Are You Hiding Your Light?

Matthew 5:13-16

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

     “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

God calls us to tell others about Him.  This can be a very scary challenge for many of us.  But our faith shouldn't merely be something that is spoken from our mouths.   It should be obvious in our lives.

That doesn't mean we will be perfect.  We will never be perfect until we have our new bodies promised to us by God when we enter heaven.  Until then there is an expectation that we strive to live our lives as closely to the will of God as we can.

What does this mean for us?  This means we need to know the will of God!!!

"But God hasn't shown me his will", you might retort.  But he has, it's written in his word.  Open your Bible, read, see and learn the character and will of God and then LIVE.  Live for the God who Died  so that you could have life.

In the shadow of our Independence Celebrations I want everyone to realize that our greatest freedom comes when we fully submit ourselves to God and He releases the chains our sins have put on our lives.

Do you want true freedom?  Then know God, follow his will the best you can, and allow him to set you free, and be His light to the world, allowing others to find his freedom as well!



I Am Not My Own

I recieve InTouch Magazine.  It is a month Christian publication that has some very good articles, but my favorite are the 6 day a week devotionals (i gues you could read the weekend one once on saturday and once on sunday if you wanted to).

Today Wednesday July 6th.       1 Corintians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

 In the devotional it talks about how, we as christians are appalled any time there is vandalism at a church.  We're shocked that anyone could desecrate a temple of God in such an ugly fashion.

But we've missed the mark.  The Church Building is merely that, a building.  The church is the body of believers that meets with in the building.  And the God's holy temple is each one of us.  The place where his spirit dwells.  Any one who has ever attended church knows that when we choose to love the LORD with all our hearts and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our minds, then the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us.

And yet we give no thought to how we abuse our bodies.  We daily desecrate the temple of our LORD without a single thought because "it's my body, i can do with it what i please".

We honor God with our words and actions.  Part of those "actions" are honoring God with our bodies.  By treating our bodies well.

I know i'm guilty of this or i wouldn't be almost 100lbs overweight.  I put aside the wonderful food God has given me to nurish and strengthen and create growth, and I ate junk.  The only growth i saw was on my waist line.  I topped the junk off with, laziness, because I was too tired to exercise (and excuse I'd use to justify sitting on my butt and eating over getting up and moving the way God designed my body too).

How can God use us when we've destroyed our bodies outside of how God created them.   I use to justify my weight saying "God made me this way, i should be happy with it".  The truth is, God didn't make me this way.  He didn't make m in a way that brought me guilt and shame everytime I  enjoyed a candy bar.  He didn't create me a way that makes me feel less of myself.  He created me in a way for so much more than this, and I changed me through the sin in my life, through the vandalism i caused upon HIS temple.

So if anyone else struggles with what i struggle with; remember....

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

I know for me, it has put everything into perspective.