Him Alone

Nothing truly satisfies but God.

My stubborn heart's been being taught that more often recently. After taking part in anything, sinful or not, for too long, I'm left feeling empty. Friends, school, career, music, guys...anything but God. And it's for such an obvious reason. God is the only thing that matters, guys. The other things may matter a little in this life, but when we're drawing our last breath, when we're rising from the grave for judgment day, and really when we're just going through life daily - acknowledging Jesus as Lord of our lives is the only important thing. The fullest life we can possibly get is a life of craving more of Him.

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth." Psalm 73:25

Everything just fades away in the light and love of God. Holding grudges become a nonsensical idea. Pursuing riches turns into a huge waste of time. Holding anything in an esteem near as high as what is meant for something holy won't even tempt us if we silence our lives for a while and realize how amazing God is, simple as that, and praise Him for saving us.

It's more simple than we make it... just worship and want to know God. That's our life, girls. Let's go after it.

Love in Him,
Ariel

Before You

Before You, I was lost.

Before You, I had nothing.

Before You, I was lonely.

 I was searching for something.

I was searching for something to make me whole.

Something to mend this broken heart of mine.

But I discovered that it wasn’t something I was looking for.

It was Someone and He would make me just fine.

But He made me more than just fine.

He turned me into something great.

He made me one of His children.

Now eternity with Him is my new fate.

Before you, I was lost.

Before you, I had nothing.

Before you, I was lonely.

But with You, I am more than just something.

I am someone.

I am Yours.

Love, Haylie

Who Am I?

~ I am forgiven (Romans 5:1)

~ I am a member of Christ’s body (1 Cor 12:27)

~ I am a saint ( Eph. 1:1)

~ I am complete in Christ (Col 2:10)

~ I am free (Col 1:14)

~I am loved (Romans 5:8)

~ I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15)

~ I am one in spirit with Him (1 Cor 6:17)

~ I am God’s (1 Cor 6:19-20)

With Christ, we are all of these, but without Christ, we are nothing. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior? If you would like to know more, please email us at passion@passionwebmag.com and we would be happy to tell you all about our wonderful Savior!

Love Much,
Haylie

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

The Eternal Well

Recently, I was reading John 4, the time in Jesus' ministry where He met a Samaritan woman at a well and told her that He was the Messiah. If you haven't read that before, you can read it online here. What stunned me about this story was how what He said probably paralleled to what the woman was personally struggling with. She had gone from man to man to man (at least 6 at that point in her life), perhaps looking for something to fill that longing in her spirit - that longing in all of our spirits that compelled us to all kinds of things to fill the void and give us peace inside. But it only works for a while doesn't it? Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again" (John 4:13).

It's what humans do - turn to the things of the world to fill that void. Some of us go to entertainment (movies, television shows, social media, or music) to fill the hole. A lot of us go to guys for acceptance, love, and appreciation. There are drugs. There is alcohol. There is popularity. There is physical beauty. There is intelligence. But none of these things work. We fill up and are satisfied for a shorter time - perhaps you have reached that point and remember going deeper into the things you were already exploring, or searching for the next well to fill your longing.

What can permanently fulfill us?? Let me allow Jesus to tell you:

"Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." John 4:14

"I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6:35

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves...for My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink." -John 6:53, 55

"If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink*. He who believes in Me as the Scripture said, 'From his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water.' " John 7:37-38

*Ie, keep coming to Me and keep drinking

Come to Jesus! Lay your heart on the floor. Believe in His power to heal you. Believe with all your heart that He died for your sins, redeemed you from yourself, and rose from the dead. Believe in the glory of God and His love for us, despite our unworthiness. You will find fulfillment in the arms of God, who will call you His child if you but believe in the name of Jesus.

So drink of Him! Pray to Him and listen for answers. Study the Bible with hunger. Have good, honest conversations with your brothers and sisters in Christ. The Holy Spirit will give you peace in your heart that surpasses all understanding, and your thirst will be fulfilled.

Author of our Lives

Recently I remembered how my heart once was brought to and kept a place of awe of God's work and plan in and of my life. How He used things to help me see Him in all happenings, which coincidentally was a whole part of the planning. Typically we're not hyper-aware of God's activity in our every day life -- how present and active and dynamic He is in His planning. Something happens -- we meet a new person, get a job, get invited to a party next week, receive $50 from our grandparents -- we think, "Cool" and walk away. Thinking it's just another thing that happens. Like our lives are just "happenings" stacked back to back. We forget that God has an idea for all that! That He is active and working to complete the grand picture He has for our lives. That there's a plan.

I realized the other day that if we constantly recognize that concept -- that God is the author of our lives, and that He's always writing -- we become better tools of God to shape ours and others' lives. Why? Because we embrace each moment as a moment from God more, and treat it as such! And when we treat it as such, it opens doors. We get to know that new person and keep in touch, cementing what could be a valuable new connection. We look for ways to truly serve in our new job. We cherish the time at that party with our friends, inviting God's work even there. We really think about how the Lord might lead us to spend that $50! Maybe it was an answer to one of our prayers, or He wants us to hang onto it because He intends to use it as an answer to someone else's prayers.

I think more often should we as Christ followers call events in our lives puzzle pieces, always keeping in mind that He has a big picture He's putting together...or as a domino in a chain of dominoes...or as a thread in the tapestry.

And don't forget about recognizing our entire lives as a whole as a centimeter of a thread of God's tapestry for His world plan. Now that's exciting!

Looking Back

Hi girls,
Sitting here in the 2011 year it really is hard to believe that time has gone by oh so fast! It almost seems like yesterday that school was just starting and I was taking baby steps closer and closer to being in the 9th grade. Well now the first semester is over and I am starting the second! Sometimes I can get really discouraged, and I think we all have our moments. Have you ever stopped to look back wondering why you are doing what you are or how you even got to where you are today? I sure have, and have been doing a lot of that this year in 2011. Although it's only been a few days since the year started, looking back I can see just how much God did in my life. One of the biggest things he did in 2010 was have me find the Passion Mag. That was a blessing to me in more then one area! :) He allowed my love of writing to grow as well. I just wanted to encourage you. I know life as a teenage girl can be hard, and frustrating at times. But taking the time to look back on some of the things that God has done for you in the past year is a great way to start the year off feeling refreshed and encouraged!

Girl Talk: What has God done in your life this past year?

In His Love,
Angelica

Just One of Those Days

Has anyone ever had one of those days when you're like, "I couldn't possibly come before God today. I've done way too much bad stuff, compromised so much, I never have time for Him, and there's just so much wrong in my life."

Let me tell you something. So you feel like you can't come before God because it's your worst day ever? YOU CAN'T COME BEFORE GOD ON YOUR BEST DAY EITHER. If you have ever sinned in your entire lifetime, you aren't ever going to be good enough to come before God at all.

"Isn't this supposed to be an encouraging blog?"

Yes. Bear with me.

Romans 5:6-8 (New Living Translation)

 ⁶ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Did you catch that? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You see, God didn't choose you to be His daughter because you were good. He chose you because He loves you even though you're not good. This is one of the most amazing, awe-inspiring things about the character of God: He's able to love you more than you could fathom on that "worst day ever."

It doesn't matter what you have done. It doesn't matter how bad you are. All God wants from you is for you to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37, NLT).

All God wants from you is to love Him more than anything. Everything else (trying to stop sinning, loving others, living correctly, etc) will follow after that and spill out of your love for God.

So the next time you feel like "How could I ever come before God NOW?" give the devil a black eye by coming and being with your Savior anyway. Definitely tell God that you're sorry, but letting shame or guilt come between you and God only magnifies what Satan has done. Instead, magnify what God has done by letting His freedom set you free.

~Joelle

Three Questions from Leslie Ludy

Springs of Benignity

""The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water." John 4:14

The picture of Our Lord gives is not that of a channel but a fountain. "Be being filled," and the sweetness of vital relationship to Jesus will flow out of the saint as lavishly as it is imparted to him. If you find your life is not flowing out as it should, you are to blame; something has obstructed the flow. Keep right at the Source, and--you will be blessed personally? No, out of you will flow rivers of living water, irrepressible life.

We are to be centres through which Jesus can flow as rivers of living water in blessing to everyone. Some of us are like the Dead Sea, always taking in but never giving out, because we are not rightly related to the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive from Him, He will pour out through us, and in the measure He is not pouring out, there is a defect in our relationship to him. Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ? Is there anything that hinders your belief in Him? If not, Jesus says, out of you will flow rivers of living water. It is not a blessing passed on, not an experience stated, but a river continually flowing. Keep at the Source, guard well your belief in Jesus Christ and you relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow for other lives, no dryness and no deadness.

Is it not too extravagant to say that out of an individual believer rivers are going to flow. "I do not see the rivers," you say. Never look at yourself from the standpoint of--Who am I? In the history of God's work you will nearly always find that it has started from the obscure, the unknown, the ignored, but the steadfastly true to Jesus Christ."

From My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers, pg. 251

Consume Me, God

The following entry was taken with permission from Scream the Truth e-zine. It was written by the editor, Julie Martin.

I used to say I'd never date... until I actually fell for a guy. When that guy fell for me and asked me to be his girlfriend I went absolutely insane... and of course, I said yes. For the first few weeks he was all I ever talked about... I was pretty much obsessed with him. Eventually liking him grew into loving him, and eventually loving him grew into heartbreak. One day he called me and ripped my heart out. It took me a while to heal from that, after-all, I'd never had my heart broken like that before. I mean, he said he loved me... right? He said I was the most amazing girl he'd ever met before... right? Then he CALLED to break up with me and didn't even give me a real reason WHY?! At the time I didn't understand. I didn't understand for a long time, but recently God has been giving me hints as to WHY such a thing happened.

I used to pray for my relationship with this guy. I constantly prayed that if I wasn't following God as deeply as I should that he would put a halt to the relationship. What I didn't realize back then was that I'd become too wrapped around what was going on around me that I was forgetting to pray everyday; in a way, I was ignoring God. I think God was ultimately the one behind halting that relationship, and to be honest, I'm really glad what happened, happened! It was something that really NEEDED to happen.

This whole experience has given me a much deeper understanding of why we need to be totally and completely lost in God before we decide to date. Guys, I mean this, we need to totally and COMPLETELY caught up in God before we even consider dating. I'm not going to lie, I do still like guys, but even if someone were to ask me out today I'd say no... because I'm not to that point with God. I'm not totally caught up in Him. Yeah, I have a strong relationship with him, but there are definitely some areas that I need MAJOR improvement in. If I still get distracted by the things going on in the world around me then how could having a boyfriend actually benefit me?

I'm most definitely not trying to call anyone out. I promise. I just believe we need to stop, take a deep breath, and take time to whole-heartedly pray about possible relationships. We need to ask God, "will this really benefit me? Will this distract me? Do I need to just focus on You for now?" I'll be honest, I never had that talk with God. I mean, I prayed about it, but I never put my heart into it; my heart was already caught up in the guy, which should have been a major red flag to begin with!

So now, I'm going to put it plainly -- I'm not dating again until college. Yeah, I have guy friends, but that's as far as anything is going to get for now. It's a tough decision for me to make, but in the end I know I'll be happy I did it. It gets tough at times seeing the majority of my friends happy and dating. I mean, I can't help but wonder to myself "Why doesn't anyone like ME? Why can't I have that?", But God grabs me and says "Julie, you don't need that... not yet. Not until you're fully mine."

Now I challenge you to take a week or two of deep prayer over this subject. Put your heart in it and learn what God has in store for YOU relationship wise. After all, everyone is different.

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

- Luke 9:23-24

What God Thinks

GOD ADORES YOU! You might not think you are anything special but you are more special than you can even imagine to God. God sent his Son, Jesus to die for each and every one of us (Romans 5:8). He died and rose again so that we could be freed and forgiven (1 Peter 3:18) from the mistakes we make. It is so hard at times as a teen and even for some adults to acknowledge that God's love is so much greater than any love any human (including a guy you might be dating!) can give us. Sometimes we get so tied down by what people think and we let it eat away at our hearts. But what God thinks is what matters and He thinks YOU ARE SPECIAL! He loves you with an everlasting love and it's through the understanding and acceptance of His love for us that we find freedom. Let me let you in on a secret....even when you feel you can't go to anyone on this earth, Jesus wants to be your best friend, and he qualifies for the greatest bestfriend you could EVER have. He wants to sit with you when you are hurting (Psalm 34:18). He wants you to tell him everything you are feeling (Psalm 10:17-18). He knows it all already, so you might as well tell him about it, right??? He will not turn away from you and leave you abandoned. He wants a personal relationship with you because you are His most prized possession (1 John 4:9-10)! What you have done in your past, He will forgive if you ask...what He longs for is for you to come to Him with an honest heart (Hebrews 4:16) and make it right, ask for forgiveness if you've done something wrong, ask Him to take away the shame, guilt, or self-hatred you may feel. He wants you to be free from the hurts in your life. He wants to walk beside you all the way!

HE LOVES YOU THAT MUCH!!!

From Restored by Love Ministries, our affiliate

Hour by Hour

We talk a lot about glorifying the Lord with our lives, but how about our years...months...weeks...days...HOURS? Can we seriously look back at our day at the end of each one and say with confidence, 'God was glorified?'

We talk a whole lot. Dedicating our lives to God is not praying "God, You can have my life". Dedicating our lives is not staying away from cuss words and general bad deeds. Dedicating our lives to God is not even just setting aside 10 minutes to prayer and reading the Word a day.

Dedicating our lives to God is dedicating every hour of our life to service to Him. Seems radical, huh? Seems impossible.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)

I'm just going to be honest. I could totally be wrong, so debate with me if you want. But really - is playing video games being dedicated to God? Is surfing the net aimlessly or spending an hour on Facebook taking ridiculous quizzes or playing silly games a life dedicated to God? Is spending money you don't have on designer clothes you don't need dedication to God? What do you think?

But the purpose of this post isn't to condemn you. It's to wake you up, to wake me up.

Our minutes, hours, days, and weeks ARE OUR LIVES. If we are dedicating our lives to God, we're dedicating every second to Him. Are you dedicating every second to Him? I'm not. So today, when you're finished studying school and the priorities you have before you, think over what you're going to do with the time God's given you. Use it wisely. Will you spend it growing closer to Him in prayer? Reaching out to strangers? Helping someone who needs it? Asking your friends how you can help them...pray for them?

Is your life dedicated to God?

Unearned Love

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." -Romans 5:1-2

The only thing that God has us do to receive His grace is to have confidence in the Truth of the gospel. That's grace. There is nothing that anyone in the world -- murderer or enormous missionary -- can do to earn the love of God. The cross and the empty tombstone proved that the Creator loves all of us equally, despite what we have done, thought, said, or been. Or the things you are doing, thinking, saying, or who you are. (And let's face it, every single one of us is wretched.)

In our world, we have to earn stuff most of the time. But God's love was not earned by anything we did. Even if we rejected Him and our sins sent us to Sheol after we died, He still loved us.

The question is if you really, truly grasp this...or if you're still caught in the legalism that Jesus came to overcome. Do you have some idea that Jesus doesn't love you as much as your fearless evangelistic friend or that guy you know who is starting a charity for God's cause? (Or anyone else.) Don't do anything to try and earn God's love. Our deeds that are done out of religious obligation, pride, or a vain way to get His attention are filthy rags to Him. But deeds done out of a pure heart that is grateful for how God loves you and how His Son took our penalties? To Him, those are precious jewels that He uses to draw other men to him.

Just accept it:

GOD LOVES YOU!

Now, what are you going to do about it??

Be thankful for that never-ending, unearned love, and love Him back, because the Master of the universe who loves every single one of His messed up creations completely deserves it. And tell others about this incredible affection and adoration He has for us!

Going with Christ

For most of us who grew up in church before, we have heard this verse uttered a hundred times:

"And again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying: 'I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.'" (John 8:12)

I found something really intriguing when I was studying this passage today. The Greek word behind "follow" in this context is "akoloutheo" (pronounced ak-ol-oo-theh'-o). It is the combination of 2 Greek words, one that means "together" and one that means "a road". Essentially, akoloutheo means to be in the same way with, to accompany, to attend, to go with. In this light (no pun intended), the verse makes a lot more sense. If you're with light, then...you're with light! Not darkness. (By the way, the Greek verb where Jesus says "shall not walk in darkness" is double negative, which means He was more like saying, "shall definitely never, ever walk in darkness". Yep, I'm a Greek geek!)

In our everyday life, it's easy for us to envision Jesus going with and accompanying us. But what about our accompanying Him on His way? His way is clearly laid out in His Word. Are you following it day by day? And just as importantly, are you accompanying Him closely? Communicating with Him throughout the day? Are you aware of His presence with you, and do you regularly ask, "Lord, where are you staying?" Although He certainly calls us to follow and obey Him, this is also synonymous with us being WITH Him. Consulting Him. Talking to Him. Are you lagging behind Him following Him silently, or do you walk beside Him, submissive to His way and in lively fellowship with your best Friend?

God's Voice

One thing I have always struggled with is hearing and recognizing the voice of God. I'm still waiting to experience that "booming voice" from the back of your head instructing you to do something very specific. But I've come to realize that God does speak into my life, more than I realize. And He speaks into yours, and to you directly!

You know that gut feeling of The Bible says this is wrong. I need to stop? That's His prompting. Are you obeying? Or the sudden urge to go spend time with God in the middle of your day. That's the Holy Spirit beckoning you to spend some intimate time with the Lord. Or the very strong feeling to befriend a specific person at your school or write your troubled aunt a letter? That could be the voice of Jesus guiding you.

Are you obeying His voice? Are you taking the time to listen for His voice, or is your quiet time all about you talking? God has things to say. Keep your ear open. He may whisper to you as you spend time with Him, or He may suddenly speak as you go throughout your normal day doing normal things, like He did with David, Gideon, and many other people! Obey God's voice and see what amazing things will unfold because of it.

The Romance

“The disciples must have thought Jesus was crazy. Seriously. I can only imagine their faces.So confused, so perplexed, uncomfortably glancing back and forth between each other, wondering if they had misheard, wondering if someone could help them understand. Meanwhile, you got Jesus, unnerved, unfazed, just sitting there cooly, looking them dead in the eyes, asking them to marry Him. Yes, you heard me right…marry Him. With nothing more than a cup of wine, no less, the Lamb of God was proposing. So you can imagine their confusion right? “Wait. What? Come again? Jesus, you feeling alright brotha? I mean, I don’t think that I’m exactly what you’re looking for! You want to think about what you’re saying for a minute?”

Of course, we don’t see it that way, because we’re not Jewish. But they were, and they did. See it that way, I mean. “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” We hear these words and we think Communion, Eucharist, Last Supper. The disciples heard this and they’re thinking wedding bells.

Apparently, “in those days,” when a Hebrew man decided to take for Himself a Hebrew woman, he’d go to his father and say, “Her, Dad. I want to make little rabbis with her.” So then the dad would go to her dad and they’d talk camels, or sheep, or whatever the payment was going to be, and after they’d settled on a figure, the groom would call in all his friends and family, set a table in the middle of a room, set the aforementioned girl down in front of said table,break out a cup, fill it with wine, and set it in front of her saying, “This is my covenant with you, take and drink it.” And if she did, that was her answer. With a simple gulp and swig, she was saying, “I do,” and that was it. No rings, no fancy songs or dinners,just a cup and an invitation. And oh yeah, all their relatives sitting in the room watching. I mean, talk about pressure. But yeah, that was it. Her lips to the glass was the same as saying, “I accept your life, and I give you mine in return.”

Now, If the girl said yes, “in those days,” she would then go immediately back to her home, where she would be known as, “one who was bought with a price.” It’s true. That was her name. Kind of long and tedious, and extremely hard to shout out in a game of soccer, but that was it. And with her new identity, she would go back to her town, and start preparing for the wedding. And really, she’d just start waiting for future husband to finish what he had to do and come and get her. What was he doing? Well, during the engagement, the groom’s primary responsibility was to build a mansion for him and his bride to be.

Now girls, before you get too excited, let me explain. “Mansion” in Hebrew means, “apartment.” And what’s even better is that this apartment was actually more like an addition, because the groom would build it onto his parents pre-existing house. Yes. You heard me correctly. Their first home would be with the in-laws. And right now, I can just imagine how many girls are thinking, “oh please don’t let me marry a Jewish boy.” It’s true though. He would build his “mansion” onto the family “insula,” which is what they would call the family dwelling. You see, the entire family would just keep building on and building on until you had what was basically a city block, all comprised of one big bustling Jewish family. (And you thought My Big Fat Greek Wedding was bad) Crazy, but also true.

Well, as you can imagine, this process could take quite a while. I mean, it’s a house for crying out loud. Some scholars say it was six months, or even a year before the poor guy was finished. And get this, the only one who could decide if it was finished was the father. So he’d be working and working and working, and every day looking to his dad, saying, “Are we done yet?” And I can just imagine the father messing with him. Taking his time, looking it over, and then just saying, “Almost.” Could you imagine? Oh, the agony! And to top it all off, the groom and the bride weren’t even allowed to talk to each other. Nothing. Nada. Zip. They couldn’t see or speak to one another during the entire engagement, except for one outlet. The best man. He’d be the instant messenger if you will. Taking notes back and forth between the doting couple. And those moments were probably pretty funny. “Here’s your note, ‘one who was bought with a price.’ Check yes, no, or maybe.” Unbelievable.

But you know, how much more beautiful would that day be when the father finally approved? That day when the groom was finally finished, and he could gather up his homeboys, or ‘groomsmen’ as we westerners would say, and imperiously march into his fiance’s town? Oh it was sweet. And that’s just what he’d do. He’d get his bridal party together and they’d come to her house, and without any prior announcement or advanced warning, they would blow a shofar, which was a ram’s horn that served as a trumpet, and upon hearing it, the pining bride would come bustling out her front door and practically straight down the aisle, and into her beloved’s arms. The period of waiting and wanting would be over, and the two would be united at last to consummate their long-awaited union. Joy. Happiness. Little Rabbis… You know, all the good stuff.

So then, back to the dinner table with the 12. Can you sense where this is going? Jesus breaks into this marriage proposal,

cup out, wine-filled, offering his covenant with them. They accept. “I do” to Jesus. Gulp, gulp. “I accept your life, and I give you mine in return.” So then, what does Jesus do? He explains how they have to spend some time apart. Naturally. Only this is going to be longer than a year. However, the best man was coming. His name? The Holy Spirit. So when Jesus leaves, off to get busy preparing a “mansion” for them, (“in my Father’s house there are many rooms”) He doesn’t leave them alone, but instead sends His own mediator, the Holy Spirit, to keep the messages going between Himself and his Beloved. Meanwhile, the bride is left behind in her town, keeping watch, day and night, not knowing the day, time or hour that the bridegroom will appear. Until finally, after a long-awaited return, and we’re talking seriously, long awaited; centuries and milleniums waited people, after this much awaited consummation, the Father alone will announce that the time has come, and Jesus will be coming back for all His faithful, all who are His bride. With a posse of angels and loud trumpet call of their own, He will take us home, to the marriage supper of the Lamb! And we will share in ever-increasing joy and intimacy with Him forever and ever. As C.S. Lewis so brilliantly articulated, “Further up and further in!”

And people still want to insist that Christianity is no more than a religion.

I don’t know about you but in light of this information, it puts Jesus in an entirely different light. He’s no longer an ideal, or a belief system. He’s a person. And to put it more precisely, He is a groom in love with his bride. And not just any bride, but a wayward, adulterous bride. A bride who is half-hearted at best, chasing other lovers and other interests more than Him. And still, He keeps on loving. He keeps on being faithful, He keeps his promises.

In the Old Testament, He tells his prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman, to show everyone the way He loves his people. (see Hosea 3) In the New, He tells us that divorce will never be an option for Him. (Phil 1:6) Over and over and over again, From Isaiah, to Ezekiel, to Ephesians, He tells us that we are not just his children, but we are his bride. Faithless though we might be, we are His, and He is ours.

And like I said before, this changes everything. It changes the way I view prayer. It changes the way I view marriage. It even changes the reasons that I obey. As Donald Miller once said, “it’s a far different thing to break a rule, than it is to cheat on a lover.” I only pray that it changes things for you. ”


- Mike Donehey, Tenth Avenue North
http://tenthavenuenorth.com/blog/2009/06/19/chapter-9-beloved/

Thieves in the Temple

Growing closer to God is a big goal in our lives as Christians. But a question that many will have is how do you? How do you grow closer to God?

One thing I would like to clarify is getting to know God is not about feelings. You'll always go through seasons when the presence of God feels far or it feels like God might not care about you, but feelings are fickle. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Our walk with God is and will always be about faith in Him and following Him. Have faith that God knows, loves, and hears you. Our first priority is to follow Him. Often feelings will come after that. Just know that in a relationship with God, the foundation is not how your heart feels, but faith in Him and His Word.

That aside, how do we grow closer to God? What's the heart of all this Christian talk about a relationship with Christ? We can literally (well, spiritually) move closer to Him. But...

We live in the world, and the world is a dark, cluttered place. God's on the other end, and though we're sanctified with His holiness so that we glow in the dark, I'd go as far as to say that pretty much all of us have obstacles between Him and us. They could be sins. They could be habits. They could be interests. They could be activities. They could be people and relationships. They're not necessarily bad things!! Just things that we place before God or close to Him. (For instance: school, friends, Facebook.) We often have junk standing between us and God, and I'd bet it's not one item -- there's quite a few.

Think of it like this. There are large obstacles in a line, in between you and your Father. I named some of the things they could be. When you remove one, you have the space to move one step closer to Him! Truly, our life with God and growing closer to God is locating and kicking aside these objects to get closer to the heart of our Lord.

The obstacles in our lives steal away attention from the Holy One. Go grab your Bible and read John 2:13-17. Read Mark's version of the narrative, too, found in Mark 11:15-17. The Bible says our hearts are a temple for God. We want it to be as pure and vacant as possible in order to be filled to its full extent with His glory and love! But there are those thieves we all have in our personal courtyards. Pray to God right now and ask Him to reveal to you any robbers in your heart. Spend some time with your King requesting Him to chase them out, and then truly work to place Him above them, trusting and having faith that the Holy Spirit will help you. Then, you will grow closer to God.

Girl Talk:

What are the robbers in your heart? How do you plan to drive them out? Post your comments sharing with your sisters.