What If We Had a Story in the Chronicles…

What Would Your Story be?

I have been thinking about “what if… our presidents, both past and present, were in the Bible and they had a book like I & II Chronicles! What would it say if you and I were in the bible? Would we be like Ahaz or Hezekiah? Would we do what was “right in the sight of the Lord” or what was wrong? Could you imagine the lasting impression on the world because of your actions? Well, you don’t have to be in the bible to impact a generations, altar someone’s thinking about life or even invoke a need for God… the fact is God has an opinion about each and everyone of us and that opinion is more true than what the world says. So what does God say about your life?What does He say about you personally?

What God Wants You to Know About “Your” Life

• It’s not really your life and it’s not really your life alone. God has purchased you with a price far greater than all the gold that you could ever find in all the world. The world doesn’t revolve around you and your selfishness, pride and arrogance isn’t good for the kingdom of God. If you want to impact your generation for Christ these fleshly characteristics must go.
• It is to benefit the Kingdom of God. You are meant to live a life worthy of the calling in which you have been called to live. He wants you to live in a way where people are in awe of God in “your” life.
• It is not for you to decide rather to live or to die. He brought you here to live or else you wouldn’t be here. He has a greater plan than you can see and as you trust Him, you will begin to live it out in the inward parts in such a way that your life is getting better because you KNOW the one whom you believe in.
• God has a plan, far greater than you can dream, think or even comprehend. Walk with Jesus, seek God’s face and He will lead you on the path in which He wants you to walk.
• God delights in your good, not evil. God hates evil and unrighteousness but delights in good and righteousness. He also knows that you can NOT accomplish righteousness without His beloved Son, Jesus. He knows that the only person who has ever walked the earth that has been perfect is and was Jesus Christ of Nazereth, His beloved Son. Through trust and obedience to the Word, you will begin to be purified--- which leads to the next thing.
• You are apart of the Bride of Christ, which is to be holy, set apart and purified, tested and true… so act accordingly. Jesus didn’t call you to be unrighteous or unholy, but indeed He has called you by His grace and mercy to be holy and righteous through His blood. Jesus will have and take His beloved Bride after she is tried, purified and true to Him alone. You are not any longer apart of the world, so don’t hold on to all of these things that are quickly passing you by.
• You are in a battle in which you are on the winning side if you stay with Jesus! We fight against the evil that is in this world, not flesh and blood. We fight against principalities, evil and everything that exalts itself against the Knowledge of God. Your resources are simple, but more powerful than you know.

Your resources are:

1. The Word of God, the Bible. Read it. Know it. Obey it. Meditate on it. It’s sharper than a double-edged sword.
2. Prayer. It’s the power behind the believer. Do it. Do it often with thanksgiving and thankfulness in your hearts to the Living God.
3. Worship the Living God, Jesus Christ. Worship is a battle in itself because you have to let your pride go and you have to focus on God. Become selfless and you will worship with all of your being. Be truthful and live with integrity. Rid yourself of all things that is a lie. Speak the truth in love and integrity.
4. Good, righteous deeds, that glorify God the Father. Do good works which glorify the Father… but be careful that you don’t get caught up and become legalistic.
5. The gospel (good news) of peace. Make peace where possible, but don’t let the enemy get a foothold, even a centimeter of space around you.
6. Stand on the foundation of Jesus’ gospel and spread the gospel as much as you can. Rest in His peace.
7. Your faith protects you. Trust in God. Not yourself or man or government, but God alone.
8. Being protected by your salvation in Jesus Christ, be sure to repent of all things against your life in Christ. Any sin is separation between you and God, creating a stronghold/open door for the enemy to take hold of you or enter into your life.

• Lastly, you are an example, a leader to those around you. You can be of any age, any background, any status, any size or color but you are apart of a family that is so diverse and you are to set the standards. Your life should set the standards high for all humanity, the world is looking to you and waits to see “what will the Bride of Christ do today?” The more you live out your talk, the more the world will believe what you say. Don’t be a hypocrite. Live out the words you speak and the faith you have inside.

I hope this reminded you something you needed to hear. Maybe not. But if you ever need a reminder, I hope you read this!

I want to thank my friend Brittany  for this .

 

Worship....

Praise and worship is not just a song service where we sing songs. It is not an outward performance. It has to come from the heart. It is always better to sing songs to God rather than about Him. There are lots of songs that sing about God. And I believe there is a time where we need to declare God and make his praises known, but I believe it is more important to sing songs that minister to the Lord. We can make song personal simply by changing some of the words around and saying YOU instead of Him.

There are so many aspects of praise and worship. The most important one though, in my opinion, is to make sure you have your own praise and worship time with God. There is no need for musical instruments, although, that would be nice. Matthew 6:33 says to seek His kingdom first and His righteousness and if you do that, all other things will be added unto you. When people think of their own devotional time they usually think of prayer and the word. That is important, but to get into His presence in the first place, we need to do it God's way, which is to enter into His presence with thanksgiving and praise according to Psalm 100:4. It's in His presence where we will find fullness of joy. It is in His presence where we will be changed. It is in His presence where our understanding will be opened.

Life is a Journey.......

Life is a journey we all take, and every journey winds us down a different road. Some are more treacherous than others. Others think they have a hard road until they meet someone else. I’m a believer that you control the road to your own destiny… to a certain point. You can choose which road to go down, but those roads both lead you to the same point, which is your ultimate destiny… who you are and who you were meant to be. The journey you choose is simply the experiences you go through to get there. I’ve never thought my journey was one of the more difficult ones. Interesting, yes, but never one that threw me into circumstances I couldn’t handle or felt harshly defined me in some way. Nothing ever made me stop in my tracks and wonder if I was going to make it all the way down this road and make me question if I should have chosen another route.

Recently, though, I met someone who has had a more difficult journey and has had many instances, it seems, to choose the easy or hard path. She’s a recent transgender, and we’ll call her Jenn for purposes of talking here. When I met her, I knew she was a transgender, but I had no idea how she got there, nor how far along she was. I had lots of questions, though… you see transgenders on shows like Jerry Springer, but most aren’t like that. Then you have the recent publicity of Chaz Bono, which gave the transgender community even more of a spotlight. But I don’t think most jump into the spotlight – they just go about things as who they feel they were meant to be.

Needless to say, I had so many questions going through my mind that I was curious about with Jenn. But I hardly knew her and wasn’t about to ask. Never actually meeting anyone who was a transgender (either way), I was very intrigued and just wanted to know more. And since I never knew her before she was Jenn, I had no idea what she used to be like in terms of what brought her to go through such a life change so far into her life. Though it was clear she had an amazing support network based off the spurts of conversations we had in our little group.

Then I discovered she had a blog. Oh, the world of blogging, where you can ramble about whatever you want and have no idea who will eventually see it. But reading about her life since the full coming out as a female, as well as some of her stories about growing up, were like a novel I couldn’t put down. She has been through so much and growing up in a relatively small town made it even more so. It gave me all the perspective I wanted with the questions that were going through my mind upon our first meeting. Some of the internal battles she dealt with growing up, knowing from such a young age that things just weren’t right. Some of the initial battles with the outside world from small town ‘townies’ that just didn’t get it. Even following ‘standard protocol’, getting married and having a child (who’s now grown). I was most impressed about how supportive her wife was through it all – the extreme support of a spouse that shows why you marry your best friend in the first place.

In my opinion, she should turn all of these posts into a book. I know there are a lot of people out there like me that are just curious, but either don’t know anyone, or know anyone well enough to strike up a conversation of, “hey, why did you decide change you gender?” I knew there was a story behind it. But you never know if it’s a story they want to share, or if they’re of the opinion of, “That’s my past life and I want it to stay that way – in the past.” One thing I can say for sure is that it takes a very strong person to take that step and decide that it’s time to fully commit and change to the other gender. But then I also think it takes a strong person just to be in the shoes of someone that feels like that… to have to hide that side of your personality and only let it out in bursts, often in private… I can’t imagine having to live like that.

So I don’t know if Jenn will ever actually read this. But like her blog, mine is just as public. I hope if she ever does, though, she knows that her journey, though tough, is actually quite inspirational and I hope she continues to stand proud, as she has been. If anyone knows how a journey leads you to who you were meant to be, it is her. And she’s also one that knows how the roads you chose make you stronger along the way.

Pastor's Sermon 10/26/11

Pastor's sermon on October 26,2011...
Was about Pressure. The moment we recieve Jesus Christ as our savior there is pressure. He used this anaolgy. When you shake up a coke in a alunium can it gives it pressure.And then if you try to open it,guess what happens? It expolds.! It gets too much pressure. Kind of like us,Being humans.Satan puts so much pressure on us we don't know what to do so we expolad.:( which isn't spiritually healthy either.
He was also talking about when you have a situation the first thing you should do is pray!!! Then,Satan will flee from the situation for a while.
You also have to,stick with it. It will be a battle till we die.But we can't give up.
Pastor always talked about when we have a situation we pray for God to move in this situation. Well,sometimes God will wait for us.to see what what we will do for Him to move. We have to give a little to get a little! I know with me.It's like P.E. I don't like P.E. well I have to show God i  am willing to do whatever it takes for Him to make it easier.I must give it to him,the worries of P.E.I know sometimes I stress so much,i get a knot in my stomache when i worry :( it is not physically healthy. God say's to give the worries and cares to Him. But I do argee it is very hard to do.
Pastor also talked on,How blesssed we are. Pastor and His wife went to Anderson,Indiana a town of about 20,000 and it's about half hour from where we all live in Elwood! He saw a homeless man,sitting there outside the old newspaper building with a dog. The man was asking for money.How sad is that?!?!!? I mean really in Anderson? Pastor said it was something he would expect to see in a big city. We must remember how blessed we are! We all have a bed to sleep in,A roof over our head. Like Pastor said,we may not have good finaces.But at least we have them.What about the people who have none?!?!?! I mean seriously! I know the money situation isn't the best in a lot of homes in the U.S. But i know all my friends have houses. I am so blessed!

"My thing"

I don't understand.. I wish I had my own thing. I am so bored. I have fall break but nothing to do :/ Life will get better :) Lord,Send me where you want me wherever that might be Lord. Church was great tonight. Had prayer!!

Oh Lord.

Lord it is me again..
I feel like sometimes I bug you Lord,
I love you lord with all my heart, But I don't know where you want me. I feel... But that isn't important Lord,I don't care how I feel.I wanna feel you! I wanna sit back against you and feel your heart beat Lord. I wanna feel your presence in the room right now.
Well,I am exicted to go to church tommorow ;) Praying for  agreat service!!