We're allowed to sin?

Looking at the title of this post might see to be a little contradicting right? We're allowed to sin? That doesn't make any sense at all. While I was reading the scripture I am going to share with you, I thought of a question that I never have before.

If we know better, and God knows better and is in charge of our lives, why do we still continue to sin? You would think that God would want to keep us from sinning right? You would think that, but it's not necessarily true. 

For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, 

"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,

what will become of the ungodly sinner?" (1 Peter 4:1

These two verses don't refer to the final judgment, but God's refining discipline. God often allows believers to sin and then experience the consequences. He does it for several reasons: (1) to show us our potential for sinning, (2) to encourage us to turn from sin and more constantly depend on him, (3) to prepare us to face other, even stronger temptations in the future, and (4) to help us stay faithful and keep on trusting him. If believers need earthly discipline from God, how much more will unbelievers receive it? If it is hard for the righteous to be saved what chance have those who reject Christ? 

There are reasons that God allows us to sin. That doesn't make it okay, sin is still sin. When we sin we are still disobeying God. God allows us so that we may learn our lesson. We aren't perfect and God doesn't allow us to be perfect during our time on earth. 1 Peter 4:13 says: But rejoice inasmuch as your participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 

365

I want to celebrate a little something this evening.

This post marks my 365th blog post.

When I first created this blog, my goal was to write a blog post every day of the year. I didn't accomplish the goal in a year's time, but today we made it. A year and 5 months later we have accomplished a major goal!

It's amazing how much your life can change when you are disciplined and really strive to accomplish a goal that you have set for yourself. I say that may life has changed, and it has. I don't make money, earn credibility, or win awards for the things that I write. My life has changed because I feel God's presence more than I ever have and I am able to be obedient in living out one of my spiritual gifts.

Our lives are't considered successful because of the things we do, we are successful based on how we feel. I am not successful because people read what I write, I consider my writing a success because I better my relationship with our Father in Heaven, and I am able to encourage others at the same time.

I want to challenge you to set a goal for yourself. Do something you never thought you would do. I didn't think that I would ever love to write. Not in a million years. Writing was as far off the grid for me, that I hardly ever considered it. One day, the Holy Spirit worked in my heart and today there are 365 blog posts. If you wanted you could sit down and read one of my blog post every day of the year and that is crazy to me.

Try it! Start some sort of journal. Pray. Read your bible. As a matter of fact it doesn't have to be spiritually related. Set a small goal and get started. Watch your life change. It's not easy to do something over and over again. There are days where your goal is the last thing in the world you want to do. I've come to find that the days where you don't feel like it but decided to do it anyways are the days where you are impacted the most. When you have those days, change your mindset and tell yourself "today, God has something special for me." Our mindsets control so much of our lives. Our mindset controls what we get out of things and our sense of fulfillment.

I pray that you can find something that will challenge you to grow and change your life. Let me fill you in on a little secret...it all starts when you begin to dig into the word of God. If I didn't open my bible on a consistent basis on the days leading up to the creation of this blog, I wouldn't be sitting here talking about 365 posts and a changed life. Everything starts when you dig into your bible. I promise! My goal was never even to start a blog. I was at a point in my life where I recognized that I needed God and I needed to grow. I decided that I was going to read my bible because that is what I needed to do in order to grow and look what happened...My relationship with Christ is stronger than ever before and I hope that I have been able to eecouage others through that experience.


Next goal: 500 posts

Our perception of others

What I am writing about this morning is a topic that has really been on my heart for the past couple of weeks. It seems like the older I get the more I learn that the way we perceive others is often based off of what we hear. What do I mean by that?

For example, my roommates and I watch a lot of basketball when we aren't working on homework. We love to watch as many games as we can because we all love basketball. We all have our favorite players and we all have players we can't stand to watch. The Houston Rockets seems to have a lot of games that are on either ESPN or TNT so we can easily watch them. They're a terrific basketball team with some superb players. Their point guard, Chris Paul is one of the best point guards in the league. I have always enjoyed watching him play because he does a terrific job at running the team. I have come to learn that my roommates do not like him at all. They cannot stand to watch him play and think that he is very overrated. I hear them say that over and over again, and now in my mind, I am not so found of Chris Paul. Why? Because I hear over and over again from my closest friends how they don't like him and I let their opinions change mine.

You could also think about it this way. Think about somebody that all of your friends seem to know, but you haven't actually met that person. Do you have that person in mind? If so, think about the way that your friends talk about either him or her. They probably had good things to say and not so good. You have never met this person before but with everything you have heard about him or her, you probably have formulated something in your head about what that person is like.

Way too often we have a perception of others based off other peoples experiences and not our own. Why has this topic been on my heart? I don't think that it is very fair to have a perception based off of what others think. I am writing this to encourage you to not from opinions of people based off what others say. Give everybody a chance because that is fair.

In this world, people make mistakes every day. Mistakes that we aren't proud of. Mistake that affect yourself and possibly other people. Say I make a mistake and it affects those around me. The people around me might tell others of my mistake and that may allow people to perceive me in a way that is based off of the mistake that I made and that isn't fair.

I want to encourage you to watch the way you perceive other people. Is what you're saying true? Is it necessary? It is kind? Give everybody a chance. Please don't let what others say convince you that is how he or she is.

I want to make it clear that I am not saying your friends opinions aren't valuable because they totally are. We should all value our close friends opinions. Sometimes we should value your friends opinions more than our own. I have done that before and it was been extremely helpful and beneficial in my life. I just don't ever want someone to not get a chance at something because you trusted what others said before you actually got to know that person yourself.

I hope this post was encouraging to you and maybe even convicting. What we think about others and our perception is something we experience everyday. Life isn't always fair, but that shouldn't be an excuse for us to not love others the way that God calls us to do.

Give somebody a chance today, don't let what other people say affect your thinking.

Our conduct in suffering

How do you react when you are suffering and going through something that is really hard for you? Do you shut down? Shut others out? Bring other people down with your negative attitude? Or do you take suffering like a champ, like Jesus did?

There are a countless number of stories in the bible where Jesus sets an example for how we should conduct ourselves. As believers in Christ Jesus, we should pray to have a heart like Jesus everyday.

I came across an example of conduct and behavior that Jesus showed in 1 Peter chapter 2 and I wanted to encourage you with it today so that next time you are experiencing suffering you know how to better conduct yourselves in the midst of the suffering you are going through.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

"He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth/"

When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:21-23)

When Jesus was being cursed and insulted he took it all, he never retaliated one bit. How admirable is that? Usually our instincts are to fire back and to show that you are flustered. When we do that, Satan wins that battle. One of the things I try to work on the most is to not retaliate when I am being insulted. I have gotten a lot better at it but I still fail. There are still times where it gets so bad that I show my frustration and retaliate with the words that I say. I have a desire to have a heart like Jesus so I will continue to work on this the best that I can.

Another admirable example that Christ set was to never make any threats. I can't even image what was being said to Jesus, yet he made no threats. I mean how hard would that be? Jesus trusted God's plan the entire time and understood he was going to suffer for us and he did it...he took it all.

We suffer for many reasons. Some suffering is the direct result of our own sins some happen because of our foolishness; some is the result of living in a fallen world. Peter is writing about suffering that comes as a result of doing good. Christ never sinned, and yet he suffered so that we could be set free. Jesus' suffering was part of God's plan and was intended to save us. All who follow Jesus must be prepared to suffer. Our goal should always be to face suffering as he did - with patience, calmness, and confidence that God is in control of the future.

I encourage you to really look at how you react the next time that you experience suffering. Don't retaliate, make no threats, be calm, have patience, and trust that God is in control of the future. When you begin to live like Jesus did, your life will begin to change. How you speak will change, how you act, and how you think. Remember, Jesus went through all of that suffering for YOU.

A trip down memory lane

When I think about high school, it seems like it was so long ago. It just seems so far in the past that it is something that I don't really think about a lot. I actually laugh sometimes when I think about how young and unaware of things I was, but at the time, I thought I had an idea of how life worked.

One of the best ways to engage readers is to be completely open and honest about everything and that is what I do when I write because I care about people and want to encourage and inspire.

In high school, there was a girl that I dated for about two and a half years. We had a super good relationship. We happened to live right across the field from each other so we were able to see each other quite a bit. As we grew up and both matured, we felt that it wasn't God's plan for us to continue dating. There was a time in the middle of that relationship where we broke up for a month or two. That time was extremely tough for the both of us and our families. I remember making some decisions during that month or two that weren't the greatest. I had a good relationship with her parents and her mother actually wrote me a letter encouraging me to reevaluate things and to remember that God is control of everything and is all-knowing and omnipresent. In the letter she wrote to me she had written out all of Psalm 139 for me to read.

You know how there are certain things in your life that you never forget and those things seem to be so random? Well this is one of those instances. She encouraged me to read through Psalm 139 every day. I knew that I was making the wrong decisions and understood that she probably knew what was best. So I read Psalm 139 everyday for a couple of months. Each and every time I read through there was a something new that stuck out to me. I was so encouraged by that Psalm that I got things back on the right track and that eventually led to her and I getting back together, but more importantly made me come to the realization that God needs to be the number one thing in my life.

I believe that the trip down my memory lane can be encouraging for you today. I am going to share Psalm 139 with you and I encourage you to read it everyday for the rest of the week. Maybe you are in a place in your life where you need to be reminded that God is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere present. God is with us, and his greatest gift it to allow us to know him. I pray that this Psalm can be as life changing for you as it was for me a couple of years ago.

I encourage you to really humble yourself. Don't just read this and think to yourself that everything is okay. I know that there are people out there who are struggling with lots of things. Really dig into this Psalm and recognize that we all need to really be attentive to what is be written by David. Everybody needs this. Recognizing the need for God is the first step to growth and change so I pray that the Holy Spirit works in your heart.

I have to be honest, when I read that letter from her mom and saw she wanted me to read a Psalm everyday, I thought it was a crazy idea. Then the Holy Spirit worked in my heart and I understood that reading through this Psalm was what I needed.

Psalm 139

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I can from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? 
If I got up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will die me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the septs of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; 
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand-
when I awake, I am still with you.

If only, you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is an offensive way in me, 
and lead me to the everlasting. 

Worthless riches

There is worthlessness of riches, not the worthlessness of the rich. I want you to remember that sentence throughout this entire post. If you keep that in the back of your mind, this post will make much more sense to you. 

Today's money will be worthless when Christ returns, so we should spend our time accumulating the kind of treasures that will be worthwhile in God's eternal kingdom. Money is not the problem; Christian leaders need money to live and to support their families; missionaries need money to do their work effectively. It is the love of money that leads to evil and causes some people to oppress others in order to get more. 

Have you ever seen The Day After Tomorrow? or I am Legend? If you have, I want you to think of how things were when everything went south. In The Day After Tomorrow when all of the natural disasters are happening, everything seems to be fading away. It was a scary scene to think about. If you have seen I am Legend, think about the setting of the entire movie after the first 10 minutes. There  were not any humans left in New York City, everything was abandoned and broken down. Now check out this scripture from James 5 and really pay attention to the way it was written. The way that James describes the deteriorating of riches reminds me of those two movies.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are caring out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reaches the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of the slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. (James 5:1-6)

The things of this world will waste away. We aren't going to be able to bring our phones to heaven or the laptops we use everyday to do hours of homework. All of these man made things will not last. There is so much worthlessness in riches. Sure, things like our phones are handy right now and make our lives easier but those things won't remain forever. We need money to live, yes. We need money to do the things we want to do, but the materialistic items that we usually use your money on aren't eternally valuable. 

This past Thursday I spent the day at The Mall of America with my parents up in Minnesota. That is the largest mall in the entire country and any store that you could ever think of is in that mall. Any store, restaurant, etc. Everything you could ever want you could buy in that mall. Each person I told that I was there asked me the same thing..."did you buy anything?" Surprisingly no. I spent an entire day shopping and didn't buy one thing. Now I kept wondering why I couldn't find anything that I needed or wanted. My parents kept asking me to. It seems like they were amazed that I didn't buy one thing. I thought long and hard about this. I don't think I needed anything because I was so fulfilled by the time that I was able to spend with my parents. I was also fulfilled when we got to sit down and enjoy meals together. I hadn't spend that much time with my parents in a couple of months and I believe that is what I needed. The time spent with them was more valuable than anything that I could've bought at the mall. 

Now where did I share that story? To be honest I am not really sure. I think I shared it to show that there is worthlessness in riches. I was fulfilled because of the love I have for my parents and the time I got to spend with them. Not by anything that I could've gotten at the mall. I also want to say that I am not trying to make it sound bad if you buy things when you go shopping. You can buy all that you want! There are things that we need and things that we want. We just cannot develop a love for money. 

Do you wonder how you can spend your money? Money can buy happiness, but only if used to do things as opposed to simply have things. I recently began reading the book titled The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor. While I was reading it the other day I came across a section of the book about spending money and it relates perfectly to this post. 

Shawn Achor writes... "in his book Luxury Fever, Robert Frank explains that while the positive feelings we get from material objects are frustratingly feeling, spending money on experiences, especially ones with other people, produce positive emotions that are both meaningful and more lasting. For instance, when researches interviewed more than 150 people about their recent purchases, they found that money spend on activities-such as concerts and group dinners out-brought far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches."

also...

"Spending money on other people, called "prosocial spending," also boosts happiness. In one experiment, 46 students were given $20 to spend. The ones who were told to spend money on others (for instance, by treating a friend to lunch, buying a toy for a younger sister, or donating to charity) were happier at the end of the day than the ones who had been instructed to spend money on themselves."

As you can see from The Happiness Advantage, there are two great ways in which you can spend your money on things that have wroth. That is experiences and other people. Let that be encouragement to you. There is worthlessness of riches, not a worthlessness of the rich. 

Drawing near

I just want to say that I am so happy to be able to sit down tonight, write a blog post and hope that it can be of some encouragement to you. I don't remember a time in recent memory where I didn't write a post for an entire week. This past week we competed in the NAIA National Basketball Tournament in Sioux Falls, South Dakota so I wanted to give everything I had to the last week of basketball that I was ever going to play. It was hard to take a break from writing, but I believe God used that break to recharge my heart and mind. I plan on writing a post this week about my basketball career if I have the time. I don't know if that is something you might look forward to, but if so, sweet!

I started right where I left off in the book of James this morning and came across the perfect scripture I want to encourage you with tonight. This post will be about complete submission to God and drawing near to him.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:7-10)

For me, one of the things I think about when drawing near to God is giving everything you have to him. Especially everything that you feel. There is nothing more powerful when you humble yourself before the Lord and are able to recognize that you NEED God and without him are nothing. You can't have any fear in doing that. You can't worry about what others might think of you, you can't worry about what others might say about you. There is just nothing to worry about. When we recognize that without God we are nothing, there is so much power in that. We can't put on this front that we are too cool. We can't hide our mourning with joy, we can't hide our tears with smiles. It's easy to tell when people are faking it, imagine how easy it is for God.

So how can you draw near to God? James gives us five ways that we can do so.

1. Submit...to God. 

Yield to his authority and will, commit your life to him and his control, and be willing to follow him. It all starts with you. Are you willing to commit you life to him? You have to be willing to follow him.

2. Resist the devil

Don't allow Satan to entice you and tempt you. Stand strong against Satan. Remember that God already defeated Satan. That battle has already been won. When you remember that, it makes you that much harder to beat. With the Holy Spirit in you, nothing is impossible.

3. Wash your hands...and purify your hearts (that is, lead a pure life)

Be cleansed from sin, replacing your desire to sin with your desire to experience God's purity. God's purity is an amazing thing. When you desire to experience God's purity, everything about you will feel so much better. There is power within a desire for purity.

4. Grieve, mourn and wail in sincere sorrow for your sins

Don't be afraid to express deep heartfelt sorrow for what you have done. We sin on a daily basis. There are probably things you have done in your life that you feel horrible about and it is okay to feel that way. In fact, you should feel that way. When we grieve and mourn because of our sins, that is when we experience God's love for us. That is when we experience true forgiveness and aren't just taking advantage of it.

5. Humble yourselves before the Lord

...and he will lift you up. You need God, and I need God. We all do more than anything. Recognize that without him we are northing. Let God know that you need him to come into your life and that he reigns over all.