Matthew 5:14

“You are the light of the world..” I don’t feel too bright most of the time. Actually, most of the time I feel like a candle in the midst of winds blowing all directions, struggling to stay lit. I don’t want to be influenced by the world. I want to stick with the Truth of God’s Word. But it’s so difficult to do that when the ideas I hear on an almost-daily basis sometimes go completely against what I’m putting my faith in; “Sometimes you have to lie to people; that’s just how life is,” “You need to _(insert lots of things here)_ in order to be successful,” “You can love God and still be the person you want to be.” I don’t want to believe any of that. I don’t want to live that way. But I also don’t always do the best job of actively seeking God on an everyday basis like I should in order to have the relationship with Him that I want. I know I should make it a point to sit down & just pray every day. I do pray everyday, but it seems like it’s always in passing or while I’m doing something else. I want to devote more time to just God. Hopefully I can learn to do a better job of prioritizing and devoting more time to what’s really important.. improving my relationship with my Savior. I know if I do that, I can be the light that God wants me to be.

Repentance

* Ask yourself this question & think about it before reading any further: If life got really good, what would it look like?

 

Church today was amazing. Sunday school was amazing, worship was amazing, and the sermon was amazing. During the sermon, Jim talked about repentance (Mark 1:9-15). Normally I wouldn’t think a sermon about repentance was amazing. I always get uncomfortable reading or hearing about repentance because the idea of feeling bad about everything I do just doesn’t sound very enjoyable to me. So when Jim said, “Does repenting mean feeling bad? No,” it caught my attention. He went on to explain that there are two different kinds of sorrow–Godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow leads to repentance which leads to change; worldly sorrow doesn’t bring about change. Feeling bad is something, but it’s not enough. Feeling bad is a sign that something is wrong, but a lot of people never seek help or do anything differently as a result of feeling bad. Basically, we shouldn’t feel like we’re doing something right by feeling bad, or as Jim put it, “Don’t feel good about feeling bad.” 

God wants to be the Lord of your life. He desires us to recognize who He is, to change, and to give Him glory by living our lives accordingly, not just asking for help in certain parts of our lives or at certain times. Living for God’s Kingdom changes everything we think and do; has God’s reign in your life changed what you think and do? Or are you still following your own way of thinking and behaving? God doesn’t forget His plan or purpose in the midst of your rebellion; is God’s will and purpose being worked out in your life or are you busy building your own kingdom by doing what only makes you happy? 

The whole American idea of retirement is spending the last years of your life enjoying the little kingdom you’ve built and glorifying yourself. Is that really what you want to do with the last years before you die and come face to face with God? What are you going to say to God when He asks you to explain what you did for His Kingdom versus what you did for yours? The Bible instructs us to do two things: repent & believe.

– Repent of yourself; even the good things we do are for selfish reasons. We don’t even know how far our good things are from the will of God. We’re not good people who occasionally do bad things; we are all broken, chasing our own dreams, following our own agendas, and completely disregarding God’s purpose most of the time. In this way, we are all lost until we accept the fact that we need a Savior, and Jesus is it.

– Believe the Good News; even though you’re undeserving, God loves you anyway. He’s worth more than anything the world can give you.

..so after reading all of that, ask yourself this question again: If life got really good, what would it look like?

Colossians 1:13-20

In Sunday school today, we covered Colossians 1:13-20. We talked about the supremacy of Christ and went through 15 characteristics of Jesus. (Keep in mind these are talking specifically about Jesus, not God.)

1. He brought redemption (v. 14); Jesus paid for our sins and died our death.

2. He is the image of the invisible God (v. 15); Jesus IS God.

3. He’s the firstborn over all creation (v. 15); in Jewish culture, the word for “firstborn” reflected importance rather than order. This verse is saying that Jesus was considered the most important man out of all creation.

4. By him, all things were created (v. 16); please don’t miss the enormity of “all things.” This includes all physical matter, all people, all immeasurable things such as love and pain, and even Satan.

5. All things were created through him (v. 16)

6. All things were created for him (v. 16)

7. He is before all things (v. 17)

8. In him, all things hold together (v.17); this is probably the most significant one for me. Jesus holds all things together, which means he held together the wood and the nails of the cross from which he was hung. He willed the executioners to carry out his killing. Think about that for a second. He could have stopped it at any point, but he loves people so much that, regardless of our sin and rebellion, he willingly held all things together while he was being beaten, dragged, whipped, kicked, spit on, and finally pierced and hung on the cross.

9. He is the head of the body/church (v. 18)

10. He is the beginning (v. 18)

11. He is the firstborn from among the dead (v. 18); keep in mind the Jewish meaning of the word “firstborn” (importance vs. order).

12. In everything, he has supremacy (v. 18)

13. In him, all the fullness of God dwells (v. 19)

14. He reconciles all things (v. 20); by offering himself as a sacrifice, he brings all people who accept him as their Savior back to God.

15. He makes peace through his blood, shed on the cross (v. 20); he satisfied the wrath that God had because of humanity’s sin and disobedience to Him. 

After going over those 15 characteristics, we concluded with 3 reflections:

1. Jesus is God; therefore, we exist to worship him.

2. Jesus is who he is regardless of whether or not you believe it. In a world full of ideas about relative truth, it’s hard to believe, but there is absolute Truth.

3. Satan & his demons were created for Jesus and by him; if Jesus can handle Satan, he can handle your problems if you give them to him.

Honesty

I’ve been thinking a lot about honesty lately–honesty with myself, others, and God. I never realized that being honest is really difficult sometimes.. not so much with other people; I have no problem telling the truth, and I consider myself to be a very honest person as far as not lying to people and telling them how I feel regardless of whether or not it’s easy or if they’re going to be happy about it. And I can be honest with God because He knows me anyway. But being honest with myself is the hard part. I think I try to talk myself into things sometimes because I think it’s what’s best, and I don’t necessarily follow what God or my heart is telling me to do. I think a big part of the problem is I don’t really know how to tell what God wants. Then, on the flip side of that, I feel like sometimes I’m almost too honest with myself.. or maybe just too hard on myself.. I’m not sure. I over-think and over-analyze situations and then get overwhelmed. I’m not sure how, but I think that it’s somehow related to honesty; maybe if I was honest with myself from the beginning of situations, I wouldn’t over-think or over-analyze..?? Now it just totally sounds like I’m over-analyzing being over-analytical. This is stressing me out.. haha. I suppose that’s enough for now. I just thought I would try to reflect a little bit on what I’ve been pondering lately 🙂