Faith Filled Friday

I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at. I want to be a blessing to you so I've made these Resources available to you and have the Missional blog tab for practical ideas of how to live on mission right where you are. 

Currently I am writing my way through Judges sharing glimpses of God's heart and character for a weekday devotional. To check out the entire series so far head on over the the Judges Devotional. 

He's the Source

For ten years of my Christian life I thought I could live the Christian life if I just tried hard enough.  I approached the Bible as a book of do’s and don’ts. I even remember one time when I was pretty irritated at God because of how He organized the Bible. I couldn't understand why He didn’t just make a huge long list for me, making it easier to live the Christian life.  I thought that if I had this list of everything I should do and everything I shouldn’t do, then I would be the best Christian to ever walk the planet.  Why?  Because I would know what was expected of me.  And I believed that if I just knew, then of course I could do it.  

My motives were to be pleasing to the Lord and I knew I was truly accepted by my Father regardless of my actions, but I didn’t trust Him to bring about the transformation in my heart. I took on the responsibility of sanctifying (being made more like Christ) myself. I believed it was by grace that God has rescued me from hell, but it was by my effort and trying really hard that I lived the good Christian life. 

I didn't realize that we can do nothing eternal apart from the Lord. I didn't understand that we can know the right thing to do and yet not do it. 

I have a friend who use to be a leader in the church I went to. Her and her husband moved and then we moved and it's been 12 years since I've seen her. We are friends on facebook and that is how I found out her and her husband got a divorce and now she is a lesbian and he is a pretty heavy partier and drinker. Heartbreaking. Just the other day on her facebook wall she posted a video of Pat Roberstson talking about homosexuality. Obviously her community got fired up and here are a few of the 42 comments in response:

"Lots of people do good things without having a higher authority. Actually some of the nicest people I have ever met do not live by a higher authority and some of the meanest people out there live by a higher authority. Look at all these countries going to war over the fear of a higher authority. A higher authority that may or may not exist"

"If there is a "god" or not, we should all strive to be the best person we can! Regardless of race or religion! I treat everyone the same why I would want to be treated...."

It is commonly thought that if we know the right things to do we could do it. If we all just lived according to what we all thought was best and "did what was right in our own eyes" then our society would work, life would work. Sounds good, sound like it should work. But it's just not true.

Throughout Judges the phrase, "In those days Israel had no king..." Judges 18:1 most of the time followed up with "and everyone did what was right in their own eyes." appears. But really look where that got them, crazy and awful situations.
The reality is that we just can't. It's impossible to do what our spirit desires to do apart from the Spirit of God enabling us. The law exists to show us we need Jesus. But just us knowing what we should and shouldn't do doesn't enable us to do it. (Rom. 3:20) It takes relying on the strength of the Holy Spirit, remaining connected to Him as a vine is to a branch to be able to do the things the Lord desires of us. Just because someone does good things or is a nice person does not mean they have the ability to do all the good intentions they desire. Basically, we just all need Jesus a lot. I love how Paul says it, he's just always in your face and to the point. No beating around the bush with him. "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" Gal. 3:3 Here it is in the message, "Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own effors what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong encough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?"  

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Faith Filled Friday Blog Hop

We exist to glorify God, to display His heart and character. And I just love how we are all uniquely built to do that. So every Friday I want to give you, uniquely designed by God, an opportunity to link up your thoughts on God, devotionals, ministry as well as art, baking, photography, parenting, marriage and more if they tie into or display the the Lord somehow. 

So go ahead and link up below by clicking the link below and following the prompts. I just humbly ask that you please let your readers know by including a link at the bottom of your post (or somewhere on your side bar) or put my button code (found on my side bar or the Faith Filled Friday Tab) so they can find these other great people glorifying God and we can continue to grow as a community. Thanks!    

And will you tweet or share on facebook to tell your friends about these other bloggers linked up. Everyones posts each week are so great!

I'm linking up with Spiritual Sundays