holding my possessions with my palm's pre open wide and my macbook fried

So the other night...I watched "Lukewarm and Loving It" on youtube, a Francis Chan sermon which talked about how whether we realize it or not everyone in America is rich compared to much of the world. And so that has spiritual implications for us since Jesus tells us about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, He says that, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:23-24)

And so, after the account of the rich young ruler who wasn't able to give up his material things I really started to examine my life, being really conscious of the newly found fact that I actually am rich.

And so...I ended up fervently praying for God to take away anything in my life that was hindering me from getting into the kingdom of heaven or distracting me from Him, and take away He did! The previous day I had activated my Palm Pre (smartphone) to use it and it went through. It just needed to be fully charged to complete the activation process and suddenly the phone that was fully ready to activate, codes ran through the network's system and all wouldn't work. Then...my macbook's (laptop) battery was dead when I went to see my grandma so I left it charging until I came back. In the meantime, there was a freak ultra severe thunderstorm and it fried my macbook.

This my friends is not a mere coincidence, it was a humbling reminder that God is REAL! And He listens to our prayers! The word says the prayer of a righteous man availeth much (aka it works :-) (James 5:16b) and if that's the case in this situation I'm glad Jesus's credit of righteousness to my account is fully functioning! :-) In thinking about all this, I just am soo thankful to know that He cares enough for insignificant lil me to take these things away from me to make sure I don't stumble!

And I'm thankful for the peace I had in both situations, Gina without Christ would have still been dwelling on the issue and pouting. Whereas, Gina now is still dwelling on the issue, but from a perspective of awe, thanks, and reverence that the Mighty and Powerful God who created the universe and everything in it cares enough about my personal salvation enough to not only send His only son Jesus to die so that I could get it...but to keep watch over my life like this so that I can stay in it!

Now I'm not gonna front ---> it stung the other morning when I had already gotten my hopes up on this Palm Pre, started planning on it, fantasizing about all the productivity I'd have my senior year with it at my side. It reminds me of Proverbs 4:23 which says "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." When I got all hype on the Palm Pre I wasn't doing a good job of guarding my heart rather, I was putting my hopes and faith into a phone, an inanimate object..sounds like a lil idol worship to me.

But yeah...so it stung at first, but if it didn't sting God wouldn't have needed to take it away from me. By the time the macbook happened that afternoon it was confirmation God was eliminating things exactly how I asked Him to. And He was quick about it!

So I looked at the situation like...ok, now what? Well gracefully :-) I had all my poetry and important documents backed up on my external hard drive so I still have that.

Now some people hit me with the "Well Gina, you were using your laptop to share links and materials that were helping to bring people to Christ!" And they've got a point there, but I was also using it to squander precious God-given time by meaningless facebooking/twittering/youtube video watching/ and idle skype time...now I ALSO used all the aforementioned things for His glory, but our God hates lukewarmness (Revelation 3:16-17). As the Forever Jones song says "He wants it ALL Today" and everyday for that matter because He deserves it. And He didn't take away my ability to share links/fellowship/etc online because I still have a desktop computer and the house still has internet. It's just that now I can't spend inordinate amounts of time on the computer doing idle things other than that.

It really gives me some perspective on the verse "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

I hope some people read/hear this and see exactly how much God really wants us to fulfill that.

Another perspective is "Well, you need a phone." Well...I have one, it's not luxurious, it's not even really considered "fully functional" lol, but its a phone. And since I'm sure God is calling me to be a better steward over everything...my time included...my use of time being almost if not paramount...maybe all I really need is a device to keep me in super basic communication with people. Even if the efficiency level of that communication leaves much to be desired by the world's standards, I've been freed from living by the world's standards, so why should it bother me? :-)

And the other glaring perspective, "Well it's your senior year! You need a laptop!" But do I?? ...I need Christ, this I know, and I also know He's been telling me to step my "stewardship of my time game" up. So this year, I think I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I go to a college where we can rent laptops for 3 to 4 hour periods at a time. By using that, it will force me into good time management and keep me focused on academics and most importantly Him! And not so&so's new facebook status.

I have apple care (warranty) so I think I'll be able to get a new mac or a refurbished one, some sort of replacement if this one can't be fixed. But you know what...if I can I think I'm going to sell it and either donate the $$ from it or use it to get rid of some debt....not sure exactly what I'll use it for yet...but I'll pray on that too!


Grace and peace fam :-)

Gina

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Matthew 13:44






P.S. after I got on the desktop computer I found a folder of files from a previous owner of this computer stuffed full of ministry resources and outreach ideas that I had no idea was there. And..the old phone although simple works perfectly now, just needed a new battery. :-)

The sermon...


The song...