Don't Wait For Dates.

Dating. The area of my life I’ve struggled with the most to be honest. As much as I hate to admit it, I have settled many times in my life because of the desire to have someone around. (2 Corinthians 6:14)I can tell you first-hand that it is far better to be single than in an unhealthy relationship/marriage. My loneliest time, in fact, was being in a marriage that was not Christ-centered and was completely broken.

I loved it when JP talked about how our time of singleness can be either a waste of time, or the most productive time. It’s hard to even think about the amount of time I’ve wasted in my life worrying about dating. Since surrendering my life to Christ, it has been amazing to see how God has worked in that area of my life. By focusing more on my relationship with God and less on relationships with guys, I’ve been able to build great relationships with my girl friends, serve here at The Porch, take Bible studies to work through areas of my life that I needed to deal with, and even go to the Amazon Jungle on a mission trip! This time of singleness has allowed God to restore me, sharpen me, and better prepare me for a relationship, if that is in His will. God has blessed my life more than any boyfriend ever could! (1 Corinthians 7:35)

Spending time with the Lord in my singleness has definitely helped to make purity a priority, greatly increased my discernment, and has shown me that when things don’t work out with someone, I can have peace knowing that I have no regrets and the Lord has something greater planned for my life (Romans 8:28). I am not defined by the guy I am with or if I have one at all, I am defined by Jesus Christ. I pray that my faithfulness marks me.

Ladies:
"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue… Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." ~Proverbs 31:25-26, 30

Gentlemen:
"Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money… (They) are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience." ~1 Timothy 3:2-3, 8-9

DON’T COMPROMISE FOR THE REPLICA, HOLD OUT FOR THE REAL THING.

www.theporchdallas.com

Hey, How's Your Prayer Life?

Last Tuesday was AMAZING! If you weren’t there definitely go back and check it out online.

The message was about how communication is the most important aspect of a relationship. This includes our relationship with God. How then do we communicate with our Father? Through prayer. When? Continually…

"And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." ~1 Thessalonians 5:14-18

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise." ~James 5:13

When I think about life in general I can see so clearly how important communication is. Lack of communication can cause so much pain and confusion in our lives whether at work, with family/friends, and in relationships. Recently I was thinking about how lack of communication can hurt more than just hearing the truth. I can only imagine how God must feel when we continually chose to ignore him and not communicate. Maybe you don’t feel like you can pray to God because you aren’t sure he’s really there and listening or you don’t know what or how to pray. I’ve been there.

There was a point in my life where I wasn’t honestly communicating with anyone. I didn’t let anyone know the truth about how sad and broken I was, including God. The Lord used JP to share with me the Gospel, and used him to encourage me about how our Father wants a relationship with us no matter how broken we are, or how many times we’ve turned our backs on Him. I remembering not really knowing what or how to pray, but just praying to God that I needed help, I need Jesus Christ as my Savior, and wanted a relationship with Him. The Lord totally answered, and has continued to as I've been in relationship with Him.

You see God is faithful even when we are faithless.(2 Timothy 2:13) God doesn’t ignore us, even though we’ve ignore Him and others (Matthew 22:37-39). A relationship with Christ gives you more than any other relationship can. The Lord saves! Restores! Redeems! Gives you peace, mercy, joy, and grace! I love when JP said, “Sometimes people don't have a right relationship with God, but want him to be their magician” and just fix things or give things. True faith is the belief in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and having a relationship with Him. Trusting that even when things may not make sense, He may be doing something bigger than you. Praising Him in good times and bad, and giving Him all the glory.

How’s your prayer life? Your Father loves you and would love to chat :)

Praying you will know the Lord and that He will know you. (Matthew 7:15-23)

www.theporchdallas.com

It's All About Me.

“WE NEED ATTENTION, BUT WE DON’T WANT TO PAY ATTENTION TO OTHERS.”

Our guest speaker Aschalew from Ethiopia gave a great message last Tuesday on how life is simply about loving, giving, and serving others. There were a couple times he even called us out saying, “we are takers, we can’t see past ourselves…it’s all about ‘me’.” I hate even thinking about that because I know how painfully true that statement is. What really stuck out to me though is when he was speaking on how we look at our life as little experiments, almost testing to see how much we can depend on ourselves as opposed to God. He said, “It’s not about experiments, it’s about knowing your creator.”

Looking at myself I can see so clearly that much of my life has been a maybe lifestyle. I say that meaning I do things thinking maybe this will work out, maybe if I just try really hard to make things work. For you girls, maybe I’ll be the exception instead of the rule this time. All these situations are little experiments seeing what I can do for myself. Most of the time I’ve done this because it’s things that I want and has nothing to do with God’s plan for my life or in any way trusting in Him. During these times I am also not following what God has said is true and am not believing that these truth’s are written to protect us because He loves us. It’s evident that in those moments I am not in complete surrender to Christ. He is not my delight…something else so temporary has distracted me.

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night."
~Psalms 1:1-2

When we become so obsessed with our plan, what we want, or how great we are doing and thinking we are the exception to all the rules, how can we begin to obey the second greatest commandment? Put simply we are called to love God, and love others. (Matthew 22:37-39)

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
~Galatians 5:13-14

How are you doing today, honestly? Reflect on your life, how much time are you spending trying to make your will happen? How much time are you spending getting to know your Creator, your Savior, your Heavenly Father? Are you spending all your time, energy, and money on yourself or allowing Christ to use you in someone else’s life?

There are a lot of lonely, confused, and lost people all around us here in Dallas…are you serving and loving them well? Maybe it's even the simple question of asking the person sitting next to you now, or the next person you see..."Hey, how are you doing today? Is there anything I can pray for you about?" Then listen and pray. Try it and I'd love to hear how God uses those small gestures of love and kindness.

I pray that we not be selfish young adults here in Dallas, but we would be selfless.

I encourage you all to spend some quiet time today reflecting on these verses: 1 John 3:16-20, Romans 12:1-3, Philippians 2:1-11.

www.theporchdallas.com

He IS Coming Back!

“WE KNOW HOW THIS IS GOING TO END…WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?”

JP brought it last Tuesday as we went through James 5:7-12! I encourage you to spend time in those verses.

It really caught my attention when he talked about how we often ask why God doesn’t just start fixing the things that are wrong in this world, and deal with the people that need to be dealt with. JP made a good point, where should God start then? Should he start with murderers, liars, cheaters, or maybe even with us? You see we’ve all sinned and added to the brokenness and mess that we’ve made this world. “Praise God he didn’t start before you knew him.” Christ is going to come again, but he wants us all to come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Tears fill my eyes when I think of the times I’ve turned my back on the Lord, and the pain I’ve caused myself and others. Then tears of joy come when I think of how the Lord loves us, is patient with us, forgives us, and even wants to use us to help build his kingdom. We are called to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), bearing witness to those around us. Sharing what we know to be true and the good news that HE IS COMING BACK! We know how this is going to end.

If you’ve met me you know how much I love football, Auburn football more specifically, but as silly as this seems I’ve been asking myself this question and want to ask you as well….I plan my weekends around when Auburn is playing, have my jersey on, chat with everyone who will listen to me about the game, learn stats, and cheer way too much, but am I that way about Christ? Do I plan for His coming again, share with everyone who will listen, know and share his Word that is Truth, and give God all the glory and praise for everything in my life? Am I more excited about football than Christ? Are you? Or maybe it’s something else you’re passionate about, but why aren't we that much more excited and passionate about the Gospel and truth that Christ is coming again?

I was at lunch not too long ago and overheard a child in a booth next to me talking about Jesus to his family. He said... "I want to be alive when he comes back!...We've got to tell everybody he's coming!" He was so excited. Those two little sentences from a child were such a great reminder for me. As I am so easily distracted by things that don't matter and lose sight of the joy and excitement that comes from the Gospel and truth that HE IS COMING BACK...We've got to tell everybody!

www.theporchdallas.com