I was reading the Air 1 verse of the day this morning and it got me thinking about the “Christians” who are always condemning other people’s lifestyles and damning them to hell. Unfortunately, those are the Christians who make it into the news, etc. and impress upon non-Christians that that is how our religion is.
That is not how I understand my God. If one must lead a “perfect” life in order to become a follower of Jesus Christ, then what did He die for? Don’t these judgmental Christians understand that they are trivializing the very sacrifice made by our Savior?
Jesus died so that we would be washed clean of all our sins – past, present, and future – so that we could have our relationship with God restored. That is a pretty big deal, huge. It means that no matter what you have done, are doing, or will do, Jesus Christ wants you. He wants to have a relationship with you. Your sins are forgiven and you are clean in His eyes and the eyes of the Father.
If you are a broken, lost individual, He still wants you. You do not have to conform to some ideal set by the church establishment. In fact, that is exactly what Jesus criticized the Pharisees for doing when He was on earth. They made their idea of what God wanted more important than God himself.
When Jesus was on earth, He mended broken people and reached out to the “sinners” and the lost. He still does that. Jesus is still very much alive today and He wants to have a relationship with you.
So if Jesus wants sinners and we do not have to be living a moral life to seek Him, then what is the deal with all those commandments?
When you open your heart and begin to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ a remarkable thing happens. He changes your heart, which in turn changes your actions.
I am so healed by Jesus’ love, I want to please Him and not only that, but I want to show that love to others. I am amazed at how I find myself treating people who I strongly disliked and discounted before I met Jesus.
My heart is so transformed. I just want to share Jesus’ love with everyone I meet. But most people do not want to hear about Jesus, so I just show them the love myself. I think about how Jesus would treat this person; how would He help this person? Many times, He tells me or shows me what to do. It is truly amazing. He is truly amazing.
The verse of the day I referred to above comes from 2 Peter 1:3. The New Living Translation of the Bible says, “As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.”
We don’t need to meet a certain standard to have Jesus in our life, but once we let Him in, our lives will change forever.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
If it's good enought for Blair, it's good enough for me
So often in my busy life, I do not make enough time for prayer. I feel bad, not because I think that I am disappointing God or that I will lose my place in heaven, but because I need Him and I want to take the time to talk to Him, to praise Him, and to ask for His help with my troubles. I need to lean on God when I am struggling with my day-to-day life, but it is so often those struggles that keep me from making the time for Him.
The other day I got the book, The Busy Mom’s Guide to Prayer, by Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair Warner on “The Facts of Life.” In it she describes how she overcame this problem by making a journal of prayer notes – things she wanted to pray for – and became a prayer warrior my taking small bits of time to pay for these matters. The book is a journal with lots of scripture and prayer prompts divided into categories for each day. There is also plenty of room to write down your own notes and prayers.
Busyness is one of the tools that the Evil One uses to keep us distant from God. We need Him and He wants us, but the Evil One does everything he can to keep us apart. This book, or your own prayer notebook or journal, is a great tool to keep yourself on track with your prayerful relationship with God.
The other day I got the book, The Busy Mom’s Guide to Prayer, by Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair Warner on “The Facts of Life.” In it she describes how she overcame this problem by making a journal of prayer notes – things she wanted to pray for – and became a prayer warrior my taking small bits of time to pay for these matters. The book is a journal with lots of scripture and prayer prompts divided into categories for each day. There is also plenty of room to write down your own notes and prayers.
Busyness is one of the tools that the Evil One uses to keep us distant from God. We need Him and He wants us, but the Evil One does everything he can to keep us apart. This book, or your own prayer notebook or journal, is a great tool to keep yourself on track with your prayerful relationship with God.
Friday, May 05, 2006
I Need You to Love Me
I was listening to the song “I Need You to Love Me,” by BarlowGirl on Air 1 today. The thing I hate about songs like that is that a young girl who doesn’t know that it is about Jesus would totally get the wrong message. It sounds like the cry of a woman desperate for a man’s love. “I don’t deserve you, but I need you to love me.” Yikes! Can you say “dysfunction”?
That got me thinking about how we as women are always turning to men to validate us and make us feel worthy. As men though, as humans, they are never able to fulfill us. They are not perfect. They will screw up, they will hurt us. Some more than others, but even a great guy is still an imperfect human being who will make mistakes that will break our hearts. As long as we look to them to fill us, we will never become full.
I did a book group with some other women on the book, Captivating, by John and Stasi Eldredge. That book is a real eye-opener to the issues we face as women trying to feel, well, captivating.
There is only One who can ever make us feel worthy. As the song says, He’s “a God who has all things and still [He] want[s] me.” Think about that for a minute. The God that created the heavens and the earth cares so much about you. He wants you. He loves you.
Even more amazing is that He knows everything you have ever done. Even the things that you are so ashamed of that you have never told anyone else. And He still loves you.
There is no man that will ever be able to give you that kind of love.
My husband is a great man, but there are times when he is emotionally distant. That can be so hurtful. Now that I understand that I can always turn to Jesus in times like that, I no longer experience the hurt that I once did when I feel like my husband is not there for me in the way I want him to be.
I was not created to be filled by him. I was created to be filled by Him.
That got me thinking about how we as women are always turning to men to validate us and make us feel worthy. As men though, as humans, they are never able to fulfill us. They are not perfect. They will screw up, they will hurt us. Some more than others, but even a great guy is still an imperfect human being who will make mistakes that will break our hearts. As long as we look to them to fill us, we will never become full.
I did a book group with some other women on the book, Captivating, by John and Stasi Eldredge. That book is a real eye-opener to the issues we face as women trying to feel, well, captivating.
There is only One who can ever make us feel worthy. As the song says, He’s “a God who has all things and still [He] want[s] me.” Think about that for a minute. The God that created the heavens and the earth cares so much about you. He wants you. He loves you.
Even more amazing is that He knows everything you have ever done. Even the things that you are so ashamed of that you have never told anyone else. And He still loves you.
There is no man that will ever be able to give you that kind of love.
My husband is a great man, but there are times when he is emotionally distant. That can be so hurtful. Now that I understand that I can always turn to Jesus in times like that, I no longer experience the hurt that I once did when I feel like my husband is not there for me in the way I want him to be.
I was not created to be filled by him. I was created to be filled by Him.
Friday, April 28, 2006
My Testimonial
I'm getting baptized soon and I had to write a testimonial of my journey. Here it is:
When I was growing up, I always felt like I had an aching hole in my heart that could never be filled. I thought it was because I never knew my father, who chose his drug habit over his family and left when I was a baby.
In my teen years, I turned to alcohol and men to try and fill that void, but of course, that only made me feel worse. When I wasn’t caught up with partying and bad relationships, I threw myself into what ever I was doing and turned into an overachiever.
I became pregnant during a bad relationship phase in my junior year of college. I felt hopeless and alone. Looking back, I can see how God made several attempts to reach me, but I was too busy with school and single-parenthood to pay attention.
I wouldn’t say I had a bad life. I turned things around for myself and started living a more moral life. I stopped partying and developed a healthy attitude toward relationships with men. I was a “good person,” yet I still felt so much guilt and shame for all of the things that I’d done in my youth. I kept myself too busy to think about it too much, but that feeling of inadequacy was always there.
I was looking for a radio station one day that my husband had told me about and accidentally stopped on the Christian music station Air 1. I wanted the kids to stop listening to the popular radio station because of the inappropriate language, so I decided that even though we were not Christians, we would try out this station for a while. We listened for months. I knew the words to most of the songs, but I was still not a Christian. I wasn’t even interested in becoming one.
Then one day, one of the songs grabbed me. The line said, “I exist for You.” I remember thinking, “What is it about Jesus that could make someone say such a bold statement as ‘I exist for You’?” With that, I started to learn more about Jesus. I remained skeptical for some time, but the more I sought Him the more He showed Himself to me.
I don’t know exactly when, but I eventually learned to turn to Jesus when I felt sad or alone or worthless or guilty. I experienced His love for me and felt His forgiveness. Now, even when I don’t feel Him, I have faith that He is there. I finally have forgiveness for and freedom from my past mistakes. Now that I have had this burden lifted, I can live my life with a greater purpose – to follow and serve Jesus Christ.
When I was growing up, I always felt like I had an aching hole in my heart that could never be filled. I thought it was because I never knew my father, who chose his drug habit over his family and left when I was a baby.
In my teen years, I turned to alcohol and men to try and fill that void, but of course, that only made me feel worse. When I wasn’t caught up with partying and bad relationships, I threw myself into what ever I was doing and turned into an overachiever.
I became pregnant during a bad relationship phase in my junior year of college. I felt hopeless and alone. Looking back, I can see how God made several attempts to reach me, but I was too busy with school and single-parenthood to pay attention.
I wouldn’t say I had a bad life. I turned things around for myself and started living a more moral life. I stopped partying and developed a healthy attitude toward relationships with men. I was a “good person,” yet I still felt so much guilt and shame for all of the things that I’d done in my youth. I kept myself too busy to think about it too much, but that feeling of inadequacy was always there.
I was looking for a radio station one day that my husband had told me about and accidentally stopped on the Christian music station Air 1. I wanted the kids to stop listening to the popular radio station because of the inappropriate language, so I decided that even though we were not Christians, we would try out this station for a while. We listened for months. I knew the words to most of the songs, but I was still not a Christian. I wasn’t even interested in becoming one.
Then one day, one of the songs grabbed me. The line said, “I exist for You.” I remember thinking, “What is it about Jesus that could make someone say such a bold statement as ‘I exist for You’?” With that, I started to learn more about Jesus. I remained skeptical for some time, but the more I sought Him the more He showed Himself to me.
I don’t know exactly when, but I eventually learned to turn to Jesus when I felt sad or alone or worthless or guilty. I experienced His love for me and felt His forgiveness. Now, even when I don’t feel Him, I have faith that He is there. I finally have forgiveness for and freedom from my past mistakes. Now that I have had this burden lifted, I can live my life with a greater purpose – to follow and serve Jesus Christ.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
We're Sorry
I was reading a blog yesterday that had a lot of anti-Christian comments. Not just anti-Pat Robertson or anti-Fred Phelps, but a total hatred of all Christians. I was sad that people have such a bad opinion of Christians.
Then later on, I was reading a message board that is Christian and I could not believe how many of the Christians on that board represented the self-righteous, holier-than-thou, God-loves-us-but-not-you type of Christians that everyone hates.
No wonder so many people dislike Christians. So many Christians give everyone a reason to hate us.
I had never in the course of my life had a bad personal experience with Christians, but that is largely because I went through most of my life not knowing any Christians. I was raised in a religiously sterile home. My mother had had such a damaging experience with religion, that she swore it off and never shared a single iota of her spiritual beliefs with me. We celebrated Easter and Christmas as purely secular holidays and I never, ever went to a church. I knew nothing about God.
Within the last couple of years I have had many personal encounters with God and I am now a Christian, but I came to that through a much different avenue than most people. It’s not about religion, it about a relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not a Christian because I think I am perfect, I am a Christian because I know that I am so far from perfect that sometimes I find it hard to forgive myself, but Jesus will always offer me forgiveness. And I know that God loves me and wants to be a part of my life even though He knows that I will never be perfect.
When I was first curious about Christianity, my neighbor lent me the book, Son of a Preacher Man, written by Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Now there is someone who has every reason to hate Christians for being self-righteous and casting out their own when someone makes a mistake. Yet after a long battle with addiction, he was able to find his way back to Jesus because it is about Christ, not this religion called Christianity. Jay Bakker and some others started a church called Revolution. It’s interesting stuff. Check it out. This is what it means to me to be a Christian.
Then later on, I was reading a message board that is Christian and I could not believe how many of the Christians on that board represented the self-righteous, holier-than-thou, God-loves-us-but-not-you type of Christians that everyone hates.
No wonder so many people dislike Christians. So many Christians give everyone a reason to hate us.
I had never in the course of my life had a bad personal experience with Christians, but that is largely because I went through most of my life not knowing any Christians. I was raised in a religiously sterile home. My mother had had such a damaging experience with religion, that she swore it off and never shared a single iota of her spiritual beliefs with me. We celebrated Easter and Christmas as purely secular holidays and I never, ever went to a church. I knew nothing about God.
Within the last couple of years I have had many personal encounters with God and I am now a Christian, but I came to that through a much different avenue than most people. It’s not about religion, it about a relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not a Christian because I think I am perfect, I am a Christian because I know that I am so far from perfect that sometimes I find it hard to forgive myself, but Jesus will always offer me forgiveness. And I know that God loves me and wants to be a part of my life even though He knows that I will never be perfect.
When I was first curious about Christianity, my neighbor lent me the book, Son of a Preacher Man, written by Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Now there is someone who has every reason to hate Christians for being self-righteous and casting out their own when someone makes a mistake. Yet after a long battle with addiction, he was able to find his way back to Jesus because it is about Christ, not this religion called Christianity. Jay Bakker and some others started a church called Revolution. It’s interesting stuff. Check it out. This is what it means to me to be a Christian.
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