God-sized hugs

do you ever wonder what you would do if you were God?

would you be so gracious with humanity as He is?

i mean, He gave us free will. which is a big thing in itself.

he could have just created us as robots,

with the program in our heads to do as we are told.

yet, as homosapiens, we disappoint God constantly.

we cannot even make it through one day without sinning.

what a frustrating concept if you were the one who created all of that.

I know i would not have that much patience to watch my hand-crafted creations disobey me right in front of my eyes.

to put it in the words of one of my best friends at school

"If i were God, lightening would be my hobby!"

how many times a day do we have to go crawling back to Him for forgiveness and to say our apologies, just to screw up again in the future.

im getting upset at myself just talking about it.

if only we would be more appreciative for the second, third, fourth, even eightieth tries God grants us!

boy am i glad God loves me!

dim lighting.

so i know i have talked about living with questions before.

but i would like to take that topic and expand on it.

back home, my home church that i grew up in has grown to over 3 or 4 thousand people!

i try to podcast the sermons as much as possible.

here's the link if anyone is interested...  christian life assembly podcasts

this past week, i had the time and the pastor talked about taking leaps of faith and looking for God's direction in our lives.

even amongst confusion and uncertainty.

he brought up three points, with multiple Bible verses to back them up:

1) Put God first

2) Take leaps of faith

3) The destination will be worth it all.

afterwords, he explained Psalm 119:105

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path."

A lantern is not very bright. but yet, that's what He says He uses to guide us.

this means that we can't see a mile down the road, but only a step.

we need to be able to trust God that where He is leading us is where is best for us.

that the destination will be worth all the leaping, trusting, and not knowing.

so, yes questions are good. but we will always be living by faith, and not by sight.

non-christian grammer lessons.

In my college writing class we have to write an essay on just what God means to us by describing a place.
a tangible, visible, touchable location.
This is incredibly hard to do because those are all things God is not.
He is a supernatural being, who cannot be confined to one place in time, let alone be described by words.
there's a worship song we sing from time to time that goes...

"Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God"

This song describes the very being of God and how we as humans cannot understand Him.

Yet, we still try to.

Most of us are still trying to fit him on a grid or chart his love.

This is impossible.
Where im getting at is, this is why the act of "witnessing" is so difficult.
because we ourselves do not even fully understand God to all degrees.
i am struggling to finish this essay, but in reality, this shows that if i was faced with the perfect opportunity to share God with someone, i would probably be stumbling for words to describe the feeling i get when i'm in God's presence or feel his love.
Truth is, we all need to brush up on our non-christian vocabulary and learn how to describe what we believe in a logical way that makes people think.

This way, we will not be left scratching our heads, and at a loss for words when the time comes.

one person i know that is extremely good at putting his beliefs into words is my old youth pastor.

he moved to greece to become a missionary with his family recently. 

he has a blog that he keeps up with so that people back in the states, like me, can see what he is up to

here is a link to his blog. http://becominggreek.typepad.com/becoming_greek/

i encourage you to read some of his posts, they are challenging.

i mean how many of us would be willing to get up, leave everything we know as familiar, and live in a foreign country?

beauty in the eye of the beholder...

Can I just start off by saying that I love God?

He is so amazing! I had the opportunity to go on a retreat this weekend off in the secluded mountains, with the gorgeous fall colored leaves, and log cabins, campfires, and horseback riding.

It was so nice to just get away. to really not focus on school or worry about facebook. But just tune into God and spend the weekend growing in his presence and his creation. 

This weekend confirmed in me why I am a Christian. why I believe in what i do...

By even looking at God's creation in the fall with all the different colors of the leaves.

red.orange.yellow.green.

How can you not stand in awe??

I encourage you this week to look around you,
pay attention to something that you might not have noticed before
about God's creation. be it big or small.

Sunsets. the fall. stars. and flowers. are my weaknesses.

when i see them, all i can do is marvel and praise God!

"It is amazing how much we can endure when we're convinced there is a purpose to our struggles."

do you ever find yourself completely thirsting for God?
of course we have all been there
we occasionally have some amazing hyped-up-Churchy-God-moments and we think we can live in that state for the rest of our lives. (FULL)
but the truth is, our schedules start piling up, our energy is spent on other endeavors, and life gets in the way. (EMPTY)
we can never fully keep that up.
kind of like a gas tank meter. 
our spiritual lives are bound to have ups and downs.

hard and easy. 

sometimes I find it more difficult to focus on God when my days are going well. 

Its those times that I feel like I can handle life on my own. without His divine intervention.

but, the fact of the matter is, we have to continue seeking God and following Him when it's hard, AND when it's easy.

The hard times are growing experiences, but the easy ones can be too.

try to let every day be a learning experience.

"We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Romans 5:3-4