Ok. I was watching the news last night and saw that in N. Richland Hills, or somewhere over in the metroplex area, citizens of the community were outside the city hall during their meeting protesting prayer. These people feel as though the councilmen and women were not fairly representing them by opening with prayer. They say that the council members were elected to represent all persons and want them to stop praying. What are we (Christians, particularly those in this community) going to do about this? NOTHING!! We are going to coward down and let prayer be taken away from us. God has already been taken out of school, courthouses, and now our government. Sure I beleive that all persons should be represented but these councilmemebers should not be forced stray away from their beliefs because some people get pissed when someone prays for them. If they have to do away with prayer and God in general then where is the representation for Christians? Our once Christian nation will become an atheist nation. They will try to take God out of our lives, do away with churches so atheists right of sight are not violated, Pastors are told what they can and cannot say so they dont offend or step on anyones toes, Christians will be persecuted in a once free nation. This is where we are headed and we are going to do nothing about it. We can pray to God about it all we want and he will hear our prayers, but something is also going to have to change in our own character. The 75% of Americans who identify themselves as Christians are going to have to stand up to the 25% who is louder than they are, more proud of who they are than we are, more will to go thru personal endangerment for what they believe. The sad thing is that we have the Almighty God on our side, we have eternal life, we have all of God's promises but we wont stand up for Him who gave us life. When will our fear, arrogance, cowardice, and carlessness be dissolved? Hopefully sooner rather than later, before they completely take God out of our country.
(getting off his soapbox)
Eternally His,
Cody
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Why do we make the choices we make in life?
Lets analyze the choices that we make every day. We choose what to wear, how to wear or hair, we choose where we go and what we do. In my case we even decide to skip our evening college classes to work on "homework." (I really did do some homework) Why did Saul choose not to wait on Samuel for the sacrifice before battleing the Philistines? Why did Jonathon choose to fight the Philistines with only his armour bearer without telling his father?
Naturally, it is better for those around us if we do in fact choose to wear clothes and bursh our teeth and hair. Naturally it is wrong to skip class to do homework. But lets take a look at the deeper issues like what Saul and Jonathon faced. Saul got impatient and could not wait the seven days for Samuel to arrive to do the sacrifice so he had his men bring the sacrifice to him and he performed the sacrifice. This ultimately led to him losing the kingship of Israel and David being chosen by God to be put in that position. Why did Saul do this? He CHOSE to perform the sacrifice himself because he lost trust in God. He didnt feel his army could wait for seven days and be safe so he took matters into his own hands. This is very similar to the choices we make today. We have lost trust in our God and take matters into our own hands. This is why our lives turn out the way that they do much of the time....in ruins. Sure you can be rich and successful without God, but really, how rich are you when what you have cant go with you? We have developed our own standards of success over Gods. These desires and manmade standards have led us away from our trust in God and have compelled us to take matters into our own hands.
Jonathon on the other hand, stood there and let the Philistines see him while the other soldiers hid. He told his armour bearer that if the Philistines invited them up then God had given them into his hands. If the Philistines came down, he knew that this was not the case and he would lose. What happened next? The Philistines invited him up and Jonathon, with his armour bearer at his side, slaughtered twenty Philistines. Jonathon trusted God and realized he was in controll. True success is not measured by worldly possessions or who people think you are. Success is measure by fulfilling Gods will in your life. Success is magnifying God in your own life. Laying your life down and giving it back to God. These are all just ways of saying trust in God, choose His path, His will, His standards.
I am currently faced with choices to make as far as what type of ministry God is calling me into. I feel a strong calling for youth ministry but I also would like to be an army chaplain. Notice the calling I have for the youth ministry, and then the worldly desire to be an army chaplain. I beleive the choice here is clear. I could go into the army and move up the ranks and be the lead chaplain. That would be successful, right? No. That is my own personal goal, that is not trusting the calling that God has placed on my life. The successful choice is to do what God is calling me to do, be a Youth Pastor.
Eternally His, Cody
Naturally, it is better for those around us if we do in fact choose to wear clothes and bursh our teeth and hair. Naturally it is wrong to skip class to do homework. But lets take a look at the deeper issues like what Saul and Jonathon faced. Saul got impatient and could not wait the seven days for Samuel to arrive to do the sacrifice so he had his men bring the sacrifice to him and he performed the sacrifice. This ultimately led to him losing the kingship of Israel and David being chosen by God to be put in that position. Why did Saul do this? He CHOSE to perform the sacrifice himself because he lost trust in God. He didnt feel his army could wait for seven days and be safe so he took matters into his own hands. This is very similar to the choices we make today. We have lost trust in our God and take matters into our own hands. This is why our lives turn out the way that they do much of the time....in ruins. Sure you can be rich and successful without God, but really, how rich are you when what you have cant go with you? We have developed our own standards of success over Gods. These desires and manmade standards have led us away from our trust in God and have compelled us to take matters into our own hands.
Jonathon on the other hand, stood there and let the Philistines see him while the other soldiers hid. He told his armour bearer that if the Philistines invited them up then God had given them into his hands. If the Philistines came down, he knew that this was not the case and he would lose. What happened next? The Philistines invited him up and Jonathon, with his armour bearer at his side, slaughtered twenty Philistines. Jonathon trusted God and realized he was in controll. True success is not measured by worldly possessions or who people think you are. Success is measure by fulfilling Gods will in your life. Success is magnifying God in your own life. Laying your life down and giving it back to God. These are all just ways of saying trust in God, choose His path, His will, His standards.
I am currently faced with choices to make as far as what type of ministry God is calling me into. I feel a strong calling for youth ministry but I also would like to be an army chaplain. Notice the calling I have for the youth ministry, and then the worldly desire to be an army chaplain. I beleive the choice here is clear. I could go into the army and move up the ranks and be the lead chaplain. That would be successful, right? No. That is my own personal goal, that is not trusting the calling that God has placed on my life. The successful choice is to do what God is calling me to do, be a Youth Pastor.
Eternally His, Cody
Introduction
Hello everyone! I am at the beginning of a long and rewarding journey. Having given my life to God I am now in the process of figuring out exactly what it is he wants me to do. I feel a strong calling to youth ministry but every now and again something gets in my way. Whether it be exciting new options or just every day real life stuff, the distractions are, well, distracting. I have decided to share my experiences with you all. Over the course of the next ten weeks my Sunday School class will be doing a study on making choices and following through with those choices. As we go, I will share with you all what we are discussing as well as my personal opinions and experiences with the topics. So here's to the next ten weeks of discussing life choices!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
