Category: Christianity

Relating to Christianity

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In Everything, Trust

Everything.  The weight was closing in on him.  Everything he looked for seemed broken.  There once was life in him, but that was months ago.  He lost everything on that cool night in November – everything he thought was important.  Now all that’s left is a memory of what was.  What could have been.  What would have been.  It’s not this death that torments him: life came from that.  It’s the worry and stress; the weight of everything.  Everything he thought he trusted …

Trust.  His trust is immeasurable.  He does trust, but how much … ?

Failure!  He’s failed.  He’s failed the one he loves.  He sees no way out.  There’s the doubt that betrays the trust.  It betrays the hope that all is not lost.  All is not lost …

Failure it is not.  Everything is not lost.  Trust is not dead.

As his understanding of even the smallest things fades into nothingness, he learns of trust.

Three hours have gone by, nothing to show for it but a failure to understand.

Five days earlier: trust.  Absolute confidence.  Firm belief.  It cannot be shaken.  Trust.  Learning to trust in the Lord with everything.  Nothing held back.  Complete abandonment.  As if jumping off a cliff, a complete, total, secure, solid confidence that the Lord will be there.  He collapses.

There he learns to trust.  In everything, his trust is in the Lord.

Here are a few scriptures for this little story (or whatever you want to call it) …

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Hebrews 10:23 (NLT)

I could post many more, but I’ll leave that to you, the reader, to find.

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Cry Out to Jesus

When you’re lonely and it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus

Cry Out to Jesus, Third Day

Third Day, Cry out to Jesus singleThere are those times, those times when it’s like everything is going directly against us.  We all have those times where it feels like the weight of the world is closing in on us.  We’ve got something pulling us one way, but then we also feel this pulling to just hand it over to Jesus.  It’s not always easy.  It’s often times hard.  It feels like we’re the only one in this hole.  It’s often times easier to believe that we’re the only one who has ever went through loneliness.

It’s easier to believe that lie.  It helps us to grow more numb to the pain.  How can we be lonely?  Maybe a time of solitude is a time of growing character.  Maybe it’s a time to see who we really are.  I’m not really sure why we go through times that we feel lonely.  Maybe it’s because God is trying to pull us closer to him.  The great Prophets of old had to go through times of loneliness.

I think that during times we feel lonely, as the song says, we just need to cry out to Jesus.  Just cry out to him to take all loneliness and fill it with Him, because he’s the only one that can fill all loneliness.  It’s hard to have the faith sometimes, but He is always there.  It may not be instant. It may take a while, but He still loves us.  His Holy Spirit fills us.  We’ve just got to hope.  “There are three things that will endure–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT)

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Prayer in the Darkness

I left the house at around 9:10pm last night headed to the church.  While I was halfway to the church, I just said to myself that I know prayer works.  Maybe that’s what started last night.

I’m not sure how to explain it, but after the first Prayer in the Darkness a few months ago, I lost faith in it.  I’m honestly not sure if it was faith or hope, or just my attitude (or a mixture of all of those).  Secretly, I’d been putting more stock in the actual turnout than I was on the purpose of the night.  Since the first night, I’ve been learning (more or less) that it’s not really about the numbers.

With all of that said, I started last night completely different.  While the actual Prayer in the Darkness doesn’t start until 10pm, I got there at around 9:15pm.  I wasn’t about to let numbers defer what the focus of the night was.  I was there for one thing, and that was for prayer.  I’m not sure I could tell what the first song I turned on was (it was a David Crowder song, though).  I’m not sure how many times I went and adjusted the sound (I think it was three times, though).  I’m really not sure how lame I looked (not going to comment about that).  I also decided after I had been there a minute or two, that I wasn’t about to stay in my box the entire time.

So that’s what I did.  I moved out of where I’m always at and did what I’m better at doing.  I didn’t even think about the numbers before service.  I just knew that when everyone else got there, I wanted God to already be there — and I didn’t want to be so enveloped in something else to completely miss it.

To make a long story short, it was the largest turnout ever, and I believe know that walls were broken.  It was the first time where I wish there was room for one more hour … at least.  And everyone left smiling?  At midnight?

September 23.  That’s the next Prayer in the Darkness.  One night at a time, this cities walls are crumbling.  That city on that hill over there is going to be known for what it’s meant to be soon (soon) …

Until next time …

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New Things Come in Time

I’ve been looking at getting a new computer this year.  I’m not totally sure I’ll be able to get it yet because of monetary reasons.  I should have enough for college, cell phone, and gas and a little left over to use however I want to.  I want to keep a fair amount stored away because of anything I may need it for (ie: the clutch in my car needing replacing).  I still want to get something going in helping someone.  I’m still thinking of sponsoring a child; however, I don’t want to commit and then find something else I want to contribute to that’s closer to home.  It’s not an excuse for waiting, I would rather focus on my community first before hand.

I’ve got a few more minutes left on the last message in the “Living In Graceland” series from theMill.  In the last one Aaron Stern talks about helping the needy.  I want to help them.  I would really love to focus on my age group (which is fast approaching: “used to be my age group”).

There was an entry I added, ironically, a year ago tomorrow.  I wasn’t even aware that it was the “anniversary” of the post, but either way — I was going to talk about.  In brief, the post is about who I’m looking for in a future wife.  Recently, I’ve just about grown to the point where I’m not sure it can be met — and others around me have told me the same.  So I’m keeping the list until September 15th, 2006 — unless something changes.  That’s a full month.  If nothing has changed from now and then, I’m changing it.  Some of the things that I feel are essential for me to connect to whomever I date (and hope-to marry), are the things I’ll probably reform or remove.

Of the items on my list that’ll be changed is music.  Why did I add music in the first place?  It all comes down to this: garbage in, garbage out.  I want a pure relationship.  I can’t relate to music that has ungodly content.  I mean, the music doesn’t have to have plain out “wrong” lyrics.  Even if they’re about just relationships, I don’t relate to most.  Does that mean I specify all secular music as “wrong”?  Of course not, I like a few (key word: few) secular groups.  They’re not on my media library, though.  I don’t listen to them in the car.  I just don’t have enough time to listen to Christian music and secular to see what I like and don’t like and worry about the lyrics.  This is just one of the few things I’ll change.

A few days ago I felt like just striking out most of the entry, but have decided just in the past hour or so to wait.  If I get rid of some of the constraints, I may find someone whom I like.  I suppose I could talk about it all day, but right now it’s not going to change anything.

All I’m going to do now is pray and hope for the best.  I’ve prayed that if I’m living in legalism, or my list is legalistic, that it’ll be revealed to me.  I want to be real with people, but I also have deep convictions.  I try to be as real with people as I can.

I’m enjoying work this year.  The air conditioner doesn’t work in our office, but that’s life.  Last year I complained of it being too cold.  So I shouldn’t complain, I guess.

I’m ready for school to start … I think.  Next week is going to be different.  I’ll probably go eat lunch at least one day out of the year.  Maybe I can see some people in class and sit with them at lunch.  Meeting people is horrible though.  Especially if you don’t have anything in common …

New things, they come in time …

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Little Posting

I’ve posted very little this month.  I’ve been tired, and really haven’t had much things really on my mind (worth actually posting).  I went to bed at 7:30 last night, and fell asleep almost right when my head hit the pillow.  Currently, I’m at church in a baby shower.  Here comes the last gift as I type.  It’s for a couple in our church.  I’m anti-social, again.  I like one on one conversations, not conversation in groups.

I’ve been working a bit at work lately.  I’ve made my job a lot easier, so I’ve been able to knock out what I have to do relatively quickly.  I’m so glad I know programming — it makes life so much easier.  We have a laptop issue tomorrow.  I just hope I won’t be speaking (one on one, that’s how I like it).

I started reading a chapter or two of the Bible every morning, I got through all of Romans (which is a book I love).  I skipped around today, but I’ll probably start 1 Corinthians tomorrow (which is one of my favorite books, as well).  I’ve almost finished my other book — The Burning Heart Contract.  I’ve been listening to several podcasts almost every morning before work and every afternoon after work.  Over the past week or so I’ve been listening to a new podcast from my old church in Colorado Springs, The Desperation Podcast.  They’ve been going through one of A.W. Tozers books, which I plan to one day read.  I’ve read a good bit of Tozer and like him pretty well.  A good quote I heard this morning was by Aaron Stern — are you consuming God, or are you being consumed by God?  I’m going off of memory, so it may not be a verbatim quote.

Anyway, I think we’re about to leave, so I guess I’m going to go for now.  I’ll try to post something more interesting in a few days … maybe.

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Illegal Christianity

It is okay to accept the sinner and their sin? Even if they’re a professing “Christian” is it okay? It’s perfectly fine to accept the sinner (we should do this, actually). It saddens me how some would prefer others to be happy over protecting morality. When the moral is set on the same level as the immoral a deadly action occurs. These two items cannot be put on the same level — they cannot live together. It’s like a half truth — even if some of it’s true, it’s still a lie.

When we become a Christian we should be changing. It will take your entire life — but we should be changing. Am I perfect? No. I’m still changing. What I’m talking about is how when you’re in deliberate sin — such as homosexuality — and you become a Christian. You should change or be changing that way of life, if you’re in it. If you’re in the lifestyle you MUST get out. The feelings you have for the sin may take days, months, or even years to finally get rid of (and some may remain for a lifetime). Being involved in sin doesn’t mean you’re going to hell. We all fail. Remaining in sin (we know are sin) can though (Galatians 5:20, for example).

Am I saying go and judge everyone? Of course not (we should judge ourselves, though). I’ve wrote posts on judgment before. We shouldn’t be encouraging the sin at all. They must be delivered from the sin, then discipled. They shouldn’t be running back to the sin. The church must be helping and aiding in this. If there’s no prayer and fasting, it’s probably not going to work well either. Words don’t change things — prayer does.

If America (or where you live) made it illegal to be a Christian, would you still be one? Even if the punishment was death, would you still be one? We have it easy. We so often become lazy in the freedom we have. I think we’ve all became lazy in everything. I remember watching a movie (based on a true story) a few weeks back about a woman who was a Christian in Communist China. She was involved in an underground church located in an open area (in a closed area, but it was between buildings). When they sang hymns, they had to mouth the words because of fear of being heard. When the government found them, many of the people were killed (the main woman of the story escaped). It makes me sad when I take for granted being able to go to church freely.

I’ve been listening to a prayer meeting from JHOP (that’s like 2 hours), and it’s something how 4,000 unheard voices are silenced each day and yet we’re so passive about it. We’ve got to pray for them!

I was watching the History Channel today and they had something on about the civil rights period. It made me angry seeing how white men who had murdered blacks had been charged with “violating their civil rights” and not murder. Justice did not prevail. This happened a generation ago now, thought. We’ve got to move past what’s past. Never forget the past, but never hold it to the future. The Conservative ideas Martin Luther King, Jr. held onto must prevail. I love what the new voices in the black community are saying. The veil just has to fall, and quickly! Read more about the video here.