“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good. Pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:2

The society that we live is constantly looking for bigger, better, faster… NOW!  I have heard this so many times, but the reality is that we all want the latest and greatest gizmo that makes what ever chore or manual labor we do easier and more convenient.  One of the biggest things that people notice about us is the stuff we have.  We can tell if someone is well to do or living on the streets by how they dress, if their teeth are clean and if there are well fed.  It’s not hard to deduce someone’s financial status. There is a saying, “Keeping up with the Joneses” that refers to comparing one’s belongings to others with more.  One of the biggest points of this video was how we have moved from a society of simply having access to basic needs to a society that lives off status goods.  Having the big house, the nice car and the expensive clothes has become a new standard for a lot of Americans.  The roles that media plays in this standard are horrendous and only provide people with more fuel to get even more lost.  Making “happy and content” look like we all need to have things.

I’m not going to lie; having really nice clothes, cool gadgets and a nice car is really awesome.  I would really enjoy having an I-phone, a 72-inch flat screen TV and some sports car, but I also enjoy not having those things.  The values that a lot of people have are based on places traveled, income, things bought and people known.  There is nothing wrong with having stuff, but when it comes to the purpose and drive of life, things can’t even be on the list.  If our life is driven by the stuff we have then we are definitely going to struggle when God decides to “clean out the garage”.

The fact that our lives are becoming more consumed more with things of the world and less things of God is something that I think is serious.  Life isn’t something that can be spent twice, we don’t get a return option, when we reach our last day we get a receipt and the total is either life or death.  If we are more concerned with the world in a selfish way and not concerned with the world in a spiritual way then the total cost of our life is definitely going to be death.  The value of our life doesn’t come from the world; it comes from the creator of the world, the one who gives us value! If we don’t recognize and accept the sacrifice of God’s son who made it possible for us to be worth something then we become worthless.  You want to take a quick test to see the value you are giving to God?  How much time do you spend in God’s word, praying or sharing your faith compared to the time you spend doing things about yourself.  T.V., work, vacation, books, music…. Etc.  If we include God in all that we are doing, then there is never a moment that we AREN’T spending with Him.

The main thing that this video reminded me of is that our faith needs to be genuine and real.  It can’t have all these funky gadgets and gizmos that look cool, but don’t mean anything.  God’s word says that, “Faith with out actions is dead” (James 2:17).  Instead of overspending to receive treasures of this world, we need to love and receive eternal and heavenly treasures.  There is nothing that we can’t do under God’s authority.  Making money is important and it is a huge resource, but we can’t serve two masters.  We have to make sure that the priority in our life is to live and serve God.  We CAN do that with the things we have, we CAN do that with the lives we live and it IS worth every thing we invest.  The world is overspent and under-loved, as lights to the world we need to love more and shine brighter.  My challenge is to step out, love on others more and spend less on our selves.

“Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.” – 2 John 8

Sky

“Don’t spend today away, because soon it will be gone…. We are not infinite, we are not permanent, nothing is immediate, we’re so confident in our accomplishments, look at how dark it is.  Life if still worth living.”

- Switchfoot (“Gone”)

Life would be so much easier if we could go through it twice.  The second time around we would actually know what we were doing and get a head start on being who we want to be.  We would know what job we actually liked, we wouldn’t have to waste time going through different relationships because we know who we were going to marry, we wouldn’t have to worry about where to live or many other things that we often question.  Life would be a LOT easier… but then again it sure wouldn’t be much of an adventure if we had to live it twice (Plus, life isn’t meant to be easy, it’s meant to be a journey). It’s hard not knowing everything about life.  I’m only 17 and yet, I look back on experiences and situations wishing I was able to go back with the wisdom and knowledge I have now and do it differently.  Every decision has an outcome and every path a destination.  The decisions we make can only be made once.  We can’t rewind time and make them over again, we have to live through the results of choices we make.  Sometimes we ARE blessed and receive a second chance to make certain decisions again, but we can’t rely on that all the time.  We have to be intentional about the decisions we make everyday so that we can use the results to their full potential.

“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.”

- Proverbs 27:12

When we are confronted with decisions or situations we will often have a ‘good or bad choice’ scenario.  Most of the time we receive many different signals about where we are going. Either things are going well and we are on the right path, or things are going not so well and we want to think we are on the right path.  We have to be very mindful about the direction our life is going.  It shouldn’t be in the world hands… and we shouldn’t even trust our own hands to hold it, our life needs to be in God’s hands.  It is so silly to think that the worry, anxiety or questioning we busy ourselves with will actually help our future, because it really doesn’t.  The only trustworthy and sure thing in this world is God and His plan for us.  So why not put some confidence in that and experience a life filled with blessings and miracles that blow our mind, rather then the average life that everyone can live?  The sensible people who take wisdom from those around them, and most of all GOD, see the dangers that come from ignorant decisions and avoid them by taking refuge in God’s law.  The simple carefree people will experience many warnings about the road they are on, but don’t see them or disregard them.  They find themselves suffering through all the consequences of their decisions.  It doesn’t have to be something big like a pregnancy before marriage or addiction, it can be something simple like not caring enough about important people in your life and feeling lonely, being too proud and making a mistake and feeling humiliated or putting to much faith in yourself and feeling God’s discipline.  It’s what we do that makes the difference not just what we see.  Seeing a bad outcome and not avoiding it is only a set up for ruin.  However, heading to warning signs of danger and finding refuge in God’s arms provides us with a good harvest.

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

- Ephesians 5:2

When finding wisdom or coming to a realization, we have to be patient.  The people around us may come to the same point too, but we all think differently and God works in our hearts at different times.  We need to be vessels for God to use to change and we can’t set sail with out a heading!  We have to be sure that God is leading us and wait for His guidence.  When we are surrounded by simple people we need to remember that even when they make us feel foolish or make it out like we are overreacting, we need to patient in knowing that God works in our lives in different ways and we shouldn’t judge how other people do thins…. if we open up our eyes, God might show us something that we can apply to our own lives.  Some people don’t always ‘get it’ and find confidence in what they can understand.  We can be caught off guard by those people who question what we do or even disagree.  If we are following God’s Spirit and sowing good fruit then we can’t second guess ourselves or God! That only leads to confusion and can harm us.  It’s hard to go through life with out feeling 100% sure of where we are going, but we CAN have full assurance in knowing that God know’s where we are going and we need to just trust in Him!  As we remove the bad things in our life and transition from season to season, we need to do so with a sigh of relief rather than a pain of regret.  It’s the direction of our lives that determines the destination.

“About the only value the story of my life may have is to show that one an, even without any particular gifts, overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (1961)

You may not be a famous athlete with incredible talent, you might not be good at math, playing with play-do or you may only know how to play “Mary had a little lamb” on the piano, but the level of our talents and abilities doesn’t decide who we can become.  It’s the confidence and trust that we put in God that determines who we are capable of being.  Even if we seem simple to the world, we are all amazing creations in Christ.  My prayer is that we can all really understand that all things are possible with God and not take for granted the possibilities that promise hold!  I hope it’s sooner rather than later!  As we begin 2010 let’s remember to strive not for who we want to be, but for who God will make us capable of being.  Let’s strive for those goals with confidence and achieve more than just ok!

“Because of the Lords great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.” – Lamentation 3:22-23

A while ago I wrote about sacrificing comfort and living in away that denies all of our own selfish levels of what we want to do and giving our lives to God.  I thought I knew what stepping out of my comfort zone was, but upon returning from a mission trip to Jamaica I was definitely stretched in some pretty amazing ways.  I learned that when you experience God’s compassion for His children you are not only called to step out side of your comfort zone, but you are driven out of it by a deep conviction of His of love. I felt this surge of emotion while down at Sunbeam and have to share my experience of “Compassion Jamaica”.

My team was made up of nine specific God chosen people; all with their own unique talents and personalities.  To say that it was a random combination of people that clicked together is, in a way, underestimating God’s ability organize and plan our team with a purpose.  I believe that we were all called together for a purpose that is beyond our grasp.  We may have understood the concept of a mission trip and what we planned to accomplish, but in know way did we see how far or wide our mission impacted.  That is only in God’s hands.  As we combined each others abilities and talents we ended the week not only a unified team serving God, but students and learners of those boys. 

Compassion is a word with grit and depth to it.  It’s not simply a feeling of sorrow or remorse.  It’s a convicting blow to the heart.  Compassion is a feeling that is so real and deep we are not just moved emotionally or spiritually, but physically!  Compassion is the backbone of missions and the heart of spreading God’s word.  With out compassion any attempt to share the love of Jesus is futile. The word of God is not only a message of urgency and salvation, but that of love and compassion.  Jesus died on the cross because He had a raging love inside of His pure heart for our life.  Even through His beatings and being nailed to the cross He never went back on any of it.  He never gave up, because the compassion He had for us was so great it compelled Him to His death.  Amazing!

Many mission teams travel to Sunbeam to help them with different construction projects and fixing things.  The team I was a part of was a team of compassion with a mission of loving the boys at Sunbeam in anyway possible.  That included reading books to them, tie dying shirts with them, playing football outside in the hot sun, drawing, wrestling and just telling jokes.  No matter what our main goal and priority was to build and deepen relationships with those boys. 

It’s a joke to think that it’s possible to bring God into someone’s life or to some foreign country.  The truth is that God is already there!  He is in all of our lives, we are just not aware of it.  God is active in the lives of everyone.  How can He love the whole world and not be in each of our lives.  Being a missionary isn’t about carrying God to different countries or even to our back yard.  If anyone tried to do that they would exhaust themselves! God is so heavy!  The problem with thinking that God is absent from a place is that if He is not there before you get there… then there isn’t any “there” for you to go to! Being a missionary is about opening the eyes of the world to the real and true fact of God’s amazing and life-giving existence! We are called to tell of the good news in all parts of the world, not bring God into the world.  He is already there waiting to meet us where we are. 

My experience of compassion down there was one that changed my life.  Seeing the pain of broken families and scarred hearts didn’t just make me realize how blessed I am, but it made me long to give them hope and love. It has forever changed my heart and brought a whole new meaning to the love God has for “His children”. Even after over a week of loving them I am still not content.  Compassion is something that needs to be kept on giving.  My challenge to all of you is to remember that God has incredible faith in our abilities and calls us to be people who are capable of incredible things. If we open up to His call He will show us the short man in the tree hungry for more than money, He will show us the demon possessed man who is driven by sin, He will show us the women at the well and HE will show us a love worth dying for! So let us open up our hearts and receive God’s compassion and spread it to those around us. Praise God for is compassions, for they never fail! 

I’ll post on my site once in a while as well with pictures and whatnot!  God Bless!!

Skylar

      By aknowledging His creation and His creativity we can begin to see and hear His creation Praising Him. When I gaze upon the sun set and admire the different colors I am constantly reminded of the beauty of Jesus’ love for us, that He would die for you and me. How selfless and amazing….how beautiful! There are so many different reminders in God’s creation that can bring us back to the examples He gave us, through His life and of His love.

Psalm 19:1-2

The heavens declare the glory of God,

The skies proclaim the works of His hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

Night after night they display knowledge.

Think of the thunderstorms that shake your house and rattle your windows. Think of the lightning that streaks across the sky in harsh increments. Think of the amazing miracle of snow flakes and how delicate and unique they are. Think of the wonder of the stars and their formations. Think of every different characteristics the sky has and then think of all the different ways it proclaims the work of God’s hands through them.

I guess my challenge to you this week is to open your eyes to the different beauties around you that are supplied in Gods creation. Look for those “Simple Complexities” that when approached with the right aspect reveal amazing realities drenched in the indistinguishable fingerprints of God. 

-Sky