Be still and Know that I am God

I had a really amazing week!
Scott gave a vespers talk that was....amazing. We ended with going around to all the people you have hurt or have hurt you and praying with them. I cant even tell you how good that felt to get of my chest. I feel like I'm finally at peace with everyone. Honestly for a while I've been freaked out by one thought."what if Jesus comes and I'm not ready?" I keep getting this picture in my head of everyone else being taken up and I'm left behind. And at vespers I just had this incredible peace with everything, like I was made right with the world and...I was ready to die. That sounds like a morbid thought but it was the most comforting thought I've ever had.
It's like everything is falling into place with my spiritual walk. For the first time in my life and can pray with other people and not be thinking about what they will think of my prayer, I can just talk to God as if we were the only two present. I cant even tell you how nice it is to pray with each other and uplift one another. I started going to prayer group and it has been SUCH a huge blessing! I feel like I'm finally having my own personal relationship with Christ.
On Sabbath I decided I wanted to read my Bible outside...only problem was that it was snowing. So I got my sleeping bag and climbed up to the top of the stairs outsider the girls dorm. And plopped down to read, but I didnt really get much readign done. I found myself jsut talking to God. and then I looked out at teh veiw and I was filled with such a sense of Gods love. the words "be still and know that I am God" seemed to go through my head every few seconds. It was all so quiet and beautiful...and white. Pure, like God...like the way I want to be.

Whiter than Snow

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. – Psalms 51:10 ESV

“It’s snowing!” the shout echoed down the halls of the girls’ dorm and eventually found its way to my room. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window, sure enough; the ground was covered in sparkling shining white snow!

I walked to school that morning in a cloud of whiteness, it was beautiful! However, that night as I was walking back to the dorm for worship I noticed with disappointment that the snow was no longer as beautiful as it had once been, the road was marked up with tire tracks and you could see the mud oozing through the ruts, the spray of mud scattered the hillside, and the trees, who were dripping slush instead of housing the white blanket it had earlier that day looked gloomy and dead. However, to my delight, the next day there was a new layer of fresh snow on the ground making the world look new again.

It reminded me of what we do to our hearts. When God gave me my heart it was pure and clean but then I decided I wanted to go my own way and I tramped all over the snow making it dirty. When I realize how I’ve made my heart I ask God to clean it again, so he does, but then I go and destroy it again. This becomes a system, God gives me a new clean heart and I destroy it and ask for another. But God, in his patience keeps giving me a new heart. But I don’t want to keep making it dirty, I want my heart to stay clean. But this transformation can’t happen by itself. I need help from the one who gave it to me. God will give me a new heart, but it’s up to me to decide what I will do with it. Will I keep it clean, or let it become polluted with sin. It’s your choice too, what will you choose?

~ Moriah Mays

Priceless Gift

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. - Luke 2:11 KJV

Growing up I never really connected Jesus with Christmas. Sure, he was in the mini-nativity scene at grandma’s house, but so was the little drummer boy, and I found him much more intriguing. Although I never believed in Santa Claus, I always tried to pretend that he was real; I loved the idea of a big jolly man in red giving me toys and candy.

What I didn’t realize was that there’s someone far better. Santa is only a very cheap copy of the real thing. Jesus Christ came down to the world, but He didn’t come on a shiny red sleigh. He came as a baby to a little town that no one knew about. Instead of bringing toys and candy, He brought a gift that cannot be equalled: the gift of salvation. He lived with us and taught us. While Santa only comes once a year, Jesus is always with us! We can talk to Him whenever we need to, unlike Santa where you’re allowed to send him a letter once a year with all your selfish requests.

Legend has it that Santa lives in the North Pole with little elves to make all the toys. Jesus lived on earth with us, healing the sick, helping the poor, and working hard for His meals. Santa requires milk and cookies, but Christ doesn’t expect anything in return for his gift; it’s a free gift, all we have to do is accept it. But the most compelling argument in Christ’s favour is this: Jesus is real! He’s not merely an old legend attempting to make children good, like Santa is. He is the real reason we celebrate. Christmas isn’t about the lights or the food or the traditions. It’s a celebration of the birth of Christ. But this celebration shouldn’t take place on just one day. This celebration can occur in our hearts daily as the result of God’s gift for us. His son, whom He sent to earth to die for us, is truly the ultimate gift—one that money could never buy.

Who Is God?

The love of Christ controls us. -2 Corinthians 5:14A

I once had the opportunity to tell someone of Jesus for the first time. I was reading a Bible story to my kindergarten class of gypsy girls in Albania when one little girl raised her hand and asked, “Teacher, who is Jesus?”

I responded, “Well, He’s God’s Son”

She paused, “Teacher, who is God?”

“He’s like a father.” Then realizing her perception of a father, I quickly added, “But a good father, the best one in the whole world.”

“Oh!” She responded “Like your Daddy!”

Suddenly I realized how good my life is. Not only do I have a father, but I have a warm place to sleep in; I have food, family, and friends (the list goes on and on). But what if all those things were taken away? What if I had been born into a family like the one this child came from? Would I still want to serve God? Am I serving God for my own selfish reasons, or do I truly love Him?

I remember the first summer I was away from home. I came to Fountainview and was out in the carrot fields angrily accusing and questioning God. “Why did you bring me here?” I asked. After praying for quite a while, I finally ran out of words and fell silent. Almost as if through an audible voice, I heard the words “Because I love you.”

God loves me, shouldn’t that be the reason I love Him? Instead I sometimes base my love on what God gives me. This is a love centered on myself. A selfish type of love, and in fact, it isn’t love at all, but merely self worship. The only way we can have true love toward God is by looking to Christ. By beholding His goodness and love, we will become changed. Christ has portrayed a perfect picture of love in his death on the cross. By looking to the cross, our carnal love is changed into the likeness of His perfect love.

~ Moriah Mays

True Identity

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

“Come on Moriah, don’t be a chicken!” “Yeah” Bobby Jo chimed in “quit being a sissy, just jump!” The “jump” was in fact a 20 foot leap from our barn loft into a stack of hay. It was 4^th of July weekend and all my friends were having a blast hurling themselves through the air and landing soundly in the soft hay. Everyone except me that is, I’ve never liked heights. But after 2 days of teasing and begging they finally convinced me to make the leap.

So there I was standing at the edge of the loft with kids all around me chanting “1 for the money! 2 for the show!” and I knew that on 4 I had to finally go. I threw myself into the air but unfortunately I fainted in midair so instead of landing in the squishy pile of hay I ended up on the horse’s metal trough. The next thing I remember was waking up with pain searing through my body and people standing all around me, and someone saying that my back must be broken after such a fall.

Miraculously nothing was broken and I healed within a few days. But I came away from that experience with a valuable lesson; if I follow the crowd they could lead me astray, but Christ will never lead me on the wrong path; I can always trust him as my leader and my shepherd.

If my identity is based on Christ when people look at me they will be able to see Jesus in me. I will only be a window into Christ’s character. I constantly find myself making decisions based on what people will think. When really I should only be worried about what Christ will think of me. If I have my identity in Christ I won’t need to follow others. Who I am, should be a window to who I belong to. I want to be a window to Christ. Don’t you want to be one too?

~ Moriah Mays

Tuna Fish Character

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

I’m somewhat of a perfectionist. If I’m going to do something, I want it to be done right. Lately, I have been agonizing over the fact that I don’t feel as though I’ve grown at all spiritually. Every time I try to help myself become a better person, I fail, and end up reinforcing in my mind how horrible I really am inside. Just last week, as I was chopping lettuce in the cafeteria, the reason finally hit me! I can’t remember one time that I have asked God for help! I have been trying to make myself into what I know He wants me to be instead of asking Him to help me be perfect.

As a child I remember wanting to do things by myself. One day my mom consented to let me make my own meal. I innocently tried to make ice cream out of tuna fish, milk, applesauce and barbecue sauce. As you imagine, it turned out disgusting! Fascinatingly enough, after it froze it turned out looking pretty good, with nice red swirls. However, frozen tuna fish is still tuna fish.This reminds me of what I am trying to do in my relationship with God. I can make myself beautiful and seemingly good on the outside but on the inside I still have a repulsive, dirty heart that only Jesus can clean. If I would only have given my whole heart to Christ in the beginning it would have been beautiful by now.

So many times we rely on our own strength to get things done when in reality, if we would only give our problems to God, it would save us so much confusion and heartache. I tried so hard to be the person I knew God wanted me to be but in the end I failed because I was relying on myself.

~ Moriah Mays

Influence

Lately I've been trying to think of what I can do for God in a christian school where everyone seems to have their lives together. I mean, yes you can encourage those around you but it's very difficult to know who's real and who's not. I started looking at my own life, am I real? Do I always think of what God wants me to do? Or am I more interested in what I want to do, where I want to go in life. I've started to realize that I should be setting an example for others, I tend to think that it doesnt matter what I do because it's just a small thing, not really bad but at the same time not really good either. Am I willing to give something up for God? Do people look at me and say is she real?

I've also started observing the people I hang out with, are they real Christians? Are they uplifting? Am I more tempted to do wrong when I'm around them? The problem is that I love them, theres no way I'm goign to leave my friends, but at the same time I've made a choice not to go along with them when I know it's not right, I'm goign to make a stand no matter what they think of me when I do. I must admit I was dissapointed when I realized how many times I'd compromised, so many times I could ahve led them to Christ, but didnt. But ya know what? I cant change the past, but I can change my future. I WILL change my future.