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You are here: Home / Archives for commitment

Commitment Lens

February 14, 2019 By admin

Today is the day. I stared at my reflection in the smudged glass, running my hand down the side of my purple, sequin dress. What would my family or his family think? How would I tell my friends?I pursed my lips together to even out the velvety lipstick – it all felt so surreal. 

“You ready to go?” His voice echoed throughout the house.

“I’m ready.” Grabbing my clutch, I made my way down the soft carpeted stairs. He smiled up at me as I descended. 

“You nervous?”

I gave a smirk before slipping on my coat. “Surprisingly, no.”

It was a particularly chilly October day as we made our way to the Lincoln State Capitol. The four of us hastened up the Capitol steps as each stiff breeze stung our already rosy cheeks. It all happened so fast – the ceremony, the pictures, and the once-in-a-lifetime commitment we made to each other. Being the spontaneous person that I am, I suggested months prior that we should elope in secret, and he agreed. Looking back, I can’t help but smile at the excitement and adventure we experienced in that moment. We had officially eloped without telling anyone but our two witnesses (my brother and my close college friend). After a year of long distance, I finally married my best friend of six years. And despite the frigid October weather, it was an exciting day that I’ll always remember. 

After sharing our news, both of our families were understandably shocked, yet excited to hear of our elopement. We promised we’d still throw a big traditional wedding on our first anniversary so that everyone could celebrate. However, when news snuck out that my husband and I had eloped, friends were surprisingly not so pleased. We received a lot of raw opinions and sheer disapproval. What was supposed to be the happiest decision of my life became a sore subject among some of my closest friends. I felt disappointed that a personal decision that I made became the topic of gossip among many. It was even more hurtful to hear such disapproval being spread around without anyone directly coming to me.

These past few months of marriage, I have received multiple comments about my decision to elope. Friends have expressed their annoyance and hurt feelings over not being invited to a traditional wedding. I’ve received comments like: “You’re not ready, why rush?” and “Your decision is disappointing. You should have had a traditional wedding.” Although these comments remain frustrating, I realize that it’s not necessarily about the big traditional day; the most important outcome is that my husband and I made a commitment to each other.

Receiving the aftermath of my elopement reminds me of a deeper, more spiritual scenario. As Christians, we often show our disapproval of others in their spiritual journey. Some of us want people to accept Christ in a way that we see is correct. It’s easy to judge too quickly or speak too harshly, and I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve found myself casting judgment. In the end, someone else’s relationship with Christ is their own; it’s not up to us what that relationship should look like.

Our Savior values each of us. He meets us where we are, despite how we got there. I realize that it’s not always about finding Christ in a traditional way; it’s that we are committed to following Him. Archibald MacLeish sums it up perfectly:

“Religion is at its best when it makes us ask hard questions of ourselves. It is at its worst when it deludes us into thinking we have all the answers for everybody else.” 

Maddie Temple-Lowe writes from Lincoln, Nebraska.

The post Commitment Lens appeared first on Answers for Me.

Read more at the source: Commitment Lens

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: News and Feeds, Vegetarian recipes Tagged With: answers for me, big-traditional, christ, commitment, crossings, disapproval, lincoln, lincoln-state, news and feeds

The Relationship Factor

October 25, 2018 By admin

Most folks have never heard of Farrokh Bulsara.

Most, though, have heard of Freddie Mercury, the superstar of the rock group Queen. By the time he died in 1994, Farrokh Bulsara (that is, Freddie Mercury) had sold more than 100 million albums, including classics such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “We Will Rock You,” and “We Are the Champions.” These were the songs that made Farrokh (Freddie) rich and famous.

Freddie himself was worth about $75 million, give or take a million or two. On one birthday he rented an entire floor of New York City’s elite Berkshire Hotel, and flew his friends in via the Concorde. The waiters wore nothing but body paint that had been applied by a famous artist. Hundreds and hundreds of bottles of expensive alcohol disappeared within hours. Freddie’s birthday party lasted for days.

Freddie Mercury had it all: power, money, fame, talent, lovers—everything and anything that anyone could ever want.

Well, not quite. Just before he died of AIDS at 46, Freddie issued this his final press release. Here are the superstar’s last public words, the words of a man who had everything—or so it seemed:

“You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man, and that is the bitterest type of loneliness. I’ve had lots of lovers. I’ve tried relationships on either side male and female. But all of them have gone wrong. Success has brought me idolization and millions of dollars, but it has prevented me from having the one thing that we all need: a loving, ongoing relationship.”

Work It Out

What was the problem?

The one thing Freddie wanted, the one thing he said that we all need—a loving, ongoing relationship—was the one thing even Freddie’s money and parties and fame couldn’t deliver.

Most of us are not a Freddie Mercury, of course, and though we don’t have everything that the world offers, we can relate to some degree to Freddie’s pain over the lack of good relationships.

Sure, maybe not all of our relationships have gone wrong as his did, but probably many have. We see it all around us—at home, at work, among friends, even among nations. Human beings seem to have a hard time getting along. Sadly, it’s often the relationships with the ones with whom we are closest—the one who love us and whom we love—that go sour. And that makes it all that much more painful. It’s bad enough not to get along with people we don’t know that well, but the fights and conflicts among those who once loved each other (or maybe still do) can be the most bitter. There’s a reason, perhaps, that civil wars tend to be the most bloodthirsty of all wars. We seem to have a knack to hurt the ones we love the most.

We’ve gone to the moon. We can fly around the world at supersonic speeds. We can plunge to the bottom of the sea and build computers that can do billions of calculations in seconds, but we still haven’t learned how to have healthy, moral relationships.

Over the years all sorts of books have been written by doctors and psychologists with the purpose of helping us get along better. And maybe they have helped. However, unless they get to the root of the problem, they will give only something cosmetic, something temporary.

There’s Hope!

What is the root of all alienation, sickness, heartache, and pain? Sin! Plain and simple as that. It all comes from what sin has done to us. It has made us self-centered and selfish. It has made us care about ourselves before anyone else. How can relationships survive when all the time, in our own way, we’re always looking out for number one? They can’t. And that’s why they don’t.

Yet there is good news! There is hope! Jesus Christ came to this world, where He lived suffered, and died, and not only does He offer us forgiveness for all our sins; He offers us a chance to start over, to have a new life, and to be healed from the things that have caused these bad relationships.

Jesus once said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). What could give us a more abundant life than to have better relationships with the ones we love?

Yes, the good news of the Bible is that God cares about our relationships because God cares about us. If we will let Him, He will work in our life and change our heart. Millions can testify to the reality of what Christ in the heart can do. Jesus can turn us away from the selfishness, the self-centeredness, and the desire for supremacy that so often mars our relationships. When we focus on Christ and realize that He, the Creator, humbled Himself by becoming human, and then died the sinner’s death, all for us, we get a true glimpse of what it means to live for the good of others and not just for ourselves.

You can’t make these changes on your own. Only by inviting Jesus into your heart, only by inviting Him into your life and claiming Him as your Savior, can these changes begin. But then they will begin, and you’ll never be the same again.

No one is saying that accepting Jesus will cause all your problems vanish and that suddenly you’ll get along great with everyone all the time. Of course not! Once you accept Jesus, though, and surrender your life to Him in faith, claiming the forgiveness He offers, repenting of your past mistakes, God will begin a process that will change you. The Bible promises, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

And what is this good work that God will do in you? You will learn to forgive better, because you have been forgiven. You will learn to accept others better, despite their faults, because God accepts you despite your faults. You will learn to think not only of yourself but of others, because Jesus thought not only of Himself but of others. And you will learn to love others because Christ loves you.

Just think what these changes will do for your relationships with others!

No doubt some of the relational problems you suffer from aren’t your fault, but some probably are. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that if you surrender your will to Christ and die to self and live for Him, you’ll not only be different—you’ll deal differently with others.

Think about it: by being more forgiving, more accepting, more giving, and more loving, will your relationships get better or worse? Of course, they can get only better!

What Farrokh Bulsara needed wasn’t more money or fame. He didn’t need more friends or lovers. What Freddie needed is what we all need—Jesus Christ.

Why not, at this moment, invite Christ into your life and begin a whole new set of relationships, not only with God but with those around you?

Clifford Goldstein write from Maryland.

The post The Relationship Factor appeared first on Answers for Me.

Read more at the source: The Relationship Factor

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: Dear God, News and Feeds Tagged With: commitment, creator, fame, friends, happiness, health, relationships, world

Australian team baptises hundreds in Ethiopia

March 8, 2017 By admin

Almost 500 people, mostly youth, were baptised recently in Ethiopia by a team from Perth All Nations church plants (WA).

Read more at the source: Australian team baptises hundreds in Ethiopia

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Adventist Record.

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Filed Under: News and Feeds, Record Magazine - Australia Tagged With: beautiful, bible, commitment, ethiopia, faith, horvath, horvath-on-0429, jesus, joyce zico, pastor john horvath, said-the-people

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