Glorious Beautiful Mystery

Umm...so I got way hyped up about this. It's not my normal temperament, I promise. So, I'm not wanting to take back how I felt, but I am wanting to let you know I don't always let my emotions take over like this.
So, please don't write me off too quickly because of my extreme opinion on this.
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So, I watched the first 10 minutes of the latest episode of "Glee," and complete indignation rose up in me, knowing that people not only feel such animosity towards God for such unrealistic reasons, but also have the audacity to publish it on television to corrupt and encourage others to feel the same way.

How can people be SO angry at the God they say they don't even believe in?
And if, in that case, someone decides they do believe in God, then HOW can you blame Him for all of the messes in your life when you don't even serve him?? 
It's like running out of your parents house at age 16 and then being angry at them because you're homeless.
I mean, what's the deal??

We really need to stab these lies in the heart!! People are so easily convinced to hate God when they don't even know a single thing about him! People think there are NO consequences to their own actions! They make mistakes and then wonder why God won't bail them out!

The audacity that our society is raising people up to live with is outrageous! Do we not fear God at all!?

The fear of the Lord is knowing that actions have consequences. And, yet, we walk around like everything we have was innately ours! It's all a load of crock! Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord, not from our own human loveliness....or whatever we think we are. If we only saw how the rest of the world lives, outside of the rich 10%, we'd see that just because you're born, doesn't mean you're deserving of anything good.
God alone has the power to bless us. It is not of our own doing.
How spoiled and ungrateful can we be?

We know deep down there's a God, and yet, we avoid him with every morsel of our being. We don't want to be dependent. We don't want to be vulnerable and needy. And in a rich society like ours, we think we don't have to be. ...But the reality is, just because we inherit the blessings of our forefathers, doesn't mean God can't take it all away. And it doesn't mean we won't mishandle it until it's all lost.

We need to take note of prophets like Jonah in the Bible, and know that we're not so far off from needing to be told "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is Near!"
...Really we're not off at all.

note to reader:
This isn't a very polished piece. It takes you on a road from Romantic love to Selfless love and back to Romantic love. ...you'll see when you read it.  ...When I wrote that "I have experienced love," I transitioned because I was referring to loving people even when it's inconvenient, not a romantic love.
Hope you enjoy it : )
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What is love?

Is it attraction?
Is it a good feeling?
Is it desire?
Is it comfort?
Is it security?
Is it affirmation?

Love isn't any of these things. These things aren't necessarily bad, but they're not love.

Do we really crave love in life?
Is it really the definition of love that we search after and wait so long for?

Maybe we really just want someone to flatter us and be entertained by us.

Or maybe we want someone to desire us and comfort us and make us feel secure.

Do we really want love? Do we really know what love is?

I feel as if I have experienced love. And it's not what I always thought it was.
Love is a choice to care.

Not to care if a person is simply happy or sad or insecure or having a bad day.
Not to care if a person is getting everything they want or just some of it.

But to care if a person is safe and protected and provided for.
To care if a person is well fed and healthy.

Love is not satisfying someone's every desire. Love is not making someone happy because you can. Love is not simply getting along well with someone. Love is not simply not getting into arguments.

Love is knowing what's best and giving that to that person.
Love is a choice to care.

If you know Jesus, you know he loved. He cared. He knew what was best for us and pursued it. He didn't rule and reign on Earth because he knew that's not really what we needed. He knew discomfort in the moment for us was of little consequence to the issue of our debt being paid, that we might be set free from the bondage of sin.

...Comfort, Security, Satisfaction, Success are all things that we may desire here on Earth.
But the difference between Heaven and Hell is not whether we felt those things on Earth or not.
Jesus came to save the world. He wanted people to stop ending up in Hell. And the way to Hell was not whether people were living in comfort on Earth or not.
Jesus did not come to make things easier on us. He did not come to make things look prettier for us.
He came to secure our hearts.
He came to secure our choices.
Who were we going to believe in?
What were we going to believe in?
What were we going to live for?

Are we going to live for the pleasures of life?
Or the things of God?

What are the things of God, you might ask?
In lay-men's terms, Good Character.

Will we choose to be trustworthy, honest, kind, hard-working, patient, willing to go the extra mile, selfless?
Will we genuinely care about the hearts of others?
Will we seek the best for them even when they don't seek it for themselves?
Will we not be swayed by what's popular?
Will we stick to what's best?
To not envy, or boast, or be proud. to not be rude, or self-seeking, or easily angered.
To look deeper than the surface and fight for the real needs of others. Even when it's inconvenient.

To know what Love is, to recognize it, we must have good character.
Good character in a person is the foundation of Love in that person.

If we are searching for Love, we have to first search out good character.

Sometimes it's so easy to forget what love really is.
Or maybe it's just so easy to separate love of the opposite sex with the loving of your neighbor.
Why do these things have to be so different from each other?
We shouldn't let the allure of romance so quickly redefine what love is.

Don't we want someone who will love us well despite being attracted to us or even "benefiting" from us?
We want someone who will love us even when they didn't feel very entertained, or got an ego boost, or were told how good looking they were.
We want someone who loves who we are and from there, everything else.
When a person knows how to love you before they receive romantic affirmation from you...suddenly there really are no strings attached.

Love is the choice to care.
To care about more than what will benefit you.

Can you imagine knowing someone like that?
someone who cares about you despite how their benefitting.

Think about it.

and ...Do you want to be that kind of person?

I really want to blog about something. I've had so much going on around me that you'd think I could come up with something of substance.
....
     I came to Christ for the Nations in Dallas to meet more people in world-changing ministries. I honestly didn't even give the school itself that much credit when I signed up. I didn't think that classes were going to be anything that special that I hadn't already heard before. Which means classes could be all around good, but nothing to go overly crazy about. And yet God has showed up again. I've found myself saying before, that if you're inviting God in and allowing Him to teach you, then it doesn't even matter how good the class is, just that it stirs things up a little for you. And God'll take it from there.
    Well, it turns out Christ for the Nations has something to brag about, in my opinion. The kind of faith that is stirred up on this campus daily is something I've never seen before. I mean, I grew up around the International House of Prayer in Kansas City and have seen all the awakening stuff that's been happening lately, but there's something very different about what I've been seeing/feeling here. Some of the difference may be that I'm finally ready and willing to receive whatever God has for me in the way of Faith. But even still, I think there's a very special "anointing" (as so many people call it) here.
    The kind of Faith I see here daily is more than just some random people who come together and want to see someone healed. It's a Faith that God is who he says he is! Our God is the God of the Bible, and no twisted theological point of this age can confuse us about his hatred for sickness and disease! And so we pray. We pray that God would break in against the powers and lies of the devil that hold us in bondage, and allow his healing to be made manifest today! That the question is not whether God wants you to be healed, but whether we're willing to stand in the middle of all the difficult circumstances (no matter what they seem to be telling us) and proclaim it ourselves! To agree, with all that we are, in saying