Remember God? Go after Him!

Friday through Sunday 05/15-05/17

Jude 17-21 and Ecclessiastes 12:1

Jude 1:17-21(New International Version)
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Ecclesiastes 12:1and 8 (New International Version)
1 Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
"I find no pleasure in them"-
8 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.
"Everything is meaningless!"

There are going to be people in your life that mock you for your beliefs in God. Chances are you have already thought of who those people are in your life and if I asked you to name one you'd look at me and say “Only one?!” The Bible says that the goal of these people is to divide you. Isn't that an interesting statement, divide you from what? Any guesses? My thought is that whether on purpose or not these people are trying to take us away from or separate us from God. They are doing this by taking us away from Christian fellowship, keeping us from reading our Bibles, and discouraging and bad-mouthing us when we do anything having to do with Jesus. These people say they want what is best for you, they want you do to “what feels good”, so “just do it!”, doing it once can't hurt you, nothing matters anyway so just have fun. These people live their lives by following their 'animal' or 'natural instincts' and no matter what they do in their lives they are never satisfied by it because they do not have God living in them.

This is what people who do not have God do. So what should you, as a Christians be doing? Jude 20 instructs you to
“...build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”
So the first thing you are to do is to pray however the passage goes on and says that you should also
“Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”
What do you think it means to “Keep yourself in God's love.”? I think it means that we need to go after God with every fiber of our being and to be honest with you the best way to do that is to go back to the basics. What are the basics? You know them, if you grew up in a Christian home they have been hammered into your head since you were old enough to talk. They are: Prayer, Bible Reading, and Spending time in fellowship with other believers talking about what God is doing in your spiritual lives. Some of you are probably a bit disappointed, this is a blog Rose is writing. Its supposed to have new, exciting ideas for me to get on fire for God. These ideas are not new, they may not seem exciting, but I promise you they work and are amazing.

I want you to now think of your best friend. I'm going to bet that part of the reason you're best friends is because you spend time with each other. Whether its on the phone, the computer, or in person you guys stay connected. You take the time out of your busy and complicated lives to make sure you both know what is going on in each others lives etc, right? I have talked with many of you on our Friday nights and you say that you feel disconnected from God, like He isn't there and really you're not even sure He exists let alone believing He cares about you. Most of you know what I'm going to say next but I'm going to say it anyway. If you spend as much time with God as you do with your best friend, getting to know Him, talking to Him, just in general spending time with Him you will have a better more fulfilling spiritual life than I have ever been able to pray for you to have. I put that statement in bold because I wanted to make sure that you didn't miss that.

Girls, I want you to know that I want each and every one of you ladies to spend eternity with Jesus because I can't imagine eternity with out any of you. That's why I'm reminding all of you to do as the passage in Ecclesiastes 12:1 says and remember God! If there is one thing that I regret about being your age it is that I did not realize the awesome, wonderful, perfect love of God and how I could have it if I was just willing to go after it! I'm going to warn you now, being older does not make your relationship with God any easier. Honestly, everything that I'm “supposed” to do and all the responsibilities I have make it much harder for me to build my life around Christ. So what I want you to do is STOP WASTING YOUR HIGHSCHOOL AND JUNIOR HIGH YEARS, did the capitals get your attention, that was the point. Please, stop making excuses for living without God and go after Him! I do not want you to be one of those women who looks back upon her teenage years and can only think of how meaningless her life was. I want you ladies to be better than me. I will tell you something now I wish I had realized years ago, everything in your life will be pointless unless it is done through God. So go after him! I want all of you girls to live set apart lives for God that are filled with meaning and the perfect, forgiving and understanding, love that only comes from Jesus Christ.

I want to challenge you ladies to start viewing God as someone who loves you, cares about you, and wants what is best for you. I want you to go in to His precious word daily and spend time with Him in prayer and fellowship with other believers. I have put suggested devotions for you for this weekend below. Please read them and spend time with God in prayer. Also, for those who want more than just a few verses per day I have included my own devotion plan as well.

Suggested reading:
05/15
Eccl. 12:1-3
Jude 17-19

05/16
Eccl 12:4-5
Jude 20-23

05/17
Eccl 12:6-8
Jude 24-25


What I (Rose) am reading for my personal time:
05/15
Jude-Matt. 1
Isaiah 1-2
Psalm 81

05/16
Matt. 1-2
Isaiah 2-3
Psalm 82

05/17
Matt. 2.3
Isaiah 3-4
Psalm 83