So today was the last of the seven days reading through Galatians. Here are kind of some thoughts on it.
"If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." ~Galatians 1:10
This is a verse that really stuck out to me each and every time I read it. This was written by Paul. You can read all about his story in Acts. It's actually quite wonderful to hear. I just read through it for the past month. God really transformed that man's life, and there is no reason to think he can't do the same for us. But anyways back on topic, the reason this verse stuck out to me is that I realize I still have a ways to go. As I have been strongly considering a career in ministry, I realize that is the mindset I will need to have. There will probably be some opposition from people, especially if I were to have a good job opportunity with physics. I realize that I must not serve the people around me or myself, but instead I should serve God, whatever that may mean.
"The righteous will live by faith." ~Galatians 3:11
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." ~Galatians 5:6
These really impacted me in that we should live by faith and not with our eyes. There is nothing we can do to become righteous other than living by faith. Paul writes a lot about how people insisted on being circumcised, but in doing so, we separate ourselves from God's grace and bind ourselves to the law. By trying to appeal to God on our own by trying to outwardly show our devotion, we create a gap between us and God. We do this a lot today, not with circumcision, but with many other things. We try to show others how righteous we are by doing certain things, but in reality, we are only hurting ourselves in doing so.
"Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?" ~Galatians 3:3
This is yet another example that I see so often in my life and in the lives of others. In tough times we may lean on God more, and he pulls us out of it. As soon as that happens, we again turn away and begin to try it out on our own again. Why do we fail to see that we need God in both our times of trouble and our times of prosperity. We should praise and glorify him at the peaks and the valleys. Without Him, we can do nothing, but so often we forget that.
And here I shall end with the first verse I ever memorized and one that I carry on my necklace. It speaks of how we must die to this world just as Jesus did, and that we should live instead for God.
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." ~Galatians 2:20
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
The Pursuit of God
So I just finished reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer last night, so here is kind of a review type thing.
Perhaps the most deep hitting idea from the entire book came in the first chapter.
"How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers."
This is so true on so many levels. This was exactly how I lived my life just a year ago and am still guilty of at times now. So many Americans will go to church once a week and depend entirely on that 30 minute sermon for their Jesus for the week. We take everything he/she says as truth without checking the source to see for ourselves. We let them do the seeking for us, and then just sit back and listen. The problem with that is that there is no possible way that you can have a personal relationship through a 30 minute sermon once a week. It just doesn't happen that way. We must seek for ourselves. We must desire to know God deeply, and the only way to do that is to spend time with Him in the Word and in prayer. Because a lot of us no longer do that, our knowledge of God and who He is has greatly diminished.
"To most people God is an inference, not a reality."
This quote really sums it up because I know that is exactly how it was for me. God is SOMETHING we believe in, rather than being SOMEONE we believe in. God is just a conclusion drawn because we don't see other possibilities, rather than being THE possibility. God is likely to exist, but not known to exist. We don't actively experience Him, nor do we actively seek him out. The saddest part of that is that as a people, we are fine with that. We are fine with saying we believe in God and then putting him on the shelf. We say we believe in Him and assume we only need Him to avoid hell. We have a great lack in our perception of the greatness of God. We lack the knowledge about our true, triune God. Our God is Emmanuel, meaning "God with us." God is very personal and right there with us every step of the way trying to reveal Himself to us, but we are just to apathetic to see it. Our lack of knowledge about who God really is leads us to either not care about knowing Him or just not know that it is possible to know Him just as we can know our best friend, except much more deeply.
"God's word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God's word in the universe. It is the present Voice that makes the written Word all-powerful."
"[The Bible] is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking."
"[The Bible] is more than a thing, it is a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God."
There is only one way to really get to know God, and that is through the precious gift known as the Bible. Luckily we live (assuming you also live in America) in a country where there are more Bibles than there are people. There is no shortage of access like in other areas where there might be a couple of Bibles for an entire village or even none at all. The Bible is not simply a book though, and the quotes from above really say it best. The authority of the Bible is only there because God is here. God didn't just show up for a short period of time and then leave. He is always around and working. The Bible is what they call a live text. It is as true for us reading it today as it was for those writing it. We just have to learn how to read it and that comes with practice. Preachers can certainly help us learn how to read the Bible and seek for ourselves, but we must overcome the temptation of just letting them do all the seeking for us.
We MUST take control of our own faith!
Perhaps the most deep hitting idea from the entire book came in the first chapter.
"How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers."
This is so true on so many levels. This was exactly how I lived my life just a year ago and am still guilty of at times now. So many Americans will go to church once a week and depend entirely on that 30 minute sermon for their Jesus for the week. We take everything he/she says as truth without checking the source to see for ourselves. We let them do the seeking for us, and then just sit back and listen. The problem with that is that there is no possible way that you can have a personal relationship through a 30 minute sermon once a week. It just doesn't happen that way. We must seek for ourselves. We must desire to know God deeply, and the only way to do that is to spend time with Him in the Word and in prayer. Because a lot of us no longer do that, our knowledge of God and who He is has greatly diminished.
"To most people God is an inference, not a reality."
This quote really sums it up because I know that is exactly how it was for me. God is SOMETHING we believe in, rather than being SOMEONE we believe in. God is just a conclusion drawn because we don't see other possibilities, rather than being THE possibility. God is likely to exist, but not known to exist. We don't actively experience Him, nor do we actively seek him out. The saddest part of that is that as a people, we are fine with that. We are fine with saying we believe in God and then putting him on the shelf. We say we believe in Him and assume we only need Him to avoid hell. We have a great lack in our perception of the greatness of God. We lack the knowledge about our true, triune God. Our God is Emmanuel, meaning "God with us." God is very personal and right there with us every step of the way trying to reveal Himself to us, but we are just to apathetic to see it. Our lack of knowledge about who God really is leads us to either not care about knowing Him or just not know that it is possible to know Him just as we can know our best friend, except much more deeply.
"God's word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God's word in the universe. It is the present Voice that makes the written Word all-powerful."
"[The Bible] is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking."
"[The Bible] is more than a thing, it is a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God."
There is only one way to really get to know God, and that is through the precious gift known as the Bible. Luckily we live (assuming you also live in America) in a country where there are more Bibles than there are people. There is no shortage of access like in other areas where there might be a couple of Bibles for an entire village or even none at all. The Bible is not simply a book though, and the quotes from above really say it best. The authority of the Bible is only there because God is here. God didn't just show up for a short period of time and then leave. He is always around and working. The Bible is what they call a live text. It is as true for us reading it today as it was for those writing it. We just have to learn how to read it and that comes with practice. Preachers can certainly help us learn how to read the Bible and seek for ourselves, but we must overcome the temptation of just letting them do all the seeking for us.
We MUST take control of our own faith!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Humilty
As promised here is my blog about the book Humility by Andrew Murray. It was a great, quick read at only about 55 pages.
This book really hit me in a number of ways. We are all taught to be humble, but this book really broke down how dangerous pride is and exactly what it looks like to be humble through examples in Jesus' life. In order to humble ourselves, we must gain a larger view of God. We must put things into perspective of just how little we are and how great God is. Christ humbled himself and became man. Here are a few quotes and ideas that really hit me while I was reading.
"Be the witness through which the living God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power, and goodness."
In order for God's riches to manifest within us, we must be humble, none of self and all of thee. We must empty ourselves of the world so that we may be refilled with God, for there is no room for both. We turn are hearts, minds, and bodies towards God and His will and desires. Just as Jesus humbled himself and became man, we must humble ourselves and become servants, both to God and others around us.
"His humility us our salvation. His salvation is our humility."
We should automatically be humbled just by the fact of our salvation. Jesus came and did for us through his crucifixion and resurrection what we could not do for ourselves. He literally saved us from ourselves and the sin that we lived in. There was nothing we could do to save ourselves, but we were completely and utterly dependent of God for our own salvation even before we knew it. If that isn't humbling I don't know what is.
Pride is man's worst enemy for "the holiest will ever be the humblest."
I think of myself as a very humble non-arrogant or prideful person, but the fact of the matter is that we are all very prideful. We all get caught up in our own pride. We all, at times, see somebody and think to ourselves, even if it's subconsciously, that we are better than them. We allow our pride to elevate us to a higher level than some of those around us. We cannot allow that and must fight it everyday. We must indulge ourselves with the Word and in God for he is the only true source of humility. He is the source from which we must build our lives.
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. ~Proverbs 11:2
This book really hit me in a number of ways. We are all taught to be humble, but this book really broke down how dangerous pride is and exactly what it looks like to be humble through examples in Jesus' life. In order to humble ourselves, we must gain a larger view of God. We must put things into perspective of just how little we are and how great God is. Christ humbled himself and became man. Here are a few quotes and ideas that really hit me while I was reading.
"Be the witness through which the living God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power, and goodness."
In order for God's riches to manifest within us, we must be humble, none of self and all of thee. We must empty ourselves of the world so that we may be refilled with God, for there is no room for both. We turn are hearts, minds, and bodies towards God and His will and desires. Just as Jesus humbled himself and became man, we must humble ourselves and become servants, both to God and others around us.
"His humility us our salvation. His salvation is our humility."
We should automatically be humbled just by the fact of our salvation. Jesus came and did for us through his crucifixion and resurrection what we could not do for ourselves. He literally saved us from ourselves and the sin that we lived in. There was nothing we could do to save ourselves, but we were completely and utterly dependent of God for our own salvation even before we knew it. If that isn't humbling I don't know what is.
Pride is man's worst enemy for "the holiest will ever be the humblest."
I think of myself as a very humble non-arrogant or prideful person, but the fact of the matter is that we are all very prideful. We all get caught up in our own pride. We all, at times, see somebody and think to ourselves, even if it's subconsciously, that we are better than them. We allow our pride to elevate us to a higher level than some of those around us. We cannot allow that and must fight it everyday. We must indulge ourselves with the Word and in God for he is the only true source of humility. He is the source from which we must build our lives.
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. ~Proverbs 11:2
Friday, December 21, 2012
Building Bridges
So I am home from UVA for Christmas break, and it's a little bitter sweet. I love UVA and the people there. Those people have become my family. Home can be a little tough because I am a totally different person now than I was when I left for college a little more than a year ago. Since my time at UVA, I really found God and that has entirely changed the way I live my life, view the world, and spend my time. That is why break can be a dangerous time. I have so much more time, but it is very easy to waste that time and end up in a spiritual valley.
Last year think I did a fairly good job at avoiding that by going through the Live Dead Journal. I made sure that I completely tithed my time everyday, so I spent 2.5 hours of time per day in the Word, prayer, or worship. While I know some of that time was spent just to get my time in and wasn't really fruitful, it helped to instill within me the discipline to have my quiet time everyday. That was hugely important for me since that was pretty much my introduction to quiet time and reading the Bible. That laid my foundation. This year I am going to go through it again, but this time I won't be as much of a stickler on time. I will use it more as a guide to spending time with God and as a source of reflection on my faith journey throughout the past year.
On top of that I have a few more things planned for this year to keep me on track and to ensure that this break is a moment of growth and not decay. My man Alex filled me in on what he was doing and invited me to join him, so I will be reading through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. For example, we will be reading Galatians once per day, everyday for a week and then so on with the other three books. It's been really cool and a totally different way of reading the Bible than I've done before. I've always heard to read through the entire book at a time but have never done it. These are a great one to start with since they are so short. I will try to blog about each book after the week is over to kind of reflect on it.
On top of that, I have a goal of reading a lot more than I ever had before. I just got a number of books from Amazon that my man Alex recommended as well as a couple I just haven't read yet. I will not be able to read them all, but I want to read like 5 or so. I never have been a big reader, but I know that reading is the best way to gain wisdom. That's the only reason I read. Because I hate reading, theological books are the only books I find worth reading. I actually forgot my laptop charger, which should make it easier to commit time to reading since I can't mindlessly surf the web. My goal is to also blog on each of the books that I read too. My computer will pretty much be reserved for blogging over break to save the battery. I read one of the shorter books today and will try to blog on it tomorrow.
In a week's time, I will be heading down to Fort Worth, Texas for the World Missions Summit. This is a convention (I guess that's what you would call it) that Chi Alpha holds every four years. It is devoted to world missions, and they bring in hundreds of missionaries to share and to speak with. That will be an awesome experience I am sure of it!
Also as a core group leader now I am going to make an effort to call some of my guys up to see how they are doing in general and with their devotional life. I'm also going to have my Richmond Chi Alpha family to hang out with unlike last year. With all that said, I am excited about what this Christmas break has in store for me!
Last year think I did a fairly good job at avoiding that by going through the Live Dead Journal. I made sure that I completely tithed my time everyday, so I spent 2.5 hours of time per day in the Word, prayer, or worship. While I know some of that time was spent just to get my time in and wasn't really fruitful, it helped to instill within me the discipline to have my quiet time everyday. That was hugely important for me since that was pretty much my introduction to quiet time and reading the Bible. That laid my foundation. This year I am going to go through it again, but this time I won't be as much of a stickler on time. I will use it more as a guide to spending time with God and as a source of reflection on my faith journey throughout the past year.
On top of that I have a few more things planned for this year to keep me on track and to ensure that this break is a moment of growth and not decay. My man Alex filled me in on what he was doing and invited me to join him, so I will be reading through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. For example, we will be reading Galatians once per day, everyday for a week and then so on with the other three books. It's been really cool and a totally different way of reading the Bible than I've done before. I've always heard to read through the entire book at a time but have never done it. These are a great one to start with since they are so short. I will try to blog about each book after the week is over to kind of reflect on it.
On top of that, I have a goal of reading a lot more than I ever had before. I just got a number of books from Amazon that my man Alex recommended as well as a couple I just haven't read yet. I will not be able to read them all, but I want to read like 5 or so. I never have been a big reader, but I know that reading is the best way to gain wisdom. That's the only reason I read. Because I hate reading, theological books are the only books I find worth reading. I actually forgot my laptop charger, which should make it easier to commit time to reading since I can't mindlessly surf the web. My goal is to also blog on each of the books that I read too. My computer will pretty much be reserved for blogging over break to save the battery. I read one of the shorter books today and will try to blog on it tomorrow.
In a week's time, I will be heading down to Fort Worth, Texas for the World Missions Summit. This is a convention (I guess that's what you would call it) that Chi Alpha holds every four years. It is devoted to world missions, and they bring in hundreds of missionaries to share and to speak with. That will be an awesome experience I am sure of it!
Also as a core group leader now I am going to make an effort to call some of my guys up to see how they are doing in general and with their devotional life. I'm also going to have my Richmond Chi Alpha family to hang out with unlike last year. With all that said, I am excited about what this Christmas break has in store for me!
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Give Me Your Eyes
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
This is exactly what I've been praying essentially. I've based it a lot around a different song that has one part that say "Break my heart for what breaks yours." That is what really ignited my prayer towards this, and this song most certainly adds more to what I am desiring from God. I don't want to just pass by without thinking about others. Do they know God? Are they saved? Instead of asking these questions, we just walk by, maybe stare at the ground, and don't think twice. Now I'm not saying we should be asking these questions about every person we see. That's impractical. What I am saying though is that we should care about the answer to those questions for everybody we see. When we see darkness in other's lives, we shouldn't just brush it off. It should break our heart because of the fact that they don't know Jesus. What is life without Jesus? What is life without hope? They go through this everyday while we rejoice in our eternal salvation. How can we fully and truly rejoice knowing that? We can't and that is why we MUST go out and share the gospel. That is why we MUST be witnesses for GOD everywhere all the time, not just when it is easy. Not just when it's convenient. Not just when it's benefits us. ALL THE TIME.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Overflow
Spirit of the Living God come fall afresh on me.
Come wake me from my sleep.
Blow through the caverns of my soul.
Pour in me to overflow,
to overflow
This song along with the chorus really has had a huge impact on me this year. They played this song during the fall retreat this year at a time where I really needed to hear it. I was really at a dry period where I was really struggling with my quiet time and just wasn't feeling that joyful. It took a while to get back on track, but I do think this song helped me a lot.
So I was thinking about the idea of God pouring into us to overflow. What does that mean? What does that look like? That led me to extending the metaphor a little bit. We are like a vase, and God is the eternal source of flowing water. God is ALWAYS pouring onto us, but it's up to us to determine how much we actually receive. We determine the size of our mouth. The larger our mouth, the more of God's abounding grace and love we are able to receive. To put it simply, to enlarge our mouths, we must spend time with God. There is no special trick to it. We also have to consider our walls. Nobody is perfect. We all have cracks in our vase. These cracks can also hinder us from receiving God's love. Some of it leaks out and prevents us from filling up. The only way to mend our cracks is to take a long hard look at ourselves. We must look at things that we might be holding onto unnecessarily such as idols or sin. Idols being just something that we spend too much time with, and sin being things that oppose God's will. In order to mend these cracks and open up our mouth, we must die to ourselves and live for God. We must turn our hearts, minds, and bodies toward God and align our will and desires with God's will and desires.
If we do that, we will be able to receive the full abundance of love that God intended for us and not only that. We will begin to overflow into the people around us, and that should be our goal. We should not be content with our own salvation, but our heart should be turned towards others salvation, towards the world's salvation. Now THAT should be our goal. THAT is God's goal.
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