Doubt

I had a conversation with Caroline about a year ago. It wasnt a normal conversation per say but it was fruitful for both of us. Caroline seemed to be a little down and being the nosey boyfriend that I am I pursued an answer. That is when Doubt came into the picture.

Caroline said "I don't know why but sometimes I just doubt God, I want to be as strong as people like you and Aaron but sometimes I just Doubt." That is when I responded and strongly enforced the idea that I Doubt sometimes too. This came as a surprise to Caroline, which was kind of encouraging because I guess it seems like I have it all together. (guess what I don't) Anyways We started talking about Doubt and how it can effect you. It can wear you down and tire you out.

We then started talking about why we believed in the first place and how we believed. The Verse Hebrews 11:1 came to mind and has been a big encouragement ever since I first heard it in High School.

Hebrews 11:1
Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cant see.

So if you've ever Doubted or are Doubting right now take heart in that verse. Sometimes having faith is hard but the best way to hold onto God's future promises, is to remember his past Faithfulness.

Also food for thought, before I was saved Satan never told me I wasnt saved, he never tried to make me Doubt. That only began After I got saved. Maybe its just me, maybe theres a connection there. But again just food for thought.

Great Healing

Theres something that I've been thinking about the past few days and that is about the Great Physician that is our Lord. It never really matters what I'm going through, but once I hit the brink of breaking or get (in what feels like) shattered into a million pieces I feel a peace that can only come from God.

I started thinking about the different times I've received this peace and in my mind the varying sizes of healing I'd received. And this statement occurred to me:

The more it hurts,
the bigger the wound,
the deeper the cut,
The greater the Healing.

With that in mind I relized that the more we are healed by God the more of a living testimony we become for him. Not only is God glorified IN our healing he is glorified BY our healing if we use it to relay the message of his great Love. Naturally he is glorified in our healing because he is the healer, but if we let others know of how he has healed us in our lives we glorify him by putting concrete evidence along with his message of Love.

He washed their sins away too.

So I've been faced with a few situations in the past week or two and they havent been easy and are far from over. I cant really go into specifics because that would be unfair to the other people involved but heres the gist of whats going on.

*Disclaimer* The person I describe here Isn't anyone I know but I'm sure it could be a real situation somewhere.

Lets say that I befriended a guy and for a good week he's seemed like an upright fellow (or fella as we say in Avery County) but then come to find out hes murdered someone. Now, my initial reaction is: Get away, stay away, and you live. That is bad.(not in every situation but in this one it is) My initial reaction is to go on the defensive, and protect myself which in turn I would bottle up and probably not talk to this person anymore.

At this point somebody has read and said "Thats a valid reaction you should protect yourself, and your friends by being defensive and not being vulnerable." Now let me tell you what you dont know. This man, this Murderer as society has labeled him wasnt a Christian when he killed someone. But now he is a blood bought saint of the most high God.

Does that excuse what he did and make it right? No. But does that mean we condemn him for the rest of his life? No again. While what he did may have been wrong, what he is now doing (which is trying to live a righteous life, one after God's own heart.) covers his past fault and I should look at him as God does.

The point of all this is, I know that by God's Grace I am forgiven, but I dont always remember that by that SAME Grace, so is everyone else who accepts it. I confess, sometimes I dont honor my Mom like I should. Everytime I dishonor my mother I might as well be killing someone, lying, stealing from the poor, or {Insert any sin here, try your sin because all sin is equal, even though we've developed ranks in our society}. So try to Love people through their imperfections, bad pasts, and shortcomings. It will more than likely be hard to start off with, but as time goes on I believe it will become easier and strengthen you as a person.

In Weeks to come

So I'm aware that I havent blogged in a bit. Yes my blogging has been as consistent as that of John Bishop.... which for those of you who dont know that is few and far between. But in the coming weeks I feel that there will be much blogging to be done of what I'm learning and such! So dont forget about me and check back soon!

Method to the Madness

So I've been going through Jeremiah lately and heres what kicked my butt the other day.

Jeremiah 3:11 “The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous then unfaithful Judah.”

First thing I did when I read this was take a double take. “Did I read that right?” Unfortunately I did and that was a problem because I didnt know what to make of it. How on earth could a group of faithless people (people without any faith whatsoever) be MORE Righteous than a group of Unfaithful that are at least being faithful to some extent.

I chewed that all day long and It was really kicking me hard. Then at last nights session in my track People of the Word I sat next to a preacher that was visiting with us named Collin. And at some point during Session we were asked to talk to the person next to us about how what we had learned would improve our bible studying skills. I said well I will be better about learning the context of what I am reading before I dive in and confuse myself like my reading that morning had. Then I explained to him what had stumped me and he proceeded to enlighten me about a few truths of the Old Testament.

First off in Jeremiah where I was reading he asked if I even knew why Judah and Israel split. I honestly had no idea that they were once one. He told me that after Solomon was king the kingdoms split. 19 kings in Judah and 20 kings in Israel (I may have that backwards so sorry if I do) ZERO kings in Israel were currently following God, 8 were in Judah. This explained the faithless and the unfaithful descriptions.

He went into a lot more detail with me in the short time we had but honestly it triggered something in my head. I need to have a method to how I go about reading God's Word. I cant just dive into something when I have no idea whats going on.

So in this little nugget I'm really just trying to say that you should have some knowledge of what is going on before you read or else you're lost and you wont benefit from what you are reading.

Year 2 Fin

So Im standing over my laptop with a chord in my mouth as I'm packing up my room taking a brief moment to say.... That I immensely enjoyed my 2nd year of college however it flew by. Im ready to start my internship this summer but I will miss all my Charlotte friends from School and Elevation! I Love You Guys!!

As for my Banner Elk Boys, Cant wait to see ya and lets get this summer started !

Forsaken

So I recently started reading through the book of Jeremiah. I got about 2 chapters in and started thinking and reflecting a little on chapter 2 which starts off titled Isreal Forsakes God.... Now this isnt the first time Israel has done this and it sure as heck isnt the last time they do this.... So I'm sitting here thinking

"Man those morons cant they freakin see how awesome God is? I mean come on hes sent prophet after prophet to them. delivered them from trial after trial and everything is fantastic when they are following him. Why on earth would they be so stupid as to turn their backs on him?"

Read back over that last paragraph. but modify it a little... Instead of Israelites put your name in there and read it a little more like this. Like always I'll be the example, your rereading will look a little different.

"Man Brett is a moron cant he freakin see how awesome God is? I mean come on Gods sent teacher after teacher his way to invest in him and build him up. Hes brought Brett through trial after trial and when Brett is following God life is good, its not always easy but its good and Brett is happy because doing the will of the Lord completes him. Now, Why on Earth would Brett be so Stupid as to turn his Back on God and fall back into a sin pattern or not be steady in his quiet time, or even when he goes back home this summer and after his Mom has her surgery not have a cheerful heart as he cares for her needs? Why? Gods Been so good and so faithful and still Brett puts him on the back burner sometimes. What good is that?"

I know that Jeremiah wasnt written to me or about me and that these were all faults found in the Israelites of the time, but I felt that the truths I pulled from it were to good not to blog about. I'm not trying to guilt trip anybody into going overboard with following Jesus, I'm just trying to say that if God really is this Awesome Entity we proclaim him to be (and he is) then why dont our lives constantly reflect it? and why do we continue to keep falling back into the motions of everyday life not being fueled by him?