CHRIST Defines YOU!

So... tonight at youth Craig West, a Christian radio station personality, was a special guest speaker. His message was about not letting anyone or anything else but Christ define you. And that we all need to just get back to the simple, pure devotion to God. Nothing else should make sense. Nothing else should be agreeable with you. He was talking about how pure and simple Adam and Eve's relationship with God was. They could HEAR Him walking in the Garden. They could TALK to Him. They were so pure, the thought of being naked never crossed their minds. If you had offered them clothes, it wouldn't have made sense to them. It wouldn't have been agreeable with them. Then the serpent decieved both Adam and Eve in their minds. Because, truthfully... it is a thing of the flesh to think it would be so COOL to be like God. Or even be God. When the serpent told them they could be like God, they were decieved in their minds. Anyone looking on the situation, watching the events unfold, could probably have set them straight. But suddenly, they no longer had the mindset of, "God is here. I'm Gods child. The End." They had to worry about good and evil, and separation from God. Now, of course... we can always go to God through Christ. But the reason Jesus once said we must be like children to enter the Kingdom is because children have a pure, simple mindset, and their relationships with God are more like that of the innocent Adam and Eve. They think, "God is up there, watching over me. I'm God's child. This is SO GREAT. The End." They trust in Him. They have no doubts. They believe without seeing. Children do that so readily. Think about how many believe in Santa Clause, but they only see him on TV. The easter bunny. It isn't a hard leap to go from a fat jolly man giving them presents when they are good - because Santa knows EVERYTHING - to an all-seeing, all-knowing God who watches over them and cares for them. Sometimes, we just need to sit back, study the Word, and work on getting back that pure, simple devotion to Christ. Once we have that, nothing can define us BUT Christ. Once we have that, it is impossible to care what other people think. If someone defines you as popular, and you aren't already defined by Christ, then you suddenly become popular. But if you are defined by Christ, the only thing you can be is Christ's follower. Christ's worshiper. God's child. Its like if you look at a chair, and call it, "chair." Then it IS a chair. But if someone else comes along and calls it, "apple," and attaches a sticky-note that says, "Apple," then they decieve themselves, and possibly others. The label of "Apple" just doesn't agree with the chair. It doesn't make sense to call the chair and apple. Just like if we are defined by Christ... nothing else agrees with us. Nothing else makes sense. We need to be defined by Christ. Nothing else. No one else. When this happenes, it is amazing how much peer pressure is no longer existant. It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't agree with you. It was a really good message. I wish I could have relayed it better... Hopefully it helped those of you reading in some way. Then Craig and his wife proceeded to speak out prophetically, or give some Holy-Spirit-driven insight over some of the kids in the youth group, and over my youth pastor and his wife. It was really great. And... on a totally non-spiritual note... It is DANG!COLD!!! outside. hahaha. I practically ran to Tibby [I finally named "my" Mazda Tribute. Tibby... as in Tribute. Creative, huh? lol.] and I shook for about three or four minutes until my heater started actually warming me up. THEN I had to stop by the barn on my way home to put Dakota's blanket on. Stupid horse was cribbing again. I swear, if my dad can't get some metal cut to put over the wood window ledge, I'm asking for a muzzle for Christmas. Grrr. I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard something rustle in the darkness, before I turned the lights on at the barn, too. I'm not afraid of the dark... I'm just afraid of the skunks that have decided to take up residence UNDER the tack room... Luckily, it was just the cat. I'm also afraid of the neighbors. They scare everyone. Kinda creepy. I needed Shawn with me to turn Tibby from DANG!COLD!! to instantly be DANG!HOTT!! Sorry. Couldn't resist. I waited this long... aren't you proud of me? hahaha. I also have the ballad of the Haygoods stuck in my head... I was on myspace too much today... Well... 'till my next post... God Bless, y'all! [My inner Okie has been asking to be released for awhile. hahaha.] Tina P.S. And the pic is because I thought it was time my dog had some of the spotlight. There's Pokey! She's 12 now. That pic was taken when she was like... 9 or 10. P.P.S. My dad just used some travel points to get us a room at the HILTON on the Landing for Fan Nite... hahaha. Nice!