The Standard

Our lives are often lived trying to measure up to the standards placed upon us by either those around us or ourselves. Some would say that many of the standards we strive for cannot truly be reached in their full reality.If you were to ask someone what their standards were you would get many different answers such as to live in a large home, or to make a lot of money, maybe even to become famous. It does not matter who you talk to they will have some sort of standard for their life. The question is what are the real standards for our lives?

The church answer is to live by the standards God has placed in his word for us, but can we really live up to the standards God has given us or is it like Captain Barbossa said, "They are more like guidelines than actual rules" (Pirates of the Caribbean). The standards God has placed upon his followers are strenuous, and yes they are impossible for us to keep from now till death. We cannot focus on the things that can happen to us, we were told that daily we are to die to self. Every day we must make the effort to put to rest the things inside of us we wish to do that are contrary to the will of God. No, we will not succeed every time for we will grow weary and our bodies will give in, but God has called us to repentance. God has called us to himself for forgiveness.

Many of the standards we have placed in our lives are not standards God has determined worthy of his children. God has not called us to earthly riches, instead he has told us to care for nothing in this world and store up treasures in heaven. We cannot let the things of this world determine how we live because they do not matter! Our life is a journey to God and his holiness it is a journey to that throne filled with His glory. You see before us is a path that is rather narrow, and many times it is so hard to walk straight that many people would prefer to go the other way where the going is easy and spacious, but the things worth having are worth working for. At the end of this narrow path there are things beyond our imagination things more glorious than anything we could imagine, but what is even grander to think about is we will not care what is at the end as long as God our Father is there.

One standard that I would like to discuss before I end my strange writing process is God's standard for love. It's one we must strive for in our lives, if there is anything we need to strive for it is to love like God loves. You see God does not have a problem finding the beauty in people, he sees to their core and loves them. The love God gives is not one that needs to have sex to be in love or one that needs a physical touch to grow. You see the love God has is not like a rose which pricks and causes one to bleed instead it is like the ocean which continues to crash onto the shore. God wishes to encompass us with his love because he knows what is needed. The highest standard we can live by is this: To love our neighbor as ourself and to love the lord your God with all your heart; the two greatest commandments given to us.

Revolution?

I went home this past weekend (July 4th weekend) to see my family for the first time since I started camp (a whole six weeks). We caught up went out and had a good meal, and the next day we went out got some stuff, saw a movie, and went to WalMart (about all you can do in my small Ga town), and it was there that I became rather agitated. You see behind me were two or three young adults who were rather vulgar........ I mean I'm standing in line and just common everyday talk they were cursing, not because they were angry, just because they could. In my head I began to think is this the future of our generation.

This all made me think of the expectations that are put on my generation. I have heard how we are going to revolutionize this country and bring forth a revival. Well, the question is are we? Every day it seems like things get worse in the world, and we wish for something to be done. People become steeped deeply into their sins, and the sick just become sicker while many of the healthy hold tightly to their physician. The answer to the world's problems always seems to be the up and coming generation, or so we are led to believe. The weight of the world is placed on their shoulders and they are expected to find the solution to healing a world that does not believe it is broken. In time they grow up and often not find no solution to the problem and the burden is placed on the next generation.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." So, are we that change? We cannot keep pushing off our problems on our children, just like we cannot wish for a Christ revolution while sitting idle in our Churches. Our hope for a better tomorrow is not in our children but in Christ who lives in us. Our generation, the generation of hope and of sin of change and of idleness, is the one that can make a difference by placing Christ in the middle and stepping out of the walls we have built up around ourselves. Christ has not called us to be a thug, a Prep, or a Pew Sitter, instead he placed us in the middle of a war zone to fight a battle worth fighting for. He did not call us to sit down while we listen to vulgar music, perverse jokes, or coarse joking; He did not call us to sit back and drink all our problems away. He did call us to sit behind our walls pretending everything is ok while our lives are crumbling apart because of holding back from him. Instead he called us to give him all of ourselves and be transformed to become Holy Like God is Holy, yet are we trying to obtain this perfection or are we sitting back continuing in sin so we may fit into the world around us?

Be conformed not to the ways of this world is what Paul said, not become one with the world but to be one with God (Rom 12:2). Christ himself told us that He did not come to bring peace but division; He came to start a fire that would divide homes because some would believe in him while others would not (Luke 12:51-53). Christ came to light a fire in the hearts and souls of men, are we trying to extinguish it? We are not here to become complacent with the world; at the end of Romans 12:2 Paul told us that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds and by doing this we will be able to test and know what God's will is. Brothers and Sisters know that Christ did not die for us to be complacent where we are at, but He did come to give us the power to change the world. He gave us the power to bring about a Love Revolution. Christ truly is the hope of all generations.

All Glory, Power, and Honor to Him forever, Amen

AP

Pick It Up

There are many burdens we carry throughout our life as we dredge from here until eternity. Things that tear the heart, break the body, and mangle the soul. As human beings we try to hide these things from those around us; as Darwin said survival of the fittest right? There have been days where my mind has been so heavy laden with thoughts and questions about faith, repentance, and so much more. Nights where I've wondered does God really care, or as silly as it sounds can you really forgive me of this? In all of the chaos and confusion, in the eye of the storm I have heard an answer from across the way from the living God who resides inside you and me.

His answer for my sins and for my life are the same words Christ spoke many years ago, " If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). Those questions storming around my mind, the doubts, the fears, the heartache. They have all been answered here. Christ has called me to deny myself of worldly pleasures; of the things my flesh may want me to say, do, or listen to, He has called me to rebuke them and pick up the same cross he carried and to follow after my Savior. When sorrow seems to overflow within me and life seems at it's bleakest I must carry on. God has given you and me everything we need to follow after Him, and we must boldly pursue, always remembering that when it seems like we do not have the strength to carry on He is right there beside us helping us all along the way.

I have also learned that the heart is deceitful, and we cannot base how God looks at us by how we feel. God loves us and he sees the best in us, and he always wants us to see the beauty in ourselves and in others because to God we are all his children. It makes Him sad to see us stumble and fall, and in some cases turn away, but He is always here with us to listen to our cries for help and love us even when we make mistakes. God is listening and He does care, and He does forgive; we have to be willing to accept that He does. You see for all our failures Jesus died on the cross, His blood has washed us clean all that is required is to go before the throne of God and be true to ourselves and truthful to Him and ask for forgiveness. From there we must pick up our cross and trust that God is enough for everything we need and more than enough to face any challenge that comes our way. We cannot walk around as Children of God acting as if we are already defeated; we have the victory in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

It may seem that the burdens of your heart and soul are tearing you apart, and life may be crumbling all around you, but God has seen your pain and He knows your heart. Seek after Him and love Him and know that He is the crucial piece that you need in your life, and the only one who can bring peace to your heart.

For His Glory,

AP

Addiction

As a follower of Jesus Christ every day I am supposed to continuously run the race set before me, but I have learned that it is easy to become distracted and stop running. It is the things that I see beside the road that catch my eye appealing to hidden desires, yet the truth is they are nothing more than hinderances out to distract me from my main purpose. These things are continuously trying to vie for my attention, in many cases winning. You see our focus is supposed to be set on God and his will for our lives but when we turn our attention to other things we forget about Him and begin searching after things that do us harm.

I have learned that I am addicted to sin, and as I look at scripture I see that I am at war with myself. The flesh yearns for one thing while God's Spirit inside of us yearns for another. There are times where I have contemplated an action. In truth I gave it to much thought, for when you contemplate things of an unholy nature they begin to become more appealing to you, and you become more likely to act upon them. When I start thinking about something I know is wrong the gratification that comes out of these things comes to the forefront of my mind, and the drawbacks seem like mere child's play.

You must know that we cannot follow after our own desires, instead we must line up our desires with those of God's. In front of you and I lies a path filled with struggles all our own but if we choose to continue down this road many adventures await us. If we continue we must hold fast to our Father's hand because alone it is impossible, with him anything is possible. It will not be an easy road to travel; lining up our desires with God, but "Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?" The journey is worth the hardships and the hardships worth His glory, so let us go forward and begin an adventure worth our calling.