Don’t be a bipolar Christian

We've all seen them. They are more common in the Christian circles than we would like to admit. Most of us are them and don’t even realize it. What am I talking about? Why a bipolar Christian of course. No one wants to think of themselves as being Bipolar, but truth be told most of us are, even the “awesome Christians.”

Why do I say most Christians are bipolar? Because now a days, someone who is a Christian 24/7 is hard to come by.  Back in the day when the book of Acts was going on you can see all over the place people being Christians, day and night. They sold their homes; they divided up everything among themselves, took care of the poor, the needy, each other and gave everything for the cause of Christ. They were truly devoted to living and breathing their faith.  Their character was Christian, a person set solely for the cause of serving Christ. They didn't care what the other people around them thought.  They made sure to always be doing what was right hoping to be a light to the world. Hoping the world would see and want to the same thing because of their genuineness for Jesus Christ and also for the love that Jesus Christ gave them for others in the world.

In the church we often do our part when people are looking and when we are trying to make an impression. I've had a very hard time finding someone who is a Christian 24/7, even I am guilty of it, wish I wasn't.  We try to look good by getting involved in church where we are comfortable. But we only help as far as we want too for surely we have to put up a boundary somewhere or we would always be serving and helping people for the cause of Christ to build others up in the faith and that would just be exhausting. (please catch the form of sarcasm) Christ doesn't tell us to take up the cross of Christianity when we feel like it. He tells us to take it up daily. We are sacrificing our lives for the service of Christ the moment we offer to let Him come in and be the Lord of our lives. That means forsaking all selfish naturally human desires to give of ourselves fully to the cause of serving Jesus Christ.

We are not to worry about fitting into the world or looking weird to them or being judge by them we are suppose to be looked at differently. If we are no different than we are not being the lights of Christ in a darkened world that needs Him dearly. We are told to be the light in the world “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

There are lots of ‘nice’ people in this world. The world doesn't need more ‘nice’ people, they need ‘true’ people. They need to know the truth. God doesn't ask us to just be lights to our circle of Christian friends, he asks us to be a light to the world. This means that just as it is important to do the right thing to help encourage our fellow Christian’s, we also need to do what is right so that when people who aren’t Christians will see the good deeds we do and they will know that it is not just natural human kindness in us but it is God’s light shining through us.

Don’t be a bipolar Christian, meaning don’t just be a Christian when it helps you fit in. Be a Christian all the time, at church, at home, at your job, in the grocery store and everywhere you go!

Comparison leads us to negativity

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, because God has said, “I will never leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Have you ever notice how unhappy you leave yourself feeling after looking around at what other people have compared to what you don’t have? It is a deadly trap too. It is so normal in our American way of life to have “THE AMERICAN DREAM!” You want the boat, the house, the nice cottage on the lake, the hot spouse, the awesome kids that are tops in everything, the best looks, the nicest and newest of all cars, a great job that you are valued in and appreciated. The list goes on and on and on. We don’t even remember we want half of those things until we realize someone else has them or has it better.

We are all guilty of it. We look around notice our friends kid is a straight A student while our kid is average. We were proud of them till that moment when we realized someone else’s kid just beat ours. Or you are so thankful when we buy a house for the first time. But, then you have a friend who bought a new house too but they sold their last one in order to upgrade to something way bigger and better than you can afford. Or your marriage, you think it’s going good, till we notice that someone else’s husband dotes on them so much more than our own husband does on us, they must be even more in-love with each other than you are with your spouse.

It’s the worst game to play and the worst mind set to get into and a hard one to break. We feed our need for self pity. At first we say we look so we can see where we can improve. Like with our marriage for instance. We think we have a good marriage going on but as soon as we see Mrs. Brown’s husband treating her so much better, we start questioning if we have a good marriage at all. Am I failing in my marriage as a wife that I need to improve in order to make my husband treat me the way Mrs. Brown’s husband treats her? Where do I fall short?  Why doesn’t he do those things for me? We start running questions through our minds of our not being good enough, first it’s our fault that we have done something wrong.  Then we move on to blaming our spouse thinking it’s his fault and he has a problem with you and he needs to step it up a bit. We get caught comparing all the time and then letting it take our minds to a level that we never really wanted it to be on.

Or if you aren’t married the scenario can play out differently of looking at another person’s life and thinking how happy they are because they are married. All of the sudden when you were perfectly content being single and doing your own thing walking with God in the world and not caring if you were married or not you start wanting the same thing  your friend has, a spouse, because it makes her so happy.

Either way we find ways to make ourselves unhappy by comparing what we have and can afford to what those around us have and start feeling like we don’t have what it takes to make us happy. We forget to find happiness in what we do have. We forget to be happy with the car we have, thankful it gets us from point A to point B. Thankful that we are not living on the street even if we don’t own a home. Thankful for our kids being able to even attend school and learn to read and write and communicate properly so that one day they can grow up and have an equal shot at a good job.  Thankful we have a husband who loves us and our kids and is striving to be there for us each day.  When we look around we see what we don’t have and question how everyone else around us is so blessed forgetting where we came from is not the same place as where they came from and that we too have been blessed in so many ways.

God does not want us to live in misery like this all the time. Sure he wants us to make sure we are doing things his way and measuring up to his standards for our lives, but he does not want us looking around coveting what others have and wishing for better. He doesn’t want us wondering around depressed because we think someone else’s life might be better.  He wants us to be satisfied with the life he gave us and be satisfied in his loving arms. He doesn’t love the person down the street anymore than he loves you or me.  We have to choose to look at what we have and be thankful for everything. It is a season to be thankful and there are so many things big and small we have been blessed with that we are to be thankful for. Being content with what you have brings you a life full of joy and happiness.

 I choose to be thankful. I choose to stop looking at others and measuring myself up to their successes and failures. I choose to let God be my everything and know all things are a blessing from Him to me.  I deserve none of them but am so thankful He saw fit to give them to me. God loves me, won’t leave me, won’t forsake me and holds me in the palm of His hand. He does not hold me any higher or lower or tighter than other people I have chosen to compare myself too. 

Saved from Drowning

About 7 1/2 years ago I was on the Jersey shore after my brother's wedding hanging out with some family and one of the grooms man from the wedding. Joe, the grooms man, and I were kinda messing around near the waters edge and eventually he threw me in the water where we proceeded our fun little games not realizing what was going on around us while we were playing around. You see as we were messing around we did not realize the effects that the ocean has while the tide comes in. Eventually we realized we were way past our waists in water and out a good distance from the shore. When we realized we needed to try and get back to shore we started swimming, what happened though was because of the undertow and the tide, and all that other jazz I still don't understand about the ocean, we ended up pretty much swimming in place. I am not a strong swimmer by any means of the word. I tried for about 5 minutes to swim in place and then told Joe, "I can't do it anymore." I was out of energy. I was literally going to drown in the ocean, I couldn't do it. Then somehow he got enough strength for both of us (thankfully he had been doing lots of working out due to joining the Marines) There were rocks that came out all the way to were we were and we found ourselves close enough that he could throw me up onto them. Yes to this day I know Joe saved my life because if he wouldn't have been out there I would have given up as I had nothing left to give and I would have eventually become shark food. We both managed to get out of the ocean thanks to his strength and thankfully he had enough to get us both there.

Lately I have been doing a lot of soul searching and struggling with things. I feel like I am pretty much swimming in place with my faith and not able to get to a safe rock. I am in unfamiliar territory and feeling lost and defeated, just like I felt when I was in the ocean that I didn't know or understand what was going on around me. Last night was honestly terrible, yet beautiful all in one! I hate the feeling of being vulnerable with other Christians but it just happened I am sure it was a God thing as lately my words to him were the same as I gave to Joe when I had no more energy left to keep swimming. I told him; "I can't do it anymore."  But last night was the arm that grabbed me and saved me again from the feeling of drowning.
God doesn't ask us to be alone in our little minds with the struggles we go through. He doesn't ask us to go through it alone, but he does ask us to trust Him to get us through.  I got to my breaking point and He rescued me yet again, not by grabbing my hand and walking with me, but but wrapping arms of love and grace around me and picking me up and carrying me. I am such the independent, I can do it myself, type of person, but God breaks people like me so we know that we do not exist in our faith on our own, but only in His strength can we survive.
He said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

We all go through struggles, but sometimes I think God puts us through them to keep us relying on His strength and not our own. Too often I think we try to be faithful to Him on our own forgetting that He is the one who gives us our faith and any strength we have is from the Spirit not from our own abilities.

The Devil has the Bible memorized. Do you?

So this is really weird that I am posting three days in a row but I had to write and share what God taught me this morning while reading His word, if nothing more than that I'll remember this lesson for years to come.

I was reading in Matthew chapter 4; the part of the Bible where Jesus has gone into the desert and Satan comes to tempt him three times.  I was reading through it having read these words probably at least a hundred times if not more and thinking before I even read them, I know this, Jesus wins and tells Satan to bugger off. But today I got a new light of thought while reading through this part of the scriptures.
Have you ever noticed while reading this part that Satan is quoting scripture to Jesus? Yes he is, he actually is quoting scripture to Jesus to try and get him to fall into the temptation.  Then it hit me. Do I know the difference between Satan's voice and God's? And Do I know the Bible better than Satan? I mean Satan knows the scriptures. He knows what they say by heart, he doesn't even hesitate to use it against the Savior why would he hesitate to use it to tempt us into thinking we are doing something wonderful for Christ by quoting scriptures to get us side tracked.
I now think I am understanding the spiritual battle a little better this morning now more than I did. If Satan knows the scriptures that well to feel comfortable enough to use them to fight Jesus then he is way more than comfortable enough to fight me with them as well.  He knows that I do not have the scriptures memorized near the way Jesus does and from what I can tell I don't have them memorized even as good as the devil does, honestly I had to look up the scripture he quoted to Jesus to find out where it was. I get why it is so important to memorize the scriptures and to understand them better, it's because Satan is capable of fighting our hearts and minds with scriptures to make it sound like we are hearing a voice that is not actually God's. When we memorize our Bible and hide God's word in our hearts and seek God's face and counsel we too can then be like Jesus and know the difference between Satan's temptations leading us off the right track and God's voice leading us to the path of righteousness.

God uses you where you don't see

Ever felt like you weren’t doing enough for Christ but wanted to be used but had no idea how? Have you openly told God you are willing to follow him and want him to use you for furthering his kingdom? I have been there done that. It’s not something easy to get over either. That feeling that you are just living a basic day to day life and no one notices you. You feel as though you aren’t helping grow the kingdom for Christ because you haven’t been able to openly share your faith with anyone but maybe your baby?

What you don’t see going on around you in the spiritual world might just shock your socks off! God doesn’t always show you how he is using you to advance his kingdom for his glory and bringing people closer to himself or drawing them in for the first time to know and understand his love. Don't underestimate him He is using you!

I live a pretty quiet mundane life. I don’t do a lot outside of the home. Once a month I serve in our church for a full weekend to help try and get people involved in the church more and in the community to grow the church. I don’t feel like I am being used by God very often and what I am doing many times feel like it is not enough. I am always looking for ways to help God more.

But God has really spoken to me about this. It is not a selfish desire to have God use me but I have to trust that even if I do not see how he is using me that He still is using me.  A few months ago I was going through this agonizing feeling of pain in my heart because I just wasn’t sure God really wanted to use me and maybe it was just a lifelong pipe dream that I could help reach other people for Christ and to help further their lives for God’s glory. You could say I wasn’t trusting that God was using me at all. At the time I was just a stay at home mom my weeks were the same day in and day out with a possible trip to the grocery store or a random play date and church on the weekends.

One day I was not feeling like praying along with our pastor at our church at the closing of his sermon. I mean I was really kind of angry with God at the time begging him to use me. I happened to be staring down at my lap with tears in my eyes with burning desire and anger just wanting him to notice me and use me.  Then out of the corner of my eye I saw this hand go up. Now, you aren’t supposed to look up but I did. About three people down from me was a person who raised their hand to accept Christ.  Now truth be told I did not know this person but I knew the person they were with. And it hit me. Through a long line from me inviting someone to church to them inviting someone with them and then that person was invited by them. 

I had no idea who this person was but that was when God really spoke to me. My desire to help him grow his kingdom was great, but my heart might just need a little tweaking when it came to understanding that He is in control.  He had used me in more ways than I could ever know and that I just have to believe that He does want to use me and is using me even if I may never see how far that light I carry will be allowed to go. He just wants me to keep following him, being open to allowing him to use me even if I may never know till heaven how much my life and light for Christ has affected his kingdom. I may just be a stay at home mom with no real outreach to many.  My light may be small but I know if I allow God to use my light He will allow it to grow and spread to those around me though I may never know to who.

Don’t underestimate what God is doing with you and through you, He has used you in ways you can not see!

Give Thanks for everything no matter who is president

I love this time of year! The fall looks, smells, and the comfy baggy clothes with slippers, and the foods can't forget about those. November is such a fun month as it is typically the month we give thanks for the things in our lives which we have been blessed with over the last year or years. This year with the election I can't really say I have heard a lot of extra thankfulness going on anywhere, just more extra complaining and grumbling and now that elections are over I am hearing it even more. But today is another day to give thanks for everything! We have a choice each day when we wake up to look at what we don't like and complain or to look at what we have and be thankful. We even need to be thankful for the things we may not necessarily like or understand as we know God has a plan and we need to be thankful He is fulfilling His plan his way in His perfect will and timing. "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I Thessalonians 5:16-18  This verse is so familiar to many but we only seem to remember to give thanks when we get our way with everything.
There is so much to be thankful for, politically and just in our own little worlds. We are alive, we are saved by the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ.  Even if you have nothing else besides knowing that God is your savior and leader of your life there is nothing else in this world worth complaining about He has already provided you with the safest and best gift any of us could ask for. However, lets be honest, if you live in America there is A LOT more to be thankful for.
Circumstances are not always what we see as being great. However, if we can remember there is a purpose and ordained will of God that is being carried out and trust that God knows best then we can be thankful that we are not in charge and that even if we can't see the end picture God's will is perfect for all. If we can not be thankful to Him then I have to ask if it is true that we fully trust Him? Or is that just a line we use around our Christian friends? Trusting God with everything will allow you to relax, sit back and realized that yes, you can be thankful in all your circumstances! You may not like things going on around you, no one says you have to like it, but you do need to be thankful that God had His will put into place.
The world is watching how you will react, make sure you are making God proud with your reactions and not embarrassing Him by acting like He no longer has control of the world. Make sure to make this month a month of being thankful for all things, for He has given us many blessings!

December 21, 2012; are you ready for it?

December 21, 2012; are you ready for it?

Do I believe that the end of the world is going to happen on the day many people are predicting to be everyone’s last day on earth? No I do not. I believe what the Bible says in Matthew 24:36 ““But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^[a]but only the Father.” I believe this to be true and fact that we will not ever be able to figure out exactly the day or time when God the Father will return and the last few years of the world will happen.

However this whole hype has really got me to thinking about the end of the world type happenings that are described in the full chapter of Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation. Though I don’t believe that the end of the world would take place on December 21 this year I do believe that it was a great way to get Christian’s back off their comfortable butts and back out into the world. What if it was the end of it all coming? What if December 21 was the last day all Christians were on this earth before Jesus returns to bring us all to heaven? Are we ready? Will we be excited to see him? Or would we wish for a lot more time because we start realizing all of our family, friends and even people we don’t know who are going to be left behind that He gave us more than ample opportunities to talk to about our faith?

I think too many times we get caught up in the worldly things we want to do and we skip the whole idea that tomorrow or even today could be our last day here on earth. What if we did know that in less than two months Christ would come back and our chances of reaching out to the lost and showing them the Jesus we know who can save them just like He saved us? Would we stop worrying about the little things that don’t matter? Would we stop trying to find ways to bigger and better everything we have? Would we stop focusing on things like, what shoes is my kid going to wear to school, limit the shoes to one pair that might get worn out and spend the extra cash on making sure we have the biggest Christian outreaches there are to make sure we could reach as many people between now and then as humanly possible?  Would we give all of our time as much as humanly possible to reaching out to our neighbors, friends and family to make sure they knew the end was really near and their time to accept Jesus Christ’s offer was limited.

The time is limited for some that we meet. You don’t know if that person you met at the library yesterday will live through the night. You don’t know if the biggest loves of your life will even live through the night. We don’t know how much time they have and we can’t guarantee we even have that much time ourselves. We all are given limited time but thousands of opportunities to shine for Jesus to grow his kingdom.

Remember, when you get to heaven God doesn’t care what your excuse for wasted time, He holds you accountable for the people He led to your path. He isn’t going to ask you why your missionary friends didn’t do it or why your pastor didn’t do it or your Sunday school teacher; He’s going to ask you.  He isn’t going to be happy to hear that you didn’t have time to stop and talk that day, or that you didn’t know you were suppose to witness to them, or that you got nervous of what they would think of you or reject what you had to say. He expects us to reach the world with our lights no matter how big or small they may seem to us, He has plans to use the light you have.

For those who don’t know Christ personally, time is not an option to play with. If God says ‘times up,’ will you be ready for it?