Shadowfeet by Brooke Fraser

A Command to be Holy

"Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Peter 1:13-16)

We, as followers of Jesus, need to be holy in our conduct. We are COMMANDED to be holy. It's not a choice. We must strive for the holiness that mirrors our Lord Jesus Christ. The desire to do this must be embedded in our hearts, and if the Holy Spirit is working in your soul, it is. 

Do not avoid this command. Do not keep on sinning for the sake of sinning. The satisfaction of sin is immediate, not eternal. And what are we striving for? Immediate or eternal treasures? 

"And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for 

'All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of

 grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord remains

forever.'

"And this word is the good news that was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:17-25)

My Mother

This is my mother: Miriam E. Drahosh.

She is a wonderful, excellent you might say, mother.

Though we don't always get along, she is one of my best friends. 

I love her with all my heart. 

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. 

Don't Waste Your Life by Lecrae

"The Son of Man Must be Lifted Up"

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That whish is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9), so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." (John 3:1-15)

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food [manna]." Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he may take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21:4-9)

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2009/3790/

Read it, watch it, listen to it. 

Learn that one only need to LOOK! and be saved. 

God's child

So I have been listening to Shawn McDonald a lot lately, and I hit on his blog. This picture came up, which I'm assuming is his son, Cohen. I thought it was adorable. 

The longer I looked at it, the more I enjoyed it and found myself relating to the facial expression. 

Many days I feel like a little baby, whose heart and head totally confuse her. I thought the picure was really telling of this feeling. 

This feeling has been really apparent this week. As I was reading Romans with some friends, we stopped at this passage: 

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, wich leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at the time from the tings of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:15-23)

So for me, this passage really emphasized that I am a slave to righteousness, and those things that confuse my heart and my head are, in some instances, sinful.

I need to focus on Jesus and nothing else. Under Him, my heart and my head will be focused on the "free gift of God" that is eternal life "in [and only in] Christ Jesus our Lord." 

My love for Him needs to be first and foremost. I must strive for Him more than anything else in this world. I need to remember that the fruits of my sin are nothing, but the fruits of righteous through my Savior are all-encompassing. 

So, though many days I feel like an infant, struggling to understand the world, I have a free gift in Jesus, who came and died for all of my sins, making me God's child. 

And now that I am God's child, He will center me on Him, and my heart and head will not confuse me. He is in control.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-17)

Christ Died for Us

This past weekend being Easter, I was interested to see the pictures contained on The Big Picture website. What I saw truly broke my heart. 

The picture show many different traditions of Easter week. Most have to do with Catholic traditions of burning candles to the Virgin Mary and worshiping depictions of Jesus. 

What really disturbed me were the pictures of men whipping themselves as penance.  Or the man who was actually nailed to a cross. Why would you do such a thing? I understand that they think it is a way of paying for their sins, but wait. Aren't they celebrating the death of Jesus and with Him, their sins? Aren't they celebrating the resurrection of the living Christ? Aren't they celebrating the fact that He died for their sins so that they do not have to? 

It says explicitly that Christ died for sins in Matthew 20:27-28:

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Though I can understand that people might interpret this as just being metaphorical about the covenant, it is not. It literally means his blood being poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. In His sacrifice, His death, the new covenant is sealed. But it is literally that He will be a sacrifice for us. Literally. Like He was nailed to a tree, bloody and dripping, dying of asphyxiation, bearing the weight of the sins of the world, even the ones not committed yet. It was so terrible that God had to turn His back upon His Son. He could not look at that sin. 

Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Corinthians: 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he ws raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

(1 Corinthians 15:3-5)

Now we are to remember that Christ died for our sins, so we do not have to. We all deserve a gruesome death for the things we have done, the sins we have committed. And yes, sins is an over-used word, so let me rephrase. We all deserve death for the depraved, disgusting, stomach-turning, despicable, repugnant, icky, wrong things we do. We are only human, but because Christ died for our sins and has forgiven them, we are covered by His blood. And we do not have to die! Our punishment has been taken by someone else. Praise Jesus! 

What we have to do is accept His grace. It is a free gift:

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God....And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:12-13; 16-17)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is a gift of God, something He freely offers to those that believe in Him. He took the punishment for our sins, all our yuckiness. He fixed us up and is now refining us in the fire, but only if we accept His gift of grace. 

And this is why it saddens me to see people beating themselves out of penance. The sins have already been paid for. All you have to do is believe! 

If you have any questions about what I have said, drop me a message (no doubt, you are reading this on facebook.). I would love to talk to you about it all. God is good, even in hard times, and He will always love you more than you can even fathom.