The Final Count

Had a lot of people quit for many reason, but this is the fantastic 15.

Wanting to make the difference.

Do you ever wonder if you are making a difference in the world you live in, the people you see, the situations you are in? I do. We are on this earth for a reason...to be lights in a dark dying place. Christ came and died, defeated death, just so that we could regain our perfect relationship with him, so that we can live with him in eternity! How awesome of a thought is that? He died to give us life. He endured more pain than any of us could imagine just for us. That thought brings a smile to my face! When Christ left the earth he left us with the holy spirit and the great commission, to go and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to observe all that he has commanded us. "Behold I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt 28:19-20) We are to make disciples....How the heck do we do that? I've been thinking a lot about it lately. How do you share the incredible gift we have been given without scaring people off? So many people want nothing to do with christianity. How do we do it?

I still dont have the winning combination, but I do know that everyone wants to be loved. I dont know how many times i have written it. But it is so true. I was talking to a friend tonight about this. How do we care about people even when we disagree with them? From personal experience, most people dont want to be told they are wrong (sometimes it is because they know they are wrong, and other times it is because they dont think they are wrong at all...we are all like that!) but they all want someone to sit and listen...maybe not even say anything at all...just listen and love them. Why is this such a hard thing for us to do? Why do we always have to assert our own opinion? Why can we not just let someone be how they are...and accept them as they are...good and the bad? That is what Christ has done for each of us. NO one is perfect...if we were there would be no need for a savior...we all have our faults, but does God disown us because of them? NO instead he died for us. Laid down his life (his perfect life for our imperfect one). We have been given love that is unfathomable, so that we can turn and give it to someone else who needs it more than we do! From experience, you share more about who you are through what you do, than from what you say. You can say you believe in God all you want..but people will never let you in until they see the difference...see that you are gunna stick with them NO MATTER WHAT, through whatever they are going though. We are here to live life with people, to come along side of them and just be there.

So how do we make the difference? I think it is loving the unlovable through whatever they are going through. Is this hard? OH yeah! Is it painful? My heart breaks for what breaks theirs. Do you ever want to quit on em and tell em to get outta your life? Fo SHo! But in the end is the race worth running and fighting for? YES! we might never get to see the end result...may never get to get the glimpse of the kingdom with them, but we know that we have fight the good fight and run the good race with them. The journey is long and hard, but we will be rewarded in heaven! Im still trying to figure this out...but this is what I have come up with so far...

What man desires the most.

Over the last semester it has become more apparent to me that everyone, no matter who they are: athlete, daughter, husband, coach, professor, friend, brother, just want to be loved. Everything inside us yearns to be loved. We want to know that each of us is desirable to someone else. We want to be cherished. We want to have people like us, more importantly LOVE us. Every girl dreams about her prince, who she hopes one day will be everything she imagined and more, to romance her in the most beautiful romance. Every man wants a woman to find his attractive and lovable. It its ingrained into our souls. Why?

I believe this is because we have a creator who made us in his image. God is love, and if this is so, love is his character. Made in his image we inherit this characteristic from the greatest lover in history...we are designed to love. WE are made to love others and want to be loved in return. Then sin entered the world along with hate, hurt, discomfort, insecurity, neediness, loneliness. And man fell. He began to kill his brother, lie to his mother, curse God. Love seemed impossible, but there was a promise made that was foretold many years before it came true about a savior who would conquer death and bring love to a broken world. Jesus came as the perfect example of love. He loved the unlovable, showing us that EVERYONE is worthy of love: The homeless, the liars, the cheaters, the fatherless, the unemployed, the broken hearted, the one plagued by the past, ones who are tormented in their sleep, the lonely...EVERYONE is worth being loved. He showed us that. Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres...Love never fails. This is what jesus tells us love is.

For many this definition seems so far away that they dont even know how to achieve it. HOW? recently a friend reminded me that you become like the people you hang out with. If you hang out with people who are constantly causing you to stumble, sooner or later you will be like them. But if you hang out with your best friends who bring you up and encourage you in the truth, you will be like them and see the difference. Similarly, if you dwell on God's words, slowly you will begin to become more like Christ. WE will begin to imitate how he lived, instead of the people who look cool, but in the end are not feeding our soul good food. I realize that I need and want to be more like my heavenly father. I want to love like him. I have been given so much, and to those whom much is given, much is required. I know what it is like to be loved and to be held by christ, and it is his command to give it away to other. But we cant give it away until we have learned to let ourselves be loved by him. If you cant receive his love, how in the world will you be able to give it away?

This is a challenge for all of us out there.... Let's learn to love how our father loved us. Let's learn to be patient with those who we feel are unlovable. Let's serve those who are in need the most. Christ died the most painful death to show us what love is...we can give back the love to those who are in desperate need of it.

All truth is RELATIVE??

(Man, see some folks say, "All truth is relative, it just depends on what you believe." You know, "hey man, ain't no way to know for sure who God is or what's really true." But that means you believe your own statement; that there's no way to know what's really true. You're saying that that statement is true. You're killing yourself. If what's true for you is true for you and what's true for me is true for me, what if my truth says your's is a lie? Is it still true? Come on man!)

These lyrics have been on my mind a lot lately. I've been doin alot of thinking...trying to make more sense out of the world I live in. A world where talking about Christ is...well...a difficult thing to talk about. One argument I have come up against is, "It all relative. Everyone believes something different. Whatever works for you." BUt is this statement really true? It is logical? If someone says there isnt any way to know if God exists...is that a relative statement? or is it an absolute statement followed by a relative statement? If you say there is no way to know...that is an absolute. Doesnt this argument seem faulty? I don't know if I am making any sense of this...but I have been thinking about it a lot...

We live in a world of absolutes. You cheat, you are punished. You steal, you pay for it. You run, you get stronger. You take care of your body, you are healthy. These are If-Then statements. We all have a built in moral compass. When we are wronged we want justice. So why is it when it comes to religion/faith that people get all antsy and begin to say whatever works for you???