Spiritual Contentment

I am writing to you today about Spiritual Contentment.  I have become content in good or bad circumstances throughout the years with the ability to rejoice in these times.
God has helped be become content in any and every circumstances over the past six years.  Through different circumstances my senior year of high school to after I graduated from college he has helped me become more content with things in life.
Paul talked about this way of spiritual contentment in Philippians 4:11-12.

 It says this, "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty of living in want."

He has helped me realize the he will bring me through any situation I'm in.  He has given me the assurance that he is in control and I have to trust in his provision.  I have had to rejoice in whatever situation I'm in, knowing that he used it for his purpose.  His ways are not our ways.  He has different methods of accomplishing his purpose in our life.
I have been able to be more content in him lately since graduating from college.  He has helped realize I just need to rest in him.  I have come to realize through this time that my problems are small compared to the bigness of God.  There's nothing in my life that he can't handle.
I have had the frustrations of trying to find a job over the past year.  It has also been hard trying to figure out what to do with my life.  It has been a crazy year of good and bad times all mixed together.  It has helped me at times to be content in my situation that God had put me in and know that he put me in that situation for a purpose that he had in mind.
We have to remind ourselves that we can give to him any struggle or situation we are facing in our life.  We have to rejoice in his mercy.  In this, we will know that in him he will give us life and life to the full.
The ability to be content in different circumstances is a constant process.  A process of continual rest and rejoicing in Jesus Christ.  If we bring our situations and struggles to him, he will help us become content in anything and everything in life.

Burdens that weigh us down

Today I am going to be blogging about burdens that weigh us down inside.
Sometimes we have these burdens that seep inside our us and weigh us down.  They are in our minds and we can't let go of them.  It almost feels as if they grab a hold of us as they weigh us down.
They can come in big form or small form in our life.  They could also just pop up out of nowhere one day.  It could be a problem we have had that we can't shake or a recently recurring problem.  Whatever burden you have it frustrates you inside.  It makes you wonder why is this or that not working out right now?
I feel as if my driving problems of the past have become a burden in my life now.  I graduated college little more than a year ago and I've been trying to find someone to drive with or find a way to drive by myself again.  It affects everything in my personal life and sometimes career wherever that takes me.  I know God used my frustrations with my wrecks in the past for my growth somehow but there has to be a way I can overcome this right now.  I just have find a way to overcome this right now.
I feel as if I don't overcome this it will hinder the rest of my life.  I haven't driven by myself since my senior year in high school.  I am known by many though I haven't had a date with a girl other than BYX formals and high school prom.
My driving problems I think make me feel trapped sometimes and pulled down.  I want to have that power like everyone else to control the roadways and live life.  The ability to drive we can also control where we want to go in life.
The thing my driving problems have made me do is become more open and honest with people about my struggles.  It has helped me become truthful in all that I say and all that I do.  The frustrations has brought me to my knees to realize how we all have struggles inside of us.
I have thought recently that God used my wrecks in high school and driving problems today to conform me to his image.

Romans 8:28-29, says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be firstborn among many brothers."

I have had to remind myself that God is in control of my frustrations.  He is bigger than my problems here and now on this earth.
I have to remind myself that I need to trust in God.  I have to try to rely on him until I can overcome my burdens that weigh me down daily.

Free blog Tuesday today

It's free blog Tuesday today I am posting a Christian song I wrote during this past year that describes the growth in Christ I have experienced lately in my life.  It describes how Jesus has changed me and helped me mature in my faith and trust in him.  It shows how I have been able to give up everything in my life to Jesus because of the past faith that God has shown me.  The ability to do that has been awesome. So, enjoy the song and the blog today whoever reads it.

O Lord where will you lead

Verse I

Searching for a job I try not to hit myself on a door knob

Then I grab a piece of corncob

It’s rather tasty

But rather flakey

I think to myself God is in control

He is bigger than a butter roll

He would do a jig when we graduate to be with him

He would embrace us with a whim

Chorus:  O Lord where will you lead,

            O Lord where will you lead,

            O Lord where will you lead

Verse II

I know I have to trust in you in all I have

Even in the good and the bad

Keep presenting myself to you in all that I do

Who hoo

Lord, you are maturing in me

As quick as can be

But I know growing in you is a process

I can’t get bogged down by the excess

Verse III

Of the stress of this life

Lord you have overcome

This momentary earthly life

That isn’t worth all our strife

I give up everything to you

Because you are all I know

Chorus: O Lord where will you lead,

            O Lord where will you lead,

            O Lord where will you lead

Living in a community

Today I will be blogging about the experience of living in community and the impact it has on people's lives.  It is truly one of the best experiences that one can have with people.
Last summer, while I was at Discipleship Focus we had a great group of guys in our cabin.  We lived together for three months last summer going through the study, Discovery, and working at our different jobs.  We went from not knowing much about each other early in the summer to knowing a lot about each other.  Our cabin was able to get to know each other well by living life with each other daily.  Through this community setting, we found  out each other's likes and dislikes.
Each cabin at Notch Pines had cabin nights throughout the summer.  It is there where truly bonded with one another.  We became our goofy, crazy, selves for one night during cabin night.  For our last cabin night we dressed as nerds.   We also performed the infamous "Little Boys in White T-shirts," which will live on in D-focus lore as a banned skit.
Another experience of community being lived out, was when I did work crew in the Pitts at Frontier Ranch.  During that month of the summer, we had five guys and a Pitts boss working together to wash the dishes every night.  We grew to get to know each other during that month at Frontier Ranch.  During the end of the night, we were able to joke and be goofy all the while getting the job done in a timely manner.  Our group became a closely knit group by the end of month at Frontier Ranch.
Frontier Ranch is a Young Life in Buena Vista, Colorado where high school kids come to the message of Jesus Christ every week during the summer.
Last weekend God reminded me of the great community that I have had in my life as well.  I hung out with some good friends from high school part of the weekend.  I met up with some of my best friends from TCU Jim Douglas and Stefanie Grows.  I also hung out with my best friend and his family in Fort Worth and saw Zach Hughes get married.  It truly was a great weekend.
God provided the Moore's house for me to live in and with last weekend.  I am thankful for their generosity.
The joy of seeing some of these friends has helped me realize some things.  It is given me further confirmation of the future.
God has been reminding me that he will provide me with community wherever I go and whatever I do.  He has also been saying to me that I thrive the most in a community setting

Confirmations

I experienced a great weekend with friends this weekend and also visited the Southwestern Baptist Theological seminary.  This weekend gave me some confirmations on some things in my life.
This weekend gave me a confirmation that Fort Worth is where God wants me to be.  I like the small town atmosphere of the city.  It was great that my friends from Friendswood were able to experience the town.
I was able to hang out with one of my best friends from TCU this weekend.  He has been an encouragement to me in the past year since I graduated.  He has helped me through the good times and bad.  His encouraging nature on my future has helped me in my growth.  I was also able to meet with one of my friends that is a girl that I knew really well at TCU that helped me confirm some things in my life.
I was able to take a tour of the Southwestern seminary in Fort Worth and have lunch with one of the professors in the area I would be studying.  It further encouraged me in my desire to pursue where God wants me and what he wants me to do with my life.  The professor I met with had a great desire and passion for youth ministry.  I was encouraged that this opportunity at seminary could help me in my future ministry.
God has been opening and closing some doors in the past year since I graduated from college.  He has used different situations to help me grow stronger in him.  He has been showing me that I need to trust him with the little things and big things in my life.  The Christian life is a walk not a run.
He has surrounded me with some great friends in my life that have confirmed what my joys and passions are in life.

God's conforming process in our lives

Over this past year and last summer God did some conforming in my life.  It was a slow, but gradual process that took time but it was necessary for me to become a like Jesus Christ.
This past summer at Discipleship Focus, I came to realize and know that God is in control of our lives every day.  He used this concept that the taught me last summer in my supposed search for a job.  He kept reminding me that is in control of my life even when I didn't want to acknowledge it at times.  He gave me a certain peace about the ability to go through hard times.  Through this time, I have gained the ability to remind myself that he is in control of whatever situation I'm going through.
I also gained the ability to the desperately dependent on God this past summer at Discipleship Focus.  I thought I was dependent on God before last summer but I think I've been able to acknowledge the times that I need him.  I can remind myself I can depend on him with anything because he is the source of anything Godly in my life.
I have also gained the ability to present situations and abide in him during good and bad times in my life lately from the experience I had last summer.  I gained the ability to present things to him that I could not before.  I have been able to present certain jobs to apply for in the past year to him and God has given me leading to if I should get the job or move to that place.
Lastly, I have gained the ability to trust him with bigger and bigger things therefore my faith has increased.  This has happened with the ability to present and abide that I discussed in the last paragraph.  If he can present a situation or struggle, then we will be able to trust him with the next one.  That is how my life has gone in the past year.  It has been a struggle at times but also a time of growth in my life.  We have to trust him, because he is faithful and in control.
This conforming process that I have discussed Paul presents to us in Romans 8:28-29.   It says this,
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."
This process may be long and gradual but at the end Jesus is at the center of it all.  He is the one doing the molding in our life.  We can't make it in this life on our own.  We can't produce growth in Jesus or good on our own in life.
God may use good times or struggles in our lives to produce this conforming process in us.  We have to remind ourselves that this process is necessary for our growth in him.

God's love never fails

God's love never fails.  A simple but truth that we need to realize daily and cling to with all of our lives.
When the frustrations of life get to us, God will never let us go.  He is with us every minute of the hour of the day.  He wants to be with us at all times and wants to know what we are going through in our lives at the moment.   God's love and so wide,long, and deep.  It is so fearless that he is in constant pursuit of us.
His love never ends.  When us as humans fail us, God will never fails us.  In Isiah 40:28, it says "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom."
God loves and pursues us daily with everything he has.  In Lamentations 3: 22-24, it says about God's love, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassion's never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion;
there I will wait for him."
God loves us in the good times in also the bad times.  Isiah says this about this topic of God's love in Isiah 54:8,
"In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you."
Psalm 136 is another passage that describes God's love that never lets us go.  The passage describes God's greatness, glory, and power shown to the people of Israel.
The most definitive response to God's great love for us is in the often quoted Corinthians 13.  Most of that passage is used for occasions such as weddings.  While most of Corinthians is used for weddings, Corinthians 13:8 is the verse that most describes God's unfailing love.  It says this,  "Love never fails.
But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge it will pass away."
God loves us and pursues abundantly.  He wants the best for us in our lives.  We have to remind us when life is hard.