Lets face it most of us to not think about God often. We have to consciously think about Him in our everyday lives. We are so consumed with other jank that God takes a back burner to our lives. I am just like everyone else there are times/days where I don't think much about God. But almost every night when I see a beautiful sunset or when it is clear and i can see the mountains far off I think to myself "Wow God you are good" who else could have made something so beautiful from nothing. And He shares it with us. Outside of nature I normally don't think "wow God is good" unless He has helped me or a family member in some way. Most of us don't, How many times have we finished talking to a friend and walked away thinking God is amazing and thanking Him for creating the other person so that we could be friends and so on? Not many, at least for me. But a few weeks ago while in Portland Or, on senior trip we went to Voodoo donuts and after buying our donuts we were waiting outside in the rain for our vans to come back around and pick us up. I noticed a homeless guy maybe 25-30 years old just chilling in the rain. I had already had some of my donut and didn't need the rest so i just gave it to him. At this moment most would just walk away but i knew i had sometime and that nothing would happen because i had some of my brothers in Christ watching my back. I started talking to him and found out his name is Jeremy and he had moved to Oregon from Texas he didn't go too deep into his story, which is fine and expected. But we just talked for a few minutes and in those few minutes i felt heart broken and was wishing that i could help him in anyway. maybe talking was the thing he needed at that time. someone to show him that they care and that he is not invisible. after a while of talking our vans came around and i had to leave and i asked what his name was and told him that i would be keeping him in my prayers. To be honest there have been days that i have not thought about him but on the days that he comes to mind i pray for him. will i ever see Jeremy again? probably not. Did i make a huge change in his life? probably not. But in those moments i was reminded of what we (as followers of Christ) are called to do. To feed the hungry, clothe the naked, to love all. To take time to try and help those that we can and to treat everyone as Christ would, as a human. Nobody is invisible to God, He loves all those that he has created.
My challenge for all 2 of you that read this (haha) is that the next time you see someone in need (in anyway) help in anyway you can. Maybe it is just talking/listening to them maybe you can give them food or a drink or something maybe all you can do is pray for them. When you see an ambulance on its way to an emergency send up a prayer for wherever they are going and for whomever they are going to help. If you see someone broken down on the side of the road and if you can help them (i also understand, that as a woman, it is not always safe in that situation one can call people to go help) Open your eyes pray and ask God to show you those that He needs/wants you to help that day.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Lukewarm leftovers
So a couple weeks ago we had a revival at church and then we had senior trip. This was where the young adults group takes the seniors in high school on a trip to wherever and gets to know them and show them that there is something for them after youth group in the church. Anyway I was in charge of this years senior trip and while looking through songs to sing and thinking/praying about what the theme should be and what I should talk about the simple word Worship stuck out to me. So our theme was Worship, living for a loving God.
While praying and searching for some sort of bible verse or something to follow one of my friends suggested I read the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. The title of 5 of his chapters became kind of an outline. Some of you right now are probably thinking "how does the book crazy love work with your 'worship' theme?" easy. I believe that the only way one can truly worship is through love, so it works. We do not worship something we hate, we cant.
When we truly Love God we can truly worship Him. All weekend I also used the analogy i read about in Lui Giglios book "the Air I Breathe" he states that everyone worships and we can find out what we worship by following our path that leads to the throne. Wherever we spend most of our time, money, effort/strength is what we worship.
Anyway this all lead up to one night when I talked about being a "lukewarm" Christian and giving God "leftovers" God addresses how much he hates lukewarmness in Revelation when he says he will "Spit them out of his mouth" now when it comes to spit most of us think of the typical lugy. This is not what is being said here. This is the only time in the Bible that this Greek word is used, it translates to spit/gagging/wanting to blow chunks. We can think about this in our terms, a little, who likes their food to be lukewarm? or lukewarm coffee? or even a lukewarm bath/shower?
Francis Chan relates a lukewarm Christian back to the parable of the seed. He states "I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it." (67)
I agree with the author, going back to Gigglio's analogy of the path I think that for some of us that path does lead to God but we have thorns that can pop up on our path and we need God (The Great Gardener) to come into our lives and take them out and that may take time and some digging to get to the root of the thorn bush.
For the average christian, one who does love God and they do worship Him but they can have things that come up and try and choke that relationship. Nobody is alone in that aspect.
Leftovers;
When one is a lukewarm christian all they can give God is "leftovers" this pisses God off so much. As if being lukewarm wasn't bad enough we give Him the worst we can. By worst I mean we are not giving Him our best. That's all He wants and He deserves it! I mean come on He is the Creator of the World! He made EVERYTHING He is All that IS and once WAS! He should be getting nothing less than our best in every way! The Bible talks about this in Malachi 1:8 when God is saying that what the priests are doing is Evil. They are not sacrificing their best and most pure animals, they are trying to give God animals that have blemishes and in someway are not following the law that He established in Leviticus. He tells them that they are being evil and He wants them to close the temple gates. So in a way God rather us not give Him any form of sacrifice if it is not our best.
To wrap this up; If we are lukewarm (i.e. not living fully for God everyday and striving to learn more about Him and not loving as He loves us) in the end he will vomit us out of His mouth in disgust. And He rather us (be cold) not sacrifice to Him than to give Him something that is less than our best.
And I believe that if we truly love God and accept His love we will not be a lukewarm christian that serves leftovers. We would not be able to because our love is such that we can give nothing but our whole selves and our best. Again this does not mean that I believe that one who truly loves God will have and easy life (see Job) but it will be a better life worth living. He created us so that we may Worship Him.
While praying and searching for some sort of bible verse or something to follow one of my friends suggested I read the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. The title of 5 of his chapters became kind of an outline. Some of you right now are probably thinking "how does the book crazy love work with your 'worship' theme?" easy. I believe that the only way one can truly worship is through love, so it works. We do not worship something we hate, we cant.
When we truly Love God we can truly worship Him. All weekend I also used the analogy i read about in Lui Giglios book "the Air I Breathe" he states that everyone worships and we can find out what we worship by following our path that leads to the throne. Wherever we spend most of our time, money, effort/strength is what we worship.
Anyway this all lead up to one night when I talked about being a "lukewarm" Christian and giving God "leftovers" God addresses how much he hates lukewarmness in Revelation when he says he will "Spit them out of his mouth" now when it comes to spit most of us think of the typical lugy. This is not what is being said here. This is the only time in the Bible that this Greek word is used, it translates to spit/gagging/wanting to blow chunks. We can think about this in our terms, a little, who likes their food to be lukewarm? or lukewarm coffee? or even a lukewarm bath/shower?
Francis Chan relates a lukewarm Christian back to the parable of the seed. He states "I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it." (67)
I agree with the author, going back to Gigglio's analogy of the path I think that for some of us that path does lead to God but we have thorns that can pop up on our path and we need God (The Great Gardener) to come into our lives and take them out and that may take time and some digging to get to the root of the thorn bush.
For the average christian, one who does love God and they do worship Him but they can have things that come up and try and choke that relationship. Nobody is alone in that aspect.
Leftovers;
When one is a lukewarm christian all they can give God is "leftovers" this pisses God off so much. As if being lukewarm wasn't bad enough we give Him the worst we can. By worst I mean we are not giving Him our best. That's all He wants and He deserves it! I mean come on He is the Creator of the World! He made EVERYTHING He is All that IS and once WAS! He should be getting nothing less than our best in every way! The Bible talks about this in Malachi 1:8 when God is saying that what the priests are doing is Evil. They are not sacrificing their best and most pure animals, they are trying to give God animals that have blemishes and in someway are not following the law that He established in Leviticus. He tells them that they are being evil and He wants them to close the temple gates. So in a way God rather us not give Him any form of sacrifice if it is not our best.
To wrap this up; If we are lukewarm (i.e. not living fully for God everyday and striving to learn more about Him and not loving as He loves us) in the end he will vomit us out of His mouth in disgust. And He rather us (be cold) not sacrifice to Him than to give Him something that is less than our best.
And I believe that if we truly love God and accept His love we will not be a lukewarm christian that serves leftovers. We would not be able to because our love is such that we can give nothing but our whole selves and our best. Again this does not mean that I believe that one who truly loves God will have and easy life (see Job) but it will be a better life worth living. He created us so that we may Worship Him.
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