What You Do is Being Watched

My sobriety date is November 10th. 3 years ago was the date of the last time I got drunk. I'll be honest, I've drank and relasped a few times since then, but I still consider that date the day Jesus protected me, woke me up and saved me.

What caused me to stumble those few times though? Well everytime it was completely my fault because of lack of self control, but the most common thing that triggered my urge to drink again was finding out that someone I looked up to secretly partied. People who I believed to be leaders, strong Christians devoting their life to the Lord. It made me self concious of my own christianity. I desperatly wanted to be the best Christian I could be, but when I saw that others were not even trying to not fall, I felt like I needed to fall too.

1 Corinthians 10:32 tells Christians "Do not cause anyone to stumble..." Paul wrote this to the Church of Corinth because he wanted the Christians to be aware of non-christians and that their actions were being watched. The non-christians looked into the lives of Christians, and said well I thought this was considered bad. Paul used the example that if someone told you a certain meat was offered to an idol, even though they would have known it is fine to eat that meat, eating it in front of that person(the non-believer) would possibly cause them to stumble. (1 Corinthians 28-29) A good example of this now a days would be, say someone drinks casually and say they still love and obey God, well first off, if you are drinking underage you are disobeying God directly by not obeying authority, second, you are setting a bad example for new christians, or even christians who just look up to you, old or new. People over the age who are legally allowed to drink have to ask themselves this, "Am I causing someone to stumble?"

The problem that also occurs is that the drink becomes an idol and it is not glorifying God. Everything you do should be for the glory of God, as 1 Corinthians 10:31 says. 1 Cor. 10:23 says that, "We are allowed to do all things, but not all things are good for us to do. We are allowed to do all things, but not all things help others grow stronger." Some of these things also cause us to not grow. Verse 24 goes on to say, "Do not look out for only yourselves. Look out for the good of others." As Christians, our sole purpose should be to serve the Lord, and part of that serving includes bringing others to Christ. Therefore, if our actions, such as drinking, sex, or even cussing, are causing confusion and stumbling in new Christians or non-believers, are we truly serving God? The answer is simply no.

Even if our sinful actions are done secretly Luke 8:17 (NIV) says, "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." God always knows our hearts, but what we do in the dark, will come out for all to see. Eventually, the ones that look up to us, will see our transgressions and possibly fall because of them.

One might say, "Well God forgives our trangressions because of the blood shed on the cross" and explain this to a person looking up to them. Yes, this is very true but the problem is, we have people who look up to us that we don't know about. They watch from afar. We cannot go to them and say, "God has forgiven me" and if we know what we did was wrong and sinful, we cannot go up to them and tell them that either. They may not know our guilt.

As I grew in my faith, and I became stronger, I realized all this. I realized that I possibly had someone looking up to me as an example, and that I needed to end the viscous cycle of falling because of others. I have always been very open about my past, and I do not want to hide what I have done in the dark. The Lord has saved me and continues to save me everyday. I no longer drink at all. I do this for myself, but mostly for others. I want to bring people to Christ, not turn them away or cause sadness in them.

I hope this means something to someone. If this doesn't make sense, try reading 1 Corinthians 10:23-33. This is where I based this off of.

Matthew 25:14-30

I'm reading through the book of Matthew right now, and a couple of days ago I read the story about the three servants. I've heard about this story since I was really little, but for some reason, it just now really opened up in meaning to me.

A master gives three servants bags of gold. "He gave one servant five bags of gold, another servant two bags of gold, and a third servant one bag of gold." (Matthew 25:15 NCV) The first servant invested his gold and reaped 5 more bags of gold. The servant with two bags of gold also doubled his gold. However, the third servant buried his bag of gold in the ground and in return reaped nothing.

God used this story to show me that our faith is like the gold. When we accept Jesus into our hearts and start on our path of Christianity, that's like God giving us His gold. We can take our new life and just live it quietly, keeping it to ourselves like the third servant. Or, we can take it like the first and second servant and invest it for our Father.

God wants us to share His gift. How selfish would it be of us to not want to share the great gift God has given us of salvation?

Jesus ends his parable by telling his disciples, "...Take the bag of gold from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags of gold. Those who have much will get more, and they will have much more than they need. But those who do not have much will have everything taken away from them." (Matthew 25: 28-29 NCV) Jesus was saying, faith becomes more abundant when it is invested into the lives of others. Because one invests their faith into the lives of others, the kingdom grows, and it return, faith also grows. But, hiding faith under a rock does not put anything into the kingdom, and in return faith is squandered and halted from growing.

Sharing and living faith out loud is not always easy in today's world. It has moments where it is frightening. But, if we never take the chance to invest our faith, what will we reap for the Lord's kingdom? Jesus did command, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19 NIV)

"Thank the Lord because He is good"

God is such a beautiful, loving, caring and good God. I forget that, all the time. So, I really want to just write a post thanking God.

Thank you God for my family.
Thank you for providing a way for me to do what I love and attend the college I do.
Thank you for the friends You have placed in my life.
Thank you for giving me the opportunities You have given me.
Thank you for relentlessly chasing me until I fell to my knees and surrendered to You.
Thank you for loving me even when I'm a wreck and do everything in my power to go against You.
Thank you for the blue sky.
Thank you for giving me two healthy legs to run with.
Thank you for creating people who can make beautiful music, especially music that is used to praise You.
Thank you for giving the gift of the holy spirit.
Thank you for forgiving me for everything.
Thank you for loving me.
Thank you for always reminding me what life is truly about when my center becomes off focus.
Thank you for the desires You have placed in my heart.
Thank you for creating people who's laugh makes others laugh.
Thank you for creating animals.
Thank you for giving me joy when joy is the farthest emotion I felt I could actually feel.
Thank you for watching over me, always.
Thank you for giving the ability to smile to us.
Thank you for comforting me when I feel all alone in life.
Thank you for the strength You give me.
Thank you for giving Your wisdom.
Thank you for taking my hand and leading me.
Thank you for being the caring God that You are.

"Thank the Lord because He is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 118:1