Hope

Hope is such a powerful word. President Obama used this word as one of his campaign slogans, it is a keyword in the fight against breast cancer, and 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that it is one of God's most enduring and amazing gifts to us.

Tonight, Kyle and I were watching the news and it was filled with report after depressing report about our failing economy and the huge holes in the stimulus plan that is supposed to fix the dying economy. The next report was about the 58,000 Americans that have lost their jobs in the last two days. Kyle and I just kind of looked at each other and he made the comment that he is so glad that his hope isn't in our government, our President, our economy, or anything else other than Jesus Christ and the love that He has for us. I couldn't agree more, and as I was thinking about all the people that are going through hard times right now and that are stressed because of our economy, or our country's new leadership, or any other multitude of things that people find to worry about, I was heart-broken that not all of those people have the same hope that Kyle and I have.

God can use times like this to draw people closer to Him, and I pray (and I ask you to join with me) that people will realize that regardless of their current economic position, that we all have a God that loves us more than we can possibly imagine and that came to Earth and died for our sins, but was then RESURRECTED, overcoming death and Satan so that we can spend eternity in His presence if we only acknowledge what He has done for us, accept it and turn to Him in repentance. He gives us peace that allows us to look at the current condition of our country and not worry about tomorrow, but to trust that He will provide for us. This is the true meaning of hope, hope that comes from God and allows us the freedom to fully trust in Him.

So I HOPE that you place your hope in the right place when things get rough and when things are going great.

Control

So, last night I went to bed at about 12:30 with the knowledge that in a mere 6 hours I would need to be on my way to Washington so that I could be at work by 7. I've gotten accustomed to having about 6 or 7 hours of sleep (college will do that to you). I'm one of those people that has the wonderful gift that when my head hits the pillow at 12:30, I'm asleep by 12:32. So I'm off to dreamland.

Suddenly my ears are bursting to the sound of a loud chirping (much like that of a giant mutant cricket)! It's WAY too loud to be my alarm telling me that I should be dragging myself out of the bed, but it's so loud that getting out of the bed just kind of happens. Someone in my apartment has pulled the fire alarm. I look out the window and people are standing way too close to the building for it to actually be on fire, so I'm not in a huge rush to grab some clothes and get out, but I start heading that way. Oh, did I mention that it is 4:00 IN THE MORNING!

Taking all of these events into consideration with the sleepy haze over my mind, I decide that the best thing for me to do is get dressed and go ahead to Washington to work really early.

I have taken two naps and I am somewhat normal right now, my sleep schedule is kind of weird, but I was thinking about the events of the pre-dawn morning and I realized that there are some things in life that we cannot control. This really should be no surprise to me, but it makes a wonderful reminder of the truth about control.

So how should I handle a situation like this? During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked the question "which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" As usual, Jesus was right...lol nothing that I could have done this morning would have changed the fact that someone (I don't really even care who) pulled the fire alarm and worrying about it wasn't going to fix anything, so if I'm not supposed to fret (some of you will say that's a Nash county word, and if so, I'm proud..lol), how am I supposed to handle this situation? That's just it, I can't change it so I can't give it head-space (complements of Bobby Garcia). My job is to get dressed, trust the purpose that God has behind making sure I'm awake at 4, and move through the day with a thankful spirit, blessed that there wasn't an actual fire and no one was hurt.

Story

So tonight I'm reading in Acts as the story of Paul's trial unfolds and God really challenged me with a lot as I read it. I'll try to "unpack" some of what He was saying to me as I read.

Paul is going around all of the region telling people about Jesus, the resurrected Christ, and he's making arguments for Jesus as the Christ based on scripture and personal experience. His personal experience with Christ is quite amazing and he's telling people this story and supporting his claims with the words of the prophets and through this, people are coming to know Jesus as the Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit through baptism and repentance.

God puts it on his heart to take this story to Jerusalem and face the most devout of the Jews with this vital truth that they reject. Paul receives warnings from all of his closest friends that he will face some serious persecution if he takes this story to these people, but he doesn't back down.

So Paul is in Jerusalem and he's simply telling his story and sharing how Jesus has changed his life and everything he knows, and people get really upset over this and they try to have him killed. Because of the special position that God put Paul in with his Roman citizenship, he is taken to multiple different "courts" to testify so that the government can get this straight before they make a decision about what to do with him. So Paul has the chance to make an argument for the fact that these people really don't have anything on him that deserves punishment, but instead of taking time to make that argument, he repeatedly goes before these "courts" and just tells his story. This is so impacting that some people start to take this Christianity thing seriously while others are convinced that he must be out of his mind.

All of this leads me to the point that our stories of the ways that God has impacted our lives can be very powerful to others, but we don't really seem to share them very often. So I'm gonna try it and I hope that you try it too, I mean think of the things that God can do if we are just obedient storytellers.

Stressed?

It's that wonderful time of the year, where people start getting stressed out over exams, travel plans, Christmas gifts, and the other random life events that stress us out. When I am stressed, the thing that I want most is peace. A feeling of peace where I don't really have to worry about anything because my burdens really are not my own. This kind of peace doesn't come from being confident in my abilities, or cocky, or anything like that; this peace comes from being confident in the truth that we are given in Scripture so many times about not worrying. A lot of people hear me talking about Matthew 6:34, but this time, I'm not talking about that particular verse. I am talking about the instance in Paul's letter to the Philippians where he tells them through the Holy Spirit, not to be anxious about anything, but in everything to bring their requests to God with prayer and supplication, and they will be given a peace that is beyond all understanding. Did you get that? "BEYOND ALL UNDERSTANDING", obviously, based on the concept of that, I don't quite get it, but I do know that when everything is falling apart and I am being pulled in a million different directions, with exams, work, traffic, family, holiday shopping, and other stresses trying to steal my attention, and my joy, I just have to take my requests to God and He will provide His incredible peace!

So as you study, shop, work, travel, or whatever it is that you are doing this time of year, when you start getting stressed, don't forget who's in control. Spend some time being amazed at who God is, His unconditional love, and bring your stress to Him, I have a promise from Him that if you put Him first, He will give you the peace that we all need so desperately.

Sometimes...

I came to the realization today that sometimes I can be really selfish...I tend to put my needs before the needs of others. This realization got me to thinking about the way that I treat those around me when I put myself first. Needless to say, I am not very proud of the way that I treat people when I act like this. I am called to be selfless, to put the needs of others before my own. I have not been living up to the man of God that I am supposed to be, if you are one of the people that I have not considered while I have been putting my needs and wants first, I am very sorry and I am going to start working on this problem right now. Please let me know if you see me doing this so that I can fix it as soon and as effectively as possible. In my pursuit of who God wants me to be I have somehow wandered from this selflessness and I am going to do my very best to recapture it!

If God Sent Text Messages

So, we're sitting at supper one night, just talking about stuff and Karen says, "I wish God sent text messages." I was like...that's a cool idea, so we talked about it a little bit, and I've kind of had it on the back burner in my head for a while, so here's what we came up with. If God sent text messages, what would He say? I'm sure that it would differ from person to person and situation to situation, but I think that sometimes He would send pieces of encouragement or support, sometimes He would call us out, and sometimes He would send us some of His Word. Like I said, this is just a thought, but taking it one step further, would we really want to answer His text messages? I know that I would want to get the encouraging texts or the texts of Scripture, but how about those texts where He calls us out? Those would be kind of tough to answer, it would be like...I know that's a text from God, and I know what it says because I know what He's calling me out on, but I think I would just rather ignore it. When I consider that, it makes me wonder how often do I ignore the Holy Spirit (which is WAY cooler than a text message) when He is showing me something I need to be doing, or something that I am doing that I shouldn't be? So I guess the concept of getting a direct message from God on your phone is cool, but isn't it even more amazing that we get them on our hearts and from other believers through the Holy Spirit, not a cell phone provider.

To Follow Christ

What does it mean to die to yourself and take up your cross to follow Christ as a college student? I was asked to consider this question the other day with some close friends. As I considered the concept, I broke the question down and just started thinking about what it means to die to yourself as a college student. In some situations it means leaving the iPod in your pocket and keeping the headphones out of your ears. Other times it means taking the initiative to start a conversation with the person beside you when you would rather just take a second and breathe. Sometimes it means making arrangements to schedule something that you don't care too much about in order to let another person know that you care about them. Obviously, this means different things in different situations, but the core of this means to worry less about what you want and what you think is important and more about what is important to someone other than yourself. For a Christian this means, being concerned with what is important to God. This is where the second part of the question comes in. I think that to be concerned about what is important to God, you have to take up your cross and follow Christ. This also looks different in every situation, but it is all tied together through a deep seated understanding of what is important to Jesus and how we are supposed to act in order to accomplish His purposes. To understand what is important to Christ, we have to spend time with Him, in His Word, and in prayer. For a college student, this means taking advantage of the flexible schedule and freedom that we have to make the things that are important to God important to us. If you have any other ideas about this question (I hope you do, because I don't have a lock on the answer, I just have an idea), please comment and let me know what you think about what it means to die to yourself and take up your cross to follow Christ as a college student.