No Greater JOY

Oh my goodness.

I woke up today being excited that it's Sunday. I really have come to love Sundays and all that they bring. Church is pretty much the highlight of it, as cheesy as it sounds. But I suppose that's how it should be, shouldn't it?

Anyways, I go to Apex in Xenia. Last week, we started a series called Kingdom and a King. I was so excited after last week's introduction to the series. They gave us a handout with all the titles of the sermons each week, and just from looking at it, I knew this was going to be a powerful series. Today's message was called The War of Two Kingdoms. Rob Tuner spoke today, which made me so excited! I love him and his genuine, humble, and truth-filled heart. The main points of today were this:

There are TWO kingdoms...
...with TWO different rulers...
...with TWO different governments...
with TWO opposite destinations.

Rob went on to talk about the evil one, the accuser, the prince of the air, Satan. Satan's strategy is to blind us from the reality that we should not love the world or anything even in it. Satan has strategies for both believers and unbelievers. Here they are:

For unbelievers:

1. The worship of counterfeit.
2. Slander - the enemy makes a caricature of the character and person of Christ.
3. Stereotyping - comparing the character of Christ to the performance of His followers
4. Slavery - their hearts and minds are enslaved by sin
5. Distraction - blinds their minds
6. Death

For believers...how convicting:

1. Processing grace into a permission to slip into being lazy
2. Assuming encouragement and there never doing it - Am I encouraging my fellow followers??
3. Allowing ungodly people to have undue influence on your values and decisions: Am I hanging out with people who are telling me to compromise what I know to be true? (Also in this point, Rob told the girls that the most attractive thing about a man should be his HOLINESS and GODLINESS. Amen!)
4. Thinking of the Gospel as history only and not victory - I need the Gospel EVERY DAY. Not just when I initially accept Christ as my Savior!

What can OUR strategies be for fighting against the enemy ruler??

1. Quit being DEFENSIVE
2. Know your UNIFORM
3. God on the mission of RESCUE - If we're not moving, it's easy to take us down.
4. Practice HOLY subversion.
5. Practice DEEP SPIRITUAL CONVICTION


So here's my prayer...

Lord, I want to run stinkin' hard after You. I want to fix my eyes on You and not look to the left or right. I want to be set apart from the world. Break me and cleanse me of loving the things of the world. They're not worth it. Forgive me for being that Christian that turns unbelievers away from You. Father, help me to be intentional and to not be lazy. Help me fight the good fight! It's all for You, my good King!


I know that probably hardly anyone reads my blog. ha ha It's not like I expect it. But if you do happen to stumble upon this, I hope it encourages your heart like it did mine.


As for my day today, I think I'm going to do homework for a few hours...go work out, and then get off campus and go to Panera. Sometimes I just need time to myself away from Cedarville, ya know? I look forward to it :)

Be of good courage and stand firm!