Don’t stop!
So one of my favorite new TV shows is Kings, on NBC. (Watch it on Hulu!!) It’s based on the life of King Saul and David, from 1 Samuel/1 Kings. After watching a few episodes, I was inspired myself to start reading what the Bible had to say, and to see how accurate the show is. It’s been an awesome experience. I’m not quite at the same spot Kings is at, but I’m catching up. Anyway, I was reading in 1 Samuel 12 today, and I read this chunk:
“19 And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” 20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”
God doesn’t want us to stop serving him when we screw up, when we sin! He wants us to continue serving him because he realizes that he’s the best thing ever. Israel is his people, and he didn’t want them to keep running away from him.
How similar is that to us? I know whenever I sin, serving God is the last thing that I think about. I think I’m not worthy and that I won’t do a good enough job. “I screwed up God, how can I serve you?” But the thing is is that it’s not up to us! We were saved by faith, so how can our actions screw that up? We are saved by the Holy Spirit, and we are cleansed by the Holy Spirit. It’s not up to us. Our actions don’t screw that up. So Christians, be encouraged. You’re never too far from God. Continue serving him! Don’t stop!
So go read 1 Samuel 12:19-25 for yourself. Read it. Chew on it. Sit in it. Be encouraged (verse 20, 24) and Challenged (verse 25).
(I’m still not quite sure how to deal with a verse like 25 for Christians… but it is sobering. However, don’t think of how much sin does it take for me to separate me from God, but rather live your life in the light of the Gospel. Continue serving and pursuing Him, and that won’t be a concern because your heart and focus is on God.)
Journal Entry// July 25th, 2009
Hey friends!
It has been FAR too long since I last updated. Things have been crazy as of late… I’ve been at a conference, working on 3 websites, designing logos, creating a MoGraph piece, etc. It’s crazy. But I love it!! I’ll be writing soon(ish) about the conference I went to, Gurus of Tech. I took plenty of pictures and look forward to sharing them with you! But, as the title suggests, this is a journal entry. I feel it’s appropriate for what I’ve been going through lately and look forward to blogging, once again =].
“This is a weird time in my spiritual life. I’m learning not to be driven by guilt, but then what am I driven by? I should be driven by grace. For example, my main struggle is with my quiet time. I usually would spend an hour in the word, praying and reading. Now, it’s usually about 30 minutes. I reach a certain point, and I think to myself, I would only be continuing because I feel bad for stopping. But then I stop because I’m doing it out of guilt instead of out of love. Where’s the disconnect? What the heck am I doing wrong, or right? Should I in the moment of “I’m continuing because I’d feel bad, ” then try to change the motivation to: “I’m loving God this way?” I think so. I think my motivation for having a quiet time is being revealed through this thought, by the point of “If I stop, I’ll feel bad.” I think it’s showing that maybe I’m not going into it with the desire to please God, but rather I’m doing it because I know it’s right and it’s what I should do. Is continuing loving God?
Is this love? Doing what you have no desire to continue doing? Or is that merely commitment? I think commitment flows from love. So I may not feel all warm and gushy, but I am loving God by continuing with the mindset that I’m loving God this way, and not because I’ll feel bad otherwise. Now where are my emotions?
Jeez, I need to realize the God of the UNIVERSE wants to spend time with me! I’m saying to God, “Hey, I’ll catch you later.” I’m turning down an opportunity to spend time with the one who loves me the most in this world! For what? So I can go eat? Go see what’s new in the tech world? Not that those are bad and shouldn’t be enjoyed, I just need to get my priorities straight, and enjoy them in the right context.”
Hope this is encouraging, friends. Please, Comment! Share your thoughts and feelings!
Super exciting
All I have to say is this:
visit this site and bookmark it.
(It’s my new website! told you some crazy things are in the future =p)
Journal Entry// May 22, 2009
Hey friends! It’s been a while. I think that a journal entry will help out, so here we go! I’ll be up and blogging again in no time =]
I didn’t understand Mark yesterday when he said I should ask for trust. I really didn’t have confidence in my salvation, or my savior. I’ve been thinking that what I’ve been doing is so horrible that I was going to lose my salvation. But it’s not! Well, it is bad, cuz it’s sin, but my salvation is intact. I am justified. He already did the rescuing. He’s already done the forgiving. It is done, it is finished. I am God’s. NOTHING can pluck me from his hand or separate me from his love. God promises that what he starts, he will finish. So I am not too far from God. I have not lost my salvation. Did I disobey? Yes. Did I screw up? Yes. But the one who has called me is faithful, even when I’m faithless.
I think I got a glimpse of what an abused person experiences. “Where do I go? I don’t have anyone to trust. The person I should and can trust, I don’t. I don’t have anyone. No one can help me. What am I going to do?” I wanted help so bad, but I didn’t know where to find it. I didn’t really want to tell anyone I was struggling. Didn’t want to look weak. That was pride.
Things I’m learning about myself:
*I don’t like change. I find something I like and I stick with it. I keep looking till I find something I like
*I don’t like being uncomfortable. I don’t like getting out of my comfort zone.
*I usually step up when I need to. Otherwise, I try to be a follower. I feel I’m a good follower, a good #2, right hand man.
Yeah. That’s where I’ve been for the past couple weeks. If you’re struggling right now, know that you are not too far from God. He is wanting to swoop in and rescue you! He’s waiting. Answer his call. He loves you a ton!
I look forward to blogging again friends! Be excited… there are going to be some changes around these parts… Yay!
GAH
Hey friends I’m still alive! school has been crazy hectic I’ll be back and blogging in no time =]… probably after I get back from haiti, the 12th =]
Blog ya then!
Provision
God is good like that. What’s that you ask? Well, basically everything. But most specifically, for me at least, he’s been good in my finances.
Let’s be even more specific. I am a college student. I make just enough money each month to pay for food and rent. That’s about it. Recently, I’ve had a few more financial obligations fall under my belt, such as paying for my own gas now and paying the security deposit on my house next year. This past month, I didn’t work too much and didn’t make that much because of it. I didn’t make rent this month either. YAY!
So here I am, asking God, what the crap. Not in a negative sense, but more like, what in the world am I going to do, God? I don’t have the money. I’m in enough debt as it is with my student loan, I don’t want to go in more debt, what ’s going to happen? So I ask, God, provide the way. What’s great is that God gave me a really solid peace throughout the whole thing. I’ve been super chill about it and not worrying about it, which has been GREAT. Not having to be anxious about something is so nice. Anyway, on wednesday I’m driving to work and trying to think of how I’m going to come up with the money. I call my Mom asking her if she had talked to my grandparents about them giving me the money, because I had asked her to ask them previously. Well, they said no. Nothing against them, because they had helped me BIG time for my mission trip, so no hard feelings there. My mom and I get talking and she mentions talking to the church I work at if they have a benevolence fund. Well, turns out they do! And better, after talking to the church, they said they would help me out!! It’s so awesome how God provided! A big thing that I learned was not being so prideful and asking those around you for help.
Here’s another cool thing. So remember how I was being scammed a while back? Well, those charges have been sitting on my account for a little while now. I disputed them through Citi and got a letter in the mail saying that if I acknowledge them as fraudulent, then Citi will close my account and give me a new one, removing the fraudulent charges. You know what’s cool? I owe $168. And what do you know, the fraudulent charges add up to $169. How awesome is that!! And I still have $50 in my checkings account! WOO
1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
I know that God doesn’t desire for me to be in debt. And so I asked him. And what did he do? He got me out of debt =].
God’s taken care of me up until now, and I don’t see him stopping any time soon. Actually, never. So if you ever doubt that God isn’t or won’t take care of you, consider my testimony. Be encouraged. It may take a little while, but God is there and will never and HAS never left you. Love you guys. Be Blessed =]
Updated – Random Thought //Windows and blinds
Haha, this was never supposed to be published! I wrote down my thoughts real quick so that I wouldn’t forget them and hit publish instead of save as draft! woops! No better time than now though…
So why do we have windows, but keep the blinds closed? That doesn’t really make sense to me. We have a window into the world, this beautiful, beautiful world, but then shut it out, because it’s too “bright.” It’s not “energy efficient.” Now, I am as green as the next guy, maybe even more in certain regards, but who cares! Turn your ac off and open the windows! Let that beautiful sunlight in! Did you know that in the depression era, in the ghettos of New York and Chicago and others, people suffered from serious depression because they had no windows? No windows at all! We have them, yet we choose to block out what is behind it.
Think about it. You know you love it when you see a beautiful day outside. Why not invite it inside? For me, sunlight is such a beautiful light. It provides such beautiful contrast, brings out the richness of the colors in nature, all sorts of things. I love it when I wake up and walk into my kitchen and see the sun shining on my dining room table… I’ll take a picture sometime and show you guys. It’s beautiful.
What now? What sort of benefit do you get from reading this little rant of mine? Learn to Enjoy life! What’s the purpose in living if it sucks? Live in freedom. LIVE. For me, that includes opening the windows. It’s simple and elegant. Life. It can be awesome if you let it.
Random Thought //”Quit Daydreaming”
So it’s been a while since my last posting… So dearly sorry. Lots of stuff been going on.
So here’s a random thought. I was watching The Neverending Story with my sister and niece over spring break. In the very beginning, the main character, Sebastian, is sitting at the dinner table eating breakfast with his dad. His dad was commenting on how his teachers were reporting that Sebastian day dreamed too much and didn’t pay attention. His dad proceeded to tell him to “quit daydreaming and face your problems.” How sad. That’s right, how sad. From personal experience, I feel that we don’t daydream enough. Whatever happened to imagining clouds were lions and that the birds were secretly dragons, but during the day had to hide so they wouldn’t be killed by the evil dragon hunters? Whatever happened to making animated flip books out of your vocabulary books, or doodling on napkins at McDonalds? I fear that creativity is something that is being killed in today’s society. Our schools are pushing more and more academics, critical thought, and not enough abstract thought.
I remember when I was a child, I was creative. I thought outside the box. I would see bear faces in the trees, and imagine that I was a wild space cadet, traveling all across the universe. Or I was a fighter pilot, saving my nation. Or I was a Knight in shining armor, saving my 4th grade crush from the evil bully. IMAGINATION. In our classes (and society) we are taught to write papers a certain way, to read books a certain way, pray to God a certain way, talk to our parents a certain way, do everything a certain way. It has to fit into a box. The beautiful thing about creativity is that it makes the box it fits in! You can’t make it conform to a set of rules, although guidelines definitely assist in the creative process, such as the rule of thirds or color harmonies. Creativity is being stifled.
So what do you leave here with? What do you do or think or say? Let’s all protest at the capitol? No. Not necessarily. What you can do is this: grab a piece of scratch paper and draw. Nothing in particular. Just put your pen on paper and let it do the rest. Or, grab a spoon and tap your desk. You can tap it to a static beat, tap, tap, tap, tap. Go from there and make it a little more different, tap, tap tap, tap, tap tap. Or, grab a journal (or computer) and write. Doesn’t matter what, just write. Write a story, a poem, a haiku. Something. Just write.
BE CREATIVE! Think outside the box! Go outside and enjoy the earth that God has made. He’s the ultimate creator. Be inspired =] He kind of knew what he was doing… Haha
(image from http://distractionade.blogspot.com/2009/02/so-think-back-long-time-ago-to-that.html)
Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy
This is so true. We are all complainers. Puts everything in an interesting light =p
