FEAR

What does it mean to be a christian? It means to sacrifice yourself and follow Christ. What does it mean to follow Christ? Now this is the interesting part.

To follow Christ you need to know Him. First and foremost He is the son of God and the bible is God breathed. Therefore, a key factor in knowing God is reading the Bible. We are taught in the bible to pray. Every strong Christ follower, as well as Christ Himself, are seen praying at key points in there life. So, praying as often as possible and setting a side a daily time to read the Bible is following Christ? Close but not quite there. The most important thing is fear. FEAR, how is fear the most important in following Christ?

Fear, when you are afraid of something it consumes you. When you are afraid of heights then just looking at something slightly taller than your knee makes your heart sink. This is because you the know of power of heights, so you pay great respect to it, you do not try to make it conform to your will but you allow it do its thing while you stand out of the way. This is the fear of God. As we read the Bible and pray and grow in our understanding of God, we are to fear Him. We are to grow in reverence, love and awe of Him, allowing him to take control of our life and set aside our will for His.

Change my Heart, oh God!

We are in the season of LENT!

In today's children sermon, and at JBU's Ash Wednesday service, we learned that Lent is a time of spring cleaning. Where we refocus our hearts on Christ and what His will is for our lives.

I would agree, it is a time of remembering our cross and what

it means to daily carry it. Lent is a time where you sacrifice, mainly by giving up a food or food's of your choice, and pull into Christ allowing him to search your heart and change it. It is a time of re-organizing our priorities and turning our hunger and cravings for food into a hunger and craving for Christ our Lord. It is a time of windex-ing our hearts windows and allowing the light of Christ illuminate our dark corners that we never even realized are there. We are to dust off our old habits and refurbish them into new God centered ones.

The winter is over! So throw open your heart, and allow Christ to come in as

a cool breeze that refreshes and renews. Delight yourself in him, and do not trust your own eyes, but use this time to learn to fear Him. Humble yourself before Him during this time, and sacrifice your heart to Him, allowing Him to move in and change you. See what He reveals to you, I guarantee you will be blown away at what God will do with this time! But only if you truly allow Him to change your heart towards Him. Good night and Good Luck during this Lent season.

gRoWinG uP

Looking back, seeing what you didn’t, knowing what you couldn’t and laughing at what you wouldn’t.

Leaving what was possible and venturing to the impossible. Believing in the truth and never forgetting the scars required to get there.

Blessing those who you never knew and believing there is still hope for those you do.

Understanding that you will hurt and that hurt will come out in one way or another.

Learning to never underestimate the power of growing up.