Take Time For God...

Life lately has been pretty busy for me, so busy in fact that I haven't really had time to spend time with Jesus as I usually do. Tonight, the first thing I said to Him was, "I'm sorry I haven't taken the time to speak with you recently, it has been rather hectic lately…". Somehow, I got the impression that He really didn't care how busy I've been, and that was a petty excuse for passing up time with Him. Ha ha, it resembled the feeling you had when you were a kid, and you were mad at another friend over something really stupid, so you ignored them. And then when confronted about it, you playfully lie, "Oh no no no! Im not ignoring you! Im sorry, I've just been so busy!" (Pssh, Yeah right). 

Honestly, we all live busy, hectic lives. We all wish that we could serve, be at church and be at small group everyday if we could. It can be tough to find a break in our routines to be quiet and listen to/for God. It gets even tougher to do this when a monkey wrench throws off everything in our lives. Could be anything from a defiant child, losing a job, a family death or anything at all that is unexpected. When this happens, I think our natural instinct is to get things back to normal ASAP. We look for the quickest route get things back  in order. And oh yeah, we ask God real quick to bless us along the way. We think all too often that "taking action" for ourselves is the only solution to unexpected problems in life. When in actuality, all we need to do is “Be still and know that [He is] God” Psalm 46:10. Comfort doesn't come from trying to solve everything alone; it comes form knowing God and his ways during our busy life.

I was once told by a small group leader: "Start taking a couple minutes out of your day to be in a quiet place and rest in God and His word. As it becomes a habit, you'll understand its importance and remember to make time during your busy life for God."

Pretty self explanatory if you ask me...

Understanding Love undeserved....

     Its Easter afternoon, and am I at church? Sadly no, im on my Lunch break at Apple. Although its a great thing because I just had an epiphany of sorts. I read another blog just a moment ago from my buddy César, who i really consider to be a brother rather than a "good friend". Its a little lengthy, but its definitely worth the read. You can read it here, the Blog entry is titled: "You were created to be loved and accepted". Reading that prompted me to post this entry in my blog. Basically in response, or adding my thoughts on what he wrote on. The jest of it pretty much is the title of the entry; You were created to be loved and accepted. But, beyond that he goes into the fact that a lot of us don't understand that at all, and a lot of our everyday issues stem from that misunderstanding. 

Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

     I believe a lot of us don't "understand" what God has done for us because He did it out of Grace. Grace is an unmerited favor. A LOVE thats un-deserved, and a perfect description of God’s interaction with us. The reason we miss this is because a lot of us operate spiritually out of a sense of entitlement or selfishness, even Christ followers and Christians. By Nature we see everything in light of a “what’s in it for me?” mentality. Because of that mentality, we presume upon God’s grace, and we forget our true sinfulness and guilt. This presumption assumes that God in fact owes US something. Thinking about it, I know ive felt that way sometimes, we all have. We begin thinking God owes us salvation because we go to church every Wednesday, Saturday, and 4 times on every Sunday. We always give everything we can afford to the church, and because of that we believe God owes us an economically stable life because we aren’t bad like everyone else. We don’t curse, drink, or vote for the wrong political candidates. Then I realized that this mentality is absolutely ridiculous. That mentality really boils down to this: "Since im great and goto church, do everything right, ect. God OWES me salvation". God owes you…. Do you realize how amazingly stupid that sounds? God owes you?? No, the reality is that we are his workmanship, created in His image to do good works. WE OWE God everything, while he owes us NOTHING! We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. 

     Jesus, I pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal any pride in my heart concerning your salvation, and remove from me. I pray that you will use me as an example to my family and friends of what Life following you should be. 

Amen.

Foundation Check....

     I have a friend at work that I always talk to. He questions me all the time about my faith, Jesus, etc. Not in a bad way though, more like he's curious, looking for a "reason" to believe, but wants proof i guess. For the sake of animosity, we'll call my friend "Bob". Bob stumped me today with a question. Its a fairly simple question in itself, but was difficult to for me to answer on the spot. Its probably one you've heard before, i know i have, but never really thought about it and i've never had anyone ask me directly. 

     He said, "So, if God really exists, why does he let all the recent tragedies happen? like the Haiti earthquake, the Tsunami in Japan, etc.?" 

     I didn't have anything for him there, i was caught completely off guard by it. we usually have great conversations together, and he's genuinely intrigued with what i have to say most of the time. but today, i had nothing for him but a blank stare for a few seconds, which seemed like forever. I then tried to explain, but i was fumbling over my words, going back and forth, i don't even remember what i was saying. He ended up cutting me off and said, "You know what, bro? Just get back to me on that one, ok?" I think he was amused at my attempt to explain, since he was laughing at my apparent sudden inability to to speak in complete sentences. it was embarrassing to a degree. 

     So, i came home tonight searching through my Bible. Of course, i remember what im looking for when i come home, not when i needed it earlier! It was in the book of Luke, and it took me fore ever to find it. It was the Parable of the Two Foundations. Its a little long, so ill link it here for you: Luke 6:47-49

     We focus on the foundation of the man whose house was built on the rock, obviously. He obeys the words of Jesus and his house stays up. But, we tend to ignore the fact that this man STILL does go through the storm. Both of these men go through the same storm, but there is a different outcome for each.  The only difference is their foundation. Following Jesus isn’t about everything being great and not having any storms. Its is about weathering the storms WITH Jesus as our foundation.  Jesus never said that who ever listens and follows him wont go through any "storms". He says that the man who listens and follows will be able to make it through the storms because he has Jesus as his foundation. Look under your feet, do a Foundation check!

Instant Gratification....

     If you think about it, our lives today have become pretty easy, no matter how busy or complicated your life is. We have become the "Now Generation". We don’t know what it means to wait for something anymore. If we want food, simply go get fast food. New album came out? Why spend time going to the store and buying it, when you can download it to your computer instantly? Whats your best friend doing right this second? Check their twitter/facebook or send them a quick text. Its all instant gratification. We have became a people who consume food, gossip, entertainment, news, and so on. 

     Unfortunately I've noticed that sometimes we look at God with the "Instant Gratification" mind set. We go to church because we know we can get an amazing worship experience. We don’t have to do anything the music is selected already, and we don’t have to think about the Bible because we are told precisely what acknowledge. Now don't get me wrong; These are excellent things to have and look for in church. But, the problem is that it can create an "Instant Gratification" mentality of God if you don't do your part in growing your relationship with Jesus. This not only deals with our experience at church, but our personal experience as we read the Bible individually. For instance: I gave away my study bible a while back because I realized that it gave me the answer I was looking for, or it explained to me the meaning of a given passage right away; rather than me actually taking the time to reflect on what I read, and discovering on my own what God wanted me to take away from it. Again, I'm not saying, "Go throw away your study bible!" Not by any means. It's  not bad resource, but it can cause us to be dependent the instant gratification aspect, instead of being dependent on God. 

"Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight on all of this."

      2Timothy 2:7

     In 2Timothy chapter 2, Paul is giving instructions to Timothy. The instructions were hard to understand, but I realized that Paul didn’t want Timothy to just depend on him. Instead, he knew Timothy should depend on God and the Holy Spirit that was in Him. 

When you read your bible, think over what you have read and ask God to give you the understanding. 

     When I first started going to church, I just believed what people told me about what they got out of reading certain passages of the Bible. But, as I've grown closer to Jesus, I've realized that I get a greater greater joy in God’s word when I think and pray over it, than just read or listen to what others have said of it. 

Be careful that you don’t become a simple "consumer of God." 

Show me the money...

Ok, so first off, Im doing this completely from my iPad, so please forgive the grammar mistakes!

Wow. So it defenitely has been a LONG time my last blog entry, almost 6 months! And contrary to popular belief, i assure you that i havent fallen off the face of the earth.

One thing i miss from my "job free" period in the summer, was that i was focusing everything into my church. it was truely life giving, and i learned alot about myself and God. We became close, much closer than i ever couldve dreamed of in my entire life. But eventually, as you may know, being job free brings up some issues, mainly money and stress. Which is what prompted me to make this blog entry, and ill come back to that.

So i seeked out a job and i was lucky enough to land a great job at Apple within just a couple of weeks of searching. But unfortunately, its virtually impossible to make it to church with my schedule from Apple. So, i do the best that i can without being able to attend services. I used to catch the tail end of services via live stream before my computer crashed a couple months ago, and now all i really do is ask God for his guidence, and read my bible. Its so easy now that i can access my bible, in any translation, from anywhere on my iPhone and iPad.

So, anyways... Back to my main reason im making this update: MONEY and STRESS. Only recently these issues have come up alot in my life. For me, money is extremely tight right now and its causing alot of stress. I always tell myself, "Well, its because youre not making as much as you used to." But then again, when i was making more money, it was still tight anyways. So i came to the conclusion (which im pretty sure most of you have come to this as well) that when i feel i do not have enough money or i have too many bills.... I become irritable. it affects my relationship with my fiance, and my relationships in general. And it defenitly affects decisions i make on a day to day basis.

In short, i get stressed out when i feel i have too many bills and too little money. It even affects my self esteem sometimes. For example, whe Jaclyn and i got engaged we decided that it would be best that we didnt have a wedding and just goto the JP. We decided that because we couldnt afford a wedding, so it defenitly affected a big life changing event such as getting married. i felt horrible because i felt like i cant even provide for a simple wedding that she deserves, how is she going to be able to count on me in the future financially?? Luckily, she has made it abundantly clear that her love for me will never be affected by money, or the lack thereof. and thankfully my parents have decided to take care of the wedding for us. Which is completly awesome, but a whole other story in itself.

So, why does money still stress me out??? It seems like the more money i have, the more things i have to pay for. Its a horrible cycle, and i feel like i can never catch a break. So then i got to thinking, "How much is really enough?" Is There any amount of money that will truly make me Happy? (Realistically of course. 10 million would do great, but thats just not in the cards now is it?) Tonight, my conversation with God in prayer went like this:

"So, Father, why does it always seem like i never have enough money? Like there is always a bill or something important that im behind on? Why does this stress build up inside of me uncontrolably?"

"Who is your God."

"Um, is this a trick question?"

"No. Who is your God?"

"Ok, well thats easy. You are. But, what does have to do with money?"

"It has everything to do with it. Its Not just who you say your God is. If someone were to look at your life, who or what would that person say you were putting your trust in?"

"Is this another trick question?"

"There wasnt a first trick question to begin with."

"Ok then. I think theyd say that i put my trust in you."

"Again, its not just what you say. Would people be able to tell from the way you live your life, from the way you spend your money, that your trust is in Me, the creator of heaven and earth? Or would they say you trust in the abilities you have, or the connections you have, or the money you have?"

"Oh. I see where youre going with this.... I think."

"The way you are living right now, is distracted. If you live your life serving money, then you cant serve me and my purpose at the same time. Do you remember that man you walked into the other day leaving work?"

"Yes. I remember he yelled at me. He yelled, 'Hey! Watch where youre walking!!' he was actually pretty mean about it, jeez."

"Thats because you were too busy paying attention to your phone while walking, not watching where you were going."

"Oh yeah.... Distracted."

"Exactly. The same thing applies to your spiritual life with me. You want to be heading one way, but your eyes are focused on something else, like money. and what your eyes are focused on has an effect on what you end up doing and where you end up going, even if it is not what you intended."


See, this is why i love God. I can be so blunt with him, and he'll be blunt right back, putting me back in my place. The answer was so simple, i just couldnt see it right in front of me. "Distracted". I think a lot of us, myself included, live our lives like Money is our god. As if money is going to be able to buy us peace and contentment. We think that having stuff, more stuff, more money to buy stuff, is going to make us happy, but it only leads to discontentment, and ultimately stress. We may be able to give the "right answer" verbally to God, or in church, but are we "living" the right answer? If we are continuing to focus on worldly things instead of focusing on God, then that is going to affect how we live, even if it is not what we intend for our lives.

I realize in order for me to fix this mentality and to eventually reduce the stress that is being caused by it, is not an overnight process. Its going to take some real difficult changes in myself if im going to overcome these stresses and get to a point of enjoying the peace and contentment that comes from God. The first step im taking: refocus on God, and His word.

Father God, please give me the strength i need to focus on you. Give me the confidence i need to set an example for and lead my family. Sometimes i look in the mirror and i do not like what i see. Please let me see myself the way you made me. Allow others to see you shining through me as i follow you. Amen.