"Shake the Dust Off Your Feet..."

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine shared a photo that dealt with a current moral debate. It was completely wrong, and had a horrible misuse of scripture. I wanted to speak up because it broke my heart that this photo was going around giving such a false impression of God’s Word. I had a whole argument built up, backed up with scripture. Yet, Facebook malfunctioned that night and I was not able to send it to them.

That night, something dawned on me: most of the verses in my argument were ones I had given to them before in previous conversations. I shared God’s word and tried my best to encourage them to change. That night, I knew then that this person does know the truth. They just don’t want to change, or are too afraid, for whatever reason. That is such a scary pill to swallow because they are forfeiting their soul.

As the adage goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

The truth is, you just have to let people go sometimes. This is difficult for me because I care about others so much. I have had a few people tell me in the past that I care too much about others and that I should stop. On one hand, they are right-I can’t let it wear me down. On another hand, it goes against my nature and who I am at a deep level. Much of what I do is because I want to help others and encourage them.

In the end, we have to remind ourselves that people have free will to live as they wish. Arguing God’s word will get you nowhere most of the time. We need to make sure that when we talk about it to others that we are coming from a place of love, honesty, and gentleness. At that point it is in their hands. To get to the point of arguing with someone will only serve to push them away further.  Jesus instructed the disciples to “shake the dust off their feet” when they came to a place that refused to accept God’s word. (Matthew 10:14)

 I am sad when I’m not able to lead others to Christ, which I know many of you feel that way as well. Often, whether it be a situation with a friend, or issues with the world as a whole, there is usually only one solution: prayer. If you are about to teach someone the gospel, or you already have and they did not accept it, take it to God in prayer.

James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous man holds great power.”

You never know how God is working (Eph. 3:20). For whatever reason, a person’s heart may not be at a point that they can accept Him, and need more time. Maybe they never will come to Christ. Either way, you can never go wrong praying. Not only can it help to bring about change, but it will also build your faith as His follower. It helps Christians to let go and relieve them of some of the burden. Isn’t awesome that our Savior bears our burdens with us? (Matt. 11:28)

Do what you can, the best that you can (Eccles. 9:10) and let God handle the rest. If you do your best and others exercise their free will, do your best to move on and give His word to someone else. Take comfort in the fact that God has your back.

Freedom Isn't Free

On Memorial Day, we take the time to pay respects to those who have fought for us and all of our freedoms. Those men and women who have lost their lives for our nation deserve the utmost respect for their sacrifices.

Our Lord said, “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Jesus understood this better than anyone. He did just what He stated in the verse above. He loved everyone in the world so much, that He was willing to die for us.

At the beginning of our nation, our founding fathers fought to be free from a government which sought to control everyone. Jesus fought spiritually for us to be free from Satan’s oppression of sin—if we choose to love and obey him. (Romans 6:7-9)

His sacrifice was so great that He claimed the ultimate victory over sin (Romans 6:8-10). While the victor has been declared, all humanity now has a choice which side they will choose: the winning side, or the losing side. There is no middle ground to stand on, or fence to straddle. These belong to Satan.

For us to be free, we must make a choice. The Christian life requires sacrificing those things that hurt God. Do we want God in our lives to the point that we’re willing to do whatever He asks? Because that is what it takes! (John 14:15, 21-24, Matthew 10:37-40)

The world so often pushes things that we deem important, but in view of eternity, mean very little: love (romantic), money, jobs, social status, and sex. Not to say that any of these things are necessarily bad in and of themselves, but are we using them in the way God intended us to have them?  Also, just because we want these things, doesn’t mean we should have them. That is what gets people in trouble spiritually-people think they are entitled to something and so therefore they do anything they can to get it.

On the warfront physically, and spiritually, you’re not entitled to anything. As a matter of fact, for soldiers to be victorious, they must remove all selfishness and realize that the cause is much bigger than them.

“Finally, my brethren, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against principalities, against powers, but against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication for all the saints…” –Ephesians 6:10-18

It’s not about us. It’s about God, and sharing His message of salvation to mankind (Mark 16:15). Just as a soldier in a war, we as Christians must learn that God has given us a great task to fight for and to endure, no matter what happens (Revelation 2:10, 1st Timothy 6:12). There may be times when we may be afraid or be uncertain of what to do, but God will always fight with us and give us strength (Exodus 14:14, Philippians 4:13, 2^nd Corinthians 12:9-10).

The truth is, freedom isn’t free. It isn’t free because to gain freedom, we must realize that we need to put away selfishness and pride to obtain it. Whether it is our freedom we have in our nation, or that we have in Christ, we must realize that freedom for both came with a price. We must never forget that.

My Thoughts on the "Blood Moons"

Currently, there is an issue making many religious people look up at the sky in wonderment. This phenomenon is called "Blood Moons". I was intrigued, and wanted to know more, and why so many are getting excited about them.

The reason is this: It is a series of four lunar eclipses and a solar eclipse within a two-year span. The first lunar eclipse was on April 15th this year during the Passover. The second one this year will being during the Feast of the Tabernacle in October.

Then, on April 29th, (which is the day after which I am typing this blog post) the solar eclipse will be visible in Australia. In 2015, the lunar eclipses will occur again on the same Jewish holidays. The last time this happened was over a thousand years ago.

Many in the religious world are saying that this is a sign of Jesus' imminent return. They reference this verse:

"...and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs in the earth below, blood and fire, and vapor and smoke; The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day." (Acts 2:19-20, Joel 2:30-31)

So, here's the question: Based on these verses, is this a sign of Jesus' return? Probably not. Here's why: This has already happened before, for one. As already stated, this happened over a thousand years before. Last time could have very easily been the end as well, since it was after the start of the Lord's church.

Second, I find it highly doubtful that an event so spread out would signal His arrival. Could there be a sign in the sky at the time He comes? Absolutely, the bible even says so, in the verse above and a few others (Mark 13:24). There will be things happening in the sky, but scripture points to everything happening in that moment. The bible says that "He will come as a thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:22)
and "at an hour at which you do not expect" (Matt. 24:44).

We won't know until the event is completely upon us.

As for the timing of these events, I will admit that it is highly interesting. What these blood moons do for me, more than anything, is make me fill in awe of my Creator. Time and time again I left wondering how in the world someone couldn't believe in God! I love astronomy, and the more I learn about it, the more convinced I am of His existence. I just can't see how this all happened by accident. I can't.

Everything is so fine-tuned and timed-it is God's creative symphony. The universe is music that we can touch, see, taste, feel, and hear. It all works together seamlessly and beautifully. Comets blaze across our sky in a timed gravitational dance, as are the planets and the sun. Everything in the universe is a part of this dance, as well.

Apart from the gravitational part, I feel that the Blood Moons may be just one of those things a part of our system's clockwork.

Genesis 1:14 says, "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day and night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years."

As stated in this verse the universe is set up to tell time. You may have never thought about it before, but, time wouldn't exist without the sky. There wouldn't be days. We wouldn't know what time we were to meet up with friends. There would be no clocks or calendars. Our life would be completely unorganized and even more uncertain than it already is.

Maybe the blood moons (since they fall on the Jewish holidays so perfectly) are marking an interval for something we don't know about. Or, they could just be another thing in nature to help us believe in Him.

Romans 1:20 says, "For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that are made, so that they are without excuse."

I believe that we shouldn't wait for 'signs' that Jesus is coming back. At that point it could be too late. The only sign you need to start living for Him and obeying Him are the words of Jesus himself: "Take up your cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

Danger of Comparison

Has this thought ever crossed your mind: "Well, if I were more like her...". If we're being honest, the truth is everyone thinks like this from time to time.

I can admit that I have. There's one person in particular that I've compared myself to a lot over the years. This person has a lot of qualities that I wish I had. She's better at socializing than I am, and she's witty as all get out.

For years I was so jealous of her. I felt often like I couldn't compete with her when she was around. And, yes, I had that thought,  "Why can't I be more like her?" There have been many times I've questioned if I'm good enough. So, I'm not like her. Her attributes are completely different than mine.

A few years ago, I realized how ludicrous my thinking really was. Then, one question came to the surface that I was kind of ignoring: "Am I striving to be more like Christ?"

After that question is asked, nothing else matters. The only person that I, or any other Christian should compare themselves to is Christ and HIS character.

Are we humble? (Matthew 23:12, James 4:10)

Are we long-suffering and patient with others as God is patient with us? (Luke 15:11-32)

Are we gentle? (Matthew 11:29, Titus 3:2)

Are we kind, compassionate, and forgiving? (Ephesians 4:32)

Are we honest? (1st Timothy 1:10, Revelation 21:8)

Do we strive for purity? (Philippians 4:8)

Do we weigh every word we say? (Ephesians 4:28, Ephesians 5:4, Colossians 4:6)

We all struggle with some of the things I named above. As Christians we need to be always striving to be as much like Christ as we possibly can. Is it easy? No, but we do the best we can. When we mess up, we just dust ourselves off and try harder again next time.

We need to stop envying each other! What good does it do us to compare ourselves to anyone but our Savior? When we are looking at each other, we stop looking at Christ. Instead of comparing, we should encourage and push each other towards Christ.

God made us all unique and different. The burden of envy is a heavy burden to bear. Be happy in who you are and make Christ your sole focus-not another person.

Accepting Life's Little (and Big) Surprises

Recently, I went through one of the most difficult weeks of my life. A lot of changes were coming at me at once, and everything that I had been expecting to happen were falling apart in front of my very eyes. Everything came to a screeching halt.

I didn't want to do much when everything happened. However, I kept forcing myself to do things because I knew that it was better than wallowing. I was even tempted to skip out on going to church services because I wasn't sure I could sit through services without bursting into  tears. Yet, I went anyway. I'm so glad I did, too.

I'm sure that God worked out somehow for me to hear certain things, because I needed to hear them. During the time, I was staying with some friends, and at the congregation they attend they had been studying about Mary, the mother of Jesus.

In Luke 1:26-38, Mary is being told that she is about to be the mother of the Messiah. As would be expected, she had some surprise and confusion, especially since she'd never been with a man before. This is HUGE-think about it-you're a good, wholesome God fearing young girl and you've just been told that you are about to bear a child. I'm sure if many of us were in her shoes in her time we'd be afraid and wondering what this would do to our reputation.

What she does next shows us just how much she trusted her God. When the Angel of the Lord finished telling her everything that was going to happen, she simply said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." (38)

She accepted it and trusted God enough to work everything out, even though she didn't completely understand everything yet. And in some verses later on, we see Mary joyfully singing to God in awe, humbleness, and thanks (46-55). This event came in and completely changed the direction of her life. She simply let go, and allowed God to work in whatever way He saw fit.

This made me think about my situation a lot. While my situation isn't quite the same as Mary's by a long shot, I realize that God is working. While I don't entirely understand yet why things took a turn the way that they did, I know that He is completely in control. He sees my story from beginning to end. There are things He wants me to learn, experience and figure out. He's leading me to the next stage in my life. He'll use my situation to help me grow.

Over the week afterwards, I noticed something happening to my heart. It didn't hurt as much. It was because I released my grasp on the situation and gave it up to God. I was (and still am) a little sad, but my heart was starting to fill with a joy of knowing that I'm not going through this alone. God is holding my hand, and He makes me strong (Philippians 4:13).

God's plans are usually a lot different than our own. I've been learning that lately. No matter how I or anyone may try to resist, His plans always prevail. But, I know that it'll turn out okay. One of my very favorite verses says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

There's also this one: "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

The truth is, every thing is going to be alright. Release your grip and let God do what He's going to do.

My Experience in NaNoWriMo

I haven't written on my blog in a while, but I'd like to share with you something that I did this past month that changed me as a writer. For the very first time, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). For those that don't know what it is, it is a month where writers try and write 50,000 words in a month (50,000 words is the minimum amount of words for a book to qualify as a novel). When I began, I was honestly uncertain if I could even write a full novel in that time.

My novel is a story that I've wanted to write for a while called Credence. The story is YA futuristic dystopian about a girl named Brielle who is growing up in a time where religion and faith is seen as a mental disorder. In the beginning of the story, we read that the world has just rebuilt itself and the whole world is under one centralized government (save for just a handful of places that signed a treaty to not bother in the affairs of the rest of the globe). Since the government has decided that since faith is a mental disorder those affected by it must be taken care of (either by elimination or 'services' that try to get rid of it for you). After some terrible global conflict that led to nuclear weapons being used, they decided that faith was the main reason for why they couldn't have peace in the world. In response to this, a group of people rebelled and created an organization that protects Christians from detection. Brielle is one of the ones under their protection.

So, in just a couple of weeks, I had the first draft written. It's terrible-as all first drafts are-but there are a few things that I noticed as I was writing:

1. My narration got better as I continued to write. In times past, whenever I would write a short story or even attempt at writing a novel, one of my main problems was the narration of the story. I always ended up having a ton of dialogue and very little narrative. As I progressed through the chapters, I forced myself to try and write more narration. Towards the end, I got a better balance (not perfect) of narrative and dialogue.
2. The more I wrote, the more ideas I got and the more the story grew. I always thought that you had to completely plan out a story before you sit down to write. It's true that it can help to do that, yet I found that just simply down and writing can really force your mind to think and allow the story to go where it wants to.
3. Writing down the first draft really wasn't as difficult as I'd thought it'd be. Writing down a first draft can actually be fairly simple if you pace yourself. You can write 50,000 words in a month, or even less if you just sit down and do it. Hey, I heard that Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in about nine days.
4. Writers Block is just a small obstacle. Don't stop even if you get writer's block. Write something-even if it may not make sense. A lot of my best ideas for the story came out of my writers block when I forced myself to write. One idea changes to another. You just have to see where your brain takes you, even if you aren't going to necessarily keep some of the things you rambled on about.
5. I found that everyday I wanted to do nothing but write. The more I wrote, the more I wanted to write, even at the times I was feeling mentally exhausted. I was just getting so excited to see my story progress, grow, and get closer and closer to the end.
6. It helped me see the next books in the series more clearly. I have the intention to make this a trilogy (maybe even more, depends on what happens). The more I wrote, the more I could see what would happen in the continuing series. I noticed little things that came up that foreshadowed things to come later on. It's amazing how it just blooms!

The website for NaNoWriMo was extremely helpful in this process. They have message boards to talk with other people who are also doing this and kind of sharing in the burden some of the issues they've encountered. They also have authors that come in and write an encouraging note and give advice in letters to all who are participating.

I definitely plan on doing this again next year. For anyone who is a writer and wants to write novels, I HIGHLY suggest looking into doing this next year. You can do this even if you have limited time to do so. It really is all about pacing yourself. Sit down and write about 1500 words a day-that's roughly about a page and a half, two pages tops. If you do this, you will reach that 50,000 word mark by the last day of the month. Or, if you choose not to to NaNoWriMo, pick out a time period that works for you and figure out how many words a day you need to write in order to get to the end. The overall idea here is pacing and breaking the project down.

I know within the next year it will be a challenge to edit and go though the re-writing process, but it will be so worth it to eventually hold the published copy in my hands. This experience showed me that it IS possible and that this dream can become a reality-I just have to sit down and actually do it! I am just so thrilled and thankful that I was able to get something down. This gives me a starting point, and I just pray that God can use me and the story I'm writing to reach out to others and inspire them.

Finding Motivation in Self-Acceptance

Okay, okay; I know that blogs on self image and self worth have been done so many times, but I thought up a side to it that I hadn't thought of to write down before.

Just recently, I've been undertaking the process of losing weight. I'm very proud to say that I've lost over 50 lbs. I'm eating better in terms of the types of foods I eat and the portions I am eating.

I've never lost this much before. Normally, I'll make it to about 30, and then I'm unable to lose anymore. Then, I get discouraged, eat more, and gain the weight back. Meh.

I kind of realize now what the main problem was.

Back then at the previous times I tried losing weight, my self esteem was terrible. I really had almost no confidence in myself. I looked in the mirror and hated myself inside and out for the person I'd become.

Over the years, I had been told in so many ways (subtly and unsubtly) that the only way for you to get the motivation to lose weight was to hate and despise the way you looked.

I knew it was probably silly to think that way. Yet, because I didn't have any other reason to take care of myself, I kind of thought at the time that it was the only way.

My journey has been a long one. First, was realizing that I have a God who created and loves me. Second, fully realizing deep down to your heart, (not just knowing it-but understanding it) that you are beautiful on the inside. Third, my self-worth needs to come from the Lord. All of these things I have written about before.

You see, at this point I've realized something: when you love something, really love something, you're more likely to go out of your way to take care of it. We go out of our way to help loved ones; our siblings, husbands, boyfriends, mothers, fathers, grandparents, our relationship with God, etc.

Why? Because we love them. What about ourselves?

We MUST stop hating on our bodies. When we learn to love and accept them, only then do I believe we can really get the desire to take better care of it and maintain a lifetime of health. Because, seriously-why would we take care of something we don't really love and care about that much anyway?

Also, when you don't have a healthy dose of self-love, other areas of your life suffer. Your relationships suffer. You cause your loved ones to worry about you and your health. You begin comparing yourself and hating other women because they have something you don't. Your relationship with God suffers because you're focused too much on self to worry about it.

My weight loss is now mostly because I want to be a healthier me-not necessarily because I want to look better. I want to treat myself well so God can use me better for His purposes, and so I can do more for my loved ones. It'll be nice to fit into some smaller sizes (I'm not going to lie about that) but my mindset has changed dramatically in what my priorities are health wise.

So, what I am basically saying is that we must learn to love ourselves and when we do, you find that it's easier to find the motivation to take better care of yourself.