God's Great Love For Us

How true this is. Yet how untrue. I read a quote that said, "If you truly love someone, then you would care for their happiness more than your own." But you can experience love greater and deeper and different than any kind of love from any human being on this planet. Who is it? Of course, it's God. He loves everybody. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believed him shall not perish but have eternal life." Jesus paid the sin on the cross for us, sinners, yet he was perfect beyond belief. He died a painful death, and so did his disciples. Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you'll have an easy life. 

Bartholomew had a terrible death. He died because when he was in India or somewhere close there, they skinned him alive. Skinned! And he didn't die because there was no skin life, he died because of loss of blood. If you didn't have any skin, you'd be muscle, blood, and bones. But Peter 1 3:14 says, "But even if you suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed." How true! Eternal life in heaven! 

Seeking God

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:15-17

Seeking for God is like searching for a treasure. You don’t wait for someone to show up at your door and hand you a treasure. You go look for it.  You may not even know exactly what the treasure is but you know it has great value and, therefore, are willing to do what it takes to find it. 

If we truly want to find God, we must be willing to do the things that God wants us to do. The Bible promises that if we seek God, he will come to us. God wants to be in our lives but sin separates us from God. The things that are acceptable and pleasing to the world are not pleasing to God. In order to get closer to God we must be willing to turn away from the things that are not from God. 

Looking back will only cause you to stumble and fall.  If you carry around prides and achievement  that keep your focus on the past, you are missing your present and future!  You will not have your eyes on the blessings God is trying to give you on a daily basis. 

Ask yourself this question: Are you ready to start the new chapter of your life , opening up a new door and dong new things? If you eyes are always looking backwards, you are blind to the thing before you. 

Adultery

It saddens me to think of how many spouses cheat on each other, how many divorces there are.

The Bible says not to cheat on each other. And if your right eye causes you to sin, like you look at that person and fall in love even though you're married to another person, cut it out.

Harsh. Yet it is no longer a HUGE problem. The divorce rates in California is surprisingly huge.

HA, if only we'd listen to the Bible.

Wifi

I wasn't able to post for awhile....the wifi was gone. long story.

I think I'll change Rachel's weekly words to Words of Wisdom or something because I don't really want to make it weekly. And stuff like that anyways...

So yeah.

Loyal and thankful

Dogs are loyal to their owners.
You're supposed to be loyal to your friends.
I think that God's definition of loyal is willing to die for him .
Sometimes
I don't think that everybody realizes this.
Imagine if your running to Starbucks for happy hour. The line is ridiculously long.
Your with your best friend, who's a super fast sprinter. Everyone else is getting in line, and she wants to save a spot for you two.
"I'll rush ahead and grab a spot!" your friend yells to you.
"I can do it, if you want!" You scream back.
"No, I'll do it. That's what friends do." She yells back sincerely.
You both begin to walk across the street, your friend sprinting.
She speeds across the street, j-walking, and a car hits her. Bam. she's dead.
That should have been you. That never should have happened.
That's what Jesus did to you.
Are you thankful to Jesus for everyday that you live?
Are you thankful that you will go to heaven?
Can you sincerely smile to God and know that he's there?

What Jesus did for us is amazing.
He shed his blood for us.
That might or might not make you emotional.
Next, he did what no other man has done.
He conquered the grave.
Can you do that?
Jesus died, then rose again.
That proves he's real.
When you live, are you going to show people that Jesus is real?
Or will people go to hell, not even getting a chance to learn about Jesus.
If you aren't trying to share God's word with your friends, you're letting them go to hell without a chance.
You're being a bad friend, and being a not loving one.
You'll never know unless you try.

Earthly Desires, Heaven and Hell

Earthly stuff don't matter. Like being popular, expensive brand name clothes, makeup, or even grades. That's not saying you have to be dumb and live on the streets. I mean, wear decent clothes and earn good grades and HAVE friends. But that shouldn't be what's your life's about, or what you're worried about, or what you always think about. Which is hard. I find myself always thinking about wordly matters. But really, even though all these stuff might make you popular, famous, or well liked, it's not going to matter when you die. All these stuff will get thrown away, not be "in" anymore, stolen, lost, or rot. But God's love never rots or is lost or stolen. It is you that might walk away from God. In heaven, you are not going to carry your fifty dollar Pink leggings with you. In fact, if that's what you think about all day, and do, you're probably not even going to go to heaven. And if you're not Christian and truly believe God saved you and truly believe in Him, you WON'T go to heaven. You'll go to hell. Tough. But it's true. And your clothes and money won't matter then. No, you'll be in eternal pain, heat, fire, and darkness. You'll be so hot, but you won't die and there's no water. The fire never stops. And worm will be going through you and eating you. You won't be thinking or doing much except wanting a break, wanting it to be over, and ... screaming. Hell is not a lovely place. I'm not going to juice it all up and say, "Oh, there's some fire, and horned devils with pitchforks." You might be living a luxurious non-Christian life, but when you die, you won't. You might be Christian, but suffering because many people hate you for being Christian, but in the end, YOU get to go to heaven for eternity while THEY will go to hell. Heaven is a WONDERFUL place. There is gold, and gates there made of pearl.

You might be thinking, "Well how do you know? Are you dead? Have you been there before?" No, I'm not dead and I haven't been there before, but there is the Bible for proof, and if that isn't good enough for you, there are books about people traveling through hell and heaven and the middle place.

So do you want luxury now and pain forever later? Or do you want pain now and paradise forever?

Just because you're rich doesn't mean you'll go to hell. Just because you're poor doesn't mean you'll go to heaven.

 You cannot save yourself. It's salvation, believing in God, living your life as a true Christian would, and the death of Jesus (which he rose three days later), that saves you.

FOS-Joy

Joy.
"Joy to the world."
"Be joyful always."
Joy can be defined in many terms.
When I think of joy, I think of happiness.
When I got my iPod? Pure joy, or pure happiness, let's call it.
Joy is the second fruit of the spirit, the pursuit for happiness. Everyone wants to be happy.
John 15:11 
The things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 
The pursuit for happiness goes on forever. You want something, and as soon as you have it, you trash it.
You want to be fully satisifed, and no one can make that happen for you.
However, one thing can.
That thing is God.
Heaven is pure joy, golden streets, no sin, amazing.
Everyone wants to continue on the quest for joy. King Solomon conducted experiments to try and find joy. He found joy, but still was not satisfied.
How long will the humans last before we end up destroying one another? [sorry, that was totally irrelevant.]
Joy can be from evil too. People can find joy out of gunning people, like Adam Lanza, and others can find joy out of peaceful things, like nature and space like Saint Francis of Assisi.

The type of joy that a Christian should have is biblical joy.
We enjoy (see what i did there :P) reading the bible, or we should.
The bible is our gateway to talk to God. Kind of like a secret passage to talk to our ancestors.
Do you treat the bible and praying important, or do you just push it aside and think of it as a chore?
Think of it as a time machine for Christmas.
If you were going to die today, what would you do?
I would go buy a helicopter then fly to church and land on the top of the building.
However, god is alive right now and is always willing to keep you on track or help you with your life.
Are you going to YOLO or be happy with God? God can give you everything you need. Joy, heaven, love.
Everyone wants that.
Joy.
Jump for joy.
Joy to the world.
Joy makes me want to cry out in happiness.