9.29.2011

Are you stuck?


Do you ever feel stagnant?  Stuck in the mud?  In life... In you faith?
Sometimes life does get us down. We feel like we're not getting anywhere...  Sort of like we just keep doing the same things over and over again...

What if we get to a point where our relationship with Christ starts to feel this way?

The past few years have been pretty tough around here.  We have seen a lot of people go through job loss and the loss of about everything else you can imagine.  Personally, we have been very blessed.  I have a great job, and countless other things for which to thank God.  But, medical bills for the boys have slowly been piling up.  And, there have been close family members going through some difficult changes.  It has taken it's toll... (just look at my hair line and gray beard).

As I look back over the past year, I was becoming very stagnant.  Now, I am back.  On fire.  Alive.

What got me hear may not work for you.  There was one key ingredient though that must be there.
So what is it?  Prayer.  Not the kind where you say God take me out of this slump.  Those don't always work... sometimes you're in the slump for a reason.  I prayed for Christ to be alive in me once again.  I prayed for God to correct my ways of thinking and help me think more like Him. And I prayed over and over again.  And (fittingly for me and my love of music) God spoke to me through the lyrics of a band.

Now... I'm back.

We make our stand here between the angels and animals.
We fear nothing here, where we can beat any feat set to keep us crawling.
We’re calling you here to give leave to destruction of fear 
and stand tall against all who will dare to shake you. Don’t let them shake you.
"Stand strong, where I could not, please stand strong"
Oh please, this plea, dear God, let it not from my lips be conceived.
So grip your fist and swing until your knuckles bleed.
If you are the new breed scream, "I am immortal!" 
We can’t sit quietly because there’s more to life than we see.
So if you are the new breed scream, "I am Immortal in you!"
Excerpt from Oh, Sleeper's song The New Breed.

How do you get past the stagnant points in your life?  Is anything else stagnant in your life bleeding into your faith?  How do you keep your relationship with Christ alive?

9.21.2011

Why Does God Love Me?: Part 3

In last weeks discussion the topic of how much God loves us compared to how much we love him came up...  So this week we will talk a little about how much God loves us versus how much we love him.

Cue music to get us in the mood...

We will never love God as much as he loves us.  That is just how it is.  Thinking that we will ever come close to his love is like people who think they need to get cleaned up and then they will come to church.  This is a very confused way of thinking.  God does want us to love him, but he knows that he is in a lopsided relationship.

When we stop and think about this it can feel very overwhelming.  There are some great lyrics in this song that try to paint a picture of how much God loves us and how powerful that love is.


He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me.

If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.

Oh how He loves us, how He loves us so.

Do you ever feel like you're sinking and drowning in God's love?  Do you feel guilty that you don't love God as much as he loves you?  That you don't always love Him?

Comment, post your thoughts, post any verses, or lyrics that help you in these times.

9.13.2011

Why Does God Love Me?: Part 2

Last time we looked at how we have experienced God's love for us to try to better understand why God loves us.  Now we are going to look at why God loves me when I don't even love myself.

Sometimes it's hard to understand why anyone would love us.  We screw things up, hurt people, let down our best friends and family.  Sometimes we lie, cheat and steal... or even worse.  We get lazy, don't take care of ourselves. We don't like the way we look, or act.  Sometimes we feel dirty and unworthy of anything. We are just plain disgusting and despise who we are. In fact, sometimes we hate the person we are.

So how does God love us? 

Paul explains...
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.    - Romans 8:38-39
 If none of that can separate us from God's love, why would we think anything else would.

God wants us to be close to him and experience his perfect love.  He is waiting.

Do you ever feel unworthy?  Do you feel separated from God's love, or anyone's love?
If you do, comment back about it or if you have a verse that pulls you out of these times, share it.

9.07.2011

Why does God love me?: Part 1

Why Me? What is it about me that makes Him love me?

My boys have some great ways they try to tell me how much they love me.  Dylan used to always say "I love you bigger and bigger and up to the sky!"  Lincoln has been saying "I love you too much!"  These are both such great pure expressions of pure innocent love.  Plain and simple.

 As adults we have trouble expressing and sometimes even experiencing this pure love.  We tend to see the flaws in people and in relationships.  God gets it right.

As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.
Psalms 103:11-12 The Message
God loves us not our sins.  So why does God love me, he sees me, not my flaws.  He sees the life I can live past the history I have lived.

So to better understand why God love us, let's talk about how we experience God's love for us.
Comment back with some ways you have experienced God's love for you in your life. If you have never experience God's love, share that too.

9.01.2011

Why Does God Love Me?: Intro



Why does God love me?
Do you ever ask yourself why God loves you?  Why does an all powerful, all knowing God love me?
What am I to Him?  I am not good enough to deserve His love.  I have never done anything worth Him loving me.

But thankfully, God is not like us... and he does love us.

If you have ever had these questions, please keep reading here over the next month while we explore Why Does God Love Me?

Here's some theme music...

God is Love: Michael Gungor Band