Don't get burned...

Ahhh.....coffee! Got to be one of the world's greatest things. For me, it's what wakes me up in the morning. funny thing about coffee is that it is hot and taste great. So, as I was chillin' this morning drinking my coffee in my Starbucks coffee mug/cup, I saw the warning label: "Careful, the beverage you're about to enjoy is extremely hot." So the thought that came to mind is, how many times do we disregard the message? How many times in life do we just jump right in without viewing the possible consequences for our actions? Even though it may taste good, look, feel good, but when it is all said and done, you get burned.

As I look at my relationship with God, I can see that sometimes I tend to do whatever I please, whenever I want to because "it my party and I'll cry if I want to" but in all reality I am setting myself up to be burned. I feel that many times the things that I choose to do or say or watch come from an innate desire to please myself, rather than please my Father. While I know that the contents of my actions are extremely dangerous or hot or unholy, I chose to do them anyways. Why is this? I think that I can relate to Paul when he talks about how he wants to do what is right but does wrong. No matter how hard he tries, he fails. He knows what the right thing to do is but something within him pushes him towards the dangerously, hot cup of coffee(insert your own device here). Could we chose to slow down and remember that sin is unholy and displeases God?

I think that many times we get caught up in the moment. In that moment we find ourselves making a choice on whether or not to make the right decisions. So basically we all have the opportunity to chose the right course of action but we would rather get burned instead. Have you ever had hot coffee spilled on you? It burns. It hurts. It is painful. But the effects of that burn, decision, can't leave immediately. The marks of our decisions sometimes last longer than we would like.

So anyways, I write some pretty random things sometimes and this is one of them. Hope it makes sense and you can take something away from it. In the mean time, let your coffee cool off of for a second before burning the mess out of your tongue and maybe the next time you drink a cup of joe, you might, just might remember the way we are supposed to act and treat others as you treat yourself to some arabica bean delight. Just sayin...

Aaron

I'm stealing this prayer and giving it to you...

"Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for Christians everywhere, I have never stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people."


"I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right and in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or anything else in this world or in the world to come. And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence."

My prayer for you, taken from Paul in Ephesians 1:15-23.


May the church remember that it finds it's place through Christ, not through man. Also, that the body of Christ should reflect his presence everywhere we set foot.


Aaron

Ants and Jesus...??

So, this is gonna be one of those weird posts but looking back at yesterday I had an encounter with some ants and it got me thinking about my relationship with Christ. You are probably wondering, how can you get something out of ants?

Well, here goes. As I woke up, our dog's food bowl was in the kitchen and to my surprise a long line of ants were coming from outside and found their precious way into our home. But what caught my eye was that there was a line leaving and a huge mass in the bowl feasting on the dog food and a massive line leaving. And so my mind started to wonder.....

This is what came about: cool example of how our relationship with God should be, in a three-fold kinda way.

1) God puts himself out there so that all of mankind can come and taste and see that He is good. Kinda like the dog bowl sitting by itself, available to whomever wants to partake of the dog food. God is always ready for us to come to Him, in fact God even pursues us, which would kinda be weird if the dog bowl would have started sliding on the floor but any who....

2) God is our source of food, not dog food, but the only place of nourishment and true fulfillment. He is the person we can approach and feast upon His Word to be filled with of grace and mercy. It's in His presence that we find life and direction. It's the place that leads us to true understanding about who we are and what we have been created to do.

3) God is not only to be sought after and fill our lives with challenges and direction, but He lives within us so that we may take the living Word, the food, the life, hope, ad love back to our social environments and share who He is to others searching for answers, love, forgiveness and true life.

So as the ants are marching to the bowl for food and leaving with what they can carry, it sparked something else. As I said a lot of the ants were coming to and fro from the dog bowl, but some of the ants were just huddled in the bowl, never leaving to return. This caught my eye because I feel that many times I act the same way when it comes to my faith. It's all about me and my relationship with God and I just throw in Matthew 28:19 whenever I can or feel like it.

So what I took away from this is that I am called to run after my Father, come and be filled with nourishment, but also to leave with a mission to take what truly gives me life back to the world, so that steps A and B can happen to those who need a Savior, which then will produce more ants! I told you this would be a weird post!




P.S. I killed the ants.

Aaron