Bold!?!?! I dont want to be bold.

Posted by adamlepp in Heaven Bound, Hope, Identity

I’m guessing from the title your thinking something along the lines of: God is trying transform Adam’s life into a life that is bold when sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, maybe your not thinking that, but if you were, you would still be wrong. The idea of being bold has been on my mind a lot lately. Even more so, the idea of how I don’t want to be bold (just like the title implies ). Now you might be thinking that isn’t very Christian. Shouldn’t we be bold in sharing our faith?

It all started at a retreat I was at. The topic: God’s Crazy Love. We spent time studying how God was crazy in love with us and learned through a real life situation how to love those around us. After returning home, the idea started forming in my head. What if we love people so crazily, that the concept of being bold had no meaning because we loved them so much that we just didn’t care about ourselves.

What would the world look like if that is how we treated each other.  What if we loved so much, that those we loved would want to have what we have?  What if we loved so much, that sharing the gospel was an act of love and not one of those things that we just have to be “bold” about and do?

Thoughts?  I’d love to hear them.  Post in the comments.

Cradle to Grave

Posted by adamlepp in Heaven Bound, Life

Today’s post comes not from me but a friend of mine.  We were in church the other day when she handed me a piece of paper with the following poem on it.  It’s too good not to share.

Cradle to Grave

From the cradle to the grave,
God is with us.
From the littlest embryo,
God is with us.
From the toddler years, through teething,
God is with us.
From the the teenage years, going through the ups and downs and temptations,
God is with us.
From young adulthood to midlife,
God is with us.
From career satisfaction to retirement,
God is with us.
From the cradle to the grave,
God is with us.

In Him all things hold together

Posted by adamlepp in Heaven Bound, Life

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-19)

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4zgJXPpI4

How cool.  Here are some more images I found.

God’s Masterpiece

Posted by adamlepp in Heaven Bound, Life

My roommate showed me the video below a few weeks ago.  I can’t seem to let it go, I can’t seem to stop thinking about it.  I very much like controlling my life, and I don’t like surrendering that control up to God.

Especially these last few days.  I found myself at LifeLight last night.  To be honest, I wasn’t very excited about it and didn’t really want to go.  I met up with some friends and as we are talking, I turn around and hear the speaker at the Main Stage to hear Billy Grahm’s grandson say “You might not know why your here, but God knows why your here.  I laughed inside.  ”I’m just here to see some friends and then head back home” and “Whatever God, your not the reason I’m here today” I said to myself.

As you can probably guess, I was wrong and God did have something in store for me.  Well, I hooked up with another friend and our destination was the Souled Out Stage, but our path took us to the Coffee House tent.  I was instantly captivated by the worship found there.  God started to speak to me.

You see, A few days ago, I said a prayer much like the one said in the Video.  I asked God to do what ever it takes to make me more like His son.  I guess he doesn’t take long to get started.

Anyways, back to LifeLight.  I find myself drifting and thinking about the things I think about.  I wish so much that it God’s will was easier to discern, or maybe more to the point, easier to follow.  I think I spent the entire night wrestling with God and a good deal of it in tears.  I ask God to change my life, and when He starts, I resist.  Even now, as I right this post, I think about the paths that are set out before me, wondering which one I’ll walk down.  I hope it’s the right one, and I pray for strength to make the right decisions.  I pray that God would continue to chisel, no matter how much I struggle and try to run away.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes

Posted by adamlepp in Heaven Bound

I write today not to you, but to me.

Ephesians 6:10-18 says:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

This passage talks about how we should put on the full armor of God in order to take our stand against the devil’s schemes.  Well, yesterday and today I left my shield at home.  I wasn’t able to stand against the devil’s schemes.  I failed quite badly actually.  Just days after my last post about how God has given me strength to stand up and fight, i choose to not stand up and fight.  The strength doesn’t do any good if your not going to use it.

A while back, I was thinking about this passage.  I saw the importance of the sword, how in battle swords are used not only offense, but also defense.  They are used to make advances, but can also be used to block attacks, in close range fights.  At the time I didn’t understand the need for the shield, I thought, why not just defend with the sword.  It occurs to me now, the sword isn’t much good against any army of archers, who attack from far off, firing many arrows at a time.  Another thing just occurs to me now.  All the archers fire at once, they don’t go for accuracy, they just fire a lot and hope one of the many hits the target.  Sounds like the devil to me.  He fires everything he has and hopes one of his tactics work.  We can defend our selves with our shield, just stand behind it, but with out it, well, a sword might stop one, but not much more than that, if that.

I do ask for your prayers though.  Pray that I would continue to be strong and pick up and wear the entire armor of God.

Peace to you,

Adam

With a strength like no other

Posted by adamlepp in Heaven Bound, Life

I figure I should update since it’s been so long.  These last few weeks have been incredibly amazing!  One thing God has really shown me is how strong He really is.  I mean, I’ve always known in my head that He is strong, but now I’m experiencing it.  All those weeks ago I went into the toughest three battles of my life.  My only armor was the armor of God.  I was going to attempt to do the impossible with no tools or weapons of my own, but the strength of Jesus beside me.

Let me tell you, the guy is strong.  What was originally planned as a week long challenge for myself quickly turned into 2 weeks, which turned into 4 weeks, all they way up until now of win after win.  Of the three battles I mentioned above, this is the one that was the hardest for me and the one I focused on the most these last few weeks.

The other two I’m fairing better than I have before, in fact.  I’ve only sinned a few times total since I made war on them.  Thats far fewer than most DAYS previous.

One other thing, Since I have made war against these struggles, the temptations have never been greater.  It feels like every few minutes, satan is throwing something at me trying to get me to fail.  But Jesus was their beside me every step of the way.  I’ve held on on to Him with all of my strength and cried out to Him on so many occasions recently.  He is there every time.

I encourage you to make war with the sins you are struggling with, to cry out to Jesus and ask for help and strength.  I promise you He will, He’s just waiting for an invitation.