The Purpose Driven Life

I am working on a more serious and reflective post but I have a general question. What is so bad about The Purpose Driven Life. I have heard it be the subject of christian humor many times. I also know people who have found it very helpful in the christian walk. These are people that are highly intelligent and whose walk I greatly admire. So, what is the deal? Can someone please explain it to me. Thanks in advance.

The Power of Quiet

You know the phrase "Be still and know that I am God". Well there is so much wisdom in those words. I had mentioned that last week was not a good one for those that I care about. It got much better for one of my friends but not all of them. I kept trying to think of things to say as encouragement but quite frankly I am not what they need. They needed to feel God's presence in the midst of their turmoil. Only He can ease their worries. I get reminded that when faced with conflict the first thing that I want to do is go talk to someone about it. The first thing I ought to do is to give it over to God. To be still before Him and bow to His will.

I interrupt that train of thought because I have just received an update on one of my friends. When she was still before God and focused on His truths and His promises she was able to gain back some of her spirit and faith. So... Yeah!

I have friends who are moving away tomorrow and I am going to cry when I say goodbye. That is a fact. In my head I keep thinking of the song "Friends" by Michael W. Smith. Every year around this time we as students go through this. Friends graduate and oddly enough we graduate sometimes too. Usually this is coupled with moving on to something new. My mind is excited for these events because it means that God has other plans for them and God's plans are always good. The selfish part of me (I am not sure where that resides) doesn't want them to leave me because the whole goodbye thing is quite inconvenient. Sigh! Growth is hard.

Not Great For All

As great as my weekend was I am saddened that some very close friends had a weekend that went just the opposite. Amidst personal struggles and consequences of personal choices and even some spiritual warfare my friends have been looking for answers. Some are looking to God but others are looking to things of this world. As I talk with them about the issues in their life I feel helpless to know what to say or do. This has been the biggest problem for me lately, effective communication. How do you put into words how much God loves His children? How do you tell the person who thinks that God is punishing them that no He really is right there helping her through. How do you tell a loved one that the choice they are about to make will never go away, can never be changed, and will haunt them for the rest of their life?
My practical nature gets the best of me when I listen to the problems of those that I love. I want to solve it for them so that they are not hurting anymore. I forget that they need to work through it with God's help and mine is insufficient. That is not to say that we don't need to support our brothers and sisters in Christ but we do need to realize that we mortals are limited to how we can help. Sometimes the greatest thing we can do for someone is to listen to them, pray for them(and with them), and give them a shoulder to cry on or a box of tissues.
The testing and refining of our hearts is never pleasant but drawing closer to God through it is immeasurable.

Major Breakthrough

This has been a major week for me in terms of breakthroughs in my personal life. Upon reading Numbers God answered my questions from Leviticus and Exodus. He showed me how those books stress the importance of approaching God with the right attitude. It also showed me how lucky we are to be able to approach God directly. We don't have to go through Aaron or anyone in his line. Our sacrifice has already been offered. I could go on and on about how many things just clicked into place but I still find it overwhelming so I will stop with those points. We really are blessed with an awesome God and He revealed a small portion of that to me this weekend. I hope that everyone who reads this post finds themselves resting in the assurance that we have through Christ.
Peace be with you all. John 14:27

My Place in This World

We talked about liturgical prayer at my Monday bible study. I would not say that I pray in a liturgical manner but I do see the beauty and thought contained in many of the prayer books. The reason that I tend to not pray in that manner is that I feel that they are not my prayers in the sense that they are not my prayers to God but an echo of someone else's prayers. I am afraid that if I used a prayer book or something similar then I will become complacent in my praying. One thing that someone said that night has been sticking with me all this week. She said that our prayers are always insufficient but God's grace is enough to make up for that. No matter how I pray, it will never be perfect. I have been trying to be perfect in my word choice and method looking for the right answer in prayer. God's grace is what makes my prayer perfect, not me.

This can also apply to our everyday life. I always tend to think about difficulties as God punishing me for some sin or another (I assure you there are many to choose from) and I forget that He also wants to bless His children. I always assume that my will is wrong and bad instead of considering that maybe it is in line with God's. I will never get it all right. I am not perfect but perhaps if God's grace is sufficient to cover my poor prayers then just maybe it is also sufficient to cover my trespasses. Why do we so often try to make a travesty of the cross? Why can't we just accept what Jesus did?

Right Thoughts

I have been bombarded lately with circumstances and discussions concerning right thoughts and their effect on relationships. It started with my bible study talking about prayer and effective prayer. We looked at how knowing God's nature, the true God, led to a right relationship with Him. We also looked at an example of how wrong thoughts led to a loss of that relationship in the case of Saul. It challenged me to think about all my relationships and my thoughts concerning them. In many cases my thoughts and attitudes were leading to problems or strains in the relationships. It struck me that this applied so strongly to my relationship with God right now. I have been talking about looking for answers from God when really I should have just been looking to God. My attitude was do this, solve this problem as opposed to praising Him for who He is and how much He does take care of me. I was taking Him for granted instead of thanking Him for being God.

I have been challenged to pray scripture and in general completely overhaul my prayer life. You know what life is life and it will happen but God is God and He will never fail us.

Addendum to Pondering Scripture

As I was reading my bible after my last post something was pointed out to me. By pointed out I mean that it was specifically stated in the notes in my Bible so no divining was required. Another point or two to take from Leviticus.

1. God greatly desires a relationship with us.
2. That relationship is taken very seriously by God and should be by us.
2. God takes sin very seriously as well.

While neither of these were earth shattering relevations, I do think that they are things that we can take from Leviticus. I am now moving on to Numbers. There are a lot of numbers in Numbers. Imagine that.

Pondering Scripture

It turns out that many more people read my blog than I actually realized. So... I have another question to throw out there to the public. In my daily quiet time I just finished Leviticus. As I was reading through the various types of offerings and commands I found myself asking "How can I apply this to what I am going through now?" I have had many heavy questions weighing on my mind lately and I have been crying out to God for answers. I have to be honest that I did not find much during my reading of Leviticus. I am not doing a yearly reading program but rather reading through the whole bible at my own pace. After thinking about what I can take from this chapter I have come to a couple of conclusions.

1. I praise God for the fulfillment of His covenant through Jesus Christ.
2. While these legalistic practices seem harsh to me, God is worthy.
3. It really is impossible for me to earn righteousness through my own actions.

Do these seem totally crazy? Am I missing the forest for the trees or vice versa? This goes along with my earlier post about feeling God so clearly in my life previously (my two month example) but not as much now. Someone made the comment about needing community. While I do completely agree with needing community (I am loving my community right now) I can't rely on it for my fulfillment. That has to ultimately come through Christ. My community can't see or judge my heart or necessarily answer my heavy questions.

On a side note, for those interested my father is doing much better. I spoke with him tonight and I did tell him that I loved him. Good night.

Building up Spiritual Strength?

I have started to increase my workout routine thanks to an encouraging friend. I also have a friend training for a marathon. As I think about gearing up and building our physical strength I find myself with a question. How am I growing my spiritual strength? I know that spending time in the word and prayer are avenues to build our relationship with Christ. When lifting weights, I can see the growth as I add more weight. How do I know where I am at in my spiritual walk? I have found that where I think I am at is not always true.

Two months ago, I would have told you that my faith was strong and I could feel the Holy Spirit at work in so many aspects of my life. Today, I start to question some of those areas where I thought I was being lead. How do you know?

Welcome Friends

I want to give a warm welcome to those of you who have decided to visit my blog. Many of you know that I sit and worry about the little details in life. If this blog seems kind of sad, it is not! These are just the little thoughts that go through my mind that I have decided to share. I want to assure you that even if the joy in my life is not apparent in the posts, it is present in my life. Enjoy!