spiritual stuff

The other night as a was in a half state of sleep I started thinking about the movie I Am Legend again.  I watched it a few weeks back again and was still amazed at the messages interwoven in it.  I was thinking about the couple scenes in the middle where the one creature/human comes out into the sunlight to try to attack him even though that would kill him.  Will’s character later documents the fact that the degeneration is complete and all the human characteristics are gone.

I thought isn’t that like us spiritually?  As we begin and then continue to sin, as the humans lost physical human characteristics and instincts, we begin losing Godly characteristics.  Sure at first it is not noticeable but if we continue on that path, it becomes ingrained in our very spiritual life until we can’t even recognize any Godly characteristics at all.

And like the creatures/humans at their worst, they begin hitting their heads against the wall trying to get what they want.  And we do the same thing.  We will do what we want to the point where it hurts us spiritually, usually emotionally and sometimes even physically.  And they didn’t want that cure.  He kept saying “I can help you” but they didn’t even want to listen.  Some people don’t care about the fact that God can turn their lives around. They’re perfectly fine in the life they are living.

But as the doctor sacrificed himself knowing he had the cure and knowing it was the best for them and the future of the world, Christ died for us knowing if people would just believe, their life would be changed.  Then in the future, a new world would be established and humanity would be saved from itself.

I know I’m eternally saved but sometimes I’ve gotten into places where I’ve figuritvely began hitting my head against the wall, doing things I know strips me of Godly characteristics and sends me down a path of spiritual and emotional destruction.  But I’m so thankful for God’s love, mercy and grace that He already sacrificed Himself so that when I’m ready for a change, He’s there waiting on me.

Thanks, Jen for sharing. God is amazing. He really does “work”.

Without Him: Selfish, Prideful Hypocrite
With Him: Loving, Caring Follower

Emma’s fever broke last night around 11.  She slept soundly through the night and woke up normal as can be.  No symptoms whatsoever from whatever the fever might have been fighting…including the mumps.  She was completely back to normal and even went ice skating today with SIL (which she didn’t like, by the way, which really could be a future answered prayer because I was really not looking forward to going to ice skating lessons with S since she’s planning on taking them.  anyway.)

My testimony is a little fuzzy. I have no date marked in a Bible or person that I prayed with that might remember. But the time that always stands out is when I was about 7, lying on a couch in our church (a very small church which met in a living room in a house) and asked Christ to come into my heart. I “got saved” 182,000 times after that. I can’t count the number of times I asked Christ in my heart. My fellow Southern Baptists would say just the first time counted. My pentecostal roots might say just last week I got saved again. I believe I have been saved since I was 7.

But to me, my testimony is not when I got saved, but how God has kept me so close to him for 22 years. I humbly say I was kept from many “pitfalls” as a teenager. Since childhood, I believe I have been bearing many fruits of the Spirit and with every trial as well as celebration, Christ has been with me. He has blessed me beyond words. Sure I’ve been closer to Him at times more than others but my real testimony is this…

Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conduct be without covetousness, and be content with such things that you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you, nor forsake you,’

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Phillipians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

To read others’ stories, check out Heather@Desperately Seeking Sanity

I love the series Amanda has started on prayer and healing.  I enjoyed it a lot and believe I saw it in action this morning.  I woke up around 6:30 with stomach pains.  Believe me, I don’t wake up that early for much else.  I felt hot like a fever might be coming on, I felt nauseous so much I curled up into a ball and I was even starting to have some gas pains.  I was convinced I was getting what Scott had. I even rolled over and squinted at my iPhone while I looked up to see if Traveler’s Diarrhea was contagious.  I got up and took a sip of Gatorade from the fridge hoping that would calm my stomach but it didn’t.  Back in bed, Scott rolled over and looked at me and I even said “I’m sick.  I think I have what you had.”  In my head, I started making plans on calling someone to take the kids to school.  Scott would have to get up early and take Lexi to the dentist.  I was trying to figure out how I’d could get some medicine without going to the dr.  I was convinced I’d be out for a couple days.  But I remembered Amanda’s post about how God likes for us to ask and I begged God to take away whatever it was. I didn’t want to feel that kind of pain and if He would just have mercy on me and take it away.  If He would just take it, I’d even blog about how God still heals.  Yes, I was bargaining with God.  I think I prayed myself back to sleep.  And I woke up completely fine.  I got up and got the girls ready for school.  Took them and now I’m back typing this.  I have no idea what I had but I do know I was some sort of sick and now I’m not.  So THANK YOU, JESUS.

Hebrews 5:11-14

11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

On Wednesday at youth he talked about “Hanging out with God”.  Basically the more we spend time with Him the more we become like Him.  And as he said, the best way to become a better skateboarder is to hang out with Tony Hawk.  The best way to be a better Christian is to hang out with God.  Go to the expert.  Nothing newsworthy, although always a great reminder and really did spur me to think of my study time lately but there was something he said that stood out.

You may have heard many preachers speak on the verses in Hebrews 5 above about maturing in our faith.  And when we are new Christians we “drink milk”, or we start out with basic truths and then as we mature, we graduate to solid food, or gain wisdom and then can begin discerning good and evil and digesting more truths of God.

The part that got me was though was when we was talking about maturing and stop waiting for someone to feed you, feed yourself.  Just like a toddler learns to feed himself.

I have never thought of that part of growing from a baby to an adult in real life and applied it to being a Christian..that I can recall. For some reason it was a lightbulb moment.  I go to church, listen to music, read music waiting for someone to feed me.  And yet I don’t take the time to feed myself.  I don’t take the time to “hang out with God”.  I have to make the effort.  I have to spend time with God.  Not godly people.  Not godly books.  Not godly music.    And I have to be mature enough to set aside the time to spend with God.  Listening.  It’s not about going to church on Sunday and Wednesday and waiting to hear something life-changing.  It’s not about reading the “Verse of the Day” and being able to connect with it.  It’s about becoming like God because we spend so much time with Him.

No, I can’t spend my entire day in prayer.  But come on, I can’t even come up with 15 minutes of prayer a day.  It’s a sad state of affairs really.  I thought after twenty years of being a Christian a may have matured a little and yet I can’t get the basics down.

I’ve been feeling quite reflective this weekend. I felt out of sorts yesterday afternoon. I even asked Scott to teach Sunday School because I just didn’t feel into it. I was lying in bed last night and I just saw this picture of me as if I was lying on the ground in a field and Jesus was the sun and there were so many clouds between us that I couldn’t see Him. I wanted to feel the warmth. The comfort. The peace. But I didn’t.

I wanted to climb up to the clouds and push them to the left and right so a sliver of light could come through. I opened my heart and prayed that whatever it was…maybe just time apart that was separating us would just be pushed to either side. And you know what? He did it. He pushed the clouds aside and let the Son shine through.