Honesty

Would you say that you are a relatively honest person? That you don't really have a problem with lying? Or maybe there are certain people that you tend to be more honest to and others that you aren't? Maybe you are thinking that you are super honest with your friends but when it comes to your parents when they ask you how you are doing... you just can't give them the truthful answer? Maybe it's time to rethink this decision and be a little more honest. In this verse it is obvious that we are commanded not to lie because that is of our old self and we have put on our new self.

"Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
Colossians 3:9-10

I always thought that I was truthful. I thought I was a very honest person and never really told lies. Recently, I have realized how false that is. I started to realize how many lies I have told in the past and how they are affecting me till this day. There were so many of them, ones that were huge, while some of them were little exaggerations and embellishments of the truth, but even those were lies and I was ashamed. This verse explains that "reckless words" can hurt people and how it is so necessary to be truthful because lies don't last.

"Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment." Proverbs 12:18-19

I hurt one of my best friends because of my "reckless words". I couldn't even admit them to myself for the longest time. Once I finally could, which was recently, I went to dinner with my friend and told her about the lies in hopes for her to forgive me. She did, and now we can be honest and truthful to each other, which like the verse says, endures forever.

"No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless." Revelations 14:5

My wish is for my life to be blameless and have no lies found in my mouth. I think that it would be really cool for someone to be able to say this verse about me and for them to be able to say it in truth. Could someone say that there are no lies in your mouth? Could they say that you are blameless?

Salt of the Earth

In Sphere this past Wednesday Bobby talked about salt and how we Christians equal salt. I really enjoyed this which is why I have decided to write on it. Matthew 5:13 says, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Salt is meant to preserve food. We as Christians are to be salt and preserve the world. We are called to slow the rotting of the world down and to be an example for Christ shown through our lives. Like I stated in my last blog, we are to be set apart from the world and be different. My magazine from Brio and Beyond states, “When you refuse to go with the crowd, you disrupt the momentum of sin in the world around you.” Salt has a distinctive taste and is different from all others. It adds seasoning to all foods and spices everything up to be tastier. If you are salt to the earth then you stand out and encourage everyone you come in contact with. This means that no matter what situation you are in you should encourage everyone and have God’s light shining through you. My magazine also says that “The strength of salt has a positive influence on whatever is salted. Let’s get right with God and use our influence to help the people around us. God works through us to show the rotting of this world. But we need to be right with Him so He can use us.” This is so true because we should always be a positive influence. We should also have a desire to preserve the world.

Bobby made a great point when he said that we need to bring others to Christ so that they can be salt too. This world is so sinful and there are so many opportunities to be salt in this world. We can do this by intentionally encouraging people, being passionate within a world of apathetic people, giving people grace, forgiving them when they have wronged us, and being genuine and truthful at all times.

Mark 9:50 says “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” We need to make sure that we don’t lose our saltiness because then we lose our distinctiveness and we become lukewarm, like the world we are trying to preserve. God is clear how he feels about lukewarm Christians. He says, “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelations 3:16). God would rather you not believe in him at all than to be lukewarm and complacent.

We need to be passionate and make sure not to lose our saltiness by compromising and casually accepting sinful behavior. We could also lose our saltiness by conforming to the world, not taking a stand for what you believe as well as being passive, being apathetic, having too much of a routine, and by being a hypocrite. A hypocrite basically covers all of them because if you aren’t a hypocrite then you are genuine and truthful and very salty. My magazine says that “If salt loses its saltiness, it’s no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” All this made me think of how I settle for less and how much more passionate I could be. In small groups we made an acronym for the word salt and I really liked it so here it is:

Saved- because if you are saved you are a Christian
Attitude- because your attitude should be encouraging whenever you talk to someone
Light- because when you are salt you are a light to the world
Truth- because being salt is also being genuine and truthful

I hope this can encourage you to be more passionate for Christ and to be the salt of the earth.

Being Set Apart

Ok yea, so I know I may not be that faithful in updating this but hey, I need to be able to have enough time to sit down and think through all of what I want to say. That way this can be encouraging and beneficial to you, the reader. I have been realizing more and more lately the biggest problem with a Christian atmosphere. A lot of it is the complacency that is such a big problem. People don't care about their relationship with God and their growth. The problem I have been noticing recently is that there are so many people that think they are true Christians, but are really not. It is so hard to witness to those types of people because they know all the right answers, what is right and what is wrong, and they know that people won't question their faith if they claim to be a Christian and act like they are on Sundays. I am here to tell them that they are wrong. There is such a huge difference between people that are Christians and Non-Christians. For example...

Non-Christians

They have a sinful nature that controls them that they have had their entire life. They are 100% human and are readily serving Satan and his desires. They are always sinning and struggling with sin because it is impossible for them to do any sort of good. They have no control over bad habits, the habits control them. They can't understand what the Bible is saying because God hasn't given them the ability to understand it. Non-Christians are separated from God because they sin and God, being completely perfect can't be in the presence of sin.

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
-Romans 7:14-20

So, this is pretty confusing to me but when I read it slowly, it makes total sense. They can't do anything that this good or that is of God, because they are bound by their sinful nature. The good news is, is that I am a Christian and I know the majority of my friends reading this are Christians too, and we don't need to worry about sinful natures. So, that's exciting.

Christians
A common misconception I hear all the time is, "I am struggling with this sin... But that's because I am human and I have a sinful nature and my sinful nature is making me do it." I used to be like this and think that this was the case until two years ago in small groups Christa Blakey corrected me (Christa, I would put your link in here for other people to see your blog, but I don't know how to work that). She told me that I need to stop trying to justify my sin. I need to admit that it was my fault that I sinned. You have no excuse to sin after you become a Christian. Christ never sinned. If you are calling yourself a Christian, "little Christ," then you don't have an excuse to sin. Sin is not a struggle, it is a choice. Once you are a Christian you are set apart from the world. You are different from everyone else. Everyone else is human with their sinful nature, but you have the Holy Spirit, a supernatural being inside of you. That definitely sets you apart from all the else. Sin has no power over you, meaning you can say yes as well as no to it. You have the ability to choose not to sin in all of your actions and decisions. So now that I have said my main point in about 50 different ways, here is what the Bible has to say about it...

"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
-Romans 6:6-14

"Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."
-Romans 8:5-11

James 1:19-20

Some days it's really hard to stay focused on the things that are important, all at the same time. School, home life, friends, church, homework, relationship with God. I think is it is so easy to get so wrapped up in the things that aren't that important. I need to realize my priorities and act on them. Some days I wake up and I don't even bother thinking about God because maybe I have a test I feel the need to stress about. What good it is going into a test all stressed out but without God helping me through it? Or what about the lovely snooze button on my alarm clock that gets beaten several times in the morning? Is sleeping 20 extra minutes a good substitute for starting your day off with God? No. If I spend those 20 minutes with God every morning, He is going to do something in me. I'm going to grow.
These two things are something I did a lot last year. I would go through whole days without thinking about God or about the things that are really important. I would get home from school and do homework, and then I might watch TV. When I finally would go upstairs I would give God the last 10 minutes of my day just to say that I did my quiet time. I would end up being totally incoherent and giving God my worst time of day. This year I decided to do my quiet time in the morning, giving God my best time and He is using it. There is no better way to start your day than with Jesus.
Recently I have been studying the 10 commandments and this morning was the morning of "You shall not murder" from Exodus 20:13. Initially when I thought about doing this quiet time this morning I didn't think it would make that big of an impact because I thought, "No problem, I would never murder anyone." I kept reading and realized more and more that I am already guilty of murder. Matthew 5:21-22 says,

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."

This made me think of all the times that I get angry at my friends, teachers, or dad over stupid insignificant things. Then I hold grudges and it affects my relationships with God. This made me realize more of how I need to not get angry over something petty. I also need to have an open mind to what people have to say. I need to hear them out and pray for our conversation. I also need to pray for wisdom of words so I won't be defensive. There is an awesome verse that talks exactly about this in James. I read it this morning and I was so encouraged, so I will leave you with this. James 1:19-20,

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires."