Count it Pure Joy When the World Comes Crashin

I went the to the Rock and Worship Roadshow last night - it was awesome. To my friends in Seattle and Portland - it is coming your way - don't miss it.

One song that Mercy Me sings is Alright - the song closes with a refrain that says - Count it pure joy when the world comes crashin - hold your head up and keep on dancin. I love that song it reminded me of the Blog I meant to write all day yesterday - so I am just going to combine it with today's thoughts.

Romans 5 is an incredible chapter of hope and encouragement. It opens by telling us to rejoice when we face trials and problems? Why should we rejoice - well as Mercy Me so eloquently states in the same song - There's a love much stronger than anything that holds you down.

Problems that we face are simply a chance for God to develop our character. God has a plan for us - the person that we are today is not the person that He wants us to be in the future - He wants us to grow and develop and mature and trust him to use us for greater things.

The love that is stronger than any problem we face is proven by the fact that Jesus Christ came to die for our sins while we were still sinners. He didn't say - get yourself straighened out and then I will come rescue you - He came first. So that we may have eternal life through Jesus Christ.

I guess one thing that I would like to add here is a simple reminder that no matter what you are going through in life - it is only temporary. The world may come crashin down around us - but if we can hold up our head and keep on dancin - praising God in all that we do - remembering that He loves us and is walking through it with us - we will come out the other side stronger than we went into it.

Here is a music video of Alright by Mercy Me - enjoy.

A Heart Condition

First of all let me start by saying that I hope to begin blogging on a more regular basis again. Life is crazy this time of year. Regardless of whether I blog or not - I hope that you have been keeping up with the bible reading. Spending time with God and in His Word is the biggest source of Hope that we can have - and in a time when our economy is struggling and people are losing jobs and money is tight - that is a pretty big deal.

We have been reading for the past few days in Romans - which happens to be my favorite book of the bible. No other book of the bible so clearly demonstrates my need for a savior and God's faithfulness, grace, and mercy being offered to me.

Romans 3:1-20 explains to us the importance of obeying God. God loves us and wants what is best for us - true He is magnified by His willingness to forgive our sins - but that doesn't mean that we should just keep sinning so that we can be forgiven for more.

The fact of the matter is that God IS GOING TO JUDGE US. One day we will all be held accountable for our lives. But when we are covered by the grace of God - we are judged by the condition of our HEART - not so much by our actions. Our outward actions are simply a reflection of what exists on the inside.

If we lie and say - I can do whatever I want - I can sin and do what I want because it makes God look good when he forgives me - the truth is that the condition of our heart in that case is selfish and sinful.

If we struggle and fight against sin - we will still sin from time to time - but in that case the condition of our heart is to serve and follow God. We can never follow all of His commands on our own - but the question that we need to ask is - what is the true desire of my heart. Is it self-serving and self-pleasing - or is it God serving and God pleasing?

Nothing that we can DO will ever disqualify us from the forgiveness of sins. God will forgive us of ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS - everyone sins - so what separates the righteous from the unrighteous on judegment day? The condition of the heart.