Imagine you are going to run a marathon. You hear about it months before the event and you decide firmly that you will run in it, but you realize you have a ways to go to be in shape and ready for it. So you began practicing for it everyday by running a few miles. As each day of training passes, you get better and better and you run for longer distances. You run through rain, and you run through mud puddles. You run when it is 98 degrees outside and you run when it is humid. You run in the early morning when you would have rather slept. You do everything in your power to be prepared for this big marathon. You read the rule books and the know the statistical averages and you go above and beyond to be above the average runner.

Now the day finally comes. You wake up and have an awesome breakfast and have orange juice (I heard that it boosts energy? who knows...it could just be hearsay) and get to the location that the marathon is to start at. You are extremely anxious and excited. You give your coach a thumbs up and you and the other runners line up at the starting line and the guy starts counting down...

and what do you do?

you false start.

You stand dumbfounded at your mistake, and dont want to face the ultimate consequence.

You are kicked out of the race.

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Does the fact that you screwed up take away all those months of training?
No...you are still a good runner, you just weren't able to prove it to the judges. But you are now in shape and you've developed a better lifestyle.

As a Christian we can be so obedient to Christ, and so on fire for Him. We can be on such a spiritual high that all our heart's desire is to do God's will and go where He leads.

But what always happens? We do something stupid and we feel as though the whole time we've been doing good is wiped out. For example. Sexual purity. We can be going so good with our thoughts and actions and suddenly, we give it all for a random experience. Keep in mind that up until that point, if you were striving towards Christ each and every day, the fact that you made that mistake, doesnt take away the fact that God has taught you things and taken you places to make you stronger.

If indeed you have screwed up with something Christ has been training you for...don't let the devil get any more power over you. He already has his foot in the door, don't let him come in any farther. Just because you messed up that time, doesnt mean you have to keep doing it because "well i already screwed things up this far, might as well keep going".

Dont get in that mind set. Jesus knows that we will fall down periodically. He's there to pick us right back up. Don't just stay on the ground wallowing in guilt over your actions. Use your experience to add to your testimony to help others who might go through the same thing.

What is God's mercy and grace for anyways? We gotta be taught humility once in a while through our mistakes. Let God use you for good!

-Kristy

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Imagine you are at a WAC college football game. The home team makes their magnificent appearance and the crowd goes wild slapping their loud inflatable sticks together and waving their enlarged foam hands. You look around at the other spectators around you and see painted faces and men with bare chests with big letters painted on each one. You gently scratch your cheek to rid an itch but careful to not scratch away the paint. You are here at this long anticipated game to have fun.

The players exercise and stretch on the field and then the huddle together to go over the first play. The game is about to begin and you and the other 30,000 spectators anxiously await the kickoff. You feel nervous, excited, and your eyes are glued to the huddled players. You see the coach speaking enthusiastically although you have no clue what he is saying. The sound of the crowd is almost deafening. The players seem excited about what the coach is saying and you see their heads nod with understanding. When the coach is done the players put their hands in the middle of the circle and yell "BREAK!" Some of the players start jumping excitedly and slapping their hands together. You catch the occasional slap on the butt as well. But something isnt right. The players arent headed to the middle of the football field to play the game. Instead, all of them go to the bench and just sit down and look around happily.

The spectators quiet for a moment, vexed by what just happened, or rather, what didn't happen. The players start chatting amongst themselves happily and make no attempt to go play the game. Some spectators start yelling angrily for the players to play the game; others just stand confused. After a while of nothing happening, many spectators start gathering their things to leave and demand their money back; you included.

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Now wouldnt that be stupid? Does that make any sense? Players at a football game not even playing? Sure is ridiculous, isnt it?

Yet, that is exactly what so many of us Christians do. We go to church every Sunday and get pumped about what we hear and find it awesome and we understand and after church some of us chat with others excitedly, but then we go out into the world and sit down on the bench. We don't play the game. And to most of the outside world, it looks ridiculous and opens doors for ridicule.

What is church? (i give references for a quickie look, but at the bottom of the blog wrote out the verses)

The church is the Body (Col 1:18), Bride of Christ (Eph 5:22), the Building (Eph 2:20-21), Temple (1 Cor. 3:16), Priest (1 Pet. 2:9), and the Flock (Acts 20:28).

Body - The Body of Christ works as one just as a body is composed of cells that work for the good of the whole body.
Bride - We are to submit to God as a wife is to submit to the husband.
Building & Temple - The church is the temple of God. We are the little tabernacles that God dwells in. :)
Preist - The priest in the Old Testament were the only ones allowed to go into the Holy of Holies to approach God directly, but we as Christians are given the right to approach God whenever we want because Jesus made that ultimate sacrifice and became that Chief Preist, which is the middle man between us and God. :)
Flock - We are sheep & God is the shepherd. The little pastors are like sheep dog...haha...they help with the shepherd to guide the sheep! Don't go tell your pastor that he is a sheep dog though...he might not understand at first.

But overall, church is when we get together and huddle to discuss how we are suppose to play the game out in the world. How to do the plays right and how to respond to particular plays that Satan throws at us. It's when the little Tabernacles of God go out into the world and invite people to know who God is. We submit to God's teaching and bless others through the hope that we have. (1 Pet. 3:15). Because God dwells in us, he can guide us when we arent around our Christian friends who gives us that fuzzy warm feeling.

Do you think its about time that we do what we are suppose to? Then we probably wouldnt look like morons to all of our spectators.

-Kristy

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"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20

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Colossians 1:18, "And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy."
Ephesians 5:22, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord."
Ephesians 2:20-21, "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord"
1 Corinthians 3:16, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"
1 Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
Acts 20:28, "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood."
1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts rever Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

Our lives are like sponges. Whatever we are soaking in will come out of us when we are squeezed and under pressure.

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My life has been crazy lately. I have been learning many profound truths, some of which I had already learned before, but had forgotten the importance of.

I want to fill my mind and my heart with Godly things and pure things and honorable things, so that when I face a trial where I am squeezed, good things can come out of me. I want to be soaking in the Living Word of Life and so when I find myself in a tough spot, I can bring out from within me God's amazing comfort and truths that I have stored up in my heart.

When I am faced with the world's harsh storms that thrash at Christianity and God, I want to be able to act in holiness and speak with purity. I want to be ready.

What are we, as Christians, soaking in? Are we soaking in hatred? Bitterness? Are we soaking in jealousy? Are we soaking in depression? Are we soaking in guilt? Greed? Are we soaking in muck and slime? Are we soaking in dirt and filth? Are we soaking in things that are not of Christ?

When the storms of life come, what do we want to come out of us? Do we want outrageous bursts of anger? Do we want tears of bitterness? Do we want to hurt others?

Of course not.

Then let us turn ourselves aside and look to a much greater Man. A Man who lived life perfect because we cannot. A Man who endured betrayal, hateful eyes, cruel methods of torture, and a cross, so that we can fellowship with him. He endured that because we cannot. He soaked it up so we don't have to.

The life that he lived teaches us everything we need to know to live a life free of hatred, bitterness, jealousy, depression, guilt, greed...

So if we call ourselves Christians - Christ-ones - then why is everything that Jesus stood for absent from our lives?

When Christ was under pressure and was close to death on the cross, he chose to love and forgive the very men who nailed him TO that cross. What he did was natural for him because his whole life he was soaking in the love of his Father.

My prayer is that we soak UP Christ so that we can BE like Christ when we don't know what the crap is going on in our lives. When we are confused, hurt, torn. When we have been wronged.

With love in Christ,
Kristy