We Were Made for Jesus, Not Heaven

Hello there friends!

I have had a thought, which I would like to share with you. Please feel free to join the discussion in the comments either here or on Facebook.

I'm sure everyone who reads this blog would agree with me if I said that our culture has bought into a lie, the lie that says, "Everything is about me."

But may I suggest that even many professing Christians have bought into that lie on a different level.

When you think about sharing the gospel with someone, what is your hope for them? That they accept Jesus, right? Why?

I think most people would answer, "So that they can go to heaven," or, "Because I don't want them to go to hell."

When a Christian is on their deathbed, we find comfort in telling each other, "They know where they're going."

Or the opposite, if a nonbeliever is dying, we pray furiously, and send a pastor over to share the gospel with them, hoping that in their last few minutes they accept Jesus so they can be saved from hell.

Nonbelievers, at least from knowing how I thought when I was one, think that Christianity is all about going to heaven. Christians want to convert them so they won't go to hell.

But as a Christian, I can tell you honestly that the reason hell is scary to me, is not because of fire. It's not the thought of burning forever and never dying. It's the thought of complete separation from God, the only one who has ever been unfailingly faithful, and unconditionally loving enough to die for me.

God made me for Him, and Jesus' death was a way to restore a broken relationship, not a way for me to have a nice home.

I get a little bit sad when I hear Christians share the gospel with people as a way to get to heaven, but, (and this is where I would like a little bit of feedback) with the general public not being interested in relationship with God... I don't know how we would do it any other way. It may be that they just have to wait until they are a Christian, or until the moment that God shows them their need for Him, to be able to see that. I don't know.

Anyway, I love Jesus. :) I can't tell you how grateful I am that Christianity is not about getting to heaven, because I can be with Him here and now, and day by day He shows me how valuable that is.

I am looking forward to heaven, but again, I'm not looking forward to streets of gold and angels, I'm looking forward to a time when sin will no longer be in the picture of my relationship with Jesus.

Deaf Ears

I have begun to realize over the past while that I, along with many others, are deaf.

We hear what is going on around us, the surface things, but there is so much underneath, and above our world that seems silent to us.

I am pro life. I have siblings, and friends, who feel very strongly how much abortion needs to be ended. I agree with them 100%, but I have never had the same passion that they have, the same love for preborn children that they have been given.

Because of that, and a few Psalms, I began to realize a while ago that I don't hate evil very much. I don't like it, but there are things in our culture that are just sort of "normal," and so I tend to downplay it.

God put it on my heart upon that realization to pray that He would help me love what He loves, and HATE what He hates.

In no way am I there yet. I still have times when I have downplayed sin so much, that it doesn't bother me that much. But I have begun to hear a noise that stings at me.

I read Psalm 83 today, and the first two verses caught my eye.

Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, And do not be still, O God! For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. (Psalms 83:1, 2)

Your enemies make a tumult.

It struck me that God is omnipresent, He is everwhere at once, hearing every sound all at once.

Every silent cry of a preborn baby as it's chance to live is taken away, every shout of abusive words, every scream of a child unjustly taken away from their parents, every political speech announcing some new law of rebellion against God, they all collide in one great catastrophic tumult. And He hears it all.

No wonder He loves to hear His children sing praises.

The past few times that I have been aware of this noise, the evil too great for me to conquer, I begin to feel a distress and helplessness that is so painful.

I see an entire planet full of people who were made in the image of God, each one having such great potential. And yet, most of them are drawn into the crowd of people making the tumult.

But each time God has sent me peace in a thought of, "He has it under control. This noise is ugly, He doesn't like it either, this is why He died. But unlike me, God is not too weak to conquer it."

I think we need to hear the noise sometimes, it is what is really going on, we need to be aware of the darkness of the evil all around us. That is why I still pray, "Open my ears. Help me to hate what You hate."

But at the same time, I think we all need to hear the other side, we need to hear the sound of horses and chariots of fire around us on all sides. That is why I also pray, "Open my ears. Help me to love what You love."

And Elisha prayed, and said, “ Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (II Kings 6:17)

To: Keturah

I just... I can't... Aaaaahhhhhhhhh........

This is what I have felt like since Sunday morning. The inability to express what is going on within me.

It's even worse, because normally if I can't tell you how I feel, I can at least tell you WHY I feel this way, but this time I can only tell you the latter part of it.

The beginning is a story that I don't fully understand, I wouldn't be able to describe it because I don't even really know what it was. All I can tell you is that I should have loved God more, I should have sought God more, but I didn't, and I was left with a lot of unnecessary confusion and emptiness.

I wish I could elaborate even a little more to tell you when this started, but again, I have no idea.

It isn't that I fell away from being a Christian, or something like that, I just lacked motivation to do much about my faith for a while. So my bible collected more dust than it should have, and when I would talk about God with people I would get this little pang of guilt telling me that I was neglecting Him at heart.

Anyway, that is the beginning. The second half begins with a little bit of history.

As most of you know, I have been saving up money for ballet lessons for years and years. Recently I have been hearing a lot of talk from bible teachers about giving above and beyond ten percent of your increase, your tithe. 

My first thought when this topic would come up would be that I don't have consistent income, and I'm saving for ballet, so I can't give more than 10%. My thought immediately following would be that I am so selfish and stingy, and I need to believe that God can provide for me, so I should give above and beyond. I shouldn't even put limits on it, cause that is stingy. I need to give it ALL. Every penny to my name.

But that's not even wise... Would be the next thought, and that's true. If I were supporting myself, you could make the case that living by faith doesn't have to be "financially sound," but as I am not, giving away all of my money would simply mean that every expense I have in the future, my parents or my siblings would have to pay for, and I don't think that is what God is asking of me.

So anyway, a few days ago I was at a bible study where this came up again. I asked the leader my question, told him my problem, and he said he didn't know, but that I should pray. Make sure that my heart is in the right place, and be willing to give everything if that was what God wanted from me.

After the study I talked with my older sister who shared some wisdom with me, and after talking to her, I felt more at peace about it. (I am still praying about it, but I felt less stressed.) A verse that she shared with me during that conversation was "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."

The next day, Sunday morning, I was sitting in the church pew and a gentleman that I don't know well came up to me. My initial thought was that he was going to talk to me about ushering, since I was ushering that day, and well, why else would he be talking to me?

But he handed me an envelope and said, "Can you hold this?" Oh, I see. He wants me to put it into the offering plate for him for some reason. "That's for you." When those words finally set in, he had walked back to his seat already, and church had started.

Looking down at the envelope in my hands, I read, "To: Keturah - Psalm 37:4"

Hands shaking, I opened my bible and turned to that verse. I had to hold back tears as I read "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

I didn't look inside it until the end of the service, but I knew what was inside. I could hardly concentrate the whole time through the music and the sermon, I was having to hold back tears.

Really? Why?

Not only was it so cool that it happened right after I had that talk with the bible study leader and my sister, I felt so blown away that a gift like that would be given to me when I had been not seeking God for so long.

The verse said "Delight yourself also in the Lord," but although I would like to say I had done that... I hadn't really for a long time. I felt like that gift should have been for someone else.

But it wasn't. It was given to me.

It reminded me again of God's gift of His Son. I am the last one to deserve it, and yet...God wants me to have it. He gave it to me, fully aware of who I was and what I had done.

So the end of the story is that I have been blown away AGAIN, by the same story of love that amazes me all the time.

God encouraged me in my pursuit of my dream, to become a dancer. But even more than that, He encouraged me to follow Him again, to take up my cross and run the race for the joy that is before me.

Once again I stand amazed at the feet of Jesus. Even after blessing me with money for ballet lessons, if He wants me to lay down that career, I would do it, because He is worth more than any treasure I could store up for myself on earth.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

It's Not About Me

I sometimes think about the end of my life. I am sure all of us do, it is something inevitable to happen, unless of course Jesus were to return sooner.

But that thought used to depress me. Not just to think about the end of my life, but the near end of it. My grandfather, who is a wonderful man, has alzheimer's. I love him a lot, and it is hard sometimes to give him a hug and see on his face that he is struggling to remember who I am.

If I were to develop alzheimer's as I get older, I don't want to go through that pain. I don't want to go through the pain of losing my own parents. The future, as it holds so much end of life, used to scare me a lot.

Not only that but, this is something not everyone will be able to relate to I'm sure, I'm a little weird. But I used to not want to grow older simply because what if I were to get married, and have children, they would begin the prime of their life, and I would have to face the end of mine slowly closing in on me.

I say "used to," because seven months ago, my twin nieces were born.

After they were born, I thought about them a lot, about how they will get older and play together, they'll play on our swingset, and make mud pies in the yard, they'll learn things that I learned when I was younger, and they will have a lot of fun. As they get even older, they will have dreams and aspirations, they'll grow to be teeneagers and start to have bigger responsibilities, the list of things that they will do goes on and on.

Through thinking about them, and then about my own kids if I ever have them, God began to show me that my life really is not about me.

It isn't about others either, since we all will pass away at some time. We may seem to be the centre of our life but we really are not, we can't even control it.

My life, truly, is all about God.

This is so freeing to realize, and I continue to realize it more and more each day. I am relieved of the burden of having a life be all about me, and I am given the freedom to live for someone greater, to be a part of something greater.

If all of our lives were about us, we'd go around doing our thing for however many years we have, and the end of it would truly be a depressing thing.

But since our lives are about Jesus, when we die we can know that it is not the end. His plan will continue to go on, helped by other people who realize that their lives are not about them, and we get to have the satisfation of knowing that we are done our part.

I Can Take A Hint

Hello All!

This is another in-the-meantime post, because I STILL haven't gotten my big one together yet.

Today, I thought I would share with you a neat story that happened recently.

A little while ago, I decided to close my blog.

I wrote up a Farewell blog post, and decided that I would end it with a bang, so I made plans for a really awesome post about God.

I'll let you read a piece of my Farewell which gives you the reason for folding.

"I have received lots of encouragement from my family and friends, but I always felt that I needed to have a vision, a purpose for why I was writing. But I didn't have anything.

In short, I don't feel like I am "called" to be writing this blog, and so I'd rather not. I have thoroughly enjoyed updating it and am very thankful to all of my encouragers, and if God shows me that I should pick it up again, I will, but for now, I am putting it to rest.

It will still be here for you all to read if you feel like going back over my posts, but I will not be updating.

SO. I thought, as a farewell post, I should write something awesome! And what is more awesome than God Himself?

The following  post is a small, quick picture of my Savior. I know I won't be able to do Him justice, but I hope it is a cool snapshot.

So this is it for this post, my next one will be the OFFICIAL farewell, and much less gloomy than this one, I promise. ;)

Until then!

~Keturah"

But my plans got interrupted pretty quickly.

The same day that I officially decided to close it, I received a Facebook message from someone encouraging me, and telling me that they love Counting Blessings. That gave me a little remorseful feeling, but I had known that people would be disappointed, so I wasn't discouraged.

Only a few hours later we went to a meal at our church, a man whom I know came by to tell me that some people that he had read my blog to were very excited about my writing.

I thought, Okay...It's fine. They can get over it. I don't have a reason for writing, so I am still going to close it.

The next day I found a post that I had written a while ago and never published, so I posted it, and someone commented to tell me that they love my blog.

Seriously, it was like everyone was trying to get me to keep it, even though I had not told a soul my plans.

The next day I got ANOTHER Facebook message, again, encouraging me, telling me to keep writing.

By that time I was seriously doubting my own judgement. The next day, I finally consulted my dad.

"Should I keep posting on my blog?" I asked.

"Why is that even a question?" He said.

I explained the situation, (excluding all of the encouraging people) and he told me why he thought I should keep it.

By the end of it, I basically said, "You know what, I can take a hint."

It was too much, and too direct, to ignore.

I have decided that I will keep writing, without a vision or a mission statement, because even though I don't have a purpose for Counting Blessings, obviously God does.

So that's it! This is not my second last post friends, I will probably have many more to come. :)

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8, 9)

INCOMING

Hello y'all!

I know it has been a very long time since I last posted, and I know I say that all the time, but this is a NEW good excuse! :D

Not that all of my excuses are good...but this one is.

Anyway, back on track, the reason I have not posted for a while is because I am gearing up for what I hope will be an AMAZING post.

I won't reveal too much about it, except that it will be awesome, it involves input from a lot of other people, and won't be coming for a while yet.

I may or may not post more INCOMING posts in the meantimes, just to keep you entertained.

We'll see.

Anyway, have a lovely day, and remember, "God made you special, and He loves you very much!"

Holy and Empowered

Just a quick note before I begin, I mentioned in my last post that I am gearing up for a big one. I still am, and this is not it. This is something I wrote a little while ago and forgot about, so I am going to post this in the meantime as well. Hope you enjoy it. :)

Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. (Psalm 29:1-2)

This is a pretty easy part to skip over if you are reading through quickly. For me anyway.

It's the kind of verse that you see over and over again in the Psalms, with words like the Lord, glory, holiness, worship, beauty... You get the general idea of God being holy and deserving of your worship, and you should worship Him.

Okay, next part.

But if you took a moment to look closely at those words, to read them for all of what they mean, you would find much more.

Let's take it little by little.

Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones.

Okay, ignoring the "Give unto the Lord," for a second, who are the mighty ones?

Without verbalizing the thought in my head, I had told myself, I am not a mighty one. He is talking about someone else.

But really, who else could he be talking about?

It is the bible. If you have ever read the bible, you should know that he would not be calling people mighty because of how physically strong or powerful they are. So, since that outrules physical might, who are the ones who are spiritually mighty?

The answer to this of course is God's soldiers. The "More than Conquerors," the ones who have been given the power of the Holy Spirit and the armor of God...

Us.

Me, my fellow Christians.

We are the mighty ones.

Give unto the Lord glory and strength.

This is where we pick up our "Give unto the Lord," that we had put aside a moment ago.

How do you do that??

I know how you can give God money, praise, even glory, but...strength?

After giving that one some thought, I decided that it must mean that you give Him strength in the same way that you "Give Him your best."

He gives us things to do, He gives us a life to live and a battle to fight, in which we are More than Conquerors and Mighty Ones.

In all of this He gives us strength which we can use, or not. In using the strength He has given us to bring Him glory, we are giving Him strength and glory.

Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;

This only emphasizes how much more we ought to give Him!

Look at your life, are you living it in the strength that He has given you to live it? I am not. But He is so worthy of it! He is worthy of every second we have and every ounce of strength we have, the glory due His name is IMMENSE.

Read on, through the chapter. It goes on about how glorious He is, and if you realize that the chapter does not capture a smidgen of who He is... You will realize that He is so worthy of glory.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Whose holiness is this?

If you just read the these verses like I mentioned at the beginning, you would automatically think, "God's holiness, of course."

But it has just talked about giving God more, giving Him all we have because we are mighty in Him. We are set apart in Him. We are holy.

We are holy and empowered.

I am going to try to put this next part into words, because it is the best part of my whole study today, but I don't know how good of a job I will do.

What these two verses said to me today, as you may have picked up, were that there is more empowerment given to me than I am using to bring glory to God.

The last line closes it with a perfect wrap up.

The holiness that we have is beautiful, because it is light, and love, and glory and STRENGTH.

Don't just live your life without using the strength God has given to you, or when you worship, you will worship with the mindset of weakness.

But if you live in the fulness of the empowerment you have been given, your worship will be in the BEAUTY of holiness.