Serving Jesus in a Broken World (An Extra Excerpt from a Thinking Artist)

I want to throw an extra blog out tonight about some thoughts I have had the past few days from conversations I have had and media posts I have seen.  The thought that keeps coming to my mind is how dark the world we live in, really is.  The more I dive into different subjects, I find myself with a broken heart for a broken world.  It’s a heaviness that sits on my heart.  I guess you could say the responsibility that Jesus gave us before he left, is something we shouldn’t mess around with. 

If I am completely honest, my deepest passion in my heart is to live accordingly to the Word of God.  I see brokenness everywhere, in my daily activities, spiraling downward to the evil that is in my own heart.  1 Timothy 1:15 keeps ringing in my mind.  It says, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.”   I myself can turn into the most evil man in a second.  But the grace of God has an overwhelming presence in my life and I realize daily on how much grace God has given me. Makes me realize the selfishness in my own heart is great.  You see, this broken world that we live in makes me want to better myself in the Love and Grace of God, so that I can shine the light of Jesus to a world that is broken. 

I read a book the past month (WAHOO! I READ A BOOK) called, “The New How to Study Your Bible.”  I found out that the book is one you read as you study the bible, but I wanted to see what it was about first.  I am about to embark in its workbook and study the bible like never before.  With everything in my own life happening, with everything that I keep hearing about, or even talking about, I have a desire to know the Word of God to the best of my knowledge.  You see, I truly believe in Jesus.  I know some people find him crazy and just some man in history, but I truly believe he is the Son of God and I believe whole-heartedly every word of Scripture and I can’t wait to keep learning. 

My desire is that I can love like Jesus did. Love a world that so desperately needs the hope of Jesus. I hope I keep striving for him daily, dying to myself, and serving others . . . and serving Jesus.

What worries you most about the future?

As I sit here thinking about what worries me, not a whole lot comes to my mind.  I don’t know if it’s because there isn’t anything to worry about or at this moment in my life I just can’t think of anything.  Sure, I am in a place where my life might be struggling financially, but I have peace that God has my life in my own hands.  If I keep his commandments and obey him, I will be all right.  I also don’t worry very much.  I feel I have a pretty peaceful soul. 

The only thing that comes to my mind is if I ever make a decision in my life that pulls me very far away from God.  If you don’t know me that well, I am one who believes whole-heartedly in the Christian faith.  This has become something in my life that has become a top priority in my life.  Today in church, we sang the song called “Let my words be few” and this is one of those songs that rings true in my heart. I love this song.  I want to share some of the lyrics to you guys:

You are God in heaven

And here am I on earth

So I'll let my words be few

Jesus, I am so in love with You

And I'll stand in awe of You, Jesus

Yes, I'll stand in awe of You

And I'll let my words be few

Jesus, I am so in love with You

The simplest of all love songs

I want to bring to You, oh yeah

So I'll let my words be few, hey

Jesus, I am so in love with You

And I'll stand in awe of You, Jesus

Yes, I'll stand in awe of You

And I'll let my words be few

Jesus, I am so in love with You

I truly believe in what Jesus said and who he says he is. 

In another song, “There is a Redeemer”, one of the lines says, “When I stand in Glory, I will see your face! And there I’ll serve my King forever, in that Holy Place!”  That is truly what I want in my life and can’t wait for that to happen.  Jesus is my personal Savior and King and he means so much to me.  He gave me everything; I desire that I give him everything back!

To say that I worry about falling away from God might be an understatement.  Falling away from God would be detrimental to my life and knowing the evil in man’s heart, these decisions can crush our lives big time! Thank goodness for the Grace and Love of God!  So, do I worry? I don’t know if that might be the right word, but I constantly desire to keep myself in line with the Lord, because without him, my life is a mess!

If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?

If I knew I had only one day to live, I would hope that nothing would change from my daily activities, growing in my relationship with Jesus, fight personal struggles, spend time with my family and more.  I had such a hard time answering this question at first, that in a good 30 minutes of writing and rewriting and not being able to come up with a solid answer,  I finally decided to look on Google and see what people were saying.  Two people’s comments stuck out to me and they were comments such as, “I would do what I normally do. I try to live as if its my last day!” and “I would LIVE!”.  Why do we normally say we would do something more on our last day than what we would normally do?  I find that disheartening.  As I kept thinking about those comments, I wanted to make sure my life for Jesus was mixed in there.  So I would answer this question with, “The same thing I do everyday, I would keep striving for perfection, trying to be like Jesus”. 

Sure, I may change up some of my activities that center my life around family and close friends.  I probably wouldn’t be blogging, or planning to watch a movie someone let me borrow while my wife is at work, or my in-laws doing their own thing or that my blood family would be around the world.  I would spend time with them (but hopefully I am doing that already [with the help of technology also]). 

I pray that if I ever know, that I am giving God the glory in everything I do and say.  I want my life to be what God wants it to be. I don’t want to say, “I am going to do more for God”.  I want my life to reflect that already.  Am I fighting the good fight? Am I spending time with family and friends? Am I shining the light of Jesus in a dark world? Whatever it is that I do, I hope that I can come to my last day and say, “I am proud of who I am and what I’ve become and what I have done!”

So would I do anything different?  As long as Jesus is my center, than no!

And the Transformation Begins!

My wife and I have been living in Superior, Wisconsin now for a little over 7 months.  We are in a new chapter in our lives and we have been ready to embrace it.  These last few months, I have noticed a difference in myself; thoughts and questions keep going through my head about life and the universe.  Anything and everything seems to have been on my mind.  And I have noticed a lot lately that I don’t have all the answers (and if I’m smart enough, I will know that I will never know every answer in life . . . and that’s ok), but even in some of the smallest things, I don’t have answers for. 

[This blog is starting to sound like that I hope I have all the answers in the next few years, but that isn’t my goal for this blog.  I just want to be a thinker!]

Will I ever become the next guy to the moon, maybe Mars, or will I come up with the next invention, or cure a disease? Probably not, but I want to be someone who takes full advantage of life and grow my mind, become a wise person (with the help of God, of course) and live a life that pleases Jesus (that part is my ultimate goal).  So I decided to have a blog that would help me put my thoughts down on paper (er… paper? website? er..) on life and the universe.  I have found two websites that have questions and quotes and every week I want to share my thoughts, ideas and discover the person God created me to be with you guys. 

So here is to the next however many articles I write (hopefully more than 1) and the transformation I am hoping I will go through and become more like the person I am created to be and also more like Jesus!