Unoffendable

     "Choosing to be unoffendable out of love for others is ministry. And real ministry forces us
      To abandon our relentless search for approval from others"


When did it become about approval for other people? When did it get to the point where you can't talk seriously without someone getting offended. One of the most overly-used ironic phrases, "no offense but...."
When did we get here? Where Christians are "judgmental" and "haters", just because they believe a certain way.
Even to each other, we seem legalistic or judgmental, just because we try to live a certain way? It seems, unless we blend into the world, were judging others...
Why do we get so offended when someone disagrees. Why do we feel judged when a brother or sister talks to us about something out of concern?
What happened to building each other up? Why is support and positivity the only way to encourage and build a person up. What happened to tough love, to counsel, to discipline. If we can't seek guidance and counsel from ourselves or the ones around us, how will we seek it from God.
I want the church of people to be able to talk to each other, to build each other up, to encourage each other to do the right thing, not to speak out of judgment, but to speak out of concern.
I for one want to hear what my fellow followers see wrong in my life. I don't need to be offended, I don't live for approval from men. But for the approval of God.
And isn't that how we are meant to live? Unoffendable. All we do is build arguments against each other. Why we should be able to do one thing and not the other. This life isn't one big list of dos and donts.
This life is about surrendering your own life to God. So all the little dos and donts become clear. You become unoffendable.

This generation doesn't want to hear your opinion, unless it agrees with their own. The only way they show love is if you support them in everything they do, no matter how morally wrong or against God.
If you oppose any aspect of their lifestyle, you're suddenly a hater.

"All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."
                                                          Romans 10:21b

But this same generation of Christians needs to stand out, be unoffendable, show the tough love of sacrifice, honesty, and concern. Because if we blend in with the "anti-haters" and avoid the truth out of this so called love, how will they hear?

"How then shall they call on Him in who, they have not believed? And how asphalt they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher?"
                                                                           Romans 10:14


" very few of us debate with the sordid evil and wrong, but we do debate with the good."
                                                            Oswald chambers

Christmas Rant

          "strange isnt it? Each mans life touches so many other lives. When he isn't
           Around he leaves an awful hole doesn't he?"
                                                                 - it's a wonderful life

Can we talk about Christmas for a minute? The greates season of all? Filled with love, giving, and our Savior?
I love seeing people come home from college, I love seeing marines come from from Afghanistan after nine months, I love people helping people, I love seeing people pay for a strangers meal, I love free turkeys, I love celebrating family, friends, and the birth of Christ.
I had someone tell me they hate Christmas music and hated Christmas movies....and this made me so sad.
I think people get so caught up in the stressful, commercialized version of Christmas....it's cheesy, it's stressful.

But Christmas is so important, it's a time when people open their hearts to people and to Christ. And it makes me so sad when even Christians ignore this Holiday.
I know....it's technically from pagan roots, the world has commercialized it... But it's a sinful world people! And that does not make Christmas a bad thing. It is a beautiful thing!
It is a time to worship and praise our King, to show people His love.
People have a tender mercy in their hearts that only come around once a year. Linus got it for Pete's sake! And he's like three or something.
I wish everyone's phone autocorrected to CHRISTMAS. Because it deserves to be in all caps.
Christmas holds a powerful message that need not go unnoticed. In the film "meet John Doe" John was willing to throw away his life for a cause for a love of people. But someone reminded him that Someone already made that sacrifice 2000 years ago....the first "John Doe" and that's what Christmas is about.
Let us use this time for Him. Lets leave behind the angsty, hipster way. And let's celebrate and praise our King who came to earth as a babe... Just for people like us

The gift of life

                "are you done forgiving? Or can you look past my pretending
                   I'm so tired of defending what I've become
                  What have I become?"
                                    -- tenth avenue north


God, what have I become? A bum, a complainer, a pretender. I claim to be living this life in an extraordinary way. But I'm really just living in an ordinary way.
I use my time, just to pass the time. I just sit and I soak, I'm wasting precious time and assets.
The creative flow has stopped. Whenever I do spend my thoughts on you, it's to figure out what I can and cannot do.
I want to be radical. I want to be crazy in love. But how I'm living just doesn't prove it. I'm tired of defending myself for silly things that shouldn't even exist in my life.
I'm tired of wasting myself, if I truly believe what I say I believe....wouldn't I use every minute for You? Wouldn't I tell every person I came across the truth? Wouldn't I use my time to glorify Your name instead of my own? Wouldn't I use my entire life to further Your kingdom?
When did this life become just about living? When did crazy love and sacrifice for You go out of style? Will I come to the end of my life and hear You say
"Well done my child"
Or
"Depart from Me, I never knew you"
?
Everything that is not of You....makes for my undoing....

" life without war is impossible either in nature or grace.... If I want to maintain a vigorous mental life, I have to fight and in that way the mental balance called thought is produced.......
I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself"

Grey's my favorite color

"spiritual death happens one compromise at a time" 

In a modern world, it's hard for Christians to distinguish right from wrong. Things are no longer black and white. *grey areas* have come into play. 

I mean God doesn't really care what we watch or listen to does he? He's got bigger things to worry about.. 

Truth is... To the believer, grey areas don't exist. And God cares what is being put into the mind of His children. We can say all day long that it's just a movie and doesn't effect us. But truth is, it desentizes us to violence, to sex, to cursing, to demons, to satan. 

It changes the mind of the believer to be okay with these things that are against Christ and His teachings. 

If we believe murder is wrong, then why do we watch it for entertainment. If we believe sex is meant between a man and a woman within marriage, why do we watch it for entertainment. 

Don't get me wrong, movies are hard. I've watched many I'm not proud of. I use the excuse of, well as long as you know your limitation. 

God has set a standard for His people and we are trying to change it according to this modern world. 

Many Christians use the excuse of not wanting to be legalistic. But it's only legalism if it's a belief that's a personal preference and not of the Bible. 

It's either for God or against God. It's an extreme standard for an extreme God. God is a jealous God and to presume that he's okay with us watching an animation about Greek gods, Is just ignorance and denial. We want to do what we want to do. So we put things like this into grey areas. 

Christianity is simple, not easy. We are trying to make it complicated and easy to live by. Truth is, it's not easy to dress modestly, to hold your tongue, to abstain from indulging in certain entertainment, to be different. 

And this is my point. It gets hard and I see people I have grown up with, fall under this every year. 

And you know what? It's discouraging.

It's easy to forget that your actions effect other people. Think of the weaker brother. We may have the freedom in Christ, but it's completely selfish of us to act this way. Think of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Would you not rather have them encouraged rather than discouraged? 

"I have to learn that my aim in life is God's not mine" 

I want to be surrounded with bold Christians who aren't afraid to be different, who live with integrity, and aren't afraid to give something up for Christ. 

Grey areas don't exist. Religion isn't Gods. Faith is Gods. It's a way of life. Not just a small part of it. Dying to ourselves means giving up these little things, in order to serve our God the way He deserves to be served. 

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2 

compromise happens when we start comparing ourselves to the world instead of Christ 

"The haters would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever" psalm 81:15

The Humble Servant

    "No one is good there is not even one. The front pages of papers of children
     raped by rapists Iraqi torture chambers and we to blame claim we're blameless.
     Wrong. All."

Once upon a time I wrote a speech called "Christian Courtship vs. Dating" and looking back at this, im not the proudest. In fact....Im ashamed of it.
To be fair, this was years and years ago. And I was ignorant. I was zealous without wisdom. And I was anything but humble. I was a judgmental little thirteen year old, who thought she knew everything, but in reality knew nothing.
Years later, I would learn that Satan would use this very same pride that I had, against me... And then God would rescue me from this darkness. The very thing I judged people on became my own struggle.
I had to learn a hard, painful lesson. Things like these should never between you and the world or other people. Things like these always need to be between you and God. Dont put yourself on a little pedestal and say, look at me I dress modestly, I must be better than you. Or look at me, Im not kissing till i get married, I havent made dumb mistakes like you, I must be better than you. Its fine if you want to do that.... dress modestly and wait till marriage i mean, but it never needs to be bragged on. And people like me learn the hard way. I thought I was safe. I was strong enough to resist what others dealt with, because I had a strong foundation. But this is where I went wrong. Confidence in my upbringing, in myself... Where my confidence needed to be in God.

     "And swelling up inside of us, there's this pride in us this arrogance and our only line
      of defense is the sense that I'm not half as bad as this friend of mine, so I must be fine."

Every human has used this defense. To make ourselves feel better about our own sin, we judge those around us. But this sin will catch up with us eventually...

How DARE we assume we're any better than another? As Christians we should be realizing our wretchedness and falling on our own face in humility.

    "No one is good, no not one..."

And the only Man ever to be good, the One who could've glorified Himself and ruled over kingdoms, humbled Himself to be a servant of others. He hung out with cheats, tax collectors, and whores.

In my speech I gave The Chair analogy. Where someone stands on a chair and tries to pull someone up onto the chair with them. And they can't...But them the one standing on the floor pulls the one on the chair down to their level with ease. Understand the analogy?

The dirty rotten sinner is the one on the ground... and the holy man is on the chair. And we mustn't be around the sinner because they will easily pull us down.

EXCUSE me. Joannah! Are you proclaiming that you're better than the one on the ground?!

NO. We as children of God should be serving on our face. Humble to the point of washing the whores feet. You can't fall... when you're already on your face, serving.

Which reminds me... I recently started a job as a waitress.. and it has changed my perspective on so much. Its a humbling experience. It makes me examine my own life and desire to be better...who would have thought that serving would bring humility.

Just a little food for thought.

    "It is done for you and bought with blood. Accept. Rejoice. For freedom has come."

                                                                             The Benediction, Jimmy Needham

    "The great characteristic of a saint is humility- yes, all of those things and other evils would have been manifested in me but for the grace of God, therefore I have no right to judge."

                                                                                        Oswald Chambers

The Fault In Our Ego

                                      "The Universe desires to be noticed"
                                                                             --John Green

The Universe desires to be noticed? Or God desires to be noticed?

The other day, I got into a discussion with a friend of mine. Are humans inherently good or inherently evil? He claimed good, I claimed evil. He really could not understand my point of view. And he kept questioning this belief.
One of his last questions was, "Shouldn't we, with our own intelligence, be able to find God?"
Now, me and this friend of mine had actually seen the movie, "The fault in our stars" the night before. I had also read the book shortly before. And the book made me think. A lot. I'm still puzzling it over to be honest. It's so unique, so different than any other story I've read. Even with a seemingly depressing plot, it left you hopeful. And I wondered why that was. Considering how completely God-less the story was. The author didnt believe in God and the characters didn't believe in God. Even though they were both cancer kids with the potential to die at any moment. They talked about an after-life, but they weren't actually too concerned about it.

Now, how can this story, especially to a Christian, leave you feeling hopeful?

Because the author, Mr. John Green, decieved us. He used elements and characteristics of God to deceive us. To pull us in, to take hope from it. Without actually using the name of God.
In the story, the author turned these Godly elements, into a more humanistic point of view. Humans can save themselves, give themselves their own salvation and hope. They don't need a God or a heaven.

Another one of my friends read a different John Green book, and couldn't read another after that, because the author was too egotistical for her taste.
After reading, "the fault in our stars", I didnt really understand what she meant. But after the movie, I understood. His ego. That he dares to use elements of God, but claim there is no God. He is completely aware of God, but is too egotistical to claim that these values and ideas are from God. He instead takes the more humanistic approach, claiming these ideas are his and have nothing to do with God.

The Universe desires to be noticed? No, John Green, God is trying to get your attention. We as a human race are too prideful and egotistical to admit that there is a higher power.

But, this also shows that God is made known to every man. His word declares that every man, whether he's read the Bible or even heard of Jesus Christ or not is held accountable. Because God makes Himself known to every man. Either through nature, His Word, another man, or ideas from our head. God is real. And every man is aware of this.

So yes, my friend, we can find God from our own intelligence. But we also can not understand God completely. He is so huge and we are so small. I know you wonder why God would create something evil. But we weren't created evil. We chose to sin against God, choosing to be evil.
But God is an amazing God. We can't understand how even after we sinned he gave us good tendencies. And kind people. And sunsets. And summers. And thunderstorms. And flowers.
Thats the cool thing about God. We don't need to understand Him.

Even we as Christians let our ego run away with us. Claiming we know what God needs to do in our life. We get selfish and expect things to be easy. But God is gracious, He humbles us, reminding us who is in charge.

"We step right on to God over some things. But then self-consideration enters in and down we go."

That is the fault in our ego.

"Let actual circumstances be what they may, keep recognizing Jesus, maintain complete reliance on Him. "
                   -- Oswald Chambers

Dear Seniors

                              "God's will for my life is gratitude,
                               God's will is hope,
                               God's will is fearlessness,
                               God's will is mercy,
                               God's will is joy."
                                                           --- Mike Donehey

After graduation, there's a lot of expectations. More expectations than, I guess, I was prepared for.
I thought I was ready to conquer people's nosy questions like, "what are you doing now?"
But after awhile, "Im just gonna see where God leads me." Isnt a good enough answer. Why dont I have a plan? Why am I not going to college?
And I didn't really have an answer for them. I made it into a joke, "Oh, I'm just gonna marry rich."
The truth is, I have NO idea where I'll be in five years, and, honestly, thats actually kind of scary. I have a feeling I'll be in the same exact place. But I really hope thats not the case. I have no idea where my life will go. Because I dont have a plan. I am literally taking my life day by day.
Is this ideal? Not really. But I don't have big expectations for my life, like a lot kids my age. I guess living for God is enough.
But if im being honest here. Sometimes....it isnt enough. Sometimes.... I wonder why im not doing more. I go through spurts of being ambitious and making plans... but they dont always work out. Im a schemer and a dreamer....but not really in a realistic way.
To be honest, I do feel stuck. All the time. Whenever people ask me what I'm doing now, I can only answer with, "Oh, I'm just working." And every single person has an opinion about that. And it's almost always negative. I made the decision not to go to school, why do people feel like it's any of their business to tell me to go to college?
I know, it doesn't make sense to the world. But it makes sense to me. Now, like I said, I have my fears. I'm working in a deli, and my manager is 30 years old and has been doing deli work since she was 18. I REFUSE to let that be me in 12 years....
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. All I really wanna do, is get married and raise a family, ya know? I think everyone does deep down.  I dont see this happening anytime at all in the near future, and im definitely not "husband hunting" Im good with waiting. its cool. So I guess this time of my life is the mundane....
One time I told someone what I was doing, that I was just working. And she replied, "JUST working?! No you are not JUST working. Someone has to do it! And I'm sure you encourage so many people everyday. Tell me about someways you've seen God work through you in your job.."
It was the most encouraging thing in the world!

And it made me realize something....We don't always have to be doing something incredible. In fact, that's a rare occasion. God puts us in the mundane. Its a test of our faith. Its easy to be faithful when we're high on God and standing on the mountaintop. But in the moments, where you really have to trust, that is when our faith is put to the test.
And it's up to us how we use it. Will we use our time at work (or whatever youre 'just' doing) to complain and just get through the day? Or will we work as hard as possible, shining Jesus light and being a good example. We have to push through the mundane with a good attitude, and God will reward us. Either on earth or in heaven.
It's not about what you're doing, it's all about how you treat whatever situation you're in.

So many people expect to be put in incredible situations. Mission trips, college, relationships. But when we don't get what we expect, we're sorely disappointed, and feel like God isn't using our lives.
We can not presume to know the will of God. When we start to follow God so closely, His will becomes our will. All we want to do is the work of God, wherever that may be.
What if God's will for my life is gratitude? What if it's hope, fearlessness, mercy, and joy?

God's will isn't situations and opportunities. It's attitudes. And with gratitude, hope, fearlessness, mercy, and joy, opportunities come into play. So push through the mundane. Meet up to God's expectations, and not the world's, or even the ones you set for yourself.
And it's okay, if you're just working.

                 "Opportunity looks a lot like hard work."
                                                                --- Ashton Kutcher

Beautiful Souls

I saw a lot of things this past week. Joy, love, hope, celebration. I also saw brokenness, loneliness, heartbreak, and disappointment. But through it all I saw so many beautiful souls. And these souls made this whole thing absolutely worth it.

To the soul that felt my struggle and walked through it with me.
To the soul who treasured her lost ring and the friendship it represented so much that she leapt for joy when it was found.
To the soul that saw their friend struggle and was there for them even when they wouldnt say what was wrong.
To the soul that appreciated the small gift of coffee.
To the soul excited to talk with me.
To the soul who made me proud to be their sister.
To the soul who made my week.
To the soul who showed so much strength in light of her situation.
To the soul who showed true friendship.
To the soul who apologized.
To the soul who thought she failed and then won.
To the soul who shared a love of cats.
To the soul who told me about her dreams in a speech.
To the one who couldnt stop crying when she said her goodbyes.

To the souls that i love. You gave me moments. And these moments made my week.