A Righteous Passion

In Matthew 23:5, Jesus is talking about the Pharisees and He says, "Everything they do is done for men to see." Lately I have had a pretty strong opposition to people "using" God to get attention. Everything I've seemed to read and talk to people about seems to come around to this point at some point or another.
In my devotionals the other day, this came up in my reading of Matthew 23. Jesus called out the Pharisees, the people who were all about religion and wanted prestigious positions because of their religiosity as opposed to their relationship with God. He cried out to them, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you HYPOCRITES! You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to!"
Because of the religiosity of the Pharisees, they would never get to see the true Glory of God.
In verses 25 through 28 it says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean also.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean! In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
Now, please tell me how we are any better than the Pharisees.
We all "use" God in some way to get attention for ourselves. We all stand on the street corners with our arms flung wide praying loudly to God like the Pharisees.
But who are we to do that?!
Please, please tell me what right we have to make ourselves greater than the Creator!
"On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness!" 
We are all FULL of hypocrisy and wickedness! Who are we to expect anything better than the flames of Hell? Who are we to try and make ourselves greater than God?! Who are we?!?
WE ARE DIRT!
I am nothing! I am not good! There is nothing within my fleshly body that can cause me to do good! I was made from dirt and that's about as good as I get!!
Any good thing I do is because God is working in me, not because I did it! So who am I to take the recognition!!
Stop over spiritualizing things! 
You are no better than the Pharisees when you do that.

Running Water

As I'm sitting here thinking about all that God has done in my life, I realize that I'm thirsty. So, like anyone would, I grab a cup and go to the faucet. When I turn on the faucet, I don't think about the pipes or the filtration systems, or how the water got to me, I just think about the water that is coming out. Cool, clean water.

God spoke this to me recently, and ever since then, I've been almost haunted by the thought. In so many ways this idea of running water expresses they way we should relate to God. We are to be vessels unto God, and this is made very clear in the bible, but at the same time, the vessel is not to become greater than the water. The vessel should not use the water to get noticed.
This is something that really bothers me a lot. I have almost like a righteous anger come up in me when I feel like people are using God to get attention or even make themselves know to other people. Nothing good I do is because of me. Nothing I say, no revelation I get, is because of me. Any wisdom I have is from God and I feel like people should know that.
If I am using God to get attention for myself, there is something wrong with my attitude.
I am just the pipe.
My challenge for you is an attitude check. (I know I constantly need attitude checks!) Pray and see if you are using God for attention, and if you are, what you should do about it.
Be the vessel that only points to God.

Hair Dye Adventures!

About a week ago I decided that I wanted my hair to be a lighter colour.
I had dyed my hair back in like April a dark brown/black, and while that colour was lovely and I'll probably end up dying it that colour again sometime in my future, I wanted to be more of a golden brown for the end of summer/start of a new school year.
So, Saturday morning I picked up a box of colour that looked promising and vowed to dye my hair later that night.
(I was going to look at wedding dresses that day with one of my very good friends who is recently engaged and knew it would take all day.)
That night I applied the dye and put in "The Sixth Sense" to keep me company while I waited the 35 minutes it took to colour my hair.
When I rinsed the dye out, something seemed wrong.

BLOND?!?!?
I'm NOT a blond!!!
Nor will I EVER be a blond!!!!

Disclaimer:

I have nothing against blonds.

Two of my best friends are blond.

I just could never be a blond.

I biked down to the nearest Walgreens with the speed and agility rivaling the winner of Le Tour de France to buy a different hair dye, this one more of a medium brown. 

Nothing close to blond.

Never again.

This colour was a LOT better!

I've been enjoying this colour.

At church I got a lot of compliments on the new colour, and I think I'm gonna keep it this shade for a while, but who knows what will happen if I get board. ;)

Quick Post!

I have 8 minutes before my lunch break is up, so I thought I'd give you a quick update on life.
7 minutes.
I've been working a ton lately (what else is new?) and realized that I only have a few more weeks before I start classes again.
I move into my fall housing this weekend.
6 minutes.
I'm really looking forward to moving into my fall housing. I'm living with one of my best friends and I'm hoping that I can be a blessing in her life over the next year.
5 minutes.
All my textbooks have come in!
I know it's nerdy, but I always get excited about textbooks.
Although, one textbook kind of scares me a little bit.
Understanding Human Sexuality. Oh yes.
4 minutes.
I guess I'm kind of looking forward to Human Sexuality.
I've heard a lot of good things about the class.
But it still kind of skeeves me out that I'm gonna be learning about sex for an entire semester.
3 minutes.
I think the class I'm most looking forward to this semester is my counselling theory and practice class.
This is really what I want to do with my psychology degree and I hope that this class just confirms within my spirit that this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
2 minutes.
I'm kind of running out of things to say.
With not a whole lot of time left, I guess I'll just say goodbye!
Thanks for reading my random thoughts and quick updates of the day.
1 minute!
Guess that means it's back to painting door frames for me!
PEACE!