"City on the Hill" by Casting Crowns

"City on the Hill" by Casting Crowns is a fantastic song. It reminds me of Ephesians 4:3-6 which says, "Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." 

Jiffy N' Lou Comic Strip #102

http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2005/09/jiffy-n-lou-installment-102/

       This link is to a comic strip created by homeschoolers! It explains that our call to be a light in this world should not be taken lightly; we are ambassadors for Jesus! Matthew 5:14-15 says, "You are the light of the world--like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house."

Shine for His Glory Not Our Own

       Dwight L. Moody once wrote, "Lighthouses don't fire guns or ring bells to call attention to their light; they just shine." Matthew 5:14 says that we are called to be a city on a hill. However, our goal should not be to point others to our good deeds. Rather, our deeds should point them to the one true Light, Jesus. Sometimes we do good things for selfish reasons; we often do right because we know it will bring us praise. Let's look at an example: there is one chocolate chip cookie left at your house. Every one of your family members knows that you adore chocolate chip cookies. However, there is a problem. Your brother just got home from basketball practice, and he is really hungry. Instead of grabbing the cookie for yourself, you offer it to him. That's great, right? Well, it depends. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, "People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." If you gave your brother that cookie just because you knew your parents would go on and on about how generous you are, that was just as bad as snatching that cookie for yourself. On the other hand, if you let him have the cookie because that's what Jesus would do, your kind act helped point your family to Jesus. We should not call attention to our light; if we do, we are promoting ourselves instead of Jesus.
       Matthew 6:1-5 says, "Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you."
       If you have a hard time being a light if you don't get recognition, think about Jesus. When He ate dinner with tax collectors and fishermen, there was no one telling Him how thoughtful He was. When He spent hours and hours healing people and teaching them about His Kingdom, there was no party for Him at the end of the day. Jesus died for the sins of the entire world, yet He was mocked, and they spat upon Him. He still was Light, even if people didn't treat Him right. When we act like Jesus instead of the world, we should act out of pure love for Jesus. When we serve others, we should serve out of adoration for Him. When we shine our light, we should shine with joy; not because of the praise we hope to get, but because the King of kings laid down His life for us.

Let's Get Rid of Our Sin!

God loves to teach me things when I am working in our garden. Today, our tiller would not work. Consequently, my mom, my friend, and I pulled the weeds out of our garden by hand. As we were working, God said, "I am going to tell you something in a minute." Unaware of what He could possibly tell me, I agreed. A few minutes after God said that, His promise was fulfilled. My mom said, "Let's look on the bright side. If we would have used the tiller, it would have just turned up the weeds and then let them go back where they were. Now that we are pulling them out by hand, we are doing a much more thorough job." I smiled and whispered, "Thank you, Lord." Let's take this thought about the tiller and weeds and apply it to our lives. It is so much easier to just use a tiller to get weeds out of the garden, just as it is so much easier to just apologize to God for our sins and then promptly forget about it. However, it is better to pull the weeds out by hand. We can then make sure all of the roots are pulled up and that they never grow back, and we can even get the weeds on the edges of the garden (We have a fence around which they like to grow.) We can do the same thing with our sin. Yes, it is hard to get rid of each sin individually, but it is so worth it. After we pull out our sin (pride, selfishness, self-pity, etc.), we may enjoy the fruits of our labor (gentleness, peace, joy, and many more!). However, those weeds of sin keep coming back. Since their primary goal is to attack our fruit, we must continue to get rid of them. Until the day our Lord Jesus comes back for us, we must keep pulling the weeds of sin from our life. Only we do not have to do this alone. He longs to pour His strength, mercy, faithfulness, and love onto His children. He delights in standing by our side and helping us pull up our sin.

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil." (Ephesians 4:22-27)

 "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

I realize that getting rid of our sin is way harder than just telling God our sins and then forgetting. However, our fruits of the Spirit will grow much more abundantly and beautifully if our life is not overgrown with sin. As you go about your week, I encourage you to ask God to show you the areas of sin in your life. Then, with His tremendous strength and wisdom, start removing those areas! Our Lord promises that, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:17-18) Let us be separate from this world!

When God says, "Love."

A few nights ago, I was really upset with my family. I knew that I was not behaving the way Jesus wanted me to, but I just felt hopeless, like I did not have the strength to do what He wanted me to do. I was talking to Him and telling Him that it was no use to try to be nice because I was too tired, but He just said, "Love." I was silent for a minute. "What do You mean, Lord?" I said, even though I thought I knew the answer. "Just love them," He replied. So I began with my mom. "She has sacrificed so much to homeschool me. And she helps me take care of all of my pets. And I can talk to her about anything and trust her with everything." I was beginning to feel better already. Now for my brother. "He is my best friend. He is hilarious and can make me laugh even when I am so mad at him. He is so kind to other people and can make friends really easily." I stopped. I was in awe; I was not really mad any more! Still, I wanted to continue. This time, however, I began to pray for people I knew who did not know Jesus as their Savior. I completely forgot what I was so upset about; it was amazing. Now that I look back on it, I have a pretty good idea what the world would have told me to do. "You are mad at your family? Well, you just stay mad at them until they apologize. You don't need to be nice to them or even think nice thoughts about them." Not surprisingly, Jesus told me to do the exact opposite of what the world tells me.

The world says, "Hate." God says, "Love."

The world says, "Put you first." God says, "Put others first."

The world says, "Seek money and fame." God says, "Seek Me."

The world says, "Get revenge on your enemies." God says, "Turn the other cheek and love them."

The list goes on and on. Most of the time, what God tells us doesn't make sense to us. In our minds, it's not rational. Let's take His command: Love your enemies. It's easy for us (me included!) to talk ourselves out of obeying God. "Okay God. I know You said love your enemies, but what good does that do? Nobody else is loving their enemies! You don't want me to be an outcast, do You?" I can just see Him smiling and shaking His head. He doesn't want us to fit in with the world.

"But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The LORD will hear when I call to Him." (Psalm 4:3)

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:18-19)

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)

Jesus is instructing us to be different from the world. He knows very well that it will be hard and difficult, but His way is always best. Also, since our Lord was/is wholly different from the world, and we are His followers, shouldn't we be different, too?

Are We Hiding?

On the day between Good Friday and Easter I would like to discuss something that probably not many people have been thinking about. The disciples. When I was younger, I used to think the disciples were smarter and braver than the average person. (I guess I was forgetting that most of them fished for a living before Jesus found them. Or that they were constantly being corrected and disciplined by Jesus for something they blurted out. Or that they ran for their lives when the soldiers arrested their Lord and then hid and locked the doors.) This year, Jesus really opened my eyes to see that His disciples were just like me: broken and sinful and in desperate need of a Savior. Let's take a look at what they were doing when Jesus rose from the dead: "Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." You might be thinking, "Wait, wasn't Peter the one that promised he would rather die than desert his Lord? Weren't they the people Jesus had called to be His followers, His disciples? What are they doing with the doors shut? They should be outside telling everyone they met, "Jesus, the Lord, has been crucified. But He will rise from the dead! Just wait, it will happen!'" We probably ask that question alot: what were they thinking? But let's remember they were human. They were just as sinful as us. Now, let's look at ourselves for a minute. Are we hiding behind locked doors? Let me just throw this thought out here: When Jesus was performing miracles and raising people from the dead and coming into Jerusalem on a donkey, the disciples were all about it. They had no problem telling people they were Jesus' followers. But remember what happened when Jesus was arrested? They ran......was Jesus any less powerful when He was arrested? Did Jesus somehow lose all of His glory and authority and strength when He was dying on the cross? Of course not! He was taking mankind's sin on His shoulders. If that isn't strength, I don't know what is! Why then were the disciples not shouting, "That's my Savior! He is defeating sin! One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord!" (Philippians 2:10-11) I think it is because in their human eyes, Jesus wasn't doing what they expected. Are we hiding behind locked doors? I know very well that sin is rampant today. But is God any less powerful? No! Our Lord Jesus is just as powerful today as when He defeated sin and death that Easter Sunday! As we prepare for the glorious celebration of our Savior's resurrection, let us take a look at ourselves: are we hiding behind locked doors?

Eric Ludy - Asking the Tough Questions

Who gets the credit?

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness." (Psalm 115:1) How often do we help someone or try to hold ourselves back from sin in order to look good? Maybe it's to look good in front of others, to make us feel better about ourselves, or to impress God. More often than not it's about looking good rather than serving Jesus whole-heartedly. I saw a quote that said, "Even though you do the right thing, do you do it in the right way?" (Found in Footprints by Margaret Fishback Powers) Do you serve others out of your love for Jesus, or to get attention?Many of us have heard Colossians 3:23-24, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." You could skim that quote and verse and say, "Aw that was sweet." But I challenged you to study them. Let me ask you this question: How would you live your life if Jesus were standing by you? Would you say, "I want all the attention! I want to be recognized!" Or would you give it all to Jesus? We sometimes forget that whatever we do, it is God working through us. Philippians 4:13 reminds us that, "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." It doesn't say, "I can do everything, and Jesus just helps me sometimes when I'm tired." No! It says through Him who gives me strength. If Jesus is the very reason we sometimes can not sin and do good, then shouldn't He get all the credit?

Serving Him with Love

"If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boat about it; but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) During the past few weeks, Jesus and I have been working on my heart. I am good at doing good things, but am I doing them for the right reason? I had a post on that topic a few days ago; God has really put it on my heart to make sure I am serving Him with love, not just obediance. Many times we feel like we have to earn God's approval. Maybe you think He will love you more, or at least be happier with you. The truth is God will never love you more or less than He does at this very second. Romans 3:23 reminds us that, "For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard." Every single one of us has failed to meet God's expectations. What are God's expectations? Perfection. That's where Jesus comes in. He took our punishment on Himself. You might be thinking, "Um what does this have to do with your topic?" When we realize that we are sinners, and nothing we could possible do will bring us to God's standard, we can have peace. Peace knowing that Jesus paid our price, and that God now sees His glory in us instead of our sin. We can start serving God with joy and thankfulness, instead of trying to live up to His standard. Over and over again He reminds me, "Who are you doing this for?" I answer, "I am doing this for You!" But then here is when He gets me: "Why are you doing this for me?" I pray that one day, with complete sincerity and passion, I will shout, "Because I love you!"