Degree Purpose

If you are a college student, then you have mostly likely encountered the following question from well meaning friends or relatives, "So what do you plan to do with your degree?" I like to rephrase that question. Instead of answering to what I will do with my degree, I would like to answer, "I like to think of my degree, not in terms of what I will do with it, but what it has done and is doing for me." At this point you will get puzzled looks, in fact you may have a puzzled expression on your face now. Let me explain.

I began the process of earning my degree through CollegePlus as an exercise in trust. I was scared by the phrase, "Credit by examination." I have always had to work hard to maintain a good grade. Studying and testing has never come easily for me. The idea of gaining my whole degree through distance learning was so daunting that I very seriously considered attended a brick and mortar college, because for some reason that option sounded far less frightening.

For reasons I may explain in another post, God really convicted me that leaving home and going several hours away to college was not a good choice for my spiritual growth, and that I needed to remain at home and involved in the lives of my family members and friends. For months I sat staring the option of starting CollegePlus in the face. "But Lord, I don't think I can do it. You know that testing isn't my strong point. I might fail…" The argument when round and round, and finally I remember the question that changed my life. "Katy, you have always told God that you would go where He led. How you would leave all behind and follow Him anywhere He asked you to go. What if He is not leading you to go anywhere? What if He is calling to serve here? What if He is asking you to trust Him in this journey of earning your degree? Will He be with you any less in passing exams than He would have been if He had called you to Africa? You said you would trust and follow Him anywhere, what if this is where He is leading you? Can you trust Him?"

That was the beginning of my journey to earning my degree. Since then there have been many faith stretching moments, many fears to overcome, and I know that there will be more as I continue forward. The question for me is not about what my degree will do for me, or how I will use it, it is, "How will God continue using this process to build character and ultimately draw me nearer to Him."

I have learned what it means to persevere. What it means to fail and try again. I have learned how to better manage my time and how to trust that He can help me overcome seemingly impossible odds. I made friends through CollegePlus who challenged the very core of everything I believed, causing me to seek the truth through His Word. Consequently I have grown by leaps and bounds spiritually. I could probably write a book on all that the Lord has taught me since I took that first step of faith and enrolled with CollegePlus.  The decision to begin CollgePlus really was a life altering decision.

For me college has never been about earning a degree that will give me better career opportunities, it has always been about trusting the Lord and following where He leads. The question is not always, "What will you do with your degree?" but rather sometimes it is, "What will your degree do for you and how will the Lord use it to grow you in ways that glorify Him?"

Day 34

“You shall fear the LORD your God, you shall serve Him and to Him you shall hold fast” (Deuteronomy 10:20).



What does it mean to fear the Lord? In this day in age you hear over and over that the Lord is a God of peace, a God of love. In many cases you get the impression that He is your buddy. He wants you to always be happy and He is there when you need Him. There is not a big emphasis on fearing the Lord, in fact it is a term that many do not fully grasp. I am not sure that I even do, though I am seeking to understand it more fully.


The Lord is a God of love. He is the originator of love. He is love in its deepest sense. He loves us unconditionally, yes, but this love is like the love of a Father. He chastens us, He shows us where we are wrong, lovingly correcting us and calling us to a higher way of life. He is a God of Love, but He is also a God of justice, His wrath can be awakened toward those who displease Him. He is not our “buddy” He is God. Creator of the universe, Savoir of the world, He is to be stood in awe of, worshiped, reverenced. These are a few things I have been learning about what it means to fear the Lord.


Not only are we to fear the Lord, we are also to serve Him and to hold fast to Him. Serving Him should be easy, but often times it isn’t. We are selfish and we want to go our own way. We have goals to meet, but how often are these goals our own and for our own gain? Do we serve for the Lord, or to gain the praise of others? Do we truly serve the Lord from hearts filled with unselfish motives? What does it mean to you to serve the Lord? What does it look like in your life.


In my life right now, serving the Lord is first following His commands and doing those things which He asks of us, like prayer and seeking to know His Word and hiding it in our hearts. Then it is serving those whom He has put in my life like family, friends, and even those at the grocery store or wherever that I come in contact with. Serving the Lord means doing things for His glory and not my own. This means heart checks on a daily basis. Why am I doing this? Is it to impress others, or is it to bring honor to the Lord? Often times serving the Lord means laying aside what I would like to do to do that which He would like for me to do, and honestly, I really struggle with that. It is something that I seek His strength in daily.


“And to hold fast to Him.” Why hold fast? Well, I’m sure there are lots of reasons, one being that if we do not hold fast to the Lord and His Word we will surly grow week and fall. We will get lost in the darkness of our sin, loaded down in guilt and shame. We will become distracted by worldly gain, by the promises that we will gain the praise of men. If we do not hold fast we will fall away until we no longer see what it is that He put us on this earth to accomplish and that would surely be heartbreaking.


I do not have it all together. There is so much I do not yet know, but I pray that the Lord will help me to remain faithful to reading and studying His Word and that daily He will help me to understand who it is He is calling me to be. I want to get to the end of this life and be able to say that I strove with all that was within me and by the grace of the Lord I served Him above all else. Above man, above wealth, and mostly, above self.

Sanctification

One of my favorite bloggers, recently posted this quote in her article "Guilty As Charged."

"In our sufferings, we need to be more concerned about our duty than our deliverance. We should seriously consider what it is that God desires in our present dispensation. There is no condition or trial in the world but we have the opportunity to exercise some special grace or duty. To desire deliverance alone is self-love and quite natural to man. In affliction man seeks to be delivered and released from his burden. Men make more haste to get their afflictions removed than to be sanctified in them...Let us search and try our ways, Let us consider that the present condition is best for us, and learn in whatever state we are, to be content (Phil. 4:11). Let us rejoice in tribulation (Rom. 5:3) Let us lift up Jesus Christ and make Him glorious by our afflictions. Paul studied more how to adorn the cross than how to avoid it. If he must suffer for Christ, O that Christ might not suffer by him! May Christ be exalted, and let us entrust our souls to a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19)." Thomas Chase, Select Works, A Treatise of Afflictions, pp. 65-67

 

"Men make more haste to get their afflictions removed than to be sanctified in them..." How true this is. Recently in talking with a dear friend I was reminded of this very thing. How often have I wished for the trials in life to just be gone. How much easier it is to pray that God will set us free from our afflictions rather than to sanctify us through them. My friend has challenged me to not pray, "Lord, lift this burden," but instead to pray, "Lord, make me broken before You if in my brokenness I may be sanctified and You glorified." When you are in the midst of some hardship that is the last thing you wish to pray for from a selfish and human perspective isn't it? But when you look at life as means of glorifying the Lord, and if that means be sanctified through pain, then would you not pray it?

Not so man may see,

But that I may be

Fully surrendared to You

In everything You call me to do

Humbled and broken

That Your glory be spoken

In word in action for all to see

Lord, be glorified in me.

                                                                                          ~Kathryn

Ouch!

"Those of us who are single face a danger of becoming self-absorbed. Free from the constraints of family life, it is all too easy to become preoccupied with fulfilling our own social needs or consumed with our jobs or with making money. Now there's certainly nothing wrong with having friends or careers or making a living, but God is concerned about the heart motives of His children. Rather than devoting their lives to furthering the Kingdom of Christ, many Christian singles have been caught in the trap of self-seeking and self-fulfillment." ~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss


Reading this was one of those "ouch" moments. It gave me food for thought and prayer. What are my heart motives and what are some things that I may need to change?

Bolognese Stuffed Bell Peppers


1 c. water

1/2 c. uncooked rice (or orzo)

2 T. olive oil, divided

1/8 c. minced onions (or substitute with carrots)

6 bell peppers, stems and seeds removed (blanched)

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/4 lb. pancetta, or lightly smoked bacon diced

1 1/2 c. prepared marinara sauce

1/4 c. red wine, optional

1/2 t. red pepper flakes

1/3 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. grated parmesan, divided
Preheat over 375*. In saucepan bring water to boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender and fluffy. Set aside. Heat 1 T. oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add carrots and onions and cook, stirring, until tender. Add beef and pancetta and cook until browned and crumbled. Drain. Return to heat. Add marinara, wine, and red pepper. Simmer 10 minutes. Stir in cream 1/2 of cheese and rice. Simmer 5 more minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Stuff the peppers. Drizzle with remaining oil and top with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Love the Bride, Love the Savior

"If you do not love the bride, you do not love the Savior." ~ Voddie Baucham

Time management is something I have always struggled with. Truth be told, it is probably something everyone struggles with to some extent. This morning I was listening to a sermon by Dr. Voddie Baucham and the line I quoted above really stood out to me. "If you do not love the bride (speaking Christ's bride, the church), you do not love the Savior. He spoke of how it isn't enough to just serve Christ in your little closet. You must also love the bride as He loves the bride. Your top priority is not only to serve Christ, but to see Him worshipped among the nations.

I personally want that to be my first priority, but sometimes in the midst of everything I loose sight of that top priority. Thinking of it in terms of if I don't "see Him worshipped among the nations" and show concern for His bride thenI do not love Him...that really changes the way I look at life. At what I want to do, versus that which I have to do.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about marriage. Having just seen my older brother marry and having friends preparing to make that same commitment, I have begun to look a marriage in a different light. I see it more and more as it was meant to be seen, as a reflection of Christ's love for His bride, the church. As that reflection, marriage is a union that calls both parties involved to become more selfless, to be more concerned about the needs of the other than about their own wants. Marriage is a reflection of Christ's love for His bride. He was selfless when He died on the cross to redeem us, so stands to reason that I, as His child, am also called to be selfless.

After all, you do not just get married and all of the sudden become selfless. Selflessness is something that must be nurtured throughout our lives. How does this apply to the topic at hand? Well, it means we are called to be selfless or Christlike. When we are Christ-centered we will want to be about our Father's business. We will desire to serve Him in every area of life, but we will not stop there. Our desire will also be to see Him made known to the nations and worshiped by all. Once this longing fills our heart, we should not let it get pushed aside for things that we may want to do, or even what others may want us to do. This is not a choice that is left to us. We are not to serve Christ only if we want to, and to see that He is worshipped among the nations if we want to. No, we are called to do this. It is something we have to do. If we do not do it, then we are walking in rebellion and sin.

The next time I am tempted to push aside the importance of loving Christ's bride, I pray I remember to keep my priorities straight. First, I do what I have to, and then when I have done that and as He provides I can do those things that I want to do. Those things that may be good, but are not best right here and right now. There is no joy in serving self, but there is unfathomable joy in serving our Savior and "singing" His praises to the nations so that they may join in the song and lift their voices in fervent worship to He, who alone, is worthy to be praised.

Day 33

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of all of them” (Psalm 34:19).



No one says life as a follower of God will be easy. Actually, the Bible says many times that the righteous will suffer, but our hope rests in the fact that the LORD will deliver us. He will be our strength. What a promise!

Cheeseburger Meatloaf


2 lbs. ground beef

3/4 c. fresh bread crumbs

1/2 c. minced onion

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 t. ground black pepper


Combine and mix well. Pat into a 14x18 rectangle. Preheat oven to 350*.


3 c. shredded cheddar cheese (or pepper jack slices)


Spread cheese, leaving 3/4 inch border. Roll up. Press ends. Bake 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 160*.

Variations:

-Using the same meat mixture – pat into loaf pans and top with BBQ sauce. Bake at 350* for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

-You can add garlic (1 clove), fresh ground pepper (1/2 t.), and dried basil (1 t.).

Who's Kingdom Are You Building?

"We are kingdom-oriented people. We always live in the service of one of two kingdoms. We live in the service of the small, personal happiness agenda of the kingdom of self, or we live in service of the huge, origin-to-destiny agenda of the kingdom of God. When we live for the kingdom of self, our decisions, thoughts, plans, actions, and words are directed by personal desire. We know what we want, where we want it, why we want it, how we want it, when we want it, and who we would prefer to deliver it. Our relationships are shaped by an infrastructure of subtle expectations and silent demands. We know what we want from people and how to get it from them. We seek to surround ourselves with people who will serve our kingdom purposes, and we evaluate them not from the perspectives of the laws of God's kingdom but from the perspective of the laws of our kingdom."

~ Paul David Tripp What Did You Expect??

"The kingdom of self," those very words made me cringe as I read them. Sometimes it is the words of a wise friend and sometimes it is a passage from a book that causes you to face yourself head on and see a truth about who you are. In some cases you see your weakness but just choose not to give them the attention you ought. As I read Mr. Tripp's words I was forced to stop, to be still, and to listen to the truth that has been gently whispered to me over and over in more urgently the last few months. I say that I love the Lord, that I love others, but are my thoughts and actions really reflecting that?

Have you ever had thoughts about others that sounded something like this, "I love them, I'm there for them, I sacrifice for them, but they don't do anything for me"? "Whoa, wait a minute," you think. "Did I just think that?" Be honest, thoughts of pride and self-centeredness are a part of every life, but that does not excuse us. That does not give us the freedom to continue walking in sin.

We each must be equipped with the knowledge that we will struggle with the kingdom of self, because as children of God we know that we are called to build not our own individual kingdom's, but to build His. That our actions and words should be a reflection of the Father's love in us.

I was challenged to examine my relationships with family and friends, and even the casual passer by-er. What do my actions, words, heart attitudes towards others reflect? Myself or God? Am I surrounding myself with people who will serve to meet my agenda and build my own little self-centered kingdom? Or am I seeking to love as Christ loved, to serve as He served, to be self-less and filled with grace?

Each day we face choices. We can choose to do those things which make us feel good, big, and important, or we can choose to seek the Lord and His strength to do those things that will probably be harder and will require sacrifice at times but will also bring Him the most glory. We can live to build our own little kingdoms, or we can live to build His.

How do you love? Why do you serve? What are your heart motives? These are questions I continue to ask myself, and pray I never cease to ask myself. We are sinners by nature, but we are not bound by sin. Christ died to give us a better way. In Him, we can love and live more like He loves, more live He lived (in His time on earth). In Him we can die to self and live for our Maker. In Him we have hope.

As For Today

We often mistakenly think that things are always going to be as they are now. We have difficulties imagining how the changing seasons of life will affect the habits of today. We wake up in the morning had have our hour plus long devotions and rarely treasure the time as we ought.

I don't know about you, but as a single young adult I often forget that this is just a season of life. Don't get me wrong, I pray that one day God will bring a special man into my life and that we will have a family of our own, but in those dreams I rarely quite grasp the reality that with becoming a wife and mother my focus will shift. What I "have time for" will change. We like to think that the older we become the more efficient we will be at time management and the more time we will have. Wrong. While we may develop better time management skills, we will have more responsibilities so the time we now imagine we will have then will seem laughable when we actually get there.

Someday you may have a family to feed a cloth and to lead in the ways of the Lord. You may have little feet pattering after you all day long, and little faces to wash and ouchies to kiss. You may find that quite hour quite elusive during certain seasons of life, especially if young children are in the picture. What am I trying to say? Treasure these moments. I know the grass may look greener on the other side of the fence, but it's going to get here faster than you think. When those moments come, treasure them too, but for today, treasure the longer devotion times, the sweet hours of prayer, and your ability to focus on God a little more whole-heartedly. And don't just treasure these times, seek them out. Make time, because if you don't now, you won't then. Waiting for a time when you aren't busy is like waiting for the day you will no longer need oxygen. It's not going to happen.

Each day is a gift. Let's live it in such a way that our thankfulness is reflected back to the Father. Let's not long for what we don't yet have, but thank the Lord for what we do have. What are some other things that you take for granted?  

Strength in Weakness

Within each of us is the desire to stand strong, to be the one that others come running to for a comforting hug in hard times, or for a prayer when they feel discouraged and weakened. Each of us longs to be a "hero." Only our perception of what a hero is can become quite skewed. We want to be this strong and courageous person who never falters, who doesn't show weakness, who is always faithful. The thing is, we all falter, we all fall because we are all broken people, sinners saved by grace.

God does not call us to be macho. He calls us to be broken. It is in our brokenness and in our weakness that He is made strong. We don't have to hide our brokenness, we don't have to pretend be who we are not, perfect. Oftentimes it is our very brokenness and our willingness to let that brokenness show which encourages others. No, this is not an excuse for us to whine and complain, this is just to encourage you to examine your motives for hiding the things that God is using to refine you just so that you appear strong in the eyes of others.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Day 32

"For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks or water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills" (Deuteronomy 8:7)



The children of Isreal had just been in the wilderness, chastened by God. Sometimes we find ourselves going through dry times. We sinned and were "exiled" to the wilderness of consequences. We are alone in and unfamiliar land. We are famished and in need of the Lord, we thirst and nothing short of His living water will quench our thirst. God reminds us that we cannot live happily on the "bread" of the world. We need the bread of the Lord, His Word.


The verse above paints a beautiful picture of a place where God led the children of Isreal to after their time in the dessert. It reminds me of those places of joy, where our thirst is quentched, and Jesus is as near as He ever will be this side of heaven. A place where through His Word and prayer we can bask in His presence, eat of His bread, drink from His streams and have our every need met. A place He has called all of us to if only we will listen and follow the sound of His voice.


"Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God...when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage" (Deuteronomy 8:11-14).


In the good times when all is well, we so often forget the Lord, and how He led us out of bondage and the dryness of the wilderness of our sin. Before we know it we have slipped from our beautiful valley back into a desert of sorts, weakened so that we do not stand firm in obeying the commandments of our Lord. Here is a warning. Don't let us forget it...