The Grip

Today I’m writing to you to pull at your heart strings a little. To help you get a grip. Everyone struggles with something in life and I would like to paint a picture in your mind by telling you a story and at the end you decide if it’s true.

So their is this person who has alot of problems. They live by this motto: Go with the flow. This person drinks, does drugs, is no longer abstinence till married, cuts, is bulimic , anorexic …etc. Everything that the world tells this person to be is what they are. They listen to secular music watch junk on tv and does what it says.

So my question is to you do think this is a true story?

Well it is in a way. See this is the effect of the world on people. It is sin. Are sinful nature makes sin look good but being a Christian changes that. Still we fall because we are not perfect.

To get at your heart strings this is real and these effects of sin are even effecting churches around the world.

So what do we do? Well we should continue to serve God in everything we do and should do are best to grow closer to God. Another thing we should do is learn to invest in people and not in material things.

People last and material things don’t!

I have met a guy who always tells me how great it be if I spent more time making money by investing in stocks and working longer. I realize though that money doesn’t last but people do and even if I only effect one person’s life I can say it is priceless for it last forever.

So I hope after you have finished reading this that you continue to grow closer to God.

Taking a Shortcut

Last Sunday, a friend of mine, a middle aged man who our family has known for over 20 years was found dead outside. His own pistol was lying a few feet away from him.
It was a suicide.
His memorial service was a week later, and I had a chance to talk to another old friend there who has MS. Through his weakness, he began ministering to me. He explained how many times he himself had put a gun to his head...but eventually put it down. He had decided against suicide because of the devastating consequences he would leave the people around him in. What a confusing message he would send. God his strength, the LORD is his victory. There is victory...then...no victory anymore? Along with the fact that the only reason someone will commit suicide is because they are listening to Satan's lies. That is it plain and simple.
One of the things that really stuck out to me was his analogy of running on a racetrack. Your legs are killing you. Sometimes hurdles pop up in front of you, sometimes you have to scramble over logs or hills, sometimes you have to climb ropes, sometimes you have to swing across the monkey bars, and sometimes you slip and fall. And sometimes we think it's just too hard. We want it all to stop, right now. It just so happens that there's a shortcut, it's always available. God said you need to finish the race, but it's to hard...just too hard, and you want to take that shortcut.
It's easier, it takes away the pain, but it's not right. We're not supposed to take it. God has given us the life we have, and we have to finish the race.
I have full faith that our family's dear friend is in heaven now, but devastation has hit the people at home in many different ways.

We shouldn't take the shortcut. God is always there to fly to. Satan tries to lie and penetrate our faith, but no; his words are not true. In these times,we need to lift our eyes to God, not to the shortcuts or the easy way out, but to him in these dark times.

Saturday Stuff (November 29th, 2008)

Stuff to think about:

Give this Thanks

I've seen it everywhere.

"Give thanks for all the blessings you have"
"make a list of all the things you're grateful for this year"
"Your blessed so much. Think of all those kids in India who don't even have water"

Hm.
If you're like me, most of that blows right past me. I've never made one of those lists. I think about Africa sometimes, but I don't really think to much. For me, Thanksgiving is a passing holiday. Here today, gone tomorrow, half the time, I really don't even consider my "blessings."
But sometimes...you have to think about things.

To bad most kids I know think they can go through life not thinking about much, or at least through their highschool years. The truth is, that's not how to live. You cannot live your life without thinking. It becomes just a waste of time. If we seek to do things with our lives, we must think.
One of the things we need to think about, especially in this particular season is how much we have. You've probably heard that a million times, but how many times have you thought through the implications of it. How many times have you thought through the crying out to God these men and women in third world countries are doing every second of their lives as they live in such horrendous conditions. And there are people there who don't know Christ, imagine living your life in such conditions with no God to fly to.
I go to the gym *almost* everyday. Most of them have no such option.
I have what they call "meat" on me. Those kids down there are sticks because of hunger.
I have clothes...yeah the list goes on and on.
And it's not like this has no effect unless I compare myself to other people. The fact is, flat out, we are God's people right? We are his? He is our God. We belong to him. We have ties with him that are amazing, different from any other relationship, and he wants to hear his children's gratitude and praise. We owe it to him too.
So,
Think
and
Think again.

That is reason to praise.

Beaten,broken,and put back together.

Just like a board after a few hits it breaks just like I fall apart after being hit a few times. I use to think that after the pain subsided I would be numb and I would no longer feel the pain but the truth is the pain it doesn’t go away. So you may be broken and beaten having fallen apart. So what’s next? Well its time to seek God and that’s something that will happen over and over again. You got to die to live and live to die to fight sin. So you die to sin and are alive in Christ but you can also look at it as living in sin and dieing so you can live to serve God. So you might be thinking of why I am writing this to you. Well I’m writing to whom it may concern and apparently that includes you since you are reading this. Being put back together is a painful process. It is like welding two pieces of metal together. A flame melts the metal and as the medal dries it becomes solid and the two pieces become one again. I use metal because its stronger then wood. Your heart may be broken but when a friend helps you its like your heart is medal and is no longer easily broken. Then when you have God your heart becomes like a diamond nothing can break a diamond but a diamond. So your life is good for a while and then all the sudden something terrible happens. Now that diamond heart is shattered like glass. It takes time for your heart to heal but it does. Like the song Broken Wing from a Thousand Foot Krutch says “you’re a broken wing, not a broken thing, you can heal in time, if you try.” All it takes is one prayer. No matter what you’ve done, are doing or are going to do God will forgive you all you have to do is ask. He will forgive you. Look at the word forgiveness. If you look at the middle of the word you will see that give is ion the middle of For-give-ness. Forgiveness from God is God giving you His love and acceptance. As God’s adopted son or daughter you can come to God because of what Christ did for you. He’s your father so as the Bible says “ Let the little ones come to Me.” That in itself is amazing being able to come no matter what.



From Your Brother in Christ who are Believer’s in the One True God.



Daniel


P.S. If you every need someone to talk to I’m here for you.

Saturday Stuff (on Monday...November 15th)

I seem to have a problem with getting Saturday Stuff...posted on Saturday, but nevertheless, here it is.
I don't know this person, but she writes wonderful songs.

Complacency

I find myself at a loss. I'm a contributor to this blog, which is about worship, yet I find myself complacent every Sunday when the time comes to worship. My heart just isn't in the right place and I find myself mouthing the words. My mind is running a hundred miles an hour about worldly troubles and I lose myself in them. I'm not sincerely giving thanks like I should.

Now, how would I overcome this? I really don't know. Like I've already stated, I'm at a huge loss. How can I be so focused on the most menial of troubles and not be focused on how great God is? This puzzles me. I can't understand. I don't think anyone can. When we even get a glimpse of how huge God is (and we by no means can come close to understanding even a fraction of a percent of that) our worldly troubles don't make any sense.

Maybe I just stumbled upon the secret to bucking my complacency. I'll have to pray about it just like everything else. One thing I do know for certain, although I often forget this, is that God is always there by your side. I pray that you would remember that fact if you're hitting a rut in your worship. God is good, God is great, God transcends any superlatives that we can conceive. God is indescribable. 

May the Glory of God be with you now and forever, Amen.