High on Jesus

One of my favorite motivational posters in middle school was “I’m high on life and drunk on self-esteem.” I guess I liked it because it seemed so corny at the time, but I’ve found that getting high on life is legit. Put more accurately, I regularly get high on Jesus and His word. Don’t let the parallel be too weird here, let’s think about what a “high” really is. It’s being care-free, worry-free, light, and a bunch of goofy smiles.

While a worldly high produces a false sense of peace and joy, being high on Jesus gives you the real thing. It’s what His kingdom is made of. Check out Romans 14:17:
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Being full of Jesus and taking part of His kingdom is also subjecting yourself to a new state altogether. Righteousness. Being drunk on self-esteem is as good as highly as you can think of yourself. Give me God-awareness and His righteousness any day of the week.


We don’t have to settle for the phony peace, joy, and any self righteousness we can muster up. We’ve got the real deal. Jesus is enough. He’s the highest high that will never bottom out and our righteousness we could never attain on our own. Get yourself some Jesus today. He’s legal in all states and ready to take your cares and worries and leave you feeling light and at peace.

To Run or Not To Run

I remember a time when a friend and I were at a Jr High basketball game, and instead of being inside watching the game, for some reason we were outside walking around the school property by ourselves.  We weren’t doing anything wrong, just talking and hanging out.  While we were out there, a police car drove by very slowly.  Suddenly, my friend just bolted away as fast as he could.  

I didn’t know why - like I said, we weren’t doing anything wrong - but because he took off, I found myself suddenly running away with him.  I heard the police officer holler for us to stop.  So I stopped and walked over to him, but my friend was a lot farther than I.  The officer asked why we ran, and I told him I just ran because my friend ran.  The officer proceeded to tell me to never run from an officer.  

My friend obviously had a guilty conscious, so he just assumed that he was in trouble for something.  How many times have you felt like going along with the crowd, even though you feel that you shouldn’t?  

A good rule of thumb is that if majority of the population is doing it, it probably is not right.  When we accept Jesus as our Lord, the Holy Spirit begins working in us right away.  He teaches us and can help us know right from wrong in ways we didn’t before.  It’s like a light has been turned on inside of us.  So we have an inward witness that the world does not have.

We can’t expect unsaved masses to fall in line with what we believe because they do not have that inward witness.  This inward witness sets us apart.  That is why when everyone else is running one direction, we can see that it is not a wise choice and choose not to follow.  When my friend took off, I knew I had no reason to run.  It was my choice to follow or stay.  I made a wrong choice at the time because I was young, but I learned my lesson that day.  Don’t follow the crowd, but instead follow that inward witness.

Ephesians 4:17-24 (NIV)
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:17-24 (MSG)
17-19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

Thankful  

Lately, I have really been meditating on this verse. “I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds” Psalm 9:1. Pastor Nate’s message, “Beyond Thanksgiving” was so awesome. Giving thanks to the Lord is so important in our life.

It truly makes us grateful for all He has done for us. I encourage you today to look around you and give thanks to the Lord for what He has done. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him. If there is anything good in your life it came from Him so give Him thanks! You can even take it a step further and tell someone about it giving God the credit for what He has done.

It doesn’t have to be something big it can be the little blessings in life. Give Him thanks! One thing that I have really been thanking God for is the house we are remodeling and the help he is sending us in order to complete it! Each time I pull up to the house I am overwhelmed with God’s goodness and can’t help but thank Him. Not only that but He has lined up such amazing people to help us remodel our house to make it even more amazing than we could have dreamed! God is so good to us!


I am also extremely grateful for my family. God has blessed me with an incredible husband and four precious boys! Every time I look at them I just have to say thank you Lord for blessing me with such amazing boys! What are you thankful for today?