Food For Thought

Do you remember Sunday School class in elementary school when your teacher would teach you acronyms so you could remember lessons?

W.W.J.D- What Would Jesus Do?

F.R.O.G.- Fully Rely On God

Most of these are silly little sayings, but there is one that sticks out in my mind and I remember to this day because I use it.

A.C.T.S.- Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication

It is a simple, but biblical way to pray.

Adoration- Begin your time of prayer by dwelling on the glory and majesty of God. Acknowledge his power and his authority in your life. This puts you in the right attitude of prayer because it puts you in the mindset of talking to the King of all kings.

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.- Psalm 103:2-5

Confession-Continue with confessing the sin in your life. Unconfessed, unrepented sin acts as a wall in your life with the Lord. Sometimes it feel like your prayers are just hitting the ceiling and bouncing right back at you. Confessing them and turning from them tears down the wall and allows open communication between you and God.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.-1 John 1:9

Thanksgiving- Take a minute to think about the blessings God has given you. Thank God for them. Even if your life is not going the way you want it to, taking time to remember the little blessings God has given you for the day will help it all come into perspective.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.- Psalm 100:4

Supplication- Notice that asking comes last. After you have admired the Lord, confessed your sins, and given thanks to God for his blessings in your life then you ask for things. Ask the Lord for what you need. He is good and faithful to provide.

Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.- Psalm 78:23-25

Can you remember anything simple you learned as a child in church that you still remember and use today?

Here is scripture to encourage you and bring you joy in the Christmas season! The baby born in the manger is the our King, Lord, and Savior!

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. -Matthew 1:21

You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.- Luke 1:31-33

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.- Isaiah 9:6-7

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.- 2 Corinthians 5:21

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… He was in the world, and though th world was made through him, the world did no recognize him. he came to that which was his own. but his own did not receive him. yet to all who recognize him, to those who believed in his hame, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor or human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.- John 1:1-5, 10-14

Celebrate the birth of our Christ this month!

I’m sure, by now, many of you are struggling through your lingering turkey-induced coma. You’ve probably eaten more than your stomach can comfortably hold and watched more than your fair share of football. No matter what you’re doing now, I hope this blog post finds you healthy, happy, and full of your Thanksgiving food of choice. I love Thanksgiving. I love hanging out with my family and eating delicious turkey and dressing with steaming hot mashed potatoes and ending it with a nice and cool chocolate chip pie. It gives you a day to remember your family and how thankful you should be for them. I wish there were more days like it. In fact, the Bible calls us to have more days like this.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. – Colossians 4:2

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever. -1 Chronicles 16:34

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  -Psalm 100:4

The LORD deserves our thanksgiving daily. He has given us more than we deserve. He gave His only, perfect Son to us to be our sin on the cross and make it possible for us to have a relationship with Him. He gives us beautiful sunsets, landscapes, and nature to remind us of his majesty. He blesses us daily with a good parking spot, an encouraging word from a friend, or just a smile from a passing stranger. He gives us our every breath and heartbeat. We need to be thankful everyday, but it is nice to have a special day set aside to remind us of that.

What are you most thankful for today?

Monday night, Clint (my boyfriend) and I went to see “The Blind Side” on a whim. His dad called us while we were out and about and asked if we wanted to go to a late showing so we decided to tag along. I was hesitant at first because I was worn out from the High School Retreat we had just returned from that morning, but I’m glad I went. God chose to use that movie to speak to me. I’m sure that sounds odd, that God would use a Hollywood movie to teach me something, but I’ll explain.

(The movie is a true story so there’s no ruining the plot line exactly, but if you’re just weird like that, then don’t read past here. )

In the beginning of the movie, Michael Oher is a sixteen year old boy who is basically living on the streets. His mother is a crackhead and he was taken out of her custody and hasn’t been “settled” since. He was living with a friend, but he heard the parents complaining about how much money it was costing. He was in a private school, on scholarship of course, on the hopes he would be good at sports since he was huge. He slept any where it was warm and kept everything he had in a plastic grocery bag. He washed his one extra shirt in the sink at a laundromat because he couldn’t afford a washing machine. He picked up leftover, forgotten popcorn at a volleyball game to eat because he had no food. He had nothing, and no one to support him.

This wasn’t exactly supposed to be the touching, “tear-jerking” part in the movie, but as I watched this young boy struggle to survive by himself, and NO ONE trying to help, my heart broke. I started crying and Clint leaned over to ask what was wrong and all I could say was, “It’s not fair.” Clint was trying to be sweet and comforting, saying things work out in the end, but I couldn’t stop thinking… things don’t work out for everyone. For every Michael Oher, there are thousands and thousands of kids who never reach their potential because they’re never told they have any. They struggle to live day-to-day and don’t know why they’re here. As I write this, tears still well up in my eyes. It’s just not fair.

There is hope for these children. I want to give them that hope. As of right now, I don’t know what that is going to look like, or how God will prepare me for that, but that is my purpose in life: to give hope, to support, to love.

Has God ever used something out of the ordinary to teach you something?

As a college student, I am ALWAYS busy. Between classes, homework, studying, hanging out, and sleep, almost every minute of my time is taken up. It’s supposed to be the “college experience,” but let’s be honest, it gets exhausting after a while. It’s so easy to forget about myself and my health and just push through it to get it done because there’s only another year left, a light at the end of the tunnel. Last night was one of those nights for me. I stayed up until 3 a.m. finishing a midterm. Now, I admit I did procrastinate until the very last night to do it, but isn’t that what college is all about…? Before I went to sleep I flipped open my Bible to dig in a little bit and I opened it to this:

“Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God’? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He give strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”    -Isaiah 40:27-31

Talk about exactly what I needed to hear!

I love the part that says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard?” It almost sounds like the writer is saying, “HELLO! We’re talking about the EVERLASTING God here!” The LORD knows right where we are and exactly what we’re going through. He knew where we were going to be today before we were even born!  And the LORD understands our struggles. He knows we’re hurting, exhausted, weary, and anything else you’re feeling and no one can even fathom the level of understanding He has. The Bible gives us the promise that if we hope in the LORD, He will be faithful and renew our strength!

Take a second to sit and meditate on the Scripture. Trust in the LORD that He is faithful to renew your strength and keep you going in hard times.

What is the biggest challenge collegiate Christians face in our world today?

This question was asked to me, completely out of the blue, while I was catching up with some friends at church tonight. What started out as a pastor’s wife just making curious conversation, ended with a lesson from God.

The four of us who were talking each had different, personal answers for the questions, although we agreed with all of them.

“Time management.”

“We watch our friends fall away.”

“‘Christians’ sometimes speak up in class and give ‘us’ a bad name.”

Then, a guy said, “College changed for me when I realized it wasn’t for me.”

It struck me as an odd statement, but later, another friend of mine added her two cents to it and God made it click.

My friend, Anna, is an RA in a dorm at UT. She’s seeing God do incredible things in and through her and is so pumped up about it, it’s contagious. She’s in an “off” year (not as insanely busy as usual) and has realized that only two things matter: people coming to know Christ; and those who know Christ, drawing nearer to Him.

How true is this? To clarify the statement earlier, college is not for me. It is for God. He has placed you and I in a very specific place that only we can fit. He has equipped us for His work, and it’s our job to be willing to dive in. I’m not saying flunking out of school is ok, because it only matters if people come to Christ. No, God has told us to do everything for his glory (1 Cor 10:31), so we should strive to do our very best until we walk up on that stage and get our diploma. I’m saying though, that God has ordained each and every one of us to be in every class that we’re in, every seat that we sit in, every job we have, and every relationship we’re in. He ordained our days before a single one had started (Psalms 139:16).

Be intentional. Go the extra step to show God’s love to someone. Soak up every biblical lesson you can learn and apply it to your life. Use these transitional years of your life to serve the Lord, glorify His name, and grow up into the man or woman of God He desires you to be! You are not in college for you.

How would your perspective change in your day to day life in college if you were to accept that only those two things have eternal worth?

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27

America is a country of excess. The majority of our population has excess of everything they could ever need.We throw food away, we throw clothes away, and we throw away old appliances and other electronics that make our life a piece of cake. I remember when I was little and I heard, “There are starving kids in China that would love to eat that,” after not finishing a plate of food, I’d think “Sure, but it’s not like I can do anything about it.” But the thing is, you can. And quite honestly, if you call yourself a Christian, then you should.

There are 143 MILLION orphans in the world. In a list of the highest populations of countries from around the world, orphans rank in at #9, just above the entire country of Russia. By the year 2020, there will be 20 MILLION orphans from HIV/AIDS. These children have done nothing to deserve this. They’ve just been born into it. We are extremely blessed to have been born into the USA and have the things we do. Why would we not want to give our excess and some of the things we want to provide those with nothing the things they need to simply survive.

There are many ways you can get involved.

Pray. Pray for what God would have you do for those less fortunate around the world, including here in our own backyards. Pray God would send Christians to go to the people and share his love for them.

Give. There are countless good organizations to give to. A few I can give with confidence are WorldVision (www.worldvision.org/sponserachild) and Compassion International (compassion.com). With these organizations, they pair you up with a specific child and for less than $40 a month you can provide the child with everything they need to thrive. It’s a neat experience because it’s personal; you can send gifts and letters and even meet the child one day. If you’re looking for a one-time offering, Long Hollow Baptist Church is in the middle of a campaign called Crazy Love Campaign. With the money raised through offerings over a few years, they will be building a village in Hatai for orphans, expanding local ministries, and giving to missionaries around the world. You can find more information at longhollow.com.

Go. Go yourself. Go forever, or for a week. Seeing poverty first hand will leave a mark on your life forever. Don’t pass up an opportunity to go and serve these people with your own two hands.

And remember, we have GOOD NEWS we need to be sharing with the world. It is SO good and it’s a privilege to be used as God’s hands and feet.

“Jesus is my homeboy.”
“Jesus is my Co-pilot.”
“Jesus is my buddy.”

These are are popular, trendy descriptions of how Jesus is view in our society today. They give you a nice warm feeling, like snuggling up in a blanket with a burning fire and a cup of steaming hot chocolate in the middle of winter. They’re cuddly, hip, and fun. however, there is a problem. Show me one time in the Bible when Jesus portrayed himself as cuddly, hip, or fun. Go ahead and look…

Oh that’s right. You won’t find one because He never said that.

Jesus claimed he didn’t come to bring peace and be our homeboy in Matthew 10:34-38

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”

Jesus said during the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:11, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Following Jesus isn’t the “fun” thing to do.

Jesus didn’t say if we followed him he’d be our buddy. In Mark 8:34 he says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” By this time in Jesus’ life, the cross was known as a torture device. It wasn’t a nice silver charm at the end of chain, or a tattoo on the back of our arm. It was the willingness to sacrifice everything for following him.

Christianity today has watered down what it means to be a disciple of Christ. What would happen to our world if Christians stopped looking at Jesus as our homeboy, co-pilot, and buddy, and started putting Christ in his rightful place as the KING of our lives? The revival we’ve been praying for for years would come sweeping through our nation. There would be no such thing as orphans. The unreached people groups of the world would be reached. The world would be radically changed.

I’ll leave you with a conversation I has this week. I’m the “big sister” of five precious high school girls in a Bible study back home. Four of us got together Sunday night at Starbucks to talk about sacrificing things in our life to our King. One of the last questions we talked about was “If you truely recognized Christ as your King daily, how would your priorities change?” There was a chorus of “Wow…” “I don’t even know” and “They’d change a lot.” After getting over the initial slap in the face of the question, we moved on to discuss practical things and God showed us a lot through each other, but I’d like to challenge you all with that question today.

If you were to pick up your cross and follow Christ as King daily, what would be different in your life? How would your priorities change? Would sacrificing some comforts of your life seem like such a big deal?

I look forward to reading and talking about your thoughts!

The purpose of this blog is to discuss biblical lessons I’ve learned or am learning. I want it to be a place you can come to and think, respond, and communicate with others, whether they’re Christians or not, about the claims of Christ. Don’t hesitate to put your thoughts on the page. I do ask that you keep responses respectful, even if you don’t agree with someone else. Thank you for coming and reading this and I look forward to seeing what happens!