To Surrender

"I don't want to go to the INCH conference!" I whined out sulkily to my patient parent. I knew I was being rude and disagreeable, and I did truly want to go-but I didn't want to miss my friend's Nutcracker performance during the second day of the conference, and I was simply giving mother a hard time. After several more grumpy and cross words, I tumbled into my bed, upset and angry. The next day-the day of the INCH conference itself-would be an absolute failure, I had decided.

That is a small taste of me. Or what I used to be. I was the definition of "nominal Christian." Unfortunately...I was built from the exact blueprint of the modern "Christian" teenager, believe it or not. There were few things in my life that I actually deemed wrong-modern Christian messages said it was okay to listen to non-Christian music, flirt, waste time on the TV and internet, and many other seemingly "harmless" things. That is the person that went into the doors of the Lansing Center for the INCH conference that day-but a different person came out. Not a widely different person, no outward major changes had occurred. But inwardly, something had altered. It was to alter even more over the next few months-but this was a start. That night, on May 20th, 2011, I sat outside on my front porch and did something that I had never done before-I put down one of the parts of my life at God's feet. And I have continued to do so since-piece by piece. (And I did get to attend the Nutcracker performance.) The next month I was more radient than I have ever been, "radient with the joy of the Lord."

I can't give this story without being honest-I developed a "crush" on someone I met at my summer camp. It let nowhere, and although I attempted to give my feelings over to God, slowly but surely it drew me away. And after only a month, I was unfortunately not far from where I had started. Disheartened, I worked my way back-slowly this time, due to the added weight of school and activities beginning again. For some reason, I couldn't seem to attain that unhindered relationship again for almost two months. Then, I pulled out some of the notebooks that I had used before-and as I opened one little green one, it hit me. With a start, I remembered what I had forgotten, the key to my relationship with Christ: surrender.

Surrender is absolutely crucial to the Christian life. It is the invitation to Jesus to come inside and take control, and to hand over to Him pieces of your life with shaking hands and crying out for Him to take it and use it as He wills, not as you will. It is the kicking out of the flesh and the refusal to let it back inside. It is the abandoning of self for Christ, of flesh for the spirit. And once you find it, TRULY find it, you can never go back-for your life is completely altered, forever changed. When you truly see the power of Jesus, you can never go back.

It is all about the cross. When you see the power, when you see the love, when you see the sacrifice, when you see the grace, the truth, the perfection, and the breaking of the chains you can no longer bear yourself and your sins, you fall on your face in tears and say "I need you, Lord! And I give you all of myself, every little piece of it!" When you see that the almighty God of everything who made everything and who is over everything, who is enthroned in majesty and all the angels worship before him, and you see that He came down as a little baby born to an unmarried teenage girl in a tiny town-and that He died a horrible death on a bloody cross so that you could be free, and when you see that you are not living free from sin in spite of that sacrifice you can no longer stand before God-and you offer yourself and say "Everything I have is yours Lord! Take me! Use me for Your glory!" And that's when true fulfillment and joy and hope and radiance-pure radiance-is found, when you give your life to Him and say that it is no longer yours. And you fall at His feet, totally knowing that you do not deserve what was done for you, He looks you in the eyes and says "I do not condemn you. Now go, and sin no more." And then the only thing you can do is turn around and thank Him wash His feet with your tears and then go out and serve Him and proclaim the most important thing in history, in the world, in our loves-the cross.

I might just say, if you didn't read that as a rant-go back and read it as so.

May I now say that I am not a perfect being in my spiritual life. I am not yet free from sin. But I am working for it, on the platform of prayer and the study of His word and His character. I am gaining eternal life and glory-at the expense of simply me. And I am not much, I'll tell you that. But His grace is sufficient for me, and His power is made perfect in my weakness.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

(Jude 1:24-25 ESV)

LOVING God.

It's been a little while since I've posted on here.

Hmm, funny how often I say that. I guess high school (even when you're homeschooled!) keeps you pretty busy!

So my message is titled "LOVING God". If you have paid any attention to the modern Christian messages (especially in the music industry), you will have heard the blaring message of love between God and us. This concept is 100% Biblical, but somehow, despite hearing this message and desiring to have it become true, many Christians seem to miss the point. Why? (Side note: I'm not saying that I'm necessarily a huge fan of all the lovey-dovey songs about God that sound more like they're about another human...what my sweet mommy likes to call "God is my boyfriend songs").

Loving God is extremely important. There are so many Biblical verses I could pull for this one. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mine and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30) is just one of many examples. The Song of Solomon is a picture of the love not only between a man and a woman, but also between God and His church, and in Revelation the church [believers] is pictured as the bride of Christ. When you are truly in love with God, it is beautiful and amazing. Loving God is so much more fulfilling than loving anyone or anything else. But for some reason, Christians-children of God, the bride of Christ, who are promised the Holy Spirit-often feel very far from God. This at first seems to be very surprising, but under further inspection, the answer is clear.

Loving God comes with action. Jesus says we must "take up our cross daily and follow Him". We have to learn to follow Him, but there's only one way to follow Him: by taking up our cross. Too many Christians (I myself was once included) expect "cheap grace," or "cheap love", which means you get the grace (or love) of God without any price to yourself and your flesh. But the Bible extols a "costly grace (love)", which means that we can truly obtain it only at some cost to ourselves. You can't follow Jesus and leave your cross behind you, because that cross is the way you follow Him. So too many people want to have a complete, full, joyful, and beautiful relationship with God (which is one the most beautiful thing in life) without having to alter their current lifestyle at all. This is unbiblical, however, as I have already said. The only way to truly know Christ is to change your life to show that reality.

No, this does not mean becoming legalistic or to never leave your Bible. And you can't find a true relationship with Christ in yourself, by trying to be as good as a Christian as you can be-because you will fail. The only thing to do is fall at his feet and surrender, one by one, the parts of your life to Him. Once your life starts to follow Him, inevitably your heart will too.

If you really desire to discover more in this area of your life...I'd recommend any book by the Eric and/or Leslie Ludy.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. -Matthew 6:21

Set Free.

I know I've already posted about the forgiveness and freedom of guilt from sins, so I'm sorry if I end up crossing topics. I'll try not to.

But anyway, this isn't about forgiveness of sins, although it is along the same lines. But I feel that it is a message that you can not hear too many times.

It is about living a life free from sin.

I feel like the wrong message is being proclaimed around Christendom today. Forgiveness is the key point-and that it should be! Forgiveness is an amazing, beautiful, and comforting thing, and hope in our darkness. But people don't often mention the fact that there is something even more amazing, beautiful, and comforting-to get out of that darkness. Maybe it comes with the modern Christian assumption that we don't have to be different from the world and we shouldn't "judge" people on what their personal lives-even if they're doing something wrong. Everyone's forgiven, so it's okay right?

Well, that's true. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9 ESV) There are a million passages I could cite that prove that we are forgiven. But I'm not focusing on that. I'm focusing on freedom from sin. You've probably heard of Romans 6-8. Those are a couple of long, confusing chapters. Of course, people often omit mention of chapter 5, which I think is essential as well. They speak of our freedom from sin, and how we no longer have to listen to it! We are not slaves to sin anymore-which means that there is no requirement for us to sin, and we as Christians have the ability not to sin! I would much rather be able to go on without sinning than going on asking for forgiveness.

But wait! Nobody can be perfect, this mindset isn't realistic or fair! Yes, I agree with that. And that's why God offers us forgiveness all the time, because we can't be perfect! But here's how I think of it; if you're not fighting for perfection, what are you fighting for? The answer, obviously, is sin. I like the way I've heard it said-"sin becomes the exception rather than the rule." We may not be able to root out occasional sins from our lives, but we can and must get rid of habitual sins that are in control of our lives. Actually, the Bible makes it clear that real Christians do not let sin run around unchecked in their lives! But are you saying that everyone who is a Christian has to have no habitual sins to qualify? Of course not! I have broken several bad habits, but I still have sins that I'm trying to pull out of my soul, stuff like a quick temper with my little siblings and others. But we must be on an active patrol, watching for sin, and the moment we see it, making quick actions to get it out of our lives as fast as we can.

I've found several ways to break habitual sins that seem to work; and I'll compile a short list:

1. Fill your mind with the Word of God. When Jesus was tempted, He quoted Scripture back at Satan. It really does help to do that; to use my previous example, when I am tempted to become upset with my siblings, I think of James 1:20-"for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." If you find verses that denounce your sin, when Satan comes, tell him that you know the truth.

2. Pray-defensively and offensively. It does help to pray to God to deliver you, but another thing that helps is to pray for someone else, especially for someone else's salvation-because Satan hates nothing more than someone coming to Christ. When Satan sees that you are becoming a prayer warrior for Christ, he'll back off.

3. Run from temptation. Often, it is a physical action. Choosing to turn your eyes, ears, or body away from whatever is tempting you. Even if it's not (a bad thought, for example) do the utmost you can to draw yourself away from it. I've found that with thoughts, one thing I do is I quickly think of a Christian song and play it through in my head as I pray. It drowns out whatever was going to enter my head. I've also learned what I call "warning thoughts" as well-if I feel like a thought is straying, I cut it off right then and there. The Bible commands us to "Take every thought captive."

Remember, you are set free-and you are able to stay away from sin. If there is any verse I would recommend you to memorize out of the whole Bible, one of the top ones would be this: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." (1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV) Never forget-He knows. Don't say that it is too hard, for Satan really tempted Him with the world-and He turned it down.

If you're not fighting for perfection, what are you fighting for?

Sola Fide.

This is a touchy, touchy subject. And I am aware that I might offend some of my readers because they don't agree with what I am saying. But I felt like God was telling me that I need to make this point. Sola Fide. Faith alone.

Sola Fide was one of the main points of the Reformation. The Reformation (to give a short background) began when the protestants split from the Catholic church in a movement lead by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. Sola Fide, along with Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), were statements of the different principles between them and the church. From these stem main points about what we believe.

Faith alone is the principle of salvation by faith. And only faith. In Paul's time (and apparently before), a belief was running through the Jews (and early Christians) that salvation could be attained by works. Paul wrote extensively on this topic, clearly presenting that works are worthless without faith and without a proper heart. This belief, however, is even more prevalent in this time than it was then. Even some people who say they don't believe in salvation by works, they unknowingly do. I feel like Sola Fide is such an important principle that I would write about it in a post.

Paul is clear that works, without faith, are dead. But James sports a seemingly contradictory statement: faith without works is dead. How can both of these things be true? People who say that salvation needs works along with it point out the passages of James. But what if it's like two different sides of a coin? Paul was pointing out that works, without a proper heart (which is what God sees) mean nothing eternally. Salvation can only be attained by faith. James, means that a heart for God will and should have good works. Jesus says He knows believers by their fruits. But if you believe that you can only go to heaven by good works, than you contradict stories in the Bible. For example, when Jesus was on the cross, a thief, being crucified next to him, voiced his faith. Jesus told him that He would see the man in paradise. Had this man done anything? No. His only good work was believing in Christ, since before you have faith your works mean nothing-and even if they had, it didn't seem like he had many to show. Also, many times Jesus told people that their faith made them well, not their works. Also, Paul speaks in Philippians of his perfection when conformed to the law and works-and he counted none of it as gain. How could he count none of it as gain if it had any eternal value?

Now don't get me wrong. Works are good, and should be everywhere in a believer's life. It's when you start relying on them to get you to heaven or to earn favor with God where it becomes a stumbling block. Let's just pretend that for almost all of your life you were pretty much free from sin, and you never stopped doing good works. Let's just pretend that your fruits numbered 100 from this venture. (I know it's unrealistic, but bear with me.) When it comes you judgement day, you have your 100 fruits and you look around and see people with their 2 fruits and their 5 fruits, and even people who only have 1 fruit. But when God comes up, you see that the requirement is 100,000 fruits. Then you realize that you don't have enough, and neither does anyone else. But salvation is a free gift, and that is what bridges the gap of 999, 900 fruits. More than that, even. We cannot rely on our own works. When we rely on our works, our salvation is found in ourselves. But salvation is found in no other name than the name of Jesus! Salvation is found in faith, not works. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." Not "Believe and do good works, and you will be saved." Works stem from our beliefs, not the other way around.

So we are to rely, not on self, but on God. The Bible clearly speaks that our salvation is is only found in faith. We are supposed to rely on God. Sola Fide. Faith Alone.

Confessing Sin

My last post was about guilt vs. regret. I urged you to confess your sins to God, but I realized that I need to expand on that.

First, I need to expel two myths about God's forgiveness; each the extremes on the spectrum yet both widely believed and accepted.

1. God cannot forgive you for certain sins, and even after you confess your sins He is still angry.

2. God doesn't really care about your sins.

The first one is kind of a fire and brimstone technique. There are kind of two parts to this side of the spectrum: the Evil and Controlled God spectrum. The first assumption is that God can't forgive us for certain sins. The "bad" sins. But the Bible makes it clear that no sin is over another sin. "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." (James 2:10 ESV) So if we tell a "little white lie", we are guilty of everything else; murder, slander, etc. So how could God forgive a "small" sin but not a "big" sin? And if He CAN'T forgive your sins, that means your sins are more powerful than God, making your sins god. And it also makes Jesus' sacrifice on the cross not enough to cover all your sins. And if He WON'T forgive your sins, the Bible is false, and He isn't a loving God. He doesn't love us, because He won't forgive us. It also goes against the Bible because the Bible says He forgives ALL our sins. Obviously, He forgives whatever you've done. And He's no longer angry over it, or it goes against "forgiveness" as a whole. “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." (Isaiah 43:25 ESV). If He's forgotten them, and blotted them out, how could He be angry at us? No, but when we are forgiven, we are forgiven, and our sins are forgotten, and God once again shines His face on us.

Then there's the other side of the spectrum, with the God I like to call the Hippie God. This is the side proclaimed more often among teenagers today, and I kind of imagine this theory as a hippie (complete with glasses, guitar, and all) smiling down at me. "No, it's totally fine dude! Peace, you know? We all screw up. Not like I'm angry at you or anything. If you made a mistake, you made a mistake. It's totally fine." That's not right either. God IS upset about our sin. But not so upset as to immediately fry us, because He is merciful. Yes, our sins are covered forever in Jesus' sacrifice. But we still have to confess our sins to God-and often to others. (Yes, I know that THAT can be the most challenging. But I recommend you read my friend's blogpost on confessing sin to others, I can't top it. :) sharpenothers.blogspot.com/2011/11/your-sin-will-find-you-out.html ).

Also, if you haven't, read my last blog post on how to live with regret, not guilt.

But once we realize we are in the wrong, there is a series of steps that we must take to confess our sin and repent. Confessing sin and actual repentance are two different things, as I will show you.

1. Tell God about your sin (Yes, He knows, but it's like saying "Hey! God! You're right, I'm wrong!")

2. Ask for His forgiveness

3. If there are people that were harmed, or if there is a practical way to keep this sin from entering your life again, ask God to show you these things, and whatever He moves you to do-DO IT.

4. (And THIS is the repentance stage). RUN in the other direction. Set up roadblocks for yourself. Find someone who will keep you accountable, and make sure it is an object of your prayers to keep yourself from it. But the main point is, try your hardest to stay away from your sin. (Some sins, like getting angry at your siblings, etc, are not sins that give you much forewarning and are usually driven deep into your habits. These kinds of sins especially will often not go away the first day-or even the first month. But with persistance, they will disappear.)

One of my favorite things to do when I confess sins is to read Psalm 51. It is the blueprint of what our confessions should sound like, the crying out of our heart for forgiveness.

But a main point that I must stress in conclusion is that once you confess your sins, you are FORGIVEN. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9 ESV). Jesus died, and His actions are what saves us, not by our own works, but by His blood. We are insufficient, so or our own power we can never save ourselves. But God, in His holy love and mercy, He can. And He does. And if you turn to Him, broken and flawed, He will smile on you-and make you new.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

(Isaiah 1:18 ESV)

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;

build up the walls of Jerusalem;

then will you delight in right sacrifices,

in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

(Psalm 51 ESV)

Guilt vs. Regret.

Yesterday, I was with a friend of mine, a very strong Christian who strives to honor God with her whole life. I was telling her my life story in a nutshell, and it brought me through some things that I regret very much. I said "I feel so guilty about this" several times during the conversation. But she made a comment that will forever affect the way I see my past. "You shouldn't feel guilty. If your past isn't how it is, you may not be as close to God as you are today." Then I started to think about guilt...and regret. Shouldn't we feel bad about what we've done? Yes. But there are differences between guilt and regret, which can forever alter your view of life. We are clearly NOT perfect. We feel guilty. But as Christians, we shouldn't feel guilty, not at all. Regret is feeling bad about what we've done. Guilt is feeling that it is our fault. The difference between the two is that regret pushes us forward. Guilty holds us back. Regret makes us strive to do better, guilt makes us strive to live.

But there is hope.

There are three reasons not to feel guilt, but to feel regret:

1. You should not feel guilty because what you have done contributed to who you are and who you will be. You may not be as close to God as you are now without your past. The things you've done, they may be sinful and harmful, they may be horrid and you may hate them, but don't hate yourself. I cannot stress how important it is to confess your sin to God and repent (turn away from your sin), but once that is done, you have nothing to feel guilty about. Which brings me to my second point:

2. You should not feel guilty because you cannot change your past. You can regret what you have done, but feeling guilty will never change what you have done, but it will change what you do. If you feel guilty, you may think you are unable to change, and you will continue in your ways until you fall from under your guilt. What you have done is unchangeable: what you do about what you have done is not. Depending on the situation, you may or may not be able to make seemingly "large" changes, but you can always change. The first step is to confess your sins to God, and then make sure you don't fall where you fell before. And if your sin affected anyone else, make it right, or if it is impossible, try to the best of your ability to make it better. Regret what you've done, but don't feel bad-rejoice that you are saved by God. Use your regret to keep you from sin, not to make yourself lest resistent to it.

3. And this reflects my first two points: You should not feel guilty because you are FORGIVEN! If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(1 John 1:9 ESV)

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

(Isaiah 43:25 ESV)

The Bible stresses that we are FORGIVEN, and our sins are FORGOTTEN. We are FREE, our sins are FORGIVEN, our trespasses FORGOTTEN, and this lasts FOREVER. that is my motto. If we are still guilty, we tell ourselves that God cannot forgive us, that His grace is not sufficient and we are not cleansed. No, WE ARE PURE! WE ARE RIGHTEOUS! I cannot stress this more!

So if you feel guilty, take time to search the Scriptures. I'd recommend the book of John.

And be set free.

Luke 5:11

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted on here. Been pretty busy the last couple weeks.

Anyway, about this verse. I was reading the Bible today and it hit me. If you look it up, it doesn't sound too exciting. If you read it in context, you barely notice it. But it is the very end of the story of the call of Peter, James, and John into the ministry. This is what the verse says:

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

(Luke 5:11 ESV)

It's a famous story; Peter, James and John have been fishing all night without success. As in-no fish. At all. When Jesus comes along, he tells them to try...just one more time. They don't believe him at first, but they agree to give it one more attempt. They didn't just catch a fish-they caught so many fish that the nets-designed for fishing-started to break, and the boats started to sink from the weight. Awed and humbled, they ran to Jesus who told them they would become fishers of men. Then this verse comes, Luke 5:11. They left everything and followed him.

These men did not know Jesus, they had never followed Him before. Yet after one miracle, they left everything they had ever known. In those days, people stayed in the same place for their whole lifetime. They were leaving their family, friends, and every thing they had ever worked for or put time into-for Jesus. Willingly, they poured out their lives, enduring terrible hardships and terrible deaths-all for Him.

And yet we still struggle with reading our Bibles once every day.

They had nothing but God. They didn't have what we have, they didn't have our luxuries. But they never gave up.

We have a book-quite a LARGE book, the Bible, that tells us SO many things. When we read the things in the Scriptures about God, our sin, and our forgiveness, we should fall to our knees in tears, and thank God and live our lives for Him.

Yet we often simply skim over the words we take for granted.

So today, I give you three challenges:

1. I don't press you to read the Scriptures. I press you to study them. Get up half an hour earlier and spend time reading, taking notes, and highlighting. Stop school earlier so you can. Do other things if necessary. But do it today.

2. Have the faith that Peter, James and John had in Jesus-that He IS the Son of God, and that we are NOT called to do little things.

3. This is the hardest step. But if you haven't yet, get on your knees and ask God to take control of your life. Cry out to Him. And then-change. So your life revolves around Him-and not yourself.

I have decided to follow Jesus

No turning back, no turning back.

P.S. For an extra challenge-write out Luke 5:11 and post it somewhere where you'll see it-a lot! (Mirror, wall, desk, etc...)