I was blessed enough to lead a someone to Christ tonight.

It was so exciting, and beautiful to watch her as she began to understand what Christ has done for her.

The gift of salvation is so precious, and one I often take for granted.

Tonight was a wonderful reminder of the unimaginable goodness of Christ and His love for His bride.

Reflection:
What does the gift of salvation mean to you in your life?
How does it motivate you?

I teach 3 services on Sunday mornings. In my last class most of the kids are have already come to one of the earlier services, so instead of going on with the regular lesson we have a class discussion about life, and Christianity and how it applies in each of there lives. I really enjoy it and look forward to the crazy questions from… “Does God love Jews more than us?” to “Does God have a wife?”

A few Sundays back, I showed the kids a video on the highly esteemed youtube. And instantly the kids tried to convince me to show other videos of other random things.  I didn’t show any of there request in fear that a slew of unexpected cuss words would make its way into impressionable ears. But i took there requests and watched them at home to see if they were appropriate.

Those were the stupidest video request I have ever seen… Music Video voice over to the Mario Brothers and Halo?

I then remembered a video from me in my high school musical my Junior year- I busted my head open on stage… I uploaded it to youtube and here it is…I suggest you watch it at least twice for full effect.
Enjoy:

They loved it. They were especially pleased that it was me receiving the pain.

So how does this apply to Christianity???

1) God has a plan and a purpose for each of our lifes…
Which is why I’m still alive.
-As a baby Ive had roughly 35 pounds of glass fall on top of me
-I was electrocuted at a pee wee ball park when I was 8, cutting out the electricity in 5 fields
-I was attacked by a Rottweiler and walked away with stitches
-When I was 3 I was run over by a pickup truck. It ran over my legs. If it ran over me any lower I would be permanently crippled, possible amputation. Any higher I would have died from eternal bleeding.
-I also wrecked my brothers pickup… rolling it 5 times.
-Not to mention countless other brainless feats and stupid endeavors. In elementary school I was know as “the girl that jumped off tall things.”

Were all alive for a reason.. Otherwise why would we be alive. God has continually confirmed the plan he has for my life. And he has an exciting and wonderful plan for you. If your not living to do what your created for… why would life be worth living?

2) Nothing has been more excited in my life than the Love of Christ
Ive been blessed to experience (or survive) allot of things in my life. But nothing has been more thrilling that what the experience of the Love of Christ.

3) I’m a disaster… and a wonderful Creation.
Im honestly a human time bomb, if you hear a car alarm outside, chances are… its me.
But I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Sometimes I wish that I wasn’t so crazy or prone to find disaster.. but that’s the way God made me. I’ll embrace it.
Just as God made you for a certain purpose, He has given you certain qualities to fulfill it.
Know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

-Kay

I was talking to a kid who wanted to become a christian, but I really didn’t think he was getting it.

I asked him: “What does it mean to be a christian?”
He gave the typical answer that Jesus becomes the savior of your life and you do what the bible says.
Close….

“Why do people become Christians?”
“Umm… well Uh,” he fumbled… “Like if someone is a drug addict or something, and they cant stop. They can become a christian.”

Insert palm of hand to forehead.

Needless to say, neither of us were ready for me to lead him in the sinners prayer. And as comical as it is… how many people fall into the sentimental Christianity.

It seems to be a growing christian trend in the church to share stories of Gods deliverance and happy feel good quotes like “Dont tell God how big the storm is.. tell the storm how big your God is.” And we all sit in church with an appeased mood and clap like were in a golf tournament. “That was nice” we say as we leave the service. Golf tournaments are boring and unpleasently pastel.

Dont get me wrong, its encouraging to hear how God has worked in other peoples lives. But how God has worked in another mans life is not a promise that he will work in ours.
And  the “God loves the Hell out of you” kind of quotes are cute and quirky- but its not alive and active like scripture. The word of God is powerful. There is no substitute.

We are suppose to be an aroma pleasing to God in the sight of man.
We are suppose to be the salt of the earth… Not the sentimental sugar.

Sugar may smell nice to man, but its not the pleasing aroma required of us before God.

Im afraid that our testimonies and christian phrases are beginning to take the place of the word of God. When the world looks at us… what are they going to see?

What are your thoughts??

Youtube Comment:
“god is amazing! this video changed my life.
ive never felt more connected to god then before this video.”

My response:
Yeah, its a pretty good video… I liked it. But pick up the Bible, it’ll blow your mind.

What do you think of this video?

Simple profundities I cannot express

My mind is filled with nothing less

Than the longing for love I cannot find

And this empty promise of the divine.

I stand alone and stare ahead

Whisper secrets into the dead

Cold deep and bleeding heart,

Waiting for this life to start.

Oh the plans to be fulfilled

Of childish dreams and human will.

Oh the passions unadulterated lie

Beyond futures curtain in futures time.

I’m on a bridge and water flows

Skewing my reflection down below

Who am I now? Who will I be

On this endless road to eternity?

The past is waiting-looks like home,

So much more comfort than the unknown

The future beckons with promises untrue

The gray sky gives a hint of blue

There is hope. My God is faithful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a time I thought that I

Was so in love that I would die

That the thoughts I recycled in my head,

Would crush me while I lie in bed,

The emotions welling in my chest

Would catch in my throat and end my breath.

The mirages that my mind would create

Would ensnare me to my silenced fate

Oh this love how could it be?

That drew my mind to the sea

That drew my feet to pace at night

And drew my breath and held it tight.

If it were me that he would find

We’d have enough love for a life time

Still if my love were torn in two

It would be enough to last all our life’s through.

But what he did find was not my hand,

Nor all of my dreams that I had built in the sand

And I felt this love slowly wash away

As my bleeding heart began to break

A swarm of new emotions infested my soul

And I was finally able to let go

Because when my love had broken free

I escaped my deathly captivity.

Loves a battle, it’s been said before

And I once was a prisoner of war

But that ship has sailed and I’ve returned

And empty shell of what I’ve learned

These battle scars play a part

Of what I carry in my heart.

Oh there was a time that I,

Thought I was so in love that I would die.

What a mine of daily comfort
  

  “Looking unto Jesus.” Hebrews 12:2

  If we would look rightly to Jesus we must look daily to His
life of intercession in heaven, as our principal provision of strength
and help.

We surely feel that we need Almighty help every
day we live. Even when started in the narrow
way of life, with pardon, grace, and a new heart we soon find that,
left to ourselves, we would never get safely to our heavenly home.
Every returning morning brings with it so much to be done and born
and suffered that we are often tempted to despair. So weak
and treacherous are our hearts, so busy the devil, so
persecuting and ensnaring the world; and such poor, weak
creatures are we that we need Almighty help!
What are we to do? Where are we to look?

The great Scriptural remedy for all who feel such helplessness as I
have faintly described, is to look upward to Christ in heaven, and to
keep steadily before our eyes, His intercession at the right hand of
God. We must learn to look UPWARD, away from ourselves and our
weakness and upward to Christ in heaven. We must try to realize daily
that Jesus not only died for us and rose again, but that He also lives
as our Advocate and Intercessor in heaven for us.

This, surely, was the mind of Paul, when he said, “He is able also to
save to the uttermost, those who come unto God by Him seeing He ever
lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25).

Now I venture boldly to express a doubt whether modern Christians “look
to Jesus” in this point of view and make as much as they ought of His
life of intercession. It is too often a dropped link in our present-day
Christianity. We are apt to think only of the atoning DEATH and the
precious blood, and to forget the LIFE and priestly office of our great
Redeemer! It ought not to be so. We miss much by this forgetfulness of
the whole truth as it is in Jesus.

What a mine of daily comfort there
is in the thought that we have an Advocate with the Father, who never
slumbers or sleeps, whose eye is always upon us, who is continually
pleading our cause and obtaining fresh supplies of grace for us, who
watches over us in every company and place; and never forgets us,
though we, in going to and fro, and doing our daily business, cannot
always think of Him.

We have a great High Priest in heaven, who can be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, and who bids us pour out our hearts before
Him, and come to Him for grace to help in time of need
-Charles Spurgeon

I am banging my head against the wall at some of the things that are being said in this video.

I just have so much to say in response to this that im speachless! Goodness Gracious!

God is not Jealous of you… He’s jealous for  you because your invinted other to give glory to!
C’mon Opera!

What do you think?

<sigh> I’m exhausted.

I have just spent the last few hours witnessing to a Muslim girl. She is standing at the door of salvation and there’s a holy warfare is going on in her mind.
And as I sit with her and watch her angst as she sorts truths and thought and teachings… I cant help but have my own battle of flesh.

I want to win her for Christ so badly. What a victory it would be to see her reach a state of peace.
But I cant do it… it is only the Holy spirit that works through me. And it is so hard to sit, to watch, to pray, when I so badly want to pull her over to a side of understanding.

Its like trying to help a blind person find a light switch.
God knows I want to do save her so badly, I’m willing to give up my earthly life for her eternal. Its my greatest passion to witness to the gospel. If she would receive the words of Christ and let them breath life into her.

I have nothing profound to say.
I have no conclusion.
I just pray that Gods will be done and that my will is likewise.

-Kay

There is a church that is called “30 Minute Worship” and it does just that
What is your opinion on this??? Because quite honestly.. I don’t know what to make of this.

Yes, we live in a microwaveable world- we want it now, we need it now, and we go. And don’t get me wrong, I step into the quick paced lifestyle myself. I have no problem with a 30 minute workout program and fast food for the 30 minute lunch break. Heck! If my head ache medicine doesn’t work in less than 30 minutes I’m ready to sue!
But 30 minute worship?
What ever happend to praying without ceasing? What about remembering the sabbath and keeping it holy?
The bible says that we must offer our first fruits to God, and in order to give the firsts fruits of our time we have to give at least 12 hours on Sunday.
 So 30 minutes? Can God be minimized to 30 minutes of praise? Or is this some spirtual check list to ward off guilt. You tell me.

Here’s the mission statement:

Sundays @ 9am offers you a brand new way to go to church…30 Minute Worship.  This innovative service is for anybody who is tired of the way traditional church has been done, has limited time, or has to work Sundays. The high energy, focused package will creatively engage you to personally connect with God. 

Are “you tired of the way of traditional church has been done”?  Is committing half of your day on Sunday to much to ask?  
“Personally connect with God…” in 30 minutes? This is just not possible, at least not for me… Maybe there mistaking the Holy spirit with the “high energy” they have.
I wonder if its possible to serve at this church. Or is that too traditional? Or are the members to busy?

Please comment, I would love to know your opinion.

I may be blowing this out of proportion. And I’m sure the heart behind the ministry is full of good intention.

But I just feel that this is belittling the importance of worship and depriving its members of a vital part of spiritual growth within Christianity.