I am the Church

So often I think of church as a building I go to once a week. Oh, but it's so much more than that!!!

The Spirit of God lives inside of me so I represent Him wherever I go. There are many different denominations of churches out there:

~Baptist

~Charismatic

~Evangelical Free

~Lutheran

~Wesleyan :-)

And too many to list.

But since Christ lives inside of me and claim Him as my Savior, why would it matter what "denomination" I am?

I need to be consistently examining my life to make sure my actions match what I believe.

I am the Church.

All for His glory

Send Me

The last couple of summers, in between the academic years at Indiana Wesleyan University [IWU], I faced situations that have served as a chasm for spiritual growth.

In other words, my relationship with God was harmed and I had taken a step back in pursuit of Him. I had to deal with guilt and shame and overcoming fear.

This is the first summer where nothing is in my way of intimacy with God. I just want to be like Isaiah where he tells God, "Here am I. Send me." (Isaiah 6:6) As the story goes, a live coal touched his lips and he was forgiven and purified. This is symbolic to what God does in my life: I must be forgiven and then purified so I may be set apart for His work.

I desire to leave everything behind so I may be completely purified from anything that may separate me from absolute surrender to Him. I just read a passage in the Gospel of Luke that talked about the power of the Spirit. I recognize that I often depend on my power as a way to pursue growth and intimacy with God.

That will never get me far with God. Daily I must rely on His power for everything I need.

Because when I reach that point, I can hold my arms out and say to God, "Here am I. Send me to do Your work anywhere You see." When I reach that place, where I am completely lost in God, He will be glorified.

Always love

All for His glory

Love First

God is love.

If I want to change the world I must love first.

What does it mean to love?

I mean, truly love?

For the last few years, God has been teaching me about what it means in my life to love in the way He does. I also know there are many religions out there:

~Atheism

~Hinduism

~Buddhism, etc.

Why would anyone want to follow just one religion [Christianity] that focuses on just one God?

Because being a Christian means love rests at the center. For me, Christianity always comes back to the concept of love.

In the end, love wins everyone.

Why?

We all desire to be loved.

I think about that and it breaks me that an infinite God chooses to love unconditionally. I can never get away from the thought of love: of the love of God. When I begin to drift from the focus of love-I lose focus on what God is about.

When it comes to love, it is unifying across all peoples. Love isn't about me, it's all  about who God is, and I can't even begin to separate it from everything He is. I am in Him. God gives me the ability to love as He does.

I know this is a longer post than usual but I feel led to share this:

If I am truly a follower of Jesus, I will just love freely- i won't prejudge people on outside appearances. I will just love them for who they are- as a person- kind of what God does to all who know Him.

So if I want to change the world around me, I must love first.

All for His glory + Always love

Control

Up until the last few months, many things that have happened in my life that have served as a catalyst for spiritual growth, have remained in my control.

Situations were personal and, in essence, controlled what happened (or didn't happen) in my life.

Now things have changed. I am dealing with family issues that are outside my control, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The truth is I can only control my outlook on the circumstances.

Throughout all that my family is going through, I remember the Bible verse Romans 8:28 which says "God works for the good to those who are called according to His purpose."

This gives me hope because even though not everything in life will be happy, when I go through rough times, it makes me appreciate when things are going great. :-) I also remember that everything I go through is meant to bring glory to God.

I'm going to end this post with something I've been concluding with lately:

All for His glory + Always <3