Dedicated

This word is something that I have been thinking about lately and what it means to be dedicated to something or somebody. All of my life I have been dedicated to doing something. For the most part this was always a sport, whether it was baseball or soccer or football, my time was always dedicated to a sport. Once my life became radically changed by Christ I found the more and more I grew and learned the more I wanted to dedicate my life to spreading the name of Christ. Everyday my life is dedicated for the glorification of His kingdom. The word dedicate is literally defined to devote wholly and earnestly. When somebody says that they accept Christ, their life is to be dedicated to being a servant. At many camps and such experiences many people will say that they are rededicating their lives. I honestly don't think that rededicating is something that should be encouraged. HEAR ME OUT... when I think about somebody rededicating I always wonder how dedicated they were before. You can't rededicate something that wasn't dedicated before! Once we make the decision to make Christ the center of our lives, we dedicate and turn over everything to him. Dedication can be a learning process but it is something that either happens or it doesn't. When we make the decision and say that Christ is our life, our life should reflect just that and we should be dedicated to Him. Either you are dedicated or you are not, again you cannot rededicate something that was not dedicated before. What are you dedicated to?

Song

Some of us were hanging out the other day and we got to talking about a couple of movies and one in particular that I admit I think is awesome is Happy Feet. Say what you will but I think it is a great movie. Anyways, even though I think the movie is particularly about making baby penguins, one of my friends pointed out the fact that it's about the heart song of the penguins. This got me to thinking about my own song. Everybody, as seen in the movie, is singing for the same reason but we are all singing to a different tune. By this I mean that everybody has their own way of singing this song, which is to say that we all have been given different gifts but we are using them for the same purpose, for the glorification of God! My prayer is that my heart song is overflowing from me so that others can see Christ at the center and nothing else. As I continue to grow and learn in my faith, my song will become louder as the love of Christ will continually overflow from me. What song is your heart singing?

Man of your word

I was thinking about trust and why I have such a hard time not only trusting others but trusting God. Since none of us are perfect we will at some point in our lives say we will do something and not do it, and this will unfortunately cause somebody to lose their trust in you. For me I cannot pinpoint a specific occasion that made me lose trust in others, but it has been a growing process to bring it back. Since we are humans and since this world is full of sin, something or somebody will always let us down. Thankfully there is a voice that is louder than mine and He will never let you down. In thinking about my trust issues, I found that I have a lot of faith in myself to do things, but God has continually been humbling me and showing me that I am fallible and that he is Truth! God has made us promises and he has and will continue to fulfill them and remain true. Now for us, that profess to be followers of Christ, we first need to practice what we preach. By this I mean that if we are going to be telling others to find/follow/trust/and believe in Christ then by all means we had better be doing the same! Telling and preaching is not enough, you must be living it! Since we are fallible men, we will always screw up, but God is there and always forgives us and sheds his grace upon us. In terms of keeping your word, first I find that I need to study The Word more in order to be able to remain true to my word. The more I study and read and become one with Christ, my word becomes His word and that will be kept. I hope to become the friend a friend would like to have, and the man of God I have been called to be. I have told many before that if they need me or anything at all, that I am here. I have remained true to these words and I will continue to remain true to them for anybody, because God has shown me that love and I must allow others to experience the same, even if it means going across the country just so you have somebody, I will be there, because God has always been there for me! Whenever or whatever, He is there and He always keeps his word. Are you a man of your word?

Heartbreak

Too many times, I feel I've had my heartbroken. A heartbreak is something that if you're lucky you won't have to experience, but most of the people I know have been heartbroken at some point in their lives. To have my heartbroken was the worst time of my life and the only one I had to blame was myself. In these times when I needed somebody and God the most, I ran and hid away from the people and the God who loves me the most. The beauty of a broken heart is that God uses and mends the broken for his kingdom and glory! When I feel as if I've been let down or when I feel my heart break, it is for the better. In having my heartbroken, in retrospect, I now know that I invested too much of my life and my time and was not focused on what God had intended for my life. The Lord gives and takes away. When we are being selfish and are running from him he will take away the things we care about the most and this results in heartbreak. The most encouraging thing is that if my heart had not been broken I would not have been picked up and filled with the life of Christ. Has your heart been broken?

Frozen

So today I had an amazing time going snowboarding finally for the first time this season! It was so much much and I can't until I go again! Anyways, it was probably about 30 or so degrees and it was snowing and everything was frozen. I was riding the ski lift to the top of the mountain and on the way up, underneath the lift was a stream with flowing water. Not only was this a beautiful site but it was mind boggling that everything was frozen except for this stream. This got me to thinking about several things. The stream to me symbolized the life of a follower and disciple of Christ. Here, you have somebody that, like this stream, is full of life. The life that they are full of is eternal life given only by Christ. The world around them is frozen and stuck in sin and a follower of Jesus has the stream of life flowing from the one and only Source. Not only can this be a person in the world, but it is also ourselves as a whole. By this I mean that our hearts are the stream and our bodies are frozen. For me my body/mind provide temptation and the overflow out of the stream of my heart is what provides life and the love of Christ through my body. My heart is the stream for my body, and Christ through me is the stream for this world around me. Are you still frozen?

Death

So we went to see "The Bucket List" the other day and it was a good movie for the most part (if you really want to talk about the movie just get up with me some time). Anyways, this movie was about the one thing that almost every person refuses to think about: Death. Nobody, including myself, likes to dwell on death, I mean it's kind of a scary thing, right? Here's something to think about, death is something that everybody has witnessed and it is the one thing that people think will never happen to them. That's so true. Most of us have had to deal with the death of somebody we know, but we continue to go on with life as if we are invincible. I'm not saying that we should constantly dwell on dying, but I am saying that it is something that will come no matter what we do and since we never know when it will come, we are told to give our life for His Kingdom. Here's some encouraging words to think about, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." When I think about this and apply it to my life the first thing I come upon is "To live is Christ." The latter is a bold statement. What that means to me is that I am already dead, this is not my life, rather it is Christ. "To die is gain," simply means to gain the Kingdom of eternal life that God has promised to us once we have already lost our lives to Christ. So why is it that we must lose our life anyway? "The wages of sin is death." Since God is infinite we must repay our disobedience to him with an infinite/eternal penalty. This penalty is death and eternal separation from God (Hell). The beauty of the gospel is that once we lose our life to Christ, he has already paid our infinite debt to God by dying on the cross, and our sins are forgiven. Thank God for his grace, by which we receive salvation. Even still, death is never fun to think about, but it is something that is inevitable. Therefore, I encourage you to never waste an opportunity and go ahead and lose your life for Christ so that when death comes it is only gain. Have you sacrificed your life?

Abide

After reading over some of the things that I have written, some could say that I was a bit redundant. The one thing I would I say that was repeated was the necessity of Christ. If anything is to be repeated as a sign of importance, I definitely believe it to be the dire need of Christ. Anyways, I was trying to think of something that would just sum it all up and then I went to church and JD preached on John 15:1-17 and the word he focused on was "abide." This one word encapsulates what I have been trying to get across in my last several posts. Here is how JD defined abide: 1. Where you draw acceptance (John 15:9), 2. Where you draw satisfaction (John 15:11), 3. Where you draw power (John 15:4). All in all Jesus states to abide in him in all things. To abide in him means to find your acceptance, satisfaction, and power and everything else in God's love, and grace. Abide, that word alone portrays the importance and the necessity of Christ. "These things I command you so that you will love one another" John 15:17. Once you abide, you will love. BUT, if you don't abide you will wither away. Are you abiding?

Knowledge

Here's a question that after reading JD's blog came to my mind, why do we try to obtain knowledge and more specifically biblical knowledge? Hmmm.....let's think about this one. Why do I usually try to obtain knowledge? The answer that most people have is to further oneself in life and to prosper until success. Mainly when I think about obtaining knowledge I think about school. The reason that I attend school is so that I can get a good education, so that I can get a good job, so that I can make a good living, so that I can provide for a family. Catching on yet? The one thing that continues to come up in the previous statements is "I." The reason I try to obtain knowledge is for my own benefit. I do it for my own success and for the future success of my own family. The reason I'm going to school is because God has given me the gift of life and the opportunity to glorify his name by being a good student and studying so that I can further his name. I am studying so that I can do the job that he has prepared for me to do. Ok that's all good but what about biblical knowledge? So why is it that we read the Bible and study it? For the most part it is for our own selves, for our own benefit. Mainly we want biblical knowledge so that we can answer the questions that others will ask us. Here's what JD had to say about this, "Many don't seem to realize that the point of the Book is not the Book itself but the Author. What I am denying is not that that comes from too much emphasis on the Book; rather, it comes from the wrong type of emphasis on the Book. If you read the Bible as a source of doctrinal knowledge rather than as a manual for knowing and loving Jesus, you are reading it wrongly. Repent and read it again, this time with God as your goal and not the increase of your own, vain knowledge quotient as the goal." WOW!!! We desire and long to have biblical knowledge so that we can come to know God and that should be the sole purpose of our wanting to gain any type of knowledge. Knowledge is given to us from God for he is Truth and if we want anything other than to know him more then knowledge has become an idol. Why do you want knowledge?

Be a man

As a male, you will hear this phrase quite often. Unfortunately, it is always used in the wrong way. Most of the time it is telling the guy to quit being such an emotional person or to suck it up and deal with the pain. I will use this term the way Pastor Tyler Jones of Vintage 21 used it. To be a man of faith. Jesus had 12 men that gave up everything, their entire lives just to follow him and to learn from him. They gave up EVERYTHING!!!! Where are men like this today? Why are we as men not imitating this behavior? We are called to give up everything, including our lives and trade it for a life of Christ. As Tyler Jones stated, most of the work done in the church is done by women (ladies, thank you so much for remaining faithful), but guys where are we? We should be men of faith. Men like Nehemiah, who stood strong in the Lord and was not intimidated, like Johnathan and Josiah. This is what being a man is all about. Being faithful and trusting in the Lord to provide all things. Again, Tyler Jones illustrated this in the feeding of the 5,000 men. The apostles were given food and they went to one group and emptied out all they had been given and then ran back to the source, JESUS, in order to be replenished so that they could once again go out to another group and pour out all they had. This is what a real man does. This is ministry! One must first be given to from the ultimate source of life, only to go out and pour it into the lives of others! Have you given up everything?

Gotta Keep Singin'

Have you ever just had 'one of those days'? You know what I mean; one of those days where it just doesn't seem like it could get any worse. Sometimes these days seem to come too often and it just leaves you feeling alone. Alone, like nobody understands what you are going through and that nobody could help. Or maybe you haven't had one of those days in a while; rather you've had just the opposite. One of those days where it just doesn't seem like anything bad could ever happen. Like everything is just going your way. Everything is just how you had planned it to be. Let us not forget who provided us life. For either way, in the bad times and the good times you just gotta keep singin'. You have to continually sing praise to the Lord and seek His face always! It's so easy to be joyful when everything is good, but to whom are you giving the glory? Are you giving it to the One whom deserves it? Even in the bad times it is even easier to just question or most often to blame. Instead we are told to find our joy in the Lord and to praise Him. Persecutions and sufferings will come to those who live for Christ, but find joy in Him for He has overcome all things including death itself! When things are good, when things are bad you just gotta keep singin'. To whom are you singing?

Reminiscing/Friends

The past week I was blessed with the opportunity to work at the Edge New Years conference at Caswell and then was able to hang out with some summer staffers for our reunion. It was an amazing time and I was really glad that I was able to catch up with some of the staffers and just hang out with some people that I didn't really hang out with over the summer. God also blessed us with some people that we had not seen in a while and it was just a blessing to come together as the body of Christ. Times like these are times that I cherish so much because not only do you get to hang out and catch up on people's lives but you have the opportunity to passionately worship Christ together! It's an experience that you just have to witness for yourself, but it is something that I have never found anywhere else. We just gather and sing praises to our Lord! Anyways, I got to thinking about the many blessings of friendships that God has given me over the years and God puts two different types of people/friends in your life: long term and short term. From both we learn great things that the Lord has prepared for us, but unfortunately some people in your life will be short term friends. They will not be somebody that becomes a lifelong friend, most of the time these short term friends are the ones that teach us the greatest things. Our long term friends are friends that will always be there for us, there to lift us up, listen to us, and hold us accountable for a long time. Let us not overlook either one, for God has provided us with both peoples in our life and we should cherish every moment we have together and always keep our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts open and ready to learn because you never know how long they will be in your life. People will come and go, but it is up to you how you will respond to what God has given you. Do you cherish and take advantage of what God has given you?