We all know the 10 commandments. We learned them in cute little songs in Sunday school, where we got stickers that said "Jesus Loves YOU!" when we memorized all 10 of them. In Matthew 22, the Pharisees were so determined to catch Jesus off guard just to prove he was not the son of God. One of them, the bible says, was an expert in the law. He asked Jesus in verse 36 "Jesus, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" and the bible says:
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
If you know anything about me, or better yet, if you SHOULD know anything about me, it's that my favorite scripture in the bible is 1 Corinthians 13. It is the most thorough explaination of what love is, what it isn't, what it consists of, and how valuable it is. Love never fails. I began to think why love was so important that Jesus would say it was the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God and that the second would also be about love: to love your neighbor as yourself.
I kept thinking. Why Love?
Then it hit me.
John 3:16. For God so LOVED the world.
1 John 4:8 says:
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. "
All of a sudden I had a different explaination for my favorite scripture in the bible. Replace the word love with God from verses 1-12. Paul then ends it by saying that out of hope, faith, and love the greatest is love.
Lets go back to John 3:16. God is love. And because he so LOVED the world, he gave us a second chance, a chance to redeem ourselves through the blood of his only son. Because God so loved the world, God is patient, God is kind, God never fails....because Love is God. God is Love.
God so loved the world, that He gave his one and only son. So it had to be through love, that Jesus hung on the cross for US. I am pretty sure He hung on that cross thinking "If my father loves them, then I have to do this" because love does not seek its own. Through Love, God keeps forgiving us because love keeps no record of wrong. Through love, the Holy Spirit was given to us to guide us because love always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.
It is with love that we experience the most crucial moments in our lives. Women, with love, give birth to their babies. It is with love that we are raised. It is with love that we join to another in marriage. It is with love that we are sexually intimate with our spouse (making love!).
With that same love, the greatest commandment is that we are to give our hearts, soul, and minds to God, because it was love that caused Him to give his only son for us. With that same love, we are to love our neighbors, because Jesus died for them too.
Because He so loved the world. We should too.
"Many waters cannot quench this love". It makes, to me, so much sense now.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Preparing
This year has been quite the frustrating one in the "significant other" department. It began to feel like everyone was falling in love, going on romantic dates while I was stuck at work or at home doing nothing. Although I am extremely happy for all it became hard to not feel left out. Not to mention, every guy that has come and gone in the last few years of my life have had something I wrote down on my list. One is a pastor. One is independent. One has family values. Another, a great love for kids. All were wrong.
I've recently began to ask God to give me a vision of what HE wants for me. No, it is not the greatest revelation, but to me it has been the hardest thing to do. I'm a planner. I cannot, for the life of me, do things day by day. I carry a planner with me so that I can visualize what the month is going to look like and I need to know what is going to happen every hour. Spontaneity= my worst enemy. I think I have mini panic attacks when I don't know whats going on. Gving up my sense of control has been an extreme process for me.
If you know me, I tend to do things the...not so traditional way. I have read and studied books on Ruth, Esther, Deborah, Abigail, Hannah, etc. I have read Proverbs 31 a million times! I have books on becoming the perfect wife. Yet, none have opened my eyes like Potiphar's wife, Delilah, Jezebel, Vashti, Sapphira, and the Samaritan woman.
All these woman were jacked up. They were driven by desire, greed, power, control. Who knows what they all went through to become so cold, so angry, so greedy. I refuse to become any of them. I never want to become so driven by desire that I would be willing to frame someone, I never want to be so money hungry that I would use a man to get what I want. I refuse to be a manipulator, driven by power and control that I would become so evil and cold hearted, that God himself would never have mercy on me. I would humble myself, and never embarrass my husband. I would correct my husband, and never allow myself to support a decision that could get him and I killed. I would never want to be so caught up in trying to find a man that fits "just right", that I would not understand what Jesus himself is trying to speak to me.
I have learned to focus less on what I want, and focus more on what I am supposed to be. The greatest man could be standing right in front of me and even if I could check off everything on my list, it would mean nothing if I don't become the woman who has everything he wants on his. God has showed me who I need to become, and although the path to get to where I need to be seems never ending, I remind myself that everything I do is for my future, and although I don't see the "benefits" now, God is just preparing me more along the way. He isn't preparing me so the I can receive my husband, but he is preparing me so that I can give EVERYTHING I become to a man who I will complete, compliment, and even benefit.
I had been taught that I am to sit and look pretty, pray and fast till I have no more strength, and to learn how to "wait".
I am NOT waiting. HE is. I am simply preparing myself. And when I am all set and done then God will be able to give one of his most precious jewels (me!!) to a man who will be blessed to have found me.
He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD. -
Proverbs 18:22
I've recently began to ask God to give me a vision of what HE wants for me. No, it is not the greatest revelation, but to me it has been the hardest thing to do. I'm a planner. I cannot, for the life of me, do things day by day. I carry a planner with me so that I can visualize what the month is going to look like and I need to know what is going to happen every hour. Spontaneity= my worst enemy. I think I have mini panic attacks when I don't know whats going on. Gving up my sense of control has been an extreme process for me.
If you know me, I tend to do things the...not so traditional way. I have read and studied books on Ruth, Esther, Deborah, Abigail, Hannah, etc. I have read Proverbs 31 a million times! I have books on becoming the perfect wife. Yet, none have opened my eyes like Potiphar's wife, Delilah, Jezebel, Vashti, Sapphira, and the Samaritan woman.
All these woman were jacked up. They were driven by desire, greed, power, control. Who knows what they all went through to become so cold, so angry, so greedy. I refuse to become any of them. I never want to become so driven by desire that I would be willing to frame someone, I never want to be so money hungry that I would use a man to get what I want. I refuse to be a manipulator, driven by power and control that I would become so evil and cold hearted, that God himself would never have mercy on me. I would humble myself, and never embarrass my husband. I would correct my husband, and never allow myself to support a decision that could get him and I killed. I would never want to be so caught up in trying to find a man that fits "just right", that I would not understand what Jesus himself is trying to speak to me.
I have learned to focus less on what I want, and focus more on what I am supposed to be. The greatest man could be standing right in front of me and even if I could check off everything on my list, it would mean nothing if I don't become the woman who has everything he wants on his. God has showed me who I need to become, and although the path to get to where I need to be seems never ending, I remind myself that everything I do is for my future, and although I don't see the "benefits" now, God is just preparing me more along the way. He isn't preparing me so the I can receive my husband, but he is preparing me so that I can give EVERYTHING I become to a man who I will complete, compliment, and even benefit.
I had been taught that I am to sit and look pretty, pray and fast till I have no more strength, and to learn how to "wait".
I am NOT waiting. HE is. I am simply preparing myself. And when I am all set and done then God will be able to give one of his most precious jewels (me!!) to a man who will be blessed to have found me.
He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD. -
Proverbs 18:22
Sunday, November 20, 2011
No one to impress
I had a conversation with a good friend today about where God has taken us out of and where life is now taking us. In the middle of that conversation I realized: I have no one to impress.
I had spent a good portion of my life going through the motions and always making sure I fit the standards of other people. I had to pray the right way, dress the part, talk the part, even my worship had to "fit the mold". Even with that mentality, I was never good enough. I never made the cut. God was still "working" on me. Someone was always better me. If I protested, it was because I was jealous.
Or so I was told.
I came home today and realized that the majority of my happiness, the glow, the reason I smile now is because I realize the woman I am, the one I have ALWAYS had the potential to be. You see, with others I never made the cut. I couldn’t change their mind no matter how high I jumped or what mountains I moved. This year I saw how strong I am, how extravagant my worship is, how powerful my words are, how I don't only make the cut but am worthy of being born for such a time as this, that God would create me with a purpose for my generation. I realized that when life stopped being about people pleasing and how it started being about making sure I was in the will God, I became the happiest I have ever been.
I have no regrets. I have no bitterness. Through all that unnecessary people pleasing, God had a purpose. My heart bursts with joy at the thought of all that I can become now, and I have my past to thank for that. I know who NOT to become.
There is no one to impress now, and that in itself has impressed more people than ever.
I had spent a good portion of my life going through the motions and always making sure I fit the standards of other people. I had to pray the right way, dress the part, talk the part, even my worship had to "fit the mold". Even with that mentality, I was never good enough. I never made the cut. God was still "working" on me. Someone was always better me. If I protested, it was because I was jealous.
Or so I was told.
I came home today and realized that the majority of my happiness, the glow, the reason I smile now is because I realize the woman I am, the one I have ALWAYS had the potential to be. You see, with others I never made the cut. I couldn’t change their mind no matter how high I jumped or what mountains I moved. This year I saw how strong I am, how extravagant my worship is, how powerful my words are, how I don't only make the cut but am worthy of being born for such a time as this, that God would create me with a purpose for my generation. I realized that when life stopped being about people pleasing and how it started being about making sure I was in the will God, I became the happiest I have ever been.
I have no regrets. I have no bitterness. Through all that unnecessary people pleasing, God had a purpose. My heart bursts with joy at the thought of all that I can become now, and I have my past to thank for that. I know who NOT to become.
There is no one to impress now, and that in itself has impressed more people than ever.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
My Furnace
In the book of Daniel, chapter 3, you will find a story about 3 young men by the names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their king had created an image of gold, a new "god" that everyone had to bow down to and worship. They of course, being god-fearing men, disobeyed and refused to worship the golden image. The king become infuriated, and ordered for them be bound and thrown into a furnance (that was also heated 7 times more than usual) and figured that they would be done with. He looked into the furnace and saw that they were still alive and there seemed to be another man in there with them, a man who was like a son of God. The king ordered the men out of the furnace and saw that nothing on them was burned. Not even a hair.
Thats where people become amazed by the story.
I recently read this story again in the bible, and something caught my eye this time that I never paid attention to. In The Message version, the bible says that they were bound hand and foot, giving them no ability to move around so that they did not try to escape. However, in verse 25 it tells us that they were walking around freely.
Let me stop there. The thing that most stood out to me this time, and that really impacted me was that they were not bound anymore! The fire burned only one thing on them: what bound them. The fire that was meant to kill them actually freed them! I cannot even begin to tell you how much this little bit of revelation has changed the way I see this whole year now. My furnace, my trials, my hardships, and my tests weren't meant for anything else other than to free me! I didn't quite understand everything that happened this year, the way that it happened. The furnace people threw me in was meant to kill me, and I'm sure that they figured I was dead. But...
look at me. I am free, and the son of God is with me.
:)
Thats where people become amazed by the story.
I recently read this story again in the bible, and something caught my eye this time that I never paid attention to. In The Message version, the bible says that they were bound hand and foot, giving them no ability to move around so that they did not try to escape. However, in verse 25 it tells us that they were walking around freely.
Let me stop there. The thing that most stood out to me this time, and that really impacted me was that they were not bound anymore! The fire burned only one thing on them: what bound them. The fire that was meant to kill them actually freed them! I cannot even begin to tell you how much this little bit of revelation has changed the way I see this whole year now. My furnace, my trials, my hardships, and my tests weren't meant for anything else other than to free me! I didn't quite understand everything that happened this year, the way that it happened. The furnace people threw me in was meant to kill me, and I'm sure that they figured I was dead. But...
look at me. I am free, and the son of God is with me.
:)
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