freedom!

John 8:34-36
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

I have had to come to grips with the true meaning of what Jesus was saying today. In my struggle with sin my goal is always to please God. But what if that was not what our focus should be? Maybe our focus should really be on simply trusting God. As Christians our hope isn’t in our ability to fight off sin and sin less, but it is in Christ and the fact that sin no longer has any real dominion over us. In our battle with sin we must look solely to the grace of God and trust in that beautiful, marvelous grace. We are free indeed in the shadow of the cross.

The Beauty of Christ

This blog really got me thinking

when christians fall

here is what we can learn from that and how we can find ecouragement

crazy week

It has been a very crazy week this past week. I pretty much spent all week at school working as part of the stage crew on my school's musical (Fiddler on the Roof). It was a hard 6 days for me. I came face to face with some of my weaknesses. Spending so much time with all my friends in the stage crew gave me an opportunity to be who I really am. Now it gave me the opportunity but I didn't really use it. I feel back on just being the shallow me that I tend to be around others. It is so hard for me to open up sometimes. I have no courage to do it and no wisdom in how and when. Only when it is just me and Jesus then am I able to feel like I can be myself. That is good and all but it won’t help any when it comes to displaying who Jesus really is to those around me. I want people to see the Jesus that is a radical and life-changing force. It hurts me when so many people see Jesus as a religious character or even as a big god in the sky. And I have no courage to speak up about him. I feel like this whole week I couldn’t open myself up at all. When I open myself, it results in showing what I really deep down care about and that is solely Christ. I mean, I owe him everything. My life, my breath, my everything is his because of what he has done. But I, out of fear, or lack of courage, or lack of wisdom, or even selfishness, tend to bury that. I am at the prime of my high school years but all I can do is feel sorrow because so many of those I talk to every day at school are missing the ability to partake of the beauty, the hope which is knowing Christ and sharing in his glory. Part of it is the fact that I am afraid if I put myself out there, than all those peoples’ religious backgrounds will destroy their ability to understand the gospel of Jesus, how he can do it ALL for them. I wish I could just gather every friend I have together and just sit with them and share the story of the bible with them. The story of why Jesus is such a big deal to me. I guess you could say that is my far-fetched dream. But I just wish it was easier to for me to speak up. I have also, in my busyness been shown what it is like if I fail to spend time everyday with my God. Every day that goes by without spending time with him leads me more and more down the path I don’t want to take. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what Christ would have me do with my free time. I don’t feel like spending time on the computer or playing guitar or whatever is the best thing to be doing. But I don’t know what else to do. I want to live every moment of every day for the glory of God but I am not sure how, practically, to do that. I have been praying a lot lately that the Lord would give me wisdom on what to do 

easter reflections

Easter has always been just another holiday to me. It has always been a sunday where I go to church, and then listen to people talk about Jesus rising from the dead. I would then go home and have an easter egg hunt and just sit around and think about candy. This year has been very different for me. It has had a lot more meaning and has been kind of a depressing weekend. Starting on good friday i have been overcome with thinking of the horrors of the crucifixion. I am amazed at how Christ, who was God in the flesh, let himself be led to the slaughter by his own creation. He was their king, their king and creator. How does that happen? What kind of evil is it to kill your own creator. And was blows me away is that Christ was able to forgive those who did it. The creator was able to forgive those who spit on him and hung him on a cross. What kind of a God is that forgiving? And I was also thinking about it from the disciples perspective, the bible seems to suggest many of them didn't understand Jesus when he said he was coming back. What a horrible night for them, to see the man they had followed as the son of God be murdered in such a brutal way. That must have been a sleepless night for most of them, it might have even been a sleepless 2 nights.

As I progressed through the weekend and got to today I have been so grateful Jesus is alive again. I am so thankful that he rose again. If he were still dead this world would have no hope, my pursuit of God would be in vain. I would be on the fast track to hell with no way out. Jesus would have proven to be a fake. I would have no hope of any salvation. But the truth is that he is alive! He came out of the tomb to the great joy of the disciples. The resurrection is the believers' joy! Let the words "He is Risen" fill you with a new and fresh joy this easter.