Work-in-Progress Wednesday {Rough Edges}

We all have our tendencies. We all have our habits.  We all have our struggles.
We all have our rough edges.

And here's a cool thing about God: He sands down our rough edges until they're smooth and pure and beautiful.

Does this mean that He nurtures our vices until they grow and fester and becoming worse and worse?
Uh, NO.

This means that He corrects us, gently as we are His children, but he shows us the Way. As we spend time with Him through prayer, worship, and study...He shows us what needs some work. Sometimes it can be a whole renovation project, but sometimes it can be just molding us a little bit in that yucky area.

"'My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lost heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.'" Hebrews 12:5-6

I mean, He's the Great Potter, right? He can form us, if we allow Him to.

"Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the Potter; we are all the work of Your hand." Isaiah 64:8

We can be going along, doing good and growing in God...when all of a sudden that disgusting rough edge rears its head. For some this means snapping at somebody, or being impatient, or maybe being defensive.
And then we go through the rest of the day wondering what in the world is wrong with us--we feel guilty and beat down because we'd broken.

But we forget some key things:

1. Christ died for the broken! "'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" Mark 2:17

2. We live in a broken world. "There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God..." 2 Timothy 3:1-4

3. We are not perfect! "'Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?'" Matthew 7:3

Now, these aren't excuses to go on sinning and letting our rough edges become rougher. This is incentive. That list is reasons why we should yearn to get better and grow closer to God!

Christ died for our broken souls...and because of that...He makes us whole through Him.
We live in a broken world...but we aren't of this world.
We are not perfect...but Jesus is perfect and He will help you if you let Him.

We always have two choices in front of us, guys.
1. We can choose to follow Jesus--shedding ourselves of the sin that entangles.
or
2. We can choose to follow the world--allowing our sin to take control. 

"Therefore...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...Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3

Don't know about you, but I'd much rather let the Author of Life be in control...
When we make mistakes and break, letting our rough edges scratch, we can choose to let it get worse and worse...or we can choose to turn it over to Jesus and let Him change our hearts yet again (this is a daily and sometimes more than one time a day thing).

And you'll be amazed at how much He can do when you relinquish control and let Him soften your hard, rough edges into gentleness, patience, love, joy, and so much more.

God Bless the rest of your week as you seek after Him!

Reflections {What Are We Fighting For?} [Easter Sunday]

He is Risen!

Christus Victor--Christ is Victorious! Thank God.

So, during this past weekend I've had some different points of reflection.

And, when it comes down to it, there's a question we have to ask ourselves:
What are we fighting for?

You know, each day it's so easy to skip spending time with Jesus through the study of His Word or through worship or prayer. We tell ourselves we'll do it later, and, before we know it, we're in bed and we then tell ourselves that it's too late.
So the cycle goes.

But what really strikes me is this:
Even through our times of being unfaithful to God, He is always right next to us, loving us, calling us, interceding for us...
"...if we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself."

His Love for us never, ever gives up.
He chose to go to the cross and die for you, for me. For all of us crazy sinners. He pictured us in his eyes, mind, and he still chose. He saw everything that would happen to us and everything we would ever do. And he still chose to die for us.
He knew we'd forsake Him, betray Him, ignore Him, disappoint Him, but He still chose us.
And He knew how painful dying for us would be.

Take a moment to just imagine Him hanging there on the cross with scars and nails and thorns and blood, struggling to breathe...but picturing you...and knowing one day you would chose Him. 

So if He's who we're fighting for, then that's the bottom line, right?
If He's who we're fighting for, then we have this thing called Hope.
Even amid our suffering, trials, hurts, fears, everything, we have Hope in the One who we're fighting for.
We have Hope in His Resurrection.
That's why we believe what we do--why we believe in Him.
If He hadn't chosen that cross, to die, for us, then there would be no point.
But because He chose a painful death on the cross, taking our sin on Him...He ROSE.
And that's why our Hope is in Him. He ROSE. Everything we believe lies in His Resurrection.
That's where our reasons are.
Because of His Resurrection, we have His Holy Spirit, we have Hope, we have Life, we have Love, we have Strength, we have Purpose, we have Passion, we have HIM.
And because of His Resurrection, we can go forth FEARLESS in His Name.
And that's just about the most Amazing thing EVER. 

Amen. Thank you, Jesus.
Christus Victor! He Reigns above all!

"If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; if we are faithless, He will remain Faithful, for He cannot disown Himself."
2 Timothy 2:11-13

Life {On Trials I}

"...there was given me a thorn in my flesh...to torment me. I pleaded with the Lord to take it from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10

Life is hard. We go through so much. There's happy times, there's sad times. We're excited, then we're depressed. We're lonely, we're hurt, we're bitter because of what's happened to us. There's tribulations, heartbreak, suffering, and trials of so many types. How do we continue living in the Fullness God has ordained for us...when we're drowning in these trials?

Let's look at Paul for a moment. If you go to the second part of 2 Corinthians 11, he lists everything hard he's suffered for the sake of Jesus. It's a painful list. Shipwrecks, beatings, insults--Paul went through it all. He had a crazy ride.

Okay, okay. It's weird to try and imagine somebody who's gone through so much pain but still chugging on, loving God with all their heart. Do you know anybody like that?

As humans, it's so natural for us to want to give up.

But...after you've tasted the pure sweetness of the Love of God...how could you give up?

Everything God allows for us to go through...crafts us further and further into who we're supposed to be. For God to use us effectively, we have to allow Him to change us. Sometimes change comes through trials.

Emotional...
Physical...
Financial...
Spiritual...
Mental...

There are many kinds of trials.

We are used to instant gratification. When everything's good, we're good. When something goes wrong, we tend to forget the whole long ride of GOOD that we've had. All we can see is the darkness in front of us. It makes us want to run away--to turn back and put as much space between us and the suffering that we can. It's uncomfortable. We want to be safe and sure of our life. If God won't fix our problem right away, there's no use following Him for the rest of our life.

But the thing is...if you'd gone a little further...you would've seen the dazzling Light on the path. It was just a little further.

If you'd gone a little further...you would've seen the Light was there the whole time. There were only clouds blocking it.

Storms blow away. They don't stay forever. Darkness seems to drag on, but it's only a moment in time.

If we press on to the end and realize the Light's always been right here, we're able to rejoice!
We can look back at the storm and see the people behind us--those who are struggling through the same blinding darkness. And we can encourage them. We can spur them along towards the Light we know is waiting just up ahead. We can remind them of the Goodness of God and the Love He has for them.

Or we can keep on going our merry way, forgetting what God just brought us through.

That's when others perish.

If God puts something hard in our life, there's a reason.

There's always a reason.

And it's usually so we're able to minister to others. Paul used his weaknesses and trials to be a light. He could relate to others, encourage them, minister to them, love them--because he knew what it was like to suffer.

It's our choice how we use our trials. But I pray we use them for God's Glory.

Live in the Fullness of God! When there's darkness, don't forget the Light.

I know this verse is prophecy about Jesus, but I believe it can be great Hope for us as well:
"After the suffering of His soul, He will see the Light and be satisfied." Isaiah 53:11

"Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the Light of the Lord." Isaiah 2:5

The Beginning {A Testimony in Progress}

Wow, okay. God has done so much in my life already. And that's crazy amazing. He's so Awesome!

I know sometimes reading other people's testimonies can be boring and seem like a waste of time. But testimonies can change lives. They can connect people. They can bring people to God's Love and Identity.

And, seeing as it's my first post here at No Longer Stone, it kind of seems fitting to give my Testimony in Progress (TiP). (My life isn't over yet! Our whole life is a testimony)

So I've grown up in a Christian home. My dad is a Chaplain in the Army, so I've been under the label: PK my whole life (Pastor's kid!). There's so many expectations of PK's. Some are good, some are bad. We're expected to be perfect. Everybody knows who we are...and we're (like it or not) a representation of our parents. And then you hear about the rebellious PK's who go against everything they ever grew up learning.

I'm going to tell you that I'm neither. I've never been perfect. But I've also never been extraordinarily rebellious.