pay a dime

"The great commission was not a choice for them to consider but a command for them to obey."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:31:35 -0500

“The great commission was not a choice for them to consider but a command for them to obey.”

- David Platt (via ramrigells)

"Right now, you should ask God if He wants you to pursue living in a different location for the sake..."

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:18:33 -0500

“Right now, you should ask God if He wants you to pursue living in a different location for the sake of the gospel. It may be a terrifying thought, but we have to trust God more than we trust ourselves. We are here on this earth for His glory. God has blessed you so that you will use whatever He has given you for His glory, not yours. Ultimately, we should expect God’s plan to lead us places that we wouldn’t naturally go.”

- Francis Chan & David Platt, Multiply (via kschlabaugh)
Yes!

"Let us be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true."

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:23:47 -0500

“Let us be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true.”

- Fran Chan (via raeanna)

God and weight loss

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:04:35 -0500

If you are/were struggling with weight/body image issue, sick of cycle of losing 15 lbs and then back in 2 months, or constantly stressed about skinny goals/recipes/images… this might help you.

It was a recent realization that food (experience, company, culture, taste, fun, having options, cooking) was taking an unhealthy level of importance in my life… and that I was resorting to it for comfort, reward, and consistency rather than God. God led me to a juice fast where He taught me that He is above this problem, that it’s OK to crave BUT I can crave and get the better choice (Himself!), and that following Him is denying your flesh and making godly choices (yes, including what you eat) everyday. It was an amazing experience. Learned to really appreciate and enjoy spiritual discipline… how important it is to get rid of all uncleanness from your mind, body, and soul… and to prepare your vessel for good works! The book Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst helped me a lot! (her website)

However, post-fast has been more challenging… Fast is like a retreat, entering a holy meeting place with you and God. Actually, I wasn’t hungry. I was PAST hungry. Can you believe that? It was actually harder to apply what God has told me to my real life (stress, job/task list, social drama, weight fluctuation, acne flares, constipation -look, I am real, ok- etc). I am totally a googler. I frantically googled forums of people with similar problems and hear their remedies. I googled recipes that follows strict diet rules that I thought God would want. I googled blogs, devotions, and sermons related to my problem. I wasn’t getting any solutions. I was again desperate, except this time, I wasn’t going to a Chinese buffet… but neither was I seeking God first.

My dear, who are you looking for? Would the experience and wisdom of the people or the world satisfy you than Mine?

Weight and acne. What a shallow problem. But it’s a serious problem that I can’t just say “You are so stupid. Let it go.” I pray about them. I pray about solutions. I pray to God so that “I can share others what You have done for me.” He didn’t say that it was a stupid prayer request. BUT He did say that He rather enjoy time with me together today and we can deal with these daily problems together, one day at a time. Weight and facial regimen seem like something I should handle. So, I thought, even after my fast, victories will be the evidence of God’s presence of my life! To me and my fellows and etc. But, God thought it was more important for me to make healthy eating choices and healthy facial choices (like no picking at the zit) with Him… and He was going to take care of the rest.

Whatever you are going through, I know they are real, frustrating, and hopeless. I know you tried everything known to man kind. God offers something different, something that wasn’t available to man kind. He offers us Himself, every moment, every ups and downs, every disappointments and victories… He wants us to be with Him. So, I have to remind myself, every time I get on the scale, that weight doesn’t represent my spiritual achievement even. I have to remind myself to pray:

Lord, I know I am weak. I know I am prone to want the greasiest, fried, deliciousness whenever I am stressed out or feel out of control. I know that I am prone to get distressed when my weight goes up 0.5 lbs. I know I will cry not being able to eat certain foods. I know I will cry of happiness, resisting food with the power of Holy Spirit. My desire is not to get to my goal weight as soon as possible, 2 lbs loss per week. My desire is to be with you every point of my life, living and making choices with you everyday. Help me enjoy today with You. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

J.S. Park: how to enjoy the softness of life

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 07:49:30 -0500

J.S. Park: how to enjoy the softness of life:

audinlondon:

“Learn to like what doesn’t cost much.
Learn to like reading, conversation, music.
Learn to like plain food, plain service, plain cooking.
Learn to like fields, trees, brooks, hiking, rowing, climbing hills.
Learn to like people, even though some of them may be…

"So many of us think we have to really get our stuff together before we can be close to God. Thing..."

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 21:10:58 -0500

“So many of us think we have to really get our stuff together before we can be close to God. Thing is, as a parent, I can tell you that’s totally wrong. I don’t need my kids to be perfect or even close to it. I’m already crazy about them no matter how they act. All I want is for them to love me back and want to be together. God isn’t looking for spotless kids. He just wants love.”

- Lee Younger (via leeyounger)

I really need to own this… :(

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:08:41 -0500

I really need to own this… :(

leschosessimple: #truth

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:01:50 -0500

leschosessimple:

#truth

source of joy

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:58:00 -0500

I was reading “Made to crave” by Lysa Terkeurst. It’s for women to be free from relying on food to relying on God. There’s one quote I really liked: “your joy doesn’t come for the number on the scale, you joy should come from obedience to the Lord.” Okay, that’s awesome, I thought, I can use it later. Then I was reading Psalms 119. David, who is known to be after God’s heart, is spilling his heart out:

My lips shall utter praise, For You teach me your statutes…Let Your hand become my help, For I have chosen Your precept… I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight (v 171-174)

1) He proactively chose and inclined his heart to obey God’s commandments

2) He found joy in obeying the Lord

If you are familiar with David, you know that this is not the only time he states these two principles. Then the question fell on me: Do you find joy in simply obeying Me? When I was honest with myself, I realized most of my joy comes from secondary benefits from obeying God. For example, this fasting I am doing:

Primary benefit:

Obeying the Lord and getting close to Him

Secondary:

Feeling lighter and losing weight

Wisdom and revelations

Confidence/Assurance that I am doing something “right”

A tangible/strict list of do’s and don’ts (black and white) « I love this one.

Recognition and Encouragement from fellow Christians

Influence to encourage others

Pride/feeling impressed with what I can do “with God” « and this.

I realized that I started to get really desperate and anxious getting closer to the end of the fast because I knew that I will lose the secondary benefits. I have yet to learn how to find joy in obeying in His laws and meditating on His precepts like King David did. But I see that this IS the missing piece in my walk right now. Also, we all know that King David’s tract record wasn’t clean… but that’s the evidence of how vast His grace extends AND how God looks at our hearts, whether or not we are truly committed to the Lord!

Praise God for what He reveals to us. Have a great day getting closer to our Lord Jesus Christ!

sin fertile ground: a mind that loves having options

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:59:00 -0500

Pinterest: where different ideas, methods, recipes, and perspectives are shared! My goodness is it addicting. I am starting to think that this is one of most common/justifiable traps in spiritual world: power to choose an option.

When God called me to fast, one of loudest oppositions was “then I can’t choose what to eat, when to eat, with whom I eat, etc? Where am I going to get my fun in life?” Sounds like a classic case of yea-you-should-probably-fast, right? Our lives, especially in this affluent western half of the world, are full of choices. We get bored without them.

We choose to use this brand of clothes (from many). We choose to use elliptical (from many machines). We choose to binge on chocolate (instead of other junk foods). We choose to curse. We choose the channels (from 2039482039). We choose to be Christians (from various religions). We choose to follow Christ…

I never realized this until midway in the fast but I had no problem following Christ as long as I had my power to choose in other not-God-related stuff. It was as if I wanted to have few small wills… hoping that it won’t interfere with un/godly stuff…

God, I am all for you as long as I get to choose at where I am missionary… God, I am all for you as long as you let me get my weekly froyo binge… God, I am all for you as long as you let me get mad at my husband for all the things he’s not doing from time to time (not all the time!) God, I am all for you as long as you forgive me for all the things I am doing on my own when I want to…

It summarized into this: I was following Christ in areas which my flesh permitted conditionally.

Simple concept! But it never hit me this real. When you commit your life to Christ, there is no alternative than God’s way. He has a system going. He has commandments and values which we need to sacrifice our flesh for. He is a zealous God who will not have competitions on who gets to lead my life at this given moment! He has an exact detailed plan for your life, TODAY! God told me: I am not an opt in and opt out policy. It is “Follow me. NO. MATTER. WHAT. But I will supply you with everything you need to do that.”

Think about it. If God told you to eat the same stuff, wear same style of clothes, hang out with same people, and have a mundane life… Would you follow Him? What if all the “fun” was taken away to taste HIS joy? Is doing His will NO MATTER WHAT your main goal in life? Our hope is in His power that enables us to do His will and be like Jesus Christ… NOT to lead our version of godliness-as-of-now.

Man, so humbling. I hope it challenges you guys as it challenged me. He has something for you to do right now, this moment, in that place. Seek Him and His will (btw: His will is in the Bible, too. Whatayaknow.)

Self-Deceptive Cover-Up: Rehearsing Your Side of The Story

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:46:50 -0500

Self-Deceptive Cover-Up: Rehearsing Your Side of The Story:

jspark3000:

After you mess it up big, you can imagine the circle of people who confirm their suspicions about you, saying things like –

“I always knew something was up with him”
and “That’s why he did that”
and “It’s sad he turned out that way”
and ending with some faux smooth-over like “But we should pray for him.”

In an instant, circles of people can find you repulsive because one person repeated their rehearsed side of the story, and no one had the patience to hear yours.

I used to believe every story had two sides. Now I believe there is only one story fragmented into a million pieces. When I counsel people, I never understood how very small actions could be so vastly misinterpreted. We presume malice, evil, and war over one look, one word, or one lack thereof. It could be cleared up so quickly, like the Idiot Plot in sitcoms where it would all be resolved by a simple sit-down.

But in reality, no one is willing to let go of their version of what happened. I can understand those sitcoms: because talking about it would mean the possibility of admitting you’re wrong.

Unless we’re talking about known murderers and rapists and abusers — everyone should get a fair chance to be heard. Yet it seems like only criminals get a public trial. Everyone else is left to fend in the dirt of trashy hearsay. I would know: I’ve been living in the same town for sixteen years, and rarely does anyone see the “old self” is dead. I’m constantly judged against my past, which maybe I deserve, but often it feels like I’m reciting a constant apology.

No matter how you act or react, someone will re-tell your actions in a way that kills your character and inflates theirs. Always. They use a calm reasonable voice for themselves — “And I was like, ‘We can work this out’” — and a horrible high-pitched scratchy voice for yours — “And she was like, ‘Nyah nyah I’m crazy and irrational and insane and I don’t wanna.’”

Parts of the real story will inevitably be left out, even when they try to be fair, and all your actions will be re-interpreted in retrospect as sinister. That circle will avoid you, whether they want to or not, out of a loyalty that is both admirable and misguided.

Some of us have so well rehearsed our version of the story that we gather large groups of people to turn against the other guy; we collect every listening ear for pity and understanding and affirmed anger; we run this guy out of town by making all our friends despise him; and anyone who doesn’t is not a “true friend.”

Someone’s comment is an “accusation.” A glance is a glare.
A handshake is a threat. A compliment means he’s phony. A smile means she’s evil.
We presume intentions and judge the hearts of men to mean many things:
and end up in a spiral of speculation that only splinters our communities.
It’s not all delusional, but always damaging.
When you ring this bell, it can’t be un-rung.

In the space of our self-corrected mind, we can blow up a molehill into melodrama.

Let’s be real here. This is gossip, plain and simple. God has some things to say about gossipers. Not nice things. God does not sit quietly while His kids are wrecking each other’s lives. Your mouth and my mouth will answer to Him, one way or another. I wish I could be less harsh, but He’s serious on that one.

And hey: I know all the clever language we use to make ourselves look humble and naive and innocent. I know how to say things like, “I don’t mean to be mean” and “I know he’s not evil” and “I’m wrong about some things too” and “It breaks my heart.”

All that sort of talk is sugarcoating our agenda like painting flowers on a missile. I can repeat it enough until I really believe it: but it doesn’t magically make me fair. It just means I’m a better manipulator. It means we’ve become the cult leader of a club called Pity-Me, and anyone who isn’t drinking your Kool-Aid is the enemy.

When we have turned a circle of friends into a noose over someone’s neck, we are doing the devil’s work for him.

I understand why it happens. Our default mode is to justify our own actions at all costs, simply because the cognitive dissonance of saying “I’m wrong” is so much of a burden. We fear to lose stock within our circle. We want to maintain legitimacy in our leadership. We’ve been told that feeling guilt and shame are wrong. I get that.

But I have to counter: taking responsibility is healthy. We can’t confuse this with “guilty feelings,” which we’re free to leave behind. To take the blame on some things, even everything, is more credible than fighting for credibility.

You can be absolutely right, but still handle it so wrong. You can be absolutely wrong, but handle it in a way that aims to restore everyone: not just your own reputation.

Dear friends: let’s break the spell of the artfully crafted cover story. Very rarely is anyone 100% in the right, and very rarely is the other person so malicious that they fit the tale you’ve been sowing into your circle of reluctant friends. If you have contributed to the shunning of a living breathing human being who is not a criminal mastermind nor a heartless thug, let’s cut a little slack. Let’s, in fact, redeem our stories instead of rehearsing them. That will mean reaching across the dividing line and going against the grain: but it is far, far better.

“If somebody jabs you and you jab back, you better believe the person who jabbed you in the first place is going to frame it so you get all the heat. They won’t mention the instigation, they’ll just tell everybody what you said and did and pretend they never lifted a finger.
If a person has so little integrity that they jab you, you better believe they’re gonna win in the slop.
Here’s what Jesus says to do: Turn the other cheek.
Insane, isn’t it? Jesus says to take the hit and walk on.
It stinks, I know. And it’s not like it’s a tactic that helps you win in the end. It doesn’t. But it’s great damage control, it’s humbling, and it’s saying to the world you don’t think you’re God.
By turning the other cheek we avoid the pig slop.”

– Donald Miller

– J.S.

"If you are sufficient for your task, it’s too small."

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:40:36 -0500

““If you are sufficient for your task, it’s too small.””

- John Piper (via bluegrassgospelblog)

A Touch out of Key: Subarus, Sex, & Porn Stars

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:51:04 -0500

A Touch out of Key: Subarus, Sex, & Porn Stars:

mikedonehey:

Becoming a father has made me a softy.
I mean, I was a crier even before I had kids, but now?
Dang.
I was choking up watching a Subaru commercial last night.
A Subaru commercial?! Seriously?
I know, I know.
My man point stock is crashing with every key stroke,
but before you…

Man, I wanted to hear this

"A quiet steadfast holding of the human will to the will of God and a peaceful resting in His love..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 14:21:05 -0500

“A quiet steadfast holding of the human will to the will of God and a peaceful resting in His love and care is of infinitely greater value in the religious life than the most intense emotions or the most wonderful experiences that have ever been known by the greatest mystic of them all”

- Hannah Whitall Smith in “Discipline” by Elizabeth Elliot

"The goal of the cook -a perfect dessert- will not be attained without her first iving up her..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 14:19:21 -0500

“The goal of the cook -a perfect dessert- will not be attained without her first iving up her “right” to do it her way, they studying the book and doing exactly what it says… Why then, instead of taking Christ at His word, do we prefer to argue (“it’s too hard, too restrictive, it isn’t my thing”), to claim our “rights,” to muddle through on our own? In this way paradise was lost. It is the same enemy who comes to us today with the same lie (“you shall not die, but live”). Yet still faithfully Jesus calls to life and to utter bliss those who will follow His way. Granted, it is the way of the cross, but only that way leads to the resurrection.”

- Elizabeth Elliot in Discipline

"We are not masters of our own feelings but we are by God’s grace masters of our consent"

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 14:16:13 -0500

“We are not masters of our own feelings but we are by God’s grace masters of our consent”

- St Francis de Sales

"I hear so many Christians, murmuring about their imperfections, and their failures, and their..."

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:18:11 -0500

“I hear so many Christians, murmuring about their imperfections, and their failures, and their addiction, and their shortcomings. And I see so little war! Murmur, murmur, murmur. Why am I this way? Make war!”

- John Piper (via repent-or-p3rish)

Photo

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:29:41 -0500

"The problem is, many in the church want to “confess that Jesus is Lord,” yet they dont’ believe that..."

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:08:25 -0500

“The problem is, many in the church want to “confess that Jesus is Lord,” yet they dont’ believe that Hs is their master. Do you see the obvious contradiction in this? The call to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is open to everyone, but we don’t get to write our own job description. If Jesus is Lord, then He sets the agenda. If Jesus Christ is Lord, then your life belongs to Him. He has a plan, agenda, and calling for you. You don’t get to tell Him what you’ll be doing today or for the rest of your life.”

- Francis Chan & David Platt, Multiply (via kschlabaugh)

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Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:30:18 -0600