Pure Religion. What is it? Going to church on Sunday? Listening to Christian music? Obeying a bunch of do's and don'ts? Being good? I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you none of that is pure religion. I've been doing a study in the book of James the past few months which has been life-changing. If you're interested in a step-on-your-toes, in-your- face type of study, head to James; he doesn't disappoint. Here's what God says pure religion is: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 Look after the orphans and widows, look after the orphans and widows...was I doing that? No. Not even a little. I was crushed. Do you know how many times in the Bible God tells-not asks-us to look after the poor, the oppressed, the widows, orphans and prisoners? I don't think my dropping off a few bags of clothes to the Goodwill was going to cut it for this one. I was sick. Panicked. Then I bought a book called "Orphan Justice". Ever heard of it? Holy Moly. Between this book and the book of James I was a wreck. Here's what I came across next, "Show me your faith without deed, and I will show you my faith by what I do...You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." James 2: 18, 22. That was it. God had spoken. I was to do something. Do being the key word. It all came back to faith in action. I can't claim something and then not act on it. I can't claim to love my husband but never show him. I can't claim to be a teacher, but never prepare lessons and actually teach. I can't claim to be a Christian but not have faith in Jesus Christ and then ACT ON IT. Actions don't save us...good deeds don't get us to Heaven. Right and right. However, if we are saved then our "works will reveal that we are redeemed". We should be compelled to do something. For me this doing is orphans. For you, it may be something else. However it should be something. We should all be doing something. So, I write this blog in search of help, not judgment. Please-(saracastic eye-roll here) I've been giving clothes to Goodwill as my service for years with the intentions of cleaning out my closet-not helping someone. Sigh. Not judgment. I ask for your heart and your help. God's given me a passion for children who don't have a voice in our world; the lost, the hungry, the helpless. They need help. Interested? Then maybe you can think about becoming a child sponsor through World Vision. I've recently become a Child Ambassador through this awesome organization. That basically means my job is to partner children with sponsors. Here's how: 1. Choose a child. Here is my link to children who are currently in need of a sponsor: http://tiny.cc/worldvision4392 Find a child, country, age, gender that fits you. 2. Sign-up. It's $35 a month. For me it's a few less stops to Sheetz for my caffeine...which I now just finagle Sheetz money out of my husband. 3. In 7-10 days of World Vision receiving your info you will receive a Welcome Kit which will tell you how to make the most of this experience. You will receive a letter from your child within 6 weeks and continued correspondence throughout your sponsorship. 4. You can (but aren't obligated) write letters, send pictures and even small gifts (stickers, pencils, etc.). 5. Your money partners with other sponsors' money and goes toward clean water, education, medical care, and the development of their village so they become self-sufficient and no longer need support from the outside. Consider it! Look through the pictures and read the information on the World Vision link below. You will literally change the life of a child through this partnership. And through this...it will change yours. There are so many ways to put our faith in action. This is what I feel called to do. If you're interested in more information please e-mail me at leavaverchak@gmail.com. I've only given you the basics. You can learn more at: http://tiny.cc/worldvision4392 Lea :) "Enoch walked with God." We felt it all at the same time. We read the verse in Genesis 5:24 and paused. Enoch walked with God. Then the question came..."I wonder if I walk with God like Enoch does?" We read it again and asked, "Is my walk with God that strong?" Silence. We were all thinking about it. What would God say about us? Would He say that we walk with Him? Like Enoch does? Ehhhh...I don't know. We were left pondering the thought. Here's the entire verse, "Enoch walked with God, then he was no more, because God took him away." Enoch's walk was so strong that he never died. God just took him away when it was time. Mind-boggling. I wanted to research Enoch further. My mind lingered over the simple verse for days. Enoch walked with God. What did Enoch's walk look like? How could I make my walk look like his? How could I teach this to the girls? What did he do that was so awesome to God? There's not much said in the Bible about Enoch, but what is said, is pretty poignant. Enoch appears again in the faith chapter; Hebrews 11. It bears repeating: Enoch appears in the faith chapter. A clue-faith. I read further. Hebrews 11:5 "For before he (Enoch) was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God." Please God? How do I please God? More! I need more! Read on. Verse 6, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Enoch pleased God because he had faith and he earnestly sought God. Went after Him. Searched for Him. Looking at the verse again, another question popped up. What is faith exactly? Obviously Enoch had enough that it pleased God, so maybe it too deserves another look. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Have you ever really thought about a verse? Not just glazed over it? More questions arise when you think over a verse for awhile. The questions? What do I hope for? What does faith mean? Certain mean? Since the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Greek sometimes words can get lost in translation. Using www.blueletterbible.org I found the original meanings for most of the words in this verse and it really broke it down and helped clarify some things. The translations: (Try putting me, my and I into verses to make them relevant to you.) "Faith is being sure of my salvation and the conviction of it's reality." 0r "Faith is having a conviction of my salvation which compels me to take action." That helped a lot. Do I hope for my salvation? Do I have a conviction that compels me to act? Strikes a cord, doesn't it? Enoch had a conviction of his salvation that compelled him to act and it pleased God. I want that. Don't you? Final question. How do we get that kind of faith? We know faith pleases God but how do we obtain it? More research. Romans 10:17 "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." How do we get that Enoch faith? By hearing (or reading) the Word of God. Think of someone you know who has a lot of integrity. Someone you would trust with your life or with your children's lives. They never lie to you, always love you no matter what and they've never let you down. You trust them. If they told you something important that would save your life, would you believe them? Of course you would. We all have those people in our lives we'd trust anything they said because of their integrity. You heard them and you believed them. You heard their words and had faith in what they told you. That's how the Bible works. The God of integrity, who we can trust, has written a letter to us. When we read and hear what He's written to us, we'll become convicted with a belief in what He's saying and it will compel us to act. Hear His Words. Believe. Act. Please God. Lea :) Don't take my word on any of this! Check out blueletterbible.orr for yourself. It breaks down words, verses and passages into their original meanings, supplies commentaries and a ton of other resources. I encourage you to check it out! www.blueletterbible.org Hello again! Somewhere in my frazzled mommy rant last week of bulldozers and missed naps I think I challenged you to begin reading the Bible from cover-to-cover. And if that didn't come through at all-haha-I'm asking you to give it a shot now! Come and read the Bible with us! What's stopping you? Aren't you curious what it's about? Don't you want to know for yourself? Make up your own mind? We've only been at it a few weeks and are to Genesis chapter 8. We can't stop talking! It's so interesting. Slow and steady wins the race anyway, right? I wanted to share our "warm-up" with you for this post. Maybe you'll find it useful and try it too. Before reading, we've been praying scripture. We've been asking specifically for insight and understanding to what we're about to read and have been praying the following verse: "and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God." Proverbs 2:3-5 You can pray scripture with any verse! Our prayers are all different, however might go something like: "Dear Lord, I'm getting ready to read your Word and are in need of insight and understanding. Lord I want to look for it like I would look for treasure, please help to find your knowledge tonight. In Jesus' Name, Amen There is nothing more powerful than praying God's Word back to Him. I encourage you to try it. Another verse I stumbled upon this week that I'll be sharing and praying with the girls Sunday night-that is if it will ever stop snowing-is: "Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." Luke 24:45 Aghhh!! Isn't it exciting? Another promise from God that He will open our minds to His Word so we can understand it. He will. He promises. We might pray that verse like this: "Lord your Word says that you opened their minds so they would understand the scriptures. Will you please open my mind to help me understand what I'm reading? In Jesus' Name, Amen" Praying that you'll begin a journey into God's incredible Word...His incredible story for us. His plan of redemption for us. It's a love story really. Happy Valentine's Day! Lea :) Hello! Long time no blog! I'm excited to share what we've been up to in GFG recently. When I was asking the Lord what His focus was for the girls this year, He made it simple-"Read the Bible with them Lea. Straight through. That's it." I remember saying, "Are you sure about that God? I'm worried they might get bored. You know how teenagers can be..." Then I recanted and apologized pretty quickly. Who was I kidding? When God tells us to do something, that's it. There's nothing better. If I opened the Word with the girls, He would do the rest. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got at what God was going to do with us. Just read through the Bible. Simple. It was time for the girls to take ownership in what they believed. I felt pretty strongly about this since I had hung on the coattails of my mom's faith for years. I repeated what I was taught by her, by my Sunday School teachers, by my youth leaders, pastors, friends, etc. for years. But the scary part is I never once looked it up for myself. I mean, we're talking about my eternity here. Shouldn't I have checked into what they were saying at some point? My mom's faith wasn't going to get me to Heaven. My pastor's faith wasn't going to cover me. How long was I just going to take others words for it? What if they were wrong? Shouldn't I have checked it out for myself? Don't misunderstand! My mom was awesome. She had faith like a rock. She was more knowledgeable than anyone I knew and she loved God. But, when is it time to cut the cord and start learning it for ourselves? You know? How long are we going to trust others? It's time to take ownership. And once you start reading...WOW. WOW. WOW. To read our history, where we come from, how Christianity began, how the Old Testament and New come together, the symbolism, the depths that it goes, it's awesome. It begins to answer so many questions. God will grow our faith as we begin to read His story. Our confidence in who we are in Christ comes when He teaches through His Words-His story and plan for our lives. Why in the world would we want to read anything else? There's a million ways to read through the Bible, you can do a 3 month plan, a 6 month and 1 year plan. Or you can do what we're doing and just keep reading until you finish! At the end of this post are a few links to help you out if you're interested. Of course you can just google plans as well. Also, if you have an iphone, search Bible apps-the very first one that comes up is fantastic! Several of the girls are using it now. It also has a plan to read through the Bible as well. Whatever you do-just read. Give it a try. Come on this journey with us. The Holy Spirit will teach you. Learn for yourself who He really is and what He is really all about it. I challenge you to no longer go on what others have told you and find out for yourself. The Holy Spirit will teach you. He promises! John 14:26 "But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative-that is, the Holy Spirit-he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you." So that's what the next blogs will be about. What the Holy Spirit is teaching us. And WOW. Is He teaching us. But don't take my word for it! Lea :) Here are a few plans for reading through the Bible: http://www.ewordtoday.com/year/amp/bjan01.htm http://www.gracebaptisturbana.com/Read_The_Bible_in_6_Months.pdf "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12 Sometimes we need a reminder that we're never too young-or old-to be used by God. Sometimes we just need a reminder that He can plain use us at all. During our meeting Sunday the question of the night was "Why not me?" Look at some of the people in the Bible-young and old. Wasn't Abraham, 100, and his wife Sarah, 90, before God gave them their son Isaac? How about David when he killed Goliath? Wasn't he just a young boy? The difference between these men and women and us? Faith. God can use any of us! It's our faith that seems to get in the way. Reading through the Bible there are SO MANY examples of ordinary men and women whose lives were drastically changed when they chose to follow God's plan for their lives instead of their own. The people in the Bible weren't superheroes. Why were they written about? Maybe God wanted to leave us with examples of what can happen when we choose to believe Him? I'm not talking about missionaries or pastors either, I'm talking about you and me. 1 Peter 2:9 says we are His chosen people-no specific people in there named. It's up for grabs. Any of us who believe can be used. I found this great commentary in my Bible I'll end with. It's based on Hebrews 12:1-3 "The "great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1) refers to the roll call of the faithful just given in Hebrews 11, from Abel to Samuel and the prophets. These spectators are watching the race of our lives, cheering us on as we actively live out our faith. The historical record we have of their lives-their faith even to death, their perseverance through the most difficult trials, their successful completion of the race-is like a loud shout of encouragement to us as we run our race. Think of the passion and excitement of a crowd at a large sporting event. That's just a fraction of the power behind us. Imagine Sarah and Rahab clapping wildly. Picture Abraham, Moses and David shouting encouragement. Those who have already won the race are enthusiastically supporting us in our bid for the prize..."* As I told the girls Sunday night, let's walk out on that plank in faith, faith like those examples left for us in the Bible. It's scary. But once we're out there, oh the things God is going to do with our lives! I think I can hear Sarah and Rahab cheering for us now... Lea :) **Women of Faith Study Bible-NIV Girls for God is back! How excited we are for a new year to begin. Our focus this year? Discipleship. Am I a disciple? What does a disciple do? How can I disciple others? That's a year at glance. :) Our first stop? A visit from our missionary, Ed, who lives in Mali, Africa. Here's a few thoughts I had on the topic of missions, as he spoke to the girls that night. "What is a missionary?" That's the question Ed posed to the girls at our GFG meeting. My mind went scrolling back to my childhood interpretation of missionaries. "Those people who go overseas. They speak different languages, dress funny and we send them our offering each Sunday." Actually that was probably my definition up until a few years ago. "The Missionaries". They seemed so distant...so untouchable. They were the chosen ones. Called to reach people for Jesus. To make those disciples Jesus was talking about in the book of Matthew. The rest of us were just supposed to support them, pray for them and go on living our lives. Maybe if I was lucky I would get to go on a missions trip once or twice in my lifetime. But that's as far as my missionary duties went. Those missionaries would take care of saving the world. And what they didn't get the pastors of the world would. I mean, God called them. That's their job, not mine. Right? Actually, I learned I was wrong. Wayyyyy off base. My hunch is I'm not alone on this one. That kind of thinking is widespread. The question is, how did we get so off track between Jesus' calling to His followers and what we're actually doing? There is no difference between missionary-disciple-christian! Why do we continue to fight that? Why does there need to be chosen ones? Where does it say that in scripture? Francis Chan says it best: "After Jesus rose from the grave, He left His followers with a simple command: "Go into all the world and make disciples" (Matt. 28:19). The church should be known for this. If we are going to call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, we should be making disciples. But most Christians today are not known for making disciples. We have developed a culture where the minister ministers and the rest of us sit back and enjoy "church" from a comfortable distance. This is not what God intends for His church. Every Christian is called by God to minister. You are called to make disciples." Multiply by, Francis Chan We are all missionaries! We have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to help us be those missionaries. Remember, it's Christ reaching others through us. We're just the empty vessel allowing Him to do His work. It's not so untouchable after all. It was never meant to be. My challenge for you and I is this: How are we following Jesus' call to make disciples? How can we follow His call this very second? Lea :) Want to know what should be happening after salvation? Take a minute to watch this video. It's worth every second. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPIOkdNL-QQ Hi everyone! My world has changed drastically in the past two weeks! Luke Vaverchak was born on July 31st and we have completely fallen in love with him!! He is such a blessing in a million different ways. I cannot thank God enough for bringing him into our lives. With that said, I haven't had much time to blog! Today's post will be my last post until GFG returns on September 8th. After that you'll find my posts once again every Thursday. I'll continue to share things God is teaching us in GFG as well as share free giveaways of downloadable GFG lessons, warm-ups, games, etc. in hopes someone else can use them with their youth. However, for today I wanted to repost my testimony for those of you who have not read it. My heart's desire is for others to KNOW Jesus Christ. I found Him 2 1/2 years ago and my life has not been the same since. I want nothing more than for others to know the peace and purpose that comes with a relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope through my testimony He speaks to you! Previously posted July 2012: So, I thought I would take a minute to share my story! You can know a little more about me, the leader of Girls for God, and a lot more about how God has radically changed my life over the past year and a half. So, here's my testimony! When I was 7 years old I said a prayer to be saved. I knew it was an important prayer. I knew it was the right thing to do and so I wanted to do it. But, for me there was a problem when I said that prayer at 7, I didn't really understand what I was committing to. I just wanted to do the right thing. I didn't realize there was even a problem with it until my life changed so radically a year and a half ago that I started questioning, "Well, geez was I ever really saved to begin with??" After much prayer, tons of discussion and just knowing my own heart; the answer is no. I wasn't really saved at 7. I was saved at 29 years of age. You see, I sort of lived like a christian should live. I went to church every Sunday, was a part of my youth group and LOVED being involved in anything that was going on at church. I did church really well. Church. Not God. I did church so well...that in my mind it proved I was saved. However, as life went on and I got older, I grew more and more accustomed to doing things my way. I had a life to lead and plans that I had made. I had no plans to let God change them. He could come along with me if He wanted to-but He was not going to be the one in charge. I would pray occasionally to Him, mostly when things were going wrong, however truly surrendering everything to Him was not really in the cards. I liked being in control. And in my mind I thought "Well I said that prayer when I was 7...so I'm good...I'll make it into Heaven." Scary. Then, I lost my mom. She was only in her 40's and I was devastated. My world came to a crashing halt. My mom was a real Christian. She lived it. I knew I wanted to see her again...so I said a prayer to be saved one more time. I gave a little more over to God that time...but still held on to a few things. And life continued. There still seemed to be something missing. Living my new Christian life was hard! I was always messing up and keeping up with all of the rules seemed hard. I constantly felt like a failure. But then about a year and a half ago something changed. I felt led to start a Bible study-"Believing God" by Beth Moore (Highly recommend it!!). And somewhere in that study-I got saved. Really saved. I didn't say a "prayer" for salvation-there was nothing official done. However, two things did happen. First was true repentance of my sins for the first time in my life and second was a real belief in God that was shown through my actions. I surrendered my entire life to Him-not some, not most of it-absolutely all of my life to Him and my world changed instantly. The Bible says that the "Spirit will testify with our spirit" that He is in us and I never really understood what that meant. I do now. When the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of you-YOU KNOW. There is no missing that power. When the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead comes and lives within you-YOU KNOW. Life became so radically different for me, my life changed, my actions changed, everything about me changed. And, it wasn't hard!! It happened so naturally. That's because for the first time in my life I wasn't the one in charge. I wasn't the one changing those actions. He was changing them for me-that's why it was so easy. He did it. Not me. I see God all of the time now-I definitely couldn't say that a few years ago! I hear from Him all of the time too-it's amazing. This unbelievable peace, joy and love has come over me. I can't get away from it! The power of my Maker is unbelievable. I have a hope to which He has called me!!! A hope. There is purpose. My life has purpose. Within several months God called me into ministry. Girls ministry to be exact. He has some really crazy plans for me-but I'm all in these days. Wherever He's going-I'm following. I pray more than anything that you know this hope!! Mark 1:15 says to "repent and believe." That's what He requires of you, so that you can know this hope that I have found. But, I HAVE to clarify two things I had wrong for so long in my life. First, the repent in the Bible means to "turn from sin and turn to God". It means totally turning your back on your sins and perhaps your lifestyle....walking away from it completely. Second, the word believe in the New Testament is stated 246 times...it must be important. :) That word believe is a verb; an action word. You see you can say you believe in something but not necessarily have to do anything about it...this is not true for the belief that salvation is requiring. The belief the New Testament is talking about says you have to actively believe God in everything you do. It's called faith. It's totally different then saying "Jesus, I believe in you" and then going back to your way of life. This belief says "Jesus, I believe in you" and it sticks-you actively believe Him and your lifestyle-you- change. Jesus has a purpose for your life!!! I wish I could scream it from the page! You were put here on this planet for His purpose! Once you find Him-you'll find purpose. There is nothing like it in the entire world. Absolutely nothing. Lea :) Commitment. Definition: a pledge or promise; engagement, involvement. This was our final challenge to the girls this year. Are you committed to Jesus Christ? REALLY committed? Are you all in...no matter what? If they had made the decision to follow Jesus and were completely committed to Him, we challenged them to wear a commitment ring as a reminder and symbol of their promise to God. But before they could choose a ring we asked them to examine themselves...Something we should all do! We asked, "Do all areas of your life match? If we lined you up in a row of your friends, would you stick out? Would they say you were different? Does Jesus seep out of you in every part of your life? At home? School? The workplace? Weekends?" And if who you say you are and how you actually live don't match up, then maybe it's time to see what God says about it: 2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test?" Examine yourselves. Is Christ Jesus really in you? Are you 100% committed to Him? Have you surrendered your entire life to Him? Do you pass the test? If so, AMEN!!! If you know you've failed His test, then maybe it's time to get it right. Maybe Jesus is calling you right now. I'd love to share with you His Good News. Jesus says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We are all sinners. Every last one of us. And we can't have a relationship with God in our sin. He's holy, perfect...Heaven too. We can't have access to Him or Heaven living in our sin. He says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." He loves us so much that He made a way so we could have a relationship with Him. He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to be a sacrifice. Jesus, who was perfect, took the blame for our sin and died on the cross at Calvary. By doing this He made things right...He died for your sins and mine. He died in our place so that if we choose to believe in Him, we will not only have a relationship with Him, but have eternal life. When we die, we can know without a shadow of a doubt we will be in Heaven with Him for all of eternity. Amazing. Jesus didn't stay dead. On the third day of His death He rose from the grave. He says "that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Once Jesus returned to Heaven He sent His Holy Spirit to us in His place. When we become saved through our confession of sin and acknowledging our belief in Jesus, the Holy Spirit enters us. He guides us, directs us, gives us power, hope, strength, joy, love, peace...I could go on forever! 2 Corinthians says, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!" Don't you see?!! All our sins are forgiven once we believe. Jesus looks on us as new creations...we are covered in His perfect blood. We can now have a relationship with Him. He can now start to "transform our minds" and change our lives. We now have help, no longer failing at those daily checklists of doing good works. His Spirit begins to guide and direct us...your life will completely change. Once you have found Jesus-you will have found your complete purpose in life. So what must you do to be saved? He says you need to repent of your sins. Tell Him you are sorry for your sins and ask Him to forgive you of your sins. He says you must believe...so do just that. Tell Him that you believe that He is Lord and you believe that Jesus died for your sins and God raised Him to life on that third day. Share with Him that you want to surrender your entire life to Him and that you're willing to allow Him to lead and guide every area of your life no matter the cost. Pour out your heart to God during this time-He'll hear you. And when you're done praying...go and do it. Belief in Jesus is an action word. His Holy Spirit will guide you. Start reading His Word, He will teach you! Start praying. Let someone know you've made this commitment to help you along the way. Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is not something to take lightly! But, if He is drawing you to Him-don't wait any longer. Make the commitment that will change your life forever. Lea :) **Read this stuff for yourself. Here are the verses I used, as well as a few more. Romans 3:23 Romans 6:23 Romans 5:8 Romans 10:9 Romans 12:1-2 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Continuing to share lessons learned from GFG this year! Praying God teaches you as He did us. Christianity checklists. Ever made one? Had one? I definitely had one before I was saved. Don't do "these certain things" and I'm good. You know the bad sins that everyone thinks about. I think the list varies for everyone. Do "these certain things" and I'm also good. Fill in the blank there too. Some of mine were: 1. Go to church-check. 2. Christian friends-check. 3. Leader in my youth group-check. 4. Go to a Christian college-Almost...boy was my mom mad when I backed out on that one. You get the point. Follow a few rules, live a "good" life and you're in. Into Heaven I mean. Good with God. Saved? Hmmmm. I guess the problem begins when we start looking at our lives as a whole, not in pieces. For me, I had different lives-church life, school life, dating life, friend life. I lived certain ways depending on the circumstance. Was my so-called Christianity walking with me in all of those parts of my life? Or just the ones I okayed? The truth was at that point in my life-the teenage years and there after-God was only allowed in certain areas of my life, at appropriate times. Like at church on Sundays. Sometimes He'd get in the way through the week...start working on my heart about decisions He wanted me to make concerning really following Him, but I'd turn the music up in my car a little louder (trashy stuff of course-God was only allowed in my car some days) and tune Him out. The problem with checklists is they don't prove anything. They're human made. God even says in Isaiah 64:6 "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." He's not worried about our acts, our checklists, our countless good deeds-He's worried about our hearts. Going to church and reading the Bible occasionally did not mean I was saved. I had a heart problem. In Matthew chapter 4 it talks about how Jesus called Peter and Andrew to follow Him. Jesus says, "Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." And you know what happened? It says, "At once they left their nets and followed Him." At once. Not tomorrow. Not when I get out of school, get married, get my life together. They dropped everything immediately, turned from the lifestyle they were living and started following Christ. Total surrender. No checklists needed. Jesus calls for total surrender of our lives. Mark 1:15 says "Repent and believe the good news!" He asks us to confess our sins and believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Think about it. Jesus died for YOU. He died to save you! He loves you so much that He was willing to die for you. Jesus wants total control over our lives. Not pieces of it. All of it. We can't confess to believe in Him and then go back to our old lifestyles and just "follow some rules". When we hand over control of our lives to Him-He changes us completely. Transforms our lives. Gives us purpose. Get rid of the checklists! They're no good. Pour out your heart to God, give over your life and you will NEVER be the same. Lea :) |
Lea Vaverchak
GFG Leader Archives
September 2017
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