Christ in me

I'm the new kid. Always the new kid. I've moved plenty of times in my life and I'm cool with that.

However, since I am the infamous "New Kid" I am blessed to see this Truth that otherwise I may not see.

I'm weird.
Christ in me makes me Weird.

In our own flesh, when we meet new people, we smell them out. Tip toe around them to see if we can identify with them. By the age of 14 you've been hurt so many times already that you don't just trust people. You may meet new friends here and there but few forever friends. (College is a possible exception.)

I talked to my amazing teen girls this morning on this subject, and I'm sorry to call you out sweetie if you read this, but one girl said it so clearly.  I asked her, "How do you make new friends." She said, "I don't really, the friends I've had, I've had since kindergarten."

With that thought in mind I want to challenge you.

I hate this cliche, because it is said as a joke so often, but I know no other way to put it, "I Know there is a GOD".  I Know this by seeing who I once was and who I have been, and am being, created into, in His Image.

I used to be a sniffer. As I said before, "Infamous new girl right here", I have been sniffed out plenty of times, and have done my share of sniffing. I hate it because it puts you on your tiptoes because you want people to like you.

But somewhere along the lines God has transformed me and my sniffing ways-and it makes me look weird. Haha, it does. :)

I no longer have to look for a reason to love you. I don't have to look for a commonality.  I no longer look for ways we mesh or how I may perceive you as weird.

I no longer worry if I may not spot a weirdness in you and someone else may, and accuse me of being weird by association. Wow, don't you love being a girl. :)

This love can't be severed. There's nothing you can do to lose this love. It's a love beyond myself. It's a love that I did not create and you did not earn. It's the Love of Christ!

Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,

nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I love because I can't help it. I don't care if I've known you 20 years or 20 seconds, the Love of Christ has Radically transformed my heart and my life.

I no longer worry if I may get hurt. If I've died to self, that's for God to deal with, not me. I love you because Christ radically loves you, and it is Christ in me loving you. 

You don't have to give me a reason to love you, I just do. It's an unconditional, ridiculous, could wrap you in my arms to show you a glimpse of the love of Christ. I am no longer easily angered or hurt, because the Love of Christ covers that.

If you talk about my momma, or you insult my child, it no longer angers me. (When I'm prayed up) It breaks my heart for you because there is a truth of God that you have yet to experience.

You always hear the phrase in church, "I don't have to like you, I just have to love you."  I think that's junk.

Jesus went to the cross for those who were spitting on Him. Beating Him. Cursing Him. Accusing Him of things He never did. Lying about Him.  He went to the Cross for a world that hated Him.  I don't think He could have done that without "liking" them too. (I could get into all the theology there, and there's alot of great stuff there to discuss.)

Christ didn't only see their immediate actions, He was faced with the big picture. A sinful world in need of a sinless Savior. He, out of His Great Love for HIS children, died for the ones who put Him there.  That's the love I want to have for every person I come in contact with. The Love of Christ. The Love that sets me aside and sees the big picture: "Who this person is through the eyes of Christ."

I told the girls this morning. This is not a love you can work on or practice. Pursue GOD, Pursue GOD, Pursue GOD! Pray for this love - when God gives it to you, when God blesses you with the Love HE has for His children, it is "drop you to your knees overwhelming".  It is a love that only He can create in your life.

For instance: if you have a Pepsi bottle full of Pepsi, and you begin to pour in water.  The water will displace the Pepsi. After a while, with that constant feeding of water, thats how your life will look. Very little you a whole lot of Him and this love is an outpour of that water going in.

So I'm okay with being weird. If loving you through Christ makes me wierd, if I can skip the "sniffing stage" of our relationship, and that makes me weird. Ha, I'm cool with that. :)

1 Corinthians 13

John 13:35 (ESV)

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 15:13 (ESV)

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

I think forever friendships are beautiful, baring eachothers burdens etc. But What I think is Radical, is when two friends come together in love, laying aside their differences or fears and loving eachother without division through the "LOVE of CHRIST."
First part common, second part Radical! I want my life to look Radical in CHRIST!

Matthew 5:23-24 (ESV)
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Proverbs 12:16

A fool shows his annoyance at once,
   but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

HIS Clay~

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The Beautiful Call to Parent

The many years I daydreamed about being a mom. I never realized the intense responsibility that came along with it. Knowing that my every action, word, motive; everything that I do is shaping my children.

Knowing how I discipline, how and what I encourage,  my passions and my desires are going to have a huge effect on my children.  The areas I compromise. The sins I justify; "yeah, the bible says we shouldn't...but that's not a "big sin", so what's a little slip-up here and there." (Pride, gossip, slander, lust, compromising biblical truths for the sake of convenience, etc...)

In a recent post  I asked: "If we say we would die for our children, shouldn't we live that out daily?"  

Being a Godly Parent is a daily call to die.  Laying down my own wants, needs, desires in order to display Christ to my children.