Deja Vu

Some things in life you just don't understand. For me, it was what some would call deja vu, or hallucinatory behavior... perhaps a combination of both. Now I'm not crazy, not in the sense of soundness of mind. But I believe in a big God, who has many ways of speaking to His children, and this is one way He reaches me.

With that said, God's been repeating a lot of information to me...

1) God rewards what is done in secret (prayer, giving, etc.). He doesn't like it when people make a show of their "goodness" for others to see how "good" they are.

2)Commit your way to the Lord and He will see that your plans are established. Funny how I stumble upon this verse (Psalm 37:5-6) and then I hear it all over...

3)A wise man hears the words of God (reading qualifies) and puts them into practice.

4)The Great Commission. Need I explain more? :)

5)Do not worry about what you will wear or what you will eat, etc. It's crazy how many times this phrase can reappear in the span of two weeks. Probably about five different incidents, at LEAST.

6)Even sinners love those who love them.

7)Be perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect. Completely separate events, mind you, different people, who don't even know each other. But because they were both God's children, He used them to speak to me. Trying to imitate Christ is the hardest, most impossible task to ever undertake.

8)Road to heaven is narrow, but broad is the path to destruction. Pretty self-explanatory.

This is the second piece of paper now, and I just thought this was pretty cool -

Q. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A. [...]assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace and perseverance threin to the end.

and...

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

Which reminds me of a verse I wrote on the wall in my closet a year ago or so (among others): For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. -Romans 8:18.

The connection for me was that both of this things state that there will be, and should be, suffering, if we intend to partake in the glory of heaven.

Suffering? What's all this suffering talk, God is the Big Man upstairs, He wouldn't let us get hurt!

Heh. Kind of sad how many times I've heard that. But God does expect us to get hurt, to be persecuted, for HIS NAME'S SAKE. We will be hated because HE was hated. We will be mocked, as HE was mocked. People around us will despise the name of Christ, sneer at Christians... but it is to be expected. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." -Matthew 5:11-12

Personally, being hated doesn't sound very appealing. By nature I love to please people, not make enemies of them. But for what I believe, this is the cost. And why believe if all we're to expect is suffering? The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us! Even if we were like those thrown naked, burned, and starved into the ring at the coliseum among the wild beasts of the field, there is no comparison to what awaits us when we pass through the gates of heaven and see God and he welcomes us saying, "Well done."

But get this: not only are we required to endure persecution, but pray for those who inflict it. This is as humanly impossible as being perfect! And the answer is the same - pray that God would bestow love to us so that we may in turn show love to those who hurt us.

And check this out, I was only just flipping through pages of my Bible and found the Golden Rule. Which also mentions the way to God being narrow. I love this!

Almost done, don't worry, but I wanted to brush on another topic... one which I've been having issues with lately.

Superficiality. Is that even a word? It is now... Okay, so the older I get, the looks I receive become weirder and more incredulous when I tell someone, "I've never dated." Then they ask, "WHY??!" and it almost feels like they're wondering if I have a major personality flaw, or maybe I have bad breath or some genetic disease which would render me undesirable. (When I'm having a bad day, I may respond with one of the aforementioned possibilities.) But here's how it goes - the physical aspect of guys really bothers me. Those who are attractive are so often times jerks, too full of themselves and confident they can score whatever they want. I've been told that boys in particular have confidence problems when it comes to relationship issues, but I have to wonder sometimes.

On the other side of the spectrum, those who are socially awkward tend to be the more naive and don't understand that I like men to actually be clued into what's going on in the world. (I knew this one guy who liked me and he didn't even know you were supposed to wear green on St. Patty's Day. Lame.)

Back to superficial though, I will not admit to liking a guy if I think every other girl wants him. All they're looking at is the outside. Newsflash: he's going to get old and wrinkly. If he doesn't have a godly, Christian outlook on life, plus a good personality, it doesn't matter how "gorgeous" he is, I won't even consider him. However, I also have this thing where, if I do see the right personality, but it's trapped within an attractive figure, I'm not going to say anything because I don't want it to look like I like him for the same reason everyone else does. Superficial. That's all, just wanted to get that out there, because it's becoming fermented sitting in my brain.