The following is from www.Dare2Share.com e-devo this morning! Hey blog-fans...sorry I haven't posted in over a month! It has been CRAZY busy at work, at home & getting ready for PISMO!
Yes! We had our Parents' meeting yesterday. We are two weeks away and counting down. Am I panicked? Nope. Am I stressed? Nope. I am excited and looking forward to our last Pismo trip for a while. I wish ALL of you could go with us! This is one that will go down in the books as the BEST Pismo trip...I can feel it in my toes (and it goes to my nose...). He.he.he...
I love you all & pray for your daily.
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Hey there, Kingdom warrior!
When I first became a Christian, I thought that I could sum up the Bible in one word: “No!” I thought that God was all about “don’t do that” and that following Him was all about walking the straight and narrow.
I was way wrong. And I’m so stinkin’ glad.
Yes, God has given us guidelines to follow, but if that’s all He wanted with us, we’d all might as well be mindless robots. Turns out God has much, much more in store for us than that. Thank goodness.
Have a great week, messy and loved one!
Laurin, YW editor
God, how is it that when I sin You still want me?
[MORE] Following Jesus is flat-out messy. It’s messy because His method to make us more like Him happens through a relationship. We don’t relate to God by merely following rules. If we connected with God that way, it might seem simpler—we’d just do the right things and that would be that. Our interaction with Him would be precise and defined, but it would also be cold and distant, devoid of any passion. There’d be no heart.
But God doesn’t want us to follow empty religious rules. He wants the closeness of a real relationship. But relationships are messy. In relationships there are moments when you feel like things are going well, and there are other times when they seem to require a lot more work. Sometimes relationships run smoothly, sometimes they travel rocky roads. They involve shared experiences, emotions, the daily-ins-and-outs of life. They’re organic, free-flowing, and that’s all a part of the deal.
[READ] In the Old Testament, God spent a lot of time calling His messed-up people back to Himself after they had made sinful choices and were beat up from them.
“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22).
“ ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you’ ” (Zechariah 1:3).
God has the same message for us in our messiness: “Return to Me.” It’s as if He’s saying to us, “Let Me teach you. Open your heart up to Me, so I can pour in truth and wisdom through My Spirit. Spend some time with Me so I can teach you My ways—living by them will bring good things. Be willing to hear what I have to say, and the wisdom I’ll give you will keep you from getting burned by bad decisions. Be moldable and teachable, and I’ll shave off some of your rough spots, those spots that keep landing you in places of pain.”
[LIVE] God chose relationship to be the way He interacts with us. That means He wants us to come in close to Him so we can learn about Him and His ways. He teaches us one-on-One. Connecting with Him happens through closeness. It happens through conversations like, “Oh, Lord, I’ve sinned again, and I’m so sorry.” It happens through the consequences that He sets up so we’ll remember not to walk that way again. It happens through the discipline He gives so that we’ll get off the rough roads and on the road back to Him.
This all happens through spending quality time with Him. It means investing time in reading His Word. It means having a constant dialog with Him—opening up to Him to talk, and opening up to Him to listen. It means being completely honest about everything, but at the same time being committed to your relationship with Him no matter what happens. It’s messy, but it’s good. It’s the way He chose for our interaction with Him to be because He loves us so much. He wants closeness.
[NXT LVL] Listen to the song “Only You” by the David Crowder Band from their album Illuminate.
