The Power Of Prayer

Well. I have a bunch of long posts that I'm refining. So until I can get one of them postable (The question being, Should it be the music post, a love post, or an evangelizing post?) this is a short post. About prayer.

Prayer is important. We all have heard this at least, even if we don't get it. And, most of us don't get it. Why is prayer important? Does God need us to ask Him? Does His mind require changing? I thought He was omnipotent, and all knowing. Doesn't He know things need doing? Doesn't he care enough to help me on His own? 

The easiest example to use probably speaks to guys the best. How long does a relationship last when the girl expects the guy to know all of her needs and desires? Guy gets girl a purple scarf, she's mad cuz her favorite color is blue. But she never told him her favorite color, and most of her clothes are purple, so he guessed and was really excited to find her the scarf.

(You: but God knows everything)

Yes, yes He does. That wouldn't be a relationship, now, would it? That would be rather one sided. You get everything you want or need, and you don't ever talk to Him. Except occasionally to thank Him. 

(You: But.. He's God. He's above all that.)

Above all what? We were made in His image, complete with His emotions. Including sadness. Sorrow. Pain. You thought God was immune to that? No.

God feels pain. 

God feels pain every time you arrogantly expect Him to cater to your every need. 

Every time you turn from Him and try to fix it on your own instead of simply killing your pride and asking Him. 

Every time you get mad at Him for not being there. 

God feels pain when you do. Did you know what? The same way when someone you love is hurt, you want to fix it and help them and you empathize with them... God's like that. 

That doesn't make God more human. Because remember, He came first and made us in His image. Not the other way around. 

We were made to partner with His heart, to ask for things and pray for burdens so that it could be a shared joy.

He doesn't need us. He wants us. 

~Silver

A matter of Perspective.

Our perspective of God: We are chess pieces in a sick and twisted game.

God’s perspective: I’m training an entire world of people. To judge angels.

Our perspective: Hell? That’s just cruelty.

God’s perspective: So, you have two choices. Life with me and life without. But to live with me, you have to love me before you love others, and you have to love others as you love yourself. Sound simple? Great. If you don’t want to do that, and you’d rather hell, then hell it is.

It’s up to you.

Our perspective: Yeah, I accepted Jesus into my heart. God’s pretty far away though. In heaven somewhere.

God’s perspective: Jesus and I are one. I am inside of you. My name is the Holy Spirit.

Our perspective: Why would I say yes to you? You won’t tell me what you’re doing!

God’s perspective: I wish you’d just say yes. You’re dying. I’m trying to save you. And if you’d just listen to me and stop trying to fix everything, you’d know exactly what I’m doing. And, you’d stop dying!

Our perspective: We got kicked out of Eden… For one person’s sin?

God’s perspective: I made mankind, planning to teach them how to love. But they chose to love themselves. They won’t listen if I keep them here in Eden, if I overlook their selfishness. But look, for one person’s death I’ll save all of them. Fair? Thought so too. Glad we agree.

Our perspective: So we just have to repent and be forgiven? Sounds too easy. I bet God stays mad at us for a week. And we have to do penance. And be extra good.

God’s perspective: … I forgave you. Why are you avoiding me? That’s nice that you’re being extra good but… I like talking to you. Why won’t you respond? I thought we were friends?

Our perspective: I have to change. That way I can get closer to God. He won’t see me unless I fix myself.

God’s perspective: So.. Here I am, living inside of you….. Closer to you than I am to the angels… But you’ve locked me in the guest room so you can clean your house. Except you’ve got mud all over your feet and you’re just knocking things over and making it worse. If you’d let me, you know, I’m God… All powerful, all knowing, and I am Love… I could… Help you.. Fix you….

I didn’t make you to change yourself you know. I made you to lean on me. I made it so we’d work together on this.

Our perspective: We have to pray and change God’s mind!!!!

God’s perspective: I love it when you pray, when you agree with my heart. I love that you’re partnering with me on this! This is what I want to do! Thanks for asking! I love you. I love when you agree with me.

Wait, what? Change my mind? …. But.. I don’t… change o.O

Our perspective: I have a guardian angel. He keeps me safe. So God can go do other stuff.

God’s perspective: I feel like I’ve said this before. Oh wait. I have. I’m living in your heart.

Btw I’m omnipresent. I am everywhere. I can do everything at once. Or did you forget?

Our perspective: I’m a terrible person. And I’m ugly And worthless.

God’s perspective: So once upon a time I had this thought. This thought was you. And you were perfect in my head. And then I made you. Know what? You’re even better now! Cuz everything I make is perfect. I make no mistakes. And I don’t make ugly worthless things.

And you especially? You were made in my image.

Our perspective: God loves us, but that’s as far as he cares.

God’s perspective: Love is everything. I love you. I want to give you everything and make you happy and alive and you know what? I enjoy you. And talking to you. I care about you more than anything else I’ve created.

Our perspective: Love is just a feeling.

God’s perspective: Love is everything.

It’s the reason you breath.

It is all I am.

It is the reason for pain, it is the reason for joy.

It is the reason for anger. it is the reason for fear.

Love is the reason for death.

It is the reason you are in this world.

There is nothing that isn’t rooted in love.

We really don’t know the God we worship. And even if we know it so often we don’t

really believe it. There is so much more depth and reality to what we think but we spend so much time being afraid of getting close, believing lies even if we know better.

We are so, so weak. It’s time we wake up to this and let Him fix us.

Amen?

~Silver

What is your music calling you to?

I’ve neglected to take a stand on music. It’s always been a hard subject for me. That’s part of the reason I never finished my purity series. I knew I’d have to write about music and what is good and what is bad, and I didn’t want to have to do that.

Ok, so maybe that was more than part of the reason. That was the reason. (Well, and I’m lazy. But you know.)

So, I apologize for that. Here’s a post on music. This is probably one of the most important things I’ll ever write.

(You: So here’s the part where you say music is bad, yeah?)

Well. Sort of. I’m not going to up and say, all music is bad. I will personally think a lot of music is bad for the heart, but I’d rather let you come to that conclusion yourself. 

Instead, I’m going to simply talk about music.

What do we know about music? We know a lot, right? (You: No. I’m tone deaf.) That’s not what I mean. I mean, what do we know about music as a force in society and how it affects us. (You: Yeah, I’m still drawing a blank)

Well think about it. If you’re depressed what are you going to listen to? Depressing music, right? And if you’re mad you’re probably going to listen to someone else just as angry. It makes you feel better, because you feel like you have power. Classic example being a depressed chick listening to Three Days Grace, and an angry arrogant white kid listening to Eminem.

Yes, I did just stereotype people by their music. Get over it. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

(Actually what I did was stereotype music by who’s listening. But you were gonna be too mad to catch that.)

I hear a lot from Christians that, it’s ok to listen to music as long as it has a good message.

This is one of the most singularly stupid statements I have ever heard. It’s like saying “It’s ok to listen to Hitler as long as you forget the holocaust.”

No. No, no, absolutely not. Music comes from the heart. We listen to music that calls to our hearts. If it matches how we feel, then we listen to it. Thing is, by doing this you’re supporting how you feel. You want to know why, even though life is great and you have a good job and a good family and you’ve never been molested used or abused in your life, you feel like killing yourself? It’s cause you’re busy listening to artists sing about their break ups and the people that have cheated on them. You’re listening to society justify itself, and all its anger, and all its emptiness.

Struggling with porn? Stop listening to Brittney Spears and Ke$ha.

Struggling with anger outbursts? Sick Puppies and Linkin Park are not for you.

Country music is not good for anyone.

The majority of music celebrates the strength of man. And Christian music isn’t counted out. You think Thousand Foot Krutch is good and Christian? I listen to them singing about how broke humanity is and I wonder, why is the focus on how much we Don’t see God?

Shouldn’t our focus be on Seeing God?

Christian music is based on the problems. It’s based on God saving us. It’s based on us being weak.

I don’t want to play your games, cuz lonely was a safer place. But you changed me when you called my name.

That worships God, right?

It’s not based on the places in the Bible where David’s singing about how even in his weakness God is strong. How even as man we can reach God because God loves us. Instead I hear Superchick singing about how we should stand our ground and be pure.

 Ok, so maybe I am a little over the top. But you have No Idea how much my heart burns on this subject.

Now, I’m not straight up condemning TFK and Superchick, or Relient K, or anyone else. I’m just using them as examples. I’m sure that, even if all their songs aren’t really worshipping who God is or calling Christianity to a higher standard of Holiness, their still good people.

That’s the problem though. They don’t call us to a higher level of holiness. It’s music about how God meets us in a place where we are, in our brokenness.

Saying nothing about how we’re falling to our faces out of respect.

It’s simply… So… Lazy. So self-loving.

I can’t stand it any more. I want music that tells me who God is, why I’m worshipping Him, and why I’m falling on my knees in worship. I want music that, instead of saying how it’s ok that I’m broken cuz God will save me, says God is my strength and I can look to Him. That I don’t have to be broken. That I am not of this world.

I want music that, instead of bringing God to this world, rather brings me to His world.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Next week, or sometime next anyways, I’ll post about secular music. And I'll probably read this over and post again so I have something more.. Concise. Better said. Right now I’ll just sit back and watch people comment about my biased, unabashed music bashing. (Cuz those comments are wonderful. They give me something to write about. They let me refine what I say till it has no mistakes. So please do flame this post. Kthxbai)

There really is no way to summarize and end this post.

~ Silver

Waiting....

Waiting.

What is waiting, other than something christians seem to do a lot of?

I'm learning to wait.

Right now, what I think it means is sitting still. You know, be still and know He is God? That sort of thing. But can you do stuff in stillness?

Maybe. I don't really know.

I think... I think waiting and being still means you aren't trying to make yourself do anything. It means you're not trying to make yourself stronger or more honest or more faithful or a harder worker.

It means you're just.... Being. It means you're sitting (Well, not literally sitting but whatevs.) and Thinking.

(You: Oh, well that's easy. I can do that)
No, you can't. cuz it's not thinking like... I think Sally and Mindy are cool people but they need to stop fighting over Jake cuz he and Rose make a perfect couple already.

That's easy thinking. Or thinking about yourself. That's easy too. Or thinking about what you're gonna do later, or what you're gonna wear or what your friend will say when you tell her what happened today... That's not being still. That's planning a future. And that's definitely not waiting.

You know when you're picking up a friend for school and they're taking forever and you're sitting in your car bored out of your skull and worried that you'll be late for class but you can't do anything about it?

That. That is waiting.

And if you read the old testament, people did a lot of that. They have to wait for Moses to go talk to God, they have to wait to go into the promise land, they have to wait for God before they can go decimate people in battle.

And if you pull a Saul and decide, screw this waiting sucks, you get immense consequences. Saul got his entire kingdom stripped from him.

Of courseeeeee...... God knows us. He knows how impatient we are. he knows how our tiny little selves are only so disciplined.

And he toook the kingdom from Saul not just cause he didn't wait, but mostly because Saul had a long history of doing what was bad from Israel simply cuz he wanted to look good.

God knows your heart. He punishes and rewards us based on that, not based on our actions. (Though... Actions do stem from the heart, most of the time.)

But back to waiting.

It's a discipline.
(You: So where does thinking come in?)

Fantastic question! The discipline set before us is meditation. Which is thinking. (You: Right. Got that. Still confused.)

Have patience I'm getting there.
Waiting, which is sitting still and thinking, which is meditation, has to be focused on something or else we humans tend to focus it by accident.

(You: Ok. Still confused though. What am I focusing on.)

God.

(you:......)

Right. Exactly. There's my problem. I think... Well, I sort of know anyways, what that means meditating on who God is and who He says I am. If you're thinking of yourself it's not good but if you're thinking of what God thinks of you (And asking Him. Not just thinking.) Then... That's good.

And you're waiting for an answer.

But... What if other than that you don't know what you're waiting for or what needs answered, you just know you're supposed to be waiting. What then?




~Silver

Holiness, which doesn't fit inside my head

So, I wrote this paper for my class. And about a third of the way through it, I thought Hey, this would make a great blog post!
So yeah.
It's written more formally than other posts (Obviously).

Tell me your thoughts... It's due tuesday. I don't actually know how formally it had to be written. But yeah. If you feel like pointing out mistakes, comment :)

We are human. Holiness has become to us as a people similar to what love is: a shallow shadow of the truth. There is no real way to describe the holiness of God. Holy, to the world, really just means divine or consecrated. Sometimes it means perfect. Most times it’s part of something to exclaim when you stub your toe, like “Holy crap!” This is what the American culture has created out of God. They’ve made Him and any description of Him something so shallow that it can be fit into and used in their own unfortunate lives. As Christians, however, we cannot live with this shabby definition, this imposter of Holiness. So what, then, is the Holiness of God?

Holy, as the Greek word ἅγιος (said ag-ee-os) means “set apart” or “other than,” originally anyways. That our God is holy means, obviously, that He is other than. Other than what? Other than human. Set apart from anything of this world. Completely other than and set apart from anything that is not God. That is what He is other than. This may not fit into our heads but then again, if it did, would it really be the truth? Holiness is the entirety of just how much and how perfectly God is separate than man. The infinity of that can never and probably will never really make sense to us as humans but that’s ok. The moment it makes sense to you is when you should start worrying.

Having said that, this is what me, in my weak and unfortunate understanding of the complete other-ness of God, knows. People can say that they are other than other people. Especially in this age, everyone is “unique.” But that’s not holy. Yeah, God is unique. But that is because He is perfect. He is like nothing else because any similarities a person can have to Him makes that person like God, not vice versa. Holy speaks of every aspect of God. It speaks of His Justice. Who else could judge perfectly in love? It speaks of His infinitude; He is like no one because there is no one He can be like. He came first. He always was and always will be. He isn’t like a fire. Rather, fire is like Him. He had to make things to represent himself because His Holiness, He Himself, is so vastly unfathomable that we need something to compare to Him. And He doesn’t change to be more than or less than anything; He simply is. And He simply is perfect. Unlike the world, there is no part of God that makes bad decisions, that protects itself, or that unexpectedly is born into a bad place. There is no such thing as unexpected for God!

What I have said barely even scratches the surface of the Holy One who decided to create a form in the dust and breathe into it. And it doesn’t really say what Holiness is. Is Holiness righteousness? Yes. But that isn’t all it is. So is it loving-kindness? Yes. But that still isn’t the entirety of Holiness. Holiness is the only word that can describe who God is as a perfect Judge, a perfect Lover. Holiness is just how high above creation God is.

This is what moves my heart the most; that as big of a word as Holy is and as big of a God our God is, He sees us. This is a being, an entity, so beautiful and glorious that we have to use barely definable words to describe Him. And at the same time this is a Man. The God so vast that He can’t fit into logic or reason lives in the innermost center of our hearts. This is a spirit dwelling within dust. This is the breath that we breathe. Holiness, the concept of separation, likes me. It washes me in the blood of its Holy Son and it calls me clean. It tells me I can be Holy as it is Holy. And it doesn’t do this grudgingly and it doesn’t sigh and shake its head at me. Holiness does not say I AM higher than you. Holiness says I AM love and I will teach you how to be like me. Holiness says “Come up here” (Rev 4:1). It calls us to repentance and to reverence for our good.

What sort of God do we have that it could create the heavens and the world and molecules and atoms and make everything work perfectly, but then turn around and Love the very definition of immaturity and imperfection? How much unlike humanity is He! How can He love us? It is because He is Holy. He is a trinity that lives, and loves, and died, and lives again. Who came and stayed in our hearts changing us to be with Him in Holiness.

Our God is Holy, but He is not unattainable. Our God is not a slave driver or a impulsive mass murderer, rather He is Just. Our God is not like the gods of this world. Our God is Holy, and a mystery, and that is why our God is real. Because if we could understand how Holiness works and how we are allowed into the throne room, (Trust me, you can’t. There’s logic to it but the logic and reasoning itself doesn’t even make sense.) then He wouldn’t be God any more. He would fit in our heads. We’d have conquered the mystery, just like we have “conquered” the rest of the things of this universe.

Holiness wants us. It is the greatest and most beautiful mystery. Dwell on that; if it doesn’t shake you at all, even to make your brain stop working for a second so all you can hear is your fragile heart beating as you realize Holiness is the reason for it, then you have a serious problem on your hands.

~Silver

The image of God... Sins?

Continuing the last train of thought, lets go from the fact that we’re made in his image to why, if we are reflections of the living God, do we sin?

Let’s think about this logically.

God made man in His image, the image of love (See last post).

But he didn’t just make these mature beings who would know the very power and purpose of love. He made Adam and Eve and gave them a choice: to love him or to love themselves. Surprise of surprises, they chose themselves over Him. We all do. Every day. Which is where the concept of sin came from.

Here. I’ll make an acronym for it. Selfish Intentions Named Supreme. That is what our sins are. Straight up.

Make sense?

Because every day God chooses us over himself. Every day God chooses to love us.

In fact, Jesus, the exact representation of the father, decided to give up his place in heaven watching us… So he could walk with us… Be hated by us… And then.. Get beaten and die. And not just get beaten and die, but be forsaken by God. And now he sits in heaven not just watching over us, but spending his time Pleading for our lives, giving his life still every day so that we can be whole. Reminding his father of what he did.

Not that God forgets. But we see it everywhere in the bible, “Remember your servant oh Lord…” and especially with Israel, in Genesis and Exodus. Moses reminds God over and over again of God’s promises.

Honestly, I think God likes being reminded. Because when you’re reminded of a moment that was important to you, a moment that still is important to you, it takes you to that moment and you re-live it for a moment. It also means that the person reminding you remembers it to. That that moment is not forgotten by the others, that it still holds importance and that it hasn’t been cast off. Moses still holds to the promises God made, and because Moses remembers and wants to keep it still, doesn’t want it broken off and isn’t rejecting it, it means God has a partner….

But that’s an entirely different subject.

See, most people think the opposite of love is hate. But let me tell you why it’s not. Let me explain why it’s selfishness.

Firstly we have to have a right definition of love. What does that mean? Does it mean you want to be close to someone all the time? That you want to take care of them? And hold their hand? And kiss them and make out with them and then marry them? Well, sure those can be Related to love. As in, affects of love.

But this is not love.

Loving is giving. In first and second John, he writes that Love is that we walk according to Gods commandments. (Don’t believe me? Go find it. I gave you the books didn’t I?)

Obviously this is not the only definition of love. But it’s the definition I’m working with right now we can discuss others later.

(you: discuss? I don’t see much discussing here.) Well, maybe if you commented we could have an actual discussion but so far there’s been no one to actually discuss With.

Anyways.

To Love is to Obey God’s commands. (You: well that sounds… Painful. And useless. How can that be love?)

Well, to get back to genesis and exodus, notice how obedience results in good things. In fact, in all of the OT (Old Testament). Like… David loves God with all of his heart (which, speaking of God’s commands psalm 119 is dedicated to God’s law.) and look, he became a king. Of all Israel. And then his son became king. And generations later, he becomes the many time great grandfather of the son of God.

Not that it was a cake walk. But he waited on God. Instead of saying, “God why not now can’t I be king Now and do whatever the heck I want now?” he waited for God’s timing. Meaning, the selfish ex-king Saul chased him all over the Middle East trying to kill him.

See, Saul was a good person. But he didn’t follow God’s commands, instead he chose what would make himself look better and feel better. He loved himself, not God. So the spirit of God left him and he was tormented by demons and had no rest and died knowing he had separated himself from the destiny God had had for him.

That is probably the best contrast of love and not love.

David does slip up once or twice, I know. Bathsheba, instead of leading his army in war he decided to love himself and to give himself a vacation, which lead to him stealing another man’s wife, which led to pain.

See, selfishness was his sin. Selfishness was Saul’s sin. (You: Yes yes I get the point. Selfishness is a sin.)

So, think about every sin and ask yourself, what’s the core reason for it? Adultery? Is pretty much always done for pleasuring self. So selfishness. Lying? Is used to protect self or to get self things. So selfishness. Murder? Is used to punish for a “wrong” done to self. So selfishness. Stealing? Is used to get things for self. So selfishness.

Sin is Love. Love of Self. 

(You: But, what if a man is stealing because his family can’t afford food?)

It’s still a sin because instead of leaning on God for protection, he is choosing his own strength. He is choosing himself, saying his decisions are greater than Gods and that he can provide better than God the provider can.

God, who rained bread from the sky to feed thousands of people.

The God of the Old testament has not changed. But we, in our weakness, want to say he has because he has not saved us when we wanted to be saved. He has not provided for us when we wanted to be provided for.

He has not given us what we want, so why should we give him anything?

But see here’s the thing: All that we deserve is Death. We have, ever since Eve denied God and chose to benefit herself by eating the fruit, consistently chosen ourselves.

God loved us first. He made us in his image, he gave us his own breath, and then to save us his own son, literally a part of him, became one of us and lived selflessly so he could (still selflessly) die.

He already did the hardest thing. But we think it’s too hard to let go of ourselves and to be take care of.

Isn’t it funny? All God wants us to do is follow his commandments so that he can take care of us, but we don’t think it’s fair that we have to do what he wants instead of what we want?

As if we can satisfy our own souls.

Comments are welcome, arguments are welcome. You can find everything in the bible; 1^st and 2^nd Samuel have David and Saul’s lives, Psalms has David’s personal cries to God… Etc.

Blessings, and I hope you love today J

~Silver

Images

Who’s image were You made in?

I know, I’m supposedly doing the purity thing this week, well actually last week’s last last week… but as you can see I’ve lost track. I haven’t had the time to continue upon that train of thought. Fire in the night keeps me pretty busy.

So. Back to the question.

Who’s image were You, the reader, not your friends parents Or enemies, made in?

Don’t know what you think, but I was made in the image of God. To be a reflection of who he is, to showcase an aspect of Him.

And I’m pretty sure you were made the same. Actually, I know you were. The beginning of the bible says man was made in the image of God.

I like to think of man as like a moon, reflecting the sun. Without God we have no real light of our own. I think maybe God thinks of it that way too. He’s built a lot of analogies and stuff into the world. But I won’t speak for him. That may take it too far.

I mean think about it. God made angels, and according to the bible and people talking about encounters, a lot of angels are similar in shape to Man. (Which sounds insane only if you’ve decided that God couldn’t Really have made angels and let people see them. Which if you think that, then you sound like the insane one to me. Just sayin’)

What then does it mean to be made in the image of God? Does it mean we have free will? Well, obviously the angels had that or we would have no Satan and therefore probably not so much sin.

God made angels, and then he took dust and made us. What does that even mean???

Actually, I don’t know what it means, but I’ll tell you what little me, in my weak understanding thinks. God made us in his image so that we could love as he loves and so we could rule and reign with him. He put his beauty and his power into us. He made us each unique. You could raise two kids exactly the same and not get the same results.

God made the angels to serve him. Then God was all like, but I want someone to love. Remember when he made Eve so Adam wouldn’t be alone? (No, he didn’t make Eve just to populate the earth.)

Yeah. I think God made Man because he wanted a partner too.

Partnership of man and woman being a reflection of partnership of human and God. I told you there was a lot of analogy symbolism type stuff.

(BIBLICAL INSERT TIME!!!1!!!1!!!!)

Genesis 1:26-27

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Se, also by this I think that means God made Adam and Eve here, and then the story just gets told next chapter. Maybe you all figured that part out already and I’m just slow. But whatevs.

And then, and then guess what guys????

(OMG ANOTHER INSERT!!!!)

Genesis 2:7

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

We’re made with the breath of God!!!!

Does that not make you excited about breathing? No? Well fine then.

Anyways. Now we have that God made us, from dust, but then put his breath within that dust, called it man, decided man would need a partner.

(ANNND ANOTHER!)

Genesis 2:18

18 And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."

So he made man someone so man would not be alone. He made man so he would not be alone. He made someone comparable to man so man would not be lonely. Following the analogy, what does this mean? Exactly.

Now I realize, it sounds vaguely like I’m saying we are gods. I want to be very clear here and say We Are Not Gods In Any Way Shape Or Form. Thank you very much.

What I am saying is that who you are, who God made you to be, is very specifically a reflection of him. Not just any reflection. You, yourself, individually, were made to be an image bearer. You are not the same image bearer as your brother. Or your friend. Or your parents. Or your pastor. Or anyone else.

You were made to be You. You have God’s breath in you. You were made to be his partner. Not that he needs one, I mean come one guys, he’s God. Uncreated light and power and beauty. But he wanted one. He wanted you. Specifically.

It’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around, isn’t it?

Now to go back to the analogy, what do man and woman do? They love each other. No, I’m not being all over-sensitive and avoiding saying sex. If I meant it I’d say it. I mean love the emotion which kills while bringing life at the same time.

God made man and his wife to love each other. Some people say that was just so they wouldn’t kill each other. My opinion on those people is that they simply haven’t fallen in love yet and if they have, they need to forgive and get healing.

My point being, if God made a dude and his partner for love, what do you think he made man initially for?

If you said for love you got it right.

If not pray that God would kiss you with the kisses of his word, pray it every day, pray it every moment you can, and read Genesis, Song of Solomon, and Revelation.

(Sticking in more verses. Don’t freak)

Isaiah 62:1-5

1 For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns. 2 The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name. 3 You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God. 4 You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.

Breaking this down real fast, we have God not holding his peace and/or resting until Israel is made beautiful and his people shine among unbelievers. Yes, non-jews, you are his people. If you don’t think so read Ephesians 1:6. Or Acts. Or both.

Then you have him calling you beautiful and lovely and His, for He delights in you. And then you have him rejoicing over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.

Hpw do bridegrooms rejoice over brides? Is it like, Yay good job you did it! No. Is it… YAYY I’m so glad to finally see you!!! Sort of but… No.

It’s more like… You are SO Beautiful and I get to MARRY you I’m so Excited!!! This is Awesome! You are Amazing and I Love you!!

Yeah. And that’s God rejoicing over you.

That’s what it means to be a Christian, you know. It means we partner with God, we live by Matthew 5-7 (Which, btw, people tend to think this is simply a rule book but all of 6 is basically saying God’ll take care of you if you follow him so don’t worry. Or, best said. God is the best cure for stress if you follow the directions.) and it means that we get to love God as he loves us.

Isn’t that cool?

It also means the rest of the universe hates us but that’s besides the point. If the God who made them loves us who cares who hates us… right? Right.

Sometimes I feel like when I blog my trains of thought they decide to take the scenic route to my point. This is one of those times.

His is a long journey of thinking and reading. Here, have a map.

!. God made You (Out of dust) in His image so that

@. You could partner with God and rule an reing with God because

#. God wanted a bride, someone to love who would love him.

$. God made You a partner so You could get a small taste of this.

It’s all so much more interesting when you replace the “man”s with “You”s.

Now we get to the most important point. Stick with me for a little bit longer, kay?

God made you individually to be a unique lover of Him. If that’s who you are what happens when you try to copy someone else cause you don’t like yourself?

You deprive the rest of the world of the unique image of God that you are.

When you try to not be you, you deprive everyone around you. And yourself, in fact. And!! You hurt God. Sounds ridiculous but you know how you feel when you take a lot of time thinking and planning something for someone and then you give it to them and they’re all like “Meh, whatever”? And then your hearts all like “I have just deflated in your chest and am in fact sinking down into your stomach”?

God takes forever, from before time exists till the moment you were conceived, thinking and planning you. And then you’re born and you grow up and are like Meh whatever.

See where I’m going?

So the only think you can really do is ask God who you are. Don’t ask other people. Did they make you? Maybe your parents made you I guess but… Not really no.

God made you. Therefore he knows you. And he likes what he made or else he wouldn’t have made it.

Ask God to show you how he sees you. Read Isaiah 62, the part I stuckup there, over yourself. And read song of songs. Look in the mirror and call yourself beautiful and God’s beloved cause that’s what you are.

Make sense? Great.

Doesn’t make sense? That’s what they invented the comments section for.

Peace, blessings, love, and tribulation to you. Amen.

~Silver

Purity, week 2.

Fascination is represented by sight. We don’t readily choose to see that which is uninteresting to us, and with most things if we see them enough we end up fascinated. (Like, people and tv. Not school. Not very many people get fascinated by school any more.)

So like, if you’re watching this tv show, and it’s not very interesting but you have to watch it every week, eventually you will get drawn into it. The plot, the characters, the dialogue. Etc. You’ll want to know what happens next, you’ll want to see if so and so is still there next week, whatever.

This is fascination.

And it is a dangerous thing.

You see, what we’re fascinated with reflects upon us. Just like my previous example of you talking with your friends. You don’t just hear their words; you see their attitudes. And you unknowingly copy them.

You see a movie and suddenly you want to be that person, the dude who can fly and shoot laser beams out of his eyes, or the chick with the horse and not a care in the world. This is sight and sound, reflected in you.

So…. What if what you’re seeing isn’t pure? And you must remember here my definition of pure: clean and right.

Do you know how important your eyes are?

Like, say you see this guy at the store. And he has the most gorgeous eyes ever, and the kind of flippy hair, and whatever else.

And you never talked to him. You don’t even hear him talk cause he’s busy staring blankly at the milk trying to figure out what he’s doing.

You’re more likely than not to think about him at least a few times for the rest of the day, and you’ll remember him whenever you go to the store. You might even hope to see him. You imagine saying hi to him, or running in to him, or helping him figure out what the heck he’s getting.

That is fascination. Even without the imagining talking. And it started by sight.

Or guys. You see that video game or skateboard or whatever. (I’m avoiding saying chick cause I don’t want to describe a chick from a guy’s p.o.v.) And it’s new, it’s awesome. So you plan to get it, you plan to invite your friends over to play whatever game, and then getting achievements on it, and wondering if gameplay is as awesome as it’s supposed to be or if the graphics are super lame and the controls suck.

That is fascination.

Or you play said game too long and then you end up wandering around seeing everything from the perspective of that game. (The top of those stairs would be a great place for an ambush. If I cut that grass, would rupees come out? […. The grass one has happened to me…])

That is fascination.

And as humans doing what we do best, we reflect what we’re fascinated with. We reflect mannerisms. We act upon our thoughts.

So what happens if we get fascinated by God?

What happens if we protect our eyes from things that are wrong and look instead to uncreated light?

(You: well that’s just plain ridiculous. Are you suggesting I go blind? And last I checked no one can see God.)

Well, you see there’s this thing, called the Bible. And there’s this person I may have mentioned called the Holy Spirit. And he knows everything about the Bible. And everything about God.

So if you take your bible, meditate on it, and then ask the HS about it, you will eventually get some answers.

(Eventually. Sounds like it’ll take too long. But I guess I could try it once or twice and see…)

Something I’ve heard a lot recently is, don’t just try it for a week then give up.

Is it hurting you to do this? No. It’s not. Is it a waste of time? Well that depends. If hanging out with your friends and watching soap operas and crime shows and checking facebook once an hour is a pressing thing and can’t be set aside, then yes it is a waste of time. But if you’re more interested in learning about eternity and things beautiful beyond belief then this is what you want to do.

Look at it this way. You will die. Your friends will die. You will not have a tv when you are dead. Or a phone. Or a computer.

You will just have you, and your life in eternity. If you want your life in eternity to be awesome then you should do this. Even if you die and there is no eternity you may as well take some time every day and do this. It seriously isn’t hurting you.

If you have to believe something why not this?

Don’t say why, but rather why not.

So tell me, why not get fascinated by living love (God.) and ask Him what he thinks bout you and life?

Why not live like there’s an eternity where you’ll want to be a friend of God when he comes as a judge?

Matthew 6:22-24:

22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot trust in and serve both God and other things.

Proverbs 20:6-12:

6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man? ] 7 The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him. 8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment Scatters all evil with his eyes. 9 Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”? 10 Diverse weights and diverse measures, They are both alike, an abomination to the LORD. 11 Even a child is known by his deeds, Whether what he does is pure and right. 12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made them both.

Proverbs 30:12-13:

12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness. 13 There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.

~Silver

Purity, week 1.

I don’t know how you feel about the Bible, but to me it’s pretty important. I mean, even if you don’t believe all the stuff in there you must admit a lot of it is true. I personally believe all of it is true.

Now, one of the things in the bible is this thing called purity. Forever ago, that meant keeping your speech clean, keeping your eyes from seeing… things… And waiting till marriage to do so much as hold hands. It meant having a standard. 

Over the years all that’s declined. (You: Thanks, captain obvious. I hadn’t noticed.) You’re quite welcome, private sarcasm.

Now purity basically just means no sex before you’re married. Some people still hold a standard of no kissing till then but the people that do that are fewer and fewer.

When did we lose the speech and seeing part of purity? Since when could we say whatever the carp we wanted about anything and be fine?

Since when did purity just pertain to sex, for that matter?

You’re probably rolling your eyes at me right now, but I am being perfectly serious. When did we trade our innocence for recklessness? Why did we trade our innocence for recklessness? What happened to self discipline and talking about stuff that actually matters?

Where the carp are our standards?

Now, I know I can’t bring them all back, and I know I can’t discuss (rant at…) all of them right now. So I’m picking one a week for as long as that lasts. Maybe the next 3 weeks? I dunno.

So right now I’ll just go with an over view, how all of them as a group are related, and then speech.

You see, I know plenty of guys who claim not to even think about, or even so much as look at, girls in a sexual way. Thing is, these same guys speak loosely, making jokes in that line of thought. As much as people like to deny it, they really do think about things they talk about. And joke about. Since joking is talking. Even if the thoughts are in the back of their heads.

I mean come on guys, we’re all human. If you know how you very basically work, you know how everyone very basically works. There are no exceptions. That’s where discipline comes in. You can’t claim to be disciplined in one area when you’re obviously not in the others.

And where people’s speech goes, their thought life follows.

And where their thoughts go, their actions follow. 

But speech has to come from somewhere. You don’t just start talking a certain way. When you’re a baby, you learn to talk from your parents. You talk like they talk. If you hang out with other little baby friends you pick up stuff from them. Why are three year olds always running around saying “No”? Because three year olds get told “No” a lot.

Then when kids get older they start learning to talk from things like tv. If they watch sesame street they might learn something. If they're watching Hannah Montana, chances are they’re gonna learn how to get an attitude with anyone who disagrees.

We, humans, learn from what we hear and what we see. We start as clean slates. We start as pure, happy little screaming babies. Tiny unexposed souls in tiny unexposed bodies. Life is scary. Everything is big. And as soon as we’re born we learn what life is from what’s going on. We don’t know anything. So if out world around us is bad and hates us, we will learn life is bad and we will hate ourselves.

Everyone knows this. And I’m starting to get off track.

The point is, what we see is what we do. And what we hear is what we say. And what we do and say we eventually have to think about even if we don’t notice our thoughts. And what we think about we tend to notice and see and then eventually even look for.

So let’s say you’re hanging out with a group of friends, and they don’t really care. They hate their families. They down-talk anyone and anything that bothers them in the slightest.

No matter how much you may love your other friends and your family, the more you hang out with this particular group the more you will become like them. Meaning, if you’re hanging out with them every day you will eventually see your family and other friends they way they see their families and other people. And you’ll start talking about it.

That is not pure.

(You: Wait but I thought purity was just like… Kissing and stuff. Right?)

No. Pure comes from the Latin purus, which means clean. Not chaste. Clean. Cussing is not clean, which is why it’s fun to do. Insulting other people is not clean. It’s dirty. It makes other people’s opinions of who you’re talking about dirty.

True purity does not soil how people are seen. True purity is clean. Clean is not dirt. So dirtying a reputation is obviously bad.

Now do you understand why not to gossip? It’s not just so you don’t hurt people. Gossip means dirt is pouring out in your words. Meaning that you are dirty. Making you a terrible, dirty person.

Purity does not talk about others behind their backs. Purity does not destroy people.

To be pure, to discipline yourself into being pure, start with your speech. Watch what you say. Don’t say stuff to other people just for shock factor or just for fun; your words will always be remembered by someone. Weigh your words as though they are your single most important accomplishment.

If your friends, who are your most prominent influences, hold no standards in their speech, mayhap you need a different group. Or to make a group commitment to watch your speech.

(Note: I will NEVER tell you to drop your friends. I am NOT telling you to abandon them or to tell them they suck or to just stop talking to them. If you feel like you need to do that then grace to you…)

If your family, also a prominent influence, holds no standards… Try talking to them, and if that doesn’t work I still haven’t figured it out. Pray for them I guess.

Controlling your speech is the hardest discipline to matter, but also one of the most important.

Trust me guys, you want to learn self discipline and/or follow the bible? Start with your words.

~ Silver

James 3:1-15 (New King James Version)

1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in words, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 We put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Where is God?

“Someday, I’ll find God, I’ll see God, and then everything will be ok.”

That sounds right, yes?

No. That is utterly wrong.

Why?

Because God is living inside you.

Freaking inside you, with you, in your heart, not separate and around you. He is a part of you.

Now, that sounds somewhat new age-y I suppose. But where do you think other religions come from? Did people make them up on their own? No. They all stemmed from one source: Jesus.

So back on topic.

A lot of times I hear people say stuff like, God’s arms are open! Run into him! It’s a race and he’s the prize!!

Now, I’m sure this all has its place in context. But out of context, meaning most every time someone says it, I just get this picture of this long, terrifying track to run on and it’s always noon so the sun is glaring at you and since you’re in the middle of the dessert you’re screwed. And at the end of this, someone has told you there is a trophy. So you just have to trust them on that.

And along the way are little water stops. And you’re going to run this race to God, assuming the person was right about the trophy. And sometimes your race crosses paths with other people.

And it’s not really a race so much as it’s a marathon/obstacle course. With like, lava pits and pendulums and spikes and carnivorous starving animals and stuff.

If you see it like this, comment. I want to make sure I’m not the only one.

Now, let me explain why this picture is wrong.

Can you really see yourself doing something like that alone? Hecks no. A lot of people like to try, but they fail and decide it’s cause God is mad at them and wants them to lose. Or that Christianity just… Isn’t right for them and… Maybe someday they’ll try again but… Not now, now they just need to rest in.. whatever…

Yeah like That’s gonna work. Will you come back? Probably not. Probably only if some incredible encounter happens. Which, I’m not totally out ruling. But I think you get what I mean.

You’ve prolly noticed I have yet to correct the picture.

Lets say, instead of running this alone and sometimes seeing people and sometimes getting to stop for water, you’re running with someone. Someone who can give you water when you ask. Someone who can get you over the lava pits and stuff. Now, I’m not saying you won’t get burned and I’m not saying the race will be easy, but you’re probably not going to give up now, are you?

This is how following God is meant to be. Wayy back when risen Christ went back home to intercede before the Father, he left us a gift. Called the Holy Spirit. I call him HS for short.

We all know about the trinity. The three parts of the same person Father… Son… And what’s the last one? The Holy Spirit. HS.

So, if he’s living in you, and he is God, then that means that God, is In, You.

Do you grasp the meaning of this? Yes? No? Maybe?

God, the prize, the little water stops etc, is IN YOUUUU…. He is running WITH YOUUUU.

He is not a distant God. He’s not this person you have to go address all ceremoniously and stuff. He hears your thoughts, not just what you say. So if you’re saying, Oh Lord, of all, who hast created the heavens, come save thy servant from mine enemies, then he hears that, but he also know what your really asking is, OMG There are people saying stuff about me and my life is runiedddd HELPPP.

Fancy language is nothing but cool looking frosting. Your heart is the cake. Which may or may not be stale and crumbly and weird and pasty. That’s between God and you.

And if you’re sitting in your room crying, and then you compose yourself and pray for like, I dunno nightly devotions or something, and you’re all like “Dear Jesus, I love you. Please come heal my cat. Thank you for my friend Elizabeth, and chocolate. Amen” Or whatever, and your heart is still hurt, He Knows That. And he’s listening to your prayer thinking, You’re welcome for Elizabeth, and Chocolate, but… Don’t you want help with your boyfriend? Don’t you need money to fix your car? I want to help with that too. Can I? Just ask me, Please….

You cannot hide your brokenness from God, and he doesn’t want you to try. The strength of the world is nothing to him. Who you are and what you’re feeling is absolutely everything to him.

…. Lemme say that again.

Who you are. And what you’re feeling. Not what you say you’re feeling, But what you’re actually feeling, is Absolutely. Everything. To. God.

You are everything to God.

You.

Are Everything.

To.

God.

Got it? I hope so. If not leave me a comment and I’ll respond and say it a few more times.

So why do you have to find God?

I mean, I know you may have heard that he’s right there, but that means nothing if you haven’t found him yet, right?

Right. Because you’re still trying. Maybe if you do this thing, you’ll figure out where he is. Maybe if you pray harder, or read your bible more, or take notes during church.

Stop trying. Be still and know that He is God.

(How do I be still?)

Idk ask him not me. It’s different for everyone. For me, it means stop thinking about everyone else and how do I help them and stuff like that and just to sit there and talk to him as though he’s with me. Maybe I’m arguing with Him. Maybe I’m not. Either way I’m talking to him.

The dangerous thing with that is learning to distinguish between God and lies. But if you read the Bible enough, you figure out which is which (Just a hint: God will never tell you you’re a terrible person. He will never say you suck, and he will never say he’s disappointed in you. He will always love you. He encourages people to do the right stuff. He doesn’t discourage them into love. Hating someone for something just makes them sad. God doesn’t do that.)

God is In Me. And You. God is With You.  Got it? And he loves you. Yes, life sucks. We don’t belong in the world, but while we’re here we should spent what little time we have talking to God, not trying to find Him. Cause he’s with us always. No exceptions. And he loves us always. No exceptions. You can’t hide your life from something that’s in you and knows you, and you don’t have to because he loves you.

It’s just that simple.

Now, Go talk to God.

~Silver

A truth the world is afraid of.

Strength.

People too often consider strength to be that thing that lets you hide how you feel in times of trouble. The thing that holds back tears when you should be a mess on the floor.

“Oh, she’s so strong. Her parents are getting a divorce but every day she shows up at school and smiles and holds her friends up when they go through rough break ups. I dunno how she does it.” Yeah, that’s real strength there (Sarcasm)

 No, that’s not strength. That’s self denial.

“He never cries. Even when he found out his best friend was in the bus accident and died, he didn’t cry. And not at the funeral either.” (You: That’s a bit extreme) (Yeah well I’m trying to make a point.)

Since when were tears a *bleep*ing weakness?

(You: Oh, ok. So what do You say strength is then, hm?)

Strength is being able to cry, being able to deal with your pain, and not letting it eat you. Strength is letting yourself heal. Strength is not caring if everyone else sees you an emotional mess.

Strength is knowing who you are, knowing what you feel, and dealing with it. Hiding behind humanity’s definition of strength is the definition of weakness.

Strength is knowing you’re falling, not knowing how far you’ll fall, but being ok with it nonetheless.

Falling, yet trying to hold on to whatever you can to keep yourself safe, is Not strength.

I mean really, emotions are pretty dang hard to express sometimes. We all know that. It’s hard to love someone when they’ve wronged you. It’s hard to cry when the rest of the room is laughing. It’s hard to laugh when no one else joins in. We automatically feel judged and hated, like as if the entire world is glaring at you asking “How dare you not feel how we feel?”

Surrendering to that judgment is basically the socially acceptable form of cutting yourself.

You shouldn’t be fitting yourself into that little crib in the back of your head where you’re safe. Do little kids care if someone sees them crying? No. They only start caring when people tell them to grow up, when other kids start teasing them. When their parents tell them to grow a pair and quit being a baby.

If we were meant to be turtles, we’d all come with shells.

And I’m not saying you should burst into tears all the time either. But if you’re hurt, don’t call it nothing, swallow your pain, and smile so you look normal.

When people hurt you and you seal it up inside you, you just end up hating them. And then you take everything they do, everything they say, everything they are, as a reason to hate them. They become a dragon in your head and everyone similar to them, or friends with them even, is part of their dragon army.

If someone hurts you, you should figure out why it hurt and then bring it to them.

(You: But if I do that I’ll look dumb) Yeah and if you wander around hating them for all your life, you’ll be bitter and sad and you won’t be able to figure out why.

If you need to look dumb in order to resolve your pain, then look dumb. Since when was the opinion of man greater than your own well being?

Never.

(Note: If the person who hurt you laughs at you after you talk to them, you should go get back up and try again. Esp someone who looks big and threatening. Or the quiet dangerous type.)

(… Or pray for them.)

I’m not even saying you should pour out your heart to whoever asks “How are you?” Unless you know this person very well, you are going to scare the crap out of them and they won’t know what to do except stare blankly at you with huge eyes, then slowly mutter “Aw I’m so sorry!” and maybe hug you.

This is discouraging.

But you should always have someone, or a few someones, who you can go to with your hurt. If your best friend truly is your best friend, he/she will stick with you whether you’re smiling or curled up on a couch crying your soul out. (and then you should stick with them too)

And always, always take your pain to God. And your joy. And anything else you feel. Even if it feels like he isn’t responding or doesn’t care, tell yourself he does and don’t stop talking to him. If you make him your best friend, and share your heart with Him, he’ll do the same with you.

And you can laugh at me and call me a retarded little Christian kid with her imaginary God, but I’d rather my “Imaginary God” over some other probably insecure human any day.

If you can be you, and express you, and not let who you are and what you feel be judged by others, then you can truly be strong.

Never get that strength mixed up with hidden tears.

Be strong.

~Silver

Who are you?

What is beauty?

…… (You*Blank Stare*: Well now, that’s not an easy question to answer…)

No, not really. But it’s an Important Question. Merely for the sake of keeping this from being a novel on beauty, I’ll limit this to the beauty of man. What is the beauty of man? What’s so important about him?

Now, a lot of people will tell you there’s nothing beautiful about man. That he’s not important.

Those same people will either tell you to save the trees and care about animals feelings and refuse to eat meat cause the poor dead chickens, or they’ll grow up to be lawyers and such just so they can declare what they think to be justice.

Don’t listen to those people.

There is everything beautiful in everything. Now, there are some parts of people that aren’t very pretty, but that is very much so beside the point. Ugly things can be ranted at other times.

What I’m talking about isn’t things people think people are. It’s who people actually are. Who they were the minute they were born, rather than who they became later on in life.

The core of who a person is before they were told how to be pretty, before they were lied to and made weak in an attempt to look strong, before they were pressured to become perfect, is in fact the most beautiful thing ever.

That’s why newborns are awesome. They scream, they cry, they look around at everything so innocently.

They don’t know that in five years, give or take, they’ll be starting a never ending journey to fit in to society.

Innocence embodied. That’s why innocent things are so cute and we like them. Innocence is a factor of beauty.

But that is Not what Beauty is. Not in the least.

Someone (A guy) once said there is nothing more attractive than a woman who is confident in who she is.

The same goes for guys. If a guy knows who he is, or at least can act it flawlessly, he will be the dude with all the girls’ eyes on him. (It’s important to note here, though, that if he’s acting confident for the chicks, then he probably isn’t that confident and just needs help. He’s lonely.)

If you know who you are then nothing can stop you.

But that’s not really hidden knowledge. Every one kind of knows that. So why am I telling you this?

Well, not because I want you to stop reading and go off on some search for your true self. Those searches almost never go well.

I’m actually going to tell you who you are. So keep reading.

You are unique, special. There is no one like you. Maybe to the human eye, yeah. Since man judges on appearance. But who you are, the very core of your being, is unique. So many people spend too much time making themselves unique. If they stepped back for a second they’d realize they were making themselves to be everyone else.

Don’t be a conformist, and don’t be an anti-conformist. In fact, forget the idea of conformism ever existed.

You are something so beautiful that there is someone out there, maybe many someone, who would die for you. Not cause you look pretty or act pretty, but because you Are pretty.

In fact, someone already did die for you, and believe you me he’d do it again if he had to. Not that he has to now. All you really have to do is follow him, love him, and love others no matter what and you’re safe.

Safe in love, isn’t that something?

People spend their entire lives searching for beauty, to make themselves something to be desired. It ruins people, when they want to be something else.

You were Made Perfect. Nothing can change that. Nothing can truly change You.

Even if you’ve spent a lot of time trying to change you, even if you’ve convinced yourself that you’re terrible and a liar and a fake and horrible and no one should ever love you and you’re the exception to everything I’ve just said.

(You don’t understand)

Yes, I do. Believe me when I say I do. Convincing works both ways.

(You can’t change the truth.)

Exactly my point. And if you’ve had to convince yourself that you’re terrible, if you started believing that once upon a time, then obviously you didn’t start out that way, which means you weren’t meant to end that way. Or even exist that way. Which means you can stop believing it. Which means you really should.

Because you are the definition of beauty. God made you like him. And if you are you, if you are who you started out as, then you can’t lose anything.

So who are you, really?

~Silver

To want, or to need?

It’s funny, people treat relationships as though our relationship with God mirrors human relationships. “Oh, this is how a relationship works. So that’s why we need this with God.”

No, it should be, “Oh, so this is how it works with God, let’s work this into human relationships.”

God doesn’t Need us, but he loves us. Therefore, we shouldn’t have someone because we need them, but rather because we Love them. Love from a need is only selfishness. That doesn’t last. As soon as that need is gone, that “love” is gone.

To love is to want to show love. Not to need love in return. That is why we must learn to love all, even those that we should hate. If our hearts are in a place of peace, we will feel (Exist, be.) in a place of peace. Which is hard, but I’m sure walking was hard for all of us at one point too.

Love should be an overflow of the heart, which is why you really shouldn’t start getting into relationships until after you’re steadfastly after God and in love with God.

Our love for God, at the beginning, comes from the fact that he satisfies our needs. This is how he is a parent.

Then we start to get bored with that. Cool, we have God, all is good now. He becomes nothing but salvation to us. Sure, we’ll follow him and what he wants because we’re obligated to, but that’s all it is: obligation.

Then there’s the next level. Not too many come to this level; admiration. Our God is beautiful. Not only is he beautiful, but he is the most amazing incredible, awe inspiring thing in the world. He is perfect. Once we catch a glimpse of this, our love becomes a search for it. Not because we need it, but because we Want it. Not because we want to be loved, but because we want to Love. We start doing what he asks because we love, not because he loves.

We are a generation that has lost sight of Love. What is it to us? Nothing more than a feeling, a brief happiness, a strong attachment to something. Anything more than that is over dramatized, romanticized, and poetic.

Love is more. Love is something that captures the heart, eats away at the soul, and burns forever; it is strong as death and demanding as the grave. Love destroys kings and ruins empires.

This thing we now call love is mere infatuation, simply a distraction.

When people think God is Love, they probably think oh cool, God is Love. He loves everything. He’s peaceful and happy. He’ll forgive Anything.

Yeah that’s true but at the same time it is so, so very wrong.

God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with Fire.

God, who created the world and flooded it in an instant.

God, whose judgment will send people to hell.

Ok, so now you look at that and decide God is an angry God.

Dannng you’re quick to judge, eh?

Quick little scenario here. Just go with it, k? There’s this guy, he’s your average guy with the cute hair and the soft brown eyes, and the smile that kind of reminds you of the sun. You know, the kind of guy that would show up in a story as prince charming. (We’ll call him Michael, just to keep things straight.) And this guy Michael, he’s madly in love with this chick (Amy).  She’s got pretty blue eyes, and a sweet smile, etc… So he does stuff for her. He gets her things, he is her secret admirer. Sounds cute, right? And they meet, become friends, he keeps chasing after her. Just like any love story.

But she doesn’t like him.

He offers the world to her, but she decides to chase the dude with the motorcycle (Blake), who smokes and drinks and cusses at anything that moves cause he can. The guy who has no future but he’s cool right now. Who looks at her and sees nothing but a hot body willing to let him do anything.

She utterly rejects charming.

Now, do you see these two, Michael and Amy, having a future together? She’s spurning his gifts, ignoring him. She’s running away with motorcycle boy.

Is Michael going to marry Amy?

No, because that would make her unhappy.  She doesn’t Want Michael, she wants Blake. So she marries Blake and spends her entire life with him. (Her entire life being, until he drinks a bit too much and they get into a motorcycle accident and die. Don’t drink and drive, kids.)

Terrible love story, right? Right. You’re probably thinking, thank you so very much for telling us this terrible story, please get back to the point.

Well, that was the point. Hell is the place where God isn’t. Heaven is the place where God is. Is God going to make people spend eternity with him after the utterly reject him? No. Of course not. They don’t Want him. They want… Whatever else makes them happy.

So if you really think about it, God’s just giving people what they want by sending them to Hell. 

See there, though. I’m saying Want, not need. Everyone needs God. And some of them have him. Some of them replace him with other stuff, cause you can use anything to fill a void. But that void, see, is huge and gigantic and endless. There is no such thing as an endless supply of (Insert something else here). You know why? Cause you’re not getting any when you’re dead.

But that’s back to need God. We need God to fill that void. But in order for Him to fill it, we have to Want him. Meaning, does your life suck right now? (Yes.) Love God. (But life sucks and I need Him to fix him and he won’t.) Do you Want God? (Well, yes, I want him… To fix it.) No, I mean do you Want God?

Well, do you?

~Silver

 “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19

“1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

Ephesians 5:1-2