Take the ultimate leap of faith- get on the ladder

This is going to be a long one… I’m going to break it up into little manageable segments, publishing the whole thing into two or three separate posts.

I’ve been stuck on that same verse I blogged about just a little while ago. 2 Peter 1:5-8 says “… make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It dawned on me that there’s a process to what Peter is saying. It all starts with faith; however, I can’t just jump from having faith to knowing how to love like Jesus does. I have to climb the ladder. The first step is getting on, and that takes faith. Stepping on takes guts because I could fall, I could freeze, or the ladder could lead to nowhere. It takes faith to step on and stay on, trusting that Jesus has got my back and won’t let me fall or freeze. I need to recognize that the rest of the way up the ladder my faith has to be my backbone. I need Jesus to give me the courage, the strength, and cue me on the correct timing as to when I should take another step.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When I look at the ladder, it’s not all that impressive. It looks old. Beat up. Neglected. I left it chillin’ in the attic for so long and now that I’m finally pulling it out it makes me afraid to take that first leap of faith. Jesus says, “don’t worry child, don’t be afraid. I’ll be holding that ladder and holding that hand of yours every step of the way. Oh, and the ladder might look old and from this view, but just wait till you get to the top!” Huh… what? Well I’m curious now, it seems like quite an adventure!

Once I’m on the ladder, some time later Jesus says “okay, you’re ready to take another step.” That next step is goodness. Without the Holy Spirit inside me I’m just no good. I do not think about doing good and I don’t care about doing good. But once I take that leap of faith and get on the ladder I find myself wanting to good for others like He has done for me. Once I’ve been hanging out at goodness for a while Jesus says, “okay, you’re ready to take another step.”

That next step is knowledge. Sometimes knowledge can get in the way. Looking back… the original Greek the word for knowledge is gnōsis. It pretty much means head knowledge. This is the step on the ladder that introduces intense Bible study. Delving into the Word is SO important but one can’t be forced into the Bible before s/he has a foundation of faith and has practiced using that faith for good. Remember… there’s a process and there’s a reason for this process.

I’ve spent a lot of time here on this step. I just can’t seem to know the Word good enough. However Jesus says, “you can’t stay here forever. I just wanted you to learn the importance of knowing My Word and to practice learning how to read it and make it a part of your daily life. It’s time for you to move on to self-control.”

…to be continued

When it’s hard to love the beloved…

Sometimes the people you live with aren’t as easy to get along with. The people you work with are impossible- not to mention those crazy homeless people lurking around on the streets. You always find yourself thinking that they’re just crazy and ridiculous. They don’t make any sense. They’re always nit-picking about the dumbest things and can always find something to complain about.

Well… it’s easy to get frustrated and walk away. It’s easy to think that I don’t need to be Jesus to them because I can’t get along with them. Yeah,they’rethe ridiculous ones. Eh, not so much. I think it’s really me that’s being ridiculous.

They don’t know that they’re saved by grace. They don’t know they need Jesus. They don’t know how to love because they haven’t yet accepted the love from God the Father. They don’t know and I’m contributing to their ignorance. I know that I need the Lord and I’m constantly asking for more of His loving grace. How could I not want to build a relationship with this “impossibly difficult” people. I have a chance to make Jesus known to them! That shouldn’t be a chore, it should be exciting!

Jesus doesn’t say to only love the people that are easy to love. He says to love EVERYONE. If I’m not loving the people that are harder to love then I’m the crazy, ridiculous one. God desires to work through me and to make Himself known through me. When I choose to be arrogant and selfish I leave people swarming through life searching for hope.

God, transform the way we think. Transform the way I think. Help us out when we’re trying to love people that are harder for us to love. Pour Your grace all over us God, we want Your will to be done. We want to be used by You to plant seeds in every life that we encounter!

We’re all great worshipers

 ”Worship.“ Photograph. Duneland Community Church. 2012. 7 May 2012. (not sure if that citation is quite right but I tried…)

Some of us worship ourselves; some of us worship drinking; some of us worship sex; some of us worship drugs; some of us worship success and money; some of us worship our car; some of us worship our spouse/partner; some of us worship our children; some of us worship our friends; some of us worship clothes; some of us worship knowledge; some of us worship the mirror; some of us worship technology. We’re all great worshipers. 

We were created to be in relationship with Jesus Christ. We were created out of and because of love. We were created to forever worship our amazing Creator. However, most of us funnel this worship into other things such as all of the examples listed above.

We’re all great worshipers because we were created to worship; we can’t help but worship. The question is who or what are we going to give that worship to?

Jesus stands with open arms, desiring a relationship. He is longing for our devotion, our worship. To test myself I think of what I give most of my time to this week. I work about 40 hours a week, but I can still be spending all that time with Him, working for Him. Was I spending all my time at work worried and stressed out, or did I pray for the customers I served and did I model Jesus to my coworkers? Where was my head at today? This week? Did I spend more time going out dancing than reading the word? Did I spend more time with my boyfriend than I did with my Lover Jesus Christ?

Where are you putting your time? What do you worship? Most of the time it’s something “good.” Exercising is good, relationships are good, work is good. It’s when it is in replace of the Lord that it becomes a problem.

Lord, help me to put You first. Open my eyes to ways that I don’t serve you first; open my eyes to the things that I worship in place of You. Change my heart, pull it in closer to Yours, and mold it into a heart that makes you smile!

I wanna thrive, not just survive

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, LOVE.

For of you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:3-9

I don’t wanna walk down the wide path; I don’t wanna live the “normal” life. I don’t wanna get stuck in the lie that conformity is the way to go. I don’t wanna get stuck in a habit of mimicking a zombie every day of my life. I don’t wanna become comfortable. I don’t wanna pass up the chance to be radically passionate in this life. I don’t wanna just merely survive by living a safe life, trying to survive; I want to thrive.

This verse addresses the fact that 95% of the people in this world are just concerned with worldly things: survival, money, sex, pleasure. These things are all good… it’s when they’re put first that problems arise. Worldly perception causes people to get stuck in the habit of living to survive. However, God tells His children to not get caught up in the world. Be in it but not of it, He says. How are believers going to be used to save souls if they’re focus is on survival? If all of us believers start setting our minds on eternity rather than this world we are going to be vessels for the Lord to save the souls of His lost loves.

We have a chance to participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of this world! By getting to know Him better through the Word, His creation, and other Christians we can become effective and productive for Him.

How am I using my knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ to be effective and productive?

How are you using your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to be effective and productive?

Let us rally up and allow the Holy Spirit to start a revival of passion! Let us long to see the day that the 80% of America that says their believers have a change of heart and start walking in the divine nature that is sitting at the edge of their feet!

Are you in?

Why not? Don’t be afraid… He’ll help you every step of the way. Be bold so that we might all live a radical life walking in our divine nature!

Where has the passion gone?

Just took a couple minutes to look through some of my posts. They’re not all grammatically correct and some of them don’t make all that much sense, but it’s cool seeing the adventure my heart has embarked upon since coming out to California. Sitting here I’m wondering whether I’ve actually taken advantage of all the opportunities the Lord has provided out here. I blogged once that I felt like He was leading me out into the desert to pull me closer into His heart. I wish I took more advantage of these last six months. I wish I let Him pull me in closer. I wish I let Him impact my life more than I had.

Reading thorough some of my posts I’m wondering where all of that passion has gone. Where did my excitement over writing go? Why did I stop writing about those sleepless nights? Why did my excitement for an adventure go? Where did my excitement for getting to know my Father more go?

I’ve hardly been in the Word these last few months. I was inseparable from the Word before… I was spending hours reading every day. Ughh… I guess every season of my life can’t be the same. Sometimes I’m going to slack off and I’m gonna learn something from it.

Jesus, you’ve got my heart; or at least I think you do.  I try to give it all to you and then I end up taking some of it back. I’m sorry.

Breaking Down the Impenetrable Wall

It’s been a while… I met this amazing boy that I’ve been dating for almost a month, so I guess that’s a pretty good excuse. Everything’s going great except all of these big questions that tend to take over my mind every so often are resurfacing. What’s the point? What’s my purpose? What am I doing here? Why am I here? They’re all good questions to ask and I think I have pretty good answers, but when these questions consume me to the point where they drive me somewhat crazy they’re no longer helpful or productive. This stress tries to build an impenetrable wall between me and the Lord and I’m sick of letting that wall get higher and higher.

Jesus, could you take it down for me? All theses chaotic feelings of discontent, instead of having them pull me further away could You please use them to reel me in closer to Your heart. Jesus, could You use all of this to pull me closer to Jeff too? I don’t want my moods to make him feel like I’m about to bail or not enjoying the time we spend together.

I will have victory over this in the name of Jesus Christ. All this craziness will draw me closer to Him. All these raging emotions and never-ending questions that seem to never cease will make my relationship with Jeff even closer. Us learning how to like one another at our worst and learning how to comfort, encourage, and stand by one another when we can’t do it ourselves can only pull us closer together.

I may not know what my goals are for this year, where I’ll be in 5 years, or have any sort of plan/outline for my life, but my purpose does not come from what I’m doing but who I’m doing it all for. Whenever nonsensical worries and insatiable questions may swarm around in my souls, my purpose remains the same and my God remains bigger than all of it.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4

“… be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 4:7-11

Children trapped in human trafficking

I’m a part of an amazing organization called Zoe. This is their mission statement (taken directly from the website): “ZOE Children’s Homes is an international organization that rescues and cares for children who are sold, or at risk of being sold, into prostitution slavery; orphaned, or victims of other heinous crimes and abuse-worldwide.”

The website provides information that so many people try to hide themselves from. We don’t want to know that a young girl’s virginity can be sold for US$3500. We don’t want to know because I believe that we don’t know what to do. I’m literately crying right now thinking that a human being can be sold for a price when 1 Corinthians 6:20 says that we were bought at a price and that’s by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are His… not ever meant to be sold into the sex slave trade.

These insanely HUGE problems feel hopeless and overwhelming! But I’m telling you right now that there is something you can do! Contribute something as simple as $5 or bigger… $20, 40, 10… whatever the Lord leads you to give. I set a goal to raise $200 for Zoe but I don’t want to see the funds to stop there. I know that if every person that reads this sacrifices their $5 Starbucks for a $2 coffee a couple days in a row that MUCH more can be raised for these children!

Let us RISE UP and make a difference. You can donate on my page here. I can’t WAIT to see how the little bit that you contribute will make such a HUGE impact!!

Do you have kids? Make it fun! Contribute a dollar to the “fundraising for Zoe” jar each time they do an extra task for you for a month. Are you on Etsy? Donate 20% percent of your earnings for the next 5 months. Struggle with depression? Whenever I feel depressed I choose to do something for someone else and the burden is lifted. Although there is a certain time of the month (if ya catch my drift) where my emotions are running wild, I can choose to actively allow the depression to consume or grow me. Choose to make the yoke of depression a footstool into the backyard of the Father’s house of peace and joy.

James says that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. Faith without deeds is dead (James 2). Your faith will increase the more you take your eyes off yourself and place them on our Father in heaven. Our world will get better little by little the more we give of ourselves and the more we pray. Really don’t have the finances? We are all capable of praying! Pray pray and pray some more that the Lord multiplies these funds!

Thank you SO much for reading through this! I hope you feel encouraged by what Zoe is doing and encouraged by the huge role you’re playing in this. God bless you! Have a beautiful day : )