Giving up and Giving Life

Hebrews 13:1-5 AMP

LET LOVE for your fellow believers continue  and  be a fixed practice with you [never let it fail].  Do not forget  or  neglect  or  refuse to extend hospitality to strangers [in the brotherhood--being friendly, cordial, and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously], for through it some have entertained angels without knowing it.   Remember those who are in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are ill-treated, since you also are liable to bodily sufferings.  Let marriage be held in honor (esteemed worthy, precious, of great price, and especially dear) in all things. And thus let the marriage bed be undefiled (kept undishonored); for God will judge  and  punish the unchaste [all guilty of sexual vice] and adulterous.  Let your character  or  moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you  nor  give you up  nor  leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor  forsake  nor  let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]

Matthew 18:20 AMP

For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My  followers) in (into) My name, there I AM in the midst of them.

Psalm 22:3-5 AMP

But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered].  Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted (leaned on, relied on You, and were confident) and You delivered them.  They cried to You and were delivered; they trusted in, leaned on,  and  confidently relied on You, and were not ashamed  or  confounded  or  disappointed.

One thing that sets Christians apart from the world around us is our call to duty. Once we turn our life over to God and give him full reign we are assigned partnership with the Holy Spirit for some character changing exercises. Our nature is generally selfish and self-fulfilling, but our call through Christ causes us to work against those traits of humanity.

I have had my own personal struggle with that call and it`s taken years to find the balance. Even then...I fall off track when I don`t apply myself and keep my daily focus on God. I recently went through a spiritual drought. The original cause was me becoming hyper-focused on my wants, needs, and desires and not bothering with the idea that those may not line up with God`s plan. I even openly admitted that I knew God had a purpose for his way of things playing out in my life in a particular fashion, but my choices would have still been different from God`s. The result was my spirit becoming dry and thirsty.

I had spent a lot of time away and also got really sick, which kept me from fellowshipping with my church family and my actual family. One missed service or activity soon became several and before I knew it, I was feeling wiped out spiritually and it was dragging into other areas of my life. May productivity dwindled and I wasn`t focused on anything....especially God.

When I did step back into my church doors, y spirit truly breathed a sigh of relief. I actually became more thirsty for time with God until I began praying for God to recreate the balance. Once those things took place I was able to become grounded in my spiritual life again and God was able to open some doors he hadn`t previously, because I wasn`t prepared.

God desires us to stay connected with our fellow believers, to be life givers by stepping outside of ourselves and focusing on the needs of others, and to let go of our sinful desires. Our humanity allows us to justify and pacify our wrong doings. I am the first one to be honest in saying I have desired wrong things for easily justifiable reasons, but there comes a point when I have to acknowledge that no matter the reason, God can`t do much with me in the middle of a self-inflicted mess and he will sooner turn  me over to those things than allow me to believe he is going to do something good with my life in the midst of me blatantly disregarding his word and his desires for my life.

I thank God for his conviction and grace, because without it, I would lose every time. Satan desires for us to give up on life...the life God has planned for us. God desires us to give up and give life...so that we may live more abundantly.

Counter Attack on Faith

 
Hebrews 11:1-3 AMP

NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed)
                of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see  and  the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real
                fact what is not revealed to the senses].  For by [faith--trust and holy fervor born of faith] the men of
                old had divine testimony borne to them  and  obtained a good
                report.  By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive
                ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose)
                by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are
                visible.

John 20:26-29 ESV

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."  Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
I was loosely engaged, recently, in a discussion (or better described as an attack) on the Christian faith. In this particular instance I chose to refrain, from defending the reason behind my faith and other believers, because in the moment, the more pressing issue was my friend's character coming under attack because he chose to take a stand and stick by it.
The issue in totality was that Amendment 1 was passed in our state, which defines marriage as 1 man and 1 woman. An immediate attack on Christianity and the people who walk under that covering was very blatant.
Anyone who voted yes or no, voted based off of a personal belief system, and what they felt was right. But Christians as a whole in the state of NC are now labeled a bunch of bigots, which is truly unfair. Standing by one's values and beliefs is not an act of bigotry, unless it is done with hateful and malicious intent.
I know plenty of individuals who voted yes, but they wouldn't treat a gay person in any less loving or kind manner than anyone else. They would never speak ill of them and they would likely come to the defense of someone under the attack of someone who is a true bigot.
Our faith and beliefs as Christians makes us no more likely to be hateful and nasty, as someone's sexual orientation would. In fact, if someone is truly walking in faith with God, they are going to be loving and kind, yet still stand up for what they believe in.
A statement was made that Christians mindlessly follow the flock. The act of walking in faith, believing in the word of God as inherent truth, going against your very nature and making choices that go against the mindset of the majority of your culture takes a alot of heart and mind.
Faith is defined as a "firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust". How can anyone mindlessly do that? Our nature and our culture thrives on proof  being a necessity. Having faith means you have to step outside your comfort zone and believe beyond anything tangible. As believers, our only "proof" is the way that God shows up in our lives through people and his miraculous actions. So Christianity is far from being a flock following activity, especially when our beliefs are constantly challenged by the world around us.
If you have a personal issue with how you've been treated by an individual group of Christians or 1 Christian in particular..I understand the resistance, but just like all whites, blacks, gays, straights, Jews, northerners, or southerners are not the same....neither are all Christians. Standing by our belief system is not hateful in and of itself, just like anyone else standing up for theirs is. The outward actions and words of an individual should define them, not their faith or orientation.
I will leave this Earth as a Bible believing Christian and you may not, but don't assume I or anyone else in my faith is a mindless bigot without being given a valid reason, and I will vow to be a loving, caring individual towards you, no matter if i agree with you or not. Disagreement should not equal hate, but unfortunately on both sides of the faith and orientation table, this is often the result.