salvation

the past tense of salvation is justification

the present tense of salvation is sanctification

the future tense of salvation is glorification

what must i DO to be saved?

after reading THIS article, several things went through my mind.  i'm not one to say he did or did not have an experience with the God of the universe, and i am not saying that he didn't really visit heaven; however, i'm intriguied.  

he, like 250 million other americans, calls himself a christian.  now, based on several studies and statistics, being a "christian" can look like 250 million different things, have 250 million different beliefs, and being "practiced" 250 million different ways......but when you look at the word "christian" it literally means "one who follows the example of christ" (1 peter 2:21) and there is only 1 true belief, and there is only 1 true God, and there is only 1 way to get to heaven.  though this neurogserugon called himself a christian, he said "he never held deeply religious beliefs or a pronounced faith in the afterlife."  you can see the ambiguity.  

so this guy goes to heaven and has an afterlife experience while in a coma.  

"i'm still a doctor, and still a man of science every bit as much as i was before i had my experience," alexander writers.  "but on a deep level, i'm very different from the person i was before, because i've caught a glimpse of this emerging picture of reality.  and you can believe me when i tell you that it will be worth every bit of work it will take us, and those who come after us, to get it right."

the last sentence of this quote took me off guard.  "every bit of the work it will take us".....? no, last time i checked, christ already did the work for us. 

"he brought them out and asked, "sirs, what must i DO to be saved?" –acts 16:30

the truth is, we don't have to DO anything. there is no list of things you must DO before receiving eternal life or find hope in this life, there is nothing you can yourself DO to EARN salvation. jesus has DONE it all for us by dying on the cross for us. salvation is a FREE gift from God through jesus christ, your only call is to accept this gift, repent and believe. in a society where we have to work to see improvements and earn every single bit of what we own, how comforting it is to be eligible for God's bountiful grace and limitless mercy without DOING anything, in and of ourselves.

maybe i read that article wrong, but that is what caused my heart to stir.  

pine lake

click HERE for my initial post "i said yes"

I walked up to the front of Pine Lake on August 22, 2012, but not without wobbly legs and a tug on my heart.  Over the past year, God has been doing radical things in my life.  He has taken me from a broken and shameful past to a fulfilled and free present and future.  At the beginning of this year (2012), I decided it was time to get serious about my relationship with Jesus.  No more “lukewarm;” no more selfishness; no more falling away.  I need Jesus and I need Him now!  I knew a lot of things about Christ, and I knew what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus; however, I liked my comfortable life that beat to my own drum and had my own rules.  It was obvious that there was something missing from my life.  It seemed like I had everything any one could ask for: good friends, financially stable, athletic ability, top-notch grades; yet, something was still missing, something huge.  I tried (oh did I bend over backwards trying) to find that fulfillment by running faster than everyone else, by going too far with a boy, by drinking alcohol to fit in, by maintaining a 4.0 GPA; but nothing seemed to fit the “God-shaped” hole in my heart.  I needed more.  Though it took every grudge within me to admit that I was missing Jesus, I finally gave in to Him.  Throughout college, I went to church, but that is all it was.  I put on the all to familiar “Sunday smile” and trudged through the rest of the week.  I lived for weekends and free time, but it only left a trail of an overwhelming amount of tears.

I was sick of compartmentalizing my life.  I was tired of  my multiple personalities.  My church friends saw a different side of Renee than my school friends than did my cross-country team.  It was exhausting trying to keep up with who I was around which group of people.

 It was time to get real. To fill the void, the vast void within my heart that nothing could sufficiently take the place.

 I started reading the bible every day on a Bible reading plan.  As my attitude and outlook on life changed by God’s words, my actions and behaviors started mimicking what I was reading ; consequently, I lost friends because I no longer participated in certain activities.  God, in turn, provided countless people in my life who deeply loved Jesus.  As the summer months approached, I began reading books by David Platt, Lysa Terkeurst, Andy Stanley, and Francis Chan (among others).  The words that decorated the authors’ pages smacked me square in the face and my heart was further softened by God’s promises and truths.  Real change was happening on the inside, now the outside needed to reflect what Christ had done.

Walking into church on Wednesday night, I had no idea I would be walking out with wet hair. As Josh’s message on baptism was coming to a close, he asked if anyone wanted to get baptized the coming Sunday at the Country Club.  I smiled, thinking to myself, “How neat that they have a church wide baptism.”  Then, Josh took it to the next level.  He got fired up and said that if anyone wanted to get baptized right at that very moment (as the Ethiopian in Acts 8 did), it could happen.  God was stirring in my heart.  “Now God? You want me to get baptized right now?! Really? You cannot be serious?”  Josh prayed before we rose to sang our closing worship songs.  I remember Josh’s words as he acknowledged the courage it would take to walk up in front of the congregation to get baptized spontaneously.  He prayed that God would move into our hearts (well, God was already at work in that department).  He prayed that someone would take a step of faith in obedience.  When Josh said, “Amen,” I knew that God was saying loud and clear, “GO! NOW!”  My legs felt like lead. I had butterflies in my stomach.  My hands felt like ice (I’m not so sure it wasn’t because of the arctic air that was blowing in the sanctuary). My baptism was unplanned; it was spontaneous.  As I lifted my lead legs, all worries about what people would think abandoned my mind.  It was me and God.  Josh gave me the thumbs up, and that’s when I found myself moving at warp-speed.  I was wearing XXL basketball shorts, a baggy white t-shirt, and a baptismal robe.

Before I was baptized, I remember having a personal moment with the Lord.  The worship team was playing “Forever Reign” and a few tears just found their way to my cheeks as I “was about to run into His arms” because “nothing compares to His embrace,” and now my “heart will sing no other name” but Jesus!  Brad baptized me and my life has never been the same.  My wet, pink hair had stained the t-shirt and the baptismal robe, but no body seemed to care.  I walked out of the baptismal pool to find that 5 more people had decided to make their relationship with Christ public.  This was the first time I had seen how my obedience to God’s call could impact other people’s lives.  The worship band played “One Thing Remains” as soon as I walked out of the baptismal pool.  To this day, every time I hear those two songs, it takes me back to the place where Christ met me where I was and I affirmed my relationship with Him.

Since the moment of my baptism, everything has changed.  Not that I was eternally saved when I was baptized (I was already a part of God’s flock), but there is something liberating and fulfilling about making my relationship with Jesus Christ public to my church family.  It’s like changing a relationship status on Facebook– I cannot help but tell people about the Love of my life and the internal change that He caused that is now reflected in every aspect of my life.

idols in the heart

i have been sipping on twenty ounces of coffee for the past 5 hours.  it's cold.  i'm dehydrated. i want it, but i don't want it.  there is a microwave 200 feet away from me, but my desire to move pales in comparison to my complacency at this table.  throughout the morning, i have had friends pop in and out of starbucks as if i lived here (not at all that unrealistic of an assumption). i have been thinking about idols in the heart for quite some time.  hannah showed me some notes she had taken on idols and how idols don't necessarily have to be something visible to everyone.  it can be a splinter in the heart and if left unattended to, it will get infected and cause more damage.  yesterday a group of friends and i were discussing various biblical topics, opinions, and plans for fall break. in the midst of these conversations, i mentioned ezekiel 14 and things have snowballed ever since.

if we start in ezekiel 14, it is very clear that there are consequences to worshipping idols.  idol worship pollutes us to the nth degree and we are incapable of removing the stain by our own accord.  "well, i definitely don't worship cows and i have never bowed to a totem pole, so i think i'm good in that department renee."  now, i am not talking about hand-making some golden calf, setting it up in the middle of the chic-fil-a parking lot, and bowing down to it, publicly proclaiming greatness to the god of cows.  today, at least in america, that would be asinine and absolutely absurd.  surely we don't visually worship animals or fabrics or gold......or do we? internally?  anything that vies for attention and distracts us from the purpose of glorifying our Maker has the potential to be an idol in our lives: control, pleasure, money, clothes, pets, personal time, sports, power, jobs, iPhones! and other possessions, food, music, just to name a few.  these things in and of themselves are not bad, but when we spend more time pursuing and seeking them more than the Father, idolatry occurs.  in ezekiel, God allows his people to fall into sin after they have clearly abandoned the Lord.  people, this is no contradiction.  God allows sin to occur which usually means we end up in a bad position or unfortunate things can happen in our lives, meaning God is still in complete control; however, he doesn't cause us to sin.  instead, he allows us to choose the path we wander down.  through this all, God reminds us that he is the one in control and that he never stops being our God.

additionally, in daniel 5:23, daniel talks about the idolatry the king was committing.  the king was praising his money and his good fortune instead of the God who had richly blessed him.  it seems silly to read that the king is praising gold, silver, and bronze (i mean, seriously, who does that?); but, how often do we mindlessly spend money or how often do we withhold giving because you're not "financially stable?"  daniel points out that the gods that the king worshipped had no knowledge, couldn't hear, and couldn't see.  it is a dishonor to God when we elevate the things he has created and put those things in his rightful place. idolatry.  He is the one who has given us breath of life.  He is the one who controls our destiny.  daniel goes on to talk about strange writing that appeared on  the wall as a message from God in response to the king's actions.  our days are numbered here on earth. though we try, we cannot measure up to perfection.  we become divided in our relationships and our possessions get divided.  worshipping idols not only has eternal consequences if we fail to do anything about it, but it dishonors the very God who made you.

i especially adore psalm 115:1-8 and jeremiah 10:11-16.  the author of the psalm deliberately says that idols cannot talk, cannot see, cannot hear, cannot smell, cannot feel, cannot walk, and cannot utter a noise.  when we have idols in our heart, it blocks communication in its fullness to jesus.  we start to trust in our idols more than we trust in God.  eventually, we become exactly like our idols: unable to talk about the glory of the lord, blind to God's provisions, unable to hear the direction of the lord, numb to sin and God's comfort, immobile and stagnant, worthless and invaluable, powerless against attacks, useless and purposeless, dead and fruitless, essentially senseless, you become nothing.  these items/ideals become idols once formulated and manufactured in your heart.  these idols try and fail at filling the God-shaped hole in your heart.

finally, in 1 john 5:21, we are commanded to keep away from idols.  straight up guard your heart against idols, as proverbs 4:23 alludes to.  

now, i don't know where you stand in your walk with Christ.  i don't know the kinds of idols harbored in your heart or the struggles you face, but i can let you a little into my life.  i have committed idolatry in the past and i know i'll commit it in the future; however, guarding my heart against such actions and also recognizing that idolatry dishonors God points me in a faithful direction.  it is my aim to please God in all that i do– as a student, runner, teacher, friend, and daughter.  my desire for power and control is overwhelming, but letting God harness these ideals and translate them into positive forces for the kingdom of heaven is liberating.

"so put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you.  have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires.  don't be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry.  God's terrible anger will come upon those who do such things. you used to do them when your life was still part of this world, but now is the time to get ride of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language." –colossians 3:5-8