Why? Challenges 1&2

Something that has been really weighing on my heart lately is the issue of bullying, and as I research more and more into it I just find myself asking WHY?!?

What makes a person think it's even remotely okay to make someone feel worthless, because of what?
They don't act lie you?
They don't play the same sport?
Maybe they have a few pimples?
Maybe they don't have a nice enough wardrobe?
WHY!?!

Why are people feeling so alone to the point that they think suicie is the only way out? That people who know nothing about them except for the lies that have been spread or the way they look or WHATEVER, it DOESN'T MATTER! Nothing, and I mean NOTHING! gives you the right to ostrzize a person.

Why do we see this happening every day and not intervene? Or worse laugh along in fear we might become the next victim.


I refuse to sit by anymore.

I'll fill people in more later when things get figured out; but for now my challenge for everyone:

Keep your eyes open. Here is some signs of someone contemplating suicide, and I can almost garentee if someone is thinking of it they have expired bullying in some form. They're just wanting someone to reach out and say that they care. They want someone to sort of "rescue" them. So here are some signs and just keep your eyes open.

• Appearing sad or depressed most of the time
• Clinical depression: deep sadness, loss of interest, trouble sleeping and eating—that doesn’t go away or continues to get worse
• Feeling anxious, agitated, or unable to sleep
• Neglecting personal welfare, deteriorating physical appearance
• Withdrawing from friends, family, and society, or sleeping all the time
• Losing interest in hobbies, work, school, or other things one used to care about
• Frequent and dramatic mood changes
• Expressing feelings of excessive guilt or shame
• Feelings of failure or decreased performance
• Feeling that life is not worth living, having no sense of purpose in life
• Talk about feeling trapped—like there is no way out of a situation
• Having feelings of desperation, and saying that there’s no solution to their problems
• Performing poorly at work or school
• Acting recklessly or engaging in risky activities—seemingly without thinking
• Showing violent behavior such as punching holes in walls, getting into fights or self-destructive violence; feeling rage or uncontrolled anger or seeking revenge
• Looking as though one has a “death wish,” tempting fate by taking risks that could lead to death, such as driving fast or running red lights
• Giving away prized possessions
• Putting affairs in order, tying up loose ends, and/or making out a will
• Seeking access to firearms, pills, or other means of harming oneself
• Sudden change in appearance
  

My second challenge: Reach out to someone you don't talk to, or appears to be alone a lot. Sit with them a lunch, start up a conversation, invite them for coffee, do SOMETHING. You don't know what is going on in their life, it might just save their life.

One Thing.

When going back and looking at the past few months, I have to be honest in saying, I've been lying. Lying about who I am, how I felt about God, how my relationship with him way. It was all a lie. I went to church, simply so the people there wouldn't think something was up, but inside I was laughing at the way that they believed so easily in this God that you can't see. Granted I had encounters with God through this, but with my stubborn heart i refused to take it as nothing more than some sentimental moment.

Somehow I ended up signing up for One Thing. Do I know what I was thinking at the time? No. Infact the last thing I really wanted to do was attend a 4 day conference about this guy I was trying to run from. Yet, my room was booked, my way was paid with no conditions from my father, and I was there in the car. I hated that I was on my way to basically a place that would ruin my end of the year. It did the opposite.

The first day there I was tired of it already, it probably was very obvious. I had a conversation with one woman that I had gone with. I'm not that close to her, a few jokes here and there and a hello when we see each other, but I'd never really had a conversation with her. I was always scared of her, but somehow at that moment I just came clean. I opened up about how I didn't want to be there, how I hated this God character, and that I knew he was real but I didn't want to hear from him. I was annoyed with him. She informed me to sit and Behold him this week.

Well, that night I skipped the sermon and stayed in the prayer room. It was quieter and it was a little easier to tune out what was going on. Yet for some reason I thought back to what the woman I had talked to said, and I gave in. I sat and I said, "God, if you really want me to jump full in and commit all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength I need you do do something in me"

The next day, I heard Shelley Hundley speak, and Shelley is one of my favorite people in this world, and she spoke on Jesus The Judge, and how to see it from the perspective of his love for his Bride rather than condemnation. Something kind of sparked in me. She spoke on how she never fully felt love of God because there was something in her heart that was hurting, that was crying out for justice. There's stuff in my heart that have been killing me, and simply having people say, "God loves you" doesn't work for me. I mean I know he loves people but really? yet when I heard about Jesus the judge, I started to feel love from God in my heart.

Friday night during worship I had a little bit of healing enter my heart. I had been praying earlier about what the next step in my life was, and it was very clear that I am to attend IHOPU this fall, so friday night I was praying for what to do in this season of my life. Now, I've blocked out most of my childhood, I remember a few things now and again but if you were to ask me something about it I wouldn't be able to answer. So it came as quite a shock when all of the sudden these memories of my childhood flooded back into my head, leaving me crying for the pain it was bringing to my heart. All the memories of rejection from people I was close to to people I barely knew, and I began to cry out to God to relieve me from the rejection. I heard the word acceptance. I poke the truth of, "God accepts me", I prayed for him to take the rejection and fill it with acceptance from him, and within the second I felt a weight being lifted off my heart and how i was perceiving the people i had come with was changed. I felt accepted for the first time in my life, and what made it better was realizing that I was accepted by the King of Kings.

I got the privelage of hearing Misty Edwards speak that night, and it hit my heart. Not in the same way Shelley's message had hit me, but it was answering my question of what to do in this next season of my life. She spoke on loving God with all your heart should and mind, she spoke on the purpose of life and how nothing in this world will satisfy us because it doesn't satisfy God. It became clear to me what I'm going to do for this season before IHOPU.

I'm diving fully in. I plan to begin digging into the word, learning more about the Bridegroom paradigm, more about Jesus the Judge, and this passion that was sparked during the confrence of the end times and I was going to become a Night and Day, Day and night worshiper of God. I plan to begin working through the issues that are causing my heart to be distracted from God by handing them to God for him to exchange the ashes for beauty ( Isaiah 61:3). I also want to be bolder in my prayer life, more willing to pray for the people in my school, in my community and the people in my family. I'm taking a stand in my faith right now, and I refuse to go back to the old way.

So much has happened the last four days at One Thing, this blog was barely hitting the surface. I asked God to move in my heart, and he did majorly. My prayer is that for each on e of you that reads this, and even the ones who don't, that God reveals himself and moves in you in a way that will spark a passion for him. That we continue to love him and worship him and develop a relationship with him because he is WORTHY.

Revolutionary.

Definition of Revolution: a sudden, complete or marked change in something.

If you claim the name Christian, you claim the name Revolutionary.

Definition of Revolutionary: A supporter of revolutionary principles.

As Christians, we should want change, ultimately we want the kingdom of heaven here on earth. We want a sudden, complete change.

Take a look at the word Revolutionary. Do you see what is in the middle? I guess for me, it's all I see, it makes the word become more important to me. Maybe you'll think I'm reading to much into it but this is how I view "Revolutionary":

R[evol]utionary.

Love is in the middle of Revolutionary.
Christians are Revolutionaries.
Love is in Christians.
God is Love. (1 John 4:17)
God lives within Christians.
Christians are Revolutionaries.
God is in the middle of a Revolutionary.

Ultimately, you can not have a revolution without God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSGXYyDtHFE&feature=related

A Quick Thought.

How big is your vision of God? Can it get any bigger?

If not, it’s too small.

If it can, ask him to expand it. Don’t settle for less.

This is a story about a little girl who, on the way home from church, turned to her mother and said, “Mummy, the preacher’s sermon this morning confused me.”

The mother said, “Oh! Why is that?”

The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied.

“He also said that God lives within us. Is that true, too?”

Again the mother replied, “Yes.”

“Well,” said the girl. “If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”

Ponder that...

Plugging up the flow of God.

We can mess up our walk with the Lord playing judge, regarding everything. When you get off into judging other people for whatever reason, you will find judgement knocking on your door too. We stop up the flow of God in our lives if we want to go around judging everyone, arguing with everyone.

Some find that whatever one may speak about even the things of the Lord, that they are the only one who has it right, they spend their time arguing with you, trying to make you out like you know nothing and they know everything. Where does that attitude come from ? Not the Lord, and it is not walking in love as God says to do.

Where there is envy and strife, there is every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. -James 3:16-17.

I know I don't want to plug up the flow of God in me and my walk by being judgemental, hateful, and attitudes not pleasing to God. How about you?

Just something to think about...

Judging a Christian? It can't be done.

We are all at different place in our spiritual journey and it is just that. It's not a destination where we suddenly become something specific. We're all different, diverse and complex. So that is why God judges our hearts because that is where the purity and truth lie within each of us. We see the outward man - He sees, knows & judges the heart.

We would do well to try and do likewise with each other. What we see on the exterior of each other is shallow, vain, and worldly. That's why Jesus told us to LOVE our neighbors as ourselves - because THEN we would stop judging, give people the benefit of the doubt, realize that most people are MORE like us than NOT like us and we would love them, help them, serve them more than judge them and usually misjudge them.

I have found though that as a person grows spiritually, it begins to affect and change their very appearance, their countenance, the way they dress, the manner with which they interact with others, the respect they have for themselves and their world around them - they gain a reverence, appreciation and peace that everyone feels too. SO - we might all be on the same walk but we are all at difference places, stages and perspectives on that same walk, aren't we? And Tthat should be ok.

In the end it's you and the Lord. Creeds and denominations can help keep you on the right path, provide support and community and admonition. They can also be a convenient place to "go through the motions". It's the heart of the believer that knows whether he or she is going through the motions or allowing the wisdom of that community to enter and edify.

Faith leads to relationship, and as such it cannot be merely emotional but must be rational as well. The emotions can move the mind, but the mind can set the direction for the heart. Ultimately, accepting Christ -whether for the first time or when coming back after making a poor choice - requires the mind and the heart working together.

Scripture teaches us that we have been saved (Eph 2:5), that we are being saved(1 Cor 1:18), and that we will be saved (Rom 5:9). Scripture also teaches us that we are to mature in faith (Col 2:10) both as individuals and as communities (Eph 4:13), and to imitate those who imitate Christ (Heb 6:12). Finally, Scripture admonishes us to cling to faith (1 Tim 6:12) and to feed our faith through good works (James 2:26), not trusting in what we do, but in the Grace of Jesus Christ (Acts 15:11).

Some are strong enough and close enough in their walk with the Lord that they think they don't need church or rites or moral codes to follow. Some of us are only strong enough to recognize that we can fall off the right path if we don't have a community to support us, and to support likewise.

Christians have a bad rap, but maybe if we cared about a person and stopped trying to get our agenda across, we'd see a positive impact. Maybe is we stopped judging other Christians on how they act, what mistakes are made, we'd see an positive impact.

Analogy.

"Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin. God picks you from the patch, brings you in and washes all the dirt off of you. He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff, and removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Then He carves you a smiling face and puts His light inside of you for all the world to see."


great theme for this time of year, but it's true and I want to pick it apart a little bit.

Ephesians 1:5 " in love he PREDESTINED us..."

"God picks you from the patch"
Another metaphor for this verse I heard was, it's like when we are kids and in PE we play dodge ball, and there's a team captain and you want to be picked because it means your good, that you're wanted. That's exactly what God's done with us. He's pointed specifically at us and said "I want you."

The whole idea of cleaning the pumpkin reminds me of the healing process we go through. Which is something I've started recently. Facing my past. It's something we all have to do, no matter how big or how small our past is, and it's a life long process, but God is there washing us, and cleansing us of that past. Of our sins.

" then he craves you a smiling face and puts his light in you to shine. "
When I hear this line I think of the joy of the Holy Spirit. God puts that joy in us, and it shines through us onto other people. Who wonder what the joy is, and it's God's light, because he has cleansed the yuckiness and given us freedom, given us this joy that we can go and share with other on how God has freed us, and how he can and WANTS to free everyone.