A Reminder

Today, I was reminded of God's unconditional love for us.  It seems like such a "simple truth" as one of my Jr. High students worded it, but we often forget or don't believe it.  During Jr. High service, we read from the book of Galatians.  Here's what we read: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1:6-7)

In small groups, we discussed exactly how the gospel was/is being distorted.  We discussed how we as humans tend to put conditions on love and how that's what was happening with the gospel.  The truth about Jesus is that all you have to do is, "confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).  That's it!  There's no: You have to do this, you have to act this way, you must fit in the box of ideals.  God's love for us is unconditional.  It's agape love.  Love that we can never reach as humans, no matter how much we try.  Although that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to reach that, it doesn't mean that we should put that kind of expectation on a person.  We're human.  We will mess up.  We will fail to love someone at some point in our lives.  But God never fails.  God's love is unwavering.  It never changes.  It's never ending.  It is perfect.

I don't know about you (whoever may be reading this), but that's something I need to be reminded of everyday.  Don't let a simple truth become ordinary.  The fact that God came down to be among us sinners, should never be something we find mundane.  It should wow us to our core everyday and we should be in awe of a God who loved us so much that he gave up His heavenly throne for us.  Don't forget God's unconditional love for you, ever.

Thank you, Daddy.

~Alyssa

God doesn't follow us

Lesson 33: God isn't just some attachment to our lives.

I would say that this is the most challenging thing as Christians.  When we become a Christian, most of us simply "add" God into our daily routine.  We might pray or read our Bible when we get the chance.  Or maybe just add on church once or twice a week.  By doing these things, we think that God is just so pleased with us and what more could he possibly want?  Well, the problem with this is that God doesn't follow us.  

We are called to follow Him.  Not the other way around.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, 'Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  Mark 10: 17-22

Jesus doesn't say in this passage, keep your life and I'll just follow you around wherever you go.  No, He says, "Come, follow me."  I'm not saying we have to go selling everything we own and become hobos (God knew his heart and that's why He called him to sell all of his riches).  For some of us, the sacrifice Jesus asks us to make may be small right now, but I believe at some point God calls us all to sacrifice something that means a lot to us at some point.  The question is: will you be willing to lay down your pride for the God who laid down his life?  Or will you be like the rich young man who clung to what is temporary?

Now I don't want to speak for God, but I really do believe the reason He asks us to sacrifice the things that mean so much to us is because He wants to be first in our hearts.  When He asks, "Will you follow me?" will we do it despite what we want?  Imagine if we as Christians did what God asked and we followed Him instead of just adding Him onto our lives.  We would see more love.  More kindness.  More forgiveness.  More action.  More of Him.

The first Christians were called Followers of the Way and that's because they truly did follow in the footsteps of their Rabbi.  They followed so closely that they were caked in His dust and it showed in their words and actions.  God, I don't just want to add you onto my life any more.  I want to follow you no matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice because I know that your way is better.  I know that you are the truth and the truth is more important than a comfortable lie.  I love you.

~Alyssa

God will never give you more than you can handle

Lesson 33: The common phrase "God will never give you more than you can handle" is a lie.

I'll make this short.  Lately, I've had a lot on my shoulders.  I, like many people, thought I could handle it all on my own, only to have that blown up in my face.  While I think the phrase "God will never give you more than you can handle" is a nice and comforting saying, it's far from the truth.  Think about it.  If we could handle all of our circumstances without God, we wouldn't need him! But the point is, we desperately need Him.  I desperately need him.

Today, Good Friday, God showed me that He is actively pursuing me and he's started picking up the pieces in our relationship.  I'm starting over and I'm going to get my passion back.  Thank you Jesus for always being there for me.

Your daughter,

~Alyssa

Everything Happens For a Reason

Lesson 31: God does not control our free will.

You've heard the phrase, "Everything happens for a reason."

This is a common phrase many Christians use as a comforting mechanism when life isn't going so well, and sometimes even when life is great.  "This person broke up with you? Well, don't worry! Everything happens for a reason, you'll find someone else." and then years later they'll say, "See! now you're with this person who is way better. Everything happens for a reason!"

There are so many more scenarios in which people use this phrase: divorce, unemployment, rejection, etc.  The older I get and more I go through, the less I am compelled to believe this.  In fact, I would say I'm at a point in life where I don't believe that anymore.  Let me explain:

Does God control our free will?  To me, the obvious answer is no.  Therefore, not everything could possibly happen for a reason! If it did, then God would be intervening in every single situation in our lives (which would take away free will).  Now, this isn't to say that God doesn't intervene.  He most certainly does!  He is the God who cures cancer, restores families, and is our ultimate redeemer.  I would say things like that most certainly happen for a reason.  Those are things that God is healing and health is what God intended from the beginning.

But did God intend for death?  Divorce?  Rape?  Murder?  Of course not!  God did not intend or want that poor little girl/boy to feel alone as her parents fought or for the girl/boy to get raped.  He wouldn't be loving if those things happened for a reason.  Now, can God create positive things from those horrible experiences and events?  Absolutely!  God can do anything, including redeeming those situations and giving peace to those who have experienced hurt and sin.

Hope I was able to express my belief correctly.  Who knows, maybe it will change in time.  But I felt the need to share and it's been so long since I've written.  I love Jesus, and He accepts us as His children even if we don't understand everything.

I love you Abba.

~Alyssa

Balancing Act

Lesson 30: Grace and Obedience are a balancing act.

I have been hurting and struggling the past few days.  I feel so weird starting this post out like this, but it's true and it's the reason I've learned this lesson.  I feel like I've known it, but it was explained so clearly to me yesterday that I felt the need to share.

Yesterday, I approached my youth pastor about the current events that have been happening in my life.  After a lot of discussion and insight, he said to me (paraphrased), "The Christian walk is a balancing act of grace and obedience."

He went on to explain that often times in our Christian walk we will focus so much on one and ignore the other.  For example, a Christian who focuses to much on grace and not on obedience might think, "I think God is calling me to do this thing, but if I don't do it it's okay because He loves me!" or something along those lines.  Then there's the Christian who focuses too much on obedience and might say, "I have to do this thing to please God or I won't receive His blessings, love, and forgiveness".

Both are clearly wrong ways of thinking of our walk with God.  The obedience side takes verses from the Bible and over inflates them, which is what the Pharisees did and Jesus clearly opposed them (Matthew 23:23).  On the other hand, Jesus also opposes those whose hearts are not willing to obey and do what He commands (Example in Matthew 7:24-27).

This thing we call life, I believe, is just one big balancing act of obeying but also not forgetting grace and love.  Jesus never says that we have to do things to earn His love, and forgiveness (except confess and repent of course).  But nowhere does He say that we have to earn it.  Frankly, we can't earn His love.  If we tried to earn our way to heaven, Christianity would be pointless since our acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and all have fallen short and no one is declared righteous through the law (Romans 3:20-24)

I know that have definitely been more on the Grace spectrum of this balancing beam.  God taught me two years ago to obey in the big things and since then I have listened and obeyed very well for all the "big things" He has asked of me.  However, I've come to realized that I have lacked in the little, everyday obediences (read my Bible, pray continually, etc.).  I think God is much more pleased by obeying Him in the everyday things then He is with just the big things in life because if we can obey Him in those things, I would think there would be less "big things" to obey in the first place (if that makes any sense?).

God's not done with me and He's still teaching me things.  He has shown me so much in just the past few days.  He has comforted me and shown me that I have things I need to work on but I am His child and He loves me and has saved me from my sins.  I'll never have to try and earn my way into heaven by doing x, y, and z.  He finished that by dying on the Cross!  I don't think I have ever felt so loved and supported by God and my friends and I'm so grateful.  Thank you Abba for everything.

With Lots of Love,

~Alyssa

Christ as the Center

Lesson 29: Make Christ the center of your life.

I know I've written about this one several times in past blogs, but I feel it's necessary to dedicate a whole lesson to this theme.  This truly has been the focus of my summer and it will continue to be so for the rest of my life.

Making Christ the center of my life is my main goal.

Not the #1 priority (even thought that is important in some sense).

The center.

This summer I got the amazing opportunity to counsel kids from ages 7-18.  But no matter the age or maturity level, God always put it on my heart to teach them about making Him the center of their lives (while also teaching me how to do so in the process).  God doesn't want to be our #1 priority if we're just going to forget about Him in the other priorities that rule our lives.  Following God doesn't work like that.  We can't just check Him off on a nice little box and say, "Okay, I prayed, did my quiet time went to church, etc. and now I'm good."

God wants to be involved in our lives, not just be one little part of it.  God wants to be included in everything.  Your friendships.  Relationships.  Family.  Hobbies.  Everything!

So how does one make Christ their center?  God is still teaching me how to do that.  Part of the answer is obvious: Read your Bible, pray, fellowship, fill your thoughts with him.  As cheesy as that sounds, it's so true.  One thing God truly taught me this summer was that it truly doesn't matter how much time you spend privately with Him so long as you do it and still keep Him with you during the day.

I guess if I were really to sum up this whole lesson it would be this one word: Surrender.  To make Christ the center means to relinquish control and realize you can't do it on your own.  Surrender sometimes means giving up things that you like or are comfortable with.  But if that's what it takes to truly be content in the Lord and make Him the center, it's so worth it.

"Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?'" ~Mark 8:34-37

With Lots of Love,

~Alyssa

I lost my Religion

Lesson 28: Lose your religion, that's not what God wanted anyways.

So I'm not sure why, but I feel like I really need to write this.  I feel like God has really put this on my heart and he's really working on me.  I hate it when people who are Christians say that they are "religious people".  Or even people who say "I'm just not religious anymore" or "religion just never worked for me".

First of all, the word "religion" or "religious" is mentioned less than 10 times in the entire Bible.  Don't you see?  Christianity has never been about being religion, it's about being in a relationship with Jesus.  There are people in my life (even family members) who have fallen away from God.  They say, "I felt like I couldn't be myself when I was a Christian" or "I felt like it was holding me back".

My question is how and why did you feel that way?  This person might answer "Well, because I wanted to please God and be perfect for him and He put those expectations on me.  I just could never live up to those perfect standards.  It was God who made me feel that way."

With me still?  Now, this is where I may step on some people's toes.  But I have to be honest. You. Are. Wrong.  God never wants His children to feel that way.  He loves us unconditionally, flaws and everything.  He just wants us to be with Him and love Him too.

The correct answer is this: the devil.  "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." -1 Peter 5:8 I talked about this in my past blogs before, but I believe with my whole heart that the devil is the biggest liar and accuser.  It's him who makes us feel guilty and like we can never live up to God's expectations.  He's the reason people feel this way.  He's that little voice in our head that says, "You are not good enough.  You are worthless.  You must be perfect to please your God."

That's the biggest lie ever and over half the world believes it!!  I guess the overall message is this:

If you "lost" your religion.  Good.  But, come back to God!  He wants you!  Begin that relationship with Him again, He's right behind you waiting for you to turn around! He knows you're not perfect and He loves you no matter what.  It may take time, but that's the wonderful thing about having a Lord, Savior, and Dad who is patient with us and wants us to succeed.

Now, this part is for myself and other "religious" people.  We need to let it go.  God does not want to be part of our check list.  He doesn't even want to be the top priority in our lives.  He wants to be the center.  He wants to be involved in everything! So please, include Him in your daily lives and not just part of your day or week.  He doesn't need us to do this, but, like anyone, He wants it because He wants to be loved.

Lose the religion, and start a relationship.

With lots of Love,

~Alyssa