Well, this is new!
Well, this is new. I am posting twice in one week. Could this be a new Darin? I am hoping so. The rest of my post should clue you in on what today had in store.
The change.
I have just finished reading a really good book called "Flahsbang". It's a humorous that takes stories from the author's life that he ties into deep spiritual truths that are humbling, and though provoking. Reading through the book, I was touched and moved, and encouraged to do some soul searching and evaluating in my life. I have reached some decisions in my life that we all know about ourselves, but I am- while I have the motivation- going to try and do somethings about it. A lot of the things I do, and don't want to do, or don't know that I am doing, I don't even know how to go about changing, or what to change. But I am praying for change. I am praying that I can learn to let go of my death grip of the world and told let go and follow Jesus. I don't know where that will take me. I do know where I am going to start, and starting I have. Other things, I don't know about yet, but with prayer and reading of THE word, and meditation, I believe God will reveal to me.
Basically it all boils down to this. Life is a journey in which we grow and are formed into the likeness of Christ. At this point in my life, I feel as though I am static, not moving or growing, and I want to change that.
What changes can be made?
When I really started to think and throw things around in my mind, I thought of the Jewish people. In history the Jewish culture was and is a very tangible and "real life" culture. In the Bible when God would give them a truth or a command, there was a physical tangible thing in which reminded them of God and the things he did for them. The Jews rocks, and tabernacles and trees, and altars everything they had a deeper spiritual truth behind it.
I said all of that to say this: I am making some physical changes in my life to remind me of the spiritual changes that I am hoping take place in my "REAL" life. Some of the changes, are dramatic big changes and some of them aren't. And I am not changing everything, just some things. But the things I am changing are to remind me to grow and to always make a habit of, or to take things out of my life that don't need to be there. I am not sure how things are going to go, but I am going to try none the less.
My apologies...
I am in deed sorry if that you thought this post would be deep and meaningful and informative of THE word and how you could grow. Or maybe me thinking this is arrogant in the first place, and in that case...I am also sorry.
But maybe to salvage what validity this post has, I leave you with this: Change! We are all clay in the hands of a loving creator. He wants to mold us and to shape us into beautiful and useful tools for his kingdom and if we harden up and never let him mold us we become useless and brittle. We break and eventually die. So, strive for growth, and maturity. Remember there is ALWAYS room for growth. But also remember, we won't ever get it right and we are always in need of his grace.
Love you all I hope that this was worth reading.
John 16:33
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
To be determined...
Well hello there!
It's been quite a while since I have blogged, and for that I apologize. I write this more for myself than I write for the reader, because I can't sleep and because, I don't really have any readers. If I had any, this post would still be for me. However, since some people may read this, I am glad you are reading this and maybe through the grace of God you can learn something from it. Who knows?
What's up in my world...
Wow, has God turned my life upside down since the last time I wrote anything. I am no longer in Eastern Europe. In fact I have been home and left since then. I now life in the beautiful country of New Zealand. What an amazing place to be serving God. As I write this I see very clearly that I am not a very good writer and I apologize for those of you who are still with me up to this point. Let's get started, shall we?
Right now I am in what seems like "Limbo" God has called me to do some crazy and big things but at the same time I feel as though I have no direction to what I need to be doing. I really feel like Abraham (Gen. 12), not because I am some huge giant in the faith, or because I have done some great feat, but because God has called me to pick up and leave the things I have known as comfort and sent me to a place I don't know about. I don't know when I will get there, how I will get there, or where it is that I am going. All I know is that I am going. It's freeing to live a life completely dependent on God but at the same time it's so hard a challenging. There are days where I want to give up and live for myself. I want to know where I will end up and how I am going to get there. I want to know if I will marry, and who she is. There are a lot of things that I WANT to know but God never tells me. And sometimes that really bothers me.
I have been reading quite a bit lately and these books that I am reading talk a lot about character development and the journey in my spiritual life. It's one of those things I have always heard but never really understood. I may never fully understand, but I am getting a clearer picture as time goes on. Character development takes time, pressure, experience, trials- so many things that mean it's going to hurt and you won't understand till later on in life, if ever. So much has happened lately to help develop my character, or so I hope, and it's not been so happy. Some of my relationships have gone bad, my living situations aren't always the greatest, lack of financial support, and a lot of my future seems so up in the air. I have no idea where to go, or what to do and that weighs heavily on my heart lately.
I feel as though this is where faith becomes real. Living as a disciple of Jesus isn't always easy. You are forced to make choices in lots of situations that aren't always comfortable. Do I really believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that my life is truly redemptive? Is the stress and heartache I am dealing with worth it? To go through and say "yes" to these questions is what I believe faith is. Faith is where we make decisions based on less than all that facts that go against what our simple human wisdom says to do.
I love how the Bible mentions several times the word "walk" (Gen. 3:8; 1 Kings 2:4; Micah 6:8; Romans 4:12; 1 John 1:5-7...)
Walking is slow, but it has direction and it has purpose. And I am learning that walking with God is all we can do. There are so many things I love about the Bible. I love them so much I get distracted thinking about them. Check this: (Psalm 119:105) says that God's word is a lamp for our feet and a light to our path. Wow, how crazy is that. We aren't shown much in front of us just enough to know for sure that when we walk with God the ground under our feet is solid enough to stand on.
I don't know a whole lot about anything, but I do know that the pain is worth it. I do know that fighting a battle that seems pointless, isn't. I know that there is reason for what we go through. I know there is a God who loves us, and has a plan for our lives, but it takes time, and hurt. We are being renewed everyday, we are being molded into who we were made to be.
So what's next?
What's next? I don't know. That is yet to be determined.
God I thank you for late nights where I can't sleep. I thank you for these times that I can dig into your word and look into myself to see where my heart is and see if I am walking with you. God, I pray for those around me. I pray that I can be transparent so that the people around me can see you. Help me to continue to live for you, and live the life you have created me to live. I pray for direction, but I am learning to be okay to take it a step at a time. LORD give me the strength to rest in you and the desire to run t you when it hurts and nothing makes sense. You are a good God, and I thank you for everything.
AMEN
It's been quite a while since I have blogged, and for that I apologize. I write this more for myself than I write for the reader, because I can't sleep and because, I don't really have any readers. If I had any, this post would still be for me. However, since some people may read this, I am glad you are reading this and maybe through the grace of God you can learn something from it. Who knows?
What's up in my world...
Wow, has God turned my life upside down since the last time I wrote anything. I am no longer in Eastern Europe. In fact I have been home and left since then. I now life in the beautiful country of New Zealand. What an amazing place to be serving God. As I write this I see very clearly that I am not a very good writer and I apologize for those of you who are still with me up to this point. Let's get started, shall we?
Right now I am in what seems like "Limbo" God has called me to do some crazy and big things but at the same time I feel as though I have no direction to what I need to be doing. I really feel like Abraham (Gen. 12), not because I am some huge giant in the faith, or because I have done some great feat, but because God has called me to pick up and leave the things I have known as comfort and sent me to a place I don't know about. I don't know when I will get there, how I will get there, or where it is that I am going. All I know is that I am going. It's freeing to live a life completely dependent on God but at the same time it's so hard a challenging. There are days where I want to give up and live for myself. I want to know where I will end up and how I am going to get there. I want to know if I will marry, and who she is. There are a lot of things that I WANT to know but God never tells me. And sometimes that really bothers me.
I have been reading quite a bit lately and these books that I am reading talk a lot about character development and the journey in my spiritual life. It's one of those things I have always heard but never really understood. I may never fully understand, but I am getting a clearer picture as time goes on. Character development takes time, pressure, experience, trials- so many things that mean it's going to hurt and you won't understand till later on in life, if ever. So much has happened lately to help develop my character, or so I hope, and it's not been so happy. Some of my relationships have gone bad, my living situations aren't always the greatest, lack of financial support, and a lot of my future seems so up in the air. I have no idea where to go, or what to do and that weighs heavily on my heart lately.
I feel as though this is where faith becomes real. Living as a disciple of Jesus isn't always easy. You are forced to make choices in lots of situations that aren't always comfortable. Do I really believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that my life is truly redemptive? Is the stress and heartache I am dealing with worth it? To go through and say "yes" to these questions is what I believe faith is. Faith is where we make decisions based on less than all that facts that go against what our simple human wisdom says to do.
I love how the Bible mentions several times the word "walk" (Gen. 3:8; 1 Kings 2:4; Micah 6:8; Romans 4:12; 1 John 1:5-7...)
Walking is slow, but it has direction and it has purpose. And I am learning that walking with God is all we can do. There are so many things I love about the Bible. I love them so much I get distracted thinking about them. Check this: (Psalm 119:105) says that God's word is a lamp for our feet and a light to our path. Wow, how crazy is that. We aren't shown much in front of us just enough to know for sure that when we walk with God the ground under our feet is solid enough to stand on.
I don't know a whole lot about anything, but I do know that the pain is worth it. I do know that fighting a battle that seems pointless, isn't. I know that there is reason for what we go through. I know there is a God who loves us, and has a plan for our lives, but it takes time, and hurt. We are being renewed everyday, we are being molded into who we were made to be.
So what's next?
What's next? I don't know. That is yet to be determined.
God I thank you for late nights where I can't sleep. I thank you for these times that I can dig into your word and look into myself to see where my heart is and see if I am walking with you. God, I pray for those around me. I pray that I can be transparent so that the people around me can see you. Help me to continue to live for you, and live the life you have created me to live. I pray for direction, but I am learning to be okay to take it a step at a time. LORD give me the strength to rest in you and the desire to run t you when it hurts and nothing makes sense. You are a good God, and I thank you for everything.
AMEN
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