Authority

It seams like everyone goes through a certain thing at least once in their life where they look at themselves from an outside point of view and really realise who they are. There are three different sides of language, first, second, and third. When you look at yourself from a third person view you can see things you never saw before. You may see who you are, what your life is like, and possibly how others see you. I mean we have probably all looked at someone and thought why would they want to look like that? However, really the person may have never really looked at what they look like because they are so used to gradual change of their style. When you take on a third person style of perception of yourself you may realize you are not who you wish to be.

That is where I found myself a few days ago. I looked at what I was and I didn't really like what I saw. Basically I was a mess. Now I didn't see anything from an outside perspective, but an inward perspective. I realized my mind is messed up, I have let myself slowly fall away to the point where my mind is not doing what it was meant to do. My mind is no longer attentive, remembering well, or able to focus on things.

I got to the point where I was forgetting stuff all the time and not really actually listening sometimes. My mind had in a way forgotten itself. I wasn't obeying the laws I have put up for myself. If I don't obey myself how can I obey God really? If you don't have authority over yourself (discipline) how can you let God have authority in your life? At this point of not really obeying myself it is like a personal rebellion. However, it is probably more of a rebellion against my conscience more than my own mind. I couldn't let my life just fall apart to the point where my mind's commands no longer mean anything to myself.

Mark 3:25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

So I have taken the stand to correct my revolution against myself. I must have authority over my mind. I looked at myself and didn't like what I saw. Do you like who you are? Or even better, does God like who you are?

Switchfoot - This Is Your Life
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Time moves on. There is only a certain amount of time made and that amount is always turning from future into the past. Don't leave this earth with regrets. Take authority over yourself and fix your life with God's help. It can be a good practice to profoundly change you point of view to the third person and see what needs fixing. Take authority over yourself and give that authority to God, because He will change you for the best.

( Disclaimer: You might not always be able to see everything that is wrong. You may need God to see more. )

Prayer Is Never Not Worth The Try

This last summer when I arrived at city challenge with my youth group we didn't know anything we would experience, except that we would be pushed out of our comfort zone. One of the biggest comfort zones for me that was pushed was praying out loud in front of people. I tried to be pretty cool with it, but it is always hard to instantly change your comfort zone.

Later the first night I had built a determination and readiness to try to go do what they wanted us to do as best as I could. I went down to the lounge where the other guys from my youth group were still finishing up their breakdown of the days events. I stood by and listened to what they were saying and knew they were going to end with prayer. I wasn't sure if I wanted to pray because I'm not much of one to readily go out of my comfort zone. However, as I was contemplating my next move this though popped into my brain.

Prayer is never not worth the try

This thought was so true, I mean the gift of salvation is a free gift of God. Because of that salvation we have a relationship with God and therefore can talk to Him. Prayer isn't something to be thrown around, but it is pretty much a power. Now prayer doesn't have the power, but God himself. Based upon of that fact, if the power of the prayer is not dependent of our words, why are we afraid to say the wrong thing when we pray in public? Is what the people around us think about our prayer more important than what God thinks about our prayer?

Back to city challenge; Why would I sit there when I could "pitch in"? Why wouldn't I use the power of prayer when its so easy to do and so powerful?

Prayer is never not worth the try. Why not use the power of prayer when you have the chance and its pretty much free? We live in a dark world, God is there to help us, and He always knows how to answer the best way with his profound power. Why not get all the help we can get?

Fault-Full

So a few weeks ago we received around 2-3 inches of snow. Surprisingly I wasn't thinking of going outside and snowboarding, but was stoked on the idea of riding bike because riding bike in the snow can be one of the most fun things to do.

As I was riding down the road planning to take a sketchy route down a closed road that had been washed out last fall. Not only is this road sketchy to ride down, but when there is snow you can't tell exactly where rocks and dips are. Either way I was a little worried about potentially hurting myself on the closed road as I was heading down the road from our driveway. I was just having fun sliding my back tire and then all of a sudden before I even got to the tough part of the road I wreaked. My front tire skidded out and I went down on my side.

Then when I was riding up to the neighbors after navigating the closed road I was thinking about wreaking and what I could learn form it. Then the thought came to me of how my imperfections or wreak should remind me that I am human. I am not perfect and I mess up.

So instead of being scared as I'm falling or being scared at the potential pain, I should embrace the fact that this is proving I'm not God and I'm a fallen creature. We should embrace the embarrassment because we are all the same, we mess up, and this should help us to see God as bigger and greater than ever before.

Profoundly change your point of view of embarrassment so that it reminds you that God is perfect and doesn't mess up. Unlike God who is fault-less we are fault-full.

116

For those of you that don't know, there is a collective group of Christian rappers called the 116 clique. This group of Christian rappers has some of the most doctrinally sound Christian music. I mean some of this stuff is better than what we sing in church. Either way the 116 stands for Romans 1:16.

Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

The 116 crew is all about being unashamed of the gospel of Christ. They are putting God at the forefront of their lyrics and have Him running the show. Are we really unashamed of the gospel? The Bible is the book full of truth, are we really into it? Sadly I know I don't know the Bible enough, use its enough, or express it enough.

116 - by Trip Lee (A member of the 116 Clique)
Look all I need is one sixteen to brag on my king
Romans 1:16
We brag about Him daily cause He runs this thing
Can I do it? Can I do it?

Do we brag on our Lord? If we are so happy because we have received this great gift of immense love and grace from God are we sharing it to the world? I can tend to be self conscience sometimes or just not the one to step out and even talk to people let alone talk to them about God. I never know what to exactly say, I'm afraid they might reject my words or even worse God. Therefore, the fear of being rejected overrules my desire to brag on my God. The thing is that if I they reject God the real truth isn't that I have failed, but that the Holy Spirit hasn't opened their heart to Him.

The stakes are high, death is life or death. When life ends either it is remade or destroyed. We should always be using the words of the Word and expressing them to all. Romans 1:16 should spur us to express our relationship with the King of Kings. Profoundly overcome your fear and tell the world about your king.

Disclaimer: Look to God not me because hopefully what I am writing on this blog is not my words.

Who Answers Prayer Anymore?

When I was at City Challenge in Ohio we did a lot of praying, and by a lot I mean a lot. Ever since then my mindset of praying greatly changed.

I know it makes me seem like a five year old saying this, but I pray for snow some days. If you think about it though, farmers need rain and therefore pray for rain for their crops, I need snow to snowboard and therefore I pray for snow to ride on.

Maybe God doesn't always answer my prayers for snow the way I want, but most of the time He seems to come though. God answers even the things people would say are petty. I can't think of an exact example, but lately I have prayed for some not so important things and God has answered my requests. This in and of itself is impressive and is at the same time not impressive because God says:

^{Matthew 21:22 "}If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

However, the reason why God's answer surprised me was because I looked at how many people around me were affected by His answer. Why would God answer my prayers when my desires may greatly affect others lives?

A while back I was thinking about what notes I would play for a song I'm working on producing. I remembered a song base I had made up once and the notes sounded pretty cool, but I couldn't remember any of the notes. I was kinda desperate so I prayed that God would help me to remember the notes. I picked up my guitar again and remembered the song.

Just this past Thursday I was going snowboarding, but the night before I slept in a weird position and in the morning I had some neck pain. I really didn't want a painful neck to mess up my rotations when snowboarding, so again I prayed that my neck would no longer hurt. The thing is God answered my prayer, but also didn't answer it. What I mean is He didn't answer my prayer the way I had asked, but for pretty much the whole day I never thought about my neck hurting. So in a way He did answer my prayer.

I know you know that God answers prayer, but I must point out that sometimes you don't see God's hand at work in your own life because your eyes are blind to it. To see God at work in your life sometimes you have to step back and look at our life with profound eyesight.Then you will have a glimpse of how blessed you are and how much God deserves praise.

God in the Flesh

I have noticed in two different books how they both made an emphasis on how when you become a christian you meet a person, not have some mystical experience. God the father is the one who created us, but it is His son Jesus who saved us. The Christian faith is centered all around the death of Jesus because without His death we would be without a savior. Is our Christian faith really centered around Jesus though? Maybe that is the problem, that its a faith. Meeting a person isn't faith, its a relationship. Just like in a friendship we want to meet-up and talk to our friend, do we really deep inside want to talk and meet-up with our friend and lord, Jesus?

If a total stranger came up to you and said follow me, would you follow him? The fishermen who later became His disciples did. There is something extraordinary about Jesus that comes from inside of Himself and radiates from himself. The importance of Jesus in our lives cannot be expressed enough.

Jesus is God and He died on the cross for us. For me to think about how God actually died for His 
creation is a so hard to fathom.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, "To me Jesus is my God, Jesus is my Power, Jesus is my Life, Jesus is my Love, Jesus is my All in All, Jesus is my Everything."

A Bengali Hymn - by Nirod Kumar Biswas
O Christ, the light of the way of my life, abide with me.
When I go into a dense forest I cannot find the way,
O Christ, the guide of the way of my life, show me the way.
My fellow-travelers have deserted me and darkness is all around.
O compassionate Christ, come, or else I will lose my life.
O Christ, the only help of the way of my life, hold my hand.
When the wild storm comes in the river of my life,
my oar is broken and the rudder is torn,
O Christ the boatman!... Sit and hold the oar
or else the boat will sink.
O Christ, the oarsman of the boat of my life,
hold the oar.

Does Jesus direct you life, or is your boat tossed my every passing current in the world? God will always be the same, God will always keep you directed towards the same destination because He never changes. Are you going to profoundly change your mindset and give Jesus the oar to let Him take you to His destination? We must give up ourselves, our purpose, and our soul to Jesus, to gain our life.

I just want to go there

Over the past few weeks I have been deep in thought over things that aren't what they should be. I wish I could change these things instantly, but I can't. Then I happen to think about heaven. Heaven is where everything is perfect and right. Therefore, why do these trials on earth matter at all. Do they have any meaning that should impact my eternal purpose?

Here is a line from a song by Trip Lee about living on earth and heaven called, "Take Me There".
Tell me, have you ever seen her
She's sick with a disease and it's really tryna beat her
It's takin' all her strength, she know that it can't defeat her
'Cause she gon' be with Jesus, she's more than just a dreamer
Her peace and her joy, man they really ain't gone
It's all because she knows earth really ain't home
And even when she's by herself she's really not alone
Her Savior's there with her while she singin' this song
She know sickness might get her and death might grab her
But she ain't scared of death 'cause she's trusted in the Master
Was buried but He rose up a few days after
So death may attack her but death cannot have her
So she tells her family "Don't worry anymore"
When she's gone from the body she'll be present with the Lord
Her body will be raised, so much Glory is in store
He is her reward so she sings

These lines explain just how I feel when I'm worrying about something too much. This is earth, what petty things go on here don't matter anymore when you get to heaven. A good question to ask yourself is; What has real meaning that lasts?

Here is the chorus of the song.
I just wanna go where
I'm only breathing Your air
Father, hear my prayer, take me there
Take me there
I just wanna see You
Brighter than I'm used to
Finally see You clear, take me there
Take me there, take me there

Suppose you have talked to someone for a long time over the phone or internet, but there is a barrier that keeps you from meeting, there is a barrier between you and God that at the end of your life will be broken.

I think a lot of times we can become too worldly mindseted. I want to remember that earth is just a temporary home and I'm just waiting to get to paradise and take as many people with me as I can.

Hebrews 12:2 
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

To know that someday everything will be made right, today's little problems are nothing to get worried over, and God still reigns in heaven are all very reliveing truths. There is a  profound distinction that can be made between earths activities and the activities of God.