Wings as Eagles

All around me I see Christians who are weary. I do not deny that I am one of them. My weariness comes from schoolwork and overall stress involving all of my responsibilities at this time. Some of you are spiritually weary. I too must confess to this in a way. My Christian walk has been hard the last couple of months because I have struggled to find time to get into the Word with my busy schedule and to worship Him in my own time. However, my busy schedule is not a good excuse, so I won't use it. God is revealing to me that I need to give Him all my time and in that He will allow me to accomplish the things that I need to do on time and give me the time to spend with Him.

We must be persistent. I see the enemy stepping up his attack as God continues to move in Oswego. It is easy to be excited, charismatic, and anxious to spread God's love when things are going well and we can see what He is doing around us. But when it is hard to tell what He is doing and we are not quite sure of His plan, will we continue to remain in Him and pursue His love? Weariness is a human condition that God can easily overcome. If we remain in His love day in and day out, He will strengthen us and we will rise on wings of eagles. Laying aside sins isn't enough anymore. God wants to change us, but He doesn't expect us to be perfect, what He expects and longs for is a heart that yearns after Him, that wants to be with Him as much as He wants to be with us. I pray that He will reveal His heart for us to all of us as we seek Him.

We have proclaimed ourselves as Christians to this campus, to our families and friends, and most importantly to God. We need to live up to that responsibility. Jesus never said that it was an easy responsibility and I am not any better off than you at attaining that. We need to remember that striving will get us nowhere. Walking through our lives in religiosity and routine, doing the things that we know will make us look like "good Christians" will get us nowhere. Instead, we must place our efforts into being with Him, remaining in Him, and giving Him the time that He deserves. There is no greater experience, nothing more beneficial to the soul and spirit, than spending time in His presence. This is how we overcome weariness. It is simple, but requires that we commit to these things. I know that I do not want my spiritual weariness to overcome me, especially when I have the Overcomer living inside me battling on my behalf.

"Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings as eagles, they will run and not grow weary, walk and not faint." - Isaiah 40:31

Our First Love

"I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." - Rev. 2:2-4

As I stated in a previous post, I see many people chasing after relationships and seeking relationships. Let it be a warning that obviously these things must be led by God. I don't think anyone has gotten to the point of forgetting their first love, I truly hope not. However, do not get to that point. No relationship is going to satisfy more than the relationship that you have with the Father. Many of you know that, but this is a reminder, and an attempt to keep you focused. I do not want satan to steal from you what God has planned for you. God has the perfect person for you, but it has to be in His time. If it's not in His time it won't happen. If you are not genuinely or clearly hearing God telling you to pursue someone, don't. And as hard as it is, you may have to wait. I'm with you on this, patience is hard for me, but God tells us to wait for His timing because His timing is perfect, we must be careful not to go ahead of or behind it. We must keep our human emotions in perspective, as hard as that may be and always seek counsel from friends before jumping into anything.

If you are discouraged because you have sought the Lord and don't seem to be getting an answer this verse is for you:

"My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." - Prov. 2:1-6

This may not seem true right now, but God has promised it and we know that His promises are true. Rely on the words of the Father.

Random Thoughts

Hello again, sorry that I've been gone for so long. since we're doing the summer thing and I don't see many of you much let me fill you in quick about my life. I'm going on my third week of work at the college cleaning rooms. It's not that great a job, but it pays more than McDonald's and virtually anything is better than working at McD's. Other than that I've been pretty busy because I work 40 hours a week and then spend the rest of the time so far with Cheryl and my family. Occasionally I also get to spend time with other friends in Oswego, but I have been busy and so I apologize if I haven't kept in touch with those of you who aren't here in Oswego for the summer.

There are several things that I wanted to make quick mention of that God has been showing me in my life. First of all, I need to put my faith in Him more and I need to expect big things more. I totally believe that God can do miracles and heal people, I know it to be true, but when it comes time to pray or to act on that do I operate as if I believe it? However, I would like to report on this subject that I had hurt my shoulder at work pretty bad because lately my body seems to be very stupid. I had twisted my shoulder the slightest bit which wouldn't normally hurt me, but for some reason it caused my shoulder to really bother me. I woke up the next morning and felt it twinge as I got out of bed. As I was in the shower I prayed for God to take it away and He completely did. I was fine for the rest of the day and haven't felt anything in the last week or so. So praise God that He looks to help us even in the little things, imagine what will happen when people are healed of cancer and other much serious things. I believe that time is coming and that time is upon us now if we will step out in faith.

Secondly, I have noticed in my own life that there are times when I do not act like a brother or sister in Christ to those who are around me. Why is it that when Christ lavishes so much grace upon us, we can't do the same for our brothers and sisters in Christ or even those who aren't Christians? Obviously none of us are Christ, but we are called to live like Him and so I've noticed that this is one area of my life that I need to work on. Not just treating people well and being more patient with them, but also helping them when they are in need, caring for them when they need it, expending energy for them in order to help them, even when I feel I have nothing to give. I would challenge you to do the same, God will give you something to give to them.

Please bear with me, I have not posted in a long time and probably won't for awhile so I'm trying to fit it in here. Thirdly, I have seen my brothers and sisters, but mainly my friends who don't know God, trying to find happiness in relationships. Let me first say that I am in a relationship you probably know that and have been for over 4 years, I am in no way against relationships. However, if you are trying to find satisfaction in a relationship alone I can assure you, even if you marry that person complete satisfaction will never come. We are not made as humans to be only loved by someone of the opposite sex, but we are made primarily to love and be loved by God. If you don't have God as your first love, your first priority and attraction you will never find full satisfaction through a relationship. Some of you may not understand what I mean by this, but think about it. Have you been in relationships that seemed great to begin with and then you realized later on that they weren't enough, that you still weren't happy enough? I love Cheryl with all my heart, but without the love of God we probably wouldn't even be together right now. It's only by God's grace that our relationship has even lasted. I truly believe that and I thank Him for helping us through it and blessing us so much. So, please, please, please, do not put all of your hope in a relationship that won't satisfy everything you want it to. Do put your hope in God and if He tells you to then pursue that relationship that He has planned for you and it will be even better than you can imagine.

Alright, I am done babbling for now, hopefully you have been blessed and I will try to post more often.

Self Seeking

As I was laying in bed the other night I was thinking about how our society has started to adopt a "me and only me" mentality. I see this pretty often lately, a focus on ourselves and a lack of care for anyone else. In my politics class during open discussions people frequently say something like, "I don't care, it doesn't effect me." How ridiculous is that? The truth is we (as a society) don't tend to care about anything but ourselves, we have become so selfish and so self involved that we hardly realize or care about what's going on around us unless it directly effects us. This way of thinking is wrong, not only is it wrong but it is from satan.

When people around me hurt, I should hurt. When people around me are troubled, I should be troubled. This is what we are called to as Christians. That when we see someone who needs prayer that we may not even know, we pray for them. That when we people have problems, even someone we may not know, they know they can come to us because we make ourselves open to this. As I thought about this self seeking mentality I began to think about my relationship with God and how too often we look at that as self seeking also. Very often we go into a worship service and if we don't get something out of it we think that it wasn't good. NEWSFLASH: A worship service is not about us. Sometimes God blesses us with things, but a worship service is about God and giving Him praise. Don't tell me the music wasn't good, don't tell me you weren't touched by God. Don't tell me this or that, excuses will get you nowhere. Just glorify Him, that's what we were made for. Do not seek Him only when something is going wrong, do not seek Him only when someone needs healing. He wants to be meeting with you regularly. I have even heard God say to me, "I want to spend time with you." That's how awesome our God is, He longs to spend time with us, even though we are just humans who have sinned. So I urge you to simply spend time with Him.

"To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." - Romans 2:7-8

Revolution

Thanks for asking where I am Karen, I do still exist I just haven't really had much to put in here recently.
I started reading a book today that my friend Trish let me borrow called Revolution! The Call to Holy War by Michael L. Brown. As I began reading he talks about how in 1999-2000 he began to really feel that God was stirring up a revolution. That a spiritual revolution was going to take place in America. I found this interesting because shortly after he wrote this book I wrote a song with the band that I was in, Feed 5,000, about a spiritual revolution. Some of the quotes in this book really struck me.

"I believe we have come to a place where the thinking of [Christians] must change, and it must change now or the church will become a little cult in the corner. I am not interested in following a religion that does not impact the world in which we live...Jesus was a rebel, and He has called us to join this rebel movement, and change the world together." - Nevers Mumba, Zambian Christian Leader

"The attack by socialism and communism on the status quo is a call to our consciences-those of us who consider ourselves Christians. This call warns us more strongly than any sermon that our task is to live in protest against everything that opposes God in this world. So poorly have we Christians filled this role that the question must be asked: Are we Christians at all?" - Eberhard Arnold, Writing in 1919

"Faith that is primarily expressed on Sunday mornings strikes me as a complete aberration of true New Testament faith." - Michael L. Brown

I hope that these quotes speak to you as they did me. God has really been calling me to action more lately, but I haven't been responding the way that I should. I have heard Him saying that He wants to spend time with me and sometimes I have ignored that. I don't know why I have, but I know I need to change that. God isn't someone that we should take advantage of, only turning to Him and spending time with Him when we feel like it, but we do it all the time. I (we) need to give Him what He deserves, only then will revolution happen, only then will lives be changed and people will see and know that He is God.

We'll break loose from these chains
Forget all our pains
It's time for revolution
We'll soften hard hearts
This is only the start
It's time for revolution

The demons shudder when they hear His name
As we shout "Jesus!" see them run in vain

Erase Doubt from Your Mind

Let me start by extending an invitation. Anyone is welcome to join the worship team after BASIC as we "practice" and worship. This invitation is open to everyone, especially if you're not able to make it to BASIC regularly because of a class. Don't think that we are kicking you out when we begin practice, but know that you can join us if you would like to stick around and worship some more. That said, our "practice" time tonight turned into an amazing time of worship and dwelling in the Holy Spirit. God gave me a word that I feel is very applicable to us as a group and I'm going to do my best to write out what it was for those of you who weren't there tonight to hear it.

Erase doubt from your mind, erase doubt from your mind
Why is it that even after seeing the state that you were in before being saved, the sin that you lived in and the hopeless state of your life, remembering your past, that we still doubt God can save others?
God pulled you out of it and saved you and He can do that for ANYONE just as much, if not more.
Why do we think this person won't ever be saved because of this, this, and this?
God can overcome all those things and more

Doubt is pointless
Doubt is mindless and foolishness

God says, "Am I not the God who delivered the Israelites from Egypt? Am I not the God who brought the walls of Jericho down? Am I not the God who caused a virgin birth?"

Jesus performed miracles and healings over and over again while He was on earth and yet we doubt those things can happen now. Do not doubt, doubt is a tool used by satan to keep us from doing things for God, doubt is not of God.

Do not doubt. Erase doubt from your mind.

Two Criminals

A somewhat long scripture to read on here, but please bear with me.

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with Him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him, along with the criminals - one on His right, the other on His left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up His clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at Him. They said, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."... One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise." - Luke 23:32-35, 39-43

I've read this passage many times before, but when it was read in church this morning I saw it in a new light. I don't think I can say that I had any big revelations or anything, but the verses just meant more to me. The main part that really stuck out to me was the criminal who stood up for Jesus. Everyone else was mocking Him and throwing insults at Him. The one criminal was only thinking of himself and how Jesus could save him. Out of all the people there who could have really understood what was going on, it was least expected to be one of the criminals. And yet, the one criminal acknowledged that Jesus was the Son of God and that He didn't deserve to die, while he and the other criminal did. In many ways I think this is the point we come to in our own lives when we realize the truth of Jesus and the reality and fullness of His sacrifice. We are like criminals because we are sinners and while we realize that we deserve to die, we also realize that He didn't, but He still chose to, for us. The choice is there: will we act like the first criminal and think only on how we can save ourselves, or will we ask Him to remember us?

What I'm saying isn't just for people who aren't Christians. Too often we act just like the first criminal, thinking only of how we can satisfy ourselves. But instead we need to act like the second criminal and acknowledge that He is Lord, that He died an undeserving death for us, and that He saved us, even when we scorned Him and mocked Him. What really stood out to me though was Jesus' reply, "Today you will be with Me in paradise." This criminal said one thing and he was able to accept the love of Jesus Christ and the gift of eternal life, that's how easy it is! Oh what joy that I will be with Him in paradise! That one man changed the world so greatly just amazes me. I encourage you to read this portion of scripture.