The God Who Lives Inside Me and Balance

Lately God has been showing me a lot of things. Some through scripture, through a book, my mom, and my pastor. I don't really know how to express these things, but I have a desire to share what God has been teaching me, so I'll just try to summarize everything the best way I can.

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Tonight's scripture that jumped out at me, while my pastor was preaching, was Romans 8:6. "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." So many times I dwell on selfish, worldly thoughts because I think that those are the thoughts that make me happy. But this verse clearly says that spiritual thoughts bring life and peace, something that I look for just like most other Christians.

Last night I was reading a book called "The Pursuit of God" by A. W. Tozer. He talked about the temple and more specifically, the place called The Presence of God that was separated by a veil. A. W. Tozer elaborated on how great an experience it was for the priest to go into that place once a year. That very veil that separated us from the Presence of God was rent the day of Christ' crucifixion. Now I  have the privilege to spend time in the presence of God every day. Even more, He lives inside of me! The greatest, most powerful, all knowing, prince of peace, maker of all that ever was and ever will be, the wonderful savior, the beginning and the end, lives inside of me!

He wrote, "Love and mercy and righteousness are His, and holiness so ineffable that no comparison or figures will avail to express it. Only fire can give even a remote conception of it." Think about it. God appeared unto Moses as a burning bush, he lead them through the wilderness as a pillar of fire, "the fire between the wings of the cherubim in the holy place was called the 'shekinah' the Presence," in the New Testament God filled the place at Pentecost as a fiery flame, and in Revelation John says "his eyes were as a flame of fire." I had never heard those illustrations put together in such a way. I thought that was really amazing!

Lastly, I'm trying to learn how to balance my family life and church life with my work life. I know that I've been putting too much emphasis on my job because I truly feel like they need me so I want to be there. But I need to learn to do everything that is required of me to the best of my ability AND NO MORE. God did not call me to be the best medical coder in all of Georgia or the employee of the year. He called me to be a happy sister who is there for her brothers and sisters, a loving daughter who is there to help and spend time with her parents, and a faithful church member who is not too busy to cook for church dinners and sing for the sick and dying. I know easing up on my "career" is the right thing to do, which will not be easy. But with God's guidance I will learn how to balance it all in a way that is pleasing to God and still satisfactory to my employers as well. The main goal is to please God because when this life on earth is over, it will not matter how many awards I receive for being a great medical coder. God wants to see me live a life that will glorify Himself. And that's what I want to strive towards.

Time is Slipping By

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

Last week when I read Psalms 90 this verse really stood out above the rest. For a while it seemed like life was going by so fast in all the excitement of going to college and working.

But now it's not the pace that is making me think (because my life has slowed down to a comfortable rate) but it's the fact that any day something could come into my life and speed things up. What am I doing now while I have the time to apply my mind to anything imaginable? Am I studying God's word enough? Are the fruits of the spirit growing in my life? Am I making a difference in the lives of those around me?

Time is slipping by . . . am I applying my heart unto wisdom?

Sighting in My Scope

For years the guys in my family have loved to hunt. Winter time in their mind means deer, hunting clubs, and guns. Right before hunting season comes around my dad and two brothers will eagerly pull out their guns to prepare them for the spot. They polish them, grease them down, and then try them out on a target. If they miss the target they know their scope is most likely out of focus and needs to be sighted in. Once their scope is set aright the target is a lot easier to hit. Throughout the season they have to carefully guard their fire arm because any little bump will knock the scope out of focus.

Last week I realized my scope is out of focus. No, I don't own a gun. I'm referring to the way I view life. This week it has been reset and now the target is so much clearer!

It all started Sunday morning, the beginning of our church's mission conference. Four native missionaries came to our church to share their burden with us in hopes that more souls might be saved. They came from Vietnam, Kenya, Chile, and the Philippines. Although from different countries and lifestyles, during the meeting these men joined their hearts in unity and sang about the God they all served. Since I am a lover of music I noticed that they were not always on key, and no, there were no four-part harmony. But since I am also a lover of God and those who love Him, I also noticed that these brothers in Christ were singing with their whole hearts in love towards their Savior. I believe God was more pleased with their offering of praise then any church choir I've ever sung in where the harmony and timing were perfect.

Throughout the four day conference I had the privilege to hear these missionaries testimonies of heart ache and victories. I can't imagine what it would be like to know that my father died for preaching the Word, and then go on and preach myself. I can't begin to comprehend the joy one dear brother experienced when he left a life of serving idols to become a follower of Christ and a leader to his family who followed in his foot steps.

The missionary from Vietnam preached on setting your heart on things eternal rather then things that are temporary. I couldn't help but examine my life and ask, What am I doing that matters to God? Working at a hospital and going to college for Medical Billing is not helping souls come to Christ. Singing for God is a good thing but can easily become very routine and commonplace. What am I doing that will make a difference? What am I really living for?

I have discovered that when I have something to live for - when that something is God's will - my whole life becomes fuller! I now have a reason to work hard because that hard work will turn into money that I will be able to give back to God. I now have something I can give my hobbies and talents too. I now can make a difference as I strive to serve God!

All week my mind has been going back to the scripture the missionary from Vietnam read. "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12. When that day comes I don't want to be ashamed because I have no reward to lay at Jesus' feet. I want to build up treasures where ti counts the most. So I keep my heart in check, sight in my scope, and try to reach the target!

All At Once . . .

All at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to loose. You drove them from me, You who are the true, the souvrein joy. You drove them from me and took their place, You who are sweeter than all pleasure. O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Savior. ~ The Confessions of Saint Augustine

The Last Questions

Here is the end of "the questions" I have been posting lately. I hope that you have been truly searching for the answers in your life. We can never ask them too many times for we will always have faults and room for improvement.

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16. Am I jealous, impure, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

17. How do I spend my spare time?

18. Am I proud?

19. Do I thank God I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?

20. Is there anyone I fear, dislike, criticize, or resent? If so,what am I doing about it?

21. Do I grumble and complain constantly?

22. Is Christ real to me today?

More Questions

Here are more questions that continue the ones I posted last week. I hope they benifit you greatly as much as they have me.


8. Do I give God time to speak to me everyday?

9. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist in doing something in which my conscience is uneasy?

Questions

Here are some great questions that my mom came upon a while back that are great to ask yourself everyday. There are more, but I thought that since each one is worthy of much thought, I wouldn't bombard you with them all at once. So take time to soak them in and really consider each one. You may find some areas in your life that need some attention.

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression thatI am a better person than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass on what was told to me in confidence?

4. Can I be trusted?

5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habit?

6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

7. Did the Bible live in me today?

As in the Days of Noah

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:37-39

This is an interesting verse. Usually when I think of the time before the flood I think of violence, hatred and unholy marriage, but never as “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.” What’s so wrong about that? If we don’t eat and drink we will die and if we don’t get married and have children the population would quickly go down! So why does Jesus bring these two things up?

Eating and Drinking. There is nothing wrong with eating. What is wrong is living to eat. Think about it. Have you ever seen a generation so consumed with food? Every time you turn on the TV you see advertisement of restaurants, grocery stores, and cooking shows. Fun and food seem to go hand in hand now. Every social event is bound to have refreshments and if there are none, some would see no purpose in going.

Food is so easily accessible in this day and age! There are countless stores and restaurants in town where you can buy something and be eating a second later. I really doubt people use to eat so much in days of old because it took time to prepare the food. If they wanted to bake a cake they had to grind and sift the wheat. Then they had to heat the wood burning stove which would use up their wood supply pretty quickly if they baked extra food a lot. I’m sure cleaning up wasn’t so easy either. They didn’t have paper plates or dishwashers so all the plates and bowls had to be cleaned by hand. (Don’t forget that most families back then were usually large. They had more than just four plates to clean up.) Do you think they had time for this? There were probably more important jobs that kept them so busy they didn’t have time to bake or cook extra goodies whenever they wanted. This world lives for food.

Marrying and giving in marriage. The desire to get married is natural, placed there by God. It is not wrong to get married, but it is when our life goal is to be a wife or husband. Marriage isn’t taken seriously any more by most people. All they know is that they want it. Couples are getting married (or sinfully “shacking up”) right and left without giving it much thought. It is so awful when young adults get so eager to get married that they leap at the first opportunity they get instead of waiting for God’s timing.

What Jesus was saying in Matt. 24.37-39 is that in the time before the return of the Lord we will be so wrapped up in our lives (particularly eating and marrying)that we will not even be thinking about Christ and his return. We have made these two things more important than serving God. It reminds me of 2 Timothy 2:4. “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” This verse is not telling us to have no life. It is saying that we shouldn’t get so tangled up in the affairs of this world that we choose our friends or materialistic things over serving God.


I wish I could say this verse is only referring to the lost world, but I’m afraid even Christians have become entangled with our own life and have forgot that our focus should be on Christ. Maybe we should evaluate our life and see where our priorities lie.

I Cannot Please Myself

Today I tried, once again, to do what I wanted to do. I slept in till 7:15; 45min after the alarm went off, which made my day start late. After reading a short chapter in Psalms and a verse in Proverbs, I decided that was enough. “It won’t hurt to skip one day of my study in Isaiah.”

Once breakfast was over I started on my online college classes. I actually got a good bit done, but could have accomplished more if I had not of spent so much time surfing the web- for my own enjoyment of course.

These are all little things, but I soon began to realize that they were acts of rebellion. I should have been studying more, I should have spent more time with God, I should have started my new sewing project, I should have worked on the article that I started two days ago . . . and the list goes on. But I didn’t, because I wanted to please myself. I wanted to spend my whole day doing things that I enjoy. How selfish!

Did I enjoy surfing the web and sleeping in? Not really. I knew the whole time God wasn’t pleased with me. How can I enjoy myself when I do not have the peace of God? The only way to enjoy my day is to keep Christ at the center of it. If He is not, then I will only be miserable as He urges me to come back to Him. God knows what I really need and He knows that I am nothing without Him. What a great friend I have who will not let me stay in my unhappy state!