The more time passes the more I realize, and remember, and learn that Love is not about living. In fact, it's about the opposite, it is about dying. Love is dying to your dreams, desires, aspirations, and everything that makes the core of who you are, in order to serve someone else. Christ died daily for his disciples, He died daily for His Father's will, and ultimately, He died literally for us, those He did not even know yet, and said "forgive them". What an incredible display of love.
I too must come to the point of dying for the sake of others: my Lord, my wife, my family, my friends, my enemies, and everyone else (especially the teens that I try to teach the truth). It has been really interesting to experience these past couple of weeks. Although, when this post was in my mind I had a great number of examples, I do not have anything at the moment. At least, nothing I can share, but It has been great to experience all these things and despite some of them being painful, it has been good for my growth in my walk with Christ, and it is good to rely on Him because He knows what He's doing and I do not.
Once again, Alrtuism proves itself the victor over everything else. Thank you God for showing us What Love is by being Love itself.
Grace and Peace.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Here to Write
Life is pretty good for me most of the time. I mean, it's always good I guess because God is in control, but when I'm referring to it being good, I really mean my perspective of life. I guess that is what everyone really means when they talk about how life is. It is merely a perspective thing. How interesting... Anyway, life from my perspective has been pretty good, although it is filled with frustrations and problems. For instance, I am still dealing with the consequences of a car accident that happened over three weeks ago, and I am dealing with having no teenagers show up for church in the past 2-3 weeks, and even further still I'm dealing with trying to take care of getting my wife's social fixed, her license changed, and just a numerous amounts of other things. As frustrating as all this could be, I'm OK with it because it is something that needs to be done, and there is no point in grumbling about it.
On the other hand, I can gladly say I have a wife, which is a blessing all on it's own, and I have a job, I have a nice apartment that God has lovingly provided, as well as many if not all of the appliance in it. When it came to furnishing our house, there was very little we have had to buy, and most of it has been things like food and trash bags. I am incredibly thankful for all the blessings he has been giving me, and he constantly proves himself faithful even in our storms and all together hellish times.
You know, I had a whole paragraph about frustration and responsibility and I realized it was not good to share any of it, even if it was in a way that kept all the details out of it. So I guess I'm done writing for now, I got it out of my system.
Grace and Peace
Despite the lies that you're making
Your love is mine for the taking
My love is just waiting
To turn your tears to roses
I will be the one that's gonna hold you
I will be the one that you run to
My love is a burning, consuming fire
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes I'll light the night with stars
Hear my whispers in the dark
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes you know I'm never far
Hear the whispers in the dark
Whispers in the dark
You feel so lonely and ragged
You lay there broken and naked
My love is just waiting
To clothe you in crimson roses
I will be the one that's gonna find you
I will be the one that's gonna guide you
My love is a burning, consuming fire
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes I'll light the night with stars
Hear my whispers in the dark
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes you know I'm never far
Hear the whispers in the dark
Whispers in the dark
On the other hand, I can gladly say I have a wife, which is a blessing all on it's own, and I have a job, I have a nice apartment that God has lovingly provided, as well as many if not all of the appliance in it. When it came to furnishing our house, there was very little we have had to buy, and most of it has been things like food and trash bags. I am incredibly thankful for all the blessings he has been giving me, and he constantly proves himself faithful even in our storms and all together hellish times.
You know, I had a whole paragraph about frustration and responsibility and I realized it was not good to share any of it, even if it was in a way that kept all the details out of it. So I guess I'm done writing for now, I got it out of my system.
Grace and Peace
Despite the lies that you're making
Your love is mine for the taking
My love is just waiting
To turn your tears to roses
I will be the one that's gonna hold you
I will be the one that you run to
My love is a burning, consuming fire
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes I'll light the night with stars
Hear my whispers in the dark
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes you know I'm never far
Hear the whispers in the dark
Whispers in the dark
You feel so lonely and ragged
You lay there broken and naked
My love is just waiting
To clothe you in crimson roses
I will be the one that's gonna find you
I will be the one that's gonna guide you
My love is a burning, consuming fire
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes I'll light the night with stars
Hear my whispers in the dark
No, you'll never be alone
When darkness comes you know I'm never far
Hear the whispers in the dark
Whispers in the dark
Friday, July 3, 2009
Patience
Patience is a virtue, or so the saying goes. God has certainly been providing me with plenty of opportunities to express patience. It's been very hard to not get impatient, but I know that I must in order to express my love for people.
I often get impatient when I can see an issue someone has and they are not addressing it, especially if they know of the issue. I get impatient when people who claim to listen, don't. I get impatient when I can't open a jar of anything. I get impatient with teenagers who get themselves into trouble, even if it's pretty obvious they don't know any better. Most of all, I get impatient with my impatience.
I just don't know what to do anymore. Every day is a little more difficult, and I don't want it to reflect in my life. I was going to teach the kids on patience this past Wednesday, but there were only two kids that showed up and a guy at the church shared the lesson, but I guess the study done was just as much for me as it was for them.
There were multiple verses that talked about being patient with God, and I've had to take them to heart these past few weeks. Most of them are in Psalms, but there are a few in Hebrews, James and other locations as well. I don't have the references around me at the moment so I can't really give exact locations, but I distinctly remember on of the verses being along the lines of "He waited patiently on the Lord, and he received the Promise that was made to him." That's not verbatim, but that is the gist of the verse. It's pretty interesting really when you think about it. All throughout scripture you see promises that God made to us as humans, and many of them do not come instantaneously, in fact, most only come after constant, persistent, seeking of Him and waiting through the tough and good times, for Him to fulfill His promises.
For instance, Abraham was promised to be the father of many nations, and yet that promise was not fulfilled until he was given Isaac as a son in his old age, when Sarah should not have been able to give birth any more. Abraham was not given a son until he was old. How long do you think he awaited the promise of God to be fulfilled? years right? Should we not then be patient as well for the things we desire, and the things God has promised to us? It's not that He does not want to give those things to us, but sometimes we have more road to walk, more to learn, more to experience, before He's ready to give those things to us.
Thank you Lord for giving me opportunities to be patient. May your patience overflow out and way beyond me and what I can do. Continue to teach me dear Lord, that I may not be content with where I am, but constantly striving to know more.
Grace and Peace
I often get impatient when I can see an issue someone has and they are not addressing it, especially if they know of the issue. I get impatient when people who claim to listen, don't. I get impatient when I can't open a jar of anything. I get impatient with teenagers who get themselves into trouble, even if it's pretty obvious they don't know any better. Most of all, I get impatient with my impatience.
I just don't know what to do anymore. Every day is a little more difficult, and I don't want it to reflect in my life. I was going to teach the kids on patience this past Wednesday, but there were only two kids that showed up and a guy at the church shared the lesson, but I guess the study done was just as much for me as it was for them.
There were multiple verses that talked about being patient with God, and I've had to take them to heart these past few weeks. Most of them are in Psalms, but there are a few in Hebrews, James and other locations as well. I don't have the references around me at the moment so I can't really give exact locations, but I distinctly remember on of the verses being along the lines of "He waited patiently on the Lord, and he received the Promise that was made to him." That's not verbatim, but that is the gist of the verse. It's pretty interesting really when you think about it. All throughout scripture you see promises that God made to us as humans, and many of them do not come instantaneously, in fact, most only come after constant, persistent, seeking of Him and waiting through the tough and good times, for Him to fulfill His promises.
For instance, Abraham was promised to be the father of many nations, and yet that promise was not fulfilled until he was given Isaac as a son in his old age, when Sarah should not have been able to give birth any more. Abraham was not given a son until he was old. How long do you think he awaited the promise of God to be fulfilled? years right? Should we not then be patient as well for the things we desire, and the things God has promised to us? It's not that He does not want to give those things to us, but sometimes we have more road to walk, more to learn, more to experience, before He's ready to give those things to us.
Thank you Lord for giving me opportunities to be patient. May your patience overflow out and way beyond me and what I can do. Continue to teach me dear Lord, that I may not be content with where I am, but constantly striving to know more.
Grace and Peace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)