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“You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 (NLT)

Why is it so hard for us to look beyond ourselves? Why do we always want to take the credit for the goo work that’s done? The Bible makes it clear that people are only saved through the power of the Holy Spirit, so why do we continue to claim that people are saved solely through our work?

Paul warned the Corinthians against giving the credit to anyone else but the only one who really deserves it. It is through God that we are empowered to spread the Gospel to the nations. This power comes from Him alone and cannot be born of our motives and desires.

We should be careful in our ministry that we not brag about the good work that “we” have done, instead giving credit to the One who gives us the ability to do so in the first place.

All Glory to Him!

Kyle LeBoeuf

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“What the wicked dreads will overtake him;
what the righteous desire will be granted.
When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone,
but the righteous stand firm forever.” Proverbs 10:24-25 (NIV)

I am definitely a momma’s girl. From the day I was born I have been attached to her hip. When she took showers, I was on the floor in the bathroom. When she cooked, I was on her hip. One day, my mom went shopping and left me with my dad; I screamed all day long. It’s not that I hate my dad, I love him; I am just very close to my mother. But as I have been growing older and living away from home, I have been forced to depend on God so much more.

She is my best friend and I am extremely open with her and she always calms me down after a long, stressful, or sad day. But as the hurricane grows closer and closer to Louisiana, I am learning to depend more and more upon God. I have only experienced hurricanes for eight years and in those years only a few have been worrisome. But now, at 18, a very scary hurricane is headed toward my parents’ home and I am three hours away. Since I was at school, I came up to my grandparents because I knew my family would come here. But until around 10 am tomorrow morning (if traffic isn’t too horrible) I am away from my mom.

It is so hard to be three hours away from a person that I take so much comfort. But then I remembered that my mom should not be the main source of my comfort, God should. God controls the storm, the traffic, the waters, the winds, and anything that could possibly go wrong or right is under his control. So that is my prayer, that no matter what is going on that everyone would take their comfort and direction from Him. I am also praying that He will weaken the storm and lessen the storm surge and protect against tornados, but my first prayer is that everyone evacuating, riding out the storm, living in an unaffected area, making decisions in the area, or providing aid to those in need would seek their comfort and direction from God alone; not only in this stressful and confusing time, but always.

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“I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.” 1 Corinthians 1-3

-Paul

Sometimes I think Christians get into conversations about God and claim to know the in’s and out’s of God’s mind. We all know these Christians…, the one’s with an answer for everything! I am even one of these Christians sometimes. God is slowly breaking me of this. 1 Corinthians 4:1 tells us that we as believers in Christ only know what God allows us to know.

Sometimes Christians will have a discussion with an atheist and try to come at the God conversation from a philosophical point of view. I’m not saying that their isn’t a time and place for that type of conversation. With our culture and society emerging the way it has and continues to, these types of conversations sometimes are a good thing. I am saying that Paul tells us that that is not the way that he did it. I don’t know about you but I would like to follow Paul’s example.

Paul shows us his effective way of spreading the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 2. I believe that we shouldn’t use human wisdom as our first tool to spread the Gospel of Christ. “Lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” 1 Corinthians 1:17.

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.” 1 Corinthians 3:19

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20

-Brandon

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By Kyle LeBoeuf (kyle@giftofwords.net)

Verses: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Let’s just face it. Paul was a messed up guy. He was one of the chief persecutors of the early church and oversaw the deaths of several Christians, including prominent ones like Stephen (see Acts 7:54‐8:3). Isn’t it remarkable that God took a man such as this and crafted him into one of the most effective Christian ministers in all of history?

Paul was converted because of God’s grace. He writes in verses 14 and 15: “And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.” (1 Timothy 1:14‐15 NKJV)

As indicated in this passage, we are saved by the Grace of God alone. Isn’t that amazing? I don’t think many people fully realize the magnificence of this grace! Here, you have a guy who was once the most notorious persecutor of Christ’s doctrine and followers praising God for His Grace!

We are saved alone by Grace. Don’t be fooled into believing any other doctrine!

His Grace is Enough!

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“Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’
But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.
Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ”
Matthew 25: 19-30 (NASB)

Lately I’ve been noticing how lazy I am and how that often changes the quality of the work I do. I try to make excuses to myself and ignore the things I haven’t done, but they sit there and mock me nonetheless.
I have a horrible habit for procrastination. If something does not have a deadline attached to it, I will probably never do it. For example, I planned to register to vote on my birthday over two months ago. I am currently still unregistered to vote, and that even has a deadline. I have not cleaned up my room since I have moved back home and it’s been two weeks since I have blogged, if you count my last entry as a blog at all. Why am I so lazy? Because I think that I can be.
Frankly, I am a master procrastinator. I can write a paper the night before it is due and make an A, clean up my room thirty minutes before room checks and still pass and schedule my interviews two days before my deadline (for a monthly paper). I have learned how to procrastinate and still perform well. And if I can get away with it, it’s almost impossible to break the habit.
So what do I need to do: take pride in my work. I need to remember that I am not writing articles and registering to vote so I can check it off a list, I am doing it so that my voice will be heard in a world that tries not to hear it. If you give anyone an excuse to tune you out, they will take it in a heartbeat. If I want my voice to be heard and my life to make a difference for Jesus Christ, I need to do everything to the best of my ability; not in the quickest way possible.
And by procrastinating I spend most of my life in panic-mode. I stress out when it seems like something may not get finished or may not pass for something that wasn’t speedily done. I spend a majority of time worrying when I could be living a peaceful, joyful life for Christ by using my time more wisely. Instead of sleeping until my class starts, I could review my notes before a test and get a better grade. Rather than cleaning my room before room checks, I could gradually keep it clean all week and spend less time doing it on Thursdays, which are my busiest day.
We must realize that we are accountable for what we have been given, we should all be more faithful with our responsibilities and do our best work everyday.

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I know every time I watch the news or just walk into any public place I think, “What has happened to our society?” “What has happened to our world?” A society that used to be built on principles has become impatient and has turned inward into a life of selfishness.

I can’t help but think of the story in Exodus 32. We all know this one. The story of Moses on Mt. Sinai and the Golden Calf. I will give a small recap of the story. The Israelites that Moses led out of harm and out of Egypt were waiting at the bottom of Mt. Sinai for Moses to come down the mountain with God’s Commandments. They became impatient in their waiting and decided that Moses was taking too long and they wanted something to worship right then and there. The people “Gathered around Aaron and said, come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Right here we see the desire to worship something. There impatience shows me that they really felt that they needed to worship something. Their impatience shows their desire for something to worship.

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me.”

Most of us know the rest of the story. They melt all of their gold and create a golden calf to worship. I personally found it interesting that they chose gold to build their idol. Just the fact that they chose gold, shows me a lot. You might be asking, “Ok Brandon, where are you going with this.” It’s actually quite simple to grasp. Gold is something very valuable in their society and in our society today. They took one of their “Earthly valuables” and worshiped it.

I think all people do the same thing today. In our present time people feel the need to spend valuable amounts of time on certain things. I would say that they worship these certain things. I can also see today that many people have that desire to worship earthly things because they are impatient to wait on God’s timing. They want something to worship now! I might have just been rambling on for about 200 words but I think this concept in an important one to grasp. We can see even in non-believers that Christ made them special to worship. Just because they worship earthly things doesn’t change the fact that they were created to worship Christ and give him all of the Glory, Honor, and Praise.

-In his name we pray

Amen

Brandon Edwards

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Printable PDF Version of this found can be found here
Verses: 2^nd Corinthians 9:6-10, 10:3-8, 12-18, 11:1-6, 22-31
By Kyle LeBoeuf (kyle@giftofwords.net)

Giving- verses 9:6-10

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “you reap what you sow”. I personally believe that our society is partially driven by this. Every action has a consequence. We were taught these principles growing up. Rarely do I hear this phrase being applied to the act of giving. Last time I discussed giving, I talked about giving from the heart. In these verses, Paul adds on to his message about giving.

“But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” 2^nd Corinthians 9:6 (NKJV)

If we bless others, we will be blessed. Paul’s message does not get any simpler than that. God multiplies the blessings of those who dispense these blessings to others.

Another key passage from this chapter can be seen here:

“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2^nd Corinthians 9:7 (NKJV)

Giving should not be seen as an obligation. Society as we know it puts commitment out of obligation in a negative light. We usually frown upon being pressured to do something (whether we agree to or not). If we give, we should give from our hearts. We should only give because we want to bless others, because God “loves a cheerful giver”. If you write that check out to your church, make sure you are doing it with a good heart. Also, if you feel compelled to give, then try not to worry so much about your finances. God provides. I’m not saying that you should starve your children and family to write a check to the church, but if there is a way for you to give and you feel compelled to do so, do it. God will “multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness” (Verse 10).

Ministry as a Battlefield: God’s Mighty Weapons- verses 10:3-6

It’s easy to proclaim that ministry is war. Every day, missionaries, evangelists, pastors, ministers, and other Christians around the world are fighting a war for the souls that still belong to the world. In our pride, I think we are often tempted to use our own “weapons”, or methods and arguments used to break down the walls of the human heart, to help people reach an understanding of who Jesus Christ is.

Personally, I’ve been guilty of this many times. For me, logic told me that since I was the one actually speaking to the “lost” individual, I would have to form the case for Christ using my own logic and understanding of who Christ is. Obviously, I ran into some difficulties with this.

It’s easy for us to ignore God’s suggestions and plans instead follow our own. After all, society tends to breed us all as independent individuals. But usually, these ideas and arguments, these “weapons”, often end up leaving us short of our ultimate goal.

Ministry is the battlefield of a war that we cannot when by our own methods alone. We must rely on the “weapons” that God gives us. This would be the Holy Bible, God’s written word. This would be the Holy Spirit, or God’s will manifest in us. This would be the truth of resurrection of Jesus Christ, the key to final door, the last piece of the puzzle of human living.

Paul was backing up his ministry by proclaiming that he was relying on the tools and gifts God gave him to do his ministry, rather than his own knowledge and methods, like those of some of his contemporaries.

To put this into an “Alaskan perspective”, would you go Salmon fishing without the right equipment? It’s become quite obvious to me that there are certain dos and don’ts to salmon fishing. You need waders, a good pole, reel, and the right kind of lure or bait.

I know for a fact that most of you wouldn’t go fishing with a cane pole, a hook, and some plain old fishing line. If you want to be an effective fisherman, you need to be equipped with the right tools.

Slow Your Roll: Judgment and the Church- verses: 10:7-8, 12-18

We are quick to judge people based on their appearance. If I walked into a church on my first day of meeting the congregation in baggy, torn-up jeans, wild, bed-like hair, and a raggy t-shirt, I would be looked down upon and judged almost immediately.

I am shocked at the attitude of the modern church towards those of a different demographic. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge people by their outer appearances. Read the book of Acts. The apostles eventually began to reach to everyone; Jew, Greek, Samaritan, Roman, Ethiopian, it didn’t matter. The early Christians began to see them in a new light.

“Appearances”, is used loosely in this passage. It’s used to refer to the overall appearances of someone’s personality. Unlike some of Paul’s contemporaries, Paul was more soft spoken, but that did not reflect the degree of his faith to Jesus Christ. Just because someone is not as willing to stand up in front of people and speak, does not mean that they are any less Christian than someone else.

Paul’s not just talking about judgment of appearance though…we are always looking to cast judgment on others. Paul cautions us against this, and advises us not to over-extend our boundaries.

I have 5 younger siblings (I am the oldest). I cannot even begin to count the number of times I overstepped my boundaries as an older brother and tried to act more like a parent. If you’ve ever had siblings, or you have multiple children, then you surely understand this.

Especially in the church, I feel that we easily and often over-step our boundaries within the church and attempt to make decisions and perform tasks that we were not meant to attempt. To give you an example, if a staff member is involved in some immoral activity that reflects badly on his position and the image of God, then you should probably speak with the pastor or a deacon about it. It is not your place to correct him, nor is it the place of a small “committee” of your peers, like the ones that often form in troubled churches.

We tend to overstep our boundaries when we begin to take pride in our position of authority.

Paul warns us against boasting of our accomplishments and our authority, for it should be understood that as Christ’s children, the glory is all his.

“But ‘he who glories, let him glory in the LORD’” 2^nd Corinthians 10:17 (NKJV)

“The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the LORD has done.” 2^nd Corinthians 10:17 (NKJV)

I think that whenever we accomplish something, especially in ministry, it’s very, very easy to talk about our own talents and abilities. Our world is focused on praising the talents of the individual, while Christianity focuses on praising God alone.

“For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.” 2nc Corinthians 10:18 (NKJV)

The Bride of Christ- verses 11:1-6

When I first read these words, I kind of chuckled. For guys, it sounds funny to calls ourselves the “bride of Christ”. But Paul uses these words in a metaphorical way. Christ weds the church. Christ wants to have an intimate relationship with the church and with His people. He wants you all to Himself. But there are those who attempt to preach of a different “Jesus”. There are those who want to get in the way of this intimate relationship we have Jesus.

I went on a three day camping trip with a group of junior high students not long ago, and led a devotion that focused on the intimacy of this relationship we have with Christ. Jesus wants us to be constantly seeking after Him, not unlike a spouse. He wants our full, undivided attention, and gets jealous when we give attention to someone or something else.

I tagged verses 5 and 6 with these passages because Paul basically adds credit to the above message. He points out that he has demonstrated his knowledge, rather than being a well-trained public speaker and able to craft the “truth”. We are often led astray by people who are well-trained in communicating their ideas to people, and they can bend our understanding on subjects to their own “truths”, rather than the truths that are in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Suffering: The ultimate sacrifice- Real Jesus Freaks- verses 11:22-31

Reading these verses without the context makes Paul seem like a pretty pompous, uptight guy. In these passages, he basically uses his suffering as credentials to the sincerity of his service. There’s not too many people I can think of who be able to stomach everything happened to Him (you can read about Paul’s ministry, including details of his suffering and accomplishments, read Acts 9-28).

I have this book called Jesus Freaks. It contains stories of people who gave up everything for their faith. They absolutely would not bend in their resolution to proclaim Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They all suffered, and many of them died, but their stories lived on to touch the lives of others, and stir people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They were people who were called “freaks” and “nutcases” because they refused to step down from their faith. The ultimate Jesus Freaks.

God often uses suffering as way to glorify Him through our perseverance, as long as we continue to worship and praise Him through our thoughts, words, and actions.

In the above passages, Paul is calling for a commitment. 2^nd Corinthians is about Paul calling the Corinthian church to remain committed to Jesus Christ alone, not the teachings of self-centered priests and ministers, or the selfish desires of their own hearts, or even to each other.

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“Yield now and be at peace with Him;
Thereby good will come to you.
‘Please receive instruction from His mouth
And establish His words in your heart.
‘If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored;
If you remove unrighteousness far from your tent,”
-Job 22:21-23 (NASB)

Much of my summer has been spent doing nothing. I worked at a Mother’s Day Out for a couple of weeks, but it didn’t take up very much of my time. I didn’t travel much, or hang out with friends constantly, I just enjoyed the solitary reflection of my room and the love of my family.

Now that I am back at school, I wish that I had enjoyed my time off a little more, especially since many people I know are away as missionaries this summer. I feel guilty that I spent my summer in such a selfish way. But I know that I needed the time and it was what God planned for me. I got so caught up in memories and regrets during the past few months that I needed to clear my head and refocus on God.

Much of my time thinking was spent mulling over a couple of old friends that I have lost touch with. Whenever I go back to my hometown is upsets me that things between us are not the way they used to be. We rarely see each other and only speak for a couple of minutes if we do. I wished so badly that our friendship could become what it once was. I tried to force the relationship, I pushed for my hometown to be my new home and for the years I missed to disappear. But finally, God showed me the futility of it.

I can’t say that a certain event changed the way I look at it, it was just something God showed me over time. I wasted weekends and summer days that could have been spent happily on trying to fix something that had deteroriated for a reason. As much as I still love them, God has given me a huge appreciation for who I am now and the person He is guiding me to become.

I have this picture in my head of who I want to be in twenty years. While goals are great things to have, that goal wasn’t Christ-centered. My future self was a selfish and vain version of who I thought I should be. Not all the qualities I hope to possess by then are bad, I did not leave room for God’s say in the picture. I created the image all on my own.

I took God out of the equation. I set selfish goals without caring whether God wanted me to achieve them or not. I pictured those childhood friends of mine with me in twenty years, instead of being a part of me. Whether those friends are present or not, the love I feel for them and the memories we share will always be a part of who I am.

After all of my thinking, God showed me that each of us have grown in a different direction because He is calling us to serve Him in different ways and their home is not my home right now. So instead of complaining about it and acting like I was some sort of modern-day Job with all of my complaining, I looked back to God and put my focus back on Him and doing His will. He showed me this summer that I have friends that love me and will be here for me, friends that He has placed in my life, friendships that He has helped to grow over time.

His plans, His friends for me, His goals trample mine until my plans become singularr atoms unable to bond or comprise anything.  Focusing on His plans brings a peace even when the future is uncertain or the past is  painful. The present moment is beautiful no matter the circumstances when you are whooly center in Christ’s will. Next time you don’t like something in your life, step back and take a look at it. If you’re in the center of God’s will praise Him with the knowledge that He is sovereign and He is in complete control. If you are not in the center of God’s will stop everything and pray that moment for God to restore your relationship with Him and turn your face towards Him. Seek Him with all of your heart  and He will give you unshakable peace.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
-Philippians 4:6-9 (NASB)

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Editors Note: Give a warm welcome to one of our contributors, Nicole Richmond. Nicole is a sophomore journalism major at Louisiana College.

“LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.”
-Isaiah 25:1 (NASB)

While sitting down in my dorm room unsuccessfully thinking about this blog and what I should say, I remembered that I didn’t pray. That should be the first step in writing a blog like this, right? So, after praying I opened my eyes and looked at a very large pine tree outside my window. The simplistic beauty of God’s creation struck me right then. He created that knowing that one day I would be sitting in this room on my laptop looking at it while sorting through ideas.

I love how God proves time and time again that everything has a purpose and a reason. It’s comforting to know that He has my future taken care of and I just have to trust Him to led me to and through it. Just like He has laid a burden for writing on my heart since I was young. He has opened so many doors for me to write at my church and here at school and given me such a blessed peace about it. When I found out about this project I was thrilled at being given the chance to reach out to new people who love and are learning to love God. I can’t wait to see what God will bring about through this.

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Verses: Genesis 1:27, Psalms 42:2, 63:1, 7-8, 1 John 4:7-11

Flirting

The first romantic relationship I ever had with a girl occurred about mid-way through my junior year in high school. The girl was someone I worked with at the local grocery store, and we had been friends for about month before I decided I liked her.

It was a very interesting experience for me. I told her I liked her over an instant messaging conversation (I know…romantic isn’t it?). She told me that she liked me back and we stayed up till about 2:30 in the morning flirting via IM. As a result of the lack of sleep, I pretty much bombed my first run at the ACT and she got in a wreck early the next day because she was too tired to pay attention to oncoming traffic before taking a turn. We ended up dating shortly afterward, but that only lasted about two months. I was crushed. I felt so betrayed and belittled and wondered how she could just walk away like that. I’ve been in and out of a couple of relationships since then, all with their own various degrees of success and disasters (Obviously, more disasters, because at the time that I type this, I am single).

All of this taught me that we as humans are constantly seeking companionship of some sort. This isn’t only exclusive so romantic relationships either. When we are young, we want to surround ourselves with family. When we are in high school and college, we surround ourselves with close friends. When we are in the professional world, we usually pursue serious adult relationships and work to form bonds with our co-workers. We are a community-driven group of people.

I say all this to lead up to a question. Why? Why are we constantly seeking companionship and belonging in others? How come we can’t be independent and survive on our own?

Made to Love/Worship

As humans, we were made in God’s image. Seriously, we were. Don’t believe me? Read Genesis. It is written: “God created people in His own image…” (Genesis 1:27a) God created people so He could have companions. So He could have someone to whom He could demonstrate His love. This carries on to us, but in a different manner.

We desire this companionship…this relationship. And I think that we were internally wired to be this way. We can occasionally long for a relationship in a similar manner to how God longs after our hearts, whether we are right there in the center of His will, or running away from Him as fast as we can.

I feel my relationship with God is like a long-term romantic relationship, or like a marriage. There are times when I disagree with something that God has to say, and I get angry, yell, and try to walk away from the relationship. But God is like that loving, knowing significant other. He chases after us down the road, grabs us by the shoulder, and says “Look…we need to fix this. You need to change your attitude.” And if we are wise, we see the errors of our ways, and turn back to Him for our comfort.

I know that seems odd to look at God like we’re in some kind of romantic relationship here…but God doesn’t just want what see as a relationship…He’s not looking for the type of relationship where we can just break it off if things don’t work out. God wants to have a long-term, permanent relationship with us. God wants commitment. God wants a willingness on our part to seek Him out.

David had a relationship with God that was not unlike this ideal type of commitment. The Bible calls David a man “after God’s own heart”. If you ever read Psalms, I almost guarantee that you will see the justification in this title. Here’s an awesome Biblical definition of commitment:

“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1 NKJV)

I’d like to give you a little background on this verse. David wrote this Psalm while he was on the run from Saul, the king, who was pursuing David to kill him. You want to talk about commitment to a relationship? How about praising your God for who He is despite being in the middle of the desert!!! THAT’S commitment ladies and gentlemen.

But he wasn’t without his fair share of mistakes in the relationship. He committed adultery with a woman and the husband murdered to cover it up. As an anointed king, David was expected to hold a higher standard for himself that was above that of his subjects. But yet, when God approached him about the ordeal (through a prophet named Nathan), David recognized his error, and came back to God. God said, “Hey Dave, we need to talk dude”. David responded positively, and came back to the Love that had poured so much of his life into. This is the ideal relationship that we need to pursue with our God; an intimate one that has us running back to Him when we realized the error of our ways.

The Point: Everlasting commitment

We shouldn’t need to see God as some kind of overlord who just wants to supervise us and make sure we don’t do anything wrong. He’s some kind of being who is summoned only by completely a certain set of rituals. He’s a loving God (God IS love) who is earnestly seeking an intimate, unique, and personal relationship with each and every one us.

“I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before Him?” (Psalm 42:2 NLT)

We should be seeking to make this verse the anthem of our lives. We should be seeking that relationship with Him, seeking after His heart earnestly, with our love growing for Him day by day.

When we are approached about our faith, it shouldn’t be the same as when we are approached about some our dating relationships. You wouldn’t answer “Yeah, me and Jesus are kinda seeing each other off and on. I’m not sure if things are going to work.” Instead, we should be passionate. “Oh yeah, I’m feeling it. I feel Jesus and I are growing closer with every passing day. I learn so much more about Him as our relationship progresses. We are truly made for each other.”

Point: You were designed, built, and brought to life with the intent of seeking after the heart of your Creator. Your Creator (big C) longs for a loving, everlasting relationship that only grows as you learn more about Him. It grows as you become the man or woman that God designed you to be.

What about everyone else?

That’s actually an excellent question. If we are to love so God so much and so fully, as if in marriage, then where does that leave everyone else?

When we fall in love with our Savior, our creator, our friend, it tends to pour out into others. We take that love that we receive from God and we share it with one another.

“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 [payment] for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:7-11 NKJV)

Did you see what John just did? He connected love with God, so in that sense, we shouldn’t worry about our relationships with others, for they can be improved and strengthened through the bonds that any party involved shares with God. This is why (usually) relationships (whether family, romantic, friendly, or otherwise) between Christians are so much stronger and healthier for the parties involved.

I always see this certain phrase on the MySpace and Facebook profiles of many girls: “A woman’s heart should be so wrapped up in God’s love, that a man needs to seek Him to find it.” This is a perfect illustration of a relationship with God being beneficial to our other relationships.

Beyond Flirting: Seeking the relationship

So God is basically giving you His phone number, and wants to hang out sometime. He wants you to get to know Him. He beckons…won’t you follow?

“Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:7-8 NKJV)

Written while listening to: David Crowder, Hillsong United, The Afters, Shane and Shane

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