Don't live for God

Okay, so the title sounds a little like treason, especially for a Christian.
What?!? Not live for Christ?!?! Are you crazy????
Yes. And, ....... no.

Think about it. Does God really need us to live for Him?
"Please, I beg of you... live for me!!! I don't know how I'm going to survive with out your support!!"
Yeah, right. That's not the All Powerful, All Knowing God that we know him to be. He's perfectly fine without us.
But God gave His son.
And He wants us to know what an amazing gift that is for us.
It changes our lives.
It frees us.

So, .... what if we lived our lives....because of God.

Not for Him.

Live our lives because of what He did.

Isn't that freeing? To know that no matter what we did, can do, or will do, we can live our lives because of Him?

So often we get caught up in the pretense that we are doing some big favor for God by,
"Living our lives for God" or "Leading people to Him" or even worse "Winning souls".

Notice how when we say those things, we focus on what we are doing. Not what God is using us to do. God doesn't need our help. But He chooses to use us, so that we may be blessed and completely overwhelmed by Him filling us as vessels to carry the Living water to the thirsty.

When someone gives you a drink, do you thank the cup, or the person giving it to you?
Do you see what I'm getting at?

God should be getting the glory for what happened that "day at VBS", but instead people sit around bragging about how many people they "led to Christ".

Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North puts it perfectly:

Could you imagine what that would look like?
A bunch of people that no longer live for God but because of God?
I mean, think about how terribly liberating that is!
You don’t have to earn a thing.
You don’t have to perform for anyone.
You don’t even have to go and win souls for God.
You just need to know that you’re already accepted, and live like you actually believe it.
Think about it.
A people that praise Him because of who He is.
Doing things because of what He has done.
A church that loves, and forgives, because He first loved them.
Oh how beautiful that would be.

Casting Crowns says it perfectly when speaking of living a life with God in
the driver's seat:

People aren't confused by the Gospel

They are confused by us

Jesus is the only way to God

But we are not the only way to Jesus

This world doesn't need my tie, my hoodie,

My denomination or my translation of the Bible

They just need Jesus

We can be passionate about what we believe

But we can't strap ourselves to the Gospel

Because we are slowing it down

Jesus is going to save the world

But maybe the best thing we can do

Is just get out of the way

Did you hear that? God can save the world, whenever, however, and in whatever manner He chooses. But we must be there waiting to do His will. Not playing around with the tools, so that He has to fix the tools first, before He can fix the world.

Be a vessel.

Thank the giver, not the cup.

Live a life because of God.

Check this out

Check this out right now! I'm not some big fan girl of Tenth Avenue North, but their lead singer has a blog that is inspiring and really challanging. This will really turn your head and how you think about living for Christ.

http://tenthavenuenorth.com/blog/2009/02/28/dont-live-for-god-chapter-6-continued/

.......

Hey guys,
Sorry about the lack of posts. Things have been really crazy this past week and a half. I have to run the house (dishes, laundry, cooking), try to get my school work done, take care of Janessa (who has become sick), and try and keep Daddy happy. It's been nuts. I hope to be able to post more about the prayer day after all of this (next week hopefully), and would like to be able to post more about my sewing projects and upcoming re-enactments. Thank you for all your prayers and support over the last few days. The food especially has been appreciated. You all are such a blessing to me and my family. Thank God for you all.
Until a moment when I have more time,
Janae

Update 2

Okay, sorry I haven't posted any info for a while, but I am now. Here we go.

My grandfather came out of his first surgery fine. The found out the the artery(90% one) was actually 95% blocked. He was in ICU, and his blood pressure was jumpng around, but theysaid that is normal for this type of surgery. However, yesturday we found out that he had a dormant MERSA (really bad staff infection) in his nose. The surgery kinda "awakened" it. Luckily, they were able to keep it confined to his nose, and he went home last night. If everything goes okay, they will do the next surgery either tomorrow or Tuesday. Hopefully Momma will come home on Saturday. Thank you all so much for your prayers, food, and transportation of Janessa and I. We really appreciate you letting us invade your homes and cars! :) You all are such a blessing to us.

Update on grandfather

Well, new info has come. My mom is flew down to Florida this morning at six, and will be staying there until next Saturday or later depending on how things go. Here is a medical view on what has happened:
Two arties in his neck are clogged with a build up of some sort. When this build up starts to chip off, and get into his bloodstream, it can cause massive strokes and death. Well, some of it chipped off, but it was a minor stroke. One arterie, though, is 90% blocked. You can imagine the potential of this. The other one is 70% blocked. Each arterie goes to a different side of the brain. The doctors need to open up his arterie and clean out the build up. They can only do one arterie at a time, because if you cut off both arteries, you basically become brain dead. The doctors hope to clean out the first arterie (90% one) on Thursday and the other one (70%) next Tuesday. Hopefully, no more build up will chip off before or during surgery. This is the important worry.
Please send your prayers.

Need Urgent Prayer

I have just found out my Grandad just had a stroke. He is in the hospital in Florida and is not looking good. He will need sugery. My mom is planning to fly out down there at six tomorrow morning. The doctors have to open up his main artery in his neck. This morning he was nauseous (sp.?) and threw up. He is also on blood thinners to reduce the chance of clots. Momma doesn't know how long she will be down there. He is turning eighty this May and has normally lived a very healthy life. He has diabeties, but manages it w/out insuline. Please pray for him and my family as we cope w/out mom. Janessa and I will have to take on new responsiblities in addition to trying to fufill a heavy school load. Please pray that God will guide the surgeons' hands and the doctors as they care for him. Out of my nine grandparents, he is one of two left. Others have died of strokes, and I hope he won't be added to that list. He has remarried about eight/nine years ago and his sweet wife is taking this very hard (both of their previous spouses have already died.). We will need the Father's everlasting peace during this hectic and chaotic time.

Prayer Day Part 1

Okay, You are going to have to bear with me. Because of the amount of photos, I will be dividing this up into parts, so stay tuned for sequels.

Two Saturdays ago, Allison and I spent a day in prayer and reflection. We sought after God's will for our lives, prayed for our parents, friends, country, president, future husbands, schools, siblings, each other, a camp I am thinking about going on, other countries around the world with Christians under persecution, and that our blogs would be effective tools of the Lord's to reach His people. In so saying, we payed for everything.

We started out praying silently standing up, holding each other's hands. During this time, I prayed for Allison. As for Allison, well, you'll have to ask her. :) Then, taking turns we prayed out loud about the aforementioned stuff. So many times when Allison was taking her turn, I would become impatient; I wanted it to be my turn again. This may sound funny, but anyone who knows me personally can testify that I don't exactly like praying outloud. But as we began praying, I had this wondrous feeling that I can't describe, but all I wanted to do was pray more and more and more! The words just started flowing from my lips as I told my Creator about the trials and diffulculties in my life. I stopped "praying" and, for the first time in my life, started having a real and meaningful conversation with my Abba.

Before we set out, Allison's mom snapped this picture of us. We were loaded down with balnkets and cocoa. It's was supposed to rain and ws very windy, but more on that in the next installment. Me making a list of things to pray for, so I don't forget.

This is where we were at. It is on a hill at Allison's house way out in the country. We chose this spot because you couldn't really see any houses or other distractions from there.