"For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God."
This scripture was one that I had read numerous times over the years, but had forgotten about until my wonderful mother, mindful of how I was struggling, referred me to it just a few weeks ago. I have been contemplating it, pondering it, and just letting it resonate in my mind for these past few weeks and I have found it very encouraging.
I'm sure all of us can relate to this verse on one level or another so I thought I'd post it as a reminder that God isn't missing anything. He isn't sitting back and watching as we are beaten down and suffering. He sees it all and He's right there with us. We may not see the reasoning behind our suffering, but God never does anything that isn't for our good. So I think we can all take heart in the knowledge that although our circumstances may look like the worst ever, God works everything out for good and he WILL work everything out for good. All we have to do is trust Him and endure.
I know from my own experience that saying this and living it are two totally different things. This all sounds good and it is encouraging, but what happens tomorrow when this isn't the only things going through your mind and the troubles and anxieties of life are weighing on you?..... "Well, thanks Taylor for letting us know it's hopeless...." It's not hopeless. Not with God at least. By ourselves? Yeah, then it's hopeless. But we aren't by ourselves. We have the Holy Spirit living within us 24/7, we have a God who we can pray to 24/7, and we have God's word available for us to read 24/7. I'd say we're good to go.
I think God sets things up like this so we HAVE to depend on Him. Cause when we aren't looking to Him for our strength then we will be overwhelmed by the troubles of this world and we can read all the encouraging things in the world, but it won't make a difference. We need God, every day, every minute.
So that was the encouragement now here is the challenge, and this is to myself too. Be aware of God. Throughout your day be aware of His presence and His promptings. Really be drawing on Him for power and strength and see what happens.
This post is really just for me. This is what God has been telling me lately and I just have to write it out to try and wrap my head around it so I figured I'd write it on here and hope it was encouraging to y'all. So yeah I hope it was encouraging. Thanks for reading!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sidetracking a little bit
Sorry for not posting in a while y'all. College has been pretty crazy as I have been playing "catch up" from missed classes. College has provided me with a couple interesting topics though so I am sidetracking from my progressive posts for a little bit to talk about some of the things we have discussed in my Ethics class (fun fun fun).
I have only been to one class so far, but it was quite the experience I must say. It was really fun actually, and I mean that. We talked about numerous topics, but the main thought and topic through the whole class was the topic of Hedonism vs. Deontology. Hedonism, when it's broken down really simply, is the belief that the purpose of life is to be happy and the happier you are the better your life is. Deontology is the belief that a good life is about doing the right thing even if it doesn't always make you happy. So you have hedonism: Pursue pleasure and avoid pain. And Deontology: your moral duty supersedes your selfish desires.
Most of our discussion was on whether or not someone could do something kind, caring, or loving without it being selfishly motivated. People argued that yes you could and then others said no you couldn't and it got all kinds of crazy. It got to the point where people were saying even if you do something to help someone else and it gains you nothing or even hurts you in some way that you still did it because not doing it would have made you feel guilty and that wouldn't have made you happy so that would have been painful so you did it even though you didn't want to and it caused you pain because.....you didn't want to cause yourself pain.
Does that sound conflicting to you?
Anyway the debate continued and for the most part I was listening and trying to gather my thoughts before I said anything, but it got to a point where I just had to speak up. I got my chance to speak and explained that I was a christian. Then I offered the suggestion that there could be a different motivation than just trying to make yourself happy or trying to avoid pain and that was simply grace motivation. Well that threw a lot of people for a loop. Then I brought up Jesus Christ and how I believe, as a christian, that he lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross to redeem everyone that would call on him, and then rose again so that we might live with him forever. I asked if they thought that His act of dying on the cross could be motivated by selfish motive or that he could have done it just to make himself feel good. One guy chimed in and said "Dude, you said he died for the whole world. If I was gonna die for the whole world, I would be feeling pretty good about myself..."
I was about to bring up the fact that Jesus SWEAT BLOOD in the garden of Gethsemane because he knew he would soon be delivered up to die on the cross, but I never got my chance to speak again. Do you think though, that someone who was sweating blood because of the stress of knowing he was going to die soon was dying because he wanted to make himself feel good?
It was a great debate really. I really enjoyed it and I think God is really going to use me in this class. People without Jesus as their savior are lost y'all and for the hour and twenty minutes I spent with those people it was plain to see that although they like to think they know what they believe, they really don't. Their beliefs about God, ethics, and moral standards are vague at best and they contradict themselves so often. It's understandable though, they don't have The Truth so they don't know what to believe or what to trust. How can they? They have nothing to measure against or look to for actual truth.
This is what I'm getting at here guys, especially any of you who are going to college or are going to public school: you have a great opportunity to show people truth! Along with love, care, and a true passion for Christ if you are able to share with someone, whether it's person to person or in your classroom or whatever, the truth of Jesus Christ and what that means in your life it WILL amaze people! Trust me, the people in my class were like "This kid is what? 17? 18? and he's talking like he really knows something I don't....what is that?" They didn't say that in words exactly, but I could tell by their faces that they were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea of grace motivation and the concept of living your life for something more than yourself. And it's not like I am some kind of amazing speaker or that I have any special gift for persuading people, any of you who know me know I am not real smooth when it comes to speaking, but God will work through you. The Holy Spirit empowers and will give you words to speak.
So, if you get the chance to share the Truth with someone or a lot of someones then DO IT! You will be amazed at what God will do through you. That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I have only been to one class so far, but it was quite the experience I must say. It was really fun actually, and I mean that. We talked about numerous topics, but the main thought and topic through the whole class was the topic of Hedonism vs. Deontology. Hedonism, when it's broken down really simply, is the belief that the purpose of life is to be happy and the happier you are the better your life is. Deontology is the belief that a good life is about doing the right thing even if it doesn't always make you happy. So you have hedonism: Pursue pleasure and avoid pain. And Deontology: your moral duty supersedes your selfish desires.
Most of our discussion was on whether or not someone could do something kind, caring, or loving without it being selfishly motivated. People argued that yes you could and then others said no you couldn't and it got all kinds of crazy. It got to the point where people were saying even if you do something to help someone else and it gains you nothing or even hurts you in some way that you still did it because not doing it would have made you feel guilty and that wouldn't have made you happy so that would have been painful so you did it even though you didn't want to and it caused you pain because.....you didn't want to cause yourself pain.
Does that sound conflicting to you?
Anyway the debate continued and for the most part I was listening and trying to gather my thoughts before I said anything, but it got to a point where I just had to speak up. I got my chance to speak and explained that I was a christian. Then I offered the suggestion that there could be a different motivation than just trying to make yourself happy or trying to avoid pain and that was simply grace motivation. Well that threw a lot of people for a loop. Then I brought up Jesus Christ and how I believe, as a christian, that he lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross to redeem everyone that would call on him, and then rose again so that we might live with him forever. I asked if they thought that His act of dying on the cross could be motivated by selfish motive or that he could have done it just to make himself feel good. One guy chimed in and said "Dude, you said he died for the whole world. If I was gonna die for the whole world, I would be feeling pretty good about myself..."
I was about to bring up the fact that Jesus SWEAT BLOOD in the garden of Gethsemane because he knew he would soon be delivered up to die on the cross, but I never got my chance to speak again. Do you think though, that someone who was sweating blood because of the stress of knowing he was going to die soon was dying because he wanted to make himself feel good?
It was a great debate really. I really enjoyed it and I think God is really going to use me in this class. People without Jesus as their savior are lost y'all and for the hour and twenty minutes I spent with those people it was plain to see that although they like to think they know what they believe, they really don't. Their beliefs about God, ethics, and moral standards are vague at best and they contradict themselves so often. It's understandable though, they don't have The Truth so they don't know what to believe or what to trust. How can they? They have nothing to measure against or look to for actual truth.
This is what I'm getting at here guys, especially any of you who are going to college or are going to public school: you have a great opportunity to show people truth! Along with love, care, and a true passion for Christ if you are able to share with someone, whether it's person to person or in your classroom or whatever, the truth of Jesus Christ and what that means in your life it WILL amaze people! Trust me, the people in my class were like "This kid is what? 17? 18? and he's talking like he really knows something I don't....what is that?" They didn't say that in words exactly, but I could tell by their faces that they were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea of grace motivation and the concept of living your life for something more than yourself. And it's not like I am some kind of amazing speaker or that I have any special gift for persuading people, any of you who know me know I am not real smooth when it comes to speaking, but God will work through you. The Holy Spirit empowers and will give you words to speak.
So, if you get the chance to share the Truth with someone or a lot of someones then DO IT! You will be amazed at what God will do through you. That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
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