Perfection: Matthew 5:48 and Isaiah 41:13

Hi! (:

Two senerios to keep in mind today: our standing with God every day...
and where we are with our exams.

First of all, we have to identify the problem.  Problem?  What problem?  *smirks*
Our doubts from our un-perfect actions.

"We have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws." - Daniel 9:5 
     Worries constantly plague us and fear of failure or the illusion of it weigh us down.  Can you feel it?  A heavy heart pierces the soul and tears threaten all the day long.  When tired out and heads down, the love of God and His healing peace can seem unobtainable.  To say it lightly, we have not been perfect.

Good news comes quickly (:
"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit," - Titus 3:5 
"Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death." - Psalm 68:20 

No matter what offense lies on your conscience or worries about the future, God places His holy name and guardianship on you.  The past evil deeds of our hands only glorify the Lord's works even more.  Jesus Christ conquered the darkest place so that we should not fear the dark voice of Satan's calling or the dark of the old nature of rebellion that was inside of us.

But we still sin.  We still rebel.  We're scared.  We want to please God by living in accordance with His commands, living in a way that the world was meant to work.    But we don't.

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." - 1 John 2:1 

Our own defense doesn't rely on how many prayers we pray for forgiveness.  Jesus talks to the Father specifically for you about the worries that plague you most.  Jesus has got it, He's worked through it and He saved you.  Your past, your present and your worries for the future are already forgiven.  We don't need to be afraid of living a holy life.

"who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time," - 2 Timothy 1:9 
Therefore, we don't need to be afraid of failing.  

Since "God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1) and "He saves you from destruction." (Psalm 103:4)  "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) 

Matthew 5:48 isn't as daunting now that God reminds us that:  "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  (Romans 10:13)  God's promises are strong and as you go into the weekend with more time alone with your thoughts and doubts, remember Isaiah 41:13.   

 Isaiah 41:13 "For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."

Late New Year's Resolution

The title pretty much states my purpose.

"Be still, and know that I am God;" - Psalm 46:10


Since it is midterms week, to be continued...

Death for Life

Hi!

Thanks for hanging in while I try to make sense out of all the thoughts I've had.  They just refuse to complete themselves.  Should have called this a sporadic (in more ways than one) thought blog.

         Anyways, on to today (onto or on to, anyone?).  I've been familiarizing myself with TWLHA or To Write Love on Her Arms.  In the story of their beginnings, they write about a cocaine addict.  In this story is possibly the best example of the Gospel I have ever heard.


     "She hands me her last razor blade, tells me it is the one she used to cut her arm and her last lines of cocaine five nights before. She's had it with her ever since, shares that tonight will be the hardest night and she shouldn't have it. I hold it carefully, thank her and know instantly that this moment, this gift, will stay with me. It hits me to wonder if this great feeling is what Christ knows when we surrender our broken hearts, when we trade death for life."  (www.twloha.com/vision/)

         Our God is pretty great to incorporate His Gospel into our lives to lead us to great realizations.  Here's some correlation.  

      "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." - 1 John 1:14  Jesus took on our flesh, wrestled with the tempter and took the responsibility and the pain of our sin - all starting with his birth into flesh.    

   "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:21   God had no business taking our sin away from us.   He not only took the razor from us but wrenched it out of our ungrateful hands.

God does so many incredible things that its just unfathomable!  Maybe this was just one aspect of this particular story, but a part of the great story of the universe!

Happy prepping for midterms, everyone  :)

-Sarah 

One of the Most Complex Issues In Life

Apologies for making you think but...

Why does tea lose its appeal when it turns cold?

Beauty. Esther and Psalms 24:7

Hello, hello!    

Today, let's have a little talk about beauty.  I'll say it more clearly.  Hi girls!  ;)  This post is going to mean more to you.  

How bout a look at the story of Esther?  That deals with beauty, right?  This has to be one of my better ideas I've had today.  But we're going to have to talk about Vashti too.  Sorry.

A drunk Xerxes holding a big shabang "commanded... to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at." (Esther 1:beginning of 10, 11) 

Well.  That doesn't sound very great to me.  If all her beauty did for her was to be shown off to a bunch of drunk men... no thank you. Then, Xerxes dumped Vashti, his queen, for being stubborn and not wanting to entertain drunk men.  That accomplished alot.  


But, I might say as we continue the story, "good" things can also be given to those who have beauty.  On to Esther!  Once she was chosen to appear before the king, "she pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food."   That sounds pretty great to me but what good did it do?  The story of Esther would be pretty boring and pointless if it was only about beauty. 

Recap:  Good things and bad things to those that have beauty.  There's no guarantees.  By itself, it's fickle.  

New question: Does God have beauty?  Have a look at Psalms 27:4

"One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple."

  This song of David is what I've been trying to work towards with this blog post.  I think it's pretty amazing - here's why.  The only, the singular thing the great King David wanted was to be with the LORD.  Specifically, "to gaze on the beauty of the LORD."   Why do we want beauty or beautiful things?  To make us happy.  But why should we want to be near God?  So that we may be given joy.   You and I have a choice.   We can pretend that fickle things will make us happy, or we can kneel at the base of the throne of God.  This is where we are guaranteed fulfillment.

The truth is, that's why we want beauty.  But in the pursuit of it, we've all been disappointed. The problem is that we still haven't been disillusioned.  We still live like beauty is a thing that must be obtained.  Believing otherwise is a daily battle.  Today, choose to be filled up by your Savior.  

-Sarah  


 

 

Mark 9:24; Ephesians 2:8

Hello again! 

    In order to keep (somewhat) focused here, I'm going to paraphrase the story of Mark 9:14-29.  
   Once upon a real time, there was a demon possessed boy, who had a very caring  father.  He had done anything and everything to help his son, even asking Jesus' disciples to exorcise the demon.   When they failed, this created a big commotion as to why - time for Jesus to intervene. The father begs Jesus to help 'if he can', "and Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” (v. 23) Heres the part I want you to focus on: "Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe; help my unbelief!'" (Mark 9:24)

     Even if you've heard v.24 before, it might still catch you by surprise.  Can someone believe and still have unbelief?  The fault here lies in my wording.  We don't innately have all faith or no faith, but we are given it by God.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God," (Ephesians 2:8)  All things are gifts from God and these two things, grace and faith, are no exception.  We're not to judge if we believe enough or are "good" enough Christians.  The LORD gives us the portion of faith we need - its a gift.  We should be thankful and rejoice over what we have received, not mourn over what we lack.  

  Even with the man's unbelief, Jesus still cured his son.  Even with our unbelief, our heavenly Father still provides for us and loves us.  But if we trust in the belief the Holy Spirit instills in us, God does amazing things! 

    I wish you peace and courage that comes from our Savior in the knowledge of our salvation.

Love,
Sarah

Musings - His Love

Hi again!

      As I was cleaning up a death cocktail of a biology experiment, I focused my thoughts to the communion hymn that had been floating around my head all day.  The only distinct words I could remember were "feed us, Lord" at the beginning of the chorus.  You all know how annoying it, when you can remember all of the tune, but not the words?  So, the only way I was going to resolve this was to sit down and think about the words.  (Google is useless in these cases.)  Instead of remembering more words from the song, which I knew was asking God for communion, "feed us, Lord" and "feed us, Lord" cycled over and over in my mind until  FEED ME, FEED ME blared threateningly.

Ouch.

How in the world has God survived in the same universe with us humans, screeching and pleading, but more often demanding for 24/7, 7 days a week... for approx. 7 thousand years?  We can barely put up with the thought of each other's presence sometimes.  Now try adding up every person in the universe for all of the years past, present and future, but not only an image of them,but their thoughts, desires, natures, all their actions and everything they didn't do... in its entirety.  Again, the mere thought of it is overwhelming to us.  And we're sinful.  Our natures are contrary to God's.   Why on earth haven't our "FEED ME, FEED ME"s caused God to forsake us?  Why not?   With God's perfect nature vs our sinful nature and his infinite knowledge of what comes out of this sin, why is He did be become our Savior?

Maybe I should have labelled this a rant post instead of a musings post.  But then I hope this certainly won't end in a state of despair.

The best answer I've got is... He love us!  At first, this seems flat.  This seems too short.  Wheres the syllogisms and logical connections, stepping from one truth to another?  Then I have to remind myself, God isn't limited by logic.  His power, presence and understanding surpasses these things.  But ya know what?  His Spirit is powerful!  He helps us to embrace the things He tell us in His Word!  Isn't that great?  We're not blind or frustrated or confused - we believe!

Back to God. He loves us!  He love accepts even our blunt and angry cries, but He doesn't leave them or us.  He changes us into children that know His voice, His love and follow it.

1. We're ugly, puny and sinful
2. He loves us.
3. He laid his stake down and eternally claimed us.
4. He changes us into beautiful, pure, loving children of God who think His thoughts after Him.

So.. maybe God's plan is the best.  Maybe I shouldn't be frustrated or unhappy. I honestly couldn't think of a better happy ending than that.

Thank you for journeying with me, even through the crazy moments!
Love,
Sarah