Always Say Never.

"Love Never Fails." 1 Corinthians 13:8

Happy Valentine's Day! I thought it would be suiting to share a verse on love today! 1 Cor 13:8 is on my heart especially today. It's funny how God takes three simple words, yet puts so much meaning behind each one and behind the entire statement.

Let's start with the word Love, or, "Agape." Agape is God's self-sacrificing love for humanity. God looks at each one of us and covers us with His perfect agape. His agape is always right, gentle, free from judgement, and perfect in every way. As I write this, part of me wishes that our love as humans we're that way so we could never be let down or let others down. But as I think about it more, I'm happy God designed us to be 100% human. Designed to love as only we know how, imperfectly. If we are "imperfect" (and I hate to use that word, because that is NOT how God sees us) we can find God's loving perfection.

Never. Never in the dictionary is defined as, "not ever; at no time; absolutely not." What a discouraging word. Can you imagine if the word never was used on a daily basis in your life as a reference to things you wanted to accomplish, but knew you never could? What if instead the word Never was used in a positive way, as in "Never, Say Never!?" What a spin that puts on a situation with no hope.

Fails. The dictionary defines fail as, "to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved." What an awful feeling. I've been there my fair share of times and it's not pretty, but it is healthy. Not only does failure help you to grow, but it strengthens your relationship with God.

Let's look at the big picture now and see what God really wants us to understand here. Have you ever felt like you've loved someone so much only to feel left with nothing? Like your love failed, wasn't recieved, or not reciprocated? Well, I'm usually not one to intentionally discount feelings (unintentionally--yes, all the time!), but in this case I must. Guess what? These feelings are invalid. Even if the person you gave your love to didn't appreciate or accept it the way you may have wanted them to, doesn't mean it wasn't recieved by God.

God's love never fails, and guess what else? The good news is, neither does ours! He see's our loving intentions, is blessed by them, and stores them up as a treasure for us in heaven. So, today instead of dwelling on earthly love or feeling as if you don't have anyone to share this National Hallmark Holiday with, be filled with the love of God and know that no matter what, love never fails.

Measure Yourself, Not Others.

"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matthew 7:2

Judgement has been on my mind a lot this past week. I knew that judgement needed to be my next blog topic as it has been on my heart this past week, however I continue to stumble on my ideas and thoughts for this particular topic. Today as I read an exerpt from Oswald Chamber's, "My Utmost For His Highest," on this particular topic, I knew that his words describe judgment better than mine. Instead of writing my ideas, I will share Oswald's as I think he gives a great reflection of God in his writing.

Oswald writes...

"Jesus' instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put, He says: "Don't." The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known. Criticism is one of the ordinary activities of people, but in the spiritual realm nothing is accomplished by it. The effect of criticism is the dividing up of strengths of the one being criticized. The Holy Spirit is the only one in the proper position to criticize, and He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into fellowship with God when you are in a critical mood. Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindicitve, and cruel, and leaves you with the soothing and flattering idea that you are somehow superior to others. Jesus says that as His disciple you should cultivate a tempermant that is never critical. This will not happen quickly but must be developed over a span of time. You must constantly beware of anything that causes you to think of yourself as a superior person.

There is no escaping the penetrating search of my life by Jesus. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God finds in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (Romans 2:17-24). Stop having a measuring stick for other people. There is always at least one more fact, which we know nothing about, in every person's situation. The first thing God does is to give us a spiritual cleaning. After that, there is no possibility of pride remaining in us. I have never met a perosn I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God."

In another entry Oswald goes onto say, "Who of us would dare to stand before God and say, "My God, judge me as I have judged others?" We have judged others as sinners ---if God should judge us in the same way, we should be condemened to hell. Yet God judges us on the basis of the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ."

EnGRAIN This Into Your Head...

"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would out number the grains of sand."
Psalm 139:17-18


Last week in Chemistry we began reviewing everything from Matter to the Periodic Table of Elements. My teacher is the type of guy who loves to throw in random facts and scientific jokes to keep the class entertained. Let's be real--it is chemistry--it's tough to be entertained so I like his logic behind the jokes. Last Tuesday (I know it's been awhile since I've p0sted so I'm just now getting my thoughts up here :)) as we talked about exponential notation, he used a great example in trying to teach notation to the class.

He asked the class, how many grains of sand are on the earth? My first thought was who has time to count sand and why do I need to know this?! Well (FYI), it turns out that a scientist in Hawaii (I'm guessing he's a surfer with too much time on his hands) came up with a formula to estimate the grains of sand on the earth. There are about 10^22 (in exponential terms which turns out to be way over 100 billion) grains of sand on the earth! I can't even write out a number that big, let alone think of that number in terms of sand! I did leave lecture that night being amazed at how much sand there was on earth and proud of myself for learning something new.

As I crawled into bed that night, I felt the Holy Spirit stirring me to pick up my bible next to my bed. I really wanted to reach for my new Suze Orman, "Young, Fabulous, and Broke" book, but I obeyed to see what was so important. I was getting the feeling I needed to read a chapter from Psalms instead of a chapter about retirement, but not knowing where to start I turned to the familiar Ps. 139. I instantly read that God's thoughts for ME AND YOU are GREATER THAN THE GRAINS OF SAND OF THIS EARTH! Can you imagine? Over 200 billion thoughts from God about you on a regular basis? That's amazing to me. I get so fixed in the mindset that I am to conquer things on my own, but then I read this and realize that God's already thought things through. He has a plan and a will for my life and his thoughts about me are more than I could ever imagine or count. I'm so thankful to have a Daddy God who is full of love, mercy, and thoughts about me.

If you have time, I challenge you to read the entire Psalm 139 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%20139&version=31). It will take literally less than two minutes, but will fill the rest of your week with confidence and refreshment from the God who created you. Instead of investing in your earthly retirement (like I was about to do with Suze's book), invest yourself in Him--that's a retirement worth investing into and that no vacation to Hawaii (from your 401K investments) will ever be able to replace.