Love Your God With All Your Mind by Ryan Henderson

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:28:05 -0600

I read a book called “Love Your God with All your Mind,” by J.P. Mooreland and it was inspiring.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Luke 10:27

Clear, sound reasoning is important in living out our faith. We are to love God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind. This does not mean that we ignore matters of the heart, but we must be careful not to permit how we feel about God to be our only source of direction. Just like we cannot allow our minds to dominate our hearts, we cannot allow our hearts to dominate our minds. We must not allow how we feel about God to prevent us from loving God with our mind. Emotions come and go, but if we have an intellectual mindset our faith has the potential to grow so much more.

Who Is God? by Jamie Budlong

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:44:38 -0600

I always forget how huge our God is. I mean really, how often do we put God into our little minds and then when people ask us who God is, we can easily say? But if you think about it, being able to explain who God is should be hard, because He is so much more grand than our minds can wrap around, and more awesome for any words here on earth to express. I recently got the opportunity to go on a hot air balloon. It was completely amazing! Once I got over the fear of being put in a basket that came up to my waist, and then trusting a large piece of fabric, to hold me up as I go 2000 feet above the earth. But when we got to that moment, all the fears subsided, and all I could see was the mountain range stretched out before me, and the peaks going on for what seemed like forever. It was in that moment that I was reminded how small I am, how great God is, and the fact that He still chooses me to live this life for Him. How easily do we forget that? How easily do we forget the vast greatness of our God, because we want to be able to put Him into a few sentences, to be able to express to someone “who God is.” I can’t define who God is, because His word is some thousand pages, and that I feel doesn’t even come close to describing the God I serve. He is more majestic than the Rockies, and more beautiful than the Colorado sunsets. He has more mercy and grace in one moment that I will have in a lifetime. He is filled with grace and truth, in a way that my brain will never fully understand. I see God in so much, yet still am at a loss for words. And for some reason, I think God is okay with that. As his child, what I think He simply wants us to know is that He loves us more than anyone in this world, and wants the very best for us. He wants us to know that He is a God that will not change because of time, culture, fads, and opinions. He doesn’t want to give us a one sentence about who He is, and have us understand it. He simply says in His Word, “I Am.” We still cannot comprehend that, I feel. He wants us to know He is a God of mystery. But He never wants us to stop getting to know Him, as we add more and more of who God is to our ever growing definition.

ACCEPTING OUR PLACE AS CHILDREN OF GOD by Shannon Unger

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:20:20 -0600

In my room I have a bulletin board where I put up bible verses that I like, or words that remind of who God is. And as I was sitting here pondering what to write about, I looked up and read one of those verses. It was 1 John 2:6 "Whoever claims to live in Him, must walk as Jesus did." I don't think John meant we should walk in the same physical manner as Jesus did or that we need to live the exact life Jesus did. I think he was referring to something else, that Jesus knew his place and his role as the Son of God and he allowed that knowledge to impact every aspect of His life. It made Him walk the way he did, without sin, without blame and with pure faith. John is not telling us to live the same life of Jesus, but he is calling us to first recognize our place as children of God, as His sons and daughters, and walk as Jesus did, as the Son of God. This just makes me think of the saying 'you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family and I think that this saying always has negative connotations, it is almost always used by people who don't get along with their families. However in the context of God as our Father, I love it! The idea that we are His children, all of us and it isn't a matter of whether or not we are His children but it is more a question of whether or not we will let Him be our Father.

Overused, Not Understood by Michelle Boehm

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:06:14 -0600

My Psalm by Becca Lester

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 23:39:47 -0600

O Lord, my God
My soul lies in anguish
As I lose my grasp on all things I know
Quickly I have lost sight of my goals
And in the nothingness my body aches for You.
Lord, I have fought against my instincts
To turn my head completely.
And let the darkness permeate my
thoughts, my mind and my body.
But I scream and shout with all
the joy I can muster, that You have saved me.

You have already fought this
impending haze- You have won.
Victory is mine!
Victory is mine!
I needn't raise one finger,
for the darkness recoils
You, my omnipotent Savior,
fight for me everyday, every hour every second.

Lord, my God,
You know I am weak, ashamed, scared
Yet still I yearn for You, only You.
My hope, my only peace resides in You.
Though my eyes droop, my limbs
shake and I feel faint
With every last bit of energy I have
I push on towards You.

My previous goals seem no to
matter anymore
For You, only You my God
make me complete.
All my other dreams pale in comparison
to the dream of being with You,
My Savior, my Redeemer, my love.

I rejoice for You love me too.
I rejoice despite all my sores
Pain is temporary, Your peace is eternal.
Victory is mine, because of
You Lord, my God.