I Put Extra Points Into INDECISIVENESS

So I apparently can't make up my mind what I'm going to use for my blog. I debated between wordpress and blogger for awhile, ended up making accounts on both so I could decide which one I liked better. And now I've changed my mind and decided to go with tumblr instead. Mainly because there are times when all I really want to post is a quick verse or awesome quote & I really have nothing else to say. So I have posted my blog posts on my new tumblr account as well as an awesome scripture.

Check it out: ablazeagain.tumblr.com At least I kept the same name after taking so long to pick it :P

Also, random side note. When I went to make a new account (which is ridiculously easy and doesn't require anything more than your email for "personal" information), I discovered I had made a blog on there before. Back in my old angry days. Reading it, I had to laugh at myself. And be amazed at how much I have changed (which I know is only by the grace of God).

Anyways, check out the tumblr. Enjoy! Here's the link again: ablazeagain.tumblr.com/

Love Until It Hurts

"Love until it hurts"? Really? Then what? Just stop loving when it hurts? Walk away when it gets too painful?

Imagine if Jesus had stopped loving when it hurt. If He just said, "Nope, this getting a little too painful. You're on your own. Adios!" But of course Jesus wouldn't do that. He's God and God is perfect love.

But what if Paul had given up loving when it started to hurt? What if, after he had been mocked, beaten, scourged, stoned, left for dead, imprisoned, and abandoned by most of his friends, he decided to just give up? What if he decided that these people weren't worth the pain, that the promise of heaven wasn't worth it? What then? Well for one, we would be missing half our New Testament. And how different would the world look? How many people did he lead to Christ? How many children and grandchildren did he have in the faith? How many people did he inspire to share the gospel? How many did he encourage to keep pressing on? If he had given up, how would history be changed?

But you're not Paul. You're not a world changer. You don't affect hundreds of people. You don't write letters to dozens of churches. You're just you.

Right?

No. God wants to use you to change the world. There are things God wants you to do. People He wants you to talk to. Lost people He wants you to bring home. Believers He wants you to encourage. And if you give up, you get tired of the rejection, you think it hurts too much to love, then you are denying the world the change it so desperately needs.

So love until it hurts. And then keep loving.

Nothing Compares

I've tasted what this world has to offer. I've gotten high, gotten drunk, cut myself (both for the high and for the simple desire to feel something), had the love and approval of people whose opinions shouldn't have mattered to me but did. I've tried pretty much everything this world offers.

And what did it give me? Shame, guilt, and emptiness. A hole inside that felt larger than when I began. Grief for the innocence I lost. A longing to go back and redo my life.

But I can't. I can't change the past. I can't undo the mistakes I've made over the past few years.

So instead I choose to look back and remember the greatest lesson I learned: nothing in this world can compare with Jesus.

Nothing compares with Jesus. The thrills of this life cannot compare with His joy. The approval of man cannot compare with His love. Nothing can compare with knowing and being known by Him. Nothing compares with Him.

It sounds cliché, but it's true. I've learned this through my own experience and through watching other people live miserable lives, trying to fill the emptiness with everything but God. I've lived in that emptiness, been engulfed by it. And I promise you, there's only one thing that fills that void.

He is Elohim. Yahweh. Yeshua.

Microscope vs Telescope

We put our faith in things everyday. We trust that the oncoming car going 45 mph isn't going to suddenly cross the line and kill us instantly. We trust that the elevator cables won't snap and plunge us to our deaths.  We trust our stoves won't explode when we turn them on. We trust when we walk across the crosswalk that traffic won't run us over. These things happen all the time. But we trust they won't happen to us.

So why is it so hard to trust in the one thing that has never failed?

God has never broken a single promise. He has never failed to come through when He said He would. Yet we continually doubt Him.Why? He has never give us a reason to question Him. He has already brought us through so much. But every time we run into a new problem, we wonder if He'll come through again, we wonder if He can.

But think about how ridiculous that is. Take a look around. See that perfectly blue sky? He spoke a word and it appeared. See that majestic mountain? He made it from nothing and could crush it in the blink of an eye. See all those stars? You can't even count them all- God made them and knows them all by name.

And we think our problems are too big for Him? The One who created the universe and everything in it, the One who gave you life, can't handle what you're going through?

The problem is this: we look at our problems too much. When we focus on whatever we're struggling through, it starts to look bigger and bigger, and God looks smaller and smaller. It's like looking at a speck through a microscope. You keep turning up the magnification, looking at all the details. And the more you magnify it, the bigger it looks. But it's really no bigger than a speck

But when we gaze at God, it's like we're looking at a star through a telescope. We turn up the magnification, trying to see the star more clearly. The more you magnify, the bigger it looks. The star is already huge, you just needed to see it properly. God is so much bigger than you can imagine. And You're just getting a glimpse of  what He really looks like.

The speck is still small and God is still big.

Take your eye off the microscope and look through the telescope.