Does God Really Have a "Plan" for Your Life?

I can think of so many things that I would love to do with my life. Money, education, a good lookin’ husband, beautiful kids, an awesome career, the cutest house on the block, travelling the world… Yes, all of those would be on my list. Yours probably isn’t too far from it. So, If God really does have a plan for my life, is His plan really any better than the plans I can make for myself?

God created everything that you see and don’t see. He created the world. He created everything that we know. He knows what you want; He created you. He knows the desires of your heart; He created your heart. He created technology before we even knew what it was. He has created things that we don’t even know exist yet.

Think about this, let’s pretend that you are sitting down with a ball of fresh clay in front of you. You’re feeling creative. You pick it up and start squishing it around in your hands. You begin to form it into a sculpture.  You are spending a lot of time on this. You have made very intricate details. You’ve formed very complex designs that no one could ever, ever replicate. Let’s imagine, by a stretch of our imagination, that your sculpture has come to life. Bear with me here. Don’t get lost. Really, imagine that you have breathed life into your project, and it has a life of its own now. Except, your sculpture doesn’t understand a lot about itself. It overlooks how intricately designed it is. It doesn’t understand itself like you understand it. You know every single nook and cranny that it has. You formed it. You know how special it is. This, darlin’, is a glimpse into how God looks at you. We think we know ourselves the best. We think we know the best plans for our lives, but let me tell you something shocking: you, my dear, are a masterpiece. You were created in the hands of God. He formed you. He knows things about you that you are completely clueless of, but He wants to reveal these things to you. He wants you to know how insanely elaborate you are.

Unlike a ball of clay that was transformed into a sculpture, you were a thought that was created into a human with an eternal soul. You weren’t created just to sit somewhere. You were created with a very, very, very vital purpose. You’re not an inanimate sculpture; you’re a being that has complex emotions, a complex design, a complex heart, a complex soul. Your life was not an accident. Your creation was not just a bunch of molecules and protons and neutrons and atoms that “accidentally” formed into you.

“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.” – Psalm 139:1 (NLT)

You see that it doesn’t say that He knows a lot about you. It doesn’t say that He knows more than most people do about you. It says that He knows everything about you. With that thought, let’s pause here and together, if you can, and read the 139^th chapter of the book of Psalm. David provides us with such an awesome explanation of how well God knows us.

So, why do we think that our plans for our lives are better than the plans that God has created for us? He has things that He is just waiting to show you about yourself. You have talents that you probably don’t even know about yet. Friend, you are intricate. Your creator knows you, knows this world, and knows this life better than you do.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

The scary part of all of this is: It is absolutely and easily possible to miss out on God’s plan for your life. That, I am sure of. If I had to guess, based only on my own opinions, I would say that 90% of Christians are missing out on God’s desires for their lives. It’s easy to miss out on His plans because most of us are comfortable with where we are right now. We have just as much Jesus as we want at this time. We’re content with our lives. Some of us are just waiting on God to shine a beaming ray of light out of Heaven to show us what He wants us to do with our lives. We assume that God wants us to do exactly what we’re doing right now because, listen: it is extremely easy and extremely common to confuse God’s voice with our own wants for our lives.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2 (ESV)

See, that’s how easy it is to miss out on God’s will for our lives. The Devil doesn’t necessarily have to persuade you to do “bad things”. All he has to do is get you not to do what Christ wants you to do. Does that make sense to anybody other than me? The devil isn’t always a big, ugly, scary guy. He can be your best friend if that’s what it takes to get you out of God’s will. He can be fun, pretty, smart, and good looking. The devil isn’t necessarily spending his entire day trying to make you do his will, he’s just spending it making sure that you don’t do God’s will. He just has to get you to do what you want to do. How easy is that for him? If you’re not in God’s will, you’re in Satan’s. Can we wrap our minds around that? That terrifies me.

When I got saved, the first thing that God revealed to me was how spiritually dead I was, and how spiritually dead the world around me was/is. After I found out who Jesus really is, after I witnessed who He is today, I was so confused about a lot of things. I was confused about people, about church-goers, about everyone I saw. Why weren’t people praising Him more? How could you sit back and not sing out in praise to Him? Why weren’t people giving their lives to Him? How could people not be completely passionate about who He is? Why were people not spending every breath talking about Jesus? How can they hold all of this back? I’m about to burst at the seams with being so full of Him! Then, God stopped me in the middle of all of my questions and said one thing: “Hope, my children are going through the motions of things that they think gets them into Heaven. They don’t truly know who I am, today, or they would be radically passionate about Me, My Son, and My Spirit. They wouldn’t dare keep quiet if they knew Us.”

Wake up. Your creator knows you better than you know yourself. His plans for your life are far better than anything that your human mind can come up with. I know this to be so true. God has bigger-than-life plans for you. Plans that will still matter when our flesh has turned back into earth. It is impossible to do anything better than what God has planned for you.

I love George McDonald’s prayer of contentment. It says, “I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.”

From a girl who was destined to be another face in the “American Dream”, I am now seeking God… desperately. He is showing me that He has plans for my life that my human mind couldn’t begin to comprehend. And, they are already WAY better than where I used to be before I knew Him. I can’t imagine what He has in store for my future. Literally.

“Anyone who isn’t helping me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.” – Matthew 12:30 (NLT)

I’m not saying that God doesn’t want you to succeed in life. In fact, that’s His desire for you. But, we better be sure that what we’re doing with our lives is worth Christ dying on the cross for. We need to be certain that we are listening to the call of Christ. We should not fear failure; we should fear of succeeding at things in life that won’t matter in the end.

So from this girl to you, I challenge you to pray and study Scripture. Sometimes He’s not just going to slap you in the face with a paper that says “God’s Plan for Your Life: Follow These Instructions” because in a sense, He’s already done that. He’s provided you with an instruction manual. He’s told you about your purpose for being here. He’s given you some insight about what your life should look like. Don’t be the soul who overlooks all of that. Don’t ask God to guide your footsteps if you’re not willing to move your feet.

I, also, want you to know, friend, how much I’ve prayed for you. I love you and your precious life so, so much and send you so many hugs through my computer. I hope that we can all strive to seek out God’s true will for our lives, not our own. Let us focus on the planner, not the plan.

What good is Jesus anyway?

The Reality of the Cost of Your Salvation:

The Anatomical and Physiological Details of Death by Crucifixion

 

I’ve spent the past few weeks studying the actualities of Christ’s death. If you can make it through this post with me, you will fall deeper in love with Christ than you ever thought you could… It will definitely be worth your time. This is one of the most heart-changing studies I’ve ever conducted. I didn’t do as much “writing”, but the Holy Spirit has something He wants to make known.

Crucifixion was invented by the Persians in 300 BC, and was perfected by the Romans in 100 BC. It has been scientifically and mathematically perfected to be the most painful torture ever invented. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ wasn’t just an event that was “thrown together”. It was an event that had hundreds of years of perfecting. Every nail that was placed, the precise angles that his legs were bent, everything was down to a science to make sure that it was as painful as possible.

I’ve realized that I have taken the crucifixion more or less for granted – that I’ve grown callous to its horror by a familiarity with the details. The gospel writers weren’t exactly descriptive on the actual immediate cause of Christ’s death. Since crucifixion and scourging were so well-known in their lifetimes, they undoubtedly considered a detailed description to be unnecessary. Today, even the most detailed movies about the crucifixion don’t tell the true horror of what happened to my Jesus.

Here are a few medical facts that I’ve listed that actually take place when someone is crucified. Some are very disturbing, but we need to pay attention to each one in order to fully appreciate what took place for us over 2,000 years ago. 

1.       It is the most painful death ever invented by man and is where we get our term “excruciating.”

2.       It was reserved primarily for the most vicious of male criminals.

3.       Jesus refused the anesthetic wine which was offered to Him by the Roman soldiers because of His promise in Matthew 26:29, “I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (NIV)

4.       Jesus was stripped naked and His clothing was divided by the Roman guards. This was in fulfillment of Psalm 22:18, “They divide My garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” (NIV)

5.       The Crucifixion of Jesus guaranteed a horrific, slow, painful death. Appreciate those adjectives.

Having been nailed to the Cross, Jesus now had an impossible anatomical position to maintain.

6.       Jesus’ knees were flexed at about a 45 degree angle. He was forced to bear His weight with the muscles of His thighs which is an anatomical position that is impossible to maintain for more than a few minutes without severe cramp in the muscles of the thigh and calf.

7.       Jesus’ weight was held up by His feet, with nails driven through them. 

As the strength of the muscles of Jesus’ lower limbs drained, the weight of His body had to be transferred to His wrists, arms, and shoulders.

8.       Within a few minutes of being placed on the Cross, Jesus’ shoulders were dislocated. Minutes later Jesus’ elbows and wrists became dislocated.

9.       The result of these upper limb dislocations is that His arms were 9 inches longer than normal.

10.   In addition, prophecy was fulfilled in Psalm 22:14, “I am poured out like water and all My bones are out of joint.” (NIV)

11.   After Jesus’ wrists, elbows, and shoulders were dislocated, the weight of His body on his upper limbs caused traction forces on the Pectoralis Major muscles of His chest wall.

12.   The pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to act. Air was constantly being drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled.

13.   These traction forces caused His rib cage to be pulled upwards and outwards, in a most unnatural state. In order to exhale, Jesus was physiologically required to force His body.

14.   In order to breathe out, Jesus had to push down on the nails in His feet to raise His body, and allow His rib cage to move downwards and inwards to exhale air from His lungs.

 

 

Crucifixion is a medical catastrophe.

15.   The problem was that Jesus could not easily push down on the nails in His feet because the muscles of His legs, bent at 45 degrees, were extremely fatigued, in severe cramp, and in an anatomically compromised position.

16.   Unlike all Hollywood movies about the Crucifixion, the victim was extremely active. The crucified victim was physiologically forced to move up and down the cross, a distance of about 12 inches, in order to breathe.

17.   The process of respiration caused excruciating pain, mixed with the absolute terror of asphyxiation (Choking, suffocation, complete lack of oxygen).

18.   As the six hours of the Crucifixion wore on, Jesus was less and less able to bear His weight on His legs, as His thigh and calf muscles became completely exhausted.

19.   There was increasing dislocation of His wrists, elbows and shoulders, and further elevation of His chest wall, making His breathing more and more difficult. Within minutes of the Crucifixion, Jesus became severely dyspnoeic (severe shortness of breath).

20.   His movements up and down the Cross to breathe caused excruciating pain in His wrists, His feet, and His dislocated elbows and shoulders.

21.   The movements became less frequent as Jesus became increasingly exhausted, but the terror of imminent death by asphyxiation forced Him to continue in His efforts to breathe.

22.   Jesus’ lower limb muscles developed excruciating cramps from pushing down on His legs, to raise His body, so that He could breathe out, in the anatomically compromised position.

23.   The pain from His two shattered median nerves in His wrists exploded with every movement.

24.   Jesus was covered in blood, sweat, spit, snot, and any other bodily excretions that happened during those long hours.

25.   The majority of the blood was a result of the Scourging that nearly killed Him, and the sweat as a result of His violent, involuntary attempts to try to exhale air from His lungs.

Throughout all this He was completely naked, and the leaders of the Jews, the crowds, and the thief next to Him were mocking, swearing, and laughing at Him.

In addition, Jesus’ own mother was watching.

26.   Physiologically, Jesus’ body was undergoing a series of catastrophic and terminal events.

27.   Because Jesus could not maintain adequate ventilation of His lungs, He was now in a state of hypoventilation (lack of oxygen).

28.   His blood oxygen level began to fall, and He developed Hypoxia (low blood oxygen). Some of his limbs probably turned blue.

29.   Because of His restricted respiratory movements, His blood carbon dioxide (CO2) level began to raise, a condition known as Hypercapnia.

30.   This rising CO2 level stimulated His heart to beat faster in order to increase the delivery of oxygen, and the removal of CO2.

31.   The Respiratory Center in Jesus’ brain sent urgent messages to his lungs to breathe faster, and Jesus began to pant, violently.

32.   Jesus’ physiological reflexes demanded that He took deeper breaths, and He involuntarily moved up and down the Cross much faster, despite the excruciating pain. The agonizing movements spontaneously started several times a minute, which was a show for the delight of the crowd who taunted Him.

33.   However, due to the nailing of Jesus to the Cross and His increasing exhaustion, He was unable to provide enough oxygen to His oxygen starved body.

34.   The twin forces of Hypoxia (too little oxygen) and Hypercapnia (too much CO2) caused His heart to beat faster and faster, and Jesus developed Tachycardia.

35.   Jesus’ heart had to beat faster and faster, and His heart rate was probably about 220 beats per minute, the maximum normal sustainable heart rate. Normal resting heart rates are anywhere between 60-100 beats per minute.

36.   Jesus had drunk nothing for 15 hours, since 6:00 p.m. the previous evening.

Jesus had endured a scourging which nearly killed Him prior to being crucified.

37.   He was bleeding all over His body following the Scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails in His wrists and feet, and the lacerations following His beatings and falls.

38.   Jesus was already very dehydrated, and His blood pressure fell alarmingly.

39.   His blood pressure was probably about 80/50.

40.   He was in First Degree Shock, with Hypovolemia (low blood volume), Tachycardia (excessively fast Heart Rate), Tachypnea (excessively rapid breathing), and Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).

41.   By about noon, Jesus’ heart probably began to fail.

42.   Jesus’ lungs developed Pulmonary Edema (fluid accumulation in the air spaces of the lungs).

43.   This only served to worsen His breathing which was already severely compromised.

44.   At this point, Jesus was in Heart Failure and Respiratory Failure.

45.   Jesus said, “I thirst” (John 19:28) because His body was crying out for fluids.

46.   Jesus was in desperate need of an intravenous infusion of blood and plasma to save His life.

47.   Jesus could not breathe properly and was slowly suffocating to death.

48.   At this stage Jesus probably developed Hemopericardium (Plasma and blood gather in the space around the heart).

49.   This fluid around His heart caused Cardiac Tamponade (Pressure around the heart which prevents the heart from beating properly).

50.   Because of the increasing physiological demands on Jesus’ heart, and the advanced state of Hemopericardium, Jesus probably eventually sustained Cardiac Rupture. His heart literally burst. This was probably the cause of His death.

51.   To slow the process of death, the soldiers added a small wooden seat on the Cross after hours of struggle, which would allow Jesus the “privilege” of bearing His weight on his sacrum.

52.   The effect of this was that it could take up to nine days to die on a Cross.

53.   When the Romans wanted to accelerate death, they would simply break the legs of the victim, causing the victim to suffocate in a matter of minutes. This was called crurifracture.

54.   At three o’clock in the afternoon Jesus said, “Tetelastai,” meaning, “It is finished.”

At that moment, He gave up His Spirit, and He died.

55.   When the soldiers came to Jesus to break His legs, He was already dead. Not a bone in His body was broken in fulfillment of prophecy.

“He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” - Psalms 34:20 (NIV)

56.   Jesus died after six hours of the most excruciating and petrifying torture ever invented.

57.   Jesus died so that ordinary people like you and me could go to Heaven. 

We’ve dug a little deeper into the physical pain that Jesus endured, but we can’t forget that this wasn’t the worst part for Him. Picture Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and as He kneels before His Father, drops of sweat and blood fall together from His head. Why is He in such agony and pain? The answer is not because He was afraid of the crucifixion. He was not trembling because of what the Roman soldiers were about to do to Him. No, He was in fear because all of God’s holy wrath and hatred toward sin and sinners, stored up since the beginning of the world, was about to be poured out on Him, and He was sweating blood at the thought of it. He was shaking because He knew that God was going to thrust wrath due to my sin and your sin upon his soul. God did that to his own son. This, my friends, this is the Gospel. We can’t overlook the fact that Jesus was dead for three days. Where do you think He went for those three days? Think about it. God put himself in human form, came down to our world, sacrificed himself for people who hate Him, and went to hell in our place.

Jesus did this not for man as a whole, but for each man himself. If you were the only person here that needed saving, He would’ve done no less. God is love. He’s done more than we deserve, and I think we are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in His word, we might discover that He requests greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give Him.

 

 

Medical Studies made with the help of:

Dr. C. Truman Davis

From New Wine Magazine, April 1982.

March 1965, Arizona Medical Association.

Is The Bible Old-Fashioned?

That's a legitimate question, right?

We live in a culture today where the bible is thought of as a little old-fashioned. We won't openly admit it, but I just don't see people taking The Word of God seriously anymore. People just use it to pick out a cool phrase for a tattoo or to post on their Facebook status. We like to pick and choose certain verses out of the bible to "live by" and overlook the rest. We like to pick out certain verses that make us "feel good" and get us through our day. Don't misunderstand me here, there is nothing wrong with doing that, but I think we have the bible all kinds of wrong. The Bible was given to us. The whole thing, from Genesis to Revelation, all 66 books. You can't add to it nor can you take away from it. It doesn't need your help. The bible doesn't need your opinion. It is finished. It was given to us as a complete book; therefore, we have to read it as a complete book.

The bible isn't meant for us to pluck our “favorite” verses out of their original text and "live by" those. We need to dive into The Word like a sea of living, breathing, hand-written goodness that causes our very souls to awaken and cause an unshakable change in these human hearts of ours.

"...Give them my entire message; include every word."

Jeremiah 26:2 (NLT)

We should engage in full contextual study of our precious Bibles before we start plucking out verses and applying them to our lives. So let's do just that right now. Look up these verses in your bible with me and let's see what The Bible says about itself:

 

Deuteronomy 17:19 - "He must always keep this copy of the law with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of this law." (NLT)

Psalm 119:98-100 - "Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for your commands are my constant guide. Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of your decrees. I am even wiser than my elders, for I have kept your commandments." (NLT) 

Revelation 22:7, 18-19 - "Look! I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the prophecy written in this scroll... And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words of this prophetic book, God will remove that person's share in the tree of life and in the Holy City that are described in this book." (NLT)

Do those verses shake your soul like they do mine? If not, read them again.

We have to realize that one of our first steps toward a real, intimate, passionate relationship with our Christ Jesus is plunging our hearts into the vivid, living, up-to-date Word of God. It’s not only up-to-date, it’s way ahead of its time. The Bible is where our Faith comes from. It's the Truth about our Lord. I think of my Bible as a love letter that Jesus himself passed down to me across a 2,000 year bridge. That’s what our bible is: a love letter to us. It’s not a book full of rules to keep you from having fun. Not in the least bit. It’s not a book of ancient stories that have no relevance to your life. The Bible was written for your own good. So pay attention when I say this, circle this, highlight this, take heart: You cannot be a follower of Christ without reading the Message that God has given to you. Point, blank, period.

Maybe you're like I was a few months ago... I owned a Bible. I knew where to find it if I needed it, but that is exactly where it stayed: tucked away until I needed it. I took it to church and looked up the verses that were being discussed in church, but when I was at home, it never opened.

 

How dead my life was. Do you see what I said? Read it again: Oh, how dead my life was!  

 

I've been in church for 20 years. I used to think that I knew everything The Bible had to say. I'd read every page. What more could there be to it? Boy was that ignorant. You could sit on your rear and read scripture for the next 100 years and you would still learn something new every day, Lord willing.Sometimes when I'm reading my bible, I'll be reading over a verse that I've read over 500 times, but all of sudden, that verse has a completely different meaning to me. All thanks to The Holy Spirit who helps us understand what we're reading. Some people can read scripture and get absolutely nothing from it. Pray over your Bible. Pray that God will allow His Holy Spirit to reveal what He really wants you to know from His Word.

"But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by His Spirit and His Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets."

1 Corinthians 2:10 (NLT)

Darlin', a bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. Our Bible is bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions. We need to treat it similar to how we treat God. Some of us only call on God to get us out of trouble. We only call on Him when we want something from Him. You won't get anywhere with a relationship like that. He wants your constant love. He wants your constant praise--when you're broken and when you're not. The same goes for Scripture. You need it every single day, not just when you're feeling a little down.

I hope you're a little bit inspired to study your Bible. We, as Christians, should know the whole book better than we know the back of our hands. If we want to start scraping off the nasty, worldly layers that lie on top of our hearts, this is a start. Picking up our bible is just the beginning: it's picking up your knife, preparing ourselves for the layers to come off.

Welcome, amigos!

You're witnessing my first blog post. Cool, huh?

If you're here, you're so sweet.

Being a Yes Girl was created as an outlet for me. I hope to use it to communicate with friends and family about the details of my mission work, my walk with Christ, while out of the country, and for anyone who may be going through the same trials as me. We're all in this together, after all.

I chose the name "Being a Yes Girl" based on where I am in my life right now--learning to say yes to God. Learning to allow Him to control my entire life. Learning to stop being comfortable. I want to hear God at all times & be able to always say, "Yes, Lord!" Yes, I will sacrifice it all for you.

I hope to become who God views as an ideal woman. That is a far-stretched reality for myself, but why can I not hope to become that way? Christ commanded us to strive to live like Him, radically, & that I will do. I'm not putting myself on a pedestal here. I'm one of God's most failing children, but I will continue to strive to become who God views as an ideal woman. I hope he sets a fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't control.

 

 

I don't care if 1 person reads my blog or 100. I don't mind if I'm the only person who ever sees what I write. This is what we should do as Christians. Maybe writing isn't your thing, but we should praise God whether anyone "notices" or not in whatever way that may be for you. When we study our bibles, we should fill up so much with Him that we have an overflow, an out-pour. We should fill up and over with a surplus of who He is & that's when we should share it. Because you see, this life, it's not about me. It has nothing to do with who I am or what I've done. It has all to do with the one person who came and gave it all for us.

I'm so excited to begin sharing with you about what our Jesus has done in my life & around my life. I would more than be interested in hearing what God is doing in your life. Talking about Jesus is my favorite. I aspire to spend the rest of my life here on earth doing just that, talking about Jesus.

- A ready servant.