Hiiiiii,
I was just looking through some papers and found one that I had written verses all over and they were really good! Here's one that I love:
"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make it's boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together(!)"
~ Psalm 34:1-3
You know, it would be such a blessing and a sweet thing for the Lord if, whenever under trial and sadness and hurt, we blessed His name and made our boast in the Lord; because He has the victory. Imagine the joy He would have when one person says "praise You Lord" in the midst of the rest of the world cursing Him. It would do His heart good, because it just breaks all the time whenever He hears His name taken in vain or whenever people blame Him for anything that goes wrong.
And while we're on that note.... you know, it's really hard to stand up for Christ when you hear the person next to you say His name the wrong way. It's so incredibly common so that it always passes as "ok" and "the norm" you know? And since it's treated like that, as in, not treated at all, it's next to impossible to stand against it! Ahhhh...... people really get upset. =S
Anyway, God doesn't sluff it off as "the norm". He's really hurt. And He's also sad that that person's ill-treatment of His precious name will not go unnoticed by His laws and the consequences of breaking them. That person will recieve the consequences even to the point of eternal flame.
So, doesn't that make your heart just break?? I mean, now there's some good reasons to propel us on to defend God's name and save the person! Golly, it's so hard though..... but just think of what happens because of that one time in the supermarket when you say "please don't take God's name in vain like that". That person will think about your words for ever. They'll never go away! =) He or she will never be able to say anything in good conscience again and always think about that. (and if you pray for that person....well, he will probably get saved to!)
But the other good thing is that you just caused God to be filled with joy! He just saw your pitiful little half-attempt at defending Him and He's really pleased with you! :)
So, with that encouragement, I will leave you to forever have your conscience eaten at when you hear somebody say something ill of God until you and I finally stand up and defend Him! ;)
Lot's of love from your sister in Christ, Miriam
p.S. I really hadn't meant to write a whole thing like that when I started...just a short verse! lol But, well, I kinda get carried away. :)
5 comments:
Hey Miriam,
What a great post! And you are so right, it is incredibly hard to make a stand these days, especially when it comes to something like swearing, which is common language these days. I have gone through this at work, with fellow employees using pretty much any foul word you can think of. Because I 've worked there so long, though, I'm pretty comfortable asking someone to watch what they say (in a nice way, of course). It's actually gotten to where pretty much everyone knows how I feel about it and they will apologize when they say something and I'm around.
Hopefully one day it will make a difference!
Beth
Hey Beth :)
Ah, it's hard when you're always around that stuff, but it's neat that you're comfortable enough to talk to them about it. You know, I had that happen a few times in the past, where some friends of mine would learn what not to say around me or they would apologize when something slipped. It was neat.
Anyways, we keep praying for you! Please say hi to the family for me and give your mom a hug for me. God bless!
~Miriam
Hi Miriam,
I thought thought that this was a really cool post. I know many people that use the lords name in vain and don't even seem to think about it.
One of the coolest things about having a year of public school is that I was put in so many situations where I could stand up for the lord. I often told people not to do things like use the Lord's name in vain.
Sevral of my friends have attempted not using God's name in vain, but they are so use to it I think it is hard somtimes. Some people who have stoped and relized that what they were doing was wrong have even encouraged others not to missuse God's name. How cool!!!
~Sammi Crosby
Hi Sammi!
That is really neat that you've had opportunities to stand up for God... and even cooler that you actually acted upon it! =) Be encouraged and keep striving to obey God and seek Him. It's so hard to seek God in this hard, dark world. There's so many distractions that try to push Him out, but ignore them! Love you lot's!
In Christ, Miriam
Hey Miriam,
It is hard to stand up for God somtimes. I think it may have helped that most of the kids in school when I first came in were either strangers or friends so there really wasn't any reason not to tell them when I thought what they were saying was wrong. I didn't really feel shy and that was what I'd always done at home. Never hearing things like the Lord's name used in vain at home I was horrified to hear my friends using them. I didn't see why they would say somthing like that and told them not to quickly.
I told people not to do things that I thought were dishonoring to the lord quite often. Some of them laghed at me, but even some of the people who laughed at me stoped for a litle while. Once I relized how much I'd been standing up for the lord and what I belive is right it had already become part of my reputation. Some people made fun of me, but I found that if I chose not to care and just keep standing up to them most of them would left me alone. It didn't really bother me standing up to kids at school and it became sort of an everyday habit.
One thing I found alot harder though was standing up to the teachers saying things I disagreeed with. This usually effected me most when my science teacher was talking about of evouloution. In school they said it was a theory, but they often seemed to teach it like a fact. When ever I raised my hand to say that I didn't think somthing was true than I wasn't called on and I rarley got a chance to say anythging. Once creation was mentioned, but it only was for a few minutes while evouloution seemed to take the whole year to be taught. We even whatched a movie about evoulution it ended with a pastor who said he could always disprove it, but we didn't get to hear him try. Kids say that teachers don't lie and simply belive everything the say all the time. If you have any idea how I should react to somthing like this please let me know.
~Sammi C.
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