 JESUS SAVES (@Godly_Life)Serving God doesn’t mean we’ll no longer have difficulties. We’re still on the battlefield, but we don’t have to fight alone. -Joyce Meyer |
October 7, 2012
YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIGHT ALONE
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MOTIVATIONALS
Paradoxal, no?
Ok, enough for now. I hope they help you as much as they help me. Love <3 you all.
NO ONE IS ABOVE CHARITY
 C. S. Lewis (@CSLewisDaily)We are all receiving Charity. There is something in each of us that cannot be naturally loved. #CSLewis |
The definition of the word charity isn't as bad as we've made it these last 100 years or so. The same with pity. I mean, if God's grace is charity and pity on us, since they came from God, they can't be bad. They can only be good, great even, or at least they should be. And not a one of us fallen creatures is above the love, grace, charity, or pity of God. And if you can't accept those things from God, or other people, then you can't accept God, because He is all those things and more.
We are broken and God takes pity on us and gives us His charity. Accept it. Love it. Appreciate it. Pass it on. No one is above charity. Especially the charity of God.
MAKE SURE NOBODY IS LOOKING
 Women's Fitness (@Women_Fit)The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking. -Mia Hamm (soccer) |
And the same is true for life. Especially for a Christian. Matthew Chapter 6.
And can I just say, I LOVE Mia Hamm! Thanks.
GO, UNDERSTAND, CARE, SAVE
 Brilliant Women (@Epic_Women)Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help. Only if we help shall they be saved. -Jane Goodall |
Mind you, I know Jane is not talking about humans, but she has a big enough heart and an empathetic enough heart to know this is about more than just one species. And this quote is one of the few things that helps me be less mad at my family, friends, and doctors...
They don't help me because they don't understand. And they don't understand because they feel too uncomfortable to ask me questions and I'm too uncomfortable to tell them how bad Still's Disease actually is without being prompted. So...it's both our faults.But know this, we honestly can't truly help anyone until we understand. I've learned that the hard way. And I take the time to truly get to know you and how you are doing because I love you and because Still's Disease humbled me into paying better attention, so please, please ask me questions! If you don't...well, look, just do, ok? Please. Because no matter what strong front I've got on today, it's a lie. I need your help. I'm just too proud to ask for it...
May we all go out of our way a little bit more to truly understand each other so that we can truly begin to care about each other more than ourselves, so that we can truly help each other in an effective way that brings about a great change--the great change we've all been waiting for, for all species. Except spiders. They can go. And snakes. I never need to understand either of them. Other than that, go, understand, care...save.
(Sorry, I use humor as a coping mechanism.)
FINISH LAST
And the first shall be last, and the last shall be first...
In 2006 I heard a song that changed me forever. It was called "Finish Last" by Stellar Kart. It was then I knew God put me in the margins of society to teach me to redefine "success" and learn it's a good thing to "Finish Last" in the world's eyes.
Donald Miller captures success as a child of God, aka one's quality of life, perfectly in Through Painted Deserts:
So, what kind of success are you having in life right now? Think it's time to redefine "quality of life"? To redefine "okay"?
Even though it feels wrong and crazy and foreign, I am here to tell you that it's quite all right to want to finish last.
 Bryan Loritts (@bcloritts)Be careful of what you label as successful. When Jesus was 33 he was poor, homeless, single and despised by most. |
And in the summer of 2006 I knew I had to get this tattoo, and I did. The cross is made up of five lines representing the five body parts that were pierced while Christ was on the cross suffering and dying for our sins.
Donald Miller captures success as a child of God, aka one's quality of life, perfectly in Through Painted Deserts:
"I was raised to believe that the quality of a man’s life would greatly increase, not with the gain of status or success, not by his heart’s knowing romance or by prosperity in industry or academia, but by his nearness to God."
So, what kind of success are you having in life right now? Think it's time to redefine "quality of life"? To redefine "okay"?
Even though it feels wrong and crazy and foreign, I am here to tell you that it's quite all right to want to finish last.
October 4, 2012
THE URGENCY OF YOUR FAITH: A Flood IS Coming
It's killing me, knowing what I know. It breaks my heart. Because I know what's coming, and I've tried warning everyone, and I feel like no one is listening.
I feel like Noah, knowing what I know about life, and God, and why we are here. I know the flood is coming and I know how to save you all from it, but...it's like I've spent the last eight years building this beast of a ship to help you through this, and you're all looking at me in silence like I'm crazy, like you are sad FOR ME. Allthewhile I'm in my boat frantically trying to get you to believe me and listen to me and change your ways, knowing that if you don't, life is going to sweep you away. Soon, you'll be drowning in your tears just like I have mine for the last eight years. And yet, you're the ones praying for me...it hurts.
All I'm trying to do is prevent a flood from being the only thing that God can do to get your attention, because that's what it took for Him to get mine. And the only way He still has my attention is because it's still raining.
It just breaks my heart knowing what is coming for you, because God loves you and wants all of you, all of your attention, not just whatever is left at the end of the day, or week, or month, or year, and especially not what is left at the very end of your life. He wants you now, all of you, and He will find a way to get you, but it's gonna hurt like hell before it gets better, and I just want to prevent it. I just want you to skip the sad, dark, ugly, empty, lonely, and gut wrenching stuff I went through. And that's why I need you to get in this boat with me, now. Not tomorrow, not next week, not sometime next month, not maybe during the holidays, but now. Now!
The flood will come people. I can promise you that. But that's only if you never get on the boat.
He is here, waiting for you. He tells me that every day. He wants you to listen to Him. He wants you to choose Him above and before everything else. He needs you to know that you can stop everything any time. You don't have to be like me. You don't have to go through what I went through. You don't want o make my mistakes; trust me. And you don't have to wait for something tragic to happen for God to finally get you to pay attention. For Him to finally get you to realize what this is all about and what you're supposed to do with it. The only problem is that, if you're anything like I was, you won't.
You'll think you don't have time. You'll think there's always tomorrow. You think you've already got it pretty figured out. You think you're a pretty good Christian, considering. You think it would be too hard to change, at least right now anyway because there's just too much going on right now. You think you can't do it. You think, you think, you think, and that's the problem. And I know, the truth, and that's my problem.
I have to sit here, waiting, watching, breaking while all of you are praying FOR ME, for tragedy to strike you, waiting for your flood to come. I am cursed with knowing the pain that is to arrive what feels all too soon, even though it couldn't come quickly enough in the grand scheme of things, and I can't do a flapping thing to stop it. I am cursed to relive my mistakes through the ones I love because we are too selfish to understand the urgency of our faith. Because we are too lazy to change now.
A flood is coming, I have the boat that God showed me how to build and kind of made me build, and there's not a soul on this thing with me. It makes me feel like all I can do is come back to shore and hold you while you cry, and...I don't know...it's the most heartbreaking thing ever. I do not know how Christ and God do it. I just dont. It's almost unbearable. It really is killing me....
Tell me, please, how do I get you on this boat? Because nothing but near death and Stills Disease could get and keep my attention, so I don't know how to get yours, and I'm starting to think that neither does God. Maybe sometimes bad things don't just happen, maybe sometimes they need to happen, because that's the only thing that holds our focus long enough on the things that actually matter. If only we lived every day like a flood was coming...we could avoid the storm altogether.
But we don't...and that is why I know the flood is coming and there's nothing I can say or do to get you to understand the urgency of your faith right now, today. Because nothing but tragedy could get my attention back then, and that's why I'm cursed to know that tragedy will soon be here for you, if it isn't already. So, if you feel like your drowning, if you see the storm clouds on the horizon, if you notice it started raining, or if this post actually got your attention, I am here for you. I know what you need to build your boat, I know why all this is happening, I have the authority through experience with God to tell you it will get better, and I will even try to help you build your boat and I will be the crazy one you can blame when the world thinks YOU are crazy and starts praying FOR YOU instead of listening TO YOU. And we can sit in our boats ready to run down to help any and everyone who asks us why we have a ship in the middle of a dry continent. We can be crazy enough to warn, out of love, the utterly dangerous urgency of our faith. We can love everyone, just radically enough, to tell them a flood is coming.
WITH EVERY TEAR OF LOVE I'VE CRIED FOR YOU,
Zoe
zoe.grace.elizabeth@hotmail.com
I feel like Noah, knowing what I know about life, and God, and why we are here. I know the flood is coming and I know how to save you all from it, but...it's like I've spent the last eight years building this beast of a ship to help you through this, and you're all looking at me in silence like I'm crazy, like you are sad FOR ME. Allthewhile I'm in my boat frantically trying to get you to believe me and listen to me and change your ways, knowing that if you don't, life is going to sweep you away. Soon, you'll be drowning in your tears just like I have mine for the last eight years. And yet, you're the ones praying for me...it hurts.
All I'm trying to do is prevent a flood from being the only thing that God can do to get your attention, because that's what it took for Him to get mine. And the only way He still has my attention is because it's still raining.
It just breaks my heart knowing what is coming for you, because God loves you and wants all of you, all of your attention, not just whatever is left at the end of the day, or week, or month, or year, and especially not what is left at the very end of your life. He wants you now, all of you, and He will find a way to get you, but it's gonna hurt like hell before it gets better, and I just want to prevent it. I just want you to skip the sad, dark, ugly, empty, lonely, and gut wrenching stuff I went through. And that's why I need you to get in this boat with me, now. Not tomorrow, not next week, not sometime next month, not maybe during the holidays, but now. Now!
The flood will come people. I can promise you that. But that's only if you never get on the boat.
He is here, waiting for you. He tells me that every day. He wants you to listen to Him. He wants you to choose Him above and before everything else. He needs you to know that you can stop everything any time. You don't have to be like me. You don't have to go through what I went through. You don't want o make my mistakes; trust me. And you don't have to wait for something tragic to happen for God to finally get you to pay attention. For Him to finally get you to realize what this is all about and what you're supposed to do with it. The only problem is that, if you're anything like I was, you won't.
You'll think you don't have time. You'll think there's always tomorrow. You think you've already got it pretty figured out. You think you're a pretty good Christian, considering. You think it would be too hard to change, at least right now anyway because there's just too much going on right now. You think you can't do it. You think, you think, you think, and that's the problem. And I know, the truth, and that's my problem.
I have to sit here, waiting, watching, breaking while all of you are praying FOR ME, for tragedy to strike you, waiting for your flood to come. I am cursed with knowing the pain that is to arrive what feels all too soon, even though it couldn't come quickly enough in the grand scheme of things, and I can't do a flapping thing to stop it. I am cursed to relive my mistakes through the ones I love because we are too selfish to understand the urgency of our faith. Because we are too lazy to change now.
A flood is coming, I have the boat that God showed me how to build and kind of made me build, and there's not a soul on this thing with me. It makes me feel like all I can do is come back to shore and hold you while you cry, and...I don't know...it's the most heartbreaking thing ever. I do not know how Christ and God do it. I just dont. It's almost unbearable. It really is killing me....
Tell me, please, how do I get you on this boat? Because nothing but near death and Stills Disease could get and keep my attention, so I don't know how to get yours, and I'm starting to think that neither does God. Maybe sometimes bad things don't just happen, maybe sometimes they need to happen, because that's the only thing that holds our focus long enough on the things that actually matter. If only we lived every day like a flood was coming...we could avoid the storm altogether.
But we don't...and that is why I know the flood is coming and there's nothing I can say or do to get you to understand the urgency of your faith right now, today. Because nothing but tragedy could get my attention back then, and that's why I'm cursed to know that tragedy will soon be here for you, if it isn't already. So, if you feel like your drowning, if you see the storm clouds on the horizon, if you notice it started raining, or if this post actually got your attention, I am here for you. I know what you need to build your boat, I know why all this is happening, I have the authority through experience with God to tell you it will get better, and I will even try to help you build your boat and I will be the crazy one you can blame when the world thinks YOU are crazy and starts praying FOR YOU instead of listening TO YOU. And we can sit in our boats ready to run down to help any and everyone who asks us why we have a ship in the middle of a dry continent. We can be crazy enough to warn, out of love, the utterly dangerous urgency of our faith. We can love everyone, just radically enough, to tell them a flood is coming.
WITH EVERY TEAR OF LOVE I'VE CRIED FOR YOU,
Zoe
zoe.grace.elizabeth@hotmail.com
October 2, 2012
THE TEMPTATIONS OF PHYSICAL HEALTH
“And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where
“ ‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’" (Mark 9:42-48 NIV84)
One of my biggest fears is if God were to heal me physically.
You see, when I was healthy, it was so much easier for me to sin. I did everything but worship God, praise God, love God, or choose God above myself. It was always about what I wanted, what my dreams were, what my desires were, what I could do for me. I had become completely self-sufficient without the need for God because I was healthy enough to think I was doing everything on my own.
But when I got sick...all I could do was need God and wholeheartedly know I needed Him. While physically unhealthy I can't do anything without Him.
I can't make a meal without His strength helping me. I can't get dressed without His strength helping me. I can't go to the doctor without His strength helping me. I can't worship Him without His strength helping me. I can't write this blog or read without His strength helping me.
There are days I can't brush my teeth without His strength helping me. There are days I can't even sit up without His strength helping me. I can't do anything without be fully aware I need Him. I couldn't be self-sufficient now no matter how hard I try. I need Him to do any and everything and because I'm aware of that, that changes the decisions that I make about what I am going to do today.
My need of Him to do anything changes what I do. Would I really want to use God's strength to sin? No! And yet sometimes I do...and it saddens and sickens me. But at least now I'm aware of that. While when I was healthy, I wasn't at all. And if I were healthy, I wouldn't need His strength, or think I did anyway, as much and it wouldn't be as big of a deal if I sinned with my own strength, as compared to sinning with His.
I really am still quite the sinner. But at least now I know I am a better Christian because I'm not healthy, because I need Him all the time. It's less about me, and it's more about Him. He saved me from myself and my unhealthy desires--from doing what I wanted, for me, "on my own". Now I am reminded to do what I want for Him with Him. And even though I'm no where near where I should be, I am at least closer than I was when I was healthy.
When you are healthy you do things without really thinking about whether or not you really NEED to do them. But when you are sick and your energy is so limited you can only do a couple things a day if you are lucky, and that makes you prioritize. And when you're sick enough, they stop being your priorities.
Pain eliminates the unnecessary. You actually begin to know what truly matters. To God, not just to yourself anymore.
Being physically unhealthy keeps me focused on God and not myself, plain and simple. Being physically unhealthy prevents me from sinning as much. Being physically unhealthy...
If being healthy causes/caused me to sin, why shouldn't I "cut it off" or leave it cut off? Isn't it better for me to enter heaven physically unhealthy than to go to hell healthy?
Trust me, don't pray for me to be healthy because it causes me to sin, or at least makes it so much easier. Please believe that. Listen to me. I'm not saying this to sound holier than thou, because I painfully know that I am not, I am saying this because I am truly scared of who I was and because I never want to be her again. I can't be healthy again. Not yet. I don't trust myself.
When God and I know I am ready to be able to use being healthy for His purposes and not my own, we will both let that be, but for now, leave it cut off. God did that FOR me, not TO me. He saved me from myself and my temptation. If I'm never physically healthy ever again, but I enter into heaven that way, thank God.
I don't NEED to be physically healthy, especially if it's such a temptation. All I need is God and spiritual health, which I have and am working on. I'm so thankful God cut my health off for me, because I wouldn't have done it on my own, and I would have led myself straight into my own destruction and downfall. So please, don't you dare try to reattach my health, and don't you dare let me reattach it. Leave it cut off. Please.
And whatever is causing you to stumble farther from God, whatever is causing you to sin, if you can't cut it off yourself, let God. Trust me. Let God.
Besides, what good is physical health if you aren't spiritually healthy? And if you are spiritually healthy, who needs physical health? How physically healthy was Christ while suffering on a cross for our sins?
Trust me, personally, the temptation of being physically healthy is too much for me right now; I'm not ready, and both God and I know that. And as long as I work on my spiritual health, who cares about my physical health. This is all temporary anyway...Cut it off. Every temptation, cut it off.
“ ‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’" (Mark 9:42-48 NIV84)
One of my biggest fears is if God were to heal me physically.
You see, when I was healthy, it was so much easier for me to sin. I did everything but worship God, praise God, love God, or choose God above myself. It was always about what I wanted, what my dreams were, what my desires were, what I could do for me. I had become completely self-sufficient without the need for God because I was healthy enough to think I was doing everything on my own.
But when I got sick...all I could do was need God and wholeheartedly know I needed Him. While physically unhealthy I can't do anything without Him.
I can't make a meal without His strength helping me. I can't get dressed without His strength helping me. I can't go to the doctor without His strength helping me. I can't worship Him without His strength helping me. I can't write this blog or read without His strength helping me.
There are days I can't brush my teeth without His strength helping me. There are days I can't even sit up without His strength helping me. I can't do anything without be fully aware I need Him. I couldn't be self-sufficient now no matter how hard I try. I need Him to do any and everything and because I'm aware of that, that changes the decisions that I make about what I am going to do today.
My need of Him to do anything changes what I do. Would I really want to use God's strength to sin? No! And yet sometimes I do...and it saddens and sickens me. But at least now I'm aware of that. While when I was healthy, I wasn't at all. And if I were healthy, I wouldn't need His strength, or think I did anyway, as much and it wouldn't be as big of a deal if I sinned with my own strength, as compared to sinning with His.
I really am still quite the sinner. But at least now I know I am a better Christian because I'm not healthy, because I need Him all the time. It's less about me, and it's more about Him. He saved me from myself and my unhealthy desires--from doing what I wanted, for me, "on my own". Now I am reminded to do what I want for Him with Him. And even though I'm no where near where I should be, I am at least closer than I was when I was healthy.
When you are healthy you do things without really thinking about whether or not you really NEED to do them. But when you are sick and your energy is so limited you can only do a couple things a day if you are lucky, and that makes you prioritize. And when you're sick enough, they stop being your priorities.
Pain eliminates the unnecessary. You actually begin to know what truly matters. To God, not just to yourself anymore.
Being physically unhealthy keeps me focused on God and not myself, plain and simple. Being physically unhealthy prevents me from sinning as much. Being physically unhealthy...
If being healthy causes/caused me to sin, why shouldn't I "cut it off" or leave it cut off? Isn't it better for me to enter heaven physically unhealthy than to go to hell healthy?
Trust me, don't pray for me to be healthy because it causes me to sin, or at least makes it so much easier. Please believe that. Listen to me. I'm not saying this to sound holier than thou, because I painfully know that I am not, I am saying this because I am truly scared of who I was and because I never want to be her again. I can't be healthy again. Not yet. I don't trust myself.
When God and I know I am ready to be able to use being healthy for His purposes and not my own, we will both let that be, but for now, leave it cut off. God did that FOR me, not TO me. He saved me from myself and my temptation. If I'm never physically healthy ever again, but I enter into heaven that way, thank God.
I don't NEED to be physically healthy, especially if it's such a temptation. All I need is God and spiritual health, which I have and am working on. I'm so thankful God cut my health off for me, because I wouldn't have done it on my own, and I would have led myself straight into my own destruction and downfall. So please, don't you dare try to reattach my health, and don't you dare let me reattach it. Leave it cut off. Please.
And whatever is causing you to stumble farther from God, whatever is causing you to sin, if you can't cut it off yourself, let God. Trust me. Let God.
Besides, what good is physical health if you aren't spiritually healthy? And if you are spiritually healthy, who needs physical health? How physically healthy was Christ while suffering on a cross for our sins?
Trust me, personally, the temptation of being physically healthy is too much for me right now; I'm not ready, and both God and I know that. And as long as I work on my spiritual health, who cares about my physical health. This is all temporary anyway...Cut it off. Every temptation, cut it off.
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