Gal 2.20 "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me."

Here's some areas that I've had to die in lately. Maybe you do too!

DIE TO DRAMA

My feelings, my offenses, my stress. When I choose to dump it on someone else (especially my husband!), when I choose to be dramatic or be a jerk for ONE day, ONE HOUR EVEN, who knows what opportunities from Jesus I may have missed? Who knows whose eternity may be affected (negatively!) because I wanted to live that day. I've gotta die. People should always be getting the same JESUS in me- no matter what the circumstances, no matter what my "mood" or "feelings." Jesus is bigger than all of that! Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change, so it's because I'm not dead to self if people are getting a different version of me at different times. People need the Jesus in me consistently, no matter what! Even other Christians need the Jesus in me consistently. I really had to repent to God and to TJ for dumping on him. I'll put on my best smile to represent Jesus to everyone ELSE, but I should represent Jesus to my husband the most!

DIE TO OPINIONS

MY opinions and the opinions of OTHERS. Gal 1:10 says "If I were still trying to please people, I could not serve Christ." What others think of me does not matter if I don't exist. A bigger issue for me is dying to MY OWN opinions though. I realized this week that a "very educated opinion" (yuck! how prideful!) that I have held for a long time IS COMPLETELY WRONG according to God's Word! Humbling, embarassing,a nd I needed to REPENT. We should not only keep our opinions to ourselves but DIE to them! Unless it's what the Word of God SAYS, who cares what we THINK? How sucky to be known by whatever we think about _____ rather than be known for knowing Jesus! I've made that mistake A LOT in my life. The world will offer us a lot of things to identify ourselves with, but we need to DIE and ONLY be known for Jesus.

DIE TO AGENDA

It will never turn out how I think it will!!! I realize I totally had these expectations of something going a certain way, and when I found out it wouldn't, disappointment set in. The gap between our expectations and reality is disappointment! When we find ourselves in that gap it doesn't take long before Satan steps in with his greatest tool- discouragement. I got really discouraged last week, and I realized it all boiled down to MY agenda not working out. It was even something "for God." Like my plans were gonna "hook him up." So what's the key? DIE to MY expectations. My only agenda should be GOD'S clear agenda in the Word, building his kingdom!

• i got the day off work on friday! i love my job at Hanley. it was a stressful week (school starts Tuesday!) but it was really cool of them to give us an extra long weekend!
  
• i spent friday shopping with some awesome teenage girls! it amazes me how God works on students' lives and makes them more like him- even the ones who you think are "doing pretty good." He makes us more and more beautiful!
  
• we stayed at FaHoLo campground/hotel FREE on friday nite. The A/G gives all pastors 2 free nites to stay there. they are LEGIT when they say they wanna honor pastors! we got a suite room and they gave us free snacks and comfy bathrobes! got to use their indoor pool & hot tub, and read some good books in our lawn chairs overlooking the lake. we ate at cracker barrel too. that's the one thing i like about the boondocks- it feels like we are so far from detroit and on a vacation! (really it was an hour away lol)
• sun a.m. i had some amazing conversations, with older women in our church. it blows my mind that God lets me speak into the lives of teenagers, and women in their 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's! what?! i'm 24! i know- i am freakin humbled. a lady in her 30's and a lady in her 60's told me what great things God has been doing in their hearts and hugged me and thanked ME for listening to them and encouraging them. phew that's Jesus!
  
• God is showing me how powerful PRAYER is. sometimes i feel like i'm not doing anything if i have a busy work week and don't hang out with as many ppl as i'd like to. praying for people does so much more than whatever words i could say to them! i am NOT their savior! why should it surprise me to hear that people are doing so good when i haven't called/visited them in weeks? sometimes i think it has something to do with ME but it DOESN'T!
  
• thank u Jesus. :)
  

in 1 cor 3 it says that WE are God's coworkers. that's kinda funny. what do you think about YOUR coworkers? what would God think about you as his coworker? what do you think makes a GOOD coworker? what would make you say something great about a coworker of yours? God tells us what would make HIM happy with US as a coworker.

the imagery of coworker is actually a co-laborer, e..g. a construction worker, and we work on a building, which is God's people. we can't take any credit or glory for it- God is the architect and company owner- but we labor and we will get "paid" (rewarded) for it. but do we do quality work? God says what's important to him is the quality of our work and the supplies we use to build with. we can use high quality, long lasting (eternal) materials, or we can use cheap, ordinary, temporary (worldly) materials- and that totally changes how the building will turn out!

we will be judged on our work as christians, and that affects our pay. it's so freakin SAD that so many christians don't care about the quality of their work. they're content to be just barely saved and not have anything worthwhile to present to God for their life. i wanna be way past being insecure about my own salvation, and be bringing tons of other people to heaven with me!

we build into people- so what are we building into them? we build into people by talking to them and doing stuff with them.

• is what i talk about with people temporary or eternal?
• is what i do with people temporary or eternal?

i can be intentional when i'm with family, friends, or students to be talking about and doing stuff that lasts, that matters!

• we can talk about Jesus, the Word, His Mission, accountability, and ideas to do stuff for Him
• we can do eternal work together- praying, serving, telling someone about Him, visiting someone, encouraging someone, discipling someone

what a waste it would be for my building supplies to be shopping, movies, restaurants, and self-centered conversations. yet for how many christians, even pastors/youth pastors/ministry leaders, is this true?