The Meaning of Life

At night the only light we have is the moon; the light of the moon is not the moon's own light, but the light of the Sun reflected off the moon's surface. In the same way the light that we are called to shine is not our own light, but the light of our savior who has sent us into the world to bring about guidance during the dark hours of night. We must be a reflection of Jesus who is no longer on Earth. We cannot hide our light and keep it for ourselves for it is not ours to hide. We need to go out into the darkness and shine our light for all the world to see; not to bring recognition to us, but to Jesus.

This is the core of our existence as Christians. This is why we are here. This is why God has put us not only in the world, but in our respective countries, states, cities, and even neighborhoods and churches. We are where we are for a reason and that reason is to show Jesus to those in our vicinity who do not know Him. To influence those around us. To help others learn about His love. This is the meaning of life for anyone who follows The Way.

⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

                                                              - John 9:4-5

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

                                                                 -Matthew 5:14-16

Winterfest- Worship, Lessons, and Snow

Winterfest is an annual worship conference for teens. It starts Friday night, has two sessions on saturday, and closes out Sunday with an excellent worship service. I learned this weekend that it actually started as a winter retreat for my church, Farragut Church of Christ.

The teens get a lot out of the lessons which is great, I love to see them learn and grow! Unfortunately it doesn't do much for me, but that's intentional. The target audience is high school students. However, its nice to step back and look at things from a different age perspective.

The worship is amazing, its definitely my favorite part of Winterfest. The group "Offering Worship" led the singing; mostly songs from their CD "Awake My Soul". Most of these songs were new to our group, but I loved them. I really appreciated that Winterfest put this information on their website late last year as I was able to get the CD and familiarize myself with the songs.

We got lucky this weekend and it snowed a lot on Saturday. Gatlinburg and snow just go hand in hand. Most of my Gatlinburg memories growing up involve it snowing. So a Gatlinburg experience doesn't seem complete without it.

I'm thankful for the oppurtunity to go on this trip with the youth group and I look forward to many more Winterfests.

Also, Kaleigh wanted me to say that she is my favorite. (Truth undisclosed)

Lent

In my last post I talked about how some things have become distractions that keep us from growing spiritually, such as tv. This leads us right into Lent. 

We typically connect Lent with giving things up or in other words, self-denial. 99% of American households own at least one tv. On average every American spends 5 hours and 11 minutes watching television each day. That's about 36 hours and 15 minutes a week; nearly a full time job.

Would you like to guess the average time bible readers spend immersed in God's word each day? Seven minutes.

 I am going to take part in Lent for the first time this year. And I am going to give up tv shows and movies. The time that I would normally spend watching those I will spend on reading the bible, listening to sermons, or listening to podcasts about youth ministry.

I challenge you to do the same. Or if you can honestly say tv isn't a problem for you, then I challenge you to give up whatever it is that distracts you from God and growing closer to him. Spend that extra time you will have deepening that relationship.

P.S  Lent starts on Ash Wednesday which is February 13 this year. That's this Wednesday.

Spiritual Nourishment

In this day and age we have access to God's word so easily, so readily in so many different forms. Hundreds of translations, various methods of telling the stories, thousands of sermons available online at the click of a button and all typically for free. Yet, for some reason we seem to be the most spiritually malnourished generation since Jesus' time on Earth.

Along with this easy access to God's word comes easy access to so many other forms of entertainment, distractions that is. We are so concerned with what's going on in the news, or our favorite TV shows of the year that time with God gets pushed back more and more and more. We say things like "I'll read my Bible tomorrow." But tomorrow is always tomorrow.

Until we change our attitudes, until we change how we think and look at the world, tomorrow will just be tomorrow. It's time for tomorrow to be today; time for later to be now. We can't just sit around waiting for change. If we want change, especially in ourselves, WE have to start it.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

-Mahatma Gandhi

God has given us the nourishment we desire, we just have to seek it, and spend our time in it.

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.

-Isaiah 55:1-3

Radio Waves

 Radio waves are all around us, we use them all the time for cell phones, radios, some remotes, etc. despite them being so present in our lives, we cannot see or hear them without the help of some sort of receiver. As we adjust the receiver to different frequencies we will hear the different things flying through the air over these radio waves.


The same is true of God, he is everywhere. He is always with us, present in everything we do, but we cannot see or hear him without a properly tuned receiver. In this case our spirits are the receivers, and it is our responsibility to adjust our spirits to be in tune with God

How do we do this? The same way you have probably been told all your life, read the Bible. The Bible is more or less God's instruction manual to life, and part of this involves developing a deep and meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. Beyond reading the Bible a great way at developing your relationship is by serving! Jesus came to Earth to serve us, as such we must serve one another. By doing this we have the ability to  reflect Jesus, bring others to Jesus, and develop our own relationship with Jesus.



Kudos to the senior pastor at Two Rivers for the basic concept used in the beginning of this post.

Have Faith

"Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you." -Psalms 9:10

I had awaken early this morning, before even the sun had risen, with the thoughts of a dear friend. As I worked through these thoughts and memories some words were spoken to me:

God doesn't promise things won't change, but He does promise that when they do, He will take care of us.

I felt inspired to share these words, so I posted them on Twitter and Facebook, but then I started thinking about faith. I thought it would be a good opportunity to update my blog, so I started searching through the bible for topics on faith. There are lots. After reading through so many I was encouraged yet disheartened; I had no clue where to go from there and almost just stopped there. But I logged in to my blog account anyway and stumbled across a post I had written back on March 25th, 2010. Yeah, over a year and a half before this post. After I wrote the ramblings in that post I had decided not to post it for whatever reason, I was probably scared and frustrated with somethings going on in life. Anyhow here is the post I didn't publish:

I live my life day to day. Some good, many miserable. I wonder why, but I know the answer. I go along, pretending to be fine. Telling everyone I'm fine.

I wonder if I'm truly alive, not because I'm dead but because I'm empty. Or at least feel empty.
I only say this because I was talking to a friend of mine who is feeling similar. I've known this to be the problem for a while, but this is the first I am speaking of it.

I do things to help, don't I? Maybe it isn't enough, or maybe I'm not doing the right things.

I want to rid myself of this feeling. I want to feel full. And I know that I need to do more for God. He can fill me, but I'm afraid to do more, or to change what I'm doing. And even if I decide to do something, what? What would I do?

Well, God has certainly changed my life. I read this and thought, 'This is me?' But it isn't. It WAS me. There will be changes in our lives, constantly and frequently. We can't allow these changes to turn us from God, instead we must have faith in Him to see us through. Let me tell you, I no longer feel that way. I don't feel full exactly, but I do not in the least feel empty anymore.

Faith is something I often struggle with; I have it, but not consistently. I worry, I get stressed out, but things always work out. Maybe not the way I had intended, but they do always seem to work out.

If something is troubling you, if you are worried, stressed, or afraid of something that might be changing, or has already changed, please don't be. Just stop and take a few minutes of your day to pray about it. Maybe write it out like a letter or blog post. Let it sit there for a few weeks before you post it, send it, delete it, or whatever. Just keep praying about it, ask God what He wants for you. Ask Him for help, He will give it to you.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

      You don't really need to read all of these, just get the basic idea.
NVI, Genesis 1 (respectively numbered):

 ³ And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
⁶ And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water."
⁹ And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so.
¹¹ Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
¹⁴ And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 
²⁰ And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."  
²⁴ And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so.
²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
 ²⁷ So God created man in his own image,
       in the image of God he created him;
       male and female he created them. 

       Words. Powerful words. Through words alone God shaped our world, and created us in His image. As pointed out by a dear friend of mine, words are a powerful tool that we received from our Father; our God. But this tool is more often misused then not. Even in simple ways. If I say I'm going to do something, I try to the best of my abilities to do it. Of course I'm not perfect; I forget from time to time. It seems to me that some people just don't care thought, "Sure, I'll help you on Saturday." Friday night they think 'Oh actually I'd rather do that then help him...'.

     If you say you are going to do something, then do it! If you have no intention of following through with your word, don't say anything! If you aren't sure you will be able to, then either don't say you will, or say you will try but might not be able to. Its an easy concept. By taking a few minutes, or even a few seconds you can usually determine whether you will be able to follow through with whatever you are thinking about saying.


NIV, Matthew 5 (Paying attention specifically to 37):

 ³³"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' ³⁴But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

      Words can be very hurtful when misused. And very moving, doing much good when used appropriately. Go out! Be responsible! Think! Think! Think! Do good with your words!

The Human Brain

The human brain is such an odd little thing. Starve it of some sleep; mix in some stress and constant movement and "bam" you have a remedy for instant sickness. Seriously, I'm apparently not able to go one night without sleep and run my normal routine. I ended up going home a little early Wednesday night and spending the majority of Thanksgiving in bed. I ate one plate of food that entire day and that was it; slept for like 14 hours and honestly I still feel off. At least it doesn't hurt anymore. I suppose this is a form of punishment for not taking care of our temples properly. (1 Corinthians 3:17) "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple."