This is a movie made by a guy I go to school with. Please watch it.
check it out here: http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4b1dfe1fd1360c05318f
Category :
Daily Devotions 
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The other day I was reading this article and I really just wanted to share some of the things the author had to say. The article was about tapping into God’s power and said that most of the time we don’t have enough faith in ourselves. The author points out that most of the times when Jesus got frustrated with his disciples were when the disciples were giving up on themselves. For example when Peter is out walking on water, he begins to sink, not because he didn’t believe in Jesus, but because he didn’t believe in himself. I think we do this a lot, sell ourselves short. I know I do.
At one point in the article the author quotes Abraham Lincoln:
If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
Later in the article the writer points out that in our society we have really defined character by the things people don’t do. Usually if a person doesn’t drink, smoke, or sleep around we will deem them a “good person.” The problem with this, the author writes, is that it limits character to passivity. Someone could live their whole life sitting in front of the TV doing nothing and if they don’t do bad things, then they are still a good person…
Character is supposed to be something that we show not through passivity in the things that we don’t do, but instead it is something that is supposed to be evident through the things that we actually do. The author writes, “You know what character is from the impact that it leaves.”
All my life I have been basically a good kid. I never got into a lot of trouble or broke a lot of rules. For the most part I did what I told and tried not to mess up, and all my life people have held it against me. For some reason people that break the rules really resent those that try to follow them. But at that time I was so concerned with what people thought about me that I would actually lie to make them believe that I wasn’t as “good” as I really was. But even then I wasn’t really accepted. And I never really felt good about myself. I knew something was missing. Looking back I see that I may have been good in passivity by not getting into trouble, but I didn’t have any real character, and people could tell.
So one day in December several years ago I decided that I wasn’t going to live a passive life anymore, just trying to get by. I realized I didn’t need the approval of anyone else, because I had the love of the creator of the universe. I then began trying to live a life worthy of my calling as a servant of the Lord. But then I ran into another problem and it’s something that I still struggle with today at times. I, like the disciples, often lose faith in God’s ability to work through me. There are times when I just feel overwhelmed like I can’t make a difference at all in the world. There are times when I just want to give up and go back to a passive life, just getting by. But as I get older and grow a little wiser, I realize that in those times of darkness, God is still God.
Today a woman in my church came to me and said, “God is God on the mountain and God is God in the valley.” She was saying that no matter how high or how low you are at any given point in your life, God is still God. He is in charge, He is in control, and He love us. He loves me. He loves you. Someone asked me how I knew that Jesus really died on the cross and rose again for me. And at first I stumbled trying to find the words. But then I realized and I told them the fact that I am who I am despite the struggles I’ve faced and the situations that I’ve been through, is a testament to the power of God’s character in my life. If you know what character is by the impact that it leaves, then Jesus’ character is evident by the redemption of my life and soul, as well as yours.
So I leave you with this, God is in control and He loves you. The world is a broken place and we all have fallen away from our true relationship with the Most High God. Jesus came to restore that relationship. He came to show us how to live in tune with God. We must remember that though we may be unworthy servants, God is our strength and we can do all things through him. And when we strive after Him, God will develop a character in us like that of His own, and we will begin to spread the fire of God’s Character. For Jesus, who has the power of God, did not live a life of passivity that made him “good.” Instead Jesus led of life of love, passion, truth, justice, mercy, peace, hope, and faith. I pray that we will all live a life with that kind of character.
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart;
he is mine forever. Psalm 73:26
Just Sayins all…
Rusty
Category :
Daily Devotions 
I just finished watching the movie August Rush and it was one of the most moving films I have ever scene. I wanted to take a second to write about how much it has to say about our walk and relationship with God, but I figured I would let the movie speak for itself… these some of the lines from the movie. they’re taken out of order, but I think it gets a point across…
August Rush: Listen, can you hear it? the music. I can hear it everywhere: in the wind, in the air, in the light. It’s all around us. All you have to do is open yourself up. All you have to do is listen…
Lyla Novacek: I’m trying to find my son.
Woman at Desk: Name?
Lyla Novacek: I don’t know.Richard Jeffries: Why is it so important that you want him now?
Lyla Novacek: I’ve ALWAYS wanted him!
Wizard: You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars.August Rush: I believe in music the way some people believe in fairy tales. But I hear it. It came from my mother and father. Once upon a time, they fell in love.
Wizard: If you could choose any name in the world. Any! What would you want to be?
Wizard: Come on, kid. Any.
August Rush: Found.August Rush: The music. I thought if I could play it, they would know I was alive. And find me
August Rush: Where I live they try to knock the music out of you. But when I’m alone it builds up within me.
Richard Jeffries: You know, a lot of kids don’t want to leave their first home, because they’re afraid that if they do, their parents won’t be able to find them. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.
August Rush: The music is all around you, all you have to do is listen.
Wizard: You got to love music more than you love food. More than life. More than yourself.
August Rush: It’s like someone’s calling out to me, only some of us can hear it.
Wizard: Only some of us are listening.
Lyla Novacek<: I know it sounds crazy, but I can hear him! I swear I can hear him!
After watching August Rush I couldn’t help but think of this video. It says everything I could want to say…
Just Sayins All…
Rusty
I have recently had the opportunity to have a great deal of spiritual conversations with a lot of people in my life. Everywhere I go I seem to encounter somebody with questions. The really great thing about all of this is that I have been able to share my faith and my walk with a lot of people. On the other side of the same coin I have really been challenged by these questions. And while I will admit that I don’t have all of the answers, I think I have been able to help give a little perspective and insight.
Through all of these conversations I have really come to appreciate this passage from the last chapter of Colossians:
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone
We are first to devote ourselves to prayer. I watched this movie the other day that was the portrayal of one of the first books I ever read for leisure. Overall the book is and was probably unsuitable for a kid in the eighth great like I was when I first read it. But in the end there really was a great message behind all of the other stuff. Anyway in the movie there is a kid who is really sold out for God. Characters in the movie begin dying off and he starts praying. At one point the other characters ask him about his praying and he replies saying something like, “In the morning I ask for help, at night I give thanks, and in between I just try to get open like a wide receiver.”
I love that and it exactly what Paul is talking about in the passage from Colossians! Paul writes that we are to be watchful and make the most of every opportunity. And thats what the character was trying to do.
What revolutionary change would it have on our lives if we could have this kind of attitude towards prayer. This character’s prayer life showed that he really believed that everyday belongs to God. At one point in the movie he quotes scripture saying that our purpose on earth is to love God and to serve God. I think that if we really have this kind of attitude that we would be constantly going to Him in prayer.
All of this has really been on my mind since I have had so many opportunities to have such great conversations recently. I have really been praying that God would open up opportunities to share His Word and love with people and now that He has, I have found that I cannot share it on my own. I need His help. Because of that I really have to go to God as often as possible. I encourage you to do the same, whether it means dropping to your knees in a back room at work or just whispering a short prayer in the car. Praying is so unbelievably beneficial to us. And with everything else it helps us to remember who is really in charge. This mindset will help us in every aspect of our lives. So as well as going to God in prayer, we are also to live lives worthy of the calling we’ve been given. Again if we believe that God has saved us from death, we will live our lives for Him.
But one of the biggest things that has occurred to me recently is the difference between witnessing and converting. Paul in the passage above says that our conversations should be full of grace. We are not supposed to cut down people or argue them into submission. We are called to make the best of every opportunity.
I was just telling one of my best friends that the best tool we have in ministry is our testimony. When we are able to tell someone how Jesus has changed our lives and how much His living Word does for us, we are then able to talk about something we have experienced, something we have lived through. To me at least, that’s a lot easier than describing the exact science of creation seeing as how I’ve only been around for twenty years.
My point is this: Jesus says the greatest commandment is to Love God and the second is Love one another. We are called to be witnesses of God’s love and grace and mercy and beauty and truth. We are not called to argue people into believing. We are called to love even our enemies, people that believe different things and come from different backgrounds. If we are to represent Christ and Christ is God and God is love then we are to LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY in every direction without any kind of reservation. And whenever we make ourselves open to God like a wide receiver then we are able to receive HIS love to give to those around us, and not our own which is only a dim reflection of God’s true love. So let us ask for help in the morning, give thanks at night and just try to get open in the middle with the hope of flooding the world with God’s love.
Just Sayins All…
Rusty
Today was one of those perfectly beautiful days. It was one of those days that I wish I had hammock so I could just lay out in the sun and sway back in forth gently rocking in that heavenly breeze. I didn’t have to work this morning so I slept in and missed most all of the day before I had to go to work. My plan was to spend a couple hours out on my porch and read in a rocking chair. I was only able to get out there for about thirty minutes, but I loved every minute of it.
I just bought the Case for Christ at half price the other day and I read some of that while I was outside. It’s a really great book and I just got past the introduction, but I was really having a hard time concentrating. I couldn’t help but just sit there and stare out at the endlessly blue sky. I noticed for the first time that we had rose bushes planted out in front of our town home on campus. They haven’t been planted very long so they haven’t really had a chance to grow or bloom since it’s so early in the year. As of right now, they’re really ugly plants. They’re mostly bare and covered in thorns.
From there my mind took off. It just made me think about thorns in the bible. The first time they’re mentioned is relatively early in the bible, in the book of Genesis. Satan has just lead Adam and Eve to fall and God is basically telling each party the consequences of their actions. He gets to Adam and He says,
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
God tells Adam that because of what he did, life is going to get a lot harder. Mankind will now face the pains of living in a fallen world. He broke that direct relationship man had with God therefore Adam and the generations after him would have to work to rebuild it, but in the end man would never be able to bridge the gap themselves. But above all, God is telling Adam, “You will now know death…” He says man will return to ground from which we came… Because of sin were all bound to death. And all of our lives would be filled with thorns until we returned back to dust.
Then I thought about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the book of Matthew it describes the moments leading up to Christ’s death. Before he is hung on the cross, a group of soldiers dresses him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and forced it onto his head. Purple was a sign of royalty and obviously so is a crown, but the soldiers only intent was to mock him. By this time Jesus had already been scourged, which means he was beaten with a multi-lashed whip with metal and bone attached at the ends. So there stood Jesus covered with a now blood soaked purple robe and a crown of thorns. Bruised and bloody this had to be one of the worst sights a person could see. But then it goes on and Jesus is stripped naked, nailed to a cross and displayed for all the world to see until he finally dies.
This whole thing reminded me of the rose bushes that were planted in front of me. Yes there is the reference to the crown of thorns which made me think of the crucifixion in the first place, but then I saw something bigger. In his death Jesus was a hideous sight. He was literally bare naked beaten ugly, and anyone that claimed to associate with him would face a similar death. At that point Jesus’ disciples only saw the thorns. They could only see the ugliness of the time and they lost hope of the beauty to come. So they all abandoned him. But as the disciples would soon find out, there is more to the story. Jesus did die, but three days later he triumphantly rose from the grave. Whenever he presented himself to the disciples they didn’t recognize him at first. There was something different about the risen Jesus, but eventually they saw him for who he was. They even saw the marks of the nails in his hands and the spear in his side. You could say he still had the marks of the thorns, the scars of death, but there he stood alive as ever.
Here was what I realized. In his life and death Jesus was a lot like the rose bush planted out front of my town house. He was bare and poor, his life wasn’t very attractive. Those that got close to him often felt the prick of the thorns, the pains of life. But in his resurrection something changed; he bloomed and it was beautiful. He conquered death and brought forth life. He was no longer bare and ugly. With his resurrection he became a beautiful rose, the fragrance of which the world will never forget.
There are going to be times when all we can see are the thorns in our lives. There are going to be times of pain and hurting, but we can’t give up hope. Jesus died that we all might live. Though one day our bodies will in fact return to the dust, we have hope that God has given us a new life through His Son, Jesus Christ. I pray that we will all be able to see the beyond the thorns and look to the roses in our lives. It’s just a little while longer until spring, when everything will be in bloom.
Just Sayins All…
Rusty
Truly one of the greatest joys that I have found in my short 20 years of life is that of meeting new people. Ever since I was really young I have loved making new friends. I have come to realize that every person in the entire history of the world has a unique story, everybody is on their own adventure, and every single person has a different perspective in the universe around us. And honestly, this is the single biggest reason why I love my job so much.
I work as a barista at a coffee shop just south of downtown Dallas located on the basement level of a prominent loft building. Because most of our customers live in the building we have a really diverse customer base. There are all kinds of artists such as painters, jewlrey makers, and musicians as well as personal trainers, accountants, teachers, ect. There is practically every profession imaginable represented and each person comes from a very unique walk of life.
Now there have been several different times that I really wanted to quit this job. I had gone as far as to talk to people really close to me about quitting and had the support that I needed, but for some reason in every situation I just couldn’t bring myself to quit. Now as time continues to go by I really have begun to realize that the reason I can’t leave is because I love my customers so much. I have really developed some good friendships with a lot of the people in the building and I really would hate to lose touch with them. There are a lot of days whenever I don’t want to wake up and get out of bed, but do simply because I am excited about seeing my customers.
There have now been a good number of times when I have really been able to have some fairly serious talks with customers about their lives and the things they’re going through. I have even had a couple of people ask me to pray for them. I cannot tell you how honoring it is to have someone you barley know come to you and ask for prayer. In both situations as soon as they left the shop I went into the back and fell to my knees and prayed for them. Now let me clarify, I’m simply saying this to describe the depth of some of the relationships I am building.
I really couldn’t understand why these people would come with their issues to some kid serving coffee. But then I realized that it just showed how much they were reaching out into the world for something, for someone, for God. Since then, there has been another customer that I have gotten close to in the past couple of weeks. He has come in pretty much everyday I have worked and we have never really talked, but then the other day we just struck up a conversation. I found out that he was a Christians and that he was really struggling with a couple of different things. Before he left that day I told him that I would be praying for him. When I said this he seemed surprised but then very genuinely thanked me.
My point in all of that is this: we should be excited about the relationships we have in life. Honestly I really believe that life is the culmination of relationships that we develop throughout our time on earth. God created Adam to have a relationship with Him and then He created Eve that Adam might develop a relationship with her through his relationship with God. Our relationships with other people are to mirror that of our relationship with God and until we get our relationship with God on track, we will never be able to really handle our relationships with each other. And it is through our relationships with people that we are to show people God’s love.
Jesus in the book of John is talking to his disciples and says,
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
Jesus was speaking in a time when legalism was practically everywhere when it came to faith and religion. The people’s faith had diminished to simply keeping a list of rules and Jesus was trying to tell them that it was really supposed to be about so much more than that. It isn’t just about not doing bad things or always doing good things. Jesus was saying that we all have been called to love unconditionally because that’s how God loves us.
1 Corinthians 13 describes God’s love for us. It goes through and lists all of these amazing qualities of God’s love that the writer, Paul, knows to be true. But he goes on several verses later and says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” What he is saying is that we only see parts of God’s amazing love acted out by all of us in the world. None of us can portray the kind of love he describes all of the time. He isn’t saying that we shouldn’t try, but simply that we are still living in a fallen world and because of that we cannot fully show this love. But he does see hope. Paul writes that one day we will know this love fully because God showed us this kind of love through His Son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” I pray that we all will begin to appreciate the relationships that we have in our lives and realize that it is through these relationships that we are to shower the world with God’s love. God loved us so in return we keep his command and love one another to show Him our love. As confusing as it all is the point is this: Love unconditionally without restraint or reservation in every direction without end.
Just Sayins All…
Rusty
When I was in high school I took a lot of art classes. Honestly I think that a lot of the reason was that it was pretty much the only way to stay out of choir or band. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed it and think that I learned a lot about myself in all of those art classes, not to mention the fact that I really grew to love my art teacher. I was thinking about that art class and a particular project we were assigned. Everyone who entered into Advanced Art had to keep an art journal. We took a book decorated and designed the cover then we were supposed to turn the pages into mini-art projects. For those who stayed in art beyond that were expected to continue the book throughout their high school career. I still have my book. It’s a decent attempt that got me a decent grade, but in the end I really just wasn’t very motivated about the project as a whole (I was very distracted during high school and I’m pretty sure I missed the whole point of the experience).
So I was having my quiet time today just sitting next a stream that is right outside where I live, and all of a sudden I started thinking about this journal. It has been nearly three years since I worked on that little spray-painted book and it just popped into my head. As I thought about it I realized that it was actually a really great project. We had free range to do whatever we wanted to this book and make it our own. We could pour our heart, our mind, and our soul into it, with complete access to pretty much any kind of art supply you could ever imagine. We had a small opportunity to create something that honestly reflected our “true self,” who we really are. I wish someone would have explained it to me that way whenever I was in high school (I don’t know if it made much difference, but still it might have helped).
After all of that I firmly decided to buy a new book and go to hobby lobby and buy a bunch of materials to make a new journal. How great would it be to have something to pour myself into like that? I mean how good would it feel to be able to look at something I have created that is a true expression of myself? But then again there were a couple of reasons I decided against it. I remember how frustrating it was even when I was excited about it. I would get a great idea for one of the entries, I would spend all week trying to perfect it. But no matter what I did, whatever ended up on the page was never what I wanted it to be and looked very little like what I had in mind.
I wonder if that’s how God feels about us sometimes… He spent so much time perfecting us, creating us in His image, only for us to end up completely different from what He had intended… I can just imagine Him looking at where I mess up saying, “this isn’t anything like what I wanted.” I look around at the world and I just know deep down that mankind was intended to be better than it is. Life was meant to be better than it is. I see loving families destroyed by divorce, I see great friendships lost over poor communication, and I see lives full of potential wasted away all because sin entered the world and somewhere along the line we lost sight of our heavenly Father. It isn’t supposed to be that way.Though you as a reader may not have experienced these particular things in your life, I know that there are pains and struggles in your life. Let me tell you, it was supposed to be better than this. More importantly, it can be better that this.
Because we live in a broken world where there is trouble and pain, our lives can never reach that “as good as it’s gonna get” point. We’re always going to have problems and we’re always going to mess up and make bad desicions in our lives, but despite that there is hope for improvement. Sin truly is an attitude of the heart that says, “I am the lord of my life.” The problem with each of us is that we turn away from God. We refuse to look at God and take what He has to offer us, life and freedom. And it is whenever we go our own way that things go wrong, that we are hurt and move a little further away from how God intended us to be. God’s heart breaks at the fact that each of us hurts and gets lost. This is why He sent His Son. Jesus came and lived as a man to show us the way to God. He came to show the broken world that their Heavenly Father was reaching out to them, that He isn’t a distant being, and that He loves them. This is how we grow closer to God. If we follow Jesus in his teachings and model ourselves after his life, we start growing closer to how God intended us to be. Our sins marred the beautiful creation of God, but Jesus’ blood gives God the opportunity to mold us once again. I love this passage from 2 Corinthians 3:
Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
I don’t know if anyone has told you, so I will. God saw an opportunity in creating you. When He made you, He poured all of His being into who you were to be. He created you as a masterpiece that reflected who He truly is. You were made in the image of God. And maybe now when you look at yourself and your life you don’t see that, but it is true. The world is messed up and we are messed up, but there is always hope. We must simply turn our face back to God’s and welcome Him as our Father. If we allow Him, He will come into our lives and bring us back to where we belong. There will still be troubles and there will still be times when we hurt, but how much better will it be when we can run into the arms of the creator of the universe? Jesus is the only way to our Father. He is life.
I pray that we would all be able to see God’s original intention for our lives and that we would all turn back to Him for life. May all of our faces shine with the brightness of God, that the whole world would see the light of God. Then maybe the world would slowly become the original masterpiece God created it to be.
Just Sayins All…
Rusty
For the last month or two I have kept coming back to a certain passage in almost every one of my quiet times. There have been a lot of times when I have felt lost or alone and this passage has really comforted me. I haven’t written on here for a good while and it has led to a great deal of frustration on my part. Every time that I sat down to actually write I would seem to be at a loss for words or ideas or inspiration. However, now, I have finally found something to write about. And maybe I’m being a little presumptuous but I really think that God kept pointing me back to this to learn a lesson before I moved on to other things. The passage is Deuteronomy 4:29-31. Prior to this particular passage Moses is talking to God’s people and telling them that there are going to be times when they find themselves scattered. Basically he says that the choices that you make have consequences both good and bad and that if you make bad choices you will find yourself facing the repercussions those choices. But then he says in verses 29-31:
But if from there you will seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.
The covenant that is referenced here is the promise that God made to his people that he would deliver them from slavery. God tells them that He will take them as His people and He will be their God and they will know that He is the Lord. This is the promise that Moses reminds the people of in Deuteronomy and the promise of which I am reminding you of today.
Now you may think that God’s promise to deliver us from slavery is a little pointless since, if you are reading this, chances are you are a free man (or woman). But we were all slaves at one time. Recently someone told me that sin, is less about the things that we do wrong against God, and more about an attitude of the heart that says, “I am the lord of my life.” At one time we have all fallen into the slavery of this mindset, this infection of the heart. God loves us enough to let us make our own choices, to make the choice to reject Him or run into His arms. That is why this passage means to much to me. Moses is telling the people that after you have messed up, made bad decisions, and gone your own way, there is still hope! And all of this comes right before he delivers the ten commandments to the people. He knows that the people are going to mess up, that they are going to reject these commandments and disobey them at times. He’s trying to tell them that when that happens, it’ll still be okay! But still the people misunderstood the ten commandments, seeing them as the way to lead a “good or perfect” life. However, the commandments were meant to show the people their need for God and His mercy. None of them awee able to keep all of the commandments but God promised the people that if they messed up or strayed away He would welcome them back into His arms. This promise that God has kept to us as well!
It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, where you’ve been, what you are struggling with, this passage is for you. There is hope. It is saying that if you are ready to give it all up for God and truly search for Him, you will find him. You can never do anything that would make God turn his back on you and forget about you. God really is a merciful God and He has delivered you from slavery. Wherever you are in your life, you can still choose to give it back to Him. God saved us by coming to earth and living a humble life along side of us. He died in our place, in behalf of our sins, and gave himself wholly for us. God deserves our worship simply because He is God, because He created the world and all things in it. He deserves our love, because He loved us first. Jesus is the complete manifestation of that love. His life, death, and resurrection are the essence of God’s redeeming love for each and everyone of us in this world.
And this is why they call it the Gospel. The word Gospel means Good News, and this message of God’s love is Good News for us all. That is why I will boldly proclaim Jesus as my Lord. It is why I have given my life to His service. And this is why as Christians we are all called to give our lives to Him, to serve Him in everything! This doesn’t mean that you must go into a ministerial position, rather that everything you do, whether its a career as a garbage man or a musician on the street, it should all be to the glory of God. This means doing everything you do to the best of your God-given ability. It means appreciating everything that God has given you and thanking Him in every situation either good or bad.
In the book of Mark in the Bible, there is a passage where Jesus is questioned by one of the teachers of the law. This Jewish rabbi asks Jesus which of all the commandments is the most important one. By this time the ten commandments had been added to so many times by the people that there were now hundreds of rules and laws that the Jewish people were required to follow. This rabbi seems to have recognized the problem of Jewish legalism and also recognized the authority with which Jesus was teaching. So he poses his question to Jesus. Jesus responds by quoting a passage from the Old Testament, which the rabbi would have been known by heart. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The rabbi knew what Jesus said was true and proclaimed it as so. He knew that in the end it didn’t come down to following all of the rules and rituals, rather that God wanted us to give our lives to Him. He knew that God desires us to make Him Lord of our lives, to give it all back to Him. Jesus then told the rabbi, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
The passage that Jesus references comes from Deuteronomy 6. Right after Moses delivers the Ten Commandments he gives the people what Jesus would later call the greatest of all the commandments. But then Moses continues saying:
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
These things are to be on our hearts every day of our lives. He isn’t commanding us to constantly talk about the Bible or yell scripture at those around us at all hours of the day. What he is saying is that if we are truly loving God with all of our hearts, souls, and strength then these commandments will be important to us. Not because we believe that we can earn God’s love, but in response to the amazing love that He has already shown us, and continues to show us everyday despite our shortcomings. This message means we have life! We should want to share it with everyone we meet. It shouldn’t be something we forget after the initial excitement, rather something we cherish, proclaim and uphold for the rest of our days!
So this is my prayer for me and you. I pray that we will realize that God loves us no matter what and that it is never too late to turn back to Him. I pray that we will realize that God will not abandon us, destroy us, or forget us. The world around us would have us believe that there is no hope. Perhaps you have been abandoned or hurt or forgotten at one time or another. Maybe you have a hard time trusting. Regardless, God loves you and will protect you and give you peace. I have always had a huge fear of abandonment, but I now find refuge in God. I pray we would overcome the ways of this world and give our lives to God. Because anyone who truly looks for God with their heart and soul will surely find Him. I pray that we would all find ourselves not far from the Kingdom of God.
Just Sayins All…
Rusty
No matter how hard we try we cannot avoid being hurt in this world. This place is dirty, its mean, and it doesn’t care one bit what happens to us. There are times whenever things just seem like they couldn’t be any worse, and then something else goes wrong. I’ve been there and know what it’s like. This is my encouragement to you. Do not give up hope. Do not let go of your dreams. You will get knocked down and beat up, but you cannot, you MUST not let it stop you from living your life. Whatever you are dealing with, whatever pain, or depression, or temptation that you might have in your life, it is nothing compared to God. And just as importantly, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Never let the world and the evil in it convince you that you are alone. I am here to say, I live in this world too and I hurt too. And if there is no encouragement in that, I remind you that the God of the universe chose to come down and live in this broken, shattering, pain-filled world just to be near us. He was kind and loving to everyone that he met. When he acted in anger, it was out of love, as a parent should love a child. And for his love, this world rejected him, cast him aside, beat him, spit upon him, and brutally murdered him. But that’s not the end of the story. Despite all of the evil in this world he rose again….
He proved that love is stronger than hate. He proved that justice always prevails. And with all his heart he proved that there was hope. THERE IS HOPE. God let us cling to that hope with every fiber of our being. Our hope is God’s love. Our strength is His joy.
Whatever you are dealing with, God will prevail. Have hope. It is yours.
Just Sayins All…
The saying “too much to do and not enough time” has become more than a familiar phrase to many of us. A lot of times it becomes our life motto. I don’t think the world was always so concerned with trying to fit so many trivial things into each day.
I spent thanksgiving with my grandparents and at one point they were showing me pictures of their families when they were children. In the pictures I saw my great grandparents when they were still just young adults. Both my grandmother and grandfather’s parents came from rural east texas and south louisiana, and lived meager lives farming and the like. I don’t think they ever really worried about such unimportant things as we do today. For them the length of their days was ruled by the rising and the setting of the sun. They didn’t have any electricity till later on in life, so they didn’t stay up much past dark, and got up with first light. By no means did they have an easy life. A great deal of their well being depended on the crops of that season. Their work was nearly all heavy manual labor, working in the barn or in the fields. They worked long hard days and they were faced with a great deal of burdens and struggles, but I don’t think they worried about making time for the hitting the gym, the big game, or a round of golf. The determining factor of whether their days were good or bad was usually whether they got the work done for that day or not. The good and bad of our days are based on whether we get our triple shot non-fat sugar-free hazelnut latte or not.
I bring this up simply because I have spent the last couple of things worrying about trivial things that really aren’t going to make a difference in how things end up in my life. God is comepletely in control of every little thing in our lives, both big and small. I think that we often believe that we can handle a few of these little worries in lives all on our own. And I think at times we can do and handle everything. But I also think that these little worries and trivial matters have a tendency to build up and overwhelm us. I think that it’s important that we remember to give God everything.
We all need reminders from time to time about what is important in this life. When Jesus was with his disciples, he was always trying to correct their mindset. They were always concerned with these unimportant things that didn’t really make a difference one way or another. He was always trying to get them to recognize that which was right before them… him. He was trying to make them realize HE was what was important. We like them must remember what is important.
Even in our spiritual life, we get caught up in the trivial things, forgetting what is really important. As one the great mentors I have ever had once said, “It’s all about Jesus. It’s a shame that you don’t see that yet.” These words have been an encouragement to me ever since then. Why? Because none of us truly see that yet. We all fall away and forget at times. Yet, one day will all see it, regardless of where our focus. One day every knee will bow… I can’t wait. It’s going to be brilliant.
So let us work towards recognizing the important things in life. And may focus be solely on Christ.
Just Sayins All…
Rusty
