so encouraged!

i just wanted to share a blog post by our friend, marc, a new believer and already going strong with a desire to learn and grow in the knowledge and love of God! PTL!
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Page by Page Struggle

It’s either ALL the Word of God, or it isn’t.

Something that is a constant battle for me and I’m sure will continue to be, so long as I continue to grow in my faith.

I’ve been attending Creekside Church every Sunday for the past couple months or so, and when I can’t make it to Irvine from being out of town or other circumstances I listen to the sermons online once they’re posted to get caught up. The series of messages are called Kingdom Living and have all been about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount which is a compilation of Jesus’ teachings on how to live our lives. Each week a different section of the Sermon on the Mount is discussed at Creekside, and each time I learn something new about myself that I have to change or adjust in order to better follow God’s Word. Now these changes don’t come immediately for me, or for anyone I presume, but with prayer and just continually studying the Bible it becomes easier and easier to try and mold myself into the person God wants me to be.

Now I guess the next question is why should I continually have to change how I act or think each time I read something in the Bible that conflicts with how I think or act already? Well to put it simply, it’s because I’m a believer; I believe that Jesus Christ is my savoir who died for my sins and all sins of the earth. I invited God into my life because I’ve learned that I need His guidance. Along with allowing God to enter my life came some rules that I have to obey and things I must do, not to prove to Him my self-worth and not to buy my way into His Kingdom, but instead to thank Him for what He has given me. Trying to do good works and live a perfectly moral life in order to prove to God that I am worthy doesn’t really make sense because I have sinned and unfortunately I probably will sin again because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Basically, I can’t claim my worth to God based on my obedience to Him because I fall short of God’s standards. Sounds discouraging? Not to me, because I know that due to sin I would not be allowed to live in Heaven with God; however, God provided me and all of us an opportunity to be with Him because HE LOVES US. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). It’s this love, this unconditional love that provides the reason to why I am trying my best to re-shape my life to glorify God because I cannot possibly thank Him enough for saving me. “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9

So that pretty much covers the reasons as to why I am trying to do things differently in my life nowadays. The problem is that it isn’t always easy to just change the way you live and believe me I have plenty more to work on in my life. But I am trying and I am proud to say I have made some significant changes in my life that I am very proud of and thank God for answering my prayers about them and giving me the strength to change. Ok, so why did I title this post “Page by Page Struggle”? Well, mainly because the more I read the Bible the more I come to agree with and the more I also come to discover “oops, I’m messing up.” These mixed feelings come from reading the Sermon on the Mount or any part of the Bible really, and it’s a struggle because when I come across something I don’t necessarily agree with or something that’s hard for me to change, what do I do? Do I ignore the parts that challenge me and disagree with my previous beliefs and focus on all the awesome parts that I do agree with? That doesn’t really make sense because that’s basically me cherry picking which parts I like and dislike; or, agreeing and living by what the Bible says on one page but then turning the page and if I dislike it, just ignore it and continue to disobey it? That won’t quite work out because “it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Romans 2:13). It’s not enough to just read/hear the Word of God, I have to ACTIVELY follow God’s Word. Definitely not always an easy task and I know that I am only just beginning the long journey that is to come which will be filled with difficulties that will push me and only help me grow further in my faith. If I come across something that I disagree with in the Bible, or is hard for me to obey I know I just need to pray about it and continually try and work towards correcting that fault in myself because “the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:25). I know I’ll make mistakes along the way, after all I am only human, but the comfort in knowing that God will be there every step of the way to help me out makes me understand that this is a journey I’ll be able to handle. Consciously trying to make an effort to change and follow the Word of God will be rewarding, as it already has been. PTL!