monday updates: Week 8

Monday, August 3, 2009 – Week 8

…Of the Weeks:

Song: “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” – Toy Story

Quote: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” – Dr. Seuss

Verses: Exodus 19:4-6

Hello all!

I hope you’ve had an awesome week.

I must confess I truly have been struggling lately, trying to return to the Lord.

I haven’t had a good conversation with Him in a long time and it is entirely my fault.

Have you ever been in this place?

This place is knowing what is right, yet feeling unwilling to pursue it.

I am going to press on this week, though.

I have found notes I’ve taken these past two years at IWU…some ways that God spoke to me in my humble dorm room and at College Church.

I want to share some of it with you this week, hoping it will speak to you the way it has to me and inspire you to press on this week as well. J

Regarding love…

(reflections on life experiences and 1 Corinthians 13)

*Still smile at the world when it turns its back on you, when it gives you a scornful look. Always love. Don’t be discouraged by rejection or insincerity. You are not out to seek approval from the world. If you are, you will only be met with emptiness, for it is through pleasing God alone that we are truly satisfied. And it is through loving others that we can truly bring Him pleasure. Always love.

*Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of sinful nature- Galatians 5:16

*The one thing everyone has in common is the need to be loved. And that is the greatest gift God has equipped us with. Love without boundaries, without borders, without colors, without limitations, without sight, without judgment, without selection, without anything else but the pure desire to love another one of God’s oh-so-beautiful creations. Just love.

*Be patient, be kind, do not envy, do not boast, do not be proud, do not be self-seeking, do not be easily angered, do not keep record of wrongs, do not delight in evil, rejoice in the truth. Always protect, always trust, always hope, always perservere and you will never fail.

*I think God put “be patient” first because He knows that that is one of the main things that keeps us from loving wholeheartedly- our lack of patience with others. Love pretty much is pure patience backed by unadulterated compassion. Help me to be patient, Lord and to slow down my day if ever I see someone in need of your love.

Regarding loving God and His love for you…

(notes from a Deneff sermon- 9/7/08)

(disclaimer: because I haven’t included the notes in their entirety, the points might seem like different thoughts, all over the place. if you want the full notes, let me know!)

*The 10 Commandments= the kind of life God’s calling us back into, a life where Egypt no longer in exists in us…because even after we’ve gotten out of Egypt, we’ve never gotten Egypt out of us.

*Get Egypt out of you. It won’t be easy. It won’t be quick. Just trust and hold onto your hope. Push away the feeling that the world is falling away or that your suffering is too great, just remember your GOD, YAHWEH, will deliver you in His own good, perfect time.

*THIS is the time Christ has set apart for you to be consecrated in His name, to be fully developed in His will, to change the world through Him. Don’t let this chance pass you by. Don’t let things of the world get in the way, no matter how tempting. Don’t let things of the world become your God.

*Our God should be the FIRST we consult when we have a problem, not our friends, not our mentors, not our family, not Christian books – just the Lord your God.

*Return to your first love- Love the Lord your God.

He is a jealous God – not a reaction of anger, but of love. God is SO consumed with love for you, He doesn’t want you to wholly belong to anyone else.

*The process of giving yourself completely to God isn’t going to be easy- it never was but there is no comfort on Earth like His eternal love.

*Be so in love with Christ, your lover, that everyone else seems second rate.

*Talk about nothing and everything with the Lord your God. If religious things are all you discuss with God, your relationship won’t go anywhere.

*Surrender the gods in your life to the Lord and He will place the Spirit in you so that you will naturally obey Him.

*Don’t just be faithful- love The One you chose. Fall back in love with Him. Put aside all those that might have gotten in the way. Nothing else is worth putting ahead of the Lord your God, who is consumed with love for you.

*Exodus 19:4-6: You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to yourself. Not if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

*You may be lying there, slumped in anguish, but Christ is lying there right next to you, with his arm around you, not any less anguished but wholly willing to share this cup with you.

I hope something in there spoke to you.

Let’s try to make every action this week intentional, meditating on and practicing the love which God has blessed us with.

I love you all.

--Jeanette