Remind Me

Remind Me by Jason Gray

When I lose my way,

And I forget my name

Remind me who I am

In the mirror all I see 

Is who I don't wanna be

Remind me who I am

In the loneliest places 

When I can't remember what grace is 

Tell me, once again who I am to You, who I am to You

Tell me, lest I forget Who I am to You, that I belong to You

When my heart is like a stone, 

And I'm running far from home

Remind me who I am 

When I can't receive Your love

Afraid I'll never be enough

Remind me who I am

If I'm Your beloved

Can you help me believe it

I'm the one You love

I'm the one You love

That will be enough

I'm the one You love

Who did you bring?

I heard of Nick Vujicic a couple years ago at a conference. Unfortunately I didn't get to hear him speak then, but only heard the rave reviews about him and his message. Nick speaks about the beautifying love of Jesus Christ.

I think we all look at ourselves and some days we hate the reflection of selfishness, pride, arrogance, and even our physical appearance. During my own ugly duckling phase, where the combination of headgear, glasses, and acne was my reflection, I failed to realize I was beautifully and fearfully made. Pslams 139:14 should really be on every mirror in every middle school.

We constantly think of ourselves as inferior to those that don't have the same problems we see in ourselves. Nick Vujicic struggled with the same feelings, but on a scale that makes my own insecurities pale in comparison. Nick was born without hands or feet. He struggled with everything I did/do but overcame these obstacles with such strength that only a mighty God could give.

 I heard a message from him recently on TV that still resonates in my mind:

"When I get to heaven I believe Jesus will ask me two things: 

Do you know me and Who did you bring?" 

Right now I can't answer the latter question. I'm still struggling on how to answer the first one. I've never put much effort into bringing someone with me to heaven. I've spent a lot of time focusing on how to get myself there. I guess it's about time for me to start caring about others and not just my own soul. I don't know how well the metaphorical church is doing at "bringing others" it seems like a lot of time and money is spent on entertaining the souls that are already won. Jesus won the acceptance of others just by loving them, so I guess that's a good place to start, except he loved them unconditionally and purely. I can't even love myself or my family that way.

I ask for a lot of things (literally, things) from God, but I think it's about time I started asking Him to let me genuinely love people the way He does. Nick loves wholeheartedly because he firmly believes that the reason he was born without limbs was so he could witness to thousands of people. He no longer prays for a miracle of arms and legs, like he did when he was a child because he knows that his circumstances are the reason people flock to listen to his messages of Christ.

What if we all quit asking for changes to our "deformities" and started asking God to show us how to use them to bring someone to Him? There has always only been one thing on my bucket list- bring One Person to Christ...that seems pretty lazy considering I've been alive for 25 years, and that still hasn't been crossed off. What the heck have I been doing?! 

Time for a new plan: I want to bring PEOPLE to Christ. I want that to be my mission, my purpose. It's going to take me out of my comfort zone, take a whole lot more effort, more time in prayer, more time in real conversations, more time in self-reflection, and a slew of other sacrifices that I'm too naive to realize. But, really...it's about time that I gave MORE, because people with LESS are doing MORE.


 http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/

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A Christ for the Rich and Famous

I've been thinking a lot about who Christians witness to. Mission trips are focused on poor populations 99% of the time. We feel bad about the way they live, what they eat, what they wear, their health and so to add some joy in their life and to give them hope for an eternal life filled with blessings, Christians tell these "poor" people about Christ- His love, His mercy, His power. We tell them all He can do because we feel like their earthly life is in such destitution that they need a Provider.

What about those that are rich? What about celebrities, CEOs, managers...the people we see everyday who seem to have it all? How often do we feel the need to tell them about the love of Christ? The rich need a Savior just as badly as the poor do.

Steve Jobs died on October 1. He was 56. He was a billionaire. He was a buddhist. Steve Jobs could have had anything he ever wanted in this world. He was idolized, admired, respected, and loved, but he wasn't saved. I wonder if anyone told him about Christ. He was an intelligent man, I don't doubt he knew of Christ. But I wonder if anyone sat down with him and told him about Christ, and told him that Christ could offer him a life beyond this one.

Maybe he wasn't the first on anyone's list to witness to because he seemed to have everything. Christians usually go for those who are depressed, weak, and poor first. I think it's time for that to change. The richest people you know may seem to have everything they need and you may be intimidated to speak to them about Christ, but pray for courage and wisdom and spread the good news of a loving Savior, who loves the rich man just as much as the poor man and whose blood equally pardons the sins of both.

Proverbs 22:2- The rich and the poor have this in common, The Lord is the maker of them all.

Wishes or Prayers?

Why do we equate the disappointment/failures that we feel from this world to mean that there is no God?

Is God a genie or a King? Does a God exist to grant wishes or to be served?

Christians or Christ Followers?

Unfortunately, too many of the the loudest supporters of Christianity have the wrong idea of Christ.

He did not come to make bad men good, but dead men alive. - Shane Claiborne

Many Christians act like the acknowledgement of Christ as the Son of God gives them moral superiority. Why is that? The acceptance of Jesus as your savior doesn't mean you are given a right to judge or condemn the lifestyle of others because the acceptance of Christ does not take away your ability to sin or make you a "good" person.

What Christians, who really believe in Christ as their savior should be doing is living as if this world is not their home and prepare their hearts, minds, and souls to a life that is meant for them.

You are more convincing with your actions than you are with your words.

The "But" Prayer

I caught myself praying a but prayer.

Lord, I know that I’m a sinful person. My sins are no less than theirs. I lie too, but…..

Then I fell silent. I realized the “but” voided my prayer. My intent was to say that I too have sinned and realize my sin is as bad as person “x” “but” mine were done with good intentions and mine was for a different reason, therefore God is validated in not judging me the same as person “x.”

WHAT NONSENSE! How easy it is to lie to ourselves. I even tried to rationalize my prayer and I sat there silently go through my vocabulary of how I could rearrange the sentence to make it so that I could still pray my intended prayer.

What a relief to the whole world, that I am not God and I am in no position to judge someone else, because if I set myself as the standard for the people I am around now, how much higher my expectation would be if I were God. The earth would have been destroyed every year because I would be so disappointed in the people.

I am so thankful that when God looks upon me, He sees that I can be a liar, judgemental, angry, stubborn, and unforgiving and yet His response to me is BUT I still love her. She still hasn’t learned what I’m been trying to show her, BUT I will give her another chance. She still holds on to that hurt, BUT I will forgive her. She still …BUT I will save her.

My prayer was going to be a prayer that God would show others how they have faulted, but instead He should me how much more I still have to learn.