Inside the Circle

Slept in...9am was glorious :)

Spent the day with the 4 lovely Lake ladies.
Came home, made mashed potatoes and creamed corn, heated up leftover roast and gravy...tried to burn the bread...
Nicole and I talked about a lot of things...no really.....it was a LOT. We get started on tangents and there's just no going back :)
One thing that I keep thinking on....how do you answer the "Isn't being a Christian all about you can't do this and you can't do that?" question?
Jesus is so much more than a list of do's and don'ts....
People may look at my life and say...she DON'T drink, she DON'T smoke, she DON'T cuss, she don't she don't she don't do all the FUN things....
She DO go to church, she DO spout out bible sayings, she DO tell people she's praying for them, she DO be a good girl.......
What they don't know is that for most of my life growing up (in church)...I was a good girl and I did live by a list of do's and don'ts.....and it SUCKED. Going to that party, making out with that guy, drinking that beer...the only thing stopping me from those things was my reputation...a GOOD girl didn't do those things......but, boy, did I want to join in on the "fun."
And then I met Jesus....in the midst of being at that party, meeting those guys, watching people get drunk and offering me the same thing....and all the sudden....I didn't WANT those things.
The first thing I realized was how much my Father's heart was grieving for the choices I had already made. The second thing? I saw what the all that "fun" was really doing to people.
This is where's Nicole comes in :) She told me about something she had heard at her bible study.....Picture yourself standing in a room...a big black circle all around you....And the Lord says...Inside this circle, no getting drunk, no defiling your body, no gossiping.....Doesn't look so fun....until you do those things, step outside the circle and find your self puking in some random guy's toilet, not sure if you had sex or just passed out. Your best friend won't talk to you because she heard about what you told your others friends about her. The circle is starting to look pretty good right now.
Being in that circle is not a bunch of DON'Ts...it's God saying He loves you and wants the best for you and wants to keep you from all that pain and emptiness...inside that circle is His love and protection and His best for you.
The Lord showed me a long time ago that it would be relationship, not religion, that would change my life. Religion would mean trusting in my own strength to do the "right" thing....relationship would mean trusting in His redeeming work and His grace and His strength. I would much rather trust in the Maker of heaven and earth then in my measly little amount of self control.
Fast forward.....it's pretty easy to stay away from some of the big temptations of my past...but the Lord showed me today that I need to get back to relying on my relationship with Him to keep me in that circle even on the seemingly small things.....what's my character like these days? Do I go to Him with decisions or do I make them on my own because I've been doing this Christian "thing" for almost ten years? Do I really think I have "attained" or arrived or that I don't need a Savior anymore today than I did ten years ago? Talk about humbling....Just cause I have been justified by the blood of Jesus doesn't mean I'm not still being sanctified....praise the Lord I am! I want Him to search me and know me now, maybe even more than I did when I first met Him......And the beauty of it? He feels the same way :) Even though He made me, knew me in my mother's womb.....He still wants to know my every thought and feeling, because He loves me....HE wants relationship with ME...blows my mind. The One who literally made this earth into being...wants to know my heart AND show me His........that is the ultimate.
So the answer to the question (that I asked way in the beginning of this post!) is: NO! Christianity has nothing to do with a list and everything to do with your heart....put it in His hands I promise, you will never be sorry.