Do Not Lose Heart

What does depression do?  Where does depression hurt?  It’s your heart.  It makes you lose heart.  I have friends who are struggling with this horrible, deadly disease, and I can say that most times I feel powerless to in any way help them.  It is almost unfathomable to me, how anyone could be so down, especially Christians who are supposed to know the ever-reaching love of God.  It’s frustrating.

But you know, I have the love of Christ in me.  So I know that I won’t ever give up on them.  I can be there to encourage and to pray.  I can come against any and every evil spirit of pride, hate or depression that’s taken a hold of my brother in Christ.  I just wish something would really happen, like drastically.  And I can’t see much progress.  I wish God would work faster, but I must trust in His perfect timing.

There’s only so much encouragement I or anyone else can give.  There is a limit to our human abilities, our medical remedies.  But there is no limit to the glorious power of the Spirit of God.  He places light and hope into our hearts.  He transforms us from the inside out.  He does it for me, and He does it for the suffering people around me.  My role as an intercessor is this: to lift them up into the hands of God and let Him do His perfect work.  It’s hard sometimes, but I’ll keep praying.  Because that’s what love is.  Love doesn’t give up.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”–2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Everything

Sometimes, we think we can live however we want and still have God bless us.  This is a deception.  God has given us His law so we can follow it.  It doesn’t matter how much God forgives; He still expects us to follow His ways.  God hates sin.  But then we think we can keep on sinning?  Eh, I don’t think so.

What is the cure for this spirit of “religion”?  It’s faith.  Real faith.  Faith isn’t excusing your own continuous sin because of a belief in a “loving God.”  Faith isn’t doing many good works to try to gain God’s favor.

This is faith: doing what God wants you to do, not just enough to “get out of hell,” not out of resentment or obligation, but out of love for Him.  Faith is believing that even while we were still dead in our sin, God loved us and came and died and became sin for us.  But death couldn’t hold God, because God is Life.  And if He has that kind of power, to redeem the entire world, He can bring that power to you.  That’s why perfect love drives out all fear.  That’s why we don’t worry about tomorrow.  That’s why we don’t feel insecure in our talents and abilities.  That’s why we don’t act out of selfish ambition.  That’s why we have joy in pain.  It’s because we know where we were, dead, and where we are now, alive in Christ.  It is only by His grace that we have hope and a future.  It is only by Love that we can truly love others.

So why not give everything, everything you’ve got?  All your money, every ounce of energy, every minute?  What God can do with your life is infinitely more than you could ever dream of doing with it.  Give it up.  Die to yourself, and truly live.  Take the hand of your creator, and let Him lead you on to everything good.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”–Revelation 22:17

The Difference

I just finished reading a book by C. S. Lewis called The Great Divorce.  It’s fiction, and highly allegorical like a lot of other books by him.  I highly recommend it.  Anyway, what I really got out of the book was that sin and God’s love are entirely opposite to each other.

The book starts out with a bunch of people taking a bus from hell up to heaven.  Once there, each one is met by a glorified person whom they had known on earth.  Each chapter of the book is basically a conversation between two people: the citizen of heaven, in love with God, and the citizen of hell making excuses for his own misery.  The ghosts from hell were content to believe lies and do what they wanted, even if it meant giving up a chance of eternal love.  Their sin defined them, gave them security.  On the other hand, the righteous ones were completely different.  God’s perfect love had removed all bitterness, self-consciousness, pride, lust, greed and the like.  They were shining examples of what we should be as Christians, full of real love, joy, peace and faith.

This book really encouraged me and gave me a greater grasp on the hope that we have in Christ.  It also served as a great reminder of just how much we need to reach this world with the love of God.  This world is dead and dying, and we have the answer.  And we sit around, distracting ourselves with the same worthless entertainment the world does?  There is a difference between truth and lies.  What will we believe?  What will we live for?

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”–Matthew 5:10

Alone With Your Creator

I really love God, guys.  I think I discover more of Him each day, and that’s just awesome.  I mean, think about it: Jesus forsook His own Godhood to come to earth for me.  That’s real love.  If I ever come to a full realization of that love, I probably won’t even be able to survive the glory of it.  So I’m content with what God’s shown me so far, but still hungry for more of Him.

It may just be the introvert in me talking, but I love being alone with God.  Seriously, try taking a walk late at night by yourself, and just think about Him.  Talk to Him; He wants to know you.  Let Him speak to you while you meditate on His Word.  He is an awesome God.  Let Him in.  He’ll change you and shape you.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”–Phillippians 2:5-7

Surrender

What use is it to worry about your life?  How can anyone expect perfection from such uselessness?  Not that we should have low expectations.  We should, in fact, have the highest expectations from our lives.  But really, how do we expect to be great when we’re really not great?  In the times of greatest trouble, why can we have joy when we’re dying, exhausted?  Is the face of death something to be laughed at?

What about God?  Have we forgotten Him?  What use is a lump of clay sitting in the dirt if there is no one to form it?  But even the most useless material will be made beautiful in the hands of a master.  We have one such master.  Such foolishness it is to say to the Master, “Thank you so much for your trouble in pulling me out of the scrap heap, I really appreciate it, but I think I’ll be going and doing my own thing now.”  Wha-?!?  That doesn’t even make the least bit of sense.

The reason we surrender everything to God is not what we lose, but what we ultimately gain.  We have a potential that is only realized through His will.  We have nothing to lose anyway.  Sin is nothing in comparison to the glory and majesty of our Father God.  But the reward for righteousness is everlasting life.  That is why we give our whole lives, take up our crosses, die to selves.  Let our prayer be like Jesus’ in the garden: “Not my will, but yours, be done.”

“But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.” –Isaiah 64:8

We Need Each Other

Well, we made it to California.  I guess the Lord wasn’t done with me yet, so no airplane crashes.  We visited the Jelly Belly factory today, which was fun.  My youngest brother liked it the most, I think.  Free jelly beans are a good thing.

 

You know, in a factory, no one can do everything on their own.  Each person has a role to play for everything to be accomplished.  The same is true in a family.  I really believe I and the rest of my family would still be starving if it weren’t for my dad.  If it weren’t for my mom, we would probably still be in Pensacola.  This vacation definitely wouldn’t be much fun without my brothers.

 

In the body of Christ, we all have a role to play.  Pastor, intercessor, administrator, secretary, prophet, provider and money-maker, worship leader, musician, teacher: we all have something to contribute.  Each position may butt heads with another from time to time, but that’s to be expected.  We all have a slightly different outlook on life, a different personality, but our diversity is what makes us so great!  We are so different.  That’s amazing.  So many different people, uniting under the one purpose that is Christ: that should be the greatest testimony of all time!  Each one of us should give the greatest respect to our brothers and sisters in Christ, holding each other up as more important than ourselves.  That’s the definition of family.

 

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” -1 Corinthians 12:27

Crush

God’s really been revealing the stupidity and sinfulness of crushes to me.  Maybe it’s just for me, or maybe it’s just for guys, but I really believe that I’ve been caught in a deceitful sinful pattern in my life.  It started way back as far as I can remember, and it’s taken this long for me to actually realize it.

It might be a little strange to hear a 20-year-old college graduate carrying on about crushes, but I really think this needs to be written down.  You see, I’ve always been really shy, especially around women.  And lust is a real thing.  I think the devil tries to twist something good, attraction between people, and change it into something really really bad.  A crush is a lie to yourself, and one of the most deceptive forms of lust.

So what’s the difference between being attracted to someone and a crush?  Sometimes it’s hard to tell.  I’d say a crush is more of a private emotional thing, probably leading to jealousy.  If you find yourself putting your heart into a person you don’t even know, creating a one-way soul tie in your mind around your perception of that person, it’s probably wrong.  Another sign is if you find yourself lying to others about your feelings.  A crush is a private thing grounded in fantasy, and it stays out of touch with reality.

What if your crush gets a girlfriend or boyfriend?  You probably know already.  Many times, it results in you feeling jealous.  What’s the sin count now?  Lust, lies, hate… where does it end?  I don’t know how it is for women, but for guys, why do you not vocalize what you’re feeling?  One of two reasons: either you’re too scared or it’s just lust, and both are sin.  If you know God, you know that we are not supposed to be slaves to fear.  Living in fear is sin.  Are you scared?  Trust God to lead you in what He wants you to do.  If you really like someone, tell them.  Quit playing games with your own heart, and tell the truth.  Being rejected is far better than deceiving yourself.  If you know it’s a lust problem, repent immediately.  Don’t let it go any further; it’s that simple.

If you know what I’m talking about, you know it’s not that simple.  It can be really tough to let go of a crush.  Many times you find yourself just finding another one the next day.  It’s a pattern of sin.  Why do we do it?  Why do we mess with our own hearts?  I think it’s because they’re not in the right place to begin with.  First and foremost, our hearts should belong to God.  We should be seeking after Him, not some fake emotional high we give ourselves at the sake of another oblivious person.  The answer to all this?  Repentance.  We must turn our hearts to God and away from sin.

For so many years it’s been dreams, obsession, fantasy, fakeness: one young woman after the next.  I need to get back to reality.  Only one person can take away sin, and that’s Jesus Christ.  The devil’s had me in this area for WAY too long.  I need to learn to love like God does.  I guess the mere fact that I’m writing this post gives me some hope.  I know that God’s started something good in me, and I know He will be faithful to complete it.

“But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” -Deuteronomy 4:29

Spiritual Family

I love my spiritual family.  That’s pretty much all I wanted to say.  I am truly privileged to know some of the best people in the world, in my opinion.  I really don’t know why God went out of His way to bless me with the best brothers and sisters a man could ever ask for.  If you guys (and women) are reading this, I just want to thank you for sticking by me, encouraging me, leading me by the Word and rebuking me when I needed it.

If any others who I don’t know are out there reading this post, I just want to exhort you: find an amazing church family.  Find some good, loving people with whom you enjoy serving God.  Get plugged in; serve them.  Grow with them.  There really is nothing else like it in the world.  We are the body of Christ.  We are unified by the God of the universe.  That’s amazing; it really is.

“Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.” -John 8:35

“Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” -Hebrews 2:11

Prince

At Victory Weekend last Friday night, someone came up to me and said, “God wants you to know, you’re a prince.”  Wow, I love God; He always comes through with a word of encouragement for me when I really need it.  I know I’ve struggled with identity issues in the past.  Lately, I’ve been coming to terms with who I really am.  I am a son of the King of Kings.  I’m not some distrought beggar, striving just to please God or else suffer His wrath.  Jesus already took that punishment for me.  Now I am a son of God, a prince.  I should live like one.

I’m reminded of the movie Spaceballs.  In the film, the hero Lone Star really likes Princess Vespa.  The only problem is, he thinks he can’t marry her, because he doesn’t know that he’s really a prince.  After Yogurt reveals the truth to Lone Star, that he really is a prince, he lives happily ever after with his princess.  The knowledge that he was born royalty was the deciding factor of his destiny.

When we are born again as new men into Christ’s glorious Kingdom, we are not born into poverty.  We don’t start out at the bottom, having to work our way up in the ranks.  We are born into royalty!  Right from the start of our relationship with God, we are born as princes and princesses in the Kingdom.  We are chosen; we are royal; we are holy.  We are loved as sons and daughers of the King.  Here’s a great verse:

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
-1 Peter 2:9

Rise Against

Are you willing to die for the sake of the Gospel?  Try it sometime.  Take a stand for righteousness; step out of the little hellhole you call a comfort zone and DO something for a change.  How can you, the one who knows the truth, sit back and watch people go to hell?  You just shake your head and say “that’s so sad, they just went to hell.”  You know what’s sad?  You are.  Really, what’s the point in living if you’re going to waste your time doing nothing?  How screwed up can you be, keeping the Savior to yourself?  What, you’re not even going to try?  Stop pretending everything’s okay.  Snap out of your stupid denial: this is a matter of life and death.  Rise against the power of Satan.  Fight back.  We’re in a war, and you’re letting the enemy break through the lines.  What’s worse, someone being eternally damned for mere ignorance of God, or you letting them?  You know the way to Life!  Or do you really?  Just a reminder, a man died for you once.  Follow His example.  Die for someone else.

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
-Romans 10:14-15

Edit: Hey, guys.  I know that the above post seems kind of harsh.  That’s because it is.  Honestly, it really saddens me when I see people who profess Jesus as their savior living the complete opposite way.  We should all be living in victory over sin!  Not to say we’re all there yet.  Sanctification is a process.  It’s amazing what God can do through you if you let him.  Just know I’m writing completely out of love for you and the ones who still need to hear about Jesus.  Love you, everybody!  I hope you were challenged in some way by my post.  I know I was. 
-Joel

Edit 2:  You know, I forgot to tell you what fighting in this war looks like for us.  It’s not physically violent, maybe not even emotionally violent.  Our weapon is our love for each other.  Love, guys.  That’s what will change the world.  That’s what we need to show, to live out.  God IS love.  Selfishness is an enemy.  That’s why we need to die to self.  We can never show unconditional love to others if we’re too busy trying to please ourselves.

Oh, here’s another awesome verse:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
-Ephesians 6:12