You give and take away

"The ignorance of history has led Americans to become a selfish culture." This is my thesis statement for my English essay. As I was thinking more about it, I was led to write this blog about how the ignorance of who God is has led Christians to become a selfish people.

Is there a sense of awe and reverent fear of God? Do we even know Him anymore? God is all powerful and everything that has been created is His. Satan is only alive because God allowed him to be. He is only allowed to tempt a person as far as God allows him to. We are only alive because God gave us life. We are only able to receive what God has given to us. Yet what to we do? We act like everything we have and own is ours. Our cars, job, house, friends, family, and even our own lives.
God is such a good creator that he knows what we, as humans, need to survive: food, clothes, water, shelter. In fact He is such a good God that he even gave us things beyond our minimal needs. He gave us love, hope, plans to prosper us and to give us a future and hope, a church, desires, grace, and so on. Yet we can become so arrogant and tell God how come He hasn't given us this or that. In fact we go even further and say that all these things we have is ours and we become angry at God when He takes our things, which really is all His, away. Our God gives and He takes away. Who are we to tell God that what he is doing is wrong.
And that is when Christianity(a follower of Christ), becomes religions(a follower of our lives), something we attach to our lives in order to benefit us.
If we had this understanding that God is all powerful and that everything that exists is His, we become humble and selfless. When God takes things away like a job, or a loved one, or our money, we are able to continue to glorify Him in everything thing that we do. We are able to worship Him as our God despite whatever circumstances we are in.

dear Ashley

Dear Ashley,

When you sing, it makes God smile. He has put in you a voice of Truth and beauty. Even though you feel week at times, He will give you strength like the mighty mountains. Jesus is crazy about you and He wants to hear your voice again. He longs to be loved by you. He loves you so much!

Passion and Glory

Think of the craziest, most beautiful, and the best gift anyone can give you. Maybe it's a brand new car, a diamond ring, a painting, or maybe a dozen of your favorite flowers. Whatever gift that is, to you it is the best and there is probably no better gift, in the world. Nothing compares to receiving that gift. If there is, than obviously what you thought of before isn't the best. But when you think about receiving that specific gift, emotions run down your veins and joy fills your soul. You are so in awe and in joy when that person gives you the keys, or opens the velvet box, or displays the masterpiece, or hands over a piece of nature to you. It's also like receiving something from God, like His strength, wisdom, blessing. Even things like the ministries or the spiritual gifts that God has given us, we take them and embrace them. Whether we are receiving things from others or from God, there are just some things where we say to ourselves, "nothing can be greater than what I just got!"

But let me tell you that there is. There is something greater and better than the gorgeous flowers or the diamond ring or the box of the finest chocolates. And that is the person that gave you that gift. There is also something greater than reading and learning about God, being involved in a certain ministry, and receiving your spiritual gift or His strength and boldness. God himself.

See, sometimes we can get so caught up in the things we do as Christians such as leading a Bible study or being involved in a certain ministry or being on fire after an event, that we forget about the God who is over all, through all, and in all. We see what we are doing and we think to ourselves that there can be nothing greater than this.
It's like going to a beautiful wedding; the cake and food is perfect, the decorations, and music, and the setting, everything is just perfect and wonderful. And we just look around and say "wow, this is awesome!" But we can forget that all these things, the flowers, chairs, tablecloth, the centerpiece, the lighting, and all that is there...it's all for the Bride and her Groom. Being in awe and wonder of God's creation and being filled with joy and excitement when we teach others about Christ is good. But we can get so focused in these things that we do and receive that God and the sole purpose of glorifying Him can become oblivious to us. We need to be doing what we do as Christians yet also having this awareness and understanding that all that we do is to glorify the King of Kings.

Sometimes we can get all on fire for God and the ball is just rolling and building momentum. We're having such an awesome time at church and hanging out with our Christian friends. We have so much fun evangelizing to other people and giving to the needy. But we must not forget the God who is seated at His throne and that all our passion and desire and fire is to be directed to Him in hopes of bringing glory to the God who is holy and pure and great.

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. And to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!