Tag: Jesus Loves Us

Find Your Ministry

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Find Your Ministry:

Have you felt like something’s missing in your life? Something you can’t quite describe but you feel it in the morning when you get out of bed and when you’re out with your friends. You feel it deep down into your heart and soul, and you crave answers, but you don’t even know the question. I felt this for many years of my life, and only when I struck the bottom of life’s horrors did I finally realize my heart has been calling to one thing, and that was Jesus Christ. The day I heard the voice of God I realized how long I had been living in the darkness. People think once you find your salvation or you have that one big event that changes everything in your life that you are all of a sudden going to be a perfect human being. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You can continue down a sinful path, but when you feel the love of Christ cover you like a warm blanket your body has revulsion to sinful behaviors. Things of your past will no longer be appealing, they will no longer give you the fake joy you once reveled in. You can continue to ignore those convictions, but you are only denying the truth. When you find Christ you are reborn, by fire your old self is burned away, and you are a new person. When that day comes, what’s your next step? Well, let me show you what your path will look like.

When you find that salvation in Christ you need to seek Godly counsel. You should go to your pastor, or a close friend in Christ. You need to meet with your pastor and talk about yourself, and start looking at ministries to get connected to. At first you should volunteer with as many as you can till you find the one you are most comfortable with. You will be searching for your spiritual gifts that you’ve been blessed with. I hear people tell me all the time there’s nothing they are good at. There’s nothing that makes them special. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Each and every person on this planet has been given gifts from the Holy Spirit and can use them in a ministry field. I think there are a lot of misconceptions as to what ministry is. Most people believe ministry is teaching, or preaching. This is not true, and when you look to the Hebrew of the word ministry it is, Shareth, “Ministry, religious ministry, service in the tabernacle.”  Ministry is service to the Body of Christ. Every job, every works in the service to the Lord as according to your gifts is ministry. This is everyone from those who cook, clean, sing, organize, administration, teach, or preach. Ministries cover every works in the church. Any way for you to service God is a ministry. It’s our job to evangelize but evangelizing is a job for everyone. While people may evangelize and specifically good at missions work, that would be one of their spiritual gifts. You will find a natural interest or desire to particular activities. In this you are being directed by the Holy Spirit to explore different things and you will find it. Not all gifts are found right away, and some require practice. We do not see basketball, football, or hockey players using only their God given talents without also practicing their gifts. We do not improve without putting forth the effort.

God knows us beyond our imagining. We see the true nature of the Blessed Lord especially in Psalm 139:1-13 New Living Translation (NLT)

1 O Lord, you have examined my heart

    and know everything about me.

2 You know when I sit down or stand up.

    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

3 You see me when I travel

    and when I rest at home.

    You know everything I do.

4 You know what I am going to say

    even before I say it, Lord.

5 You go before me and follow me.

    You place your hand of blessing on my head.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

    too great for me to understand!

7 I can never escape from your Spirit!

    I can never get away from your presence!

8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;

    if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.

9 If I ride the wings of the morning,

    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    and your strength will support me.

11 I could ask the darkness to hide me

    and the light around me to become night—

12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

    Darkness and light are the same to you.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

 

If God knew us from before our birth and knows us in our death, knows our path, and what we will do, he designs each and every one of us with care and consideration to how we can serve in accordance with His desires for our service within the Body of Christ. In order to work on our selves, we must work with God by servicing God. Matthew 7:7-11“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” We must pray for our path to be made clear. Pray to Abba and ask how we may serve. We must allow God to mold us, to guide us, and in doing so, we submit to the spirit and let go of our own wants and desires. In doing so we will develop new joys, new dreams, and we will be blessed by God accordingly. Matthew 7:7-117 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”  

Be sure to plug in when you find yourself a church. You will find yourself in need of prayer and thus you will pray, but you will also need to study. Joshua 1:8“8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”We must learn to take scripture into our hearts. The Devil will attack you day and night and he is testing your defenses to find a weakness to break through to poison your heart. Do not part from Christ, instead pray day and night, and study, and take scripture into your heart.

1 Corinthians 12

12 Now, dear brothers and sisters,[a] regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice[b]; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.[c] 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,[d] while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

One Body with Many Parts

12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,[e] some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.[f] 14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? 18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” 22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. 27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. 28 Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:

 first are apostles,

second are prophets,

third are teachers,

then those who do miracles,

those who have the gift of healing,

those who can help others,

those who have the gift of leadership,

those who speak in unknown languages.

29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! 31 So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

Everyone has his or her gifts as seen in scripture. God ensures that every single person has his or her gifts. Never stop praying to God how we can serve. 1 Thessalonians 5:17“17 Never stop praying.”

Affirmations: “emotional support or encouragement.” When you start getting plugged in people will naturally tell you, or thank you for doing a good job. Between passion, desire, interest and talents, you will find your place in the church body. Finding your ministry is like “going to a buffet, some stuff ‘s okay, some stuff is pretty good, some stuff you absolutely hate, stuff you’ll absolutely love and you’ll want more.” (Rev. Glen Newsome, Jr M.A.C.S)  Never stop growing, and learning about God. Your journey will never end, but as you grow your love and appreciation for the shear size and power of the Lord will begin to be revealed to you. It took me 34 years, nearly a dozen traumas, two divorces, loosing my job, and having major back surgery to find my gift in ministry. Never underestimate the lessons that will be used in each and every one of your hardships for the Glory Of God!

 

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Medic

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Medic:

 The medic is a soul of compassion and much like a physician also has an oath.

THE MEDIC CREED

My task is to  provide to the utmost limits of my capability the best possible care to those in need of my aid and assistance. To this end I will aid all those who are needful, paying no heed to my own desires and wants; treating friend, foe and stranger alike, placing their needs above my own. To no man will I cause or permit harm to befall, nor will I refuse aid to any who seek it. I will willingly share my knowledge and skills with all those who seek it. I seek neither reward nor honor for my efforts for the satisfaction of accomplishment is sufficient. These obligations I willingly and freely take upon myself in the tradition of those that have come before me.…These things we do so that others may live.

When tragedy strikes 911 is called. EMS comes with their gurneys, their first aid bag and begins to provide aid. As a Christian we are to lift up and to never tear down. We are told in 1 Corinthians 13:4-13 “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I’m not saying loving like this is always easy, but easy or hard, it’s a command by Jesus Christ to love everyone. No, you do not see the command in this scripture, however, you do see it in Mark 12:30-31 “30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” I put this in red because in most bibles this passage is in red. It’s red because it’s from Christ himself. If we are to love God, and to love our neighbor’s, then we must do what love is, and if love is what’s found in Corinthians, then we need to be doing that for everyone we meet. That’s not a suggestion it’s a command. Part of loving is being there when the need arises. Everyone will stumble and fall in their daily walk, but when they do, it’s important to be there to help them back up. Carrying one another’s burdens is important as a Christian. While Jesus was walking to the Skull, he fell three times. He had help carrying his cross and thus showing us we all need help to bare the cross we carry. No one person can go through life and never accept help. As a body of Christ when someone suffers alone the body suffers. We are God’s hand and feet, and we must treat a suffering Christians as if they were apart of us.

In Spiritual Warfare the Devil is trying to destroy us. Are we willing to allow someone to succumb to the Devil? If we are to busy to talk to, or lift someone up, we need to remove something from our lives because we are NOT living in God’s will. God says bare the burdens, be the hands and feet of Christ. Galatians 5:14“14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In loving your neighbor as yourself, and knowing we all carry a cross to follow Christ, we see a second part to scripture. Galatians 6:2“2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We are all medics for the Lord. We all have the tools, and the ability to make a difference in someone’s spiritual life. We don’t have to have money to help, or food, or connections, sometimes all the help needed is to be a warm hug, a loving word, and prayers. Scripture teaches us how, we only have to read it to learn.

Be looking for ways to lift up others. Be looking for ways to help. Be willing to take the time to talk, to listen, to laugh, and to cry. Being with whosoever needs and fulfilling the law of Scripture. We know trials and trouble will come, but we also have been taught how to navigate the storms.Matthew 4:4 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” If you take care of yourself by studying scripture, keeping a healthy prayer life, and allow the words to fill your heart and mind, you are less likely to require a medic. You may only need a friend.

DO NOT SELF MEDICATE

If you do not have Jesus in your heart, or if you start to walk away, you may find yourself on a path of destructive pain. Often times when people turn to substances to make themselves feel better they are attempting to fill a void in their heart or life and that hole can usually be found as a Jesus shaped hole. The second possibility is if you are running from painful feelings that you don’t want to deal with. Either path to addiction is one that will only end in pain. People hide their pains in addictions of substances, alcohol, drugs, work, sex, gaming, and even now roll playing to escape reality. If you find yourself suffering from addictions I urge you to you seek help in dealing with this problem. Addictions don’t just affect you, addictions affect everyone around you. Self medication is never okay, but turning to Christ, and those who follow Christ, that will save your life.

There will always be help within the Church. To each person a divine gift is bestowed and together we can handle anything the Devil may send our way, because we have Christ with us always. Keep love in your heart as Christ so loved us, he Died for us. Love others, and be there for others in their time of need. Do not be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help for we all fall, we all sin, and we all have struggles. Do not be dismayed for there is hope as the Son rose, we shall always live with the light. Remember, we are God’s hands and feet, but we do nothing of ourselves. The one with the power the true one and only Medic is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one who will save you, He is the one who can heal your heart, He is the one who will fill the void of emptiness you feel. You must ask Jesus into your heart, and call upon him to save you. He is the Medic, the cure for sin, the savior of all.

How Can We Love If We Don’t Know What Love Is?

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How Can We Love If We Don’t Know What Love Is?

Have you ever been in love? Have you ever been so in love you’d lay down your very life to protect theirs? Love is a wonderful and a dangerous thing all at the same time. Love can cause us to do things of great beauty and it can also cause people to do crazy dangerous things that would be considered sinful. I was recently listening to a song by Michael Bolton called When A Man Loves A Woman and it talks about how far a man would go.

When A Man Loves A Woman By: Michael Bolton

When a man loves a woman

Can’t keep his mind on nothin’ else

He’d trade the world

For a good thing he’s found

If she is bad, he can’t see it

She can do no wrong

Turn his back on his best friend

If he puts her down

When a man loves a woman

Spend his very last dime

Trying to hold on to what he needs

He’d give up all his comforts

And sleep out in the rain

If she said that’s the way

It ought to be

Scripture goes into great lengths about what love is. I have lived this life and have seen true horrors. I have had many run ins with death and it has given me a perspective and a personal position you don’t see very often with most people. As I have come close to death many times I have grasped onto those in my life and I’ve held on tightly. I treasure my friends and I would feel a deep loss when one would decide to move on. I have watched as many friends have walked away, and worse, women I have loved. I have held on tightly and when it’s ended, I have often felt as if I’d lost a piece of myself. I grew up searching for love. I grew up hoping to find someone to love and want me in their life. I have often been the one left behind for one reason or another, but I am the one picking up the pieces of a broken heart. I have always thought I held love in my heart to the T of what we are taught love to be. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”

What does all this mean? When we love one another we must let go of our pride, our need to be the center of attention. We must learn it’s not a feeling. Love is an emotional charge at first, but as it grows, it must become more. Love must be more then a feeling because if we base our life on only feelings we’d be in trouble. We would be making decisions without reason. Love however is something we do. Loving someone is an action we must participate in every day. Love is how we treat people every single day. When we truly break down every sentence in 1 Corinthians we must truly let that sink in. We must truly allow ourselves to realize that love isn’t about self. John 15:13“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” As a soldier I would have given my life for any one of my brothers or sisters in arms. As a husband I was willing to give my life for my wife, not once but twice. I always thought about their safety before my own. I’m not a perfect man, but I always wanted their happiness to be a priority for me. I was willing to give up my own pride, my own dreams, my own desires to satisfy the needs of the woman I loved. I knew what love was for me, and I have always maintained my position on love. I’ve been devastated by those whom I’ve loved most dear in this life, but I remain hopeful for the future that one day I might fight someone to love me that much.

In this life people will come and go, but we must learn how precious life is, and make the very best of the time we have. We must learn how to give our hearts to those we have in our life, and trust that even if people never reciprocate our feelings that God always will. People are fickle creatures and some will use you as long as there’s something in it for them, and if someone better is perceived to come along, they may leave. I will say that’s a lie straight from the pit of Hell, and if people are that willing to sacrifice life, sacrifice you in such a way, that’s not love. Love is meant to be stronger then anything, but when in the hands of people who sin, people who are selfish, love can be corrupted by the Devil.

I want to point out one part of the marriage relationship knowing it’s only half of the equation. Ephesians 5:25“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” In the last couple years I’ve seen marriage after marriage fall, and while it comes back to a fundamental failure in loving one another, I will say that we are in sad shape as a human race. We cannot expect anyone to respect us if we don’t respect ourselves. The failure is a widespread epidemic and it needs to be dealt with. As a man I want to touch base on a man’s roll in the relationship. Men, we need to stop focusing on ourselves and realize that we are both the provider, and the leader of our household. We are to lead our home by a position of strength and by example. We must realize that our place is to protect the home at all cost up to ones own life, and that doesn’t mean just from physical threats. Our place is to protect the home from spiritual warfare also. We must show our children how to treat others. We must show our children how to be men, or how men should treat a lady. We should show them how to be friends, show them how to be responsible, and how to live in Christ.

Something I learned a little while back was how damaging the lack of a fathers love could be for a child. As a father we are responsible for loving our wives and children and we are responsible for what they see in their youth. In 2 Samuel we see David have an affair as King. We see him take Bathsheba into his bedchambers knowing she was married to one of his most trusted advisors. We see her get pregnant and instead of coming forward with his sin he plots to make the baby look like Uriah’s. When that plan fails, David then plots to have Uriah murdered. And if plotting wasn’t bad enough, Uriah was moved into a position in the war, on a mission where he would surely die, and he did. David did all this and although we don’t see it in the narrative, we see the actions of David’s oldest child later on down the road. Yesterday I discussed Amnon and how he lusted after his half sister. This was a forbidden relationship by many different laws of the time. When she would not give him what he wanted willingly, he took it by force. In doing this he not only destroyed her life, but threw her out of his chambers with the markings of trash. Who would he have learned that kind of behavior from then his very own dad, the King. The sins of the father are seen reborn in the children.

Love is certainly not an easy thing to do all the time, but we must. Love is hard and takes constant effort, but when we love the way we should, we can see the change in our lives with how others perceive us. Love is the greatest thing we have and it’s in that love we receive grace from God when we never deserve it. It’s in that love we see the sacrifice made by Jesus for us on Calvary’s Cross. We can never do enough to earn our own way into Heaven, but it’s by the Love of God and the grace and ransom paid by God’s only Son Jesus Christ, that we see the true meaning of love. How do we live our lives? How do we treat those in our circle of influence? Do we love them, or do we treat them with a casual indifference?

We only get one chance in this world to make positive connections with people. Sure we may not get along with everyone we meet, but we are still obligated to show love and respect to one another. We must learn and have a solid understanding of what true love really is. If we are to have respect for the word we need to understand how we ought to behave. Love is not a word we should toss around lightly. It’s something that demands respect of the word and those whom we tell we love, demand respect for them. Don’t confuse love for lust, and don’t be swayed by the world idea that you can fall out of love. If it was real love, and it was taken care of like love should be, there should be no way to fall out of love. Divorce should not be as rampant as it is. If we would love the right way from the start many marriages would never happen to begin with, and people would find their true compatibility with a higher rate of success. Love is not a children’s recess word, it’s something special, something sacred, and we need to stop downplaying its true meaning. Love truly does concur all.

 

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The Need for Validation

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The Need for Validation

My biggest fear is that of abandonment, being left behind and forgotten as if I weren’t important. My biggest failing is my need for validation: “recognition or affirmation that a person or their feelings or opinions are valid or worthwhile.” Throughout my life I’ve struggled with this as one event after another have left me in a state of perpetual question of my importance. There is a valid reason a validation of my fear of abandonment, and those facts aren’t in dispute. Overcoming that fear now that it’s been realized in the most horrible way is a priority, however even as something can be important, that doesn’t mean the fix is easy. It takes time to rewrite a lifetime of software. Validation however is different. The validation of my feelings, expecting the worst outcome to be the most likely within particular situations, and example would be the following: I send a text message and someone doesn’t get back to me. I can see they’ve read it, or I call them and it goes to voicemail. Hours go by and no response, then a day, or more goes by without receiving a single hint of communication. My first thought is what did I do to upset them. Then it’s, I’m not important enough for them to take the time to send me a message. Then it ends with they don’t’ care about me at all. This escalation happens almost every time in my head and believe me, it’s not a pleasant place to be.

I realize people have lives and I also realize those lives don’t revolve around me. I realize life happens and sometimes you just can’t. Though perhaps it’s my priority that my friends are of my highest priority I spend a great deal of time responding to and sending texts and messages to those who do contact me. I would say that this fear is a learned behavior.

Psychology Today has an article that’s interesting on how to validate someone.

“The first Level is Being Present. There are so many ways to be present. Holding someone’s hand when they are having a painful medical treatment, listening with your whole mind and doing nothing but listening to a child describe their day in first grade, and going to a friend’s house at midnight to sit with her while she cries because a supposed friend told lies about her are all examples of being present.” The Article goes on to talk about how to validate yourself. “Being present for yourself means acknowledging your internal experience and sitting with it rather than “running away” from it, avoiding it, or pushing it away. Sitting with intense emotion is not easy. Even happiness or excitement can feel uncomfortable at times.

Often one of the reasons other people are uncomfortable with intense emotion is that they don’t know what to say. Just being present, paying complete attention to the person in a nonjudgmental way, is often the answer. For yourself, being mindful of your own emotion is the first step to accepting your emotion.

People may mask their feelings because they have learned that others don’t react well to their sensitivity. This masking can lead to not acknowledging their feelings even to themselves, which makes the emotions more difficult to manage. Being able to accurately label feelings is an important step to being able to regulate them.

When someone is describing a situation, notice their emotional state. Then either name the emotions you hear or guess at what the person might be feeling.”

 The Article goes on to the next steps, and the next is understanding the history of someone’s past. Realizing that their feelings or actions may be justified based on situations from earlier in their life. It’s important to realize for yourself that if you feel a particular way why that may be the case. Normal feelings, are just that, normal to have and feel, and checking the facts of how strongly you feel based on the reasonable level per individual event.

While all of this is great, as you know this is a Christian Blog, so what does all this have to do with Jesus Christ, and God? EVERYTHING! The scripture is full of validation.

John 3:17 Christ came to save us, not to condemn us. Psalm 17:8 We are the Apple of God’s eye, he will hide us in the shadow of his wings. Colossians 3:23 “23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” We often seek approval from our fellow peers and this often leads us to disaster. People often let us down because one of a thousand reasons. The only real validation we need is that from God. People judge left and right and even when the scripture says otherwise people judgments hurt. I myself have been harshly judged on my mistakes even if they were justified from past experiences. I’ve been harshly judged on my looks, my ideals, and those judgments hurt.

I recently sought validation about a decision I had made, and the response didn’t go as I thought it would. This left a huge rift and hurt. I wasn’t expecting my decision to cause such uproar but it did. This on top of my fear that if someone doesn’t get back to me in a text or by phone, or doesn’t send me anything for days that I am some how not important to them. All these things together can be wrapped up in one word, LIES. The Devil wants us to feel badly about ourselves. The Devil wants to rip us apart and pull us away from God. When we make mistakes and we let the fear of those mistakes dictate how we proceed we are falling into that lie. We make ourselves believe that we are worthless, without the possibility of redemption, or even that we don’t deserve it. All of this is just a big fat lie that the Devil wants us to believe. Rewriting how we feel isn’t easy. We might have to tell ourselves every day that we have forgiven ourselves, and that we know God has forgiven us for whatever wrong we may have committed. God don’t care where you been, He cares where you’re going.” (Dr. M. David Chambers, Senior Pastor)

We know that God loves us and we know that regardless of our mistakes or sins God loves us. We know that if we truly repent and ask for forgiveness and give Christ our entire heart we will be accepted into the Kingdom. We are always given chances, and we are always given grace. Will we be punished if we disobey, or blatantly sin or go against God, sure we will because God or Abba (Father) will treat us like a father and discipline his children when they need it. Remember don’t be so quick to pass judgment; it’s not for us to do so. Try and consider the needs of those around you. If we allow God to work through us we can help touch and mold lives and by understanding someone’s emotions, by respecting them, and taking the time to learn, we can be more then just an ear, we can be an inspiration, we can be a guide, and we may actually be able to make a difference, if we allow God to use us.