Embracing the Wind

          Change sometimes makes my stomach twist and turn. How about you? Change can be our greatest enemy as creatures of habit. Sadly we don't often break out of the same-old same-old to smile and praise God for what He has done. When a hint of change, a shifting of direction, or the slightest possibility of the unknown arises, we shrink back. Back into our shells, back into the place we feel safe. Truly, it is dark and ugly where we take our refuge. A place of lies, whispers and uncertainty. The fortress that you imagine to be safely hidden away in is no longer standing. The walls long ago torn down. If all you have to raise you up when you have fallen is your own weakness, how will you ever triumph?

          The winds of change, my fellow believer, are His holy tools. They are the surgical implements used to revive your long- dead heart. When everything beneath you falls away, all you can do is pray. When all you hold dear is suddenly ripped away, fall to your knees. Like the wounded soldier in the midst of the battle, he cannot help his fellow man, or himself. All he can do is cry out to God. 

          Change isn't a bad thing, friend, it is part of what is shaping you right now. It is making you stronger and (by Gods grace and holy plan) drawing you closer to Him.  No longer should you pull away from the unknown, no longer should you raise your walls of false protection, for you know that everything that lies before you is for good and God's glory. God loves you enough to want to watch you become beautiful. He has a beautiful and blessed plan for you, embrace the winds of change. 

Sincerely,

Rachel

Prayer for Daniel

We need y'all's prayers for an old friend. He got in a bad accident on a dirt bike and is in critical condition. The other boy who was in the accident was killed.

Pray for the family. Pray that God would help Daniel pull through. 

Hope,

Rachel

So much like the World

          Recently I was talking with a group of friends about church and the media culture that surrounds us. One of my friends made a point about how the church often uses media to draw people in. Many times when churches do this, they are compromising. Much of the media now-a-days is full of worldly and (quite often) inappropriate material.
          What do y'all think about this subject? What are your views on how the church uses modern technology and culture?
          I can see where the human mentality would be to follow the pack and do what everybody else is doing. Why is this? Why is it that we think we will attract any more attention to Christ by using distractions? Personally, I don't see where Christ would be proud of a tactic that uses worldly attractions and lusts to draw people into (what should be) His house.
          As Christians we are not trying to distance ourselves from the world, but draw as close to Christ as humanly possible while we are in the world. When one draws near to Christ they will find that it is easier to live in and not of the world. If you can't tell the difference between the "Saved" and "Unsaved" what is the point? People ask me why they would want to be a Christian if they look so much like the world. It's a hard question to answer. Why do God's people look so much like the world they are trying to change?
          I look about me and find it hard to pick out my kin, fellow worshipers in Christ. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore we should all be striving towards the glorification of Christ. How does playing a funny (or possibly crude) video in church glorify God?
          What are we, as Christians, striving for? To be as much like the world as possible without quite crossing the line? To draw people in by the hundreds and preach to them? What is our goal? Tell me, please. Someone tell me why the church was created. SOMEONE TELL ME WHY WE LOOK SO MUCH LIKE THE WORLD. Legalism is not my goal. I hate to think we all should be the same. We were all created by God with a PURPOSE. He wants us to follow his word, his steps, and his leading to the same goal.

Much Love,

~Rachel

Bridge to Hell

"If Sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." ~ Charles Spurgeon

This quote struck something deep inside me. I thought about how so many Christians sit back and watch people run into the gates of Hell. In many ways we (Christians) are building a bridge for them. When a lost person walks into church and there is no friendly face to invite them in, love on them, and care about them, they run walk away more empty that before. They think, "Why on earth would I want Christianity if it looks like this?" When the lost are drawn into the doors of a church and are never fed true love and true friendship, they never learn what knowing Christ is really like. They may think that they have the real thing because it is what you have and everyone else in the church has, but it isn't what Christ intended all to have. When we have "Religion", we don't have Christ. When we have "Church", we don't have Christ. When we have a large congregation, we don't have Christ.

Then when do we have Christ? You might ask.

We have Christ when we have nothing. We have Christ when we have His love in our hearts. We have Christ once we truly realize what it means to die to self. We have Christ when we have His word, not religion. Religion never did anything of worth for anybody. It only paved a path to the gates of Hell.

So many people think that if they have religion, they have a free ticket to Paradise.

Wrong.

If you have Christ, you are alive. If you have religion, you are dead.

When a Christian truly has Christ, he or she will desire to love. They will throw themselves into the arms of the poor, helpless, and lost. They will begin to tear down the bridge that others have built before them.

So unintentionally did the Bridge to Hell get built, few realize that it exists. Few see the dangers of the Bridge. You don't realize how much Satan desires to protect it. He was thrilled when the blueprints were conceived in the depths of his dark mind, now he rejoices that he hardly had to lift a finger to lay a single stone within the foundation of this Bridge. We did all the work for him.

Friends and family, please hear the cry of a heart that so desperately longs to throw a rope of caution across the entrance to that bridge. Hear the voice of one who is breaking every day for those who walk across the Bridge to Hell. Cast off false religion and pride. Help me not only to destroy the Bridge to Hell, but help me to lay a Path to Heaven.

When my days are done on this earth, I don't want the Path to Heaven to be shiny and new. I want it to be old and tattered, worn and beaten down by the millions that have danced their way into the Golden Gates...

Many tears cried for you,

~Rachel

Breaking Me

          Nothing is greater than the will of the Lord, for He sees all things and knows all hearts. What good will my worries bring but sorrow and disappointment?

What is my love to any man if not first given to God?
What is my joy to any peoples if not displayed before my Lord?
What is my life to the lost if not open to the will of Jesus?
What is my heart to this world if not broken and remade by the hands of the Creator?
What is my body to anyone if not first sacrificed to the Son of God?
What is my death before my enemies if not an act of obedience to Christ? 

          These questions came to me the other morning while I was sitting on the porch swing enjoying a quiet moment with God. I was surprised at how powerfully they struck my heart. Whipping out my journal and pen I wrote each of them down as they flowed through my thoughts.

          My prayer as of late has been; God, show me my faults. Work through my mistakes. Lead me and break me if you have to. Lead me...
          It may seem that this is an odd prayer. Break me? Why did I say that? What drove me to ask God to break me?

My sin. My pride.

          Often times I cannot see through my pride. I get caught up with how "Right" I am and how "Wrong" you are. In the heat of the moment it seems like there is no way that I could possibly be in the wrong. To the bitter end (Sadly) I hold onto the feeble argument of correctness and moral. While trying to justify my "Right", I do what is so grievingly wrong in the sight of my Lord.

          It is pride that has driven me to the foot of the cross. Gasping, I cry out to Jesus, praying that He would show me my wrongs and my failures. Praying that He might make a better woman out of the poor soul that kneel at His feet.
          Sometimes one must be broken in order to be made new. Pride must be broken. How will it be broken? Christ will start to point out every detail of your life where pride shows up. He will slowly allow you to see the spoiled spots in your heart. He will firmly but lovingly extract the blot of shame from your weary soul. He will stamp out the flams of judgment and replace them with rivers of redeeming love.

          Christ has begun to break me down. He is teaching me that I alone am not enough. He is showing me that there is allot about me that can be changed through prayer and supplication. He is asking me to be patient, kind, and gentle when my temper threatens to flare up. He is causing my thoughts to dwell upon wrongs that I would never have noticed a year ago. He doesn't ask me to linger on my failures, but to notice them so that I can correct my heart and thinking when it comes time for the right thing to be done.

          Should I have ever asked Him to break me and make me new? A RESOUNDING YES! I am thankful that He placed it in my heart to cry out to Him in such manor. I know that rough times are ahead, that my nature will come out, that people will see me for who I really am, but I think it is beautiful. Not my sin of course, but the change that I know He will perform in me.

          In all honesty, I want to be transparent with you. All of you. I don't know who you are (well...maybe some of you), where your from, or what you are really like, but I want  you to know that I am a sinner. I am human (duh). I fail. I also want you to know that I get angry (surprise, surprise!), and self-righteous (pray...I'm not the only one...?). I love being me. I don't want to cover up my quirks, failures, and weaknesses, because I know that we all have them and we all need help to fix them. So many people are determined to hide who they truly are. I understand not blowing up in front of friends or not bragging about your awesomeness to classmates, but I don't understand this total mask that everyone wears. This mask bandages and hides the festering wound beneath. It causes us to create a person of our own design. God designed us perfectly the way he wished us to be. He placed in us free will. We chose death. Why are we not fessing up to it? Why do we hide the fact that we are sinners when everyone else on the face of the planet it a sinner too?
          I'm not telling you to drop all decorum and to be "Real" (rude, mean, prideful...etc.) with the people you know. I'm saying, drop the walls that are keeping you from experiencing True Life. Tear away the Perfect's and the Pride's, and look forward, dig deep, realize that you are a sinner. Reach out and say, "Hey, this is me. A sinner. A loser...one saved by grace."
          Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about Cheap Grace (a term used most frequently by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book The Cost Of Discipleship.) guys. I'm talking about Costly Grace. We were saved by a Grace that died on a cross for us. Jesus didn't say, "Go now brethren, sit in a church pew, there you will find grace." He said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me."(Luke 9:23)  Daily you must take up your cross. Daily you must strive after Him. Christ died a death deserving of Costly Grace. Why do you sit back and take in this form of comfort that is only Cheap Grace? Take up that cross. It lay on the dirt beckoning you to touch it. Feel the grains of wood that have soaked up innocent blood. Heft the weight of it on your shoulder. Feel that it is a beautiful burden. A burden that grows lighter every step of the way.
          You perform an act of taking up your cross by asking God to lead you. To show you where He wants you to be.
           Don't shy away from the human nature that so often struggles within you. Face it head on. Say, "This is who I am now, but I know that through Him who created me, I will be made new." Our human nature can only get away with more and more the longer we try to ignore, hide, or deny it.


          Re-evaluate these questions now that I have sufficiently talked your ear off about all kinds of things!

What is my love to any man if not first given to God?
What is my joy to any peoples if not displayed before my Lord?
What is my life to the lost if not open to the will of Jesus?
What is my heart to this world if not broken and remade by the hands of the Creator?
What is my body to anyone if not first sacrificed to the Son of God?
What is my death before my enemies if not an act of obedience to Christ? 

           Have you taken up your cross? Are you who you really say you are? Are you who God wants you to be? Do you pray that God would change you?

           Now, somehow, I have to wined down after that...speech?...might you call it that? I dearly pray that I have not scared you away or caused you too much grief! I only wish to provoke you to deep thought. I couldn't sit with the wheels turning in my brain for a day without causing the wheels to turn in yours! I'm sorry if you had trouble with any of the concepts or my sporadic way of expression! I try to bring things across as clearly as possible, but sometimes it ends up in a jumble!

          If you have any questions or thoughts, please email me or comment!!!

With many laughs, tears, and thoughts,

Yours Truly,

~Rachel