The following is from Sailing Between the Stars by Steven James:
I think God hates all that is halfhearted because when you divide the most important things in half, you don't end up with half but get the opposite instead. Halfway justice is injustice. Halfway devotion is compromise. Halfway purity is sin. Halfway holiness is ungodliness. Halfway worship is ritual. Halfway love is apathy. Halfway hope is despair. Anything that's halfhearted ends up becoming all wrong. A person cannot be somewhat pure or slightly Christian.
This is how I am with people sometimes. You just get half of me... but I'm working on it. I just thought of something, when people are half on Facebook, it's usually doubled. You only give half of who you are (the good half) and so that part gets blown up and you become something you could never live up to in real life.
Anyway, I've made great strides this past year in becoming just who I am. I'm so flippin' worried about offending people, but what I've realized is
1) You are grown people that if you disagree you can either tell me and we can talk or you can look away and get on with your day. If if affects you in any other way, that's on you, not me. That's hard for me to accept because I want to take responsibility for how YOU feel regarding what I say. Which I could never do anyway. It would cause hours of needless worry and overanalyzing. (psst. I'm good at that) And I'm going to say here, I haven't had a lot of opposition, so I think either I just happen to choose good friends or I'm not getting through to people.
2) You don't care as much I assume you do.
I'm just an absolute freak for Jesus, so it's natural that it comes out in all of my posts. He's so woven through every single moment of my life, there's no way I COULD leave Him out. And since that's how it is with me, there's no way I would WANT to leave Him out. I want YOU to know about Him, too, and either share our mutual beliefs in love or get you wondering. If the God I say is alive, leaves you alone after He makes you wonder through me, then you can just keep assuming He's not who I say He is (but He won't...leave you alone, that is...be warned, you're in for a lifelong battle of wills with an all-powerful- never dying- loving the hell out of you- God.). I'm sorry to you for toning him down for so many years so He would be easier to swallow. I wasn't doing you or me or GOD any favors. Steven James sums it up well:
"The author and the ink" SHEWWW that lines gets to me. I love thinking of Him that way.
I sort of love believing in this God that I can't fully explain to you. A God that's as much as a feeling to me as He is fact. I love that! I love the mystery of God and this world and the questions that it brings up more than the answers, I think! I can appreciate mystery and the fact that this story of the world is so filled up with it, makes me want to seek it out even more.
Anyway, I've made great strides this past year in becoming just who I am. I'm so flippin' worried about offending people, but what I've realized is
1) You are grown people that if you disagree you can either tell me and we can talk or you can look away and get on with your day. If if affects you in any other way, that's on you, not me. That's hard for me to accept because I want to take responsibility for how YOU feel regarding what I say. Which I could never do anyway. It would cause hours of needless worry and overanalyzing. (psst. I'm good at that) And I'm going to say here, I haven't had a lot of opposition, so I think either I just happen to choose good friends or I'm not getting through to people.
2) You don't care as much I assume you do.
I'm just an absolute freak for Jesus, so it's natural that it comes out in all of my posts. He's so woven through every single moment of my life, there's no way I COULD leave Him out. And since that's how it is with me, there's no way I would WANT to leave Him out. I want YOU to know about Him, too, and either share our mutual beliefs in love or get you wondering. If the God I say is alive, leaves you alone after He makes you wonder through me, then you can just keep assuming He's not who I say He is (but He won't...leave you alone, that is...be warned, you're in for a lifelong battle of wills with an all-powerful- never dying- loving the hell out of you- God.). I'm sorry to you for toning him down for so many years so He would be easier to swallow. I wasn't doing you or me or GOD any favors. Steven James sums it up well:
And it isn't skeptics who have done this. Sadly, so much of the real Jesus has been sanitized and neutered over the years by well-meaning church people. I think they feel a need to protect him, but you don't protect your sword; you use it to fight with. You don't need to protect Jesus-- he's the first and last weapon in God's quiver.
Here is a man full of furious love. Here is a man whose blood is on fire. Hurricanes and demons step aside to let him pass. Anytime we picture him as weak or helpless or pathetic, we're only holding a mirror up to our own souls because this skin-covered God is mightier than the stars.
He is the passionate fury and the furious passion of the infinite and almighty God.
And yet... he was meek enough to wash the feet of his followers, humble enough to be laid in a manger, playful enough to let kids tug at his beard, and tolerant enough to party with prostitutes.
Yes, he was the baby in the manger. Yes, he is the man who made demons tremble. Yes, he is the lamb of God. Yes, he is the Lion of Thunder. Here is a man who is not ashamed to weep in front of the crowds, and neither is he afraid to accuse -- to their faces-- the most powerful men in the land of spiritually abusing the people.
He is both. He is all. The beginning and the end. THE AUTHOR AND THE INK. Love piercing time. Mystery living next door.
"The author and the ink" SHEWWW that lines gets to me. I love thinking of Him that way.
I sort of love believing in this God that I can't fully explain to you. A God that's as much as a feeling to me as He is fact. I love that! I love the mystery of God and this world and the questions that it brings up more than the answers, I think! I can appreciate mystery and the fact that this story of the world is so filled up with it, makes me want to seek it out even more.
1 Timothy 3:16
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
Wow.
I don't know how to end this. I can't sum things up like Seinfeld, that's for sure. I guess, if you have any questions, ask me. I will probably have to seek out the answer, which works for me since I'm sure I'll learn something, too. I'm not a person that has scriptures in my head on the ready because I have a hard time with focus (can ya tell by my blogs???) but this is the year for me to work on that. OK, I just realized writing that out this is the year I'll work on KNOWING the Word by heart as much as I can. I know the ideas but I'm all the time saying things like "somewhere in the Bible, it says.." That's been ok but now it's not good enough. I'm spiritually maturing and I need to do this for me. Have a great day, world!
Much love,
C
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