Posts Tagged ‘ Die daily ’

Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 03/16/2014

Perhaps (and I mean “Absolutely”) we should approach our life in Christ like John the Baptizer:

To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
John 3:27-30, NIV

This is best accomplished through opening ourselves to the movement of the Holy Spirit. This is what brings honor and glory to God!

And perhaps, like Paul, we will also become smaller. (“Paul” meaning “small”)

 

pickled

i want to be like a pickle
that soaks up what is around
it seems to grow smaller and wrinkled
but it is filled with what surrounds
i want my God through His Spirit
to fill me and surround me
so that i become so saturated
that His Love is all that people see
that i might become smaller
His Spirit and mine infused
that i overflow with the Love of the Father
and live and speak a life of truth

2014
03/16
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God-Esteem

I grew up in the midst of a relatively new social experiment that has taken hold of our society.

Self-Esteem

I know many people who struggle with self-esteem and/or have struggled for a long time.

It sounds so good!

“Believe in yourself!”
“Find your self-worth!”
“You are beautiful!”
“You are precious!”
“Look within yourself to find happiness!”

It all sounds so great, until you get to that last one.

Self-esteemers are big on finding what is good in you and latching on to it. “It is the good in you that gives you a good self-esteem!”

My pastor recently shared with me some information he read. It looked at the claim that so many people are in prison because of low self-esteem. After surveying several inmates, it was deduced that they did not lack self-esteem. If they lacked anything it was a proper distinction between right and wrong or guilt over what they had done. Many were confident in and of themselves. The only real hit they took to their egos was that they were arrested.

Self-esteem was not the issue.

(We might even find many of them were told they are great and can do anything as they were growing up.)

It can also be tough overcoming low self-esteem you are constantly told about how great you are, how much you can accomplish, or you are basically good, and find out how untrue these can be.

Children may be told time and again that they can do whatever they want, yet poor children are often told that they are worthless by much of society.

So many are told they are able to do great things, yet they are not always given the opportunity to learn or try (for myriad of factors) and are left in their failure.

We are told that we are basically good, and then we struggle with our imperfections and failures.

And what do we find when we look inside ourselves?

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9

It is easy to see that most of us are not that good. We feel the truth of how not good we can be when we get cut off in traffic and yell at “YOU IDIOT!” We feel the truth of how messed up we are when we see injustice in our world and want to destroy those who perpetrate it. We feel the truth when we break a rule “because it is silly, anyway” (like when we drive 5 mph over the speed limit).

It gets worse when we read the next verse in Jeremiah:

“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Many of us might say, “Yeah, but I have not done as many bad things as others?”

a) But we still understand we are not as good as we like to think.
b) If we have to justify ourselves by comparison to others, that becomes a self-evident point to our not-goodness.
c) By God’s standard, all sinful deeds are choosing our own will over His, they are disobedience.

We have little within us to make us completely happy.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6

There is hope for us, though:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Colossians 2:20

Our worth is found through self-esteem. It is found when we esteem the Creator and Lover of our souls who saved us from ourselves!

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:4b-14, NIV

2014
03/11
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 01/05/2014

Resolve to discover wisdom, and find some wisdom at Proverbial Thought!

As I have discussed, I am not big on making New Year’s resolutions. I much prefer setting goals and meeting them.

That being said, here is today’s poem, inspired by this passage:

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:51, ESV

New Resolution

a new year has come around once again
and i see where i have fallen short
people are setting new resolutions
that last two weeks or one or two more
these resolutions do not make much sense
if they can barely get past the start

as Jesus resolutely turned His face
toward Jerusalem where He would die
i resolutely declare every day
i shall turn my face to His sacrifice
because Jesus resolved to take my place
giving my life to Him is worth the price

2014
01/05
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 07/14/2013

Live in a life of wisdom by reading the thoughts at Proverbial Thought!

We have been offered new life in Christ, but sometimes we can forget and let our old life govern.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:14

 my zombie  

i killed myself when my God called me
my old self is now deceased
but as i live this life i have
the death i lived in tries to come back
it is like voodoo has been done on my flesh
making the old me an annoying pest
though that life is dead and gone
it seems to forget a new life has begun

2013
07/14
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 04/07/2013

Storms may come, but the wisdom can help you get through! Get some wisdom today from Proverbial Thought.

This may be a poem more geared toward the Lenten season, but I think it is especially fitting for the Easter season (leading up to Pentecost). Lent is a time to deny ourselves to prepare for our coming Lord. Leading up to Pentecost, we must prepare for service for our Lord.

You could say we must live in a period of Lent … for the rest of our lives.

That is the theme of the poem for today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my spirit cries out to You

my heart aches for You

i feel the pride and arrogance

that tries to well up inside me

that could turn me from You

O gracious and loving Father

let us remove these feelings

make me truly Your saint

humble me more

as i humble myself before You

make me aware of

whatever is not of You in me

make a willing servant to this world

that all may know You are God

All praise the Almighty

the Creator of All

praises resound from the mouths

of those who seek Your righteousness

without You we are wicked

praise the Lord

the Lord of our salvation

2013
04/07
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The Hard Knocks Life: Choosing Trouble

Choose to find some wisdom through the commentary over at Proverbial Thought.

We have been looking at why we may experience difficulty in this life. Last week I discussed how God puts us through things in life and even allows our horrors to persist for a time so that we may show His mercy, compassion, and love to others going through similar circumstances. Two weeks ago I started off with describing how a life following God can bring troubles, through persecution or, like last week’s post said, circumstances to grow our faith and understanding.

This little post is about when we bring about our own troubles. It really is quite simple.

Each moment of each day we have a choice. It is basically the same choice offered to the Israelites after taking the promised land.

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15, NIV

More Simple Than We Think

Here is how simple it is:

Every morning we are faced with a decision. Every time we have to make a choice, we have two options (though those two options may have multiple choices, as well).

Do I serve God or my own selfish desires?

Do I act in love or for personal comfort and gain?

It is our own selfish choices that lead to fights and arguments.

It is our own selfish choices that lead to loss and confusion.

It is our own selfish choices that lead to pain and difficulty.

It is our own selfish choices that lead to sin and death.

Yet even these God can use for His glory and redeem for good, when we choose Him daily.

Ask any (ex-)con, any thief, any adulterer, any violent or gossiping or lying person who has been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and they will tell you the same.

This is not that all our troubles simply go away. Many times, we must still live with the consequences of our decisions.

We may not get our money returned to us.

We may not get our health returned to us.

We may not see justice served (at least, not they way we expect).

Though we can find peace.

We can learn to love.

We can become wise and compassionate.

We may even see our lives restored to greater than they were.

It will certainly be greater in the next life, which is what we earn through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After all, it was all of the selfish choices of each and every person who ever lived who put Jesus on the cross.

It was also shows that God chose to go to the cross for us.

Then Holy Spirit empowers us with strength, faith, wisdom, and grace to change, to choose God.

Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve: God or your own selfish desires.

2013
03/19
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Celebrating Re-birth

Before you read whatever I have to say, get some wisdom from Proverbial Thought!

Last year, I explained that this particular day is important to me. It is a day I celebrate with my friends and family.

To re-cap, I call it my Re-Birthday. It is the day I celebrate Christ getting a hold of my heart and my life! It has been 13 years to the day!

I make a cake. I share it with my loved ones … and even some I do not know particularly well, if at all.

Here is the thing …

I do not want presents on this day.

I do not want to go out to a restaurant on this day.

I do not want someone to make my favorite meal on this day.

I do not want an extravagant party thrown in my honor on this day.

Because …

Christ calls each of us to be a new creation.

Christ commands us to give up our own desires for His desires.

Christ asks us to be His ambassador of life, peace, and servanthood to this world.

Christ only wants to move through us to a lost and hurting world, to draw them closer to Him.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:17-24

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,     and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16

While I take a day every year to focus on the gift of grace, forgiveness, and life our Lord has given me, this is really a daily thing. We should all be ready each day to thank Jesus for loving us so much. People should be able to tell that you have been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

We should thank Him through our devotion to sharing His grace to the rest of the world, with every person we know.

Christ is the Light.

Let Him shine through you!

2013
01/09
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 11/04/2012

Two things:

a) Are you in a place where you need to set your clocks back an hour? Today is that day, my friends!
2) Do not forget to find some wisdom over at Proverbial Thought!

There is a constant struggle we endure, or at least that we should endure. A problem with many in the Church today is that they either never inspect their lives or do not go deep enough.

Where is your heart?

Are you more concerned with what the world thinks, or are you more concerned with what God thinks?

is my heart right

I cry out,

“Lord!”

“Lord!”

But is my heart right?

Am I going to be with You,

Or are You going to say

“I never knew you!”

O, my Lord,

Redeem my spirit from the pit.

Redeem my spirit from myself!

Teach my heart to seek You.

Teach my soul to yearn for You.

Lord,

Do not let me walk that broad path,

Thinking I am on the narrow path,

Just because I am calling You Lord.

Do not forget me.

Keep me from following my self.

Help me to always listen.

Thank You for Your Love.

Taken from deeper words for God from a simple man of God by daniel m  klem, page 186.

2012
11/04
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The Core Values: Cardiac Consecration

Here is your regular, friendly reminder to head over to Proverbial Thought for today’s devotional thought from Proverbs!

We now continue our look at the Four Core Facts and the Four Core Values, having examined the desperate pursuit of God and diligent prayer.  If you are interested in a more in-depth look at the Core Facts and the Core Values, look up my wonderful youth pastor, Jesse Bollinger, at Fervent Youth.

As I said before, all of the Core Facts and Values flow together. The Values are useless without the truth of the Facts. Without a desperate pursuit of God bathed in diligent prayer, there is little need for the third Core Value:

A Consecrated Heart

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8, NIV

This requirement of a person seems simple enough. To put it in overly simplistic terms, we are required to do good, be forgiving, and live life honestly … with God.

Why are these so difficult, then?

To do good, to act justly, often means to think of others before yourself and to sacrifice.

To be forgiving, to love mercy, often means showing love, grace, and, yes, forgiveness to those you feel are least deserving … or to whom you would rather not.

To live life honestly, to walk humbly, often means realizing you do not understand this world or yourself as well as you think. It always means realizing you are someone in need of a Savior.

These are the beginning steps to having a consecrated heart.

But what is the first step?

Why not start with what it really means to have a consecrated heart …

From Merriam-Webster:

1
: to induct (a person) into a permanent office with a religious rite; especially: to ordain to the office of bishop
2
a: to make or declare sacred; especially:to devote irrevocably to the worship of God by a solemn ceremony
b:to effect the liturgical transubstantiation of (eucharistic bread and wine)
c: to devote to a purpose with or as if with deep solemnity or dedication
3
: to make inviolable or venerable <principles consecrated by the weight of history>
I especially like definition 2a. In fact, the second definition is the whole point.

In fact, this may help sum up this post pretty quickly.

Having a consecrated heart simply means that you declare your heart sacred, that you set aside your heart to be devoted completely to worshiping God.

Simple, yes? Declare your heart as God’s own.

For it to really mean anything, as stated before, it requires the Core Facts and the other Core Values.

You need faith that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was necessary for your salvation. Without this knowledge, you can consecrate your heart to anything. It happens all around our world every day. Look at all of the religions, numbers of gods, lack of gods (and God), and every other belief, including in the self. Apart from God, we can do nothing, especially save ourselves from condemnation. (A simple, quick explanation: No God = No humans, thus we can do nothing without God.)

You need to have a desperation to know God, which comes from a desire to know truth. (Many seek truth, but not all seek to know truth.)

We grow more desperate to know God through diligent prayer. At the same time, diligent prayer usually grows out of a desperation. (Kind of like wanting to talk to that boy or that girl on the phone at all times of the day or night, because you can not seem to get enough. You find yourself falling ever more in love the more the two of you talk. You know what I mean 😉 .) With the desperate pursuit of God and diligent prayer, it can often be a chicken-or-the-egg dilemma. It always depends on the person, the circumstances, and the ways of God.

When you believe something so strongly, you dedicate your life to it. That is what a consecrated heart is. It is praying “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10, NIV)

And it leads to the fourth Core Value: A Focused Life

What do you believe? Why? What do you spend your time doing and with whom and about what do you talk? To what have you dedicated your life?

Why?

2012
09/18
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The Core Values: Desperate Pursuit

Here is your regular reminder to head over to Proverbial Thought for today’s devotional thought from the wisdom book!

One thing I ask of the LORD,  this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD  all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD  and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4

Last month we looked at The Four Core Facts: Jesus’ death on the cross, the despair of the Disciples, the change in their willingness to suffer and die for the Gospel, and the conversion of Paul. (Here is another reminder that if you are interested in a more in-depth look at these points and the Core Values, look up my wonderful youth pastor, Jesse Bollinger, at Fervent Youth.)

This is all well and good, but it is not enough to know these things. To quote an often used and out of context verse (including out of context here!), “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” Even demons believe God exists, that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus and the Disciples lived and died for Truth.

How can we do better than demons?

The Core Values, as with the Core Facts, grow out of each other. Therefore, today’s post will hit slightly on each of the other areas. Here is our first:

Desperate Pursuit of God

Believing and knowing requires action. How can we get to where we sincerely and honestly pray Psalm 27:4?

First is what every good Jewish boy and girl understood growing up: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

How do we get there?

It can be tough loving God with all that you are when you are constantly reminded of your past, of how you may have fallen short, or even because of your pride.

As Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

But forgetting can be difficult. We get so focused on it, and so many times it feels like the harder we try to forget the more imprinted it becomes in our memory. (I will get back to this in the next Core Value)

We must learn what Jesus meant when He said “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).

As I have said time and again to our youth group, one of my favorite definitions of hate is “misdirected love,” or, as in this instance, “exponentially more love toward another.”

We need to get to a point where we desire to be with God so much that it is almost as if we hate our family and friends. This of course is impossible, because the closer we draw to God the more we will love others!

But this is what it takes. We have to focus so much on who God is that God is all we seem to think about throughout the day.

In my life, it took selling/donating most of my possessions and leaving home. I knew movies, things, and even some people were getting in the way of my relationship with God. It eventually led to ending an engagement to be married, losing my job, and going from Illinois to Arizona. It was kind of “go to the land I will show you” like Abram (Abraham) received from God in Genesis 12.

It is different for every person, but the key is that it takes an unbridled passion for God. It is like wanting that new toy, that new phone, that new car, that new dress, those shoes, that girl, that boy, that man, that woman, that home.

The only difference is that our desire becomes focused on learning about and falling in love with the Creator of the Universe and Lover of Humanity.

Why do you think the Bible refers to marriage so often when talking about God and us?

Next week is the second of the Core Values: Diligent Prayer

What thoughts do you have? How have you demonstrated a desperate pursuit of God in your life? What have I left out that you feel needs to be added?

2012
09/04
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