Thursday, September 23, 2010

Scar Tissue

I have a scar on my right pinkie.
I got it when I was a little kid.
It's barely visible, and you have to really look to see it.
99.99% of the time I forget it's there.
The only time I remember it is when something aggravates it.
Like this morning when I was working.
For some reason, the vacuum was able to rub the scar just right and caused it to hurt.
I think this is the way many of our old wounds are.
Someone hurts you, and you ask God to help you heal, and He does!
You forget about the wound and the trauma of the incident in the wave of God's love and healing forgiveness.
Most of the time you don't even think about anymore.
It's gone.
But, every once in a while, something or someone comes along that can rub that scar the wrong way and causes you to remember that old wound.
The good news is that God is still there.
The pain may come up every once in a while, but God has already healed you, and He is always there for you.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Thankfulness

Warning: Harsh truths will ensue. Leave now if you don't want to hear it.
The rest of you, buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Lately I have been going through a season of thankfulness. God's been kind enough to give me a revelation of how utterly blessed we are. Every time that I seem to go into a complaining mood or a sense of ungratefulness, this sense of how completely blessed I am comes up again. I may not like my job, but guess what, I am so blessed to have a paying job! I may not like living in a dorm, but I am blessed beyond belief to have a roof over my head, a warm bed to sleep in and a hot shower to bathe in! I don't necessarily enjoy eating at my school's cafeteria every meal, but guess what! I am blessed enough to be able to eat three times a day!
The problem with this though is that because I have been given this concept of how truly blessed we are, I get frustrated very easily when people are disrespectful or ungrateful.
We have been given so much and yet we destroy other people's property, we expect people to clean up after us, we think everything is replaceable!
When you look at the world and then you look at most Christians, they don't look any different. Christians go out together and leave just as big of a mess (if not bigger sometimes!) as the people of this world! We think we're better than them, but sometimes, we're worse. And that directly contradicts God's Word.
My all time favourite verse is Romans 12:2, which says, "Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing, and perfect will."
Did you get that?
We cannot look like the world, we must look like GOD! If we don't look like God, we don't know His will. If we don't act how Jesus acts, we cannot understand God's perfect ways.
We are to be thankful, take care of the things that God has entrusted to us, and look like Jesus.
I am not saying by any means that I am even close to that point, but what I am saying is that I need to grow in it, and I know many many Christians who also need to grow in this area.
Think about it. Let God reveal to you how truly blessed you really are.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

A Change in Theme

When I started this blog, I originally made it to be a walk through my life in college, share with my friends and family back home how everything was going and all the great experiences I had along the way.
Lately though, I feel as if that is extremely petty. There are so much more important things in this life that I want to share through this blog. Challenges I want to put out to people. God's words that He speaks through me to the people that read this.
It's not about me. It's about Him.
I may still continue to occasionally post about how life's going (I will post a blog very soon about how this year has been going so far) but for the most part, I feel as if this is all going in a different direction, a more God-driven direction than my original plan. (Isn't that how it always goes) ;)
I have a couple different blogs that I've been mulling over, trying to find a "good" way to say what's on my heart, and I'll probably post them very soon, but they will probably offend some people. But, in the words of a friend, "Sometimes people have to get a little offended for them to grow."
That's where I'm at, and that's where I'm headed for now.