brian - week nine - guidance

^ yeah this kid's smarter than he knows

this devotional was really...poetic

the three conclusions about the creature (the creature = me) hit me the most - "He must be made up of fear, of obedience, of submission, of humility, of prayer, of repentance, and above all, of love...He received everything from God.  He belongs to Him.  He is surrounded by Him.  His fate is in God's hands.  His eternity is to be with God, in a companionship of unspeakable delights.  Or if it is to be in exile from Him, it is the absence of God which will be the intolerableness of his misery.  His own being implies God's being; and he exists, not for himself, but for God...God must have his whole heart as well as his whole mind...A creature means 'All for God.'  Holiness is an unselfing ourselves..."

so i get discipled by this really cool guy at my church, and last week we went over..love.  not that kind of love, but sacrificial love, like the kind Jesus had.  now what the heck is sacrifical love, i looked it up: "self-sacrifice with the pure motivation to alleviate the suffering of others" - dude that's Jesus, man.

sorry i couldn't help it..

anyway, we went over john 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." 

and philippians 2:2-4, "then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others."

and 1 john 4:7-11, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

we all need guidance since we eventually just want to be working at some job that we love to do - selfless, sacrificial love unites us and if we're doing it right, hopefully points people (non-Christians and Christians alike) to Jesus; if we're really God's children, then we're probably compelled to make sacrifices to serve God and serve others

i pray that we are coming before God like humble servants, and that He helps us make the right decisions that set us on the right path

one final quote from the discipleship book i'm going through (it's called discipleship essentials):

"a servant doesn't wait to be asked, but restlessly looks for unmet needs"

^ let's do this not only on the houseboats, but throughout our lives as we live for God and not just ourselves