Beautiful feet

E 6:15

Keep your feet fitted with the readiness of the Gospel of PEACE

One of the most encouraging events that I have been to this freshman year of college, was going to see To Write Love on Her Arms at the Allen Theater. If you didn't know, To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. After getting on fire for God this past summer, I remembered how He brought me to Himself in the first place.

I've struggled with depression before. I've thought about suicide before. Why? I didn't think I had a purpose for this life. Nothing could fill me up. I was involved with extracurricular activities just so I could be away from home as much as possible. I have attempted to run away before. I've punched holes in walls and cried like a baby, only because I felt as if I had no purpose. NOBODY knew this, because I could cover up my sadness with a smile, jokes, a "mask". However, the longer I held it in, the closer I was to breaking down. If I didn't find out who Jesus was and missed the gospel, I could have been good as dead by now.

But I do not account my life of ANY value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24

Thank you Jesus. I felt like life was not worth it because I was missing the point. 

I thought that life was graduating high school in the top ten, going to college and getting a good job, get a fiiiiine wife and a gorgeous house, healthy kids, and for them the same. Isn't that the American Dream!? NO. The reality was that I was broke, NOT in the top ten, with a broken family, and a mind that saw things in the worst perspective. Before I was saved I was an object of wrath!

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy .

Titus 3:5

--------------what can you do----------------

There are millions, billions of people who have not heard the good news about Jesus Christ. There are millions of girls who have not heard that they are beautiful. There are millions of guys who have not heard that there is a way out of their mess. There are plenty of single mothers who want to give up. There are countless poor citizens who define worth by things that they do not have and there are more rich people who put their worth in everything that they do have. Acts 20:24 says that the purpose of our life is to spread the word about Jesus! You don't have to put $2000 down on a mission trip to India to do that!!! We are suffering right here, right now.

 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:14-15

Do you get it? Romans 10:13 says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, WILL (which means absolutely, without a doubt) will be SAVED! 

....But what if I had ended my own life, before I was saved? There is someone out there who is just like who I used to be, who needs to hear that someone, our God, loves them. There is somebody hanging by a thread that doesn't realize the ladder placed behind them!  They are at war because when you an object of wrath, that's what you do! You are at war with yourself, and you have beef with God! However, Ephesians 6:15 tells us to keep our feet equipped with the gospel of peace. And the last time I checked, peace has no war in it! So how can they even call on the peace maker if they don't even know Him? How can they know Him if they have not even heard of Him? And how can we, as Christians, build an army to change the world through Jesus, if we are not preaching to the one's who are already in the world's chokehold? 

Once they hear of hope, they can search for hope, and they will gain hope. 

The gospel changes everything. It literally and spiritually saved my life!

**A special dedication to the family of Texas Tech student Mason Vanstory, who committed suicide in Lubbock, Texas last semester and all the families who have been effected by this tragedy. 

Faith Over Fear

A couple of weeks back, I told my girlfriend of a Year and a month that we needed to break it off. The relationship was good, yet I felt like I was getting in the way of her relationship with God. John 3:16 says that "God sooooooooo loved the WORLD(us), that He gave his one and ONLY son, so that we would not perish BUT have eternal life (emphasis added). Of course I loved my girlfriend, but if I really loved her, I wouldn't hold her back from a better relationship with Jesus Christ!!

How does that compare to John 3:16? Well, I LOVED HER, first of all. Second thing is, God came down to Earth as Jesus to sacrifice himself for the very people He loved so much. I gave up my relationship with her so that she can know Him just as Jesus gave his life to know me. Sacrificial love right? And whether it is sacrificing yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, it is a BRUTAL YET BEAUTIFUL RESEMBLANCE OF YOUR FAITH!

It's scary. Suddenly the girl I wanted to marry one day became a memory. Feelings were crazy and I was unsure of everything! I asked myself questions like, "what am I doing after college?" or "what kind of girl is right for me?" and even "did I lose the only girl that was 'perfect' for me?"

 As we follow Christ we will suffer. It is necessary! In the book of James it says:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James 1:2-4

What the heck? Joy? There is NO joy whatsoever in trials! Crazy right? But, look at this!

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, Romans 5:3-4

So this is telling me that I should take joy in my sufferings, because it produces endurance; the endurance of my FAITH in Jesus Christ. Then, that endurance will produce character! Why? Because, after my faith is SO strong, I will rely that much more, ONLY on Jesus. My character will become more like his! And I will walk more by faith than by sight! Then it goes to say that character produces hope. Hope that through all of this suffering that when the angels come to take me to the promised land that I will stand face to face with the God of the universe and He shakes his head telling me, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." 

If we have been CRUCIFIED with Christ, why do we always see the brighter side of the cross? Jesus died for us and our sins and He rose giving us new lives! We are now forgiven! But don't you remember what Jesus did to even get to the cross? He carried it on his back, after getting brutally beaten nearly to death. Jesus KNEW that he would get hurt, He KNEW that he would die. 

As we walk by our faith and follow Christ's footsteps, we will have to make risky, sacrificial decisions that will hurt us. It sucks and it's not fun. Nobody said that being a Christian would be easy! GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD that He sacrificed His Son. What is the job of a Christian? To follow Jesus! His lifestyle, his love, his patterns, his EVERYTHING!

This trial will not last, and it will not get to me, only because I know that God is making a way.

For I am sure that neither DEATH nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

I broke it off, not because of my love for her, BUT my love for Jesus! Which in fact produces love for her(John 13:35). He promises me that nothing will separate me from His love! Neither DEATH or life! Death comes after suffering, which Jesus has conquered by rising in three days! So if Jesus lives withing us, why do we even FEAR these trials!? READ THIS:

There is NO fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:18-19

Romans 5:3-5 concludes with, because Gods love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

His love is there. Its all around. He suffered so much just to prove the point that He loves us. We must suffer because it is promised, and it comes through the love God has given us. As for trials, WHY FEAR? There is NO FEAR IN LOVE! God will take care of us! God has promised to shape you up through the suffering and sharpen your faith! We KNOW where we are going, and we should REJOICE in our sufferings!

There is purpose in pain. 

Faith/Fear.