A question we should be asking ourselves is, “why should we willingly surrender our lives to God?” Or to put it another way, “why should we be Christian?” But to surrender all that we are to God would mean that we are nothing and that our lives belong to God. So why should we do it?
Well just think about it, God sent His only Son to die on the cross. (If that ain’t love then I don’t know what love is!) And top of that, Jesus defeated death by resurrecting in 3 days! This means we can have eternal life. So Jesus came from heaven, just to live with us, be an example for us, and to be the perfect sacrifice for us. First question a normal person would ask would be, “why?” And for all those Sunday School-ers, this may be easy to answer. But we also have to think about our answers in all seriousness. Because it is not logical in a worldly sense that any man would sacrifice his son to save the world. God was not obliged to send His Son, forced to send His Son, or whatever. But He did it anyways. This just shows the unfathomable love that God has for us. And it’s amazing! If you believe in Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, then you have eternal life!
So it’s as simple as that? I just believe that this Jesus guy died for my all the bad stuff in my life and I have eternal life? I’m going to say, “Yes, but…” Ok, what is the catch? I have a quick short tangent that relates to this. So my friend has this screen name called LiveforHim. And sometimes people would always ask him why he has this screen name and he always replies the same way, “Since Jesus died for me (as well as the rest of us), I’m going to live my life for Him.” And that should be all our responses as well. We can’t just accept His gift and just live life just as we did before. We can’t say that we believe in Jesus and keep doing the bad stuff that we’ve been doing before we believed in Him.
Read Romans 6:1-14. This gets to our point about surrendering our lives to God.
Read Romans 6:15-20. By the way, I think Paul puts it better than me. I’m just saying.
So what have we gotten ourselves into? Well, I never said being a Christian was going to be easy. In fact, by surrendering our lives to God, we are to subject to even more suffering. Examples can be people that are going to make fun of you because you’re a Christian and/or the temptation to sin grows even stronger. But hey, what is this compared all the joy you will have in Christ. Well looking at super long term, you have eternal life. But let’s look at the awesomeness that can potentially happen right now or in the near future. Well, for starters you are encouraged by Christians around you. They are there to encourage you, to grow you, to challenge you, and to fellowship with you. Another thing is that the Holy Spirit will begin dwell within you. This is God’s presence within you. Sort of like your conscience. The Spirit is there to empower you to do great things for God, guide you along the paths that God wants you to take, and challenge you to strive for holiness.
So I guess I just went over a little about what a Christian is and what Christians believe in. And also I went over that being a Christian is serious business, but the joy that we have in Him is just so much better. So I pray that God speaks to you through this. And I know there are a lot of holes and jumps and whatever. So if you want clarification or something, just ask.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
For Your Own Good… GET OVER YOURSELF!
Read First Corinthians 10:31
I think it is sad that our generation is sometimes called “Generation Me,” and that there are even books written about how children of the 80s and 90s have become narcissistic. Why is it that we spend 90% or more of our time thinking about ourselves? How we can look better, be smarter, become famous, get ahead, be a winner, or just plain be impressive. Is it because our parents have pushed us since birth to be all that we can be? Is it because society expects a lot out of us? Is it because we have an image to uphold? Whatever the case, we have grown to be self-absorbed and have fallen away from what we should be doing, glorifying God.
Compared to God I know I am nothing, less than nothing even, and yet I still spend so much time on myself. Why is it that I am so quick to forget God? Or a better question, who do I think I am? I have been struggling with this concept for some time and I even talked about it during testimony time on Sunday once, but it’s something I continue to think about and relearn. The first time I really thought about how outrageous it was stress over myself so much was after I read this excerpt from Francis Chan’s Crazy Love…
“Even though I glimpse God’s holiness, I am still dumb enough to forget that life is all about God and not about me at all.
It goes sort of like this…
Many of us think and live like the movie of life is all about us.
Now consider the movie of life…
God creates the world. (Were you alive then? Was God talking to you when He proclaimed “It is good” about all He had just made?)
Then people rebel against God (who, if you haven’t realized it yet, is the main character in this movie), and God floods the earth to rid it of the mess people made of it.
Several generations later, God singles out a ninety-nine man called Abram and makes him the father of a nation (did you have anything to do with this?)
In the next scene, God sends judges and prophets to his nation because the people can’t seem to give Him the one thing He asks of them (obedience).
And then, the climax: The Son of God is born among the people whom God still somehow loves. While in this world, the Son teaches His followers what true love looks like. Then the son of God dies and is resurrected and goes back up to be with God.
And even though the movie isn’t quite finished yet, we know what the last scene holds. Here every being worships God who sits on the throne, for He alone is worthy to be praised.
From start to finish, this movie is obviously about God. He is the main character. How is it possible we live as though it is about us? Our scenes in the movie, our brief lives, fall somewhere between the Jesus ascends into heaven (Acts) and when we will all worship God on His throne in heaven (Revelation).
We have only our two-fifths-of-a-second-long scene to live. I don’t know about you, but I want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “So weather you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That is what each of our two-fifths of a second is about.
So what does that mean for you?
Frankly you need to get over yourself. It might sound harsh, but that’s seriously what it means.”
God is more than the main character; He’s the director, producer, stage crew and so much more. Without Him, there is absolutely no way possible for the movie of life to even begin. We’re not even in the movie for half of a second, and you want to know what’s crazy? God still loves us more that we can even fathom.
I think it is sad that our generation is sometimes called “Generation Me,” and that there are even books written about how children of the 80s and 90s have become narcissistic. Why is it that we spend 90% or more of our time thinking about ourselves? How we can look better, be smarter, become famous, get ahead, be a winner, or just plain be impressive. Is it because our parents have pushed us since birth to be all that we can be? Is it because society expects a lot out of us? Is it because we have an image to uphold? Whatever the case, we have grown to be self-absorbed and have fallen away from what we should be doing, glorifying God.
Compared to God I know I am nothing, less than nothing even, and yet I still spend so much time on myself. Why is it that I am so quick to forget God? Or a better question, who do I think I am? I have been struggling with this concept for some time and I even talked about it during testimony time on Sunday once, but it’s something I continue to think about and relearn. The first time I really thought about how outrageous it was stress over myself so much was after I read this excerpt from Francis Chan’s Crazy Love…
“Even though I glimpse God’s holiness, I am still dumb enough to forget that life is all about God and not about me at all.
It goes sort of like this…
Many of us think and live like the movie of life is all about us.
Now consider the movie of life…
God creates the world. (Were you alive then? Was God talking to you when He proclaimed “It is good” about all He had just made?)
Then people rebel against God (who, if you haven’t realized it yet, is the main character in this movie), and God floods the earth to rid it of the mess people made of it.
Several generations later, God singles out a ninety-nine man called Abram and makes him the father of a nation (did you have anything to do with this?)
In the next scene, God sends judges and prophets to his nation because the people can’t seem to give Him the one thing He asks of them (obedience).
And then, the climax: The Son of God is born among the people whom God still somehow loves. While in this world, the Son teaches His followers what true love looks like. Then the son of God dies and is resurrected and goes back up to be with God.
And even though the movie isn’t quite finished yet, we know what the last scene holds. Here every being worships God who sits on the throne, for He alone is worthy to be praised.
From start to finish, this movie is obviously about God. He is the main character. How is it possible we live as though it is about us? Our scenes in the movie, our brief lives, fall somewhere between the Jesus ascends into heaven (Acts) and when we will all worship God on His throne in heaven (Revelation).
We have only our two-fifths-of-a-second-long scene to live. I don’t know about you, but I want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “So weather you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That is what each of our two-fifths of a second is about.
So what does that mean for you?
Frankly you need to get over yourself. It might sound harsh, but that’s seriously what it means.”
God is more than the main character; He’s the director, producer, stage crew and so much more. Without Him, there is absolutely no way possible for the movie of life to even begin. We’re not even in the movie for half of a second, and you want to know what’s crazy? God still loves us more that we can even fathom.
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