Bowing To False Gods (we all do it)

I'm pretty sure most everyone has heard story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When King Nebuchadnezzar built a massive statue of gold, (90 ft tall actually) and commanded that whenever "all people of all nations heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music," that they fall down and worship the image of gold Nebuchadnezzar created.

Well, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't bow. They were the only ones who didn't bow. 

We seem to have the picture in our minds that all the people who bowed to the statue were pagans, but that's not true. There were thousands of other Jews there too, who probably all claimed to love God. But only three, of those thousands of Jews, actually remained loyal to Him. And they were almost killed for it.

It's the same thing with Christians today. So many of us claim to love God, to love Jesus, go to church, do all these things for God, (or are you really doing it for yourself?) but when the pressure comes, or the opposition arises, we ditch Jesus and go worship some thing or person.

Whether its a person, a celebrity, a device, an activity, they all try to steal us from God. For me that really has been my iPod lately. For you it could be anywhere from relationships to fishing.

It's sad, because we end up worshiping the things that God put into our lives to bless us. 

Don't get me wrong, its perfectly fine to enjoy those things. But, we have to keep God first in our lives. 

Even when we're pressured by friends, family, peers, society, we need to put God first. Even if it means putting your life second. Jesus put us first when he was on the cross. He completely loyal, even to the point of death. It's only fair that we do the same.

We have to take a stand. No chasing other idols or hiding who we are.Yes, it may "offend" some people. Yeah, there is going to be opposition. But is what they say really going to matter in the end? 

I doubt it.

I think it matters more what the creator of the universe, and the author of your life thinks, rather than random people who may not even care about you.

So yeah. Sometimes we're going to fail. Sometimes other things will get in the way between us and God. But we can always fight to keep Jesus at the center, as much as possible.

Yes, some people are going to be against it. Some people are going to get mad. Some may even hate your guts for it. But who cares?  What can they really do? 

I'd rather be at peace with God and have issues with people, than be at peace with people and have issues with God. 

I'm pretty sure most of you guys feel the same way. :)

Have a great day and God bless!

  

Daniel 3:16-18 (NLT): Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” (emphasis mine)

You Can't Judge By A Single Glance

We seem to think we can take one look at someone, and decide their whole life story.

"Well that guy is black, has his pants almost falling down, is wearing a torn shirt two sizes too big, and sitting on the curb. He must be a troublemaker."

"He's Hispanic, poor, and all his family speaks Spanish. They must be illegal immigrants."

"She's fifteen and pregnant. She must have no self-respect, judgement skills, or morals at all."

"Her mom passed out on the floor drunk last night. She must have some serious parenting issues."

Yeah, that may be true some of the time. But that doesn't give you the right to judge them with one look.

That dude sitting on the curb? His pants are sagging because those are the only pair he can afford.

He used to be a millionaire, but had his inheritance stripped away from him by his so-called friends and family.

They took his money and left him for dead, and when he tried to sue, they hired a million dollar lawyer, and won the case. Now he has to search through dumpsters for his next meal. Not to mention wearing the same change of clothes for weeks on end, sleeping on benches or on pavement most nights, and being without the protection of a home. And we have the nerve to call him a trouble maker.

That family we thought were illegal immigrants? The parents, actually coming from Puerto Rico, sacrificed most of their life savings, in order to become US citizens, leaving little money for anything else. They are now working at a factory for minimum wage. It's the only job that would hire them. With both parents working, they barely make enough money to put food on the table. On top of all this, despite their official American citizenship, people won't hire them, or even associate them, still thinking they're illegal immigrants. Because of other people's prejudices, this family is barely able to make a living. And at the moment, it doesn't appear to be getting any better.

The girl we believed had no self-respect, morals, or judgement skills? She was raped, and then became pregnant. But because she doesn't believe in abortion, she is the expectant mother newborn of a baby girl. Despite the name-calling, the dirty looks, the rumors, and even being kicked out of her house by her own family, she is committed to doing everything to give this child the life she deserves. But now that she's living on her own, with no home, little money, and a broken cell phone, that's going to be pretty hard.

That other girl's mom that passed out on the floor? She's single mother trying to raise four kids, all teenagers. As a child, her parents were constantly arguing, and never showed her how to be a mother, or take care of kids in general. With the headache from her frustrating job, the stress from the numerous parenting books, and the drama coming left and right from her deteriorating intermediate and extended family, she needed an escape. That escape came from alcohol.

It eventually came to the point to where her son found her passed out on her bedroom floor, with an alcoholic beverage in her hand.

Completely lost, confused, and broken, she doesn't know what to do, or where to turn. And to top it off, thoughts of suicide have been slowly been sneaking into her mind.

I'm not trying to condemn us, I'm trying to open our eyes. There is a world of people out there, that need hope. They need to hope of Jesus. They don't need to be preached a sermon on how horrible people they are, or how bad their situation is. They need to be told of the hope that Jesus brings. More than just the hope of salvation, but the hope of a new life, here on Earth. A life where God is in complete control. A life where your savior walks right along side you. A life where you know that you're not alone.

We have that hope. And it's selfish to keep it to ourselves. Those stories up there are just examples I made up, but it's very possible they're reflecting a situation someone is going through right now. We need to share our hope with those people, the ones who are searching for it, and the ones who desperately need it. 

We can't do that, if we let what we think about them get in the way.

Jesus didn't judge people by their appearance when he was on earth. He judged by them by their hearts.

If Jesus didn't judge people at a first glance, why should we?

John 7:24

"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (ESV)

Have a great day and God bless! 

Excruciating Love

  

This is a post written by my friend Paul, on our awesome blog, Agape. I'm featuring this post because it shows you the true suffering and pain Christ went through for us. It's an awakening. We take it for granted so often, and I've personally I've forgotten how horrible it was, the pain and misery that Jesus went through for our failures. And I'm sure everyone has done that at some point or another. 

So I want you to read this post. Not to only read about one man's suffering, but to also read about how much our God loves us. :)

So yeah. Start reading! xP

---

"Warning:

Some content in this post may be

inappropriate for younger

audiences.

ex·cru·ci·at·ing

[ik-skroo-shee-ey-ting]

adjective

1. extremely painful; causing intense suffering; unbearably distressing; torturing: an excruciating noise; excruciating pain.

2. exceedingly elaborate or intense; extreme: done with excruciating care.

(Courtesy of Dictionary.com)

Ever since March 13 (the day I created CTGA), I have been very active in online ministry. Lately, I have been discussing Christianity with atheists (this has been going on for about 2-3 months) on a social networking app specifically created for iDevices called Instagram. On Instagram, you simply share photos. Photographers use it to show off their work, I use it to be goofy and sometimes promote the Gospel, and some use it to insult the reality of Jesus. I, like the crazy person I am, target these sites and share the love of Christ while answering their questions. A few days ago I ran into a picture that had on it a quote by an unknown author and it went as follows:

"Jesus hardly made the greatest sacrifice. He knew He would be resurrected anyway,"

I confess, I was actually moved and it made me thinking, and for once in my life, I agreed... for about two seconds. My mind went back to some of the sermons I've heard about the Crucifixion and to some quotes in books, that I've started (but never finished -.-) and it got me thinking "How great was the sacrifice?" I knew the cross had to hurt, but I didn't exactly know how much until one day I stole a book from my dad's office called "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. I was just skimming through the book aimlessly until I ran over a chapter called "Was Jesus' Death a Sham and His Resurrection a Hoax?" I wasn't really pursuing this question but I just thought I'd read the chapter anyway. I read very gruesome details about the cross and how Jesus DEFINITELY died. Today, I want to share with you some of that stuff and how great the sacrifice really was.

Let's start in Gethsemane when Jesus prayed in the garden shortly before His arrest. According to Matthew 26:38, Jesus was depressed- extremely depressed, so depressed it was to the point of dying. He knew what was going to happen the next day. Let me explain some stuff about his depression. Luke 22:44 records that Jesus started to do something quite peculiar in the garden; something we would say is silly. He sweated blood. Many skeptics think that this passage is ludicrous and say it's just imaginary. Well, it turns out that this is an actual medical condition called hematidrosis. It's very rare, and is caused by a high level of psychological stress. If you want more details on it, you may Google it. But there was something else this episode of hematidrosis did, it made the skin fragile and extremely sensitive, keep that in mind.

After Jesus was finally arrested and brought before Pilate, he was whipped. This wasn't no ordinary whipping either; they used this little guy called the Roman whip. This little whip had a few metal balls and a couple bones. The metal balls would take care of making bruises and contusions eventually opening them, and the bones would do the shredding and cuts that would commonly expose the spine. Remember how the skin was extremely fragile and sensitive due to the hematidrosis. The Romans were very brutal, and mercy was a foreign language for them. Often, the Roman soldier would do more than 39 lashes; if he lashed too many times, the victim would surely die. 39 lashes wasn't the limit, it was just the required minimum, and the soldier doing the flogging could lash the victim until he got bored. At the end of 39 lashes, the victim’s bowels would be hanging out from the back and he would lose a ton of blood! History claims that there were very many people who died of the lashing before they were hung on the cross. The least that the flogging would do is put the victim though this thing called hypovolemic shock. What that is, is when you lose a ton of blood and your heart does funky things to pump blood that isn’t there, it causes lightheadedness and thirst. Remember that. Let's just say this; it was exceedingly laborious to walk with a cross on your back, colon hanging out, spine exposed, and a stinging discomfort. He passed out (remember the hypovolemic shock?) and the Romans forced a random stranger named Simon to carry his cross. And now, the real suffering begins.

I introduced you to the word excruciating earlier and now I want to tell you were the word comes from: there was no word in the Greek language that could describe the pain on the cross. They had to create a new word literally meaning out of the cross. Think about that for second. They had made up a word to describe the pain of cross. It was beyond painful, it was beyond torturing, it was excruciating.

Let’s talk about the nails. Many skeptics think that Jesus couldn't have been nailed because most historical art and stories say that the crucified victim was held on the cross by ropes. Archaeology has disproven that. In 1968 archaeologists in Jerusalem found around 30 Jews who died around A.D. 70 one of them was still on a cross and, lo and behold, nails were found in his feet. Now, about the nails, where were they in Jesus' hands? Most believe it was the palms, but due to his weight the nails would rip his hand and he would have fallen off the cross. The nails were most definitely driven into his wrists where there was a little nerve there called the median nerve. The nail would have crushed that nerve. This is where it gets painful; the nerve is the same kind of nerve that we know as the funny bone. So, imagine you have a pair of pliers and you decide to squeeze the funny bone until it crushes. That's what Jesus would've felt in both hands and both feet. Ouch x4. Using simple mathematical equations, we can also determine that Jesus' arms were stretched and that both his arms were dislocated. Hanging there, in order to breathe he would have to lift himself up with his nail driven feet, tearing his foot and scraping his open back against the splintery wood of the cross. Eventually, he would become exhausted and just stop breathing and die, or it could've been by the slow and painful death of asphyxiation. The exact cause is unknown.

Physical pain must have been monolithic, but even worse, the spiritual pain. Jesus hated sin. God’s entire wrath towards sin was poured out on to Christ. Think of your least favorite food, think about spending six hours having that food shoved in your mouth being forced to swallow, and when you got full, it wouldn't stop. The pain and the disgust would be tremendously high. I believe this is similar to what happened to Jesus' spirit on the cross. He carried our lust, our pride, our envy, our idolatry, our lies, our stupidity on a rugged cross!

Now, let’s think about God the Father in this situation. One of the most emotional moments I have had concerning God's sacrifice was one night when my dad (who is a pastor) guest preached at another church. In that sermon, my dad mentioned God's sacrifice and he said this (not exact quote), "If I loved a people who insulted me and I wanted them to know me, I would've sacrificed myself to die, but I would never send my only son". I am his only son, and from my perspective, if my dad asked me to die for people who hated his guts, I would have ran away from home thinking my father had gone crazy. It's absolutely impossible to comprehend, but it was necessary for mankind. But get this, He doesn't need us. He didn't have to do all that stuff at all. But He did. Why on earth He would want to, I really have absolutely no clue. J. I. Packer puts it well:

There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. (Knowing God p.42)

We can have unconditional love, but will we go to the point of excruciating love? Why would Jesus go through all that physical and spiritual pain just to make friends with his worst enemies? God is one of the craziest Beings the world will ever know, but I'm very glad I know Him. Let's worship!

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Galatians 6:14 NIV

In Christ,

Paul"

---

It really is an amazing post. Which is why I want to encourage you to help spread this. Waaaayy more people need to know about how much Jesus really suffered for them. 

We see all these paintings of Jesus on the cross, looking nice and clean, no scrapes, cuts, or bruises, which small little nails in his feet and wrists. 

And sadly, that's what's in most people's minds when they think of Jesus' sacrifice for them.

So if you're reading this, and agree with me, then I want you to share this.

If you have a blog, feature it as a guest post (like I am). It won't take very long and its a great way to get it read! Just remember to leave a link to original post on Agape, and to the blog itself. (and try to get your readers to share it as well)

If you don't have a blog, tweet it! Recommend it on Google! Like it on Facebook! Share it here on blogger or some other site. It's the reason I have those buttons right above the comments. xP but this needs to be known. 

I know it sounds like I'm asking for a lot, but it only takes a few people make something go viral. Kony 2012 started with one person, and it has now become known worldwide, the video on youtube having +80,000,000 views and counting.

I'm not asking for that kind of recognition, but we definitely need to get people reading this.

And that's not going to happen without you guys!

..So I hope this changed how you view Jesus sacrifice for us. And I hope this moves you the same way it moved me, and compels you to share it with others. You never know who's life it will change. :)

Have a great day and God bless!!

Jesus isn't an excuse. He's hope.

Hey guys. I originally posted this on our blog Agape, but I decided to post it here also. I think it could help a lot of people, and praying that it does. :) So anyway, here it is. :P
...

We can't use Jesus to justify our sin. You may say "I'm not Jesus. I'm going to sin, I can't help it."

That's entirely true. We aren't Jesus and can't help sinning. Still though, that doesn't give us an excuse to sin. We were once slaves to sin, with no hope of getting better. (John 8:34)

But Jesus set us free from this, and through him we can find the power to fight off our sin and live for God. (Romans 6:6-7, Romans 6:12, Romans 6:14)

But wait. If we're all set free, how come we fail so often?

".. The spirit is willing but the body is weak." (Matthew 26:41)

We all know how to stop our sin, but we choose no to.

We know this sin is empty, but we continue to chase it anyway.

We're so attached to our sin that we don't wanna let it go. We don't want to give it to God, because we know he'll get rid of it. We still cling to it, even after repenting and trying to start fresh. We are addicts of our sin.

Through that is how Satan chains and binds us. While we're too busy trying to please ourselves, he comes in, and feeds us more and more. But it will never be enough. It will never satisfy.

But we keep chasing it to the grave, wasting our entire lives, thwarting the plans God has for us, and giving nothing to the God who gave everything for us.

Is that how we should live? That's exactly what Christ came to set us FREE from. But we still allow ourselves to fall back into it.

2 Peter 2:20-21 says "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. [21] It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them." (NIV)

Harsh words..but they're true words. And we should be thankful to have a God that loves us enough to be completely honest, and not hold anything back.

But yes, we need change. We can't let Satan work us like puppets, with his twisted fingers all up inside us. Jesus isn't an excuse for our sin, he is the way out.

This is where your soul comes in (along with your mind, heart, and strength, but I'm focusing on the soul). We need to get our souls lined up with God.

We need to follow his lead instead of making our own path. God knows what's best. If he says something is bad, it's for a good reason.

We can't see ahead like he can, and we don't have the wisdom to always know what's going to help or hurt us. So sometimes we just need to trust God, and do what he says.

So no, Jesus doesn't give us an excuse to sin. He gives us hope to overcome it.

All authority has been given to Jesus,(Matthew 28:18) and there's nothing that he cannot do.(Matthew 19:26)

We just have to acknowledge that we are in the wrong, and trust in him to bring us into the light. :)

Have a great day and God bless!!

Forget the past, and move forward

The things we've said, we've done, that happened, things we've become, its all behind us now. All of it. The past isn't easy to put away though, when it's floating right in front of your face.

But what is done is done. There is no fixing it, its already out of your reach. Don't waste your time trying to get it back. 

That's how Satan leads us astray. He tells us we're useless, that there is no hope for us, that despite whatever good we do, it will never outweigh what's already been done. But those are lies. When Jesus said "It is finished", he meant it is FINISHED. 

He's opened the door of life and forgiveness for all of us. And the doors that Jesus opens, no one can shut. (Revelation 3:7)

Guys, I know its hard. And I know it's a struggle and takes heart, but we need to let the past go. It no longer defines us. We are new creations in Christ. The old has passed away, and the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17) 

Even when we fail as Christians, God doesn't look at our failures. When he looks in our eyes, he no longer sees our sin, and the mistakes from our past. He looks in our eyes and sees Jesus, and the future he wants us to have. 

That's why its so important to leave what's behind us behind, and move towards what's ahead. The past blinds you from seeing whats plainly in front of you. God could be trying to show you something, but you're so bent on what happened a few days ago that you don't even notice. The past can distract us from the present, and consequently, impact our future. Your past is a part of you, but it isn't you. It does not define who you are as a person. If the Apostle Paul focused only on his past, he would've never gotten to the point in his relationship with God that he's at now. He put his past behind him, and continued to move forward, one foot after another.

So I want to encourage you to look ahead, and not behind. If you keep turning to look behind, you'll soon find that the rest of your body will follow your head. You'll be walking through life backwards, only being able to see things as they slowly disappear from your sight, stumbling over obvious obstacles and falling into traps because you're preventing yourself from seeing them.

But if you look ahead, you will be able to see clearly. You can avoid traps and obstacles because you'll be able to see where you're going. Some things may get to you, but you won't be totally helpless. Jesus is always with you, and will never leave you.

So yeah. I hope that this seriously helps you in your walk with God! 

I'm gonna share one of my favorite songs too. It's called "Forgiven" by Sanctus Real, and it goes great with what this whole post is about. This song can really help too :)

God bless you guys and have a great day!!

Philippians 3:13 (ESV)

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Pray for your friends. (John 17:9)

Don't be afraid to pray for you friends!! This is a follow-up on my most recent post "Don't search for the lost, let God lead you to them." It was based on John 6:44: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."

But that doesn't mean we have to sit and and be 100% helpless. YES, we need to be patient and wait for God and what he has planned. But we can also PRAY. We can pray that God draws a certain person or people to Jesus. Prayer works. And it's powerful.  

John 15: 7-8 says "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (NIV)

Let's get one thing straight though, prayer isn't a magic wand that can fix anything and give you whatever you want.

"If you remain in me and my words in you.." 

For me personally, that means you need to think like Jesus would. 

If you remain in him, and keep his words in you, then you will think more like he does.If you pray for something that Jesus probably would pray for, than you can expect it to be granted. 

If you pray for something that you don't see Jesus praying for, then chances are that it won't happen. But also keep on mind that you should base this on scripture, not on your own personal idea of what Jesus would do.

That's what confuses a lot of people.

Anyways, the reason I stress praying for your friend's so badly, is because that's something Jesus did.

John 17:9: "I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours." (NIV) 

When Jesus was praying this, he was talking about his disciples.

We should do that too. Yes, without a doubt we should pray for the world. But we should also pray for those who God has placed in our lives. We can't put all our efforts into praying for people half a world away, while our friends next door, are dying inside everyday.

We have to lift our friends and family up in prayer. God put them in our lives for a reason, and that reason isn't to watch them slowly fade away.

So I want you to know that:

1) Prayer works. 

2) We should pray as Jesus would pray.

3) We should pray not only for the world, but the ones close to us. Whether it's for God to draw them to Christ, whether its for healing, for strength, for peace, whatever the reason. We should pray for those God has given us, because they are his.

Keep those in mind, especially #3.

Have a great day, and God bless!

Don't search for the lost. Let God lead you to them.

I think a common idea about the great commission, is that we have to go out and find the lost people on our own. The people that will listen, will listen, and the people who won't, won't. Once we get one person saved, we move onto the next. And if we need help, then we can call on God and he'll make everything right. Well that's not exactly true.

John 6:44 says "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."

No body can come to Christ on their own. They can't simply choose to follow Jesus, God the Father has to draw them first. So what does that mean for us?

Well for us that means that we can't save anyone on our own. Spreading the gospel isn't enough to get someone saved. God has to be drawing them to Jesus, or else our message will bounce right off them.

 We put so much focus on reaching lost people and spreading the gospel, going on missions to different countries and cities, having door-to-door ministries, and witnessing through social apps/networks like Facebook and Instagram, but when God is drawing someone to Christ, right in front of our eyes, and trying to get us involved, we don't even take notice.

It's because we're looking at things all wrong. We don't need to go out and find people on our own. We need to allow God to lead us to the people we wants us to meet individually. Lead you to the people he wants you to reach. Or sometimes, he will lead them to you. And let's face it, it will most likely be only one or two people God will lead you to at a time, and there is nothing wrong with that.(it may be different for you, but that's just what I've mostly seen from the bible) Each person is worth more than just a number, that you add together to see how many people you've lead to Christ. That is a life that Jesus is going to radically change, through you. That life is going to branch out, and change other lives, who will in turn branch out and change even more lives, and those lives will branch out, and so on.

Bad things may happen, yes. But nothing is out of God's control. God draws different people to Jesus at different times. It's up to us to recognize where, and who God is working in, and join him.

If we aren't working where God is working, we're basically useless.

John 15:5-7
New International Version (NIV)

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

 I'm not saying to drop the missions trips or ministries or anything like that, keep it up! But make sure God is leading you to do that, and working through you.

Like stated above, if you don't remain in Jesus, you can become like a branch that withers, is thrown away, and then burned. A branch the produces no fruit.

But if you remain in Jesus, and work with him, allowing him to guide you to where you need to be, and what you need to do, then you will produce abundant fruit. Meaning that(for me anyway) you will be able to look back, and see the results of what Jesus has done in both your, and other people's lives.

I hope this changed your way at looking at how God works, and how he wants us to respond.

He's never going to hand us a task, and then leave us to do it ourselves. Just like with Moses, Paul, Elijah, David, Abraham, the Disciples, and countless other characters in the bible, God is going to be with you, look after you, and instruct you, every step of the journey.

Have a great day! And God bless! :]

Oh, and this is originally from a devotional book I've been doing called Experiencing God, Youth Edition. It's a really great book and really helps you get to know and experience God.

The topic and John 6:44 were both from the book, I just put in my own words.

But either way, the glory all goes back to God, for revealing how he works and letting it be known. :D

Some awesome Christian blogs

Heyyy! Sorry I disappeared for a few days. I've been a little busy. Anyway, I'm back and I have a lot of stuff to share with you guys. 

First of all, I am now a part of this awesome new blog called Agape!! 

It's made up for four people, the other bloggers being Matthew, (writes the LCWYM blog) Paul, (writes the Christaholic: The God Addiction blog) and Courtney. (writes the We R 3G blog). 

The blog based off of Luke 10:27: And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (ESV)

We each do different parts. Courtney covers loving Christ with you strength, Paul covers loving him with your heart, Matthew covers the mind and I cover the soul. 
It's all about the unconditional love we should have for God, because he has it for us. That's what "Agape" means, it's the Greek word for unconditional love.
So yeah, check it out! Agape is destined for great things! :D

There are also some other blogs/blog post I want you to check out too!

• This first post is called "Grievances" from another AWESOME christian blog called "Joyful". Here is the preview of the post. 

"My brothers and sisters, you aren't alone. I grieve as well, we all do.. no matter what it may be that we grieve. As individuals, we all grieve different things at different times. Each of our hearts cries out for something that once was and is no more, whether it be a friendship, a love, a lost family member, and point in time.. whatever it may be, we grieve. And just now as I sit here and type these words do I realize that it's not wrong to do so.

A heavy heart is a heart that works.

But in the midst of the heaviness, in the midst of grievances, is where we find growth. A Jewish proverb states: "What way can God enter but through a broken heart?"

When we fall on our knees in front of Him, with empty hands and heavy hearts.. that's when He works. That's when He molds us, and shapes us, and tinkers away at our human hearts.

And when we look back, we smile with satisfaction. We see the way that His hands carried us along, and never left us. We see the growth.. and we count it all as beautiful."

   

She is really deep and real wither her posts, and through her God has really spoke to me and touched my heart. And I'm sure that by reading her blog, God can do the same for you too. So check it out!!

• The second one is titled "Blessing the Lord every time"  from Life of a Radical Misfit. (another epic Christian blog!)

Here's a part of it.

"... Enemies will come in and out of our lives until we take our last breath on this Earth. So it is extremely important that we handle battles the right way, God’s way. We have to breakdown our fearful and vengeful will by surrendering to God’s will. It’s an easy two step process: Depart and kneel. Once we depart from the battle/enemy, we let God know that He is in control. Lastly, when we begin to kneel/pray to God, we no longer just let God know He’s in control, we put God in control. Blessing the Lord at ALL TIMES, means EVERY OUTCOME. So surrendering is simply trusting God no matter the outcome. ..."

Kieya, (the writer) is pretty amazing and powerful with here style and the messages she spreads through her blog! Just this post on its own is amazing. She's really compelling is God is using her also through her blog. So go read it!!!

• The last blog I want you to check out is LCWYM. It is written by Matthew, and stands for Loving Christ With Your Mind. He uses this blog to show the scientific and archaeological evidence backing up the bible as being the authentic Word of God. 

Here's a part of one of his posts.

 ".. Science, at the time of when the book of Hebrews was being written, was unknowledgeable about the subject of atoms. What if I told you that the Bible knew about atoms, molecules, etc.? In Hebrews 11 verse 3, this is what is stated:"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." I posted this on an iPhone app called instagram and it was refuted by an atheist. He told me that "Things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" is talking about how the author believed that everything was created by an invisible God. Well, that description doesn't go along with the verse. I'll explain. If the second use of the word "things"is being used to describe God, that would be a confession of polytheism. The early Christians were strict monotheists (and Christians still are) so this explanation does not fit. Also, throughout the Bible, words referring to God would be capitalized. If the atheist on instagram is right about his interpretation of the verse, than the second appearance of the word "things" should be capitalized. Therefore, the right conclusion is that "things which are seen were not made of things which are visible"is talking about things that can be seen are made up of invisible atoms."

Pretty awesome right? That is what his whole blog is about. So check that out too you have time! God is really using him and his blog to strengthen our fellow Christians, including me. So yeah! 


The last thing I want to share with you guys is this song. It's called "Right here" by Ashes Remain. It's really powerful, deep, and real. As you listen to the lyrics, try to picture Jesus speaking instead of the singer. That's what the whole song is about.

Sorry about the average-ish quality. But it's the words that matter more than the sound anyway. (even though the acoustic guitar basically owns this song)

[Lyrics]

I can see every tear you’ve cried

Like an ocean in your eyes

All the pain and the scars have left you cold

I can see all the fears you face

Through a storm that never goes away

Don’t believe all the lies that you’ve been told

I’ll be right here now 

to hold you when the sky falls down

 I will always 

be the one that took your place

When the rain falls, I won’t let go

I’ll be right here

I will show you the way back home

Never leave you all alone

I will stay until the morning comes

I’ll show you how to live again

And heal the brokenness within

Let me love you when you come undone

I’ll be right here now 

to hold you when the sky falls down

I will always 

be the one that took your place

When the rain falls, I won’t let go

I’ll be right here

When day break seems so far away

Reach for my hand

When hope and peace begin to fade

Still I will stay

Right here now 

to hold you when the sky falls down

I will always

 be the one that took your place

When the rain falls I won’t let go

When the rain falls I won’t let go

I’ll be right here

That's all I have for now. Have a great day and God bless! :D