...Discipleship

This wasn't on my first list, but I decided to add it.  Lately, I've realized what a lukewarm Christian I've become. I'm not sure where it is, but in the New Testament...somewhere, God says that he dislikes Lukewarm people so much that he literally SPITS them out of his mouth.  Can you imagine God spitting us out, like venom or a bad taste? The truth is, lukewarms taste horrible.  We are like...the stinky moldy cheese of Jesus.

What is worse than a person that has learned a life changing truth, but sits on it and does nothing?  What's the point of this all if we don't let it change us?  This has convicted me a lot...I see a lot of new Christians set on fire for God and I remember when I was like that.  I was so encouraged and felt the need to tell others the Good News, but found the "hopelessness" of our world...a little depressing.  I think that all of us become extremely discouraged at some point in our lives and that defines how we work for God.  Some people (not me), after becoming so discouraged, turn to God right away, and persevere.  However, there are others...(me)...that get stuck in the mud.  We've been hurt before and don't want to get hurt again, or we just lack the motivation to actually do ANYTHING.  That's where I've been lately...just stuck in the mud (is this a good title for a book?) and I don't know really how to get out myself.  I can try and change or turn over a new leaf, but that's not going to be permanent.

Just going off on a tangent before, has anyone ever played the version of tag called stuck in the mud?  It's this game where someone obviously tags you, but instead of becoming it, you get "stuck in the mud."  How does this relate to our Christian lives?  We all at sometime get stuck in this mud of the things we've done, our lack or forgiveness and just general poop of the world.  We are stuck in the poop/mud.  The beautiful part of this game...is that to survive, you need someone to save you.  Someone has to get on their hands and knees and crawl through the proverbial mud and poop so that you can play the game again.  Is that not amazing?!?  Jesus did that for us!!! He crawled through the mud for us.  But this game would be so idiotic if we just sat there....right?  Once we are unfrozen from the mud, we are supposed to RUN as fast as we can away from what got us there in the first place, and run towards freedom.  But we don't, or at least I didn't.  I decided that I didn't deserve to be saved, which is true for everyone :/ and ended up just sitting there like an idiot.  I can see everyone else around me running, laughing and playing.  But I sit there...hmmm....and while I'm pondering whether or not to leave, the tagger realizes that I'm unfrozen and gets me again...this is where it gets even more beautiful...We are sitting in the mud, and get tagged again and again after being rescued from our fate, but no matter how many times we fail to realize the depth of the sacrifice, that same guy comes back around to get us out of the mud when we call to him.  My point is:  We can sit in the mud and think about ways we could change once we are saved, but we need to be saved FIRST.

So, while I was sitting in the mud wondering whether or not I truly deserve it, the tagger comes back AGAIN and AGAIN relentlessly pursuing me, wanting me to lose.  But, God's love is greater.  He saved me multiple times.  And now I'm deciding to get out of this mud of my life, the poop, crap...whatever, and run towards freedom.

How can we disciple people if we live in this mud?  We can call out to them from where we stand, but to actually show them Jesus' love, we need to be saved, and then go crawl on our knees through the mud for others.  We need to earn their ears and show them what sacrifice truly is. This sequence is quintessential.  You can't skip around, or do it backwards.  One comes before the other.


 God's crawled through already, are you going to run towards Him?

Challenge: Make a list of people this week that God has put in your life, and you are far enough into a relationship with them to talk to them about Jesus.  Make the list, and then pray about it.   Prayer works.

Word Of The Year

"I have written your words in my heart, that I might not sin against you" Psalm 119:11

Someone once said that God is constantly speaking to us.  He speaks through our opportunities, failures, through prayer and music and through others.  But sometimes God just lays something on our hearts, like a word.  Although I thought this idea was pretty cool, (I mean its the CREATOR of the universe) I always thought that when God gives someone a "word" for the year, it was always an old lady thing, just like playing shuffle board or waking up early on purpose.  Doesn't it sound like a grandma kind of thing to say, "God gave me a word this year"....?  No offense to old ladies and Grandmas...(I have the utmost respect for you :)) So, when a word came to me...I thought my old lady-self must be kicking in.  

Isn't God so great?  He puts everything into a relationship, knowing he won't get half of it back.  At the beginning of this year, I was convicted to take inventory of my life...a scary scary thing.  So many things seem to make me frustrated, and anxious.  I'm a senior next year already, and I am supposed to go to college?!?!  Classes seemed to be getting harder (little did I know that AP Psych was on its way!) and life in general was just becoming busier.  During my inventory, I realized how many things I needed to work on this year...mainly my lack of effort in relationships.  To be honest, it is not hard for me to make friends, but keeping friends....that's the trick.  Just like working out, my relationship or any other struggle is NEVER going to get better unless you work at it.  This made me think, and I realized this lack of effort penetrated everything/everyone including my relationship with God.  I expected God to come running after me when I fell away from Him, or that He would just maintain our relationship and I could take a break....(fyi it doesn't work).  Now, not to sound like God is not all loving and forgiving, but if we aren't interested in having a relationship, God's not gonna make us.  According to Mr. Whittaker from Adventures in Odyssey, he's a "gentleman."  Also, in Romans chapter one talks a lot about people that fell from God, and that He gave them over to their desires.  However, being a human...I am really good at finding a problem, but what could I do to fix it?  God provided!  The word that came to mind for me was PURSUE, and I have slowly (but surely) been weaving this word into my life.  

Last night I came up with a list of things to pursue-

• freedom
• dependence
• confidence
• love 
• suffering
• perseverance
• character
• faith
• hope 
• relationships
• trust
• discipline
• faithfulness
• servanthood
• humility
• compassion
• forgiveness
• running away
• patience
• non-believers
• God's will

and I've decided that as God and I work on one, or many of them at the same time, that I would blog about how He has worked them into my life.

I want to be like the Church in Thessalonica, "⁸ The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere" 1 Thessalonians 1:8