God's Chisel Remastered

Are you discouraged today? Maybe you're like thousands of others, feeling like God can't use you because of your failures. Like you cannot overcome your own self in order to become more like Jesus Christ. Maybe you're feeling like God isn't near, isn't personal, and doesn't even want to be involved in your life.

Maybe you're feeling like God doesn't care.

Well, He's got news for you. He does care.

Recently I watched this video and was reminded that God can use me, and He wants to use me. However, He can't use me until I am surrendered to Him.

And surrender demands 100%.

GE (College Freshman)

Just Love?

Ask anyone about a characteristic of God and probably the first that will come up is “love”. God is love. Most people cling onto this concept and assume that a loving God would never punish us. He loves us too much to send us to Hell; it will all be pushed under the rug. But let’s think about His holiness. He is so holy that the angels just cry out, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY”, over and over and over. Day and night the word “holy” flows out of their mouths and echoes in the throne room. Why? Because they are completely awestruck by His total purity. Lately, I haven’t been able to get away from this concept.

God calls us to be holy like He is holy.

“Be ye holy for I AM HOLY.” I am amazed by this command. His holiness inspires fear and awe. Does He do that to us? Or are we so caught up in making our Lord an easygoing, approachable friend that we bring Him down to our level? So often God is treated more like a buddy than our sovereign, all-powerful King. In Jeremiah it says “But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.” The earth quakes and the nations crumble under God’s wrath. That sounds pretty awe-inspiring! He holds all power, might, and control, and yet here we are: we talk to Him on our own terms, we want Him to give us what we want, and we decide how much of our life He can have some control over.
But then there’s that command, “Be ye holy for I AM HOLY.” What does that mean for us? To be holy means to be separate and pure. Are we like our Father in this way? Do we flee from sin and seek justice? Honestly, as I consider this for myself I believe that if I remember my God’s complete holiness it will inspire a right heart in me. It’s not a set of rules someone made up. It’s truly knowing the heart of our Holy Creator and desiring to please Him. It’s no longer the question “What can I get away with?” but instead, “how Holy is my God?”.

Can I see your ID?

"Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me."

(Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, pg. 42)

So often, I can identify with Henri's description of emotions and reactions.  It seems, at times, like we are at the mercy of the waves of our circumstances.  However, we fail to realize that, like Henri pointed out, the temporary world that we live in does not define who we are.  Life should not be an anxious struggle, but it certainly is when we are deceived by Satan's foundational lies.