Functional Saviors might sound confusing at first. We understand Functional God's kind of immediately. Functional Saviors, on the other hand, is like what? A Functional Savior is a lot like a Functional god. They both take away something and replace it with God. Personally, funtional savior is more discreate. Rather, its harder to notice than a blatant idol thats out there.
JD Greear starts this section with Adam and Eve. He says, "The first sensation Adam and Eve had after the thrill of eating the forbidden fruit was the sense of their own nakedness..........The early church fathers (guys like Gregory of Nazianzus and Athanasius) explained that prior to their sin Adam and Even had been clothed in the love and acceptance of God........So what did Adam and Eve do about that sense of nakedness?..........They made themselves "coverings of fig leaves" and hid from God. Their clothes mad them feel more acceptable..........We have all been on the same quest ever since. We try to cover the shame of our nakedness by establishing our worthiness in some way."
Don't you agree? We have been trying to cover our mistakes ever since! WE are using THINGS to make us feel worthy so that people might forget what we really are. Remember, God never forgets, and He is never in the dark. He knows everything. Yet still, as sinners, we tend to think he doesn't so we are okay living normally.
Here's some quick examples of functional saviors. "....:we're smarter; we got into a certain kind of school; we have a good job and make lots of money; we're a good parent; we're more faithful in our religion than others." These are just precious few that he names. But listen, this goes on naturally in our heads. I think deep down if everyone really looks, there is a sense of this inside them. We just feel such pride in our accomplishments we forget our helplessness. I know I'm in the guilty party. I can recount hundreds of times when I saw someone, I was jealous, and I said 'well I can do this, and they can't' I'm sure we all do that sometimes. But thats just a functional savior that takes the place of our own unworthiness.
I like the point he made here, "For most of us, life is like one big Survivor episode where we are trying to convince God and everyone else why we are not the ones who should be thrown of the island. The things we use to esablish our worthiness, can be called "functional saviors"."
As sinners, we want to see ourselves as a success. Functional saviors just add to that. Functional saviors can also be looked at as pride. We never want to be at the bottom. As long as there is someone lower, we're okay.
With God, we don't need to establish our worthiness. That's what Christ did, and to rob Christ of that glory is a horrible tradgey. We can be worthy WITH Christ. So let us not have functional saviors. Let Christ be our ONLY savior as he truly deserves. When we KNOW that we are worthy before God IN CHRIST we will have a rest from this functional gods and functional saviors.
In Christ there is nothing I can do that could make you love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less- JD Greear
~Hannah
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
[Functional gods] -The Gospel
Functional gods aren't normally a term we use for idols, but they are one and the same. Functional gods makes us sound like heathens who worship dolls, rather than just people with idols. STOP! That's it. #1} We are heathens and we worship things that might as well be dolls. { This is not a fun truth to come by. It kind of unsettling if you really thing about it. But really, what do you value? I mean do you value your life? Your life is a good example of an idol, at least for me. I tend to think of what makes me happy, what is the easy route (especially in school), what happens when I die, what I will do tomorrow. THATS life. That can be an easy idol. And whats the difference between life and a doll to God? I mean we are putting both before him. It's like rocks or snakes? Are snakes worse because they are alive? NO. They are both shameful in the eyes of the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
Another example, "You worship whatever it is you deem most essential for life and happiness." That is taking out life, and bringing someother kind of rock. What do you think is most essential to life? Your RELIGION? Your FAMILY?Your JOB? Your MONEY? These are the common ones, but there are many more. We can't have anything but God be the rock of our life. We have to fully worship him ALL the time. It's easier said then done, I understand. But why not start the process now? Why wait?
"When something becomes so important to you that it drives your behavior and commands your emotions, you are worshipping it." Whew. Big blow. We generally don't like to say we worship our idols. More like, 'we really enjoy them, in a wrong way and we're changing' kind of ending that with in an upbeat. BUT, obviously we DO WORSHIP idols and we are ashamed of admitting it. I love his point here when he says, "The Hebrew word for 'glory' (kabod) literally means 'weight'." If there was a scale or your life, one side was God, and the other was idols, which one would be heavier? I am horrified to admit, for me it would be idols. My scale would be a no brainer. I'm sure most peoples would. That is something that we are allowed to have sorrow for. I encourage you to look at your 'scale' today and measure it honestly. Do idols weigh more than God? Let us repent today of our wickedness, and our bowing down and worshiping idols. The Repentant People will not be ignored by God.
AND guess what? HIS GRACE is enough. Amen? Grace plunges the other side of that scale and than we are whole again in Christ. But let's not get grace and than tumble down and than get grace and tumble down. Let us rest in his grace and grow in Him.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that could make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less." -JD Greear
~Hannah
Another example, "You worship whatever it is you deem most essential for life and happiness." That is taking out life, and bringing someother kind of rock. What do you think is most essential to life? Your RELIGION? Your FAMILY?Your JOB? Your MONEY? These are the common ones, but there are many more. We can't have anything but God be the rock of our life. We have to fully worship him ALL the time. It's easier said then done, I understand. But why not start the process now? Why wait?
"When something becomes so important to you that it drives your behavior and commands your emotions, you are worshipping it." Whew. Big blow. We generally don't like to say we worship our idols. More like, 'we really enjoy them, in a wrong way and we're changing' kind of ending that with in an upbeat. BUT, obviously we DO WORSHIP idols and we are ashamed of admitting it. I love his point here when he says, "The Hebrew word for 'glory' (kabod) literally means 'weight'." If there was a scale or your life, one side was God, and the other was idols, which one would be heavier? I am horrified to admit, for me it would be idols. My scale would be a no brainer. I'm sure most peoples would. That is something that we are allowed to have sorrow for. I encourage you to look at your 'scale' today and measure it honestly. Do idols weigh more than God? Let us repent today of our wickedness, and our bowing down and worshiping idols. The Repentant People will not be ignored by God.
AND guess what? HIS GRACE is enough. Amen? Grace plunges the other side of that scale and than we are whole again in Christ. But let's not get grace and than tumble down and than get grace and tumble down. Let us rest in his grace and grow in Him.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that could make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less." -JD Greear
~Hannah
Sunday, January 13, 2013
[Mechanical change] -The Gospel
"By works" is probably a phrase a lot of Christians are familiar with. It can be interpreted in two ways. First, the bad way. Meaning, works do get you to heaven, which they most certainly don't. Second, faith and works go together. By having a healthy inner relationship with God, you'll have a very different outward appearance, and part of that will be what you do.
Chapter two is all about how religion doesn't work. You have to be a gospel centered follower of Christ, NOT a religious person of works. When I first saw this chapter, I was like 'here we go again.' This concept is very familiar among all of us. Natuarally we all just pair God with works, it's just what we do. But becoming more firm in faith, means separating those two completely. Truly this is a hard task, and I hope we can all find it challenging. Let's not just slide by this one, because honestly, it's more in you than you know.
"Religion pours it on. It gives you a lot of stuff "to do" : Bibles studies to go to; new habits to add to your life; things to say and not to say, etc. That's what some have have called "mechanical" change."
I don't know if this one is an easy one for you or not. But I find myself, MOST of the time, finding things to add to my life to make me more acceptable to God. Kind of like serving Grandma, helping with the kids, praying everyday. These are all good things, but I am no more acceptable to God than I was yesterday. We just look at it as a responsibility. Its just what I do, it's routine. We tend to think that mechanical changes can earn us favor, or make us 'better' people. But Mechanical changes just turn us into robots. Without the gospel, we are no better unrepentant sinners.
This is what the author says to mechanical changes, "The problem with mechanical changes is that they quickly become wearisome to you. That's not to say you shouldn't ever do things when you don't want want to do, just that if the extent of your Christianity is achieving the right behavioral standard, you are setting yourslef up for diaster. You are laying religion onto a heart that loves other things. And, whether you ever articulate it or not, you will resent God for holding you captive to do stuff you wouldn't otherwise be doing if He weren't threatening damnation." I underline this, because if I was speaking, I'd probably read this over two or three times. REALLY this is such a powerful statement if should blow us all away. WE are naturally set to do what we're told. We read the bible like a list of chores and we think if we get them all done God will be happy and we will be happy. But it's so true that half of the things we do, are because we are threatened with damnation. You think about that. Would I really be doing what I was doing today if there was no such thing as hell? Hmm. The honest answer is no. We would all have different agendas, thats just how it goes. That's why we ARE sinners. BUT we can change, with the sacrifice of Christ. We CAN love God. That's the only way to escape mechanical change is to TRULY LOVE God to the BEST of your ability. When you do that, you will not even think of hell, but of the coming Jesus Christ.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes You love me less" -JD Greear.
~Hannah
Chapter two is all about how religion doesn't work. You have to be a gospel centered follower of Christ, NOT a religious person of works. When I first saw this chapter, I was like 'here we go again.' This concept is very familiar among all of us. Natuarally we all just pair God with works, it's just what we do. But becoming more firm in faith, means separating those two completely. Truly this is a hard task, and I hope we can all find it challenging. Let's not just slide by this one, because honestly, it's more in you than you know.
"Religion pours it on. It gives you a lot of stuff "to do" : Bibles studies to go to; new habits to add to your life; things to say and not to say, etc. That's what some have have called "mechanical" change."
I don't know if this one is an easy one for you or not. But I find myself, MOST of the time, finding things to add to my life to make me more acceptable to God. Kind of like serving Grandma, helping with the kids, praying everyday. These are all good things, but I am no more acceptable to God than I was yesterday. We just look at it as a responsibility. Its just what I do, it's routine. We tend to think that mechanical changes can earn us favor, or make us 'better' people. But Mechanical changes just turn us into robots. Without the gospel, we are no better unrepentant sinners.
This is what the author says to mechanical changes, "The problem with mechanical changes is that they quickly become wearisome to you. That's not to say you shouldn't ever do things when you don't want want to do, just that if the extent of your Christianity is achieving the right behavioral standard, you are setting yourslef up for diaster. You are laying religion onto a heart that loves other things. And, whether you ever articulate it or not, you will resent God for holding you captive to do stuff you wouldn't otherwise be doing if He weren't threatening damnation." I underline this, because if I was speaking, I'd probably read this over two or three times. REALLY this is such a powerful statement if should blow us all away. WE are naturally set to do what we're told. We read the bible like a list of chores and we think if we get them all done God will be happy and we will be happy. But it's so true that half of the things we do, are because we are threatened with damnation. You think about that. Would I really be doing what I was doing today if there was no such thing as hell? Hmm. The honest answer is no. We would all have different agendas, thats just how it goes. That's why we ARE sinners. BUT we can change, with the sacrifice of Christ. We CAN love God. That's the only way to escape mechanical change is to TRULY LOVE God to the BEST of your ability. When you do that, you will not even think of hell, but of the coming Jesus Christ.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes You love me less" -JD Greear.
~Hannah
Saturday, January 12, 2013
[nothing but the Love of God] -The Gospel
No one would want to be loved out of obligation. I think that's how everyone feels. You wouldn't want your husband to love you just because if he didn't you'd kill him. You wouldn't want your kids to love you just because if they didn't you'd punish them.
"Somehow we think God is different, as if he is pleased when we serve Him because we're required to. He's not."
Think about that.
My opinion is that a lot of us unknowingly do this. Why? Because I can't stress this enough, we are natrually works orientined. Example, what about helping at church? What if we are all required to help in the kitchen, and we do it, and its our good deed for the week? It doesn't count! What about if e commit to reading our bibles every day, but sometimes we're just not feeling it. Is he pleased we read our bible? If not out of love for him, Nope! You see everything we do must be wired to the love of God or it is worthless.
"Yet, Paul says, spiritual giftedness, doctrinal mastery, audacious faith, and radical obedience DO NOT EQUAL the only thing that actually matters to God--love for Him. Without love even the most radical devotion to God is of no value to him."
Wow. Let's look at that list. Spiritual gifts. Thats tricky. Our preaching gifts, our love for others, our compassion and mercy, without love for God, it doesn't mean anything. Our reading of the bible, our delving in to the word, our commitment to the bible, without love for God, it doesn't mean anything. Our going and telling the world about Christ, our willing to be a martyr, our confidince in him, without the love of God, it doesn't mean anything. And lastly, our willingless to follow him and whatever he commands, without the love of God, it doesn't mean anything.
The only thing that matters to God, is that you love him. And that everything you do stems out of your love for him. Looking at this we can see we fail! So remember we cannot think that ANYTHING we do, pleases God, unless we do it out of love for him.
This is where the gospel comes in, the book says. "The gospel, and the gospel alone has the power to produce the love of God in the heart."
Its the truth. You need the gospel to give you the love of God.
"Thus, if you are not where you should be spiritually, the answer is not simply to get busier for Jesus." I really like this statement because again, me and my behavior, pops up in my mind here. I think to myself. "Hey, wait. When I feel like I'm not doing well spiritually I do something. I get busier for Jesus." Why do I do that? Because I am a sinner. And naturally I think that if I did one tiny extra thing, I will be a smigon forgiven.
I'll close with this long paragraph. Make sure you read it carefully. It is encouraging, and warning. Its good to know.
"Always 'begin again' with the gospel. Abid in it; swim in it; make your home in it. See more and more of your life through it. Be absolutely convinced at every moment of every day of the goodness of God in your life. Thats the only way youll every really grow...........Obedience that does not flow from love ends up being drudergy-both to us and to God. The gospel turns that drudgery into delight. It changes us from being slaves who have to obey God to sons and daughters who want to obey God. Again, God is not just after obedience; He's after a whole new kind of obedience---an obedience that is filled with desire.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that could make you love me less." -JD Greear
~Hannah
"Somehow we think God is different, as if he is pleased when we serve Him because we're required to. He's not."
Think about that.
My opinion is that a lot of us unknowingly do this. Why? Because I can't stress this enough, we are natrually works orientined. Example, what about helping at church? What if we are all required to help in the kitchen, and we do it, and its our good deed for the week? It doesn't count! What about if e commit to reading our bibles every day, but sometimes we're just not feeling it. Is he pleased we read our bible? If not out of love for him, Nope! You see everything we do must be wired to the love of God or it is worthless.
"Yet, Paul says, spiritual giftedness, doctrinal mastery, audacious faith, and radical obedience DO NOT EQUAL the only thing that actually matters to God--love for Him. Without love even the most radical devotion to God is of no value to him."
Wow. Let's look at that list. Spiritual gifts. Thats tricky. Our preaching gifts, our love for others, our compassion and mercy, without love for God, it doesn't mean anything. Our reading of the bible, our delving in to the word, our commitment to the bible, without love for God, it doesn't mean anything. Our going and telling the world about Christ, our willing to be a martyr, our confidince in him, without the love of God, it doesn't mean anything. And lastly, our willingless to follow him and whatever he commands, without the love of God, it doesn't mean anything.
The only thing that matters to God, is that you love him. And that everything you do stems out of your love for him. Looking at this we can see we fail! So remember we cannot think that ANYTHING we do, pleases God, unless we do it out of love for him.
This is where the gospel comes in, the book says. "The gospel, and the gospel alone has the power to produce the love of God in the heart."
Its the truth. You need the gospel to give you the love of God.
"Thus, if you are not where you should be spiritually, the answer is not simply to get busier for Jesus." I really like this statement because again, me and my behavior, pops up in my mind here. I think to myself. "Hey, wait. When I feel like I'm not doing well spiritually I do something. I get busier for Jesus." Why do I do that? Because I am a sinner. And naturally I think that if I did one tiny extra thing, I will be a smigon forgiven.
I'll close with this long paragraph. Make sure you read it carefully. It is encouraging, and warning. Its good to know.
"Always 'begin again' with the gospel. Abid in it; swim in it; make your home in it. See more and more of your life through it. Be absolutely convinced at every moment of every day of the goodness of God in your life. Thats the only way youll every really grow...........Obedience that does not flow from love ends up being drudergy-both to us and to God. The gospel turns that drudgery into delight. It changes us from being slaves who have to obey God to sons and daughters who want to obey God. Again, God is not just after obedience; He's after a whole new kind of obedience---an obedience that is filled with desire.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that could make you love me less." -JD Greear
~Hannah
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
[spiritual growth] -The Gospel
That last post was amazing for me to share. If your read it, kudos to you. I really spoke to me, and now I'm all excited to continue sharing about my discoveries in the book The Gospel by JD Greear.
The next topic was spiritual growth. This guy just doesn't give you a rest, which is a wonderful thing. Beauty/conviction to Beauty/Conviction. Whew. Amazing.
Well as I said, I had a good length of time where I was spritual"discipline equals works, and so I was figuring out that I was failing. I was doing everything 'right' it seemed but I wasn't growing spiritually. My life wasn't looking any better than it did yesterday, even if I did learn how to love God. Which I warn you is a practice. It doesn't just appear.
I was wondering. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever hit a point in your life where you just said to yourself "I don't feel like I'm growing spritually?" A lot of people do hit this point in their life. I did. Again, my humanistic brain told me that if I learn more about God, perhaps listen to the message, or um, read the bible, then I'd grow spiritually. Nope! I'm sure you've found the same.
So how do you grow spiritually.
The book said this, and I believe it. "Abiding in Jesus."
Deep, right? If I just left it there, we'd probably say, "Yep, heard that one before." and keep looking for another different answer, as Christians often do. Well. The book went into an explanation of abiding in Jesus, and I think we should to. This really touched me, because I was seeing myself in everything I outlines, not half of it good, and realizing I was SO WORK ORIENTED. My gulay it was bad.
[the word for abide is meno in the greek] "The Greek word Meno means literally 'to make your home in'. When we 'make our home' in His Love -feeling it, saturating ourselves with it, reflecting on it, standing in awe of it- spiritual fruit naturally begins to spring up like rose bushes."
So when we focus on God's love for us and appreciate his lovlieness, spiritual fruits will come. You see? Spiritual fruits -love, joy, peace, patience, etc.- CAN'T BE GOTTEN. THE CAN'T BE EXCERSISED by TRYING. No, if you want spiritual fruits, you have to appreciate God's love. Not eat less chocolate, not spending time with the family, not waiting patiently for your turn. Thats NOT spritual fruits. It's NOT TRUE FRUITS. Only by loving God will your life produce REAL Fruit.
"To see spritiual fruits in your life, don't focus primarily on the fruit." This is the first part to a two part statement. This really Got me. THE WHOLE TIME I WAS FOCUSED ON THE FRUIT. In my head I was keeping tally marks. Was I patient, was I self-controlled, was I loving. This lead me to ultimate despair. Why? BECAUSE I'm human! I FAIL! Big surprise there. I kept focusing on how I WASN'T getting the big numbers, and it just bothered me.
"Focus on Jesus acceptance of you, given as a gift to you." There is the second part. Now this. THIS was alien to me. I hadn't heard that one to much. The sermons and messages I'd heard was about repentance and becoming broken WHICH IS WONDERFUL. But I needed this. I needed to know Jesus accepted me. This statement out of context might have upset me, especially awhile back. Why? Because I believe that a person needs to realize repentance and sorrow before gaining acceptance. I'll tell you a fear about this statement that I have. I fear that if I take this statement to seriously, I'll end up with the catergory of people who thought they were going to heaven and didn't. Because if you never repent, never feel sorry, and focus only on acceptance, you so easily will forget the God of Wrath in the old Testament. Thats what I'm afraid of. So thats just something to think about.
YET, all that said, I realize a lot of people, including me need to know the acceptance of God. Maybe your out there repenting of your sins, you don't know how to love God, you don't know why your life isn't producing spiritual growth, and you've just hit a wall of despair. That was me. But there IS HOPE. I found so many answers in this book. I've found so many answers in the bible.
God is listening to your pleas. Ask him to bring you a book, whether is beautiful hand written one, or a tool that helps, such as this book. He his faithful to his children. He accepts them.
"In Christ there is nothing I could do to make you love more, and nothing I have done that could make you love me less." -JD Greear
~Hannah
The next topic was spiritual growth. This guy just doesn't give you a rest, which is a wonderful thing. Beauty/conviction to Beauty/Conviction. Whew. Amazing.
Well as I said, I had a good length of time where I was spritual"discipline equals works, and so I was figuring out that I was failing. I was doing everything 'right' it seemed but I wasn't growing spiritually. My life wasn't looking any better than it did yesterday, even if I did learn how to love God. Which I warn you is a practice. It doesn't just appear.
I was wondering. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever hit a point in your life where you just said to yourself "I don't feel like I'm growing spritually?" A lot of people do hit this point in their life. I did. Again, my humanistic brain told me that if I learn more about God, perhaps listen to the message, or um, read the bible, then I'd grow spiritually. Nope! I'm sure you've found the same.
So how do you grow spiritually.
The book said this, and I believe it. "Abiding in Jesus."
Deep, right? If I just left it there, we'd probably say, "Yep, heard that one before." and keep looking for another different answer, as Christians often do. Well. The book went into an explanation of abiding in Jesus, and I think we should to. This really touched me, because I was seeing myself in everything I outlines, not half of it good, and realizing I was SO WORK ORIENTED. My gulay it was bad.
[the word for abide is meno in the greek] "The Greek word Meno means literally 'to make your home in'. When we 'make our home' in His Love -feeling it, saturating ourselves with it, reflecting on it, standing in awe of it- spiritual fruit naturally begins to spring up like rose bushes."
So when we focus on God's love for us and appreciate his lovlieness, spiritual fruits will come. You see? Spiritual fruits -love, joy, peace, patience, etc.- CAN'T BE GOTTEN. THE CAN'T BE EXCERSISED by TRYING. No, if you want spiritual fruits, you have to appreciate God's love. Not eat less chocolate, not spending time with the family, not waiting patiently for your turn. Thats NOT spritual fruits. It's NOT TRUE FRUITS. Only by loving God will your life produce REAL Fruit.
"To see spritiual fruits in your life, don't focus primarily on the fruit." This is the first part to a two part statement. This really Got me. THE WHOLE TIME I WAS FOCUSED ON THE FRUIT. In my head I was keeping tally marks. Was I patient, was I self-controlled, was I loving. This lead me to ultimate despair. Why? BECAUSE I'm human! I FAIL! Big surprise there. I kept focusing on how I WASN'T getting the big numbers, and it just bothered me.
"Focus on Jesus acceptance of you, given as a gift to you." There is the second part. Now this. THIS was alien to me. I hadn't heard that one to much. The sermons and messages I'd heard was about repentance and becoming broken WHICH IS WONDERFUL. But I needed this. I needed to know Jesus accepted me. This statement out of context might have upset me, especially awhile back. Why? Because I believe that a person needs to realize repentance and sorrow before gaining acceptance. I'll tell you a fear about this statement that I have. I fear that if I take this statement to seriously, I'll end up with the catergory of people who thought they were going to heaven and didn't. Because if you never repent, never feel sorry, and focus only on acceptance, you so easily will forget the God of Wrath in the old Testament. Thats what I'm afraid of. So thats just something to think about.
YET, all that said, I realize a lot of people, including me need to know the acceptance of God. Maybe your out there repenting of your sins, you don't know how to love God, you don't know why your life isn't producing spiritual growth, and you've just hit a wall of despair. That was me. But there IS HOPE. I found so many answers in this book. I've found so many answers in the bible.
God is listening to your pleas. Ask him to bring you a book, whether is beautiful hand written one, or a tool that helps, such as this book. He his faithful to his children. He accepts them.
"In Christ there is nothing I could do to make you love more, and nothing I have done that could make you love me less." -JD Greear
~Hannah
Thursday, December 27, 2012
~The Gospel~
Hello!
Merry Christmas :) I know its already to late and I am quite aware that its after Christmas BUT I just figured better late than never.
Anyways, I've realized I haven't been blogging a lot. MAYBE I'm not blogging to anyone and the only people looking at it is my family. HA! What a possibility. But So many times, I remind myself that this is partly my journal. About God and about life. I've been very busy, but I've found that I always come back to journaling, even after months. :) Hopefully I'll have time in the next coming year...probably not. xD
NOW. "
I want to get to my major topic. As you can see my title is 'The Gospel'. Lately, I've been reading a book called 'The Gospel' (who would have thought) and so I decided to share my discoveries. There are times in everyones spiritual life that they hit these horrible mind-boggaling questions. That happened to me, BUT thanks to the grace of God. I found some answers in this book. I would recommend this book to everyone, because it essentially outlines the gospel. I haven't read it all yet, but just the first four chapters have opened my mind. So I encourage you to purchase the book AND read (:)) the book 'The Gospel' by JD Greear.
I'll start with a few quotes and then talk about them. More posts should follow this one (hopefully) :D
The first thing I stumbled upon in this book was The missing Gospel. That is the first chapter. Truthfully at that point I was ready to assume this was like all other books I've read. I am usually wrong about that type of thing though.
The first thing that I highlighted in that chapter was the phrase "having the truth captivate your soul is quite another thing." In the book he was talking about being able to articulate the gospel vs. the phrase above. Why did I outline this? Why did it catch my eye? Because of this: having the truth captivate your soul is probably what is preached EVERYWHERE. Preachers will say this in 100 different forms. I think the problem is, is that when Christians hear that they get thirsty for the Word. They WANT the truth of the gospel to captivate their soul. That was what I felt. I thought to myself "Thats such a beautiful phrase. I don't feel like that, I don't know whether I ever have. How can I feel like that?" Ever felt that way? I did. In past experiences I would just walk away saying, "great. Lovely message. but I didn't understand HOW to get that. He never outlined that." Yet, as I went on the truth was yet to come. :)
The next quote that I highlighted was "The goal of the gospel is to produce a type of people consumed with a passion for God and love for others." Wow. Another beautiful quote. I believe this statement truly and I'm glad the writer outlined that for me. How might this connect to the previous statement thought? Well, how can we 'feel' that our soul has been captivated by the gospel? BY having a passion for God! and a love for others. THATS THE ANSWER! The way that the gospel can captivate the soul is by having a passion for God. BECAUSE by having that passion for God, the gospel will have succeeded in captivating your soul. Wonderful!
Although the answer was an excellent one, it took my hyped-up self right back to another road-block. That road block was another question. Great.
How do we get a passion for God and a love of others? Hard question. I'll tell you now, I've been bothered with this question for a LONG time. Half the time I ignored it, half the time I toiled in vain to try and get it. Remember my post about how we can't love humanly love God? It was once of my first spiritual posts. You should read it again and perhaps come back to this one. It basically outlined that because we are human we CAN'T love God. You'll hear that forever. We are SO sinfully we can possibly love God. God doesn't need us. God chose us. It's all out of our hands. Well then, how do we love God? How do we get a burning passion for him?
I'll tell you how-not-to. This came out of my own experience. As a human, we are naturally by-works-oriented. Stating that we think that what we do can earn us exactly what we need. It wasn't intentional, my doing this. And till now, I didn't even know I was doing it. Well I believed that if I read my bible and prayed I'd magically get a passion for God. Isn't that the right way? I do believe that ultimately spending time with God IS the way to get a passion for God. But not the way I was doing it. Why? Because I was doing it without a loving heart or a desire. I'm TELLING you, its SOOOO EASY to think your doing your spiritual disciplines for the right reasons. But OUR HEARTS or DECEIVING. You may learn something from your bible, you may talk to God, but without A TRUE DESIRE, it's all in vain. So, for a long time I thought I was fine. But I figured it out. And the moment I did. BAM! EUREKA! I KNEEEEEWWWWWWWW NOW! My heart wasn't in it. Why? Because I didn't LOVE GOD. So I couldn't get a burning passion for Him! DUH!
It's hard to realize that you don't love God. Most people should feel that all the time. Because every time we sin we are declaring our hatred for God. SO, we repent.
So. Now we know how-not-to get a burning passion for God. NOT by spiritual disciplines. Thats the easiest to fall into. "works" usually is put in the bad light. But spiritual discplines? Reading your Bible? Praying? Are these works? YES. Who would have thought. The devil is very clever.
How though? How do we love God? Because if we love God we will have a passion for him? This question has put me in despair a lot of times. I just don't understand. I can't love God humanly. Nothing that I do will ever get me there. So...I waited for God to show up. Just waited... continued with my life. He has to give me an answer if I keep praying and doing bible reading? I was praying for an answer? HOW CAN I LOVE GOD?
Then I stumbled right to this book. And who would have thought it would have a section called "How do we learn to love God." .....
The first Eureka moment I found was not even talking about God. It was the man talking about it wife. Human example, for a human mind. God works in such wonderful ways. Ways we can understand. The quote was this "Being commanded to love someone you have no natural affection for becomes wearisome. True love grows as a response to lovliness. The first time I saw my wife, I felt the beginnings of love for her. The more I've gotten to know her over the years, and the more I've seen of her beauty, the more I've grown to love her."
What a wonderful story! When I read this I almost screamed! I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT! 2 points stuck out to me. 1. that when I was commanded to love God it became wearisome. My routine was wearisome. That was the old me. 2. TRUE LOVE GROWS AT A RESPONSE TO LOVLIENESS. I never thought of it that way! That example opened my mind a good bit so I could see clearer. I wasn't aprreciating the love of God and focusing on his lovileness. I was focusing on the fact that God wants me to repent or else damnation. BUT NO! Its his loviness I need to focus on.
"...the command can only truly be fulfilled as our eyes are opened to see God's beauty revealed in the Gospel. The Spirit of God uses the beauty of the gospel to awaken in our hears a desire for God."
Wow. It stunned me. I hope it stunned you to. THIS, my friends, IS TRUTH. Everyone should hear it. Everyone should know. THIS IS LOVE. GOD'S LOVE FOR US IS OUR LOVE FOR HIM.
I hope today you will thank God for loving you, and honestly appreciate his lovliness. Then Repent, be forgiven and live as his child.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes me love you less."
~hannah
Merry Christmas :) I know its already to late and I am quite aware that its after Christmas BUT I just figured better late than never.
Anyways, I've realized I haven't been blogging a lot. MAYBE I'm not blogging to anyone and the only people looking at it is my family. HA! What a possibility. But So many times, I remind myself that this is partly my journal. About God and about life. I've been very busy, but I've found that I always come back to journaling, even after months. :) Hopefully I'll have time in the next coming year...probably not. xD
NOW. "
I want to get to my major topic. As you can see my title is 'The Gospel'. Lately, I've been reading a book called 'The Gospel' (who would have thought) and so I decided to share my discoveries. There are times in everyones spiritual life that they hit these horrible mind-boggaling questions. That happened to me, BUT thanks to the grace of God. I found some answers in this book. I would recommend this book to everyone, because it essentially outlines the gospel. I haven't read it all yet, but just the first four chapters have opened my mind. So I encourage you to purchase the book AND read (:)) the book 'The Gospel' by JD Greear.
I'll start with a few quotes and then talk about them. More posts should follow this one (hopefully) :D
The first thing I stumbled upon in this book was The missing Gospel. That is the first chapter. Truthfully at that point I was ready to assume this was like all other books I've read. I am usually wrong about that type of thing though.
The first thing that I highlighted in that chapter was the phrase "having the truth captivate your soul is quite another thing." In the book he was talking about being able to articulate the gospel vs. the phrase above. Why did I outline this? Why did it catch my eye? Because of this: having the truth captivate your soul is probably what is preached EVERYWHERE. Preachers will say this in 100 different forms. I think the problem is, is that when Christians hear that they get thirsty for the Word. They WANT the truth of the gospel to captivate their soul. That was what I felt. I thought to myself "Thats such a beautiful phrase. I don't feel like that, I don't know whether I ever have. How can I feel like that?" Ever felt that way? I did. In past experiences I would just walk away saying, "great. Lovely message. but I didn't understand HOW to get that. He never outlined that." Yet, as I went on the truth was yet to come. :)
The next quote that I highlighted was "The goal of the gospel is to produce a type of people consumed with a passion for God and love for others." Wow. Another beautiful quote. I believe this statement truly and I'm glad the writer outlined that for me. How might this connect to the previous statement thought? Well, how can we 'feel' that our soul has been captivated by the gospel? BY having a passion for God! and a love for others. THATS THE ANSWER! The way that the gospel can captivate the soul is by having a passion for God. BECAUSE by having that passion for God, the gospel will have succeeded in captivating your soul. Wonderful!
Although the answer was an excellent one, it took my hyped-up self right back to another road-block. That road block was another question. Great.
How do we get a passion for God and a love of others? Hard question. I'll tell you now, I've been bothered with this question for a LONG time. Half the time I ignored it, half the time I toiled in vain to try and get it. Remember my post about how we can't love humanly love God? It was once of my first spiritual posts. You should read it again and perhaps come back to this one. It basically outlined that because we are human we CAN'T love God. You'll hear that forever. We are SO sinfully we can possibly love God. God doesn't need us. God chose us. It's all out of our hands. Well then, how do we love God? How do we get a burning passion for him?
I'll tell you how-not-to. This came out of my own experience. As a human, we are naturally by-works-oriented. Stating that we think that what we do can earn us exactly what we need. It wasn't intentional, my doing this. And till now, I didn't even know I was doing it. Well I believed that if I read my bible and prayed I'd magically get a passion for God. Isn't that the right way? I do believe that ultimately spending time with God IS the way to get a passion for God. But not the way I was doing it. Why? Because I was doing it without a loving heart or a desire. I'm TELLING you, its SOOOO EASY to think your doing your spiritual disciplines for the right reasons. But OUR HEARTS or DECEIVING. You may learn something from your bible, you may talk to God, but without A TRUE DESIRE, it's all in vain. So, for a long time I thought I was fine. But I figured it out. And the moment I did. BAM! EUREKA! I KNEEEEEWWWWWWWW NOW! My heart wasn't in it. Why? Because I didn't LOVE GOD. So I couldn't get a burning passion for Him! DUH!
It's hard to realize that you don't love God. Most people should feel that all the time. Because every time we sin we are declaring our hatred for God. SO, we repent.
So. Now we know how-not-to get a burning passion for God. NOT by spiritual disciplines. Thats the easiest to fall into. "works" usually is put in the bad light. But spiritual discplines? Reading your Bible? Praying? Are these works? YES. Who would have thought. The devil is very clever.
How though? How do we love God? Because if we love God we will have a passion for him? This question has put me in despair a lot of times. I just don't understand. I can't love God humanly. Nothing that I do will ever get me there. So...I waited for God to show up. Just waited... continued with my life. He has to give me an answer if I keep praying and doing bible reading? I was praying for an answer? HOW CAN I LOVE GOD?
Then I stumbled right to this book. And who would have thought it would have a section called "How do we learn to love God." .....
The first Eureka moment I found was not even talking about God. It was the man talking about it wife. Human example, for a human mind. God works in such wonderful ways. Ways we can understand. The quote was this "Being commanded to love someone you have no natural affection for becomes wearisome. True love grows as a response to lovliness. The first time I saw my wife, I felt the beginnings of love for her. The more I've gotten to know her over the years, and the more I've seen of her beauty, the more I've grown to love her."
What a wonderful story! When I read this I almost screamed! I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT! 2 points stuck out to me. 1. that when I was commanded to love God it became wearisome. My routine was wearisome. That was the old me. 2. TRUE LOVE GROWS AT A RESPONSE TO LOVLIENESS. I never thought of it that way! That example opened my mind a good bit so I could see clearer. I wasn't aprreciating the love of God and focusing on his lovileness. I was focusing on the fact that God wants me to repent or else damnation. BUT NO! Its his loviness I need to focus on.
"...the command can only truly be fulfilled as our eyes are opened to see God's beauty revealed in the Gospel. The Spirit of God uses the beauty of the gospel to awaken in our hears a desire for God."
Wow. It stunned me. I hope it stunned you to. THIS, my friends, IS TRUTH. Everyone should hear it. Everyone should know. THIS IS LOVE. GOD'S LOVE FOR US IS OUR LOVE FOR HIM.
I hope today you will thank God for loving you, and honestly appreciate his lovliness. Then Repent, be forgiven and live as his child.
"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes me love you less."
~hannah
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
~Recent happenings~
So.
I haven't posted for a REALLLY LONGGGG time. Now, we must look at that in a positive view because then I'll have more to tell, right? Thats...one..way... :D
Well. Here I am. In Michigan, and LOVING>>>>>it. The fall was so beautiful here, I wish I could have taken pictures. The trees were vibrant. :) We already made leaf decorations for the house, and have all of our fall stuff out. I have found Michigan, above all peaceful, and I've probably said that a LOT. But if I ever told the truth, its that. PEACE MAN! Just being outside in the quiet, in the country. Looking to your left and seeing horses, straight forward and seeing forests. Very inspirational. :)
I've been doing a lot of things, and a lot of things have been done, so I couldn't name everything that's happened to me. Awana, (yes, Awana) is still a huge part in my life. I'm getting my meritorious award at the end of this year, and that really exciting for me. One step closer to my citation award. I have NO worries at all of getting it. Also, I'm composing a song for my summit awana competition in march, getting a great head start. I'm going for gold or judges choice, last year I got silver, so I'm shooting higher. I think the song has potential to be gold, I just have to play it perfectly. You'd think I'd be able to play a song I wrote perfect... guess again ;) Lia, Sophia, and Isaac are all in club with me this year. Its been so much fun. Issac is a verse killer as his sisters, which I was REALLY surprised at. I thought I'd be grinding my teeth getting him to memorize his book. Well, he's finished, and they're telling me he's going to fast (who woulda thought? :). So...I have slow down. Lia, is doing amazing to, really stepping it up from last year. She's finishing her book within two weeks. Sophie is well on her way to! So, yeah, thats been amazing for me to be apart of it. :D
Donna is gone with life action. And I miss her so much. Yep. BUT, she is having a great time. Right now she's at disney world for her free day. She saw two stray alligators while in florida too! She's making great friends and having a great time working in the ministry. She loves singing there and loves the people she meets. Me...I'm at home. Obviously. But me and my mom have been having fun. ;) And we've all had a new experience through this.
Two weeks ago, I had a very brief visit to chicago, three days or so. We got to stay with my aunt and uncle. That was fun, and it was the first time I got to be with the young children all by myself (with aunt and uncle). It was interesting. I also got to see my sam friend and that was SO awesome :)
Here are some photos from our recent adventures :)
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| {In Chicago, we went to the Chicago Botanical Garden. Beautiful!} |
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| {BONSAI!} |
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| {This is part of my room. Quite messy and not the best photo, but the colors work. I love those colors. xD xD Honestly, my room is amazing. Like MAJORLY } |
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| {She'll kill me for putting this on. UNDERWATER SUMMER FUNNNN!!!} |
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| {Last family picture before she left :) Pretty? I thinks so :) } |
So thats it for now.
{Have an awesome day, and may everything you do be for HIS glory}
~hannah
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