A Deeper Meaning! September 24, 2010

We all love songs and music!  The lyrics and musicality definitely have an impact on us, and it changes how we look at things.  Now like everything, this can be good or bad.  Lately, as I’ve been listening to some Christian music, God has really been speaking to me through the songs.  Just like reading the Bible, certain lyrics have just jumped out at me, and really have gotten me thinking about what they mean.  One of the songs that I’ve been dwelling on lately is:

This song has so much meaning in it.  What the verses talk about are so powerful, and a totally new way to look at what our relationship with God should be like.  My favorite part of the song is:

To know you is to ache for more than ordinary
To know you is to look beyond the temporary
To know you is believing that you will be enough
Cause there’s no life without you!!!

God wants us to give Him complete control of our life and believe that he is all we need because only in Him do we live and move and have our being!

Another song that I’ve been listening to, takes a similar approach:

What I love about this song is what the message is in the chorus:

It’s gotta be…
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling in love

God doesn’t want our relationship with him to be rigid, and a routine, but he wants it to be an informal relationship.  Something that is fluid, moving, and always happening!  I challenge you guys to desire a relationship like this with Christ.  He doesn’t want anything more than us putting Him first, and determining to connect with him so effortlessly.

Book Review: Following God’s Plan For Your Life July 21, 2010

This book was the first book that I have read by Kenneth Hagin.  Based on how much knowledge he has, I knew that his books would have a lot of wisdom as well.  It’s always refreshing to refill your mind with biblical thoughts and ideas.  But just reading books that are filled with God’s Word, isn’t enough.  Application is what really matters when it comes to becoming more like Christ through what you’ve read.  This book was a run through of how God can and will lead us.  The book was divided up into 7 parts with various topics such as running our race, obeying God, and being examples to others through Love.  Here are a few of my highlights from the book:

• Running Our Christian Race – Hebrews talks about running the race that is set before us, and throwing off anything that easily entangles us.  I have heard this before, but what stuck out the most is where it talks about the “great cloud of witnesses”.  I always have thought of this as how Christians should be examples of God to others so we must live our lives according to Christ since others are always watching our actions.  Although this is definitely a good way to view this, Kenneth Hagin puts it another way.  He says that the witnesses mentioned are actually a “grandstand of people” including Bible heroes, cheering us along as we run our race.  This really excited me to think about how Abraham, Paul, and Moses are cheering us on from above while we live our lives for Christ.  I had never thought about it that way before, and I thought that was awesome!
• Find your own personal race – God has a specific plan and purpose for our lives and we should run the track that God has placed us on.  Don’t compare your race to someone else’s and try to copy how they are living their lives.  God had a uniquely-made race that fits you perfectly and it’s our job to do our best and follow his special plan for us.
• Be Willing – God has so much potential for us, and for us to limit God and not be willing to do the task he’s placed before use, we are disobeying God.  In order for God to develop us, we must be willing to do anything for God and not ignore what he has asked us to do.
• Being Recognized By Our Glow – Because we are Christians, we are being recognized whether we want to be or not.  If we are living a true Christian life devoted to God, His light will shine through us onto others.  But if we act differently around different groups of people, His light in us will diminish because we are ashamed of being an example.  This glow in us is recognizable and it is important for us to maintain the glow by reading God’s Word and spending time with God everyday.  This way that light won’t burn out but stay lit because we are doing our part.  Let God do the rest, and make sure you don’t limit His light from coming out of you.

Those were just a few things that I thought were great take-aways from this book.  If you would like a refresher on how God leads and directs us, than this is awesome book.  Make sure that you don’t read a too much at once because there is a lot of information to soak in.  This was an overall good book and I would rate it an 8 out of 10.

How I Was Impacted…. July 2, 2010

This summer, I had the opportunity to attend Impact Summer Camp.  That week was such an awesome time to grow closer to others and most importantly to God.  I have never enjoyed a camp as much as I did this year.  But besides the activities, meals, and hangin’ out time, the services were extremely impacting.  Josh Joines was the speaker for the week and he spoke on the topic of our heart.  More specifically, a change of heart.  I think that everyone at the camp had something that needed to be changed in their heart.

The thing that stood out to me the most, was LOVE.  Not just LOVE towards ourselves, and towards God, but LOVE towards others.  So many times throughout our day we have hundreds of opportunities to reach others with LOVE.  But do we really always use those opportunities to impact others.  One thing that Josh said was that “LOVE should be our defining mark to others; that is how we should be identified.”  The Bible puts it in this way: Your LOVE for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.  -  John 13:35 (NLT)  When you read that verse, it doesn’t tell you do something that is impossible or hard to do.  Instead, it is one of the simplest tasks there is: LOVE one another.

Within this concept, Josh also talked about LOVING the UNLOVABLE.  This is something that is hard for most people to do because of your relationship with someone.  Whether they hurt you, or you just don’t enjoy being around them, Jesus commands us to LOVE them.  I have heard sermons about this before, but it struck me really hard this week.  Josh said that “Our decision to love others should never be based upon whether they deserve it or not.  God always LOVES us even though we are UNLOVABLE sometimes.”  We need to have a heart of compassion towards others.  This in turn enables us to LOVE those whom we may dislike, even when we don’t want to.  Josh said that “Compassion is not a feeling but an attitude.  When we have compassion we have the same attitude of Jesus Christ.”  Part of Philippians 2:1 which talks about the attitude of Christ asks us: Are your hearts tender and compassionate?   We need to have compassion rooted deeply within us, because out of that flows the same kind of LOVE that Jesus had for everyone.  If we want to be imitators of Christ, we must have compassion and LOVE.

Since I have been home from camp, this has been constantly brought to my mind.  It is now becoming a daily occurrence, and a decision that I can choose to make everyday.  I’m so glad that my experience at Impact didn’t end when we left camp, but it continues to occur in my life.  I hope that this encourages you to LOVE everyone just as Jesus did!!!!

My Thoughts on Impartation 2010 June 19, 2010

I want to start off by saying that this is my first blog post.   This past week, we had an Impartation Conference.  As always, it is such an awesome time to gain insight into God’s Word and hear amazing speakers who pour into our lives.  Even though I was only able to attend 2 services, it was definitely worth my time as I learned so much from what they had to say.  These conferences always seem to change your perspective about the topic which is being covered, even if you’ve heard it talked about many times before.  God always seems to show you new and exciting things each time you listen to, or read a passage of scripture.

I thought Doug Jones was amazing.  It was very neat how his examples of the Passover Lamb and the Brazen Serpent are direct parallels into our walk with God today.  He spoke on the topic of healing, and I love how healing is no different, than any other work that God can do in our lives.  It is so awesome how you can use any quote, or scripture from healing and apply it to other areas of your life.  I really enjoyed what he had to say and it definitely helped me learn more about healing.

Also, I thought Keith Moore did an awesome job explaining the topics of lying, truth, and grace.  It is very relate-able to my life, and I think that pretty much everyone goes through the process of lying and making wise decisions everyday of their lives.  God wants, to bless and empower us, but in order for him to do that, we must be a humble, and honest person.  Another awesome quote that he shared, was that with enough grace, we can be anything, do anything, and conquer everything.  That statement just exudes the power and confidence that we can have through Jesus Christ everyday.

I love Impartation because it always leaves you with the feeling that you can push through anything, and that with God, nothing is impossible.  I definitely encourage you to attend as many services as you can next year, because they are life-changing!!  I can’t wait until June 2011!!!