Soul Garage

This weekend I attended the women's spring event at my church.  Normally I guess they hold it in Santa Cruz or something, but they held it at the church this year to make it cheaper for everyone.  The event was Friday evening and most of the day Saturday.  There was great food, a very gifted speaker, workshops, games, prizes, and music.

At the beginning of the program Friday night, the worship leader Chaya shared her testimony.  Her biological mom had given birth to her at a very young age, so her grandparents raised her.  Her biological mom passed away.  She shared that she chose to become bitter about life's circumstances, and she let that bitterness take over her life and rule a lot of decisions she made for a long time.  In a recent conversation with a friend, she confessed to feeling embarrassed by all the time she wasted not following God.  Her friend replied that she should not waste time now by being embarrassed.

How can I better use my past experiences to glorify God?  What experiences have you been through that can be used to testify God's glory?

Stay tuned for more of what God showed me this weekend!

Do you know what it means to be "in Christ"?

I read this blog today, and it DIRECTLY links to the Remain series that FUSION is going through right now.  Check it out.

"Life in Christ" - The Purple Cellar

It was the third paragraph that grasped me: "You haven't quite grasped it if you miss your quiet time one morning and think you'll be thrown off course all day as a result."

Worth It

"What false teaching threatens our sincere and pure devotion to Christ?  What do we put up with readily enough?  Perhaps today more than anything else, we allow the purity of the true gospel to be diluted by the false gospel of self-esteem.  Self-esteem sounds good, but it is antithetical to God's gospel.  Christ didn't die to improve our self-esteem; he died to give us his.  He didn't come to build up our self-worth; he came to knock it down.  Jesus said, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me' (Luke 9:24); and Paul wrote, 'Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves' (Phil. 2:3).  We have been deceived by the false teaching of self-esteem because, like most effective deceptions, there is a kernel of truth in it.  We do have intrinsic worth because we are made in the image of God.  But it is his image in us that gives us value." - Purity by Lydia Brownback

This is why I feel like a piece of trash when my heart isn't listening to God.  It makes sense, because without Christ I have no life, no purpose, no fruit.

I have learned that I rarely entangle myself with God on days I don't start my day with that intention.  I need that set aside time to focus on what is good, true, and holy.  For this to happen, I must schedule it into my day.  I must set my alarm an hour early to start my day attentive to God.  I never regret pulling myself out of bed for that.