Faithful Fridays ~ Boldly I Approach.

Hi, everyone, and Happy Friday!  :)  What are you guys up to this week?  My little cousin is on spring break, so she's visiting with us.  :)




Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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He struggled under the pain that threatened to make his knees buckle under.  But he couldn't fall under the weight; no, he had something to fight for.  His love was too much, too important, to give up and give in.  He would fight for her. 
He looked up, sweat rolling down his forehead and stinging his eyes, to see a whole mass crowd of people jeering at him, calling out his name, mocking him in every way they knew how.  They had stripped him of everything; dignity, self-defense, pride, even most of the clothes on his back.  A little voice inside him whispered, "Give up.  It's not worth it."  He was human, after all.  But a greater will within him cried out, "No!  She is worth it!"  
His love was unbreakable.  
Then the remainder of those clothes were ripped to shreds as they led him off and began to beat him.  Mercilessly.  He stood the pain as long as he could, until he collapsed on the ground, but they didn't stop there.  He could barely see anything, barely make anything out.  There was just the pain, on the outside and the inside.  Part of him felt as if God Himself had forsaken him.  He had never before in his life felt so lonely and abandoned into darkness.  But the blows kept coming, and he didn't feel like they'd ever stop.
But she's worth it, he still knew inside.  So he didn't completely give up.  
A rough voice ordered him up, and somehow, his love in mind, he did it.  It was the power of that love for her, the intensity of it, that drove him on.  
She had never done anything to earn or deserve his love.  She had, in fact, hurt him countless times.  She wasn't there for him now.  But he was still going to fight for her.  He would take all this pain for her, gladly, if it meant she would have life.  If she would be saved.  
He was driven out again from the dank, sullen darkness into the blindingly bright sunshine, into the crowd again.  They were yelling louder now, cursing his name and the things he had stood for.  It hurt.  But he kept on.  His mother's face flashed in and out of the crowd, pain carved deep into her eyes.  His friends were nowhere to be found.  Alone.  
Those who had him imprisoned pushed him through the crowd, letting him be spat on, kicked, hit, and abused in every way.  Things were thrown at him.  People trampled him.  He was shoved roughly past the crowd, their taunts roaring painfully in his ears, on and on down a rough path.  He didn't think he could make it; he wanted to keep pushing for his love, but so often he stumbled.  Still, they kept pushing him down the path, lonely now.  He could feel the end coming.  He was all the way outside the city now, all on his own, completely forsaken.  They cast him down on the ground, and as the last blow came to fall, his only thought was: 

She was worth it.      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That wasn't a he.  That was Him.  Jesus.  And that wasn't just a her.  That was us.  You.  Me.  That was what He took on for us--willingly, freely.  His love is unique because it isn't just like the most beautiful, deep, intense kind of love we can imagine between two lovers (although the Bible does compare it to that)--it's also the love of a mighty, majestic God, who is so over us, but who chooses to reach down to our level, scoop us up in the big arms of His tender, but strong, love, and cover us in mercy and forgiveness.  It's a sovereign King who chooses to humble Himself, even to disgrace, to love a bunch of people who didn't want Him at all at first, and who certainly don't deserve Him.   

He could've called down His angel armies to strike His oppressors and been taken off that cross.  He could've never let Himself be arrested.  He could have resisted.  He could've lived His life on earth in peaceful seclusion, never bothering to teach any of the people or heal them or call them out to life.  He could have never come at all--He could have never left His perfect joy and peace with the Father in Heaven.
But He did.  He took on the lowest form; He underwent brutality and torture and humiliation, and literally, being forsaken by God, and then death.  Simply because He loved us.  He wanted to set us free, to save us.  He wanted to give us life.  He wanted to give us power over all that ugly stuff in us and in the world. 
But don't you dare think for a moment that that was where He stopped, because it wasn't.  He not only took on death and sin and rebellion against God, past, present, and future, but He conquered it.  And because of that, we also are conquerors.  

Oh, Your resurrection power Burns like fire in my heart When waters rise, I lift my eyes unto Your throne We are more than conquerors through Christ You have overcome this world, this life We will not bow to sin or to shame We are defiant in Your name You are the fire that cannot be tamed You are the power in our veins Our Lord, our God, our Conqueror!   -More than Conquerors, Rend Collective
   Never underestimate Jesus' love for you and what it means to you.  Ever.  Because if it was strong enough to take on the worst kind of pain, inside and out, and being forsaken by God--and not only that, but to conquer sin and death and pain, then it's strong enough to get you through anything.  Because we didn't do a single thing to deserve that kind of love, or earn it.  That wouldn't even be possible, no matter how hard we tried.  His love is amazing because we didn't deserve it, and yet it's so great and intensive and passionate for us.  

"This is the kind of love we are talking about--not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God." -1 John 4:10

"Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!"

-Romans 5:6-11

Because of this, we can come to God with anything--our anger toward others and even toward Him, our deepest disappointments, our hardest failures, our heaviest and darkest doubts, our sins, our wrestling, our questions--and He won't hold any of it against us.  

"So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.  There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

-Hebrews 4:16

We can boldly approach the throne of God with anything and everything, at any time in our lives, no matter what condition we're in, because He already paid the price.  We can come broken, with doubts, and failures, and wrestling.  We can receive mercy, and grace, to help us when we need it the most.  Thank you, Jesus.  
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God bless you guys and have a great weekend!  :) Joy :)

Faithful Fridays ~ Being Real with God.

Hi, everyone!  :)  Happy Friday again!  Hope you guys had a great Valentine's Day and a great week.  :)



Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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Sometimes, I think we're not real with God.  We're not completely truthful.  I think that since we don't see God, we think we can put up a mask and hide away some of our hurts and struggles and desires from Him.  And really, that's sort of stupid, because He knows us better than we know ourselves--He made us, He sustains us, He lives inside us, and He knows our heart and our deepest thoughts and feelings and desires.  

"The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out.  But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind.  I get to the heart of the human.  I get to the root of things.  I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be." -Jeremiah 17:9:-10

But that's not a reason to be afraid, because He loves us, anyway.  The point is, we can't hide anything from God.  Period.  Not our doubts, not our struggles, not our failures, not our seemingly silly dreams, not our secret motives, or desires, or anything.  And it tends to make us distant from God when we do try to hide things.  
I'm kind of guilty of seeking a "good feeling" from God, instead of just God.  Feelings don't last.  And feelings may be real, but they aren't always true.  God is.  He's steady, and He's the only stable, unchanging thing in our lives, even if we don't feel that that's so.  So why do we sometimes end up treating Him like a vending machine, something that we sometimes have to kick to get what we want?  We don't need to let our desires, which are sometimes not good desires, become an underlying motive for coming to God.  Because, first of all, God says:
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." -Matthew 7:7
"Don't bargain with God.  Be direct.  Ask for what you need.  This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in.  If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate?  If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider?  As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing--you're at least decent to your own children.  And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?" -Luke 11:10-13

God is not our enemy.  We don't have to sneak around and slyly try to get something from Him.  All we need is Him alone, and He promises to meet with us anytime we come to Him for His love and peace.  Jesus + nothing = everything.  All we have to do is ask, seek, and knock.  
Be real with God.
You don't have to hide your doubts and failures and struggles from God.  He already sees them, and He already knows that you struggle.  But we're free to struggle, because He paid the price for that on the cross.  The great men of God, like David, Peter, and Paul, all struggled throughout their faith.  Sin, doubts, and a "thorn in the flesh" plagued them all.  But they held onto Jesus, fought to keep on God's path, and kept making movements toward Him--seeking Him.  They didn't try to hide from God.  They openly brought their brokenness and weaknesses and doubts and struggles straight to Him, laid them out in the open, and asked for help.  And do you know what God told Paul?

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." -2 Corinthians 12:9  
I'm not sure that I grasp the fullness of that, and I'm asking God to really show me what that means, but to have God's power made perfect in me?  In my weakness?  That's pretty much the best thing ever.  No wonder Paul said,

"Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen.  I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift.  It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness.  Now, I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size--abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks.  I just let Christ take over!  And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

Or in other words, he rejoiced.  He found joy in the pain and the weaknesses and the struggles and the doubts, because He was real with God.  He brought it all straight to God, openly and honestly, even if it was painful, and He learned that God was working in Him the most during these times of turmoil and battle.  That's the art of celebration, in good times and bad.  God doesn't want us to hide anything from Him.  So even if we have to share the painful, honest truth, even if it's awkward, even if it isn't good, we need to be real with Him.  Because then, He can start moving in our lives and creating something new and real in us.   
Create in me a clean, clean heart Create in me a work of art Create in me a miracle, Something real and something beautiful.   -"Create in Me," Rend Collective

In the same way, our wild, crazy, out-of-this-world dreams and desires are not stupid or small or silly to God.  He cares about those things, and He wants us to share them with Him.  So fish those things out of the depths of your heart, lay them out before God, thank Him for planting those dreams in your heart, and give them to Him so He can run with it.  :)  

Be real with God this week.  When you're faced with something, whether it be doubt, or frustration, or something that just tosses your emotions around, or worry, or irritation, stop and tell God exactly how you're feeling.  He can take it.  :)  Then give it to Him and ask Him to take it and shape it and move His power in you.  
God bless you guys, and a have a wonderful weekend!  :) Joy :)

Faithful Fridays ~ Why Should We Live for God?

Hi there, everyone!  :)  I'm a day late this week because yesterday we were gone pretty much all day.  It's been a busy weekend!  But I'm here now.  :)

How was your Thanksgiving?  I hope you had a good one.  I love how Thanksgiving brings everyone together.  We had waaaayyy too much food.  :)




Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)

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I'm the kind of person that thinks.  A lot.  About everything.  My mind goes here, there, all around, like the ball in a pinball machine.  It's hardly ever still.  One of the things I've thought about before is "Why should I live for God?"  Great Christians like Paul, Billy Graham, and Amy Carmichael talk about living for God all the time, and they do it wonderfully--it's amazing to see.  
"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." -Acts 20:24, NIV

But have you ever wondered why?   Okay, for starters, the Bible commands us to.  That's a big one, right?  Definitely.   But what I guess I never put much thought into or emphasis on is that living for God is the best thing for us.  For our well-being.  For our happiness.  Living for God matters.  It's what makes our life truly important and significant.

"Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own." -2 Corinthians 5:14-15, The Message

So, we know that God sent His Son to die for us.... "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16, NIV

...but do you realize that the reason He sent Him to die for us was, yes, to forgive our sins, but for another thing, so that we could live for Him?  So....God sacrificed His only precious, holy Son, so that we could live for Him.  Doesn't it make sense, then, to say that it matters a lot whether or not we use our lives for Jesus or not?  It's not just another path, another suggestion, to a meaningful, ideal life.  It's a sure fire way to make a difference in the world, to live a life not only with a purpose, but with an amazing, world-changing, mind-blowing purpose.  

Soooo.....not only did God send Jesus to save us from our sins and give us eternal life.....

.....He also sent Him to show us a better way to live our lives.  The best way.  
"The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.  My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." -John 10:10, NLT

God bless you guys and have a great day!  :)

Joy :)

Faithful Fridays ~ Even in the Storm.

Hi, everyone!  :)  I'm here for Faithful Fridays...a day late, because our weekend has been action-packed (I'll be back to tell more about that soon), but I'm here!  :)


Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
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I've been dealing with some stuff emotionally lately, and it's felt like a stormy kind of time in my walk with Jesus, but I've been reflecting on just how good God is, even in our storms.
"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble, He cares for those who trust in him," -Nahum 1:7
He's answered so many of my prayer requests--even just the little ones.  For instance, before we went to Disney World, we prayed that my daddy's knee problems wouldn't hold him back from being able to do things--and it didn't!  He had issues with it, but he was still able to get up and go to the parks each day. 
He made pretty much my every little dream come true when I met Peter Pan.  You guys may not understand how much that means to me.  God cares about the little things--He orchestrated it perfectly for me!  :)
I got to take part in a swing dance flash mob--something kind of big for me because a flash mob video was what got me interested in swing dancing, and I've always wanted to be part of one.  
Another thing--I'll be honest here: I tend to live in a little bit of fear of having a pancreatitis episode flare up on me any time I have something big coming up that I'm looking forward to, because that's happened before.  Last February, I went into the hospital right before my Chinese New Year performance was supposed to happen, and I wasn't able to make it.  I've had a lot of things to look forward to lately--Disney World, the Reset Movement concert, the swing dance flash mob, and going to the carnival with some friends last night.  And God has kept me well and healthy so that I could go and enjoy them all.  
And I'm really thankful that for all of that.  :)  

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28
So, my point is that I'm really thankful that God hears me and answers my little prayers even in my stormy times--and I want to acknowledge that.  And, God does care about the little things that matter deep down inside your heart.  He knows all about you, everything inside and out, every little nook and cranny of your mind.  Don't let that scare you--the awesome thing is that He loves you more than you can imagine, despite what He sees--good and bad.  And he cares about those dreams you have--big and small.  Bring them to Him!  :)
God bless you guys and have a great day!  :) Joy :)

Faithful Fridays ~ Discipline is Hard.

Helllooo there, and welcome to Faithful Fridays!  :)

Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog.  I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog.  If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post!  :)

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We go through times in life where things just go wrong.  It may look dark.  You may feel alone and angry and upset and hurt.  You may feel depressed, like it's never going to end.  You may feel like you're just walking in this time where left and right you're making mistakes and doing things wrong.  You may question why God is continuing to let these things go on, even though you're praying about it.  

And in that moment, your troubles may seem like a horrible calamity, a tragic mistake.  

But God uses these things!  You may not see it now.  But when you look back at this time a couple of years from now, you'll probably realize that this was what God used to grow you tremendously, or to grow someone else through you.  He may use this to show you what His calling for your life is.  God can use these things so much!

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

-Romans 8:28

No discipline or tough growing phase seems good at the time, but we can gain so much from it.  It usually ends up being worth it a hundred times over.  Remember that when you're going through a hard time.

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spiritsand live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees."

-Hebrews 12:9-12

God bless you guys and have a great day!  :)

Joy :)