Worth

"But the Israelites would not listen. They were as stubborn as their ancestors who had refused to believe in the Lord their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they despised all his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols, so they became worthless themselves."

2 Kings 17:14-15a (NLT)

After the kingdom was split in 2 (Israel in the North, and Judah in the South), Israel really moved away from God. So God sent prophets to warn them that a great punishment was coming if they didn't change their ways. But unlike Ninevah who listened and repented when Jonah brought them God's Word to change their ways or else (much to Jonah's dismay). Israel seems incapable of learning from their past... Sometimes I wonder if we can.

But this line from chapter 17 really caught my (Aimee's) attention: "They worshiped worthless idols, so they became worthless themselves." What you worship, what you put on a pedastal, what means the most to you, says a lot about who you are. I don't think that there is anyone who would really deny that. There are simply some out there who have really interesting interpretations of what different idols say about them. But, what really matters, is what GOD says those idols say about you!

Worshiping anyone or anything other than God is making that person or thing an idol. And worshiping any idol is pure foolishness. No idol can compare to God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Lord of Heaven's Armies. How can it?! Idols are worthless because they can do nothing for you. They can't provide for you like God can. They can't bless you like God can. They can't even punish you like God can. They may bring you joy, but it's fleeting. So, when you worship something that is worthless, you become worthless, because you are placing your trust in someone or something that will fail you.

Our worth lies in our Creator. He created each and every one of us. He created each of us to be unique and to serve a unique purpose (yes, we all are called to spread the Gospel and bring glory to God, but how we do that will be different from person to person). God loves you for who you are, whether you're good or bad. Of course, He prefers when you're good, but that isn't the only time He loves you. He loves you so much, in fact, that He sent His Son to die on a cross so that you can join Him in paradise someday!

What has your idol done for you?

What are you telling others that you're worth?

i remember

I (Sherann) have moments where I just have to write in my journal.  Do you have those moments? Or are you a journal-freak? (meaning you need to journal everyday)  I carry a journal with me at all times to write down something that was inspiring or something God pressed on my heart.  Anyway, I recently spent a week with 24 high school/college students up at Jenness Park (Christian Camp).  BTW... These students took a leap of faith and gave up their entire summer to serve in California!  Anyway, one of those days, I led a devotional on trust and I asked them to think about one moment where God came through or revealed something significant.  And as they pondered on this, I didn't realize how important it was to challenge not only these students, but also myself in regards to remembering His faithfulness.  I had to go back and look at my past journal entries and refresh myself with what God had done in my dark moments or times when I questioned my future.  I believe we are so engrained in the present and the hopes for our future, that we often move forward (at a turtles pace) with less confidence and with more caution.  If this is the case for you... may I encourage you today to look back at all the moments when you cried out to the Father and He quietly whispered "I'm here. I love you." Hebrews 13.8 states, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."  Do you know what this means?  It says that Christ who was with you in the past, will surely be with you in the present and in the future!  Now, that is good news!  When you and I look back to see how faithful He has been in the past, then we can definitely face today with the strength of Christ and press on to what lies ahead tomorrow.  

soli deo gloria

YOLO!!

I (Aimee) have to. I have to talk about it. Apparently it’s a BIG thing. I’ve seen very little of it, and what I’ve seen has been pretty tame. But I’ve been told by a friend that there are some really crazy photos floating around of people doing really stupid stuff and then claiming that their reasoning (why it’s all ok) is because you only live once.

Alright, if we’re going to be honest, then we must admit that it’s true. We do, in fact, only live once … here on this earth, in this way. Absolutely true. But that’s not an excuse to be stupid.

The fact that we only live once means that we should enjoy life and that we should live the best life that we can live. In Ecclesiastes 2, it says:

A man can do nothing better than to eat and

drink and find satisfaction in his work.

If you keep reading, though, you’ll see something that is very important in understanding what all of this means. It says:

This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for

without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

What an insane concept, right?! God wants me to enjoy life! He wants YOU to enjoy life! Wow! Did you know that?

The difference between this:

And this:

Should be obvious.

The first shows a person that is living for themselves. People who live for themselves do not find true joy in this life. They are the people who will leave this world feeling like they still missed out on stuff. And they'll be absolutely right. They keep running after happiness, but miss it with both hands because they don’t have God in their life. The second person is living for others. Maybe (hopefully) even living for God.

Go ahead, make YOLO a catch phrase with you. But do it the right way.

God gave you this one life. He gave it to you to live. But He gave it to you to live with a purpose. Experience life. And praise God for it. Pass on His Word. And praise God for it. Eat, drink, and be merry, and live like there's no tomorrow. As Christians, we believe that Jesus is coming back some day (can I get an "Amen"?!). We don't know when that day is going to be. You only live once. So live for God. Live to find His purpose for your life. Enjoy life by following Jesus’ example. Take pride in your work (yeah, that’s right, not all pride is bad). Share God’s love with others. Do all that good stuff that will make God smile down at you. That stuff that, at the end of this one life you have, God will look you in the face and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

You only live once. So what kind of life are you living?

Healthy Sinning?

There was an article on MSN’s newspage recently that was entitled: “Why Being Bad is Good for You.” And, after that, it got worse. When I clicked on the link (as soon as I read the title I immediately thought to myself, “You need to read this and see what they’re talking about, because it is probably worldly wisdom that is in no way Godly wisdom,” and I was right) the page that it went to entitled the slideshow “7 Healthy Sins.”

I proceeded to move through 7 photos depicting 7 sins, which each had a paragraph or two attached explaining how the sin was healthy. The article talked about how things like gossiping, and envy, and swearing (just to name the first 3) can be healthy for you and should be encouraged in moderation. I read the author’s comments, and I agree that their thoughts were very logical, and (from a worldly perspective) they seem very wise.

However, I am not looking from a worldly perspective. Nor am I interested in gaining a worldly perspective. The point of view that I value says:

He who conceals his hatred has lying lips,

and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

When words are many, sin is not absent,

but he who holds his tongue is wise.

The tongue of the righteous is choice silver,

but the heart of the wicked is of little value. (Proverbs 10:18-20, NIV)

… and:

A heart at peace gives life to the body,

but envy rots the bones. (Proverbs 14:30)

… and a ton of other passages against these and other sins that the world would try to tell you are really no big deal. 

The problem (once again, and as always) is that those who don’t know God don’t get it. For example, let’s stick with the topic of gossip. The article suggests that gossiping now and then relieves stress. Now, it is true that holding your feelings and frustrations and anger in until you pop is not healthy. You need to be able to work things out, and sometimes that means talking things out. However, that does not require gossip. The right perspective makes all the difference. If I really care about someone, then I should be able to talk to them about the problem. If I am not close to the person, then I should be able to let their words slide off my back. Either way, no need for gossip.

As I deal with kids and teenagers almost every day at work and at church, similar issues of complaining, tattling, whining, gossiping about others happens all the time. And almost without exception, I tell them the same thing: I don’t want to hear about the other person. I don’t want to encourage gossip by encouraging them to share it with me. I do want to help them work on their own issues. They can’t change the other person. But they can work on changing their responses. That’s where I move them to.

Do you knowingly and willingly allow sin into your life because someone somewhere convinced you its healthy? Do you indulge in guilty pleasures? Do you do something, or eat something, with a small smile as you think or even say out loud that what you’re doing is ‘bad’?

What do you think God thinks of that? Talk to Him about it. He’ll forgive you and He’ll help you with it. And I promise you that you’ll be much healthier than those people who gossip to let off steam.

noteworthy

I (Sherann) was cleaning out my desk today when I stumbled across this post-it note.  Not really sure when i wrote this, but this is what it says:
if we spend our time reading, acknowledging, watching, and posting about the Hunger Games on fb... then wouldn't it be awesome if we spent time reading, meditating, and acknowledging His Word?  As I stated before, I'm not sure why i scribbled this, but IF we can adamantly post about the Hunger Games or anything else that consumes us for that matter, then why.. why don't we adamantly post or talk about what God is doing in and through our lives?  Why do we value the temporal rather than the eternal?  Why do we make idols and not surrender to the One who truly deserves our absolute allegiance?  Truth is...we are human.  we make mistakes, we lie, we cheat, we are selfish, we are greedy, we are everything that causes us to bring a great division between a HOLY, PURE, RIGHTEOUS God who doesn't even have an ounce of sin in Him.  We... are unworthy.  But to the Father... we are worthy.  Worthy enough that He would choose to send His ONE and ONLY Son into the world; taking on every characteristic and physical attributes just like you and just like me. And as the Word became flesh, He "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Phil 2. 6b-8)
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Jesus who became human humbled himself to die a horrible death for... me? a human?  Yeah. He did.  Why?  Because He loves you.
Let me make something clear.  I'm not going against the Hunger Games (I really enjoyed the trilogy). But, let me ask you...What are you consumed with?  Who are you talking about the most?  Perhaps, the girl sitting across the room or the guy that sits next to you in 3rd period?  If you think about it... whoever or whatever you talk or think about will reveal what you value the most.

I love this verse found in Psalm 145.5-6, which states:
 "On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.  They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness."

I don't know about you, but I want to do just that!  I want to meditate, speak, and declare His great Name! What about you? 

At the end of the day, He is worth it. And noteworthy.


soli deo gloria.

check out this awesome video by Jimmy Needham

                    

A Challenge to Challenge

Can we talk about God’s Word again? Just briefly. Cause then I'm gonna give you a  challenge to go out and do!

I know. I (Aimee) have mentioned reading the Bible many times. And Sherann has mentioned it many times. What can I say?! His Word is good!

I just feel like I need to say this. Lately, I’ve been hearing about a lot of painful things happening in the lives of people around me. People that I love very much. And I just keep thinking that if they just read the Bible, that they would find the comfort that they’re looking for.

I know it isn’t always that cut and dry. And I’m that Sherann is the only one of my friends who reads her Bible. But, lately, I have had a friend confide in me, and I’ve noticed that it directly connects with what I just read in the Bible that morning. Or it connects with what I read the following morning. And, of course, I’m sharing what I read. But I still keep thinking: if more of them spent time reading His Word, they’d see it for themselves.

I’d like to offer you a challenge. In fact, it’s a challenge to challenge others. I challenge you to challenge your friends to read the Bible. If you really believe that the Word of God can do them nothing but good, then this challenge should be no big deal.

For our youth group, the other leaders and I are preparing a Bible-Read-A-Thon for our kids this summer. We are challenging them to read the Word. They will earn money for every page that they read and that money will go to help them pay for camp at the end of the summer. 

What can you do to encourage those around you to read their Bible more? What ideas do you? Share them with us all here or on our Facebook page.

But most importantly: read your Bible. Share it with others. And challenge them to read also.

Prayer for the Nation(s)

Last Thursday was the National Day of Prayer. I (Aimee) had to work, so I wasn’t able to attend any of the lunch time events that were happening around in different cities (Oh yeah! It’s a whole big thing. Google it and you’ll see that events happen all over the place). Instead, in my small group that meets Thursday nights, we spent time in prayer. And then, our pastor talked to us about leading prayer in church that coming Sunday.

So, Sunday morning, I and five other young adults stood up one at a time and led our church in prayer. We started with our community, then grew to include Southern California. Then we prayed for each of the continents. 

It was powerful. There is so much need all over the world, we had so much to share about each of our regions, and I’m sure that we each could have shared more than we did (personally, I probably only shared about half of all of the information that I gathered). 

Spiritual warfare is happening everywhere. Darkness is fighting for control everywhere. And we can sit by and do nothing, pretend nothing is wrong, and go about our lives as if everything is exactly the way it’s supposed to be. OR, we can acknowledge that this world is not the way that it’s supposed to be, we can allow our hearts to break for the suffering in the world, and we can lift them up in prayer.

Have you ever tried praying for strangers? I promise that it’s only weird at first. Like with everything else, and just like with prayer in general, it gets easier with time. 

I want to encourage you to pray for the nations. Start with your own community and work your way out. City, to state, to country, to continent … and on and on. You don’t even have to know the details of what’s going on to be able to pray. You already know that there’s suffering, brokenness, hunger, disease, crime, etc. Pray for comfort. Pray for hope. Pray that God would lift up His followers to go out to the needy, whether their across the world, across the country, or across the street. 

We’re all called to missions. Did you know that? I learned that about 10 years ago. We aren’t all called to leave our homes and go out overseas. But we are all called to reach out to the broken people of this world who don’t know Jesus. That’s what missions work is. And that can be in your own hometown. And it can begin with prayer (in fact, prayer should be all over!).

I would also encourage you to do some research to open your eyes to what’s going on in the world around you. Operation World is a good place to start (www.operationworld.org).

Then … pray! And look at what God will do!