Encounter.

Jesus seeks imperfect people. He pursues us. We are distant from God and have our own way of doing things and He shows up with a path for us. It's so easy to ignore Him. Most Christians act like they have everything figured out, but I have almost nothing figured out. This "encounter" with God is not one to treat lightly. 

God meets us where we are broken and in rebellion and He is not okay with it. When we encounter Christ we are completely overwhelmed. We realize how big He is and how small we are. When God encounters us we are exposed. The church clothes come off and we no longer have a game face. There is no hiding from Him. We are chosen. When we encounter Christ, He uses others in our transformation and restoration. It is necessary to have impactful friends and people who surround you. A saying that I've always tried to live my life by is "surround yourself with people who you want to be like." Now, I am not always successful at this but it's a good thing to keep at the forefront of your mind when forging relationships. God has such patience for enemies, to transform them into instruments. God uses man as His method to spread the Word and we are called to do the same. 

There are people around you and me waiting for an ambassador of Christ. We are meant to be here for a distinct purpose. It is to know Him and make Him known. God seeks man to spread His Word. Sharing your faith is a process that leads to a point. He wants us to play a part, to be a part of His work. We need to engage and look for places where God could put opportunities in our lives that could lead others on the path to knowing Him. It will further our joy and help us to be more appreciative for His work in our lives. When we encounter Christ we enter a new identity and a new community. We are an adopted child of His. We are His sons and daughters. Christ came to the world to save sinners, of which I am the foremost. As Believers, we are radically transformed so that we can make Him known to people so that they are changed forever. We are overcome by Gods love. His patience is perfect. 

 I was going through my Bible and found a verse that I wrote on a scrap sheet of paper a while ago, it was 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, which I thought related well to this topic. It says "Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 

Put yourself on display to show God off,
Courtney 

The Divide.

Micah 6:8 says "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Most of us already know that subconsciously there are two kinds of people in the church. Those who take Biblical mandates seriously and those who take them lightly. Sometimes the difference is really clear to us. For example, the difference between one who gives money to charity so they can feel like they are helping out and then those who give money and also do the work of helping. There is also an approach to reading the Bible to let you know more clearly where the divide is. On both sides of the divide there will be people who can quote scripture to you, but what they use the scripture for can tell you a lot. Sometimes it is used to judge people and to name others as sinners but sometimes it is used to love the children of God and to push us further towards the realization of Heaven on Earth. That's where you find the dividing line. 

Well, what does the Lord require of you? To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. These things are required. Not requested. Many people would choose this simple verse in Micah to summarize the teachings of Jesus. But if you watch the lives of many Christians, many do not consider this verse as a requirement but rather a request. 

With each generation, it becomes harder for some to identify with their heritage. Some of it has to do with culture or a difficult time understanding it clearly. Many white Americans seem to be filling in the gap of our lack of a sense of heritage with Christianity. It's like a silent claiming of heritage of Christianity. Christianity has a lot of non practicing Christians who still observe certain rituals for the sake of remembering their heritage and passing it on. But what non practicing Christians do not realize is that they are passing on the heritage and not so much the faith. 

Look at church on Sunday morning. We all assume each other is there for the same reason that we are. But one group is there to maintain Christian heritage and another to pursue Biblical mandates. Because of this, we find ourselves at impasses that won't reach a lasting resolution. These two understandings of what it means to be Christian are not compatible. They define the dividing line where a lot of churches find themselves splitting. 

God requires us to be about seeking justice and practicing kindness and love. And doing so in a humble way, not feeling privileged because of it. Followers of the teachings of Jesus will not settle on ritual repetition for the sake of Jesus, because Jesus didn't either. The church as the body of Christ should never become a cultural heritage club, because when we do we displace the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity. This is simply not the way of Christ. As we look to expand and grow the body of Christ, we should be asking ourselves "what does the Lord require of us?" God requires that we do justice, even when it's not easy. Love mercy, even when you don't like someone. And walk humbly, always remembering that God walks every step with us. 

Will it bridge the gap of the divide? Probably not. But if we can recognize what is required of us and not requested, we might find that God's love peace and hope will continue to grow in all of our churches,

Courtney

You are More Than the Sum of Your Parts.

We are not nearly as mature as our parents were at our age. Do you ever hear them say "when I was your age…?" While the maturation process is slowing, the age we are exposed to life impacting decisions is getting increasingly younger. It used to be that drugs and alcohol weren't exposed to kids until the ages of about 16-18, now kids are being exposed at the age of 11. It's not unusual to have young kids to get hooked on these things, and they don't have the capacity to make life long decisions at this age. We can see these impacts on our lives in so many areas. The current music, tv, movies, culture all influence us. Sometimes we are being forced to deal with things way before we are ready to. 

We live in a culture that tells us that we are sexual beings, therefore we should be sexually active. We live in a culture that challenges the church in telling people you are wrong to not be sexually active outside of marriage, in fact you are causing them to have mental issues because they are repressing this natural drive and it's making everybody crazy. Some peoples mindset is that God gave us parts and He is a brilliant designer, so we might as well use them. Tragedy results because of our decisions that rationalize, justify, and abandon God’s commands. But you are not your own. What you do with your body is a way of worship to the Lord. You are not a thing. And you are not to be used. What is His Word telling you to change? How has the Holy Spirit been speaking to your heart about an area of your life that’s out of line with God’s perfect will for your life? We are called to be Godly men and women, regardless of the situation or the circumstance. Temptation is designed to meet the desires of your heart. If you grab hold of your wants and thoughts, it will sooner or later become an action. 

Paul tells us that we are more than our desires. We are more than our body. We are more than that. Don't keep living like you are less. It's not the church that has lied to us, it's the world. We are attracted to stories of celebrities self destructing, after all "if it bleeds, it leads" right? 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Paul tells us that the body is not for immorality, it is for the Lord. Our bodies are members of Christ. He says that we have come from God and that we are not our own, so glorify God with our body. When we get healthy in Jesus, then our sexuality lines back up. We glorify God in the way that we live. 

Someday you will meet him or her, and you'll fall like a big tree in a forrest. Will you stay for the right reasons? Will you love them enough to postpone whatever you're feeling and the desires you might have so that they can be honored and cherished? Will you pay any price for them? "Love" isn't giving in when your partner wants to cross an established boundary because you are both subject to temptation and you know God will forgive you when it's all said and done. That is not love. Love is respecting a commitment you both have made and valuing each others hearts above all else, and honoring God in your relationship and with your bodies. 

Will he not love you if you don't compromise yourself? I don't know what that is, but it isn't love. We are designed to connect, soul to soul. When you are deeply connected with another and that touching of souls holds you together, it gets deeper and deeper and stronger so that you may become one. Giving our hearts in relationships outside of marriage kills our dreams. When you aren't connected and the two souls pull apart, they rip and bleed and scar. And eventually get to a point to where the scars can't feel. In that moment when God answers your prayer and says here she or he is, the person I've been preparing for you, your heart will be so scarred over, you won't be able to feel it. That's not what God wants for you. He knows there is a moment when your soul will touch another and He wants it to be as deep and as rich and as beautiful and as bonding as it can be, with no scars. God wants what is best for you, a relationship that holds you together in thick and thin because sooner or later it gets hard. Your future spouse doesn't deserve to receive you covered in scars, they have valued your heart before even knowing you and deserve your whole self when you two decide to enter into a relationship rooted in Christ. 

Why Is Sex Outside Of Marriage So Destructive? | Tim Keller:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKdSLsGMcnA

He is holding out for you, and yes, it is worth waiting for. 

Courtney

Unbind.

What fear is limiting you from living fully into your God given potential? What unclean spirit has you?

Welcoming all types of people is part of who we, as Christians and members of the church, are called to be. It is not because it shows that we are good and accepting people, it is because of what it allows us to do. It puts us in a better position to follow the lead of Jesus. We can be considered "unclean" if we are bound by something, maybe in the spirit or affliction, or a social stigma that we need to be released from. Think of the homeless that we see on the sides of the streets? Don't we consider them to be unclean?

There are all sorts of things that limit us and bind us, things that hold us back, things that keep us from achieving the fullness of life which God desires for us. Some of us have some demons in our lives that bind us and constrict us from being everything that God hopes for us. Greed, self doubt, self centeredness, no matter what it is we have things that limit us from being all that God calls us to be. We all have our demons bind and limit us. 

This requires being in a relationship with Him, forming a community together, and loving one another enough to rebuke the things that are binding us and the evils that make our spirits unclean. Confronting the evils of this life that hurt people, like homelessness, hunger, prejudice, and any number of things that bind people up and distance them from society. We as Christians and members of the church are responsible for releasing people from these things that hold them captive and help them to overcome their demons. 

Jesus actively did the work of unbinding people. He strived to eliminate evil from the world. As the modern day Body of Christ, we the Church are called to do the same. Welcoming the homeless or those who society avoids is part of who we are called to be. We are called to name the demons of others and call them out of peoples lives and promote life for them in the face of their demons. As I mentioned earlier, we can't be arrogant or blind and think that we don't have these demons…Because we do, we all do. It's a harsh reality to know who you are on the inside, to feel the person you know you can become, yet you look around and your reality reflects the exact opposite. A lot of us are scared to face this. The thing that binds us more than anything else is fear itself (s/o FDR: "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself). As followers of Christ, we're not only to help unbind others, but to unbind ourselves. We can do this by confronting and facing our fears, chase them out of our lives. 

If we are to live unbound lives, lives that are meant to help others, we must recognize and name our own fears. This will look different for every person. It might be educating yourself about something, talking about a fear that you've never talked about before, observe what others are doing, or maybe even directly confronting it. The point is to cast it out. Cast out that fear and tell that demon that you don't have room for it in your life. Most importantly, see that we must trust in God and cast our fears upon Him. We must trust in the face of our fears, cast them upon the strength and love of God. The thing that we fear will NEVER be able to overcome that strength and love. 

Mark Twain said, "The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why." When you find out this "why" is when you become unbound. 

The only thing that we should bind up is a broken heart, everything else that we see that binds, we should be unbinding.
Courtney

The Battle that is Prayer.

Prayer. Let's face it, no one is good at it. Mike Glenn once said, "No one is born with the gift of prayer." We couldn't pray at all if Jesus didn't help us. Why is this? Well, God starts the conversation between us and Him. When I sit down to pray I sometimes think "what will I say?" Do you ever do this? Paul tells us that the Spirit that searches the deep things of God searches your heart as well. The Spirit knows when we BS Him, example: "Dear God, thank you for this day…Amen." For some of us, the hardest thing about prayer is not falling asleep in the middle of it, I am definitely guilty of this. 

"Help me," is such a basic prayer we can pray to God, after all prayer starts with humility. Watch Jesus show up in your life when you pray this.  By humbling ourselves before Him, we are able to soak in just how powerful He is. After all, we wouldn't bring our innermost thoughts to Him unless we trusted Him unlike any other. In Luke chapter 11 we can see the Disciples indirectly asking God to basically help them. They ask Him to teach them how to pray. He teaches them Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer. And when they heard Him pray, they had never heard such a confident prayer in their lives. Our prayers will be strengthened by presenting Him with honest and humble prayers, leaving our insecurities at the door. Jesus teaches us to keep praying no matter what and to never loose heart. When does He ever look at us and say "woah, that's a lot of prayers?" Fun fact: He doesn't. By trusting Him with our prayers we show Him that we trust Him with us more than we trust us with us. 

It is important to know that some of the most meaningful prayer times can be those when we don't say anything at all. Start spending time in prayer. It could be just hanging out with Jesus, recognizing and enjoying His presence. By doing this, over time you'll start to admire Him and see the difference between our own lives and His. Jesus is after us, because He loves us and He loves our relationship. He gives us the confidence to deal with reality and He has already forgiven us for what we have done. So why BS Him? He will make amazing things out of our brokenness. He wants conversation with us. Through our time spent with Him, whether it be intensely praying or just chillin with Him, He can reveal to us who He is. If we practice showing up to talk to Jesus, He will too. Make it a habit, repeatedly present your requests before God. Only He can do the things we bring to Him through prayer. How cool is that? God is the only one who can help us with the thoughts in our heads and the needs in our hearts. Our God is strong enough, near enough, and good enough to respond to people like you and me. He is more. Our God is a BIG God. So, with that being said we should be praying Big prayers. He can handle anything you throw at Him. What are you praying for that is Big?

What if God gave us everything we wanted, but it caused us to compromise our most important relationships, morals, or ethics? It is important to recognize that God will stop at nothing to give His children what we need, but not what we want. He delays what we are praying for so that we will be more prepared when He provides it to us. He delays because He's trying to do something in our lives that we might not otherwise see. And He delays because He wants us to evaluate what we are asking of Him.We can simply ask Him "what are You teaching me?" while we wait. This allows us to line up who God is calling us to be and who we want to be, so that they can become the same. Job 14:15 says, "You will call and I will answer you." Let your requests be known to Him, but be patient in His timing for it is perfectly planned for our good. 

Give who you are to Jesus,
Courtney

We Are Young.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-5. What a beautiful passage in God's book. 

Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
“I find no pleasure in them”—
before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;
when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
and those looking through the windows grow dim;
when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
but all their songs grow faint;
when people are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags itself along
and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home
and mourners go about the streets.

This shows us that we get distracted. How easy is it to get lost in the culture that we live in today? So easy. Extremely easy. Before depression comes, remember your Creator. 

Right now, we're "young adults." We have the awesome responsibility of being adults, but we still consider ourselves young. This will be the only time in our lives that we will be young, and adults. Jesus loves using young adults. His ministry began as a young adult. We have "ministry freedom." We have influences like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc. and we can use them to make God famous. Use also your youth to follow Jesus. The time is now to follow Him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl4q_mjggQw...This video, Following Jesus-Social Network Style, kind of has nothing and everything to do with these ideas I'm grasping for. But I thought it was pretty sick and has an underlying message of how we can honor Him through all our actions, including social media. 

Right now are you following Jesus? I ask myself this all the time, am I truly following Him? Not because of the commitment I made when I was 10 to get baptized on Easter Sunday, but RIGHT NOW am I following Him? Mike Glenn, the senior Pastor at Brentwood Baptist Church who I've talked about before, says "EVERYONE has a spiritual gift God desires to be used in the life of His Church and the work of His Kingdom." 

Our generation is called to do something great. We're so absorbed with our lives that we don't get it. We are called to leave it all behind and follow Him. And I know how hard that can be. Hard. But know that He asks this of us because He knows we're crazy enough to do it. We don't ask enough from people. we don't ask as much as Jesus asks. We're often afraid to be called on by God. We tell ourselves, knowingly or not, "please don't ask anything huge of me. Let me live a normal life…." We don't get it. We are scared and we are cowards. We need to believe in Him. Whole heartedly. Tell strangers about Him. The time is now to call others to follow Jesus. Multiply yourselves into the lives of others. We underestimate what we can do in a long period of time. Start walking NOW. There is no greater thing to give your life to. God asks us to give our lives up. Mike goes on to say, "Christ followers are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We're given work visas for our ministries and mission here." Invest in His Kingdom now so that you may invest in it forever.

The most powerful man in history of the world is with you, 

Courtney

Commitment.

Could you imagine if you couldn't trust God? Well you can. So you should also be trustworthy.

Matthew 5:33 says, "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made."

Jesus is telling us to keep our word, because it's consistent with His character. 

Matthew 5:37 says, "All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

Have character and be strong. All you have to do is say yes. 

We are made in the image of God. He is faithful and never changing. When we look at ourselves we fall into one of two categories. We are either dependable people, or we aren't. One is a Blessing and the other is a Burden. We share the Gospel through our words, which is why it is so important to keep your word so that people will believe what you say is true. We must be intentional about practicing authenticity with God, with ourselves and with others.

Authenticity with God is so valuable in developing our relationship with Him. We read in the Word about those who easily give their life experiences honestly to God. They trust that He will be completely understanding of anything they bring to Him. When we give God the cookie cutter version of our lives and tell Him what we think He wants us to say to Him, our connection with Him is spiritually limp. We can grow spiritually alongside Him by allowing Him to hear the truth in our hearts. He is welcoming of all our thoughts and concerns that we want to talk to Him about, not what we bring to Him that we think is culturally appropriate. God doesn't just want to hear the watered down version of things that we have to say. He wants to hear the ugly things too. Don't just talk to Him with words we think He will be well receiving of. He is receiving and gracious of anything that we bring to Him. 

Today we have a fear of obligation, let's face it. The less we commit, the more flakey we become. My generation is so used to the term "the one," as far as a life partner goes. We are already breaking commitments with future partners when in the back of our heads, we think eventually we'll find "the one." We just need to find a Godly person and spend the rest of our lives with them. Someone we can cherish, that loves Jesus. I know it sounds simple, but in reality it should be. With patience and trust, it will be. We put too much pressure on ourselves and our future husband/wife and expect them to be the perfect one we've been waiting all our lives for. Now this is a new concept I've been slowly processing, and I kind of like it. Why should we have these huge expectations of our future spouse when we ourselves are in no way perfect? When we find that Godly person who loves Jesus, that we want to pursue and cherish, we need to make a commitment to them and forget about "the one." What if this person is "the one" and you're not fully committing yourself to them because you still believe "the one" for you is out there? 

Life gets sloppy when we can't commit. We find ourselves not keeping commitments. We say we're going to do something and we don't do it, and that makes us liars. This is inconsistent with the spirit of God. Look at yourself. What is your reputation? Dependable, or flakey? Learn how to say no (I know for some of us this is hard, but look back at Matthew 5:37 for reassurance). Re-prioritize your life. When you have made a commitment to someone, you have given them a gift of time and a gift of your presence. If we must get out of that promise, we need to learn how to ask for that commitment back from that person. 

I've come to the recent realization that it is important for us to develop relationships with other people who have room to share the good and the bad. Commit to these relationships. Value these relationships, because they don't come by often. Similar to your openness with Christ through the good and the bad, having others that you can share your inner most thoughts and ideas with is crucial. These relationships allow us to commit to each other and provide a give and take scenario that is constant in the busy lives we live. They also aid us in verbalizing the good and the bad to God, because it isn't always going to be easy, at least for me I know that is true. 

I never regret following God. It's God's commitment to us that He has saved us. Don't be a fake Christian. Be the real deal, a follower of Jesus Christ. 

How Do You Know Someone Is "The One"? || Jefferson Bethke:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BERIOlDTk2M

Blessings come through commitments, 

Courtney