Happiness is...

People are always looking for happiness--where did they lose it?

Augustine said this about happiness in his book Confessions:

O Lord, far be it from the heart of your servant who confesses to you, far be it from me to think that whatever joy I feel makes me truly happy. For there is a joy that is not given to those who do not love you, but only to those who love you for your own sake. You yourself are their joy. Happiness is to rejoice in you and for you and because of you. This is true happiness and there is no other. Those who think that there is another kind of happiness look for joy elsewhere, but theirs isnot true joy. Yet their minds are set on something akin to joy.

True happiness is not from things of this world–it’s from God.  In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). We can only be happy when we are in God. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). Augustine goes on to say that all men want happiness; everyone desires to be happy. People often go to the wrong places for happiness. The way to find happiness is in God. If you desire Him, you will find true happiness. He is the Giver of joy and pleasure.

I hope your day is full of true happiness and joy!

To live is Christ

In the Bible Bee gift bags, Voice of the Martyrs gave the senior contestants a copy of Jesus Freaks: Martyrs. A few days ago, I had a little extra time and decided to read for a few minutes. About 100 pages later, I finally put the book down.

For some of the stories, they listed the ages of the martyrs. They were teenagers–just "kids" our age! Like the Jeremiahs and Timothys in the Bible, they were not afraid to proclaim the Gospel even when they knew it would be their death sentence. Not all the "Christians" stood firm during persecution, though; some counted this life above that which is to come.

Have you ever imagined what you would say if someone pointed a gun at you and asked if you were a Christian? I like to think that I would say yes, not caring what the consequences would be. But then I think of Peter, the apostle who said that even if all were made to stumble because of Jesus, he would never be made to stumble (Matthew 26). We read Peter’s story and wonder how–after declaring how much he loved Jesus and how he would never desert him–he could be so afraid of being associated with Jesus that he told a little servant girl that he didn’t know Him. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Many of us would say that we are more than willing to die for Jesus, but how many of us are really prepared to live for Him? Jesus didn’t define a Christian as "one who will die for Me" (although being a Christian sometimes includes that), but as "one who takes up his cross daily and follows Me" (Luke 9:23, emphasis added). We’re ready to die for Jesus or suffer for Him, but we’re not always ready to take up the daily little crosses. How many times a day do you deny Christ by not wholeheartedly following His commands? I doubt I could even count how often I disobey Him. As Paul said, "For me, to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). The rest of that verse says, "and to die is gain." Sometimes it’s easier to think about dying for Him and receiving the gain of being with Him instead of present tense living for Him. If we think that saying we are willing to die for Jesus proves our love for Him when we are not willing to live for Him, we need to examine our hearts. Ask Him to help you learn to deny yourself and live for Him every day. The Greek word martys does not mean only one who dies for his faith, but also one who bears witness of his faith. You can be a martyr for Jesus while you’re still alive! Don’t wait for the day you die to prove your love for Him–let your life be a shining testimony to the world; show everyone what it means to have the Love of God alive in your heart!

Not unto us

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives
("Not What My Hands Have Done," Horatius Bonar)

Psalm 115:1–Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth.

On our own, we can do nothing. We have not memorized a single verse in our own strength–everything we have learned has been by the grace of God. Let’s thank Him and give Him the glory this week at the 2011 National Bible Bee!

Looking forward to His coming

Several days ago, I was reading a blog and found this quote:

“To wait is not merely to remain impassive. It is to expect—to look for with patience, and also with submission. It is to long for, but not impatiently; to look for, but not to fret at the delay; to watch for, but not restlessly; to feel that if He does not come we will acquiesce, and yet to refuse to let the mind acquiesce in the feeling that He will not come.”
-Andrew Davidson

Doesn't that summarize 2 Peter 3 beautifully? 

2 Peter 3:8-14--But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?  Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you.

Reading that quote made 2 Peter 3 come alive for me...that's what we're supposed to be doing!  Our time on earth isn't supposed to be passively waiting--we need to look forward to it, diligently prepare for it, hasten His coming.  Isn't that an exciting thought?  The King of the universe is going to come again, and we get to see Him! 

P.S.  I never read anything else by Andrew Davidson, so I'm not sure if I agree with everything he's written...but I really liked that quote!

True love

Have you noticed that when you’re memorizing a passage that you had learned before, you tend to skim over it more quickly? My family first memorized Romans 12 many years ago, so when I got to the verses from that chapter, I studied it really quickly. But then, a few days ago, I noticed something that I hadn’t read carefully before.

Let love be without hypocrisy (Romans 12:9)

Whoa.

Agape anypokritos.

Agape love is something that we’ve studied already; it’s God’s unconditional love toward us–the love that He commands us to exhibit toward each other in 1 Peter 4:8 described in 1 Corinthians 13. Anypokritos, though, is a word we have not studied for Bible Bee. It means "unfeigned, undesigned, sincere." Ouch–is it even possible to love completely sincerely? I can’t seem to do anything for other people without at least some amount of concern for myself! But God tells us–He commands us–to love one another fervently with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22). Pure, sincere, undesigned, unfeigned, fervently...as Christians, we have no choice but to love one another!

1 John 4:7-13–Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

Give Me the Faith

Give me the faith which can remove
And sink the mountain to a plain;
Give me the childlike praying love,
Which longs to build Thy house again;
Thy love, let it my heart overpower,
And all my simple soul devour.

I want an even strong desire,
I want a calmly fervent zeal,
To save poor souls out of the fire,
To snatch them from the verge of hell,
And turn them to a pardoning God,
And quench the brands in Jesus’ blood.

I would the precious time redeem,
And longer live for this alone,
To spend and to be spent for them
Who have not yet my Savior known;
Fully on these my mission prove,
And only breathe, to breathe Thy love.

My talents, gifts, and graces, Lord,
Into Thy blessed hands receive;
And let me live to preach Thy Word,
And let me to Thy glory live;
My every sacred moment spend
In publishing the sinner’s Friend.

Enlarge, inflame, and fill my heart
With boundless charity divine,
So shall I all strength exert,
And love them with a zeal like Thine,
And lead them to Thy open side,
The sheep for whom the Shepherd died.

"Give Me the Faith" by Charles Wesley

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Mark 11:22-23

Is the Word in you?

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”(that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:8-9).

Does that passage excite you? We hear the second verse quite frequently, but what about the first verse–have you ever thought twice about it?

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That’s the reason we are doing Bible Bee! Why else bother memorizing hundreds of verses? If we simply wanted to exercise our brains over the summer, we could put together a challenging book list or take an extra course for school. The Bible would still be very accessible to us. All we have to do is enter a key word on http://biblegateway.com/ and come up with 273 answers, some of which are more relevant than others. As helpful as it is to have every verse reference of the word “love” come up with one click (there are 494 in the NKJV), I would rather have just one of those written in my heart.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:10-11

Skimming over that verse and copying here didn’t change me. I want to have that verse near me; I want it in my heart! That verse is life-changing! God loves me, and He sent His Son to save me! Because of His love to me, I need to love others. I want to be able to answer yes to Paul–to say “Yes! The word is near me, it is in my mouth and in my heart!”

We are now officially past the 1/4 point in our Bible Bee studies. It’s about the time when that little voice in you head starts saying, “What?! Still 75% to go? Maybe next summer I’ll take a break from Bible memory and actually get my life back!” Please remember why we are studying! God’s Word has the power to change lives, but you must have it near you–in your heart–before it will change your life!

If you are getting discouraged and feel like you’re wasting time memorizing Bible verses, may I ask you a question? If Jesus died for you, don’t you think you ought to live every minute of your life to Him?

Answering the call

Ashley’s post about the call of Christ reminded me of one of Keith and Kristyn Getty’s songs titled “Hear the Call of the Kingdom.” Yohannan’s message was Christ's call; this song should be our answer!

Hear the call of the kingdom
Lift your eyes to the King
Let His song rise within you
As a fragrant offering
Of how God rich in mercy
Came in Christ to redeem
All who trust in His unfailing grace

King of Heaven we will answer the call
We will follow bringing hope to the world
Filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus' name

Hear the call of the Kingdom
To be children of light
With the mercy of heaven
The humility of Christ
Walking justly before Him
Loving all that is right
That the life of Christ may shine through us

King of Heaven we will answer the call
We will follow bringing hope to the world
Filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus' name

Hear the call of the Kingdom
To reach out to the lost
With the Father's compassion
In the wonder of the cross
Bringing peace and forgiveness
And a hope yet to come
Let the nations put their trust in Him

King of Heaven we will answer the call
We will follow bringing hope to the world
Filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus' name

Giving back to God

On Saturday, my sister and I competed in our biggest piano competition of the year–as did several thousand other kids. The fine arts building and nearby theater building were both crowded with people rushing back and forth, hurrying to get to the next practice or event before the doors closed. Stress levels were high.

That morning, I prayed that I could play to the best of my ability and that I could glorify God. This last year, my heart has changed so much–instead of separating my music from God and being driven by success, I am trying to give God the glory through my music. Although I have been a Christian for well over a decade, it wasn’t until recently that I began to understand what it really means to give my life entirely to God. In giving my life to God, I have found fulfilment and purpose. For every disappointment I have in life, He shows me a higher and better way. Piano has been no exception. It was one of the last things I could give over to Him, one of the things that meant the most to me. Yet now that I have given it to Him, He has given it back to me tenfold. I never had so much fun playing piano in my life! When I gave my music to God, He showed me how to use it to glorify Him. How much more fulfilling is life when its purpose is to glorify God!

Matthew 25:20-22 So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Has God given you a talent that you gave back to Him? What happened?

The Word

In the beginning was The Word,
And the Word was with God,
And the Word was God.

Think about it...in the beginning, there was God, and nothing besides God. John 1 goes on to say that all things were made through God, and without God, there was nothing. Starting to get the picture?:) Let's keep reading...

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men! And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." These are verses that we have memorized, quoted many, many, many, many times, and heard all of our lives! Do you realize what that means? That means you have THE WORD in your hands, in your mind, and at your constant disposal! If the Word is God, then that means we have God...His thoughts, His actions, His words, the most supreme, awesome, wonderful, magnificent power written down for us to understand, and in our minds!

Don't take The Word of God for granted! When you read Jesus' words, don't skim over it because you know it so well...LOVE IT! Soak it in, realizing that IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! Love it enough to make sure others have heard it as well. To the world, The Bible is foolishness, but to us it is the power of God! Be bold enough to share this Power, and then sit back and be amazed at what God can do when we hand over the controls!