Be a Wonder to the World.

“HE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO BE A FLEETING WONDER OF THE WORLD. HE WANTS YOU TO BE A WONDER TO A WORLD THAT WATCHES DEATH RULE EVERYWHERE, BUT LIFE INCREASE IN YOU.”

Have you ever felt like you had one foot in the world and one foot with Christ? Maybe going out and partying on the weekend, but showing up for church Sunday? Possibly going to The Porch Tuesday, and then dating someone you know you shouldn’t or having inappropriate relationships? Or maybe it’s even going to church, and then doing whatever it takes to make more money, more success, more popularity including lying, backstabbing, cheating, and joining into inappropriate conversations throughout the week? During this time did you ever get frustrated because it seemed like relationships with friends, dating, co-workers were more difficult? Did life seem confusing, hard, and painful?

Todd gave an awesome message last Tuesday and shared with us Matthew 6:19-24. I encourage you to go back and listen as well as reflect on these verses. Scripture clearly tells us “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money (you can enter anything you constantly think about here).” –Matthew 6:24

I loved when Todd said, “Judgments of sin is just the fruits of sin. God doesn’t bring chaos into your life because you chose to sin…sin is the chaos.”

For a while I would get mad at God when bad things happened in my life. I just didn’t understand why he would allow bad things to happen if he loved me. Now living in the light and having “good eyes” I can clearly see that the pain and hurt in my life came from the sin, not from God. It came from me or someone else disobeying the Lord, and often from me pushing my agenda instead of trusting in the Lords. It came from me and/or others not being fully surrendered to Christ. God is trying to rip us off from happiness, he is trying to set us free and protect us. I agree with Todd saying, “I have never listened to Him & followed Him where I lived to regret it.”

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." –Romans 8:1-2

My other idol in life besides God was relationships. I’d knowingly settle just to have that attention from a guy, but God has restored that area of my life. He has redeemed me. A guy is no longer my desire or treasure, the Lord is and He has my heart.

Quotes from Todd: “If you attract a guy with looks, you’ll lose him the same way.” “Scripture encourages you to find someone who is not just professing the love of Christ, but showing you.” Proverbs 31:30

Undone ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z8Efykeiis&NR=1

Praying for you all~

www.theporchdallas.com

Broken Voices.

I AM GOOD. YOU CAN HOPE IN ME. AND I LOVE YOU. ~God

Andrew from Broken Voices gave an awesome message last week (9/7) about Christ being the center of our lives. Definitely go back and listen online if you missed it.

“So many of us are never all in on anything because of situations we’ve been through. We all have this trust problem, and so we often become one foot in and one foot out” (Revelation 3:15-17). How silly is it that we would even begin to compare the faithfulness of people in our lives to that of our God (Leviticus 19), our Creator (Psalm 139), our Savior (1 Timothy 4)? Of course people in our lives are going to let us down. We are all a little broken , a little selfish, and a lot sinful. Heck, we even let ourselves down. There are times where the more we try to control situations because of our own desires the more out of control things get. We add stress and carry burdens that we were never meant to have.

Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I love when Andrew said, “When the center is off, it’s only a matter of time before everything falls apart.” There was a moment in my life where I had everything I thought I needed to be happy. I had the job, the car, the home, the husband, and the dog. The only thing missing was Christ at the center of my life. In just a short amount of time all of that was gone. Everything I had hoped and prayed for and thought to be the most important things in life were gone. The problem the whole time was that I did the same thing Romans 1:25 speaks on: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” Thankfully God is mighty to save, restore, and redeem. He rescued me from myself and drew me close to Him.

My desire is now isn't for the car, home, husband, or job. My desire is that "when I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have one single bit of talent left and could say... I used everything you gave me". You see my life and your life isn’t meant to get as much as we can, it’s meant to give as much as we can, and to serve our Savior who has given his life for us so that we may have eternal life(John 3:16)!!!

“Our lives were meant to move an off-centered world closer to being back on center.” ~Andrew (Broken Voices)

What is at the center of your life? What/Who are you trusting in besides Christ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuX4bSHfDvs&feature=related

"We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done… so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their forefathers—a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him." ~Psalm 78:4-8

Praying that we would be “a generation rising up to take our place with selfless faith.”

Praying for you all~

www.theporchdallas.com

Just Give Me Jesus.

JP brought it last week with his message on James 5:1-6. After this weekend I felt really convicted of both the message last Tuesday and what we heard from Afshin. My take away in a nutshell is found in the lyrics of a song we sang this weekend…

YOU CAN HAVE ALL THIS WORLD. JUST GIVE ME JESUS.

Whether it’s your chase of your big boy report card (aka your paycheck)…chase of the next bigger, better, faster things this world has to offer…chase of finding that special someone so you can change your Facebook status to "in a relationship", "engaged", or "married"...chase of making sure you are wearing all the name-brand clothes and have the most popular friends…at the end of the day none of that matters.

What matters is your right relationship with Christ. What matters is your understanding of the Gospel- that is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ- and how that completely changes the way you life your life tonight, tomorrow, and all the days to come. What matters is that when you believe this truth in your heart and confess it with your mouth you are saved, and you get to leverage everything in your life for God. Your life should reflect this belief...that's what matters.

Here are some big questions from this past week. I encourage you to spend some time really reflecting on these:

• What are you doing with the things God has already entrusted you with?
• Are you living out your faith so that you do not undercut your ability to witness?
• Are you being influenced by this world or influencing this world?
• What are you doing in your life that people see and say “man he must really believe”?

I 100% agree with what JP said last Tuesday “You will never feel so alive then when you allow Christ to use you.” Then Afshin said this weekend, “So often we bail out on God and we miss seeing what God has planned.” God is our greatest reward and we don’t need whatever it is that continues to take our eyes off of Him.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

Praying for you all~

www.theporchdallas.com