Thursday, April 21, 2011

Found

"For the Son of Man came to 
seek 
and to save what was lost."

This isn't going to be a long post. I just had to share this thought.

Most of the world has heard of Jesus. They know who He is. They know what He did. They know all of these facts about Him. But too often, I think that that's where the world stops. At the facts. I'm talking about non-believers and believers alike. Because the fact is, Jesus is the Son of God. The fact is, He came to rescue the world by dying for our sins. The fact is, He came to save the lost. But He is so, so much deeper than facts. Jesus' death didn't just clear our sins for that time. His death and resurrection carries throughout the rest of time and eternity. I read that verse, Luke 19:10, the other day, and it hit me hard (again) just how personal and intimate Jesus is. He doesn't just wait for us to accept His salvation. He seeks. He pursues. He comes to find us. Even when we don't want Him, He seeks us. Even when we deny Him, He pursues us. Even when we screw up big time, He comes after us! That's not a fact of some far away or impersonal God. That's the TRUTH about a passionate, intimate God who wants nothing less than all of us. His Love is untameable, ungovernable, wild, passionate, unconditional, jealous, intimate, and ETERNAL.

Ahh! I'm so overwhelmed with my Savior who SEEKS ME.


The Best Is Yet To Come...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Words

I felt like sharing some of my favorite quotes. Enjoy! :)

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who are alive!"


"When you walk to the edge of all the light you have, and you take the first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen: there will be something solid for you to stand upon, or you will be taught to fly."

"I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit."

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of the unknown is strength undefeatable."

"I could more easily contain Niagara Falls in a teacup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God."


"And the day came when the wish to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in."

"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else."

"The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for."

"When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."


"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”

"A  girl should be so lost in God that a man should have to search God to find her."

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
"The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not the answer."

"I'd much rather be a woman than a man. Women can cry, they can wear cute clothes, and they are the first to be rescued off sinking ships."

“It’s not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”



"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you in some way. You just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."

"Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality." 

"Hate has a reason for everything. Love is unreasonable."

"I haven't failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."

"The only thing standing between me and greatness is me."

"We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, but to create something that will."

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." 

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."


"Speak your mind---even if your voice shakes."

"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent."

"The man who can't dance thinks the band is no good."

"Not all who wander are lost."

"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."

"Treat people as though they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming."

"It is such a secret place, the land of tears."


"Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them."

"Blaze with a fire that is never extinguished."

"Nowhere is our vision more distorted than when we turn it on ourselves."

"As many times as I have experienced such lonely passings, I still don't understand how, with so many people on this planet, so many die alone."

"Don’t take life too seriously; you’ll never get out alive."

"Everybody is somebody else’s weirdo."

"Love is like pin the tail on the donkey: you don't know what you're doing, you don't know where you're going, and when you get it, everyone else knows."

"There is no room for sparks--show her lightning."


"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it."

"Pure love is a willingness to give without a thought of receiving anything in return."

"Whoever has loved knows all that life contains of sorrow and joy."

"Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds."

"It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end."

"You were once wild here; Don't let them tame you!"

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you could never do."

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

"I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all….Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture..."


"Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken."

"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage--pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically--to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside. The enemy of the 'best' is often the 'good.'"

"Let go of the past and go for the future. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagined."

"For two people in a marriage to live together day after day is unquestionably the one miracle the Vatican has overlooked."


"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live a day without you."

"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."

"Significant relationship prove there worth and depth not in calm seas, but when the storms roll in.  How else would you ever know if the boat has leaks?  I guess you could live in your comfort cave and never experience anything that is real, but that feels more like prisonAssuredly, that is prison."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

"Always remember, it’s simply not an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons."




The Best Is Yet To Come...




Monday, April 4, 2011

Yes You Have

Every tree and every stone
Every rushing wind that moans
They sing Your praise
My God, they sing Your praise
Every star and open sky
Tell of Your glory divine
They shout Your praise
They shout Your praise



  





You've stolen my heart
Yes, You have
You've stolen my heart
Yes, You have
You've wiped away the stains
And broke away the chains
Yes, You have












With Your love, You set me free
Through Your nails, gave me liberty
So I'll sing Your praise
My God, I'll sing Your praise
Oh, with Your love
Your forgave my sins
Forgot my past and brought me back again
So I'll sing Your praise
I'll sing Your praise



 






If I ascend into the sky
Or hide behind the night
I cannot run, Your love is chasing me
If I fall into the sea
Your hand will rescue me
No one will take Your place
Because













This is all for You
Yes, this is all for You
You're the King of the world
I can't escape Your love
You're the King of the world






You've stolen my heart
Yes, You have
You've stolen my heart
Yes, You have
You've wiped away the stains
And broke away the chains
Yes, You have






The Best Is Yet To Come...




Saturday, April 2, 2011

Concern vs. Compassion

Concern: to relate to; be connected with; be of interest or importance to; affect

Compassion: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, usually accompanied by an action to alleviate the suffering.

There are a lot of tragic and horrible things that happen in the world everyday. Starvation. Diseases. Accidents. Slavery. Murders. Rapes. Abuse. Divorces. Bullying. Homelessness. Poverty. The list goes on. It's easy to look at the world and say, "God, where are You?" But you know what I think His response is?

"No, where are you?"

As believers, God has left it up to us to be His hands, His feet, His love, His light. He commissioned us. He commanded us. What are we doing with His commission and commandment?
I know I've said it before, but I love how the Lord went about choosing His disciples. They were all people that we can relate with. They were all stupid sometimes. They were all prideful sometimes. They were all wrong sometimes. They had good intentions. They were just figuring things out along their way.
This is in Matthew 14, where Jesus feeds the five thousand. Jesus had just gotten news of John the Baptists death.

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
   18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

I read this the other day, after hearing a sermon about the difference between God's heart and our hearts. Jesus had just gotten tragic news of his good friends death. He withdrew to be alone and grieve. But even in the midst of tragedy and heartbreak, Jesus still had compassion on the people and met their needs. He forgot Himself. As the evening continued, the disciples thought about the people and how they must be getting hungry. They were concerned for them. Concern is a good feeling to have. But if all you have is concern, then all you have is a feeling. Jesus went further than to be concerned for them. He had compassion on them, which led Him to an action to help them Himself.

I wonder...how many times are Christians just concerned with the worlds affairs? How often are we just concerned with our own church family? Concern alone is just a feeling. We need to be like Jesus and be moved to compassion. If there is a need, and I have the resources or power to meet that need and I don't, that's a problem. In the beginning of the church, the church family was described like this:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

No one was in need! No one was alone! No one wondered how they were going to be taken care of, or how they were going to eat, or pay, or live. They took care of each other. They had compassion on each other, just like Jesus. They didn't think about how inconvenient it might be to offer a room or some food or their time. Convenience has nothing to do with Christ.

 I know I'm guilty of this sometimes. I know I've allowed myself to stop at concern, feeling sorry or touched or broken for another people, but doing nothing about it. I know I've tried to even stop myself on purpose because I know that compassion will mean that I have to do something I might not want to do. I'm not saying that we should give all of our money to everyone, or use all of our time trying to meet other peoples needs. We all have our own lives to live too, with responsibilities and committments. But if it's in my power to do something and I have something to offer that someone needs but I'm not giving it, I'm missing something. The world knows exactly what Christians are supposed to do, make no mistake about it. And when we don't do them, we disappoint the world. Believers and non-believers alike. I can talk all day about the state of the world and how horrible I feel about it. I can pray all day about the tragedies and heartbreak that go on around me, and praying is good. But "the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." God wants me to be His hands and feet. God gives to us all the time, hoping we'll give it all away.

Henri Nouwen once said,Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it."

I don't want to disappoint the world because I'm full of talk and no action. I don't want to let down my church family when someone is in need and I have the means to meet that need, but don't. I want to be compassion driven, like my Jesus.




The Best Is Yet To Come...