The Journey of a Christ Follower

     It begins here. Right now. Wherever you are. If it has not already begun, that is. And even if it has, hopefully this will challenge you to journey even farther with Christ.
   
     We must realize that our sin is not just "sin"--seems like such a small word, doesn't it? But there's more to it than that. Sin is not just sin. Sin is rebellion. Sin is rebellion against the Most High, against God. Yes, that's right; we're not just sinners either--we're rebels.
     Romans 5:8 - "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." So if sin = rebellion and sinners = rebels, let me offer you a slightly different translation of this verse: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still rebels, Christ died for us." While we were (and unfortunately still often are) in open rebellion against our King, turning our back on Him and everything He stands for, Christ died for us.
     Because of his death, forgiveness is ours for the taking. 
     Think about that for a second. What does a king usually do when his people rebel against him? Well, he either gets killed, runs away, or fights back. But not this King. No, not God. Even though He has the power to end our existence faster than the blink of an eye as punishment for our rebellion, He doesn't. His response is completely different, some might even call it upside-down.

     Why?


     The Bible give us a pretty straightforward answer to that question, through the most well known verse in the Bible too. John 3:16 - "For God SO LOVED the world, that He gave His one and only son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." Those two words describe who God is so well. He "so loved" the world. He loves us so much, that He was willing to leave the splendor and glory and perfection of heaven to step down into our broken and dark world. This King loves us so much, that He stepped down from His thrown to live among the very people that were and still are in rebellion against Him. He came to rescue those very same people. Only the King of kings and Lord of lords would do something that radical.
     If you think about that in a personal context, it's rather convicting. Our King gave everything to save us even while we rebelled against Him. He gave everything to save YOU, and you don't have to meet any requirements to be eligible for the gift of salvation and love that He brought with Him. By His grace, He accepts us exactly as we are, anger, brokenness, pain, sin and all, and forgives us for all of it, instantly. But the funny thing about God's grace is that it is never content to leave us the way it found us.
     So, you've believed in your heart that Jesus is God's Son and YOUR savior, you've confessed that you are a rebel (a sinner) and have accepted the fact that you are not perfect and don't have to be, and you've asked Christ to be the Lord of your life, but what now?
     The truth is, a lot of "Christians" tend to lose the trail here. They've been "born again" in Christ, but now that they are a spiritual infant, they struggle to grow and often don't have someone to help them along through their infancy. Christianity   the religion, anyway   tends to end right there, completely missing the fact that "spiritual rebirth" is not the end of the journey, but only just the beginning.

     So let's talk about being babies all over again.
     The cool thing about this analogy is that the physical truth of it is very closely related to the spiritual truth as well.
     As a child, it takes time for us to learn how to crawl, to learn how to walk, and even to learn how to communicate. But none of that stuff just happens. It's a growth process. When we are begging to learn how to walk, we stumble and fall plenty of times too. But God, our spiritual father, is always there holding out his loving arms with a warm smile and calling us over to walk towards Him. And when we fall, He's always there to lift us back up again. In fact, when we fall, He runs to us and scoops us up in his loving arms. Over time, we become stronger and we learn how to walk on our own, but there is still always a choice of whether to walk toward or away from our father.
     Communication, too, is a skill learned over time. We don't all become incredibly articulate about our faith in an instant, and to be honest, it takes some of us a lot longer than others. It even takes time to learn how to say "Daddy" and know what that means.
     It's easy to get discouraged if there are things that you don't understand right away or things that you cannot fully experience yet, because it's tough to be a baby, and it does take some time to grow and mature in our faith, but nutrition can help a lot with our growth.
     The more you feed yourself by reading God's word, meditating on it, listening to His voice, sitting in and drinking in His joyous and peaceful presence, letting Him love you, and letting Him teach you and form you into the man/woman that He created you to be, the more growth you will experience, the more spiritually mature you will become and the faster you will do so.
     But take care! If you neglect these things that are essential for your spiritual health and growth, you be like a child that neglects eating. You will be malnourished and your growth will be stunted. If you neglect your need for God's word each and every day and your need to hear His voice, it's like you're neglecting your need for food, and you will starve spiritually.
     The more you grow in communication with God (and communication IS a two-way street!) and the more you grow in your commitment to Him (and being committed too often also means being willing to sacrifice for), the stronger your relationship will become. The more you chose to love Him (and love is a choice), the more you will be able to feel His love for you. The more He is on your mind, the more you will begin to realize that you are always on His.
     It truly is a divine love story.
     But take care! Any intimate relationship that is devoid of communication, commitment, and love will cease to be intimate and will wither away. And is the object of your greatest affection not always on your mind?

     As you mature in your faith and grow stronger through your journey, you will begin to realize that God has given you certain spiritual gifts through which to accomplish His will here on earth. These same gifts are a big part of what makes you unique. Likewise, you will begin to see the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) flowering and ripening in your life, and others will begin to see them as well. You will grow even closer to God, and you will understand Him more and more as you get to know Him better.
     You will soon realize that you have a calling and a purpose in life, if you have not already. You are passionate about something, and you have gifts, and where your passion and your gifts meet, there your calling lies.
     You are called beyond yourself, to be a servant of the Most High God and to make manifest (to bring forth) His glory to the ends of the earth.
     You are called to bring healing and restoration to brokenness and pain, to preserve and call out the beauty that still remains in God's creation, and in the people that He created.
     You are called to be the salt of the earth   to preserve it.
     You are called to be the light of the world   to be a radiant presence of love that reveals and eradicates all of the darkness around you, for darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, for darkness is simply the absence of light.

     Over time, God will begin to reveal Himself to you in ways that you never could have imagined, and He will also begin to reveal bits and pieces of His great plan for you.
     It is now more than ever that you must learn to walk by faith and not by sight, because you will never be able to see the whole picture of God's plan for your future, but only snapshots of it, because His plan for YOUR life is TOO great, TOO vast for you to even fathom.

     God will not only begin to reveal Himself to you, He will begin to reveal YOURself to you as well. You will learn much about yourself: your strengths, your weaknesses, your gifts and abilities.
     You will soon come to realize that you carry a deep wound in your heart that was inflicted some time in your past, usually during your childhood/adolescence by whomever took care of you (usually your parents), for it is said that the ones who we are closest too can either hurt or help us the most.
     This wound results from imperfect love. Your parents are human beings. Therefore, no matter how hard they tried, they could not and cannot love you perfectly the way that God does. And you know what? That hurts. No matter how good or bad your childhood was, it still hurts to not be loved perfectly the way that we were created to be.
     You'll begin to see how this wound has subtly shaped you as a person, because your greatest fears and anxieties stem from it, and it's a favorite target for the enemy's fiery darts. But don't worry, because you're not alone. Every human being has been inflicted with some deep kind of wound like this at some point in their lives, whether they realize it or not, but it is only those who realize that they are wounded that can gain healing.
     To be completely honest, this may seem like one of the darkest times along your spiritual journey, but don't despair; God has not left you, now He is carrying you through the valley. Have patience, because it will take some time to realize and acknowledge all of the ways in which your wound has hurt you.
     You will be tempted to harden your heart and close it off to God and His healing touch in order to protect yourself, but have courage, and rejoice in your suffering knowing that God is using it to make you stronger for His purposes. For it is written: "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His  love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us." - Romans 5:3-5.
     Remember, if you close off a wound before you clean it out, chances are that it will become infected and fester, not heal. And that infection with this type of wound can affect all kinds of different areas of your life, cause more hurt to those around you. As it is said, "Hurt people, [they] hurt people." This infection tends to rear its ugly head as things like: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy (and yes, those are some of the fruits of the flesh). 
     Soon you will come to understand that although this wound has hurt you for a very long time and has caused a lot of pain in your life, God has used it for good. For it is written: "What the enemy intends for evil, God uses for good," and "God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." 
     God has used your wound to help shape you into who you are. Our struggles and our pain are a major part of what makes us unique as well, and thus, uniquely beautiful too. 
     Though your would has helped to make you who you are at your present, it DOES NOT define you. Only God can define who you are. 
     You are more than your past.
     You are more than the struggles that you face. 
     You are more than the mistakes that you have made. 
     You have been remade in Christ. For it is written, "The old has passed away and the new has come." 
     
     Now comes a time of healing and redefinition. Now that you have realized that God has used your wound for good, you will also realize that you've allowed that wound to have power over you, but since you have been remade in Christ, that wound no longer has any power over you. You are a new creation.
     Now you will be able to ask God to come into your heart and cleanse it, and once it has been cleansed, you can ask Him to heal it. The healing will take time, but you will feel a great weight lifted off your shoulders when it begins. You will feel like you've just woken up from a deep slumber, your mind will be renewed, and you will begin to see the world and everyone in it with a new set of eyes   God's eyes. 
     Accept your brokenness with a grateful heart, because it is your brokenness that God has used to make you whole in Him, and because it is the broken vessels, not those that appear to whole, that make the light within them visible to the world around them through all of their cracks and deformities.
     
     You are only just beginning an all new part of you walk with Christ. You have been remade, so now you have many new things to learn about yourself. Your old definition of yourself no longer applies. Now you will begin to see yourself the way that God sees you; perfect in all of your imperfections. 
     When God said, "I want YOU!" He meant ALL of you; not just your strengths, but your weaknesses too; not just your joy, but your sorrow as well; not just your wholeness, but even your brokenness. 


     Live your life fully surrendered to Christ, and you will be the greatest blessing to the world that you could ever possibly be. If you chose to live for Him and not for yourself, then you will receive unimaginable blessings, unfathomable love, incomprehendable peace, boundless joy, and everlasting hope. 
     Only by making this choice can you live a completely fulfilled life. All you have to do is pick up your cross, dying to yourself daily, and follow Him. 

Undo Me

I don’t really worship these day
I don’t really stand up to praise you with songs
Or prayers or actions
or with anything
I am full of all the right moves
I am full of all the right words
I am full of all the right religion
But it is all just illusion
I am really
Lonely
Lost
Calloused
Jaded
Cynical
Too religious
Too realistic
and well really just to lazy
to worship you anymore
I have lost my first love
I have lost the joy of your presence
But most of all I have lost the fear of your glory

Father I need to see you again
Like Isaiah I want to stand in awe of your glory
To fall down at your feet
To come face to face with your
Perfection,
Radiance,
Goodness,
Holiness,
Awesomeness
I want to stand before you and see you for who you are
and me for who I am
I want to be undone

I want to know me for who I really am
I want to see the depths of my heart
And know that you are the only way
You are the only truth
You are the only life
I want to see me and understand
What it really must have taken for you to
Love me
Care for me
See me
Speak to me
Want me
Communicate with me
Die for me
Die for me
Die for me

Lord, I want to stand in that place where all I can see is your glory
And my sin
Because in that place I can’t help but worship you.
Lord let me come undone
Undo my heart
Lord, undo my heart
break down these walls that I love so much
No, wait don’t,
I’m scared I don’t know if I can handle this
don’t
But I can’t live this way anymore
I can’t stand here in this half-life
this going through the motions life
this not really alive life
Father, I need you so come in and do what you must
Cut out the tumor on my heart
Break down the walls that I love
Lord let me come undone
Undo my heart
let me worship you again

*Blake Williams

What Does it Mean to Be a Man of God?

Here's a great answer from gotquestions.org:

"Question: "What does it mean to be a man of God?"

Answer: “Man of God” is the description given to a man that follows God in every way, who obeys His commands with joy, who does not live for the things of this life but for the things of eternity, who willingly serves his God in giving freely of all his resources yet gladly suffers as a consequence of his faith. Perhaps Micah 6:8 sums up the man of God in one neat verse: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” 

The man of God does not swindle or defraud his employer by turning up late for work or spending an hour on the internet during work hours; he doesn’t gossip or slander; he keeps his mind and heart pure by guarding his eyes and ears from the filth of the world; he is the spiritual leader of his family. He does everything opposite to what the world does or approves of; he goes "against the grain" of society because he knows these things displease God; he considers those who are "disadvantaged" or those rejected by society, those that are lonely or despairing; he is a listener to other people’s problems and does not judge. 

Most of all, the man of God understands that when our Lord commanded him to "be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), he is only able to accomplish that because God enables him to be “holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4) through His power and the indwelling of His Spirit. On our own, we are incapable of holiness and perfection, but through Christ who strengthens us, we can "do all things" (Philippians 4:13). The man of God knows that his new nature is that of the righteousness of Christ which was exchanged for our sinful nature at the cross (2 Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 3:9). The final result is that he walks humbly with his God, knowing that he must rely solely upon Him to be able to live to the full and persevere to the end. 

Perhaps the Christian today is lacking in these qualities, but this is what simple religion is all about—the simple religion that is yet sufficient to please God: helping those in distress and keeping oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:23). We can have an awareness of all biblical doctrines, we can know all the theological terms, we may be able to translate the Bible from the original Greek and so on, but the principle of Micah 6:8 is the principle that the man of God must follow: act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God."




20 qualities and virtues that a man of God possesses: 
(Feel free to suggest more in comments section)

• Faith
• Hope
• Love
• Wisdom
• Purpose
• Courage
• Strength
• Passion
• Discipline
• Gratitude
• Acceptance
• Kindness
• Gentleness
• Forgiveness
• Mercy
• Purity
• Humility
• Vulnerability 
• Integrity
• A Servant's Heart

Our Faith - Questions for Every Believer to Ask Themselves

Here's some food for thought -

  What does it say about our faith when we would rather post the lyrics to secular music as our Facebook statuses than posting Bible verses?
   
     Do we care more about spreading our favorite music than spreading Truth?


  What does it say about our faith when we would rather be like everyone else instead of being like Christ?

     Who do we have more respect for?


  What does it say about our faith when we use hateful and vulgar words?

     Are we to sound just like the rest of the world?


  What does it say about our faith when we spread rumors and slander the names of others?

     Are we not to build others up instead of tearing them down?


  What does it say about our faith when we choose the world's way or our own way over God's way?

     Could we be so proud as to assume that we always know what's best?


  What does it say about our faith when we would rather fade into the background than be Known for Christ?

     Are we afraid of mere men when God himself is for us? Are we too lazy to live for God?


  What does it say about our faith when we believe and act as though we can do everything on our own?

     Will you not stumble countless times along the way?


  What does it say about our faith when we let fear and anxiety invade our hearts and minds?

     Do we believe that our problems are bigger than our God?


  What does it say about God's unconditional and unfailing love when we look down on others?

     Are we not called to reflect the Light of God, the image of our creator, to ever corner of our world?



Who are we?


Are we merely men? Merely women?


Or are we men and women of God?




Which would YOU rather be?

Authentic Brokeness

     We all go through trying times in our lives.

     Why then, do we feel the need to pretend that nothing is ever wrong when there are so many of us going through the same struggles that never seem to realize it?
     Why must we try so hard to be someone who we are not and push others away just to make our selves feel safe, when really all that we are doing is avoiding dealing with the underlying issue?
     Why can we not be real instead of hiding the person that God created behind the mask of the false self and personality that we have created for ourselves?
     Why are we so afraid of being authentic, of accepting those who are not like us, and of trusting others to not hurt us?
     Why are we so insecure in ourselves and who we are created to be that we feel that we must trample on the self-worth of others in order to build up our own empty self-confidence?
     Why are we so afraid of showing weakness when our brokenness is what makes us human?
     Why are we so afraid to give up control that we spiral out of it and end up crashing and burning?
     Why are we so afraid to have character?

     When will we realize that we are all God's children, created in His image and loved by Him, and that we are all - each and every one of us - brothers and sisters in Christ?
     When will we stop using the stereotype of a teenager as an excuse and start using it as motivation to break the mold and live for something greater than ourselves?
     When will we realize that life is not about us?

"This is not about what you've done, but what's been done for you. This is not about where you've been, but where your brokenness brings you to."

We are not bound by society, we are only deterred by its lies.


Why be held back any longer?

#LiveDifferently

What Defines You?

     Your life is defined by the thing that is most important to you. You seek to fulfill yourself through that thing, to find a purpose, to feel valued. But you'll never find true and lasting fulfillment, unless that one thing that is most important to you is God. You can't find it in a boyfriend or girlfreind; you can't find it from a talent or ability that you have; you can't even find it from your family. None of those things last forever, but God has always been there and always will be. He'll never leave you or turn His back on you. Our problem is that we turn our backs on Him.
If you really want to be fulfilled and find a peace, a joy, and a love that never fails, all you have to do is know that you are a child of God, uniquely made by the creator of the entire universe. You matter, and you have a purpose in life, even if you don't see it yet. You matter so much that Jesus left the perfection of heaven to come down to this broken world and die on the cross to take the punishment for your mistakes.
     Does God matter to you as much as you matter to Him? Because we He does, then and only then will you find true joy, true peace, and true love in your life, and that true love is the kind that only comes from God. Words can't even begin to describe it, and nothing in this world compares to it. Which would you rather have: worldly love that won't last forever, or the kind of love that lasts for all of eternity and has the power to change people, and even to change our broken and loveless world through those people?
     If you've ever seen a person that really knew God's love, you know what I'm talking about. They're different. They love and accept other people the same way that they are loved and accepted by God, and they make the world around them a better place. By simply reflecting the love that they have found in God, they are able to touch the lives of each and every single person that they come in contact with. They are the kind of people that you never forget, but if you don't keep your eyes and your heart open, you may never recognize this type of person for who they truly are because, sadly, there are so few of them in our world. But that doesn't mean that the world must stay this way.
     Each and every one of us has the power to be that person, to love and accept everyone unconditionally, and to touch people's lives with the love of God. All that you have to do is let Him into your heart; let Him change you and renew your mind; let Him shape you into the person that He created you to be.
     If you make God #1 in your life, then you are defined by Him. You are not defined by the mistakes that you've made, or the situation that you live in, or even by what you've done/not done with your life. You are defined as an amazing and unique child of God, with unique strengths and a unique purpose, and you are uniquely loved by the one who made you that way. You matter. What else could possibly compare?

"The Way"

If I said there was a way
To find peace in every day,
To feel a joy like you've never felt before,
A love unmatched, a love that’s more,
Would you believe me?

Would you be willing to drop your pain and loss
At the foot of Christ the Savior’s cross?
To accept the greatest gift known to man,
And live the way which God did plan?
He is the light, just come and see.

Step out of the shadows and into the light,
You’ll find that your life will then ignite.
All it takes is a little trust, a simple creed,
And faith the size of a mustard seed.

Living For More

     I'm sure a lot of you have heard this song before; It's pretty catchy, and pretty popular too. But have you every really thought about what it means?

"Hoping that he's meant for more..."

"We were meant to live for so much moreHave we lost ourselves?Somewhere we live inside"

"Maybe we've been livin' with our eyes half openMaybe we're bent and broken"

"We want more than this world's got to offerWe want more than the wars of our fathersAnd everything inside screams for second life"

     Is it true that we are meant to live for more than what we're living right now? Have we lost ourselves? It sounds like the guys from Switchfoot are saying so. But what does that mean?

     For a long time, I always thought the lyrics read, "We were meant to live for so much more, if we lost ourselves." Which sort of makes sense from a Christian perspective.
     You see, so often in life, if we were to truly take a step back an examine ourselves and our actions, we find that we are living for ourselves and ourselves alone. Even with relation to God, today's "Christians" tend to use God for their own purposes (i.e. comfort, security, etc. when things are going south) but never allow themselves to be used by Him.
     In the society that we live in, being self-centered is often encouraged ("You have to make your own way in life," "You have to be successful," "You should always do what you want.") and we find ourselves left with a definition of life that says, "My life is about me."

     The truth is that, ironically, a self-centered lifestyle is the easiest way to lose yourself, who you truly are. And not in the good, "losing yourself for God" way either. As Jesus famously says in the book of Matthew, "Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."
     As Christians, we are called not to be self-centered, but God-centered, which is in fact one of the greatest indications of spiritual maturity, because being God-centered also brings to bear the Fruits of the Spirit in us (Which are also considered a sign of true faith).
     When we are self-centered, only worrying about ourselves and our wants and desires, then we always end up losing our true identity or sense of self, the identity that we feel deep within our being, the identity that we know to be true, the identity that comes from God's calling to be centered on Him. We don't need to seek fulfillment in the things of this world - in money, status, power, or relationships - we are already fulfilled in Christ, because we were created in God's image, and because Christ sacrificed himself for our sinful and broken selves on the cross.
     When we chose to surrender our lives to Christ and center our thoughts and actions on God through Christ, then we find the identity that He has given us: that we are His children, created by Him, each one of us unique with unique talents, abilities, and gifts, and most of all, each of us with a unique purpose.
     It is then that we find what we are truly meant to live for - a higher calling. We are meant to live for more than ourselves; we are meant to live for God, to reflect His love to the world through our very lives but we can only do that once we are willing to surrender our lives to Him, so that we can live according to His will and not our own. Then we are able to live from within instead of trying to fill the emptiness that we feel inside when we do not have God's love in our hearts. In other words, you are able to spill out God's love to others from within yourself because your cup has already been filled by Him, so you don't have to live your life trying to fill that cup on your own with the things of this world (which is the self-centered approach to life).
     I guarantee you that God always has better plans for you than you have for yourself. You just have to trust Him; trust that He will never leave you a turn His back on you; trust that He will guide your life, if only you let Him.
     God can take all of our brokenness, all of our pain, all of our struggles, and use them to shape us into who He wants us made us to be. It is through God and God alone that we are able to unlock the power and the abilities which He has given to all of us. With God, you will know peace, love, joy, and strength that you never could have imagined having on your own. Your eyes will be opened and you will see everything in a new light, in the light that comes from God himself, just as all of creation comes from Him.
     Jesus told us that if we want to let Him change our lives, all we have to do is "pick up our crosses" and follow Him, dying to ourselves daily and freely accepting the burdens that He gives us, knowing that carrying these burdens will only make us stronger for Him.

     We are called to be His followers, not simply His fans. Just like the first disciples, if we want to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to leave everything else behind and trust Him to take care of us.
     I challenge you to be willing to let go of your dreams, desires, and everything else that you hold dear and trust that He has something even better in store for you. All you have to do is follow Him. Then you'll find that you truly were made for so much more, and meant to live for it too.

What is Evil and What Does it Mean?

I like to look at it like this:
Darkness does not exist. It is not a tangible thing. Light on the other hand, does exist. We can see it and we can feel it. Darkness is simply the absence of light.
Likewise, cold is the absence of heat. It does not go any lower than absolute zero (the total absence of heat), but heat can increase forever if it has enough fuel.
The point is this: Evil is not tangible either. Evil is simply the absence of God and His love. Evil is what we think that we see when we reject God's love in our hearts, the same way that we think that we see darkness when we turn the lights off or think we feel cold when there is no heat. We are not seeing something tangible, we are seeing the absence of something.
We do not see darkness, we simply recognize that there is no light; we do not feel cold, we simply feel no heat; we do not see evil all around us, what we see is the absence of God's love in a broken world.
The other funny thing about that, is that the two cannot exist together.
When there is light, there is no darkness - there is only darkness when there is no light;
When there is warmth, there is no cold - there is only cold when there is no warmth;
When there is the love of God, there is no evil - there is only evil when God's love is absent from our hearts - when people reject God's love or simply do not know it because they have never heard of it before. There is no evil when there is love.

When God's love is completely in our hearts, then there can be no evil - for it is like a light that illuminates a room, eradicating all darkness that may have previously "existed" there. It is only when we forget God's unconditional, powerful, and life-altering love - when we let that light be extinguished in our hearts - that we let the darkness creep back in.

What Are We Made For?

What are we made for?
-to walk with God; to be in a relationship with our Creator as Adam once was before the fall
-to be a light unto the world; to reflect God's love to all of creation through the Fruits of the Spirit (How clean is your mirror? - Guess who the only person capable of wiping the smudges off is?)
Fruits of the Spirit:
•Love
•Joy
•Peace
•Forbearance
•Kindness
•Goodness
•Faithfulness
•Gentleness
•Self-Control

     As Christians, we are not just supposed to live in the world being unchanged in our own lives. We are called to be holy; to be set apart from the world while still residing in it.

     Look back to Genesis.
     Adam and Eve were not just created as animals, they were different, they were special, they were set apart.
     Animals are slaves to their instincts and desires, humans were created to know better.
Granted, Adam and Eve messed that up and thus we see the broken world that we live in today; a world the is lost from God.
     But even the Bible says that we are all like sheep. If we don't follow the shepherd; if we choose to go off and do our own thing, then we will be lost from the Shepherd. We have left his protection - which he freely offers, by the way - and when we leave His protection, we subject ourselves to the dangers of the world.
     The Bible says that Satan is like a hungry lion, always on the prowl searching for an opportunity to prey on any sheep that decides to wander off from the flock. And what does he do when he has an opportunity? He attacks and devours the sheep.
     A lot of us have this false impression that the decisions that we make every day don't really mean anything. We understand that sometimes there are consequences for making the wrong decisions, but we let ourselves be convinced that those consequences won't hurt us; they only happen to other people, right?
     Plus, we have God on our side, so what could possibly hurt us? Wrong.
     If you decide to leave God's protection; if you walk away from the flock to do your own thing, then how can you expect Him to help you?
     Even when you have become lost, like a sheep, often times you have to cry out for your shepherd in order for him to find you. If you just sit there - pouting, hurting, depressed, whatever the case may be - and you don't cry out for the shepherd to come find you, he won't.
     God lets us make our own decisions; he lets us choose who we want to control our lives. One thing I've learned is that when we try to control our lies on our own, we often take them in the wrong direction.
     How many of you have heard the song "Jesus take the Wheel"? I know, it sounds weird, but bear with me. Carrie Underwood sings about how she's driving down the road with her baby in the back seat. She has control of the car (her life) because she has the wheel. Eventually, she's stressed out and having a tough time - she was running low on faith and gassoline - and she hits a patch of ice on the road, so she loses control of the car and it slides out of control. Guess what happens next? She was so scared that she didn't even have time to do anything except to say "Jesus, take the wheel. Take it from my hands, cuz I can't do this on my own. I'm letting go, so give me one more chance. Save me from this road I'm on. Jesus take the wheel," and he did.
     There's a verse in the Bible where Jesus says, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." - essentially, if you trust God enough to let Him have control of your life, you'll be safe. God is not going to let anything happen to you that you can't handle if you give him control of your car. Just let Him take the wheel, and He will keep you safe from harm. But if you try to do it on your own, you're going to lose control and be hurt by it. You see, no matter what we do, we cannot control everything in our lives - we will always lose control eventually - so why not just give that control to God, the one who will always keep us safe?
     To give you another analogy, when something tough happens in our lives, it can feel like we've just been shoved off the edge of a cliff. It is like we are falling into the abyss, and we cannot see the bottom. Now, imaging a classic movie scene. What does the character that's just been pushed off the cliff always do? They desperately grab for those convenient branches hanging off of the side so that they can pull themselves back up. The thing that we don't realize is that sometimes God lets us be pushed off of the cliff so that we can trust Him more. When we're pushed off a cliff in life, it's God's way of testing us in a trust fall type of situation. You may not see what's ahead of you, but you can trust that God will catch you no matter what happens. If you can just trust God enough to let go of those branches - those false hopes of saving yourself and getting back on top of the cliff (which never works anyway) - by giving up your feeling of safety and letting yourself fall into His arms, your life will be changed. The more you are able to let go of the things that are "yours" (like your hopes - the branches), the more you are able to fall in love with God. If you just give up that control and safety and trust that He'll take care of you no matter what, you'll find a sense of peace and purpose that you've never known before.
Romans 8:28 says "God does all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."
     You will always face trials along the way, but God only lets us face those trials so that we can grow from them. Another verse says "As gold is purified through the fires of the furnace, so also are we purified through the trials and struggles that we face in our life. If we give God control through the trying times, it makes us all the more able to develope the fruits of the spirit and to reflect God to the world through those fruits.
     In Romans chapter 5, Paul says that we can celebrate through our sufferings, knowing that our sufferig prodeuces patience, and that patience produces a tried and tested character, and characer produces hope--hope which does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through giving God control and allowing the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and transform us.
One of my favorite non-Biblical parables is the Footprints In the Sand story. And many of you have heard this, but here's how it goes:

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied: 

"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

     God never left him.
     You see, God is always with us, and through His grace, God accpets us exactly the way that we are, flaws and all. There's a song that says: "You can come as you are, all your broken piees, all your shameful scars. The pain you hold in your heart, bring it all to Jesus, you can come as you are."
He is not angry at us, He loves us unconditionally. The Bible defines true love like this:

^"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

     John 3:16 says that "God so loved the world that He gave his only son for US, so that anyone who believes in Him can have eternal life."
     You see, we tend to forget that gift and what it truly means. Because we are sinners, we desere to go to hell. God is merciful, He doesn't want to give us what we deserve - death; God wants to give us something that we don't deserve, something that we've never earned and never can earn - LIFE.
     The thing you have to remember about grace is that, even though God accepts us just the way we are, grace is not content to LEAVE us the way that we are. God desires for us to give Him our hearts and our lives, for us to seek Him and KNOW Him, and for us to give up control of our lives. God created human beings to be in a relationship with Him, that's what we were designed for in the vary beginnig; to walk WITH God, not just towards Him. He wants us to let Him transform our lives--the very fabric of our being, and to unleash the power that each of us is created with. Remember who created us.
There's a famous poem called, "Our Greatest Fear" that says:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others."

—Marianne Williamson 

     Through God, there is a power instilled deep within each and every one of us that is just waiting to be let loose.
     Our life on earth is simply the journey towards God, but heaven is the beginning of the journey WITH God. And heaven lasts for eternity.
     Life is not all about us, though. Remember the baby in the backseat in the song earlier? That means something too. If the car represents our life, then the choices that we make with our lives affect those that we have invited into our cars; into our lives. The choices that we make not only affect us on our journey, but the people that are closest to us and journeying with us too.
     Now lets go back to the sheep analogy and wrap that up, but first, I have a video for you. It's called The Everything Skit and it goes alog with the song Everything by Lifehouse. Many of you have seen this before, but I want to challenge you to really pay attention to what's going on in the video. So here goes:

     This woman is a lot like us. It started with something little that didn't seem bad at all, but little by little, she let other things become more important to her than God. She began to wander off like a sheep leavi g the flock. In the end, she was hurt, and she was lost--she hit rock bottom, where she was so low that there was nowhere else to look but up.
     Did you notice that the entire time she was wandering off, Jesus was standing there trying to et her atyention and calling her back to Him? It's kinda like the Footprints parable. He was always there, He never left, but she never noticed Him.
     Now notice what happened when she looked back to Him; when she surrendered control and called back to Jesus--He began to pull her back.
     She still had to fight throughthe mistakes and struggles of her past, but Jesus kept on pulling.
Then the crucifiction analogy comes into it. Jesus stands in front of all the things attacking her. He takes the punishment for her, spread out like He was hanging from the cross. When she accepted that gift from Him, He took all of the punishment. Jesus threw all of the Sins and mistakes off the past off.
     Like in the song Marvelous Light "Sin has lost its power, death has lost its sting. From the grave you've risen--VICTORIOUSLY." Jesus conquered over sin; He conquered over death; He conquered over hell itself; He suffered and died, and went to hell and back, and He did it all for US, because He loves us so much that He could not bear to make us take that punishment.
     You see, the thing that we so often forget abot the parable of the sheep and the shepherd is that when that one sheep wanders away, the shepherd goes and looks for it, and he does not stop until he finds that sheep.
     God will never give up on you or anyone else. Just like the woman and the end of the skit, God wants you to be able to walk with Him once again. That's why He created you in the first place.
My question to you is this:
"Do you have the guts to fight for Him the way He fights for you?"