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Thursday, 17 July 2008
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GodSmilesWhenWeUseOur Abilitiesby Rick Warren
He has shaped each person in turn; now he watches everything we do. Psalm 33:15 (MSG)
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After the flood, God gave Noah these simple instructions: ‘‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything” (Genesis 9:1, 3 NIV).
God said, “It’s time to get on with your life! Do the things I designed humans to do. Make love to your spouse. Have babies. Raise families. Plant crops and eat meals. Be humans! This is what I made you to be!”
You may feel that the only time God is pleased with you is when you’re doing “spiritual” activities like reading the Bible, attending church, praying, or sharing your faith. And you may think God is unconcerned about the other parts of your life. Actually, God enjoys watching every detail of your life, whether you are working, playing, resting, or eating. He doesn’t miss a single move you make. The Bible tells us, “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives” (Psalm 37:23 NLT).
Every human activity, except sin, can be done for God’s pleasure if you do it with the attitude of praise. You can wash dishes, repair a machine, sell a product, write a computer program, grow a crop, and raise a family for the glory of God. Like a proud parent, God especially enjoys watching you use the talents and abilities he has given you. God intentionally gifted us differently for his enjoyment. He has made some to be athletic and some to be analytical. You may be gifted at mechanics or mathematics or music or a thousand other skills. All of these activities can bring a smile to God’s face.
You don’t bring glory or pleasure to God by hiding your abilities or by trying to be someone else. You only bring him enjoyment by being you. Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting God’s wisdom and sovereignty in creating you. God says, “You have no right to argue with your Creator. You are merely a clay pot shaped by a potter. The clay doesn’t ask, ‘Why did you make me this way?’” (Isaiah 45:9 CEV).
In the film Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” Later he says, “To give up running would be to hold him in contempt.” There are no unspiritual abilities, just misused ones. Start using yours for God’s pleasure.
God also gains pleasure in watching you enjoy his creation. He gave you eyes to enjoy beauty, ears to enjoy sounds and music, your nose and taste buds to enjoy smells and tastes, and the nerves under your skin to enjoy touch. Every act of enjoyment becomes an act of worship when you thank God for it. In fact, the Bible says, “God generously gives us everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17 TEV).
God even enjoys watching you sleep! When my children were small, I remember the deep satisfaction of watching them sleep. Sometimes the day had been filled with problems and disobedience, but asleep they looked contented, secure, and peaceful, and I was reminded of how much I loved them.
My children didn’t have to do anything for me to enjoy them. I was happy to just watch them breathing. As their little chests would rise and fall, I’d smile, and sometimes tears of joy filled my eyes. When you are sleeping, God gazes at you with love, because you were his idea. He loves each one of us as if there were only one of us.
Parents do not require their children to be perfect, or even mature, in order to enjoy them. They enjoy them at every stage of development. In the same way, God doesn’t wait for you to reach maturity before he starts liking you. He loves and enjoys you at every stage of your spiritual development.
You may have had unpleasable teachers or parents as you were growing up. Please don’t assume God feels that way about you. He knows you are incapable of being perfect or sinless (1 John 1:8). The Bible says, “He certainly knows what we are made of. He bears in mind that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14 GW).
What God looks at is the attitude of your heart: Is pleasing him your deepest desire? This was Paul’s life goal: “More than anything else, however, we want to please him, whether in our home here or there” (2 Corinthians 5:9 TEV).
When you live in light of eternity, your focus changes from “How much pleasure am I getting out of life?” to “How much pleasure is God getting out of my life?”
God is looking for people like Noah in the 21st century – people willing to live for the pleasure of God. The Bible says, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who want to please God” (Psalm 14:2 LB).
Will you make pleasing God the goal of your life? There is nothing that God won’t do for the person totally absorbed with this goal.
© 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved.
Friday, 18 April 2008
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RAN*DOM
- Ticket prices to the Dominican Republic from December 27 - January 5 are astronomical and we're booking in April! Sheeesh
- I've decided that I like Toby Lightman's song, "My Sweet Song". It has just enough twang to make me a fan and to not utterly detest it.
- Making your own font from your handwriting is a mini goal of mine. As is running a 5K, which I begin training for next week.
- There are alot of babies on the way. It seems pregnancy is the new trend.
- The month of May is bringing some awesome reunions. Now if only I could lose those 20 lbs....
- I also like Gavin DeGraw
- I'm in the final stages of buying a house. Settling is no longer the enemy.
- Dates with men named G_ _ _ _ don't seem to end well.
- Designing logos is quickly becoming a favored pasttime.
- On ChristianCafe, I search profiles of guys born in March and August 90% of the time. And you don't know it till you click on their profile. Very odd.
- I admire people who begin their own business. What courage!
- Being placed in the 26-30 category made me feel old. As did being called, "Ma'am" as opposed to "Miss" the other day.
- Are white pants/capris tacky?
- I'm missing my friend, Ian's, wedding that I haven't seen in over 8 years. Our relationship is like Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney's in My Best Friend's Wedding minus the attraction.
He is marrying a gal that he proposed to after a month of dating her. He's inspired me to believe, again, in the fact that God is able to work when we've fully surrendered our love lives to Him and also the fact that "when you know, you know"- I think my nephew, Erick, has the most perfect nose of anyone I've met.
- Minute Maid's Cranberry Cocktail is yummy. Also, I can see how Starbucks' Ice Tea Lemonade is going to be my signature Summer drink.
- Blunt, yet kind honesty is the absolute best policy.
- Winning trust and acceptance is an amazing feeling.
- Overwhelming tasks are just a reminder that our God is HUGE!
Sunday, 30 March 2008
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LOVESONGsarabareilles
Head under water,
And they tell me to breathe easy for a while.
The breathing gets harder, even I know that.
You made room for me but it’s too soon to see,
If I’m happy in your hands.
I’m unusually hard to hold on to.
Blank stares at blank pages.
No easy way to say this.
You mean well, but you make this hard on me.
I'm not gonna write you a love song,
'Cause you asked for it,
'Cause you need one, you see.
I'm not gonna write you a love song,
'Cause you tell me it's,
Make or breaking this.
If you’re on your way,
I'm not gonna write you to stay.
If all you have is leaving,
I’m gonna need a better reason to write you a love song today.
Today.
I learned the hard way,
That they all say things you want to hear.
My heavy heart sinks deep down under you,
And your twisted words, your help just hurts.
You are not what I thought you were.
Hello to high and dry.
Convinced me to please you.
Made me think that I need this too.
I’m trying to let you hear me as I am.
I'm not gonna write you a love song,
'Cause you asked for it,
'Cause you need one, you see.
I'm not gonna write you a love song,
'Cause you tell me it's,
Make or breaking this.
If you’re on your way,
I'm not gonna write you to stay.
If all you have is leaving,
I’m gonna need a better reason to write you a love song today.
Promise me you'll leave the light on,
To help me see with daylight, my guide, gone.
'Cause I believe there's a way you can love me because I say,
I won't write you a love song,
'Cause you asked for it,
'Cause you need one you see.
I'm not gonna write you a love song,
'Cause you tell me it's make or breaking this.
Is that why you wanted a love song,
'Cause you asked for it,
'Cause you need one you see.
I’m not gonna write you a love song,
'Cause you tell me it's make or breaking this.
If you’re on your way,
I’m not gonna write you to stay.
If your heart is nowhere in it,
I don’t want it for a minute.
Babe, I’ll walk the seven seas when I believe that there's a reason to,
Write you a love song today.
Today.
Wednesday, 06 February 2008
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DearFriend,IGotYourNoteby Jon Walker
"My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9a NLT)
Hi! I got your note saying you didn’t think you could do what God is telling you to do.
You may be surprised to hear me say this, but I agree! If God called you to do it, then you shouldn’t be able to do it without him. In fact, if you could do it without him, then it’s really not a God-thing.
I know you’re feeling that God is asking you to do something that works against your strengths. Honestly, friend, we both know there are other people we think could do it better, but what we think doesn’t really matter, does it? God’s mind on the matter – what he thinks – that’s the reality, the Gospel truth we live by. (Colossians 3:3)The fact is, God didn’t call other people to this task. He called you!
And he called you in spite of your weaknesses, doubts, and insecurities. In truth, your weaknesses are no surprise to God. You may try to hide them from others, but you can’t hide them from God. He created you; he created you with weaknesses (do you think he made amistake with you?); he created you with weaknesses in order to keep you on your knees before him.With you on your knees, dependent upon God, you are able to do all things through him who strengthens you. (Philippians 4:13-14)
Besides, if you’re like me, without these weaknesses to push you back to God, you’ll just get prideful. Wasn’t it our big brother Paul who said, “Now I take limitations in stride …. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (2 Corinthians 12:10 MSG)This is why God won’t allow you to use your weaknesses as an excuse for avoiding your mission or ignoring your purpose. Like the preachers say, “Where God guides, he provides.” If God is calling you to a monumental task, then he’ll equip you to complete the task –and that equipping includes the Holy Spirit working from inside you.
Be confident in this, “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6 NIV)
What does this mean?
· God’s strength flows into your weaknesses – Where you are weak, you become God-strong. “My strength comes into its own in your weakness ….” (2 Cor. 12:9 MSG)· God’s strength is your focus – Don’t think about how incapable you are for the task. See how immensely capable God is to work through you. As the VeggieTales character Junior Asparagus sings, “God is bigger than the bogeyman.” He’s bigger than anything you face, no matter how overwhelming it may appear to you. “It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness … and so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (2 Cor. 12:9-10 MSG)
· God created you to do good works – “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10 NIV)
Sunday, 27 January 2008
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COLOR
Annette and I spoke today of those who live within a black and white world. There are perfect margins, regulated talk, firm stands and no compromise. It's safe, predictable and much like a cesspool teeming with life-killing bacteria. There is little movement and, therefore, prime opportunity for weeds and indwelt bitterness to rise up and conquer.
The other extreme, then, is a world that promotes no limits. The sky, blue with potential, begins to overwhelm. The freedom it once promised becomes a trap for the mindless and undisciplined. So, herein lies the crux. We have a black and white world that allows for no variance and a colorful world that allows for no structure. Where is the medium? The happy medium even?
The key, and resulting battle, is compromise. The ability to see life from another's perspective without being completely converted. So, you give a little, take a little and in the end realize that there is a place for beautiful color within the lines and a place for structured masterpieces made possible through color. Compromise. Such a simple solution, such a complex transition. Are we powerless to change or unwilling to submit?
My muse for this discussion was an issue regarding what most would consider a battle of the sexes. Sadly, when you are a strong individual -male or female- there is this stigma attached that screams "Sexist"! Tis not always the case, you see. For arguments' sake, let's say that men are the structure and women are the color. The one can operate without the other. They can even operate effectively. Though I would hasten to add that their effectiveness could significantly increase by admitting that they need the natural gifts and talents of the others and, through compromise, begin to work harmoniously with one another.
I admire how Jesus lovingly exhorts his disciples in Mark 9:40 saying, "Do not stop him....for whoever is not against us, is for us." It's as though He's saying, '"C'mon, guys, set aside your own personal differences and ask yourself, "Do I react to this person because they defy Scripture or because they defy tradition?"' In the past few months I have had to ask myself the same thing and have since created a strong aversion to stubornness in the Church. To be legalistic is to be safe but the real test comes when you allow the Spirit to begin changing, moving and enlightening. It's a beautiful thing that we miss out on if we are too stubborn to see that God is much bigger than our differences.
TheGraceTheEmma
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- Name: Grace-Emma
- Country: Canada
- Metro: Kitchener
- Gender: Female
- Member Since: 4/18/2006
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