My little brother got married this past weekend. It was an awesome time.
Its crazy.. he’s all grows up.
LightUptheDark
The darkness HAS NOT overcome it. John1.5
HITCHED
HYPERNIKAO
I have about 30 min before I have to head out for work.
I just wanted to share something that has been getting me through this past month.
In Romans 8 Paul asks the question : If God is for us, who can be against us?
of course if we are believers we all automatically go… no one, of course. easy. right?
For many, the simple answer is just not meaningful, It doesn’t leave a mark in our hearts and minds. Apparently it wasn’t enough for Paul either.
Paul goes on and says in verse 35,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”
Then he goes on and does something that might confuse us. He quotes a psalm and says, you know guys, its even written in our scriptures “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” e
at first glance it seems as if paul is making a point that is antithetical to what he is trying to prove. Why talk about Gods love and then use a quote about us being killed and slaughtered like sheep, all for his sake?
If we look deeper we find what paul is communicating.
He says … tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, death… these things have been the lot of Gods people for centuries. EVEN OUR ANCESTORS WROTE ABOUT THEM!
Traditionally, suffering through trials and hardships of life has been a part of following Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us himself to ” take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
Paul goes on in verse 37 and uses my favorite greek word in the entire new testament. he calls us “hypernikao”
u’per – meaning over and beyond
nikao – meaning victorious, having the victory, a conqueror.
he says “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Paul says, even through these sufferings and these hardships of life that are bound to come – we can face life with complete confidence – because We are are OVER and BEYOND VICTORIOUS, we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through Christ
STRETCH
Things have been happening so fast this semester. When I was a kid they would always tell me that time goes by faster the older you get… Seems to be pretty accurate so far.
A couple of weeks ago our church had a baptism service. Our church meets on sunday mornings in the Taunton, MA Holiday Inn. So naturally for a baptism service during the winter, we used the Hotel’s pool. 5 people got baptized and it was amazing. Things are going well. Church is awesome, Youth groups been going great, school been hard…there’s been a lot of work this semester, but its been stretching me. Things are good.
SAVIOR
This semester hit me like a truck.
So much has happened, and so much has changed.
I have been so blessed.
I knew I wanted to write more and share more…
I’lll do that soon…
But tonight a friend showed me a video he made that just floored me.
I had to share it with whoever still checks this thing.
CATCH UP
Its been a while, I know.
there has been a lot going on recently!
At church this sunday we started our Original Life series.
Everything worked out great.
Also Rev Days at BBC was this past week.
I enjoyed designing the t shirts, and for the first time i am content with the way they came out!
thanks to Addison Advertising!
RECKLESS.
I do not consider myself a very bold person. Someone who STANDS out in a crowd. Or someone people take notice of. not immediately anyway. After some time of getting to know me, or within my close circles, this may be true, but not right off the bat. I don’t think that this is a bad thing either.
I am not worried about how many people notice me or how many people know who i am.
What I am concerned about is this..
That the people who do know me, and the people who’s lives i am involved with would consider me someone who always did my best to do what God wanted me to do.
This has not always been my goal, I’ve made many mistakes in my past that I do regret. I’ve made decisions that did not honor God, and I’ve learned from these things.
There have been times where I’ve lost sight of this goal and made mistakes, but was convicted and did my best to take responsibility and fix those mistakes. There have been times where I have been selfish and did not make the hard decisions. I regret these times the most because being like christ means always being selfless…
In the future there will be times where I will know that I need Gods forgiveness, and know that i already have it.
But no matter what happens, I want to always come back to the main point by doing what God wants me to do. NOT to do what I want to. hopefully more times than not, what I want to do will line up with what he wants me to do… but if it does not line up, I want to strive to pick His will over anything else.
Romans 12:1+2 have been really strong verses in my life over the past semester and into the summer. It says this :
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
finding out what worship really is…
and finding out what God’s will is…
it is incredibly simple, but it is so incredibly hard.
its incredibly hard but it is essential for us to be able to do what God wants, and to truly worship him. We just need to give up what we want, sacrifice our desires, and spend time being transformed by what’s in his words.
some of you may already know, but I have made a really big decision recently… one that requires me to give up what is comfortable. Give up what I want, what i desire. over time this decision became what i desire, but it was not easy. I am incredibly scared of the future. I am scared about a lot of things… I am working on not being scared, but its hard. Either way, I am going to close my eyes and trust God. Some people think I’m reckless. That I am not making the “wise” decision (as if they knew what was wise apart form knowing what God wants).
I know I am doing my best to do what God wants me to do, and that gives me so much comfort, its unbelievable.
