Repost this to save a life

Posting this picture could save a life

Reposting this picture will prove how Christian you are.

Clicking here will affirm your patriotism.

Will it? Will it really?

This is my response to a “debate” that started after I posted a picture of a 12 week old baby nestled in a person's hand, showing how life does start that early. Life. It's one of the things I feel passionately about and took 2 seconds to share it.

I am for life. I am also for the life of women and girls who have had horrible things done to them, apart from bad decisions they made or alcohol helped them make. I am for the life of people who made the mistake to end a baby's life. I believe that forgiveness can come, even then. Murder is not the unforgivable sin.

The people I'm having a lot more time forgiving are the Christians who aren't helping the people that need help. The Christians who are spending more time reposting inspirational quotes than welcoming a hurt 15 year old kid into their home because they don't want “someone like that.”

I'm also quite disgusted with this need to be right and the unfair treatment of Christians toward one another because of fingers shoved firmly into ears.

Who is right and wrong doesn't make any stinking difference when it comes to a person believing their life is over, when everything can be lost, and the people that should be helping and loving are spending too much time reveling in how much better they feel because that specific sin didn't bite them in the butt when they were 15.

The boy and girl have equal responsibility. The Church has got the ultimate responsibility to live out Christs command to love one another as yourself.

Get off of your computers and your little Christian bubble and do something.

If you call yourself pro life, then find a way to get involved and practically help.

It may not help to post pictures. It may further alienate someone that doesn't know what to do, and carry more fear of persecution and hate.

What do you think?

An Unamerican Gospel Part 2

If you missed part one- here it is

4.An “I deserve this” mentality

I deserve happiness at anyone's expense. I deserve to have my dreams come true. I deserve hot showers and enough food to throw away. I deserve the latest mobile phone and nice clothes. I deserve perfect health and to be pain free. I deserve 4 week vacations and nice cars. I deserve a quiet life with a family and growing old with grand-kids in a large comfortable house.

What exactly does God owe us? What did we ever do to make the weights tip so far in our direction?

They gave our master a crown of thorns. Why do we hope for a crown of roses?

Martin Luther

5.A “not my fault”, “sucks to be you” mentality

Remember your brothers in chains as though you were tied up with them. Whatever you didn't do to the least of them, you didn't do to me. To pretend that world out there is a fairy tale place. To shut out the sound of it. To not develop any sense of caring because it would distract from the enjoyment of all those things that you have and deserve to be enjoying.

6.A victims disposition

Pride for our struggles, for our going without, for how much we've been hurt and how wrong everyone around us has been. For our sacrifices not being recognized. How misunderstanding and horrible they have been. How it's their fault that we aren't doing well, why we aren't going to continue on.

We won't move on and the poison we are drinking will eventually kill them! A distinct decision must be made to hold people accountable for what's been done, because our sense of justice holds us in this corner of victim-hood. It becomes our identity and our saftey net for why we don't do anything else.

Leave your gift at the alter. Be reconciled to your brother. If you don't forgive, neither will you be forgiven.

To continually live as the victim takes pride. It takes a choice to make your problems and what happened to be the forefront of every decision you make. It makes you more important than what the Lord wants to do and it stunts every aspect of life. Fear makes itself at home in your heart. The victim fades out of existence after having spent years barely leaving any tracks that they ever were there.

There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have enough - a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice- which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.

J.C. Ryle

So, are you are with me, and are ready to get on with it and rock the world for Jesus?

An Unamerican Gospel- Part 1

Jesus was not American. Jesus doesn't stand for all the ideals that are central to any of our cultures, actually. We have to get out of the idea of making our God fit into the image of a self made god. We have to stop layering him into our personal ideals of what is good and necessary and right. We have to stop thinking we can make Him and we have to start letting Him make us. I'm going to go through some of the points I have come across about how Jesus crashes down the walls our culture is built around and works so hard to defend. 

1.A simplified sense of justice

We are conditioned to expect revenge. To think that justice means revenge, means the bad guy gets whats coming to him in the climax of the movie. (Who gets Humperdink?!)

Jesus didn't open his mouth to defend his innocence. 

Isaiah 53:7

He was oppressed and afflicted,

    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,    so he did not open his mouth.

1 Peter 3:8

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another- love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing you were called to this, that you may inherit of a blessing.

2.A pharisitical disposition

Pride for our spirituality. Pride for the symbols we have to prove our exclusive brand of religion that parades how well we serve God. A seperatist, elitist mentality. A slash on a tally counting the number of ways that the filthy non-Christian world does not touch our bubble of perfection.

A carefully crafted mask put on Sunday morning to hide the stains of sin from the week before.

...but the tax collector stood a ways off, beating his chest saying, “Oh God! Have mercy on me, a sinner!” Which of these men went back justified? (Luke 18:10-14)

3`.Insistantly holding onto fabrications

“For me, God is...”

No He isn't. For you, god is. Lower case “g” god. For you, god is accepting of everything. For you, god just wants you to be happy and whatever path that makes you feel good must be that. God is real and his ways don't include doing whatever it takes to make you happy. That is not why you were created. A search for happiness is a bland diversion from true meaning and is designed so that you will never achieve it. Because true happiness is a fleeting, wispy dream that includes momentary pleasure and a constant strain to shut out the noises of all unpleasantness and reality outside the door. True joy is knowing the Lord loves you and created you for a purpose. True joy can only start once the idol taking the place of faith in your heart crashes down.

"The church for too long has followed Casper, the friendly ghost instead of seeking the fire of the Holy Spirit. We have turned limp at the thought of our own cross; we faint when we think of suffering or sacrifice. Beloved, it is time to embrace the fire of God's Presence. It is the fire that purifies our sacrifice. " -Francis Frangipane

Disillusioned Christians

dis·il·lu·sion

  [dis-i-loo-zhuhn] 

verb (used with object)

1.

to free from or deprive of illusion, belief, idealism, etc.;disenchant.

 

Chris·tian

 [kris-chuhn]

noun

7.

a person who believes in Jesus Christ; adherent of Christianity.

8.

a person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Christ: He died like a true Christian.

(Thank you, dictionary.com)

1 John 3:18-20
My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. (emphasis added)

That verse jumped out to me after spending time thinking about "sanctifying the Lord in our hearts" (1 Peter 3:15a

So let us now look at our hearts. I'm speaking especially to you disillusioned, disappointed, cold and lonely ones, because you are on my heart. I believe reading this will be a divine appointment for someone.

The truth is, people let you down. They weren't what you thought they would be. You may have even let yourself down. You may have not held up to your own idea of holiness and special-ness that a true Christian should be.
You may have messed up big time. Like, hide your face in a hole for a few years, witness protection program candidate wannabe messed up. You are still a believer, but you don't feel worthy to call yourself a Christian, or you are too angry to want to be counted among the people you thought of as Christians.

That's not your burden to carry.


The enemy would have you stuck with the illusion of what you thought you were supposed to be, of what the Lord was supposed to be. He would drown you in bitterness and hatred at all the things that didn't turn out the way you wanted them to. He would isolate you from all sound advice and would deny you peace.

The truth is, unforgivness is a losing battle.

Hebrews 3:7-8
Therefore as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice; Do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness.


 When Jesus is sanctified in our hearts, he is manifested in our lives. This verse in James is practically showing how our hearts can be rendered and open and humble in front of His throne.
The God you know is real, who died on the cross to wipe away the stain of all the sin's that ever were committed and ever will be committed is here, now, knocking at the door of your heart.

Assure your heart before the Lord, and let him teach you how to love again. In deed and in truth.

And know you are loved.

The Pleasure of Impossibility

What a relief to say, "This is utterly impossible."

What a wonderful thing to say, and know, and be full of the knowledge that "I can't do this."

I love my job. I love doing impossible things. I love finding out all the things that I can actually do. I love talking to people and surprising them that anyone would be willing to do what I do.

I love believing that through the Lord, impossible things happen. I love being able to read and journal during French sermons because it's a great time to be able to do that!

I came across a lot of amazing verses the other day, and I want to highlight one half of one of them. 1 Peter 3:15a
..Sanctify the Lord in your heart.

I wrote into my diary- "What does that mean?"

I looked it up and this is just a snippet of a very long thing written by John Gill.

"..the Lord God is sanctified by his people externally, when they regard his commands, attend his ordinances, and call upon his name, and praise him; but here an internal sanctification of him, a sanctification of him in their hearts, is intended..."

Context is always important. I definitely don't want to take anything out of context, because finding someone who isolates verses can be quite dangerous. This is from a letter. And, pretty much 87% (made up statitstic- See, I am being honest!) of the new testament is telling people to Stand in the truth of what they have learned. To acknowledge the shortness of the our time here on this planet and to live with intensity and purpose in the now. Maybe it's higher than 87 %. The other chunks in the pie would be greetings, and uh....other stuff. It is the passion of Paul and Peter and John's (to name a few) heart's to impart knowledge, to remind us to love one another, just as Christ loved us. (I use the present tense because these men obviously still live, as they are a part of the great cloud of witnesses.)

To sanctify the Lord in our hearts seems to be a very simple, and at the same time, complex way to remember that. The eyes of our hearts, the thoughts no one see's, the deep part of us, connected to the forever and perfection that God is, well, hallowing and revering that. Counting our actions and attitudes as having weight and importance that lasts further than we do because we are representing His light and truth in our sphere's of influence. I intend to talk more about this theme, because it keeps jumping out at me, through the pages of my Bible. 

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Look at the context of what you consider "impossible" in your life. Look at your faith. And please read those letters. Read them backwards and forwards so no one can ever quote something out of context. to you. Don't take my word for anything. Don't take anyone's word. Find it for yourself. Be built up and grow in that word so you can believe the Lord for the impossible. 

Be blessed in a mighty way, my brothers and sisters around the world!

Covenant Players, the school experiance

I have run into many classrooms lately, shouting "Good Morning!" or "Good afternoon!" I have startled some, I have made some laugh, I have posed questions to make them think, and I have affirmed them about their thoughts, opinions, and English capacities.

I have done a lot of shushing. I have feet that hurt because my only professional shoes have heels. I'm waiting for the minor miracle of some comfortable shoes to come along.

I am stretched and sore, but I am satisfied. I really do love my job. One thing that is hard is that we do have to be careful about what we say, in schools. When students ask me, "Why do you do this?", I would so love to say that it is because I know there is more to life than money and things. Because the Lord called me, and sent me to you to tell you that you are important, you matter. Because I love to hear you laugh and to encourage you. Because the chocolate here in Europe is so much better than the chocolate in America. I usually end up saying a mixture of the "You are important and ......mmmmm chocolate."

There is a lot of energy that is used up in a school. I can connect with them because I'm so weird and energetic and happy that they just relax and have fun. My team is amazed about the way I can get people in their late teens to do the silliest things.

We have a backstage, which can be anything. Upturned tables, plants, janitor closets, any thing. We throw sweaters on and off, we blu-tac our plays on the wall and we place our costume changes in order. We jump or slump or yawn or flounce onto the stage and and another person pops out after the word "curtain" is called to go and discuss it.

It feels good to "be good" at something. It's nice to be in Luxembourg and to be able to speak German when it's easier for the next person than English.

It's amazing to see that the Lord has put so much into me and my unit. It's a good life.