Pure

This post has taken me quite a few days to write 1) because it is long, but 2) because I want to have a heart of surrender to Christ while writing it.  I want Christ to be glorified in ever word that I type on this page, and have all the glory return to Him.  This is a huge topic that Christ has laid on my heart the past few years and I know that He is going to use it to impact someone who is reading it.  So, here it goes...

Purity.  The topic that everyone loves to hate.  Something that baffles me is that in the public schools we would much rather talk about who is doing what with the other guy, but we are too weak to stand up and talk about staying pure.  From a very young age I was taught about purity, and how God designed us to stay pure until marriage.  At first I found this topic 'awkward', 'weird', and 'uncomfortable' to talk about but over the years, as I have matured in my faith and developed strong relationships with my girl friends, I found purity and marriage the most talked about thing during our casual conversations.

A couple months ago I was thinking and praying how God wants me to use my story of purity to spread the Gospel.  He laid this on my heart; it is common to hear about physical purity and mental purity, the don't-do list, and the don't-think-about list, but I feel that there is four different aspects of purity.  Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual purity are key areas that need to be addressed.  I will briefly touch on each aspect because I could go on for ages about each one.

Physical purity isn't too difficult to figure out.  In 1 Corinthians 6:18 it says "Flee from sexual immorality.  Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body."  God is pretty clear on His expectations for us, as His children, to abstain from sexual immorality.  I have had the opportunity to talk with a number of couples that had stayed pure all the way up to their wedding day.  Never once have I heard that they wished they had done it differently and followed the standard that the world has set for relationships.  Satan is weird.  He tries to make sex seem like the 'normal' thing to do when you are dating someone, or even 'getting to know someone', but he makes sex seem so shameful at the same time.  This only leads to a life of misery and guilt.  God has not called us to that, instead He calls us to a life of purity.  I'm not saying that if you have had sex outside of marriage that you should be damned to hell, what I'm saying that is if you have a choice, make a decision that is going to please Him. You won't regret it.  If you are that person that is feeling guilt due to sexual immorality, I highly encourage you to talk to someone about it.  Find a trusted adult or leader in your church and talk to them.  Hiding your shame and guilt will not make it go away, it will actually cause the opposite to happen.  Keeping all of that built up inside of you can literally destroy you from the inside-out and keep you in bondage for many years.  TALK!

Moving on to mental purity.  In Matthew 5:27-30 it says "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  For it is better that you lose one of your member that that your whole body be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."  I know this verse is addressing men specifically, but I think women have just as hard of a time with this.  I will admit, I have looked at guys before and thought of things that I should not be thinking about, due to our human nature of sin, it will happen.  This is no justification though.  If one of our eyes causes us to sin, we would be better off to not have it than keep it and continue to sin.  Basically, if there is something in our lives that is causing us to commit sin with the way we think, then we need to get rid of it immediately.  What I take from this verse is that sometimes its a mind problem.  We have been drilled by the secular culture of images and thoughts that are not appropriate according to what the Bible teaches us and it is our job to purge those things from our lives.  

Mental purity and emotional purity kind of go hand-in-hand.  For women especially we have a tendency to connect our thoughts with our emotions. *GUILTY!*  When we start thinking about what that guy said to us, and oh!, the way he looked at me when he said it, we start stitching our heart to theirs.  In Proverbs 4:21-23 it says "Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body.  Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."  Guard your heart... There are many times when I wish I would have guarded my heart a little bit more.  This looks different for everyone, whether you don't watch that PG-13 movie because of the sexual element in it, or don't get too connected to that boy who is being nice to you, these types of things can start tying our hearts to something that is empty on the other end.  Usually what ends up happening after we break a heart tie with something, we are left with these little stitch holes that aren't pretty.  The only way that we can mend the heart ties is through the power and the blood of Jesus Christ.

Lastly, spiritual purity.  This is honestly a beautiful Psalm, and I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here is a little snippet of it.  Psalms 51:7-10 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."  As Christians we are called by Christ to live a life according to His will and purpose and in order to fulfill those things we must be right with Him.  We have to keep our relationship with Jesus pure and constant.  Like I said earlier, we are human and it is our sinful nature to not do those things, but with the power of the Holy Spirit that resides inside of us when we accept Christ, anything is possible.  Sometimes life can just get hazed with random things and we can lose sight and focus of where we are going in our lives.  This is when we can call out to God and ask Him to create in us a clean heart, and restore purity into our lives.

Confession, I'm not perfect in any of these areas, and I'm not placing that expectation on anyone.  What I am expecting is that when we do realize the mistakes we are making/have made we turn 180* from it an RUN toward the arms of our Savior.  There is powerful, powerful, healing when we get picked up and hugged by our Heavenly Father and there is a purity that can begin to be restored.  I pray that this post has touched your heart in some way and that the Holy Spirit can begin to move in your heart and in your life.  I can't wait for the day when we can all stand in our white gown in front of our groom and say that through the blood of Jesus I am pure.

Confessions,
Chaleigh

Peace in Our Pea-Sized Brain

I know, I know.  It's been a while since I posted last, but what can I say; I'm a college student!  During finals week you find out a lot about yourself and your friends.  How late can I really stay up without dying?  How much coffee can I consume without my body rejecting itself?  How long can I wait to study for that 8am Macro exam?  Ok, so the last one was not something I participated in, but I'm sure there is someone out there that can identify.

What has really helped me get through this past week, dead week, and my first two finals is God's word.  I remembered learning a verse that talked about peace that surpasses all understanding and I wanted to know how I was to get that peace.  In Philippians 4:4-9 it says "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.  The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me-- practice these, and the God of peace will be with you."  When we tell God what is on our heart and mind He exchanges our burdens and anxieties with His peace which is light and without burdens.  How great is our God?  When I'm stressing out, and working myself up to the point where I am sick, I can tell God and confine in Him and he will exchange that with peace...  When I'm tired and grumpy because I stayed up too late studying my terms for History, and I share those thoughts and burdens with God, He exchanges that with peace... When I want to cry my eyes out because I'm a girl and I can, and I let God know what's going on, He exchanges that with peace...

Let me tell you, when I hung out with some of my friends last night, which I was getting very anxious over, I let God know about my anxieties and insecurities, and He brought peace to me that I never knew I had.  There was so much peace within my body that I almost thought there was something wrong with me!  Like I was a different person!

I hope this can be a testimony to you that when you are going through a difficult and stressful time, let go and let God.  He will bring you a peace that is surpasses our little pea-sized brains!

Confessions,
Chaleigh

Oh to Have the Faith of a Child

Ahh... If I could sum up my last Sunday at home, I could only do it with a deep sigh.  I cannot find words to explain what I was feeling, what I was thinking, or what was said.  What I do remember though was during my home church service on Sunday morning, we had somewhat of an alter call.  Our pastor said "I feel like there are some people who are dealing with hurt.  Emotional and spiritual, specifically, but maybe even some physical.  So I'm going to have some prayer teams come forward and if you want to be prayed for then come on up."  The worship band continued to play for several minutes and a number of people went forward to be prayed over.  Well, out of the corner of my eye I catch this little girl tugging at her mom's jacket wanting to go get prayed for.  Let me give you some background on this girl.  She is about 9 years-old, but has the body structure of about a 7 year-old.  She is so fragile looking to the point that I don't want to go near here in fear of accidentally bumping into her.  This girl has a heart condition that makes her this way.  Because of her heart condition, she has to wear a cast around her entire torso so no serious damage is done.  

So, she was tugging at her mom's sweater to go forward to be prayed for her physical condition...  Can we just take a moment and let that sink in?!  Why is it that a child, so immature in comparison to so many people in my church, has so much faith in God?!  It baffles me that she just stepped out, was bold, and knew that her God has the power to heal.  Uh, to have childlike faith!  In Matthew 18 the disciples were talking with Jesus and asked Him who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven and He responded with Matthew 18:2-5 "He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.""  This honestly tears me apart inside.  At times, I feel so dumb because why can't I have faith like that?  Faith to follow my parents around without a question in my mind, faith to hear God's words that are spoken to me and not doubt where they are coming from, faith to step out and lay my life, heck my pride, on the line for the King?  

Confessions,

Chaleigh