Wasted

I sleep on an awesome mattress.  I open my big, full-text, study Bible.  I send text messages on my new iphone.  I plug my new headphones into my imac.  I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed.  I drink sweet tea, as much as I want.  I go to McAlister's. 


 I buy books at Mardel.  I wear my Nike Pro Combat clothes and my NIKEiD tennis shoes to run around my fancy university.  I wear my fuzzy NorthFace jackets, and whichever pair of Ugg boots I choose to put on my feet, to go to Starbucks and buy a $5 cup of coffee. 


 Entire families live on less than $2 a week.  I spend $20+ a day on snacks.  I take a group of girls to Passion Berry for $6 icecreams, before we are satisfied enough to sit in the warmth and security of the Schooner Room to open God's word.

We get to have Bible study in public, under light bulbs, in nice, big buildings, with a full copy of God's precious word.  Others save a year's salary to purchase one page, before they risk their lives to share it with other Christians, to simply hold it as a possession.  


I live in a community where we idolize, IDOLIZE simple, sinful men, because they play a certain game.  You get quiet; you stare at them; you act weird.  Why?  You ask them to write their name on a piece of paper, which you appear to treasure more than every word of God's heart.  


We decline committing scripture to memory, but we remember the score to a football game from years ago.  Our walls should be plastered in God's word, yet I remember speechlessly walking into a room of one titled 'Minister' and seeing thousands of dollars spent on framed jerseys that twenty-something-year-old college kids wrote on with marker.

People are starving to death.  Natural disasters are killing nations.  Diseases leave babies without mommas and daddies every day.  Women are enslaved, beaten, left, because men pursue lust.  Families are destroyed daily, because we refuse to seek the heart of Jesus.  Boys are angry.  Girls feel worthless.

I do nothing for Jesus.  Yet, while I was still a sinner, He did EVERYTHING for me.  I don't understand.  If I were truly in love with the Prince of my eternity, I would be seeing Him add to our number daily.  My life would be scary.  I would face persecution.  Americans, still in the nurseries of our churches drinking spiritual milk, would kick me out of their smooth, pretty ministry routines.  I would lose everything, yet I would gain more than I have ever imagined. 

 Seemingly, I would have nothing to please me, yet I would rest in more satisfaction than I've ever known.  I should be on the firing lines.  I should risk it all.  I should do it now.

I want to die to Kaity.  I want to die to my needs.  I want to die to my desires.  What am I doing?  Billions of people are entering a Christ-less eternity, and I'm listening to David Platt and drinking hot chocolate.  I'm wasting time.  I've wasted a lot of time.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:18

--Kaity 

Completely to You

So what can I say? 
What can I do? 
But offer this heart O God 
Completely to You

This is a beautiful song by Hillsong United entitled The Stand.  As I was getting ready for church yesterday morning I was listening to Air1 when this song came on.  The snippet above is what hit me.  It captured my life at that very moment and God spoke through it.

After an intense weekend full of God-thoughts, worship services, and the emotions of life shared with friends, I realize just how easy it is to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and forget about the one thing that really matters.

As humans, we worship by design.  What we worship is specific to each individual.  The receiver of our worship can range anywhere from sports to boyfriends, music to backpacks, and Star Wars to baking.  None of these things are bad in and of themselves, however the Bible says anything we worship more than God is an idol, and idolatry is a sin.  (Luckily we already knew we were sinners and God has already taken care of that for those who ask!)

For biblical reference:

• Exodus 20:3-4 “You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneat or in the waters below.”
• Matthew 4:10 “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
• Matthew 22:37-38 “Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and the greatest commandment.”

Something I hadn’t thought much about until recently, is that even ministry can be an idol if our motives are wrong.  An example of this would be a youth pastor obsessing over how many kids are coming, what they are going to eat, how to get them to listen to the gospel, etc. rather than focusing on God, what he wants for the children, and asking Him to use the event to glorify himself. 

This isn’t cold hard fact, just an opinion, but I think girls are more vulnerable to making people our idols, whereas men are more vulnerable to making things their idols. 

For most women, idolatry easily creeps in to our relationships because of the Genesis 3:16 curse.  Our desire is for relationships, and more specifically our husband.  How many girls do you know that check their phone every 5 seconds waiting for that guy to text them?  Or what about the women who are so starved for love (like many of us) that they reach out for whatever male figure they can cling to.

We all have idols in our hearts.  This week I was convicted about chasing God’s plan more than God himself.  In high school one of my big idols was popularity and acceptance from other people.  But what’s your idol?  What are you not letting God control in your life?  Is there something you deem as more important than the creator of the universe?  Something coming in between you and your walk with God?  Take some time to examine your heart today and lay down any idols you might have.  Let God be God. J he does have it figured out ya know!

For a great bible study on idols I recommend: No Other Gods by Kelly Minter