The God Stamp

It's become interesting to me lately how many people approve of something they are doing by stamping it with God's name.

My friend and I were talking about this a week ago in regards to a situation she is facing currently. And I find it in several situations I am faced with. Several Christians all battling against one another saying one thing is right and ones not. And I find it interesting that on both sides of the argument God has spoken. God has spoken to the one side and said to do this, and yet God has spoken to the other side and said to do something else. And only one of the sides that has heard from God lines up with what the Bible say. Some argue and say that time is an important factor, some argue and say the Bible doesn't mean it anymore, it's different now, and still others argue that the Bible wasn't saying exactly that, it meant something different.

I guess I'm writing this because I'm frustrated with that God stamp. Even more so, annoyed because the truth is, "God" can speak anything...but is it the God of the Bible? The God of the universe?? Or is it the god of your mind?? The god of your well being?? the god of what you want?? And it's so hard to distinguish when you want something so bad, you pray and ask God and God says exactly what you want.

And I guess this would lead into the selfish ambitions part of things. Paul says in Galatians 5 that the acts of the sinful nature INCLUDE selfish ambition. But I think oftentimes we forget all about that part of the verse. We almost push it aside because there are far worse sins! Like sexual immorality...idolatry...witchcraft...all wayyyyy worse than selfish ambition. But what I find interesting is that's so not true! Paul lists selfish ambition right there in that verse, next to sexual immorality, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft and all those other "horrible sins".

Do you think it is possible that out of our selfish ambition we might in fact let God say something He isn't saying?? Do you think it's possible that we put a God stamp on things that God hasn't said because we want to believe it's true, we want to believe it's right, we want to make it okay for us, because we want it so bad??

I just wonder how long people will continue to put the God stamp on things, because I know right now it's starting to frustrate me, it's starting to annoy me...how awful, how obscure, how jaded we have become from who God really is. It saddens me soo deeply.

Homestretch

Well it's been about a year since I wrote in here last...okay maybe not that long but it feels like forever. haha.

I was just thinking tonight as my brother and I rode the homestretch. We had gone for an hr long bike ride. Which is fine, but apparently my leg muscles and body muscles aren't so excited about this bike ride...especially with my spry 13 year old brother who has been biking a lot lately. Sooooo we're getting towards the end of our bike ride and I'm all excited...and it reminded me of this race I was in. It was a 5 km run and my friend and I were running it together...yes we ended up walking a lot of it, but at the end we were gonna lose together, but just as I saw the finish line I got this kick within me and suddenly I was gone, I couldn't help it. I knew the end was near and I had no choice but to obey my body and go into full speed.

It made me think of how we live our lives. Do we live with the homestretch in mind? knowing the finish line is somewhere out there, close, or far away? Or do we live with the mindset that the finish line isn't going to come so we don't need to be giving it our all?? I personally want to live my life as if the finish line was right in front of me, giving God my all, putting everything I am into life, rather than moping around in a pity party. I want to be going full strong, knowing I'm on the homestretch. Yep I might be on the homestretch for 50 years but I don't want to miss a minute of it with my stopping to gaze at the sin that looks so good and enticing, I don't want to wander off the trail and find some poison ivy and rub it all over me. I want to run that homestretch with endurance.

Now this is all not to say to ENJOY LIFE. Sure take a minute and smell the roses, look and see the grace painted across the sky, enjoy every second of life. What I'm getting at is, I don't want to live my life running off the path and playing in poison ivy, or playing with the bears cub or something. I want to stay on that path, running for my prized possession, Jesus, and I know I can do that and still enjoy the beautifulness of life. =)

Rest

Ahh...it's been so long since I've blogged. Slacking may be a good way of putting it, but I actually read this inspirational poem about writing when you had the inspiration to versus writing when you had no inspiration and forcing it. I haven't been inspired to write until the last few days. And so of course you have to let that inspiration cycle around in your head as you mull over it and chew it and think on it and then finally you are ready to write. At least that's how it works for me. =]

So I wanna talk about rest. Rest. Hmm...I've always loved resting. Ya know, Sunday after church propping your feet up on the foot stool, and just resting. Or after a long day at work, curling up on the couch with a good book and resting...or taking a bath and relaxing. Yep. I do like to rest. I think I was born to rest. Haha.

Lately however, God has been taking me on a new phase of rest. Resting in Him. Not just resting. But resting IN Him. And there is a huge difference between the two. My definition or version of rest is all I've wrote above. But resting in God, is something deeper, it's rest in your spirit, your mind. I mean seriously can you tell me that after a day of hardwork you go home and feel relaxed just sitting there? Often times I picture resting in front of the TV...cause then you're mind is turned off and you are just zoned into the TV, unless you are that stressed. But when you rest in God, it's like this whole new element. You can rest on the couch and not have the TV on as you just chill out there, resting in God.

The past month or so, my nights have taken an interesting turn of events, either they are full of bad dreams, OR it takes me forever to sleep and then I have bad dreams. A few nights ago, I was so close to getting up and doing something but I wanted to sleep because I knew I had to get up early the next morning, so I'd lay there and try, but my thoughts were so full and going all over the place and finally I came to a point where I was just like "God, help me!" And He said to me, "Rest My child, rest in Me." And so I laid there and just stopped thinking, I pictured myself curled up on His lap, and just rested in Him. Rested in His love, rested in knowing who He is in my life.

And that my friends, is what I do believe true rest is. Resting in His love. Even when life is chaotic, even when you can't sleep, remembering that you can just lay back and relax and rest in His love, because He won't ever stop loving us!!! It's so beautiful really!! =)

Religion vs. Relationship

"It's about relationship not religion."

I've heard this statement several times and said it several times as well, but my friend brought up the fact that religion is actually something different than what we think of as religion. I think of religion as going to church, sitting in a pew, listening to a pastor talk. I think of religion as being told that I must go to church or I am a heathen. I think of religion on all these terms and more. But it's interesting when we find out what God says about religion.

James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I find it interesting that God doesn't say that religion is going to church every Sunday and living in a rigid organized belief system. Religion is actually not what we have made it out to be. Religion, that is pure and unadulterated, faultless, is to look after orphans and widows in their distress. AND to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. There goes the theory that it's about relationship and not religion.

Now here's the thing, often times, there are people, and I've been guilty of this as well, that we will begin to do things because it's the "right" thing to do, it's the
"Christian" thing to do. And I find it interesting that the verse in James says, not just to look after widows and orphans but it actually says "keep oneself from being polluted by the world." What does it mean to keep yourself from being polluted by the world? It means to be living a life that is holy and righteous before God.

I think maybe this verse reads like that because, God knows our selfish tendencies. Sometimes as humans, we want the glory for doing something. We want to feel good about ourselves so we begin to do things for our own glory rather than for God's glory. We begin to take care of the widows and orphans out of selfish desires. I really do think that when we have a pure relationship with God, as we continue to seek His ways, that out of that our love and compassion for others will grow and we will begin to desire to do things for others not because we ourselves have something to offer but rather because God has given us something to offer others, and we want to share the pure love that God has for us. We learn we can love the way He loves because of His grace. Because He pours into us His love, we can go love the world more effectively than trying to love out of our own human love, that isn't as good as His love by any means, I don't think we can even compare it with His love.

I think that religion and relationship were meant to work hand in hand. Through our relationship with God, we can walk in true religion, the religion that God accepts.