What the church really needs.

My friend shared this earlier today. I was moved. This is what our society really needs!

Hope is a dangerous thing!

The title if this post is a quotation from the movie, "Shawshank Redemption." Last night, my dad and I watched the movie together. Afterwards, we talked about hope.

In the movie, Andy Dufresne, an innocent man convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover, is sentenced to life in prison. Unlike his friends, who feel that it would be better just to stay in those walls than to face the world outside, he holds onto the hope of one day escaping. "Red," his closest friend, and a man of great importance in the prison, tells him that, "Hope is a dangerous thing." But Andy, who eventually digs his way to freedom, disagrees. The day before he crawls through the tunnel that took him nineteen years to build, he tells Red if he ever gets out of prison to go to a stone wall and look for something under a rock. That little statement gives Red the hope he needs to keep going on.

"The hope that Andy planned for Red, was meticulous and wonderful, but it is so inferior that the hope God has planned for us." My dad said after we finished watching. During our conversation about the hope God has for us, I realized something. All my life, I have been living for the next good thing. My birthday, a fun event, whatever it was, that was what gave me a reason to keep going. Since I have matured in my desires, the main thing I wanted was marriage. Honestly, I thought that I was so radical because that was what I wanted to do. I was going to be different than the feministic culture around me. Now, if I did these good deeds, I would get a husband.

Why was this not making me happy? Because, though marriage is a good gift from God, it is a temporary blessing that, if lived-for, becomes an idol. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."What is that reward? "I am your shield, your very great reward." says Genesis 15:1. I was unfulfilled because my reward really is God and not the earthly blessings after which I was so earnestly seeking. Hope can change your world; it changed mine. Hope is a dangerous thing.

Your Best Life Now? Not for Christians.

My goal with this post is not to slam any well-known society figures, but to slam an evil ideology that is rampant throughout Christianity in America. God's people are not willing to lay down their lives for him. So many times we live among the unsaved as if we were one of them. I would rather do what I can to fulfill my pleasures than face the minor persecution that should come as a part of the package of being an authentic Christian. Lord, help me to go out of my way to live for you, because you died for me.

God-shaped hole

During this time of celebration, people often feel deep down inside themselves an emptiness that they cannot fill. Try as they might, going to parties, baking and eating Christmas goodies, experiencing good times with relatives, or even giving generous gifts will not fill that hole they feel in their hearts. I have felt this emptiness myself.

Blaise Pascal, a renowned Christian philosopher, once said, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus." It is so strange that at the time of year when we should be celebrating the One who alone can fill the hearts of men, so often we feel so empty.

Culture has hijacked Christmas, changed its name, and created an aura of materialism surrounding it. We, as Christians, can counteract this movement of Satan (because that is what it really is - Satan is trying to detract attention from the real reason for the season). This is a season when the emptiness people feel makes them more receptive to answers for that emptiness. We can share the good news with the hurting people that surround us. Those people that are behind us in the long line at the store, our unsaved neighbors and relatives. We should be willing to put up with the push-back they may give us for the sake of proclaiming God's word to them.

I want to share the joy I have with those who live joyless lives. Apart from Christ, there is no "joy to the world."

Trusting God

Today I read 1 Samuel 15 in my quiet time. God told King Saul to attack the Amalekites and destroy all the people and livestock. Instead of doing everything the Lord said, Saul kept some of the livestock alive - probably for his own use. Needless to say, God was not pleased with him. Often, the "to obey is better than to sacrifice" theme is what gets talked about this passage, but I felt the Holy Spirit convicted me that this passage was also about trusting God.

Saul was tested with a command that seemed, for lack of a better word, weird. He could obey the sovereign God who gave it to him, or he could take matters into his own hands. Sadly, he did the latter, and he was punished for it.

Lately, I have been struggling with trusting God by obeying his commands. In a situation I am going through, I have been faced with two seemingly equally good options. But there is a command behind one of them. I tried to take matters into my own hands, and be the ruler of my own life. That did not work. I was, like Jonah and Saul, disobeying God for the sake of the supposed happiness I would feel. Christians cannot be truly happy outside of God's circle of boundaries.

I was miserably striving to make myself happy apart from God. Then I was blessed an awesome prayer time with God this morning. I realized that I was sinning, and that is better to obey and do what feels harder to me, than to take the easy route and disobey. I need to show my faith through what I do. I need to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding.

Thanks for not letting go of me, God!