Crazy Awesome Grace!

"Grace is getting what you don't deserve." That's absolutely incredible! That we would not only be saved from the punishment we deserve--that's mercy--but we would also be given what we don't deserve--that's grace.

"Your Grace Still Amazes Me"

"Your Grace Still Amazes Me" Phillips, Craig & Dean

My faithful Father, Enduring Friend

Your tender mercy is like a river with no end

It overwhelms me; covers my sin 

Each time I come into Your presence

I stand in wonder once again

Your grace still amazes me 

Your love is still a mystery 

Each day I fall on my knees 

'Cause Your grace still amazes me 

Your grace still amazes me 

Oh patient Savior, You make me whole 

You are the Author and the Healer of my soul 

What can I give You; Lord what can I say 

I know there's no way to repay You

Only to offer You my praise 

Your grace still amazes me 

Your love is still a mystery 

Each day I fall on my knees 

'Cause Your grace still amazes me 

Your grace still amazes me 

It's deeper, It's wider, It's stronger, It's higher

It's deeper, It's wider, It's stronger, It's higher

Than anything my eyes can see 

Your grace still amazes me 

Your love is still a mystery 

Each day I fall on my knees 

'Cause Your grace still amazes me 

Your grace still amazes me 

Here is a "definition" for grace from God's word: "It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). That's what grace is, the will to do and the doing of God's perfect will. 

To put it in other words, "grace is the desire and the power to do the will of God." Not only are we incapable of doing anything right, anything God would want us to do, but we often don't even have the desire to be obedient to God. But, "when we are at our whit's end and feel like we can't do anything right, God's grace says, 'I'm proud of you. I don't care about what you can't do, because I've got it all under control.'"

You see, "the only person that can live the Christian life is Jesus." Good news or bad news? Well, considering I've failed to live the Christian life so many times before, it's actually a very good thing. Only through Jesus will any of us ever do anything right.

And if you've gotten to the point where you know that YOU CAN'T DO THIS, God may be able to finally use you, because it's the people that realize how far they are from where they need to be that will rely on God, get out of His way, and let Him do what we could never do on our own. "If you have failed miserably, God's message to you is, 'You're just the person I've been looking for!'"

So how do we respond to this grace? Say, "Yes." Call on God and His grace. "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV) When that thing that we can't do, that situation that we can't handle rears it's ugly head, stop trying to do it alone; go to God. He'll tell you, "My grace is all that you need."

p.s. btw, if anyone is interested, guess what? I'M FINISHED SCHOOL! Graduation tomorrow! :) Yes, I'm slightly excited...

JPK

What Do I Know of Holy?

At the Life Action Summit yesterday, we learned about holiness. And I just talked about being holy a few days ago... Primarily we focused on God's holiness. We don't even know what that means in our country anymore. God's holiness? So what?

Listen to this absolutely beautiful song, "What Do I Know of Holy."

"What Do I Know of Holy"

"What Do I Know of Holy" by Addison Road

I made You promises a thousand times

I tried to hear from Heaven

But I talked the whole time

I think I made You too small

I never feared You at all, no

If You touched my face would I know You

Looked into my eyes could I behold You

What do I know of You

Who spoke me into motion

Where have I even stood

But the shore along Your ocean

Are You fire, are You fury

Are You sacred, are You beautiful

What do I know, what do I know of Holy

I guess I thought that I had figured You out

I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about

How You were mighty to save

Those were only empty words on a page

Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be

The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees

What do I know of You

Who spoke me into motion

Where have I even stood

But the shore along Your ocean

Are You fire, are You fury

Are You sacred, are You beautiful

So what do I know, what do I know of Holy

What do I know of Holy

What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame

And a God who gave life it's name

What do I know of Holy

Of the One who the angels praise

All creation knows Your name

On earth and heaven above

What do I know of this love

What do I know of You

Who spoke me into motion

Where have I even stood

But the shore along Your ocean

Are You fire, are You fury

Are You sacred, are You beautiful

What do I know, what do I know of Holy

What do I know of Holy

What do I know of Holy

We just don't have an awe for God in our churches anymore. We aren't blown away by the holiness of God. We don't realize how far we fall short from God because we're busy comparing ourselves with other broken, imperfect, sinful people like ourselves.

Stop. If you know what is the right thing to do, do it, no matter what others are or aren't doing. You're accountable for your own actions, as I'm accountable for mine. We can't excuse what we do because we're following other "Christians." We are to be followers of Christ. He's the leader. "If you want to become a great Christian, you have to compare yourself with Jesus."

And we fall far short of holy. Why does it matter? Because God is holy. Anything less than holy that comes into His awesome presence will be consumed. Instantly. Less than holy? That would be me.

And yet... God lives inside of me. How does that work? Because when Christ comes into your heart, in effect, He does destroy you. The old you. The sinful nature. And then... He makes you like Him.

That's not to say we will never sin again. Because we will. A thousand times. And then a thousand more. And then... But, He is in the business of transforming us into His image. We'll never get there completely until we're home in Heaven, but, if we let Christ live through us, and if we're open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we are well on our way. Then we are living like followers of Jesus in action, not just in words.

"It is not your sin, but your response to your sin that determines the consequences." Don't let anything get in the way of your relationship with God. Don't let that sin you've never made right ruin the fellowship you were meant to enjoy with your Creator. Don't put off doing what you know you have to do. And when the spiritual surgery is over, you may find that God has been miraculously transforming you into His image all along.

JPK

Hear Us from Heaven

Well, I had a very awesome time worshiping God today! A team from Life Action Ministries is in our area this week, and the singing alone today at the worship service was powerful. Of course, I love singing, but I think everyone was blessed.

I really thought this song was amazing. The team was singing alone on that one, but I so wanted to join in!

Hear Us from Heaven

"Hear us from Heaven" by Jared Anderson

Lord, hear our cry 
Come heal our land 
Breath life into these dry and thirsty souls 
Lord, hear our prayer 
Forgive our sin 
And as we call on your name 
Would you make this a place 
For your glory to dwell 

Open the blind eyes

Unlock the deaf ears

Come to Your people

As we draw near

Hear us from Heaven

Touch our generation

We are Your people

Crying out in desperation

Lord, hear our cry 
Come heal our land 
Breath life into these dry and thirsty souls 
Lord, hear our prayer 
Forgive our sin 
And as we call on your name 
Would you make this a place 
For your glory to dwell 

Open the blind eyes

Unlock the deaf ears

Come to Your people

As we draw near

Hear us from Heaven

Touch our generation

We are Your people

Crying out in desperation

Hear us from Heaven

Hear us from Heaven

Hear us from Heaven

Open the blind eyes

Unlock the deaf ears

Come to Your people

As we draw near

Hear us from Heaven

Touch our generation

We are Your people

Crying out, crying out

Open the blind eyes

Unlock the deaf ears

Come to Your people

As we draw near

Hear us from Heaven

Touch our generation

We are Your people

Crying out in desperation

God, draw us back to you. Give us the desire and power to be salt and light to unbelievers. Hear us from heaven, and touch our generation.


btw, they sang a song about God "sending the rain" -- as in spiritual renewal. Well, it definitely is raining. Literally. But that's ok. We need some rain; it's pretty hot...

Our world will never change for the better until Christ's followers start following Christ..

JPK

Be Holy? You're Joking...

"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.' " 1 Peter 1:14-16 (ESV)

These verses can be pretty intimidating! 


Or how about this one: "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48 (ESV)


Alright. I'm out. Impossible.


First, we have to realize that God does not expect us to be perfect. He knows we never will be until we are one day transformed in Heaven. So what is this holiness thing all about?


One definition of holiness states that someone holy is "regarded with or worthy of worship or veneration." That's God; definitely not us. No way.


Try again. Holy -- "Belonging to,... or associated with a divine power" There is the key. If we are true Christians, we are holy (as impossible as it sounds) simply because we belong to God. It's not us that are holy, but Christ living within our hearts who gives us His nature in place of our own. When God looks at us, He sees His holy, perfect Son living inside of us. That's why we have the promise of eternal life. We are associated with the only One Who is truly holy -- He bought us with His blood, paying the penalty we deserved!


God's Word promises that Jesus "is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy." Jude 1:24 (ESV)


If it was up to us, salvation wouldn't be free. Not to mention, we could never earn it in and of our ourselves  anyway. It's all through Him that we can ever hope to live victoriously.


That's not to say we don't have any responsibility though. We have a duty to walk the Christian walk, even if it's "against the flow" of the rest of the world.


Another definition of holy is "living according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system." Doesn't sound incredibly fun.... But, we must realize Christianity is more than a religion. It's a way of life. We are to be an example of Jesus to a lost and dying world. Don't be scared by it, but remember, we can't take it lightly.


But how to practically live this out in our lives? What might living like Christ look like? A while back in Sunday School at my church, we learned the following three steps to holiness.


1. Sacrifice your highest interest and spend time with God. (This doesn't mean we have to give up doing the things we like to do. If they are not contrary to God's Word, we probably won't be called to give them up completely. It just means that prioritizing - by putting God first - can help our relationship grow so much closer. For example, when I wake up in the morning and automatically grab my mp3 player, I have to check myself and decide that God should be first. So, I might read His Word before doing anything else I'd like to do.)


2. Hunger and thirst after God. (If we don't have a desire to please God, read His Word, and talk with Him, we need to ask Him for that desire. I'll admit that I don't always have the desire. But it's not all about what you feel. Love is a choice. If you spend enough time with a friend, even though they may get on your nerves sometimes, you'll learn to love them and you'll get to the point where you just love being around them. That's a picture of what our relationship with God should become. The more time we spend getting to know Him better, the more we'll long for fellowship with Him.)


3. Praise and honor Him. (Yeah. God goes for compliments. Thing is, He deserves them. A lot more than we ever can. He is so worthy of our praise. He deserves all the glory, honor, and praise we can give Him and then more beyond that - far more. There's no such thing as praising Him enough. So sing to Him (one of my personal favorites), dance for Him, use the talents and gifts He's given you (giving Him credit, of course), thank Him, and spread His love to everyone you meet.)


Don't be discouraged. As God tells Hermie and Wormie in Max Lucado's "Hermie: A Common Caterpillar", "I'm not finished with you yet." And He's not. Trust me, He's got a long way to go with me. But it's His job to do the perfecting. We'll get nowhere in our own strength. Just let go, and let God...

JPK

The Grand Cup Arrives!

I was pleasantly surprised today when, after two months of waiting, I finally received my 75-point "Grand Cup" for violin performance! Yay! Just in time to display at my graduation next week. :)


I've played in our area's Junior Music Festival, put on by the OFMC (Ohio Federation of Music Clubs), for 10 consecutive years now, this past March being my final time to participate.


Basically, you go early in the morning and play two solo pieces (plus a concerto -- which is usually longer and more difficult -- when you get more advanced) completely from memory in front of two judges. The judges give you a rating based on your individual performance which adds a certain amount of points to your total, depending on your rating. Then sometimes you're invited to play at the afternoon recital (which I happened to be in this past March). So, after 10 years, I racked up enough points to receive the Grand Cup, the second-largest one possible to win.


Anyway, it's kind-of sad that I'll never go to play there anymore, even though I was always a nervous wreck when festival came around each year. But God has always been with me and I really think I finished well.


I thought I'd write about it since I only just got the trophy today. Plus I didn't even start blogging until the week after festival. Here's some pics...

Every Senior got a rose...

And there's the cup!

I just had to add that one :)

No matter what it looks like, I'm not goofing off... ok, so I'm goofing off

That's all for now...


btw, this is my 30th post so far. I feel like celebrating...


JPK

Hey, I Can Talk...

What have I been up to lately? Well, writing a talk for graduation recognition Sunday, staying up half the night working on it and worrying about it, and then giving it at church today. At least it went well. :)


I actually had to do a speech for my English course and this is what my mom came up with to do. Let me tell you, I was so thrilled to do it in front of 80+ people... not really actually. Rather unexcited overall. But it did make the most sense. And I really wasn't horribly nervous once I started talking.


Anyway, I decided to upload it here -- might as well since I went through all that work. I'll admit, it was written rather last-minute which is why I was still working on it in the early morning hours when all sane people are sound asleep. That's right, I am slightly insane at times...


Anyway, here is the audio of my "speech." It's really not a video, but it would only let me upload it in a video format, so I just had to put on a beautiful black screen background.

What Does It Mean to be a Christian?

Well, not too bad after all I guess... Here's my confession though: I edited out about five "ummms" and doctored out a few stumbles... just slightly modified. haha. What can I say? "Ummm" is an extremely useful time-filler when you don't have a clue what in the world you're saying and where in the world you are...


btw, I'm going to try to finish my school by the end of this week, one week before my graduation. Fun fun.


JPK

Important Principles for Life

Here's some basic Biblical principles that would be well worth applying to our individual lives. These “secrets” to living a fulfilled life may seem obvious, yet they are so seldom lived out in the life of the average Christian.

As Christians, we need to spend quality time in God’s Word every day. Think about it. The Bible is compared to a lamp, completely capable of guiding our paths. Without it, we are quickly plunged into darkness, incapable of making wise choices. Yet, we must be very careful that reading God’s Word does not become ritualistic and meaningless to us. Just spending a certain amount of time each day in the Word does nothing in and of itself. We must embrace its truths and live them out in our lives, relying on God for the power to do this.

The Bible is compared to a two-edged sword. God’s Word, along with prayer, is a powerful offensive weapon to fight back against Satan’s attacks. Without it, we can easily be deceived and lead astray, or at least have our "shields" (faith) greatly weakened from the fierce spiritual battles we face daily. As you can see, we need to read, meditate on, and memorize God's Word so we'll have a solid foundation to ground our lives on.

We need to ask God for a consuming passion to win souls for our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Most Christians don’t seem to realize that soul-winning is one of the most fulfilling things we can accomplish here on this Earth. There is only so much we can do for God during our short time on this lowly planet.

It's important to be live our lives with eternity in our sights. Eternity is what counts, and witnessing is one of the best ways to invest in that future life we'll have forever in Heaven if we've accepted Christ as Savior. Not to mention, winning souls brings unimaginable joy to the heart of God. Since He is so utterly committed to saving the lost, He is also well capable to give us the strength and wisdom to do it. To keep the Good News locked up inside our hearts is selfish and heartless.

We should also strive to set aside our early morning hours solely for God. If you make this a practice, you will find that you are blessed with supernatural strength for the day. Notice I said early. The early morning hours are more likely to be free of distractions and will create an atmosphere where you can truly hear God. That said, I have certainly not made this a habit yet! Spending this quality time with God every morning will help give you God’s perspective on life and reignite your passion to deepen your relationship. You can’t have a relationship without communication.




To recap, saturating our hearts with God’s Word, witnessing to others about Jesus, and giving our morning hours to God are important practices every Christian should strive to develop. When we're loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, these things should fall into place as we emulate Jesus, our ultimate example.


JPK

The Prodigal

The Prodigal FROM THE SKIT GUYS

Isn't this story a picture of our lives? Too often we decide to go our own way. Decide that we know better than God. Decide our plans are better than God's and that the things we want are better than what God wants for us. Decide that sin isn't so bad, or that living like the world won't have any negative consequences on our testimony for Christ. We decide to go it alone.


We think we deserve God's love. We are entitled to a "good" life. And if things don't go the way we'd like, we just turn away and say, "Yeah, you know, I think I can do this on my own, without You!"


So we shut God out of our lives. Maybe not entirely. But we stop giving Him our all. We stop caring about our Christian testimony. We start giving in to temptation and won't listen to His pleas to return to Him and stop breaking His heart.


But we soon find that we are lost. Hopelessly. We find out that sin's pleasures are so cheap, and we are devoid of any joy. We get bogged down by the world and take our eyes off of Jesus, our ultimate example. And we struggle to find the meaning of this life we thought we wanted. God seems distant and unresponsive.


But He hasn't given up on us. Never. He is waiting for us to turn away from our sin, repent, and return back to Him. His arms are wide open, waiting to embrace us. His heart is longing, yearning to forgive us and cleanse us if we would only ask. If we would only forsake all the worthless stuff in this life and surrender our all back to God, He would give us the power to live for Him. If we would only stop living like this life is all there is, He would give us His heart for the lost. He wants to fill our lives and have control of our hearts.


We don't deserve to be called the sons and daughters of God. But He doesn't care. He is willing and ready to take away our guilt and shame, because He doesn't want us to live in defeat. Restore our broken relationship, even though He isn't the one who messed up. Give us yet another chance, no matter how many times we've blown it. Forgive us, not because we have paid the price or ever could, but because His Son already did.


JPK

Surprise!

So, here's my surprise for everybody. :) I finally finished working out the tune for those song lyrics I put up a while back. Yay!


If you missed that post, you can view it here. http://josiah-k.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-really-love-songs-that-call-christs.html -- fyi, I changed the title slightly.


Ok, jsyk, I really don't play piano, but I wanted a simple accompaniment to go along with it, so that is actually me playing. But it's nothing fancy at all; just the basic chords. Obviously, a lot more could be done with the song and/or the accompaniment, but it's definitely progressing. btw, I had to do the piano and singing separately, because I can't even play anything that elementary at the same time I'm singing since I'm so bad at piano. haha. I mixed the separate tracks together afterwards. ...If you needed to know that. And if you have any idea what I just said...

"Who Will Love Her?"

There you have it! As always, feel free to comment and share your thoughts with me. I can always delete what you have to say if I don't like it... :P And, if you really really like my song, hey, you're totally allowed to share it on facebook or twitter or wherever!


Hope you enjoyed!


JPK

Randomness

Hello all!


I am alive, and that is a good thing.
I am happy, and that is awesome.
I had ice cream today, and that makes me smile.
I love my family and friends, and that is very amazingly cool.
I am random, and that should not be surprising since this blog is called "The Haphazard Thoughts of JPK." :)
It is late, but that is not concerning me too much.


I decided to write about nothing in particular because what I wanted to put on is not ready. :( 
Maybe tomorrow. I shall keep it a surprise for now. And I also wanted to write because this is kind-of a special day.
Maybe you can figure out why if you notice the slight change I made to the "about me" section.


But I should finish or it won't be today anymore. I know, I am very odd. Good night!


JPK

Nothing Can Separate

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 37-39)


Absolutely nothing can come between Christ and us. His love reaches past all boundaries and extends to the lowest depths of man's disgusting existence. No man can destroy God's unchanging love. Death itself has no power over Christ's love.


"Your Love" by Brandon Heath


I felt it first when I was younger
A strange connection to the light
I tried to satisfy the hunger
I never got it right
I never got it right

So I climbed a mountain and built an altar
Looked out as far as I could see
And everyday I’m getting older
I’m running outta dreams
I’m running outta dreams

But Your love
Your love
The only the thing that matters is Your love
Your love is all I have to give
Your love is enough to light up the darkness
It’s Your love
Your love
all I ever needed is Your love

You know the effort I have given
And you know exactly what it cost
And though my innocence was taken
Not everything is lost
Not everything is lost nooooo

But Your love
Your love
The only the thing that matters is Your love
Your love is all I have to give
Your love is enough to light up the darkness
It’s Your love
Your love
all I ever needed is Your love

You’re the hope in the morning
You’re the light when the night is falling
You’re the song when my heart is singing
it’s Your love
You’re the eyes to the blind man
You’re the feet to the lame man walking
You’re the sound of the people singing
It’s Your love

But Your love
Your love
The only the thing that matters is Your love
Your love is all I have to give
Your love is enough to light up the darkness
It’s Your love
Your love
all I ever needed is Your love

Christ's love gives us supernatural strength and helps us to conquer whatever we face. Through His unbelievable love for us, he died on the cross to give us the chance to have eternal life forever. His love is all we really need and what we should focus on when people fail to love us properly.


However, it would be selfish of us to just keep this love for ourselves. Spread the love of Jesus around! If you love those around you, you'll have a desire to tell them about Jesus and the impact He has had on your life. Jesus changes us and His love will keep us growing to become more and more like Him.


JPK

Following Christ

How important is it to completely follow Christ in everything we do as Christians? Isn’t it OK to be imperfect? We’re all humans and make mistakes after all.


Actually, it is extremely vital for us to follow hard after Christ. To be sold out to God is something we should all desire. Why?


One reason we need to diligently follow Jesus is because He gave us so much. He died for us, even though we could never deserve His sacrifice. We are disgustingly ungrateful if we accept His free gift and then keep on living and wallowing in our old sinful lifestyles without caring about the fact that we are breaking Jesus' heart.


We should desire nothing more than serving our Savior Who gave everything for us. We owe Him our lives, our all. He doesn’t require us to fully obey Him to keep our salvation--a good thing since all of us would fail miserably--but can we strive for anything less? Will we be satisfied with our half-hearted obedience? Or will we seek to follow Jesus--our perfect and best role model--more closely?


We must realize that following the world instead of Christ will have disastrous results. Why is it so harmful to us? Simply put, the world will lead us away from God if we aren't careful. As the Bible says, we cannot serve two masters. If we aren’t striving to follow Christ, it’s like we’re rejecting Him. He won’t forsake us or condemn us, but we certainly won’t be able to live fulfilled lives for His glory.


If we give in to sinful temptations, we will experience much defeat and failure. Sin can give pleasure, but it’s only artificial and temporary. It definitely won’t fill the emptiness in our lives. Only Jesus can do that, but He won’t be able to completely fill us if we are constantly blocking Him out of our lives.


There is yet another reason we must be very careful how we follow Christ. Guess what? People are watching us. We, as followers of Christ, have the responsibility to shine Christ’s light to the world. Other people will look to us for an example of Who Christ is. If we’re misrepresenting Him, they likely won’t be interested in accepting Christ as their Savior.


We don’t want to be hypocrites either. If we say we are Christians but aren’t following Christ as we should, others will think there is no good reason to be saved because Jesus doesn’t really change lives. What a tragedy! Yet it happens all too often. So many Christians don't seem to care. 


As you can see, it is far more important to truly follow Christ than most Christians think. But we have to realize it is impossible to do this alone. We can't. I can't. Only through Christ’s supernatural power can we ever hope to follow Him faithfully and wholeheartedly. And He wants to empower us if we're willing to let go and just let Him have control.


JPK