Possessing Nothing But Christ

     "Possessing nothing but Christ, yet owning everything."

   What would it be like to possess nothing, in that there was nothing material or of this world we held dear? What if we lived like Paul said and counted it all loss for the sake of Christ? What if we were so unattached to material possessions we could trade them for utter poverty in the eyes of the world and never even notice their absence? What if possessing Christ was all that mattered?  

   If our ultimate goal in life was to possess nothing but Christ, how different would our lives look? What radical lifestyles would we lead if we realized the wealth in possessing nothing but Christ?

   The less we possess of this world (in terms of what we hold on to), the more we can possess of Christ. And to possess Christ is to possess everything. To possess Christ is to be among the wealthiest to ever walk this earth.

   What if our goal in life was to see just how much of Christ we could possess? How well could we reflect Him in life in a broken world? How much of His Spirit could we contain? How much could we surrender to Him? How close could we get to Him in this life? How much can we possess Christ?

"I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine."*
Song of Songs 2:16a

"You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one."*
Hebrews 10:34b

"But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way... as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything."*
 2 Corinthians 6:4 & 10.

*Emphasis mine.

5 Ways to Memorize Scripture

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness..."

2 Timothy 3:16

Did any of you any attend AWANA as a kid? AWANA is a fantastic program that my church holds for youth from 3 years old to 5th graders, and the goal is to teach kids to memorize Scripture - good stuff, right? Every week, the kids come excitedly to church proudly sporting their AWANA vests which bear colorful patches and pins showing how many verses they've memorized. I'll never forget my experiences at AWANA and I still haven't forgotten the Bible verses I learned as a kid.

After I outgrew AWANA, my drive to memorize verses faded. But, honestly, I shouldn't have stopped. As we grow older, we need God's Word more and more in our lives. I can't tell you how many times I wish I knew Bible verses right off the top of my head to give someone for advice or encouragement. Memorizing Scripture is an imperative part of our walks with God - after all, how can we witness to others, teach others, learn about the mind and heart of our Maker without memorizing the Word?

So, how do we go about doing this? Here are five helpful hints on memorizing Scripture that have helped me:

1. Pick a verse and write it down. You may want to start off by memorizing one verse (or passage) a week. Once you find one you like, take the time to write it down - not just some quick scribbles on a Post-it note - but find some nice paper and write it slowly, neatly, and meaningfully, taking time to soak in the words. This will help to begin engraining the verse in your mind. Repeating this step is really helpful.

2. Read the verse aloud. Find a quiet spot and read the verse or passage slowly. Experimenting with different voices sometimes helps (and it makes it more fun ;). If you're a musically gifted person, put the verse to song (WARNING: the song will get stuck in your head for a while). Also, reading it aloud with another person can help.

3. Put the verse in places you can see them. Go to town with sticky notes! You could use the bathroom mirror, your car, a message board, your dresser, the toilet, even your forehead. The point is to make sure that this verse can be seen anywhere you go. That way there's the constant reminder and it starts to become natural to see it - thusly, becoming engrained in your mind.

4. Pray the verse back to God. Doing this step will make it personal for you. For example, if you are memorizing Romans 3:23 you could pray "Father, I know I have sinned and I fall short of Your Glory, but I thank You that You redeem us and give us the gift of eternal life." 

5. Teach the verse to another person. Doing this will not only help the student learn the verse, but you learn it better as well. 

Memorizing Scripture is 100% necessary for a healthy relationship with God. Why wouldn't we want to memorize God's most innermost thoughts? We can respect His Word by applying it to our lives in this way, learning his teachings so that "we might not sin against [Him] (Psalm 119:11)."

How do you teach yourself to memorize Scripture? What's a verse that means the most to you?

Photo Credit: 193.365 - Bible-keh!, a photo by Josh Liba on Flickr.

Live Your God-Sized Dream

New Year's Resolutions are often condemned for being too ambitious. Run a marathon. Read a book per week. Lose 100 lbs. There are plenty of reasons that people don't keep their resolutions, and Mary Kate did a fantastic job of highlighting some major ones in "Resolution Solution," so I won't rehash those. What I will do is give you one big reason why people sometimes don't keep their resolutions:

Original photo by Kr. B. on Flickr.     

They are not sold-out, on-fire, bet-the-farm passionate about a dream.

If your resolution, dream, goal, whatever, is not compelling-- ensnaring your mind, heart and spirit until you can't think about or imagine anything else--then you're almost doomed to failure.

Some people "diet" for years.
They "quit" smoking twenty times.
Some people half-finish novel after novel.
Others get one closet organized and then burn out.

Why did they fail? Perhaps it was because they were too ambitious, but I think it's because they were pursuing dreams that were too small, too petty to catch their imagination and hold their focus. What do I mean by that?

Losing weight is a small dream. People "lose weight" every day. But being able to fit into your favorite pair of jeans, looking at yourself in the mirror and knowing that you're being a good steward of God's temple, and feeling beautiful and confident is an inspiring dream.

Getting organized is dull. Cleaning junk out of your life so that you can live a freer, more God-centered existence without the clutter of life bringing you down is an inspiring dream.

Reading more books is vague and uninteresting. Reading two books a month that will bring you closer to God, enrich your mind, and bring you into unknown and beautiful realms is an inspiring dream.

Unless you believe it, you cannot achieve it (click to tweet that). And when I say "believe," I mean it in the most visceral sense, with everything you are.

Holley Gerth, one of my favorite Christian bloggers, is always talking about a God-sized dream. She is passionate about helping other women come alive and live the life they were designed to live. "God-size" does not necessarily mean "big." It means perfect for you. It's the thing that you would do in 2013 if there were no barriers--no problems with money, transportation, family, lifestyle, etc.--a dream God created just for you.

What is your dream?

I'm still trying to figure mine out. It has something to do with 2-3 months in Europe this year, writing as a profession, and volunteering with amazing ministries. But what it comes down to at the core is making life an intimate adventure with God.

How can you transform your uninspiring New Year's Resolutions into a God-sized dream?

The Resolution Solution

It’s 2013! God has blessed us with a whole new year brimming with possibilities. Just think of all of things we can do to bring glory to God this year! If you’re like me, you probably already have developed high hopes and exciting plans. 

With every new year, a feeling of a fresh start comes along with it. Everyone wants the relief of shaking off last year’s mistakes and starting new. Making resolutions is a very common practice for everyone around this time of year. However, for anyone who’s ever made resolutions, we’ve all struggled the hardest part - sticking to them.

Last year, I pulled out my journal and wrote down twenty-two things I’d like to do before the end of 2012. They ranged all the way from eating healthier to having an obedient spirit. You know how many of those I kept? Maybe three? Two?

The truth is I wasn’t able to keep any of them. I’m ashamed to say it, but it’s very true. I should have been able to stick to at least a few. So what went wrong? Why wasn’t I able to stick to my resolutions? God has shown me some mistakes I’ve made with making resolutions in the past. To help each other out, here is a list of some tips I’ve gained from a few years of resolution-ing that will help you to be able to better stick to your New Year’s plans.

1. Ask for God’s strength. Whether they’re simple tasks or whether they’ll take some guts to accomplish, we need our Savior’s help with our resolutions. If we try in our own strength, we will ultimately fail. As humans, we need encouragement and support - someone to cheer us on. Jesus is the best support system anyone can have, after all, he created you, didn’t he? :)

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” I Peter 5:7

2. Limit the number. Too many things to remember can be overwhelming. With twenty-two things to remember hanging over me at all times, my resolutions became stressful and even harder than they should have been. With resolutions, remember that less is more. Work on forming (or breaking) habits one at a time and each one will become easier over time.

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:42

3. Take your time. Resolutions don’t happen overnight. They take work and a lot of patience. Don’t stress out if you mess up one day, or one week, whatever it may be. Everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean we should give up. Patience is a virtue (Galatians 5:22-23). Pray everyday as you work through them.

4. Stay Organized. Making a schedule or a checklist for your resolutions is a good way to keep track of your progress. Also, journaling about them can encourage you to keep up the good work, or to do a little better. 

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” I Corinthians 14:33

5. Put God in the center. You’ve probably heard it said many times that God needs to go first in your life. I say, put Him in the center. If Jesus is the focus of everything you do, then you will be doing everything right and in a way that is honoring to Him. Put Jesus at the center of your quest to eat healthy (I Corinthians 6:19-20), or put Him on the path towards building a loving family (I Timothy 5:8). As my youth pastor put it, make your life look like:

Fam(Jesus)ily

Frie(Jesus)nds

Occup(Jesus)ation

If we long to please Him in everything (which is our purpose as Christians), then He will make our plans happen.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3

I hope this was helpful and I do hope you will use some of these to make your resolutions come alive! 

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

Wherever the Cross Takes Me...

This is Altogether Separate's fortieth post. Forty is an interesting number. It rained over all the earth for forty days and nights. God led the Israelites through the wilderness forty years.  Jesus was on the mountain forty days and nights, tempted by Satan. A child is in the womb forty weeks...

But I digress.

Now, on to our regularly scheduled post.

As children, my friends' future careers changed on almost a weekly basis. Most of them still have no idea what they're ultimately going to do with their lives, and they rub their temples as they choose a major and pray for God's guidance on the road ahead.

I was always the odd one. I career-swapped a number of times in my early school days (though always pursuing similar fields), but well before middle school my love of animals and fascination with science fused into a steadfast pursuit of veterinary medicine.

My interest and utter enthusiasm in that area never waned (and if you find yourself particularly bored today or taking a curious fascination to strangers' childhoods you can read an essay about my peculiar and nerdy one), but as I grew older I began to wonder if doctoring animals was really what God wanted me to do with my life. After all, shouldn't I dedicate my blink-of-an-eye time on earth to serving people? Was this a God-given desire, or one to test me to see how much I was willing to sacrifice to follow Him?

It was during that time I learned of veterinary missionaries—veterinarians who abandon the comfort of their former lives to practice in less fortunate regions of the world, caring for the animals the native people rely upon for food, transportation, and income; educating them to increase the longevity of their livestock and equipping local veterinarians; and often ministering to the people in more conventional ways by distributing Bibles and helping churches and teaching English.

I came to realize there are at least as many ways to serve God as there are people to serve Him, and it was entirely possible I could serve through the veterinary field. Regardless of where life took me—overseas or here at home—I would be shining the Light He put in me by enabling me to live a holy life, and I would be fulfilling a necessary occupation in the world.

And what if this isn't what God wants? What if He wants me to marry and have children instead?

I suspect there is a good chance I am called to serve as a single woman (although honestly at this point I have no idea), but if I am to serve God by serving a husband, I will gladly devote my life to ministering to him and educating my children. If the latter, the knowledge and skills acquired in my time of singleness will probably help me in the future in ways I can't conceive of.

But the important thing is that I am content with God's plan, and I will carry my cross and follow Him wherever He may lead.

[By the way, I'm pretty sure I got all the facts right in the first paragraph, but I have the horrible habit of second-guessing myself and I don't have the time to double-check right now. So if I got anything wrong please let me know. =P]

Image credit GabrielaP93 on Flickr.

PRESS ON

#24 Melissa Raddatz Henwood , a photo by smith_cl9 on Flickr.

It's been nearly two weeks since the beginning of 2012. How are you feeling, sisters? Excited, anxious, enthused, ambivalent? By now you've had enough time to make lots of great resolutions, and either break half of them and forget the other half, or begin to see some progress. 

Nobody's perfect (how many times have I heard that one?), but we all have things that we want to accomplish or a vision of who we want to be. Maybe you want to be thinner, better educated, more self-disciplined, closer to the Lord, or more fashion-conscious. I have  a number of goals (not resolutions, not dreams) for 2012, involving the growth of my face painting business, graduating from college, buying a really nice camera, hosting Compassion events, et cetera, et cetera, but I know that it's going to be impossible to accomplish all my goals to their fullest extent. That's why there's one big, overarching theme that I'm going to strive for in this new year: pressing on. 

"Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." 

(Philippians 3:12-14)

My awesome uncle/pastor inspired me with his thoughts on these verses. What is the one thing that Paul says he is doing here? He is pressing on toward the goal. How does he do this? By forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. The image here is of a race, and Paul is giving us his tips for success. We'll never forget what kind of sinners we are and what Jesus has done for us, but we are called to forget the successes and failures of the past that could distract us by indulging our self-importance or our self-pity, and we are to reach out to grasp the magnificent things that God is calling us to!

I know that I am perfect in Christ, and yet "I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet." In other words, I'm not taking my salvation for granted. This year will hold so many challenges, so many temptations, so many opportunities--and I can't just sit back and say, "Jesus is going to handle it." No, I am going to "work out" what Christ has "worked in"; I'm going to press on toward a goal that is so far beyond me that I will only reach it in eternity. But I will press on nonetheless. After all, why make goals that you can easily reach? What good are they then? If all of your New Year's Resolutions are realistically achievable, you should go back to the drawing board and dream bigger.

I'm all about getting down and dirty and making things practical, but there are so many times that I find myself writing or saying highfalutin things that I never apply to my life. So this year I'm going to try to change that. I'm going to practice what I preach. If I preach at you in the coming year, it's because I'm preaching to myself. If I challenge you this year, it's because I'm challenging myself. 

I want 2012 to be my year of growth, and I hope that you want to grow along with me!