This I Know...

    You already have the love that your heart so desperately desires. The love that some people will search their entire lives for, but unless they accept Salvation through Jesus Christ, will never come to know. A perfect love from a God who never fails. You already have it... and there is N O T H I N G you could ever do to earn that love or loose it...ever. And looking for that love in people or things around you will disappoint you every time...will fail you, every time.
  
 Just like any love relationship, God wants you to spend time with Him. He wants you to do what He made you to do, Worship Him. Worship Him with abandonment because it doesn't matter who can see you or what they think of you or what you're going through...He's still God, He's still faithful, He is still perfect and He deserves nothing less than your whole hearted worship. He wants ALL of who you are. God is first and there is no 2nd place. There is no 'race' because God is the only one running. He wants His love to be the only love that guides us. He wants time spent with Him to be our highest treasure...to be your highest joy. He is a jealous lover, but He is all you'll ever need. And if anyone ever comes in the way of God having all of your heart, love that person from a distance. Pray continually that the love God so freely offers you will overwhelm that persons heart as well. God is the only thing that will ever be perfect. His plan for you is perfect and even when you deserve death because of your sins..He works everything together for your Good.
  
 So as the devil puts on his best attempt to bring me down, discourage me, pull my attention away from God, and to cause heartache, mischief, chaos, and pain I say this:

This I know, He has overcome.

^"22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends!^[a]
      His mercies never cease.
 ²³ Great is his faithfulness;
      his mercies begin afresh each morning."--Lamentations 3:22-23

^" I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.

But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”-- John 16:33

"For the Lord your God is living among you.
      He is a mighty savior.
   He will take delight in you with gladness.
      With his love, he will calm all your fears.
      He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”--Zephaniah 3:17

^"4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)"-- Ephesians 2:4-5

A Questionable Heart.

   I've had a lot of faith based questions arise in my heart lately. Ones that I just cant seem to wrap my head around or even begin to find an answer to. So I decided to blog about them...like most American adolescents do. ;)

    Theres been one question in particular that has troubled me since the day I was baptised. The Bible says we are the Lords chosen people. (Deut 7:6)...assuming you've accepted Him into your life and all, but is everyone chosen? Were often told to invite people to church but how do you know if they're chosen to be one of Gods Holy people? I know, its sounds like Satan's messing with my heart but rest assured I still reach out and invite the hurting people of my community to my Church's Saturday night and/or Sundays morning service.
  
    Another thing, and I could be wrong, but a leader within my Church once told me that Jesus never invited people to attend Synagogue with Him. He took the Church to the hurting...He didn't expect the hurting to come to Church. Now I very well may be wrong but that's why this blog's tittled 'A Questionable Heart'. Honestly, I'm confused as to why modernized Church's...actually any Church... are more about inviting people to Church instead of being the Church and reaching out and going outside of the four walls we call Gods House and taking Him to the streets? Theres more rejoicing in Heaven over one lost sinner who repents than 99 righteous ones who have never strayed away. There are H U N D R E D S of lost sinners who walk the streets of this town alone...looking for something greater to come into their life and restore hope again.Yet most Church's are comfortable with staying inside their walls most of the time. Where missing our chance to be be Jesus' light...daily! Don't get me wrong...Church is great...but I just don't feel like Church's in America today are chasing after Gods own heart. Ive heard people complain and make excuses as to why they're not reaching out: what if i get burnt out...i just have too much stuff to do... and so on. Doing Gods work should be the NUMBER ONE most important thing to you because people are most important to Him. We all know the 2nd greatest commandment is to love people as ourselves. Yet we fail to do that because...hello...we only think of ourselves. If you get burnt out doing Gods work...YOU'RE DOING GODS WORK! Hopefully the more you realize you cant do Gods work without reaching out and being stretched the more you'll lean on Him and grow in that ever so precious relationship with Him.

    As Christ Followers were in the people business. As Christ  Followers it says we must work hard & do...not sit in a service...sing a song...then go home and continue our week without reaching out and loving on some hurting people.

     Just my thoughts. Keep in mind, I'm human. I probably am wrong about some of this, but that's alright with me because I plan on spending the rest of my life seeking God and answers to any faith related questions I have.

           "...Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. ¹³ For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him."

 -- Philippians 2:12-13

Paradise

    First off let me just state that my blog today and a few that I'll be posting in the future have many questions in them that have risen in my heart in these last couple months. I would love to get feed back on what you guys think about the questions. I don't believe that the questions I'm asking are going to have one specific answer, its all based on personal opinion. So let me open up my blog for any green light thinking you have. OK that's my for warning.Lets get to the nitty gritty.

    Paradise- we all want it. We all dream of it, do we not? A place where pure happiness and beauty meet overwhelming love and kindness. Seriously though, what would the world look like without poverty, hatred and evil, would that be paradise? Instead, what if the world was filled with generosity, unconditional love, and happiness...is that paradise? As Gods creation are we even supposed to experience paradise on Earth or our own peace of Heaven here?...Or maybe that's just something solely meant for Heaven in all its Glory.
   
   If you google the definition of paradise (& I kid you not, this is what i found!) it means : Heaven as the ultimate abode of the just -or- the abode of Adam and Eve before the fall in the biblical account of creation ( side note, when I first wrote this on paper I spelled Adam as in like atom...smallest particle in existence...can you tell I have a science course this semester? AND it took me four times reading it to realize I spelled it wrong! anyways...) See Genesis 2 & 3. So, my question... is it possible to live in ' paradise' if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life? OR even if you have accepted Him but you don't live it out? The bible says in Luke 13:24:

²⁴ “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. ²⁵

There's also the verses in Matthew 7:21-23 that read :

²¹ “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. ²² On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ ²³ But I (the Lord) will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

    So, let me clear my thoughts up. The ultimate paradise is Heaven, where you get the honor of humbly bowing down and worshipping at the feet of Jesus. Seriously, just that thought sends chills up my spine, imagine what it'll be like when that day actually comes! And we know that where made to worship God, and in Heaven worshipping God is paradise...so were we made to crave paradise on Earth because we were made to worship Him even while were still here? Complicated i know. BUT our sin nature gets in the way of us truly living out our worship for Jesus far to often. This is a personal opinion but i don't think its possible to truly live in generosity, love, and happiness if your allowing your sin nature to control your thoughts and actions. Worship has never been about you...So if you don't like the persons voice... it shouldn't matter your there for Jesus...your not there to be entertained. 

     ... I don't know about you but i eagerly await the day where I get the opportunity to approach the gates of Heaven. And in order for me to take up residence there I must die to myself  daily. Meaning E V E R Y T H I N G of the flesh must go, and i must take up the cross...and follow.

    Honestly I have no clue where I'm really going with this blog....its just what has been on my heart lately. I know I want to experience paradise, but only the paradise that's offered through my Lord and Savior.

"....when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty."

--Luke 17:10

Season for Everything

    Its getting colder outside, I love it! Fall ,to me, means bonfires, hoodies, crisp air, and Holidays! But sadly Fall also means that I had to start back to school and thats one thing that I really dont like. In public High School, its not easy to find friends in the Faith and for the past couple weeks I've been feeling that me being in high school was pulling away from all the potential I have to be set a flame for God.But boy was my heart in the wrong place. A reoccuring scripture that kept popping up in life was Ecclesiastes 3 :

^"1 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God."

 
A season for everything. Although, I want to go out and be sent and do all these things and not have the world weighing so heavily on my thoughts and just devote all my time to God...its not that season for me yet, and the more i sit and wallow in the 'i just want to graduate' thoughts...the more im missing out on of the season im in! So i encourage whoever reads this not to rush through the season of life God has you in for a reason. Look for the beauty..look for how He wants to use you where you are now.Remeber HIS plan is perfect!

Each time He said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  - 2 Corinthians 12:9