The Moon Told Me So

So I know I've already written one post about Rise of the Guardians but the movie continues to inspire me. While watching the film for the second time I began to see Jack Frost as an example of a Christian. Allow me to explain.

 If you want to see this film please don't read this post until you've seen it, this post contains details about the main plot and resolution Thanks!

At the beginning of the film Jack Frost wakes up with amazing abilities and no memory. He didn't know anything except for his name given to him by the Man in the Moon. When God calls us into the ministry or sends us someplace He often only gives us part of the story. We may only know that He wants us there but we don't know why. We like Jack only know our name. But at the time that's all both Jack and we need to know. Just think, if God told everyone the exact plans he had for their lives how many people would turn and run from it, or how many would screw it all up trying to get there in a way that wasn't God's will? I can tell you that many people would do just that. Until a month before this last fall semester at CFNI started I wasn't ready to attend the school, but God got me to a place where I was able to say yes when the time came for Him to send me to there. God knows us better then we know ourselves and his timing is perfect when He decides to tell us the next step in His plan for us we just need to trust that He knows what He's doing. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

When God calls us to the ministry many of us may not want to do what God is calling us to. During Rise of the Guardians (ROTG) Jack is called to become a guardian of childhood. When he is Jack is steadfastly against this calling, he doesn't want to join the other guardians and give up the freedom that he has. He sees the job of a guardian as a bad thing. Through the film each of the other guardians explains to him their reasons for being one along with what they guard and eventually Jack finds his own reason to be a guardian. He remembers a time in his past, the time that led to him becoming Jack Frost, where he saved his little sister's life. This past event not only prepared him for the place in life the Man in the Moon called him to but  it proved to him when he looked back on it that he was truly a guardian. What things has God let you go through that's preparing or has prepared you for the plans He has for your life? Allow God to take you through trials and growing pains because they will help prepare you to be successful in your future. Look back on the things you've been through, the successes and lessons that came from them, and see that many of them will help encourage you in the future when you may be doubting you really are called by God.

There came a point in ROTG where Jack Frost's staff was broken in half in order to protect Baby Tooth, an innocent character. This was a great sacrifice for Jack because along with his name it was the only thing he'd had when he'd woken up alone. He believed the staff was his source of power. Sometimes doing what God's called us to do will seem like a sacrifice or even too hard at first. But we are doing it to further God's kingdom in some way to help free the captives from the enemy's snare and shine God's light to this dark world. Just think of all the people you could be affecting by speaking into one person's life. A friend told me today that, "We can't reach everyone but everyone can reach someone." This really spoke to me because it is so true, if we bring one person to Christ and that person brings another then we've touched two lives, even if we never know it. Jack sacrificed his most precious possession to save a life, we can give a little time or face a little rejection to obey Jesus.

At times you may think that you can't do what God has called you to do because you don't have a proper education or you haven't had enough experience. Many people don't feel qualified or worthy to do what God has called them for. When He has asked you to do something rest assured that He's already put inside of you what you need. One of my favorite sayings is, "God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called." If we are willing to do what God has called us to do He will equip us. Moses tried to tell God that he wasn't qualified when God wanted him to go set God's people free. First he tried to tell God that no one would listen to him, and God told him that the rod he was carrying would be the instrument God was willing to use to show His power. After this Moses tries to reason with God again, this time by telling God that he isn't qualified in speech. In Exodus 4:10 Moses says, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." The Lord's response is to send a helper, Aaron, to work with Moses. God always has an answer for your excuse and He's not going to call you if He hasn't already prepared you.

Jack thought that his power came from his staff, but when it was broken and he was needed Jack found within himself the power he needed. It had been there all along placed there long ago by the Man in the Moon when he was re-born as Jack Frost. The staff was simply the instrument used to direct his power. When we are re-born in Christ the Holy Spirit enters us and we become the temple of God. And when we are baptized in His Holy spirit we are empowered to do what the Lord has called us to do. We have God inside of us, what more do we need to tell others about God or to follow His call? Degrees and experience are only tools that can help us in furthering the kingdom of God.

ROTG ends with Jack saying this, "My name is Jack Frost and I'm a guardian. How do I know this, because the moon told me so. So when the moon tells you something, listen." Jack started out knowing nothing, but when he accepted his calling he became the person he was always meant to be. He trusted in the wisdom of the one who made him just as we should trust in the One who created us. Follow God's calling in your life and trust in Him. The next time God tells you something, listen. I dare you.

More verses:
Psalm 32:8
Psalm 118:8
Proverbs 3:5-6
Proverbs 2:6-9
Proverbs 16:9
Isaiah 48:17
Philippians 2:13

 

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

Do you know what heartbreak feels like? I know weird question to start on, but trust me I’m going somewhere with this. I got a taste of heartbreak this last week. I spent a good deal of time crushing on this guy, and let me tell you I had fallen hard (you can ask any of my friends). There was no reason not to like this guy, lets call him Jeremy, he’s funny, good looking, nice, and to top it all off God gave me a dream about meeting him before I actually did. Perfect guy right? Well I thought so, but sometimes God has other plans. At the beginning of last week I noticed that Jeremy was spending a lot of time with a girl I hadn’t met yet. He was sitting with her, waiting for her, and when they were together they looked like the epitome of a couple. As most girls would be I was crushed. I cried a few times and prayed a lot trying to get over it and him. I felt betrayed and not a little bit hurt by the fact that he may or may not be dating this other girl. But God gave me peace about the subject and through it all I saw something amazing.

God is like me in this example. He chases after each and every one of us in the hopes that we will turn around and finally notice how much He loves us. He watches and waits day after day for us in hopes that we will finally get the hint and start spending time with Him. We are like Jeremy, totally clueless. We’re so focused on the things in our lives that we never look up to see our Creator standing there waiting on us. We miss all the times that He makes a special trip to be with us and we let those encounters go to waste.

Imagine how it feels to be so enamored with a person and they not even know you exist. Or worse, they know you but they don’t care to get to know you. That’s how God feels around most of us. Christians, and people alike were created by God to be His companions not to run around exalting ourselves all the time. We are fooled into focusing on the things of this world, even when we think we are doing them for God. He doesn’t want you to put on a show for Him; he’s not looking for that. And He’s not looking for someone who will spend all their time on ministry. Ministry is good and wonderful and we are called to do it, but what God really wants first and foremost in our lives is for us to spend time with Him. It’s as simple as that. He wants a relationship where you get to know Him and He gets to draw near to you.

Jesus is the ultimate example of this, He took time out to spend with His disciples before He died, not for any reason but to spend time with them. Then when He went to the garden He took them with Him so He would have companions while He spoke with the Father. Not only that but in the beginning God came and spent time in the garden with Adam and Eve every day, they walked together and talked together. God wouldn’t have put His plan of redemption into action if He wanted anything but a real relationship. He is God and could have easily wiped the slate clean and started again, but He loved us so much that He set in motion a plan to allow all of mankind to come back to Him in love. The bible says He calls us friend in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” God wants to tell us things, and He is constantly showing things to those who seek after Him. In these revelations He is saying that we are His friends and He trusts us with this information. You trust your friends with your plans right? Well God does the same.

Like when Jeremy got a girlfriend and I felt like my heart was going to break God’s heart for you is broken when you run off to other lovers. He desires a steadfast, unwavering relationship with you and when you turn from Him he is saddened by it. Exodus 20:3 states it simply, “You shall have no other God’s before me.” One of God’s laws is to stay by Him and not waver in your worship. He is jealous for our love, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). He wants us all to Himself and not focused on the things of this world.  

God loves us and desires a relationship with us. He is always there waiting for us to come after Him and says so in Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” So don’t be like Jeremy and miss the obvious signs then run off to find someone/something else. Seek after God with all your heart and see how much He loves you back. I dare you. 

More Verses:

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

John 1:12-13 1

John 4:19

Romans 5:8

Zephaniah 3:17

Deuteronomy 4:23-24

Childlike Faith

So the other day I went to see the new Dreamworks film Rise of the Guardians. It's a movie about 5 guardians of children; Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost. These guardians exist to protect the dreams, hope, memories, wonder, and fun in children. In the film there was one child who stuck out particularly to me, Jamie. He believed in the guardians all his life and even had an encounter with them at one point in the film. When everything seemed to be going wrong and all of his friends had stopped believing guess who still had faith? If you said Jamie you'd be right on, his faith in them was what kept the guardians from being defeated and even when his faith began to fail Jack Frost came through for him restoring his faith once again.

Jesus tells us in Luke 18:17, "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." Children are filled with faith and will believe in almost anything a trusted adult tells them. Their belief in people like Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy is proof of this. And when a child believes in something their faith is unwavering so much so that some get in fights over the existence of these figures. Our faith and trust in God should be like that of children, completely unwavering. We should stand up for God and our beliefs just as kids do when their told Santa isn't real. Even when everything around us seems to be falling apart and everyone in the world seems to believe something else we need to be like Jamie and believe, have faith, and stand up for our God and what He has done for us.

In taking another lesson from Jamie we should also let our encounters with Christ strengthen our faith in Him. Each new encounter with our God should serve to grow our relationship with him and solidify our trust. The more time we spend with Christ the better we get to know Him and the closer we are to Him. One encounter with his hero's allowed Jamie to have faith in the toughest of times, how much more will our continuous encounters with Christ keep us in trying times? When the trials of life get us down we must continue to trust in the Lord and just like how Jack came through for Jamie in the end God will always come through for us, its simply our job to have faith.

Children don't need to know how Santa manages to give gifts to every child in one night or how the Tooth Fairy always seems to know when you lost a tooth they just know that it happens. So why as Christians do we feel the need to question the bible? Why do we worry and fret over things like did Adam have a belly button? Or How old is the Earth exactly? Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't answer these questions but I am saying that we shouldn't let them shake our faith in God. We should accept the information and knowledge that God has provided us through His word and the revelation He gives us. God wants us to have faith in Him and that includes having faith in His word. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.", we should apply this to all aspects of life not only when we are asking God for a miracle or blessing but also when it comes to things in this world we may not fully understand. The bible also says in Hebrews 11:6, that "without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." In order to believe in God we must have faith and that faith should be as pure as the faith of a child and trust that the Lord will tell you what you need to know.

In my own personal life I'm starting to find myself moving into a purer and more childlike faith in Christ.  I often find myself wondering how people worry about things like denomination instead of working together to fulfill the work of Christ. I find myself enamored by the beauty of the sky and God's creation. I'm beginning to understand again how easy it is to simply believe. Begin asking God for the faith of a child and the blessings that come with it and see how He grows you. I dare you.