Crutches...

"Hey Stacie ... wha-what?" 

Michaela stood in the doorway to Stacie's room, staring at her younger sister. "What in the world? I thought your leg was better!" Stacie hobbled toward Michaela on a pair of crutches. "Yeah," said Stacie, looking at her crutches, "it is, but I just got so used to walking with these that I decided to use them again."

Okay, a little ridiculous, right? But how often do we act the same way?

When the Lord Jesus saved us, He gave us a new life, a fresh start. We are chosen, adopted, redeemed, and forgiven (Eph.1:4–8), but some days we forget who we are. We go back to crutches, allowing our sin to cripple us. Yelling at our siblings, rebelling against our parents, succumbing to peer pressure, living totally opposite to God's Word ... we almost go back to "crawling" sometimes.

Consider the man sentenced to 35 years in prison. When his time was up, he hesitated at the door to his cell, and then turned back, reluctant to leave the cold familiarity of the jail he'd lived in for so long.

Your friend hands you an ice cream cone (vanilla for me, thank you!). You push it away, saying, "Ah, not right now. I've got some delicious dirt I'd rather eat instead." What! Your friend may call the insane FREAK! Yet we reject the freedom of new life in Christ for old ways of living and stubborn sin.

Many Christians today reject the freedom of Christ by continuing in their former lives. But though we come just as we are, we can't stay the way we are. God is constantly calling us to higher places, to Himself, calling us to leave our crutches behind. "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb. 12:1). He gives us the Holy Spirit Who works within us to say "no" to sin.

With the power of God, we can bite our tongues when we feel like yelling at our younger siblings. Through the strength of the Holy Spirit, we can submit ourselves to our parents' authority. And, reminded by God's Word, we can say to friends who encourage us to sin, "No way, I'm not who I was, I'm a child of God. I cannot do that anymore." God will provide what we need to stand. There is no need to use crutches any longer.

So say "goodbye" to crutches. You can walk! Step outside your prison cell; you aren't locked up anymore. You are free, free to be a child of God, what you were meant to be.

Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. —1 Peter 2:16

Are you really surrendering it all to Him?

One of the biggest problems Christians have is giving up everything for God. We don’t mind inviting Jesus into our hearts, but we have a hard time giving our hearts to Him. I believe much of the reason for this is that we get it drilled into our heads so much that we need Jesus just so that we can get into heaven. This "Seeker Friendly Christianity" does nothing but please, not teach about what we should really be doing with our lives as Christians.  Beliefs like this lead (or, scare would be better worded. actually) people to believe that the only point in becoming a Christian is to save you from being going to hell.

Because of this, many new Christians go through life as usual, without letting Jesus be the ultimate boss of their lives. People accept Jesus to become saved from Hell, but they don’t really know what it’s ultimately all about! They don’t realize that becoming a born again Christian is a complete lifestyle transformation. Asking Jesus into your life is asking to be completely changed from the inside out. We have to allow Him complete control over our lives, and our lives will be amazing. Once we allow Him control, we no longer have to worry about the meaningless questions that constantly trouble us, because He will do what is best for our lives.

The whole "God is my co captain" thing needs to change. Instead, it should be God is my Captain! He is the one in the lead, and we need to realize that when we give our lives over to Him, we can leave our worries at the feet of Jesus.  He has so much purpose for us, yet, we fail to accept this purpose by not allowing Him to be the ultimate controller of our lives. We need to realize that the empty feelings in our lives aren’t the result of needing to get into a new relationship, or start a new addiction, but are the result of a desperate need for Him!

The band Tenth Avenue North has a song called Lift Us Up To Fall that describes what we should do quite perfectly. The chorus goes:

WE’RE WAITING HERE
WAITING FOR YOU, GOD
WITH OUR HOPES AND FEARS
WE COME EMPTY HANDS HELD OUT
LORD, DRAW US NEAR
HEAL THESE BROKEN HEARTS
AND LIFT US UP TO FALL BEFORE
EVERYTHING YOU ARE

We should give everything to God, our hopes and fears, the good and the bad! We should allow Him into our lives to heal our broken hearts in a way that only He can! And as the last line says, we should fall before everything He is! We should be willing to let our guards down so that He may work in us!

As Psalm 37:5 (NLV) says, we should “Commit everything [we] do to the Lord.” We should “trust him, and he will help [us].” Romans 8:26 also says, “All things work for good to those who love God,” so giving over our lives to Him can only mean prosperity and happiness. Giving our lives over to God can only be a win-win situation. This is the biggest deal you will ever make in life and one that will reap many positive benefits. It is definitely one decision that you will never have to worry about.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight,” so what have you got to lose?

Love Always,

Jenna

God is God

God is not a man.

He is not a pentecostal.

He is not a Baptist.

He is not Catholic, nor Church of Christ, nor Episcopal, nor any other religion.

God is GOD.

He does not change!

So why do we make him different for every religion?

Why do we change HIM to fit OUR needs?

Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Shouldn't we be changing ourselves to satisfy God instead of making rules and putting God in box so that he can fit into our lives?

God is not Caucasian.

God is not African-American.

God is not Indian.

God is not Asain.

God is not European.

God is not Middle Eastern.

He is love, and He loves every man.

God doesn't care about skin color, He cares about your heart.

So why, if God is God, do we say that He does not love certain races?

God is not poor, but He is not rich, neither is he middle-class.

God doesn't make Himself better than any one.

In fact, Christ Jesus, being in very nature God, made Himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant, He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death on a cross.

God is not a man.

He does not fail, He does not sin, He never changes.

But He IS love.

He is the beginning and the end.

He is the Almighty One, the Comforter, the Healer.

He is the Alpha and The Omega, the Beginning and the End.

He knows all, He is all.

He is the only way, He is the absolute truth, and He is the only way to life.

God is not like men, He is not something to be grasped.

The human mind cannot fathom the works of the Lord, nor anything in His plan.

God is capable of things that we don't even know are possible!

God is not religion.

He doesn't want rules or restrictions or classifications.

He wants love.  He wants a relationship with you, and the rest will come.

By walking with Him, we become like Him, and we don't need "rules", He will show us what is holy, what is of Him, what is right and wrong and what is truth and lies.

We get too focused on the details.

We get too focused on the wrongs and rights and do's and dont's.

Our eyes have gone astray, and we don't love God anymore.

We love the church and the religion.

Forget the stereotypes, forget the religion.

God is God.

And God is love.

~Jenna

His Voice is Ours

One of my favorite statements that Jesus makes is in John 5:25. He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” This scripture is incredible. The thought that Jesus’ voice awakens the dead is overwhelming to me. But, perhaps even more overwhelming to me is the thought that His voice can be contained in our voice and still awaken the dead.

In Ephesians 4 Paul is describing the nature of an unbeliever, but then tells the Ephesians they are not like that “if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus” (v. 21). He says that they are different because they have “heard” Jesus. That’s a curious statement because there is no record of Jesus visiting Ephesus. How could they have heard the voice of Jesus and been changed?

Paul goes on to explain himself by saying “as the truth is in Jesus.” Essentially, Paul is saying that if they have heard the truth, then they’ve heard Jesus because the truth is in Jesus.

Understanding that scripture should give us great boldness in sharing the gospel. When we share the truth of the gospel, people hear not our voice, but the voice of Jesus awakening them from the dead. In Luke 10:16 Jesus tells the disciples that He’s sending out in ministry, “He who hears you hears Me . . . .” When we say yes to daily ministry and opening our mouths to share the gospel, then we become the mouthpiece of Jesus. His voice breaks through our mouths and the dead hear. And when the dead hear, they live.