Taking a leave...

I just wanted to let you all know that I will be taking a leave from writing this blog for a while. I have begun a new blog about Speed the Light, and that will be receiving all of my attention for a little while. Please check out that blog here...

What do you fear?

When I was a child I never understood the concept of "fearing God". I was afraid of different things (scary stories, the dark, etc...), but why fear God?

As I have grown older, I have begun to understand what it means to fear God. That when you fear God you are showing Him the respect that He deserves. That I was/am showing God extreme reverence and awe. That in order to fear God, I had to put Him first before EVERYTHING else. I know what it means to fear God, and I am trying to daily live a life that is fearful of God.

However as I was reading Psalms 23 today God brought a thought to my mind. How often do we fear different things in life (whether they be health, finances, relationships, etc...)? Now it makes sense to have a healthy respect towards different things in life. I am not going to hang out with a bear anytime soon, because I respect the bear and I understand he can kill me. But I should not fear the bear. Nothing the bear is going to do to me will affect my eternal destination. Yes we are in a very rocky and unsure times, but God is sovereign and has total authority.

Franklin Roosevelt once said, The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. I beg to differ. The only thing we have to fear is God. Fear God, and let God take care of everything else.

Psalms 13

Well no real commentary from me here in this post. I was just reading Psalm 13 and it really spoke to me, and I felt like I needed to share it with all of you. If God reveals anything to you, feel free to share in the comments.

Psalm 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶ I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

Revelation

So I have often heard that the two events that will bring you closer to God are marriage and the birth of your first child. That these two events will help you better understand who God is, and how much He loves you. Well, these two things don't work for me, because it will be a while before either happen. So the other day I was praying for some other way to understand who God wanted to be in my life. As soon as I finished the prayer, God gave me the answer.

As many of you may know I recently earned a Music Education degree from Eastern Michigan University. As part of this degree I was responsible for performing a senior recital. My senior recital was a culmination of 11 years of playing the saxophone. God used this experience to help me understand him better. Here are most of the comparisons that He showed me...

• I spent 11 years in preparation and planning for this one event. I knew exactly how I wanted the recital to go. God knows the plans he has for us (Jeremiah 29:11) and has known exactly how He would like our lives to go for a long time.
• After all of that time of preparation, I was going to be proud of my recital. I put work into it, and I was not going to be ashamed by it no matter what. God has put a lot of work into us, and will not be ashamed of us no matter what.
• My recital did not go exactly as I planned. Things went wrong. Our lives have not went exactly how God would have wanted them too. We have done things wrong.
• Even after I made mistakes, I was able to recover. I was able to get back on track and make the music sound like it was originally intended. God can and will turn our lives around. Mistakes in our past can stay there, and God can redeem us.
• Every piece of music in my recital had meaning. I loved every portion of it, and I feel like every piece was of an equal importance. The audience may not have liked every piece as much as every other piece. God loves every portion of our lives, and knows that every portion has purpose. We (the audience) may not like it, but God sees the purpose of this "piece" of our life.
• Finally (and most important), the recital was not about the music. People came to be moved by the music, and to give praise to the one making the music. As Christians we have two jobs. First, we must inspire and move people towards Christ. Second, we must point the praise back to God our creator.

Feel free to share your thoughts, and have a great day!

Some Food for Thought

So yesterday was my birthday, and I got to choose where I wanted to go for dinner. I decided on a place where my parents had never been before. I picked Brann's Steakhouse and Grille. They have a great menu, with all kinds of different foods. If you get the chance to go there, I would highly recommend it. So as we are flipping through the menu, I told my parents that I did not want them informing the waiter it was my birthday. I like to think I am a simple person, and I don't care for a lot of attention (For example the entire Brann's staff singing happy birthday). However, I have to be honest and admit there was a pride factor involved as well. I did not want to be embarrassed in front of everyone. So my parents listened to my wishes and did not inform the waiter that it was my birthday. We grabbed a takeout menu on our way out, and my mom was reading it as we drove home. She then informed me that had I told the waiter it was my birthday I would have received a free 8 ounce steak the next time I visited Brann's. I was so mad at myself because my pride kept me from receiving a great free gift.

How often do we do this with God? We become embarrassed that we follow after Christ and all of the great things he has done for us. So we deny him, or at least are not open about sharing His love with others. So we miss out on what God has planned for us. God has blessings in store for us much greater than an 8 ounce steak. We just have to be willing to share the good news and not hold anything back.

This may be too soon...

This may be a little too soon, so I apologize in advance if you are a Michael Jackson fan. As I have seen waaaay to much news about MJ this weekend, I was reminded of this game. It was one of my favorite games in High School. Let me know what you think.

Michael Jackson Baby Drop -- powered by flowgo.com