The Big Question

Let me ask you a question; how well do you know God?
I'm not asking how well do you know the Bible. I'm not asking if you go to church. I'm asking how well do you know the God of the universe.
Is He your best friend? Your father? Your brother? Or is He more like your boss that you talk to once a day and maybe ask for help when things get really bad? Do you know Him personally, like you would a best friend you call up every day or is He that one friend you call up every once in a while for a coffee?
God isn't looking to be facebook buddies. He wants to be your number one, your wingman, your best man at your wedding. That's the kind of relationship He calls us to.
He wants to know you.
Do you know what that means in the original Hebrew? He's not just saying 'oh I know him!'. To know someone in the Biblical sense is to know them intimately, the way a man 'knows' his wife. To know every part of you and love each and every bit of it. That is what it means to know God. You see, being a Christian isn't anything more or less than a personal and intimate relationship with God.
Do you think God would send the Son to die for some random person?
He loves us.
Do you get what I'm saying here? God wants to be so intimately involved with us that we want to spend the rest of our lives, the rest of eternity, loving Him.
He's not some impersonal cosmic force, He's a person with thoughts and feelings. He's a king who fell in love with a slave and let His only son die to pay for her freedom. He is a father who loved his daughter so much that He gives her everything she could ever imagine, but she doesn't want anything to do with Him.
So again I ask you, how well do you know God?

Love of Wrath

Hello lovelies! I have officially been a resident of Liberty University for a month! How exciting is that! 

At Campus Community tonight we were talking about God as both a loving and Wrathful God and I felt like somebody ought to tell ya what that means and since I have this here blog that might as well be me!

When I say that my God is a wrathful God most people think He is waiting in the wings for us to screw up so He can smite us with His holy wrath! You couldn't be more wrong.

God is first and foremost a God of mercy. Do you have any idea how many times I've screwed up? If God was an impatient God I wouldn't be sitting in front of a laptop typing a poorly written blog! No God is a merciful God. But there's a problem; if God is a merciful God then how can he judge me? Because He is also an absolutely good God, and if God is absolutely good and He is the Judge of all creation then how can he allow evil to go unpunished? He simply cannot.

So you see here that God is faced with a dilemma; He cannot allow evil to go unpunished, and His children insist on doing evil things. *sigh* What's a God to do? This is where Jesus comes in. Somebody has to be punished for all this evil and He doesn't want it to be us, He is a loving God after all. So in comes Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, ready and willing to take our place. God pours out all His judgment and wrath on a perfect and blameless man. It's bloody, it's shameful, it's a public display of God's judgment. And it gives Him great satisfaction to see justice done because He is a just God.

And that's that. God gets justice for sin and He can spend the rest of eternity loving, and being loved by, His creation. accept that we, as the dumb, rather senseless sheep that we are, insist on abusing the gift we've been given, which is basically like slapping God in the face. Frequently. Now if God were not a God of mercy He would do what your parents likely would do if you slapped them in the face, bend you over their knee and teach you some manners. But that's not God. God is infinitely patient, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. You can see this in His letter to the Chruch of Thyatira in Revelation 2:

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet.... 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds,and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

God gave Jezebel time to repent, it was her fault that she chose not to take it. So while you are continuously slapping Him in the face, He is calmly telling you to stop. You and I both know what our Father is capable of, yet He is giving you the chance to stop. Does that mean that you are free from His wrath? No. He is simply giving you the option to ask for forgiveness. 'But Bri,' I hear you say, 'I've been doing this for years and nothing horrible has happened.' To that I ask you this, has God simply left you be? You see, His wrath doesn't have to be fire and brimstone. God knows what's at the end of this road and He may have decided to let the result be punishment enough. I came the realization that God hadn't punished my repeated sin, not because He is a forgiving God, but because He said 'if she insists on playing with fire the burn itself will be punishment enough'. Does that sound malicious? I don't think so. God gave me every opportunity to repent, I chose not to take it. I was slapping Him in the face after all. He gave me mercy and I chose not to accept it and a good Father reprimands His children.

The Love of Wrath

The wrath of God
A naked man
Held aloft
By sinners hands
The love of God
His sacrifice
To cleanse our hearts
Of sin’s firm vice
His wrath poured out
Sweet justice served
Our bail paid off
With five broken words
The three in one
Torn one and two
Your Father’s face
Was turned from you
A roaring lion
Turned to a lamb
The wrath of God
Was turned from man
And in its place
A fathers love
Given free reign
Rains from above
What heights of love
What depths of peace
My fears are stilled
My strivings cease
The sting of death
The wrath of God
Was spent on Christ
To clense our flaws
The flood was passed
The winter gone
And all He asks
Is for a song

TTFN! That's ta ta for now!

The Wall

When I found that I was broken

I could not bear the pain
I was tired of the ache
And tired of the shame
So many things were thrown at me
So much hurt and so much blame
That when I built for me a shelter
Safety was my only aim

My mother hears me tremble

And calls over my walls

Her voice earnestly pleads me

Down long and empty halls

But my fortress is now massive

Each stone a bitter recall

Of the pain that seems to last
And never fade at all

Many came to visit

When my wall had just begun

They tried to help me break it

But I did not want that done

So for every brick they tore out

Each and every stone

Another would replace it

And soon I was alone

When the walls had reached the sky

And the sun could not see inside

I found for me a corner

And in it I cried

I found a book of stories

And there inside I hid

I forged from it a friend for me

And it joined in all I did

And when again my mother

Called me from the day

I was content not to listen

And begged her go away

I made for me a family 

And built for me a place

'Til soon the walls that smothered me 

Felt like a sweet embrace

My mother grew tired

Of calling out to me

Her voice was growing fainter

And then she left me be

But deep within the shadows
Where I knew no one should be
I hear a lonely wimper
A heartless bitter plea

Someone else was trapped here
Somebody just like me
How could I ignore them,
I simply couldn't flee

I had to find them safety
I had to bring the light
But how can I protect them
In this never-ending night

These walls we built ourselves
protect us from our plight
And often times the outside
Is much more difficult to fight

She too had a book of stories
Quite similar to mine
And the friends that we had built ourselves
Got along just fine

They wished us to be happy
At the cost of their own lives
So they pushed and pulled us
To move closer to the light

And yet we resisted
Do we really want to leave?
We were hiding from something
Far more painful to receive

After quite a bit of prodding
And pushing us along
We started on our journey
And though it was quite long
We reached the wall together
For together we are strong

We're tearing down the wall
piece by painful piece
But we've built it far too high
To remove in just a week

Our friends look on and cheer us
From both inside and out
For there are others outside the wall
That continue to shout

And if one must leave us
To demolish their own wall
Another one will take their place
And continue with their call

They will not stop their screaming
They will not cease their cry
Until they see our faces
And we look them in the eye

And the stories still are there
They will always comfort me
But no longer can I hide inside
They want me to be free

You are Important: A Rant from an Angry Christian

You are important.

Not because of anything you've done or will do. 

Not because your super popular or have a lot of friends. 

Not even because you have money or power. 

You're important because God says you are. 

He loves you and He made you to be like Him. Nobody can take that away from you. You are beautiful because God made each and every part of you and He said that it was good. 

Your grades do not change what God designed. Your ability to hold a job or pay the bills does not change what God says. No human can say you are ugly because GOD says you are beautiful. No one can say you are stupid because GOD says you are perfect. You can't lose what God gave you no matter how hard people try to take it away, you are made in GOD'S image and he is PERFECT. You are his chosen one, his daughter, his son, his special child and he wants to know you and show you that you were made to be a mirror image of him on earth. 

That means you are meant to mirror his beauty, his perfection, his love, his majesty. If Moses can't even see a tiny glimpse of God's full glory then how awesome are we that we are meant to be even a shadow of Him. He is the one who invented love and He loves us. 

Think about that; the God who created love loves us with more power and might than we could even come close to comprehending. You are a child of the King which means you are a PRINCESS or PRINCE of God! you are made in his image, clothed in his glory, and filled with Holy Spirit, that is one whole third of god! Holy Spirit, the being that breathes life in the things God makes is in you. You are special.