Your Faith. Your Relationship. Your Life.

Have you ever felt like you weren't being challenged?  Have you ever wondered why there wasn't anybody who was willing to stretch you?  Like no one was stepping up to bat to put your faith to test?  I have.

After moving to a new place to begin my new career, I found myself asking all of these questions.  I could not seem to wrap my mind around why I wasn't growing and stretching in my faith.  My first (and most human-like reaction) was to blame others.  I was allowing my persuasive yet devious mind to ask all the wrong questions.  Does anybody care if I'm growing?  Why is no one willing to ask me the tough questions?  Will they ever be willing to fully dive in and invest in my faith?  Why can't I rely on anyone?

Why was no one willing to go to bat to put my faith to the test?  God answers clearly in 2 Corinthians 13:5-9.  "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.  Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test?  And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.  Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong.  Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right only for the truth.  We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection."

Take a deeper look at verse 5:  "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves..."  Do you notice how it uses "yourselves" and "you" three times?!  We are being told, no, not told, but commanded, to examine ourselves, our own faith.  It's time to stop allowing others to be our excuses!  They are not the ones told to examine you.  You are told to examine you.  You may not like what you see (I don't always like what I see in myself), but at least you won't be letting Satan deceive your mind.  How can you have true faith and a true relationship with Christ if you are always relying on someone else?  When you rely on others will you ever have a faith of your own?

I had to admit that I wasn't alright.  My faith was weak.  I had to stop relying on others to give me my "perfect" faith.  It left me empty because people always fail.  I had to take initiative.  I had to take responsibility.  I had to learn how to push myself beyond the norm in my faith.  I had to be willing to see and change the selfishness within my heart.  In the end, God has shown me that this is my faith, my relationship with Him, my life.  I still love being challenged and stretched by others He places in my life; however, I have learned to not grow reliant upon them.  So, when these people fail (because they all do), I do not have to stop growing and being challenged.

How did I push myself and stretch my own faith?  I gave God more of my time, the first-fruits of my time.  I focused my mind on seeing the tiny blessings in each day, which God used to bring bigger blessings.

Take responsibility and initiative.  Quit allowing others to be your excuse.  This is your Faith.  This is your Relationship with the one true God.  This is your Life.

*NOTE:  I am in no way suggesting that believers do not need fellowship and/or rebuking from fellow believers.  We greatly need fellowship and training from others.  I am only asking that you do not grow reliant on others for your faith.  We need a nice balance of being challenged by fellow Christians as well as ourselves.

I'm Not Alright by Sanctus Real

Guest Posting by Tell Deatrich: Rusty Gates

This post was written by a friend of mine, Tell Deatrich.  He shares some great words, so please read on!

I am tired of these rusty gates?

I’m kinda tired of Church.  I’m kinda tired of Christians.  It seems like every time I turn around someone that claims to follow Christ is talking bad about someone else.  It seems like every time I turn around I am talking bad about someone else.  It seems like my whole community has gotten lost somewhere in between hell and the Holy Spirit.  What ever happened to building up in truth?  Loving your neighbor as yourself has seemed to be the last thing on our minds these days.  Instead we are walking around like a bunch of rusty gates.  Oh, and don’t forget, I am one of those people as well.

All of the hatred and malice that gets passed around the Church is terribly depressing.  One doesn’t have to wait very long before you find someone in the Church that has a bone to pick.  From the beginning there have been problems in the Church.  Don’t believe me?  What is 1 & 2 Corinthians about?  Galatians?  Colossians?  Philemon?  All of these books are helpful in correcting problems that the Church was having at the time.  Many of them suggest living in peace, and loving one another.  There is correction going on, but it is not in the form of hateful words and blame.  I would say that it clearly builds the body of believers up in truth and righteousness. If that is true, then why does it seem that we cannot also do the same?! What happens to the words between the time that the Church goer hears them and the next words that come out of their own mouth? 

It seems to me that we expect Christians to automatically be perfect as soon as they are saved.  We put up with lots of poor actions from the world, but the instant our proclaimed Christians friends do something that offends you, the world is going to end.  You gotta raise your voice and call them out!  Stomp your foot down and tell them that they did something wrong!  Don’t they know the bible tells them that they should be a better person?! 

Maybe correction is in order, but you might want to consider non-believers first, other believers second and yourself last.  Imagine if a non-believer was involved in your disagreement in the Church.  Would they still see the Church, the body of Christ, as something good to be involved with?  Would they still be amazed at the love you have for one another?  Or would they see Church as a place where everyone is a hypocrite and hates one another?  At least down at the bar everyone knows their name and is happy to see them.

It reminds me of the Cheers theme song. 

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,

and they're always glad you came.

You wanna be where you can see,

our troubles are all the same

You wanna be where everybody knows

Your name.

If you don’t know the old television show Cheers, it is a TV series that takes place in a bar, and it is a pretty good show for the most part.  Everyone on Cheers seems to like each other and help each other through their problems.  They are good natured in their jokes, and get along as well as any Church I have been to.  I think of Cheers when I think of a Church that I want to be involved in.

                When you are having a confrontation with another believer you might consider forgiveness first.  Can you forgive them first, and then discuss your differences?  Would that stir some sort of love for them in your heart?  Next time you feel like being a rusty gate, try to think of the non-believers watching.  Think of the believers affected by your actions, and I would be willing to bet that your concerns about how you feel will fall into place.  Maybe then will we have learned how to love.  --TD

A Heart of Obedience

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God..."  ~Deuteronomy 28:1-2

Obedience is a fundamental part of trusting God.  I will be going on a missions trip to Cuajiniquil, Nicaragua at the end of May.  Through preparing for this trip, I have been learning what it means to truly obey God...and it hasn't been easy.  I have had to obey God, even while going against the wishes of my own father.  It breaks my heart to disobey my earthly father, but obeying my heavenly Father is my heart's desire.  Because of my obedience, God has faithfully and excessively provided all the funds I will need.  I can't wait to see what else God will do from this act of obedience.

But being obedient isn't always this easy.  I am reminded of the story of Moses in the desert...

In Numbers 20, the Israelite people came to Moses complaining they had no water to drink.  Moses brought this to God.  God then commanded Moses to speak to the rock so it would pour out its water.  Then, Moses took his staff in front of the assembly.  He struck the rock twice with his staff...instead of speaking to it.  Yes, water still came out of the rock but not because of Moses' obedience.  Moses was told to speak to the rock, but instead of trusting God, he struck the rock instead.  For this simple act of disobedience the Lord said to Moses, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." (Numbers 20:12)  A disobedient heart kept Moses (a man of admiration) from entering the sacred Promised Land!  When I first read this, I thought it was extremely harsh!  In a way, it even made me somewhat angry, but how could a disobedient man lead an entire nation into God's Holy Land?  I discovered even more about obedience a few days later...

I attended a Revive meeting (a sort of college youth group).  One of the Revive leaders was speaking that night, and he just happened to bring his dog, Missy.  I watched Missy very carefully.  Each time the speaker moved, Missy followed him.  When he called, she came.  If he whistled to her, she dropped everything she was doing and went straight to him.  Missy was urgently obeying her master.  She had a desire to please him.  She also had a fear of  not obeying him.

After watching this dog follow her master's every move, I realized that I should be doing the same thing...and Moses should have done the same thing.  Obeying God should be my first priority.  I should follow His every move.  I should wait urgently for His every command.  I should peer up at Him looking for His approval before moving forward.  I should seek to please Him.  And I should fear disobedience towards Him.  He is the one true God.  He has the power to keep me out of my own promised land.  But obedience toward Him, will bring blessings beyond belief!

"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today-to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul- then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil.  I will provide grass in fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied."  ~Deuteronomy 11: 13-15

If we truly expect to be blessed by God, then we must prepare for the rain...by being obedient to Him.  It will not be easy, but it will always be worth it!  

Desperate...

Are you desperate?  Do you know what it means to be desperate?  This is another one of those blogs where I am going to clue you into a more personal area of my life.  God really laid it on my heart to share this through a blog....so here it goes.

On Monday night, I was given the opportunity to go to coffee with a very close friend of mine.  She doesn't know it yet, but our conversation literally brought me to my knees.  Our time together made me realize the desperation I feel in my heart.  After coffee, I returned to my room, and started sobbing.  I couldn't stop.  I couldn't hold it in any longer.

After so long of building up a wall between myself and God, the desperation for Him had finally come back.  After so long of putting my hopes and dreams ahead of Him, my desperation for Him alone had finally come back.  After so long of shoving God into second place, my desperation for Him had finally come back.  Do you know what it means to be desperate?  To want so desperately?  To hunger so deeply for God?

We make excuses about the times that we are far from Christ.  We just pass them off as "dry seasons."  Well, I also passed off my distance from God as a "dry season."  But I didn't prepare for God to rescue me from my dry season.  I wasn't willing to become desperate enough to allow Him to rescue me.  You see, desperation drives us to action.  Desperation drives us to a spirit of humility and willingness...a willingness to seek God honestly and wholeheartedly.  Without desperation, we lack a deep relationship with Christ.

Desperation means falling to our knees in want of Christ alone.  Desperation is knowing God is the only one who can fill the void.  Desperation makes us realize how lost we are without God.  Desperation drives us into action, into seeking God with a burning passion.  Desperation drives us to spread God's Word among unbelievers.  Without desperation, where is the fire for Christ?

Please, don't make my mistake.  Don't lose your desperation for Christ.  Don't lose your burning fire to be so extremely close to Him and all He is.  Cling to Him desperately.  Be desperate...

Breathe by Michael W. Smith

 

A Beautiful Ugly

I have been wanting to write this blog post for about two weeks now, so sorry I just haven't gotten around to it quite yet.  It is actually a pretty personal experience, so I hope you will get to know me a little better through it.  Anyways, here it is...

A couple of weeks ago I was given the opportunity to go on a retreat with a group of really awesome girls.  We traveled up to Custer State Park in the gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota.  I have always had a special place in my heart for the Black Hills, mainly because we used to vacation there all the time when I was growing up.

Well I was having so much fun with everyone, but I also knew that I needed some time to spend with God...just the two of us.  Truth is, He wanted to spend some time with me too.  So, He managed to get me out of bed before 6:30 a.m. the next morning.  Nobody else was awake yet, so I was able to sneak out of the house and into the beautiful hills that surrounded our cabin.

I began to climb the steep hill right behind the place we were staying.  The sun wasn't even fully up yet.  The morning was crisp and cool.  The smells of fall in the Black Hills flooded my nose and brought a smile to my face.  As I continued my ascent, my mind began to reel with so many thoughts about life.  God reminded me that He truly is our rock.  You see, the hill I was climbing was covered in slick pine needles.  Footing was loose, and I would often slip downward.  Throughout the slick climb, I would keep looking upward for the next place of solid footing.  There were large boulders placed all along the side of this hill.  I knew that if I could just get to the next boulder, I could be safe from slipping and take a rest.  My life is just like this climb.  I have steep hills and trials to climb.  All I can do is keep planting one foot in front of the other.  Sometimes things get really slick and unstable along the way.  I slip backwards on the pine needles.  But God always reminds me to look up and find the next rock, the next place of rest.  When I finally make it to that place of rest, the solid rock in the side of a slick-steep hill, God wraps me in His arms and reminds me of how peaceful and loving He is.  

As awesome as my morning already was after this breath-taking (literally) climb, the story does not end here.  I kept climbing and climbing to, what I thought, was the top of the hill.  After several rests on the rocks, I finally made it to the real top of the massive hill.  God directed me to a lone rock on the ledge.  I climbed on top and could see miles of trees.  I was also able to spot the Needles.  (If you have never seen the Needles in the Black Hills, stop right now, and go "google" a picture of them!)  The sun was on the rise, and I was blessed enough to see God highlight the Needles with fresh morning sun rays.  It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen in God's creation.

Then God turned my attention to a tree on the side of the hill I was on.  It was a lone tree, with no leaves, no branches, no bark.  The tree had been through a fire and was badly burned.  The tree was scarred.  It was cracked.  It was streaked with the pain of the flames.  But even with all the scars, cracks, and pain, that tree was so beautiful.  The black and brown colors mixed together in a way that was truly pleasing.  All the things that made it ugly on their own came together to make it beautiful.  The tree God directed my attention to was a beautiful ugly.  

God showed me so much through one little burned tree.  I have so much pain, ugliness, and sin in my past, sin and ugliness that I don't even like to face.  I have felt pain so deep that it has developed into anger and caused cracks and scars on my heart.  These things in my life are so cracked...so scarred...so ugly.  But then God takes my ugliness, my pain, my cracks, and He brings them all together.  And He makes something so beautiful out of something so ugly.  He makes someone so beautiful out of someone so ugly.  It's a beautiful ugly.

Beautiful Submission

Submission.  What's the first thought that comes to mind when you read this word?  Is submission something you dread?  Something you resent?  Or submission something you find beautiful?  Something you can cherish?  This post might just step on your cute little toes!  But, the Bible talks about submission in so many contexts: as employees, citizens, believers, children, and wives.  Submission is not something to fear or resent.  It is beautiful.  Read on to discover the beauty!

"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission."  1 Timothy 2:11  Submission is something women easily forget about, but it is something that God has called us into specifically as women.  This verse is not telling women that we can never open our mouths and speak.  Talking is what women do best!  Many people (many women) feel that submission is terrible because it places woman in a position lower than man.  But God tells us that we are all created in His image.  So why would he create women to be lower than man if we are created in His image?  We are equal to men; we just have very different roles given to us by our Creator.  In the context of 1 Timothy 2:11, the women of the Ephesian church were lacking maturity.  Paul wrote this verse to remind them to listen and learn to gain maturity.  The easiest way for these women to learn, was through submission.

Today's society encourages women to forgo submission and switch roles with men.  They say "anything you can do, I can do better."  Is that really true though?  Didn't God design us perfectly in the roles we possess?

Women are give roles that should not be stepped out of.  Submission is one of those roles.  Compare submission to fire.  When a fire escapes its boundaries, it moves quickly engulfing and destroying everything in its path.  In the same way, women out of submission fight against and often hurt the men and authorities in their lives.  But when a fire is within its boundaries, it is beautiful.  Its light flickers and is mesmerizing to watch.  Its warmth draws people in.  In the same way, a women in submission is beautiful.  Her light flickers, and people watch her because she is different.  Her warmth draws people in to her because she is willing to submit.  She submits to her employer, her government, her parents, her husband.  But most importantly, she submits to her God.

Submission does not mean women allow themselves to be a doormat.  It also does not mean we should go against what God and the Bible say.  They are the ultimate truth.  For more on submission check out this post:  http://unsteadysaint.com/the-s-word/

A Gentle Whisper

"The Lord said [to Elijah], 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.'  Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire came a gentle whisper."  (1 Kings 19:11-12, NIV)

And after the fire came a gentle whisper...  This passage from 1 Kings is so powerful!  Recall all the powerful acts found in it.  A powerful wind completely ripped mountains apart and shattered the rocks!  Then there was a mighty earthquake following the wind.  And after the great earthquake came a blazing fire.  But, God was not in any of those powerful acts.  He came in a gentle whisper.

Is God able to do the powerful acts found in this passage?  Yes!  He is more than able.  "You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations."  (Psalm 65:5-7, NIV)  God can easily do mighty and powerful acts to get our attention.  But sometimes, He comes in a quiet way.  He hopes you are looking for Him so attentively that you will find Him in a gentle whisper.

How many times have we been seeking God and expecting some marvelously irregular act to catch our attention?  The way we are constantly on the move, it would probably take an earthquake to get us to stop and listen!  I am so excited about this passage!  It says that the Lord was not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire.  He was in a gentle whisper.  Our God loves us enough to want us to slow down and listen for his gentle whisper.  He wants us to hear His amazing plans for our lives.  He wants us to be in awe of His every move.  He wants us to know how much He loves us!

Take some time today or in the next couple of days to just stop the craziness around you.  Listen for the gentle whisper of our great, mighty, and loving God!

Stop the World by Matthew West