advantage over us?
Please, avoid the pat and perfect theological answers. Be real.
2. What is the hard thing for you to yield control of?
3. How does your heart respond when you "can't 'see' it"?
1. As I go about my day and all the struggles I have through it, I sometimes wonder if Christ had an advantage over me in the way He could see situations or even the hearts of people. I go about my day and something may happen that stresses me out...which would be almost any day at work lately. Given way too much stuff to do and no time to get it done and it's already late by 2 weeks. I worry about getting it done. I want it done perfect. It drives me crazy, makes me irritable and no fun to be around. I worry non stop about how it will all get handled. Jesus teaches us not too worry about tomorrow because today has enough worries of its own. He sees things eternally. I am supposed to see things eternally, but in my limited humanity, try as I might...I am finite. I see today with all its worries. I see tomorrow and all its worries. I want to be like Christ and live for the moment that my Father has me in. I want to glorify Him in that moment, but I am distracted by life. Jesus was so focused on eternal life...He could see it. He was and is I AM. He lives eternally...is that an advantage? From my limited sight I think that being able to see the whole picture could be an advantage.
Also, as I go about my day I encounter other beings. Some bless me some make life even more complicated for me; the slow driver ahead of me, the customer that complains about anything and everything, the employee that is difficult to get along with. Some of these things are a definite problem with me...and how I handle things. But sometimes there is something about that other person that causes them to be difficult. Christ always was able to see the heart of a person. God sees the heart. He knows the reason behind some persons behavior. He knows exactly what that heart needs for healing. He supplies the balm. If I was treated poorly by someone, I think "wow! they were rude!" and my first "instinct" is sometimes..."loser!", but Jesus, knowing the heart of that person and understanding the hardship and suffering that person is enduring has compassion. Jesus, who sees the heart, knows that that person needs someone to listen to them talk about their heartache and gives them a shoulder to cry on. It seems to me that being able to see the heart of a person would allow me to be more compassionate and less judgemental.
Also, Jesus knows the end of the story...He knows the judgement of that person already. Did that knowledge influence how He handled people? Jesus was followed around by the religious elite of his day. Many of them followed Him around looking for the opportunity to "question" Him and "trap" him in contradictions or whatever they could to prove Him wrong in His teaching. Jesus did not always respond to people...but there were times He did. He knew exactly whose hearts were open to hear a Word from Him and whose hearts were hard.
As a Christian the Spirit of the Living God resides in me. My goal is to walk close to my Lord. To know God. As I grow in Him and become sensitive to the leading of His Spirit, should I not be given insight into the hearts of men? Can I not draw on that same knowledge that Christ did? I believe that it is possible, but until I have learned the how, I need to learn to treat people with compassion. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Let God handle the rest. I can not know a person's eternal judgement, but I must still do what God requires of me. That is to be loving, compassionate, patient and good (and every other good attribute!) I must remember that while "those" people may not "deserve" to be loved, neither do I deserve the Love God lavishes on me.
2. The hard thing for me to yield control of are my thoughts. I want to hold my thoughts captive to Christ and every day is a struggle. I pray that God would grow me into the likeness of His Son, so I guess the fact that it is something I struggle with is a good thing...means that I am getting somewhere. I can know that a thought was not Godly at all, try to retract it and replace it with something pure. What I hope someday to achieve is simply not having that struggle anymore and that my thought life would be more Christ and less me.
3. My heart responds poorly at times because I can't know the heart of another. I see their appearance, I see their circumstances (on the outside), I see their attitudes, but I don't know their hearts. Many times I "assume" what the state of their heart is..."well, if they weren't so lazy they could get a job and do something with their lives". If I took time out of my busy life filling it with treasures I can't take with me to my mansion, I might talk to that person, develop a relationship and discover that person's heart. HEY, THAT'S IT! GOD SENT JESUS TO RELATE TO US...TO HELP US BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM...TO KNOW HIS HEART AND KNOW OURS! HOW DO WE GET TO KNOW THE HEART OF ANOTHER? BUILD A RELATIONSHIP! WOOOOHOOOOOOO! So, I could respond more appropriately to that widow and mother of 2 young children who recently became unemployed, because I got to peek inside her heart.
Revelation through a blog. God is awesome!
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