In a Flash

   Everyday in the US alone 115 people die in car crashes, that is one death every 13 minutes. In a blink of an eye you can lose control of the wheel, a relationship, your attitude, your feelings, of God, and this all effects your time here on earth. Most times when we get into a car the first thing on our minds is not how we could possibly die in a car accident. But it happens. Just like any other disaster happens. Most people that leave the earth "too early" never get to accomplish their life goals. Every person on earth strives to discover what their purpose is here on earth. And 99% of the time we feel like we have found our "destiny". What we call our "destiny" is just happiness. First off we are not living for ourselves. And you might think "well God is very selfish if He thinks that we are all just gonna bow down and live for Him." If you are thinking that also remember this, if God was selfish do you think He would die on the cross for this sinful world? God once walked the same earth that we stand on today, and do you know why? God the father sent His only son to the earth to live our "humanly" life in hope that we would follow Him so that we would not perish but have eternal life. The son of God lived a life here on earth just like we do, and He also went through hardship just like we do everyday. But, just like car crash victims now, His life was taken too early. It happened in the flash of an eye. Did He really die because He claimed to be the one and only God? Yes, that is true but look deeper. God was sent to earth with a mission to bring glory to His kingdom just like we were born with a purpose. We are all not only different in appearance but our spiritual gifts and our spiritual missions are all different. The bottom line is that everyone was born for a reason, some times children are brought into and taken out of the world in a wrong way. Buy as crazy as it seems, God planned for all of that to happen because He knows everything that will happen and sometimes He doesn't prevent things for a reason. So let me ask you something...do you wake up every day and strive to discover yourself and what you are? Is there times when you just don't know who you are suppose to be? Well I can help. Chances are, you aren't finding "your" true meaning in life because you don't include God. Instead of waking up everyday to figure out yourself and your destiny. Wake up with the mind set that your are ready to discover who God created you to be. He set us here on earth for a specific amount of time and don't waste that time searching for the wrong thing. Once you discover the path on which will lead you to who God created you to be, you will live a more meaningful life. If you just live for yourself and get mad if you never get to experience things then you have no body to blame but yourself. Because your life will happen in a flash and then you will be carrying your cross. But will you be carrying the cross for yourself or for God? I challenge you this week to evaluate your life. Are you just waking up everyday for your own purposes, or are you actually seeking the destiny God has set out for you? It gonna be hard to follow His purpose for your life but I can guarantee that it will end up a lot better then what you had planned.




~Our life is easily displayed by a rope our time on earth is the very tip of the rope while the rest of the long unending rope is our time in heaven so don't get discouraged by the struggles of finding your meaning God has for you. I strongly encourage you to go to this link by Francis Chan, it will explain this more in depth in a different way from the lesson today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_x8dsvb_4

Volunteer Slave

      It’s a Friday night and the local carnival is at its best. You go with your friends to have good time…ride some rides, eat great food, play games, and just have fun. As you’re making your rounds at the carnival you become enticed when you hear a man yelling “ladies and gentlemen, step right up to discover my one and only fun house attraction! And don’t forget that whoever gets to the end first gets a prize and it’s all for free!!!” Well just like any other person, you love to get free stuff, so you and your friends walk right in to have the ride of your lives. And guess what? You were the first one out, so you get a prize! Once all your friends are out you all go to exit until the man that was just enticing you to come into the extremely fun “fun house”, tells you that each of you need to pay $24.99 for your adventure. You and all your friends look at each other with pale faces because you have just spent your last $5 your parents gave you and now you had no way to pay for the “free” fun house. Just like anybody would run right into a free fun house adventure, we run right into sin without knowing the consequences. We only look at the appearance of what Satan sets out for us to fall right into. Once we are indulging in our sin we become blinded and drunk with happiness. But once our high is over, the true meaning will surface. And Satan then traps us. We become a slave to sin. Once we are in, it’s not long until we become buried in his shadow and God will no longer be seen in our lives. We choose all of this without ever knowing it. At some point in our lives we will all be a slave to sin, but whether or not you choose to break those chains for the truth is your decision. Sin is the only thing we can EVER be slaves to, we are never slaves of God….we are His children. So don’t view His instructions as commands that He gives you as a slave. If He wanted us to be His slaves then in all His instructions He would put a threat at the end. Now He often says “be careful” or “watch out” because He is looking out for us not casting a curse or pain on us. But remember we are only a slave to sin if we choose to sin. Now you must be thinking…”well we all sin so therefore we must all be slaves to Satan.” No, that’s not the case. Yes we all sin and we all can be a slave to sin but after you sin do you bring God back in for forgiveness? Or have you become numb to God? When we constantly sin and let that control us, because we feel like it’s the right thing to do, is when we become slaves to it. You have a choice to make your lifestyle pure. And if you make the decision to not have God in it then that is an open invitation for the devil to take control of everything. Just like the guy did at the fun house. The group of friends stepped right into a trap without even knowing it because they were blinded by what seemed fun. But if they really looked closely they could see that the man was also standing right in front of a worn out sign that read the price $24.99. And if they looked closely to the “free prizes” they would of realized that they all still had their price tags from Walmart that were just stolen, but nobody else knew any different.  We all get caught by the enticing trap of sin, so don’t feel like you are the only one. But we could also prevent from completely falling into the trap and coming out blinded. So do yourself a favor and don’t volunteer to be a slave. Have you ever looked up the exact definition of slavery? In Wikipedia the first two sentences are as followed: “Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation.” Just look at those underlined words……..can you see why it’s SO important that we make sure we aren’t slaves of Satan’s sin? Do you think you would go into that fun house or give into camouflaged sin if this definition was pinned to the front of it? I challenge you this week to be aware if you are making God numb in your life and reverting to slavery in sin. Get out now because God wants a relationship, not a colony of slaves.




Word of the day:  "You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master."
                         ~Genesis 4:6-7

Best Seller

    The hit movie "The Hunger Games" brought in a record $152.5 million in North America alone. The best selling book would make you feel as if you were in the arena running for your life. I got hooked on the books and the movie myself because I had heard so much rave about how outstanding the plot was. Some people even said it was better than the Twilight series! Now that I look back on it...it didn't take much convincing for me to read all of the Hunger Games series. Why is it so easy for me, and pretty much the whole population, to get hooked on a best seller so quickly? Well, because we hear about how great it is and we constantly see commercials about the special date of the opening show. So, if we can get on the Hunger Games bandwagon so quickly then why cant we do the same with God. Most "Christians" call themselves believers if they just go to church and they only get a sermon. But that means nothing if they don't apply it. Most people also don't realize that we need to develop a deep relationship with Christ. I talk to my God the way I would talk to my family. I try to treat Him just like He is my worldly family. In the past couple years I have had the worst luck with getting friends that truly care about me and ones that try to get to know me to become good friends. Almost every time I lost one of my past friends I felt let down and I felt like I wasn't good enough for them.That is exactly how God feels when you don't get to know him or take others peoples advice when they say the Lord is just so amazing. Now there is several movies about God but none of them are 100% true. The only book that is 100% right is the bible. It is a lot harder for people to get quickly attached to the bible than it is to get attached to the Hunger Games. But what if the same amount of the Hunger Games viewers became engrossed in God? We would all have some sort of deep family relationship with God. Doesn't that sound like it would last a lot longer than the effect of a good movie? So how do we make God our best seller? Get to know Him! You are never gonna have a full understanding of God if you don't have an amazing understanding of God. Get to know Him just like you would get to know someone before you start hanging out with or before you start dating someone. I know I said we should get so interested in God quickly but God wants you to get to know Him. Not rush into something that you feel like you need to do. Because just like how your favorite movie becomes your fifth favorite as more best sellers come out. God will become your fifth best seller if you rush into the relationship and don't get to know Him. I challenge you this week to think about what you favorite book or movie is. And is that book or movie the best seller over God in your heart? Because God cant share your heart with what your heart desires. Be that friend that tells others about the best seller who's main character is Jesus Christ. Because I can guarantee that they will get hooked on the events that are actually real unlike any other best sellers.



Word of the Day: "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death..."
                                                                        ~Philippians 3:10

What you do defines you

  I always thought that I could keep my thoughts to myself. That I could control what came out of my mouth even though if it was half of what I was really thinking. Just like we are what we eat....how we think is how we act. The human mind can not control what will pop up in our mind next, but we can take charge of our over all thoughts. Most of us think that whatever we think is done by ourselves. But did you know that God knows what your thinking before you do? I believe that is more than enough proof that God is the deliver of all our thoughts. Well then why do we get those sinful thoughts? Why do we think the way we do? Our mind is to be set just to let God fill it, but just like a virus Satan finds his way through to infect the process of our thinking. Have you ever struggled to hold back words that you think are to be said but somehow you know its wrong to act on them? Its almost impossible to know what God wants us to say. But I have a pretty good feeling that He wants us to tell nothing but the whole truth. Now I'm not saying if you think somebody needs to be put in there place that you should go up to them and cuss them out. Because we are to pray for those that persecute us.Our minds can become a battle ground when we don't confess everything, if we never tell what we really mean then are we ever living a truthful life? Don't trap your thoughts in your mind and never set them into action because God didn't put them in your head for no reason. Did you ever wonder why all of our thoughts are different? Our thoughts make up our character...so if we all had the same exact thoughts we would all be the same. When we choose not to let our thoughts define our actions we are cheating. You might think well if I put my thoughts into actions I would not want to be that person! Well that's not a good thing but, that is the case with everyone. Just stop and imagine what the world would be like if everyone acted out every single thought they had. Kind of terrifying to  imagine. One way God shows us our character is by giving us our thoughts so why not embrace it! And if your worried your thoughts are for all the wrong motives then change your thoughts! Because the thoughts that are wrong and bring nothing but sin are NOT the thoughts from God. Don't be blinded by that. The input will become the output. And I find it extremely hard to control the input, to make a better output. Because you need to tell the difference between the Godly thoughts and the worldly thoughts. And our mind deceive us into thinking that they are both the same...but the worldly thoughts are Gods thoughts that were twisted and altered till the human mind can recognize them for what they truly are. Romans 5:4 states, " And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation." This is words of wisdom showing us that if we endure the hard part of training our minds to see the difference of the worldly thoughts vs. the Godly thoughts then our character will strengthen. And just by having a strong character we will begin to develop a glimpse of hope that we have salvation. I challenge you this week to become more aware of your thoughts, can you see the difference between your Godly thoughts and your worldly thoughts? Don't get discouraged, find the ability to see the difference. And be prepared for your character to change, and let that change in. Because we could all use an opening eye to what God really wants our character to be.

Word of the Day: "Don't be fooled by those who say such things, for "bad" company corrupts good character. Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning..."
                                                                     ~1 Corinthians 15:33-34