So I got this new application for my iphone that has 3000+ little bits of useless information. I love it. What I have found though is that it’s not all useless. In fact, that is where I got my idea for today’s much needed post. Sorry it has been so long. Who knew my next bit of inspiration would come from a $.99 purchase?

Fact: It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest. So let me break this down for you… I eat breakfast at about 8:30 am. That food will be with me until 8:30 pm. I eat again around 10-11 (small snack). That food will be with me until 10-11 pm. Then I eat lunch, and then another snack, and then dinner. Sometimes I don’t even eat dinner until after 8 pm. So if I don’t eat dinner until after 8 pm then that food will be with me until I wake up and eat again. The point I’m trying to make, although it may seem gross, is our physical bodies are rarely ever without food.

What about our spiritual bodies? How long do we let our spiritual bodies go without food. Do our spiritual bodies really take a week to digest food, the word??? Because I am sure there are a lot of us out there who only crack open the spiritual food once a week, maybe twice.

Next time you think, man I am hungry and you fill yourself up with something that will be there for 12 hours, consider feeding your spiritual person as well.

Faith. Dangerous, violent faith. Do you have it? Well, you need it. We have an enemy that hates everything about us and what we are here to do. John 10:10- The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy… This cannot be more true.

God can do anything, and just like my earlier post he is looking for someone to use. There is a certain amount of faith needed to follow God. But there is a greater faith needed to withstand what satan throws at you once you make that decision to follow Him. The Bible lines out exactly what you need to do to stay faithful through and through. Now, let me start with the fact that you have to be in the word to figure out what it says about faith. That is step one. Pray in the spirit. Jude 1:20-But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. What better kind of faith to have than most holy faith. Speak out your faith.Mark 11:23-”I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Believe, have faith, in what you ask for. Matthew 21:22- If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Pray and then receive what you ask for. Renew your mind daily. Romans 12:2-Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Don’t let doubt and unbelief get in your mind. Renew your mind daily to keep the doubt out and the faith in.

And after you have done all you know how to do to the best of your ability, stand firm on your faith. Ephesians 6:13-14-Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then… Matthew 11:12 (KJV)-And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. This wraps right back up to where we started. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Now it’s up to the violent to take it back by force. Being violently faithful will take down satan and get you back everything you have lost and then some.

So, do you have dangerous, violent faith? You need it. Satan is going to attack you in every way he possibly can. Fight back violently with your faith and don’t let him win.

Hebrews 11:1-2- Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.

What kind of reputation do you have? I pray that the impact I leave behind and the reputation I create is one of faith. Along with faith I pray that my reputation also reflects love and a genuine Christ like attitude. I just got back from a business trip on which I rode and roomed with a complete stranger. On our four hour drive back home we talked of many things and of course I had to talk about God. What better opportunity to share the gospel than with a stranger. I had made mention of church on the way to the meeting last night to set a precedent for today because I knew I wanted to bring up the subject of Christ. So tonight when talking with her I was able to share a little more. I was so glad to know that in just the 24 hours we had spent together I had already made an impression of Christ on her. In talking with her she revealed to me things she had noticed about me that let her know I was Christian and not the kind she was used to. The things she told me were things I hadn’t even done on purpose.

This is the kind of reputation we are to strive for… the kind of reputation that you don’t even have to work for. The kind of reputation that comes out of just being yourself which is hopefully exactly what the Bible says we are to be and that is Christ like.

We are all sinners. Romans 3:23- For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone sins; some more than others. How do you see sin? 1 John 3:4- Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; for that is what sin is, lawlessness (the breaking, violating of God’s law by transgression or neglect- being unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will.) AMP This doesn’t say “insert sin here” is guilty of lawlessness. This says sin is lawlessness. This encompasses all sin. It doesn’t matter if it is lying or murder, gossip or stealing, cussing or adultery; all equal lawlessness. Sometimes people see certain sin as worse than others, but all sins are the same to God. The good news is His love covers all sin, and we are to show everyone God’s love.

Sin should disgust us. All sin. Sometimes I see people who can look at one sin and say, “Oh that is sad.” or “Oh they shouldn’t do that.” and then look at another sin and call it out in a harsh way or with mean words. We all sin. You may not be dealing with the same sin as someone else, but your sin is just as bad as theirs. How can we call out someone else’s sin in a way that is degrading or disrespectful? Matthew 7:5- You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. John 8:7- Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. We shouldn’t call someone out on their sin in a harsh way or with name calling.

I know for me it would not have helped to have my sinned called out in a mean or degrading tone. I had some issues, serious issues, with attitude in my past. It wouldn’t have helped if people in my life went around calling me “MISS ATTITUDE!” What that could have done is make getting through and over that sin an even harder process. What helped was people showing me God’s love and not condemning me for my sin. Also in John 8 it talks about how Jesus didn’t condemn the prostitute and call her out like the Pharisees did. He showed her God’s love and said, “Go and sin no more.” We are not to condemn people for their sin. We are to hold people accountable and preach the gospel to the nonbelievers, but we shouldn’t condemn them. Consider this…. if you have ever dealt with porn addiction, drug addition, alcohol addiction, or any other kind of addiction how much would it have helped if the people in your life went around saying, “Look at that PORN ADDICT! Pwah! Chuh!”, “Look at that DRUG ADDICT!”, “Look at that ADDICT!”, etc? This wouldn’t have helped at all. If anything this would just show you they look down on you.

Sometimes seeing sin in degrees can lead to self righteousness. Again, sin should disgust us, but that doesn’t give us the right to talk down to or degrade someone for their sin. We don’t see sin the same way God does. It can be easy to start seeing your sin as not as bad as others, but God doesn’t see it that way. Think about it. Really. I know you may not want to admit it, but just think about it. Is that murderer’s sin any worse than yours? Is that homosexual’s sin any worse than yours? Is that home wrecking cheater’s sin any worse than yours? Not to God. We are to live by the law of love (to love God and others). Show God’s love and let people know how He took a sinner, you, and made you anew, how he saved you, and how he gave you grace. The Bible says that if you sow mercy you will reap mercy (Matthew 5:7).

We as Christians have a duty to express God’s love for others as well as our own. If all we can show is hatred and disrespect for others because of their sin and our inability to see it through God’s eyes, what part of Christianity would a nonbeliever want? If you show a murderer, thief, liar, homosexual, adulterer, etc. that your sin isn’t as bad as theirs by calling out their sin with harsh words or name calling, what part of what you have would they want? They won’t see God’s love in that. What they would see is that big, fat plank in your eye.

I have found an excerpt from one of Mother Theresa’s speeches that I think we can all learn something from:

And as if that were not enough, as if it were not enough that God the Son should become one of us and bring peace and joy while still in the womb of Mary, Jesus also died on the Cross to show that greater love. He died for you and for me, and for the leper and for that man dying of hunger and that naked person lying in the street, not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, and everywhere. Our Sisters serve these poor people in 105 countries throughout the world. Jesus insisted that we love one another as He loves each one of us. Jesus gave His life to love us and He tells us that we also have to give whatever it takes to do good to one another. And in the Gospel Jesus says very clearly: “Love as I have loved you.”
Jesus died on the cross because that is what it took for Him to do good to us — to save us from our selfishness in sin. He gave up everything to do the Father’s will — to show us that we too must be willing to give up everything to do God’s will — to love one another as He loves each of us. If we are not willing to give whatever it takes to do good to one another, sin is still in us. That is why we too must give to each other until it hurts.

It can be hard to show love to people. It really can. This is a challenge for me sometimes. But we are to love those that Jesus loved. And that includes everyone. It includes the murderer, the homosexual, the adulterer, the liar, the thief, everyone. We can’t just say we love them, that’s easy. You have to show them love…. even if it hurts.

A user has a negative connotation in most cases. Two definitions come to my mind when I consider the word “user.” The first is one who does drugs, the second is one who is consistently taking advantage of someone else for their own gain. The latter involves the user and an unwilling suspect or shall I say, victim.

This is not the kind of user God is. God requires that his people be willing. God doesn’t take advantage of people, he waits for them to take advantage of the opportunities he lays out. There are no victims when it comes to God. God is a user of those who are willing to be used. You always hear the verse, the spirit is willing but the flesh is so weak. Well… this won’t work. God requires that each side of you must be willing. Your spirit is usually the easier one to convince. It’s the flesh that takes a little more work. For some it takes a lot more work. This applies to everything. You can be willing to get up and clean your room, but can you pull your flesh off the couch, or pry the game controller out of your hands, or better yet, can you actually stop talking/texting on your cell long enough to clean anything? Let’s look at it spiritually…. you might be willing to tithe 10% of what you make at your part time job. You might be willing to raise your hands or jump up and down during praise and worship. You might even be willing to go and pray for someone. All in your spirit.

But what about your flesh? Sometimes your flesh can have much more power than your spirit. Now does that make sense? Shouldn’t we have more power in our spirit than in our flesh? Paul says that he beats his body into submission to make sure that after he preaches the word he is not considered counterfeit. It is hard to not let your flesh be more powerful. Do whatever it takes to reach that point where your spirit has more power.

The Bible says that if a man cleanses himself of the ignoble things then he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. If we can cleanse ourselves from all the fleshy desires then we can let our spirit have the most power and then be used by God, the Master.

Read 2 Timothy 2: 20-26 in the Message Bible. How does this make you reconsider truly cleansing yourself of those fleshy parts of you? How much more do you want to see the power of the Spirit working in your spirit so you can really be used?

Ok, do not go out and get a cheeseburger and large fries from McDonald’s or your choice fast food place because that is so not what I am talking about. The Bible says in Genesis that Abel brought the fat portions of his firstborn flock to God as an offering. Cain on the other hand obviously brought skinny portions of his flock as an offering. God looked upon Abel and his offering with favor, respect and regard. But with Cain, God found no favor, no respect, and no regard to which Cain responded with exceeding anger, sadness, and depression.

I want to offer God some serious fat. I want God to find favor in me and what I do. When I come to God with an offering of service, tithes, praise, worship, obedience or anything else, I want it to be FAT. I do not want to bring God the skinny of what I have to offer and walk away with anger, sadness and depression. I want to come full force, sumo wrestling FAT, to the throne with my offering for God and walk away with favor, respect and regard.

I think some people believe if they come to church and give just a little time, or money, or just their presence that they are good to go and will have all the favor they will ever need. But what would happen if we all just started giving all the fat of what we have to offer?

No one likes their intelligence being insulted. We might even at times get angry. So why is it that no one gets upset when we let fear insult our faith? Fear has been termed as the opposite of faith. Let’s take storms for example… Jesus himself calmed the storm, and we are to do the things Jesus did and greater. But why do I still let a little storm get me a little afraid? Why do I let that fear insult the very thing I live by?

Faith is the foundation of how we walk through our spiritual life. Our intelligence is the foundation of how we walk through our physical life. If we are going to get so upset when someone else insults our intelligence, something merely physical, why we would allow ourselves to insult our own faith? We should be even more righteously upset when we let this happen.

Hebrews 11:30- By faith the walls of Jericho fell. If we let our faith get insulted once by fear, it might happen again. Lets stand up to that fear and use our faith to make its walls fall down.

God’s way is not a matter of mere talk; it’s an empowered life.

We are not to live a life of mindless chatter for God. We are to live a life full of the power of God. We aren’t to just talk about him. That is easy. We can talk all day about what it would be like if…. But how will you ever know unless you get up and do the if.

If all we ever do is talk about God then what makes us so different from an atheist? They talk about God all the time. It may not be along the same path of agreement but they do talk about Him all the time. We have to make a difference by living the empowered life and not just a life of hot air. We have to go beyond the mundane, the usual, and be the ones who are unusual. God will show up.