Cerebration Concerning a Carbon-copy: Infected Wounds

Cerebration Concerning a Carbon-copy

Ok, I know that alot of you probably dont know what the title of this blog means seeing that we dont use those words alot everyday. Cerebration means to us the mind or to think, so the whole title means to think about exact duplicate. What duplicate am I talking about? As a Christian my life ought to duplicate the life of Jesus as it is detailed in the Bible. In all situations, circumstances and events, I need to mirror the attitude of Jesus. How do I know what this looks like? The answer is simple, its all in the Bible. I need to be reading the Bible every day so i can get to know my God, the person who saved me from my sin, a little bit better each day. This is what I created this blog for. I want to use this as a way to stay accountable, so please, read what I've written, and if you see there is a long time in between posts, feel free to call me out on it and ask if I have been reading each day or not. Now granted, there will be times when I wont be able to get on and post due to school and such, but I will do my best to keep up as best I can. Please feel free to comment on anything I post, I love hearing how God is working in your life as well.

Why The Light Bulbs??

I decided to "decorate" this page with pictures of various light bulbs. Light bulbs are such a great illustration of the Christian life. In Matthew 5:14a "Ye are the light of the world". We are to shine bright into a spiritually dark world by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, how he came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on a cross for our sin, and then rose again. That's who we are, that's what we are supposed to be doing. It seems like a pretty daunting task at first, how can a small little light make that much of a difference? At first it might seem impossible, which in all honesty, it is. See a light bulb in and of itself is almost worthless. It needs to be "plugged in". It has no power of itself and completely dependant on something else for its source of power. So are we as Christians. If we try to live the Christian life in our own power it is one of the most frustrating and futile experiences ever. God never intended to us to try do it all on our own, He intended us to be completely dependant on Him to do all that He commanded us. It is impossible to life the Christian life and "shine out" without be connected to the "power source" of the Holy Spirit. I think that's probably why He added the part about being with us till the end of the world at the end of the great commission. :) So how is your light doing? Are you "plugged in"? Are you shining out bright? There are people out there who need the message of Jesus and His love, and we have the opportunity to share it with them.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Infected Wounds

Ok here is something that God has just been subtly slamming into my head. On sunday, I was playing soccer and managed to give myself a nasty road rash on my right shin. Not a big deal, right? I mean Ive had plenty of road rashes in my life, being a Stover and all, so I just casually looked at my leg, shrugged and kept on playing. Couple of hours went by and I still didnt go wash it out, or even bother wiping the grass away from it. So lo and behold by the time I got home and decided to take care of it, it had become infected. By monday, it was the nastiest looking road rash I have ever had. So now instead of just slapping a band aid on it in the morning, I get to spend my evenings scrubbing out my leg, which isnt exactly a painless situation. So what does this have to do with spiritual things??? So often in my life I notice little spiritual problems, you know, things like skipping out on devos, wrong attitudes, getting annoyed easily and the like. Sometimes i just shrug them off, after all, arent they such trivial things? So often I just keep ignoring them, even when I do them over and over. Thats just like ignoring the cut on my leg, and sure enough soon those "little" things spread and soon become the norm. Think about it, how many times has "O, I really need the extra sleep, so I will do longer devos tomorrow", turned into not doing them at all. God has really been working on me to take care of these "spiritual road rashes" as soon as they happen. If not they just fester and grow. In Eph 4:27 we are told not to give place or give a foothold in our lives to Satan. So often, those little "road rashes" are just that. A small little place in my life that Satan can get ahold of and start infecting. In the physical sense, infections can have some pretty damaging results, think of gangrene for a moment. Pretty nasty thought isnt it? But yet I fear that often we as Christians, myself including, just dont care about stopping "spiritual infections" soon enough, and it ends up having that type of devastating impact on our spiritual lives. I mentioned earlier that now I get to scrub out my leg and how painful it is, but yet it is completely needed. Once I let those little wounds get infected, now God has to "scrub" out my life and sometimes its alot more painful than it would have been if I had just stopped and taken care of the problem as soon as I noticed it. Sometimes it feels like God's conviction can be like pouring hydrogen peroxide onto a cut, it stings and burns but the end result is purification. So what are you doing about those "spiritual road rashes" in your life?

Cerebration Concerning a Carbon-copy