Justified through Faith

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,

    and do not resent his rebuke,

12 

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

    as a father the son he delights in.

~Proverbs 3:11-12 ~

Lately in my walk with God I have been avoiding discipline almost like the plague, and when I haven't been running away from it completely, I have been hiding behind self-justification... and that is one of the worse things I think I can do because it allows my own pride to grow and keeps me in a mindset where I can not be humble and repentant before God.

As soon as I start thinking thoughts like 'God can't possibly care about this one little issue' That's when I know I'm not in a good place... and yet here I am ready and willing to admit it and still a part of me is trying to justify this... literally right now as I'm writing this I thought 'well I could be doing way worse' !!! It seems completely unbelievable, I'm actually appalled with myself!

 I've been struggling with God a lot lately the last few months, I've been too caught up in self and distractions and situations/circumstances in my life.  I definitely need prayer for victory over trying to justify myself before God, because I know that's impossible on my own, and I know it's going to be difficult. My pride is yelling at me right now. And that's ok, because I remembered these verses in Hebrews and wanted them to be the honest cry of my heart and to know they are true and to live them!

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 

~Hebrews 12: 9-11~

I'd like to take this time to encourage anyone else struggling through this- because honestly, if you're reading this and it sounds familiar - then you may have been trying to justify yourself before God (and probably others) then these words may sting and be convicting.

But is that not how the pharisee's would have felt as well?

 And so for the sake of their image, power and pride they killed Jesus to have Him and the discipline and conviction that came from listening to Him (and following Him) out of their lives for good (or so they thought). They chose to cut themselves off from God ... And this is why being humble and repentant and loving the Lord's discipline  is the choice one must make because out of it comes righteousness and true peace!

I don't have a plan!

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. 

~Proverbs 16:3 ~

I got so much encouragement from this verse today! 

I've been thinking about the future, I'm graduating college in a couple months and... to be honest I don't really have a plan, and I'm a person who likes to have a plan otherwise things seem vague, unreal and distant to me... 

But I like what this verse speaks to me - a reminder to commit it to the Lord and HE will establish my plans - They may or may not be my own plans, they may be a time of immense blessing, a period of trial, but most certainly a time of learning to trust Him more. Trust that He has a plan whether I do or not and to walk in accordance to it! :) 

an encouraging verse

Psalm 85:6-7

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love LORD that you may grant us your salvation.

Scrubbing the dishes

If anyone knows me, they know that scrubbing dishes is one of my least favourite chores... That's just the way it is. Depending on what was for dinner those dishes can be greasy and have ick-y, caked on food.. and if you leaves the dishes in the sink for a few days... well then it's even worse, and harder to clean up. It means much more of a deliberate effort on my part.


Tonight at bible study we were reading over Romans 7. Now a good chunk of that chapter is Paul talking about the war between our sinful nature and a Christian's new nature- the one full of God's spirit.
They are constantly at war!

And let me tell you, I can definitely relate to that lately... There have been several issues of sin, some habitual that have snuck back into my life..   ~I'm not going to specify because that is between myself and God~ ... But it has been a war of actually doing what I know is right according to God <.vs.> trying on my own to either fight it, or what might be more accurate the last couple weeks, just letting it be.  *Hangs head in shame*

I feel like those dishes left in the sink, sure there were small things I dealt with... but it was like running some water over the dishes...it might have cleared up a small spot but did little to clean the whole pot. I've honestly just been lazy; letting things sit there, all kinds of awful or ungrateful thoughts, selfish behaviours ect.  I felt exactly like Paul when he exclaimed:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?!
~Romans 7:24~

I had - for the most part-  stopped denying myself - because it was hard, stopped counting myself dead to sin- because it's not that bad right? I stopped picking up my cross- because it was heavy.

I hadn't dealt with anything really, just hadn't gotten around to it - or started to look at what there was to do  - so I avoided it, but there's only so long one can go on like that-after all, the dishes won't clean themselves.


I love the next line after Paul proclaims he's a wretched man --- because it's the solution to our wretched selves - He's the one who can scrub us clean! :) 

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
~Romans 7:25~ 

The sun sets on 2014

 Just a couple of pictures I took while walking the other day... it has been beautiful lately and where I am there has yet to be any snow, which is truly astonishing!

Down near the boardwalk/lake

*Look the grass is still green! 

Further down the boardwalk and later as the sun is setting... 

Amazingly it's the end of December and there is no snow or ice around even the edges of the lake! 

It's beautiful and I could sit there forever! 

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

~ Romans 1:20 ~

Responsible

I have sorely neglected blogging lately. Life has continued on routinely for me, I'm enjoying these final few months that I will be a college student before my life will become a whirlwind of unknowns.

Lately I feel as if God has been teaching me the importance of time and timing. There is a time for everything under heaven you know!

I know there are things that I need to be doing and making the most of while I am in the situation and place that I'm at... And there are also things that God is saying 'hold off'...wait on me, trust me.


At the beginning of the year I prayed about a 'word for the year' and that word was 'Obedience'. I had many many short comings in that but also incredible things that God did. This year I learned to better listen to the quiet gentle leading of God's spirit.. whether it was something bigger like praying through anxious moments, me being at a specific place at a specific time that God used to bless and help others or whether it was a minuscule decision or thought that *I* would hardly consider important but then God would remind me of obedience even in the simplest and tiniest details and I found I was really blessed through that.

I've been thinking and praying about choosing another word for this coming year, since it's really kind of a neat idea. What God has been putting on my heart lately is 'Responsibility'... that may sound strange... but this has been on my heart because I've felt a huge sense of responsibility to maintain my own spiritual growth and to encourage others & help them realize they they are responsible for their souls. Responsibility also better helps me to understand that there are things I must not procrastinate on or put off- I've had that reminder come up several times in the last couple months and have always paid a price when I slacked off - whether that was in school work, personal things or devotion time.

Right now, I am feeling like this word for the year is going to be very difficult to do and to maintain, but I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do with it!

Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.

 

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings

~Psalm 17:7-8~ 

Gentle reminders

The last month for me has been ordinary yet exciting. Kind of an oxymoron I think. I've been wanting to write and yet I  haven't.

The last month or so God's just been very gently speaking to me about deliberately setting aside time to pray or worship or read the bible in the morning and.. that doesn't always happen - it's a struggle against the flesh to sit down and do that every morning even if I do have the time... And sometimes I've wanted to just cry because I really don't have my priorities in order and I just have to learn to draw closer to Him each morning.

God's also been teaching me to continually come before him and confess sin, even if it seems really small and insignificant and I've found that this gentle reminding has been really good for me especially when I feel the weight of the day starting to push me down.

This month has been full of very gentle reminders and I love when God is like that.

It reminds me of the parable in John 8 where a woman is caught in adultery and the pharisees bring her to the temple in front of Jesus. He could have condemned her, it would have been justified, but instead he was very gentle with her and yet it was still convicting and exactly what she needed at that moment.

I'm really glad that God just knows us intimately and that He knows exactly what we need and when.
Yep. I really love that! :)

Pride

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 

~2 Corinthians 7:1~

I found this verse tonight particularly convicting. Especially how the verse specifically states that we are to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates the body and spirit. 

The last few weeks I've let many things creep into my life totally unintentionally because I really had not been attempting to keep myself from distraction and small sins. Mostly, I'd been thinking "I can work on these things to better myself,' and they were biblical things that are commanded in scripture but I'd been attempting to do them all in my own strength, not out of reverence for God and therefore got very easily distracted from trying to walk with God each day....and didn't exactly do too well in accomplishing anything...

I didn't realize that trying to do everything in my own strength was a huge form of pride. I was thinking, 'well, maybe my circumstances have me bogged down' or 'it's this or that thing, it's not MY fault'. Ha... oh boy, how wrong I was. 

 I'd been having a hard time worshiping  God and especially praying because... well I wasn't exactly humbling myself... Then I wasn't really able to pray because of the secret pride I was harboring (though I didn't realize what it was at the time). Plus the physical aspect of being busy with school, emotional roller coaster of work/personal issues and obviously the spiritual issues I was having REALLY took a toll on me and the last few weeks, for the most part, I have felt soooo weighed down by everything and tonight, I FINALLY realized what was going on spiritually, so I prayed (for real, without being distracted and full of pride) and the weight lifted! Praise the Lord! He is with us always, waiting for us to trust Him and to walk arm in arm with Him!  :) 

The Kingdom of God

The phrase 'the Kingdom of God' is used over 60 times in the New Testament and I've been thinking about it a lot. From what I've noticed through looking it up is that there seem to be several different meanings or circumstances that it's used after my initial thought of Heaven being the literal and physical Kingdom. 

The first mention of this certain phrase is in Matthew 12, when Jesus says "But if it is by the spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you [Verse 12]).

So this made me think, well, it can't JUST be a physical place or in one fixed area called heaven.  But Jesus also taught and preached  about the kingdom :


Luke 4:43
 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. 

and He gave instructions on how to inherit or enter the kingdom

Mark 1:15 
"The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" 

and

  Mark 10:15
"Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."


Now, since the phrase seemed to be all over the place I decided to look up the word Kingdom, in the dictionary... (Trust me, I felt pretty silly because I know what it means.. but was hoping for a little more insight) 
And the definition is:

1. a country, state, or territory ruled by a king or queen.
2. the spiritual reign or authority of God



The concept of it being a spiritual kingdom (as well as a physical kingdom) had crossed my mind and it  makes a lot of sense and I found was backed up by previous verses that say 
we muct become like little children to enter it and the ever-famous 'it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom' verse. Along with two more verses that I found 


John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit 

And 

1 Corinthians 15:50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.


What also caught my attention in the definition of Kingdom was the word ruled', yes, it makes sense that a kingdom has to have a ruler.
That being said when I was reading through Luke 17:20 -21 this part really caught my attention(and was the birth of this whole blog post):
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,  nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

*Some versions say 'The kingdom of God is with in you' 
and that made me think... if the kingdom of God is a spiritual reign, with in us, who has a ruler (Jesus), then that means that we have a pretty important job- like being the mayor of a very small area in one part of the whole kingdom! And I believe that job is to help maintain the kingdom, whether in our own lives and hearts, the church or the general body of believers. 

Now if a mayor breaks the law or is corrupt usually what happens is things go downhill...pretty quickly... and people hear of it, that's why bad politician jokes exist right? Which leads to convicting, get-you-thinking kind of questions... 

Are you submitted to the rule of Jesus... or are you thinking you can do things pretty well without obeying the King and His words/ laws?

What kind of mayor for the kingdom are you going to be? 

August

I haven't blogged for a month, there hasn't been a whole lot to blog about, I've been helping out with camp, had a birthday, I was in a wedding, I've been packing for college (ok, that actually only started two days ago.. haha)! And then I've been thinking...oh boy...I graduate college in 8 months... I don't have a plan, I don't know what I'll do, or where I'll live or where I'd get a job, there are things I'd like to do before I get a job and those things are on a yellow light right now- no longer stopped but still on hold. And this is all kind of scary, I know perfectly well I'm not alone in this situation, there are millions of young adults in the same situation I am.

It seems like at the end of my school year I'll be stepping out of a boat before I know what's going to happen, and I'm trying hard not to look at the waves and to just trust that God is going to guide me and provide for me and ask me to get out of the boat. And that makes me less scared, I trust Him with my life, my career, and my dreams to see the rocky mountains. It's not your typical 5-year plan, but that's ok with me! :)

When God is silent

The last month has been kind of strange for me.

See the past month as I've been thinking about and going through various things  and praying about them God has been silent.

And (ok this might sound crazy) this hasn't been a bad thing. God has not seemed distant or aloof, just silent.
It's actually been almost a blessing because it's been teaching me to first of all, to wait on Him and secondly to place my hope in Him that He will come through even though it doesn't seem like it. Even though at times my hope seemed so fragile, I realized that my hope doesn't depend on the circumstances or what I'm feeling but on Him alone... and He's saying 'hold on'!  :) 

Ten lepers on a journey

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

~Luke 17:11-14~

I was reading these verses and found them rather interesting...As this little scene unfolds only one of the ten lepers comes back and praises God that He was healed, while  I think that the reaction is the main part of this story, I found it interesting that after the lepers addressed Jesus He responded by saying "Go show yourselves to the priests" He did not tell them they were going to be healed (at least it's not recorded that He did), and yet they headed off trusting Him and obeying what He had said and they were healed on the way-"as they went" ---sometime during the journey to the priests.

Isn't that so much like our own lives? As we journey on and obey Jesus, sometimes we are healed during the process, not always before, not always after. It could be physical healing but it could also be emotional healing, the healing any brokenness we have or soul cleansing. And it's not always obvious along the journey but eventually we realize that it has occurred. Because He will be faithful to us trusting Him. And if that happens in my own life I hope that I can be the one to "turn back and praise God with a loud voice"! :) 

 

My burden is light

"29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

For a while I've been thinking about Matthew 11:29-30 and what is meant by Jesus's burden to find a deeper meaning behind these verses. So I pulled out my dictionary & thesaurus and found that yoke can also mean: to be joined together or subjection / oppression / servitude.
This makes verse 29 make a lot more sense replacing the words:

 'Take my subjection/servitude upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart...'

(I had never thought that the "learn from me" part had made much sense and seemed a little out of place in the middle of the verse, now it makes sense!)
So Jesus is telling us to learn from Him how to be a servant and to take it upon ourselves, but that still doesn't answer, what is His burden?

I had gathered from what the rest of this verse is saying is that His burden or responsibility / load is to humbly serve others. But that's not easy or light at all! In fact, it's very difficult!

So then I thought...well Jesus sees the grand scheme of things because...well, He's God, so what if He meant that those who truly take it [servitude] on consider it light and doesn't encumber them simply because they have joined with Jesus in taking His yoke, become humble in heart and know humbly serving others like Jesus did is totally worth it in the light of eternity.  :)

Never forget

As humans we all have faulty memories, but God calls us to remember. 
Remember what exactly? 

Well, lots of things...

~Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me.~

Psalm 103:2

~Be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.~

Deuteronomy 6:12

~Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ~

Deuteronomy 8:11

Throughout the Old Testament God is constantly reminding Israel and His people to not forget who brought them out of Egypt and all the things He had done for them. He wants us to always be thankful, to remember His commandments and the things He has done for us. Not for His benefit but for ours, it's difficult to be caught in self-pity, sadness or hopelessness if we are always thankful and remembering His commandments, our blessings and the great things He has done! 

Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced

1 Chronicles 16:12 

Discouraged?

Have you ever had those times when you're not sure what's next and nothing seems to be happening? It can be pretty discouraging,  you start counting your failures and shortcomings and when you do count your blessings it's seems pretty short lived. 

I've been going through something like that lately and it can be tough. But the last couple of nights I've just had to take it to God, and pray about it. What should I do with my time right now? ...when nothing seems to be going on...nothing is making sense...When your plans aren't happening...when you don't know what to do day to day? 

And God said (to me anyway): Serve others where you can, whether it's cleaning the house everyday for your parents, encouraging others, and just being available to others. 

God doesn't approve of self-pity parties anyway, but instead wants us to be joyful,  thankful for everything and pray without ceasing. :) 

1 Thessalonians 5:16- 18

Follow your heart?

"Well what are you going to do?"

"I don't know...I could do this, but then there's this other option too..."

"Don't worry, just follow your heart, do what feels right!" 

This sounds all too familiar, especially if you add some inspirational type of music in the background and said person suddenly gets everything they want (even the guy) and it's happily ever after. This portrayed in tv shows, movies, this kind of conversation happens in real life especially among girls. 

And the popular advice to 'Follow your dreams' and 'Do what feels right' are overwhelming. 

It certainly sounds nice but the problem is that it's not what God says. 

So what does God say on this subject:

'He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.'

Proverbs 28:26

'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?'

Jeremiah 17:9

'For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.' 

Matthew 15:19

Those are just a few examples that show up in the bible about what our hearts are like. As humankind is born into a world of sin so are our hearts. Often following our hearts can be selfish, we want the best for ourselves and we strive for it, some will do anything we can to chase after what we want, which can often lead us to slander, trample over, and be mean to others. 

I know if I'm not actively seeking God and keeping His words and commandments in my heart it tends to get...not very nice in there... I know I can become very judgmental, bitter, easily annoyed, prideful and  selfish, wanting to do things for the wrong reason rather than just being willing to help someone else.
 We can't follow Jesus if we're too busy following our own hearts.

I'm not saying having dreams and goals is a bad thing, in fact they can be very good, and God can give us a certain desire to want to do something in particular and replace or change that at anytime (I used to want to be a fashion model)  but these dreams and desires need to be prayed about. I know there are lots of things that I would like to do but God is saying 'wait, I'm planning something else that's ever better'.  We want what's best for us, so does God, in fact He wants the very best for us because we're His children and He wants to bless us more than we could have ever imagined. He just really loves us, 

that's no dream, that's reality. 

The Passover Lamb

I'm shared this with a few friends already but I just love how God planned out His story before the beginning of time and is in control of everything! 

So Jesus came into Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday four days before the Passover and was in the temple and being questioned by the religious leaders and they couldn't find fault with him... Well in Exodus 12, when Moses was talking about the Passover lamb and the laws surrounding that, the lamb had to be brought into the house 4 days before Passover and inspected by the priests or leaders to make sure it was without fault before it was sacrificed and fully cooked. 

Also the lamb had to have one stake going through it vertically and one horizontally otherwise it wouldn't be  be fully cooked through like it was supposed to be as stated in the laws about the Passover lamb,  these two sticks the lamb would die on makes the shape of a cross strangely enough. 



How amazing is that? 
God is good!
Happy Easter! :)