When I was in high school, people would moan at the life that went on inside the walls of my school.  Drama, depression, being lonely, being smothered would all leave when we went to college.  That’s what the kids at my high school believed.  Life will enhance in greatness once graduation has occurred.  High school was a place of immature, selfish seagulls wanting to feed of your lunch during your day off at the beach.  People looked forward to the future in such a way that they missed what was going on around them.  They missed great opportunity and great adventure.  I loved high school.  I wouldn’t go back for a winning lottery ticket, but I did love it. 

Matthew 6.33

            But seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

            When I was in youth group I would attend Falls Creek every summer.  Some of you may have been there and some of you would never dream of such things.  In the moist heat of the morning and the consistent harassment from the mosquito, I would sit on a rock over looking a valley and have my morning devotional, much like you at this moment.  During the first devotional at the beginning of the week I would say “God, bring me back to where I was please” referring to how “on fire” I was for Jesus and his ministry after the last year’s Falls Creek.  I’m almost positive God laughed, if not then He rolled his eyes like Regina George to her mom in Mean Girls (She’s not like other moms, she’s a cool mom).  “Why?” you ask, “why would God laugh at such a request?”  Did God part the Red Sea twice?  Did He lead the Israelites to stay in one spot for 40 years?  Did Jesus raise a man who had been dead for 4 days twice?  No, no, and no.  God does not want to take your spiritually to where you were before.  Believe it or not, the term “My walk with God” leads us to believe that if we “fall away”, we have to get back to where we were, then we can progress.  This, my friends, is not true.  God is not a side walk, nor a ladder, and especially not an escalator.  He is a god.  The God, and will work with anyone however he sees fit.  He wants to show you things you have never seen.  There are new feelings to be felt and new truths and disciplines to change our lives.  Yes, he may remind us of things we have forgotten but there is a renewal of the Holy Spirit waiting to take place.  Not a reminder or a shuttle back to where we used to reside and grow, but a new place and new things to learn and be.  He loves you and wants you to become the person he had in mind before Genius happened.  He knows you, now come and know him.

2 Corinthians 5.21

            He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

            When I worked at GAP, I had a lot learn about clothes.  I was not the “clothes guy” to begin with so had had to work at learning about what they were made of, how to properly fold them, where everything was, and what a “shawl” was.  As time went by, I acquired a surprising skill: according to my boss I “had an eye”, and was very good at dressing the store’s mannequins.  I would pick out outfits and clothe the naked plastic people in assortments I myself would never wear, but they looked fine on the fake humans.  I would give them an “I just got out of bed” look, or a “The more layers I have, the cooler I am” look, or maybe the “Yes, I am this cool with a jean jacket” look.  It doesn’t matter what they were wearing, they were still mannequins.  All of them.

            When Jesus comes and puts his Holy Spirit in us, we are made new by his presence in our hearts.  We suddenly turn from the prideful, sexually immoral, selfish, apathetic sinners into perfect people.  “Perfect people?” you ask, “I’m far from perfect”, and Yes, you are.  But, news flash:  2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that we are no longer the things we do, but we are perfect and righteous in Christ Jesus.  When your school counselor in Junior High told you that you are what you do, she was wrong.  The style of clothes on the mannequin doesn’t make the mannequin that type of person.  Your sin doesn’t make you either.  For those in Christ Jesus, we are holy and blameless.  Whether you can’t stop drinking, hating your parents, spending money, if you’ve lost your gift of virginity, if you have the Holy Spirit, you are not these things.  Praise God.  He’s made you into a wonderful person before the frame of the earth was designed and He has a best plan for all of us.  Pursue Him today like you are righteous in Him.  Not with guilt, not with your sin on your mind, but be free in Him.  Chase him like you are His and He is yours.  You belong together.  He’s picked you.   Now pursue Him like He’s made you to pursue Him.  We are who God has made us, not the things that we do.  Let’s love Him.

First I saw this

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My Life Sucks. Someone help...

I can't tell if MTV is kidding or not.

Is Mike Jones a joke or is it like, for real?

I'm not being silly

I really don't know the answer.

Help please