Spiritual Battle and Hope

I know most of us do not take spiritual battle seriously. We are aware of it, as Christians, yet we do not see its affects immediately. Last night in a community group of women we were discussing, The Final Quest, an amazing book about all the different realms of spirituality. One of the key points I took from our discussion was, "a single demon of bitterness could affect a sea of people". I wish we could see the affect of our words and our actions, but most of the time we are blind. Only God sees the good and the harm of everything, so we must ask God to judge us inwardly, not others, and definitely not ourselves.

Lately, I've been talking to my closest friends and family and a reoccurring theme surfaces: infidelity. I wish I wasn't exaggerating, but marriages are constantly failing and we blame it on so many different things. We all have opinions on why people do it, or why they shouldn't do it. Obviously, it is not okay, but it is a common issue in my generation- that several of my friends, including myself had to suffer through or are still suffering from a broken marriage and a lack of support from one parent or both their parents.

I know that this is not true for everyone- Praise God! Even more, this doesn't have to be true for the future. It is really easy to lose hope in marriage(too many have), but I have absolute hope in the men and women that the Lord is shaping. We cannot accept the attitude against marriage, because that means we have lost hope in ourselves, in each other, and mostly in God as a deliverer.  He will deliver. 

I find it interesting and extremely encouraging that "The Last Lecture"(if you haven't checked this out, you must youtube it immediately!) has become the big deal that is has because it shows us all the gift of life. It's a gift. It's not a burden, it's not tedious. It's crazy, sure. It's much better than what I have for myself. My friend, Helen, said something like this, "I'm realizing that in relationships, both parties should give, and I never knew that before because I always took the giver role. Then, I realized that God creates everything to depend on each other, it's not one-sided. The trees, the air, the flowers, everything, it's all there for each other, they all give and take."

Hu.man.ity

"Now if there's a realm where things are as God wants them to be, then there must be a realm where things are not as God wants them to be. Where things aren't according to God's will.Where people aren't treated as fully human...

Concentration camps are hell on earth.

Famine.

Emotional Hell.

 ...We don't respect the divine image in others just because we want to uphold their humanity. It isn't just about them. It's about us. It's about our humanity as well."

~Rob Bell, taken from Sex God

Let me go ahead and throw in hate crimes and the westboro baptist church, and other religious groups that give "Christians" a bad rep.

We can read this quote and think a number of things. I think some of us may not want to give God full power over our lives because we have distorted so many things about who God is and what his will may be. We all have our hang ups that we just can't get over because we are confused, and obviously that's where faith and trust come in, at least I hope it does.

I find it crazy how all of us everyday encounter a way that we are not treated fully human. Isn't that strange, considering it's pretty obvious that we are? We can't even acknowledge that people have real feelings, emotions and thoughts. I am reading Blue Like Jazz right now and Donald Miller writes about how we are the problem. I am the problem. As humans, we are flawed, but we don't consider how change is near impossible without admitting that. We spend the majority of our time thinking about ourself and wonder why we waste so much time.

I wonder what it would feel like to be Hitler(not really going to think about it, because I'm alone right now), or the two men that shot seven times at my dear friend, Dana? Or the man that took Lauren Burk's life? The list can go on and on, but what if we put ourselves in that list? Are we really much better? Yeah, I'll give you that maybe you wouldn't murder anyone, but have you ever felt like you hated someone? Doesn't that take away from yourself? I know it has for me. I have lost some of the "good" that God has intended for me, for humanity. We're missing the divinity of humanity that God has placed in all of us.

music

I really wish there was a way to post a song(there's a video post option), so if people wanted to listen, they could. I  would love for us all to share music. If anyone knows how, let me know. Thanks!

Looking up.

Have you ever heard the expression: "Focus your eyes upward?" If you haven't, then you should think about it because if you learn about what this actually means, life seems so simple, but mostly beautiful. 

Often, people think that it means to focus your eyes on the heavens, but when I think of the heavens, I tend to think angels, and a huge beautiful gate with clouds all around it, so if you're like me, you need a little more than that to truly get what it means to look up. Now, I'm not implying that heaven is up, because to be honest, I don't think we have any idea where "heaven" exists. It could be all around us(because God is, right?). The mystery of it all is kind of spooky sometimes, if you ask me. Especially, when you throw in that some people believe they have seen angels. I try not to go there, because it freaks me out. I need to get over that. I think it's because I believe that they have, which is miraculous, but I don't want an angel coming into my room at night, if you know what I mean. Maybe you're different. 

Anyway, what if we actually looked up to what the "holy city" wants for this world, for us, for everyone? I like to imagine that the holy city is Jesus with us- that we are literally walking with him and doing the things that he wants for all of humanity, which if you don't know, are the things we all want, as human beings. 

Now, I'm a firm believer in the holy spirit, because only Jesus can make the changes in us( We were dead and now we're alive), but I also believe that Jesus/the holy spirit, comes into every person's heart at some point, but maybe they don't know what it is, it's just a "feeling". That's where the holy comes in. We can feel God in our body and it moves our heart and mind and we find our soul.

I want to focus this blog on how holy life can be, or is. 

If this is vague and you have no idea what I mean, hopefully in the blogs to come, I can better express what this means to me.