Obedience

Do you ever wonder why you feel like you can't hear God speaking his plan in your life? It's probably because you aren't completely focused on listening to him. Or an even scarier reason might be that you haven't obeyed what God has told you so far in your life. If we can't be obedient to things that are straight forward in scripture, how are we to be quiet and hear what God reveals to us when we pray? I need to be more obedient and I need to be still and listen. Amen?

Grace

Every now and then I'll put my macbook on the ground next to my bed when I go to sleep at night. Most nights, I have a glass of water next to my bed too. Last night, I gambled and stuck my macbook 3 feet away from my glass of water on the floor. My cat loves to try to be a person. She'll try to eat food with her paws, she tries to talk, and she tries to drink water out of my glasses. She has knocked over billions of my drinks in the past by trying to drink out of them. Well at 5:30 this morning, she knocked over my 64 oz. drink. I immediately woke up and surveyed the damage. It didn't appear to be too bad as I quickly picked up my computer. There were minimal amounts of water on it. However, when I opened it up, nothing registered! It was a black screen and it was stuck on sleeping. I didn't know what to do. I prayed for God to give me the right heart about the situation. I didn't know if this was his way of saying that my macbook was to much of a prize in my life. I prayed that I would see Christ as my only treasure. My attitude seemed to be pretty good, but I still couldn't get my mind off of me messing up my computer. I stuck my macbook next to a fan and then blow dried it for awhile. 6 hours later my macbook came to life! It is a God thing! He extended more grace than I deserved. This isn't the first time this has happened. God is good. Not because he gives me my wants sometimes, but because he uses things like this to reshape my mind. He is sovereign and can take anything from you in a split second. He should be our one and only treasure.

New Linkin Park Song

The first time I heard Linkin Park was when I was a freshman in high school. All the J.V. players on the basketball team would blast it on the stereo before games. I wasn't big on music back then, but I definitely liked the sound. They played the Jay-Z and Linkin Park remixes along with Linkin Park's regular stuff. The rap/rock mix was so unique. I hadn't heard anything like it before. Eventually I bought the first two Linkin Park albums and quickly they became my favorite band. It took 4 or 5 more years for Linkin Park to come out with a new album. Some members of the band had side projects going on (Fort Minor being one of them). Supposedly, Linkin Park claimed to have a playlist of over a hundred songs, but couldn't decide which ones to put on the new c.d. In 2007, they finally put out Minutes to Midnight. One of the best parts of Linkin Park was the fact that they didn't cuss on their first two albums. However, in Minutes to Midnight, they declared they had more adult themes and lyrics. As it turns out, they cussed in a bunch of the songs on the album. I lost lots of respect for them. Not only that, but the album didn't sound much like the first two albums they put out. I couldn't help but be disappointed. The first single on Minutes to Midnight was called "What I've Done". I really liked it and the lyrics had a pretty good message that you could relate to the gospel. There are a couple of members of the band that say they are Christians.

On my birthday of this year, Linkin Park will release their newest album, A Thousand Suns. I can't say that Linkin Park is my favorite band anymore, but they are probably still in the top 5. The reason I say all of this is because they have released a new single from the upcoming album called "The Catalyst". It is very different! Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bftTUAIVMUQ

It is similar to "What I've Done" in the sense that the lyrics can be related to Christianity. I doubt this is what they intended the lyrics to mean. You'll have to listen to the song first before I can explain my thoughts on how it could be taken one way or the other. Music is up for interpretation by the listener, so I wanna know your thoughts!

Growth

I was reading chapter two in Disciplines for Life and it talks about training yourself to be godly. I believe in God's initiative in salvation. There is plenty of evidence in scripture to support that, but why do I too easily say to myself that my personal growth in God is done completely by him alone? That's foolishness! The truth is God has revealed himself to me and he did make me alive spiritually, there is no doubt about that. I was dead. Dead people can't do anything. As a result of him making me alive, I have a desire to pursue him. That means that I do something with that desire! Take any other relationship in your life. You have to make an effort to talk to the other person, or else there will be no relationship! Relationships are not made by one person. Our relationship with God is not "let go, and let God". We have to read his word, talk to him, listen to him, and be obedient to him.

It's funny when I watch sports and see an amazing athlete and I will neglect to think about how much practice it took for them to get that good. If you want to grow in any area of your life, it takes lots of practice and discipline. As Americans, we tend to say that a person is a natural and doesn't have to work hard to be good at what he or she does. This is ignorance. It takes lots of sacrifice for them to develop their talents.

This quote from Dallas Willard was good:

"The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy."

If we want to grow in godliness, we have to put in the time to grow in this area and ask God for the strength and discipline to do it. That also means, we have to DO it. I pray that the desire of my heart would be to know him more and be obedient to his word.