Glorify GOD

everyone has hobbies and as christians we are supposed to take our talents and gifts that god gave us and take them to the streets and use them to glorify god. Some of us can sing (a talent that i lack majorly ahhaha) or maybe its dancing, or writing.How do you glorify God in such ways? im glad you asked lol. glorifying God using your talents and hobbies is seeing the importance of GOD in the things you do daily. For example, in Revelation 11:13 "At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven."  The survivors of the earthquake saw the importance of God. Or in Romans 1:21 "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."  Recognizing who God is (He is God)...causes us to praise and give thanks.  This is glorifying to God, too.

This leads me to ask my next question, which is going to completely contradict everything i just said. If we don't glorify GOD is it a sin to have a hobby? well me here is my logical answer: Who made you?  If you believe God did, then you're already giving Him glory. Who made you to be different than me?  If you believe God did, then you're giving Him glory.  If you believe that God made your differences good ones and my differences good ones with the intention that we would use them to do good, then you're giving Him glory.  That's what it means in 1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."  We're not to use our gifts and talents and abilities and interests to further evil in this world, but to witness to how great our God is to give us such wonderful gifts.

So, for example, let's say God made you a fast runner.  You can use your fast running to steal stuff and run away quicker than the cops can run after you...or you can run in the Olympics and credit God with the great gift.  

So be faithful,  with this marvelous gift of joy in whatever it is you are gifted at.  Enjoy it thoroughly, giving thanks to God for the strength and skill to do it.  Ask Him to reveal ways you can give Him glory in the doing, in the relating, and in the testimony your life gives.

GOD gave me

God gave me His Son.

God gave me His love.

God gave me His grace.

God gave me His forgiveness.

God gave me His mercy.

God gave me His compassion.

God gave me courage.

God gave me a brain.

God gave me strength.

God gave me gifts and talents that although many may possess is still unique in its own.

God gave me family

God gave me friends.

God gave me shelter

God gave me food

God gave me my church.

God gave me the ability to know right from wrong

God gave me peace.

God gave me me!

What have I given to God to deserve all of these things?

community

Community is a real buzz word, biased bloggers and journalists, and advertisers throw it around like a hot potato. It brings them a lot of money, but they dont really know what it means. I really dont think any of us have a clear view of what it mean, me being a part of that crowd. I mean the word gets thrown around like OJ Simpsons court trial.

Community: agreement as to goals. Simple as that. I don’t consider facebook a community, or myspace or any other form of web connection. are we a community as soon s someone posts a video of themselves or a status so we can see what they are doing? i think facebook i sa communtiy barrier..where do we draw the line of separation between actually having a community and an organized web based page. My best example of a community to you is this: have you ever been to a reds game? or even your own high school football/basketball game and one of the players just scores and the crowd goes nuts!!! 20,000 people cheering for the same team you are. and as you are walking out of the stadium some random person looks at you and says “good game.” thats community. A group of people getting together with common interests and one belief. This isnt about me, i can inflate my ego on my own time. This is about us getting together to do something great/powerful/moving and worthwhile. This is our future? what should we do with it? post a comment or video sharing our thoughts or act on those thoughts? you tell me

What does it mean to be a part of the church?

For some reason humans have this odd desire to want to be in the "in" crowd. I mean i dont about you guys but if i see police lights around the corner, im walking down the street to see what happened. We all have this need or feeling of wanting to belong somewhere,a nd for some thats a church and for others its elsewhere and thats cool. But being a pzrt of the church means radically changing the world around you. Paul, the one who wrote 2 Corinthians, refers to us as "ministers of reconciliation," now doesnt that just roll right off your tongue. But what that means is WE are called to live out gods will and show the people of this 21st century what jesus is like and we do that through the way we live adn how we treat each other. I know this sounds backwards, but as Christians, we are supposed to seek what is wrong in the world and be gods hands and feet to it. If everyone was perfect there would be no reason for forgiveness right? As christians we arent suppose to just go with the flow and drift but to notice thigns that arent ok, and to sacrifice our lives to make them better.In todays economy and world structure, its not hard to find things that arent ok....i can walk out my back door adn tell you 10 things that arent ok right now. You know what my biggest fear is? Letting people down, and not living up to the person that i could be because i know i could do better or become a part of something bigger, greater, and stronger. I dont want to look back and think man i didnt make a difference in someones life or man i wish i could have been a part of that.I dont want to see anybody regret those decisions either, thats why we have a choice right in front of us to take the poath of god and let him show us where he wants us to work in the world. Everything I said in this note is a church....church isnt a place where we just show up every sunday....church is the congregation who leaves sunday and makes a difference in their own community.