Psalm 146:2 "I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Friday, March 22, 2013

Youth Misions Conference This Week

Hi Everyone

Guess I haven't been updating my blog very well--maybe Lord willing when April comes??

Tomorrow I head out to a six day missions conference about half an hour away-800+ youth are suppose to be attending and my goal for the week is to be able to connect and later follow up with youth interested in missions.

I am not going to bring my computer-so as to leave the normal work and situations at home and to be able to fully focus on connecting with people/participating while I am there.

Thanks for your prayers for the people I will get to know, and pray that this week would be refreshing spiritually and physically for me as well. Thanks everyone-will update you most likely Friday.




Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Roadblocks To Living Out Our Identity In Christ-Part 1

Hi Everyone,

I've missed writing here! Things have been really busy over the last month and a half, and unfortunately writing on my blog over the past weeks has been just about impossible (hence lack of blog posts). Hopefully I can find moments to continue writing in the days ahead.

There are roadblocks to living out our Identity in Christ, and living out that reality in the victory that is ours IN Christ! I've been learning this by personal experience the last three months.

Things to avoid:

1.  One very common roadblock that affects us living out our identity in Christ is comparison. (Unfortunately I do fall into this at times.)  If we are comparing ourselves to others, or are trying to be what we are not, we aren't allowing ourselves to be what God has created us to be--each one of us is a unique individual that God is working in and through in specific ways. God knows how to work with each person and is using us each individually and together in the plan that He as designed for us to fulfill according to His perfect eternal purposes.


2.  Shame is another roadblock to living out the reality of our identity in Christ--shame tends to pulls us farther away from God rather than closer to Him. Shame weakens us. When we are locked into shame we are tempted to believe the lie that God's love for us is based on the conditions of how we behave--which isn't true--as believers who have given Him our trust He loves us perfectly---and that doesn't change when we are at our worst. Now just because His love for us doesn't change, this does not give us the freedom to just "sin all we want." But living in shame makes us focus more on fixing and/or hiding the undesired behavior.



Both of these roadblocks in a sense have to do partly with falsely trying to prove ourselves. When I fall into comparison, I am trying to falsely prove to others or to myself that I am something or someone that I am not.I am not content with how God has gifted me, etc. I believe the lie that how God made me wasn't sufficient or that He should have made me differently in one or several aspects. (OUCH!)  When I fall into the roadblock of shame I fall into the trap of trying to prove to myself and others that I am not as bad as I imagine myself to be.

More to come later---hopefully tomorrow :)