hearts.ignited

“And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Acts 19:15

       Those who live average lives don’t worry Hell.
                 What worries Hell are those who realize who their God is, and who they are in Him.

       Living your life on fire for God, but the enemy is still attacking you?
                 Be flattered that Hell knows your name.

Damon Thompson

Damon Thompson

“The heart is deceitful above all things,
      And desperately wicked;
      Who can know it?
       I, the LORD, search the heart,
      I test the mind,
      Even to give every man according to his ways,
      According to the fruit of his doings.” — Jeremiah 17:9,10

(via jesustumblr)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” — John 3:16

(Source: weheartit.com, via jesustumblr)

micahwood:

Sunday night, Damon Thompson spoke about Jairus’ daughter. Everyone said she was dead. Jesus said she was asleep. They almost buried her alive because of a misdiagnosis.

Consider how many situations we misdiagnose as dead. Marriages, family members, communities, colleges—we shovel on the dirt because we are so intellectually superior and assume hope is lost.

What if hope is not lost? What if what we are calling dead is merely asleep?

(via micahwood-deactivated20120116)

     “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2

       The more I’m on the internet, the more it’s evident to me that all you have to do to be considered “cool” is have a neatly photoshopped profile picture. Someone can meet you online, and if you have a normal, unedited picture, you might have a chance of being considered cool. But if you have some sort of hipster-style, over-edited, color-saturation-or-desaturation-overload mess of a picture, chances are when someone meets you, you’re gonna be considered “hip” and “mysterious” and “sooo cool” before that person ever gets to know you.
       But how many of us with those edited pictures are really that hip, or mysterious, or cool? It’s easy to put on a face online that isn’t anywhere close to the real you: that person you just stumbled upon that you now think is the greatest hipster of all time? For all you know, she could be the next crazy cat lady down the street. Or he could be someone perfectly normal, that you would never think in a million years would have a photoshopped mess of a profile picture.
       More and more, our identities are becoming more linked to our social media profiles, and less linked to who we actually are. That girl that you won’t talk to because her profile isn’t “cool” enough? She might have been your best friend before the invention of the internet. That guy that you won’t talk to because you think he’s a “total follower looooser”? He might have been your husband.

       This scares me. Not only because we’re becoming parodies of ourselves that we ourselves invent. But it also makes me wonder:

       Are we photoshopping Jesus?

       Jesus doesn’t need our help being cool, let’s get that clear. He’s the only one who can forgive our sins, and the only one who can break chains of bondage. But despite all of that, are we still trying to make him “cool”? Are we parodying Him like we parody ourselves?
       From what I’ve seen, Jesus has gone from revered and seen as Holy, to “Jesus loves you just how you are and won’t ever expect you to change and just talk to him once in a while and you’ll get to sit on a cloud with him forever and smoke weed because He gets you, maaaan. He’s my homie, ya know?”

       Do we not know who He is anymore because we don’t know ourselves?

              Or do we not know who we are because we don’t know who He is anymore?

       I’m going to go with the latter, because we are to carry the image of Christ. When we stop knowing who He is, we stop knowing who we are.

       But here’s a question I’m not sure I know the answer to: Is it better to carry a photoshopped image of Christ, and lie to a hurt and lost world about who He is, or to not carry an image of Him at all?
       Why can’t we choose option “C). Neither” and go with “D). Read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and find out who He truly is? and carry that image?”

My heart’s home. <3

“God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27

       A while back, I read an article about “quotes by famous people” that actually shouldn’t be attributed to those celebrities. One way or another, whether it was over a Facebook status or through word of mouth, these quotes stopped being attributed to the people who authored them, and started being attributed to famous people. Some of these were good, and fit in line with what that public figure would have said anyway — but some of them were contradictory to the general message that that person carried.
       I want you to think a minute. Picture someone in your mind who doesn’t personally know Jesus. Someone who has never picked up a Bible, never watched Christian television, never listened to a Christian song, never read a tract, and has never gone to church. This person doesn’t know that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, or that He loves unconditionally. How does this person get an idea of who Jesus is?
       The answer is “you.”

       Every day you’re around other people, you’re giving off an image of Christ. We are the body of Christ: the hands to heal, the arms to reach, the mouth to speak, the eyes to see, and the feet to go. God works through us, and if we woke up one morning and decided that we never wanted to live for God again, He couldn’t do anything about it because of the free will He gave us.
       “That’s terrible!” You say. “I would never give up living for God!”
       Then why do most of us, every week — or even every day — have moments when we decide to “put God on a shelf for a minute,”? when we decide that it would be better to stop thinking “what would Jesus do,” and do what we think is okay? Because here’s the curious thing about that: to that person that doesn’t know Jesus, you are His image day in and day out. What words are you attributing to Jesus that aren’t actually His?
       To that person, if you’re a Christian you’re supposed to act like Christ — and when you do something less than Christ-like, you don’t stop being that representation of Christ. That person you just flipped off in traffic? Jesus is okay with road rage. That person you just gossiped about at the office? Jesus is okay with gossip. That cashier you just flirted with at the store? Jesus is okay with adultery. Why would someone want to give up everything for a God just to live like they used to? What would be the point?

       There is a world out there who doesn’t know Jesus, a world that is hurt, lost, and dying. We were made in the image of God — and we need to start acting like it if we ever want to reach that world. That coworker, that friend, that family member or that acquaintance might have you as their only opportunity to find out about Christ before their time here is up — don’t be caught with God on a shelf when it is.

Don’t be held back by the lines in the sand that others try to draw for you.