Real word application of a six dollar word.

This past April Iwas given the honor of leading a highschool girls disciplenow weekend.  Its always rough for me to feel adequate enough to lead people in bible study, but the Holy Spirit moves me to do so, and I know if I obey he will provide the words needed to say.  I bring this up because, before I left to stay the weekend a revelation hit me.  There are a lot of big dollar doctrine words that christian throw around at each other, but how many people actually know what they mean?

So, I proceeded to make a lengthy document that I gave to each of my highschool girls which explained just a few big words (or even small ones such as holy) and where they were found in the bible.  I am not sure if I added this big word, but it sure has been on my heart a lot lately: sanctification. Whew.

Sanctification.  What a big bible word.  But what a big deal sanctification is.  Right now, I am more thankful for this word and its application in my life than I could write on this blog.  I stole this definition from biblegateway.com for lack of better words: Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit shapes us into more holy and Christlike people. It’s a natural part of a Christian’s growth in spiritual maturity.

When I think of sanctification my heart jumps because its the real life proof that I am changing.  Like John Newton said,

I am not what I ought to be — ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be — I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be — soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Because of the Lord’s work in my life, I have been able to see tremendous growth and change.  I know this may not interest anyone, but there may be someone out there thats new at this being a christian thing, and its always so refreshing to see how God has changed someone.  Here are a list of things that just pop in my head, that are so obvious to me the work of sanctification in my life, and I praise God, Jesus, and the Holy spirit for these:

• Up until my junior year in college my favorite genre of movie was horror.  I loved scaring myself rotten.  Now I cannot touch a horror film because the Holy Spirit has shown me the evilness of what I put in my mind, and the invitation I am sending out for the spirit of fear to surround me.
• When I was 19, I went to Memphis in May and saw one of my favorite artists, Three 6 Mafia.  There lyrics were comical to me.   I now despise Three 6 Mafia and cannot listen to 10 seconds of them without feeling like I am being stepped on (weird as that sounds).
• When I was in highschool I did not see the point of spending alone time with God, now I cannot live without it.
• Up until a few years ago I did  not pray often.  Now I pray at almost every chance I can get.  I feel the Holy Spirit lay something on my heart at different times during the day, and I just stop whatever I am thinking about and pray immediately.

Those are just a very few real life applications of sanctification in my life.

On the contrary to change, today I was reminded, in the car on the way to teach, randomly, of how much pride is my thorn.  Paul talks about a thorn in his flesh in 2 cor. 12:7 which states, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.“

My thorn is so obviously pride.  Pride inhibits me daily from doing the things I should be, and debilitates me if I let it go unchecked.  I forget it sometimes, because I am not allowing myself to see me for who I really am.  Pride is what frustrates me the most.  Its what I cannot stand about myself.  Its what makes me want free from my body (among a list of others).

So all this to say, I can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life, and its refreshing to know that I will not stay how I am in this moment.  The thought that I cling to is that I am not who I was yesterday, and for that I am so thankful.

 

Tragedy in Knoxville. Tragedy in a christian’s heart.

I do not know who reads this blog, but if you are not from Knoxville you may not have heard of the tragedy that occured 2.5 years ago just 20 minutes from where I live.  The point of this blog is not to summarize the murders, or revel in all the evil that presided in this crime, you can find that elsewhere.  The point is to say, what a tragedy this was, and what a tragedy is occurring in some Christians’ hearts.

This comment infused more anger and sadness in me than I can ever stand to tell you.  Someone posted this comment, taken word for word from WBIR’s website, “I hope these animals do not find Christ in prison. I hope whoever spawned these animals do not find Christ. I believe there is a special place in hell for these defense attorneys. I am aware that everyone is “due” counsel, but to twist and lie and do EVERYTHING they can to get this monster back on the street? UNCONSCIONABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear God – I would rather He take whatever blessings he has stored for me and give to these victims families for just a modicum of peace.”

Now let me say first, that I understand, and so will you if you read about these murders, that what happened to Christian and Newsom is terrifying, induces anger from anyone who hears, and makes you want to vomit when you hear that humans are capable of this (lets know forget historical murders as well in this… Hitler…).  But, to say that you hope people do not come to know Christ?!  To say you hope their parents do not ever know Christ?!  To say this, is a tragedy.  Because to say this, is to absolutely show that you do not know what grace is, or who we are apart from our Savior (those of you who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus).

What these men did does not make them any worse in God’s eyes than myself, before Jesus captured my heart.  In human eyes and by human standards of course there is a difference in myself and the people who are guilty of this crime, but in God’s eyes we are all more evil than these murders.  We are EVIL.  I can honestly say, and I believe 100% that in my nature there is nothing different that separates me from them, except that I rely on Jesus to sanctify me and make me what I am not by my nature.

And then there is GRACE.  No one deserves grace.  And contrary to what the person said above, there is no bias in who receives grace.  Nothing, let me repeat, nothing, that we do will ever merit grace, EVER.  We all deserve hell.  No one deserves Jesus’ blood offering.  And to discriminate that between people who live “good-ok lives” than those who commit horrific crimes is to not understand grace.  I thank God daily for Grace, because I did nothing to receive it.  That is why I pray that the men who were involved in the murder know the same grace that I do, and put their hope in Jesus Christ.

To say anything other than this, is to mistake grace for merit.  Not only this, but it is to say we know better than the Lord God Almighty.  He chooses, for his glory.  He knows what evil we are capable of, but so much more than that, he knows how he can use us for his glory in this life after we have been ransomed by Christ.

This may be extremely offensive to some people.  That’s fine.  But if you are offended after reading that you are no different than these men, I beg you to read your bible and see that we are all evil beings.  Since Adam, we are fallen creatures, and the wages of sin is death.  These men will suffer no more in death in hell than the person who sits next to you at work who does not know Christ.  Because they are no different.

This is my prayer:

Lord, God, Savior, Spirit… I praise you for your tender mercy, your grace, and your love for me.  I lift up the men who commited these crimes, Jesus, that you would reveal yourself to them, that they may know your grace, your tender mercy, and your love for them.  I pray that you wash their souls clean from the unrighteousness that they have born their whole lives… as I pray you do with myself.  Lord, I ask that you always remind me of my unrighteousness apart from you, of my evil sinful deeds, and of my constant need for your grace.  I pray, Spirit, that you will surround the Christian family and the Newsom family, so that they may know your comfort and security.  I lift them up to you Jesus, that you may also make yourself known to them in their deep time of need.  Lord, I pray that you will show them your sovereignty and love for them.

I hope as Christians we will go, as Jesus told us to, and spread his grace to anyone and everyone ( I am speaking to myself, because I do this too little).  We should be praying for people who do not know Jesus Christ, because the reality is, wouldn’t we want them praying for us if we were in their position, lost and hopeless?  Everyone, including myself, should watch our tongues and thoughts when things anger us such as this case… because we should always be a witness to Jesus’ grace, no matter what the occasion.

 

Today I am thankful for… Cuban food?

Seriously?! I like Cuban food?? Who would have ever thought?! I hate anything Mexican, not saying Cuban is mexican, and I stay away from un-americanized foreign cuisine, because I am picky.

So last night we got a phone call from our dear friends, The Halls (a big shout out to Pete and Jen), about going to dinner at this place “Little Havana” downtown.  Of course we went… and after 3 hours of waiting, we got our delicious food.  Long story short, their chef decided to not show up last night (a busy Friday night I might add), and so the head waiter was cooking the food (and was pretty darn good at it).

Was it worth the wait?  I dont know that I would say that, but I did LOVE my food.  It was delicious!!  And thankfully we were with good friends, so the time did not slug along.  Oh and, the mojitos were delicious!! Best I’ve ever had, and free, since our meal took hours to make.

I highly recommend this place… its right next to Nama downtown on Gay st.

Its delicious

With Jenny at the wedding

Pete is in there somewhere (Top Row, Right)

 

Do you ever wonder about… spiritual warfare?

I have often wondered about spiritual warfare.  I read C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters when I was young, because I LOVE Lewis… and since then the topic has come in and out of my mind.

In the Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis says, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race about the devils.  One is disbelief in their existence.  The other is to believe, and to feel, an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” I believe his statement to be so true.

Within the past year, there have been things in a few of my friends lives that were unexplainable without looking at this subject.  I’ve started to really think about it, and seek out sermons that deal with this subject, because I believe the subject can so easily turn into a place of deception.

About six months ago I started listening to podcasts  published by Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  I like to follow different pastors and Mark Driskol has become on of them.  I enjoy his insight… he is very humble and really loves Jesus.

So I stumbled upon his series, in 4 parts about spiritual warfare.  I listened to it piece by piece, just having finished in yesterday on the way home from the beach.  If you have never studied about demons and Satan, this series will blow you away.  Not in a bad way, but it helps you to become what the bible calls “alert” to the schemes of the devil.

Just as I started maturing as a believer in my adulthood have I started to understand some of the schemes of the devil.  In my moments of vulnerability I often hear lies, that so often as a teenager I chose to believe and became self pityed.  Instead now I can hear the voice of my shepherd through the lies of the deceiver.  It is only through reading my bible, knowing scripture, and being surrounded by other believers that I have been able to understand that there are influences in this world that I cannot see.

I am linking one of the parts to his lecture on spiritual warfare.  He has posted lecture notes as well that I found extremely helpful.  I encourage you to listen to all these lectures, because it will help you be alert, and ready when attacks come your way.

It is too easy a lie to believe that Satan does not attack us.  He does, in so many ways.

UPDATE ON AN OLD POST:

I also am posting something that Mark Driskol said about The Shack, which is a post I wrote a long time ago after reading the book.  You can find that post at this link…. The Shack.

 

A new blog… in addition to this lovely site.

I have just created a new blog. Its called history happens and you should check it out.

Follow the link:  http://historyhappens.wordpress.com

Also… in addition (which is apparently the word of the hour) I wrote a blog a long time ago about history, my love of it, and how I connect it to my love for Jesus Christ… that link is History and the Grace of Jesus Christ.