Fear of the Unknown

There is a slight moment of terrorizing and paralyzing fear when you take a step out on faith, not knowing for sure the direction God is calling you. There is a feeling of vulnerability, where you know the battle of your flesh and your Spirit is raging inside. It's a season of make or break. Who is going to lead you? Satan, or the Lord? Your flesh, or your Spirit? The devil wants nothing more than for you to believe his lies. He wants to viciously attack you and to suck the life out of you, one little whisper at a time. Don't believe the lies! Receive the truth and the promises of God's Word! When the failing feelings emerge hold on, Beloved. Your God is not going to ask you to take a step on ground that he has not already placed underfoot. Even though at times you may not can see the ground, by faith, you confidently and courageously take that step of faith. Knowing and DECLARING His ways are better than your ways.

Being Sick: An Answered Prayer

You want to know how CRAZY and INCREDIBLE my God is? Well good, because you are about to find out. This week has been one of the worst, and best weeks of my life. Physically, I feel absolutely terrible! All I have done is sat around getting "rested up." Everyone knows being sick is NO fun! Spiritually, though, I feel so energized and renewed! God has a way of using our weaknesses to make us strong in Him. This made me think of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 when he had a "thorn in his flesh." We see that Paul is in distress over this "thorn." Whether is is a literal thorn or not, we do not know. But we do see the renewing of Paul's spirit during this weakness.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
When I read this, I was like, "this is SO me!" Even though I have been so stinkin' sick, I have felt the strength and presence of my God more than ever before. It is not by my power though, it is only through my weakness of being sick that God has revealed himself to me. I want to boast in my weakness, because I know that my Heavenly Father is speaking to me through this.
Ironically, I believe my sickness is an answered prayer! Crazy, huh? "How in the world can being sick be an answered prayer?" This is why...I have been praying for God to move in my life to show me direction in some future decisions; he has opened my eyes to scripture this week that have answered those prayers. I have had to be reliant on him, and only him, for my satisfaction; not my friends, family, or a guy. Only HIM. This pure reliance on Christ is essential, not only through our weaknesses, but at ALL times. God does not just want all of Hannah when she is sick. He wants all of me all the time. He wants the same for you!

God I PRAISE you for my weaknesses! "When I am weak, then I am strong."

Love,
Hannah Hollis

Love love love.

...then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interest of others. 
Philippians 2:2-4
As Christians, we have one ultimate goal, one purpose: to share God's love through the Gospel to others.  Whether it be through evangelism, through singing, through coaching, through teaching, through just being a lover of people; God wants to use each one of us. Love is the key here. I am not much of the person to write all "lovey dovey" about God, but we are called to love. After all, that is the second greatest commandment; love others. The first being to love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Luke 10:27) So sharing the love of God with others is our purpose. That is our one purpose. 
When we share this love with others we shouldn't do it out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, as we see in verse 3. Ambition in itself is not negative; you can have a godly ambition to win others to Christ. Paul here brings up selfish ambition, which is negative. It means that someone is self absorbed and only worried about his or her own destiny or desires. Vain conceit is simply being conceited about yourself. These words, to me, seem to be synonyms. Just know that neither of these terms are something you want in your spiritual life when it comes to serving Christ through love.
We need to serve out of humility. A servant-like attitude. Why should we lower ourself to such a impoverish standard of living? Because Jesus did. We see in the gospel of John that Jesus stooped down to the disciples' feet and washed them. (John 13:1-17) The lowest our, ironically, Heavenly King, could get. The humility of the cross in itself should be enough for us to never complain about being a servant of Christ Jesus. Who are we to complain when it comes to serving? Any body else's toes getting stomped on? Mine sure are.
Make people ask you, "Why are you doing this? Why are you showing me love?" Your answer: "Jesus loves me and he loves you and I want to share His love with you." I want people to question my motives of why I love the unloveable. I want to be asked why I do (in some people's eyes, crazy) things I do to just to show love.  It is not like the world to look to the interest of others, but we are called to do so. We are not called to fit in as a status quo American. We are to be aliens and strangers in this world...( 1 Peter 2:11)
When people realize you genuinely care about them, they will being to open up to you. When people open up with each other, a bond beings to connect. Then, that connection can cause a friendship to flourish. Building a friendship is a beautiful way to let the Holy Spirit pour love into another person's life. Through a friendship, someone can see the display of Christ's love on the cross. He died for everyone, so why shouldn't we love everyone? Simple. When the time is right, God will set up a divine appointment to share the gospel with, who now, is your friend.
This is just an example of what can happen when we put Philippians 4:2-4 into action. Yes, three jam-packed verses. It can change the way you view people for the rest of your life. It can also change the eternal destiny of your future friends, and family members.

Uh Oh. The Bad Stuff.

Repentance is to turn away from sin. Repentance is not something that you tell God and automatically assume you are not going to struggle with that one sin you repented from. Sin is sin. You were born into sin, and your flesh desires sin. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:5 That is how it goes. Sin will lie to you. We see in the first book of the bible that the devil will lie to us to make sin seem "okay." When the serpent talks Eve into eating of the tree, in Genesis 3. Sin is sweet for a season. Sin is directly from the devil, himself. The devil is seeking someone to devour, we see that in 1 Peter 5:8.  

The reason I start off like this is because I want you to see that sin is real and it is the artillery that the devil and his demons use to attack us and pull us away from our Loving and Gracious Heavenly Father. The enemy wants to destroy every blessing and piece of joy that God has given you. The devil will do this, usually, in a very sly way. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. Romans 7:11 God has an abundant life he wants to give to you, but if we are entangled by the lies of the devil, how are we to receive this gift of abundant life? ...let us throw off everything that hiders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1b. You cannot and will not receive the full inheritance of a joyful life in Christ until you flee from your sinful desires and pursue righteousness.  Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
I am not asking for you to be perfect and neither is God, but He has called us to live righteous.  

When we do sin, we sin against the Holy and Magnificent God of this universe. That is how we should think about it every time we sin. Every time we give in to that temptation of the enemy we are putting another bruise on Jesus' back; we are whipping him one more time before he is taken to the cross. But he was pierced for OUR transgressions, he was crushed for OUR iniquities; the punishment that brought US peace was upon HIM, and by HIS wounds WE are healed. Isaiah 53:5. We are the one's that brought the punishment of Jesus upon him. Our sins nailed him to the cross, at Calvary.  

We need to realize the serious of sin. One day, we will stand before the Lord and he will judge us for every sin we ever committed. We need to take a realistic look at the damage we are not only doing to our own Spiritual life, but to other people's life, when it comes to our sin. We may not realize the retaliation of our sin when we are in the midst of committing it, but YOUR sin may cause others to stumble. And we see in Luke what Jesus thinks of this...Jesus said to he is disciples: "Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause on of these little ones to stumble. Luke 17:1-2.  

Obviously, as Christians, we know that our enemy is the devil and that he wants to do everything he can to cause us to stumble into sin. Sin separates us from God. If we are not constantly renewing our minds in God's steadfast love, we will become an easy target for our enemy to hit. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devils attacks (Ephesians 6:10-20). You are not in this alone. Every Christian goes through Spiritual warfare, it is an on going battle against our flesh and our spirit. The only way the spirit will win, is through commitment to God's word and prayer.

Thankfully, God is a merciful and a gracious God. He is kind and loving to all who are willing to repent and turn from their sins and wicked ways. Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? Romans 2:4 Beloved, if you are struggling with a certain sin in your life, give it up to Christ. Do not maximize the struggle of this one sin, just place it in God's hands. Daily ask God to help you fight against the temptation of that certain sin. We are in battle, but remember, eternally, God has the victory.

 If you have never accepted, believed and repented of your sins, you are destined for an eternal fiery hell. But friend, that is not how the story ends, if you want to accept this gift of salvation, you can! If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Romans 10:9-10

TODAY, turn from your sin. Run to Jesus. He is willing and ready to forgive.  

Jesus, Oh Jesus, 

Do you know him today?

Do not turn him away

Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, 

Without him how lost I would be

-Without Him, Gaither Vocal Band

Love,
Hannah Hollis

What is God's Will for YOUR Life?

You want to know what God's will is for your life? I have the answer to this million dollar question, but I am going to let you read the scripture for yourself and let's see if you can find the answer.

3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. 9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.     1 Thessalonians 4:3-12

     Did you find the answer? Look again, at the very first statement, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified..." There is the answer plain and simple. We are called to be sanctified. Sanctification means to be holy or to have the qualities of holiness. In other words, to become more like Jesus. Jesus was dedicated and set apart for God's purpose. We should live the same way; dedicated and set apart. Sanctification is a twofold term, let me explain. When you accept the gift of eternal life, the Holy Spirit comes and takes control of your life, which makes you holy and righteous.

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

"...we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Hebrews 10:10)

     I see this first part of sanctification as an instant, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. Once you accept the gift of salvation you are sanctified. Sanctification doesn't stop there, though. The second part of sanctification is an ongoing process of becoming holy. That is where verses 3b-12 of 1 Thessalonians 4 from above comes in. Paul gives us three ways to be sanctified. These are not just an option, but a command from God.  

     First we see that we are to be sexually pure. Look back to verses 3b-7. I know these days "sex" is a word that is everywhere in the world, but not talked enough about between Christians. By the Christians dodging   "awkward" lessons or talks on sex, teens and young adults are turning to the world's view of sexuality. Honestly, why should we blame the world for sexual sin? We should be pointing our fingers at ourselves, as Christians. Instead of young people hearing the lies of the world that tell them it is cool to have sex before your married, let's tell them the truth of living pure lives! Someone in my college group said, "People use the excuse, 'telling people about Jesus can be awkward,' but awkwardness never killed anybody." The same is true for the subject of sex. Yes, it may be a tad awkward, but it is an essential part of being sanctified. We are to be sexually pure until we are married. Paul also talks about lust. Have you ever committed adultery? When we lust after and man or woman Jesus said we have already committed adultery in our hearts. (Matthew 5:27-28). Now have you ever committed adultery? Now we see God's seriousness about sexual purity. We are a temple of the living God and we should not damage it by sexual impurity. Let me add this, if you have fallen into temptation and have been sexually impure, God will forgive you. God can renew purity if you are willing to turn away from your sin and trust him.  

     The second way we are to be sanctified is by loving others. How many times have we heard this one? It is so easy to say, "I love everyone," but it is another thing to SHOW it. Love is an action. I totally believe that. Let's just take the "good news" or the Gospel for example. We can tell people over and over about the Gospel and share it with people, but if we are not living out the love of Christ in our own lives what would make a lost person want salvation? I am not saying people are not going to get saved by hearing the gospel, because people do! What I am saying, is that when we show the love of God through our actions, people will respond because they see we are different from the world.  

Which brings me to Paul's last way to be sanctified; orderly living. We see in verses 11 and 12 that we are called to live quiet and orderly lives. Paul says that if we do, we will when the respect for outsiders. I am not saying that all lost people are going to like you for being a Christian, because they are not. I am saying that more people will have a respect for you when you do so.

     These are just three points, but they are packed with a challenge. I know God has spoken to me through this passage and I pray He does the same for you.  

This is God's will for you...to be sanctified.  

Love,

Hannah