we live in the middle of a war, and i believe the more involved you are, the more you feel the battle for your time. lately i've been attacked spiritually on a lot of fronts, and i got really depressed, was ready to quit doing what i do, and was begging God to let go of me for "a little bit". why? because i felt so pursued by the devil. to a lot of people, that may sound stupid, and some people would say i've been chased by my sins and past....luckily, i'm me, and you're you. i sketch the outline, you can draw your own conclusion.
anyways, in the middle of this feeling, thinking that the devil is going to get me to fall, and i'll be useless and begging for death....i realized something. the devil has pursued me since i was born. God has pursued me from creation. wow! and as much darkness as there is in this world, LIGHT PENETRATES DARKNESS! not the other way around.
here's the challenge: creatively come up with a way to express that battle in your life. no matter where you are. as you'll see from my piece, you don't have to feel 100% victorious yet. you can be in the middle of it. be honest in your work. also, don't feel like you have to do art. write a story, poem, book, etc... use any medium that you are passionate about. when you're done, if you feel comfortable with it, share it here, or post a link to it here. or you can email me your work at brad@relevantva.com, and if you want me to post it here, say that. otherwise, i won't post it for privacy.
Posts
this is the email my father-in-law sent over on the subject. thanks so much for the encouragement and words of wisdom! we love you!
ReplyDelete100% victorious
As I read your blog, the phrase “100% victorious” hit me as a big part of the struggle in living the Christian life. Satan can really make us do some awful things when we have doubt. We receive 100% salvation when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior. From that point forward we strive to be “like Christ”. It is by definition something we can never achieve. He did what he did when we were at 0% and we get down on ourselves when we doubt our performance at whatever level we manage to achieve. You said it very well….we are indeed being”chased by my sins and past”. We never deserved salvation or God’s love and the devil wants us to have those doubts.
Many years ago, I read an anecdote in a trade journal that really spoke to me about this issue of never being 100% victorious. I have to remind myself of this little jewel from time to time. I would gladly give credit for this if I had any idea who the original author would be. Think about this one the next time the devil plants the seed of doubt in your life:
“A little boy came running to his mother crying. She asked why he was so upset. He told her that he was never going to grow any bigger and that he would never be big and tall like daddy. She asked him why he would think that. He took her to the place on the door frame where she measured him and put a mark for each year as he grew. He told her that he had measured himself ten times today and he had stopped growing.”
I can be that little kid at the drop of a hat. I can’t tell much about my spiritual growth since this morning. Sometime I can’t see much spiritual growth this year. The devil would love for me to just give up and say I’ll never make it to 100%. I look way back and I see that I was a sinner on the road to hell. Now I am a child of God on the road to Heaven. The road has lots of hills and valleys and sometimes I stumble on the journey. It reminds me of my favorite verse in the bible (Isaiah 40:29-31 NIV)
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power to the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Don’t try to be 100% victorious today. It won’t happen. Turn to him and soar on the wings of eagles. You can see way back from up there and you would be amazed how far you’ve come.
P.S. I’m very proud of you. Don’t let Satan cause you to doubt your ministry.
Nice work. I was curious if there is significance to the direction that you're looking. Don't forget to send those logos you did.
ReplyDelete