Good quotes

"You'll get bored if you just hear another Word from the Lord and don't act on it. Be doers of the Word and not hearers only."
"You don't use people to get things. You use things to bless people. Money is for loving. If you understand the purpose of money, you won't abuse it."
- Creflo Dollar

Gratefulness

"...It takes a certain degree of wisdom for you and I to reach such a level (referring to praising God and thankfulness in the midst of troubles). When difficulties burden us, we must struggle to remember our reasons for gratitiude to God. This won't happen if we imprison ourselves within self-pity an preoccupation with loss. It requires the fortitude to open our eyes and see that, whatever seems to have been taken from us, we have received so much more that should move us toward gratitude... We are to 'enter into His gates with thanksgiveing, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.' (Psalm 100:4) Gratitude is a doorway that admits us into the courts of godliness. Focusing inward on our misery traps us in our own private dungeon, and we lock ourselves away from those richer interiors that provide the healing and wisdom we need. Gratitude is the key... We worship the Lord God with a grateful heart in times of pain and crises." - David Jeremiah, pp. 109-110 A Bend in the Road

Gratitude is the key. It is the way to remain unwavering in times of trial. As long as we walk in gratitude and worship to God, our joy will not be lost, and we will not be moved as we patiently await God's hand! Even if God were to choose to not answer our prayers the way that we want Him to, wouldn't it be a whole better to wait with peace and joy instead of gloom and doom. The key is unwavering hope no matter what we see. Faith and sight are not the same thing. Faith believes for the answer unwavered by sight, while confessing things that are not as though they are.

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Praise God! I got another job (well actually an extention of another one).

anxiousness and relationships

I think there is an anxiousness in starting relationships that comes from fear of rejection, which seems to be only natural. However, I wonder if a person were to totally put the relationship in God's hands, that they could relax and let it go, because they knew God had it taken care of. If God wanted it to work out, it would, and if not, it wouldn't. All they had to be the person God wanted them to be towards the other person. Does the anxiousness come from trying to control somebody else's response? I wonder if this ties in with Cloud/Townsend talking about how if a person tries to control someone else they become out of control themselves.

I wasn't trying to say everything is God. People do have to make themselves available. Boundaries in Dating by Cloud/Townsend talks about this. But ultimately a person should be able to walk in peace rather than feel tremendous pressure. I think this is more than theory...

"The fear of women is to be criticized, the fear of men is failure" -Steve Scott. This quote was from an interview. Scroll down to July 18 for the whole interview. But you can find it today on the lifetoday.org page. It is phenomenal.

The necessity of quitting...

So I've been thinking about having something on this blog about this for awhile, but was looking for Biblical references to support what I have seen happen over and over in my life. The book How to Grow by Cloud and Townsend emphasize this point too.
There is a need to quit. It isn't that what we are doing is wrong or anything else, but there is a time when we as Christians, can get so wrapped up into what we view as God's work that it no longer is God's work, but our work. If something goes bad, (which we CAN'T let happen) it would be horrible, because whatever IT is, has got a hold of us. We are it. Instead of backing off and saying, God, is this even what you want me to do? Cuz if it is, I have no shot of completing it, so I can quit. If you want me to do it then You had better take over Your work. Because I have no shot on my own. It is pride to think that I can do God's work in my strength. It is only through quitting doing what at one time was God's work, but what I took over, that it works again. This goes back to the concept of am I just asking God to bless what I am doing or is God using me to do what He would have me to do.

Cloud and Townsend go one step further and I like it. They say that a lot of times counselors, mentors, etc. encourage the people under them when they ought to be discouraging them. Encouraging people to try harder doesn't work. They argue that in some situations we need to discourage people. Show them how they are failing and that they can't do it on their own. Because this sets them up to tap into the one who can beat what they are struggling with. It is through humility, dependence on God, and abiding in Him, not more of our strength and effort that causes things to be changed. It is pride to think that if I just try harder things will change. I told a guy this at camp and I love how Cloud/Townsend say it too. The basic concept of an accountability group where people who are struggling come together and just tell how they are blowing it so they feel guilty and ashamed, then slap each other on the back and say try harder next time is ridiculous. It doesn't work. Wisdom is the principle thing. AA (if I recall correctly) makes people be sober for a certain length of time before they can lead (sponsor) someone else. In the same way, find someone who is at where you want to go, and learn from them. That's who you have keep you accountable and show you how to get out of the pit.

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit frustrated with how the day was going. I had a headache and was feeling just a bit irritable. I had prayed about and done all of the things that as Christians we are supposed to do. Finally, I just prayed, "God, I quit. If you want me to get stuff done today, you give me the strength cuz I sure don't have it or feel like it. If you want this stuff done you get me going." And bam, headache just about completly disappeared, I started to feel content, and energy was going through me. I got a lot done.

There is an importance to quitting, reevaluating, and asking am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I working hard because it is good to work hard, or am I stepping over the line into burning myself out because of a fear of failure or pride? Do I live in dependance on God and in His strength or pridefully on my own?

Here is someone else's view of this.

How do I do this Christian life?

was a question I was asked.
"I think the Christian life ultimately boils down to Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all these things will be added on to you. Develop an aggresivness of pursuing God and getting people around you that are going where you want to go. Constantly spend time before our King. Wisdom is the principle thing. So go after it relentlessly. No passive complacency. Life is full of distractions. Determine to keep your focus on Christ and, like Peter walking on the water, the circumstances of life won't matter. Focus on circumstances and faith wilts and fear sets in. Doom is sometimes inevitable. This does not mean we do not do our part in whatever life throws our way. However, we live by faith. We have so very little bit of strength to live the Christian life. With the little that we have we have to use, go before the strength-giver, the One who gives us the ability to apply what we know is right. It is only by that constant dependance that life will go the way that it was meant to. On our own without God's hand all over us and His wisdom to guide us, we are a disaster waiting to happen. Hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness. Realize that real strength, real self-control only comes from Him and being in His presence. If you seek Him, you will find Him if you seek with all your heart. Go after God relentlessly daily.

Comparison

I think there is a comparison between the sexes... maybe this isn't accurate, but it seems like some girls will go for a guy just because he's confident, it doesn't matter how much might be wrong with him otherwise. On the flip side some guys will go with a girl just because of her appearance, it doesn't matter what might be wrong with her otherwise.

Fair comparison?

Interesting

So I was reading Cloud/Townsend's book and I found interesting how they were discussing how if a person tries to control someone else they will lose control of themselves. As they leave the other person in God's hands, they will keep self-control. It seemed interesting...

Quote

So I saw this on a friend's facebook and I had to toss it up here. Man, is it good. As a side point, I think I might be setting a blogging record for myself for how many posts have been added lately.
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The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.
The tragic results of this spirit are all about us; shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. - A.W. Tozer

Wow, that was quick

So I already got a job offered to me. Didn't even go anywhere. Thanks for praying. It's a great job too, pays well, I can work for as long as I want (i.e. I can quit in 8 weeks), eat on the clock, stress free, etc. Thank you, Lord! Thanks to those of you who prayed. That job will be for afternoons/early evenings, now just to find something for the mornings...

Humility

is the key, I think. I read somewhere on someone's blog about how it is so easy to get proud when they have learned a lot. While it is true that knowledge can puff up, any REAL knowledge of value, wisdom, etc., I can't even really apply to myself. I can't choose to live out knowing my identity in Christ. I can't choose to have right motives in how I treat other people. I can have head knowledge of it, but I can't do much of anything. The more knowledge a person has (not fact-knowledge but application), the more it should make them dependent on the One who give the knowledge, the one that gives the ability to apply it. On my own, I have no real strength to carry it out. But there is a strength giver. A self-control giver. And that is the One that I am incredibly dependent on. The Christian faith becomes nothing more than facts and cliches if there is no dependance on God, no relationship with Him. But that's not the way it was meant to be. I have heard people complain that they have head-knowledge of God but don't know how to get it down to their heart. In my life it is only through spending time on my face before God, to truly put Him first and seek first His kingdom and righteousness that any application is actually lived out. The Christian life is dependence on God. It is throwing myself before Him, begging him, imploring Him to do what His Word says, to praise Him regardless of situations and circumstances, to thank Him in all things, and to live life in an attitude of worship. Anything less is settling for mediocrity, complacency, and deadness in walk. Why do so many Christians settle for so little in their walk with God? The Bible says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with ALL your heart?" Where is our hearts at? How can we possibly expect God to annoint our times of worship and prayer if our heart isn't with Him? If we give up after 5 minutes because there wasn't any fireworks in our prayer time? Where is the seeking after Him? Where is the holy boldness to truly press our pleas before Him for His honor and glory? The truth is, I'm convinced it is impossible to truly have times of serious intercession without the power of the Spirit. And if we are praying while prideful how can we expect God to annoint what he opposes (James 4:6). In my life I have seen deadness in prayer when I have walked in any amount of pride and seen God answer when I ask the Holy Spirit to pray through me, knowing that any prayer answers that will happen will not be because of me, but rather because of the one who I ask to fill me more and more. I have a choice. Do I let my pride stagnate me spiritually so that I walk in complacency, unable to apply anything of value that God chooses to give me the opporutnity to learn? Or do I come broken before the One who is the Applier, the One who brings things from head-knowledge to heart-knowledge? Do I choose to essentially reject God due to living a lie of self-sufficiency until life becomes so out-of-control that I realize I HAVE to have God back and be dependent on Him, or do I choose to constantly throw myself before God, giving Him glory for anthing that has happened, thanking Him for His blessings, and then throwing myself at His feet to worship and magnify Him both in times of prayer and how He lives life through me. I have a choice. God, I want to choose the latter.

Continued update on health

I emailed this to a friend and put it up here for you all. Thanks for your prayers!
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I could now use some prayer. I came back from camp sick (fever the day after I left). And then my sinuses have been plugged and I had a cough too and my lungs felt kinda pressured (don't know a better way to explain). It seems to FINALLY be improving a little (10 days), but still isn't perfect. Anyway, pray for my lungs/cough to be healthy because it is similar to the coughing I experienced back in cancer when the mass was pushing against my lungs. So I don't really like that feel. The reality is that when a person is sick their lymph nodes grow. I hate that. I don't like to feel bigger lymph nodes. Period. But anyway, so the scar tissue on the lymph nodes (I had nodular sclerosis kind of Hodgkin's) makes lymph nodes already bigger (after cancer there still was a mass in my chest of lymph nodes, only it was do to scar tissue, not scar tissue and cancer). But anyway, if lymph nodes are already big than a little sickness makes them bigger than I like, hence what probably is causing the cough/pressure that I feel. But I still don't like it. So anyway, if you could pray for me, for a) healing from whatever it is causing it and b) peace of mind, I would greatly appreciate it. Also c) I have a pet scan and/or ct scan coming up so pray for perfect health on that. Oh, lastly, d) pray for wisdom on what job to work for the rest of summer. Man, I got a bit for you, huh?