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criosduighe
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Name: Justin
Birthday: 5/9/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: "If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - Charles Spurgeon
Expertise: "Nail the colors to the mast! That is the right thing to do, and, therefore, that is what we must do, and do it now. What colors? The colors of Christ, the work He has given us to do - the evangelization of all the unevangelized. Christ wants not nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible, by faith in the omnipotence, fidelity and wisdom of the Almighty Savior Who gave the command. Is there a wall in our path? By our God we will leap over it! Are there lions and scorpions in our way! We will trample them under our feet! Does a mountain bar our progress? Saying, ‘Be thou removed and cast into the sea,’ we will march on. Soldiers of Jesus! Never surrender! Nail the colors to the mast!" - C.T.Studd
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/28/2005
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| So I doubt a lot. Not doubt like, was Jesus real or is Jesus God and Savior, but just doubting His love for me. I get scared a lot because I can see how incredibly great my sin is, how much I mess up. I do not know why God has let me see it like this...but I truly can say that I am glad because I know that He will work it out for good. I really have that hope, and that is cool.
It all comes from misconceptions of who Jesus really is...I am so used to the conditional love of humans...you screw up and they do not like you anymore. So I guess I feel like, if I keep sinning but I'm trying to know You and I do not want to sin but I cannot seem to escape my pride and my selfishness...are You pleased with me? Are You mad at me? Does this sin keep me from seeing you? I really do not want it, and I really do want You...You've done something to me and You HAVE to be either good or cruel because now I want You and I never have enough of You. I've tasted You in pretty awesome ways, and I need more! But why isn't it like that always, our engagement? Why? I guess because we aren't married yet. You promise that when we get married it will be SO good forever...I just wish that was now.
But back to the original thing; I have too small a view of His grace and love. God loves in a way that is so incredibly stupid to worldly sense. It makes no sense at all to us who are still shaking off the grime of the world. He really loves so hard that we do not have to worry about anything. He loves so that we can almost forget about our sin and just run for Him. He has covered every sin and He has promised to be with us. As we walk in His purpose (reaching the WHOLE WORLD to show how awesome He is to EVERY kind of person He made) we can be assured that He will keep us and protect us. I must look at this truth, we as Christ-followers have to look at this because otherwise we will be paralyzed by the enemy and end up sinning by not trusting Him and living up to our greatest potential, and that is a scary thing.
He really did cover my sin, completely. Amen
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| Sooo I'm thinking I will start using this Xanga thing again. Because it is good to use. I do not have a post right now, but soon. Let me formulate things. Woo!
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| I could say that it's been awhile since I posted, but I wont, because you already know that :P I felt like I needed to post. Lately I've been finding all these changes in my life that my Jesus has done without my knowledge or striving! It is true that He is Faithful and True, He will sanctify His people to show His beauty more and more. I am being made more and more into the man I was supposed to be, becoming the image of God again. I feel love coming out of me. It isn't Christ-love, but I'm hoping that it will grow into it. I want to love people, I want to be involved in their lives and put aside my selfishness, but like Paul said, "I do what I do not want to do, and what I want to do I do not." Paul, I feel ya man. Girls have always been a struggle for me. I grew up viewing them as a means to validate my manhood. I pursued them with my whole self because I thought that they held the key to life. Even last year I would see a girl show even a small amount of interest in me and I would jump all over it, trying to woo her, even if I knew she wasn't a Christian. It was pretty awful. But my God, He won't let me stay like that! I still find myself holding wretched views of who women are, but my beautiful Father is changing me. I desire Christ more, I desire to find myself in Him and not in girls. Oh my lovely One, how good your hands are! You mold me into an image of Yourself, You teach me to enjoy You for who You are and not for the things You give me. You are strengthening my faith and deepening the roots of Your gospel so that I cannot help but be changed. I love You! I love YOU! Amen! | | |
| This really is a war. And if you don't go to it, it will come to you. So why let yourself be caught off gaurd? Wear the Armor of God proudly and charge into battle. Victory is assured. | | |
| I have some words that I hope will encourage you :) Some of this is borrowed from a Piper sermon, but the rest is my very own testimony to God's greatness and faithfulness.
Luke 22:31-32 says this "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren." It is Jesus, speaking to Simon during the Last Supper. He gives Peter both a warning and an encouragement!
Satan demanded to sift the faith of Peter and the rest of the disciples. To sift them like wheat, which just sounds painful and hard. John Piper said it was like a large, jagged, razor-wire bowl with holes in it. Satan puts people in this bowl and shakes them around, hoping they will fall out. Those who hold on to faith will be cut and bruised and battered, but they will not fall out of the bowl into death. Those who have no faith will fall into death.
In my own life I have been sifted greatly on more than one occasion. Even at Beach Project Satan shook me around, he made me lose sight of any assurance of salvation, he made me despair greatly, and it lasted for at least a week, and happened more than once. Here, recently, Ive been shaken, though not nearly as harshly. And through it all I have not lost the faith in Christ. I have not cursed God, nor turned from Him. This is not because I am super spiritual or good, but because He is working and conspiring with my Lord Jesus to keep me and never let me go!
I do not believe I have experienced the worst sifting. Im sure that there has been worse to others (Job, for instance) and I am also sure that there will be more, and harsher, sifting to come in my own life. But I say all this to encourage you guys and gals. Satan WILL sift you. He WILL hurt you. But it is because God allows it, and it is how God grows us, and fear not because God will not let you go! We are nothing on our own, but God is everything! So rejoice! | | |
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