comparison

These two articles by John Piper were especially convicting and freeing today as I battle weight gain.

Stop Comparing

Compared to Christ

my id

Wednesday night (ok, it was actually already Thursday morning) I used my ID for the first time since eating at The Vortex last fall. Kimberly and I went to a sketchy club in downtown Atlanta to celebrate a sister's 21st birthday. I'm pretty sure I could handed the "bouncer" my dad's business card and gotten in just as easily, but it was still a somewhat monumental occasion.

The experience was definitely not a favorite: smoke, alcohol, dark and dingy, thugs and tecno. Not my typical scene, to say the least. But I'm learning that that's where Jesus was hanging out. He was not curled up with the disciples watching chick flicks or even having spiritual discussions every weekend. If He had done that, the Pharisees would not have had such a big problem with Him. No, no, no, no, no....Jesus was eating with tax collectors, letting promiscuous women wash His feet with their hair, crashing funerals, healing people on the day of rest, sending pigs over cliffs, talking to and protecting adulterous women, interrupting business in the Temple, and slipping in little comments like, "Oh, btw, I'm God." 

He was not concerned with safety.

He was not concerned with the reactions of others to His actions.

He did not explain Himself.

It was not about Him; it was about His Father.

The glory, the will, the salvation, the reknown of the Lord God.

MJQ, underground club: not so safe.

Hanging out with girls who are drinking, many underage: not what most Christians want to see.

But it's not about me, praise the Lord! It is all about my Father's will and utmost glory. He's given me liberty: freedom from the law, from expectations, from the Enemy, freedom to love with reckless abandon. Not to "love the sinner, hate the sin." Just to love the sinner.

What joy in the freedom of Christ!

Katie

2 Corinthians 5:13-15

"If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

More on liberty from Chuck Swindoll:

Part One

Part Two

i got a new water bottle today

My small group met at Chick-fil-A this morning. We were talking about Psalm 63:3 which says, "Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you." Rachel asked us what it means to praise or glorify something. What do we use our lips to praise on a daily basis? What do we talk about and promote to others?

The lesson hit home a few minutes ago.

I got a new 20-oz water bottle at Walmart right after small group; it's pink and has a cool straw that pops out. All day long I've been wanting to tell people how great it is, how much more water I'm drinking now, how I only have to wash the straw and the lid, how handy the handle is, etc. Not just wanting to tell them, but rehearsing in my mind all the great things I could tell them and imagining how I'll probably bring it up at dinner or when Kimberly gets home. It comes so naturally to use my lips to praise this water bottle.

Hold the phone. Let the incredulity of the statement wash over you: "It comes so naturally to use my lips to praise this water bottle"?!?!

My prayer is that the love of God would be such a novelty each day and such a necessity that I never realized I needed so desperately. His water quenches my thirst, His love is unbreakable, His life is real and substantial, and He is crazy about me. I want to babble about Him more than presidential candidates, more than the weather, more than my schedule, more than food (another ridiculous thing I'm prone to get too excited about), more than new clothes or weekend plans, and always more than silly, plastic, water bottles.

Learning to redirect my praise to the only One who is praiseworthy,

Katie