Follow You

"And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10

Good song--inspiring! You should take a listen :)

Be Lifted or Hope Rising

Job Chapter 1. It is amazing. Read it. I know, I know you know the story.

Read it again. Go deeper.

It is life changing.

In the first chapter in Job it says: "Now there was a day when the sons of God [angels, perhaps] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, 'From where do you come?' Then Satan answered the Lord and said ' From roaming about on the earth and walking around it.'" (6-7)

First of all, we just read in Job that Satan is roaming around the earth among God's people looking for oppertunities to be a hinderance. (On the same note, 1 Peter 5:8 also says: "Be of sober spirit, be on alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls arund like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.")

Then in verse 8, scripture says: "The Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.'"

I think this is neat, in His own almighty way, that God initiated the testing of Job. It is mind blowing, to me, that such a gracious God would initatie such a thing, but in a way these trials we are put through are a gift, using suffering to purify us and prove us faithful. This ultimately should make our faith stronger so that we may delight in the Lord. It's a hard concept to grasp, but it is so neat.

In verse 11 Satan tells God: "..he will surely curse You to Your face." which is so awesome because Job doesn't. He rejoices in verse 21: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord"!

The devil, the world, they would LOVE to see us fall. They delight in our struggles. But if we keep faith and use those struggles to ultimately make our faith stronger, they lose...Satan loses.

What is even more mind blowing is that in verse 22 it says that through everything he went through, Job didn't even sin! Can you even imagine?!

If you know me well enough, you probably know that one of my favorite chapters in scripture is James 1. Verses 2-4, which I'm sure you will hear me refer to a million more times in the years to come, says: "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Here we have it--the result of endurance is PERFECTION. And just in case you didn't know, the Greek word translated as perfect in the passage means "mature, developed fully." Which I think is a neat way to think of God's meaning of perfection as "fully developed" and not our own worldly idea of perfect.

Another of my favorite passages is Romans 5:1-5 and it says "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (and here's my favorite part...!) And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, know that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

I LOVE that. So basically in a nutshell:

Tribulation --> Perseverance --> Character --> HOPE (that does not disappoint!!)

I don't know if it's just me, but I think this verse is so cool. Because GOd assures us that we can have reason to hope.

So I know this was really long, but these passages never get old to me and I always can find encouragement with them, so I thought I'd share the wealth.

Holiday

Christmas Break is already 1 week old, and I have spent 1 week with no To Do List and have survived quite nicely. Shocker? I think so. However, I think I am going to go nuts without some sort of goals for the rest of the break. So rather than a "To Do List," I will make a list of goals:

1. Finish the book I started, "The Hole In Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns.

2. Lose 6 pounds (Is that even possible to do between Thanksgiving and New Years? I guess I'll find out.)

3. Spend some time writing: Send out letters, journal, and perhaps even write a blog or two.

4. Sell something semi-valuable on Ebay. Easy money.

5. Play tennis. "It's too cold" is a really great excuse sometimes, but it shouldn't stop me from playing.

6. Art. I want to make some art to sell at Discovery. Or to give as gifts. I just want to make use of all the useless crap I compulsively buy at Hobby Lobby.

That's a start. And without mentioning my goals for Mario Kart. Oh wait..