WOW. AMAZING

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LET FREEDOM RING

Something I have learned:

When you worry, you are basically telling God "I don't believe you love me, and I don't trust you."  Who am I to say something like that to God--the LORD of heaven and earth who created me out of dust?  When we worry about things it is evidence to the fact that we refuse to let go of our baggage:  we might as well say that we would rather be in bondage to all our crap than believe for one second that God has control over our very lives.

Not me.  If I am going to say that I trust God then I am going to mean it.  I can already see several circumstances forming in my life where I can see that my whole attitude is so wonderfully different because I am not worrying.  For once in my life I know what true freedom can be found in Christ when I refuse to worry about things outside my control anyway.

If there is one fundamental thing I have learned is that everyone can experience freedom easily... it only requires us to think clearly and follow through on our actions as Christ-lovers.

Something I told Kellen the other day "If you can't have fun in life, when can you?"

A NEW CREATION

A miracle happened today. Because of some error on my hotmail
account I had several saved messages and drafts become marked as
"unread" which of course drew my attention to them. The messages I
read were incredibly amazing, and I thank God for the blessing of
having this moment in my life.

If anything, the messages themselves paint a poor portrait of who I
am now, but a great portrait of who I used to be. As I read the
messages, it became a sweet reminder to me of how lost and insecure I
was in my past. I used to hate who I was, and saw nothing in me that
was lovable. Reading those emails I would have sent to my girlfriend
at the time make me smile with a special kind of resentment towards
that person that I was. Reading it was equally frustrating because I
sat there thinking "wow, why did I say that!?!" I realize however
how glad I am that I wrote those things, for primarily just being
able to look back today and see a glimpse into who I was.

I am so different now that it surprises me--I am totally a new
person. I owe all my transformation and change to the power of
Christ in my life (and maybe just a little bit to growing up).
Praise God though, in all things, for using the lowest moments of my
life to shape me into the man I am today. Hallelujah.

ENOUGH.

God is all I need. All of him is sufficient for me. At times when I
feel like I have nothing I truly have everything. I need to open my
eyes and remember that God is truly all I need, my hearts desire.
God make me the man you want me to be, and let me be free. Bring on
the adventure!

MY HEART WILL TRUST

There are so many things I don't understand and so many things I find so easy to doubt.  Of all these things the easiest to doubt is myself.  I have such a hard time dealing with things that I make more difficult then they need to be.  If there is anything I have learned to cherish, it is that I have freedom from all this--for Christ's strength becomes perfect in my weakness.  I have learned that trusting God, truly trusting him with everything, is more freeing than anything I have ever experienced.

I give it up, all of it.  I kneel down and offer up all my garbage.

Life is so exciting and wonderfully adventurous.

I am so free.

TOUR DE FORCE

The phrase 'Tour de force' implies an impressive performance or achievement that has been accomplished or managed with great skill.  In French it literally means "feat of strength."

What a great phrase... one that I can only hope will be used to describe how I lived my life.  While some people have their creations of art judged, others their skills as an athlete, my earnest hope is that my performance as a human being whose belief in the motif of love conquering all will be apparent and evident to others as a tour de force.

How will that look?  A man whose life reflects a tour de force will be wise, loving, patient, truth seeking, and live for justice.

WISDOM SETS YOU FREE

If there is anything that I have learned this summer is that life is
full of opportunities to be bound, enslaved, and captured by forces
that seek to sabotage our lives... yet I have been learning that
wisdom sets us free. God's wisdom, which is far superior to the
wisdom of this world, truly sets us free.

God says that those who seek wisdom will be given wisdom abundantly.

Go and rest, and God will teach you how wisdom truly sets you free.
Free from sin, free from lies that Christians still believe today,
free from so many things.

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From now on I will not sit here and censor myself, but rather will
deeply think and consider everything I want to say before I write. I
no longer feel the need to shy away from saying some things while
giving away in others. No more!