Praise the Lord

I was thinking about the phrase, "Let Everything That Has Breath Praise The Lord." God actually commands all His creatures alike to praise Him. David wrote about praising the Lord in Psalm 150:

Praise the LORD.^a

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens.

2Praise him for his acts of power;

praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

praise him with the harp and lyre,

4praise him with tambourine and dancing,

praise him with the strings and flute,

5praise him with the clash of cymbals,

praise him with resounding cymbals.

6Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD. (Psalm 150:1-6)

 I've been thinking a lot about animals, and how they should be treated. I looked up vegetarianism in the Bible, and to my surprise, God actually created the plants and the fruits in Genesis for food, and then God gave animals to keep men company, that we may live in harmony with each other. I read forward, and read that Jesus was a vegetarian. Some scholars have researched that the "fish" Jesus gave to the 5,000 with the loaves of bread, was originally translated to mean "fish weed," or seaweed. The greek word for fish ichthys, which in English means "Jesus fish."
Jesus as the perfect of example to kindness to people, and animals. If becoming vegetarian to me, means that I can give back to what God has given to me, then may He be glorified!
Furthermore, I realize that when God said, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord," he meant animals, too! Is that why the birds sing during the day, or the wolves howl to the moon at night? They are praising the Lord? This, to me, is beautiful.

Perfect Love

"This is how we know, this is how we know what love is
                      
  Just one look at Your cross
                                                       
And this is where we see, this is where we see how love works
                        
  For You surrendered Your all
                                    
  And this is how we know that You have loved us first
                                  
  This is where we chose to love You in return

                                    
For You so loved the world that You gave Your only Son
                                           
Love amazing, so divine, we will love You in return
                                   
For this life that You give, for this death that You have died
                                            
Love amazing, so divine, we will love You in reply, Lord" ("This is how we know" - Matt Redman)

I love this song. I love having Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin as worship pastors. How can the words not speak to you? "For You so loved the world that You gave Your only Son. Love amazing, so divine, we will love You in return." Nobody can actually fathom what happened on Calvary's Cross that day. It;s not entirely "normal" to want to give your only, earthly, life for someone that you love because of the depth of your love for them. But Christ did! How amazing! Christ died for our sins, for you and me, we've all heard it; but.

... the only thing He wants from you is a relationship. Think of how little that is of us that He asks. He carried  a cross!... not just a cross but the cross -- the cross that gave us life! I personally cannot imagine how heavy carrying a cross would be! Furthermore, after carrying the cross he was nailed to it! I don't know about you, but I would stop after carrying it. I'd be dead already. But Christ kept going! He kept going for you. And you! And me..

And the only thing he wants from us is a relationship?! Are you KIDDING?! Nope. He just wants your attention, your love! 

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39)

Nothing.. Nothing.. NOTHING can ever surpass the love God has for you and the title He has given you by calling you His children. Louie Giglio calls Him "The Perfect Father" because he is. Maybe you had a mediocre father growing up, a bad one, maybe even an absent one. It's ok because no matter what you've come to believe about God being just like your earthly father,

IT JUST ISN'T TRUE.


God knew you before you were born, in Isaiah it says he "knitted you in your mother's womb." He has a plan, a purpose for YOUR life RIGHT. NOW. He could ONLY  fulfill that purpose by carrying an overwhelmingly heavy cross, and sacrifice being nailed to it. And you mean to tell me that by being a perfect Father, knowing me before I was born, knowing that I wasn't an accident even though my parents may say so, and being the perfet MARTYR for me that he nailed himself to a cross so I could have a relationship with him? Not just "a relationship" but a perfect relationship? You mean one that has unconditional love that maybe my family, friends, whomever never showed me? You mean one that is so amazing, so divine, all he wants is love in reply? That's it?


Yep.

When the Future is Unclear.

I've been dwelling a lot about the future, recently. School has become so hard to plan out, work is long and tiring, my relationships with people aren't what they should be, etc. However, recently no matter how complicated things always seem to be in the midst of the desert, God always has a way of making things work out! It's crazy, actually.

For instance, I've gotten past the mental shock of what happened to me about a month ago. The shock turned into utter sadness -- not for me, but for the person who took so much of my pride. The person whom I invested so much time in so long ago, took so much of me that it hurt to turn my life around. Praise the Lord that it hurt, though!

Let's take a look at what Paul, said:

Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 

 Ok, I don't know about you but Paul talks in such a way that it hurts to try to figure it out all in one piece! So, let's see. "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have a peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." What is being said here is, because we have faith, we are spoken for by God, or justified. By this justification, we are at peace with our Creator because we have been spoken for. That's pretty awesome!
Paul eventually goes on to say how we rejoice in our sufferings and how it produces all these wonderful attributes to our lives. But why does our sufferings produce all the wonderful things? Hope. It is the natural feeling of the human race to feel "hope." Hope most nearly means something different to every person on the planet, but what does Godly hope mean? In the last sentence of the passage above, Paul says hope "...does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Godly hope is that of His Holy Spirit, His Counselor, in which He sent to live inside of us. We have hope because we have the God of all Creation living inside of our hearts! That is way cool!

So I have drawn the conclusion that I don't dwell on the past, or the evil things that have been done to me by the wicked because the wicked have received their reward by God. So I do not fear the evil, or any "bad" thing that can happen to me on this earth. In Proverbs, it says this:

Proverbs 14:32
When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous have a refuge. 

 According to this passage, when destruction is brought upon the wicked, they crumble! Why? Because they place their hope in the carnal, not the incarnate. This false hope gives them reason to do what is evil. But in the end, we will triumph, anyway! God is our refuge! In the words of Chris Tomlin: "And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? And if our God is with us, then what could stand against?"

So, in conclusion I worry not about my future. It's not mine to plan!

Encouragement for times of Hardship

Do you ever wonder why people hurt you? It almost seems deliberate some of the time, and most of the time it can be. Have you ever just sat and cried about in frustration, "Why? If there is a God that loves me, why does He let this happen?" I've been there. I think we've all been there. Fortunately, as I was reading Hebrews it enlightened me to stay strong. I know that it sounds incredibly cliche`; it's everywhere on the radio, tv, "stay strong." The Army promotes strength, asking the viewers if they are "Army Strong." However, there is a peace when the God of all creation tells us to stay strong:

"Because God has said: Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Moreover, why should we continue to fight for what we believe in, what is right, when we get hurt? It seems to happen everyday, from everyone! But God shows mercy to His children and comes to rescue those who are weak and weary. Paul makes it clear in Philippians when he says this:

"It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me." (Philippians 1:7)

There is hope for His children! Yes, the world will hurt you. People will hurt you everyday because this world is not what God intended for it to be when he created it in Genesis. Because of Adam and Eve's sin, the world has become less and less pure as the centuries went on, until it became the world we live in today. Because of the impurity of the world, it is very common for Christians to get hurt daily, especially for being followers of Jesus Christ. But we shouldn't feel upset or try to get even when we get hurt; instead we should consider it joy! As James said,

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face troubles of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." - (James 1:2-3)

My challenge to you is, whenever you get hurt, or feel frustrated by imperfect people, give thanks to God! Because no sooner than the blink of an eye will God send His son from His right hand down to conquer the world in flesh! Will you do it?

It Starts and Ends with Me.

So, a few days ago, I found out something that forever changed me. I found out that the person that violated me a few months ago, had something else to hide: he was not single when he forcefully took advantage of me.

I keep thinking that no female should have to go through what I went through in past relationships. If they already have/are going through an abusive relationship, (physical, emotional, mental, etc) then I really want to reach out to them and show them the everlasting love of Christ, and to help them realize there IS a way out, always. So.. I've decided to start a women's ministry or support group on HOPE, or Helping Others through Positive Evangelism.

I hope this works out! I really want abuse to stop. Other girls need to know it CAN stop with them, just like it's stopping with me.