Seems like any other day in the week right?
Well, Wednesday is the night of Kaleo chapel.
Kaleo has always been my favorite. From the first moment I attended one, the amazing worship and inspiring words Woody spoke was always encouraging in my faith.
I always leave Kaleo with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart.
You ask why?
It's the same struggle. It's the struggle I've been having for months now.
Which path to take. Who to become. Who to not to become.
It is so hard. It is so hard for me to just choose a side.
It seems like I always go one step forward and two steps back.
Progress in one area, fall in another.
I don't know why it is so hard. I can't decide who I want to be.
I know who I need to be. But why isn't that what I am?
This Kaleo really hit home to me.
Woody spoke about James. He brought up this passage: James 1:22-25
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do."
This analogy about the mirror is so true. We listen to the word, but sometimes fall away from the things it says and wants for us to do, just as we look into mirrors everyday, seeing our faces and the intricate looks God created us, but then we will carry on with our lives, forgetting what we look like, forgetting who we really are.
This happens to me. I forget who I am. Where I am.
Here I am, Lord.
Here is me. Here is what I've become. Here I am, with all my past sins and mistakes. Here I am, with dreams and aspirations of who I want to be. Here I am, with a hope of my future. Here I am, lost and unguided.
I feel this thrilling presence of Christ when I am worshipping. I just want to feel that everyday. I want to feel that sense of fulfillment and peace throughout my heart, my mind, my soul. Day in and day out. But I don't.
I worship. And feel it. But a few days go by and then I loose that sense of fulfillment.
I want it. I want it to capture me. I want You to capture me.
Take me, Lord.
Here I am.
You're going through what theologians call sanctification. Ever since you were saved and became a Christian, you have been undergoing sanctification. Sanctification is a process:
ReplyDelete"and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness" (Rom. 6:18).
"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.... For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:11, 14).
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
"Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
"and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation" (Luke 11:4).
"and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (Heb. 12:23).
"But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21:27).
"who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself" (Phil. 3:21).
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18).
"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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14).
"For sin will have dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14).
I just saw this!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for these versus.
Those are exactly what I needed.