Letting Go

New Years resolutions, everyone has them. And 90% of those who don't complain about the one's who do and post their thoughts on Facebook. Every year, even I try to evaluate myself in an attempt to figure out what things I can  become more effective in. This year, is a lot different.

We take on these New Year resolutions in an attempt to fix ourselves. While they are needed most of the time (because there are always ways that we can better ourselves), what drives this trouble-shooting of ourselves? Is it our insecurities? Could it be about weight perhaps?

 "I'm going to exercise and eat healthier!"

Is it because your not maintaining your physique the way God intended you to, or is it because your identity is in that? Therefore you make a covenant(pact) with yourself saying that you will do whatever it takes to maintain your identity. What about being morally sound?

"I am going to start this year off fresh. No cursing or partying. New Year, new me!"

Is that because God Makes All Things New? Or is it because you're tired of the life you have been living for so long, and you long to find satisfaction but it has been in everything that doesn't last longer than a few months. 

These are only two examples out of the millions we will and have seen on Twitter. Every year, it seems like the same thing. Same album, different song. We suck, and WE want to fix it, but somehow, it seems that we end up in the same place. 

I have some good news! Throw a party! Pop bottles(Sparkling Cider, of course if your like me and under 21)! You do not have to add on one more item to your checklist for 2013! Instead, Let it Go.

First of, not letting go of things, physically, and emotionally, are simply a self-control issues. Self-control issues are simply trust issues. They are trust issues because, when we think about letting go of the rope, we do not truly trust the One who will break our fall, which is in this case is Jesus. Therefore, we hang on to our problems, frustrations, hardships, and etc. hoping that one day, the right resolution or fix will be the end all of our tribulations.

We were born, broken. And unless a doctor that specializes in soul surgery can fix us, we are left hopeless for eternity. And never in my life have I heard of somebody performing soul surgery on themselves. Let's face it, if loving Jesus more is not the center of our resolutions, our resolutions are just make up, on our dying spirits. A dying person does not need make up folks! GET THEM SOME HYDRATION! Luckily, Jesus tells us who He is and what He has come to do. To offer us eternal life! Soul Surgery! You thirsty?

 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

John 4:13-15

And one may ask, "Well, hold on for one second. I can't only drink water. I need to eat to live too!"

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

John 6:35

So He is enough, even figuratively! Contrary to secular belief, Jesus + Nothing= Everything, is in fact, a true statement. When you have nothing but Him, He is enough. He doesn't need you to add things such as resolutions or goals to make the equation sweeter than it is. It's simple enough for those who even hate math! Hallelujah! 

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

So, let go. Let go of the situations that have slipped away from your worldly grasp to where you have forgotten who ultimately is in control. Let go of the legalistic checklist that has made you forget who exactly you were doing these things for. Let go of the burden of finding love in hopeless places, and remember who most importantly and undeniably loved you first. Jesus tells us, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:26), and Peter exhorts us to give all our burdens to Christ, who loves us (1 Peter 5:7) because Peter, Jesus, GOD understands that there is nothing we can do that can fix us!

Therefore He sent Jesus Christ and, He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

This is the best New Years resolution ever! The best part about it, you didn't do anything!

THE BEST NEWS EVER!

 Then Jesus told his disciples,“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Matthew 16:24

The text above does not say, drop a few pounds and follow me. Or get your act together, and follow me. Not even go to church every Sunday, and follow me. As human beings we hold on to lies and items that are here one day, and gone the next. It seems as if what is most important to us is what's not going to be here for very long. Jesus is here to stay.

So, this New Years, drop the resolutions. Take up your cross. Follow Him. Do you believe?

If so, then

Let Go.

Spoiled Rotten

Every year around this time I get real irritated. I look around and see that everyone is getting everything they have ever wanted and more; and what do I have? In the words of the wise Si from Duck Dynasty, I ain't got  jack.

Spoiled rotten. All I could say to myself these past years is "they don't deserve that." 16 year old girls driving around in 2013 Cameros and junior high kids receiving Ipads, while they still beg for more. Meanwhile I'm left here, literally without a car to drive, a phone to call, or money to spend. This happens every year and it seems to never fail. I used to wish that I lived the life that those families and kids live; a full family, looking like they had it all together. Some would call it The Good Life.

I had it all wrong.

I used to call those kids spoiled, those parents rich, and that family loved. I used to. But there is so much more to people than these temporary items, that will one day fade away. How do we establish worth in things that will one day fade away? We can't. Though I do not receive as much as others do around Christmas time, I thank God for the reason for the season; Himself.

If your Christian, you may have heard this phrase: Jesus + Nothing= Everything. 

This completely true, because God sent him, the hope for world, on one starry night over 2000 years ago, to be the only way for us to establish a relationship with God.

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All have sinned. Romans 3:23

Who am I and who are you to think that we deserve anything? We all have sinned. It does not matter how many times, or how "big" or "small" the sin is, we all have done it. We are all disqualified to get to heaven, Romans 6:23. We are all undeserving of the infinite love from our creator.

But He gave it to us anyways.

I don't remember God, Jesus, David, Paul, Peter or anyone ever in the bible telling us that it's all about how much we have in this life. I thought I had to have things to really have the Good Life. Little did I know that God offered it to me already. In Philippians 3:8, Paul even says that he counts everything as loss or rubbish compared to the greatest gift that God has offered us all: eternal life. 

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Spoiled in this context means receiving things when you don't deserve it, and despite the way you act towards the giver, they still  offer you more. Think about celebrities, or that one rich kid from your high school (come on, we all had them). I never had much, so I never thought that I was spoiled...until I heard the good news. 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21 

Nothing that I've said or done could ever deserve this gift. 

I used to want what those kids and families had, until I found out that without Jesus, it's nothing. I used to be mad about my situation until I realized that with Jesus, I have everything. I deserved nothing. He gave me everything.

America, men, women, children, rich, poor, Mitchell, Christmas was never about Apple products we have laying under our trees, or how many gift cards to our favorite places to shop we receive. It is solely about Jesus. It's funny, because we focus on the gifts that we think we deserve and not the one's that we know we don't. We eye in on the items that have little to no value or importance instead of the perfect, everlasting  gift that God has given us. We constantly exchange the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

And while we continue to exchange perfection for imperfection, God still offers it to us, as if we have earned it. In the popular worship song, "The Stand," the lyrics to the chorus says, in reaction to God giving us this gift of eternal life, "What can I say? What can I do? But offer this heart, O God, completely to you."

I could not exactly find a scripture that matched with these lyrics perfectly, but every follower of Jesus Christ knows that there is nothing you can say or do the will be worthy of His sufficient grace. However, the most you can do, is offer your heart, you life, completely to Him (because He deserves it), just as He loved us perfectly and gave His son for us, while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).

How will we respond to this gift? 

I used to wish that I lived the life that those families and kids live; a full family, looking like they had it all together. I don't anymore. I do not need to worry about anything anymore. I am living The Good Life...

Caught in His grace.

I'm Spoiled too.

Fight of Your Life

By grace you have been saved, through faith.

A lot of us get comfortable in this war of life. Picture being in a war, like Afghanistan or Iraq, you don't have any time to get comfy.

 "our battle is not against flesh and blood but the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this.dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly wrelms." Ephesians 6:12

& The next verse tells us to put on the "full armor of God." Or in my translation, He is telling us to get prepared to MAKE WAR!

So right here Paul is telling us that it's not a war against physically seen things like the wars we see on the news and the movies. We are in spiritual warfare. Surely you can lose your life in a civil or world war, but when possession of your soul is at stake, you can lose eternity with a God that desires all of you.

Therefore, spiritual warfare is not a game, & make war is not a joke! Its a BIG deal!

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1 Timothy 6:12
"Fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life"

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FACT: We fight for things and will continue to fight for the rest of our lives.
Against lust & sexual purity, idolatry, lying, pride, selfishness, etc, fill in the blank but while you fight remember this

Faith in God and the fight for holiness is the same thing.

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There are three main false claims that we need to destroy before we understand the severity of sin.

I) At times we fight as if faith gets you to heaven and holiness gets you rewards. 
So you pick and choose when and how you fight because you already have heaven.

II) At times we fight as if we are justified by faith and sanctified by works. But this is not sanctification, fighting for your faith is.  

1 Thessalonians 5:23

 the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Sanctify comes from the same Greek word as holiness, which is "hagios" meaning separation. Being sanctified is the separation from sin. So how can you win a war without fighting?

III) At times we fight as if you start the Christian life in the spirit and forgiveness and are allowed to continue living in the efforts of the flesh.

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Paul says in Romans 6:1-2, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

This is our war cry, this is our response, this is our action.
The battle of obedience is necessecary for salvation because it.is the fight of faith. The battle against (sin) is neccessary for salvation because it truly is the battle of unbelief. -John Piper

It doesnt matter how much you know either! Theologans can go straight to hell! So if we say make war but dont actually make war. Its what we do that defines us.

So i wanted to relay this tough message God has taught me to you: The faith that delivers us from Hell is the same one that delivers us from these sins, big and small.

Romans 6:1-14
     What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
    For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
    Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
   
How you wage war with sin is a big deal. It can tell a lot about you. It can tell if your serious about your faith or not. It can tell if you.are comfy where you are or not. It can tell if you treasure eternity with God ornot.

So what is this war against sin? Unbelief.
The war is on and we are constantly battling the very true fact that God is real and He is victorious by way of His son Jesus christ. We are battling belief in that fact that God is truly enough. So we resort to alternatives.

The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.
Proverbs 21:31

You are fighting for your faith. So how will you fight?

1 Timothy 6:12
"Fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life

Deeper Tragedy

I'm sure that all of us have heard about the tragedy in Newtown, CT. If you did not hear our President's encouraging speech, here it is for you.

So, all politics aside.

There is something worse that is manifesting from these events that happen day to day. From massacres to bomb threats, it is everywhere. And while these are absolutely horrible experiences that you would not even wish on your worst enemy, we have to think, why does it take so much for us to turn to God?

So many tragic and life-changing events have happened to the world and more personally, right here in Lubbock, lately that I have noticed more and more people gather to pray for the people affected by these circumstances. While I totally agree with this and participate in these prayer gatherings, these obviously should not  be the only times we lean on God.

True Facts:

• God is all you need (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
• God completes us ( Colossians 2:10)
• God is enough (Psalm 73:25-26)

As humans we tend to miss these when things are going right or our way. We feel self-sufficient, and we are comfortable with how our lives are going at the time. But, when something tragic like 9-11 or Hurricane Katrina happens, we suddenly realize that we have NO control over what happens in this life, well at least for that brief moment.

"9-11, we can hold hands, 9-12, I don't know man" -Swoope, Hip-Hop Artist

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Let's take it back

Think about sin, and how it came into the picture. Adam and Eve chilled with God, therefore they had everything that they could ever dream of. However, this was not enough for them, so they wanted more, just like you and I. They looked for satisfaction, and instead of finding something better than what they already had (which they couldn't), they found a lie. They sinned.

     because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
(Romans 1:25 ESV)

So we can see that this has even happened since the creation of time. God allowing tragedy for His glory. If it was not for the sin created at the beginning of the ages, there would be no need for the romance we have with our Savior Jesus Christ. If we were sinless, there would be no need for a Savior.

-->A life without Jesus??? 

Because of that beautiful tragedy, God has brought His people back to Him, through His awesome, perfect plan. This is something that we like to call, Redemption.

 Redemption is the act of buying something back, or paying a price to return something to your possession. In this case, God's ultimate plan of bringing His children back to Him. Which will happen.

Some people ask, "if God loves us so much, why would He allow us to suffer like this?"

...and those people forget that we are already victorious in the name of Jesus.

    

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
(Romans 8:37 ESV)

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God's plan is still rolling, and it's hard to believe at times; but this tragedy is much deeper than a cynical gunman. In Ephesians 6:10-18 Paul clearly states that "our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, and the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly wrelms."

I can make this conclusion from that text: our battle is not against sinners, but sin.
And our problem is not more horror, but less God.

In my addictions class this past semester, we learned that to fight a disease, you don't treat the symptoms, you treat the defect. The same goes with sin, we need to treat the sin, and not adjust ourselves to the situations that happen because of it.

SO this leaves us with a few questions..

How is all of this for His glory?

And just as important...

How do we "treat sin"? 

I can answer the first easily. We fight it.

-->To be continued  

Faith Shake

Remember my last blog post about having a rough year?

Well it continues...

Last Monday, December 3, 2012, I got into a huge car wreck, totaling my little Cobalt named Coco. :(

Fun Facts about my car problems:

• Coco was my 3rd car in a year.
• It was my sister's car.
• I got her when my first and second car broke down.
• When my second car broke down, that day, my dad received a letter from Chevy about parts on the Cobalt that needed to be fixed. They were recall letters so we were able to get them fixed immediately for free.
• Around this same time last year, my first car broke down, and it was a really huge test of my faith in the Lord.

Praise God, I'm perfectly fine. No scratches or anything. I don't want to really explain the story (no, I was not drunk driving) or anything like that, but I can say that God is still good. He is still great. He is still victorious. And He is just as awesome as He was the day before my wreck as He is today. My friends kept telling me that it was okay to cry and it is okay to be sad about it, and I definitely understand that. I only had liability insurance, so it didn't cover me running into a pole. They were right, I had a right to be upset, pissed, and sad. The reality is that I am a 19 year old sophomore in college who almost has to pay for everything by himself. I will probably not have a vehicle for a while.

But I will live. I will not cry or be depressed. I will not stop praising Him. God gave me this gift, and He can take it away. Him allowing me to get into a bad car wreck does not mean that He loves me any less. His love never changes.

2 Timothy 2:13
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

What will I do then? How will I act? If we, as followers of Jesus Christ, are who who claim to be, we have to have an unshakable faith.

When Paul writes about the qualifications for deacons in 1 Timothy, he says:

     They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

1 Timothy 3:9

YES! Paul nails it. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of hope, the evidence of things not seen. Other versions of the bible say conviction of things not seen. Therefore, faith is such a huge mystery, but Paul tells us to hold onto it with a clear conscience! He is telling all of us to hold onto what is everlasting (Jesus Christ). He is telling us to place our hope in our eternal savior, and not our temporary loans, such as my car.

I'm not perfect, but I can fully agree with Paul and James when they tell us a great way that we can practice our faith is the way that we handle tragic situations. Will you forget that Perfection that loves you more than you can imagine is in control? Or will you hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, because he who promised is faithful?
(Hebrews 10:23 ESV)

Don't let your faith shake. Remember, the unshakable is with you. Psalm 46:10