Archive for Faith

A Trusting Student in a Stressed-Out World

{ September 5, 2008 @ 7:08 pm } · { Culture, Faith, Life }
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Look around you. Cars whoosh past on their way to wherever, people walking down the street of a city, rushing to work, hurrying up to eat lunch in an hour, and going to various appointments. Students walk as fast as they can so as not to be late to their next class. We live in a world of deadlines. Hardly ever a day goes by without a deadline of some sort, though some are easier to accomplish than others. In this world that we live in, it can be incredibly easy to get stressed out. “Well, of course,” you might say, “Everyone gets stressed out.” But is this really the right attitude to have? Is stress really anything besides a failure to trust in God to accomplish our daily tasks? I think that’s exactly what it is. When I look at my life, and all the deadlines i have: piano lessons, voice lessons, guitar lessons, school work, test prep, church and chores, just to mention a few, it is really easy to get overwhelmed. But I have got to learn to stop taking the responsibility to accomplish all these things. After all, I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything at all without Christ. I can’t do anything on my own anyways, so why do I pretend to have control? Well, of course, the answer to that is sin. But, I need to pray earnestly so that I might become a trusting student in a stressed-out world.

Relationships at Their Finest

{ June 12, 2008 @ 1:51 am } · { Faith, Life }
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Well, this is basically a follow-up to my previous post. I said in the last post that I strongly believe in courtship and a relationship reflecting our relationship with Christ, but what exactly is that going to look like?

First of all, I think the relationship is going to reflect certain attributes not seen in those of unbelievers. As Christians, every other part of our life should reflect the glory of Christ, so why should relationships be any different? It is so easy to get caught up in your love of the other person that you can forget your one true and never-ceasing lover: God. The one that loved you enough to choose you, and then send His son to fulfill that election, so that you could be saved from sin. Isn’t it completely ridiculous to never remember this in our relationships? Isn’t it insane to never thank God for, first of all what He’s done for us, and then thank Him that he has given us this person!

Another thing that should reflect Christ in our relationship is the way that we interact with one another. I am reminded every time I see the portion of the Pigrim’s Progress play in which Passion and Patience are being displayed for Christian. Passion desires everything now, and then, a little while later, has nothing left. Patience waits for the governor’s time to receive her gifts, and is in that way very happy. Christian remarks in the play that Patience’s waiting must be a difficult thing to attain. I said a little bit about this in my previous post, but wanted to add it in this one. God has blessed us with gifts that are to be used between two people, and those two people alone. As the world uses those gifts prematurely, like Passion, they are soon left with nothing to endulge in. Like Patience, we should wait for the “Governor’s” timing to endulge in our gifts, namely, sharing them only with the one we are spending the rest of our lives with.

Not only do we want to reflect Christ by using the gifts he has given us wisely, but with our words and actions as well. We should always display a spirit of gentleness, love, and graciousness. We should never be harsh with one another, but instead respect what the other has to say, and show how much you love them by not disrespecting their love. Imagine what would have happened if Christ, while dying on the cross, with people mocking him, and he had yelled, “SHUT UP! DON’T YOU REALIZE I’M DOING THIS FOR YOU?!” Instead, he prayed for them, telling God to forgive them, for they did not know what they were doing. I really think this sort of attitude should be reflected in your relationship with each other.

Of course, there is no such thing as a perfect relationship. But, a relationship that is reflecting the love of Christ is as close to perfect as you can get.

A Quiet and Gentle Spirit

{ April 7, 2008 @ 7:21 pm } · { Culture, Faith, Life }
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“Be a quiet and gentle spirit, be a quiet and gentle spirit…”, is what I’m telling myself to do every time I feel like lashing out at someone for whatever the reason. I find this very difficult.  My personality is sort of quiet and shy, but if I get shaken up, I can lash out very easily. If I was a boy, I’m sure I would have participated in several fights by now. I don’t find it easy to become a “Proverbs 31″ woman. For one thing, I have issues with submission to any sort of authority. I’ve been told this is because I’m very independent, which is true. I like to do things by myself, my way, which is not always a good thing. Also, I often find, especially in this current conversation on Goodreads, me yelling at myself through gritted teeth, “be a quiet and gentle spirit.”

Also, I think for a woman, it’s difficult, because you see women in the world with their careers, throwing their family aside, working from 9 to 5 just because they can, and making fun of those who stay at home. Being a quiet and gentle spirit and submitting to authority can be quite challenging when you see this.  I would love to work someday. It would be my dream to be in the Metropolitan Opera Company. But I know, if I get married, this is not what I need to do. It would be my responsibility to take care of my family, and serve them. Don’t get me wrong, I would love this as much as being in the Met.

So, basically, what I’m trying to say is, we should be willing to be a gentle and quiet spirit in all that we do. We should be submissive and do well in all that God puts before us, no matter what it is.

Gospel-Centered Worship

{ February 25, 2008 @ 2:49 am } · { Faith }
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I was reminded today of how blessed I am to be in a church with Gospel-saturated worship. Every aspect of our worship at church is dunked in the beauty of the Gospel. Praise God for that! And praise God for the people that He has used to make that possible! It’s really sad how many churches are satisfied with simply singing things like, “I LOVE YOU, GOD! YOU ROCK MY WORLD! YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND, JESUS!” when their worship could be so much more than that! We are so blessed with songs like Our Great God and It’s All of Grace, to mention some of my favorites. I realized today how much I take for granted these amazing, worshipful songs. But I mean, it’s not just our songs. Many sermons preached these days are like that too. Praise God that He has used Mr. Cochran to bless us with such amazing, God-honoring, worshipful sermons!

So, I just wanted to encourage you all to never take the blessings of a Gospel-centered church for granted.